A Peaceful Morning

In the peace of the morning, and before your mind is cluttered with the chum of the day, there is time to contemplate 'things'. Yesterday, Landi and I began discussing Thanksgiving. As some may remember, last year I recorded some tips for frying a turkey.....and for putting out the fire. Landi has made a request this year that I refrain from setting the backyard on fire. I really going to try to comply. As this turned over in my mind this morning, it occured to me that while this did involve a good amount of excitement and fairly large conflagration on the back deck (concrete), it was an inadvertant aberation and it did not involve any of our local emergency services.

Contrast that with Catfish. He has always been a unique boy. At 3, he called and tried to order the Phonics Game because he didn't feel that he was 'reading at his grade level'. Arround this same time he tried to buy homeowners insurance on the Lego Harry Potter Castle he built. He once asked me if I wanted to lose "ten pounds of unsightly fat". A few weeks after the 9/11 attacks, he emerged from the basement to tell me I was needed on the phone. It was the 911 operator who told me that Catfish had reported a 'dead soldier' in our basement. G.I. Joe's head had come off. The South Plainfield SWAT unit is very responsive. A year or so after that he attempted to warm a bagel in the microwave. Five minutes into the process, the bagel burst into flames, the fire alarm went off, and he began running arround the island in the kitchen hollering 'Fi-yr! Fi-yr! Call 911! Call 911' He used to claim that Buckwheat, our black lab, put poop in his diaper. At the spring Parent/Teacher conference in his kindergarten year, we were amazed to discover that Catfish had explained Judiaism to his school mates who were primarily Hindu, Muslim and Christian. I told the teacher that 1) we were Episcopalians, and 2)I've heard him explain things before. He probably created some misconceptions.

So, in this very peaceful morning, I'm wondering what adventure awaits Landi and me. Hopefully it won't involver emergency services or a flaming backyard, but it will probably involve Catfish. He's 14 now, and understands that he reads well, and understands that he doesn't need home-owner's insurance. He can warm a bagel without setting the house on fire. Though we did it at gun-point, he is potty trained, and understands that he is Episcopalian. It's gonna be a great day.