It's nice to get back to normal

It has been a fairly good week. Grandson, Jacob, is home and doing well after his brain surgery last week. It is truly a miracle that the body is able to heal itself with the help of doctors, surgeons, medicine and lots and lots of prayers.

Jacob’s little brother, Nicholas, had a routine check-up with his eye doctor. He is supposed to wear his glasses all the time. The doc said to wear them when he was awake. Nicholas’ reply was, “Um, no.” How about only when your eyes are open? Again, “Um, no.” No matter how it was phrased, the answer was the same, “Um, no.”

I remember my first pair of glasses. They did nothing to improve my sight. I shared Nicholas’ opinion of not wanting to wear them. When I made it to sixth grade I was given a pair that actually corrected my vision. I didn’t want to take them off. Perhaps Nicholas will decide to wear his glasses when his vision gets bad enough that the glasses make more of a difference.

Once the grandchildren were back to relatively normal, I could concentrate on what was going on around home. It was the week of the antique engine and tractor show. They really should add town-wide yard sales to the title.

I took one of my cacti and leaned it up against the telephone pole on the corner. I found a stray piece of drywall, scribbled “Free plant” on it and hoped for the best. The plant is gone. Either it ran away on its own or somebody adopted it. I hope it has a long and happy life. It was getting too heavy for me to be dragging it outside every spring.

My brother, Michael, and his wife, Diane, came up for the first day of the exhibition. They showed great restraint. In years past they would haul home a pile of rust and spend weeks and weeks turning it into something recognizable.

They have purchased a house in Lynn and that is their current project. I didn’t see a single rusty object in their truck. Michael did confess to buying some trains. We took them out to dinner and had a good visit.

Saturday, my other brother, David, and his wife, Apryl, stopped by. They took me with them to see what they could find. We didn’t look at a single tractor or engine. We also inspected every booth selling stuff at the fairgrounds.

I picked up a small box and opened it to see what was inside. A couple of cuff links jumped out and landed on the floor. David laughed at me and picked them up. He told me not to touch anything, just to “look with my eyes,”

I kept my arms crossed so I didn’t touch anything else by accident. He inspected several cases containing lighters. He collects them. He didn’t see anything that he didn’t already have. He found an unusual watch and asked the vendor if he could try it on. Then he couldn’t get it back off.

We finished up in the round house. Apryl pointed out something David might like. He picked it up and the lady behind the counter said to ask the man sitting on the stairs what it was. At first he said it was some kind of pressure regulator, then said it was a radiator cap. At that point everything went quiet as David dropped it on the floor and it fell apart. Apryl and I walked quickly away and declared that we had never seen David in our lives.

When he caught up to us. I told him to, “look with his eyes.”  He did eventually find something to buy. Apryl bought a dress and I picked up a couple of little cars for Nicholas.

Knowing that the family in Texas is back to normal and having a good visit with my brothers made it a good week. I wonder what this week will bring?