GAYLE - abcdefu (Official Music Video)

My new favorite song! It doesn't apply to my life at all, but it's still a great - but NSFW - song: https://youtu.be/NaFd8ucHLuo?si=S__PbHuevyB02Y43

The Mostly-True Story of How I Met My Father-In-Law

Stories we tell

We had a long weekend or some sort of break at the University of South Florida, so Steve and I decided to visit his folks in Miami. We rode the old BMW R69-S down from Tampa, about 300 miles. I must have had some sort of luggage, but I don’t remember. (This was 1968 or -69, pre-Women’s Movement, so I was still carrying a pocketbook.)

We got in late, and the house was dark. Steve quietly set me up on the couch with a pillow and a cover, and went to his room to sleep. Strange house, sleeping in my clothes, I barely dozed. But I was finally deeply asleep about 6:30 or 7:00 a.m.

“Whose little girl are you?”

I swam my way out of dreamland to see a handsome, dark-haired man in a red plaid bathrobe standing by the couch. My response (“I’m Steve’s”) was clearly pre-Women’s Lib; I hastily added, “Steve and I came down from school last night.”

I struggled to my feet. Well-brought-up young women didn’t greet strange men on their backs! We went to the kitchen, where he gave me coffee, bless him. He asked, “Do you want some cold coffee to cool it down?” I declined. Later, I realized he was using up the leftovers. We do that now, Steve and I.

We talked for an hour or so until the rest of the house woke up. I don’t recall what we said; it was probably banal getting-to-know-you stuff. He read the paper a bit. I met the dogs: Mike, Porkchop, Freckles, Loopy. (Was this the visit where Mike barked at me and scared me half to death? Maybe.) And, of course, I met the rest of the family. Steve’s mom, Ray (née Duey), was welcoming, if reserved. Adele, the younger of Steve’s sisters (both older than him), was also welcoming and hardly reserved at all.

I had lived, since 1961, in a house of women: my mother, my sister, me. I was used to quiet. I was used to alto conversation, and silences. I wasn’t ready for four dogs, a cat or two, chaos, men. I had a hard time understanding Steve’s dad at first, because he spoke in such a low register! But I had already decided he was wonderful, a feeling I never lost, despite all that was later revealed. He was Daddy, and he had stayed, unlike my own father.

The rest of the visit is a perfect blank. There weren’t a lot of visits; six months later, I had dropped out of college, and Steve had moved into my mother’s house. We had separate rooms, but there was a lot of nocturnal hall-crossing. Six months further on were the holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas. We briefly parted; he lived with his folks, I lived with my sister in Miami not far from his parents’ house. We both worked, me at the Flick Coffee House and the Honda shop.

In September 1970, I went to work at the craziest job I ever had: Receptionist in the men’s dorm at the University of Miami, from 11:00 pm to 7:30 am. 

Steve was drafted into the Army, and soon went to Viet Nam.

Kuiper, a very good boy

 My husband took our dog to the vet last Monday, and came home with an empty collar and a broken heart.

Kuiper was an apartment dog. He belonged to a co-worker of mine who had just gone through a divorce. That divorce cost Kuiper half his pack, including a little girl and a cat. He was alone for most of the day, and it made him nervous.

His name was a compromise: the other half of his family (in happier days) wanted to name him "Cooper," after a dog on television. Instead he was given a name that vet staff in 4 locations had trouble with. "It rhymes with sniper. Diaper. Typer. Wiper." Nothing stuck, until they realized he wasn't just a dog. He was also a cash cow, belonging to people who believed in preventive care. After the first thousand bucks or so, they learned to pronounce his name properly. (Our name too, by the way.) 

I wanted a second dog because our first dog was also alone a lot. She looked so sad, watching us get ready for work. A friend for her, a companion, would be nice, I thought. It was a great idea, except they didn't really like each other very much. They did, finally, learn to cooperate and get along.

It wasn't  difficult to get along with him; Kuiper was a good dog. (Well, he did body-slam my daughter's dog into the swimming pool.) He didn't steal food, for example, or bite, or even snark very much. When the cat tried to cuddle, he was more chagrined than angry. When Kaylee barked at him to move and quit blocking the hall, he would sigh and move. Eventually. A millimeter at a time.

He was afraid of so many things: fireworks, gun shots (so much for hunting), thunder. Also "hard" shoes - men's dress shoes terrified him. A bicycle - our bicycle - parked in the yard, was a dangerous object to be assaulted and barked at, every time he saw it. Every. Single. Time.

Throw a tarp over something, and it became a terrifying monster.

The things that didn't terrify him, he mounted. So embarrassing. At least it was limited to other dogs ... he was otherwise pretty social, and behaved well in dog parks and on walks. He liked children. He was protective of me, and stayed close when Steve was away. When he noticed I was inclined to fall over, he started walking a little behind me. Unlike Kaylee, who knocked over anything in her way as she raced to murder the delivery drivers, Kuiper waited for me to go through a doorway first.

Although he was an old dog, he learned these new tricks to please us. And in the past month, he made our hearts soar when he finally learned to jump into the pool instead of using the stairs. Whatta champ!

Good-bye, Kuiper. You made us happy, and we love you.

Review: House of the Rising Sun

House of the Rising Sun by James Lee Burke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



View all my reviews

Mind-bending Movies

 

Mind-bending Movies

These are movies with a reveal that you've been watching the movie with incorrect assumptions. Using that definition, "Pulp Fiction" doesn't really belong on this list. But it is twisted enough that I allow it. I'll probably add to this list as time goes by.