THE LOWE FAMILY NEWSLETTER: VOLUME 57 JUNE 2010
Dear Readers,
I have been in the basement for days with my finger in the dyke trying to hold back the waters flooding in due to the endless torrential rainstorms. Just when I thought I had everything under control your father noticed a puddle on the seat of his exercise bike stored in the furnace room – well you know what my first thought was, but a quick glance down there proved me wrong so I cast my eyes upward and realized that the water was leaking around one of the pipes. I then thought that your dad had probably clogged the toilet up again so I took the plunge, held my nose and raced upstairs to find that that wasn’t the problem either. I decided to call our plumber who happened to be close by so he came over right away. While evaluating my leak he was on his cell phone with some hysterical woman whose basement was totally flooded and she was worried that her water heater was going to explode. I decided her problem was more urgent than mine and urged the plumber to leave my leak dripping in a bucket to attend to hers but he quickly diagnosed my problem as a roofing issue. Apparently the water was coming down one of my attic vents. I needed a roofer, which of course I have in Jeremy but unfortunately he’s busy taking care of roofs in Oklahoma City for the summer! Despite my new gutters, an additional downspout and grading work around the perimeter of the house we still have rain seepage. I have even added garbage bags around my plants to slow the water’s penetration into the saturated soil and have a couple of garbage cans strategically placed to capture the torrents of water that flow over my gutters – despite the gutter guards! I think we need a sump pump despite the fact that everyone says they are not needed in homes with walk out basements like ours.
Ming-Lee flew into Kansas City the second week in May. He was picked up by Josh, who promptly whisked him off to shop for the supplies needed to tile the kitchen floor they were tackling at Sean’s Condo. They spent the rest of the day tearing out the old blue kitchen carpet, old vinyl flooring and leveling the floor for tiling. Has anyone noticed the ghastly vinyl tile in my bathrooms?
Meanwhile I was at home, baby sitting Mia, preparing to see Ming and Josh at suppertime. Late in the afternoon Mia fell asleep on the deck glider – very fortuitous as I needed to start my baked potatoes, clean my green beans, marinate my pork chops and get the stuffing organized. I pushed a couple of Adirondack chairs in front of the glider so that Mia couldn’t roll off and kept an eye on her from the kitchen window. Elizabeth and Drew arrived soon after so I invited her to stay for dinner as it would be a shame to disturb Mia. As always she was more than willing to help – unlike some of my children. Ming and Josh arrived just in time for dinner, which we enjoyed el fresco and Mia slept through our entire meal. Sean arrived just as we were finishing and fortunately there was still some food left for him. I always cook extra food because I never know how many people I’ll be feeding.
Ming and Josh spent the night at our house - because of course I have the more comfortable accommodations. Ming mentioned that he was going to prepare dinner for me the following night as a belated Mother’s Day gift (thanks Lori!) The boys left the house early the next morning before I had a chance to fix breakfast for them! They wanted to get the tile down. Ming called me in the afternoon to let me know that he had a crock pot of stew stewing at Sean’s condo but that he was really stewing over the tiling and didn’t think he was going to be able to make it back for dinner as early as I might like. I told him to stick with the tiling. Josh had to go to a job interview and he was hoping that Bryn or Sean would be able to help him out after work. Roger and Lori Griswold were coming for lunch the following day so I suggested that we could save his stew for them or he and his brothers could have it for supper that night.
Since Ming-Lee thought serving his stew for lunch was an excellent idea, I offered to make a dessert. Ming thought the batch of cookies I had made would suffice saying he was sure that the health conscious Griswold’s were not into rich desserts. He had egg on his face the next day when they arrived with a boxful of treats from the Ivy! After welcoming hugs and a quick house tour we settled around the dinning room table to enjoy a salad I had thrown together and Ming’s stew. Of course we all enjoyed a taste of the Ivy for dessert and Bryn, Sean and Coryn found a few left to enjoy when they showed up to scrounge a meal at Mom’s. It reminded me of the days when Coryn use to help me at the store and we ate all the profits at the Ivy – she would pick up our lunch there and later in the afternoon she would return for a dessert. She especially loved the chocolate almond cake.
Roger and Lori were very interested in Joshua’s travels and had visited many of the same places so they enjoyed discussing their experiences. Then the topic switched to marathons, triathlons and 401k races? Norm and I could only look at each other in bewilderment as Ming, Roger and Lori discussed the pro’s and con’s of each type of event and the terrible bodily injuries they seemed to sustain as a result of this grueling exercise regime. Obviously they don’t subscribe to my view: use it and lose it. No way will I ever need a knee or hip replacement, strain a muscle, or develop a chronic condition ending in 'itis' . I am very careful to preserve my body and your father’s too – although there isn’t too much left of his to preserve.
Then came a discussion about the importance of hydration when running yourself to the finish line – in more ways than one as I see it. Frankly I never take a water bottle with me when I walk a couple of miles around the neighborhood. I pace myself to allow time to literally smell the roses and take in all the sights and scents of my neighbor’s gardens. I sometimes work up a bit of a sweat craning my neck to get a better look but I don’t need water to keep up my nosing. Lori apparently wears some contraption around her waist that holds numerous water bottles; thank goodness I retain plenty of water around my waist the natural way.
They decided to compete in another event together and Ming and Roger whipped out their gadgets and started debating events and locations and their availability to participate. Lori raced out to their car and came back with a stack of papers which she explained was her old fashioned way of keeping track of their schedules. These people seemed to be doing something, going somewhere every non-working day. I was exhausted just listening to the details. My idea of fun is pottering in the garden, bugging my kids, playing with Mia or reading a book on the deck with a glass of raspberry ice tea. In other words, not breaking a sweat. I think that despite their hectic lives and bodily injuries they decided to try to do themselves in together at some event in Illinois next month. Ming’s Lori seems to be the only sane one as I’m sure she’ll be waiting for them at the finish line, sitting in the shade, sipping lemonade and praying that Ming will not damage his knee, ankle or back again.
I do hope the Griswolds return soon though so that I can take them on the trails at the Arboretum and Corporate Woods and for a trek around all the wonderful shopping so conveniently close to our home. Perhaps they will even stay with us next time now that they have seen the charm of my themed bedrooms – they did suggest that I could run a bed and breakfast but given the fact that I don’t do anything before ten in the morning I might have trouble with the breakfast part of the deal.
The boys took care of all the grocery shopping and cooking for me for Mother’s Day and all my wonderful (for the moment) children treated me to a Cirque du Soleil performance at the Sprint Center the following weekend.Coryn and Jeremy bore the brunt of this experience as they went with us. Norm was ordered into his wheelchair by Coryn as she explained that the Sprint Center was so huge that he wouldn’t be able to walk the distance. For once he didn’t argue – unfortunately getting him into the wheelchair is very difficult these days despite the fact that he can hardly make it from one chair to another in the same room much of the time. Jeremy dropped us at the curb while he went to park the car and then we entered and were confronted with security. They waved us through the metal detector and of course your dad’s wheelchair set the alarm pealing – unbelievably we all forgot about your dad’s pacemaker! I was relieved that he lived through the performance. I think Jeremy was suffering far more, I don’t think Cirqu de Soleil was his cup of tea. Frankly we were as entertained by the experience of being in the Sprint Center as much as we were by the show. It is absolutely enormous.
Norm seemed very exhausted the following week and I began to worry that the metal detector might have short circuited his pace maker or something so I decided to check with his cardiologist. The nurse assured me with deadly certainty that if anything was wrong it would be too late to fix now! Realistically the chances of a metal detector harming a pace maker are apparently very small despite all the dire warnings. She didn’t question why his devoted wife hadn’t bothered to call for a week, being much more interested in what we had enjoyed at the Sprint Center.
Since I started this missive Josh has accepted a temporary accounting job: I am very pleased that he is back into a routine. His siblings assure me that he will probably be off on his travels again soon so my relief will be short lived.
Kay has finished her first year of college and is currently in Japan visiting family. She will be back later this month to celebrate her nineteenth birthday and will be working at a children’s cooking camp this summer. Coryn’s friend, Jodi, is staying with them this summer as she is doing some work related thing there in Washington DC.
Bryn and Sean are planning on visiting Marc in LA for the 4th July holiday, Ming-Jon is hoping to return to Fort Madison for a high school reunion and visit Ming and family in Indy, Marc may be here in July, Ming-Lee and family are planning on visiting us in August and Craig and Leslee will be in Sweden and France later this year.Coryn may be spending some time in Oklahoma City this summer with Jeremy as his uncle has sent him to help out with the business there as they are swamped with roofing work due to all the terrible tornadoes and storms in the area.
I have some exciting news children – not only is your Mother blogging but I am now on face book! Mary Brockman invited me to join so you have her to thank! Sign up today to be my friend. Your high tech, coolest of the cool Moms sending you oooo’s & xxxx’s.
