Gallivanting Around Greenville

Ma and I spent a quiet morning drinking buckets of tea and coffee until Molly and Josh arrived from their lodgings nearby. (Ma’s new place has just one spare bedroom and I was in it.) After lunch we piled into her Subaru and tootled around the greater Greenville area, with me at the helm. We secured supplementary groceries from the fancy-schmancy Janssen’s Market, and then I subjected my captive but apparently willing audience to a tour of Significant Sites in My Delawarean Life, starting with a visit to the graves of Grannie and Granddad, Ma’s parents. (Historical note: Molly Louise is Great-Grannie Louise’s namesake.)

Then it was a little side trip along a couple of northern Delaware’s narrow, wooded country roads and over Smith Bridge, a little one-lane covered affair that crosses the scenic Brandywine River, as I regaled my passengers with thoroughly uninteresting tales of my youth at these various locations. A good time was had by me. The others were remarkably tolerant and didn’t complain one bit.

Back at Casa Pequeña, we set to the first of the tasks on her to-do list: hanging a few pictures. In the process, I wondered if the amazing rug she had in her entryway might look better on a wall. It’s one she made. She used to be an accomplished needlepointer (before macular degeneration set in) and in the 1970s she began a major project: a large canvas with a lion and a lamb at the center and various West Virginia animals surrounding them. She worked away over the decades but toward the very end, bogged down. So my sister, also highly skilled in the art, finished the last bits for her and had the pieces assembled into the current form. Here’s it is, preparing to be installed in its new venue.

Every time I stand next to Molly, I am reminded of my vertical shrinkage. I’m gradually coming to terms with it. But when Small asserted that I’m now as short as she is, I balked. This cannot be true. Josh photographically documented our respective heights, and I was reassured: I am still not as small as Small. Yet. As you can see, Ma was delighting in blowing air onto the back of my neck and making me squirm as several pictures were taken.

Later, I retreated to my room for some Internet time. First I did my daily check on the status of the Dixie Fire in Northern California. It has defied firefighter efforts to get it under control, remaining for days at about only 35 percent containment. Suddenly it exploded once again and containment is down to 21 percent. It has destroyed the small town of Greenville, CA, is threatening many others, and has moved into the southeastern region of Lassen National Park. It is a horrifying, tragic and frightening event.

Since April Ember and I have been planning our three-night Lassen trip for the end of this month and obviously it’s not looking likely now, so I spent hours looking for alternative campgrounds. It was sobering to realize that many of the places I might have chosen are also burning. Frustrated by finding no good options, I re-emerged and joined the group as cocktail hour began. Ma sipped her beloved Seagram’s 7 (so loyal is she to the product that she even bought a few shares in its parent company). I, stick-in-the-mud that I am, guzzled fizzy water.

Before she left for the evening, Lulu came to visit me in my chair, where I tortured her by playing with her face. It’s hard to explain why; it’s just a thing we do.

See how nicely Small has decorated the new place?

After the departure of the young ones, Ma and I hung out a bit longer before retiring to our opposite ends of the apartment.