All is Quiet

Welcome to 2008.

The weather today has finally emerged from the sluggish fog into clearer, zippy chills.

I awoke with the boyfriend and we were snugly until ten. We rarely get to sleep in together. One of us is always off to other required things; work, monkeys, moms etc. We drove around for a while and ended up at Cracker Barrel. I realize that I must be very much infatuated and agreeable with the man, because I'm not particularly fond of Cracker Barrel and we ended up in the same place last year on New Years Day. Like a proper fallen vegetarian, I got the meatloaf, potatoes and fried okra.



Afterwards he had a bug to buy some new games. I can't remember what all he got as I was concentrated on the Wii demo in the store. I haven't actually seen one in real life yet so I took the opportunity to try out Super Mario Galaxy. After feeling extremely uncoordinated and old, it then broke, which is why I suspect I never see one on demo.

We continued on to the citrus store down the street, a triumph of Florida tourism if ever there was one. Here in this warehouse, next to where actual oranges and other fruits of paradise once grew, you can see how they were washed and waxed and ready for their close-ups.



The warehouse is now populated by a display featuring shiny plastic mannequin workers with thousands of plastic orange balls which I can only assume are washed with plastic water. But only after everyone has gone home and you say the magic words "hocus pocus alimagocus!"


Today's Special is: Oranges.

After we came home, we drank tangerine juice and I kissed him goodbye for the evening.

The chill has now crept into the house so I'm eating leftover onion soup the boyfriend made yesterday. Mom is sitting here watching her slug TV, as she calls it, keeping me apprised on the status of the $76,000 kitchen and wondering if I'm going to be putting away the lonely piece of bread I left on the kitchen counter. It's what she does.



Her dad, my grandpa, is in the hospital with pneumonia. It didn't start out that way two weeks ago, but it seems to happen with a lot of elderly folks. They'll go in for some pain or another, and then "tests" stir things up. He's now down to life support with a DNR order. It's probably as it should be.

I kept wondering if he'd go last night in some moment of poetic coincidence, passing along with the year that had now expired. This morning showed no change. A new day dawning is just another day no matter the date attached. I don't know if I'll see him again as I expect it won't be long now. I do hope all is quiet for him soon.



I'll always remember that my grandpa told me, when he gave me my orange tree as a sapling, that the cold snaps are good for the oranges. I fear it's a little too late for my already ripened crop this year. The majority of them on the tree went from green straight to brownish. I did manage to gather some and they are still tasty.