Ricky : “This weekend we went to the flea market.. Mom was trying to get a picture of me in front of the music playing people. I don’t think the music people are as obvious as they should be.”
Me : “This is really not what I was trying to capture. I didn’t have my glasses on and my blue eyes have me a bit blind in the bright sunlight.”
Ricky : “So this photo was a butt… I mean ‘BIT’ of a surprise to you then?!”
Me : “No ifs, and, or butts about it.”
Ricky : “Bixby… I don’t think you’re supposed to be laying down on the library phone like that.. You’re in the way!”
Bixby : “In whose way? Mom’s??! There’s another phone just a few feet away. She can use that one for library business.”
Ricky : “Well, it doesn’t look very professional with you blobbing out there!”
Bixby : “Ricky.. You are wearing roller skates and standing on the circ desk. That’s not professional either.”
Ricky : “I never claimed to BE a professional skater, Bixby.”
Bixby : ::eyeroll::
Ricky whispering.. : “psssssttt! bixby!! don’t look up…”
Bixby : “Whaaat??”
Ricky : “There’s a kid staring at us…”
Bixby : “Are you sure they’re staring at us??”
Ricky : “No I am not sure. I can’t really tell what they’re looking at. Does that really matter in the grand scheme of things?! They have a corkscrew!”
Bixby : “They don’t really have a corkscrew.. They’re standing near a corkscrew. You always assume someone’s coming after you with sharp things..”
Ricky : “Well you’ve obviously never had your head opened with a screwdriver or been attacked by scalpels!”
Bixby : “Yup. 50 years old and I’ve never had work done!!”
Ricky : “Pshhttt. Whoop de doo.”
Ricky : “Well… Happy Birthday!! I never thought you were gonna get born! You were in bits and pieces on Mom’s work table FOREVERRR, with your eye chips all strewn about!”
Lil Kamala: “She must have gotten a burst of energy then, because I’m all done!”
Ricky : “She was in mandatory quarantine and FORCED to work from home. That’s why you’re done, lol.”
Me : “I worked on her on my days off while I was home, not during my work shift!!”
Ricky : “Yes, BUT! She’s done because you couldn’t get distracted by doing normal things like needlessly leaving the house to avoid responsibilities, shopping for stuff you don’t need, and other time wasting stuff…”
Me : “Ohh.. True.”
Ricky : “Your Dad James should name you Quarantina..”
Lil Kamala : “No.”
Ricky : “We’re in New Paltz because Mom got her second vaccine shot. We stopped in this book store to look around.. We can probably never, EVER come back here because Mom caused a huge scene!!”
Me : “I didn’t mean to!”
Ricky : “The book store has a sanitizer station right when you come in and MOM, the big oaf, knocked the sign over with her bag!”
Me : “Maybe being clumsy is a side effect of the vaccine??”
Ricky : “Mom. This is NOT the first time you knocked something over in a store! Remember that time you ran Gillian’s stroller into the display of little ceramic houses in the supermarket??!!”
Me : “OMG! That was 25 years ago! You weren’t even alive then!”
Ricky : “I’ve heard the stories!!”
Ricky : “Mom! This Easter craft Miss Lois made is adorable! Is it a naked chick or a naked duck?”
Me : “One, I don’t think it’s naked… It’s wearing a shower cap. Two, I’m pretty sure it’s a duck because it has a duck bill and duck feet.”
Ricky : “So if I just wore a shower cap to the store and nothing else, that would be okay??”
Me : “Eh, no.”
Ricky : “Can I steal that blue rubber ducky out of the tub??”
Me : “Also, no.”
Ricky : “So Mom stole this from Grandma’s attic the other day… It belonged to my Grandpa Corley, Mom’s dad. It weighs about a 100 pounds and the cord is missing! It’s probably defective because it’s also missing a number 1 key. Right here is where the screen should be.. No clue where that’s gone to… It IS clean though. That’s good, I guess..”
Me : “Ricky. It weighs a little over 8 pounds, not 100. There’s no cord because it doesn’t need power. They didn’t put a number 1 key on typewriters back then because a lower case L was used instead. And it never HAD a screen because you typed directly on to paper!”
Ricky : “Well, what if you made a mistake??!”
Me : “If you made a mistake you either typed ‘XX’ over it and kept going, or you started the whole page over.”
Ricky : “Or you used Wite Out?!”
Me : “This typewriter is from 1958. Wite Out was invented in 1966.”
Ricky : “Ughhhh.”
Me : “Yep.”
Ricky : “Today my family is getting ready to go have dinner with my aunt, my great uncle, and my cousins. It feels like it’s Easter already, but mom says there will be no candy or colored eggs today. We’re getting together to remember my Grandma, my Mom’s mom. She passed away one year ago today. I can’t believe it’s been a year already.. I miss her every day. I was probably her favorite…”
Me : “I miss her too, and yes, you probably were.”
Ricky : “It’s not Spring without the obligatory photo of me posing on some gnarled wood with the green moss in the background, and my matching green eyes looking off yonder…”
Me : “I wish this was a video so people could hear how loud the peepers are…”
Ricky : “WHAT??!”
Me : “I SAID I WISH THIS WERE VIDEO SO PEOPLE COULD HEAR HOW LOUD THE PEEPERS ARE!!”
Ricky : “OMG! Stop yelling! You’re going to scare the peepers!”
Ricky : “Mom got vaccinated on Sunday. I told them I need it too but they said I’m immune. I wish they had told me this a year ago!! Mom made Dad’s appointment today.”
Me : “Yep. 1st dose of Pfizer all done. I got to go first because I work in a library. Dad’s age group opened today, and now he has an appointment for the end of next month.”
Ricky : “Did you have any reaction?”
Me : “No. I was vaccinated by noon. We walked around town and had lunch, then came home and did an 11 mile bike ride. My injection site and shoulder were a bit sore after the bike ride, but by the next day it was only sore if I pressed on the injection site.”
Ricky : “So don’t do that and it won’t hurt!”
Me : “I know! I’m not!”
Ricky and Friends 