:: Mental Kudzu ::

Late Sunday afternoon I took 3 small boys for a walk “in the swamp” across the street from the river house Matt rented for Mom’s memorial weekend. Bayview, NC.

That’s one story, but telling that part of it is the set up to this – extremely muddy upon return, Ollie (age 4) takes off everything but his Bob the Builder big boy underpants. I created a fishing pole for him with a bubble blower wand and fishing line and a plastic geegaw. (a MacGruber-Nana moment)

He stood on the sea wall looking out over the wide expanse of the Pamlico Sound, watching the sun go down, swinging the pole so the line wrapped around him and the toy slapped him, then unwound and repeated in opposite direction.

All the while playing a kazoo with the same “zoooot zoot zooooot” song.

One hand with the “fishing pole” and another on his butt, scratching a bug bite.

A most excellent child moment. I don’t need a photo to “see it” again.

C4 called last night to tell me not to worry about the storm. Hell, who knew there was a tropical storm bouncing into the Costa Rican coast? Now it’s heading toward Nicaragua. Alma. I’ve always loved that name. Alma, Arkansas — a great place to drive through on your way to somewhere else.

It’s not as if our local WITN hands out Central American weather forecasts. The electricity went out as we spoke on the phone but C4 and Jamie are Carolina kids, tropical storms, lots of rain, and high winds tend to be more interesting than frightening. Yes, we’ve been flooded here, I’m not making light of such events. I just mean we don’t panic when storms are predicted. We know how to pack our Get The Hell Out Of Here Now suitcases in advance.