Mommy was the cutest little baby anyone ever saw. Round blue eyes, artificially blue, like swimming pool coating, dimples on both her cheeks and her butt, too. Then the bumps and bruises started. Willful, her parents said. Headstrong, stubborn. Beat it out of her. Soften that hard head. A baseball bat took it public. Foster parents took all of them in. Her two older brothers and the baby brother, too. The nurses lied, her parents said. They just don’t like poor people, think we’re stupid. Twice more, but the family managed to come back together, and after awhile dad left and mom moved to Montana. This mommy, a young woman, in her early twenties, had two kids of her own a few years back, never could find a job, and has taken the Greyhound back to Montana. She has no teeth. The trailer’s tight, all of them still there. Today her oldest brother was taken to jail for battery of a police officer and fleeing the scene. Today she called me and wants to come see her kids. I said no.
The kids are at daycare, dad took them them so I could tour the worksite with Grandpa who just returned last night after a ham radio contest in Red Bluff. We kicked butt. Great, I say, the stucco is on the garage. Looks good. Guys return today. They knocked out some stones in the wall with their truck. It may rain later today. Get the stuff out of your truck bed. On Wednesday we expect hard rain. Put booties on your feet and come see the finished floors. They’ll be cured by Friday and I will start moving in shelves and bringing things over. We hope to move in by mid-November. November is quite a month for our family.
The gutter welder came on Sunday. He’s too busy to work for us on the weekdays. The plumber should come this week because some of the appliances need water and the shower in our bathroom was never completed. Shall we have he and his wife for drinks and dinner on Tuesday? We promised to take our grandson to Lawrence Hall of Science to see the robotic dinosaurs. Can you get a day off? Maybe we can stop in Fremont to look at some stone for the peninsula in the kitchen. Oh, the painters come Tuesday and I have to get the garage sorted out so they can put two coats on the baseboard in the shelter of a dry space. I have to make 8 feet from side to side. I’ll get your daddy to help. Oh, and your mom says she’s coming back. Then our son has to leave here. He’s been sleeping in the garage. We are not starting this all over again. Right. That’s what I said. Raising you kids is us doing our part. I know. And its too bad because Dad has been so helpful around here. I like having him around right now while all this construction is going on. She really should stay there and get some new teeth. The baby is really talking well these days. Oh. Says Grandpa. It’s my birthday today. Happy Birthday. I’m going to my office.