It seems like all I’ve done lately is wait for
service people. Twice this month I waited for the cable company, once to fix a
digital box they installed wrong and two days later to install two more boxes….couldn’t
do it all on one trip, oh no. That would take organization and proficiency in
their scheduling department. Another day I waited all morning for a cement contractor to
show up to power lift a couple of slabs in my driveway that were undermined by
a misdirected downspout pouring rain water along the side of the driveway. Mission
accomplished and the hollowed-out area under the slabs is now filled with
cement. Then I waited for my house cleaner who, as it turns out, got booked for
2:30 instead of our standing appointment of 12:30. Someone screwed up and they didn’t
tell me about the change. Then when she didn’t show up at 2:30 I got a call
from the cleaning company wanting to reschedule to another day! It’s
frustrating when the world of service makes me wait. Don’t they know I’m old
and don’t have time to waste?
Then there are the contractors who show up on prearranged
days but they don’t need to come in the house. The lawn care guy. The fertilizer
guy. And the mole exterminator who uses an environmentally friendly method to
kill the evil rodents that are hell-bent on turning my yard into a perfect movie
set for a remake of Caddyshack. What
is the environmentally friendly way to kill a living creature? I’m afraid to
ask. I think he sits out there and tries to talk them into committing
suicide. But I wouldn’t care if the guy took a shotgun to my yard and pumped the
ground full of bullet holes if the moles would just go away. By the way I hated that
movie---not my kind of humor---but Chevy Chase did have one memorable line: “Don't
be obsessed with your desires Danny. The Zen philosopher, Basho, once wrote, 'A
flute with no holes, is not a flute. A donut with no hole, is a Danish.' He was
a funny guy.” There really was an influential Japanese poet who lived and
studied Zen back in the 1600s named Matsuo Basho. However, I seriously doubt this guy who wondered around observing nature wrote about Danish and donuts but if that movie line inspired even a tiny
fraction of Caddyshack fans to google
‘Basho’ that would give the film a redeeming quality. You never know when it will
come in handy to know which poet of centuries past first perfected the art of
haiku writing.
Friday my Movie and Lunch Club saw Tammy with Melissa McCarthy and Susan Sarandon starring as
granddaughter and grandmother on a crazy road trip that involves a robbery
and Sarandon hooking up with guy that leaves Melissa sleeping on the sidewalk
outside their motel room. McCarthy and her husband wrote the movie script and,
of course, it fit her style of comedic acting but I couldn’t find one memorable
line in the whole film and I always try to do that when I see a movie or read a
book. The casting, too, made it hard for me to suspend my disbelief.
Sixty-eight year old Sarandon being a grandmother to forty-four year old
McCarthy while technically possible visually it didn’t work for me. There were
other casting choices that also had me scratching my head. But lunch after was
great. We always go to different restaurants around town and going places we
wouldn’t go alone is a nice treat for a pack of widows like we are.
I feel so spoiled sometimes, living here in the United
States where the worst issues I have at the moment are a cleaning woman who doesn’t
jump and ask “how high?” when I speak and so-so movies. I’m a news junkie and
lately that’s been making me feel obscenely lucky to be living in a safe place
where commercial airplanes aren’t getting shot out of the sky and tunnels
aren’t being dug underground to bring weapons and war to my doorstep. No, I get
to sit here writing about a Haiku writer, service people and bad movies while I
wonder why I won the born-in-America lotto. The accident of our birth
country has everything to do with everything that happens after…the hardships or
opportunities and the peace, war or famine around us. I went to a baby
shower yesterday and was thinking about that and about the pleasure of being able to carry on family traditions. Does that get to
happen in war torn countries? My niece has a rocking horse that I painted for
her son 28 years ago that she is passing on to her first grandchild and I had a
set of blocks that her father and I played with as children that I divided up
and I gave some to my two nieces (both first time grandmothers). Bridging the
generations is still a strong value in this country and one we are so blessed
to be able to carry forward. ©
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| This is the set of blocks I saved for myself. For now. |
