Wilmington Weekend Update #1

Y'all,

Okay, I may not be able to keep this up, but I'm going to try a little e-mail diary to update everyone on the minutia of our lives. Who doesn't love minutia? I'll keep these emails short, or I'll never get around to them.

This weekend really started Thursday with the euthanasia of Abby's beloved gerbil, Sugar. Sugar was injured last Saturday as Margaret and I were getting ready for supper club. Margaret was cleaning the cage, and Sugar was running around the playroom. Earlier Sellers had been critical of Abby's grabbing sugar by the tail and scruff of his neck when he was running away, and Sellers tried to set an example by trapping the fleeing gerbil under a box. Unfortunately, he only got half of him, inflicting a severe spinal cord injury that left the poor critter paraplegic. Margaret and the kids ran him to the vet for a steroid injection while I stayed home and wrapped prosciutto on melon slices, but by midweek it was clear Sugar wasn't doing so well. There has been great sadness. So Sellers and Abby went with me to visit Dr. Jones (a small animal vet) who agreed Sugar's suffering had to end. Sugar is now in the freezer in a hand-decorated box, awaiting a proper burial ceremony. His plot has been chosen next to his sibling and predecessor, Raspberry, under the daffodils.

So Saturday in addition to the bank, the cleaners, and Costco, we went to two pet stores to find the perfect hamster (we're moving up in the world of rodents). The new pet is appropriately named Peaches, and although she's a bit stand-offish and tends to roll on her back a lot, she's well loved already. She's also much more adept at rolling in the plastic ball to which she has been confined when out of the cage.
Saturday closed with a party on the Intracoastal Waterway at a friend's house. There were probably a dozen or so families, and when the rain cleared the kids went down to the pier and walked in the sand along the waterway. There were flocks of Ibis overhead, something I've never seen before. Sellers found thousands of tiny shrimp jumping in the sand, and he caught about 7 small fiddler crabs (the females, without the big claw) in his hands. Julian, following the example of some of the bigger kids (the ones with extra clothes and towels) did a belly flop into the waterway and had to be summarily transported back up the long green lawn to the house, where our hostess offered a towel. Then there were fireworks from the pier, which Sellers especially enjoyed; he's still talking about gunpowder and its uses.

Sunday morning started with crepes and then on to yard work. I spent half the afternoon struggling with a tire change, as the roofers who gave us a lovely new roof (a good thing in hurricane territory - we were 20 years in to a 20 year roof) left some nails lying around. It turns out the instructions on jacking the Odyssey are quite unclear, and if followed slavishly lead to irreparable damage to the plastic parts on the bottom of the car. The lift point is actually PAST the plastic. Who knew?
As Margaret was digging all sorts of holes in the sand we call "dirt" around here, the kids found some cool critters. Sellers caught a great little toad. And I stumbled across a newborn Anole lizard as he emerged from his egg, goo still attached. That was cool! Abby and Sellers led a mushroom safari through the front yard, and we peacefully dislodged several of the giant Golden Silk spiders who have made walking between trees here a hazard with the progress of global warming (there were none here until last summer, and they're marching northward each year). Julian managed to use hedge clippers to disable the sprinkler system - apparently it's hard to find coupling for the black plastic tubing - who knew?

At dusk the kids and I crossed the street for ice cream with the Vogels while Margaret continued her planting extravaganza. Then they had a badly needed bubble bath in the garden tub upstairs, then jammies, a snack, and bed. Now I'm cleaning the kitchen and procrastinating by writing this email. So that's our weekend. Perhaps I'll get the urge to procrastinate again next week...

David