A Day in the Life: Part Two

I warned you last time.

This will probably be anti-climatic.

Cliffhangers are not my strong suit.

So. Here I go anyway.

The day was glorious. The sky was beautiful. Snacks were tasty. School work was being done and complaining was at an all-time low.

I was considering crafting a make-shift tent from our picnic blankets and sowing our apple seeds for future meals and fashioning new clothes for the kids out of leaves and bark and never returning home again.

It was that divine.

Jump Off Rock is a public park. People were coming and going. That was no big deal.

But around 1:25 an elderly man accompanied by his younger family members was strolling the grounds. He hovered near us. Holding a large corn stalk he had picked up off the ground, he approached our blanket.

Standing with toes on our blanket, gentleman in gray sweater started speaking to us in garbled words we couldn’t understand. Otto said, with words the gentleman thankfully couldn’t understand, “He have hunny hoise.” (OttoSpeak, for those who are unable to translate, for “He have funny voice.”)

After I answered the gray sweater wearing funny voice talking fella with a few vague comments and a lot of polite smiling, he started poking Mosely’s hair with his cornstalk. It was a little weird, but mostly amusing.

I felt like I was in an episode of Raising Hope when his niece came over and hustled Uncle Willie away. (I can’t actually remember his name, but Willie sounds acceptable.)

The niece and the uncle were gathered with a small group of people who were all attired in inappropriately dressy clothes for an afternoon at Jump Off Rock. Several men hopped off the back of their jacked up, giant tired truck and unloaded about fifteen plain metal folding chairs near our blanket.

No one made any eye contact with me.

It was odd.

“Uh. Hey? You guys about to have some sort of celebration or something here?” I asked in their general direction.

The response was a couple eye glances, several grunts and finally a “Yeah. Wedding.”

I checked my watch. Nearly 2:00. Tuesday.

Okay.

I decided I wouldn’t crash this wedding that was crashing my classroom, although I was sorely tempted to stay. We had a few more chapters to read and I wanted to savor the sun.

Alas. The kids and I gathered our apple cores and colored pencils and my disappointed heart and made our way to the Suburban.

Wedding party members hovered in the parking area. The kids clambered into their seats and began to buckle up.

Two steps behind my children, climbing right up into our Suburban, suddenly there was Uncle Willie.

I just laughed.

And laughed.

Finally some rescuing relatives realized they had a runner and tried to wrangle the wayward Willie back to his chariot.

I almost added an elderly man to our home’s assortment of people.

That was about the time Kevin called. Our other car wouldn’t run. Green liquid was flowing from the engine. Could I come pick him up?

Of course I could.

After weaving through the soon to be wedding attenders and our new friend Uncle Willie we made our way down the mountain and back to Kevin’s office.

We waited on the office porch while Kevin and our friend Jacob tried to rig the car so it was semi-drivable.

But you know what?

Waiting was okay.

I just pulled out our school books and a jar of pickles and resumed Operation Celebrate Good Weather While You Can.

And that’s mostly the end.

That’s the cliffhanger that really wasn’t a cliffhanger.

The good day that turned just-okay day.

(I told you cliffhangers weren’t really my style.  But, come on – Uncle Willie was pretty funny – right?)