![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/1000IMAG0475.jpg\" "\\"1000IMAG0475\\"")
<\/a>themselves in the car and leave tomorrow for the Corn Palace. \u00a0Gabe and Ruth gone. \u00a0Jon and Jen gone. \u00a0The week of family gone.<\/p>\nIt has been a revelation. \u00a0Ruth is a different, more definite person than the last time I saw her a year ago. \u00a0She knows things, offers advice, muses about whether she won or lost money in pretend betting at the track. \u00a0(She lost. \u00a0$6. \u00a0And let that be a lesson young lady.) She loves fairy tales so I gave her a volume from my Andrew Lang collection, the orange fairy book, as well as the refrigerator magnets, words, with which she can create poetry wherever there is metal. \u00a0She came across the couch and hugged me when I gave them to her.<\/p>\n
Gabe is intense, screaming one minute, sweetly asking, “Can I have your phone, grandpop?” the next. \u00a0He takes cell phones and I-pads, navigates quickly to videos or to the app store. \u00a0Last night he downloaded two new apps on Thomas Thorpe’s phone. \u00a0That surprised Thomas. \u00a0He loves Pixar and Jon and Jen, both teachers, have given their lives to elementary age kids. \u00a0It’s obvious in the way they care for their own.<\/p>\n Kate has has been in grandma paradise. \u00a0Cooking, cleaning, playing, answering questions. \u00a0She and Ruth have spent a lot of time sewing, this time on Grandma’s fancy Bernina, which its literature calls a sewing computer. \u00a0Ruth and I have talked about fairy tales, poker, horse racing, fire building and other grandpa granddaughter stuff.<\/p>\n Both of us have spent time with Gabe, too. \u00a0Going through the things he likes to do: \u00a0cell phones, sleep, \u00a0watch cartoons. \u00a0He’s an early riser. \u00a0This morning he got up at the same time I did. \u00a0They slept in Grandma’s big closet, a sort of kid’s nest. \u00a0Gabe said, “Hi, Grandpop! \u00a0I didn’t wake you up.” \u00a0Nope, he didn’t<\/p>\n Ruth’s a late riser, late to awake even after she rises. \u00a0I’m the same way and I relate well to her frustrated attempts to fend off questions and decisions at an early hour. \u00a0Early after rising that is.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Summer \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Solstice Moon The super moon. \u00a0On the night of leave taking. \u00a0The family Olson picks up its … Continue reading Twas the Night Before Leaving and All Through the House<\/span> <\/a>Thomas the Train videos. Kona, a much smaller dog than Gertie or Sollie, has become his favorite, he walks through the house, his little hand under Kona’s collar. \u00a0She follows along with what I would call a bemused expression on her face. \u00a0At 12 1\/2 dog years you’ve seen it all.<\/p>\n