The Rock Wall

Adrian, Cain, Van, Snider and their dog, Merle, live a long way from where Hurricane Delta came ashore in Louisiana (but still way too close to suit me), but they still felt the effects of the storm. Their electricity went off Saturday (maybe) and just came back on Monday afternoon. It was long enough for Cain to empty the fridge and the deep freeze after they got back home from Lake Providence (his home town). And that’s exactly where Tropical Storm Delta headed, just with a lot lower winds than when it made landfall.

You remember that when they moved to a bigger house with lots of empty bedrooms I had an idea what would happen? But I didn’t say anything. They named the first one Van and the second Snider.

Well, when they lost everything in the fridge and in the deep freeze, I had an idea what I would do. Bingo. Adrian told me Monday afternoon they are going to buy a generator to power those two appliances. I told her to have the power company supervise the installation, so no workers get electrocuted and to be careful about exhaust fumes. Carbon monoxide doesn’t take any prisoners.

Adrian and I could only talk briefly Saturday because her phone was losing its charge and her plug-ins were dead. When they got on the road she tried to call, but didn’t make contact.

Monday I could attest that at least one of our grandsons made it through the storm. He was screaming at the dog. Snider doesn’t do English yet so we didn’t know what he was saying.

Snider, who just turned one on Sept. 9, doesn’t walk yet. He says a few words like dog, Daddy, Momma, ball. Van who will turn three on Oct. 28, has a whole vocabulary. Momma has a big party planned for him.

I’ve already told you Van can’t walk. I’ve just noticed that Reese, who turned one on March 9, has got to where she can’t walk. She also runs everywhere.

But she has gotten over her fear of me. She won’t let me hold her, but she will come patting into my office to get a potato chip. And she’ll come to the door of my office to say her version of hello. When she turns to leave, I’ll growl and she’ll shriek and laugh all the way down the hall.

I think maybe the oak timber leaves are about at their peak color now. Every year Kimball and I debate whether this is the day and usually decide it was two days ago. For several years it was on Oct. 14, but we’ve seen the fall peak go all the way up into November. If the highly trained and highly paid weather guessers don’t know what the weather is going to do, how can I be expected to guess?

I do know it is getting dry. But I suppose some farmers want the rains to hold off so they can get their  crops harvested.

As Roger Hensley and I were leaving the volleyball game the other night, he told me he had been officiating for 42 years. I thought that was worth an article, so I got in touch with him. There’s a lot more to calling a game than I knew. I had a couple of good talks with Roger. I’ve never had an issue with any of his volleyball calls and his political views agree with mine. But I’m not brave or foolish enough to put them down in cold print.          KL