Sep 3 2010

Cats and Pools and Bikes

“Tell me a story Daddy, but keep your eyes open so I can see them!”
- Lucy getting her sleepy dad to tell her a story

Here are some pics of the kid from the past week. Every time I look at pics like these it always hits me how fast the kid is growing up.

We had a nice get-together at my mom’s place last weekend. My mom has a neat backyard, with lots of trees and plants, squirrels and birds. The neighborhood cats love it. These pics show one cat in particular who’s always lazing around in the yard. Lucy and her cousins gave the cat rockstar treatment. The cat loved the attention.

Jill and I had never used this pool before. However, the kid had never been swimming, so we packed up our towels and flip-flops and made the trek. It was actually pretty fun (and very refreshing) so I think we’ll make regular use of the pool until the weather cools.

I’ve written before about how I like tooling around on weekend mornings while the girls are asleep. Last weekend I hit a few garage sales. My dad took me to lots of flea markets when I was a kid. I loved going, even enough to get up at 7am on a Saturday (that’s pretty early when you’re 8 or 9.) He’d look at old hi-fi equipment while I was on the prowl for comic books.

One of my fondest memories involves my dad getting me a big box of a beat-up comics for $2. I had enough to keep me reading for the whole summer! Talk about heaven.

I think that’s why, to this day I love hitting garage sales, flea markets, and thrift stores. Anyway, at one of the garage sales I hit, I saw a neglected little bicycle. I immediately shifted into flea market mode:

(look at everything except bike; before leaving, look at bike and ask out of curiosity…)

Me: “How much is the bike?”
Seller: “$10.”
Me: (pause) “Would you take $5?”
Seller: “I’d rather have $10.”
Me: “Well, good luck with that!” (interest gone, turn to leave)
Seller: “Howzabout $7?”
Me: “I’ve got my truck right here. I’ll give you $5 and take it off your hands right now. You won’t have to worry about it.”
Seller: “OK. $5.”

My dad would have been proud of me. So I got the bike home, scrubbed a couple of years of grime off, and voila!—the kid has a bike.

By mike • by Mike, Relatives, The Kid • 7 • Tags: bike, cats, dad, kidspeak, pool, thrift, water