Saturday, November 13, 2010

The manoeuver of how to make surprises.

The scriptures teach 'Train up a child in the way that he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it'.  So you heard in my earlier blog what I learned from the green trouser suit incident.  Fast forward about five or six years and a certain granddaughter calls her grandparents' home and disguises her voice and puts a muslin cloth over the phone.  Very politely she lets her grandfather know that she is from the City of Southampton and that she is calling to let them know that come Monday morning, he will not be able to move his car from the road to the garage.  He can either leave the car in the garage or he will have to leave it up a ways on the street.  She informs him that the city is coming to dig up the path outside his house and will engaged in this activity for about a week.  If the car is left in the garage they will not be able to use it for a week.  She apologises for the noise that the pneumatic drills will cause and then hangs up the phone.  After a few minutes, she phones back and lets them know that she had tricked them and they had fallen for it.


Enthralled by her success, seven years later, she phoned her father declaring that she is calling from a television license detector van that is currently in their area.  She relates that they are picking up that her parents do not have a current television license and they are watching the television.  Her father confirms that they do have a television license so she asks for the number on the form.  Her father races off to the bureau where her parents keep their paperwork.  Meanwhile, great peals of laughter are escaping on the telephone line and when her father gets back to the phone, she is unable to continue with the facade and says a big thank-you to her father for getting the license number and then identifies herself.  Gotcha Dad!


See what happens when you are buying a trouser suit for a little girl who is exactly the same size as your granddaughter?

Snow is here!

We had the first smattering of snow on October 27th, the day before Mum and Dad were due to fly back to England. It was due on the 28th and I had joked with Mum and Dad that they would be snowed in and have to stay in Minnesota for the whole of the winter. They just did not believe me! They were lucky and the snow came the day before and was over before they woke up. Both Sonny and I went to work in the snow .... but it was just too warm for it to lay.


At the beginning of this week, it was 60 degrees Fahrenheit! Can you imagine that we are talking about Minnesota in November!?! It was wonderful and we all lapped it up. However, the snow started during the night and 6 inches later ..... it's pretty wet and I don't think that it will stay around too long. I think that the ground is still too warm. However, it sounds like there is another snow storm on the way.


The first experience that I can remember with snow was on Christmas Day when I was 10 years old. I believe I went out on it on Boxing Day. It wasn't just the snow that made it memorable, it was the events that led up to Christmas Day ...


My father's parents - Nanny and Popsie - took me with them shopping in about September. We went into a department store called Owen & Owen (well I think it was called that - I don't think it exists any more). We were shopping in the children's clothes department. They told me about a little girl that they knew who was ten and they wanted to buy her a trouser suit. They said that she was about my size so I got to try on the green trouser suit for them. I thought it was lovely! I thought she was going to be a very lucky girl. Imagine my surprise and delight when I opened a Christmas present from them which turned out to be the lovely green trouser suit with white gloves and a matching green umbrella. I loved that trouser suit and took the manoeuver of how to make surprises under my belt!

The other gift that I received that Christmas was a camera.  A camera with flashes that you had to put on when you took a photograph indoors.  So that dates me!  So where does the snow come in?  Well, dressed up in my green trouser suit, white gloves and wielding the green umbrella, I ventured out to the front garden to take photographs of the snow. Unfortunately, on my travels back to the house, I slipped and ended up with a small chip on the camera.  I still have my beloved camera and the photos of the house and the garden with white shading, but no scar on my knee!