Saturday, May 23, 2009

Life happens


As John Lennon once noted, life is what happens to you while you’re making other plans.

It was true then, and it’s true now.

As people in Georgia say, the only good thing coming out of Alabama is I-20. As people in Georgia say, the reason all the trees lean westward in Georgia is that Alabama sucks. As people in Georgia say...well, let’s just say that people say a lot of things in Georgia.

I am writing to you today from somewhere in deepest, darkest Alabamistan because that is where I happen to be. Life, as I said, happens. So far, I have not encountered anyone with a banjo on his or her knee, but I will keep looking.

This will surprise those among you who know how private a person I am, but I will now divulge a little about my family. Mrs. RWP and I have three grown children, A, B, and C. Let’s call them Agamemnon, Byzantium, and Clytemnestra. Each of them found the perfect spouse, X, Y, and Z. Let’s call them Xylophonia, Ypsilanti, and Zirconium. As luck, fate, time, and several very active libidos would have it, these three happy couples (A-X, B-Y, and C-Z) have two children each, making a total of six of the most perfect, brilliant, talented, handsome, beautimous grandchildren in the entire world who just happen to be mine, er, ours.

C-Z’s oldest child, LMNOP, will be ten years old tomorrow and we have come to help celebrate that happy event. He has crossed an important boundary in life. He is now into double digits.

As are, I trust, you all.

12 comments:

  1. do you know anybody in triple digits???????????

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  2. Putz (David) - I know, or knew, Clark Horsley, a gentleman from Rome, Georgia, who just passed away a couple of months ago at the age of 104. He and Mildred had been married for 72 years when she passed away about two years ago. Clark bought a new car when he was 95 and often drove to Atlanta on I-75 until the last couple of years.

    In just a few years, you and I may be in triple digits ourselves.

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  3. What strange names you Yanks give your children! My daughter, Frances, will be jetting to Alabama in August... Birmingham Southern College. Will she need to pack a banjo?...And how come American college students sleep in rooms with room-mates? This is just not the way of things in the UK. Enjoy your Alabama trip grandad!

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  4. cute! :-)

    thanks for the post.

    ..
    .ero

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  5. Haha. See my most recent post. Same joke, different states. There are always comments to be made about your neighbors when they are not around to defend themselves.

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  6. Oh, you relaxed the privacy restraints a bit.....cool! A very happy 10th birthday to LMNOP! Enjoy the celebration.

    I thought for minute you and Leenie must be in cahoots over opinions of your neighboring states. Of course, we in Iowa would never say that about one of our neighbors.....

    Have a wonderful time in Alabamistan!

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  7. Your run of the mill banjo player shouldn't cause you any trouble, but watch out for those albino banjo players. And stay away from the woods.

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  8. YP - Frances will not need to pack her own banjo, as she will be greeted at the Birmingham Airport by locals in native dress who will wrap one around her neck in much the same was as people who go to Hawaii get lei'd.

    bARE-eYED-sUN - Thanks. Has New York added a tax on words now also?

    Leenie - Welcome to the blog! I agree; the best time to make comments about one's neighbors is when they are not around to defend themselves.

    Jeannelle - I will convey your best wishes to LMNOP, who will be thrilled. Speaking of Iowa, if you want to see an Iowa you have never seen before, go see (as we did yesterday with the birthday boy) the new Star Trek movie.

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  9. Mr. Gerhardstein, sir (Sam) - Thank you for the warning, but I need a little clarification from you. Should I be watching out for players of albino banjos or albino players of banjos, or (the most horrible possibility of all to contemplate), albino players of albino banjos??

    Yours for unambiguous communication, I remain,

    RWP

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  10. Congratulations to LMNOP. That is a momentous milestone for a child.

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  11. I'm not sure what in particular I loved about this post, but there was definately something extra special here for me today. Thanks for that and congrats!

    Daisy

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  12. Ruth Hull Chatlien - It certainly is momentous to be in double digits. I only hope that someday my savings account will make it.

    answers - Daisy, thanks for dropping by the blog once again. Glad you liked it. I have picked my brain until it is almost raw, but I'll be hornswaggled (YP et al, that's the same as gobsmacked) if I can remember ever answering tarts with you....

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<b>Always true to you, darlin’, in my fashion</b>

We are bombarded daily by abbreviations in everyday life, abbreviations that are never explained, only assumed to be understood by everyone...