Now that school’s out (SCHOOL’S OUT!) and there are no more pencils, no more books, no more teacher’s dirty looks, two of our grandsons hitched a ride with some family friends and came to Georgia for a few weeks, giving their mom and dad a breather. Old people go to Florida in the winter time, so it’s only fair that young people leave Florida in the summer time. The great cosmic balance remains intact.
The boys are not staying with us. We would love to have them, but I’m pretty sure our house would be much too boring. Instead, they’re making the rounds of old friends they used to play with before they moved to Florida last year.
Tuesday evening we rescued them from their current hosts (or perhaps it was the hosts that we rescued) and took the boys out for supper. I suggested the haute cuisine of Arby’s, Steak and Shake (because I had coupons for both Arby’s and Steak and Shake), or Cici’s Pizza. I knew in my gut which one they would choose, and I was right. They chose CiCi’s. After all, CiCi’s has a feature those other establishments do not offer: a game room. A penny arcade, if you will, except that penny arcade games now cost a quarter to fifty cents each, thanks to runaway inflation and the passage of time. I took along several extra dollars, knowing from past experience that the boys would need lots of them to put in the change machines to get enough quarters to operate the game machines.
And they did.
There was one nice surprise, though. I was expecting the all-you-can-eat buffet to cost $4.99, same as always, but CiCi’s had put up a big sign that said, “All-you-can-eat Buffet $3.99 (Recession Prices)” and I rejoiced. I didn’t save any money, though. It all went into the game machines. But our tummies were full.
Today the boys will be coming over to swim in our subdivision’s pool and spend a couple of nights with us, dear old Nana and Grandpa, and of course Jethro. Especially Jethro. Tomorrow, Mrs. RWP is planning to make lasagna, and the boys’ cousins who live an hour away will be coming over for the day also. Sunday afternoon we will deliver our charges to their next destination. After a few more weeks of this non-stop, whirlwind existence, and perhaps after a side trip to Alabamistan with them, we will be taking what I hope will be a couple of very tired but very happy boys back to their parents in Florida.
We have been informed by reliable sources that we are still much too young to go to Florida in the winter time.
