Team Gray!

What if I fell asleep in the middle of the day. And I NEVER fall asleep in the middle of the day. Unless. . .

What if I started feeling a little green?

What if I drove into a mini-mall parking lot and noticed that the smell of Papa John’s clashed with the smell of Saffrons? When normally, I wouldn’t have been able to distinguish one smell from another.

What if I had to go to the bathroom a lot? Yet I was still so thirsty?

What if I lived with a dull roar of stomach upset, or heartburn in my stomach?

Or, the thought of food just makes me queasy? That never happens, unless. . .

And what if I start feeling unearthly cold, in the middle of July?

Yes, I’m expecting. And the baby is due on the same day that Xay was due. Only 13 years later.

And yes, I’m very excited about it.

During Father’s Day weekend, we had four big bikes that were in working order. Last week, it was just one.

Xay was my riding buddy at the beginning of the summer. He had a cheap bike Curtis had ordered online. He figured it would either be for Xay or for himself, depending. The 24-inch wheels were better suited for Xay than Curtis, and he gave the bike to his son to assemble. Xay struggled with the assembly, and always had some gear problems with the bike. Curtis fixed it so that Xay could ride the bike safely, and we hit a few trails together.

Then we both had issues with flat tires. I fixed mine first, and then worked on Xay’s bike. We got the new innertube on the bike, but the brake disintegrated. While the bike has sat in the garage with brake problems, the tire went flat again.

Meanwhile, Yanni and I started riding together. Her bike was a steal from Target a couple years ago. We were enjoying a 9 PM ride when she demonstrated to me how her bike couldn’t down shift to first gear. And her bike broke a block and a half from home. That’s real fun trying to walk a bike that won’t roll home. In gathering darkness.

A few weeks later, Yanni took Curtis’ bike to run an errand, and got a flat. Katie, our neighbor who found me with a flat tire earlier, found Yanni and brought her home, sans bike. We took it to her neighbor, Gary, who’d diagnosed my flat, and he said he’d work on it the next day.

She returned Curtis’ bike Friday, all repaired. Although I was dying to ride to the ice cream shop with Curtis that night, we decided to let the bike sit over night, to be sure the gremlins that make all the bike tires deflate in our garage wasn’t in effect.

The bike was still good yesterday, and today. Yanni and Xay both rode it.

The lesson here? Not sure. Except, don’t buy cheap bikes for your big kids. Or maybe, don’t work out with your kids? Or don’t work out with your kids on their cheap bikes, ‘cuz you’ll either run out of bikes, or kids, or both.

Plus, it’s really hard to have scintillating wit all the time. I need to go lie down.

Somebody’s big fat black cat keeps showing up in our yard. We don’t do cats, but I found some cat poo in the yard the other day.

Tonight I saw the puffy bear-cat enter the yard. I opened the door and called out, “Shoo!” The cat stopped in its tracks. It looked around for the owner of the voice.

Esteban ran to the closet and brought me his shoe.