Daylight saving grace at New Year derrières with blue M&M
“Really, Dan?” Nazy asked.
“Yes. We spring forward so..”
“So?”
“So there is one less hour of the current ‘Presidential’ term.”
Unfortunately, there are plenty of hours left for ineptitude and gross administrative incompetence to flourish. I expect to hear a tweet about the Kennedy assassination conspiracy… oops already happened. Or maybe a tweet about a time-traveling conspiracy to Hawaii to plant a fake birth announcement … oops, already happened. Perhaps a tweet about a Moslem celebration in Jersey City after the World Trade Center… oops, already happened. It is sad..
“… because I thought that the Republicans had principles, Dan.” Nazy claimed. “Stupid principles like guns and wars,” Nazy thought, “but principles nonetheless.”
“Well..”
“Aren’t they anti-deficit?” Nazy asked.
“Only when the Democrats are in office,” I replied, thinking of the (stupid) wall, Reagan and Bush 2.
On a (much) happier note, sons and grand(est)sons are on the move.
Darius, the first son, is wrapping up his time at The American University of Beirut. For the last year, Darius has been actively searching for alternatives. Encouragingly, he is a very popular candidate on the job market. In addition considering to the usual exotic locales (e.g.Tajikistan and Fargo, North Dakota), Darius has academic offers (e.g. Western Washington University) and business offers (Bank of America). Colleges from Istanbul to Maine are courting him. AUB is trying, to no avail, to get him to reconsider his decision. And, as if this wasn’t enough excitement, he and Christiane are expecting a baby girl in a couple of months. It’s an exciting time.
And, speaking of time, Persian New Year, the vernal equinox was upon us early Monday morning. Nazy set up her halftseen table and we shared the Persian greeting (depicted at the left). This saying is pronounced “Aide Shoma Mobarak” which means (literally) “May your New Year be blessed”.
Close family can respond (I am not making this up) the saying at the right which is pronounced “Dome Shoma se Charak” which means (literally) “May your ass become three times heavier.”
“.. three times heavier, Nazy!?” I exclaimed. “What is this? The Kim Kardashian New Year greeting?”
“It’s a rhyming thing, Dan.”
“Sometimes literal translations fail to convey the meaning.”
“That’s right..”
“Are there a lot of fat asses in Iran?”
“Dan…”
“Or maybe a lot of dumb asses?”
“Dumb asses congregate in your government, Dan.”
Literal translations can be baffling. In Holland, I was once told that if I got a certain project done, “It would be a real feather up my ass.”
“Dan!” Nazy interrupts. “Your readers will think you have a ‘thing’ about derrières.”
“Butt … excuse me.”
“I think we should get to the bottom of this.”
“No need, my dear, I just want to put it all behind me.”
“So it should be in the rear-view mirror?”
Arrow by the halftseen
This weekend, Nazy and I took care of Tiger and Arrow while Tom and Melika went to a wedding in Idaho. As regular readers know, the weather here has been unusually wet and rainy, portending a spectacular wildflower season. Last weekend we drove to nearby Los Olivos to see the flowers, but we were a bit early. Because I didn’t want to miss what promised to be an unusually beautiful display, I convinced Nazy…
“… we can take the grand(est)sons to see the flowers. It will be fun.”
“Fun?” Nazy replied enthusiastically, eh, skeptically.
So, I planted Arrow and Tiger into their respective car seats and set off on …
“… a journey to Hades,” I thought, as we drove up the Chumash Highway. Arrow lost his pacifier and Tiger wanted a blue M&M (we had only yellow, red and orange).
“Blue is my favorite color.” Tiger, reveling in his (terrible) ‘two-ness’ announced.
it would, of course, be nice to say that the sights were worth the trip. But that would only be possible if the flowers had been in bloom. We’re still about a week early. Fortunately, the boys both fell asleep as we started home. Knowing that Nazy craved a cup of coffee, and with the firm understanding that the boys were soundly sleeping, I stopped at a nearby coffee shop. Nazy got out and ten seconds later, both boys were awake and..
“Loud!” I thought as I searched for Nazy.
“I told you not to stop,” Nazy announced when she got back into the car.
“Look at the grass,” I replied to no one in particular.
Tiger in the Swimming Pool