Sunset Crane corners autumn at Downton Beach walk
“What does that mean, Dan?” Nazy asked. “Weekend Corner?”
“It’s on Monday the 23rd, at 12:50PM in Santa Barbara. And, where I come from, Monday comes right after the weekend.”
“What’s that have to do with a corner?”
“I’ve cornered the market on week ending metaphors.”
“Hrumph..” Nazy replied.
Sunsets are generally spectacular at this time of the year so, tides willing, Nazy and I often walk along the beach to watch the sun going down.
Tiger is getting comfortable at Kindergarten. Arrow, while comfortable at pre-school without Tiger, is not particularly happy on the ride to the schools. Tiger’s school, Crane, starts first, so we drop Tiger off first. Then as we drive away …
“I want to stay at Crane,” Arrow says. And announces. And declares. And explains. And proclaims. And repeats. And …
Later that day, when I picked him up at pre-school, I put him into the car seat and he asked:
“Where’s Tiger?”
“Are you serious?” I thought before asking him, rhetorically…
“Do you know how to get to my house, Arrow?”
“Just drive that way, Dan,” He said, pointing. “Then turn when you get to Carrillo Street.”
“That’s right…”
“You go past the park, Melanie’s school, Crushcakes, Mommy’s office and Grandpa Tom’s office,”
“That’s right.”
“We go that way every day, Dan.” Arrow sighed.
“That’s right.”
On Saturday mornings, I take Arrow (and only Arrow) to MyGym — where he’s both learning and playing. At the end of last week’s class, the instructor went through the normal schedule, ending with announcements …
“ …. and there will be a Super Heros costume party on September 27th..”
“That’s YOUR BIRTHDAY, DAN!” Arrow exclaimed. Accurately (and loudly).
On a completely different note, while Nazy and I were at the movies watching ..
“ … and this preview looks like fun…” Nazy whispered.
“They call them ‘trailers’ now, Nazy,” I replied.
“They used to call them ‘coming attractions’,”
“Precisely.”
“We should watch Downton Abbey.”
It’s hard to believe, but Nazy and I had never seen any episode of Downton Abbey. Ever. Moreover, it quickly became clear that our entertainment methodology was completely out of date.
“How do we watch the old episodes of Down Town Abbey?” Nazy asked.
“Downton.”
“That’s what I said. How do we watch them? Where can we buy a video?”
“You said ‘Down Town’ Abbey.”
“And I was right. Where can we buy the video?”
“Nobody buys videos anymore, Nazy.”
“Should we get a CD?”
“I don’t think we have a CD player anymore. We can just stream it.”
“Stream it?”
“We can get it on Amazon Prime,” I replied. “You can get anything on Amazon,” I thought.
“We do it just like Sesame Street?”
And, so, now we’re desperately trying to catch up to the comings and goings at Downton — we don’t want to be lost when the movie comes out. As we were waiting, Nazy was aghast ..
“.. Donald Trump is in California,” Nazy asserted.
“How did that happen?” I replied. “I don’t want him here and I requested notification if he crossed the Mississippi River. Did he bring a sharpie?”
“A sharpie?”
“Yes, he may use it to move us into the path of some typhoon,” I explained. “On the other hand, I doubt that he is familiar with the word ‘typhoon’,” I thought.
“He’s in favor of increasing pollution, Dan.”
“He is in favor of Donald Trump. Nothing else matters to him. His only ‘accomplishment’ involves Twitter: in each of the last three years, he’s generated more semantically and syntactically flawed tweets than anyone in history.”
Darius, Christiane and the girls made it home safely; Nazy and I will be visiting in person next month. They had a great time in Lebanon.
For last week's letter, please click here
Darius, Christiane and Family
Airplane house in Lebanon