Dad Again

People often tell me I need to write a book.

The one who should be writing a book is my Mom. She's the one whose husband is Jeff D. and has lived with him for the past 38 years. With her permission, I'm posting her recent email. By the way, the picture of him above was taken in '06, when he was 85. He STILL sits a horse like that. Slouching is something I have never, ever, seen him do.

I wanted to include her email to catch a glimpse of the man I grew up with. When you look up ornery in the dictionary, you'll see his photo.

In her letter she mentions kittens. They found some newborn kittens (momma was probably coyote chow) and have been nursing them to health. Mom has dubbed them, "The ugliest kittens I have ever seen." Makes me think of the Mexico team and their baby jackrabbit!

Mom writes:

By the way, do you know what plastering putty smells
like? Well, my whole house smells like it. The other
day when I went to Wal-mart I picked up a small bucket
of the putty and asked Jeff if he thought it might
work on the cracks in our bedroom? I was in the
process of peeling off the wallpaper border. He
said,"I don't see why not" and off he went to get his
trawl and putty knife. He has patched every crack in
the three bedrooms, I had to get more putty, hold the
ladder when he was standing almost to the top of the
ladder, reaching as high as he could. You know those
ceilings must be 12ft. high. He has to be wiped out
but he is such a bulldog when it is something he likes
to do.

Now, a little while ago, here he comes in the
house with a PVC pipe about 8ft long with a pink foam
sponge thing attached to the end with of course,
baling string. In the areas he couldn't reach he came
up with this "thing" to put the putty on. It wasn't
working so I came in here to read my e-mail, he stayed
with it for an hour and got it to work. Sound
familiar? Now, not to complain but there is putty or
whatever it is called on my bed spread, on the
floors..... and I forgot, I have the two twin beds
piled on top of each other so he could get in a
corner to do the plaster-putty thing there. :) I
actually helped, held the putty can with one hand and
steadied the ladder with the other telling him to fall
on the bed if he lost his balance. Life is good.

Pulled up the Mexico web site and saw my handsome
grandson pushing a wheel barrow. Makes a grandma proud
I tell you. I also got his sweet thank you note today.
He is all grown up, Mom!

I better go, kittens are waking up, what a pain but we
have to try to save them. Jeff took care of them
yesterday while I was in town with the girls, we
didn't get home until after seven. He did just fine,
said he just took out his hearing-aid, never heard
them at all.
Love you, Mom

And I love YOU, Mom!