Hosni Harmony

Lots of news! Winston's paw seems to be getting better. I really do think he got stung by a bee. His pad is swollen on the bottom. The Hub and I looked at his foot and all the way up his leg, and he let us handle his paw, ankle etc ( though I must say he was much more willing to let me do this than The Hub). We couldn't find anything.....

like a thorn or sticker. But the swelling looks so much like when my brother, who is not allergic to bees ( nor does he bear any resemblence to a mastiff, I feel I must add!!) would get a sting...it would kind of swell and draw in the area until the reaction went away. He doesn't have any problem with any other part of his leg, nor does it seem to really pain him. He just seems kind of annoyed by it.

So we gave him a benedryl to see if that made the swelling go down and now he's lying in his "spot" by the front door snoring like a frieght train.

Meanwhile, remember the robin who built her nest on The Hub's lumber in the carport? Well, her eggs hatched! You can hear the tiniest little noise coming from the nest.

Last night, before I realized that we had hatchlings ( Okay, I guess, technically, "We" don't have them. After all, it's not like I hatched an egg or something!) I said to The Hub.

"You know, I feel as if Birda ought to have a proper name. She's almost like part of the family, but we just keep calling her 'Birda' "

"Oh, how about Rob-birda? Actually, I kind of thought of that as her name, her real name, but we were just calling her Birda for short."

There are times when, even though we've been married for 9 years, his willingness to buy into my particular brand of weirdness scares even me!

But, most people don't go in for naming everything the way I do. Both vehicles have names - my red P.T. cruiser used to be "Rose" but now she's "Apple" since she got her new license plates, which have APL in them. The Jeep is named "Carl" short for "Carl-the-Rottwieller Jeep". Carl the Rottwieller is a dog in a childrens' picture book and the jeep is black and tan on the inside, and very dependable like the dog in the story....and so, you see.....

Usually little kids, at least, are right there with me. I'm not sure it's comforting that the crowd that really seems to "get" me are mostly the under 4 or over 70 age group. But even some pre-schoolers are pretty sure I'm out of my mind.

Take today for instance. I was cleaning a lady's house and she came back with her two pre-school aged kids who can speak quite plainly and well. The little girl got very upset with her mother as I was leaving because her mother wouldn't let her pull weeds, or pull flowers. Actually, I think the problem was that the little girl couldn't tell the difference between weeds and flowers. "You're mean, Mommy! Mean!" she yelled tearfully.

After she calmed down a little I tried to distract her. "Hey, guess what the name of my vaccuum cleaner is?" I asked her.

If someone had asked me that as a little kid ( or, hell, if they asked me that today) I'd probably say "Rumplestiltskin!"

But not this kid. She just looked at me. "Guess" her mother encouraged her. She looked at me in disbelief. She looked at the vaccuum cleaner, then back up at me. Her expression said it all, Are you out of your mind?

"What is it?" the young mother asked, curiously.

"It's Hosni!" ( Hose-nay) I said, and added, "I named him after Hosni Mubarak, the president of Egypt."

The mom laughed, that sputtering laugh I often get from grown people who have been surprised into it.

Her daughter looked even more appalled. I wish I'd had my digital camera then! You could just see her thinking "Who in their right mind would name a vaccuum cleaner in the first place let alone after a person!"

"Mommy, you're MEAN! And you're -" she was looking at me, but words failed the poor kid. I feel bad for her. It's going to be years before she gets into things like algebra and classes like that where everything makes sense ( at least, I'm assured by people who have gone through higher maths that algebra makes sense).

Oh well. Hosni Harmony, the vaccuum cleaner, does a good job for me. I just hope that, in today's political climate, nobody tries to deport him!!!