On any given day during Summer Break, if you were to look on the back deck of The Little Cottage, you’d see a number of boredom busters:

Twister, Water Guns, Mega Bubble Wands….

…an expanding/contracting geometric sphere, a ‘Bop-It’ annoy-a-tron…

But this year’s favorite toy is something Grandma Jane gave to My Captain last Christmas.

It’s a granny doll that you shoot at people.  Complete with Red Super Granny cape.

It’s a rubber band propelled flying granny doll that squeals upon impact.  Truly, it is The Bomb.

 Varmint plays target practice with it.

Just last night she had Critter and Em running back and forth in front of her to see who she could nail with the gray haired projectile.

They spent hours maniacally hurling Granny at each other.  That sounds so wrong.

Grandma Jane just watched and snickered.  That chick is warped, I tell ya!

(And My Captain wants his toy back.)

All morning and afternoon, My Beloved Captain and his father, Papa, toiled in the sun on “The Mudpit” patio project.  It was such a beautiful day, and I felt bad that they were missing the fun of it.  They never complained, though.  They just kept measuring and sawing and hammering and sweating.

Then, unexpectedly, we heard a motorcycle pull up.  It was none other than My Captain’s best friend, Ty, who is another fire captain, out for a Saturday afternoon joy ride.  He hung out and chatted for a few minutes….

….and then we heard another motorcycle pull up.  This was our friend Richard and his girlfriend, Kelly.  Richard owns a roofing company, and he is helping My Captain on the particulars of ‘The Mudpit’s” roof.

Here’s the funny part of this: Both Ty and Richard, who have never met before, ride similar Harley Davidsons.   Neither knew the other was coming.  But our driveway was quickly beginning to look like a Harley Rally.

My Captain, Ty, and Kelly all went to the same high school together, which is really kind of nice.

They got a chance to catch up a bit, while My Captain and Papa worked.

And Richard took a look at the structural base for the metal roof we’re going to be putting on soon, to make sure it met his specs, while My Captain and Papa worked.

He gave his professional advice on things like materials and design, while My Captain and Papa worked.

And mentioned that the bathroom vent is going to have to be moved because the roof is going to hit it, which is a huge pain in the butt, but thank goodness he mentioned it now, while My Captain and Papa are working.

It was a lot of testosterone driven manly-man talk, grunting, chin scratching, and head nodding, all while…..

….My Captain and Papa worked.

My Captain and his father, Papa, are back at it again on the back patio project, lovingly known as “The Mudpit.”  You may or may not remember this project starting a while back in “A Family Affair,” that we are building a walk-out patio on our vintage Sear’s Kit Cottage.  And when I say ‘We,’ I am using the term loosely.  It’s really just My Captain and Papa.

But I help where I can, like making sure that before they start early in the morning, they have a good meal.  Today they had huge stacks of multigrain pancakes slathered in heavily salted butter and pure Vermont Maple Syrup.  Because we are in to HEALTHLY choices in this family, that’s why.

They ate out on the soon-to-be finished patio, surrounded by the chaotic explosion of flowers that I call a garden.

They were surrounded by bird calls, the smell of honeysuckle,

and plenty of gnats.  Ah the romance of nature!

We try to take pictures along the way of this project, mostly so we have something to show the trauma team when the accidents happen.  So after breakfast, I picked up the camera, and started taking pictures of the progress….but I didn’t get very far.  Basically, I got this photo, and only this photo:

Why?  Because even after all of these years, whenever my beloved is around, I’m highly distracted.  I got that one photo of the project, and the rest were……..

of My Captain….

and his assets.

I got so distracted and flutterpated just by taking these pictures, that I then proceeded to get on the lawnmower and mow for half an hour, without the cutting blades engaged.

I wish I was kidding.

Don’t judge.

Oh Sir Monty….

I’d laugh at you as you wait for the birdies, but I’m the same way in front of the microwave.   I won’t judge you, my hungry little friend.  

Varmint and Critter NEEDED to be outside today, before they shortened their lifespans.  With exasperation, I sent them out to water some new Cheyenne Spirit Coneflowers I’d plunked down in the earth yesterday.

Our hose won’t reach where they are planted, so the kids had to use the ol’ ‘haul-empty-buckets-of-catlitter-filled-with-water-in-their-old-red-Tikes-cart’ technique.  Not the most efficient technique, but it would keep them busy for a while.  That’s what I wanted.  That’s all I wanted.

That. Is. All. I. Wanted.

Well, that, and for them not to get killed or maimed in the process.

I went back to cleaning out the nastiest vegetable drawer any fridge has ever seen.  And half an hour later, I looked out the window, vaguely wondering what was taking them so long.

They were in the midst of a waterfight, the likes of which My Captain would have been proud.  They were completely clothed, but it’s summer, and stuff like that flies just fine at The Little Cottage during summer!

I went back to the nastiness that was my refrigerator, and was elbow-deep chiseling something that might possibly have been hot pepper hummus a few years back, when I heard My Captain’s leaf blower.

His way-expensive, supercalifragilistic, supersonic leaf blower.

You know, the leafblower capable of blowing a maple leaf into the next county? The one made by Boeing?  Yeah, that one.

And I thought, “Oh hell.”

I had only enough time to snap this picture through the screen door before I began belting out admonitions for Varmint to not blind her brother, and for goodness sake to not electrocute themselves as they stood in the puddles with the electric cord wrapped around their feet:

Critter will never again be able to shut his eyelids, as they were rolled back behind his skull.

But he was dry.  I’ll give them that.

So I did what any other loving mother would do.

I shut and locked the door.

Firmly.