HOM: Incidentals

Bits & Pieces. Kathy & Ri (Lyn's sister & aunt) visited that winter. I don't remember if they came together or not, nor have I retained many details of the visit(s). Kathy & I had quite different points of view on many things. At one point, she & I were arguing at the kitchen table, and she responded to something I said with an "Oh, brother!" When I said "Yeah, but I don't brag about it", Don choked on his coffee. One weekend, I was lazing in bed and Lyn was making a cake. She yelled in to me, "Time me for three minutes", as she started to mix the batter. I got out of bed, padded out barefoot, and stood behind her. I guess she didn't hear me over the mixer that was buzzing away on high speed, because when I tapped her on the shoulder and said "Time!" she screamed and jerked the mixer out of the bowl. Batter spattered everywhere (except on me-- I was behind her!) and I got the blame. The Jeep started getting terrible gas mileage. A tuneup didn't help and I couldn't figure out what was wrong till I noticed the gauge dropped overnight when it was not driven. There was no puddle of leaked gas under the rig, either. A locking gas cap fixed that problem. The folks from downstairs complained (jokingly) about how loud my footsteps were through their ceiling. We thought this was kinda ironic since Lyn was the one that stomped and I was the one that walked quietly -- or sneakily, as Lyn called it. I came home to a hysterical wife one afternoon. When she had gotten back from shopping and walked into the kitchen, a bottle of wine Aunt Ri had given us was shattered all over the kitchen floor. She assumed someone had broken in and vandalized things. A little poking around showed that the only thing disturbed was the wine, and I finally figured out that she had put the bottle on top of the refrigerator, and the vibration of the refrigerator motor had caused it to "walk" over the edge. I got to be good friends with Loren Harvey, the younger brother of my old friend and competitor, Meriden. Don & Lyn liked him too and he used to stop by & visit. Both he and Lyn were TV watchers, which I am not. One afternoon they were totally involved in watching the climax of "The Andromeda Strain" in our living room, and the movie was at the point where the hero was racing to switch off the bomb as a speaker counted down the seconds till Armageddon. As the race against time started, I eased out of the room and got a paper bag and inflated it, then went and stood behind them. When the hero threw the switch at the last microsecond of the countdown I popped the bag. Lyn screamed and Loren threw his glass of Coke back over his shoulder, and they both got mad at me, but I was laughing too hard to care. Loren. When you are a ministerial student you sometimes are at a loss for the right words. Don had been giving him a bad time about something, and Loren finally responded with "Oh, Pile it on your hood!" Since Don's last name was Hoodenpyle, I thought that was a pretty good response. TBC (Me) (Blacktail Books)