Juxtaposition

Yesterday was nothing if not an exercise in juxtaposition.

I'm back to doing my handyman thing, so yesterday found Bud and I busily remodeling a basement furnace room for the Purvis family. The bulk of our time was spent framing a couple of closets, putting up dry wall and puzzling over how to get an overhead flourescent fixture to work when you flip the wall switch. We will both spend a goodly amount of time this weekend pondering that one.

I could tell I have finally arrived as a handyman because I shared in Bud's enthusiasm over a new gizmo that will strip wires like a breeze. Not only that, but I have become a two driver worker. I put a drill bit in my Milwaukee driver and a phillips head bit in my DeWalt and happily screwed two-by-fours together into frames without having to keep changing bits. It was great.

I knocked off early because Kathie and I had to be at her mother's place by four-thirty for the March Birthday Extravaganza. Ruth Ellen even reminded Kathie not to wear her usual tattered jeans for the occasion. Evidently the residents at River Point are not aware that tattered jeans are high style nowadays. Oh well, soon enough we will all end up wearing shiny jumpsuits if we live long enough.

First we had dinner in their lovely dining room. The salad was crisp, the chicken dish with angel hair pasta was better than I expected it to be, and this nice lady kept walking around refilling our wine glasses.

Since all the birthday celebrants and their guests were seated at the front table, I was able to look out over the array of old people eating dinner. A lot of them were bent over and it took them an awfully long time to eat, being careful to chew every bite. The overall level of conversation in the room was interrupted from time to time by coughing spells and an occasional "excuse me" when a walker butted into someone's chair. In a sense it was a preview of things to come. In fact I remember commenting to Kathie on the way over that we were becoming a cute older couple. Basically, it was a terribly depressing view from the front table.

After awhile though it began to take on the feeling of college dorm life only without the messy hair and all nighters. There were two guys at the table adjacent to ours and I could tell right away that these two were the stars of the whole joint. One of the gentlemen wore a crisply starched white Gatsby shirt with a gold chain and as he walked around the room tables would stop what they were doing to say hello and engage in repartee. We found out about the other gentleman's talent when we went up to Ruth Ellen's place after dinner to rest up before the flute concert at 6:45. See, I told you this was an extravaganza.

The main reason we went to Ruth Ellen's apartment was to see the two foot tall Michelle Obama doll dressed in her inaugural gown that Ruth Ellen bought through some mail order place. I think the same place that sells civil war figurine collectables. In addition, she ordered a glass case from some internet company Kathie found for her. As we walked in, there was the miniature first lady standing tall in her hexagonal glass case on the middle of the coffee table. Ruth Ellen's original plan was to give it to Franny to display, but we convinced her Franny probably didn't want a miniature of her boss haunting her house. We were afraid she was then going to give it to us, but it looks like she has become quite attached and the doll will permanently be in the way of anyone trying to talk across the coffee table.

Of course the perfect accompaniment to all of this was a CD that other star I was telling you about made of old standards for harmonica and organ. He evidently regales the folks at River Point from time to time with impromptu concerts, so his CDs are quite hot there.

It was finally time for the flute concert. Ruth Ellen wanted us to get there early so we would have good (read: comfy) seats. I think we were the second group of people to arrive, but we did score some easy chairs in the back of the room. By the time the floutist stepped up to the mike the place was three quarters full. She had a few breathing issues, but overall she killed for 45 minutes. After the concert Ruth Ellen had to stop by to tell the floutist that she too used to play the flute. We beat a fast retreat.