Three is an abundance of Legos in the old farmhouse at Shady Acres. When Eldest Son and Youngest Son were growing up, they spent many happy hours creating things and Youngest Son would even have contests with cousins and friends and things would get very interesting. Especially if Delaware Grammy (who was “Mom” or “Mama” or “Momma” or even “Mo—OM!!!” then) was called upon to judge such creations and the eager eyes of Youngest Son or a nephew or a friend were watching with bated breath and anxious expressions. Over the years, Certain Man (now Delaware Grampa) and Certain Man’s Wife (now Delaware Grammy) added to the basic collections with smaller collections from land, sea, air and even space and the Legos overflowed their boxes and took up lodging in places never intended for the safe keeping of these diverse building blocks that are so mesmerizing to people regardless of their age and gender.
But I digress. This was to make the point that there are LOTS of Legos. There is the big red bucket full and a Tupperware container full, and always, always there were odds and ends around in strange places. About a month ago, Delaware Grammy got tired of having Legos that were largely inaccessible and mostly uncontainable and extremely frustrating. It was a real chore to get kids to pick them up if ever they were allowed to have them out, and it often ended up that at least some of them would be smuggled out of sight for someone to pick up “later.” Of course, this made it difficult for Delaware Grammy to be enthusiastic about getting them out in the first place. Because of this, the Legos were not getting much play time at all. And that troubled Delaware Grammy because the grandkids were getting older, Legos are such educational toys and there was a considerable amount of financial investment in them as well. It just seemed like a waste of something good to keep them stored away.
About the same time that Delaware Grammy got tired of the many containers of Legos, she commenced to clean out her study where most of them were stored. In the process of cleaning the study, she had to move the Lego boxes around quite a few times and after about the fourth time, she decided to sally forth to the local department store and buy a big storage box for the Legos. All of them. Sure enough, in her favorite aisle that offers all sorts of storage bins and boxes, the perfect box was found. It was an “Under the Bed” box, with wheels and a lid that folded up in the middle so that you could have half a box open at once if you so desired. It was large enough that the Legos could be rooted through and they would be seen with enough clarity that dumping everything out on the rug could quite possibly become a thing of the past.
Aha! Delaware Grammy seized upon it with delight and with great maneuverings and “Excuse Me, please,” and adept and fascinating quick moves, managed to tote it to the checkout without disaster. Payment was made and the box of many qualities came home to the farmhouse at Shady Acres. Delaware Grammy and Granddaughter Charis fetched all the Legos and dumped them into the container. Glory be! It was perfect for the job for which it was acquired. The many Legos tumbled into the box and there were great exclamations of delight from all concerned. However, Delaware Grammy found out almost immediately that one of its more unfavorable characteristics was that it was almost an inch too high to fit under a bed. The only place that she could think of that was easily accessible and wasn’t already occupied was under Our Girl Nettie’s bed, but when she and Granddaughter Charis were storing it, they found that the new box just didn’t slide under with the ease that was hoped for. Almost. But not quite.
Delaware Grammy struggled a bit, then said, “I’m going to lift up this end and you can just slide it right under!” And she did, and even though the bed that Nettie appeared to enjoy a bit more support than it had previously, Delaware Grammy thought that it was probably all for the best, and that having so snug a fit would prevent “just anyone” from dragging them out at any old time without permission.
There came a time, a week or so later, when Granddaughter, Charis had come for the night. Grandpa was at a Men’s meeting, and Grammy and Charis had the house to themselves. Charis was playing with a great pile of Legos and Grammy was cleaning out her study. There was this huge pile of family photo albums that Delaware Grammy wanted to transport from the study, through the side room, across a bit of kitchen floor, through the dining/family room and into a far corner of the living room. The task looked indomitable – that is, until Delaware Grammy thought of piling the books onto her trusty, wheeled desk chair and using it to make one trip instead of a five or six. Oh, boy! An in house truck!
So, she loaded the big chair down and actually managed to get all 24 the albums on there. It was a precarious stack but Delaware Grammy decided to make a go for it. She did think a bit ruefully of Sweet Mama’s gentle admonition that she heard often as a child when such endeavors were attempted. Often when there was a big load of anything that Delaware Grammy was struggling to move in just one trip, Sweet Mama would say, “That’s a lazy man’s load!” meaning that taking big, unsafe loads was actually trying to get out of work. This was definitely a “Lazy Man’s Load!”
It was fairly easy going over the flat, worn out carpet in the study. It was smooth sailing over the alcove and kitchen floor’s linoleum. It was a bit more difficult over the bumpy carpet in the family room, but when DG got to the living room, the going was really tough. Plus, there was a little girlie with her box of Legos spread out right in the walkway.
“Charis,” said Delaware Grammy excitedly, “look at Grammy’s truck!”
Charis looked up from her project and briefly acknowledged the unusual mode of transportation. “Uh-huh!” she said, distracted by her project.
“Charis,” said Delaware Grammy, “Could you move your Legos and the box over so Grammy can push her truck through here to get over to the back corner?”
“Uh-huh,” said Charis, again a bit distractedly. She made a few swipes at the Legos and tried to get things together. It was going somewhat slower than Grammy wanted, so she left her position behind the truck and started scraping things together with her big foot. That worked, a little, but the box was in the way. The wonderful box that had wheels and lots of storage and was low enough to the ground to go under the bed sat solidly in its place. Grammy took her foot and tried to move it along with a wide sweep of Legos.
This was a very bad idea, as she was just about to find out. When her foot hit that box, it was at the end of a wide sweeping motion and Delaware Grammy’s balance was entirely off. Suddenly, she was struggling to stay upright. Except there was nowhere to go! The box was in front of her, the truck was behind her, the post for the stairs was to her right and a coffee table was to the left. She tried in vain to find her footing, dancing in the same spot for a brief instant, even turning towards the post, scrambling for a handhold to steady herself, but all was in vain.
Down she crashed in all her glory, landing squarely on her rear end on the edge of THAT BOX! One thing she found out really quickly was that that box really was sturdy! It did not give a single bit. Didn’t bend, didn’t crack, didn’t break. It seemed that it did eventually tip sideways and hit her in the back, but that certainly wasn’t the dilemma at the time.
“Grammy, you fell!” Announced a little voice from somewhere in the vicinity. Delaware Grammy was dimly aware that she was fluttering anxiously about. “Grammy! You fell!” She said again, very worriedly.
“Yes, Grammy fell. Silly old Grammy,” said Delaware Grammy as she floundered about looking for something substantial enough to get a hold of. She eventually got herself up on her knees and got a firm hold on the bottom step of the stairs and hauled herself up. Everything seemed to work, nothing appeared broken, but Wowser!!! Something really hurt in the vicinity of her tail bone. She recalled hearing something “pop” when she landed, but there was obviously nothing major amiss.
“That must have been the ‘pop’ you hear when you crack your fingers,” she decided and gingerly went about the rest of her evening. Beloved Granddaughter seemed unscathed by the experience, and the photo albums were put into their designated spot. And that was mostly the end of it.
Except for the fact that Delaware Grammy has had to be very careful where she sits and how she sits ever since.
“You would think,” she thought this morning as she carefully lowered herself into her favorite chair, that this bruise and bump would be gone by now.” But it is still very much a consideration when Delaware Grammy is looking for a place to sit. It is definitely better, and she made it to and from Ohio last weekend without too much pain and spent many happy hours on the road with Delaware Grampa and even more happy times with the Ohio Grandsons, so it is getting better, and one of these days, it will be but a dim memory.
And that is part of the news from Shady Acres, where the wind is blowing the laundry straight out, Beloved Granddaughter has been helping Grandpa plant some garden, and Delaware Grammy is loving this wonderfully sunny day!
Before I got there, lying quite still and cold upon the ground was a daddy bluebird. It was featherweight in my hand when I cradled it there. I looked for injury but there was none to be seen. I saw Certain Man out by the barn where he was trying to put the spring calves back into their pen, and I went to him with my find. He, too, could find no injury or reason for its demise. He took it from me, looked it over carefully and then put it into the composter. There was really nothing else to be done. An especially virulent strain of bird influenza is about these days and he could not take any chances. I understood, but it didn’t seem fitting, somehow.
Delaware Grammy 