Last night, Luke knocked on my door and gave me one of those Amaryllis kits (the bulb had already started producing leaves). He made it very casual -- he and his daughter had been out shopping and he saw this, no need to reciprocate, etc -- and I'm sure he doesn't know it's poisonous to cats if they eat it. And I have cats that will eat things like that. I thought about it overnight and went ahead and planted the bulb today and I'll give it to Lucilla, explaining why I can't keep it. When I'm not here or not out in the public part of the condo, I'll put it in the workroom. It's not warm enough there and there isn't enough sun. I'm pretty sure it's not warm enough and there isn't enough sun in the kitchen, which is the closest for me. Lucilla has a back condo, facing south, so she gets sun. I thanked Luke profusely, because I really appreciate the thought, but I'll have to tell him what I did if he asks about it.
I was going to an amateur production of The Homecoming, the Walton's story, today because two of our bookgroup members and both of their sons are in it, but I must have turned the alarm off and gone back to sleep. I woke up at 2:23 and the show started at 2pm. I have an old single-piece telephone that I'd tied up in gold ribbon to give to the father of the family -- he asked yesterday if any of us had extras and I do. He had realized that they don't have any phones that will work without power once their cell phones run out and thought they should have one for an emergency. He would have enjoyed it being a big deal backstage. Oh well. (I have an old "princess" phone for an emergency, as well as a crank-power cellphone recharger.)
I was going through today's WashPost, putting it in order and skimming the front pages when a school bus pulled up. It was painted blue with clouds and said things like PAX and In Honor of Martin Luther King and had peace signs and I wondered what they wanted. People started coming out -- about 25 total -- and when I saw Luke's daughter, I realized they were going to carol. He opened his sliding glass doors and came out on his balcony to listen -- I listened from the recliner. Spirit was worried. The carolers were almost all women, ages 2 to probably 70. The men were a husband with (probably girl, because of all the pink) baby and wife, Luke's son-in-law, a guy who sometimes comes and takes Luke to his house for dinner with his family, the bus driver, and a very tall teen who stood near the teen girls, but not too close. It was a nice thing for them to do.
