TELEPHONE ADVENTURES

This week Grandpa Sancho had to leave the City by the Lake and travel west to see his medical doctor. It was a long journey and this old grandpa was very tired at the end of his travels. Nothing could cheer him up quite like a telephone adventure with his brave young knight Don Andrew. When this gallant warrior called his faithful sidekick, Grandpa Sancho was almost asleep.

Guess what, Grandpa? Of course this old knight’s squire came to attention pretty quickly. What are you doing, Andrew? Don Andrew replied, We are on top of a building in a traffic jam. It was a good thing Grandpa Sancho was wide awake by this time because that was a confusing message. Come to find out, they were in the Big Fort and had gone to the circus and were stuck on top of a parking garage.

Did you get to see the elephants? The reply came, There were these clowns that were so funny and they did all sorts of things. One of them was on stilts and he did all kinds of tricks. He walked on a rope and turned over and over. It was really good to hear Don Andrew talk about clowns. It hasn’t been too long since clowns frightened him.

The very next day as Grandpa Sancho traveled back to the City by the Lake the phone rang again. What a surprise! This time it was Don Matthew. Now, Don Matthew is so small we have only been able to have baseball and swimming adventures up to this point. Hello Pooh-Paw! I went to Pooh-Paw and Gran’ Ma’s house. I am at my house. And with a little background coaching, I love you Pooh-Paw! Then Don Andrew got on the phone and told his faithful squire all about his day at the child care. He always closes his conversations with, I love you, Grandpa!

I believe one could say, Life just doesn’t get any better than that. To break up a journey clear across Texas with a Telephone Adventure is one very special experience that always makes Grandpa’s happy.

ON WASPS & FIRE ANTS & THINGS

At our new home in the City by the Lake there are all kinds of creepy, flying, and crawling creatures. These can provide a fascinating and exciting experience for our young knight Don Andrew. Generally Don Andrew is fearless when it comes to all kinds of adventurous activities. He will travel with his old sidekick Grandpa Sancho almost anywhere, except where there are wasps and fire ants.

Recently our young knight hired out to his faithful squire to plant some tomatoes. He wanted to earn some quarters so he could purchase the soundtrack to the movie Cars. Its true the duo waited a little late in the year for planting and drought conditions had already set in. We got the “A Shovel” (so named because Don Andrew had Grandpa Sancho put an A on the shovel so everyone would know who that particular shovel belonged to) and tried to dig in the ground. After many tries the ingenious duo had to resort to larger equipment. A grubbing hoe could only break the surface, so water had to be added to soften the dirt. After a long while the shovel would work. Four of the holes were now dug and two remained to be dug.

Now Don Andrew is a little like his (almost) namesake Don Quixote. He not only likes to go on adventures that end up being misadventures, he also gets just a little bit confused at times. He was convinced the two want-to-be farmers are actually planting potatoes. Or, is it because he hates to eat tomatoes, even though he drowns French fired potatoes in tomato catsup?

As the day wore on so did Don Andrew. This five year old farmer was getting pretty hot in the 100+ degree head out there in the back forty. All of a sudden he called out “Grandpa we have to go in. There is a red wasp.” Now red wasps seem to be the monsters of the wasp world. Don Andrew assured his old grandpa that the wasp could be easily killed with “Wasp Poisonous” (Don Andrew’s name for poison. Incidentally, there is also “Fire Ant” Poisonous,” “Spider Poisonous,” and Mosquito Poisonous.”

Grandpa Sancho couldn’t see a wasp. But, Don Andrew assured him there were wasps over there near their nest. Upon closer investigation, the wasp nest turned out to be a bird nest in a tree. So, there was really no wasp but Don Andrew had convinced his ancient sidekick there was a need to go inside, rest, and cool off.

So, the two of them sipped tea, reclined in comfortable chairs, and watched Sandlot for the twentieth or thirtieth time. All was finally well with the two adventurers. Farming the back forty would just have to wait for a cooler day.

FLAT FROGS!

Back in the spring it was raining almost every day. That was before the drought of 2006 set in. Folks in Central Texas think it is drought conditions if it doesn’t rain for five or six weeks. When we lived in West Texas we learned that just after a really great rain might just be the beginning of the next really long drought. That seems to be the case in the City by the Lake this year.

Don Andrew and his faithful sidekick Grandpa Sancho left early one day to try to find a really good adventure. It’s nearly always a good adventure when these two get together. It had been raining quite a bit so the grass was wet and the adventurous duo had to walk on the edge of the road. As Don Andrew looked to the right and to the left he could see a great number of frogs hopping around in the yards of neighbors. This was quite fascinating to our young knight.

On this particular day Don Andrew talked about the frogs during the plagues in the days of Moses while the Israelites were captive in Egypt. Grandpa Sancho was very proud that Don Andrew could recall the story so well. Don Andrew loves to hear the stories of the Bible.

As the duo traveled on, Don Andrew looked ahead and saw something on the road. “Grandpa look!” said Don Andrew. “It’s a flat frog.” Now that poor old frog had been run over by cars way too many times. He was not only flat, he was flat and dry, like he had been there for a number of days. Our brave knight drew his faithful sword (a stick) and moved the “flat frog” carefully off the roadway. That seemed like the best thing to do. He decided not to bury the frog but to cover him with leaves and rocks. It was too muddy to bury a flat frog with a stick.

As the adventurers traveled on Grandpa Sancho had to assure brave young Don Andrew that we were not having a plague of frogs of Biblical proportions. This young knight was satisfied with that answer as we went on to bigger and better adventures, eventually ending up at the playground, as usual.

LEWIS AND CLARK

Don Andrew and Grandpa Sancho set out to head west. We could be like Lewis and Clark except we went by ourselves. We did not find any Native Americans. We did not cross any rivers or creeks. We did not chart any unknown territory. We did not encounter a single wild beast.

Don Andrew and Grandpa Sancho knew exactly where they were going. They were heading west in search of adventure. All of Grandpa Sancho’s grandkids like to go on adventures of one kind or another.

Not only did Don Andrew and Grandpa Sancho know exactly where they were going, they even had a road to follow. It was a very special road. We all in our little community thought it had disappeared. It was all grown up with tumbleweeds about 5 or 6 feet tall. Well, they looked that tall. Actually, which incidentally is Don Andrew’s favorite word, Grandpa Sancho had intended to run an ad in the local newspaper seeking folks to adopt a tumbleweed and either paint it with spray paint or decorate it. Coming down one of the widest streets in town it appeared as though there was a jungle of those weeds at the end of the street.

Grandpa Sancho did not get to run that ad in the newspaper because all of a sudden we had one of those 60 mile per hour winds, which is not abnormal for West Texas, and all the tumbleweeds blew over into our yards. This saved the railroad company a fortune because each of us had to put our own tumbleweed in the dipsy dumpster. We surely did miss out on what could have been a colorful Christmas.

Yes, you guessed it. Don Andrew and Grandpa Sancho headed west on the railroad. His Mom used to go with Grandpa Sancho when she was about his age. We had many adventures and found so many treasures. These we hid so we could come back later and get them. We did this nearly every day so we never really ever returned to collect the treasures, but we had lot’s of fun together. Not so with Don Andrew.

As we traveled west, Don Andrew found so many old, used railroad spikes he had to put them in Grandpa Sancho’s pockets. We found two bridges to go over, although they are just for drains (or draws) and not for rivers or creeks. By the time we got to the last bridge Grandpa Sancho had to confess to our young knight that the railroad spikes had become too heavy for Grandpa Sancho’s britches and if we were going to take them to his dump pile (where he keeps valuable rocks and other findings), we would need to turn around quickly and return home.

Don Andrew looked back to how far we had come and told his old squire that it would take so long to get home that the family would be eating breakfast when we ate dinner (Don Andrew’s Dad is from California so he calls it dinner). As we proceeded in an easterly direction Grandpa Sancho began to agree with his brave young grandson.

Lewis and Clark had many good things for their trip west. Grandpa Sancho knows this because he just read a little about their trip on a website by the title Lewis and Clark. Of course they did not have the web nor did Lewis and Clark have a cell phone. About a third of the way home, Grandpa Sancho got a call from Don Andrew’s Mom who immediately came to our rescue in that magnificent adventure machine, their Suburban. Guess what? Grandpa Sancho and Don Andrew made it home for a fine dinner of Grandma Sancha’s finest venison. What a treat! We were nearly starved to death.

WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREE & P. F. FLYERS

Now, what in the world do those two subjects have in common? It might just be their relation to the same boy.

Don Andrew and Grandpa Sancho began early on one of our more recent adventures. For some reason there was a Jo Jo’s Circus marathon and we decided that one or two of those were enough. It was raining just a little but Don Andrew still wanted to go to the park. This we did and Don Andrew got to do the monkey bars numerous times.

But It was now time to return home. Don Andrew has no concept of time, unless it is snack time and he is hungry. Anyway we headed for the house with Don Andrew on his bike. Of course, after about a couple of blocks he ran off the road and got it down in the grass and the wheel wouldn’t work correctly (down there) so he thought he should ride Grandpa Sancho’s shoulders home and we would just carry his bicycle. Don Andrew figures things out quite well.

Back home it was snack time, of course, so we had a few grapes. Then it was out to the front yard where we rounded up a pretty tall pile of Don Andrew and Grandpa Sancho swords (sticks). We continue to share a very strong sense of adventure.

The Duke was raking leaves which gave our very brave knight a marvelous idea. He would swing on his rope and land in the pile of leaves. This he did many times but the pile seemed to always scatter out so we had to round those leaves up again.

Don Andrew reared back and got a very healthy swing at things, missed the pile of leaves, and crashed into the tree with his back. With this, our brave young knight did not even shed a tear. He only remembered the time in the back yard and the faithful or was it fateful words of George of the Jungle, Watch out for that tree!

This brings us to another issue. It seems that after Grandpa Sancho and Grandma Sancha came back to West Texas, our brave young knight was in a local department store. It seemed there was a big sale on something like Converse tennis shoes. They were high tops and resembled the P. F. Flyers Bennie the Jet Rodriquez wore to jump the fence and outrun the beast in Sandlot. It became very important to Don Andrew that he have a pair of those P. F. Flyers. Neither his Dad nor his Mom wanted to get them since they went in for a different brand. If my Grandpa was here he would buy them for me.

I just guess Grandpa Sancho and Grandma Sancha will have to make another trip to see Don Andrew soon because that boy needs to run faster and jump higher.

A BEAUTIFUL BUTTERFLY

Grandpa Sancho went out early on Friday morning to take his two mile walk down the Southwest Highway. He noticed as he left, and also as he returned home, there were quite a few snails crawling on the sidewalk in front of the house. This unusual snail activity was due to the exceptional rains that have come to West Texas this fall. Don Andrew could really have a good time with all those snails.

This old sharecropper does a lot of thinking as he makes that long walk. Oftentimes Doña Duchess calls to touch bases with her father. She has been such a good daughter, wife, and mother. She demonstrates a great deal of love for her aging parents, her husband, and two small sons.

On this particular morning, Grandpa Sancho had snails on his mind after talking with his daughter. There was a good reason for that. It all happened before he left that brave young knight Don Andrew on the last visit. After there had been so many adventures, Don Andrew said, Come here, grandpa. He had something very special to give this old squire.

Don Andrew gave his grandpa a snail. Of course, it was just a shell. The snail had long since gone on to where all disappearing snails go. As is always the case, he left his shell behind. It always works this way, unless the snail gets squashed and then the snail still goes where all disappearing snails go, he just doesn’t leave his shell behind.

Grandpa (pause), take this home with you. It will make a beautiful butterfly. Grandpa Sancho had no problem understanding our brave young knight might confuse a snail shell with a cocoon. Who might not just do the same thing at four years of age?

Grandpa Sancho is still waiting to see if a beautiful butterfly comes out. He knows it will never happen. But this old man cherishes that snail and keeps it in a very special place because he received it from his grandson as a special gift. You just can’t enjoy life more than that.

"GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE"

Don’t ever forget. Our young knight Don Andrew, aka Don Quixote de la Mancha, is a very brave little boy. Last Saturday he wanted to seek high adventure. We began by riding his bike. We were supposed to go left, turn right, make a circle and come back home. But, what we actually did was go right, turn right, and turn right again. In the middle of this particular block Don Andrew announced, My best friend lives there! The really neat thing about this little fellow is that he has many best friends.

About that time Don Andrew decided he really needed to go to the bathroom (bad) so we turned round right there because this old sharecropper did not know how far it would be if we continued in the same direction. As his need grew greater, Don Andrew decided it would be better if he rode back to the house on Grandpa Sancho’s shoulders. This we did with this ancient one carrying his cane and the bike, along with our valiant knight.

We returned home just in time for Andrew to use the bathroom. After all those experiences he was ready for even greater adventures. We went to the back yard, gathered up all the baseballs and his bat and he hit quite a few, with many traveling over the creek and into the neighbor’s yard to the rear. For a four-year-old this little fellow packs quite a wallop when it comes to hitting the baseball.

Then it was on to even greater adventures. Naturally his thoughts returned to Don Quixote as it so often does. Don Andrew saw a stick in the tree that looked perfect for a sword. We had to get a rope to do this one. We roped the limb but were quite unsuccessful in getting the entire limb down from the tree.

He wanted to be Tarzan for a little while. So, Grandpa Sancho tied the rope around a rather sturdy limb and Don Andrew began to swing back and forth. But, our young knight’s mind would not leave the limb alone that we left in the tree next to the one he was swinging on at the time.

One could see the light bulb go on in his mind as Don Andrew moved his slide over to the tree. Grandpa Sancho warned him that he might have a mishap doing things like that. Don Andrew assured his faithful squire he could swing to tree #1 and then safely swing to tree #2 where the limb was hanging. No seemed not to be an option. Don Andrew swung on the rope and crashed into the tree like George of the Jungle, who never landed where he was supposed to land, crashing into cliffs, trees and other objects. Watch out for that tree!

Not to be denied, Don Andrew again mounted the slide for try #2. Before he descended Grandpa Sancho looked at his leg and wiped blood from a scratch and showed it to him. Don Andrew immediately began to sob, big crocodile tears. It was more than this old grandpa could handle. He had to hold his young grandson very tightly. In just a moment, Don Andrew announced, That never happened to George of the Jungle.

Of course Don Andrew was talking about the bloodshed. That did not last long until he was once again in quest of the hanging limb.