Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Pillville: Population 2 (and an elderly cat)


Today went by in a whirl--the last few hours with my son and his family. It was too windy here to be outside so we went into an arcade and shoved $5 bills into token machines, held out our hands and let the children pluck them at will.


Arcades might be among my least favorite entertainments in the world usually, but I tossed that attitude to the wind.


I feel a little like these places are training kids for Vegas, but what the hell....today I might have even bought them candy if they'd asked...


...just kidding. But the time was sweet. And Zoltar says our futures look sweet, too.


But really, we have no idea. Though I do hold somewhat to the idea that we can choose sweetness.

At lunch, my 10-year-old granddaughter wanted to know where she was during the time my son and I were on a trip to Europe in the 90s. You weren't anywhere, I told her. She asked the question again. I told her she wasn't on the planet Earth yet. That she hadn't yet been born. She furrowed her brow and laughed. I love how kids always have trouble imagining their parents before the beginnings of their own lives. Our pasts are to them as mysterious as the future.


And sometimes my own past is mysterious to me, too.

But here I am right here, right now in Pillville with my mom talking to herself as she crochets in her room. Piper the ancient cat has not ventured out yet from her respite under the laundry room sink. I just had a long talk on the phone with my friend Paula about the mysteries of dating. I have to decide if I'm serving leftover spaghetti for dinner again. What does the future hold? And why did the past roll out the way it did? How much control do we have over any of it?

5 comments:

Ms. Moon said...

I can't even control myself. The older I get, the more I realize this and it's sort of comforting. At least we can generally choose to BE sweet.
My grandson asked me the other day how the world got built.
Built.
I told him it took a long, long time. Thankfully, he moved on to something else.
That arcade doesn't look bad. I especially like Zoltar.

Allison said...

Control? Hah! I've always felt like flotsom. It would have been good to have a Zoltar in my life.

Allison said...

1921Flotsam! I really can spell.

Elizabeth said...

I'm jonesing for a visit to a real psychic. Perhaps I should visit Zoltar.

Unknown said...

Make the relationship stronger and better. Through the love marriage astro provide complete astro solution.Love Marriage Specialist Paras ram ji solve all type of life problems like love marriage.