"You know...Driftwood..."

So, I got to go by and see Dad for about an hour tonight. My best friend is visiting home from Florida, so she stopped by to see Dad with me. He seemed to be doing well tonight...Kinda jolly. He was so happy to see her, and ask her all about her life in Florida.

In talking about Florida, and hurricanes, he somehow got on this tangent, and he started telling the story of when he went to Washington D.C. to receive an award on behalf of Rohr Industries...We laughed...We cried...We got confused...Good times...

Well, he did go to Washington D.C. to receive this award, and my Mom accompanied him. The awards presentation was in the White House, and he told us that the award was presented by the HUD, and was given to him by Jack Kemp, former quarterback of the San Diego Chargers. Now, while they were there, they got attend an event in the White House. He said the event was tightly packed into a room, and that there must have been 800 people stuffed into this room. he said he was not afraid of falling, because they were so tightly packed, he just would have leaned onto the people around him. He said the room was full of the creme de la creme of D.C. society, including South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmand. He said that even though Strom (at this point, Dad kept getting ahead of himself and kept calling him "Throm, and then he would correct himself because he knew it didn't sound right), was advanced in age, he was pounding the drinks and eating the steak and lobster and crab as quickly as he could get it to his mouth. Then my Dad goes on to say that he walked up to "Throm, I mean Strom" and said "I hear your state has lots of driftwood." And he looked around at us, thrilled with his story, gleeful that he made this funny joke to a Senator. My friend and I looked at each other like we must have missed something...At this point, my Dad looks at us incredulously, and says "Driftwood...I asked him about driftwood." Still confused, looked at my Dad, still smiling with pride, and I said "because South Carolina got flooded and left driftwood...?" And he said "YES! The state got hit by a storm and it left driftwood all over the state and it became so popular, people came from everywhere to get driftwood..." And then he was quiet...So, I said "you told that whole story to get to the part about the driftwood?" And he said "yes...I guess that was a long way to get there..." And we all laughed.

Well, Dorth was also there...And she was her normal fussy, nervous, self...Going on and on about how Dad's dinner was running late, and how she didn't eat lunch today (which was my fault, I guess)...And when I moved so she could sit in one of the chairs, I sat at the foot of my Dad's bed. This put my back to my Mom, who apparently noticed that I had lint/dog hair on the back of my shirt...She says "Oh I know...I have Scotch tape in my purse!" She carries said tape because she writes herself a lot of notes, so she won't forget...And then she has to find a place to put them, where she won't forget she wrote herself a note...Well, when she is not at home, she either tapes them to her purse, or steering wheel...Hence the tape.

Well, she decides that the correct course of action would be to use the Scotch tape (standard, 3/4" wide, clear) to remove the lint from my shirt. She proceeds to pull a piece about 3 inches long, hold it between her hands, and start pressing and lifting it off my shirt. My friend and my Dad are in hysterics...She then decides that one piece didn't quite cut it (no kidding), so she walks over to the trash can and throws away the first piece, and gets another, and starts in again. About this time, my friend says "you have to put this in your blog tonight..." Well, Mom starts to get a little worried about what she means (because she doesn't know how to "do the computer," and she has only read a few posts), and she goes to throw away the second piece of tape, which (wait for it), is stuck to her fingers. She may have well been a cat trying to shake tape off it's paws. She shakes a couple times, and I have her come back over to me, so I can unstick it, and I hand it back to her, sticky side folded in on itself, and somehow, when she gets to the trashcan, it is stuck again...You can't buy this kind of entertainment...

Anyway, when we left, Dad was in good spirits, and his dinner had just been served. Mashed potatoes, broccoli and turkey with gravy...Yum!

Love to all!