by cheri block
Tomorrow morning at the time when baby hummingbirds are first opening their teeny eyes and revving up for a day of vibration, I too will be up.
Tomorrow morning in the darkness, I will quietly take my suitcase and my trusty coffee mug, slip out to the garage, start my car and drive down our long single-lane country road at the time when skunks are still out conducting their smelly business.
Tomorrow morning, I will leave the comfortable routine of making coffee and drinking it leisurely, of showering, of writing, of listening to Dinah’s melodic snoring, and of all the other daily habitual activities one at my stage of life might enjoy.
Tomorrow morning, I will drive across the San Mateo Bridge all the way to San Francisco, way up by Sutro Tower, as the sun is just beginning to warm my back bumper , and I will park my car with the wheels turned out, so as not to roll down the very steep street.
In the window–waiting eagerly for me– will be the other grandparents whose faces will show the type of extreme gratefulness only expressed by prisoners let out of their cells by a jolly sheriff with a large iron key.
Their taxi will be waiting to whisk them to the airport and back to Oregon.
The exchange will be made.
Tomorrow morning and for the next 4 days, I will be looking after a 13 month old child in a home with steep stairs and one bathroom, two safety gates, a video monitor, a sleep machine, 102 diapers, and a refrigerator full of formula–and I hope a bottle of Chardonnay.
I am up to the task.
I am Gramma Cheri.
I am.
I.
?
Tomorow morning the sun will be up before me.
Tomorrow morning I will be thinking of you while I sip my handcrafted coffee while reading a good book. (with a comforter in my big chair)
Tomorrow morning is sounding pretty good
Hope your morning went as well as you characterized, Ccsaw.
It will be fun! It will be a wonderfully energizing, indeed rejuvenating, experience, for several hours. Then, well.
Sounds as if you have done this…
Loved this piece! It perfectly captures all the emotions involved in grandparenting–the anticipation, the joy and the worry about measuring up. I linked to it from my About Grandparenting page. BTW I’m a former high school English teacher, too.
Hi Susan! Thanks for reading and for linking this post to your page. I see that you have a column I should follow. It seems we have much in common.
Hopefully, tomorrow morning I will not be waken up by my coughing and sneezing granddaughter who is going home tonight. She is a lovely urchin…but can she keep one awake!
By the way, Imagenmots is me, Paul Costopoulos, somehow WordPress has changed my identity to that of a blog I keep for a group of amateur writers who asked to be put out there. Costo is still up on Blogspot.
Hi Paul,
I checked that link out and saw it was you (or Therese) and in French! I have a subscription to Costo.
I hope you are doing well. Kayti and I went out to lunch on Friday. She wanted to know all about our visit.
Thérèse is the editor, I put the texts on line and administer the blog.
Just one bottle of Chardonnay? You are a monument to self-discipline.
OK…wk…I’ll confess. Two bottles of Chardonnay were in that refrigerator. My son knows his mother well.