Of Front Porches and Family

Gizmo

There we were, in the arms of Sling, being told we were beautiful. Talk about making a couple of girls who are feeling plenty frowzy suddenly come back to life. Of course, cold champagne on the front porch helped with that, too.

Our darling Sling, for we can't refer to him any other way now, has made a life for himself in one of the prettiest little towns in America. Oh, sure, it's got it's main highway filled with not so charming big box stores and such, like pert near any other place in America, but the main townie bit is full of sweet little mostly Victorian houses. And the streets are lined with trees. Beautiful, cool trees. I had a favorite spot on Sling's porch, from the top stair, where I could look out on the street. (Did I take a proper picture of it? No. There were always cars parked along the side. And it's funny how when you are looking down such a street you can ignore that but the camera not so much). There were orange trees on nearly every lot, which astonished us...especially when we saw over-ripe oranges just lying where they had fallen in the street or on the side walk.

The current price of oranges here at home made this all the more marvelous to us. I digress.

Part of the home Sling has made for himself includes the family he's chosen. He lives, as you know, with the Lizzard King, who is a quiet, unassuming, handsome young man who will kill you at Guitar Hero without making you feel like he's just killed you at Guitar Hero. We were also lucky that our visit coincided with the sojourn of Little Newt. He is 6. He has the vocabulary of a 9 year old. Unless it's that of a 12 year old. He is very expressive. He is beautiful. He couldn't think of anything more revolting than a kiss from one of his new aunties and yet, he managed to stick close no matter where we were. Hmmmm. Although, to be fair, the person who he was most inclined to shadow was The Child. If she was watching TV, whatever she had on was Little Newt's favorite program. If she was on the front porch, he was there, too. It was pretty adorable. He also enjoys hosing off the sidewalk. I don't know if he's just an exceptionally tidy child or if it was his way of preventing the spread of fire.

I came into the house after our first little foray into O-town and brightly asked him what he'd been up to while I was gone. "Well, I sprayed the area but don't worry." He held up his hands for emphasis. "I'm going to do it again later". I was glad. I didn't like to miss out on the daily spraying of the area. Rounding out the family unit at the moment is LK's mom, who is the most welcoming, kind, embracing woman I've met in a long time. She made us feel so welcome, wouldn't let us wash dishes (both Hat and I snuck into the kitchen to try but she always shooed us away with a "you're on vacation"). She doted on her grandbabies and attended to us in a most charming, open manner. We felt very much at home.