Good morning all:

Weekly linguistic now that I’m back in the city:

These are a pair of paraprosdokians: Hospitality is making your guests feel at home even when you wish they were. And; people never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.

The paraprosdokians came as a result of a couple of photos I spotted earlier this week, but more on that later. In the meantime, I’ll have some coffee and then some thoughts to be rambling about.

This whole week we’ve been dodging rays of sunshine, rain drops, wind gusts. In the morning Marcia cranks up the space heater while only a few minutes later I walk around in a Tee. This is not an orderly transition into fall by any stretch.

The awakening – This morning Adrianne and Marcia are heading off to a Health Fair—Adrianne to work her table-top and Marcia to health.

Adrianne called last night and advised she’d swing by at 8:20 this morning. Marcia instructed me to get her up in a timely fashion. So far so good.

At 7:40 I stuck my head in the bedroom door and asked, the very still Marcia, whether or not she still had plans to join Adrianne.

“I am awake!” came the too loud snarl from deep under the sheets. An explanation about the “deep under the sheets”; it’s a bit cool this morning and no one should have to turn on the heat on October first.

“Being awake doesn’t mean being up” was my reminder. “Thinking about getting up doesn’t make you up, any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.”

Anyway, in my mind, I was suddenly transported back many years ago, then dealing with a teenage young-un slow to get ready for school.

Marcia came through in time.

Our new trailer – Last week I blathered a bit about our “beast” of a truck, this week it’s our trailer’s turn. Early summer I purchased a “Dolly” type trailer to haul our little Citroën up north. It did that job admirably. This week it’s about “Dolly.”

Coming home we figured out a way to store the thing in the garage behind the Duck and still only take up a single stall. It just takes a bit of maneuvering to get the extra-wide thing positioned. Anyway, you only do it once each season was my reminder.

Last Tuesday afternoon the phone rang. It was Adrianne; “my car is stuck, it runs but the wheels won’t turn,” she blurted out. Want to guess where this is going?

The trailer was exactly what was needed. Tevita loaded the kids and met me. Adrianne drove home with the kids. The repair garage was called and put on notice. Tevita and I looked like a pair of towing-pros and hauled her car in for repairs.

The bottom line being, everyone should have a Dolly trailer. And the car? It’s fine, the parking brake cable had snapped and caused something inside the brake to come loose.

Closing and the photos – Lest you think that this last bit is political, it’s not. It’s about respect, a reverence of the place you’re in. These photos struck me as displaying a complete lack of appreciation, a lack of a sense of history, and therefore as being classless.

Is it too much to display a sense of awe acknowledging the privilege of being in a mansion—the people’s mansion? Is it too much to treat the place as you would while visiting someone’s home?

By the way, the desk is called The Resolute Desk. It was built from the timbers of the HMS Resolute and was a gift from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes and considered a national treasure. That desk is an icon of the presidency.

To our current resident of “the people’s house,” you can do better, weren’t you taught anything at home?

Now re-read the two paraprosdokians at the beginning of this rambling and see if you interpret them differently.

Make it a great week everyone.

Cheers,
Dirk

PS. Comments welcome.