friday twenty-five

We started out today making a cd for the car filled with Arthur stories, Skippyjon Jones, and Puff songs. The babes have been loving books on tape. (or cd's. whatever.)And lots of reading and listening.

Time to clean the pool!
We have a few days of mid eighties promised to us, and after that it looks like more Falling weather, so let's play high summertime, shall we? vroom vroom...

Perusin'. (The scholastic catalogs came.)
Lotsa pbs.

Swimmin'. Or-- dippin' toes, at least. That water is cold.

Pond cleaning.
And fish resuscitation. For the second time.
The last two times we've cleaned out the pond, we've (I) have almost killed the damned fish!!
Last time evidently I overfed them (we don't feed them very often, as they live in the pond and there are plenty of critters to eat), and I found them both floating on their sides at the top of the water bowl! I had to take them in my hands and swish them back and forth, over and over again, moving oxygen into their gills.
This time, Trev comes in and says, "Mom, I only see one fish in the bowl."
"They're both in there." (It's the pond water, and is cloudy with pears and time, thus the cleaning.)
He came back again, "I'm pretty sure there is only one."
I figured they were hanging out together, as they usually do, and he can't tell as it's blurry.
I went out there.
Only one fish.
Damn!
Did Annabelle get it? Did it jump out of the bowl?!?
"Oh, no!!!" It's laying next to the pond. Not moving. Shit.
I picked it up and it twitched. It was dry, but it twitched.
Sway, sway, sway in the water. Twitch twitch.
Sway, sway, sway. It moved it's tail.
Sway, sway...
finally, it scoots a bit.
Sway, sway, sway.
Poor Harold.
Finally... after a few minutes of this, he's moving, and no longer floating at the top.
Oof. That was close.

We began (and eventually finished) another round of Brandied Pears.
Swimmin'.

Chasin'.

Next batch of Mirabelle Brandy. (For the holidays.)
Drip drip drip.

Shrinky dinks.
Reading.
The last chapter of The Mouse and the Motorcycle, and then Give me Half!, and then a couple of chapters of Talking Tyrannosaurus.

Games of tag at twilight.

I don't know how these few things took up our whole day
but they did. :)

Maybe we'll settle in now with Annie.....