Fridge art...

Fridge art...

I don't own a TV, so when I'm worn out at the end of a stressful week and it is drizzling rain, the closest thing I have to sitting blankly in front of the TV is to sit on my porch swing and watch the world go by.

Eventually that wears thin and I figure I can handle a little more excitement, so I go inside and warm up some left overs - and return to the porch swing and watch some more cars.

After an hour or so of this kind of behavior I'm ready to turn it up another notch. So I drag my fiddle and a chair out and play quietly with the practice mute on so I don't draw neighborhood ire.

After a while, my neighbor returns to her house, spots me on the front porch, and the next thing I know, Sophie Comet is running up. "I didn't know you play the violin!" So I play a little for her and then ask her if she played. "I'm not old enough yet," she informs me. I had to ask her again how old she is. "I turned six on May 30."

OK. Now we have that straight.

Anyhow, Lizzie Comet isn't far behind. She shows up with the cool art work at the top of this page. "This is for you," she says. I ask her to tell me about it, and I hear all about how this part was cut out of this other piece, and her friend gave this part to her, and this yellow thing goes in here... I'm very excited to have it and say I'll put it right up on my fridge.

The Comets are troubled by my status in life. They want to know if I'm lonely living by myself, and they don't know what to make of the idea that I'm not married. They want to know why I'm not married any more. "Its a long story," I explain. "Tell me the long story." Oh my.

Fortunately they don't stay on any one topic too long. They are surprised to hear I have kids and when I show them a picture of me with B&L they think L looks sort of familiar. But that other boy - they think maybe I am just a year or two older than him. Sorry B - I'm just telling you what they said.

Meanwhile, Lizzie is using my porch railing as a balance beam and I'm a little nervous but she can reach the porch ceiling and uses it to steady herself.

And Sophie is ready to try out the violin, so we play Twinkle Twinkle. Both of them say they are going to start violin when they get to second grade. (I'm really not trying to corrupt them - it just happens.)

And then it is almost 7:30 and they realize they had better get home because 7:30 is bed time, and they're gone almost as fast as they showed up.

Front porches beat TV every time because you never get Fridge Art from a TV.