My neighbor was cutting his grass just as my soap opera was starting.  I glared at him for interrupting my show and noticed he was drinking a beer.  His wife had told me he bought this lawnmower because it had a beer holder on it.  Anyway, it reminded me of something else, a time at Cape Cod, maybe almost twenty years ago.  We were at Newcomb Hollow, and Maria and I had just opened a beer...something the sign said was not allowed.  Rachael yelled "Lifeguard, lifeguard, my mother's drinking a beer" and Maria grabbed her, putting a hand over her mouth and dragged her up the dune to the car.  That was when you could put a kid not obeying in a hot car for punishment.  And Ria wanted to punish her for saying that.  But that's the way Maria's kid were - unpredictable.

This bought me to another time.  Chrissie and I were on an IBM bus tip to Bronx Zoo with Jer and Lizzy.  We sat way in the back of the bus, we knew there could be trouble.  There was some, we were right next to the bathroom and at one point Jer pushed one of the kid's books I had bought along to amuse them under the bathroom door.   But that was nothing compared to what happened next.  Jer suddenly jumped up, ran down the aisle and screamed "the bus driver's not driving the bus, the bus driver's not driving the bus".  Everyone turned.  The bus driver looked in the rear view mirror, I could see his eyes as I grabbed Jer.  No one would make eye contact with us after that, and we tried to remain in control until we got to the zoo.

Later, at the zoo, Chrissie and I relaxed, each ordering not a pint but the really large beers.  We were sitting on a bench with maybe four other people near the bison exhibit.  We looked up.  Jer was watching the bisons, and imitating their actions.  He tossed his head, one foot went back, one foot went front, and then he charged.  Chrissy and I had no time to save ourselves, and he attacked and threw our beers flying in the air, all over the over bench sitters.

But that brought me to Lizzie and one morning in Spring, when her father dropped her off at Clay Hill Road, and she was sitting on the porch with me while I enjoyed a cup of coffee.  Suddenly, she jumped up and stood on the sunlight that was on the porch floor and started to sing "I'm walking on sunshine, oh yeah, walking on sunshine".  She was maybe three years old and I was amazed - one that she knew the words, two - she could apply them.  Thank you - Jer, Rachael and Lizzy for all the wonderful and exciting moments you have given me.