They're gone...

So Spud, his mom and his grandmother are gone, leaving Lagniappe and I to savor the silence and the peace and quiet.

Ahhhhhhh...........

Honestly, having the kid here was great. From all of the things described here, to the little things, like taking him to church and listening later as he recounted--and explained--the pastor's lesson is detail, or sitting with him next to the river as an egret stalked it's prey right in front of us. He watched as it reached down and snared fish or frogs, and he was excited for the bird until it clicked with him that some other creature had just been killed right in front of him and he got a real understanding of how nature worked at that moment. I liked watching the boy grow and learn and begin to express himself, and it was sad to see his mom immediately start trying to force him back into the little boy role that she seems bent on keeping him confined to.

But I have to say though that one of the most revealing things of the week came thing morning when my saintly mother came into my office as I was reading Old NFO's blog. He posted the following "Alzheimer's Test" and as I was looking at it, she began to read it over my shoulder. So I asked her what these words with the missing letters were:

1. F_ _K
2. PU_S_
3. S_X
4. P_N_S
5. BOO_S
6. _ _NDOM


My saintly mother looked at the list for about a second, then started at that bottom and said:
"That's 'condom', that's 'boobs', that's 'penis', that's 'sex'...I don't know that one, but the top one, that's "fuck'."

When I scrolled down the page to show her that the words were actually Fork, Pulse, Six, Pants, Books and Random, she turned beet red and didn't stop laughing for over two minutes.

As for me, I can't believe that my (formerly?) saintly mother--a white-haired little woman how doesn't even have to ask for the senior citizen discount at restaurants any more--actually thinks like that!
"WHAT did she just say?!"