What I had for Dinner this Evening

I made tamales, not really cooked them but prepared them along with noodles. We cut into this fresh-from-the-garden bell peppers, and fresh tomatoes, from the same west-facing garden. The children drank lemonade, I drank water.

I served the kids first, then I ate last - finishing the last of the tamales + I had a few cloves of fresh garlic. As I write this I am looking the other way as a semi-wild cat of mine that returned tonight after being away a few days - is somewhere hunting for things that fell of the floor.

Just before dinner, we had gone swimming. My daughter's friend found the courage to jump from the high dive, and my son discovered a 1966 pontiac GTO, 6.5 litre - beautifully restored - in the parking lot. The guy started it for us. It sounded good.

After we went swimming we picked muscadine grapes by the side of the road. My daughter and her friend, my son and his - with me picking my son up and having him stand on my shoulders to get the highest ones. We climbed a very, very steep hill to spend time with one of my daughter's other friend - a person who lived near where the grapes were growing.

I found a strange fruit that looked like a little peach, with a single white sort of watermelon-seed inside - but when I bit it, it felt like my teeth were turned to glue and sandpaper - only the taste of the grape could erase it.

My son's friend caught a lizard and I held it in my hands while they played. Atop the very steep hill, I held the lizard until the glass jar came and then I shot the jar full of holes with the swiss knife I keep on my keychain.

The radio was playing the song.. "What if God was one of us?". We watched 'Bride and Prejudice', and then I read to them. A 12 year old will listen to a book being read to them, if its a good one - well read.