Wednesday, May 02, 2007

I Can’t Run, I Have Crabs!

Said the Man-Cub as his sister raced for the car this morning. It was Pet Show and Tell day in the Cub’s classroom and he had decided to take his hermit crabs, Jimmy Buffet and “Dark” Vader to school rather than try to wrestle the cat into a carrier or drag a still somewhat physically challenged dog into the car.

He totally gets his brains from my side of the family.

As it turned out, the crabs were a huge hit, as they were the only pets that were not, well…dogs. The girls squealed when the crabs climbed up the Cub’s sleeve. The boys, of course, said “cooool!” Snakes and snails and puppy dog’s tails, and all that. The Man-Cub’s teacher asked him several questions about the crabs and about how he cared for them and he was able to answer every question with the certainty of a professional crab wrangler. He especially enjoyed explaining what they eat; dried mealworms! More squealing from the girls!

After the pet show, I kissed the Cub good-bye and returned the crabs to their rightful home on the Man-Cub’s dresser to recover from their brush with fame, which they took in stride, by the way, because they are somewhat used to receiving a lot of attention. After all, the Cub is well known for placing them on the living room floor, surrounded by Leggos and toy dinosaurs, just to see how long it takes them to break free (Jimmy Buffet holds the record at ten seconds, flat). He has also been known to carry them in his pockets, risking certain death in a possible washing machine mishap. At this point, they are practically superheroes, Invincible Crabs, if you will. A little Show and Tell should not faze them in the least.

Of course, having said that, I will go home tonight and find them dead of murder/suicide or some other such thing. In which case, I will blame “Dark” Vader, as murder is in his nature, being from the Dark Side and all.

Changing topics, last night, the kids pulled about a bazillion weeds out of the space in our yard that used to be home to my vegetable garden. Hugh plans to Roto-til the space this weekend and, in his dreams; I will replant. I say in his dreams because, the space is a huge mess and I personally think it will take more than just a weeding and a good tilling to prep it for vegetables which, is kind of sad, actually.

See, back in the era commonly referred to as, Before the Remodel from Hell; we had a decent yard. We had grass and a place for the kid’s trampoline and, if memory serves, these things called flowers. It was lovely. And, in this Eden of ours, was a relatively large kitchen garden. I grew tomatoes, spinach, lettuce, carrots, beans, peas, cucumbers, peppers, pumpkins and squash and we enjoyed the fruits (or vegetables, rather) of my labors at just about every meal throughout the summers. I enjoyed my garden and I looked forward to planting it each year. I would love to have the chance again.

Of course, back then I had the energy to spend hours on my knees pulling weeds and hand-fertilizing wee baby lettuce plants; whether or not I can regain that energy, even if Hugh and the kids regain the space, remains to be seen.

On the other hand, the kids are older now and slave labor is not entirely out of the question.

In other yard news, while the kids were weeding last night, Hugh was cleaning up the accumulated debris from the remodel. Three years later; way to go, Hugh! If we keep it up at this pace, we just might have a garden and a presentable yard yet! Factor in the child slave labor and, I’m guessing, 2010 could just be our year!

1 comment:

  1. Great post..glad the pet show went well

    thanks for signing up for the scavenger hunt...we are having a blast

    ReplyDelete