It
was graduation day and we needed to be downtown by 1:15 p.m. With all the roads closed for the filming of
‘Captain America, Winter Snowman’ or whatever it’s called, I didn’t know what
to expect in delays and hoped to be on the road before 12:45…the time I’d told
Holly we absolutely had to be in the car.
She takes those kinds of statements as suggestions and can generally be
within ten minutes of the suggested time.
I was worried.
I
went to Mimi’s to get some yard work done in the morning. She had me in the woods pulling weeds from
the stuff that wasn’t weeds, which I have some trouble differentiating. I do know what poison ivy looks like though,
and was trying to spot it. Trouble is, I
get moving so fast that I tend to notice it too late…like when I have a hold of
it and am pulling it from the ground. I
could wear gloves and long sleeves, but that wouldn’t be the ‘cowboy’ way.
Mimi
had gone out to pick up some things and arrived back around 11. She immediately began to scold me.
“You’ve
got to get going. You’ll be late for
Jack’s graduation,” she said excitedly.
“Mimi…look…I
could get home five minutes before I’m supposed to be in the car, get ready and
be in it waiting for Holly for ten minutes before we actually pull out the
drive. I’ve got plenty of time,” I said.
Still,
I could see she was nervous and didn’t want the guilt of thinking she’d made me
late so I packed up my tools, took my latest weed/flower pile back into the
woods, and made my way home. I jumped in
the neighbors pool to scrub off the dirt and any poison ivy oils I may have
picked up, cleaned up the kitchen for the dinner we’d be having after
graduation, took a shower, and still had time to clean up around the house
before the girls and their mother joined me in the car for the trip downtown.
Jack
had asked me earlier if I ever cried during graduations.
“Nope. I don’t think of them as such big deals. I knew all of you would graduate from high
school and go on to college so I guess they just didn’t hit me that hard,” I
said.
Then
the Palace went quiet and the students began to march in as they played ‘Pomp
and Circumstance’. I had to choke back a
sob as it hit me that my baby boy was conducting his last school act and that I
would never again go to any public school to share in anything that they were
doing or would do. Teacher conferences,
school activities, sports events and banquets, art shows, grandparents day, open
houses, proms and homecomings – it was all over in a blink. It was numbing to think that the ‘blink’ had
actually been going on for 23 years. I
don’t know if all that went through my mind at that moment, but the emotions
had to go somewhere and they sprung to my eyes.
Holly noticed and handed me a Kleenex, but I managed to keep it under
control…somewhat.
We
drove home immediately after and began dinner preparations. I got sweaty washing dishes and again went to
the neighbors for a quick dip. In the
end, there was no time for a workout, so I satisfied myself with the knowledge
that at least I’d broken a sweat in Mimi’s yard earlier that morning. And now I begin the rest of my life as a man with
no children in school. I suppose I feel
a little older. At least Jack will be
staying home and going to college locally.
I don’t think I’m ready for the ‘empty nester’ stage just yet.
Yard Work: Three
hours
Training Heart
Rate: 75 normally. 130 when I see I’m in poison ivy.Calories burned: 750.
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