A Day With a Six Year Old

I miss my daughter being small and curious. I miss teaching her new things and showing her the world.  So I was happy when my little six year old niece came over, we spent almost all day playing, talking and learning things. 

I also forgot how a kid will wear you out. 

We stayed outside as it was a warm sunny day. I let her tell me all about caterpillars and the man in the moon. You see how the conversations can go from one extreme to the other? 

I showed her honeysuckles and taught her how to taste the sweet nectar. 

 

I was not sure if she would be alergic to them or not so in my defense, I only showed her the trick and told her not to put it in her mouth. What was I thinking? 

 

 

She could not resist tasting the liquid sugar. I think every kid should know about honeysuckles, dont you? 

She loved the taste and slurped about twenty of them. (I haven't gotten a phone call yet).

We later took a nature walk around the yard. We gathered every colored leaf, flower, rock and stick we could find as I was careful to keep her away from any poison oak I saw. I didnt speak of the poision leaves because she would curiously have to test them too.

 

According to my fitbit, we walked around the yard almost three miles before settling down to learn about some moss we found on the ground. Thats when the idea struck to create a fairy garden. 

 

We didn't get to finish the fairy garden because it was time for her to go home. I had to assure her I would keep an eye on it.

We all went out to dinner that night. She had a fit to sit beside me at the table because I was the favorite aunt that day. She asked what kind of work I do. I told her I worked in an office. She looked at me with big brown eyes and with a puzzled look on her face says "Oh and I thought you were an artist." As soon as I accepted that as a compliment she says, "I Think you could make things out of trash". Then suggest I start collecting trash.

Where do they come up with this stuff?

And I think I heard why they call it "the man in the moon" at least ten times. 

Why? Because of craters.

Last Time Under The Hood

My husband has worked on cars almost all of his life. He and his father were owners of Jerry's Front End and Brake shop until they closed the doors in the late 90's. Nick also worked for the local dirt track on weekends to make a little extra money.  

They spent many days not only servicing customers cars, but as I can remember, were always piddling on a race car in the side bay. Nicks father had a few race cars as he was a member of Carolina Vintage Stock Car Racing Association ( CVSCRA). One of his race cars was given to a museum. I'm not sure what happened to the others, but there was a last one and the only one I remember. A 1949 Ford. 

Nicks dad raced this car until he was in his 70's. After each race, he would pull it into the home garage and fix the dings and tune it up. Nick and his dad would often be under the hood getting it ready for the next race. His dad passed away about 10 years ago. The race car has sat in the garage waiting for new life ever since. It became dusty, weathered and stalled. 

The day came this past weekend. The car had a buyer. Nick wanted to get it running so the buyer would be satisfied in the purchase. He worked for a few days getting her running. She was alive now. The sound of the motor would make the hairs on the back of your head stand up. 

When the buyer arrived, I was able to snap a photo of Nick under the hood one more time. 

 

She was running like a charm, or like a race car sitting for ten years would sound awaking from a long hibernation. Vroom vroom! Sounded nice but I'm the weird one and liked the smell.

The car was cranked, the money was swapped and it was loaded on a trailer. The buyer said he liked the way it looked. He doesn't plan to paint it to anything different. He also plans to put it back on the track come November.

 

It will race again and I'm sure Nicks dad is looking down and smiling. It was sort of sad to see it leave as all the brothers stood by watching but it was time to let go.