Wednesday, December 22, 2010

these are a few of my favorite

  • raindrops on roses - nice
  • whiskers on kittens - I don’t care for cats
  • woolen mittens - reminds of winter which I would NOT miss

So maybe I’ll find another list of favorites.  Would you like a list of my favorite posts from 2010?
If you have the time and are so inclined I would love to know which one of the above you think is the best.  If you remember any of them then that would also be interesting to know.  

But my top favorite post from 2010 is the following and I’m just going to repeat below.  (BTW - they is really no update on this story.  My MIL still doesn’t know what happened.  Well I getting ahead of myself.  Best you read it first.)

Here it is:
--=#=#=--


It's a fun pastime to tell and listen to stories. I guess it's how legends are started. Often the stories are simple funny stories. What becomes funny now wasn't at the time it occurred.

Those were the days


At many gatherings I heard the story of my older sister being accidentally left behind at a gas station during a road trip. I'm guessing she was 5 or 6 and my brother about 2+ (if I was around I would have been an infant).

Typical road trip stop - Get gas, take care of nature, stretch, and get back on the road. I think it was gas station but maybe a gas station restaurant combination. Everyone needs to stretch and take care of nature calls. Apparently oldest sister was the last one on the nature call.

Dad and Mom jump back into the car along with older brother who was in the back seat. But now he had the back seat all to himself and must of been enjoying it because he didn't bother to mention that older sister was missing. Who? What I have a sister?

What a treasure it would be to have a recording of the conversation when Dad and Mom discovered they were one daughter short. In the story I remember many miles had been traveled before the discovery. (oh she was recovered OK)
---
Maybe this new one will be told a few times in years to come.

Early this year we took a short trip to enjoy sometime in FL with my wonderful mother-in-law. Really she is nice but of course she has a few idiosyncrasies that - oh let's move on to the story.

Her stay along the gulf coast was weeks long and we were in and out in days. So I had some space in my luggage and having packed for a longer stay, she had some extra that she rather not drag back.

I willingly offer to carry some of MIL's extra clothes home in my bag (thanks for all those what a nice SIL comments). My wife (M-P) knew this at the time. MIL was flying back days later.

I unpacked and put her stuff wrapped up in various plastic bags off to the side. OK, I left them on the floor. I didn't know where to put them and figure M-P will know the best place for them.

Day after Easter (more than a month later), MIL calls me.
"Where those clothes you carried back for me?"

"Ah? (pause) Oh yeah those shoes and stuff. M-P probably knows where they are. Sorry we should have given them back to you at Easter."
...
"No rush, but it's starting to warm up. Just good to know you didn't give them away."
Later that same day M-P calls me.
"Did my mom call?"

"Oh yeah, so where are those clothes of hers?"

"You don't know? You carried them back. OH SH-;% I think I donated them!"

(failing to hold back my laugh) "She actually said something about not giving them away."

"Go right now and look in the garage. Call me back."



Well I did find MIL's shoes in a pile that was being collected for the next donation run. 

M-P had found the clothes, forgot about my good deed, and couldn't figure out where the clothes came from. She concluded they might be from our daughter's spring cleaning and were dropped off to be given away.

M-P had donated some of her mom's clothes in exchange for some coupons at a women's clothing store.

The end of the story can not be written because M-P still needs to tell her mom. She hoping after getting the shoes back, her mom will forget about the clothes. I doubt it.

Have a story/legend to tell - let me know in the comments.

10 comments:

Aledys Ver said...

Hi! Remember me? :D Back from my long stay in Argentina!
I loved the story of your mother-in-law's clothes! I thought that you had altogether forgotten them and left them behind in some hotel!
I guess you don't need to tell her what happened to her clothes.... maybe it's just time to make her a really nice present for Christmas!!
Luuuuucyyyy, you have some explaining to do!! :D

Bearmancartoons said...

Why don't you just send a link to your blog to your MIL and then your wife is off the hook?

Kristin_The_Goat said...

The only Christmas story I have is of the Christmas Day fire of 1994. We had had a party a few days before Christmas where my Mother purchased some pine and candle centerpieces. On Christmas morning our event began. My parents who had been divorced for the past three years were both there for their first Christmas together since the divorce, my ex boyfriend, a girl from college who couldn't go home for Christmas my sister and I. I had just had surgery so I wasn't feeling to perky. We opened gifts and ate breakfast and then it was like everyone wanted to get the hell out of there. We didn't even clear off the table, or blow out the candles. Everyone left the house. Those who lived there went to the movies. 5 or 6 hours later after a double feature my mom and sister get home to a house full of smoke. The centerpieces burned and smoldered. Thankfully the only real fire was the pine boughs burning and a line of fire down a lace tablecloth. Thankfully that just burned out quickly, but the styrofoam base of the centerpiece smoked up a storm. The entire house was covered in thick black soot.

The next day we were leaving for Chicago for a long weekend so a fire cleaning crew came in while everyone was gone and cleaned and repainted and washed everything. It was a mess, that's for sure. We've never had a Christmas like that again, thankfully!

I don't think that leaving a kid behind is a common story, but I'm sure it's happened in more households than we are really aware! What a hoot.
Kristin - The Goat

lisleman said...

I don't want to get in the middle of it and my wife has decided to let it ride.

lisleman said...

yes I remember reading about Patagonia.
You are making me feel like Ricky. thanks

lisleman said...

Interesting story and good thing the house didn't burn down. Smoke damage is nasty. It gets into everything.

Nezzy said...

This was a great story...of all the people to lose their clothes...your MIL. Boy, ya'll sure know how to win those brownie points don't ya???

God bless and have a very Merry Christmas. I'm off to read your list of faves....

lisleman said...

thanks - yeah my brownie points are running low. I do help her find stuff on the internet since she does get on it so that helps. But really in this story it's her daughter who did the bad thing.

BLOGitse said...

What a story. Good way to get rid of stuff not knowing!
I was busy in Helsinki and now busy in Casa to get everything ready for the weekend.
I brought smoked salmon, good dill, a small piece of Finnish ham, mustard....slurp!
We're going to have a heavy weekend! :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Joanna Jenkins said...

Yep, I remember this story and laughed when I read it a second time. What a hoot.

I'm just stopping by to wish you and your family a very happy Christmas. Enjoy the holidays, jj

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