{"id":131,"date":"2004-12-27T12:05:00","date_gmt":"2004-12-27T17:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lawrencem94.sg-host.com\/?p=131"},"modified":"2004-12-27T12:05:00","modified_gmt":"2004-12-27T17:05:00","slug":"the-last-laugh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/plazajen.com\/?p=131","title":{"rendered":"The Last Laugh"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So on learning to be more flexible, and to do more with family, I awoke at 5:15 a.m. yesterday &#038; prepared for my annual post-holiday shopping spree, with Grandma Dorothy in tow this year. The poor thing had gotten up at 2:30 a.m. to drive up with Grandpa for the hunting trip with James, and she was not only tired, but cold. So I give her a four-star merit badge for Shopping Trooper, because we shopped until nearly noon. Interestingly enough, the woman is also a deer magnet. On the drive up, a deer passed behind them and bonked the back of their sedan (no damage to either moving object), and as we were heading down State Line Road at 6 a.m., two deer crossed in front of us. We marveled at Deer in the City, only to realize a THIRD deer was running alongside the Civic. GOOD GRIEF! I stopped and let it cross as well, and, laughing, we were off to shop. Shop, shop shop. The deals were not as bountiful as I&#8217;d hoped, but I did get re-stocked on wrapping paper, boxes, bows &#038; bags, and got some little gifties that will be good for giving through the year.<\/p>\n<p>The menfolk got back home to potato &#038; ham soup, and sitting next to Dorothy&#8217;s luggage (for they were going to stay with us last night, Grandpa going hunting with James again in the morning), Grandpa changed his shoes and gruffed, &#8220;OK Dorothy, let&#8217;s get going, we gotta get the camera back to Sandy&#8217;s, stop by Linda&#8217;s and then get home, because I&#8217;m meeting them at the boat ramp at 7 a.m. tomorrow down south.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Dorothy&#8217;s face was what you&#8217;d see if you looked up &#8220;What the FUCK?&#8221; in the dictionary. &#8220;What?&#8221; she said, omitting the part I would have said.<\/p>\n<p>Grandpa repeated himself. I said, &#8220;So you&#8217;re telling me you&#8217;re going back home tonight?&#8221;<br \/>\n<br \/>James said, &#8220;Yes! We&#8217;re duck hunting tomorrow at ~whatever whatever, I can&#8217;t keep these duck hunting places straight ~ and Grandpa&#8217;s meeting us in the morning.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Dorothy looked fit to be tied. She was planning (and had packed for) a couple of nights up in the city, not to mention some gambling, and spending time with all her relatives. Now, nearly 12 hours later, she was headed back for home.<\/p>\n<p>The opening was so perfect. So appropo on the heels of our discussion from the night before, about James&#8217; wish that I would be more flexible with family stuff.<\/p>\n<p>I said, &#8220;Dorothy, you just gotta be more *flexible*.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>James looked like I had popped him in the nose. I couldn&#8217;t stop laughing. I added, &#8220;I would be SO MAD if it were me!&#8221; And don&#8217;t get me wrong, she WAS mad. I bet that was a looong ride home for Grandpa. <\/p>\n<p>I award her a Red Star of Homicidal Restraint.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So on learning to be more flexible, and to do more with family, I awoke at 5:15 a.m. yesterday &#038; prepared for my annual post-holiday shopping spree, with Grandma Dorothy in tow this year. The poor thing had gotten up at 2:30 a.m. to drive up with Grandpa for the hunting trip with James, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/plazajen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/plazajen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/plazajen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plazajen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plazajen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/plazajen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/plazajen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plazajen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plazajen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}