Yesterday, we celebrated my oldest Grand daughter’s fourteenth birthday. It was a nice party. Family gathered together. Anna had her best friend hanging around all day. My youngest daughter, the one that lives in St. Paul and is single, was being visited by her boyfriend’s parents. They were told they’d be welcome to drop by and accepted the dinner invite. Her boyfriend had his three children along as well. Safe to say, we had a houseful. It was a good time.
Fourteen isn’t an exceptional right-of-passage age like becoming a teenager at thirteen or the age of maturity, eighteen. No special acknowledgement for fourteen as far as I know. Just more of the crap attitude and thinking they know everything, which is the case with Anna and her up and coming twelve year old Brother.
Yet when I need to express an observation, she will sit and listen. Maybe it’s the way I can tell a story that allows her to silently listen to the tale. She’ll ask questions after I’ve said my piece. She’ll transfer the experience of my youth to someone she knows from school and how the same type of thing might have happened to them. She’ll see the wisdom.
That is not any kind of guarantee that she will heed said advice or change her mind about anything, but she does listen. I guess it would be too good to be true to believe she’ll become Marsha Brady and do the right thing.
Funny though, to watch them growing up. I’m telling her I hope I’m around to see her driving at 16 and that maybe she can take another road trip with me where she can do some of the driving. She likes that idea a lot, and so do I.
This week at Spadoville we will have some accessory parts delivered for the new motorcycle. I’ll install them and take some photos. New saddlebags and a luggage rack along with a couple of small screws and things you’d never notice if I didn’t tell you they were there.
No appointments at the VA. Continued work, as health and heat indexes permit, on the projects that are started here at home. Loading my bike and my friend’s bike on the trailer Thursday and leaving crack of dawn Friday for Elkader, Iowa and the Moto Guzzi Motorcycle Rally.
We’ll spend the weekend there with other motorcycle enthusiasts, sharing stories, taking short rides into the beautiful countryside and stopping at out-of-the-way eating establishments that someone found a long time ago to be good enough for a yearly sabbatical.
So, looks like an easy going week ahead, and I’ll get started on it with a trip to the Dish and the Spoon Cafe for some morning Java and conversation as soon as I click the “post” for this short update. Of course, things can change rapidly. We’ll take it as it comes and roll with it if it does.
In the meantime, take care and be well. Be nice to each other.
Peace
3 comments:
Nice of you to host a party for one turning that awkward age of 14. It might not be a recognized milestone year but there's plenty that happens. I remember being 14 and feeling like I was so mature. To be honest, I don't actually feel much different at 53. I might know a couple more things but the me then is still the me now. I know plenty of girls who lost their virginity at 14. My first time drinking in a bar I was just turned 15 but my best friend who was with me was still 14 for another week or two. We'd been drinking for a year already. We were smoking. We were probably smoking weed too. Hormones were going crazy. I had the figure I would have (except when pregnant) until I was 30 odd.
So, in light of all that, if she is listening to you at all, you are a special man and she's probably already figured that much out.
i love your idea for the road trip. my son's relationship with my mother is rock solid on a lifetime paved with road trips shared!
happy birthday to anna!!!
thank you for supporting the women of las rancheritas!!! here is an easy way to win my heart..
just follow my link.
xoxoxoox
Wow.....I'm impressed that she stops to listen. Frankly, not a lot of 14 year olds feel like they need to bother nowadays. And that she wants to share that roadtrip with you--is awesome!
There's a bond there, even if adolescence messes with the outside, the insides are still there. And there are moments she'll hang on to forever--ones that she might get around to sharing with you at some point.
*shrugs* And then she's that 'typical 14 smartie britches'. LOL Welcome to puberty!
Oh, man..... I feel for ya and everyone around the teens. LOL You DO realize that I show up to do that every day, day in day out... OMG what AM I thinking?! ;-)
The weekend in Elkader sounds inviting--I'm pretty sure you'll make the most of it regardless of the heat factor, but BE SAFE. Camping out in 100 degree weather might NOT be the bestest of plans. (hopefully it'll be cooler......)
Oh.....have ya named the new bike? :-/
The poor nameless thing.....I'm starting to feel sad for him...or her.... Hmmmmmmm.....
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