Saturday, June 20, 2009

a rainy day at the oc swap meet

so today . . . we celebrated diandra's birthday with her. i know, i know, yesterday was her birthday. but there were complications to spending time together then, so we had agreed that we would pretend her birthday was today.

we planned to go to the orange county swap meet. it has rows and rows of stuff that we don't even know we need until we see it. it is a lot of fun!

we left around 8:40 this morning--the plan was 'rears in the rodeo' by 8:30. this is an idea rollie picked up from an episode of "everybody loves raymond," the idea being that if your rear is not in the rodeo (our vehicle of choice today,) you get left. diandra was there! rollie was there!but one of us didn't quite make it. thankfully rollie also learned from that episode, that while you might actually leave your kids or your best friend if they didn't meet the deadline, it was a very unwise idea to leave your wife . . . so they gave me an extra five minutes. and then, after my "rear was in the rodeo," i remembered that we should have sunscreen. after all, even though the sky was overcast at that moment, i was pretty sure it would clear up! so they had to wait while i retrieved the requisite tube from the emergency kit in the back. (yes, we have an emergency kit in the back--we were in rollie's car--remember? boy scout? always prepared? and yes, there is sunscreen in that kit--we live in california!!) so a bit more waiting ensued . . .
we finally hit the road and made the necessary stop at mcdonald's for sausage egg mcmuffins, (a swap meet tradition,) which had to be ordered by number--you know, "i'll have the number 11"--because rollie refuses to say silly food names like "mcmuffins." we got back into the rodeo and hit the 605 south. all was good, until we noticed it was beginning to rain. it was california rain, but it still looked like it might be a little bit damp. we were hoping that it would stop by the time we arrived, but our hopes were flattened when we saw the wet pavement at the fairgrounds. discussion ensued about the merits of waiting in the car for the rain (it was actually more of a light mist, but still, we were all wearing shorts and sandals! ok, rollie didn't have sandals on, but still . . . ) when it appeared as though it was not going to get any better, we got out of the car, leaving the unused sunscreen behind . . .

our first stop was the bathrooms--well, not actually our first stop, because on the way to the bathrooms we did stop at a booth with handbags. but right after that we hit the bathrooms--remember the mcdonald's tradition? that had also included large sodas which had worked their way through our systems . . .

i took this picture of diandra in the bathroom, because the doors were so short that when you stood up, everyone could see your whole head! it was pretty funny to see heads popping up in adjacent stalls. and since no one really noticed those short doors while they were actually using the bathrooms, the reactions when they noticed it was pretty funny. i admit some of the reaction may have been due to my picture taking . . .

the rain kept up and was soon joined by wind. it was cold. it was wet. we were in shorts. rollie thought we should head for the sweatshirt booth, but diandra and i both said no way! we had sweatshirts at home and were not going to spend our limited funds on warm clothes that we were pretty sure we wouldn't need in another hour anyway. so even though we were shivering, we walked on . . .we had to be careful where we walked, because all the booths were covered with tarps, and some were leaking. but the really dangerous ones were the ones that were NOT leaky. the water would surreptitiously build up on those, and then if some innocent, unsuspecting person happened to be walking under one at just the wrong moment . . . that water would suddenly burst out over the top and onto the person. we were spared that fate, but just barely, a couple of times. however, some pretty big drips of water did find their way onto my face under my glasses--such good aim!

one of the things diandra was considering buying today were license plate frames for her new jeep. this booth had lots of choices, and we spent some time reading them and laughing. diandra was pointing one out to rollie that said, "blondes have more fun . . . naturally!" but he noticed the one below it. i'm not going to print what it said, but it was NOT one that she was considering . . .
rollie's goal for the day was to find a bag to pack his suits in for our trip to orlando next week. we are going to attend our church's general convention, and he is a delegate, so suits will probably be the accepted form of dress. since he rarely wears suits anymore, packing was going to be a problem.

rollie is a "hunt it, shoot it, put it in the freezer" kind of shopper. he knows what he wants, he looks until he finds one, he buys it, and then he goes home--he doesn't continue to look to see if he finds something he likes better--he is done. but that process is a little more complicated at the swap meet, because you cannot return something you have purchased. and you can't just stop looking after buying something and go home, because other people may not be finished shopping . . . so after spending much time waiting for us outside of booths with handbags and hair accessories and jewelry and sunglasses and hats, he finally found a suit bag.to his credit, he did not buy the first one he saw, which btw was at the very first booth where diandra and i were looking at handbags. no, he held off until the third booth. i think that shows progress . . .he made another trip back to the car to leave his new bag, and then we had lunch. lunch is rollie's favorite part of the day. he likes the looking and the shopping, but he really enjoys the sitting down and being together and talking about the morning. and yet, it seems that no good deed ever goes unpunished, so while we were deciding what to have, he had to endure diandra and me seat-dancing. this was his reaction . .no, he is not praying for us . . . at least i don't think he is. you would think he would be used to this behavior by now. the head-bobbing, shoulder shimmying always happens whenever good music is playing. and if both diandra and i are there, it is going to be worse . . . one day he won't be able to help himself, and he will join us. but that day was not today . . .

finally he couldn't take it anymore, so he left us and got some lunch, which he said was delicious!and there's the birthday girl, eating a hot dog for lunch--sheesh--you'd think her parents would spring for something a little more special . . .as always, we had a great time--even in the rain. the sun never did come out, but we warmed up a bit as we moved around. and of course, there was a lot more hanging onto each other today. people probably thought we were a very affectionate family--really we were just sucking the body heat out of one another . . .

2 comments:

Wendy said...

Fun times! Rollie is a true kick in the pants!!!

Mpm said...

What a fun day together, Rain or shine, it is still a neat family activity. Some of these pictures are hilarious.....