June 27, 1998 - It must have been the heat

Saturday, June 27, 1998

Willa 6/27/98

I just realized that I totally forgot the reason that I started talking about the the park yesterday. It was for the chance to say, "You can't park in Parkville park." But I decided that even though I missed my first chance, I could always say it today. And actually, even though it's in Parkville, it's not called the Parkville Park. It's called the English Landing Park. Apparently the town was originally called English Landing because it was a river port and, I guess, English traders stopped there. But at some point the name was changed to Parkville to honor the man who founded the town, who was named Park and, probably, to sound more American. "You can't park in English Landing Park" doesn't really have the same effect, does it?

I'm going to go out and have lunch with my parents tomorrow. I haven't been out yet to see my dad for Father's Day since we were out of town. I didn't buy him much, just a baseball cap at Bennet Spring State Park when we were there last weekend, and a little Coleman keychain flashlight just to be silly. It's shaped like a spotlight. I bought one for myself, too, because I forgot to take a flashlight with me, but its beam was so faint that it was pretty useless. It's cute, though. I also bought an automatic nightlight for Bob's bathroom that's shaped like a Coleman lantern. The shower curtain and rugs in there are printed with mallards, so it sort of continues the theme.

I was originally going to go out and see my folks today, but someone from a nursing home was going to come out and evaluate my aunt for admission, so we changed our lunch date to tomorrow. I really wish that we had left it for today. As it turned out, Bob was off today--his partner told him to take the day off as a treat since he never has weekend days off. And since he never has weekend days off, he decided that we should do something together with this one. We decided to go to lunch and to a movie (X-Files). He had gone out earlier, washed the car and hit some golf balls, and after he came home and showered, we took off.

Lunch was fine, but then on the way to the movie he said something that hurt my feelings and I was pouting a little bit, and he didn't think I should be. He thought I should immediately be fine, get over it, and I didn't feel like it. We ended up having one of the most horrible fights we've ever had, he turned around and drove home, I got out of the car, and he left.

I had no idea where he was going or when he would be back, and I was just shaking. I went upstairs and laid down on the bed, sort of numb. He came back about a half hour later, came upstairs and apologized, said that it must have been the heat that got to him, and said that he had had to come home because he couldn't think of anyplace else to go, and besides, he didn't have any money.

Everything's fine now, except that I just went upstairs and went in the computer room to talk to him, and he couldn't remember what key paused his game, a war game, and all of his men died before he could get the war paused. I said I was sorry that they died and he said it was okay, that he could make more, it was just that he had nurtured and trained them, and to have them die so needlessly . . .

I finally put up the new postcards on the WillaCARD page, and also put up a hastily-made TGIF! card that someone specifically requested. I'll make a better one, probably next time I get the stamps out. I just needed something to fill in the table. I want to make some more occasion-appropriate ones, maybe a new Happy Birthday one, maybe an anniversary one, some things like that. Maybe I'll have a stamping day next week and do that.

I also moved all of the postcard graphics into a directory at Natterwick. The Willa.com directories are getting pretty full and I don't want to pay any more money for extra space, so I've been moving what I can to the other site. The change should be transparent. If you notice anything that doesn't work, please, as always, let me know.

The change should also (hopefully) thwart someone who has been pulling my graphics from my server and posting them in free chatrooms, using them, apparently, as large emoticons ("Sweet Wishes" and "Reach for the Stars" being especially popular).