I intended to spend my day off yesterday, quietly reading with a cup of tea, enjoying a rare summer like winter's day. Instead Dead Mama and family decided it was a day for live theater.
Florida has had a very mild winter thus far, in fact we are in a streak of late spring/early summer type days. It's because of this mild weather, the entire Dead Mama story started. It was simply unusual for them to be quiet and ABSENT from the yard. Seems after 7 days of warmth they decided to come on out, like little redneck butterflies emerging from their cocoons.
After disappearing for nearly a day, the somewhat regular running car of the household was back in its usual spot by the garage door. There is a blue car that is sometimes there and sometimes not there. I don't know the relationship of that car, since I have seen several different people driving it. The blue car was parked at a right angle to the driveway in the grass.
The first sign of activity yesterday was from Evicted Niece. I'll go into detail about her later, but in short, she was legally kicked out of the house several years ago. Evicted Niece is very technology driven, she is always seen with her cell and a cigarette. I watched her walk into a tree while texting as she walked down the sidewalk. She hastily went back inside after that.
Shortly afterwards, Crazy Woman started doing Figure 8's. She would start at the front door, walk out to the Blue car, walk around it and back to the front door again. On each circuit she would do something: open the car door; open the trunk; touch the hood; etc.
I hit the Mother Lode, literally, when Dead Mama made an appearance during Crazy Woman's figure 8's. Since Dead Mama has Alzheimer's or some other degenerative disease of that nature, she tends to do unusual things. Yesterday it was trimming bushes, by the trash cans. They really didn't need trimming and I didn't see any signs of her doing anything, but she seemed happy. I went back to my reading.
Then I heard the shouting. Dead Mama had wandered back to the front sidewalk where she was in an argument with Crazy Woman. To my alarm, my outdoor cat had wandered over there too and was sitting in their driveway. Rum Son had come outside as well and was wringing his hands by the red car. I have no idea what it was all about, there was lots of gesturing from Crazy Woman and raised voices from both. Rum Son just frantically got into the car. I'm worried he'll just peal out and my cat is in the driveway.
Actually that was a stupid worry, the car is 20 years old if it is a day. It is in terrible condition. It has no muffler, its so loud that once I was on the phone when he fired the car up and they heard it on the phone...even when it was out of my sight. I doubt that car even had peal out capabilities when it was new.
As soon as the rumble started from the car, my cat got up and went under the blue car in the grass. Dead Mama and Crazy Woman continued their argument. Rum Son pulled out of the driveway and left. The argument ended moments later, with both walking into the house. My cat became bored and walked back home. To my relief.
About 5 minutes later, Crazy Woman came out of the house, walked to the blue car again. Touched a spot on the hood, opened the car door and started the car. She pulled the car up into the driveway, then backed it down almost to the street, where she stopped and pulled it back up. I thought she was just going to pull it up and down the driveway for a while, but she parked it and got out. For the rest of the afternoon she continued her loops, still walking around the blue car, now in the driveway.
Oh did I mention she was talking to herself as she made her loops?
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