(Not So) Happy Mother's Day

Tab got the boys dressed and fed this morning and then took them out to run errands with him so that I could sleep late as a kind of Mother's Day present. I slept until 11 a.m., an unheard of indulgence. I had a leisurely late breakfast, reading my book while I eat, which is something else I rarely get a chance to do.

The boys returned around noon. Tab said he'd be taking them out to Veterans Park to ride their bikes after lunch, so I looked forward to even more time alone. I fed the boys lunch, then let them watch a movie while Tab did laundry and a few other things. Then he decided to evict some sparrows that had built a nest under the air conditioner in our room. Every morning this past week, we've awakened to the sounds of birds chirping by the window and the scrabbling sounds of their little feet on the ledge. It drove the cats into a frenzy, especially Amber. She would leap on top of the air conditioner, trying to figure out how to get at the birds.

So Tab removed the air conditioner this afternoon and tossed handfuls of the nest's twigs and fibers onto the sidewalk below. Fortunately there were no eggs in the nest yet so he didn't have to slay the unborn. Watching him morosely from a telephone wire across the street was one of the sparrows, more nesting material in her mouth. I bet she was thinking, "What a lousy Mother's Day."

Which is what I was thinking a little later that day.

Having removed the air conditioner, Tab left the room to get something. He had shut the door so the cats wouldn't be tempted by the wide open window. The boys had gone upstairs to investigate, however, and forgot to shut the door when they left. Tab returned to the room and found Amber leaning out of the open window. He rescued her before she slipped and fell the two stories to the sidewalk below. Then he had a screaming fit because the boys did not admit to having opened the door.

Tab remained in a bad mood the rest of the day, which put a damper on my Mother's Day. With one thing and another, he didn't get around to taking the boys out until after 5:30. At that point, I wondered why he was even bothering since it was almost dinner time. We'd invited his mother over for Mother's Day; she arrived at 5:45, which meant I had less than fifteen minutes of my precious solitude instead of the couple of hours I'd been promised.

Well, at least I had a nice Mother's Day morning.

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