making contact

I had a nice conversation with my son this evening. Both of my kids emailed me for my birthday, and I figured I'd save their mom the cost of a phone call by calling them myself. Anna was at a friend's house, but I always talk longer with her anyway; it was nice to spend my entire call with Ike.

Since my last couple of calls to Ike have been occupied with scolding, I avoided all such subjects; it all worked out for the best. He's moving to Florida in about six weeks. Since I already live here, we discussed wildlife (a common interest). This all started with his mentioning, during the phone call, that there was a spider on his hand ("get it off!"). So I had to tell him about the tarantula that I saw around my side door a few weeks ago; it was big enough that I could hear its footsteps on the wall. He said that he doesn't like spiders, but likes to play with the funnel-web spiders around his house - they are tiny, so he blows on them and they retreat into their webs. I then told him about my funnel-web spiders, that are bigger than the wolf spiders that live in his area. Time to change the subject, eh ...

Lizards and reptiles. Ike loves 'em. (Good thing, since he's moving down here.) There are plenty of lizards in Florida. He told me a great newt story about his Boy Scout troop. I won't relate the story in toto here; he could tell it much better than I could. Let's just say that a kid ended up with a newt on his head, at a softball game, for a long time without knowing about it. And he of course freaked out completely when he did find out.

Oh, to be a kid again.