Lately, passengers and some drivers of vehicles passing me (I'm always the slowest, people are always passing me) have been acting a little peculiar - waving their arms about, staring in at me, seeming to try to get my attention, and/or just laughing or chuckling to themselves. I keep forgetting that this (see picture below) is what my kids put on our back window.
Friendly (to everyone but Jessica), sociable Nathan likes to wave at people while we drive along. Funny, he was SO shy when he was tiny and it was Michael who waved and said "hi" to EVERYONE we saw anywhere, anytime, while Nathan hid behind me. But as they grew, Michael always had his head in a book and Nathan turned out to be the big people person. He's also the big prankster. He will smile and wave at people in another car as if he totally knows them and I think he gets a thrill when they wave back with that desperate look of "I can't remember where I know him from, but he obviously knows me, and I'd better be polite and wave back and not let on that I can't remember him." That, and he says that he's learned in a Fireside (or maybe it was Seminary or Sunday School) that we should smile at people and spread love and kindness - oh, and I think he just likes finding fellow "rated G pranksters." Any-which-way, Nathan wrote the "wave back please!!!" in the dust on the back window one day so that people would wave back. The kids added the handprints and other decorations to the sign too and Jessica particularly forbid anyone to clean it off and the kids have refreshed the message and decorations when they get smudged or blurry. But this is one of those few times each year when I don't have to go a ton of places AND the kids aren't even with me in the car very much, so I've been driving along and someone will pass me and finally I realize that they aren't signalling me about a low tire or open gas cap or broken tail light, but are just following orders and waving back.
(This is one of those things where I get frustrated at the time - like when I'm trying to back up and can hardly see out the window when bright sunshine is on it - but when I go to clean it off, I just can't quite do it yet.)
While I was in the store, I helped a little old lady get something from a high shelf, and that led me to think about something - there's always those phrases "little old lady" or "little old man" and I wondered (because remember today is one of those few days a year when I'm not rushing around thinking about a million other things I need to remember and/or do right then), why are these "old people" always "little"? Do only shorter people live that long? I'm not super tall but I'm way taller then the "little old people" and my children are, or will be, much taller than that, so does that mean there's no hope for us to get to live that long? (sad thought.) Or maybe tall people don't look old, maybe we do live a long life but we don't look it, maybe we're healthier. (happy thought.) Or maybe we shrink as we get older. I've already seen evidence of this a little, but could it be that some people shrink A LOT so that no one who looks "old" is over 5'3"? Maybe people shrink about a foot rather than just a few inches like I'd originally thought. (sad thought.) Maybe that's where these tiny 4' little old ladies come from, they used to be the 5' women - because really, how many 4' adult women (non old yet) do you see, but then there's all these TINY little old ladies - where do they come from? So this is some of the bizarre thoughts that flash through my head when I have free time - weird huh?
Then as I was leaving the store, a car drove by with a dinosaur flying along beside it - well, a little hand held the stuffed dinosaur (I think it was a dinosaur) out the back seat window happily helping it "fly" along next to the car. It was so cute. I couldn't even see the kid, just this little hand and the flapping dino.
AND on this glorious day, I've actually typed out these thoughts and observations ON THE DAY THEY OCCURRED, AND I actually finished and can publish it TODAY (as opposed to usual when I start a new post, get a few quick things down and save as a draft thinking I'll get back to it later but by the time I do I can't remember what I was going to write)
update - this evening, Mom and my aunt ended up right behind me on the highway for a few miles and then passed me but apparently didn't notice the kids' sign or me waving at them as they passed. funny
even later update - the youth from church had a car wash so the back window is clean now. It seemed the only acceptable way for those handprints to be taken away, to let kids do it while throwing soapy rags at eachother and squirting eachother with cold hose water.
