The four of us went to see the greatest show on earth today, Ringling Brothers and Barnimum Bailys Three Ring Circus. The Omni held more elephants than I thought possible. I don’t know why the Democrats complained about space during the 1988 convention.
Of course Nicole and Danny were amazed by the lions, tigers, zebras, elephants, pigs, goats (Kathy thought they were dogs), cows and buffalo.
Then there were the human clowns, jugglers, trapeze artists, acrobats, and motorcyclists.
I was most impressed by the Ball of Death. This lattice work of steel bands formed a globe about 30 feet in diameter. Three motorcyclists got in and zipped around in perfect synchronization in and out, up and down. One would do a vertical loop while the others did diagonal loops. Then they would all traverse the equator of the globe, tires inches apart as they followed one another, their bodies parallel to the ground. One could have reached over his head to smack the one of the other guys on the head!
Then some girl with a little outfit and a bunch of feathers on her head stood in the center during this death defying act.
I would have preferred a suit of armor if I were going to defy death so. Heck, the crazy motorcyclists were smart enough to have on helmets!
Maybe the feathers make good padding.
Mrs. Tener funded our tickets through her Christmas gift.
***
On the opposite side of life, we went over to Mike and Lois’ house to see Grandma Petrides. She is up because Theo died last week. We went over to offer our sympathies if only by our presence.
As we approached the back door, Kathy suspected something was wrong by the look on Dorothy’s face. She was sitting next to Grandma in the kitchen along with Larry.
Lois met us at the door. “Talk about bad timing.”
Dorothy had just told Grandma for the first time that Dorothy has lung cancer. We sat outside talking to Lois and let the kids play for a while. When we did go in, we left the girl scout candy outside that we had brought for Grandma, not knowing what to expect once inside.
Actually, it was a nice visit. Grandma was already giving instructions and professing her wisdom, and Dorothy seems very positive about everything.
Everyone was almost more worried about how Grandma was going to take Dorothy having cancer than Dorothy. Seems the family fails to give her credit sometimes.
She is still bothered by the nice, ermine coat she lost 45 years ago when a “friend” of hers swapped it for a Chinchilla. She used to keep the ermine in a cedar chest. She didn’t really have a sense of quality back then. Turned out the Chinchilla was a rag, she said. But having adult friends at that time was more important to her then than things of quality.
“She’s still my friend,” Grandma added. “But it still bothers me about that coat.”