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No longer on the river and, again, an empty nester. Back to living on Fleming Island and making some more friends!

Friday, April 30, 2010

One more thing...

...I was thinking about Justin and something he told me in the parking lot at church Thursday, after Bible study. He was the one with the time crunch, since he had to go to work but still, "he had words left over". This was something he had told me when he was a little boy. I had gone into his room to tell him one more time to stop talking and go to sleep!!! "But, Mom, I have words left over...." Yes, when he was tested for admittance to St. Johns when he was 5, the assistant Headmaster called me to report that although Justin was polite, well-mannered, and all that, he DID have a problem---"Justin exhibits some verbal over-flow...." What?!? Have you ever heard of such a thing? What a way to phrase it! Go ahead and say it, Mr. Edwards....he is just like his mother!!! This verbal overflow made Justin a perfect candidate for the pre-k program ( and another year's worth of tuition!) where the teachers would work with him to dial it back some. Didn't work....
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Back to the the parking lot (I digressed (over-flowed)).....Justin was excitedly telling me about the comic books characters, picture my eyes glazing over, and still trying to absorb what he was telling me. Then he launched into why he was doodling something on the napkin during Bible study. I did see him write a few things but paid little attention to what it was, figuring it was stray thoughts. Well, he had come up with the idea, shared with me before, for designing a glow-in-the-dark paint for cars so that no matter what, they can be seen at night. A safety issue, not for the person driving the glowing car, but the other drivers being able to see them. He had asked his friend, the civil engineer, what the painters use on the roads to mark the lanes and arrows and found out it was plastic. This is his mind going......
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Justin asked me, as one subject flowed into another, if I knew the expression 'aliens and robots'. I said I had heard it but he offered the explanation for me. He said, "Mom, you and I are aliens...." which I could have easily told him. But, wait, there's more. "Some people go through life looking either straight ahead, or side-to-side. Aliens look up and all around....." I was just given a great compliment, I think! He related a recent experience with his robot friends---this past weekend the three guys had gone to the fairgrounds downtown for a Wing Fest, where area restaurants and vendors gathered to sell their wings. It turned out to be too rich for their blood so they went to The Landing instead. They were heading for the American Cafe and got separated in the crowd gathered for a free concert. Justin positioned himself on the stairway leading to the restaurant where they were headed and could see his buddies, but they could not see him. He waved his arms and tried to call out over the band, but to no avail. They were looking straight ahead for him, or side-to-side, and not up. Huh....As Justin put it, "What was our goal? To get to American Cafe. That is where they should have looked, and not at people's shoulders and backs!" Robots vs. aliens. I just hope and pray I never get separated from Justin in a crowd and not be able to find him, and become less alien!

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