Wednesday, July 29, 2009

These Boots Were Made For Stomping

Cute, or what? Grandkiddos are, to use jaimetemairik-speak, the Bee's Knees. Or the Ant's Pants. Or the Kitten's Mittens. What else,... oh, the Dog's Clogs, or the Antelope's Cantaloupe...Help! Get me out of here. O.K., I'm not a poet. Or clever.

But this heat is like...hot. Last night at the Secret Garden Bookstore we had a fun book signing and talk. Thank you Christy, and Suzanne. Well, Ben and I had fun, the crowd, (make that Illuminati) were sweltering, and humoring us. Now, I looked up "Illuminati", and this crowd was not 16th century Spanish heretics, or George Washinton's Secret-Handshake-Bavarian cousins. These were the real deal.

A lot of times when I give a little talk, I realize that people in the audience are *way* ahead of me. Think, brilliant, Nobel Laureates, or writers whose words burn like molten magnesium. Artists who make Mona Lisa's mouth drop open. Such was the case last night. Thank you for coming, Chauni and Bill Haslet, lovely friends and stellar supporters of literacy, authors, and illustrators.

There were kids in the audience, the young kind, short children, who were apparently studying chemistry, and military ordinance, and two of them are book reviewers! I'm not kidding. That's right, none other that The Talking Potatoes. They could see right through us. Oy!

Back to the yellow rain boots. I loved those when I was a kid. Yes, rubber had been invented back then. And the color yellow existed too. Point is, Rain Boots. So, mateys, courage. Hold fast. It will rain again. And get cooler. So don't get all cocky, Sun, like you're so hot. This is the Northwest. Didn't you see Sleepless in Seattle? It rains nine months out of the year here.

5 comments:

Martha Brockenbrough said...

Overheard in the potato patch today: Mom, I have a new favorite book--The Boy Who Went Ape!

storyqueen said...

Cutest little legs ever!!

I really like the Antelope's Canteloupe......sounds like the title of a great picture book!

Shelley

Richard Jesse Watson said...

Martha, you and your "fam" are delightful. I'm honored that the literatita approve of the "Ape" book. That means a bunch.

Shelly, it's hard not to smile just thinking of them. You are right, that has a nice ring to it. I wanted to keep going with that train of thought, but I worried that I might not be able to stop. The fox's soxes. the Lemur's Beamer...the Hedgehog's Hedge fund, get me off of this train..The Bat's Hat, ahhhh!!!~~~~~~~*

tlchang said...

Heh - yes, a whole book of rhyming animal phrases. That'd be pretty fun actually.

I am terribly grateful that the worst of the heat seems to be behind us (although it is still too hot for my tastes!). This week, the rain can't come soon enough...

Richard Jesse Watson said...

That *would* be fun. Everything you said about about heat: agreed. If I wanted to be hot I'd live in the desert and buy a rattlesnake. Hey, that would be kind of cool...