X. Shooing the Kitty and a cake that no one got to eat.

X. Shooing the Kitty and a cake that no one got to eat.

 (Note to reader: If you haven’t been keeping up-to-date with your Hobblestone reading, I suggest you go back and get caught up. Otherwise the whole “Shoo, Kitty!” thing will make very little sense to you. Nor will a few other things. Anyway, it’s your call, because it’s your bridge. Might I also suggest that you bookmark this blog? After all, if you’ve come this far, why not?

                Where were we? Oh, yes. Hobblestone shooed the Kitty and everyone was pleased.

I don’t know about you, but I sure wish more people would learn to play the “Shoo, Kitty!” game or some variation thereof. People just get so bent out of shape lately when they don’t get what they want when they want it and how they want it. And maybe it’s my imagination, but things seem to be getting worse.

Take Virgil’s mother, for example. She had told Hobblestone that she expected Virgil to marry a girl he had been dating by the name of Lucinda. She liked Lucinda. And that says something, because there weren’t too many people that Virgil’s mother liked. In fact, she seemed to get a perverse joy out of Not Liking People. (Do you know people like that? Do you like them?) Almost as much joy as she got out of complaining about things. (I know people like that, but I’m not complaining, just pointing it out.)

Anyway, Virgil and Lucinda decided they were going to simply be friends; it was better that way.

Rule # 45: Sometimes it’s better when you decide to just be friends.

Rule # 34: When you write your own blog, you’re allowed to split infinitives whenever you want.

Rule # 35: It is wise to find out how your teachers (or editors) feel about split infinitives before you go and split your own.

Well, one day at Sunday dinner (pot roast, potato pancakes, red cabbage and freshly baked rye bread), Virgil mentioned to Hobblestone and Harry (they were often invited to Sunday dinner at Virgil’s) that he and Lucinda decided to simply be friends (see rule # 34), and that he had a date to go to the Frugal Hornets’  (the latest girl-band rage) concert that coming Friday night with a girl named Pam.

Virgil’s mother, who was in the kitchen taking a pineapple upside-down cake out of the oven, overheard what he said, and almost had a conniption. Well, actually, she DID have a conniption, and the pineapple upside-down cake ended up right-side-up on the kitchen floor while she let out a blood curdling screech!

They all went running into the kitchen. Harry slipped on a piece of pineapple and Hobblestone started giggling. He stopped giggling when Virgil’s mother glared at him over the top of her glasses and shouted “There’s nothing funny about this at all!!!!!

They all assumed that Virgil’s mother was upset because she had dropped the cake on the floor. Nothing could be farther from the truth. (Have you ever made an assumption that turned out to be incorrect? Did it involve cake or pastry?) She was upset (to put it mildly) because Virgil wasn’t serious about Lucinda any more. And right there in the messy kitchen she gave Virgil hell while the others stood there with their mouths open and in the dining room the pot roast gravy began to congeal. (All except for Virgil’s father’s gravy because he was still eating. He’d long passed the point where shrieks from his wife held any interest for him.)

Why was she so upset? She wanted Virgil to marry Lucinda. She just found out that Virgil and Lucinda decided not to get married. Virgil had already decided dating Pam (who was a very nice young lady, a third grade teacher at the Hobblestone Elementary School (named after Hobblestone’s grandfather, who was a hero during one of the wars).

Out with Lucinda. In with Pam. Down with the cake. And Virgil’s mother was in no mood whatsoever to Shoo the Kitty, if you get my meaning.

If Virgil’s mother could have Shooed the Kitty, perhaps she would have given Pam a chance. But sadly enough, from that day forward and even until this day, she despised Pam for all she was worth.

And when Harry started dating Lucinda a few months later, he was immediately uninvited to Sunday dinners at Virgil’s house. That’s how bitter she was.

                And that’s just a small example of what happens when people refuse to Shoo the Kitty when faced with one of life’s disappointments. If you want another more intense example, just think of what happened in Congress during Obama’s first term as president and you’ll know what I mean.

                That’s all for now. I’m exhausted. While you’re waiting for the next installment, you might take a look around your life and see if you’re still carrying any bitterness about some disappointment that life threw your way. Maybe you can let it go. After all, you wouldn’t want to end up like Virgil’s mother, would you?

                 And in the meantime, don’t worry about the following: 1) floor cleaning products; 2) No Child Left Behind; 3) How cattle are slaughtered.