It is 7:15am. Doug just left for work. One of the positives about his new job is he has to be out the door early early, so he gets up early early. I have another day off to spend with Tess, so I'm leisurely getting Geoff ready for school. He's watching his favorite cartoon (some sort of square penguins or something like that on Cartoon Network) and I'm drinking some coffee.
On the agenda today is some geocaching with Tess and Jess, and some across the border into New Hampshire sightseeing.
Speaking of free concerts -- you all know in honor of Tess' being here from Alaska that All About Buford is doing a concert just for her. I thought about having them come and play and sing in my livingroom for her, then I figured the church hall'd be nicer.
Do come. It's at 7pm at the church hall of St. James Episcopal church in Groveland. Click here to get directions.
And it's not exactly free. I'm going to demand you throw money in the "pass the hat" hat as it comes around, and there will be a nominal fee for refreshments. The band has to make some money, yo. And they're worth it -- throw some dough in the hat.
That's really sad.
To live your whole life attached to someone, and to yearn for that freedom of self enough to want to put your life in danger, and then only achieving your freedom in the termination of life. I guess that Iran as a nation has been "plunged into grief" by this event. It would have been nice to see them make it -- but unfortunately medicine cannot perform every single possible miracle. These girls took a chance. They had a dream. Not to be realized at this time I guess.
A lot of people have been dying lately. Buddy Ebsen kicked it old school just the other day. We all know about Strom and Katherine Hepburn passing on. Buddy Hackett, who I thought was pretty funny in that Fantasy Island/Love Boat Guest Star Center Square Gets the X kind of way also died.
But the big one that shocked me was that Barry White died on Friday. I didn't hear about it until yesterday when Doug clued me in.
Sad, sad day. Perhaps the Simpsons will put an homage to him in the episode about whacking day, when he did a vocal cameo and sang a song about how bad it is to whack snakes, and how he loves the sexy slither of a lady snake... that was some funny stuff.
God speed, Barry White.
8:45am
Well, I just got back from dropping Geoff off. So I'll tell you a little Geoff story. In my entry the other day I said our trip to Wal-mart was interesting. It was actually the scariest day of my life. Michelle was looking for candles, Jessica and Geoff were on the other side of the stacks, and then Jessie comes around the corner and tells me that Geoff took off into the pet good area. We walk over, call his name, and look in the aisles. No Geoff. So we looked around, calling him over and over, thinking he was just hiding and yanking our chains, and he still didn't appear. Michelle headed over to toys and I approached a stocker in the pet area.
"I need your help," I said to him, and he knew by looking at me that I was very serious and wasn't looking for a flea collar.
He walked me over to housewares and they called in a Code Adam on the loudspeaker. "Code Adam, six year old male, purple T-shirt, short blonde hair."
If you've ever been at a store where they've done this, you may not realize what is going on. Code Adam is a child missing call, named for Adam Walsh, the son of TV's most vigilant bad-guy hunter, John Walsh. Adam was abducted from a Sears toy department in Florida, and was found later, without his head attached to his body. Code Adam shuts the store down until the missing child is found.
And there we were -- Code Geoffreying. The Ellsworth Walmart associates sprang into action in a way I'd never expected. Two headed for the bathrooms to see if he was there, the reason being is that adults often snatch kids, take them to the bathroom and change their clothing in order to quickly smuggle them out of the store.
No Geoff there.
The doors up front were shut and no one could leave the store. Jessica tried to go out to the truck to see if he'd gone out there to play in the cap, but they wouldn't let her. She explained why and an associate walked out with her to go check out the truck.
I went up and down the aisles, looking in each one, checking under stuff. And there was a swarm of blue-vested helpers doing exactly the same thing. Every single one of them was in tune with the urgency of the situation. They were all looking through clothing racks, shelves, behind big bags of Dog Chow.
Geoff had slipped out of the store and was by the vending machines and rides in the store entrance. An associate saw him and started trucking after him, he saw her and started running. Michelle told me it was quite the site.
"Is this your son?" They asked her when she got to them.
"No, he's my friend's son," she replied, thanking God a billion times over that he was indeed not her son! I'm telling you, a couple hours with my kid can be the best form of birth control a couple ever needs.
She found me and walked up to me... I heard them cancel the Code Adam, and we finished up our shopping and loaded up the truck. I had Michelle take the stuff out, and I went and found the two initial associates who helped us at the beginning, Pet Food Stock Guy and Housewares Help Desk Girl. I told them how much I appreciated their help, and how impressed I was at their first response. They smiled, looks like they're used to doing this.
Michelle was sitting out on the bench with the kids and a guy came out, saw him and said "Is that Adam?" and Michelle laughed...yup.
I'm relieved that it all worked out this way. I'm really thankful that this particular staff of employees kicked ass the way they did, like a well oiled machine they jumped to the task and were one with me in the search. I'm thankful that someone caught him. And I swear to GOD they should take all that fun crap out of the front of the damn store, and put it somewhere inside the store, in the dead center, so kids aren't tempted to run out to see if they can ride the rides and get a gumball while mom is looking at citronella candles.
Gah.
Doug said "If I were that boy's mom I'd be embarrassed." And I was. But more than that, I was relieved.
So relieved that I didn't kill him.
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