Reno's With Rosie - A Tables Tale Retold

 There once was a table, a beautiful, round, mission style, tiger oak, wood dining table. This table had a good home, it was well looked after and it was happy. Then something happened. The table didn't know what it had done wrong, all it knew was that it was thrown out of the house, discarded like it was just some piece of mass produced particle board junk furniture. 

They hauled it outside and threw it into an old coal shed, dirty, dusty, dry and crawling with mice and other vermin. There it sat for many years, wondering, wondering what it had done wrong. Over time, parts of it were lost, the beautiful expansion leaf, gone! Now it wasn't even complete, instead of seating 8 or ten happy people, the best it could ever do was maybe 6. 

After many years had passed, a strange thing happened, people came into the dusty old storage room and picked up the table and carried it out into the sunshine and clear air, it could breathe again!

The new people loaded up the old table into the back of a black rambler, a 1972 AMC Ambassador and they drove off with the table inside. It never even looked back.

The new people seemed nice, "Ronnie and Bun" they were called, sometimes Bun and sometimes Bernice, it was all so confusing for the table, but it didn't care, it was going to a new home. Maybe there would be kids!

The new man, "Ron" then did a strange and alarming thing, he started up a saw and chopped off part of the base that made the table a table, now it was a tiny little short, useless, "coffee" table and they hauled it down into the "rumpus room" with the hideous wood paneling all over the place and they put their feet up on the table. "Oh no", the table thought, "this is almost like being in the coal shed."

In time, the table became one of the family and it was happy as a coffee table, almost. When the kids grew up and got married and moved out, it was still okay because now the table was old too. When Ronnie and Bernice moved to the acreage, "leisure acres" they called the place, they took the table with them. When they got sick and moved off of the land into a condo in Westlock, one of the few things that came with them was the table.

When they finally passed away, the table was worried. Would this be the end?

But no, someone wanted the table. A good looking young-ish couple (named Doug & Rose) came and loaded it up into a mini-van and drove it back to Edmonton. "Oh oh" the table thought as it was hauled down to the basement storage room, "Is this the end?"

There were no mice this time but there was a fuzzy feline that looked at it funny, "what was that cat thinking? Was it planning something bad?"

This time the wait was short, only a few years passed before one day the lady came down and looked at the table, "my, she is looking good" the table thought to itself.

A few days later she came back again with the man, they talked and he tried to talk her out of her plan, "we have a perfectly good table" he said, "that's true, but it doesn't owe us anything and this one will be great again if you can fix it and extend the base. You can do it, can't you Dougie? You are so talented, you can do anything!"

The mans stern expression seemed to soften and he squinted in concentration at the table as she squeezed his arm and smiled winningly at her handy husband.

"It wouldn't be hard, if we got a good piece of solid oak and made a new box, we could extend it back to it's original height."

The table listened hopefully, excited that just maybe it was getting another reprieve!

The man and woman went away for a time and then one day, they returned. They cleared a space and rolled the table top out and carried it upstairs. The table glimpsed a fine piece of oak sitting against the wall and did some quick calculations. "Yes! Exactly enough good quality oak to rebuild the base and bring it once again back to life as a proper table, of a proper height, elbows yes, but no more feet!"

And now, the rebuilding story in pictures.

The table (as a coffee table)  at Doug & Roses gift opening in 1983

Our $50 piece of solid oak waiting in the kitchen, 
thanks Windsor Plywood!

The operation begins, "anesthetic please."

Table top #222 looks on anxiously.

Ouch, I hope I can figure out how this goes back together.

Building the extension, good old elmers glue.

Now it's back together, time for some stain.

Stained, waxed and waiting for people. 
(elbows only, no feet!)

Looking good, all oiled, waxed and happy again!

That is the story of a table that returned to life, bringing joy and happiness to one and all!

The End (or is it?)

It’s a Beautiful Thing

When Rose and I were first married we had a lovely little cat named Chenille. She was the first cat that I ever cohabitated with and I enjoyed (almost) all of Chenille’s cat behavior as Rose and I “parented” our cat together.

We must have driven our friends crazy as they talked to us of their kids and the cute things that they were doing as they reached various developmental milestones. So often our natural response was “that’s just like our cat Chenille, she does that too!”

When you don’t have small kids around, your pet becomes just like a kid to you. Everything that your cat or dog does seems so endearing in the absence of a little human in your life (and sometimes even when you are lucky enough to have both).

Later we had kids of our own and realized how silly (and annoying) it is when people compare their pets to your kids! But hey, we did it too, we get it.

Now we have a granddaughter (Juniper Jewell) and we have stumbled onto a very curious thing. Shhhhh!

I don’t know if I have developed a very selective memory over the years about being a parent or maybe I’m just turning into a great big softy. But there is definitely something very, very special about being a grandparent and the relationship that is possible with a grandbaby.

I say possible because like any relationship, one with a grandchild takes a lot of work and is definitely a big investment in time, energy, money and emotional currency. It’s a short term investment sometimes as you monkey around with a toddler trying like heck to coax a smile or laugh out of them.

And it’s a long term investment as well when you struggle to get them to eat something that they may not like, but you do it because that’s what they need. They don’t know any better, they’re babies! And discipline in particular is not fun, we’re not looking forward to that particular (NO!) stage of development!

But there is something incredibly beautiful about just….being there….loving them…..caring for them…..listening to them…..reading to them…..sharing your interests with them…..helping them any way you can.

You don’t have to be an expert in parenting/grand parenting or have a lot of money to make a difference in their life. You just have to be there for them and show them that you care. You have to make yourself available in a very accessible way, preferably on the floor if you can manage it!

Fortunately Rose and I have more time on our hands these days being within shouting distance of retirement, “HELLO RETIREMENT, DON’T RUN AWAY, WE”RE COMING!”

As an added bonus, being ready, willing and able to help out our daughter and her husband with Juniper (Junie) when they need help or a break, or she’s not well enough to go to daycare or whatever else they need has also helped to draw us closer to them.

Parenting can be hard and fortunately we’ve been able to help out from time to time and we recently started looking after Junie one day a week when Kait went back to work when Junie was eleven months old.

We had Junie (J, JJ, June, Juno) today and I just couldn’t stop looking at her and patting her and rubbing her back and playing with her and walking her around and thinking just how much I (we) love her! And how very, very lucky we are to have her in our lives and to be able to spend so much time with her, helping her to grow and learn and develop as she should.

And after she goes home and every other day as well, we pray for her, for her future, that she would thrive and grow and have opportunities and always be loved and cherished and that she in turn would be kind to others.

I see how much Rose loves her and how good she is with her, how available and caring and all of the other things I mentioned earlier and I get all teary eyed and think how lucky I am to have such a great wife. And I see Rose watching me and how much fun Junie and I have together and how much I love that little munchkin’ and Rose gets all teary eyed and says nice things to me.  And sometimes I see Kait smiling when she hears me call Junie my little “sweet potato” and I know she loves to see us together, being a family.

She’s a fortunate little girl to have parents who love her and grandparents on both sides who love her and aunties who love her and even a cousin (Leon) who I’m sure loves her in his own little guy way and even with all of this crazy love everywhere flowing Junie wise, I feel like we are truly the lucky ones!

That kid is a serious blessing in our lives!