Feline Monster 50-Year Warrant allegorical alliteration
I hope you’re well and happy. Nazy and I are enjoying our new home. We came to help..
“... take care of the ‘little one‘ while Tom and I are in Mexico?” Melika asked.
“The ‘little one’?” I replied. “Is there something you’d like to tell us?”
“You know that I’m talking about the cat, Dad.”
“An animal named ‘Monster’ is not ‘the little one’, Melika.”
“Feed him and play with him.”
“Play with him?” I asked. “He’ll play with us the way a lion plays with a downed gazelle,” I thought.
Melika’s phone rang. “It’s my boss,” she whispered. “I have to take this call.”
I couldn’t help overhearing Melika’s half of the conversation. “Of course my phone will work in Mexico. It’s not like I’m going to Lebanon....”
“Wait a minute, Dad,” Darius interjected, virtually.
“And my email will work. You want me to call the minute I land? Why? Just call you? Text messages will also work: I’ve done it before. I already filed those documents. No, I won’t forget to call.” Melika disconnected.
“I don’t think he wants you to go, Mel.” I noted. “Is there an important deal in the works?”
“There is nothing in the works. Maybe I’ve taken too many vacations,” Mel mused.
“Of course not,” Nazy interjected. “Aspen last weekend, Cancun this weekend, Los Angeles next weekend,” I thought.
Please send a text reminding me to call when I land,” Melika said.
Unfortunately, Melika’s flight (on the ‘old’ American Airlines) suffered mechanical challenges. She arrived in Cancun 4 hours late. She had 3 voicemails from her boss and an office email announcing an ‘immediate, all-hands meeting’ at the firm’s Santa Barbara office. ...
“My boss left the firm, Dad! Both he and Ian left. They generate all the work, Dad. It’s...”
“An opportunity?”
“An opportunity?” Melika inquired.
“Now we know why he wanted you to call. Where is he going? I be he wants you to join him.”
“I don’t know where he’s going, Dad. I tried to call, but I just get voicemail. There will be no work at my firm when those two leave. And there is no other firm in Santa Barbara that offers the kind of corporate law work that I do.”
“Is Melika going to move?” Nazy whispered. “We just got here.”
Melika eventually go in touch. It appears that a different law firm will open a new office in Santa Barbara and Melika will simply switch firms. It is..
“... a lot less disruptive than the Compaq purchase of Digital or the HP purchase of Compaq,” Nazy noted.
And speaking of the past:
Flashback [Kensington Place, Memphis, Tennessee, 1978]. At the end of each Johnny Carson Tonight Show, an advertisement for the Ginsu Knife began. This amazing knife would cut through metal as easily as it diced tomatoes and sliced bread so thin you could almost see through it. Nazy wanted a Ginsu. Newly wed, I concurred. (Note: Oldly wed, I’d do the same.)
The Present [Alameda Padre Serra, Santa Barbara, California, 2013]. Opening the cartons that encased pictures that we transported from Switzerland required a special tool. And I had my..
“... Ginsu, Nazy!” I exclaimed. “The wimpy scissors aren’t strong enough and..”
“What about your Swiss Army Knife?”
“That might do the trick... if I knew where it was. But the Ginsu will slice through.... my finger!”
Note: The Ginsu came with a 50 year guarantee. We have 15 years left.
Darius called with exciting news this week...
“I’ve got a good result with my paper.”
“Your research?”
“That’s right. My cursed paper. I think I have a result.”
“Is this the paper that’s been in progress...”
“... since the planetary core began to cool, Dad. I finally have a result. But now, I’m strangely bored. I don’t feel like filling in the details needed to publish the paper.”
“That’s like building a new house and then not wanting to deal with the mess of moving in.”
“You complained moving..”
“You’re missing the point, Dar. It’s like winning the lottery and not collecting the check.”
“Actually, Dad, it’s like beating your head against a wall and then not sticking your hand into the hole you’ve finally created.”
“What kind of a metaphor is that, Darius?”
“It’s a similie, Dad.”
“Like an allegorical alliteration?”
“Like a metaphysical mutation.”
And, finally, our moving-in work continues. With the help of Ken (the handyman), Nazy’s closets were (re)constructed. As each subsequent day began, Nazy dumped a huge pile of clothes (belts, scarves, skirts, dresses, blouses..) on the bed. Then she sorted, folded, piled, grouped.. but she didn’t put them into the closet before I was ready to sleep. And we still had..
“... stuff at Melika’s,” Nazy noted. “We have to bring it to our house.”
“I’m not bringing anything that can be put on the bed,” I thought. “Of course, dear,” I said.
In fact, I was unable to cope with the mess in my study, I attacked the boxes myself..
“All by yourself?” Nazy asked.
“Of course.”
“I can’t believe that there was a mess so big that you decided to clean up before checking your email.”
“It was so cramped that I couldn’t think, Nazy.”
“And this is new?”
Santa Barbara Sunset
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