on communication and observation

I appreciate my brother Brian and my sister-in-law Bobbie for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons is that both this year and last year, since we’ve been in Hemet, they came up with ideas for Christmas presents for Dad on which we could go in with them. This year it had to do with a tortoise. Bobbie and Brian said that Dad had always wanted a tortoise and that they had found one at a reasonable price, assuming that Terry and I split the cost. We were game.

Now I thought that they were talking about a live tortoise. I didn’t understand why they were talking about keeping it in a box or in their den until Christmas. I told them they should be sure to give it a lot of lettuce. As it turned out, the gift was a large, metal tortoise sculpture.

Bobbie and Brian decided to give Dad the tortoise early as it was in their utility trailer and preventing access to the potted Christmas tree, which was also in the trailer. Brian felt that the tortoise was too heavy to move twice. So after breakfast on a recent Saturday we went over to Brian and Bobbie’s house to surprise Dad with his tortoise. He was delighted.

That same afternoon I was walking Tasha, and I noticed that our neighbors three doors down have a smaller sculptured metal tortoise in their front yard. Eighteen months here and I’d never noticed it. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has Sherlock Holmes speak about the difference between seeing and observing.

In this case I’m guilty both of poor communication and not observing.

That stuff happens sometimes. It’s a learning process, even at my age.

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