I was almost killed today, along with my mother-in-law, Karen Mercer. It all started with my mischievous mother-in-law exploring the attic of the house next to her sister’s. The house, as some of you may well know by now, is going to be torn down soon and everything in it will be trashed. Karen found an old trunk, probably dating back to World War II or so. It’s possibly not that old, but the stenciling on it hearkens back to the 40’s and it’s got Yokohama, Japan stamped on it.

Anyway, Karen thought the trunk would look nice at the end of the bed in the Green Grandma Room, but she couldn’t get it by herself so she called me over. Finding a break in work, I headed over to Wrightsville Beach. My cousin (in-law) Hannah Frazelle greeted me at the door with, “Hello, Zacchaeus.” Just after that, one of Hannah’s friends and Karen came around the corner and burst out into a simultaneous round of “Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he.” I asked them how long they’d been planning that one.

So Karen and I headed over to the house next door to take a look at this trunk. We saw that there was another one, but it was messed up. So we started to grab it when we heard the sound of heavy machinery and the beep – beep – beep of something backing up. Karen and I darted looks at each other then headed on out of the house.

We were almost bulldozed to death!

Okay, that’s extreme hyperbole. It was actually just a backhoe and it was there with someone from water and sewer. The most damage they did was to burst a waterline, which shot up in the air and sprayed the top of the house. Still, we thought they were about to tear the house down with us in it. We ended up going back a few minutes later (while those guys were still there) to get the trunk.

Anna Frazelle (whose birthday is tomorrow- what’s with all the people getting pregnant in late October?) is doing quite well. She even went out to get a haircut the other day, although she said every bump on the way there was painful.

We had our small group meeting tonight, although we decided to just make it a social. Kim Ayars’s family was in town, so neither she nor Paul were coming, and Kristen Barriner, to answer yesterday’s mystery, had brought over a Cheesecake Factory cheesecake (that she got at Sam’s Club) to celebrate Rob Peterson’s birthday, and they had to take off at about 8:15 for a dinner. So, with early departures and a lacking attendance, we made the night a social one. Ben and Jessica Lambeth came of course, and they stayed until 9:00, which is the usual time. It was nice catching up with everybody.

Tomorrow I’m taking Moo to the vet to get spayed. We had to make sure that she didn’t eat anything after midnight (or she’d turn into a Gremlin) so she’s in a pet carrier in the downstairs bathroom. Since we don’t know that she’s had any vaccinations or anything yet, we aren’t letting her roam around the house. We did let her have range of the bathroom, but Amanda heard her climbing on the back of the door, which just didn’t fly with us.

My baby sister, Andra Dotsey, called tonight. She and Josh Sawyer (my baby sister’s baby daddy) got some pictures of my nephew, Jackson Sawyer, done, and wanted our address to send us one. Sounds like she’s doing well. They taught Jackson the word “boobies” because he keeps showing his or touching them or something. A beautiful word it is, and one that all children should know.

Zach Dotsey