A couple of Fridays ago my dad casually asked me what I was doing on Saturday. “I need to clean house, do laundry, mow the lawn, visit my grandmas… Why?”

“We are going to a book show in Denver.”

A book show? The house will still be around next week, hopefully the grandmas will too. I went looking for Glen Rounds a children’s author/illustrator (which nobody had by the way) but got to see first editions of all kinds of stuff like Salinger and Will James. I saw “The Please and Thank You Book” paperback by Richard Scarry autographed for $350. There was lots of Oz stuff and Willa Cather and Nancy Drew of all ages. What did I get? I got a book I am only slightly fond of, but I loved the illustrations. For some reason I am an illustration junkie. I got Animal Farm illustrated but not autographed by Ralph Steadman. It is how the book was meant to be read.

Then we went to Shepler’s and I got a shirt and we ate at some Italian buffet which was the size of a Best Buy building and I got curtains for my living room at Pier One and a huge dragonfly mosaic for my dining room. It was a great day.

I visited my grandmas on Sunday and took a photo album from the early 70s for my dementia-ed grandma who actually recognized her brother, but not her husband. Grandpa has been gone a few years, and her brother 25 years. I told Dad to take in some older ones. It is hard to talk to someone who can’t think anymore.

I am not sure what made me think of that tonight…

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