***Weekend Words (Part II)****

Saturday (cont.)

R. had heard about the Southern California Home Show on the radio and no amount of fatigue would keep us from attending it. So, after being fortified with coffee, we plunged into the nine-acre display.

To our left was the jungle garden display. With animals. I did a double take at what first looked like a rabbit with fuzzy socks for ears.

"Is that real?" I asked the owner of the display. She nodded and told me the name of the species. Dazed, I moved on. (I didn't see the squirming meal worms until much later.)

Nine complete homes ranging from 398 square feet (I think our master bedroom's bigger) to over three thousand. Dozens upon dozens of contractors. At least three jerky beef sellers. Nuts. Soaps. Vinyl outdoor patios. "Space age" mattresses (and beds!). Enough hot tubs to dry SoCal into another drought. Faux plants matching the faux smiles of money lenders. And the booths went on and on. And it was made worse because R., coming directly from work, looked like an upper-middle class mark. (I, on the other hand, was dressed like everyone else: middle-class trash.) And we saw everything. I was quite thankfully to get out of there and grab dinner.

It was not a waste of time, though. R. learned a lot about roofs. And I, like my father, have suddenly developed a keen interest in lawns. (There were some real kewl self-water pots, for instance.)

Cont.