The Concierge

Greetings and salutations ... the holiday weekend is close at hand, and with it comes cook outs and vacations and pool parties. I still laugh out loud at the thought of Lilly trying to learn to say "Happy Fourth of July!" Can't you just hear it? A kid with a mostly toothless grin announcing to everyone she saw "Happy Fuh - lie."


The blog has a handful of staunch supporters. Some do more than simply read. Others perform essential functions that give the blog material. Tonight, we celebrate "Pop" - Lilly's grandfather and my dad, David.

We often joke that Pop isn't retired - his job is to wait for phone calls when we need something. Today, it was semi-serious (Serious would be a phone call asking Pop to bring a lunch to Lilly at school because her parents forgot to pack and send one, or asking Pop to spend the bulk of two different days waiting at our house for Sears repair technicians to come and NOT fix our appliances).


Today, Pam needed to unexpectedly drive our niece to meet her father ... Natalie came down with something during her visit here, so she headed home a day early to be able to see her doctor. Pam drove to meet Glen near the Delaware Memorial Bridge.


All of this is supposed to happen while Lilly has dance class at 5:00 pm. I was involved in packing up my office and could not get away from school easily. What would we do?


Pam said she would call me back - that meant a call to Pop. When Pam called back, Pop had been booked. He'd come get Lilly and take her to class - then I'd take over.


Whew!


But wait - what about the shoes? Pam remembered that Lilly needed new shoes for dance class. The plan called for me to meet Pop and Lilly at the shoe store and then take Lilly to class.


Whew again!


As I am driving out of Frederick to meet Lilly and Pop, Pam calls - there's a new plan. Shoestore 1 does not have the shoes; Shoestore 2 does, and it is holding the shoes for us. I couldn't make it there in time ... but Pop could!


Pop and Lilly (keep in mind that Lilly is in full dance gear) headed to the mall.


They pull in to the dance studio parking lot around 4:40 pm. Lilly comes out of the back seat - chocolate donut in hand. Pop walks to me and hands me a dance bag, a bag of new shoes, a blue Gatorade and a handful of napkins.

If that wasn't enough of a bail out, Grammy and Pop picked up KFC for us all for dinner at their house, and then they kept Lilly for a sleepover.

And before you get any ideas, Pop is not for hire. By the time he's finished fetching for Lilly (and Pam and me) he'll be running across town for Isabella.

Good thing he didn't retire.