Picture For This Day

Kiernan (et al) with his great-grandfather, my grand father, John Prince. Virginia Beach, VA. January 2007.

I have debated with myself as to whether or not to post about this, but this is Kiernan's blog, and it happened, and it is now an important part of his history. So I will go ahead and do so.

Early this morning, Kiernan's great-grandpa passed away. He was very sick. This was expected. But still, as I'm sure you all understand, it hits.

My grandfather is a towering figure in my memory. That is how I shall always hold him. He seems larger than life to me as I write this. Whatever decline age pressed upon him is not what will last with me. What will last with me is his wit. The way he referred to me, affectionately, as an "odd bird". The times out on the boat with him. The conversations I had with him about driving. Getting lost in listening to him playing the piano. And most of all squirming through the slide shows of the family trips from my mother's youth. He was a storyteller. He gave that to me.

He also gave to me a love of cooking, somehow. I am told he was a helluva cook. I never paid attention to this when I was around him, and yet I love to cook. I love to spend hours and hours working with a stew or a soup or chili. This makes me think of what my mom has said about the way he prepared spaghetti sauce.

One more thing about the storytelling that only just occurred to me tonight, as I sat at dinner with Kiernan. Wendy had to fly out of town today for business, so I was telling about my day and creating a story all on my own. Of late, in the Intergalactic Interstellar Super Detectives stories, the planets have all been bumping into each other. Kiernan calls them down to Earth to help with whatever investigation the story requires, and they bump into each other, one after the other. In sequence. Uranus might show up and say hi. Then Neptune will show up and bump into Uranus. Then Jupiter will show up and bump into Neptune, who will bump into Uranus. After that Saturn will show up, bump into Jupiter, who will bump into Neptune, who will bump into Uranus. And on and on.

By the end I have to remember the sequence of ten or so planets and dwarf planets bumping into each other. This happens fast, and usually not according to natural order. Sometimes I forget who comes next in the sequence.

Kiernan never does.

This is a fun development in our storytelling. Only tonight did I realize where it got it's root.

The Hole in the Bottom of the Sea.

Many, many years ago my grandfather taught me the song. "There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea." It's a sequencing song. I'm sure there's an actual term for it, one I could look up if I felt like it, but 'sequencing song' will do. This song, a ditty really, starts by singing,

"There's a hole in the bottom of the sea,
There's a hole in the bottom of the sea,
There's a hole, There's a hole,
There's a hole, There's a hole.
There's a hole in the bottom of the sea."

The singer builds from there.

"There's a log in the hole in the bottom of the sea."

And you sing the whole thing. Then...

"There's a bump in the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea."

You go on and on until you wind up with something like,

"There's a speck on the germ on the hair on the wart on the frog on the bump on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea."

I can't tell you how many times I've sung this to Kiernan. I can't tell you because just about every time I sing it he says, "Sing it again, Daddy. Just one more time. One is not a lot."

My grandfather taught me that song.

And the planets bumping into each other, however crude, is part of what he gave me.

We miss you, Grandpa. We always will.