Typical Encounters of the Snydley Kind

It’s a cold February day and David has come home to visit for the first time in months, which to Mom (me) feels like years. David and Jack settle in to rewatch “The Last Samurai” starring Tom Cruise, and since I’m too hyper to sit through a movie, I just watch once in awhile. Poor Jack doesn’t have much of a chance when David and I get together, but to be honest, we do our best to contain our natural tendencies.

Jack has this tendency to state the obvious throughout a movie, and for two smart asses, it’s almost unbearable. While watching Samurai, during the close-up of the Japanese woman who is housing the errant Civil War veteran, played by Tom, Jack states in sotto voice: “This woman is attracted to this foreign American man.”

David and I exchange glances and attempt to repress ourselves.

Several minutes later, following many such Captain Obvious expressions, a shot of ice thawing from a cherry blossom appears on the screen and Jack declares in his low voice: “Spring has come.”

David can’t take it anymore and tells his Dad that he should write for Hallmark. Jack replies that he is going to throttle David with a pillow. David says, “Only if you narrate it while you do it.”

At this point, I happen to look out the back and discover that half a dozen beautiful deer are gathered mere feet from our back deck. Mind you, we see them at times in the woods, but these huge creatures are only feet from our glass doors. Jack grabs the video camera. I say, “How did they get through the back fence, I wonder.” Jack says, “Oh, hon, those deer jump over a fence like it’s standing still!”

David and I exchange a glance.

Then Jack reprimands David to quit moving around so much. “What do you think they’ll do Dad? Open fire?”

Kidding David, I call him a smart ass.

“You raised me.”

Jack, who tries to never truly listen to what either of us is saying (and understandably so) says, “Nothing I did when raising you would make you move around so much.”

David looks at me and asks, “Is my nose bleeding yet?”

Jack says, “It’s going to be!”

David says, “That’s the first thing you’ve said that I’ve understood all morning!”

Good times. Good times.