The Squeeze

Slap and Tickle I squeeze as much joy out of our kids that they are willing to give. When I get the opportunity I squeeze my daughter into the ball of laughter that is all her. She’s the type that just looking at her in a certain way you can get her tickled. The giggling soon turns into a belly laugh that is infectious upon Ben. And yes, she is ticklish from head to toes just like Ben. The “torture tickles” are becoming more rare. She is ten going on sixteen and I blame Disney’s High School Musical. I hope Walt is rolling in his grave.

Tempted I squeeze all I can out of my marriage. There is no love like the one you experience with a soulmate. Life throws you the curveballs but you keep on taking turns in the batting cage to prepare. When the change-up comes we can count on at least one of us put the ball in play. Hopefully we can do better than that since we’re supposed to be the “power hitters” around here. Maybe I’ve finally come to realize the genius of “small ball” and occasionally using the squeeze play to get a run across.

Black Coffee in Bed I squeeze all I can out of my art. Truthfully it gets tough sometimes. Just like any other profession you get into a rut and it truly shows. I’ve had to rework some paintings in recent weeks more often than I’d like to admit because they weren’t the kind of quality work that my customers are used to. Fortunately if I listen to my children more often I find they are always full of creative ideas.

Pulling Mussels (From the Shell) We’re squeezing the heck out of checkbook. Oh how common that statement must be. A few more good shows in the coming few weeks would really help. That and the two “promised” commission works I’m supposed to receive. Maybe I should squeeze a few e-mails in?

Up the Junction We’re squeezing a Kleenex as we sneeze. I’m the least sick of the family. Ben is finally feeling a bit better today but Joan has a terrible summer cold. All of it is due to the terrible air quality here in the Southeast. The heat and humidity creates ozone, which is detrimental to lung tissue. Add in the smoke from recent forest fires, new pollen from the few rain events, and we’re a bunch of weepy, gooey, snot-infested humans. It’s supposed to be in the mid-90s this weekend and tomorrow is the just the first full day of summer. July and August will be miserably hot.

Annie Get Your Gun My sis-in-law Lisa will be squeezing out a new niece in a few weeks. We’re excitedly awaiting the arrival of their fourth girl, Evie (rhymes with “heavy” but no h). It’s kind of funny how Lisa was squeezing in most of her daytime hours in the air-conditioning on our vacation. I think I’ll stop with the squeezing before my brother squeezes me into a headlock.

I hope everyone squeezes in a good evening!

Just in case you don't quite understand...

Squeeze...the band