Knock, Knock. Who's there?

Today's Wonder of the World is a heurtoir, a door knocker.



Isn't the lady's hand pretty? Hopefully that's just colored chalk it's dusted with, so that we can see the details. If not, they have a worse pollen problem than even we do in Greer. But I won't complain. A nice person, here, at flickr let me show it to you.

How I love French knockers.
Here's one I bought for cheap at a flea market.



I thought I would be funny and mount it on the inside of my front door, instead of on the outside, just as a joke. See, here it is. (Ignore the empty flower urns. I've got ivy and geraniums in the garage, waiting to be planted, but I've been doing other things. Like writing a blog, okay?)



Tanner is hoping we're going for a walk. Later, Tanner sweetie. I promise.
Anyway, if you stand by the door and knock on it, you feel as if you're standing on a porch to the outside world. When I first put it up, this struck me as hilarious. But it seems to confuse people, especially teenagers. Several have asked me, "Miss Becky, do you know that you have the door knocker on the wrong side of the door?"
"It's a joke," I always say, and they say, "Ohhhh."

Lately teenagers have not been appreciating my sense of humor.

Here's an example. Let me tell you about an embarrassing moment that happened to me just a couple days ago. (If you've read French By Heart then you know that I have a weird compulsion to share my most embarrassing stories.) It made my 15 year old Ben try to crawl under the car mat, and it embarrassed me too, once I realized that I had become one of those parents.

Ben was going to drive us to church, but as we were about to get in the car I saw a group of my neighbors at the foot of my driveway, cooing over a brand new neighbor baby. So what did I do? I yelled out at the top of my lungs, "Hey y'all! You might want to move out of the way! Ben is behind the wheel and he's coming right for you!"

I don't know why I did that.

I got in the car. Ben had his eyes closed.
"Mom." he said. 'You did not just yell that. Mom. Mom. Why?"
"I uh..I just wanted to..."
"Mom, you're becoming like Dad!"

To make matters worse, when he pulled out onto the street, I tried to make amends. I reached over him and yelled out the driver's side window, "Sorry! Now Ben is mad at me for dissing his driving."

Ben froze. We sat there for a second.
"Mom. You did not. Just say. Dissing."

So there you go. A warning to you: Do not use the word dissing in front of your children. It's not a bad word, but it humiliates them.

But then I did my Meals on Wheels route yesterday and I saw something that cheered me up. There are people who share my sense of humor. Yey!



In case you can't see it, that top mailbox, the one out of everyone's reach, says BILLS.
Ha ha. Happy Friday to you! Have a great weekend!