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Saturday morning came quicker then my tired bones wanted it to. In fact had Ruth not awakened me at 11 am I would probably been there another hour or two. Usually after a week of AAA dispatch madness I need a day of rest before I face my full life of avoiding dishes, trash collection and constructive reading.

Ruth reminds me that the movie Bolt starts at noon if I was taking Damion to it. I had already seen it with the other grandson Ron but was more then willing to see it again. Ruth had time to go with us but begged off to do homework and stuff on the computer. So far so good.

For 30 seconds.

Damion had elected to sleep on the living room floor rather then the couch. I had volunteered to sleep on the other couch to keep him company but he declined to my relief and sore back. Only the futon in Ruth's sanctum sanctorium would be even more uncomfortable to woo Morpheus in.

I find him sitting up, arms folded and a sly look on his face he will be regreting seriously in one more minute.

Damion is displeased that he has been up and neglected so he declares that he went outside. I have reservations about his veracity but have learned not to discount what children say. I demand an explanation about leaving noting the door is still bolted, locked and door jam mechanism still in place but he is a clever devil so I need to be sure.

He makes the mistake of sticking to the story of adventures in Fairborn in the great outdoors.
My tone and manner become a bit menacing and he's not catching the change in the serene atmosphere of casa Mtpspur and makes the final mistake of laughing at me while smirking. Only shameless hussies and little kids can pull that off and I have had MY life full of them.

Suddenly Damion is on his back with me holding him firmly by the front collar and leaning very very close to him in the patented military instructor manner. I rewind an old father lecture about truth or consequences my guttersnipes had to hear a time or two and predict a happy future for him sitting all weekend on a couch watching me watch him and no movie if I didn't get a straight answer.

A startled and humble little boy confesses to lying. I pick him up, swing him around, kiss him firmly on his cheek (being a little surprised at my ability to lift him but he's about as heavy as a filled comic box so it's good) and say well then off to the movies after I quick shower. Peace is restored.

The theatre is only 10 minutes tops from home and a shower is done quickly--not too concerned if he's cleaned up or not and we are off.

Bolt was playing in 3-D for this showing and the clerk at the theatre refuses to allow me to use the glasses I kept last time as a momento. I whine a tiny bit, am informed the ticket price is locked in place, sorry about that. Realizing it's out of the ticket seller's province I pony up almost $20 and have 15 left. Good enough for lunch.

Damion is allowed to pick the seats and I end up way in the very very back row. We have about 10 minutes until it starts and he wants to know when to put the glasses on and I tell him I'll let him know.

During the movie he sits very quietly and moves to the side where the steps are and watches the final half hour from there while I glance periodically to ensure his position in relation to me.

Lunch by his choice is McDonalds.

No--Burger King.

Wait you just drove by it.

I don't like that parking lot--we're headed to Kauffman Ave.

Are you sure you want Burger King--both Mickey Ds and BK are on same street.

He thinks it over and finally setttles for Mickey.

The last attitude problem is now 10 minutes in my future.

We arrive, we enter and he takes off to a table. I holler to get back here with me. He comes up to me.

Then passes around me to other side of the facility. I holler to get over here and he is a bit slow in turning and moving. My voice rises. I have no fear of firm discipline in public and tell him move now or I'm leaving.

Don't know how many seconds I waited for him to obey but not enough to sooth my control freak mentality so I hit the door glancing back to see a sourpuss stomping my way. At this point he really does look like his mother. Uses the silent treatment too. I inform him this can go away easily with the right word. Starts with S ends with Y. Probably a little too young for that joke. I put the word for him in his mouth. He does his responsive parrot imitation and we are back inside.

The clerk is a cutie who resembles Logos with a different hair color so I'm in eye candy Heaven while he orders a Happy Meal. I order a quarter pounder meal asking for light kethcup forgetting the most important word PLAIN with light ketchup. Damion also wants a cookie and the clerk mercifully sells me just one as I now have enough left in the wallet to pay for Avengers #66 which is whispering in my ear to go liberate from the Bookery for $5.

Damion now has my blessing to pick out a table and we feast and ooh an ahh over the Bionical toy which was a villain he says due to having red eyes. My meal had all the trimmings and I agonize a bit about getting it replaced not wanting to look like a fool in front of the Logos clone. Which I do--taste buds trumps ego any day.

We leave and Damion wants to know where to now. I tell him I'm taking him to a place his father loves very much and he should like it.

As God is my witness I had every single intention of buying Avengers #66, showing Damion Wolverine and Spider-man comics with an intent to start addicting him to comics to irritate his mother. I introduce him to Tim the store owner and we chat just a bit. I'm seconds away from looking for the coveted issue when Damion pipes up:

"Do you have any Gorgo comics?"

Still unaware of a desire to be thwarted Tim finds some and I see several for --

Aww you guessed.

$5.

There is something endearing about looking at the excited face of a little boy seeing a movie dinosaur fighting monsters in color pictures and a few minutes later Damion is the proud owner of issue #23. Which was the last issue by the way.

On the way home Damion asked me which home I was going to. For some reason he thought Ruth and I did NOT live together. Even though I had clearly spent the night there with her which made me realize he's not used to a regular father/mother relationship in his life (and also a suspicion of the coming and goings in Gina's life.) In fact I asked Damion if he liked Frank (latest future soon to cast off carcass of a shell of a man) and he had no idea who I was talking about. Ruth says Frank is really Frankie and maybe that was the confusion. In fact Damion kept calling Ruth by her name all weekend and me Grand-pa. I never bothered telling him my name. Wanted to keep the mystique going.

Home is arrived at and Damion wants to see Gorgo again and Spider-man 3. Gorgo wins out. I show off my good deed to Ruth and try to lose the blessing by getting $5 out of her in sympathy but she's getting too good at not falling for that emotional blackmail. Sigh.

Ruth goes to work and Damion is a little disappointed I don't watch Gorgo with him in favor of catching up with a friend on the computer. I come out every few minutes to check on him but my time with my friend is catch as catch can and I was being selfish about missing contact.

Gorgo finishes and Damion I play battleship on the computer and try some others with varied success then I let Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark play child minder while I reconnect with my buddy. After about an hour I give it up for the night and finish the movie with him.

Damion had also a great interest in King Kong so I give him a six issue set of King Kong: King of Skull Island which he has me read issues 1-3 to him. This is dreadful because it's a series that takes place AFTER Kong dies so guess who is barely in any issue which is why I'm glad to dump the set on him for the cool grand-father points.

Almost forgot when we got home I pulled out my set of Gorgo comics and the Godzillas I owned and showed them to him. He was delighted his black and white book had the six issues I was missing. Then he wanted to know if he could have my comics when I 'go'. I laugh and tell him he'll have to ask his father. Who I call right away and let Damion talk to him. This should be a treat as it will be one of the few times he can talk without Shelia and Gina monitoring things. He gets right down to the business of Grandpa dying and him getting the goods. Delightedly he informs me Dad says I can have them. I remind him I might be awhile 'going away". This does not seem to bother him and I quietly chuckle at his innocence.

While reading King King to him he begins to declare the wonders of the third movie version while I tell him the original 1933 is worth a look. He is doubtful of this. He keeps calling Jack Black's version the REAL King Kong movie and never does give my movie history lesson due respect.

However he finally says it would be Ok to watch it since it seems to mean so much to me. A child very wise in so many ways. I was touched at his attempt to please me. We watch most of it (as I abandon him one last time to visit online) but see the rest from when Ann is kipnapped from the ship. He likes it and thinks it better then he thought it would be.

Ruth comes home by then and feeds us and I persaude him to use the couch this time. He never finishes any meal we serve him. I tuck him in and Ruth hopes we can go to church which I pretend to consider seriously as I'm getting real tired by now.

Shelia shows up at 10 am to collect him on Sunday while I'm still sleeping as Ruth woke up feeling under the weather so I miss saying goodby to him.

But I had a wonderful time. Unexpectedly to be confessed.