For several weeks now, at odd times and for mysterious reasons all his own, Tadhg has stopped whatever he's doing, tensed into a posture of great anticipation, looked at me intently, and said in hushed tones, "Secret tractor!"
That's it.
"Secret tractor!"
Rundy and I have puzzled over this with great bemusement. Rundy's bet was on the riding mower under a tarp out by the shed, but I never saw Tadhg looking or pointing that way when he made his mysteriously muted proclamations. My money was on sudden recollections of the wonders of his birthday presents and the intense hope that a secret tractor was still waiting for him somewhere, all wrapped up.
But this morning, all was revealed.
Tadhg was playing happily in the living room soon after waking up. I was holding Pippin.
All of a sudden, the glint in the eyes, the tensed posture, the hushed tones: "Secret tractor!"
Then it dawned on me.
The water pump had just started up in the basement, sounding eerily like a tractor.
A secret tractor.
Haha, that's so funny!! I'm glad to know the answer to that riddle.
ReplyDeleteMe, too. It's so much better than Rundy or I had postulated. :)
Delete"Postulated". That sounds like such a Rundy-word. Is he rubbing off on you? ;-)
Delete(Back in the days when he lived here and talked a lot, that's definitely one of the characteristic words I heard him use, among others )
Haha, that's so funny! I'm pretty sure that it can't be blamed on him, though, because I don't think I've ever heard him use it. Something that does stick with me as a Rundy-ism is "litmus test," probably because I never use that one myself.
DeleteI shouldn't have said "definitely" ;-) But it struck me as one I've heard him use. There's lots of others, like "pontificate" and "cognizant" and "verbose" and yes, "litmus test" and many others..
Delete(What am I saying? That he has a big vocabulary? :-D Just seems like there's certain ones he seems fond of using repeatedly, more than other people in the family.)
Poking aside, I probably learned most of my vocabulary from Dad and Rundy!