Tuesdays with Nonie...the return of the spider monkey

Today was episode two in the ongoing saga of Tuesdays with Nonie. 
I am not sure what it is about Tuesdays and traffic but I got caught up in it again today.  DIL is under the weather so I was to pick up Mr. Perfect at home.  What is usually a 25 minute drive turned into a 50 minute ordeal this morning.  I debated going the "long way" but since traffic was moving at that point, I decided to just go with the usual route.  And of course, no sooner had I made that decision than traffic slowed to a crawl.  Now, I am sure that there are more than two ways to get to DS#1 and DIL's house but I'm not good with directions and Gabbie, our trusty GPS, was home probably offering home invaders directions from the living room to the kitchen.  The big flashing TxDOT sign declared that there was an accident ahead and to expect delays.  When I finally reached the bottleneck, there was nothing there....no police, no wrecked cars, no ambulances, no bodies by the side of the road....nothing! I have absolutely no clue what caused this major delay because there certainly was nothing to look at.
Finally got home with Mr. Perfect and my weekly lessons commenced.  Today I learned that:
1)  The idea of swimming lessons was no more appealing this week than it was last week.  I started with the happy...."It's Swimming Lesson Day!  I'm so excited!" and was met with a firm "NO!"  I decided that since the weather was much nicer this week, we would do the changing from clothes to swim stuff here at home.  This week's spider monkey problem was not the shirt....or the socks..or the shoes.  It was the pants and the Superman Pull-Ups.  I swear that I no sooner got his legs into the swim diaper before I saw it go sailing across the room as he kicked it off.  Finally succeed with the swim diaper (don't ask how many times it went on and came off but that little monkey is fast!) only to repeat the whole process with the swim trunks.  And then suddenly...it was over.  He allowed me to put on the swim shirt and helped to pack the backpack but insisted that he carry his own towel.  I learned that perseverance pays off.
2)  I learned that seeing Unca Tim on the IPad via Hangouts is not the same as seeing him in person.  Even though we did a quick connection before we started the swim apparel war and got in our minimum daily requirements of fist bumps, Mr. Perfect still had to check Unca Tim's room to be sure he wasn't just taking a nap.  On a more positive note, when we connected during lunch so that Unca Tim could get a lesson report, Mr. Perfect did tell him several things that happened at the pool.
3) I learned that all swim instructors are not created equal.  On the way to lessons, I told Mr. Perfect that we were on our way to swim with Ms. Madison and was informed...."No, Unca Tim takes me swimming!"  Not long distance, he doesn't!
4) I learned that apple juice tastes differently in a different cup.  Mr. Perfect tried his AJ in his blue sippy cup with the reclosable lid  and told me that he didn't like it.  I poured more juice in the green cup and it was fine.  Then he told me to put the juice from the blue cup into the green cup, watched me do this and drank it all.  I guess green plastic tastes better than blue.  Who knew?
5) I learned that not just any quilt will do for naptime.  We didn't have our Nonie blankie (He is the ONLY one allowed to refer to a quilt as a blankie!) and had to audition several quilts until we found one that Mr. Perfect deemed worthy as a nap companion.  It was a four season wallhanging that I made years ago and is now referred to as the tree blankie.  I'm just glad that we found one that would work.
6) I learned that a thirty minute swim lesson results in a long nap...not for me...for Mr. Perfect.  Of course the whole spider monkey thing might have added to the exhaustion.  I just hope that DIL isn't suffering with a toddler who refuses to go to bed because he had a great nap!

All in all, it was another informative Tuesday.  Who says you can't teach a retiree some new tricks?