Gramma Delivers - a guest blog post from the Pirate's Mom

Today a package arrived for Cameron from Gramma.  He approached the package with a mix of anticipation and apprehension.  He knew that Gramma had heard of his desire for a sweater "zactly" the same as his old one, and he expected that the arrival of this package was a fulfillment of this request.  But the bar had been set high, for Cameron thinks that "zactly" is a term to be treated with mathematical precision.

Like a dog approaching a stranger, he began by sniffing the sweater.  Luckily he that is where his animal instinct stopped, falling short of licking it or otherwise marking his territory.  Having passed the smell test ("This one smells like Gramma too."), he moved on to more empirical tests.

The white pirate skulls were the same size, but the new one, lacking one year of non-stop wear, was at least five shades lighter.

He checked the sleeve length next - the sleeves were not the same length due to a quick-fix to the old one during Gramma's last visit.  The new hood was inspected, and it was more rigid, less stretched out than the old one.  Cameron was beginning to despair - this sweater was not "zactly" like the old one. 

Suddenly, his eyes lit up and he said, "You know what is better than one pirate sweater?  Two pirate sweaters."  He proceeded to put the new one on over the old one.  The sweaters are now laid out on his bedroom floor, holding hands (I kid you not!).  He cannot wait until tomorrow, when, in the heat of the California sun, he can now wear a double layer of pirate sweaters instead of one.

Grammas have a lot of latitude: this is a fundamental truth that covers everything from sugar intake to supply of hand-knit sweaters.  Sometimes this latitude has unintended consequences.  Thanks Gramma, for fueling the obsession!