Thursday, December 29, 2011

Blogging is tough…

For those of you who read Life As Naps, you may have noticed that my posts have been quite few and far between lately. I am slightly introverted and a private person by  nature so blogging has always been a struggle for me but I did it because it was an outlet to get some of these crazy thoughts out of my head. Then people started reading it and started telling me that they read it, and instantly I was a self conscious teenager again measuring everything I said because I was afraid of what people would think of me.

So I go back and forth, I love to blog and get things off my chest and out there, but then I find myself fighting, well myself and deleting entire written posts because I don’t want to offend anyone with my thoughts. It was a whole lot easier when I thought I was completely anonymous out there and people that I had no idea of were the ones reading it. Its easy to be weak or strong or let your feelings show when you think that you won’t ever have to talk about or with them.

But then the flipside of that coin is that I do enjoy that people read my stuff and comment on my posts. I like the comments and the constructive criticism I have received and hopefully will continue to receive. I do enjoy when I can have a meaningful conversation with someone on something I wrote, because they can totally relate or they completely disagree and we have a frank, open discussion where in the end we agree to disagree.

So as 2012 approaches I am going to try and let myself go a bit and blog more often on a range of topics. I am going to try and let some more of the personal stuff out there, but I doubt that I will ever let the blogosphere know who I truly am. Sorry, its just not in my nature, and maybe that’s a good thing. Until then enjoy and be on the look out for new posts and please feel free to comment or talk to me, I would hate for this post to discourage that, even if it does push my comfort level. Being a little uncomfortable can be a good thing, right?

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Christmas Craze…

Christmas is always crazy for our family. Both L Bird’s and my parents have divorced. My parents remarried a long time ago, but L Bird’s parents are still doing their own things. So because we come from separated families, we end up have five Christmases every year. We do Christmas with my Dad’s side, my Mom’s side, L Bird’s Mother, L Bird’s Father and then our own intimate family Christmas on Christmas morning.

So yeah, it gets crazy, but anyway our Christmas craziness started this past weekend with Christmas with my Dad’s side on Saturday and then with L Bird’s Mom on Sunday. At these two Christmases A Bird got a ton of gifts that she absolutely loves, but two of them stand out.

From my Dad and Stepmom she got a Disney Karaoke machine. She went nuts when she opened it. She has been putting in her CD’s and singing her little heart out, at the top of her lungs, of course with the volume cranked all the way up. How else can you sing, right? Then she found that she didn’t need the music to use the microphone and she found the echo knob. So she turns up the echo all the way and just says random stuff into the mic to hear herself. Sometimes it’s just “Daddy, what are you doing?” and then some times it is “woooooooooooooooo,oooooooooooooooooooo,oooooooooooooooooo” as she tries to be a “siren”. Yeah, that’s real fun.

The other gift that she is fascinated with is the a Wii game that she got from her Aunt A, Uncle E and Cousin J. It is Just Dance For Kids. We brought that home, fired up the Wii and she went nuts. It is actually a really cool game, it is made for kids so there are a ton of kids songs like “The Ants Go Marching”, songs from Yo Gabba Gabba, The Wiggles, etc. But it also has some harmless old school favorites like YMCA, Funky Town, and apparently A Bird’s new favorite “Everybody Dance Now”.

So here she is, dancing away:

So here’s to two Christmases down and three to go. Merry Christmas!!!

Monday, December 5, 2011

My little performer…

A Bird is growing up so fast and she finally has outgrown her toddler bed. So this weekend while she was having a spend over at Papa’s house, L Bird swapped out A Bird’s toddler bed for a nice big twin bed with brand new Tangled sheets and comforter. It was like that was all it took, A Bird came home saw her new “big girl” bed and flipped the switch. She went from 4 to 15 in about 30 seconds.

This past weekend A Bird has spent more time playing in her room than she ever has. She goes in there, turns on her radio, lays on her bed and sings her little heart out to Orange Cat who is normally trying to sleep on the end of the bed. Because she seems to really be enjoying her time in her room, I bought her a Carrie Underwood CD as a special treat. She loves country music and especially loves Carrie Underwood, so she has been listening to it non-stop.

Tonight, A Bird, L Bird and I had a tea party with cheetos and apple juice in A Bird’s room. After the tea party, A Bird cranked up her radio and gave quite the karaoke performance. She really is something else.

So without further ado, enjoy the show:

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Inner Battles...

So I am fighting an uphill battle. That battle is changing myself and let me tell you what, change is hard! Apparently, I am a miserable SOB, and hard to be around most of the time and I don’t seem happy with the world around me. I don’t feel like I am that bad, I am actually very happy with my life, I love my wife and daughter, I love my large family, I love my small tight knit group of friends, and I have a job that I actually really do love. But I guess things need to change when everyone around you can’t tell that you’re happy.

I’m not totally sure how I got this way, but I have a pretty good idea. I’m a pretty private person by nature, so I don’t really talk a lot about anything. I have a real personal attachment to my thoughts, where I don’t like to put them out there. What I think is my business, and if I wanted you to know I would tell you. It used to be pretty bad to the point of if you asked me a question the likely response you would get would be “What are you the cops? Mind your business”. I feel I have come a long way from that place, but I still don’t offer up a whole lot in terms of conversation. Now I know that by now most of you have heard my sob stories of being picked on and getting into fights stories and the oh poor me, school of hard knocks stories so I’m not going to go into that, but my lack of vocalization probably comes from that place.

I have always idolized the Mob or Mafia, not the current wiseguys but the old school Mob that still had honor and its Omerta. Growing up the only way I found to stop being teased and taunted or bullied was to fight back. So I slowly started turning myself into a tough guy. I loved watching movies and documentaries or reading books about the old school gangsters. They fought and sought revenge and when they were done, it was over. It was as if it never happened because you never spoke about it again. The old Dons were men of few words and they played their cards close and never really said much of anything. The games they played were always calculated and won in their minds long before it was decided in the streets, but you wouldn’t know until after the fact because they never said a word. I modeled myself after these characters in trying to make myself as tough as I could be. I would pound out anyone who looked at me wrong, but you would never know it or see any trace other than the occasional bruise or cut because I wouldn’t talk about it.

I went on like this through my teens and well into my twenties before I finally grew up and let a lot of anger fade. But by then it seemed to be too late, I couldn’t talk if I wanted too and it would seem that I keep a stone face because no one can read my emotions.

So that’s where I stand now and it is unacceptable to me to keep going on like this. I am fighting to change myself to let more emotion show and I think I can do it, but it is definitely hard. It has been only a short time but I think I am making strides. I am trying to smile when I answer the phone, they say that if you do that people on the other end can hear it in your voice. I am trying to laugh more often and let more things go when it comes to L Bird and A Bird. I guess I am a little more strict or I think things should be done a certain way so I get a little twisted when it doesn’t happen that way. In the big picture these things are really small things that aren’t worth the effort or frustration I put into them. I am making a point to let the people I love know that I love them. I am just trying to make small changes, like kissing L Bird when she gets home from work, picking A Bird up, hugging her and asking her about her day when she walks through the door. Where before I would be so caught up in trying to get the nightly routine of starting a fire so the house isn’t cold, starting dinner so we can all eat early and hopefully together, letting the dogs out…. Blah, blah, blah etc. etc that I wouldn’t pay either of them any attention until things finally settled down later in the evening.

I am turning the tide slowly, but I’m turning it. Here’s to small changes that lead to larger overall changes that lead to happier lives.

Monday, November 21, 2011

November and no snow…

What do you do when it’s November 20th and there is no snow on the ground when we normally have feet of snow by now. Well, if you’re us you plant horseradish root and let the chickens free range.

Yep, we’re pretty exciting, right?

Saturday, November 19, 2011

My Little Redneck…

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This has been the first weekend we haven’t had anything to do in a long time. L Bird had to work so it’s just me and A Bird for the morning, which always leads to a trip to Michael’s Crafts. So we loaded up and headed into town, but on the way to Michael’s I realized that I am raising a little redneck.

I know it is all because of my choice in music. I’m pretty eclectic when it comes to music, I listen to everything. I like jazz, blues, R & B, hip-hop, rap, pop music, classic rock, everything, but what I listen to the most is country music. It is the only thing I play in the car if A Bird is with me. I like the rough and rowdy, blue collar feel to country music and I think it is the least offensive music genre for little kids without listening to Barney or Clifford The Big Red Dog sing-a-long cd’s.

This morning as we were driving and singing to the radio, I noticed which songs A Bird was singing the loudest to and knew the most words to. I was a little surprised to listen to her belt out the words to “One More Drinking Song” and “Am I the only one?” Basically both songs are about drinking beer and having a good time. She knows every damn word of these two, then the other ones she belts out are anything by Sugarland, Miranda Lambert, or Carrie Underwood. If it’s a woman scorn/revenge song she knows the whole thing.

In between songs she tells me that she wants to go see a concert with any of the above mentioned ladies, then in the next breath she tells me that when she grows up she is going to be a singer on the stage and sing new Carrie Underwood songs that she made up. So I encourage her and turn it up and let her sing her heart out. I notice how she tries to copy the tone and inflection of the words and if she doesn’t know the words she lustily sings her own words which can lead to some pretty interesting verses.

So here’s to my little redneck, may all her country dreams come true.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Thankful...

I have been thinking a lot lately about all that I have to be thankful for. It’s November, so Thanksgiving is coming and today is Veterans Day so everyone around me has been saying what they are thankful for, which is cool. I think that we should be more thankful/grateful all year round, not just when we remember to be because some month rolls around and the Hallmark companies remind us to be. I am just as guilty of falling into the everyday life trap of being too busy to actually slow down and count my blessings until November myself, but I am going to try to change that.


First, I would like to say thank you to the veterans and active military. It’s because of you that we have all of the rights we have in this great country, so from the bottom of my heart Thank You!

I have so much to be thankful for. I am thankful that I have a wonderfully large and loving family. I am thankful that I have a job that I love when so many people are out of work. I am thankful that I have a roof over my head, I can pay my bills, and that I can come home to a clean, warm home where a loving wife, daughter and assorted menagerie of pets await me.

But what I am most thankful for is the two birds that grace the branches of my life, L Bird and A Bird. I have always been thankful that they bless my life, but sometimes it is just in the back of my head and it gets buried with stress form the day to day stuff that happens in life. What brought it to the forefront of my brain today was a blog post I read. I routinely read Edenland, I find Eden incredibly interesting and real, she pulls no punches and her blog is very enjoyable. While reading her blog, it led me to The Spohrs Are Multiplying. Her latest post was about her daughter who would have turned 4 today, if she hadn’t passed away, you can read that post here. Reading her post brought me to tears thinking about all of the what ifs that could have happened to A Bird and how we would deal with a devastating loss like that.

I can really identify with some of the things she says. She talks about how she always wanted to kids, but it was low on her priority list and she just assumed it would be easy and how it turned out not to be “easy”. I felt the same way, I have always known that I wanted to have children since I was a teenager. I have always wanted to be a dad and pass my name and my knowledge on to my children, but I always figured when the time came to have kids it would happen and be a piece of cake. I couldn’t have been more wrong, L Bird and I tried for 3 years and went through numerous infertility treatments before we had A Bird. After all of the testing that we went through it turned out that I am 99% the problem of our infertility and that lays a whole lot of internal guilt and stress on me daily, but we were blessed enough to have been given a miracle and got A Bird.

I am eternally grateful to God that He blessed us with A Bird, she is the most amazing little girl I could have ever asked for. L Bird and I would love to have another child and A Bird would love to have a brother or sister, but the chances of that are slim and we would need another miracle. I am grateful that I had the chance for one child when I know that there are people out there struggling with infertility that will never have the chance to have a child, but it doesn’t make the pain or want in our hearts any less.

I am grateful or L Bird too, she keeps me grounded. I know that I rarely speak about feelings or anything that bothers me, but when I do she is always there to listen. We have faced many challenges and struggles but we have faced them together for which I am grateful.

I know this post is a little rambling and jumping from one thing to the next, but it is what has been weighing on my heart. Finally, thank you for reading and offering your comments and advice.

Thank You.

Friday, November 4, 2011

The Young & The Tired…

L Bird took a couple of pictures of our pups in the sun, so I thought I would share.

Linus has grown from this:

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To this hulking bunch of young, restless and full of energy:

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Then there is the old lady, Roxy:

Roxy was only a year old here, just look at how reddish she was:

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Then here is the old lady only twelve years lady. Time catches us all…

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She is no longer red, she has gone all white. Her ears are going, she can’t hear that well and I’m not too sure about her eyesight. But she’s a tough old bird and the best dog I have ever owned.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Trick or Treating With A Bird…

So yesterday was Halloween and we took A Bird out to go trick or treating. Now Halloween is always kind of a big production since we had A Bird. It’s a big deal, because every year my Dad and Stepmom come down and walk around with us. Halloween is my Stepmother’s favorite holiday, she is a kook about it. If you walk into her office at work, the exact quote is “It looks like Halloween threw up in here!” There is literally no wall space that doesn’t have a decoration on it. So because we don’t  go out there for Easter or Thanksgiving, they get Halloween and they are cool with that. This year was even bigger, my Dad, Stepmom, and my sister came down to hang out, walk around trick or treating, and hand out candy.

But anyway, on with the night. This year A Bird wanted to be a witch, and when everyone asked her if she was a good witch or a bad witch, she always said she was a bad witch.

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I don’t know about you, but she looks like a pretty darn cute, good witch to me. That is how she looked before we went outside, but because we live in glorious upstate New York, and it is tradition to wear your winter coat over your costume or freeze, this is what she looked like when we started.

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OK, OK it wasn’t her winter coat, and there was no snow on the ground, but it was chilly. We made it around our town in just under an hour, and A Bird was incredibly satisfied with her candy haul. That pink pumpkin was filled to the brim. We headed home, flipped on our porch light and managed to empty our own bowl of candy into the waiting bags of good little trick or treaters.

When we got home, my Dad and I had a nice big slice of L Bird’s amazing apple pie, the ladies took turns handing out candy, and A Bird dumped out her candy in the floor in front of her and decided what she wanted that night. I guess, sometimes we are candy nazis because we only let her have a few pieces, then put the rest up to piece out at a later date. Finally, the candy was all handed out, my family said their goodbyes and A Bird went to bed high on sugar and memories of another great Halloween.  I hope you had a great Halloween too!!

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Enter McStud…

A few weeks ago L Bird and I got invited to go to a Halloween costume party that a restaurant was holding. So we we made plans to meet Dinker and Cheesepaws Mom at his place then head over Connelly’s Cove. We also talked Capt. Insano and Lucy into going with us.

So here we go with the costumes:

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Dinker as  that creepy clown from The House of 1000 Corpses, Cheesepaws Mom looking pretty hot as a flapper, and the Capt. as a biker.

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Again, clowns are just plain creepy anyway.

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L Bird as a pretty sexy cowgirl.

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Me as McStud. I had a big fake belly, mullet wig, Genny Cream Ale trucker hat and my shirt said “McStud” and Lucy as the other half of the bikers.

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These people were super creepy. There were like five of them with the same masks, and none of them talked at all. They had their drink orders written in marker on the palms of their gloves, so they never said a word they would just show their hands to the bartender. Creepy, right? Look how freaked out Lucy looks and that was before one of the creeps stole an onion ring off her plate. Yeah that was gross.

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L Bird and McStud dancing and doing the bump.

It was a great night with great friends and now that our dress up fun is over we are gearing up for a big night of trick or treating with A Bird. I’ll keep you posted on her adventures tomorrow.

Happy Halloween!

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Strong Shoulders...

I have been in a funk for about a week now and I have no idea why. Have you ever had that feeling where there is something hanging over you and you are just waiting for it to fall on you? But you can’t see it, so you don’t even know what it is or how to prepare for it. I feel foolish for feeling this way, I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s the weather. It’s been cold, damp and dreary and is going to stay that way awhile so maybe its just that affecting my mood. Hell, who knows maybe its just stress.

I know everyone has stress and when they hear about someone else’s stress in the back of their minds they’re thinking “Yeah sure buddy, you got stress. You should see what I have to deal with everyday then talk to me about stress.” So I don’t want to sound like I am complaining or whining, this is just more venting than anything else. I know how good I have it, but I am just now able to put it into words and I just want if off my chest.

I am a pretty durable guy, God blessed me with a strong shoulders and a tight mouth. So it takes a lot of weight on those shoulders before my mouth cracks to reveal that anything is bothering me, and even more weight to make my knees buckle. But this month has just seemed to be the perfect storm of stress. I had a colossal bungle land in my lap with work, things could have gone a couple of ways and the stress of that left me on unsure footing for a little bit, but things are right as rain now. Then I have some family stuff going on that is stressing me out. I have my own personal medical stuff that I don’t want to get into and then my parents are going through their own trials so that stress is just compounding things. Out of respect for them I am not going to divulge what they are dealing with, just that it worries me. I am grateful that my parents feel like they can talk to me and tell me what’s going on, but sometimes the weight of their stress and my stress feels crushing. There are times that I feel it is a role reversal, where I am the one they turn to for my opinion and it feels strange. But I would much rather know what is going on than be left in the dark. At least if I know what it is I can pray about it and make my plans on how to help and how to deal with it. I guess the biggest stress is just the not knowing. Not knowing how things are going to work out and not knowing the repercussions of those things.

I know things will get better, they always do. It’s just this plodding on through with my head down that is getting to me. Things already feel slightly better, just by getting this off my chest. The light at the end of the tunnel is dimly lit and barely visible, but it visible all the same. OK I’m done venting for now, I don’t want to swallow everyone up with my funk. So bring on the weekend and enjoy yours!!!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

NaNoWriMo Here I Come…

I have been playing around with writing a few short stories, some are good and some are, well let’s just say less than good. But at least I have been writing some to practice what little skill I have. So a few days ago, L Bird’s Aunt Jan, who is always super supportive (Thanks Jan!) sent me a link to the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) page which you can see here.

The whole thing is pretty interesting, apparently November is National Novel Writing Month. I mean c’mon who would know something like that, but I suppose if you can have National Peanut Day or National Testicles Day why can’t you have a novel writing month, right? The concept is just to write with reckless abandon to editing for 30 days with the goal of writing 50,000 words or roughly a 175 page novel by 11:59:59 November 30th. In their own words “Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.
Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes.”

Just the bluntness of the purpose was enough to entice me to give it a shot. I mean it will force me to not worry so much about how each phrase sounds and who knows I may actually finish a writing project. I know that whatever I write will not be in any shape to be published, but who knows it may serve as a good starting point to go back and edit and tweak so who knows maybe it could be published and then I could be a bona fide novelist. Pipe dreams, man pipe dreams.

So any of you aspiring writers out there, join me in bringing it full on to this thing. Yeah we’ll produce a bunch of schlock, but it should be fun, right? Wish me luck…

Friday, October 21, 2011

The Things You Do For Your Kids…

This afternoon I did something I would never have thought I would do. I made doll diapers. yes, that’s right I made diapers for a doll.

It all started with this:

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A crisis, A Bird’s new baby, “Baby Poof  Poof” had worn out her diaper. You see Baby Poof Poof is one of those babies that you give water and they wet themselves. So as any kid would do, A bird filled her so full of water that the provided plastic diaper was soon destroyed.

So you see, this really is the problem. Yep, that’s the business end of Baby Poof Poof.

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Because there have been no diapers for awhile, A Bird hasn’t been able to “feed” her baby and has been asking L Bird and I if either of us knew how to make a diaper. Finally,  I felt guilty because she has been playing with this baby non-stop and she couldn’t feed it that today I ran to Michael’s Crafts for supplies.

I am a grown man, I could figure out how to make a diaper, right? Of course, right. It just took me about a half hour of wandering the aisles to find what I needed.

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A sheet of felt and some stick on velcro, yeah that would do the trick. So here’s how the process went:

Cut the felt to, “diaper” shape

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Stick on the velcro. It took a few tries to figure out that one part of the velcro had to go on one side of the diaper and the other part had to go on the opposite side.

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Then put on the doll in the diaper.

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I know it’s not the prettiest thing, but it will work. I know felt isn’t the most absorbent either, but at least when it gets wet, you can take it off and air dry it.

OK, I’m off to manufacture a few more,so A Bird has a few to spare. Good luck in any task you take on. If I can make a doll’s diapers, you can do anything!

Monday, October 17, 2011

The Letter

He sat down at his desk and fired up his computer and thought about what he wanted to say. As he was mulling over the thoughts in his head, he mindlessly typed his password to his email and opened up a new message. His fingers rested on the keyboard like old dogs stretched out on a sunny front porch waiting for a squirrel to chase, only his fingers weren’t chasing squirrels. They were waiting to chase those elusive words that described his feelings and how he really felt about her. Words and feelings had never been easy for him and today it seemed they were even harder still. After what felt like an eternity he turned from the screen.

He looked over his desk, at all of the things that had amassed on it through the course of a career. He had the usual arrangement of office supplies, staplers, tape dispensers, paper clips, post it notes and an endless rolodex of clients. He knew he was stalling but sometimes his best ideas came when he was doing mindless things, so he continued. He opened up the drawers and started fumbling through things and then he saw it, his spark of inspiration. It was there under a pile of business cards, it had gotten pushed to the back of the drawer and had long been forgotten but it was there. He reached into the back of the drawer and pulled out the elaborate fountain pen set that she had given him when he had gotten hired on so many years ago. He felt a tiny pang of shame that he had never even opened up and used her gift, but well they were just too damn nice to waste he thought. He carefully opened the package and pulled out the pen and admired it. It became immediately clear to him, he had lost his way.

He knew then that an email would not do. An email was for business colleagues and clients, it was formal, business-like and impersonal. Everything he was not when he was with her. He pushed away the keyboard to give him room to write. He pulled out a blank sheet of paper and began to write with his feelings flowing from that pen like running water.

My Love,

You are my moon and stars. You have had my love from the first time I saw you. These years together been the greatest of my life. I have tried to remember my life before you but I can not, it is as if my life truly started the day I met you. I can't imagine a life without you in it.You have given me true happiness and I feel I can be my true self when I am with you. You have been a wonderful wife, a great mother to our children and the love of my life. I love you with all of my heart, my moon and stars.

Love,
Me

He pushed back from the desk and eased back in his chair to re-read what he wrote. He smiled as all of the warm memories of their life together flooded his mind. Satisfied, he folded the letter into thirds and wrote For My Love on the outermost third. He gently placed the letter on his desk, and turned to start shutting down his computer. It was already five o'clock and she was on her way to meet him. It was their 35th wedding anniversary and they would be going out to dinner.

As he was putting the last of his files away a sharp pain ripped through his chest. He forced himself back to his chair and slumped down into it. His left arm started to tingle and it felt like an elephant was sitting on his chest. His mind was racing, he couldn't go like this, no not now he thought. The pain was searing his body, then finally it was if his whole body went numb as his heart gave it's final beat.

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After she had found him slumped in his office chair all cold and clammy, she screamed and grabbed her cell. She dialed 911 and did everything the dispatcher had told her until the paramedics showed up. They did all that could be done, but in the end it wasn't enough.

She slumped down in his chair in shock and disbelief. She couldn't believe that he was really gone. She was looked over the things on his desk, she spotted the pen that she had bought him so long ago and the tears started to fall. As more and more of her tears softly fell upon the leather inlay of his desk, she looked up and that was when she found it, the letter.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Back to the land... maybe??

So I have always been a planner. I get an idea in my head, then I go crazy researching and trying to learn all I can about the subject to see if it is actually something I want to get into. I guess you could say I am a very calculated risk taker. But once I decide, yeah I can do this, then the planning really starts. I come up with multiple plans and tweak them as they go.

With that said I have an idea that I would really like to try if it pans out. It seems like as each day passes I feel a stronger and stronger pull to return back to the land and get into some small scale farming. I’m not a hippy or a green activist, I’m more of an old soul who likes the satisfaction of producing what you need without the help of the government or big business. I like the idea of being self sufficient. A few of my friends, think I’m nuts and are always busting my chops because I believe in the “Guns and Gardens” (or Cocks(roosters) and Glocks as some of them lovingly call it) movement somewhat. I’m just paranoid worried about the infrastructure and state of this country as well as the world. If the financial economy collapses in one country it has a ripple effect that effects the rest of the world and we are seeing that now. Too many post apocalyptic movies have made me nervous for the worst case scenarios. So being more self sufficient can’t hurt me, right? I love having breakfast with eggs that my chickens made, because I know they a ton healthier than traditional sweat shop eggs. But anyway I’ll step down off my soapbox now.

So my idea is to buy five to ten acres and plant a variety of different vegetable crops with the goal of having a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program. Basically you sell shares of the vegetable crop to people in the community, then on a weekly basis those share holders come and pick up a “share” of the crop. So you get a crate full of fresh vegetables every week and you know that they were grown locally and you are supporting your local economy. Then I think I would get a few more chickens to also offer fresh pastured eggs, and have a few beehives to help pollinate the crops as well as produce honey. I know that I probably wouldn’t make a ton of money, maybe just a little extra to supplement my day job, but I think that this endeavor would be incredibly satisfying. I would be supplying my family and other families with healthy, locally grown produce and eggs and that would be enough for me.

My planning kicked off last night with taking a class at the Cornell Cooperative Extension. It was an “Intro to Farming” for small scale farmers given by Jim Ochterski. The class was extremely helpful. They covered everything from start-up capital to common pitfalls and mistakes. There were also a ton of people there that are operating small scale farms and they offered their real world advice, which was extremely valuable. Overall it was a great class with a lot of great interaction from attendees. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is looking into ideas about farming.

Well, that’s where I am at now, so who knows maybe in a couple of years I’ll be making it happen. Here’s to wishful thinking and pipe dreaming!!

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Apple Pickin’…

This week has been a true Harvest Summer, it has been in the 70’s & 80’s all week and just plain beautiful outside. We have had plans with my Pop to go apple picking this past Saturday so the weather was awesome.

We had a little miscommunication on when and where we were meeting, but when we finally figured it out everyone showed up. My Pop, Jan, my brother Zach, my sister Kali and her new boyfriend, plus us. It was definitely a full house. We all got our bags ands waited for the wagon. One of the best parts about apple picking is waiting for the tractor to come around with its long flat bed wagon and having everyone pile on to ride out to the rows that are ripe for picking.

They dropped us off and we got to picking. L Bird, A Bird and I picked 38 pounds of Macouns, Cortlands, and Empires. We always go overboard on apples for some reason. It never seems like we have enough until we are back at the storefront weighing them at the register.

While we were picking we snapped a few pictures, but A Bird was antsy and didn’t really want to stand still long enough to get many good pictures.

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When we finished picking we rode the wagon back down to the store and A Bird got a special surprise. They had pony rides, she was super excited.

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She looked like a natural, like she had been riding for years. If I ever get my dream of owning a small farm, I guess I’ll have to get a couple of horses.

Yesterday was a great way to spend one of the last warm days of summer. Now to start dealing with all of those apples. Apples for lunch, apple crisp, apple pies…….

Monday, October 3, 2011

Oktoberfest - Lake Placid

This weekend was a great weekend, L Bird and I went up to Oktoberfest on Whiteface Mountain in Lake Placid with another couple. It was kind of a whirlwind trip, because we drove up Saturday and drove home Sunday, but we packed a lot in.
We left Saturday morning fairly early, we were on the road around 8 AM. We had 4 ½ hours of driving in the rain. That was awesome (Can you detect the hint of sarcasm?) But along the way we learned a lot of interesting tidbits from each other about zombie apocalypse plans, bears scratching pine trees, and new gross interesting uses for salad bar containers. But we finally arrived and checked into our hotel.
It was around lunchtime, so we dropped our bags off in our rooms and headed straight to the festival. We got there and hit a beer vendor quickly. Then we lazily wandered through the vendors in the drizzle. It was pretty cold so the girls went in search of gloves/mittens. They ended up finding one tent with gloves, but with it being as cold as it was everyone was buying gloves and there were only two pair left. Dinker’s girlfriend “Cheesepaws Mom” (Yes, that is her nickname until we can come up with a better one.) bought one pair and while L Bird was going to grab the last pair, some lady in pajama pants scooped them on her. So Cheesepaws Mom shared her gloves with L Bird so they had one glove on their beer hand to keep it warm. They both looked like beer drinking Michael Jacksons with one red glove on, but it worked for them.
We finally talked L Bird into taking the gondola ride up to the peak of Little Whiteface. L Bird is pretty afraid of heights so I knew this was going to interesting. Being the loving husband I am, the first thing I did when I got in the gondola was grab my video camera and start filming L Bird’s reactions.
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and here is the video:

and another: If you look way down you can see a little white speck of the huge oktoberfest tent.

 
We made it to the summit where it was only 32°F and a mix of snow and rain. We wandered around and snapped a few pictures where we could.
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You have to have drinks for the ride.
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Then we headed back down to the festival. We got there we were just in time for the Alpine Trio. They were pretty cool, because they played the giant Alpine Horns from the Ricola commercials.
After they played a few songs they scanned the crowd looking for people who would come up on stage and give playing the horn a shot. L Bird was lucky enough to get picked, so she marched up there and gave it her best. (The lead player said it sounded like “the Canadian geese are back”). But that was pretty cool that L Bird got the chance to do it and she was pretty excited about it because it was all we heard about for the next few hours.
We were finally done with the festival and pretty hungry so we drove into town and had dinner at The Lake Placid Pub & Brewery. The food and beers were great, I won’t go into any detail because I posted about it on my beer blog and you can check that post out here.
After dinner we headed out in search of swim shorts/suits. I hadn’t realized that the hotel where we were staying had an indoor pool and hot tub so no one packed any suits. We drove around and finally found an Olympia Sports store. So we hit the bargain rack and everyone ended up with shorts. We raced back to the hotel got changed and hit the pool. We relaxed between the pool and hot tub for about an hour trying to be polite to the other bathers. We finally called it quits after the hot tub got rather crowded with a few French, possibly French Canadians “joined” us.
We went back to our rooms, had a beer and called it a night. The next morning we checked out of the hotel where Dinker and I got eye humped by some barefoot European guy just hanging out in the lobby. So we quickly got the hell out of there and drove into town and found some breakfast. After breakfast, we wandered through downtown and did a little shopping. Dinker, Cheesepaws Mom, and I got new hats at a rocking hat store, but other than that it was a pretty uneventful shopping trip. So we loaded up the car headed for home.
All in all it was a very quick trip but a ton of fun. Hopefully we’ll be able to repeat it next year with a few other friends as well. Have you have been to Oktoberfest???

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Justice

So I have been wanting to write a couple of short stories, but just like everything else I have procrastinated and put it off. So today I decided I would sit down and write one, just to see if I could do it. I don't know where this story came from, I just started writing it and it seemed to flow. So read and take it for what it's worth, but be kind this is really my first attempt. So here we go...

Justice

When he opened his eyes, it was still dark in his bedroom. He rolled over to put his arm over his wife, but only found a cold empty space that used to be hers. Sometimes it took him a moment to remember that she was gone. It had been seven months since the carjacking but the pain and grief were just as fresh as the day she was taken from him. As he lay there letting his eyes become accustomed to the darkened room, his mind replayed the last morning he saw her.

He was still under the covers as she was slipping into her dress pants and blouse scrambling because she was late to work again. He caught her by the wrist as she leaned down to kiss him goodbye and he pulled her onto the bed. He kissed her gently on the eyelids as his hand rubbed her barely visible baby bump. He lowered his head close to her stomach and pretended to have a conversation with his boy, he knew it was a boy, he had no doubts. She indulged him for a half a second before she flew from his arms and gave him one more fleeting kiss, telling him she was late and she would see him later that night.

He fought hard to push that memory from his mind before the tears could come and make him useless for the next few hours. He couldn’t afford that grief today, not today. He pushed himself up and walked to the bathroom, flipping on the light to see the stranger in the mirror. In seven months he had lost 30 pounds, he was thin and gaunt. He had black bags under his eyes that gave him a raccoonish look. He hadn’t shaved or cut his hair, so he had a scraggly salt and pepper beard and matching shoulder length hair. He didn’t recognize the man in the mirror and that made him sad all over again, so he grabbed the half empty bottle of whiskey that was sitting next to the sink and took a long pull from the bottle to dull the pain. He looked at himself again, it wasn’t so bad he told himself, he was still in there, he was just hiding and scared. He started to muster up the little determination he had left and dumped the rest of the whiskey down the drain. He needed to be strong today, not hiding in a bottle. He had to have his wits about him, he needed them today.

With that, he searched through the vanity until he found the sharp pair of scissors. Once he had them, he began hacking away the long tangled knots of his beard and trimmed off a considerable amount of hair off his head as well. He grabbed his clippers to finish the job trying not to remember all the times that she had cut his hair. When he looked in the mirror, he almost recognized the his old self, close cropped hair and a trimmed goatee, but the pain was still ever present in his misty eyes. As he looked at himself, his eyes drifted to the two pictures stuck in the corner of the mirror. The one of her and the one of the sonogram, his son to be born. He kissed his fingers and placed them gently on each picture. After what seemed like hours he let his fingers drop and went to the bedroom to finish dressing. He pulled out his best suit, it was black with thin silver pinstripes. He hadn't worn a suit in months. He lost everything when he lost them, his job to which he wore this very suit quickly evaporated when he quit going, preferring the company of Jack Daniels to the company of his co-workers. Even though he was thinner, the suit still fit him very well. He tightened his tie, and went back to the mirror to inspect himself one final time. He gave himself a quick once over and decided he looked passable. He grabbed the two photos from the mirror and tucked them into the inside pocket of the jacket.

As he was heading for the door, he stopped and hesitated by the table in the entry way. He turned his thoughts over and over in his head trying to find his resolve. Finally he convinced himself of what he needed to do and opened the drawer. There it was looking him in the face in all of its dark beauty, a Smith & Wesson .40 caliber pistol. Before he could change his mind he grabbed the gun, checked to make sure the clip was loaded, threw it in his pocket and headed out the door.

The sun was just rising and the morning air was still cool and crisp. He walked down the driveway and jumped into his car to get started. It was an hour drive into the city and another fifteen minutes to courthouse once he was in the city. He pulled slowly out of the driveway and started down the highway. He turned on the radio, but he must have zoned out while he was driving because the next thing he knew he was turning into the side parking lot of the courthouse. He circled the lot twice trying to find a spot that would give him full view of the street in front of the courthouse. He finally found one as a clerk from a neighboring law office pulled out. It was there he would sit and begin his wait. He would wait for him.

Today was the day that the carjacker would be sentenced, if you could call it that. The carjacker had admitted what he had done to the police. He told them that he walked up on her at a stoplight, he pulled his gun and told her to get out of the car. She froze with fear and didn't move fast enough, so he shot her and dumped her body in the intersection. He stepped over her like someone would step over a piece of trash in the street and he drove away in the car.

In that one act the carjacker had taken his wife and son and turned his world upside down. From there things only got worse, the District Attorney got the carjacker's confession tossed out because the confession was done without a lawyer present and he looked beat up in the videotape. The DA had pushed that the confession was coerced by police brutality and the judge had ruled in his favor so the whole confession was thrown out. Based on the evidence the jury only convicted the carjacker of Grand Theft Auto with a possible maximum sentence of five to seven years. Five to seven years for the lives of his wife and unborn son. That was not justice, this man deserved to be put to death. To never feel the sun on his face, to never feel air fill his longs, to never hear or touch his loved ones again. That was where he came in.

Just then the white jail van pulled up and roused him from his thoughts. He watched the van warily, and then the doors were opened and there he was. The carjacker was in a suit, but still handcuffed and was only guarded by one sheriff. This was his one chance, his only chance. He slid from the car and started walking towards the two of them in front of the van. He was fifteen feet away as the sheriff started walking with his inmate towards the steps of the courthouse. He picked up his pace and closed the gap between him and them. Before the sheriff could realize what was about to happen, he stepped in front of them and pulled his gun. Everything slowed down in that moment, he saw the carjacker's eyes grow wide with fear, he could feel how cool and how right the steel felt in his hand as he pressed the gun into the other man's chest, he could smell the stink of sweat and fear coming from him as he whispered in his ear "This is justice for my wife and son." Then he saw the flash, heard the pop, and saw the man wheel away with a growing red stain on his suit.

He dropped to his knees and pulled out the picture of his wife and his unborn son and wept.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Balancing... Part 2

As promised, here is the second part of my balancing act. I really feel like I am teetering on the line when it comes to parenting. I love A Bird to pieces but, man does she know how to push my buttons and sometimes I know she does it just to see my reaction.


I know I’m not an awful parent, A Bird is safe, and extremely loved. I have never even spanked her, not once. But it just seems to me that I am always yelling at her or getting frustrated with the things she does. It’s mostly stuff like this:

A Bird: Dad, can I have some super cheesy goldfish?

Me: Yeah sure. I get up from what I am doing go out the kitchen. Grab a bowl and get some goldfish.

AB: Thanks Dad.

Me: You’re welcome. I sit back down to finish what I am doing, then just as I begin to sit…

AB: Dad, can I have some apple juice?

Me: (sigh) Yes you can have some juice. I get up again to get apple juice. I hand it to her and sit back down. This time she gives me two minutes…

AB: Dad, these goldfish are stale, can I have a pudding, whales, popscicle, etc. This is the way it goes for about 3 or 4 things until I lose my cool.

Me: No you can’t have anything more until you finish what you have.

This is the part where A Bird starts screaming, telling me she doesn’t like any of it, its stale or it tastes funny and then screams at me with this look in her eyes like she is trying to set me ablaze. Then she runs into her room and slams the door.

Now I’m furious and I follow her into the bedroom and try to talk to her normally but my voice is rising and I end up yelling at her and telling her to sit on the bed until I tell her she can move.

Now I know that some of it is just her testing her 4 year old limits, but other times I wonder if I am just expecting too much from her and am being too uptight. There are lots of other things, like she’ll get done with a popscicle and leave the stick on the table instead of throwing it away, or she is yelling at Linus for walking next to, yes that’s right next to, not on, her blanket where she is playing. Then she is chasing him or the cats with one of her dolls in her baby stroller. The whole time I am asking her to stop or yelling at her to knock it off. The other night, she flat out told me, “Mommy is better, because she isn’t mean to me”. I know it is just because I am disciplining her, but that still sucks to hear. It just feels like I am always yelling at her for everything and I hate myself for it. I want to go back to being “Fun Dad” when she was two and three and doing crafts and her listening to what I said. I want to be “fun Dad” but I don’t want to be a pushover either. I know she needs discipline and direction and I am trying to give it to her but I feel like I am falling over into the territory where I am yelling about every little thing. Most of the time whatever she is doing isn’t a big deal, but I make a big deal out of it by yelling. I just want to pick my battles and realize that she is just a kid and little kids don’t necessarily think things through.

I don’t know, I just feel like I’m losing my balance and turning into a parent that I don’t want to be. I am working on my patience and not sweating the small stuff so much, so I can get back to a balanced position on my high wire of life, but man, is it tough.

Any of you made it across the high wire of parenting? Can you actually balance all the way across?

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Balancing...

This past week has felt like one great balancing act for me and it is causing me a lot of stress. At work I have always gotten pretty decent performance reviews, but there has always been one knock against me. That knock is that I leave on time every day. In this day and age every company is trying to do more with less and a lot of people are spread thin and my company is no different. So yesterday I was leaving at 3 PM and I ran into one of my superiors on the way out and he jokingly asked me if I had “banker’s hours”. I replied with courtesy and said that I had been there since 6 AM, to which he replied “Well, you’re salaried so you should be working 6 – 5.” Then he laughed and walked inside. Yeah, he said everything in a joking manner, but I’ve known him long enough to know that there is some bit of truth in his jokes. It really bothers me that people think I slack off because I do my job and leave on time. My hours are 6 AM to 3 PM, and most days I am to work before 6, so while other people come in at 8 and get irritated that I am leaving at 3, they forget that while they are sleeping in a nice and cozy warm bed, I have already been up and at work for a few hours. But they never see that, they just see me walking out the door “early”.


Now I have never had any problem staying late to work on projects or take care of business that needs attention. I have rearranged daycare pickups to stay late, but have always had a drop dead time to pickup for daycare, so there have been times where I have stayed late then left to pick up A Bird. But on those occasions I always have taken the work home with me and had it finished before whoever needed it even showed up for their day. I guess I just hate that people think I am slacking, I am very organized and manage my day well so that all of my responsibilities are complete by the end of the day so I can leave on time. But I always have wondered, am I really that much more organized and other people so disorganized? Or do they have more on their plate and I should be doing more? When I think that, I have always gone to my boss and asked for more, yet I am still finished on time 95% of the time.

I really enjoy the hours I work, I enjoy coming in early before anyone else gets in and doing the majority of my work without being distracted. I also love getting out when I do, by leaving at 3, it gives me more time to spend with A Bird. I value that time so much. It’s during this time that we connect and talk and play. It’s this time of day that I get to just be with her and bond. Our family is very close knit and that is important to me. So I think that I have found the perfect life/work balance.

This is the balancing act that I feel like is weighing me down. I want to do well and be recognized for my work so I can move up in the company and provide better for my family, but I also don’t want to sacrifice the little time I have with A Bird during these early years. I’m sure everyone feels like this or has felt like this before, it just sucks and is hitting me hard.

OK, holy long post, huh? I have more to post on the balancing acts but I will break off and post the rest tomorrow…

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Putting things into perspective…

Today was a long day, it was the first day back after the long holiday weekend and I was still exhausted from everything that happened over the weekend. I made it through the day and came home to find this:

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Yep a big old hole chewed right through the drywall. I was instantly fuming and looking for the culprit:

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That’s Roxy in her best I’m guilty and I am ooooooh sooooo sorry face. Apparently in her old age/senility she has taken quite a liking to the taste of drywall. I found her hiding and looking guilty, and I knew it was definitely her, because Captain Destructo Linus was still safely locked away in his kennel.

She is too old to actually punish the way she should be punished, so I lightly cuffed her and was fuming about boiling her in a pot when the phone rang. It was my mother and the first thing she said was to turn on the 5  o’clock news and her voice was very serious. I instantly started to panic until she told me that everyone was OK but there had been a scary situation.

John and Lisa were leaving for their honeymoon this morning and they ran into a bit of trouble. Apparently, the first leg of their flight was from Rochester to NY or NJ. The flight was extremely turbulent, so bad that Lisa,who has flown many times got sick. Then one of the engines lost its hydraulics and the pilot informed them that they need to prepare for a crash landing. The pilot managed to get the plane to an airport in NJ,  and they came in hard. I guess it was hard enough to break the landing gear, but thankfully that was all that was broken. John and Lisa were unhurt, but were seriously shaken up and they still had another flight to board. It was also, John’s first time flying, it must have really inspired confidence in him, huh?

That phone call definitely put things into perspective for me. Yeah a hole in the drywall is a huge pain in the ass, but it can be fixed relatively easily. A little tape, a little mud and presto the hole’s all gone. It’s a whole lot easier to fix than a  injured or worse, family member. So with that in mind, I’m going to hold close to my family tonight and thank God for all I have and for blessing me with such a large and wonderful family.

Oh yeah, and I have to patch drywall, wish me luck….

Monday, September 5, 2011

Wedding Bells & Dancing Flower Girls

Yesterday my brother John got married. He found a wonderful woman who he is very much in love with and I wish him a long blessed life with his new bride, Lisa. With that being said, let’s move on to some of the details. John and Lisa had a small wedding party, but A Bird was lucky enough to be asked to be the flower girl. So on Friday we went up to the dress rehearsal at the church and A Bird learned her official Flower Girl duties. Basically, she had to carry a basket down in front of Lisa. She couldn’t actually throw down flower petals as the church wouldn’t allow it. But she was still excited.

Yesterday came and we left the house a little late but with some creative driving we still made it to the church a little early. Everyone looked wonderful, My Mom was wearing a dress that looked really good, my stepfather and brother were both in tuxedos, L Bird was rocking a pretty hot black dress, I wore my pinstriped suit and A Bird looked beautiful in her cream colored flower girl dress. Now, here is where the panic, well not really panic, more anxiety really that A Bird would forget what to do or get nervous and back out at the last second. Fortunately everything went off without a hitch, A Bird walked down the aisle and was reasonably quiet and very well behaved throughout the ceremony.

We then went to Lisa’s house and had pictures taken of the bridal party and A Bird. Then finally came the reception. John and Lisa chose to have their reception at the Genesee Country Village & Museum. So while the bridal party were having their pictures taken the wedding guest could walk through the village and relax before the reception

At the reception the food was delicious, the DJ was actually pretty good and it was an all around good time. On top of all of that, “The Slutty Cousins” were in full effect. My three girl cousins, my brothers and I are lovingly dubbed the slutty cousins due to our dancing and drinking at weddings, so yeah it was a good time.

But I think A Bird had the best time of all, I think she only sat down for 2, maybe 3 songs. Other than that she was out rocking on the dance floor. She danced with everyone and by herself when no one else was out there. You can check out her awesome moves below.(*** the room with the DJ was really dimly lit for his light system, but you can still make her out)

And here she is twisting the night away with Uncle Johnny, the groom.

Overall, it was a long day, but an extremely awesome and happy one. Congrats John and Lisa, we love you and wish nothing but the best for you!!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Little Things...

Isn’t funny how the little things in life can completely change your mood or attitude. We have had a stressful couple of weeks with both A Bird and L Bird’s medical situations going on and creating a roller coaster of emotions. I know the stress is affecting all of us, but today I had a little thing brighten my mood. I was walking to my Jeep to go to lunch when out of the corner of my eye I spotted something red on the bumper.




A Bird had stuck that little heart sticker on my bumper over a month ago. She told me it was “because I like your Jeep and I love you!” So just seeing that little red heart still stuck there after a month of driving and rain and wind was amazing. One stupid little sticker made me smile all day.

I know that people always say don’t worry about the little things, well sometimes those little things can have a huge impact. So do some little thing for someone you care about. It may go a long way for them.



Monday, August 29, 2011

This Weekend = One Wild Ride

The end of last week right through the weekend was quite a wild ride. Have you ever felt like you needed a vacation just to recover from your weekend? I could use a whole day to do nothing but sleep. Seriously, I could shut my eyes and be out like that. Within the last two weeks we have had 1 trip to urgent care and 2 trips to the ER, with the two ER trips happening this weekend. Basically, we are all getting through this with nothing too horrible, but it was definitely scary when it was happening.

So it all started with getting A Bird squared away Thursday morning. She had this huge weird rash and the doctor’s couldn’t get it figured out and it had been going on for a couple of weeks. Finally, a doctor suggested we take her to a dermatologist. She had her appointment Thursday and it turns out that she had a severe case of eczema. Great, finally an answer and a treatment to get her some satisfaction. It is always so stressful when your kids are sick and there isn’t much you can do to help them.

L Bird gets home from work Thursday and has a tiny bump by her elbow that looks like a small bite. She mentioned to me that she had noticed it earlier, but wasn’t too concerned. Then Friday morning she gets up and is covered in hives and her hands are extremely swollen. I ended up getting a late start to work so I could drop A Bird off at daycare while L Bird went to the ER. The ER doctor chalks it up to a penicillin allergic reaction because she had just finished some antibiotics. He gives her some pills for the itching and tells her to let it run its course. The pills worked well enough where we both went to the B.B. King & Buddy Guy concert (I’ll try to post some video from the show, it was awesome!) later that night.

Saturday morning comes and L Bird’s hands are swollen again and the hives are spreading and red and itching. She contemplated going to the ER again, but decided to muscle through it and see what happened. So she was pretty miserable all day, but she was managing and I have to leave to go to my brother’s bachelor party. The party is a good time, but L Bird calls me about 10:30 PM saying that her throat was tight and she was worried. After some talking she thought about it, and decided she was well enough and she didn’t need to go to the doctor’s.

Then in the middle of the night L Bird is on the end of the bed hyperventilating and crying. She is yelling to me to wake up because something is wrong. I jump out of bed and try to figure out what the hell is going on. She told me that she got up to go to the bathroom, then her throat felt really constricted and she couldn’t breathe, then as she was walking out of the bathroom she must have passed out because she woke up on the floor looking at the front door. So now I’m in total panic mode. I call 911 and get an ambulance on the way, then I called and woke my poor mother up at 3:30 AM to come down and stay with A Bird while I went to the hospital. The ambulance and EMTs show up and they start giving L bird oxygen and she is starting to be able to breathe better. The whole time I’m praying that A Bird stays asleep so she doesn’t wake up and be traumatized by seeing her mother strapped to a gurney and being wheeled into an ambulance. Luckily for me she slept through the whole ordeal.

My mother shows up to stay at the house and I was off and racing to the ER. When L Bird got to the ER, the doctor gave her a shot of epinephrine to stop the swelling and something for the hives and itching. We spent the next 4 hours sitting and watching her hives gradually lessen in degree of severity, but not go away completely. The doctor finally releases us with some more pills and a final diagnosis of severe allergic to penicillin.

We finally get home and everyone (L Bird, my mother, and me) are exhausted, just purely spent, but A Bird is a ball of fire and ready for the day. Luckily my Dad called and he and my step mother came down and took A Bird for the day. My Mom went home to rest and L Bird and I got some well needed rest.

At the start of today I was and still am dragging. I’m still too tired to be of much use to anyone, but thankfully things look like they are starting to turn the corner. A Bird’s eczema is just about all cleared up and while L Bird still has hives, they are much less than they were and she is having no trouble breathing.

It was one hell of a weekend, but even with all of that I am so thankful. I am thankful that it was something that was treatable with both my ladies. Things could have been a lot worse, but in the end they turned out ok. Thank God for small miracles.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

My Gramps…

gramps

Today is my Grandfather’s birthday, he is 83 years old today, or if you ask him he’ll tell you he’s 38. He’s dyslexic when it comes to his age. Growing up, I spent a lot of time at my Grandmother’s house. I lived out in the country and there were very few kids my age to play with, but my Grandmother lived in town and there were always a ton of kids around including my cousins. So I would beg my mother to let me go into my Grandparent’s house as much as I could.

When I was at my Grandparent’s house, it was always my Grandfather who would organize all of the neighborhood kids into teams for games of baseball or football in the park. He would collect as many kids as he could find and walk us all up to the park to play. We would pick teams and to make it fair he would be “all-time” pitcher or QB, meaning he would pitch for both sides or he would quarterback for both sides. He has always been a big kid, and he would always have a huge smile on his face as we would run out and catch a pass or hit one over the fence and round the bases laughing. One of my fondest memories of him, was when he took me fishing. He used to take all of us fishing, but this time it was just me and him that day. I had spent the night at the house, and he woke me up real early just as the sun was coming up. We had some breakfast and walked down to the city pier. It was great to just be there with him. He let me pay for the bait at the pier bait shop, he showed me how to bait a hook with a soft shell crayfish and with minnows, and we sat there all morning. Me next to him, sitting on our overturned 5 gallon buckets. To tell the truth I can’t remember if we caught any fish that day, or what we talked about, but I remember the sights, sounds and smells of that day just as vividly as they were that day.

Now my Gramps has his own very unique quirks. He lost all of his teeth when he younger, so as long as I have known him he has been toothless. I guess he had dentures at one time, but when they moving from one house to another they got lost or thrown out. He swears that either my father or my Uncle Phil threw them out and both of them blame the other one and deny having anything to do with it. Sometimes when both my father and Uncle Phil are at his house, I like to bring that story up and get my Gramps all riled up about it and have him give them the business all over again as I sit back and laugh. So because of that incident he has never gotten more dentures, and if you ask him his answer is always “Why should I buy new teeth? Someone will just throw them out!”. I’m not sure if it is the fact that he has no teeth, or because he grew up poor, or a little of both of those things, but he eats the weirdest things ever. It’s normally anything he can find put between two slices of bread, then he folds the sandwich in half, sticks in a glass of milk and eats it that way. Anything left in the glass he fishes out with a spoon then he drinks the milk. It’s pretty disgusting but he has always been that way. The worst combination that I have seen was hot dog relish on bread, with Reese’s Pieces candies, dunked into a glass of milk. Even his coffee is different, instead of cream and sugar, he floats a healthy table spoon of butter in his black coffee to “Sweeten” it.

One of his other quirks is what he does when he has company he doesn’t particularly care for. If he hears that people are coming for a visit that he doesn’t like, he grabs the dog’s leash and takes Brutus for a walk. He’ll walk for hours or until the people leave, then he comes home. If he has no prior knowledge of the visit, he’ll say hello but within 5 minutes he is grabbing the dog and apologizing for having to take the dog out. It’s actually pretty funny to watch, and amazingly the people he’s avoiding don’t seem to notice that it happens every time.

But anyway, my Gramps is one hell of a man. I owe a lot of who I am to him. I have his (and my father’s) dirty sense of humor, his occasional hot tempered outbursts, and his love of cards. He is a UNO freak, but also taught all of us to play Euchre, until he quit because he said me and my cousin cheat. He’s a bit of a sore loser, but he’s in his eighties so I think he has earned it. I am thankful to have him in my life.

Happy Birthday, Old Man! I Love you Gramps!

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