Playing In The Rain And Living For The Night

This afternoon was mostly sunny, but right around 3 o’clock as I was getting ready to leave work the sky turned pitch black and the rain let loose. It came down in sheets and was so hard it was actually bouncing off of everything. Every time it rains and its warm out, the instant I see the rain my mind pops out the phrase “Sweet summer rain, like God’s  own mercy.” I don’t know why, it just happens. For the longest time I really had no idea what that phrase meant, but I think I’m starting to get it. Summer rain comes down and washes all of the dust and grime clean and refreshes the sun burnt grass and plants, much like God’s mercy washes us clean from sin. I know, right? That’s funny coming from me because I’ve never been religious. But anyway that’s what I immediately thought, then as I was contemplating this and trying to become a deeper man, the rain stopped and the sun came out.

I love when it’s so hot out that you get a pop up thunderstorm than drops buckets of rain then is gone minutes later leaving the blacktop steaming. Then the sun shines on everything and amplifies the colors against the passing dark clouds. That is just awesome to me. Well, that happened today and as I was driving down Main St. I saw a group of drenched teenagers just hanging out. They had obviously got caught in the storm, but they were perfectly happy just hanging out, even though they were soaked. That got me thinking about all of the things I did when I was their age. I loved the rain, if it was raining me and my cousins would round up kids for a football game and go play in the rain. As I got older, I danced in the rain trying to be romantic with a girl I was seeing, I made out in the rain and the rain never bothered me. The rain made everything better back then, now I run to hide from it. I think “Great, it’s raining! Where’s the roof going to leak this time?” I don’t like that. I want to get back to playing in the rain and not caring about getting wet. Hell, it’s only water, right?

After I had that epiphany, my mind wandered to my teenage years and how I loved the dark and the night. I lived for the night. I would work all day in the summer just looking forward to the night. It was because the night is when everyone came out and hung out. There were no worries about bills or jobs, it was just hoping you had enough money to put gas in the tank and have someone buy you a six pack. That’s all it was, I never thought about the next day, let alone the next week. My only thoughts were of that night and what we could do. It seems like I had more friends then or at least I saw them more often and it was just peaceful. I don’t know I guess, it was just more carefree and more adventurous all at the same time. It’s just fun to reminisce.

Anyway, I guess what I got out of today is live life moment to moment. Let the small stuff be water off a duck’s back. Go out and play in the rain and live for tonight. Don’t hold back, go have an adventure. I’m going to…

Cranky Morning…

I am NOT a morning person. If I can wake up on my own, I’m OK, but still not in the best of moods. I have to get right up and go get in the shower, then have a cup of coffee, then I start to come around. If I’m woke up early, then I’m pretty miserable. Well today was one of those mornings. L Bird and I try to take turns as to who gets to sleep in and who gets up with A Bird, but I normally get the most benefit as she gets up early with A Bird more often than I do.

This morning L Bird got up to use the bathroom and A Bird woke up, so she got A Bird a bowl of cereal and turned on the TV for A Bird to watch one of her shows and then came back to bed. Not even 2 minutes later A Bird came back into the bedroom to inform me that she spilled the whole bowl of milk on the couch. Awesome way to start the day. So I get up and find the entire bowl of cereal upside down on the couch and milk everywhere. I get that all cleaned up and got A Bird another bowl of cereal.

So I’m up early, I’m cranky, and I’ve already cleaned up one massive mess. OK, I can recover from this, maybe, just don’t let anything else go wrong. To help L Bird enjoy her morning to sleep in I went in and got Linus out of his kennel so he doesn’t whine and wake her up. I let him out on his run and start running water to do some dishes. I open the kitchen window over the sink to be greeted with that damn rooster crowing his head off.I know I am going to have to get rid of him for our neighbors sake, but I was hoping to keep him until he was full grown and fully colored. But it was like he was taunting me, every time Linus would make a noise or he heard or saw me on the deck he would launch into 4 or 5 crows. And because I am already cranky he was annoying the hell out of me, he was very close to becoming a nice chicken dinner. But I digress, so I’m halfway through the dishes and Linus barks to come in, so I stop what I’m doing, go out bring Linus in, then go back to dishes. I’m washing away when I hear A Bird “Dad, Linus is pooping!!”. I turn just in time to see Linus drop a deuce two feet away from me. I swat him and stop him mid-poop and drag him back outside. I’m pissed. He hasn’t had an accident in the house in a few months. I come back to clean up the poop and finish the dishes. Linus is barking to come in, but I left him out so he can finish everything he is doing. I’M NOT CLEANING POOP AGAIN!

I finished the dishes and let Linus in. I’m still pretty miserable, but I’m holding. I’m not getting more pissy, but I’m not getting better either. I start to get coffee ready and  I’m greeted with this hellacious smell. I turned around and there was Linus pooping poop soup AGAIN. My only saving grace was that it was on the floor and not on the carpet. So I dragged him outside again and left him out there for a half hour. I came back inside and clean up poop for the SECOND time. While I’m cleaning up the poop A Bird gets out her tricycle and starts riding circles in the living room and ringing her bell over and over and over and over, ok you get the point. But let me just paint the scene for you:

Ring ring ring, poop smell, ring ring ring, poop smell, I think I threw up a little,ring ring ring, oh know I got the poo on me, dry heave, ring ring ring, get the poop in the trash and hot water on my hands, ring ring ring, “Hey Dad can I wash my hands too?” End scene.

I let A Bird wash her hands, then she scampers off and comes back with one of L Bird’s old purses and her piggy bank. She opens her piggy bank and starts shaking it with all she’s got and change is flying everywhere. My head feels like it’s going to explode, the jingling of change bouncing off the ceramic piggy bank, Linus  jumping around and barking at A Bird shaking the piggy bank, A Bird yelling at Linus for trying to eat her change and all of that with the faint repeated crowing coming in through the windows.

Its at this moment, that I just let my crankiness go and start laughing, because really what the hell am I going to do? This is my life and really, it’s only change on the floor. So I poured a cup of coffee and helped A Bird shake the last of her change out the piggy bank just as L Bird was getting up at 9 AM. I know, right? 9 AM, I let her sleep until 9 AM. I deserve a medal, lol.

Well it appears I’m coming out of my funk and I need a refill on my coffee. Hopefully your morning goes better than mine, Enjoy the day!

Trying to be creative...

Lately I have been going over a ton of creative ideas in my head. I just have this urge to create something and have it be wonderful. I guess as much as it is creative, it is a need for entrepreneurship. It’s a selfish want I guess. I want to create something that people will want to buy and people will know my name because of it. It would be an added plus if I could do it and live comfortably from it. I’m not greedy, I really don’t want to be rich. I still want to work and feel like I earned my money, I just want to be able to live comfortably and not worry about my bills. If I want to buy something I want to buy it and not worry about cutting something else short. Sounds simple right?


Well, it sounds easy but like a lot of things that “sound” easy, it is much harder than you think. It hasn’t stopped me, but it definitely has slowed me down. I think by now everyone that knows me, knows that I want to start my own brewery or brewpub. I have been brewing a while and I have come up with a few beers that I really think could compete in the current craft market. The issue is that I would need a significant amount of start up cash or partners, (there are very few people that I would trust enough to become partners) and I would need to throw myself whole heartedly into brewing. This would require me either to work all the time until the brewery took off, because I would never let go of the stability I have in my job unless I had a sure thing going with sales at the brewery. So that’s a scary thing for me but I know eventually I’ll get to where I want to go.

The other thing I have always wanted to do was write a book. I have always thought about it, but thought I was too dull to do it. I just like the thought of getting up in the morning, going into my home office, sitting down and just letting my thoughts run wild and come to life on the paper. The problem is, I have plenty of decent ideas for parts of stories but really nothing to hold them together and create a cohesive story. The other issue is actually completing a book. I have started numerous times over the years and then somewhere in the process become very self conscious about what I am writing and just stop writing. I feel like people are going to think I’m stupid for doing it, or that it isn’t good enough or that no one would ever be interested in reading something I wrote. However, I am tossing around the idea of actually starting to write again, thanks to a prompt from my Aunt Linda. She suggested I write children’s books and honestly I had never even considered that genre. I mean with A Bird, I am reading a ton of them anyway. So I have a pretty firm handle on what is being written and how it is being written specific to that age group. I have a few ideas for a few options that actually cover a range of ages from toddler board books to youth readers. We’ll see I guess if I can actually finish a project like this. If that happens then I’ll worry about the next phases of editing and publishing as I get there.

Well, now that the creative juices are flowing, I guess I should get to work before they dry up. What are some of your dreams and aspirations?

A Great Father’s Day Weekend…

This past weekend has been great. It was a perfect weekend for relaxing and coming back to center by spending time with my family. It was also one of the first weekends that I didn’t have to do anything, I mean I still have projects but I let them slide this weekend.
So L Bird and I have had kayaks for about four or five years now and the first couple of years we had them we used them like crazy. Then life got crazy with the arrival of A Bird and kayaking kind of fell off the map. Then I traded in my truck for the Jeep, so then I had no way to transport the kayaks so we didn’t go at all last year. L Bird and I both really enjoy being on the water so I sucked it up and found a roof rack and J Cradles on sale and bought them.


Look at them, looking all pretty on the roof.
So Saturday L Bird’s Aunt Jan wanted to watch A Bird for a few hours, it happened to work out perfectly to get some kayaking in down the canal. So we dropped A Bird off and hit the water.

That is just a quick snippet of kayaking, I couldn’t take a whole lot of video without falling way behind L Bird. But anyway it was so relaxing just to be out on the water and paddling. After about an hour or so on the water we pulled the boats out, got some lunch then went and picked up A Bird. So Saturday was a great day, we all got to have some fun and really relax.
Then Sunday, Father’s Day, came this morning and man did it come early. Before bed last night L Bird told A Bird that when she woke up this morning she could come in and wake me up to give me my father’s day presents. Well, that worked out well as A Bird came bounding in this morning at 6:30 AM and hit me with a bag of gifts. I managed to get my eyes open to see her frantically pulling out my gifts and shoving them under my face. She was really sweet and it made my day. At daycare she had made me a Father’s Day card, then at L Bird’s Aunt’s house she made two picture frames with pictures of A Bird and I (Thank you very much Aunt Jan, it was very thoughtful!). So after the gifts were given L Bird and A Bird headed out of the bedroom and I got to sleep in. IT WAS AWESOME!!!
I finally managed to drag myself from bed and we all got ready and went for a morning walk around town. L Bird followed A Bird on her tricycle while I walked Linus around town. It was very nice and relaxing just to walk as a family and have our simple conversations and bond over something as simple as a walk.
After our walk we headed out to my Pop’s house for Father’s Day. It’s always relaxing at my Dad’s house, he is super mellow and spends most of the time chasing A Bird around.
***On a side note, I am so grateful for my Pop being who he is. We didn’t have a lot of time together when I was a kid, but the time we had was always special. He is always the one I turn to when I need advice, he always seems to put things into perspective for me. He is a great father and a great Papa. I love you, Pop!
We hung outside on the patio all day just having lunch and hanging out. Everybody blew bubbles and watched my Dad’s dog Bruiser run like a mad man and pop them all. Other highlights of the day were when my Brother’s pet rat peed on L Bird’s leg, it was so funny and then the other big highlight was finding a tree frog and showing it to A Bird.

A Bird has no fear of anything, she was just like “Whatever, it’s just a frog”.
But anyway, it was a great weekend and it is winding down. The ladies are out watering the garden while I write this, so I should wrap this up and head out to help.
Enjoy what’s left of the weekend.

Garden Walkthrough

Last year our garden was underwater, so this year we made and planted raised garden beds. So with this being a year of garden firsts, I decided to plant a few new things as well. I’m growing white and Yukon gold potatoes in 5 gallons buckets, celery, “ground cherries” a.k.a tomatillos, acorn squash and cantaloupe in addition to the normal tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, and peas.

We’ll see what grows but in the meantime, I thought you might like to take a sneak peek.

What have you planted???

Roofing Adventures…AGAIN!!!

I think I have complained enough over the last few months on Facebook and to everyone I see that my house is the “House of 1000 Leaks”. Every time it rains outside I find another leak, because the jackass contractor, Mr. T. G., who flipped my house before unloading his handiwork on me, didn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground when it came to roofing. So this past winter, every time the snow would melt, the laundry room roof would leak, all this spring when we got days upon days of rain, the roof leaked. I had strategically placed buckets that were routinely quite full.

Fast forward to this past weekend, the rain had finally cleared up and we have had a few nice weeks of warm, sunny weather. I organized help with Capt. Insano, his father Diamond Dave, Dinker and my little brother Aaron offered his help on Sunday. We looked at the forecast and it looked good for roofing, Friday was warm and sunny, Saturday was supposed to be warm and sunny with only a 10% chance of rain in the afternoon, and Sunday looked even warmer and more sunny. Great, let the games begin.

Friday comes and I take a half day off of work to go to the eye doctor’s office and then go and help The Capt. tear off the roof. Great plan, I’m out early, so I go and pick up all of my water and ice barrier and then head to the eye doctor. As I just get to the office, my phone rings and its L Bird. She has a flat tire at work, so I tell her I will be over to change it when I pick up A Bird from daycare. I send The Capt. a quick text to give him a heads up that I would be late, great no problem. I finish my eye doctor appointment and head over to L Bird’s work to change the tire. I get there and the tire isn’t flat, it’s just low. So I check the tire and L Bird tells me that the valve stem is broke and it wouldn’t take air. Yep, sure enough the valve stem is broken. I take off the tire and lug it to the auto repair shop next door. They look at it and inform me that the valve stem isn’t broken, it’s the tire pressure monitor that is broke and it really needs to be fixed, but they could do it that afternoon. OK fine, change the thing and get me the hell out of there so I can help The Capt. get the roof off. Well, 45 minutes later they wheel me out a fixed tire. I pay the bill, rush back to L Bird’s work and put the tire back on. By now it’s almost 5 pm, so I am ONLY 4 hours late to get home, I rush and pick A Bird up and head for home. I pull in and The Capt. is on the roof with a pile of destruction on the ground of shingles, tar paper, wood, pine branches and I get the “Gee, thanks for the help!”. But it was all in good fun, because he knew what a pain in the ass day it was for me.

Now here comes Saturday, I get up and get the garbage cans all ready to go to the dump when I notice that it is starting to sprinkle and I have nothing but wood showing on the roof. 10% chance of rain, yeah right. Its only my luck. I quickly scramble and steal every tarp I had and threw them on the roof. Then I run the trash cans to the dump as The Capt. calls and says he’s on his way and that we should get the water and ice barrier down before it really starts raining. I get the cans dumped off and head to the house right as he is showing up. So we climb up on the roof and start pulling the rest of the nails and laying water and ice down.

 

Notice the classic Diamond Dave butt crack. He’s even wearing a belt, I know crazy right? I can’t explain it.

 

The Captain finishing up the last little bit of water and ice over T.G.’s cob jobbed corner.

Because we were rained out and didn’t get the shingles until the afternoon, we decided to wait on laying them until Sunday. So we decided to fix the other problem area on the back of the laundry room, the soffits and fascia. When the wind blows real hard it was blowing the rain up into the soffits and then it was leaking back into the house. So we figured we would find out why that was happening. Well, it didn’t take long to figure it out. We pulled off the aluminum trim pieces and BAM, there it was. There was just the end of the rafters and the insulation showing right through, there was no wood, nothing but this chinsy little piece of tin separating the inside of the house and the outside. Again, I applaud your short cuts, T.G. you SOB. After that fact had been discovered we ran to the lumber store and got lumber and did the job right, then put a new piece of aluminum trim up over the wood, so now we are all air tight and won’t leak.

After the water and ice and the soffit/fascia fix Saturday was spent. The Captain and I built a fire with the downed pine branches and drank beer before we smoked out the neighborhood and decided it would be a good idea to put the fire out.

Sunday came awful early and we started laying shingles. Luckily for me, my little brother Aaron came over to help, He’s a quick learner and was good help. We were just about finished with the section we had taken off, when we decided that we should probably go higher and take off more over a real spongy spot we found as we were working.

 

That means pulling off more shingles and plywood, stuffing in more insulation because there were 6 foot stretches in between the rafters that had none. But we managed to get it done and we finally finished around 7 pm that night.

 

That was the end of another long, long weekend of roofing adventures. The roof is done and that area will never leak for a long time. Thank God for good friends and good family.