Paddy's Wanderings

The Pink Soap

The t-k is a good helper, even when the foam brush is taller than him.

It was a nice day, not too warm, a little wind, but a good day to wash the Jeep. Ahh, to be six again, when the highlight of the day is to go with dad to the wash and scrub the Jeep.

Bug guts, it had to be bug guts. Being six means an endless supply of questions as well. I don't think he ever was happy with any answer I had for all the dead bugs on the bumper. He was happy we did not hit any good guy bumble bees(phew!). But, I got the shrug and we moved on.

I was in charge of the top because we did not have a ladder. His words. Good thing too, last thing I needed was him on a ladder trying to wash the 'high parts'. I did convince him not to hold the trigger, the force darned near put him on his butt!

There was just enough of a wind to create a fine mist in the wash bay. He was worried he was getting wet and he would drip all over the seat. Of course, it was not a problem. After all his aim is not as good as he thinks and I may have been a wee bit wetter then he was.

I remember two little boys who did the same thing. I was excited when they got old enough to cut grass, rake leaves, all of that stuff. Soon the t-k will be ready for more of that and I am happy. Not so much because it is one less thing I have to do, but it is one more thing he can learn to do.

Watching the wee ones grow up is a good thing. Enjoy it while you can, I have.

Happy Wanderings

 

 

Sheeple Camping, 50's Style

Better 1/2 and middle boyo like to hunt for treasure at estate sales. Once and awhile, they find a gem like this book right here. It was a quarter, not much to time travel back to the camping days of the 1950's if you ask me. This book has all kinds of good stuff in it for the hardy sheeple adventurer. Wanna take a peak?

 It has a lot in a little book, from planning where to go to what to take and what to eat. This is camping folks, so fueling the motor home is not covered. But, there are diagrams for packing bedrolls and checklists of what to take and what to do as part of the camper's chores. There is a chapter on how to build and tend a fire and good safety tips, all illustrated.

Food, very important when camping and hiking. There is some good advice on making 'poke' lunches, food in a bag tied in a bandana and tied to the belt or carried on a stick, 'hobo' style(book terminology, see it is from the 50's). For longer trips, there is some good advice on how to cook and a bunch of recipes.

There is a whole chapter devoted to knots and another to lashing, as in lashing wood together to make everything from tables to the framework for larger tents. Amazing what you can build with a scrap of canvas and rope. There is also a chapter on care of tools like knives and hatchets as well as some very good advice on first aid.

A lot of this stuff I learned in the Fashioned Challenged Seventies and passed along to the wee lads during the Roaring Nineties. Cool thing is, the boyos use it today when they go camping. Sure the language is dated a bit and maybe wax paper is not used in the younger generation as it once was(shame too, cause it works great for a lot of things), but a lot of the info shows up in camping guides today.

Good info works like that. Time to head out camping, take my poke bag, cook some frankfurters on a 'cabin' style fire and get outside. No cell phones allowed.

Happy Wandering

 

 

We're Having a Heatwave..

a tropical heatwave...

Let me back up a bit. This pic is of the techno-kid's snowman. Yep, I basically handed him snow and he sculpted. It's all him. Really, his first snowman all by himself. He had so much fun and that is worth the cold, wet snow. He was so proud and so happy it was infectious. That is awesome.

Me? Oh I had a blast. I could see him put on the old creative hat, squint at the snow, and go to creating. He was so into it, humming to himself, dancing a jig and in the moment. It was fun for me to see that freedom, to stand by and watch him make magic. It was pretty cool to see that.

Then he started singing.. we're having a heatwave.. a tropical heatwave...

Snapped that bubble right there. See, he wandered through while I was watching Grumpy Old Men one day and stated laughing. It was the scene when Matthau and Lemmon are fighting on the ice and, well we all know how funny that is. So he wanted to watch the movie, and I figured there was no harm in that. The worse language he would hear is putz and moron. He loved it of course(the apple dont fall far from the tree) and he was taken with the grumpy old guys, as he puts it.

He just doesnt get the song, good thing he doesnt. I asked, he said they are making fun of the cold, snowy winter. Which.. in a way they are. Funny how he associates the two, but then again, he is still a wee lad. He calls it like he sees it and all is good.

Of course, it got warm, and the snowman is much shorter today. He was a bit mad at that at first. Then he must have been thinking about it today. He kept telling me it was ok it was melting. I admit I just let it go and agreed, I could tell he was thinking on the situation.

Then he says to me, it's ok the snowman is melting, the water makes snow and when we get new snow, we can make another. You know, it's like sand castles.

It sure is.

 

Junk Drawer, Feb 2012

I need a new pic for the Junk Drawer. Then again, it is a junk drawer and hasn't changed much in a long time. Maybe I should clean it.

Then again the wandering has not been happening much lately either. The nasty sickness from early December is back, not as bad, but back. It is a viral thing too.. Silly me asked the doctor to give me a broadbase anti-viral. He said there is no such thing. I have to tough it out for 2-3 months. It has been two months. I guess I watched too much SF because I would have swore they had stuff for viruses.

I wish. This thing makes it hard to work, let alone finish writing projects, or wander. But I am doing some of that wandering now, I sure am.

At The Farm, there is a mountain of work to do. I have started helping my Dad do some of that. We got a lot planned for Spring, so we have to get prepared. Being sick, and the relentless snow and cold, especially this weekend, is making it hard to get a lot done.There is so much to do, so much to transfer to the Old Barn, to preserve and save all those treasures.

We even plan to build a new house, which if you are keeping count, would be the third house on the property since it was homesteaded in 1882. I never saw the first one, still have not found a picture, but there is plenty to go through. I do remember the second one, but that is, sadly, now gone too. So we are gonna build another one.

I know complaing about the warm winter sounds funny, but up north here, there is plenty of snow and the wind off the hill cuts right through a person. I would swear that the winters of my childhood, back in the Fashioned Challenged Seventies, were much colder. I don't remember them that way at all. Might be my age,might be that there is no house or power or my Grandma baking cookies in the kitchen to come in to after being out in the cold barn.

The power is disconnected, first time since they put in electricity back in 1937. We'll get that hooked up in spring so we can use power tools. Unlike my great-great-grandfather, we'll want power for tools. Feels like cheating though, it really does. That is another post though. For now, we freeze and do our thing. Still not as tough as those old guys. no where near.

Other than that, January was a long month, and Febuary is going to be too. Thats ok, we'll get it done. Then we can spend the weekend at The Farm, not in a hotel. Better 1/2 has Grandma's recipes so maybe I can get her to bake some cookies.

Until next time...

 

 

The Gordy Elbow

I have not been posting much of late, but I have indeed been spinng yarns into the digi-verse. The following is but a small excerpt from the tentatively titled, A Sheeple Christmas...

 

It is a family tradition to gather on Christmas Eve. This year, we were gathering at my Peanut Butter Uncle’s house and we had a new addition to the gaggle of kids. After nine boys, we finally had a new cousin, and she was a girl! We always drew names amongst the boyos and we got to give a cousin a gift on Christmas Eve. Great when it’s a bunch of car crazy, squirt gun toting boys who built elaborate forts and played army, or Cowboys and Indians. Throw a girl into that mix and it is scratch your head time.

What do you get a girl?

It was also a time when my other uncle, who was a crazy hockey fan, would always be the last one at the table, trying to catch the latest game on the rabbit ears. That year, he sat next to me, the only seat left. We said grace, than commenced the passing of dishes. Now my Uncle Puck had a tendency to point and grunt. He was a man of few words, unless he was coaching us boys in the fine art of the body check. So he gave me a Gordy Elbow, grunted and pointed in the general direction of the rolls. I missed it.

Uncle Puck pointed and grunted a little louder.

I shrugged and grunted back questioningly.

It was perfect timing. Amidst the clatter and bang of the passing of the holiday meal, the exchange fell into that perfect silence. All the adults broke out into a huge laugh. Baby cousin giggled because the adults were laughing, but the boyos, they looked at me in shock.

No one questioned Coach. No one would dare make fun of him, but I had did just that. With a look that said I would be skating laps around the rink for the rest of my childhood, he gave me the Gordy Elbow and grunted and pointed. I passed the rolls, hoping I was correct. He nodded, grabbed one, and passed the bowl.

Again, a small taste of that one evening, there is much more to tell of this day and the days leading to and from Christmas. It was the Fashioned Challenged Seventies, a different time for sure. Until next time.. there just may be more of this story to leak out into the blog..

Stone Statues

Is it the Moon? Or a Martian landscape? Maybe, it is a five year old on a beach stacking stones, making a bit of sand art. It is all in how you look at it.

Imagination is the key.

Children have a wonderful imagination. I think we all know that. They use imagination to fill in their world, to help to understand it. The techno-kid is filled with stories and explanations for everything from how bees make honey to, well to why there is a stone statue on a beach. At one time, this was a temple that Inyanna Jones explored looking for treasure.

The old saw a picture is worth a thousand words seems to be true. But if you are kid, and you really stretch the imagination, then it is worth a thousand stories. It is amazing how easy and free a mind can be when that mind is fresh to the world.

Here there be magic.

When I am in the midst of the January Blues, I can sit down, look at pictures like this one. I can talk with the t-k and have him tell me a story. I can smell the lake breeze, feel the sun on the sand, and for a moment, be free and see the world for the first time.

Remember..

 

Then & Now ~ LotR

That is the cover from my first copy of Lord of the Rings, bought at the bookstore in the mall, way back in 7th grade, a.k.a. 1978. Crazy as it seems, I still have that dog eared copy. Even crazier, I say the first copy because I have two other paperback versions and a swanky leather bound hardcover of all three books in one.

I also saw all three movies in the theater and have the swanky extended version book case DVD's. I guess that qualifies as a fan. I have miniatures, action figures, all kinds of stuff from the Hobbit as well as all the other writings. I have passed on that fascination to the older boys and now it is the techno-kid's turn.

The other day I was wanting to watch the second part of Return of the King because, well, I love the scene where the Riders of Rohan charge down on to the Fields of Pellinor. Awesome scene right there with an awesome performance from the actors. Go Eowyn! Well I was watching and the t-k wandered into the bedroom and stayed and watched it with me.

Now, he has seen parts of the trilogy before, but he never really seemed to get into it, until that day. So we started the series from the begining and, over the weekend, watched it all. He even made me watch the end, you know, the part where all lovers of Hobbits get all teary eyed. Yeah well, he turns to me and with big crocodile tears says, 'Dad, that is so sad Frodo has to leave.'

Not to miss an opportunity to discuss the literary merits of one of my favorite stories, I asked him if he knew why Frodo was leaving. He says 'Well, Frodo had the ring and it was bad and it still hurts him, so if he goes with the Elves, he will get better. He can't stay with his friends, but thats ok, they are safe now.'

The t-k is six years old and of course, has not read the books, but he gets it. I can not wait until he is older and reads the books, and he can read the scouring of the Shire. Then he will really get it. He'll probably start spitting fire, especially when the beloved Party Tree gets chopped down. I admit, I look forward to that day because we then can discuss it all in detail.

But, he gets the gist of it already, and that is truly amazing. It is a powerful story, and the movies, albeit not perfect, do a good job of telling the story. I have read a bit of the Fellowship of the Ring to him, but I think he is much like me, impatient when someone reads to them. Soon though, very soon he will be able to tackle ye olde tome on his own. The Red Book! There and Back Again!

I can hardly wait. I remember the older bros enjoying the story a great deal, both in book and movie form. To say I am excited about the upcoming Hobbit movie is an understatement. We shall all enjoy the continuing stories of the beloved Hobbits and the good guys and bad guys of fair Middle Earth. As a wee lad I was enthralled, still am as an adult. The beauty of it all is, the kiddos are just as enamored as I am.

That, is cool.

Happy Hobbit Trails

 

 

 

Radio Waves

Imagine 1958, new set of wheels with a state of the art radio, cruising the strip. Brand new music from Elvis, Ricky Nelson, and the hot song from that summer, Purple People Eater.  Sure looks strange to me, especially that one horn.

Flash forward to the Fashioned Challenged Seventies and I am just a wee lad, riding in the back of a 1968 Pontiac. What did we listen to? You got it, AM Radio. I grew up on a steady diet of 70's AM Radio, and I am thankful I did. Some of the best music from that decade I first heard in a car. From short trips across town to long Sheeple Vacation Road Trips. If I played it right, I could convince my parents to play something other than country music, for a little while.

You gotta have Rock N' Roll.

Tuneage on the go. I still listened to AM Radio, but mostly just for baseball games. I moved on to FM and the hot 100. I was a teenager, what can I say. And, all of thirty years ago, is when I started listening to a local 'Oldies' station. It was hip man, all the cool cats tuned in to get a blast from the past, listen to the classics man. The squares were doing the hustle, you wanted to get a groove on, you caught this station.

At that time(remember this) they played 50's and 60's and I could dig it. This is long before we started putting a lower case i in front of everything, long before the net, you know, stone age days. Those tunes were hard to come by unless you caught a garage sale where some oldie who had lived past the hipster stage was selling old 45's. The magic of radio though.. yeah, it was all there, Elvis, Ricky, and even a Purple People Eater.

It sucks, but you grow up. I dont listen to the radio much anymore. That is a shame really. Just on ocassion, in the Jeeple, do I tune in the radio. I have a CD player, I can play whatever. I have a lot of those oldies on CD, so I can catch it then. I do not listen to that oldies station much anymore, but I did yesterday.

Caught some cool tunes by Seeger, Bowie, early 80's stuff. And.. that right there, my friends, is the problem. That station is STILL an oldies station. The oldies are the Hot 100 from the Fashioned Challenged Seventies and the Hazy Eighties. Yep, you gotta it, they bill themselves as playing all oldies, all the time.

Except.. the oldies are from my teeny bopper years.. Shazam! In the blink of an eye I have become that past their prime old hipster cat selling ancient cassette tapes at a yard sale. If that fifteen year old could see me now.. he would laugh, snap his fingers and say too bad old dude. Maybe you should listen to the 'current' Hot 100.

But I can't.. I just can't get into it. For kicks, I just looked at the Top 40.. I know a couple artists and recognize one song. Sad really.. truly sad. I think I understand how my grandparents felt when all their favorite radio shows, The Lone Ranger for example, got replaced with that loud, teenage rock and roll stuff. Funny how that works.

So I will keep trying. I will still catch a Hot 100 radio station, hoping something catches my ear. After all, you can't listen to only the oldies, not if you want to be a real cool hipster cat, and not some kinda square.

Happy Musical Wanderings

 

So Long Odd Year

The road through time.

Time is something that can be shaped and has variable speeds. Case in point, I had planned to finish this on the first but was sidetracked. That is a continuing story in itself. But I had a good excuse, I was watching Lord of the Rings with the techno-kid yeterday. So here it is, last year.

January was a whirlwind with the new job and very little posting. Actually there was very little posting last year in general. Working fifty plus hours and trying to juggle all the new stuff was a challenge, right at the begining of the new year.

Febuary and March was more of the same. Long hours away from the page was the continuing theme. Still looking for that kidney shaped table. We are still looking for a house for that matter, but our decorating aspirations are still early sixties.. weird, I know.

April had more exerpts from the blasted novel posted and a fun post about Easter Egg Hunting. I also started a Then & Now category. Kinda comparing me, from forty years ago, to the tecno-kid. Kinda illustrating the changes. I did more of that in May, the post about the changes to TV being the post with the most hits this past year, a post about Rabbit Ears.

The summer brought about the container garden and canning! It also gave us a chance to head north to The Farm.  So much to come, so much to write about that I will continue to fill the screen with stories and pics. I also did my favorite post of the year about building Sand Castles.

We did a lot of weekend Sheeple Trips. We went to the Fort at Mackinac, Mackinac Island, Mill Creek and of course Friday Night in Traverse City. Mix in trips to the Farm and it was a good time to be travelling. Been too long since we were able to go for a weekend and explore, I am pleased we were able to do so and look forward to this summer's adventures!

Cool new thing for the year, and there were many, was taking Better 1/2 to see the Tigers at Comerica(Tiger Stadium, it will always be Tiger Stadium). We had so much fun, and are planning to take the techno-kid this summer. It was my first game in the 'new' stadium, alas it has been that long, but we can make up for that now.

I finally wore out and ended up on the couch for two weeks with pneumonia. Recovered now, more or less, but that was a bad stretch. Had a good Christmas and New Year and looking forward to this year. More wandering, more writing, and more just doing, living. This is good.

Even numbered years are years of change and I am looking that right in the eye, lets do it. I am ready, do time warp, definitely wander.

Happy Wanderings!

 

Of Cats & Christmas Trees

Once again, there lays our Beloved Bully Bear, fallen from his carefully selected perch, the victim of the climbing hijinks of the baby black cat. It is of course, a Christmas tradition. Tree goes up, cat goes up tree, down comes Bully Bear.

This year we got the tree up a couple of weeks before the big day. Down it went before it was even fully decorated. A careening cat, diving into the tree at Mach 2, will surely bring down the most stalwart of trees. We have a nice artificial tree, sturdy, and for the most part, cat proof. This year.. not so much.

The base gave up the ghost, cracked almost beyond the wonders of super glue. It held, barely. Still, the tree spent two weeks on the floor, in various heaps. Nothing we tried dampened the persistance of that darn cat.

Canned air got her to hide under the couch until we let our guard down, then up the tree she went. Shoes and assorted projectiles did nothing. The momma cat hissing at her and batting the kitten ears barely registered. Even the dreadful moniker of Mundane Noodle, screamed at her as only a six year old can muster, did not deter her in the least.

I admit, I gave up.

Then on Christmas eve, we righted the tree in one last attempt to weather the kitten storm. Mom went to work. Me, middle son, and the t-k went over to my Dad's house. We arrived back home to find the tree, with momma cat sleeping on the skirting, still standing. As people owned by cats, we were cautiously optimistic and headed to bed.

Christmas morning and the tree still stood, presents flowing from underneath. Two cats perched on the outer edge, doing the catnap. All was good. The tree made it through the night and into the day.

Now, as I sit here, the little tree that could, is still standing. For the past five days, the wee kitten has ignored the tree. It is a cat thing. I am tempted to leave it right there until next year. Two can play that game. I am, after all, the top of the food chain! I am the master of my domain. My brain is as big as that cat and I can reason, use tools. I have opposable thumbs...

But it does occur to me, she is the cat.

And I, well I am.. the mouse.