Paddy's Wanderings

Raspberry Death

A long time ago, back in the Roaring Nineties, my friend The Tim started a band of paintball players. It seems so long ago that we must have been using paint rocks to play out side of the cave, dodging dino dung. Be that as it may, the group has been playing a long time and having fun every step of the way. So much has changed over the years is my point.

I used to be very proud of my pump gun. Seriously, how many shots do you need to hit the target? Then again, we do play in heavy woods with all kinds of self made barricades. Many a tire has found its way onto the field as well as a few processed trees. A couple of hill forts and a very cool tower has been built over the years. So naturally, I had to get new gear this year. Funny how fifteen years later I paid the same amount of money for a far superior paint gun and mask.

This small bit was a capture the flag scenario and not a whole lot can be seen as I was standing(hiding) behind a barrel. Forgive my crappy video skills in this bit of this year's game play. I am such a noob using the camera, and don't even go down that path when it comes to editing and sprucing up on ye olde 'puter. Eventually I will get it down, until then I will foist my attempts upon you, the reader.

The cool thing is we have a lot of fun playing a game. And after all of these years of getting bugged by the two big boyos to go play, Middle-Sheeple got the chance to go this year. I had a blast painting the trees and the occasional barricade. I may even have actually hit an intended target or two. I did eat a couple hotter doggers and break out the video camera and had a good day all around.

I have no doubt that we will be giving the old raspberry to Death at some point again in the near future. And I am fairly certain I'll wander along with camera in hand to try to record some better video. Hey man, it is all about having fun running around the woods and being goofy kids. Happy Paintball Wanderings!

Cookies that go Bump in the Night

PICT0470, originally uploaded by paddy's wandering.

If you are a lover of all things cookie like I am, then this time of year is the very best time. After the summer when the temperature and the leaves start falling, our house starts to warm up with all kinds of harvest projects. This past Saturday was the official start of the cookie season!

Don't get me wrong here folks, I can usually wheedle a batch of homemade cookies out of the better 1/2 during the rest of the year, but come autumn, she just starts the cookie making factory. This year kicked off with harvest and halloween cut-outs.

With her chief assistant baker-in-training toddler helping mix and breaking eggs, she whipped up a batch in no time flat. For the record, I can not bake my way out of a pie plate, my talents lie elsewhere, as in taste testing. However, much to our surprise, toddler can crack an egg like a pro. Seriously, no tiny pieces of shell, egg goes into the bowl just like he was born to bake.

So of course I stay out of the way, can't interrupt bakers at work. That didn't stop me from pulling out the camera and trying to take pics. After much don't take my picture from mom, and the toddler hamming it up, we get this one baker approved pic to post.

With the hustle and the bustle and general mayhem of baking with toddler, the cookies turned out excellent. A little frosting, a few sprinkles and voila! we had cookie and they were, er are, well okay they were good. I told her she needed to bake at least twice as many for any to make it to Monday!

Things to remember while baking ensues. No matter how many cut outs of every shape and size and vintage we own, and believe me there are many, the one that better 1/2 wants most to do in the current batch, can not be found until the last minute. And secondly and most importantly, the oven is hot, no touch. Toddler pointed that out to me about every other minute for two hours, even when I was in the laundry room doing laundry.

With that, the baking season is off to a good start. Using my ability to point and click a digital camera without getting fingers in the way, almost guarantees I will be posting up more cookie pics this autumn. Happy Cookie Wanderings!

Ye Olde Maple Tree

PICT0468, originally uploaded by paddy's wandering.

You may ask yourself why I would post a picture of a tree in ye olde blog, and I would say because it is there. This is just not any old tree mine you, this is the homestead's pride and joy. This is not just any maple tree, but our Maple Tree.

We have lived here in the same old spot for twenty plus years, seems strange to say that, but it is true. When we moved in here back in the last stages of the Hazy Eighties, the better 1/2 and I discovered this straggly little maple tree growing beside the driveway, it may have been all of four feet tall. Oh sure, we have a couple of spruce trees and at one time, before a storm killed it, a big old elm tree, but the little maple that could is our tree.

Well okay, I like to think of it as our tree. I love maple trees, always have, and I remember saying that to better 1/2 way back when. Someday I said, this will make a nice shade tree. Of course I did not think we would still be living here after all of these years, but there it is. And you know what, I was right, it is a nice shade tree.

If you think about it, ruminate if you will, trees mark the passage of time in our lives. The elm trees on the family farm marked a century of life. The trees my dad planted along the west side of our house when we moved into it way back in the Fashioned Challenged Seventies is another good example. Our little Maple Tree is just another tree in a long line of time's markers. If you stop and think about it, trees are an anchor in time and place.

I think there is going to come a point very soon, when it will be time for us to move on to a new house. Then the Maple Tree will stand watch over new folks, just like it has all these years for us, and that is okay by me. There are places and events and trees in a person's life that are bigger then the person themselves. Call them guideposts, markers, what have you, but just like people, they shade your wandering.

When it is time to move on, I'll grab a shoot off the old tree, plant it at the new place. Sometimes a good tree is hard to find, but I think a new sapling from the old place, growing in the new place, will be just the continuity that all of us cherish, trees and people alike.

River Front Buildings

CraneBldg, originally uploaded by paddy's wandering.

When the toddler and I were wandering around, I stopped and took a picture of the old American Hoist building. It seems strange to me that the building is still there after all of these years. I believe they closed in the early seventies.

I will say this, Bay City has done wonders renovating the city and making the waterfront attractive. But still, that old building stands.

I remember as a kid the waterfront was full of industrial buildings and was not all that great. The water was filled with waste and you would never want to fish or boat on it, at least I would not.

But that has all changed now. The river actually freezes and people fish and boat on it without fear of any industrial waste. Of course that is not to say the river is pristine, far from it. After all the Saginaw river basin is huge and everything in the valley flows to that river. But, it is a whole lot better.

Hey it is a good thing those old buildings are still there, it gives me and toddler a chance to go shoot some interesting pictures. Oh and of course we need to make a stop for a root beer or dash in for a piece of candy. Wandering is hard work!

Downtown Candy Run

OldBldg, originally uploaded by paddy's wandering.

A couple of weekends ago, I took the toddler to downtown Bay City to walk around and just get out of the house. Sometimes, you just have to wander off.

Our first stop was at the candy store and we loaded a bag full of different candies. Now I will admit, I like hard candy and really dig root beer barrels. I would cross the road for root beer barrels, and have done so with reckless abandon. The toddler wasn't so sure. I'll give him credit, he tried the barrels, but in the end, he didn't like them..shucky darn.

But we had some candy and wandered around and took some pictures of all kinds of things. I had to share the camera because, much to my surprise, the toddler is a shutter bug. Unfortunately, he has yet to figure out how to keep his finger off of the lens and almost all of his pictures did not turn out. That is to bad too. He took some pics of geese wandering around Vets bridge and had a grand old time. He missed the geese and got his finger.

Good news is, we were using the cheap digital camera so no harm there. I can only imagine if I had shelled out money for developing the finger shots, that would have been very, very bad; might have led to colorful language.

But you know, I am not so good with the camera either, so I'll guess we will learn together. That's cool too. Now we have a mission to take pics and become experts!

Happy Wanderings!