I’m excited. Period.

Posted on by August 14, 2016

I worry about stuff….until I watch a video where it’s explained that I need two tools and the procedure is pretty straightforward.

Cool.

I could use a little “straightforward” these days.

It looks really easy.

Cool.

I could use a little “easy” these days.

Jenny has dealt with an automatic door actuator that doesn’t unlock the back doors every time.

When it’s raining and you’re trying to corral two little guys, it’s a real bugger when the doors don’t automatically unlock.

It’s hard to reach around with a baby in your arms.

So….I ordered the parts and am going to do this in the coming week.

That’s the way it goes….fixing stuff and keeping it all on the road.

I hope it works…but why wouldn’t it?

It looks so easy.

killed a cat

Posted on by August 13, 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIBZlURgS5M

I spent the morning weedeating….and Kenny Rankin is (still) pretty great.

I hadn’t thought of this song for a while, but it popped into my head when I had my earmuffs on for some reason, and I figured that I better pop it up onto the blog before I forgot it again.

I’ve been worried about learning the new route….it’s a “mother”, too….and didn’t sleep much last night because of it….but good music, and doing something really straight forward like chopping down a bunch of overgrown vegetation, helps me get through the worries.

That’s what I need….something that I know how to do that makes an impact on the things that I need to handle.

That’s what gets me through.

This route thing is going to be OK….but, good grief!!

It’s a big route….lots to learn.

Man.

And…..Kenny Rankin!

How about that? It’s a good distraction to listen to the good stuff.

Pretty great stuff.

Cecil

Posted on by August 12, 2016

My father didn’t draw Cecil incessantly when I was a child.

That would be too strange.

But, every once in a while, he’d draw Cecil for me when I was really little.

It’s funny the things that we remember.

Even when I was really little, I remember that he didn’t really draw Cecil very well.

It was mostly just a “Cecil shape”…..but it thrilled me.

Of course, it didn’t thrill me TOO MUCH.

I’d be some kind of simp if it thrilled me too much.

That’s part of being cool, you know…..never letting anyone know that you’re out of your head with excitement.

Who am I kidding? I was crazy happy when my father drew Cecil.

Parents do good things for their children….and a lot of them are so inconsequential that they pass by….seemingly unnoticed.

I am a grown man….but I still remember the thrill of seeing a Cecil shape materialize on a piece of paper because my father was drawing it for me.

That’s pretty darn cool.

Viggo….not under a waterfall….or….maybe under a waterfall….but under different circumstances than the last waterfall…maybe…

Posted on by August 9, 2016

Here’s a movie that we want to see.

Jenny and I watched an earlier movie that Viggo Mortensen was in called “A Walk on the Moon”.

I think that Jenny enjoyed that one.

I guess that Viggo is in a waterfall at some point in this movie, too.

That’s not why I want to watch it, though.

I could care less about Viggo under a waterfall….but, this movie looks pretty great.

It came out July 8th….why haven’t I seen it yet?

the pipe from the potty shouldn’t have a hole….in the side of the flange, at least

Posted on by August 8, 2016

This is what I did this morning….except my repair wasn’t as easy.

It looks like he just stuck it down into the hole.

Easy.

Lucky.

I cut out subfloor in the bathroom….I chiseled out old flange…..I cleaned the inside of the old cast iron pipe where the new plastic flange would go…..I put a new subfloor in….

Man….I did it all !!!

And now, the potty doesn’t leak and the floor is solid….and….I’m pretty darned proud of myself.

It’s a good thing to not have potty water dripping down into the kitchen anymore.

(A disclaimer: the potty water thing was a very short-lived phenomenon. We’re laid back about some things, but potty water in the kitchen is not one of them.)

This Oatey product (#43539) is a very cool product….and, once you get the old cast iron stuff cleaned up and out-of-the-way, is really pretty easy to use.

Easy, after you rebuild the subfloor and figure out a way to even up the level with the surrounding three layers of linoleum.

I’m thankful for people who invent things to solve my problems.

Thanks, Oatey…..that was pretty cool that you did that for me.

way past home

Posted on by August 7, 2016

I ran out and then back and kept going this morning.

There’s something psychologically damaging about running past where you usually stop.

There’s something about running in the early morning daylight that helps you understand just how slowly your 56-year-old legs are taking you towards the point where you can stop, too.

I’ve been running again after a long layoff for about two weeks now, though, so I guess that it would make sense that I’d be taking it easy.

That “passing the point of stopping” is a hard thing to deal with.

Even if the mileage was cumulatively less than what I’d been doing, not stopping at my house felt harder somehow.

It’s all a mind game, though, this running stuff.

I need to get out on a trail where it’s harder to measure mileage.

Maybe that’s the secret?

Just get out in the woods and try not to get or stay lost?

Just run and not look at the mileage or clock.

Just run…..

most folks wave

Posted on by August 6, 2016

We live out in the country and I wave at the oncoming cars.

That’s a pretty weird thing if you’re from out-of-town, but I think that most people, even if they aren’t used to it, kind of get a kick out of it.

Most folks wave back.

Most folks wave back when they get used to me, in my white mail Jeep, waving at them.

It’s never a very active wave.

I’m not trying to flag them down….I’m just saying “hello”.

I’m just saying, “I’m in this world and so are you! Howdy!”cd

Maybe it’s just a habit and I’m not really saying anything.

Maybe I’m just waving?

Anyway, today, a couple of people didn’t wave, and I wondered what was up with them.

I thought, “they must be from out of town….”.

And then I thought, “Man….most of these people wave….but the ones I seem to pay attention to are the ones who aren’t waving. Those are the ones that I wonder about….”

And then I realized that most folks do wave.

Most folks wave.

I don’t know what is going to happen in the future.

I know that sometimes bad things happen to me and to my family….but that’s kind of unusual.

Usually we’re blessed beyond understanding…or belief.

Blessed.

Sometimes the things that we latch onto, though, are the things that happen that are bad….or sad….or hard to understand.

But…..most times, the things that happen to us are pretty good.

I can’t spend any energy wondering why something bad happened….or why someone I didn’t know neglected to wave.

Most everything that happens is good.

Most folks wave.

I’m going to dump it somewhere out of sight….

Posted on by August 5, 2016

Jenny and Sparrow and I went to the landfill this afternoon.

We had an old fence that was covered in English Ivy that we tore out when they put in the septic system….and we didn’t want it hanging around here forever…so we went to the dump.

Man!! That’s so easy to just pull up in a pickup truck with a bunch of junk in the bed, get weighed, back it in to one of the two sheds full of other people’s trash, dump it and go pay the lady and leave.

We can leave it all behind.

Out of sight, out of mind.

That’s too easy.

Too easy.

There’s something kind of disturbing about the amount of trash we create.

Sparrow covered her nose against the stink….and we got out of there as quickly as we could.

I like that we can do it (leave it all behind, that is).

I’m glad that my neighbor doesn’t let people use his acreage as a dump.

I’m glad that I don’t live downwind from the landfill.

Where are we going to go when the only place to stand is on top of the trash?