My Dog

This is a picture of Toby while I was on the ladder putting up siding.  He had no apparent fear of me dropping anything on him.  He's a good dog.

The End Is Nigh

The end of school is fast approaching.  The kids can feel it.  I can feel it.  We all need to get away for a bit.  I hear the voice of the beach calling!

I need a few more gallons of coffee and I will be ready to go this morning...

Blogging From The Back Yard

Is it Bad?  I'm sitting nursing a beer and resting after putting siding on the shed.  Here, See?  Proof!

I also took this one.  I like the reflections...

So, I did not have a sub job today.  That's ok, I have plenty of things to do around here.  For instance, fold clothes.  I did.  Does anyone know how monotonous it is to fold those horrid clothes?  I got to a place where I could see couch under the laundry and that's when I gave up.

I went out and took a bunch of garbage to the dump.  Mostly it was boxes we've been storing in the shed for years.  But it was also a ton of sheet rock that the builders left in the shed...it wasn't in the best condition and it kept my new door from opening all the way.  So, I got rid of it.

The day would have been more constructive, but my morning was fouled.

Toby was excited that I was working outside.  I opened the back gate so I could back the truck in.  He rushed past me, I assumed to pee on things.  When i turned back, he had gotten in the cab through the opened driver's side door.  I unloaded the ladders that i hauled around for a week and then began loading garbage in...he was still there.  Waiting for a ride.

I finished and we got going.  I decided he could go with me, since he obviously REALLY wanted to go for a ride.  I got within blocks of the dump and felt for my wallet...not there!  ARGH!

I turned around and went back to the house and rushed in for my wallet.  I got it and off we went again.  I got to the dump and was just getting ready to pull onto their scale when I noticed a little pink sign:  CASH ONLY.  There were some muttered expletives, which Toby kindly ignored and I made an emergency U-turn and headed for town...I arrived at the bank and realized I had a check to deposit and so i did that AND got some cash.

I made it to the dump again.  This time all went smoothly and I got rid of everything.  I came home and tried to work in the house again...it's a beautiful day here...see:

  So, I thought about what I could do outside...then I remembered the shed.  I decided that I could at least clear off the side and hammer in nails and take of pieces of wood that were in the way.  I ended up taking pieces off that would allow the neighbor hood strays direct access to the innards of my shed.  So, I decided I could get the first layer on.  Then, I decided I could get the second on and leave the rest for a time i had extra help...then I remembered there was laundry awaiting my return.  I decided I could probably get the last bit, too.

Toby, all this time, had accompanied me everywhere.  When I was in the alley, he stayed close by...only straying further afield to pee on things.  More than a few times I looked down from the ladder to see him sunbathing just a few feet away.  As far as working at home goes, it was a pretty good day!

This is the before picture:

Here are a few shots of the siding as it went up.

 Looks better already, huh?

Looks pretty darned good, I think!  I remembered a few tricks I learned from my Grandpa (and my Dad) to position out-sized things, like siding, with only one person available.  I think he'd be pretty proud to know I picked up a few things from him.

Now, I really should get up and finish that laundry and maybe get moving on dinner...

Here is proof that Toby sunbathes:

 His belly gets sunburned during the summer because he spends so much time in the sun!  He is truly a SUN DOG!

Until next time!

Sunday Returns!

So, one of my main goals was to sell the cars.  Or at least get them posted on Craig's List...still haven't done that...but I have a few hours before the weekend is officially over.  These, after all, will fund my camera purchase!  Anyone want a car?  Or perhaps they just want to continue viewing stunning images on the internet?  You can be a part of it, simply by putting a twenty dollar bill in the mail and addressing it to me!  I promise to take TONS of pictures!

Here are yet more flowers...I hope you people don't tire of them, because I never tire of taking them...we have some pretty flowers!

I cleaned out the shed and found our camping stuff.  It was something of an adventure, though particularly dusty.  I must have sneezed a hundred times.  I cleaned out some empty boxes we have been keeping, you know, you make a new purchase and keep the box just in case?  We do too.  Except we keep them for years since we forget about them in the shed...oops.

I found the camping stuff.  It was...dusty.  We had food in there...canned stuff, it isn't as though we kept bread in there...from 2006.  Still, we cleaned it out and cleaned the camping stuff and I think we are going to be ok!!  Our camping trip to the beach is gonna rock!  I can't wait!  Our plan is to do what we want.  The dogs are going and we just plan on sitting around roasting marshmallows and reading and drinking coffee and being lazy.  We'll play on the beach.  We'll fly kites and I might use my metal detector and we're just gonna relax!  it's been four years since we went camping last!

I made dinner tonight.  It was chicken.  Cora suggested it.  I barbecued it after slicing it in half and seasoning it with a variety of spices.  I sliced up a bell pepper and grilled the whole batch.  I then made a salsa/relish with red onion, some long green pepper, Cilantro, and tomato, with a little cumin thrown in with the lime juice.  We threw those on an onion bun and it made a really nice dinner!!

Here's the salsa...

It was YUMMY!!

Now, I need a job...but this is the last full week of school, and unless there are some completely horrible disasters, I don't expect that I will be working much...though I hope I WILL!!!

Any photos of our trip will be via our paltry Canon Elph...which I love, but it ISN'T a DSLR!!  :-)

Big Plans

I had big plans today, however, all plans have a chance of changing.  Here is last week's sidewalk.  I am really happy with it!

After a week of rain, the Clematis has opened up like crazy!

I had an appointment for new shocks for my truck.  Cora picked me up and we went for a few groceries.

I wanted to stop at the electronics store, but she'd have nothing of it.  This is all I saw.

She DID reward me.  We went to our favorite Mexican restaurant.

Cora borrowed my phone to check out the internet...where was hers?  In her purse next to her.

Below is one of the reasons I like this place!

And this is another...this fried bread is tasty in itself, but add to that the wonderful innards...well, it's heaven in your mouth!  and very filling.

We also went to a yard sale where I got three good books for two dollars each!  And then we went over to the in-laws for dinner.  Our newest niece was down for a visit and we welcomed a reason NOT to cook dinner.

Well, we will just have to do everything tomorrow...I want to sell the cars and a video camera, too.

Feuds

I have been subbing at the El.  I have been enjoying it.  I always enjoy the El, as I feel like I am part of the faculty there.  I don't have a full time job, but I am almost treated as though I do.  The kids all know me and so does the staff.  That recognition was brought home to me the other day when I showed up to work and found several other subs in the building for the day.  I smiled and welcomed them and then made small talk with the secretary and some of the staff.  Then I walked down the hallway with three of the subs.

It is here that my notoriety became apparent.  As we were walking the kids had been allowed to enter the building.  As the flood navigated past us and toward us from different directions, many of the kids could be heard to holler, "Hello Mr. H!!"  and I received more than a few run-by hugs and high-fives.  It wasn't out of the ordinary for me, but I noticed that the other subs received no such welcome.  Of course, I HAVE been subbing for three years now...won't some history teacher please just retire?  I'd like to have my own classes already!  Ah, well.  I enjoy the perks I have being among the few subs the kids remember and like.

Among the perks is the feud that began this year.  It started with me noticing a mark on a teacher's face.  I was unaware at the time, but she is apparently known for walking around with things on her face that she is unaware of.  I called her attention to it.  She explained that that happens often, and that she thought I was joking.  I don't remember the exact turn of events but one day I realized I had inadvertently opened a can of worms.

A child ran up and told me I had something on my face.  I reacted by rubbing my face.  The child laughed and said that Mrs. K had told her to do it.  (I should probably point out, I might have accidentally done something similar to her shortly before)  So the next time I had a chance (I believe the elapsed time was almost 30 seconds) I dispatched a child on a similar errand.  Since then, I can usually figure on a child telling me I have something on my face during the day.

For awhile I was in way too deep and was losing the battle.  THEN I remembered the power my color sheets have over children.  (Did I mention I am not above bribery?)  I told a bunch of fourth and fifth graders I would supply them with color sheets if they would only tell Mrs. K she had something on her face.  I was amazed at my brilliance!  Soon I was winning.  However, I was finding myself without color sheets when I was approached by the kids.  This week, I remembered to pay for the work I had commissioned.  After paying for previous deeds, I commissioned more!

I was informed by my minions that Mrs. K was mad...which means she is having fun.  She is a great actress.  She is really one of my favorite teachers and she keeps up the ruse, by glaring at me and simply saying my last name in a growl...I find it endearing.  Of course, she does, on occasion break character, but it's much more fun when she's acting.

So, it was a good day, up until I nearly sliced off my own foot.

I came home from work and then went and had two new tires put on my truck.  When I got home, I put together a stir fry.  It was ok, but I got side-tracked and it got a little burned, but it was fair.  As I was putting dinner away, I accidentally moved a towel that my large 10" cutting knife was apparently leaning on.  (did I mention I should improve my poor cooking safety habits?)  I turned away and then heard it start to slide.  I had put my weight on the wrong foot and could not shift fast enough to avoid it.  It clattered to the floor and into my foot. I calmly uttered a quiet expletive that I am only partially convinced the neighbors heard.  I quickly checked to make sure my foot remained attached.  It was.

Unluckily, the knife had slid into my foot point first.  Luckily, however, it was oriented the wrong direction (or right direction?) and the back of the knife quickly followed the point.  My only injury was a small puncture wound.  I was, you may imagine, quite relieved.

I now have a small bandage covering my cooking wound.  Maybe I can get Cora to wait on me hand and foot due to my injury??

Thirteen Years

There was once a man whom everyone liked.  He was a very good young man.  He was a friend to everyone.  Even the merest of acquaintances liked him and remembered him long after he was gone.

He had a best friend.  Which, is something entirely believable, since he was such a likable man.  Yet, his best friend did not deserve his friendship.  At least, that is how the best friend felt when he lost this very good young man.

You see, the young man, whom everyone liked, died.

Yes, he died, at a very young age.

No one quite knew why.  There was no hint of what killed him.  First he was there and then he was gone.

It was much as though a light had been switched off.  Only it could not be switched back on again.

For the young man's best friend, a light had indeed been switched off.  The world failed to be the same, which apparently is what happens when someone close to you dies.

You don't feel it at first.  You simply can't believe that something so very important, something so vital, something integral, something so much a part of your life can simply vanish over night.

At first, there is no pain, only emptiness.

A hole that should not exist is now a very real and deliberate part of your being.  The fabric of your life has been torn by a blade made from a cruel metal.

No mere needle and thread can mend this tear.  No amount of tears will make it go away.  You have lost a part of your soul.

Maybe that is what a soul is.  Perhaps all the people you meet and create relationships with and love and like and talk to and yell at, maybe all of those people have a part of you in them and you a part of them.  Maybe we all just run around with parts of other people in us, like building blocks of the soul.

When we lose someone, we lose a part of our soul, and the pain and the sorrow and the hurt and the ire and the angst is just the wind blowing through the hole that that somebody left behind.

We go around, trading blocks for blocks and gaining and giving and our block houses can become quite large, but there are always holes, often around the foundations, and more so as we age.  For, as we grow older we lose those who are and were the biggest parts of our young lives.  When they are gone, our foundations crumble to dust, leaving gaping holes, never to be filled.

Some of our loved ones have larger chunks of our souls than others.

So it was, on June 2, 1997, in the first minutes of the new day that a very, very brilliant burning soul, one brighter than a host of others, rose from the fettered chains of this world.

This beautiful soul drifted up and disappeared in a warp field that produced no sound and no visible light.  As that soul left us, it took with it a good many bricks and chunks and blocks and entire walls of other people's souls.  Some of us were left with only ragged remnants, others still had most of what they built.

Still, I walked through the streets that awful morning, with my Love protecting me and holding me, and it seemed that perhaps that one life of a great young man had not touched everyone it should have.  People still drove to work.  The clocks still ticked.  The birds still sang.  The wind still blew.

The entire world should mourn the passing of one so great, did they not know this?  Maybe there were just not enough bricks.  Maybe they never met him.  My soul, certainly, still bleeds.

I am here.  The hole in my soul is still open wide, waiting for bricks that will never come back.

Thirteen years it's been.  Thirteen years since that beautiful soul left us.

I remember everyday.  I especially remember today.

I went outside tonight and sat on the step in the dark.  I wore no shirt.  I felt something touch my shoulder.  Then my back.  Then my neck.  Then my arms.

Today, even the sky weeps.