Jul 26, 2006

"I had a Premature Promulgation"

Not to be confused with another type of premature problem; but, after posting to my blog about Not going to my reunion I received a great amount of encouragement from the person who promised to love, honor and make me appreciate that life is way too short and to get my butt to Dayton.
Also, with some encouragement from former classmates, friends, relatives as well as my best friend through high school, P.J. Shank I have reconsidered and am now scheduled to arrive in the other Big "D", Dayton, Ohio, on Friday.
It is more than just a reunion though. The only remaining blood family that I have are in Dayton and I really don't get to see them very often.
Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to drop about 50 lbs. that I swore I would lose before I went to my next reunion, but I still have my hair and my own teeth.
So it is off to Dayton I go.
I'll even be sharing a room with P.J., something we did every weekend for over a year in high school.
I guess I may have to change my schedule of going to bed at 8:00 though, cause looking at the list of events, they don't start until around that time.
Will be back Monday with plenty of pics.

Jul 23, 2006

"To go or not to go" .....That is the question

With my apologies to Shakespeare, I feel like Hamlet as he contemplated his dilemma in what is perhaps the greatest soliloquy in literature.
Although I certainly am not considering the same fate as the Prince of Denmark, I do find myself struggling with a decision to attend my 40th high school reunion.
Every five years I find myself in the same situation...."To go or not to go".
Thirty five years passed before I made my first trip, in 2001, to attend Fairview High School's class of 1966 reunion. I found then that it truly is the journey, not the destination that is the reward. The planning. The memories of cruising the Parkmoor drive-in. The faces of friends that remained etched in my mind.
It is with the same trepidation that I now must decide as the time nears to confront the truth......the truth of my mortality. My 40th Reunion
My hair has turned grayer, my body no longer is that of a young gladiator, (not that it ever was....but allow me the prose!!) and my mind seems to wander more these days.
"Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps into this petty place from day to day" as I am resigned to accept the futility of life. Yes, I am getting older, much older.
"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players". My life's journey has been written by a power greater than me. My decision is final. I shant go.....at least not this year.

"I have much ado to know myself. "

Jul 13, 2006

Why do you have to go hundreds of miles from home to call it a vacation?

Help me on this...pleeeease! Why can't you just go up the street to a motel and call it a vacation. Or better yet, why does a "vacation home" have to be hours and hours away from your domicile in order for it to be your "home away from home"?
For the last several weeks, whenever I get some time off, I plead, well not actually plead, Pattye would do anything I ask, but I suggest to Pattye if we could make a day-trip to one of the numerous lakes in our area.
I've recently gottin an itch that I can't seem to scratch and it concerns finding this little lake house where I can just go and sit. That's it, sit.
Now I have never been one to just sit. I'm really not sure I actually know how.
Sittin, I think, takes years of practice, and it probably takes the right kind of person. But I think I might like to try it.
We didn't take many vacations when I was young but I do remember this little lake just over the Ohio border outside Sturgis, Michigan. Klinger Lake it was called. Nothin fancy, just Klinger Lake.
We stayed in this 10 or 12 unit motel that had a pier out front. A kind of like little bayou, although in Michigan I am sure it wasn't called a bayou, ran behind the motel and was full of frogs and turtles.
I guess we may have gone up there 3 or 4 times and probably only stayed for the weekend.
After my older brother Rick and I got settled in (David never went for some reason) we ran to the lake and spent the day floating on rubber tubes and digging in the 2-foot wide beach and Mom and Dad just sat.
It's the only time I can remember Mom and Dad just sittin.
I don't think they liked sittin, but that was all there was to do . Just sit.
And that's what I'm looking for now. A good sittin place.
We have tried to keep our search within about 2 hours from home. Anything more would be a vacation and we don't have time for that. But if we could get there maybe after work and just go and sit for a couple hours, I think that would do right well for me.
Pattye and several friends don't think I could sit for probably more than an hour. I bet I could prove them wrong.
I bet if I put my mind to it, I could even sit and maybe do some whittlin.
Yep, I can see me now, just sittin and whittlin.
We even have 3 lakes within an hour from here and I have considered trying to find my little dream lake house at these locations but for some reason you have to make it a trip in order to get away from it all.
I wonder where the people come from who make the drive to the lakes near me in order to just come and sit. I guess they figure they have to make it at least a trip in order to sit.
Well, we have a few lakes left on our list before we either have to expand our search or I am going to have to find comfort in my own backyard.
Yep, just sittin. That's what I dream about.

Jul 4, 2006

3:30 A.M.....Nothing changes except the date

It's been almost a year now since my awakening hour was supposed to change from 1:00 AM to what is considered normal, maybe 6:00 or 7:00 AM. No such luck. Old habits are hard to break. Regardless, I do enjoy the early morning hours. I have a chance to scan the headlines across the country and report all of the overnight news to the one who "promised to love, honor and drowsily begin posting to her Ebay store " before the sun begins to blister our drought ridden north Texas area.
After about an hour of catching up on all of the news from Dallas to Dayton and Kabul to Kenneport and 4 or 5 cigs and two cups of coffee I start to make my blog post for the day. Ah...but it's too late. I have to begin my ritual to prepare for the day's work schedule.
Saturday to Tuesday, it's managing Fountainhead Pools. Wednesday's, it's a full day of maintaining Blue Sky Pool customers. Thursday is installation of salt water conversion systems for my latest venture in the Pool Industry and Friday is an all day assault of the challenges given me as a problem solver for a local celebrity who has hired me to maintain his property. Actually that position is starting to evolve into a several day a week job which puts 9 days into a 7-day week......Hmmmm, and you were wondering where my new blog posts were.
Well, today is the nation's birthday, or more correctly, celebration of said day. Perhaps a day off for me? Nah....not so.
Pattye has opened a new store in Denton, north of Dallas, and today is the grand opening.
Well, at least I made a post for today. It's now only 4:30 AM so I do have a couple of hours to myself. What shall I do?
As my dear departed mother used to say, "if I had my druthers", .....If I had my druthers, I would sit here and write and sit here and write and, smoke a few more cigs, start eating some junk food, have a couple more cups of java and reflect on the news from Dallas to Dayton and Kabul to Kenneport and share my crazed thoughts.
Oops.... I can hear the mockingbird signaling the start of a new day. The frogs (see my previous frogposting ) have started to slow their mating calls and life begins anew.
As Scarlet announced at the end of the great classic, Gone With The Wind, ...."Tomorrow is another day".
Ciao!