Wandering

My mind wandered an awfully lot during work today.

Yesterday my Dad lost his 2nd “little” brother in just 3 months. That was his last brother. My thoughts and prayers of comfort are with all of us who knew my Uncles, especially their direct families. They were amazing men.

Primarily the memories that came into my mind were from my early years. I remember playing at Uncle Jims. The sand pit and machine shed were always some of the best places to have fun as a 10 year old. I remember being part of a load in a couple of Ford pick-ups; full loads of kids from their place and heading over to Grindstone Lake to swim and then on to Hardees. I remember deer hunting at Jim’s and eating cheerios at their kitchen table. It was always such a beautiful view out the large patio door looking to the East. I remember talking for hours about hunting, guns, and reloading with Uncle Jim. I especially remember the story he told me about his first deer with the muzzleloader. I was motived by his story and started to muzzleloader hunt myself.

I remember Uncle Dicks place; playing in their barn. Watching the chickens and sheep. Uncle Dick’s was the only farm I visited that had sheep so they always caught my interest as a youth. I remember, not too long ago, bowhunting at Dick’s place. When I was successful he came over with his tractor and we lifted the deer high into the air to drain the animal. I remember a story he told me about homemade arrows and cutting his finger from them. I remember him telling me that “If I could do it all over again, I would be a machinist.” I later became a machinist.

I also thought about my Mom and Dad and all the times we drove to either farm for various reasons.

My memories are but a drop in a bucket compared to others in my family, especially my Dad, his sister and the direct families of Jim and Dick. I cannot imagine all the memories my own Dad has of his brothers and sister. With the 70 plus years of memories, I am sure Dad’s mind has been wandering also.

Fire Starter

It’s been a long time since I have been on a date with just me and a girl. I was looking forward to seeing King Tut today at the Science Museum. I slept in this morning, until 8 a.m. Our kids and Kari are early risers, often 6 a.m. When I woke up, Justin yelled from his bedroom “Good Morning Dad!” and Julia said “Daddy!” I said “Good Morning” and continued my way towards the bathroom, then turned abruptly and walked outside on the deck. There are not many things better than taking a morning pee off the back of the plank. The birds singing, the frogs croaking, and the sound of the pine trees needles whispering in the wind all are so relaxing. The chickens made a lot of noise; I hoped it was because they thought I was feeding them and not because they saw my pee pee. I yelled “bock bock” back at them and then shook myself off and continued about my way without even blushing.
The kids ate breakfast while I had a cup of instant decaf coffee. I stopped drinking regular coffee over 8 months ago. Kari wanted to start the fireplace to get rid of the chill in the air. She went outside to get kindling and I checked my facebook and played mafia wars. After awhile I realized Kari had been outside for sometime. I put my boots on and opened the door. I heard an engine running and noticed the wood splitter was running. I was instantly proud. I went outside to carry wood in and upon arriving at the wood splitter I noticed most of what she split was wet freshly cut wood and not the best for starting fires. I mentioned about using the dry maple instead. I wasn’t very tactful on words, evidently. That quickly ended the wood splitting and ended up in an argument… really? How does this happen?
I decided to take a drive. I told the family I was driving “around the block” which is a 6 mile jaunt that goes around my property and some more good area for wildlife viewing. I came back, not sure if our King Tut date was off or not. I guess at this point it really didn’t even matter. I could always find something to do at home.
I was studying my Pine Technical College portfolio. I am on the board of advisors for their machining program and will be working on Monday at the college. Kari asked me if I still wanted to see King Tut, I really wanted to say “yes” but I was too stubborn so I said “It’s up to you.” Kari went to get the babysitter at 11 am and off we went to see King Tut!
The best part was – we took the Ford Ranger! That truck has been in our family longer than Kari and I have known each other. It sure brought back some memories. Like having hand crank windows to roll down the window! It sure is trustworthy. I am going to cry when that thing dies for good. We keep fixing it when it faulters, but some day I know in my heart that the trusty Ranger will die forever. I cherish the moments today.
We took the Ranger thru the car wash. It idled so nicely, and I knew it appreciated her bath. I never have used the car wash in Wyoming before, the one next to Mc Donald’s. It doesn’t work well. I would grade it a “C”.
Our first stop was the Finnish Bistro. The food was different. My salmon, eggs, pastrami, toast, and herring tasted pretty good, except I am not much of a raw salmon eater so I passed on that. Kari had a spinach pie with a fresh salad with cucumber sauce. It looked good. We bought a piece of cheese cake with berries “to go”.
We arrived 3 minutes late for the King Tut movie, which reminds me I keep typing “King Tit”…I hope I catch all my typos because that paints an entirely different picture. This could become very interesting. Anyways, side note: The Science Museum wouldn’t let us into the movie because we were late but gave us passes for the next showing.
We toured the King Tut museum first and it was amazing! I could have spent another hour there but we ran out of time, so close that we were again late for the Tut movie! The girl at the entrance told us "go up to the sixth floor and go in the ""special needs"" door.” We felt silly, but we snuck in there and made it just in time for the showing.
If you are ever in the Science Museum, don’t take the elevator. The music stairs are the best. Kari and I jumped and ran up and down those stairs trying to play music. I am glad it was crowded. We then toured the dino’s and imagined seeing some of them creepy animals alive today. I wonder what it would feel like to get hit in the face by a dinosaur tail?
We wanted to go to the Egg-Plant Farm Supply store in St.Paul but we were - again, too late, and missed the closing by 30 minutes. We instead stopped and bought some bread and Jamba Juice. I savored the banana berry smoothie. I now know I am pretty sure I could live off them darn things. I could also live off of the Finland food. Cakes, berries, ice cream, pasties and and and… that’s about all they eat I think. Maybe they eat pulled pork too. We ended with a drive-by-tour of St. Paul Brass and Aluminum, one of my work vendors and customers.
Upon arrival to home, I split some maple kindling and started the fireplace. Kari made me an egg sandwich with toasted bacon bread. The kids already completed their homework and were ready for bed. Our babysitter Megan can work them kids hard when we are away. That is a good thing.
I am blogging while Kari plays her Mario All Star on the Wii. The original game that was offered as the 25th anniversary edition; It makes her happy.
A great day, turned bad, then good again. If only this fire would start like it should.