Thr Day of Fathers

I just was honored at the home of oldest dau, Anne, and her husb, Jeff. We two men are fathers and pretty good ones, I believe and I know Chris is a great one. I have been A Dad since Anne was born 44 years ago and then twice more> Margie and Christopher. Looking critically and I DO NOT mean with "criticism, but with a sense of discernment.", I feel that young Fathers that I know presonally Tom, Jeff, son, Chris and others are much more into the real sense of what fatherhood is than I was. Back in the day, the MOM was the boss of the kids and the Dad only seemed to get truly involved in serious kid matters:
"DAD, Margie hit Chris in the head with an axe!!!!!'' and, "Go to sleep or I'm coming UP THERE!!" and " DAD, Chris threw something into my bike tire and I may have a broken leg!!"
We did things together, individually and as a family but I never REALLY got into treating my children as total and complete individuals as I see happening with modern fathers. I'm sorry for this, wishing I had been able to be better at it, but that seemed to be the way things were back in the early days of my fatherhood.
I attribute 90% of the wonderfullness and niceness of our grownup children to their Mother. I tried to take more credit for the way they are, but about 10% is as much as I can truthfully take. I know they like me and I do get respect and love- and Father's day gifts-NOT just on fathers Day and I am grateful for this, but sometimes wonder if it could be even more? All I can do at this late date is keep on trying to be a good Dad and give as much of myself as I can and hope that it's enough.

Thr Day of Fathers

Spring??? Where are the rains and the warm??

I feel a victim of false advertising. It was supposed to be a "Typical" Minnesota Spring, but thus far all we have is the driest May since the dustbowl year of 1934, and I have to wear a jacket or sweater and STILL am sleeping in long-sleeved flannel PJs. This is absolutely not right, so I have been complaining to the MAN upstairs. Since He hasn't seen fit to change things, I am wondering if he is as old as I am and beginning to need a hearing aide.
That prior sentence is NOT blasphemy, but one of my many attempts at humor. I thought it funny but not hilarious. How about you???

RETIREMENT FUN

Other than multiple operations, I have found a LOT of things to do since I was forced by health problems to retire at age 53. I spend an hour or two every day the stock market is open watching my investments free fall and try to keep breathing. The LSW advised me to "Stop looking at it, as all you do is get more and more upset!" I can't stop!!! It's like the early Christians in the Collusseum watching the starving lions coming closer and closer. You know you're about to be eaten, but it's hard to look away.
It seems that all my life I have been interested in many things. I write, play the harmonica, carve wood, read constantly, do crossword puzzles, juggle, make up poems, and others. Lately I am helping grandson, Steven, with a Boy Scout Pinewood derby car. He also had me help a bity last year as I have many tools, craft supplies, and patience for a ten year old. This fun with him is one 0f the great joys of my life. None of my other grands seem to be too interested in "making stuff" but i still love them all. There is a rumor that I may be getting part ownership (?) of three more children in the future and this sound like fun. We'll see.
In addition to the above, my wife and I have season tix to the Guthrie theater and LOVE their plays. When younger, out whold family was very deeply into community theater as actors, set design, lighting, construction, and all that. It really brings a family together when doing a concerted activity. Another fun thing the wifie and i do is travel. We have been to all but two of the 50 states and 15 other countries and have had 5 cruises- 3 Caribbean, 1 Alaska, and 1 in the Mediterranean Sea. Except for my ending up in the "SICK BAY" three times and having to have an emergency medical evacuation from Spain, those were fun---REALLY!!
I am now anxiously awaiting Spring so I can get outside and listen to the gras grow and sip a cold one while watching my LSW garden and then mow the grass. I am looking right now for a new mower for her as she totally wore out the last one. She is also working on destrouing the snowblower. What a worker I married and she aslo changes my dressings, puts me through my knee exercises and is the world's best cook!! How lucky can one man get??

Another birthday? Consider the alternative.

I don't REALLY feel older today, but the calendar (made up, as many of you know of several CALENDS) says so. Actually it doesn't really SAY so---just like a clock or a watch which shows (or TELLS) the passing of hours and minutes rather than days weeks and months. "Telling" seems to indicate verbalization, but telling is an old word that refers to the telling ot the hours by the TOLLING of a bell as when no-one had a watch or a clock.
Bank TELLERS tell or toll money by counting it--sort of like counting the hours and days of a life. :Why, if I had a dollar for every day of my life, i'd have (here I leave the page to get to my calculator to let it TELL me exactly how many minutes and hours there are in 68 years) Hi!!! I'm back with this happy news---68 years is 24820 days which is equal to 595680 hours or 35740800 minutes and a HUGE bunch of seconds. See, I told you my age by TOLLING up the time segments and telling you on this blog. Wasn't that a bunch of fun????
I am dwelling less and less on health problems as things with my total knee replacement are going well and my abdominal incision is SLOWLY healing, but I am surely NEVER looking forward to any more operations.. 36 major ones and sever minor ones is quite enough, thank you. Sometimes I wonder how I can bear up so well and be such a "WONDERFUL, KIND, THOUGHTFUL, CONSIDERATE, SWEET, LOVABLE GUY AS I AM. I can only put it down to having been born of this day of love-ST. VALENTINE'S DAY in 1941 when the world was at war but all i knew was the love of my parents. Sure glad the love part won out and not the was part. I Love my wife and family more than I can say and more than I deserve!!

Trying out a few new thoughts for my Writers group

It should come as NO great surprise to those who know me that I tend to think up stuff. Stuff is my word for anything that is not easily categorized. I also think that I really should put this "STUFF" into separate boxes or shelves or areas of my brain, but that would be too hard and it seems to me that more fun connections can be made by allowing the various pieces of "STUFF" to run around loose. One tiny thought can stimulate another, and they can decide to hold a party and soon there are a whole MESS of interlopers showing up uninvited. It can sometimes get out of hand like a kegger at a high school graduation or turn into rock throwing at local authorities who might try to break up the FUN.
Another thing is that I have had the ability as long as I can remember of thinking and dreaming in full color and rhyme. It was VERY odd for me to discover by questioning others, that they did NOT do this. How can one even think without colorful puns, poems, and rhymes which are the very semantic basis of thought??? I just can't think of a cow (and how often does one have to do that?" you may ask--seems to be rather frequent to me!!), without also NOW thinking of a SOW which rhymes and is also a barnyard animal and from there to HOW these guys got into my mind in the first place. It is but a simple step to bring in MOW where the hay for the COW is kept and to have a COW fight over it (were they at the kegger?) with a lot of punching which sounds like POW!!! The whole thing then turns into a real ROW with a generaalized riot of oinking, Powing, Cows attempting to cow their opponents, and finally the final word stated by the farmer as he watches the battle-----WOW!!!
There are times when it would be SOOO much easier to just think about stuff without all the extraneous thoughts that crop up (like the crop in the MOW), but it sure can be interesting when one's thoughts head off into an entirely new direction. I have often discovered that the new thoughts are a lot more fun than the old thoughts, and getting there is half the fun as "THEY" say, but taking thirty minutes to consider if I should use a pen or a pencil to write with is a big FAT waist (waste) of time. Oh well......

A goofy thought

Since knees and bones and other things orthopedic (which actually means "Straight Child" as this medical speciality seems to have begun to help deformed kids from polio and whatever), have been on my mind a LOT lately, I got to thinking that I may not be able to truthfully sing the old song that goes, "AND THE KNEE BONES'S CONNECTED TO THE LEG BONE."
"Why?" You may ask if you have nothing better to do with your time, since this question will necessitate your receiving an answer. The answer is that I am NOT really connected in the usual sense of the word. I was fine until I had a TOTAL KNEE REPLACEMENT which replaces bad cartilage and arthritic bone with Titanium metal and hard plastic. This undid my normal human connectivity separating the real parts by fake parts. Now, this may not be a "BIG DEAL" to most people, but it seems to bother me too much. I have tried to figure out why this should bother me as it is GOOD with less pain and I can walk on the new parts and so on. However, it makes me feel odd having non-human parts inside of me. Is this like a woman might feel with an advancing pregnancy; or one of the stars of the movie ALIEN growing an evil monster inside??
I wonder why I have to even think about this stuff, but that's the way I am. Could it be that I have TOO MANY CONNECTIONS elsewhere? (in my brain?). Could these synaptic connestions with their axons and dendrites be firing too much and making these odd thoughts about the other parts of my body. I don't recommend delving into these these things too deeply---It could drive you nuts, too!!!!!!!!1