So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish. Errr... Memories

This entry will be just a tad different. Well, ok, all entries herewithin this archive of my ramblings are "different". Smartarse. Let me rephrase then. Actually, I don't need to. As stated, this entry IS different, and therefore IS therefore different from the other different entries. Thereby, this entry shall maybe hopefully possibly then therefore potentially could be considered, ummmm,,, normal??? Ick. Well... whatever. Just play along here, and see where this takes us. Ok? Ok.

Driving to the big city of Chickennoodle, we heard that the Pope had passed away. Altho' we are not Catholics [or attend any church on a normal basis, for that matter], was still saddened to hear he had died, but honestly somewhat relieved that his suffering upon the Earth had passed.

As the day around these parts was very windy, somewhat overcast at times, and kinda chilly, the mood of the day was kindof fitting in a macabre manner to contemplate life and death, and the passing of loved ones, as was evident by what was to follow about a quarter hour later after the announcement was made concerning the Pope's passing.

We arrived at the restaurant of choice for the day, Red Lobster. This selection was made by the woman, and with confirmation by the critters in the back of the van. As we were pulling into the parking lot, we [we being the woman and I] noticed that the littlest one was quiet, and in the midst of crying. After some time, was able to ask him to come to the front of the van, whereupon we learned that he was very sad, and had cried cause he was missing his great-grandma; his mom's grandmother, on her mom's side. I asked him what made him think out of her, in what was to us the clear blue. He said cause the sky was the way it was, and the Pope had died, he was just thinking thoughts... All I could do was to hug him and let him know that instead of thinking about her being gone, to instead be very thankful that he remembered her and had the opportunities to have played with her and to have known her. As the wife and I comforted him, could tell the huge impact that this wonderful lady had left upon a child that was not much older than four years old when she passed away. I do know that his older brother had many many more memories of her, as these two had had many hours that they had played together. Yet, he was able to, at least on the outer surface, to be more unemotional, whereas the younger son is definately more sharing of his thoughts and feelings.

It is sad to lose someone. At times I wonder if its harder upon a youngster or an adult. Each has different levels of understanding and comprehension of what has and is happening, amount of memories, and degrees of knowing where their spirit has traveled to. Nevertheless, the passing of a life is sad and mysterious, along with being frustrating. The latter to me anyhow, as I hate that dual edge of the sword of feeling both thankful for knowing the person, having the times that were shared; but yet the sadness surrounding the acknowledgement that that individual is gone from this world as we know it, that part stinks... Which of course reminds me of that old saying that goes something like "'tis better to have loved and lost, to have never have known". True. But, the pain is still real.

With that, I leave you with the following...

Native American (Hopi) Prayer

I give you this one thought to keep
I am with you still -- I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow,

I am the sunlight on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift, uplifting rush
of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not think of me as gone --
I am with you still -- in each new dawn...

In Germs Do Our Kids Trust

Well, met the woman at the docs this late afternoonish, litte tyke had an appointment to see what’s been ailing him for the past four weeks or so. Has had persistent headaches, bellyaches, neckaches, and a bout of dry heaves and vomiting, all off and on. Took him to the doc about a month ago for this, when it first started. All seemed to be better, but then, like said, he’d relapse a bit, and then improve, and then get bad again. Frustrating.

What’s fun is the oldest munchkin [who really ain’t much of a munchkin anymore – the lad is growing quite a bit of late – not much longer before he’ll be as tall as his pop, which of course really won’t take too much to do…] had a sudden case of vomit yesterday in school. Kinda funny tho’. Happened during the middle of a science experiment… barfed all over that stuff, some lab papers, his clothes. Evidently was so bad that the science teacher ran out, and a couple other kids also then threw up too! Chain reaction vomiting. Kinda like a chain reaction experiment…

What was frustrating was that Monday was a holiday for me from work, and since the critters were in school, we thought would be great opportunity for just the two of us to go to town, for some kid-less shopping, dining, and bonding. As adults with childs are wont to do on occasion. That is if they desire to reclaim some sense of mental stability, that is. But, alas the gods decided that was not to be. So, ~20 minutes into the travel north, her cell phone rang. We both of course immediately thought it was due to the youngster, but to our surprise the above mentioned partially digested rice crispy sharing episode was brought to our knowledge. So, a U-turn at the next exit brought us back towards his school.

Anyhow, the older one is doing better now today – kept him home from school to recoup and relax. He bummed around the house most of the day, petting the black lab hound, and created a matrix of names vs. awards won for the X-box game Totaled that we all play. See, ya get points for the amount and frequency of damage that you done to your opponent(s), along with various awards such as wrecker, band-aid, wimp, acrobat, etc. depending upon how well your driving and your car performed in various tracks, as you try to demolish other cars, without getting yourself “totaled”. Pretty fun. Virtually destroying cars. Bad thing is that after driving these "fake" cars for some time, not at all a good idea to drive real cars on real highways and byways... trust me on this. Maybe its just me, that I get into the game sooooo much, that my mental state is wondering just how many points I can get for hitting that fool that is creaping and crawling at 60 mph in front of me... Ummm, that will be the subject for another post.

So, the doc said that the littlest version of the Hobbes still has a sinus infection. So, more antibiotics have been picked up at the local Rx. He was running a temp of 100°F at the doc’s. Passed the eye exam with flying colours! So proud that one of the munckers has good eyes! Oldest critter is semi-blind without glasses – poor fella asks about having laser surgery done for his vision… keep tellin’ him one of these days, maybe so.

The woman is wondering when us biggers are gonna be attacked and fall to these viri that are running rampant throughout our critter’s school, as they are elsewhere too. So far, knock on carbon-based flora-type material, both are feeling quite good. Drinking quite a bit of juice [orange-apple-banana and grapefruit], water, tea, soda, beer, wine, whiskey, and… oh, never mind… he heeeee… Anyhow, I’m a semi-firm believer in that mental thoughts and state has immense power to override and influence one’s health. So, keep thinking happy thoughts. Remember that the power of persuasion and words are very commanding to influence your thoughts and well-being. Be a Tigger!!! Growwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwllll!!!

So, that concludes this day’s ramblings. Hope that if you made it through this mess, that you didn’t feel too sickly. No runs? No dizziness? No need to visit the throne? No queasy feelings in your abdominal areas? No sweaty palms? No blurred visions? No headaches? If any of these symptoms do occur, well, I’m sure that reading the above post had nothing at all to do with your sickness. Of course, some may claim that either you, the dear reader, or I are indeed sick to some extent – you for reading this, me for typing it and posting it for the entire known world to read.

Hmmmm… wonder how much padding is in those walls…

Let me know, when ya get out. Ok?

Thanks!

Easter Bunnies and Other Edible Goodies

Celebrated Easter at the farm via hiding some eggs, hiding some treasure notes, eating some pork & green beans & mac/cheese & sweet corn & rolls, washed down with some home-made sweet tea.

The hiding of the eggs, well, everyone knows what that is.

The treasure notes, well, that is something the woman and I started some many years ago. Its like this, we give a series of clues, and they semi-sortof are like a poem, a real short one ya know, each clue being like two-to-four lines at most. Each clue leads to the next location, whereupon the lucky little critters can then decipher where to head to next. Of course, being parents, we are cruel. Yes, we take pleasure in seeing them (a) try to read our writing, (b) scratch their noggins as they try to figure out what pray tell we actually meant by that rambling nonsensical garbage that is kindof similar to this verbage that you have the pleasure of reading now upon your computer monitor's screen, and (c) run up the stairs and then back down the stairs from clue site to clue site. Yea... of course! each following location just somehow happeded to be upon the opposite floor [insert the copyrighted sinister evil parental laughter track here...].

So, at the final treasure clue location, they then are blessed with the discovery of finding some sortof gift. This year, a backpack and a remote-controlled boat. The first is for when we go hiking and/or camping. The latter is for them to play with upon our semi-sortof-still newish 1/2 acre pond.

Anyhow, the meal, as usual, was most excellent. Woman, she can cook. Very well. Good woman that woman be. Of course to put up with a deranged engineer that crawls in mud-filled passages and listens to music a tad too loud and drives a tad too fast and has an unnatural passion for hockey, foolsball, and computers - she is edible and sweet; like a Easter bunny.

After all the festivities, we went for a short hike. But, the spring thunderstorms kept us from going too far, so we scrambled back to the house, arriving about five minutes before the first wave crashed through. Was quite the storm. Tornado warnings were about. Wind gushed. Water fell, and did so quite hard. Was neat to watch the rain curtains make their way across the field below us, and the clouds scamper across the sky, chasing one another with a mad passion.

Weather is so cool.

Life is good.

Thank you Easter, etal.