STRANGE BREW... WHATS INSIDE OF YOU?

The inspiration for this post came from a comment
from my friend,
NoRegrets who said that we all have
an "inner sculptor".

Which brought up an old memory of my first born,
Boo,
who was a very young sculptor.
At the time I was driving two newspaper routes
in southern Oregon,
for The Mail Tribune, Wall Street Journal and San Francisco Chronicle
and
The Oregonian.

This job allowed me to buckle Boo into his Bobby Mac Car Seat
(before the days of a law telling us to do so)
and drive all night...
flinging papers out or over the top of my car,
stuffing boxes or filling machines.

Boo slept most of the drive
and I didn't have to pay for a sitter.
The sort of things we do to save money when we first start families.
He looked like a small blond angel
in my rear view mirror.

After the last paper was thrown,
I'd take my sleeping cherub and lay him in his crib
so that I could catch a few hours of sleep.
But as a precaution,
we set his portable crib near the floor level
and dropped the side open.

No more monkeys falling off the bed!

We also added a screen door to his room
that I could lock from the outside.
I didn't want him to fall out
and I really didn't want him to get up and wander before I noticed.
The idea of that scared me.
His room was baby proofed and it was like a large play pen.

Not that I intended to sleep the day away while he was left to his own devices.
My husband was leaving for work as I was getting home.
5:00 AM
After driving all night,
it would be 9 to 10 hours before he could return to watch the baby.
I was being realistic
and covering all the bases.

One morning I woke on my sofa to giggling.
I smiled and sort of dozed in and out for a few precious moments with an open ear as he played in his room.
Boo liked to stand at the window and watch the kids walk to school.
"Hi! Hi!"
he'd yell and pat on the window.
The kids would laugh and wave back.

When I stirred my lazy butt off the couch
and went to look in on him...
I found a curious set of objects
that he was moving around like toy animals.

When he had fallen asleep,
he was in a set of overalls... the kind with a snap crotch.
I wasn't going to wake him just to change him into jammies.
The legs now flapped around his legs
like a dress.

Fuzzy headed,
I looked more closely at my son's chubby hands
and his "animal friends" in them.
They were a funny sort of yellowish brown.
GACK!
My angel had made a set of poop friends.

I probably don't need to say that this woke me up completely.
Or that I immediately cleaned him and his room up.
Poop sculpture is a messy medium.

Boo was about 10 months old at this point.
Just walking well.
The creativity bug bit him early.
I suppose that is true of most of us,
when left to create without the rules of life
getting in the way.

It was the method that shocked me.
But his play truly was creative for his age.
I felt bad when I had to flush his friends.

*     *    *    *    *

As a funny aside...
I was on a blog called "Debbie Does Britain".
Her writing is delightfully funny.
I wanted to leave a comment...
but the comment wouldn't work.
I tried an email, 
but that did not work either.
Sometimes I can be inept.
Blogger sent me to a thing saying I needed to join
to leave a comment.
So I followed the directions...
only to find out that I had joined my own
blog.
Guess I didn't get that one right either.
=:/

But hey, I've got 8 Followers now!

FALLING FORWARD

Its that time of year again...

Though I guess I'm lucky not having to be

anywhere at any set time.

I can doze when I want.

The glide into the new time slot

will be mild for me this year.

Still...

I grumble.
I don't like the time changes.

All in all the weekend was great.
Pretty much just the man and me...
no visitors.
Ordering pizza in.
Lazy days watching college football.
Romance too.
Ooh la la!
Living off left over pizza the next day.
I'd say that is the perfect weekend.


My Ducks won against the Huskies of Washington U.
It was a fun game to watch.

But I think the most interesting game of the weekend
had to be Oregon State
vs
Stanford.

For all the hoopla about Stanford
and Andrew Luck,
who truly is an incredible quarter back
destined to be the Heisman winner this year...
The Beavers gave them a real hassle!


You have to understand that Stanford is ranked 4th
in the nation before this game.
Oregon State is not ranked.
They've had a fairly lousy year.
It should have been an easy win for the Cardinals.
Nope.


The Beavers held Stanford too long for a team that highly ranked.
For almost 3/4 of the game,
the Beavers had a chance to do damage that might 
stick.
They in fact made a touch down early on...
that should have been counted, 
but wasn't over ruled after review.


I say should have because it was a question of
causing "intentional" harm to another player.
I did not see any intent to harm,
only an unfortunate case of both players dipping
at the same time and a collision of shoulders.
I think the Beaver player dipped to avoid such a hit.
Sadly so did the other player.
That's my opinion.



In normal circumstances,
I believe the damage to the player who was hurt
would have been much less to a player that was not previously and seriously injured.

It is unfortunate for the player who was hurt
that he had already had two big concussions
in this season...
and one of those just the week before.
It was not very responsible of his coaches to allow him
even to play so soon.
Possibly not even at all.


Concussions are compound injuries.
They don't get better.
The damage sustained stays
and any subsequent 
damage is piled on top of the previous damage,
adding to the injury.
So what may be a good slam and not do damage
can certainly do far worse damage
to a previous head injury.
He was taken away by ambulance.
Sad.
I imagine that young man's football
days may have come to an end.
But I don't believe that the Beaver player intended harm.
Not mine to call.



You follow the ref's decision.
The game went on.

There was clear aggression against the Beaver who
was involved in that injury...
a very obviously intended 
"face mask" wrenching.
(any part of the helmet grabbed is considered face mask)

That fellow's head jerked around sideways.
Yes, there was a flag and a penalty.
Stanford couldn't play for crap for a while.
Emotional upset I guess.


Stanford is a very good team
who did not play anything near their best.
They should have slaughtered OS!
They got by with only 38  total points.
Ridiculous!
If they play this badly next week,
I don't see how the Ducks will have any trouble winning.


As for the Duck's game with them next week...
Well, I'd like to see better defence.
They will need it.
Stanford won't make the mistake of thinking it an easy win
and play sloppy.


Both Stanford and Oregon
are second half teams...
they play their best in the second half.
They wear the opponents down in the first half
with fast play.
I think it will be the PAC 12 game of the season.
May the best team win!




I'm a Duck fan to the end, no matter what.
I believe they can win and will make the corrections
needed to win.
Go Ducks!

If you're a Stanford fan...
pardon me for being a bit happy that they did play 
such a sloppy game.
And... that...
I'm all for seeing that again.


=;]

PICTURES OF WOOD

Last month, my in-laws took us to meet a chainsaw carver

that they had met recently.

Since its the weekend,

I thought it might be nice to show you some of the pics I took of the man's work.

What's that you say?

Yay!  A shorter post!

Ha!

A turtle!

This man's yard was filled with fun and whimsy.

I could use a handy bear like this one.

This one brought up a question...

were those antlers or ears?

Antlers!

 Not bad for a chainsaw.

Turkey Vulture anyone?

  This was the man's favorite.

 This chicken was my favorite.

The man who carved these was very nice.

He showed me how to use the chainsaw and how he blocks out the pieces.

He even gave me a frog that was blocked out to finish

with my carving knives.

 Inside his wonderful house...

he has other carvings of wood and soapstone.

He gave me a chunk of soapstone to try carving...

since I already carve with knives and a knife is the tool for this.

They were the nicest people... he and his wife.

They have gone south for his cancer treatment for a few months...

and invited me to return 

when they get back home and he's had some rest.

Meanwhile, the in-laws cut down 

a few of their incense cedar and red wood trees.

I've asked for some tall pieces...

6'

and some smaller ones of 2 to 3'.

I'm hoping to find a nice small chainsaw soon.

One that won't take a WWW guy to operate.

Have a great weekend everybody!

IDLE HANDS

I left the house to go to the store... 15 minutes tops!

I thought it would be no problem to leave t in the shop...

because his dad, T was there too.

I told T that I was going.

He said

"No problem."

Cool beans.

I arrived home and all looked well.

A car pulled in behind me.

It was t's mom, K.

As I gathered my stuff up...

K walked past me and tapped on the shop door...

it immediately began its lift up and in.

K had a smoke in her hand...

the reason she did not enter through the house.

My first thought was 

"Where's Roxy?"

because there was nothing to keep her from escaping

thru the magic wall that goes up and down.

I hopped out to block her exit path.

T was still out back,

so t must have pushed the button

that operates the door.

But...

He is only 8 and can't reach the buttons on the wall in the shop.

I'm 56 and I have to stand on tip toe.

I looked around.

Sure enough, I had left the remote on my table.

Ok.  

No harm done.

K borrows a couple of potatoes from me

and she and t leave for home.

T tells me that the weirdest thing happened...

that the magic wall had risen on its own

and stopped about a foot and a half off the floor.

He said he freaked out until he found Roxy in the house, sleeping.

Roxy had missed her golden opportunity to flee.

I decided not to mention my remote.

t is a good kid and a kid does kid things.

T goes back to work on the patio.

I sit down to watch the TV and hear a hum.

Odd.

I look around and see the surround sound remote laying on

the man's table saw.

Weird.

We keep it in a roll top shelf with the surround sound.

I open the shelf roll and sure...

the machine is on, empty.

The dials are all turned funny.

t must have tried to turn it on manually before using the remote.

I click it off and put the remote back

before rolling its cover down.

The man will have to readjust the buttons.

When I click my remote for the TV

I Carly laughs at me.

I don't watch that show.

But whatever, 

t is a kid and its a kid show.

T finishes his project and says good night.

I am alone in the shop now.

I like to be out here away from the sleeping man...

where I can make as much noise as I want.

*   *  *  *

It gets cold out here this time of year.

So yesterday morning the man surprised me with a new heater.

Because it is a wood shop,

we needed to buy a heater that would not combust sawdust,

and is cool to the touch.

This heater is special in that it has a closed system

for the elements that heat.

However it has a filter and does suck in air.

For that reason we have a nice thick cover for it when

the dust making machines in here are running.

We have to wait until the dust settles to run it again.

No clogged filter!

The heater came with a programmable remote.

(Oooh... foreshadowing!)

It is a smart heater that can be

 turned on or off in a variety of ways.

I dislike special functions...

I like "OFF" and "ON".

Or

"UP" and "DOWN".

That way I know its off or on because I did it then and there.

No relying on the machine to get it right.

Not in a wood shop.

We fear fire here.

I walked the man to his truck...

my end of the night ritual begins this way.

He says

"Please be sure you turn that heater off before you go to bed...

and wait until the fan stops to be sure its off."

I promise.

I watch him back out of the driveway and wave.

I wait until I can't see the lights anymore, then go inside.

I follow my ritual and make sure all is locked up tight.

Roxy says she does not want to listen to music.

I leave her to guard her dog bed...

and enjoy a CD in the shop.

When it is almost over, 

I turn off the heater.

The music ends and the fan turns off...

I trundle off to bed.

Morning arrives.

Before I prepare the man's diner...

I open the shop door to turn on the heater

so that it can warm things up a bit

while I cook.

My kitchen is fairly cool...

maybe 58*

The shop is 75*

???

There sits the heater doing some cooking of its own.

This is a very bad thing.

I freak out.

I push the off button.

I get thoughts;

What if I had put the cover on it when I was sure it was off?

Fire!

How much electricity had I wasted?

Is not telling the man something a lie of omission in this instance?

How had I possibly not turned it off when I pushed the off 

button and waited for the fan to stop?

I know I turned it off.

While I sat and questioned my sanity...

I turned on The Sopranos and sipped my coffee.

When the second episode came on...

so did the heater!

Was it demon possessed?

YIKES!

I hit the off button again.

I get the manual and begin to read

in the trouble shooting section.

A much saner answer awaited me there.

I followed the directions and punched buttons on the remote...

to the set timer function.

Busy little t had programed it to 

automatically turn on 30 minutes after being shut off.

I fix the problem.

I tell you what...

tonight when I go to bed...

I'll unplug the thing.

And the next time I see little t...

we will have a serious talk

about what could have happened.

NUTHOUSE

(From here: http://freshcode.co/post/Nameservers-in-a-Nutshell-Fresh-Insights-7.aspx)

How cute is that pic?

He picked a loaf of bread up from the store shelf.
He sighed as I said "Ick."
9:30 in the morning out running errands...
when he should be getting bedded down for his night.

Off we go to the frozen food section.
Sacrilege!
Too late for me to cook a normal diner for him from scratch...
today it made sense.
But lately there have been too, too many frozen entrees.
Way too many sandwiches.
For both of us.

We only manage to eat together on his weekends.
Week days we eat opposite on the clock.
Fending for ourselves,
we have taken the easy outs.

I left him browsing Stoffer offerings.
We met at the check stand line...
he had a meatloaf meal in his hand.
I had chicken thighs, soups
and fresh veggies in my little hand basket.

"For tomorrow." I said.
"Promise."
I made him a set in stone vow.
Tomorrow I will eat diner at my normal breakfast time.
We will sit with real plates and eat real food...
together.

Makes sense to me.
I can eat a big morning meal and work off the calories in my day.
A nice sturdy diner meal will help him to catch the zzzzs that have been so elusive.
One of many adjustments we are having to make.

I tossed his frozen meal into the oven and set about attacking
another villain...
light in his sleeping chamber.

He's got so much stuff packed away in the cupboards and chests.
While he was single... his mom picked out his sheets.
I like light and airy colors on my bed.
The blanket closet was overflowing with...
manly colors.
Black and brown were out.
I didn't want to look at depressing.
I opted for a nice dark forest green...
mostly because MIL had accidentally purchased two top sheets.

Down came the manly muted purple, brown and green 

weird patterned valances over the blinds.
I draped the sheets over the rod and adjusted the volume evenly.
A quick fix.
But the stripe on the wide edge makes them look like a panel.
It will do for now.
The tiny bathroom window blazed like a star.
"Fantastic."
The man pulled the pocket door shut to the bath
and true darkness fell.
Cool beans!

C4C told me recently that I had just begun a great adventure...
of surprising discoveries.
These aren't exactly the sort of discoveries I had in mind,
but we certainly have our share of things to figure out about our life together.

Much arrives unexpectedly.
Like the graveyard shift.

Shift gears... make adjustments...
set the cruise control.
Life in a nutshell.