Boondock Ramblings

A couple scares with Dad

We had a couple scares with my dad this week.

The first scare was that he might have cancer.

The second scare was when he wore this shirt.

I had to look close to really see what it was all about.

Looking closer didn't make it better.

In fact, it scared me more.

I actually thought, for just a moment, that Graham Norton had invaded my parent's home on a Sunday afternoon.

(photo credit The Telegraph UK )

As for the cancer, the tests were all negative.

I'm so relieved.

I'm also relieved that I hopefully won't have to hear my dad compare the blood in his urine to a sinus infection again.

Trust me, you really don't want to know.

Hosted by Cecily

P.S. In all fairness to Graham, all the other photos I found of him he was wearing solid colors and looking very dashing. Still...when I saw Dad for some reason that's whose name came to mind.

The most awesome snow slide ever. . .

It's time for me to brag a bit about my dad.

On Sunday we visited my parents and there was still a good amount of snow on the ground. I convinced Jonathan to go outside because I wanted to build a snowman with him. I had been promising we'd build one for months, but either because we didn't get enough snow, or received powdered snow, I couldn't make one.

Fine, I couldn't make a snow man on the Friday after the storm because I had no idea what I was doing and the snow wouldn't stay together for me!

I am a snowman virgin, K? OK? Fine. There, now you know.

There ya' go. I could have used that for Jen's "confessions" Spin last week!

Where was I? Right. At my parents. Where my dad decided to roll the biggest snowball I've seen in a long time and then another one and then he built my son a snow slide, complete with steps and a snow tunnel underneath it. Memories of a snow slide and fort he built me when I was about 9 came rushing back to me. That was the most awesome snow fort ever. If I can find some photos of it, I'll post them here in a future post.

For now, here is Jonathan enjoying his snow slide and tunnel.

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(You should be able to click on those smaller photos and have them appear in the bigger slot. . .)

See? My dad is awesome.

How about you? Any fun snow or just outside activities this winter?

Part of Photo Story Friday. For more Photo Story Friday's visit Cecily at My Chaos My Bliss.

Hosted by Cecily and Kelli

A letter from Dad

When I was cleaning the closet of my old room out the other day I found a letter Dad had written to me when I was in college. Dad doesn't write often, especially letters, but when he does, it is interesting, often touching, and frequently funny.

 

Hi Kid:

Hope you are doing well. Miss you -- a little (statement) [ get it? Understatement? Because there is a line under it. *snort* My dad cracks me up.] Glad you're not farther away . . . [skip over some boring stuff about coming to visit, but Mom having a sinus infection and my brother watching tennis. yadda, yadda.]

I'm in the back yard with a bumble bee, crows, some other birds, crickets, a butterfly, trees, clover, clouds. Just saw another butterfly (yellow) and another! Lots of things out here. Nice breeze also. On paper I'm a person of many words and few thoughts and in my mind many thoughts and few words. (Don't let anyone read this). [He told me that but I let everyone in my dorm read it and we all laughed at him  with him.] . . .Over here to the right is the part of a little bug that got caught between the pages, possibly a very small cricket. The writing pad being mightier than the pen, which always gets all the credit. [He then circled the bits of the deceased bug].

Should I have written more seriously, sincerely and sensibly?

From your silly-minded, but serious-hearted dad.

Love, Dad

P.S. Should copy this over, only you'd miss the impact of cricket incident.

He enclosed two four leaf clovers for me as well, which I actually found still inside the envelope. Later that day Dad taped them to the page for me so I wouldn't lose them.

What about you? Any family members who still write you letters? Or did once upon a time?

And if you get a chance, bounce over to Life on The Roof and congratulate Jenn on her new baby boy!

Coming out of the closet . . . not THAT closet!

The closet in my old bedroom was full of items from some of the most embarrassing moment of my life. I couldn't believe Dad had asked me to clean it out. What, he didn't want to hold on to all my New Kids on the Block souvenirs, posters of rock stars, and old Nancy Drew books? Apparently not because Saturday afternoon I was instructed to take a couple garbage bags and boxes and clean out the closet.

If only I could have cleaned out my memories of those embarrassing pre-teen and teen years.

The letters to some of my favorite music artists when I was nine ("I'm righting to you to tell you I love your music. I'm 9-years old. I hope you right back to me. If you don't, I'll just keep righting."); the letters to friends in high school (What are you doing? I'm in study hall. I'm bored. I'm sitting across from Dave. He's so cute. *smiley face* *hearts*); the posters of New Kids on the Block (oh, Joey, those luscious lips!); and the teen romance novels (Emily knew she loved Dylan. But Dylan wouldn't even look her way. She thought she'd just die if he ever did.)

We found several other items, not quite as embarrassing: three cowboy hats that probably once belonged to my grandparents, which Jonathan passed around for family members to wear with him; a letter Dad wrote me in college; my brother's U2 posters; the CD book from the Beatle's White Album (ahem, sorry Brother. . .apparently I stole that from you); my Michael Jordan jacket; Mom's old doll (given to her by her grandmother) and the veil from my wedding.

Pulling all those memories out was like walking through a time warp, reminding me of the embarrassing, but also the special moments.And of course, some more memorable moments were made during the cleaning too.

I wouldn't say this was "spring cleaning" as we are in winter, but it's as close as I'll come, since cleaning usually makes me want to crawl into a hole with my embarrassing posters and letters.

 

Kind of part of Sprite's Keeper's Spin Cycle theme of "spring cleaning."

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Today on Views Beyond the Lens:

* Weekly Winners: Dec. 27 to Jan. 2

Monday Random Musings. . .NASCAR, birthdays, and toddler speak

I'm such a nerd, but I could barely watch the NASCAR race yesterday because I was so nervous for my dad. . . . er. . . Mark Martin, I mean. The guy who looks like my dad. Not sure what I'm talking about?

My dad looks like Mark Martin, from what people tell us and him.

Sunday they had a feature on ABC about Mark before the race (he was second in the points for the championship and it was pretty apparent he wouldn't win it because Jimmie Johnson, the defending leader was ahead of him by so many points). I pointed to him and said, "Jonathan, whose that?"

"That 'ampa!" Jonathan said. "Look! 'ampa!"

He was quite excited that his "ampa" was on TV, as was I, even though it wasn't really "'ampa."

Mark didn't win the race or the championship, but he's still a champion in my mind. After the race they interviewed him and I asked Jonathan again who the guy on TV was. He gave the same response.

I explained to him that the man really wasn't "'ampa" but someone who looked like him. This upset my 3-year old immensely and he insisted it was his grandpa. He was so tired after a long day of visiting family I decided arguing wasn't the answer and within 20 minutes the kid was fast asleep on my lap, quite content that he had watched ESPN interview his 'ampa on TV.

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Today is Hubby's birthday. He's hit the big 3-2 with his wife now. Ha! Ha!

Now we are both "OLD" together. He's handling it fairly well.

I've yet to find him in the fetal position, sobbing and rocking back and forth. The closest he got was falling asleep on my parents' living room floor on Saturday:

He'll probably do that fetal-position-rocking-thing after I leave for work today and before his shift starts.

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My toddler continues to do that thing where he falls asleep early in the evening and then wakes up later in the night, acting like he just took a nap and he should be awake for another several hours. I'm not sure how to break him of it. We try to keep him awake, but when we do that, it backfires and he stays up until midnight anyhow.

It's starting to drive me crazy because both Hubby and I have to get up early in the morning, since he's decided he can go to bed late and get up early and I have to go to work. People always suggest that we sleep when he sleeps, but that would provide us with no free time to ourselves.

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A lady in our town lost our cat. She's one of those eccentric ladies with millions, a fancy house, a pool in her backyard, and a lot of emotional and mental baggage. And she lost her cat.

It's sad really. But it's funny. It's laughably sad, then.

She started putting up signs all over town, and in the next two towns over. Then she started putting half and full page ads in the paper. She's spent some $600 looking for this cat and has also promised a reward to anyone who returns him. Did I mention she has millions?

Yeah, so, apparently people have been running cats to her house that are not her cat for weeks now, looking for the reward money. Additionally, she is also now trapping cats which are not her cat.

A couple of weeks ago she called our office to tell us the fire department was pulling her cat out of some insulation at a trailer down the street from her house. She wanted the newspaper to take photos.

We didn't.

"That's not news," a manager said.

She's been looking for the cat for a month now.

She might want to assume he's dead, or living with a woman with a few more marbles left in her head.

*Update: I was joking about the woman with the cat. I'd be upset too, but $600 on advertising? I guess if she has the money then more power to her. I shouldn't have been so harsh and I apologize for sounding like a big ole' meanie!

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Mondays Random Musings is stolen from inspired by Mrs. Nurse Boy at Poop On  Jelly.