breaking the silence

Summer loving, had me a blast.

Well a, well a,
Tell me more, tell me more.

As I write, old summer tunes play in my headphones.

shoo-bop-bop, shoo-bop-bop,...
doo be doo be daa

Summer days have drifted off. But those summer flings play back good memories. Probably a few bad memories but those are easily discarded.

I wonder if selfies of those summer flings would increase or decrease my memories. I believe an image in your mind often looks better that what’s on old photographic paper.

Tell me more, tell me more.

Well, I didn’t notice the mosquitos as much back then. Well, I am long from 18 anymore.




Hmm… It’s not very cold yet but months from now I’ll get chills that will be multiplying.

Because the comments you’re supplying. It’s electrifying. I better shape up.

sun-dried fragment time

It's time for a Friday post. You know the grill. Mrs. 4444 provides a nice place for bloggers to collection their Friday Fragment posts. Since it's the middle of summer here (I have an occasional reader from south of the equator so I point out the season once in awhile) I think I'll grill my fragments. Whatever your reason for your season please browse over to the fragment roast at Mrs. 4444's blog.

serious bean toss

Those cement objects in the grass might be mistaken for flag pole holders to those not familiar with the tossing of the bean bag.  I took the above picture at a neighboring city park this week.  We had gone there for the splash park but I noticed these nearby.

I've played the game many times.  I know it is played throughout the Midwest but I'm not sure if it is popular on our two coasts.  Some call it cornhole/corn toss (the bags were often filled with dried corn) or tailgate (extensively played during tailgating parties).  This is the first I've seen fixed platform stations with cement side pads for the players.  Someone at their park district must be a serious bean bagger.  I wonder if anyone there is a member of the American Cornhole Association .

enjoying the beans after rough game

I commented to someone the other day that their dream sounded better than my last one. I don't know why I have arguments in a dream. More pointless than my arguments when I'm awake. 

(Really I’m not obsessed about this. But go ahead criticize me in the comment section) During my saunter in the superstore today, the end was foreshadowed. Not my backend which doesn’t cast a shadow. No, the end for me as in the big dirt nap. I now think I know how it’s going to end. She-the-fast-walker will find the biggest superstore around and convince me to join her. Once inside the cavern of rollback smiley faces she will challenge me to find some item listed on a coupon. I’ll never see her again. I will wander for hours.  Near closing time my body smashed by an overstuffed fast moving cart will be discovered in the home goods section. 

a pet peeve (do you keep peeves for pets - they don’t eat anything) - Buying ripped jeans - a sign of yet-to-be developed brain? Or maybe a low patience level so low that they can not wait for the jeans to rip themselves.


Could I become the digital clown of great renown? Hey lighten-up, enjoy a tune on me:

as the blog turns

It's been a few days since my last post. Oh summer time and outside things to do time.

cloud matching

Not sure the reason (maybe the season?) that this old TV soap opera title popped into my head. It could be the old pictures and things I've looked at recently. I do recall seeing that spinning earth come on the TV screen at my grandmother's house. I thought the shows were stupid and would have rather watched some cartoons. Well my blog doesn't offer any cleaning tips and you certainly don't need to give up the next 30 minutes of your time with my blog.  Unless you feel like browsing back through the many old posts.

Not that I see many but I suspect there are some blogs very much like soap opera shows.  Who is doing what to whomever and to whom it may concern.

There is enough of that stuff on FB so we don't need daily relationship drama on blogs.

Day turns to night.  Tadpole turns to frog.  I enjoy a nice relaxing turn.

no prince kiss needed for a frog

 

the woods both beautiful and scary

Summer should be planned spontaneous. Well isn't that the argument at times? Is it better to plan or not plan.  How you balance that decision is really personal choice. My wife and I traveled to both Central America and Europe with only reservations for the start and end of each trip. The middle part was filled in as we went. Making plans on the fly allows flexibility but sometimes can eat up your time searching for a clean place to rest your head.

Summer - warm, hot, wet, long days, thunder storms, sandy beaches,

It's a time to get out into nature and enjoy.  Nature is often spontaneous.

Sharing is good but not with the insects.

don't worry it's only art

I'm sharing another travel story.  Nature has been known to surprise me with adventure even when I don’t travel far.

Back during our daughter's teen years (an exciting/scary time for parents with or without natural storms) I became familiar with a YMCA camp in nearby Wisconsin.

She started as a camper and liked it enough that the next year she sign-up as a camp counselor (started in-training then progressively advanced to more important roles).

This became her summer plan for a few years. She enjoys kids and now she has become a teacher (and mom).

Dad fishing on a wooded lake

One of my trips to the camp became very memorable, nearly in a very bad way.

As a counselor she would have sessions at the camp lasting many weeks straight. When she had a free weekend she would be eager to come back. (these were pre-smartphone days)

So one summer Friday afternoon, I hurried up to the camp. Driving to the camp was enjoyable after getting off the interstate. The two lane country road was hilly, tree lined, and offered views of numerous small lakes. A road through many woods.

Ready to go when I arrived, we quickly were off on the ride home. However, we quickly discovered a nasty surprise from nature was about join us for the trip.

The wind is very noticeable in the woods. Watching large trees sway and snap their branches is a scary sight. The bigger trees sound like old men climbing creaking stairs.

As I pulled out from the dirt (now mud) road through the camp area woods onto the two lane country road, this summer thunder storm was about to peak. I pulled over on the shoulder for a short while. We were amazed and maybe shocked to see the debris being whipped across our path.

After what seemed the worst of it, I cautiously started down that scenic-turned-scary road.

Then we both saw something shocking.

A car was racing uncontrollably towards us.

I think my daughter screamed but if so I might not of heard it because my whole focus was on avoiding a head-on collision.

The approaching car swerved, went off the road, through a ditch, through a front yard and was quickly stopped by a large tree.

Our eyes were wider than ever, trying to take in what just happened. Mind and heart racing, I finally realized we were untouched.

I pulled over again and decided I needed to go back and check. I didn't carry a cellphone back then. When I approached the car I was surprised not to see any passengers. They all had taken off.

I went up to a nearby house and got the attention of homeowner. We pieced the puzzle together - mostly likely underage drinkers who survived the crash but probably didn't want to stick around for the police report. We left.

When we finally reached the interstate and a restaurant we learned that storm carried a tornado along too.  Enough near misses for me.

Nature can be both beautiful and scary in the woods.

playlist of memories

Unlike my siblings I often spend time listening to music. Do you listen to music everyday? Sure depending on what’s going on I’ll spend days without music. I probably listen to more now than I did in my teens. The songs form a playlist of memories for me. Could it be that songs of 60’s and 70’s had more messages in them? I don’t know. Imagine. Imagine all the bloggers posting life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer.

Back in the 70’s, Elton convinced me that my future lies beyond the yellow brick road. I start forming my big plan. But then the next song on my playlist tells me:

but honey child
I got my doubts.
You can’t see the forests for the trees.

It’s just a song. However, it’s Not the same old song. Memories keep lingering on.

Now don’t think I’m suggesting that all the good songs have profound messages. A few favorites of my just stir up visions of a long cool woman in a black dress. She had it all though.

A good memory song can put you in a place. Maybe a specific place or maybe just a season. The summer breeze or with a stronger memory, a summer wind. Why with these summer songs you could easily create a theme from a summer place. Oh wait, Percy Faith did that!

can you remember when

Such a lovely weekend. Finally a warm fresh breeze showed up to greet me. I probably set my mind down too long because my mindset is a bit off today.

Summer will be here before you know it. If I’m lucky she will take me to a beach. Life is often not much of a picnic but a good picnic can make you feel alive.

I remember back in my school days when Isabelle Tolling announced the class picnic.  It rang out through our group. Sara Party wouldn’t stop asking me about it but then she was always wanting to know what was happening.

We all wanted Freddy Fingers to miss hearing the news. However, hoping the party would go well into the night we made sure Bill A. Fryr got the news. He always was good for a match.

Joy Birdsong borrowed her dad’s car and flat out refused to let Iris Speeding drive it. They put the top down and cranked up the music. I enjoyed the ride from the backseat. I never figured why they picked up Ben Fardown. He was alright but I was leery of him being on the up and up.

Just as I dropped the blanket on the sand, I saw Holly Moses. Oh, her figure burned a hole in my brain. She commanded me to find her tanning oil. I suggested we just part the waves and chill. Tommy Quicktalk made a move and she was gone.

I tried a little beach volleyball but Carey Overtop spiked one on my face. The cold water eased the swelling. Isabelle was concerned about me. Even today if I pick-up a shell I can heard her sweet voice ringing.

No time to wallow in the mire - come on leave a comment!

lighten up catch a wave

It's summer! (at least for the northern hemisphere)

Get some sand between your toes and lighten up.

on a Michigan beach

Oh to be little again.

A summer song covered by Paul Simon.  

light my fire

Passions
Warm glows
Playing with fire

Fire shows up often in lyrics. Remember the line "...We're living in a powder keg giving off sparks..."? Fire, explosions, we do get emotional. Even "smoke gets in your eyes" can give meaning to a song.

Past posts here have referenced Chicago Tribune columnist, Mary Schmich before. I quoted her words on life's stages in this recent post. Today she wrote about the passing of a member of the Doors, Ray Manzarek. She has the ability to describe the common feelings of events like this.

She wrote in today's column:

"At a certain point in life, every time a public figure dies, you feel the pinch of your own mortality. It's not the same as sadness, though you may feel sad.

The pinch is simply the recognition that all of us belong to a cultural moment, and famous people are the most visible representatives of our moment. When those people transit into the next orbit, they take a piece of our times and us with them. Their departure is a forecast of our own voyage out."

Like others the name, Jim Morrison, pops up in my head when the Doors music is played. Ray, I learned, was inspired by Bach in creating the very recognizable organ intro of the song.  Playing the song takes me back to a summer in the sixties.  Old songs have a way of giving me an eclipse of the mind.
 

summer stuff

 Suggest you play a few tunes while reading.

Create a playlist at MixPod.com

"They say that all good things must end ... 

someday...

... but don't you know,

 that it hurts me so

to say goodbye to you...  "

It appears one of the good things that ended was the embed function offered by playlist.com.  I have used that service in the past but now they don't offer the embed code for your blog post.  So I went searching for another option to embed a playlist.  The MixPod.com works good and hope it keeps going for awhile.

My playlist option problem made this simple post a little longer.  Initially I was just going to write about innocent summers of the past.  Back then before all the adult worries and issues.  Simple summer love.

The songs in this playlist remind of those days.

Do you have simple summer memories?

I'm going to try to dream of summer days while I'm shoveling snow off my driveway.

a fragment floozy

Every Friday in the blogland woods of Wisconsin, Mrs. 4444 provides a place to spread our tasty brain crumbs (fragments) so that others may follow.

ain’t no floozy because she flosses frequently

I completed my scheduled teeth cleaning (if I start lose them does the cleaning get cheaper?) with a passing grade. "How often do you floss?" Being in a dentist chair and coming from a lovely dental assistant I’ll accept that very direct question. My honest answer (not often) just gets a me a series of reasons why being on the low floss path of life is dangerous. Two good things: 

1. I had the same good humored assistant last time.  
2. I paid attention and my memory playback worked.

I was able to answer with her next reason before she provided it. All good reasons but we agreed that guys can just be stubborn. I do enjoy her humor. My next cleaning was pushed into 2013 and she remarked, “if we are still around”. We then joked about the 2012 end-of-the-world prediction. A few laughs and clean teeth - what more could an old guy expect?

Blogging Sabbatical or who has time to blog with twitter, FB and G+. 

Could be a seasonal thing, a blogging flu, or a blog allergies. It just seems there has been a slow down around here. Even fewer clowns than normal lately. Do you hit the publish button and think “that post should get a response”? I felt that way about my previous post.

easy to chill in the winter

Damn I just wrote a check for too much so we could chill a little in our house this summer. The old air conditioner’s condition was not very airy. I often wish I could keep a little heat from the summer for the winter and a some winter coldness for the summer. That would be a nice balance don’t you think? Just doesn't work that way. I might post about my failed attempt of a fix but for now I’ll just share a picture of the unit’s wiring I captured so that I could remember how the wires went back together. (I should photoshop in a ticking clock for more drama)

Put a little manic mustard on my hot dog please

I was dragged by my wife into a Costco the other day. Alright, she really can’t drag me anywhere since that would require a heavy equipment operator’s license. She enticed me with the idea of enjoying a Costco hot dog. Have any of you tried a Costco hot dog? It was a steamed hot dog whose appeal is price. 

I’m not giving up my favorite hot dog stand for a warehouse hot dog. The Costco experience exemplifies the American consumerism. We want bigger packages of stuff for less. We love to join any type of club. I really thought I would see more big SUVs there since the over-sized packages need a truck to haul home. 

Oh almost forgot - I added a slideshow treat for all bottom of the page scrollers. Scroll down for a look. (proofreading provided by C. F. Eyecare)

now what

I know many of you have jumped in a car, boat, or plane to escape.  It's a summer thing to do and the upper half of the world has started it's summer.  I don't jump into much of anything.  I might hurt my back.

However, I was on the road the other day and then sat on a beach.  I walked slowing into the lake.  It's was a little cold.  After my legs get a little used to it and the waves start lapping my waist, I typically just dive in.  Getting past that cold shock quickly works for me.

a favorite summer picture

So now what?


That's been the theme of my week.


I prefer to plan things.  Not completely every detail.  Many of my best trips started with only the first night's stay reserved.  Being flexible is good and different than having to react to surprises.


I had one thing planned this week - a concert.  I'll be posting about that soon.  Many concerts required a concerted effort to attend (tickets, travel, what will you wear, etc.).


My beach visit including "babysitting" nieces and a nephew was not planned much in advance.


So now what?


Daughter and SIL are dropping their dog off for a few hours.  Call a repairman for dryer that went on a spinning strike.


I don't care much for surprises.


Life has plenty.  There are good ones but some are annoying.


Maybe the following youtube clips might be a surprise for you.  I don't include clips here all the time.


I was thinking about friends the other day and I remember this song:





I found this song a month or so ago.  It has that "Beach Boys" surfer/hot-rod sound.  It's about strollers.  It gives me a laugh.



another circus 

spirit in the sky

It's been a number of weeks since my last SIMC post.  They are fun but then so are weekends so I often miss the Sunday entry time.  Click the bladge below and enjoy some other ones.

I didn't take these interesting shots. I was there. Up on a hill on a beautiful weekend day looking down, up and all around. My daughter captured the "spirit in the sky" by getting down on the ground and pointing skyward.

Oh watch out the earth is starting to tilt - fall is coming!

another circus 

 

it’s on the way to nowhere

That would be good way to describe my brother’s place in Missouri. He is almost in Arkansas and if he goes anywhere in his boat he travels into Arkansas.

First I had to get to nowhere from the rural mountain area of North Carolina. So class, name a long narrow state that advertises a “Jerky Outlet” store with easy access to the interstate. (I didn’t have time to stop).

Here’s a useful geographical piece of info - Only three car bridges cross the Mississippi into Tennessee. Two of them are in Memphis. This limits your trip planning. I took the third one. It goes into that little hanging piece of Missouri. (BTW - if you have never crossed the Mississippi you’ll be surprised on the size of that river)

On my way to nowhere, I went through the nice sized town of Kennett MO. It’s about 100 miles from Memphis but I traveled in from the east not from the Memphis direction. Lots of cotton fields along the road. Someone famous comes from there. She recently released a CD titled “100 Miles from Memphis”.

My nowhere visit was in the Ozarks which spans southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. I know I’m getting close when the roadkills are mostly armadillos.

Another feature of the area is the hilly twisting roads. Motorcyclists love the place and I enjoy the roads if I’m not tired and it’s daylight. Here’s one of the hills. You really need to fly down it to enjoy it. I got to this hill by taking a shortcut down “Lightning Springs” road. Not hard to pretend being in the “Dukes of Hazzard” here.

Many residents of Ozark county are proud to tell you that there’s not one McDonalds in the whole county. You can buy a cup of coffee at the local store/post office/gas station/gossip center in Protem for 25 cents. My brother told me times are getting tough because it used to be free refills but now those are 25 cents too.

There are some strangely named towns in that area:

• Kissee Mills
• Yellville
• Flippin

The lake (Bull Shoals) is a major part of life down there. Forgot your boat? No problem you can ride across the lake for free on this ferry (take route 125 out of Protem).

Float your boat or your house.

Plenty of water in their basement.

My next post will be sharing the local police report from the paper.  It's a fun read.

Going nowhere? Been nowhere?

Guess what, being in the middle of nowhere is very enjoyable.

summer spin

Another spin cycle - this one is on summer planning.

Summer should be planned spontaneous. Well isn't that the argument at times? Is it better to plan or not plan.

Your balance on that decision is really personal choice. My wife and I traveled to both Central America and Europe with ONLY reservations for the start and end of the trip. The middle part was filled in as we went. Making plans on the fly allows flexibility but sometimes can eat up your time searching for a clean place to rest your head.

So Summer - warm, hot, wet, long days, thunder storms, sandy beaches,

It's a time to get out into nature and enjoy - right?

Sometimes that means sharing with the insects.


Back during my daughter's teen years (boy that can be an exciting/scary time for parents) I became familiar with a YMCA camp in nearby Wisconsin.

She started as a camper but liked it enough that the next year she signed-up as a camp counselor (starts with in-training then progressively advances to more important roles).

This became her summer plan for a few years. She enjoys kids and now she is a teacher.

One trip up to the camp became very memorable, almost in a very bad way.

As a counselor she would have sessions at the camp lasting many weeks straight. When she had a free weekend she would be eager to come back.

So one summer Friday afternoon, I hurried up to the camp. Driving to the camp was enjoyable after getting off the interstate. The two lane country road was hilly, tree lined, and offered views of numerous small lakes.

She was ready to go when I arrived so it wasn't long and we were off for the ride home.

However, we quickly discovered a nasty part of nature was about to arrive too.

High wind is very noticeable in the woods. Watching large trees sway and snap their branches is a scary sight.

As I pulled out from the dirt (now mud) road onto the two lane country road, this summer thunder storm was about to peak. I pulled over on the shoulder for a short while. We were both amazed and shocked to see the debris whipped across our path.

After what seem the worst, I cautiously started down that scenic-turned-scary road.

Then we both saw something frightening.

A car was racing uncontrollably towards us.

I think my daughter screamed but if so I might not of heard her because my whole focus was on avoiding a head-on collision.

The approaching car swerved, went off the road, through a ditch, through a front yard and was quickly stopped by a large tree.

Our eyes were open wider than ever and our hearts racing.

I pulled over again and decided I needed to go back and check. I didn't carry a cellphone back then. When I approached the car I surprised not to see any passengers. They all had taken off.

I went up to a nearby house and got the attention of homeowner. We pieced the puzzle together - mostly likely underage drinkers who survived the crash but probably didn't want to stick around for the police report. We left.

When we finally reached the interstate and stopped at a restaurant we learned we just had been in the path of a tornado.

Nature can be both beautiful and scary in the woods.

=== update ===

I don't often add updates but this may explain the danger of Wisconsin driving.

News from the Wausau Daily Herald:

Pantsless woman arrested

A 29-year-old Plover woman who was talking on a cell phone and driving without pants was charged with drunken driving following a crash in the town of Port Edwards ....
....who was driving her pickup truck east on Highway 54 just before 8:50 a.m. Sunday, had her pants hanging out the window to dry when the vehicle hit the highway shoulder, and Jackson overcorrected, according to the Wood County Sheriff's Department Accident Report. The pickup crossed the centerline, entered the ditch and rolled.