Spring Sprung

My Wife with Our Friend's Granddaughters

Yesterday my wife and I attended a first communion dinner for the granddaughter of one of our friends.  It was a gorgeous spring day and the event was at a golf course in the middle of Worcester.  Green Hill Park was one of the hidden treasures of Worcester.  The city completely surrounds this huge park and it can only be reached by a carefully disguised road.  Once you’re there it’s hard to believe you’re in the middle of the city as you are surrounded by wooded hills and a rolling golf course.  It’s a really beautiful place and definitely was yesterday in on a clear sunny day.  The granddaughter’s actual first communion is today but since her grandmother, our friend, is headed out this morning for a trip to China, they had the celebration yesterday.  There was great food and company as well as a band of shrieking kids that I’m sure the golfers appreciated.  On the way home we toured through the rest of Green Hill Park and stopped by the state of Massachusetts Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial.  It was a very poignant visit and memorial is extremely well done, including letters from Worcester resident Soldiers to their families from Vietnam shortly before their death.  These letters are carved into granite pillars set in a reflecting pond.  My wife started crying after reading two.  We walked around the reflecting pond and thought about the sacrifices of that unappreciated group.  Yesterday I also made the decision to change the snow blower out for the lawn mower on my tractor.  I paid close attention to the extended weather report because whenever I do this usually means there is a freak snow storm on our horizon.  The weather forecast calls for 80 degrees on Monday, which I’m sure the runners in the Boston marathon will appreciate.  I’m working on a small puzzle my daughter brought back from Paris.  I don’t know what it is about the French but I guess they just like to piss people off.  Who makes a puzzle with no interlocking pieces!  This is the second time I’m doing it and my wife is enjoying my frequent references to French incompetence.  After thoroughly enjoying my ride through Stephen King’s most recent works I’ve started reading my next Chuck Pahlaniuk book.  Pray for me.  It starts out with, “If you’re reading this, don’t bother.”

Me, at the Memorial the Pillars are in the Background

King Fix Filled

Yesterday I finished the last in the group of Stephen King novels I downloaded.  Once again I truly enjoyed descending into his world which can make even the mundane aspects of life creepy.  The novel was 11/22/63.  It involved a Maine schoolteacher who finds a time portal and travels back to 1958 with the mission of stopping the JFK assassination five years later.  It was a truly fascinating look at life in the late 1950s and early 1960s.  King also had the character travel through one of his most infamous locales, Derry, Maine, where he had a brief encounter with some of the characters from King’s book, It.  I like it when authors do that, it gives the reader the assurance that the people you really liked in other books are still out there in literary world going about their lives.  In this book the main character has to spend five years in the past and of course falls in love with the perfect woman.  But this is Stephen King so there will be no fairy tale endings.  King does do poignant well though and the ending for this book is perfect.  If I explain too much I could ruin it for you.  Only King could make the JFK murder turn out to be a good thing.  I liked that he also disregarded all of the idiotic conspiracy theories that abound but thankfully are dying on the vine.  It wouldn’t be a King reading without some eerie moment and I had that as I was finishing the book.  King transported his hero back to the present and he mentions the date in 2012 that the hero is doing something – it was the exact same date that I was reading it in April 2012.  Now I’m not saying the date changes every time you read it - still, kind of spooky.  The book was great, especially for we children of the 1960s – very long, but very readable.  Last night I took my bride out for pizza and beer, our Friday tradition.  I really enjoy these times and I love going into a place where we seem to know all the waitress staff – pseudo celebrity status (could be that I tip well).  It seems like the only time we get to sit down and talk with each other – of course she does most of the talking; still it’s a lot of fun and did I mention beer was involved.  We came back to the house and I finished the latest puzzle (see below).  Apparently a couple of beers helps the brain solve problems better because I blew through the last 100 pieces or so.  I always knew beer had medicinal effects.  The Red Sox won their home opener, so once again they’re dragging me back in, life as a Red Sox fan.

The Latest Puzzle Completed

Russia – Natural Ally

I watched a movie last night that got me thinking about Russia and naturally the Russians.  I studied Russia as both a high school and college student and have always been fascinated by their intriguing and rich history.  I really enjoyed the competition at the Olympics, from Valery Borzov sprinting, the infamous Russian basketball win with Alexander Belov’s seemingly impossible basket, to the miracle on ice – it was a great rivalry. When I joined the Army at the height of the Cold War the Russians immediately became enemy number one and I trained very hard on the best ways to kill them.  I kind of like the Russia that has emerged from the ashes of the Soviet Union.  They went through and in some instances are still going through some incredibly tough times but I love the Russian spirit.  I really believe they are America’s most natural ally.  The US made a mistake by dismissing them as irrelevant when the depth of the incompetence of the USSR was revealed.  We are still paying for that slight – the last thing the Russians will ever be is irrelevant.  As we move deeper into the 21^st Century and get to know each other better I honestly believe they should be equal partners with us.  Russians and Americans are so much alike it’s kind of scary.  We’re both deeply patriotic, frontier nations who value strong leadership.  The Russians were the first nation to recognize the danger of radical Islam in Chechnya and realized there is no negotiation with them.  The rest of the world reacted with horror but in the Post-9-11 world we now realize the Russians got it right.  As the generations of Cold Warriors are dying out on each side with the entrenched, life long distrust of each other, I really hope the new generation in each country will realize what natural partners we are.  China’s emergence as a true super power both economically and increasingly militarily also makes it a prudent union.  I think both countries have an unfortunate fascination and almost need to be accepted by the traditional European powers.  The Europeans will always look down on both Russia and the U.S., with an almost childish resentment of the power and drive each country possesses.  I like to think of the US and Russia as beer drinkers who enjoy hanging out together at the bar while effeminate Europe drinks wine and whispers behind our back about how crass we are.  I think the US should abandon the centuries old need for approval from our parent European countries and reach out to our natural friend and partner – Russia.  I think we’ll find there’s a lot to like about each other.

Denver Hate – Why?

I have always been a huge fan of John Denver.  I recently learned it’s something I should be ashamed of.  I’ve always been blessed with complete disdain from my children when it comes to my musical tastes – I think it has something to do with the bagpipes.  I got the same reaction whenever I played a Denver song and I thought it was part of the pavlovian response from them to any music I liked.  I recently caught part of a talk show, one of those where the metrosexuals try to show how smart they are and how blessed we are to be listening to them.  They started on this rant about how corny and totally uncool Denver’s music was and that anybody who listens to him is some form of inbred moron.  Denver was huge when I was in college.  He caught the incoming wave of country rock led by the Eagles.  I’ve always been a big fan of ballads (Edmund Fitzgerald anyone?) but Denver just seemed to celebrate life, the environment, and the outdoors.  What’s so bad about that.  He came to my college for a concert which I couldn’t afford to go to but people who did say it was one of the best shows they ever saw and they weren’t big fans of his going in.  I still listen to him sometimes during my commute to and from work and I still like him.  He died early being a better singer than he was a pilot.  I felt bad for him that these no talent hipsters were denigrating a guy with more talent than they would ever have.  If you genuinely like something – don’t listen to these idiots who profess to determine what is cool.  Decide for yourself, too much of our popular culture is dictated to us by no talent wannabes.   

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP7Chi9MPSg&feature=related

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNPki1WVZdw&feature=related

Reunion Tuesday

So, I got the wife back yesterday.  She was a little (lot) tired after spending the better part of two days packing boxes for her friend down in Rhode Island.  When I got home she was getting ready to prepare dinner but since it was date night I sent her upstairs for a nap since she looked like someone who had just finished a long run.  Buddy and I made dinner, although truth be told Buddy’s lone contribution was eating anything that fell on the floor, well, and companionship.  The wife came down after an hour and claimed to be fully refreshed and ready to head out to the movies. She asked what movie we were going to see so I told her American Reunion.  We had seen previews for it and she laughed so I thought we were good.  My wife has become extremely selective and downright hard to please when it comes to movies.  This started about five years ago and I can’t figure it out.  She objects to foul language, sex, and nudity in movies (basic food groups for me) so she excludes a lot of movies I love.  She has actually walked out of a few movies if she finds them offensive and the offense meter is set pretty low.  The lights had just gone down and the movie started and she looks at me accusingly and says this is about the American Pie series!  I said yes, and I thought she liked them (she did but this was before she became selective).  She was looking for an escape route, I recognized the moves but instead she settled for a pissed off pose in her seat (something I also recognized easily from extensive experience).  It didn’t help that the movie started out with male and female masturbation scenes, I thought I was a goner.  She stuck it out though and about halfway through the movie I caught her laughing at a couple of scenes.  As we were leaving the movie she volunteered that the movie was very funny and she had enjoyed it.  The movie was okay and did have a couple of laugh out loud moments but was nothing special.  I’m glad this set of actors has this franchise because it seems that it’s all they’ve got.  I’m hoping that having sat through it she’ll come out of her self-imposed exile a little.  I was the one brought up in the home of the Puritans, not her.  Well the Puritanical teachings of my ancestors didn’t really take with me so I guess that’s a specious argument.  I had a good time and so did she.

Puzzling Sox

I was without the wife again last night.  She went down to Rhode Island to help one of our friends who is moving.  These friends are great people who helped us immensely when we first retired from the military.  We had planned on living in Rhode Island and had a deposit in on some land to build our dream house on.  There was a hold up on the land purchase that dragged on for over a year.  When my retirement date came up we still hadn’t closed on the land much less built the house.  These friends took in our entire family for the summer and my wife and I stayed with them until November when we finally abandoned the land deal and bought the house in Massachusetts.  So we have a huge debt of gratitude that we will never adequately repay to these great people.  Since we have extensive experience in the moving business my wife volunteered to go down and help them pack.  I just wish I wasn’t working so I could help out as well.  Since Buddy and I were left to our own devices again last night I pulled out the last remaining 1000 piece puzzle from my Christmas horde.  Buddy was less than pleased and hovered nearby in case any pieces fell on the floor whereby he would seize the piece and take off.  During our long time together without the wife he learned this would quickly garner my undivided attention.  Being something of a masochist I decided to put my beloved, seemingly fatally flawed Red Sox on the television while I worked on the puzzle.  I found an interesting thing – puzzles and baseball go extremely well together.  I’ve found my attention span has become increasingly challenged as I age and watching baseball, something I used to love, is so slow when compared to other sports that I was losing interest.  Working on a puzzle solved that problem, as I worked on the puzzle and just looked up when something seemed to be happening.  I was getting ready to quit for the night as the Sox were once again losing in the 9^th inning to a team they should be destroying.  All of a sudden a rally started and if you are a true baseball fan you know you can’t kill the rally by changing anything that you were doing – so I kept working on the puzzle.  This of course resulted in a game winning rally where the Sox bull pen finally came through and shut down the other team.  I wasn’t panicking over the Red Sox three game losing streak but this is a team that has to win my trust back after last September’s debacle and they hadn’t done anything to even start that process until last night.

Adult Easter



1950s Easter Swag - Post Scowl

Easter has never been a big deal, holiday wise, for me which is surprising given how much I like chocolate.  It doesn’t have the emotional impact or associated memories of Christmas and Thanksgiving.  From childhood I remember being forced to dress up in really uncomfortable clothes, the proverbial Easter best.  This was recently confirmed when I had the old 8mm films converted to DVD and saw several 1950’s Easters where my sisters and I (scowling for all I was worth) were paraded about in our Easter finery.  My fondest memories of Easter come from the times when my own children were young enough to be excited about waking up for an Easter egg hunt.  This was only for a period of a few years but I just loved watching the two of them earnestly questing for chocolate treasures.  Those days are long gone.  We were able to video chat with our son in Kyrgyzstan and talk with our daughter in New York City but the house seemed especially empty Easter morning.  My sister’s mother in law, possibly the nicest person ever born, invited us for Easter dinner at her house in Rhode Island.  I love spending time with my sister’s in laws – they are such fun to be around, just great people.  My sister’s husband is the brother that I never had and we were able to spend a good time talking at the table as the food came in waves.  I was once again struck by how much older everyone was, not old, just older.  Over the years we had been to several of these gatherings and there were always hordes of kids weaving through the crowd and adding significantly to the background noise.  The kids are still there but most are in college or nearly so and much too cool to be cacophonous anymore.  The funniest part of the day was my apparent dependency on chocolate Easter bunnies.  As I said above, I absolutely adore chocolate.  This dates back to my childhood where my mother always gave me a large chocolate bunny and I would jealously guard it from my three ravenous sisters.  When my mother was alive she never failed to get a chocolate bunny to me, no matter where I was in the world.  My wife and sister picked up the tradition but yesterday my wife gave a horrified look when she realized she had forgotten.  She seemed genuinely worried about my emotional well being.  We were talking about this at the dinner table and my sister achieved the same shocked look.  She said she had bought me a chocolate bunny but had forgotten it at home; as is her want to do with things of this nature.  So apparently I have this chocolate bunny reputation – something I’ll have to live with.  My sister’s mother in law solved the crisis by presenting a huge Easter basket to everyone attending, another of her traditions.  In the basket she prepared for my wife and I was the elusive chocolate bunny which I quickly established ownership of.  The bunny was not, size wise, up to my normal standard so I’ll have to figure out a way to score the bunny that my sister bought before my nephew (and godson) absconds with it, life is all about meeting challenges.

The Wife in Her Easter Finery - Looking Very Good

My Sister Shortly After Realizing I was Without Bunny

My Wife and I with the Aforementioned Nicest Person in the World

The Wife and I with Our Easter Basket

The Easter Basket with the Somewhat Undersized Salvation Bunny

Buddy With His Easter Present - a
 Bone With Meat on it (At Least Temporarily)