UNEXPECTED DAY

155 – Thursday, June 4, 2009
Every once-in-a-while, a day comes along for which you had not planned – Thursday was one such day. Cynthia and I arose at 6:00 am and abruptly left, as we do every Thursday, to spend the morning with our grandson with the full intention of simply returning home. Upon our arrival we were informed Isaac had just contracted highly-contagious virus called gingivostatitis (unless you are the diagnosing physician, I wager it took you three or more tries to pronounce that) – he was no trouble at all (as usual), then, unexpectedly, we made a trip south to visit Aunt Mary, and while on the way, Cynthia got a call from our goddaughter, who informed us that her father, a former college roommate, was in town to surprise her for her birthday and wanted to spend a couple of hours visiting. Since we were already about half way to a meeting place, we continued. We were not dressed appropriately and felt a little discomfited in the process, but we arrived to meet Mike and Erin. Two hours turned into three as the reunion was replete with life events that had propelled us through four decades and deposited us in the present – we missed our window to pick up our four-year-old grand nephew at day care, and since we had the car seat in our automobile, Grandma Jane was forced to walk to the center to pick up Zachary. Jane informed us she needed a part for her computer which we were to bring home requiring a trip to our local Walmart, currently undergoing a massive remodel. After meandering through the new aisle placements and having to retrace steps more than once (it will take some real getting used to) we emerged, bags in hand, and headed for home. Now 8:00 pm we hurriedly made dinner, a steak on the grill and some baked steak fries. At 9:00, we finished up the kitchen and fell into our respective seating nearly spent but with a reflection on our experience that ‘any day which includes time with grandkids, reminiscences with an old friend, and red meat is a very good day’!!!
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NUTRI-SQUIRRELS

154 – Wednesday, June 03, 2009
We took a few minutes to transfer some NutriSystem products we still had in reserve in boxes in the garage from earlier shipments. There had been no place to store these earlier until we could use some of the entrées and supplements already on hand in order to be able to fit the newer inventory into our pantry. In the process of relocating the items, we unveiled a few snack items that we knew immediately would never be ingested, for even though they offer nutritional value, they leave much to be desired in both taste and texture. Cynthia decided that she would feed the discarded rations to our outdoor wildlife, our resident families of squirrels. I will be keeping a very close eye out for the next several days, for, given the effectual nature of the NutriSystem food, I fully expect our already anemic-looking rodentia of the Eastern Gray Squirrel family to experience the loss of a few ounces. I don’t know how I will then describe the little wispy-tailed critters I already have dubbed as ‘skinny squirrels’, half the size of their northern bronze counterparts – I may have to rename them ‘anorexic animalia’!!
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MY SHARES

153 – Tuesday, June 02, 2009
When General Motors is not exempt from the financial distresses of the day, red flags no longer ‘go up’ but begin fraying from the abuse of the gale-force winds of our times! GM filed bankruptcy amid national news coverage – another governmental bail-out gone badly. Management that ran the company aground will remain in place at extreme salaries – the same management that did not listen to consumers begging them to build the kinds of cars that we were looking for – the same management that took the former Numero Uno automotive manufacturer into the toilet! Once upon a time, this company offered a stock known as a widow-and-orphan issue that should have been a stable hold-onto-forever investment, but now worth only about sixty-one cents – no longer a realistic analysis – today’s hope is that the stocks you own perform well for the rest of this year! When you and I make a folly out of how we spend the money under our control, who will be in the wings to bail us out? No one – we stand or fall on our own fiscal responsibility. I just want to know one thing – why is it that the government now owns 60% of the company instead of you and me? After all, the money the government used to mortgage our future was our own. Did you have anything to say about that? I thought not! Signed: still waiting for my seventy-one shares of GM!
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BIG BROTHER

152 – Monday, June 01, 2009
Get ready, Isaac! As cute as you are today and the perpetual subject of many a blog from both your Grannie and your Poppie, you are about to be upstaged. You have about eight more months to bask in the glory of everyone’s attention! Oh, have no worries, my little man, for your Poppie will always be swayed by those big baby-blues and your flashing smile – you will probably always pretty much get your way! In the next few weeks we shall find through the magic marvel of ultrasound just exactly the gender of your temporary competition – personally, I am just hoping for healthy, I will accept whatever sex is ordained. You will soon begin to experience what it is like to be a big brother, tasked with the responsibility of learning the ins and outs of, first, how to pick on your sibling, then later, how to protect them. You are such a quick learner now that I expect you will grasp all the nuances of your new role instantly. Remember, however, your life will never again be the same – we are all in this together – I am pulling for you – and this new addition will be the second miracle in your family for you were first!
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THE GUTTERS

151 – Sunday, May 31, 2009
Our son is always quick to come to the aid of his parents – what a blessing! Having outgrown that adolescent attitude shared by nearly all teens that work is for other people, he has adopted the posture that Dad no longer needs to climb up on the roof and clear out the gutters at the onset of the rainy season (only one among many of the tasks from which he has preempted me) – he does it for me without complaint. I’m not certain of his reasons – perhaps he has monitored the mishaps that have salted themselves into my life experiences as he observed me while growing up – perhaps he thinks that I have gone over-the-hill - perhaps he views my efforts at many a job as ‘too time consuming’ in that his father is notorious for taking a ten minute job and stretching it into an all-afternoon project – you know, when one is presented with a small challenge, one must undertake the design and fabrication of some unique thing-a-ma-jig which probably could be circumvented by the use of a broom handle – hey, you cannot rush creativity – it takes time!! Today, however, was not just about the gutters, even though he tore right through the venture – Ben was energetic and charged up about his newly-acquired insights and the prospects of joining the ranks of millions of internet entrepreneurs with the opportunity of supplementing his income. He has acquired his domain name and is ready to begin site construction. His exuberance has inspired his mother and me to work with him in the development of our website as well. Keep your eyes and ears open in coming blogs as we post new developments and information regarding this venture. Add your prayers, as well, for good measure – I find that, in any undertaking that I choose to pursue, attempting the venture without the ultimate guidance proves often futile.
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