Great Days

My friends in the Southwest tell us about 120 degree days there and here in the Heartland we had mid 80's with a nice breeze.  In fact the wind made the lower temperatures and low humidity nice but it was a little too windy to hang siding on my rental house by myself.  To make up for that, I paid a visit to the Local Lumberyard to purchase nails and more siding.  A trip across town in a non air conditioned black pickup (hot rod primer black) was nice but would have been roasty toasty last week. 

I am looking forward to going out on the patio today and grilling some chicken and steak.  Last week it was one hot and still day when I tried to grill.  In fact I had to use the leaf blower to get the coals to heat up.  Once they got started things were great but they just didn't want to start getting hot.  I have one of those metal chimney coal starters and I put a couple sheets of the newspaper in the bottom and wet it with starter fluid.  Pour in charcoal and normally it is enough.  I had to start up the blower and treat it like it was the forge in a blacksmith shop.

 The floor in my small rental house was getting soft a couple of weeks back and the renter said he would fix it.  He said when he got in there was some termites in the rotting wood.  They are drawn by water and the seal on the stool was leaking.  I will probably treat the house sometime next week.  I am worried about the fact that they have a new baby and I would hate to do anything that might hurt the babe. 

As soon as I finish the siding on the north side of the yellow house, I am going to look for a painter to give it a coat of paint.  I would jump into the job but it will take a lot of scraping to get down to the part that needs painted.  Oh well.

I think I will quit this post and see if I can entice Barb into a bike ride.  I can hear Lake Shawnee calling me.  Perhaps a trip to the Shunga trail might be in order.  There is a route that goes from the Brown vs. Board of Education site clear down to 45th Street.  That is a nice route and not very busy.  I encourage you all to find a hobby that puts a smile on your face.  If you like me after 30 years of Military find it hard to smile, perhaps it will put a smile in your heart.  One time in a class I was teaching one of my students asked why when I seemed to enjoy what I was doing I did not smile more.  I told them that I loved the contact with the students and seeing their improvement daily was just what the Doctor ordered for my morale.  If I didn't smile, it was because I was so mission focused and there are things I just forget to do. 

Once upon a time, I had a friend, Guy B. Branson, and he started every training session with a joke.  That was the standard way of building familiarity back in the day.  His difference was he told zingers not just jokes.  To this day I love his plays on words.  For example there one joke that in a World Series back in the early 1900's where Mel Famey was a pitcher.  He had started three games and won all of them easily.  In the last and final game of the series, his team was ahead by four runs in the 5th inning and Mel was watching from the bull pen and did not expect to get called in to pitch.  He had been known to drink a beer from time to time and after four or six beers, he was sure he would not get the call.  The other team loaded the bases and a reliever was called in. The opposing team tied the game with a home run. The manager called on Mel to come in and pitch when they filled up the bases again.  When he walked the batter and lost the game the winning manager was asked how they won.  His comment was, "It was the Beer that made Mel Famey walk us."   There is a version with a bear and it was the "Bear that made Mel Famey walk  us. "  Either way, students would groan when they listened to the punch lines and often would throw wadded up papers.  My kind of guy. 

Oh well, time to move in and move on.

MUD