Thinking Thanks

Special day. Nice sharing it with friends.
Big feast. Lots of wine. Lots of laughs.

Friday saw a few Turkeys walking off Thanksgiving Dinner at the UNF Nature Trails.
What a beautiful place!

In Review

A couple of snippets from our everyday ho-hum life...

The Loud Animal in the Woods
Michele and I are sitting on the balcony. It's nighttime. We are having a beer, talking about our day.
We can hear this animal in the woods. I think it's a rabid raccoon. Michele says it sounds more like a dying frog. Even George comes out to investigate. I joke that if you listen carefully, it sounds like someone is in the woods calling my name, CAH-RULL like through a kazoo or something. Michele thinks I am self absorbed.
Suddenly, Michele's phone rings. "Why would your mother be calling my phone at this time of night?!"
Turns out, the gremlins in my phone were repeatedly butt dialing my mom in Connecticut, and what we heard was actually her calling out my name, trying to get our attention!

.............

David's Science Fair Project
David woke me from a dead sleep at 10pm on Sunday night.
David: What's tomorrow?
Dad: fukkafreakin huh, what, Monday
David: No, what's the date?
Dad: I don't know, go look at the calender
David: PHEW.  Its due Wednesday. Good night again.
Dad: Whoa. Wait. What is due Wednesday?! Don't even be telling me it's your Science Fair Project due on Wednesday?!
And David proceeds to make that face that admits total guilt, his shoulders slump and his sphincter tightens...
At which point I am off the couch, equally tightened sphincter,  NO WAY! DAVID?!

Needless to say, Monday and Tuesday evenings at the ol homestead were pretty focussed and tense.

Tuesday evening ended at 12:15am.

But I was pretty proud of that 5th Grade Goonie truth be told. Once he got going, got focussed, it was pretty cool to see him come alive. Papers everywhere, books open, tongue sticking out...

30 points possible. He got 28. My son got an A.

Halloween hither dither

Hooray. We survived the hither dither of another Halloween.

Maybe it was the hour and a half of being herded and contained into a crowded 4' x 12' aisle at Wal Mart with low blood sugar while your family joins 72 other Ridelin-deprived children tearing through all the blood and guts and glowing eyeballs trying to out-gross each other.

By the time we checked out, another hour and a half later it seemed, I felt my own blood and guts and eyeballs were glowing from breathing all that Wal Mart processed air and realizing it just cost me about a dollar a minute being in there.

Maybe it was because everything felt like it was hurry up and wait to go trick or treating. It was a rush to get ready, only to wait in traffic heading to the kids party.

Hurry up and wait to get the perfect amount of blood and guts painted on Matthew's face, only to decide to wear a mask after all.

Hurry up and wait while David ties his shoes. Hurry up and wait while David can't find his mask. Hurry up and wait while David can't find his glowing red eyeballs. Hurry up and cringe as Dad belts out, "You better find them, they cost me 90 minutes of my life inside a Wal Mart!"

Hurry up and wait as the kids finally go trick or treating through what turns out to be a pretty sketchy evening.

Who hands out bottled water? Who hands out candy with no shirt on? Who leaves a porch light on, makes the kids climb to the third floor and then doesn't have any candy? Who decorates their front yard all spooky and even gets into costume, but doesn't hand out any candy, only sits out front to drink beer?

All in all though, the boys had fun. They ran crazy through a foreign neighborhood in the dark. Stayed up late. They scored lots of candy... Thankfully, they don't view Halloween through the same perspective as a grumpy old man with the symptoms of irritated bowel disorder.

Michele wonders what all the fuss is about. Halloween should be no big deal. She says every morning every day waking up with me is like Halloween.

So, I actually have no idea what hither dither has to do with Halloween, but my sister said hither dither and Hooray Halloween is over in her blog. And I felt the same way.

So...hither dither...

Christmas is HOW MANY DAYS AWAY?!?

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Jaguars vs. Dolphins

David and Matthew's first NFL game!

Jags versus Dolphins. October 26. 1pm. Everbank Field.

As a particular Dadman typically does, I had totally over prepared, with thoughts of tail gating for hours before the game, setting camp and grilling enough food for half the stadium. For a week.

But instead, I got a text Sunday morning from a TV Sports News Guy Friend, asking how soon could we get there, he got us Field Passes for before the game!

Come on Boys! Hurry up and let's go!

They had jerseys, got fake tattoos, and wore beads.

What a thrill. What a day.

Jags got beat. No real surprise there, but it was a good game. We stayed til the finish, and even then, the boys weren't ready to leave.

Thank you to Paul who surprised us with the early Christmas present, and got us tickets. Not just tickets to a Jags game; he gave us so much more- what a great day to be 6 years old, 10 years old, and to be a Dad. Even 49 felt like 10 at times. (Except when the cheerleaders went by, then I felt 16 all over again, haha) Thanks Paul. That's the awesomeness of your gift.

And thanks to Brent for totally upping the WOW Factor!

Oh, and, boys, I'd like you to meet your new mother...

haha

Great day. Go Jaguars!

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Discovering a Sense of Home

So here we are. We live here now.

Can't say it's been a fun process, nor a well calculated plan. 

We've given up the backyard and an address that ended in Beach for an apartment ending in Pool. I can't believe I am living in an apartment complex.

It's comfortable enough, though. I find myself cozy, sitting quietly sometimes, surrounded by all our furniture, our pictures, books and memories. We even have George.

Then I open the door and it hits like being blasted by someone's headlights..ugh, we live HERE.

But I do find solace inside. It is peaceful. And we are enjoying the pool. We go for walks together. The boys call it like living at a hotel.

I haven't really shared all these changes with many, but thought it was about time.

It is not an easy thing to deal with; at an age where most are advancing, I feel like we are taking steps backwards.

However...

Home is where the heart is, and for me, home is where Michele and my boys are.

So whether we are at the pool, or enjoying a Family Friday Make Your Own Tacos Night, my heart is Home.

 Making the best of everything.

Walking with Uncle John

Enjoyed a fun walk and bike ride with the boys at Castaway Island on the Intracoastal today.

All thoughts pointed towards Uncle John.

He would have enjoyed today's walk in the woods probably as much as I remembered our past walks and paddles together while we enjoyed our afternoon.

Thanks UJ for sharing your appreciation and admiration of nature that I can pass along to my boys.

Even from 1400 miles away.

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Watching a Miracle of God Go All Darwinlike

Way back when, when we lived in Springfield, Virginia, when I was in the first or second grade, I found my first Cicada shell. It was 1971 or 1972.

It was this see-through brown shell, super fragile, and it was in a Willow tree, in the front yard of a house a few doors down. I used to climb that tree without telling my mom and dad, (nor the people that lived there)  looking for more. I had this handmade "Museum" of special things I made out of a Pampers box, and I put the shell in there and labelled it: KIKAIDA EXO-SKELETON.

It was dinosaur-like. Beyond anything real. A real life EXO-SKELETON. Words like that excited me, and here I was, holding my very own.

We moved around a lot, and many places we lived did not have Cicadas. Some places did, and whenever I found a brown shell of a Cicada, I was thrilled. They were rare in my eyes, and every one was unique. It was like discovering Gold. I am an explorer.

Every time I found one, I always looked at it through the eyes of when I was 6 or 7 years old. Even now, every time I find one, I save it and try to scare my boys.

.......

Fast forward to tonight.

This evening, I sit down at our outside table like I always do, and there before me is a Cicada shell. My inner child awakens.

Granted we live in Florida now, and Cicadas pretty much dominate the audible level anytime it's over 80% humidity. But truth-be-told, I am still thrilled every time I find an empty, brown, paper-thin, evil looking, hunchbacked Cicada shell.

So tonight, I see this shell, right there in front of me, and I see this other bug on top of it. Like it's eating it. Like it's killing it. Imagine my 6-year-old horror. All I want to do is save the honor of The Cicada Shell.

I reach for the killer bug and I pry it off. It is sticky. Very pale, almost translucent. Milky white, with visible veins and eyeballs.... And I suddenly realize.......

For the first time in my life, I am witnessing the Miracle that God created.  I am actually witnessing the Cicada exiting its exoskeleton! Right there before my eyes! The re-birth of one of God's most fragile (and annoyingly loudest) creatures! Something special to me for over 40 years! And here it is right there in front of me! Happening live!

Not so surprisingly, the Cicada has this exhausted, kind of bewildered look. We look at each other, our eyes locked in without blinking; sharing this very miracle; an amazingly rare Darwinism moment... together.

And then a ghecko comes out of nowhere and eats the Cicada.



.

Yep.

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Reason 5-25 I Will Do the Mulch Later

Already this morning I've cleaned up puke and pulled another son's tooth. Some weekends don't go according to plan do they?

Oh well.

Just gotta make the best of the situation! 

Take them head-on and conquer! 

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Baseball for Lunch with David

Got to spend a long lunch watching a ballgame. With David. Pretty cool.

David had a field trip with school to a Jacksonville Suns baseball game.

Had a blast!

An Early Father's Day on a Mother's Day Weekend

Having a pretty amazing weekend with my Dad. It is The Players at Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach.

Beautiful course, great weather, couldn't ask for more.

Had to laugh~  bought our first cold beers and said Cheers to an Early Father's Day. Then we both realized it is actually Mother's Day weekend.

Well, Cheers then to a Happy Mother's Day, God knows we've each accused each other of being a Mother F**ker over the years anyway!

And at that, a Son and a Father tapped their beers, laughed, and shared a really amazing day together.

.

Spectacular. 

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OK, There's No Place Like IOP, SC!

Enjoying a Frisbee Road Trip.

Old guys rule the beaches in Isle of Palms, SC!

Beautiful home with friends, excellent hospitality, and having a blast jamming on the beach.