He called me Bud

For as long as I can remember my father called me Bud. I have no clue why. No one else ever called me that, not even my mom. It is not short for any part of my name. Regardless I was his Bud and I answered to it whenever he called.


My father passed on June 23rd after having heart surgery.


His doctor told him months ago he needed the surgery but he said he had things he had to take care of first. My sister was diagnosed with breast cancer. His step mom who he visited every day at the retirement home is 93 and had just been diagnosed with cancer. He and mom were discussing a remodeling of the den and living room. He was retiring from the church service program he had helped start 15 years ago and they were giving him a dinner. There was paperwork he needed to get together. And he told the doctor, "You only have one shot to turn 80 and he wanted to make it.


My sister had her surgeries and is doing great. No chemo or radiation. She feels blessed.
He started the remodel. Knocking out a wall to merge the den and living room and converting my old bedroom into a laundry room.
He had his retirement dinner. They gave him a plaque. His whole crew was there and he felt blessed.
Grandmothers cancer was deemed slow growing and that she would die with it and not from it so they are not going to do surgery. Last month he set me and my sisters down with all his financial info, just in case.


He told me a while back that everything was taken care of and he was going to schedule his surgery and he was at peace with it. His surgery was scheduled for June 10th.


He turned 80 on June 1st. The family gathered and we had dinner and cake. He played with his 3 great grand kids and found out 2 more were on the way.


I picked he and Mom up at 4:30 am on Wednesday the 10th to take them to the hospital for his surgery. The first report was that everything went perfect. Second report said the right side of his heart did not restart so they installed a bypass to help it. Wednesday night into Thursday became a marathon of code blues and bad news. He never woke up and on Tuesday, 13 days after his surgery, the Lord he was faithful to serve took him home.


His Church family was there from day one of the surgery through his passing. They have supported us and especially mom. His funeral was a celebration of his life of serving his God, his family, his Church, and his community and there were people of all those groups there to speak of his dedication to serve others.


Dear Dad,


You left huge shoes to fill. You raised me and guided me. I pray I can carry on your legacy.


Your Bud

Mythical Creatures?

Yes, I doubt his existence, but then again, Bigfoot doesnt have any clear photos of me either.

Man On The Edge

Hi folks!!!

Just in case anyone was wondering I'm still breathing.

You might remember this post. OK, kinda irritating but cute.

Or this one. Again irritating but I can laugh it off.

 

Or this one. Not much you can really do about these guys so you just pick them off.

 

But now, They crossed the line. They really pissed me off.
 

 

My garden is littered with half chewed cucumber carcasses and squash necks with no bodies below it. There are tomato skins and half eaten maters on top of my fence post and littering my yard. They have eaten about 1/3 of my bounty.

So I got this.

Might have worked a bit but it has rained alot. Maybe if you sprayed it in their eyes.

 

We tried Cayenne Pepper sprinkled on the plants.

 

We tried Foil on the ground around the plants.

Now it is time for extreme measures.

So I got A new sign.

 

 

 

Things just got real folks.

 

I Guess It's Time To Go

Did you see the article online about the family's car that burst into flames while driving through the lion's enclosure at a zoo? You Can See it Here. Talk about a bad day.

Well that ain't nuth'in!!!

I was at a car dealership recently looking at cars and when I was leaving the transmission on my car went out leaving me stranded, surrounded by hungry salesman. Well maybe that ain't as bad but it was quite harrowing. I barely got away with just a limp.

Those of you that have followed me know I like to fix things and that includes my car. I was on track to reach 250,000 miles on it. When I reached 249,5000 I was pretty sure I would get there till I picked up some takeout one nite and she failed to pull away from a stoplight on my way home. A simple running the shifter through the range got her moving again.The next morning on my way to work the same thing happened and as before a shifter shift and I was off. At lunch I went car shopping. Now this wasn't on a whim. We had been looking for a while. Three years ago we replaced the wife's van saying if I could get one more year out of my car we would replace it. Well three years later here I am test driving cars and stuck in the lot.

I truly hated to do it, I recently replaced the brakes and completely disassembled the steering column to replace the turn signal unit, but Goldy just wasn't going to hang with me much longer. Sitting in traffic in Summer I had to run the AC to activate the external fans while running the internal blower on high with the heat on high to keep her from overheating and the windows down to keep me from overheating. She recently developed a crack in her radiator so I had to keep adding antifreeze. She had around 80,000 miles on her tires. The aforementioned tranny issues and the lights in the radio were failing. To top it off the CD player was hit and miss at best mess'in up my audio book time. She was a great car tho.

I did get her going again and visited the Toyota lot next door where I found a deal. OK, it wern't a deal or a bargain. And, I didn't like the color. I didn't even buy the car there but it gave me a bargaining chip.

I called another dealership and after 5 hrs of haggling we settled on a price and here I am. With Payments.

I hate I couldn't make my quarter million mile goal. I did get close. Yea, I gave up a 3/4 full tank of gas but I got a full tank to leave with.

 

Here she is driving away

 

Here she is still driving away. "Sniff, Sniff!!"

Good Bye Goldy

Here is what took her spot in the driveway. Starting at 11 miles on the odometer, On my way to another 250,000 miles.

Overheard On The Radio

My morning radio show was talking about this weekends TV choices.

The two highlights he hit were the "Walking Dead" and "The Winter Olympics". One he says is about a group of people trying to survive in an apocalytic type of world. The other one is about zombies.

What's My Name??

I love to sing. Especially Christmas songs. And especially the Christmas classics we sang at Church.

However, I am not so big on "Little Drummer Boy" that they seem to play every freak'in 15 minutes between Thanksgiving and Christmas. "Feliz Navidad" is getting on may last nerve a well. But I digress.

One Christmas season I joined a group from Church to go caroling at the children's center not far from the Church. As we sang one young lady walked over to me and grabbed my leg. One of the counselors came over and took her back to her chair. She came back. He drug her back. She tried to come back again. He held her and she struggled to get free again the whole time we sang. After we finished one of the counselors told me I looked a lot like her dad. It kinda shook me up.

The next year we traveled to the Thompson Center retirement home. We start singing and one of the ladies grabbed my arm. Then she asked me, "What's my name?". Well, I didn't know her name.  She asked me again, and again, and again, each time getting louder and more forceful. Finally a worker pryed her fingers from my arm and calmed her. I never did get her name but I didn't go back either.

If someone comes to your house to sing carols, Know this, It aint me.

Sad to say but I haven't been Christmas caroling since.

Look'in A Bit Squirrely

We learned something new this year. Squirrels aint good pumpkin carvers. Efficient maybe, just not artistic.

 

The wife thought she would do a little Fall yard decorating prior to Halloween and Thanksgiving so she bought a small bale of straw, some fake plants and a couple small scarecrows. And added two obviously delicious pumpkins. She set it up for all to see at the front corner of the house. It didn't take long for our furry neighbors to take notice.

 

Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater chewed through it. Not sure if it was his wife or not but one climbed inside to eat the seeds. Last I saw they were all doing well.

 

They didnt mess with the second pumpkin until we hauled the first one off. They chewed the top of that one until the stem fell off.

 

We will prolly have volunteer pumpkin plants popping up all over the yard next Spring.

 

They ate the neighbors Mums.

 

Soon they will be knocking at the door collecting protection money.

 

I hope all you and yours have a Blessed Thanksgiving Day.