Mountain Bike Patroller Revisited - marital bliss

While it's been a few years since I donned the mountain bike patroller jersey, you can take the jersey away from the patroller but can't take the lessons learned on the process. Case in point Saturday evening as I was pedaling home on the bike path from a local establishment. About 100 yards in front of me past a few elderly ladies I see what I thought was a bicyclist go down as all I saw was aluminum in the air. Upon closer inspection, it was a 70-something man on his walker; off his walker. The two ladies and I got him up and besides a nice skin scrape on his forearm, he seemed okay but guessing he was going to be in some pain the following morning as falling on a paved path hurts, no matter how young/old you are.

We managed to get a hold of his sister who lived down the road and came to pick him up. While waiting, I asked the man where he was coming from and he replied Elberta, about two miles away from where we found him. His walker was one of those that had a seat. My mom had one of those and they are made for individuals that need a rest every 10 yards or so. With that, I was shocked that this frail man had made it this far. Upon further inquiry, he revealed that he and his wife had a fight, "I told her I was leaving," he said. You made it this far in life with your wife, why fight now but have seen fighting couples who seem to live for the fight so enjoy the bliss.

Trail Head

Police Logs - a lot of suspicious situations

The local paper in the metropolis I live in (it's the smallest county in terms of land area in the state) publishes the police log regularly. A lot of suspicious situations being reported:

The log title is the click bait 
but after clicking you get...

yes, there was a breaking and entering 
and that is all the information you get

nothing good happens after midnight

to the kid who got busted for the truancy, 

it's tough to skip school when you have 30 

kids total in your graduating class 

seven total 'suspicious situations' if my count if correct - 
it's either the many elderly in the area calling them in or
crystal meth morons on a bad high

the minor in possession was probably
the kid skipping class

angry person at 9AM
is not good
 

Wet Nose Dog (that would be a cool band name)

My house is very dog friendly as most dogs can look out the windows without having to climb on furniture. An extra chore comes from having such a luxury, however, as all the windows look like the bottom pictures at the end of the day.

Off to buy some Windex.

Trail Head

Bird at my side while I stare 
at my work computer.

two minutes later when Bird leaves the room

Spring Break Photos

Attached are my photos from my shark expedition off the coast of Madagascar a few weeks back. The great beast took a nibble from my leg but I managed to fight him off and claim victory....

Yeah, fake news, I got a new hip from years of stopping and starting the hips that support this large melon atop my head during sports activities and here is the post x-ray. More gruesome than having a shark bite is when the physical therapist tells you what they do during the hip replacement process. A lot of hammering and forcing of that white/pointy object you see to the left.

Trail Head

Drugs

You know you have reached old age status when you are on a first name basis with the local pharmacy's cashier. Five pills were added to my collection this past week as a byproduct of a new hip I received. One pill to help with swelling, one for bleeding, one for blood clot prevention, one to help poop and one for pain. This added to my current pill to help me from having to pee eight times a night and we have quite a collection. I'm still amazed that each pill knows exactly what to do. I'm also amazed at how many stupid drug commercials and drug names are out there. I had to experience a wealth of them this week while laid up.  Who are the wackos coming up with these names?

Trail Head

Just a game for some, others?

While watching the Michigan State game last weekend, a line of thunderstorms rolled through Michigan, resulting in some warnings in the area; one of which had a suspected tornado in the middle of the state (but was never confirmed). Rather than have the warning text run across the bottom of the screen like most stations do, the local network cut entirely from the game for about 20 minutes. The weather guy even brazenly said the network would not cut back to the game until the warning expired. A minor nuisance for me as I pulled out my laptop and watched it on there but others were not so forgiving and took to the Internet to let the local station know their feelings.

Vinnie does not look happy.

Trail Head

Man's Best Friend Destroying Home Base

Chalk up blue jeans for the items my best friend Bird has now destroyed (behind a handful of bushes, boat trailer wires, two stools, a hamper, one coffee table and various items I have not recognized as destroyed yet).

Good dog...

Trail Head

Mock

While digging through some old boxes recently, I stumbled upon the attached mock election from my senior year of high school. The copy is in about as good of shape as some of my classmates from 40 years ago. Forty years. Holy shit.

Class jock and funniest walk award winner, signing off for today.

Trail Head

All Nurses Go To Heaven

All nurses (and dogs) go to heaven. Well, the nurse ward upstairs received a new member yesterday as my mom passed on. She wasn't a very religious person besides the 'love' portion as she had a lot of that to give. With that, there won't be a service/eulogy so I'm throwing mine out here; easier written than said sometimes.

A full time nurse while a mother of three, one child being a diabetic pretty much since birth, she came home from caring for the sick to taking care of her own sick. A wife to a husband who enjoyed a good real estate deal so the family moved a handful of times. A new hospital for her with each move, sometimes working the midnight shift. 

She had so much love to give that she thought the cell phone tag 'lol' referenced "lot's of love" so your text string with her would be:

Me: That is sad about Grandpa, eh?

Mom: It is, LOL.

Another example of love is her last pet, Cosmo. Cosmo was a rescue dog who I believe was with a handful of other families (and returned) before my mom got him. A cute, lap dog that LOVED my mom but had issues with everyone else and proved it via some very sharp, fang teeth being pressed into your feet if you weren't paying attention. My mom was not going to be denied though and tried everything, including a dog psychiatrist, to help but it was not to be. She never returned Cosmo, we just learned to work around his craziness when visiting.

I don't recall my mom getting mad mad too much but when she did, look out. She would shake her finger at you. It wouldn't last though. 

It did last a little longer one time, however, when my mom was hoping for a new refrigerator and my dad brought home a crappy, used one. She was not happy.

During the salad days of the 1970's, my mom delivered phone books for a few extra bucks. She was driving a smaller car as I recall and that back bumper pretty much touched the ground while we threw these behemoth books onto porches.

One Easter, my mom threw a curve to us kids and advised that costs were tight and that there wouldn't be any celebration that year. That Sunday morning, we awoke to a fireplace adorned with three easter baskets and kites. 

Another surprise came about a decade later as I was getting ready to leave for Spring Break and my mom, making crappy nurse wages, slips me an envelope and advises not to tell your father. It ended up being one of the funnest experiences of my life.

Not the athletic type, that didn't stop my mom from rebounding for me while I searched for my shot on the side basketball hoop.

Thank you mom.

Trail Head

Return of Super Bowl Ice Fishing

While it wasn't the same as Super Bowl Sunday morning ice fishing days of the past with my fellow downstate brethren sipping Old Crow, telling bad jokes, watching house dogs run for the hills, doing snow angels, ice grilling, arranging prop bets, hanging and hurling before noon, but it was ice fishing still the same as there was no ice to speak of the past two Super Bowls. 

I stayed north and was the lone party on Betsie Bay after quite a bit of activity out there on previous weekends. Walking on top of a 10 inch snow base was a workout but got through it. My fishing story is you should have seen the perch I caught last weekend as nothing to speak of today. My downstate peeps advise of a few pike on Dunham but none worthy of the cameras.

Trail Head

New game: "What did Bird chew?"

I've created a new game based on some recent occurrences at the homestead with dog Bird. A few months back I found a black knob with chew marks at the back door. I couldn't place it but it had to be part of something I owned so I put it aside and moved on with life. A few weeks later my two year old dishwasher started leaking at the bottom. Mechanically declined Tim did a thorough inspection of where the leak was coming at and turns out the black knob found its home. Chew marks aside, the knob went back in and no more leaks. 

That solved that mystery, however, I have the attached two chewed up orphans that Bird brought in that need homes. "What did Bird chew?" Hopefully not gas related knobs of some sort or this could be my last post.

Trail Head