Guy's blog about life with pets in northern mich.

One day at work, I wore what has come to be known as my “bullet-hole” shirt. My friend Roy pointed out that there is a small hole in the front of my shirt. He asked how it had happened. (It’s hard to remove every seed!) I told him that it was an actual bullet hole. I could tell without looking, that others were monitoring our conversation, by the silence that descended on our vicinity. Without missing a beat, I went on with my story. I told him (and everybody) that while in Saginaw I spotted a... Sign in to see full entry.

I don’t know which resident literary critic little D.J. has been listening to, but yesterday as I was trying to find something that I had seen earlier on Corbin Dallas’ blog site and wasn’t able to, D.J. got tired of waiting for me to stumble onto it again. He has the attention span of a fruit fly. I just about fell off the couch laughing when he said, “Write something boring, Granpa!” Any satisfaction I might have felt, that I write funny or interesting stuff got put in its place by another... Sign in to see full entry.

Today’s CNN news told us that Wall Street came within a whisker of breaking an eighty-year-old record of upward trending value of stock prices. Wow! Sounds pretty good, huh? It sounds like we are experiencing a repeat of the heady days of ……….let’s see, 2,007, subtract 80years = the end of the 1920’s. There is something hovering, just out of reach of my memory of history, about the end of the 20’s, having to do with the stock market. I’m sure it’ll come to me, later. Has everyone seen the... Sign in to see full entry.

When I was a kid, before seatbelts, air-bags, child booster seats, crumpling front ends, steel belted tires, safety recalls and collapsing steering columns, cars must have been death-traps! I remember sleeping in the window well behind the back seat of my dad’s, Buick, something that would generate a visit from Child Protective Services and an expensive ticket, today. Those who pass these protective laws would have us believe that it is miraculous that anyone survives the teen years. Hell, we... Sign in to see full entry.

How is blue stuff supposed to make my teeth whiter? The two kids chew blue fruit wraps (I don’t know either, none of the fruit I’ve eaten comes wrapped, except bananas) and after it’s gone, guess what color their teeth are! It sure ain’t WHITE! I think that very few of you, my faithful readers, are old enough to remember laundry “bluing” but it was supposed to make white clothing whiter! I don’t know if it did, I’ll have to ask my mother. Speaking of teeth, here is a dental story: A man went to... Sign in to see full entry.

Today in Mexico, a photographer named Spencer Tunic took photos of 18,000 naked Mexican people. Having spent a couple months in Mexico, I’ve seen many, many Mexican people, from Nuevo Laredo at our southern border, to Progresso Yucatan on the northern tip of the peninsula below Cuba, a trip of a couple thousand miles. There are lovely women of all ages there, and trim robust and handsome men as well. That said, (I can’t think of another more kind way of saying this) I also observed that after... Sign in to see full entry.

Yesterday I had to smile at little D.J. when he told me that he wanted to go see Spiderman free. I told him that if he meant the new one, it wouldn’t be free for a couple more years when it comes to TV. He got a frustrated look on his face and said, “No, Spiderman FREE!” Then I got it. He meant Spiderman #3! After only a couple more rounds of explanations, I ‘ understood ’ his mangled pronunciation to his satisfaction. I enjoy these little sessions where he teaches me. His male parent, has about... Sign in to see full entry.

What seemed a reasonable goal to accomplish on a Saturday, took the whole damned weekend. Can someone explain to me how a garden can get larger and larger each year and still stay within the original boundaries? It must involve some kind of undiscovered “Bizarro” law of physics, bending of time and space, like arriving somewhere before you left. It doesn’t make sense but there it IS! The only thing that keeps me plugging away is the knowledge that there will be a bushel or two of beautiful,... Sign in to see full entry.

Does it drive everyone crazy to realize that some quickly thought up reply in one’s everyday life could have been much better or funnier or insightful, if only a few more seconds were taken for thought before speaking? The dreaded, “I should have saids!” I regularly kick myself for these lapses of inspired thought, because I enjoy making people laugh or be thought more intelligent than I am. The other day at work I was standing at a computer screen reading something and afterwards my friend Roy... Sign in to see full entry.

Ivy is a curious mixture of generosity and hubris, evil intent and shortsightedness. She also buys a toy, without prompting, for her brother D.J. when she takes her own money, shopping. This largess entitles her to play with, anytime she want to, her gift toy, but this is an enormous leap forward for her. The other day my favorite candy bar was paid for, (by the unknown source of money) at Ivy’s urging, “For Grampa, because he likes that kind.” When Marilyn presented it to me and replayed the... Sign in to see full entry.