Tuesday, February 27, 2007

ALL ABOUT COMING HOME

"time is the echo of an axe within a wood"
philip larkin

Part 6
1987
The Conclusion
There were a lot of ways for this story to end, but they all really end the same, don't they?
I think, all things considered, I could not ask for a better one.

The night before Thanksgiving I was up all night , smoking a Turkey on the Grill outside.
I thought about how Mom had died less than a year before, in the room right in there.
I thought about how we brought Grandma home, and put her in the room right in there, and how when she died, we were right there with her. We did not get a call from a nursing home 100 miles away... we were right there.
And as I watched my old friend Orion rising in small hours of the morning, I thought about the last 4 weeks, and what they had brought...

I had quit my job with a large Hotel. I’d had enough. While I served out my 2 weeks notice, my wife had gone to check on my father at a Nursing Home. The VA had had to move him to a Private Facility, and though they still picked up the tab, it put him another 50 miles further from home, and if we were to move him, they no longer would pay.
What my wife found on her visit set her already Red hair ablaze. The care at the VA had been spectacular. Now she found that within 4 weeks of being at this Private facility, he had bedsores and according to her ‘smelled like an outhouse with fecal material and urine on his bed and person”. I want you to know that when the xmrs B’Holes gets her blood up, the shit will hit the fan. I can only imagine the coals that she raked those folks at that Nursing Home over that day.
When she got back to town, we decided on this:
With Mom and Grandma no longer in need of Dads money and Estate, we would move him to the Nursing Home that was 2 blocks from our house. To hell with the expense. We entertained the notion of bringing him all the way home, like we did with Grandma, but that had been hard on us.

So the next week, the day after my last day of work, I drove the 150 miles and removed Dad from the Nursing home from Hell, and brought him home, to the Nursing Home around the corner called the LaDora Lodge.
I had a Van, and laid the seats out in back with him on them. I straddled his chest, taping paper over the windows to keep the sun off him and as I looked down into those Ice blue eyes I said
“Are you ready to go home, Pop?”
His face came alive with knowing.... his eyes flashed and I knew he understood. It had been a long time since he had spoken, and he did not speak now ...instead he gave me his big belly laugh and a tear rolled from the corner of his eye.
After all we had been through I can tell you I would not trade that moment for anything in the World.
We were going home.

We got him to his new home and we visited and had visited everyday for the last two weeks. I also want you to know that the Xmrs B’Holes can talk the ears off a Wooden Indian and she talked to Dad like he had always been right there.
She is like a Superhero to me.

...Its Thanksgiving morning.
I checked the Turkey; lookin’ good.
I checked Orion and he was where he should be at 5:00A.M.
The phone rang. Who could that be?
Its LaDora Lodge.
‘Mr. Bulletholes, I am sorry to be calling at this hour, but I thought you would want to know your father has passed away”

I like to think that Dad stopped by for a two week visit on his way Home.

Monday, February 26, 2007

OLD TIME RELIGION

As promised, an update on the Crazy Church Lady;
Within 3 weeks of asking my daughter if I might be single, the Crazy Church lady turned around and married a member of the congregation, Evan, who was one of the Wise Men with me that night. Evan is 85 years old.
The Xmrs. B'holes, upon telling me about this, indicated that may be I had missed out on something.
"You just weren't moving fast enough" she said.
"Moving fast enough?" I reply, "I wasn't moving at all!"
'Yes, well, thats not fast enough!" she says.
She always finds a way to bust my chops.

It would seem however that fate has once again raised its fist.
Evan passed away over the weekend.
The visitation is tonight.
Her name is Sharon.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

AMAZING GRACE

I heard newborn babies wailin'
Like a Mournin' Dove
And old men with broken teeth stranded without Love
Do I understand your question, Man
Is it Hopeless and Forlorn
"Come in" she said "I'll give ya Shelter from the Storm"
bob dylan



Part 5
1986
On December 1st, my Mother died at home. She had battled Emphysema and Cancer for several years. On her birthday in 1982 she had had a Major stroke; after months in the hospital, she recovered enough to go home and from there her capabilities improved to where she could drive and be fairly independent.
She had tried to take care of my father in the year or two that he was in the beginning stages, she had tried to be able to keep him at home, but the effects of Alzheimers demand much more care than what she could provide. Putting her Husband into a VA hospital just must have been gut wrenching for her.
I remember a Christmas where she had gone down and brought him home. It must have been about 1980 or so. When I came over the next day, she had already taken him back. I got the feeling that she wasn't able to handle him being there emotionally and she had already taken him back to the VA Hospital, 100 miles from home. She never tried that again.
Gut wrenching stuff.
In 1984 I married and the girl I married was an Angel. you have already read how she and Dad had gotten along and I want you to now that she probably added a year and much happiness to my mothers life as well. The Xmrs B'holes spent a lot of time with my Mother.
The only wish or hope that my Mother really had, except for the hope that she would live to see some little Bulletholes, was that she die before Dad. If she had had to bury Dad, that just would have been too much.
We spent Thanksgiving '86 and the following weekend with Mom. She had begun to take Morphine to help ease the pain she was in from the Cancer, but we had a good Weekend.
On Monday she started to fare badly, and that evening the Lungs just gave out. I had to call the Police and Fire Departments, the Funeral Home and then began the task of calling family and friends.
Finally I had to call work and it was my friend Jeff that answered the phone. Thats when I lost it. I could barely speak.
I can't begin to tell you what a blessing it was that Mom should go first.

March, 1987
We brought my grandmother home from a Nursing Home, hired a Nurse, set her up in the guest bedroom and hung Family Pictures all over the Walls. She had been in the Nursing home so long that she was like Dad, maybe worse. But after a few weeks, she began to come back; there were moments that she seemed to recognise us, and had become quite fond it seemed of certain pictures on the walls that we moved closer to her. Mostly it was the Pictures of my Grandfather, her husband. After about 3 months, she died. You can't imagine how good it felt to have brought her home to spend her last days with us.

A few months in the future, the VA Administration would move Dad from the VA hospital into a Private Nursing Home, setting the stage for the last part of this story.






Friday, February 23, 2007

I Got To Lighten Up

Any one remember that song by Archie Bell and the Drells out of Houston called "Tighten Up"?
It was about a Dance called "the TightenUp"; kind of a precurser to "the freeze"
After going for two months without doughnuts, I was beginning to think I might have to cut back on the Ice Cream , Cake, Cookies, Candy bars, Panckes and French toast as well... and then I weighed in this morning and found that...I have lost 10 pounds!
Its a true 10 pounds...under my usual "low end" weight.
I have "Lightened Up"!
It can only come from one place... my gut...and its the most encouraging thing to happen in a while.
The problem is...
If I go into a feeding frenzy this weekend I can get it all right back. I think that I may lack whatever that Hormone is that tells you to stop eating already...I can eat everything in the house over a weekend, right down to the last can of Cranberry Sauce.
What I need is some kind of a Helmet that I can wear that prevents me from eating... kind of a "Food Chastity Belt"...do they have those on ebay?

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

THE FUNDAMENTAL THINGS APPLY

From "May You Never Thirst"

"Back at the Apartment, I place the 12 Pack of Dr. Peppers into the back of her Truck. I remember wondering to myself if she would know who had left them.
And the note.
Yeah, I left a 4-word note, unsigned.
It read, quite simply“May you never thirst”
I hadn’t felt that good since the end of the Vietnam War!
The next morning there was a little note on MY truck.
She signed hers…”Lily”"


This was 2 weeks before Christmas.
My whole demeanor changed. Its funny how being smitten will just get you to walking on air. Everybody I saw looked OK with me, whereas before most people looked like grade A assholes. The tapwater seemed sweeter, the morning Coffee more aromatic, the air clean and pure; my constitution envigorated and my hair just seemed to fall into place in the handsomest way.
I did not know if she might be spoken for; hell, she might be married. It just didn't matter. Gravity could not bring me down.

For two weeks nary did I see her... but it was Christmas...
I bought a bottle of Champagne and a 2 liter Dr. Pepper. I poured the Dr. Pepper out, cut the empty bottle in half, placed the Champagne inside the hollow, sealed with Scotch tape and took it to my friend and advisor, Alana, who added all the finishing touches. This thing looked like a cross between Lawrence Welk, The 4th of July and Las Vegas.
I put on my only good shirt and went a Courtin'. Knocked loudly on her Apartment...no answer.
But an hour later, after staking out her truck, I find her leaving and fly to her Car.
"I didn't want to just leave this in back of your truck" says I.
"Oh, thats so sweet" says she.
"I'd like to know if you might be spoken for, or can I keep on inflicting myself in this manner" says I.
"Well I have a guy staying with me right now that I can't get rid of" says she.

Gravity can't bring me down. I got all the time in the world. I just crossed an Ocean of time to feel like this. There's too much resonance here to worry about the details. For the next Nine months we became best friends.

It was a tough summer we had. My "Abominable Truck" bit the dust. It was my livelihood as a Tilesetter.
And Lily; oh my, she got the call that her estranged husband was running from the Law after robbing a Bank. They were firing tear gas into their old house. And though that boyfriend did move out, she could not quite get all the way shed of him.

But he had to wait... she was spending all her time with me.
We just laughed and laughed when we hardly had a reason.
Nine Months since I met her...
When I finally kissed her, she cried.
Lily had enough on her plate.

'They say theres only two states of Mind
One is Visionary and the other is Blind
And the best that we can hope to find
Is to meet somewhere in between...

And the last thing that I'd want to do
Is create a distance between me and you"

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

SIERRAS LITTLE HAVEN

Most of you are familiar with my Daughter, the Water Baby. A couple of weeks ago, I tried to switch to the new Blogger and in doing so , used her Email Account and responded to one too many questions about whether I really wanted to do what I was doing with a “YES””, and the end result is that I married her two blogs to my one.
I’ve done worse stuff, believe me, but I am sure all of you can relate to how badly SHE WOULD HAVE LIKED TO KILL ME!
We were not able to divorce the Blogs, so the Water Baby, in a superlative act of graciousness, has begun a new Blog that can be viewed by clicking any of the “Water Baby” links within this post.
The comments everyone made on her other site meant a lot to her, and we still have them in a fashion, but I would be much obliged if anyone would take a moment to look at her new site, and comment accordingly.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

RECEPTION TO FOLLOW

Ya' know that old trees just grow stronger,
And old rivers grow wilder ev'ry day.
Old people just grow lonesome
Waiting for someone to say,
"Hello in there, hello."
john prine

1984 Part 4

"He probably won't know what we are here for, or what has happened, but I'm glad for you to meet him just the same."
"Oh I can't wait, I know I'll like him"
"He's a great guy"


My new Wife just looked at me with that soft look that says "Of course he is. He must be". The first year...anything associated with me must be great. Its just a shame that she will never really know, about dad I mean, but I don't say that. For now we can pretend that everything is the same as it ever was. I was never sure what to talk to Dad about when I came and I wondered what Mrs. Bulletholes and he would find to discuss. I'm just hoping he will know who I am.

We are almost to the VA Hospital, when new Wife says
"How does this look?"
I glance over and she has unwrapped one of the cigars meant for Dad; she has stuck it into her mouth. It looks like a giant Gobstopper and her eyes are flashing blue as she shakes her shoulders, removes the Stogie and blows imaginary Smoke rings at me.
"Thats real nice Babe, he's going to like you a lot."


"JACK, YOU HAVE A VISITOR"
He is led into the visiting Lounge, he sees me and I see the recognition in his face, then he spies the New Wife and I see a little confusion.
Dad, its me- Steve!"
"Steve? My son? Well, Ill be damned!"
I give a hug and motion to Wife..."Dad, I want you to meet someone. I found an Angel Girl and I got married and she wants to meet you."
She steps forward with her hug and says her name.

Dad used to tell me when I was a boy that when I got married he would decorate my Car with cans tied to the back and honk his horn as we drove down the street. That was nothing compared to what he would give us today.

You could see the wheels spinning as he tried to make all the connections... but it really didn't take that long for this weary mind to grasp the moment.
He looked at me then back to her and pulls her back for another hug.

"Well, let me welcome you into the family. You are a Bullethole now; you are my Daughter."

Mrs. Bulletholes cannot believe it. But she never missed a beat.
"Is it OK if i call you 'Dad" Dad?"
'"Sure. Do we have any Scotch?"
"Scotch?"
'They took my Scotch or we could have a Toast"
"No, but we've got these" andn holds up a fistful of cigars.
Big chuckle from dad as he says "Now theres a good girl"

She has heard the stories and the warnings about how far gone this man is. The expectations are that we are going to confuse Dad, and in that confusion there will be a sadness and a sense of loss. Instead there is a sense of place and ...Redemption for all the years of waiting for a "Hello" and paying double for a line that has been disconnected.

Nothing could have prepared me for his sudden lucidity.

Had he been saving it, hidden in reserve for the moment he would need it?

Are we not all Psychic, with our brains operating like Time Machines, where information from the future influences events of the past?

I was so proud of him that day. I always wonder if he knew how good he had done. Certainly he had recognized something significant.


Years ahead he would have another great day...


We sat, and as he talked, the Cigar was used to great effect. At times it was a Baton and he was the Maestro. As he and his new Daughter discussed her career in Sales, it became a Pen writing a new customer a letter of introduction. Then it was his Crystal Ball, as he gazed into it and declared that someday, somehow, he would "beat this thing" and find a way to move closer to us.

His family.

I wonder if he knew he had met a Hero that day.

His Hero, and mine.

I wonder did he know he spoke as a Prophet that day?
Do you close your eyes to see miracles?
Do you raise your face to kiss the Angels?
Do you bow your head to hear Oracles?(to be continued)

(to be continued)

Saturday, February 17, 2007

LET YOUR HEART RUN WILD

Got pictures of my Candywork over at Lilys...its really a very colorful display.
Next Year I may have to incorporate a few random Roses into the mix- would be Visually Stunning.







I've been chasin' Lily for a little more than 6 years.She has done nothing to encourage me other than to stand there and look so good; when she crosses her eyes and sticks out her tongue I justknow she has got to be mine!
She is proof that if you will act happier than you feel, you will be happier than you are.
She already had two men in her life when I came along, and it took a few months for me to be her best friend, and a few more months again for me to finally kiss her, and then I had to stop.
Has it been that long? Thats too long.
If i ever get a chance to kiss her again, there is going to be some kissin' going on, believe you me. I don't know what she is waiting for. I think she has just forgotten how to let her heart run wild.
Thats OK, Lily, I can show you.



Heres a Sweet Little Poem from "The Last Unicorn" by Peter Beagle:


"'I am no King and I am no lord

And I am no soldier at-arms' said he.

"I'm none but a harper, and a very poor harper,

That am come hither to wed with ye".


"If you were a lord, you should be my lord

And the same if you were a thief" said she.

'And if you are a harper, you should be my harper,

For it makes no matter to me, to me,

For it makes no matter to me.'


'But what if I prove that I am no harper?

That I lied for your love most monstrously?'

'Why, then I'll teach you to play and sing,

For I dearly love a good harp," said she."

Friday, February 16, 2007

DEUTERONOMY

I have not had the time either at home or at work to keep up with everyone. I appreciate all your comments and taking the time to read about Dad and Don. There is no doubt that these posts are pretty emotionally charged; I have had quite a number of years to think and talk about these times, and to put them in more of a big circle that connects the detail to a point thats very comfortable to me.

This last post about Don caught me a little off guard. I have told the story many times, and I always let "We were all problems" be the last line and moral to the story.
As I pasted the Photo of him at West Point, studying what looks to be Laws of Motion and Gravity, I was thnking I needed a caption that would introduce Don. It would be a "new" last line... so I typed in "Pretty smart, my Brother"...
And I realized that this was more than a caption for that Photo...and I just broke down... I lost it really hard...I'll never know anyone as smart as that man was...and what he said...'We were all problems " is exactly right; for everything God put on this Earth; all that breathes and walks and Multiplies....a lot of problems...

There are two more parts...
Barbara, try this...."You Know I can Feel It"
Griz- thanks, yes they were!
RDG- it is connected somewhat with my son, but not the way you might imagine... i need to get around to him one day
Mom- Straiht A's all through School he had!
annelisa- No more brothers, 1 sister on another Planet...

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

PAN PRIAPUS

Went by Lily's last night and strew those little Sweetheart Candies all over her front porch, down the stairs and into the parking lot. I'm sure she will have a good idea who did that.
Decided to hedge my bet and did the same for my old friend Laura... she won't have a clue.
All day today I have been so busy... no time for love...
HAPPY VALLEY DAY!!!

Monday, February 12, 2007

We Were All A Problem

There's an old magic Eight Ball

Right next to my plate

When I ask it a question

Regarding my fate

It says "reply hazy, please try again"

It wont say where I'm going

It don't know where I've been

….but I'm right here now…

james mcmurtry




I have heard it said that the bond between a Father and Son is a fragile bond, full of mistrust and fears and failures on both sides. By the time I graduated High School, the bond between Dad and I had been severely tested.

On Friday nights as I prepared to go "carousing" around, Dad would give me $10, and say "Don't spend it all in one place!"

Every week the same conversation would ensue.

"Right Dad"

"What are you getting into tonight?"

'Nuthin' I can't handle Dad"

"Well, just remember… that Wisdom… is the greater part… of Valor."

"Fer shure' Dad" and within the hour I would have a $10 bag of trouble, which would greatly enhance my other pursuits, chiefly Sex and Rock and Roll.


I didn't realize back then that Dad was really being kinda cool about the whole thing. Those mornings years later, when we would talk as we ate breakfast, he referred to them as my "Wild Bill Cody" days. I definitely had the hair for it.


It took a some years, after the Diagnoses, after considering the years he spent severed from hiis family, splintered from even himself, living an unimaginable existence that could not be foreseen, that I came to realize what a problem I must have been.

Dad was a man of few words. He told good natured stories, clean bone dry jokesand used the ever present cigar for punctuation. He had a slow and steady cadence to his pattern of speech that allowed every word to sink in.

He met and married my Mother after returning from WWII.

She had a 4 year old son, Don Lynn, and Dad legally adopted him, giving Don his name and his love.

Don told me a story about the first time that Dad was going to discipline him, and give him a spanking. Don could not recall what the infraction was, but this he vividly remembered:

"Mother, not wanting her child spanked, jumped to my defense.

'You are not going to spank my Boy!'

Dad turns and faces Mother and in his slow methodical way, says softly but firmly;

'We are going...to start…right now. You are my wife…and this is MY son…and ..I am going to…to raise him as best… as best as I know how"


My first memory of Don was the day he snatched me off the front porch as I was taking a piss…

Don came out all right…he graduated from West Point in 1964.

In 1982, Mom had a stroke. After a few weeks she seemed to be making progress, and I had been keeping Don advised, but he was able to come home from his station in Saudi and I was glad to have him there.

During a late night conversation , I expressed regret at having been such a problem for Mom and Dad through the years.

You know what he said?



"Steve, we were all problems."










Pretty smart, my brother.

DANCIN' DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN

I was going to take a little break from this string of stories and talk about what an excellent time I had Friday Evening at a Party. I danced and danced and let it all hang out.

But Annelisa makes a comment today that really defines a lot of what I am writing about. In my “part one” I mention that Dads unresponsiveness one day belied the amazing powers of response the he would show years later. I wrote these so far with Annelisa in mind, and anyone with a loved one dealing with this... she is in there all right, Anne. Give her plenty of opportunities to surprise you. She’s still got a dance or three left.
We always want to skip to the end of the story, to the end of the book, we humans. I keep wanting to skip to the end of this one, but that would leave too much unwritten, too much unread.

I did a post about dancing a while back...
I had not danced in a long time but I still dance the same...
I apologize to anyone that I may have bumped (slammed) into out there... it was asshole to elbow and everything I had was all movin’ at once...
At least I didn’t fall down...

Ya'll remember Arnold? 80 year old blind man? This was his favorite Led Zeppelin song. He would tap his footand sing right along. He dicovered his taste for it from the Cadillac commercil...asked me what that song was. Old folks sure will surprise you.

It's been a long time since I rock and rolled,
It's been a long time since I did the Stroll.
Ooh, let me get it back,
let me get it back,
Let me get it back,
baby, where I come from.
It's been a long time, been a long time,
Been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time.
Yes it has.

It's been a long time since the book of love,
I can't count the tears of a life with no love.
Carry me back,
carry me back,
Carry me back,
baby, where I come from.
It's been a long time, been a long time,
Been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time.

Seems so long since we walked in the moonlight,
Making vows that just can't work right.
Open your arms,
opens your arms,
Open your arms,
baby, let my love come running in.
It's been a long time, been a long time,
Been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time.
led zeppelin

Oh yes it has!

Saturday, February 10, 2007

YOU HAVE TO BE SMARTER THAN THE WORM

"The pleasantist' thing in Angling
is to see the fish on Golden Oar
shoot through the silver stream
and greedily devour
the treacherous bait"
Shakespeare


"Out of the blue and into the black..."
Neil Young


PART 3
1959
Dad absolutely loved to fish. My first memory that I can put a date to was after my sister Lisa was born; I would have been 27 months or 2 and 1/4 years old. Mom had been home from the hospital for a week or two and was laying in bed nursing Lisa. Dad had asked if she were OK and if he and I could go out to Grapevine Lake for the afternoon. I assume permission had been granted and as he and I walked out the garage Door. I remember asking very soberly if "Mother" was going to be okay with us gone.

We climbed into a big ol' Oldsmobile, a 1958 punked out with Jet Fighter Wings and a motherlode of Chrome, and within 10 minutes we were hopelessly stuck in a muddy field. It was a short cut Dad had been using to get onto the Blacktop from the house. To think that moments before I had been concerned about "Mothers" welfare.
"Ahab, beware of Ahab."
This is my first memory. We spent the whole afternoon trying to get unstuck. We did not make it to the lake that day.
I think it explains a lot about why Mom was always a little concerned for us, outside of just being a Mom. I'm sure that she was relieved that day, with us close by in the field.

1964
One evening in Detroit, Dad shakes me out from in front of the TV.
"Come along here boy, I need some help."
He is grinnin' like a Butchers dog, has an empty Coffee can, and also his Headlight-Flashlight on. Its the business end of a flashlight attached to a headband that you wear on your head, a separate battery pack that clipped to the hip; it was manufactured in the 1940's and would be worth a lot of money now. No, probably it wouldn't be worth much to anyone but me. Dad kept it with all his Camping and Fishing gear in his Sea Chest.

Down the street we go in the dark, Dad looking like some kind of spelunker that has lost his cave. I have no idea what this one is about, but Dad always had some kind of project/adventure going. We get to Mr. Bowles house. Dads illuminating gaze is directed down, down into Mr. Bowles flower bed and laying on top of the ground are the Biggest worms that I have ever seen. They are almost a foot long, as big around as a pencil, and you can see the big blue vein though the Opaque reddish and tan wormskin. There must be hundreds of em'!

"Wow, thats cool Dad... what are they?"
"Night Crawlers"
"Night Crawlers?"
"Yes, and we are going to use them to fish with"
"Okay"
'Now that one there, where the light is shining, get him."
I take a step towards the bed and drop to my knees. As soon as I hit the ground, all the Night Crawlers, quick as lightning, zip into their holes. I had no idea that a worm could move that fast.
"Out of the Blue..."
"You have to creep up on em' nice and easy" Dad explained. "They feel the vibratiions."
"...and into the Black"

We move down the bed to where there are more laying undisturbed. Stealthily, I go to my knees and crawl up to where I can reach one.
"You're going to have be fast..."
Yeah, Dad I get it!" and I try to grab the first one.

Not only do you have to be fast, you have to choose the right end of the worm to grab; you have to grab the end that goes back into the hole. Otherwise, all you get is mud. The worm is no dummy, and never comes all the way out of the hole, and stands ready to go below to safety.
You have to be smarter than the worm.

I got pretty good at it. The Coffee can would be full of worms. A fishing trip would follow the next day, and what fish we caught with our worms!!! We did not sit on a dock, catching Bluegill...no... Dad rigged the live worms to where we could troll them from the boat, and we caught Walleye, Pike and I even took a 4 foot Musky one day ...my my, hey hey...

But the time spent simply gathering bait, being outwitted and outrun by a worm that was faster and smarter than us... I would laugh, and Dad would chuckle... and... during the 4 tears we spent there...
Mr Bowles never seemed to miss his worms!

I didn't know then that one day I would be in charge of gathering the bait, planning the trip, packing the tackle and gear and even setting up and baiting Dads rod on what would be his last Fishing trip.

Theres more to the picture
Than meets the eye
Hey hey, my my

Friday, February 09, 2007

THE POTENTIAL POSSIBILITIES

"Now take my hand and hold it tight.
I will not fail you here tonight.
For failing you, I fail myself
And place my soul upon a shelf"
The Book of Counted Sorrows

Part 2
1977 (continued from previous post)
I don't remember the real reason I moved back home. My best friend and I had an Apartment for the last two years. The sign over our front door read in rustic script on a weatherbeaten board "Little Hoss Ranch" .
'Ranch" was right and we entertained nightly.

Every week my mother would call and I was generally so stoned that I could not speak.

I held a good job at the time as 1st Cook for a gourmet Restaurant making the whopping sum of 3.15 an hour. I didn't know it then, but I had yet to grasp any real Culinary Fundamentals.

I did not know that within the year my father would be in a VA Hospital and that these would be the last days that our relationship would be domestic...that this would be the last time to fix his breakfast and have him tell stories about coffee so hot that it had to be "Saucered and Blowed" several times before it was drinkable. A stack of pancakes and a frosty glass of milk goes a long ways towards relaxed conversations and the turning of dusty pages. So does the Psuedo Welsh Rarebit I used to fix that he enjopyed immensly.

More so, so much more so, than the words "You have a Visitor, Jack".

It would be the last chance to have him wax about the Steaks he had eaten in Chicago at Northwestern in the years before his time in North Africa, as he wolfed the ones I had prepared in the backyard. I still think those were the best steaks I have ever cooked.

And I did not realize at the time just how much my mother was relieved to have both her boys at home, or how much help I was in taking care of an early onset Alzheimers patient*. To think that I cried a sorrowful cry the day that I finished moving back home, with the 3 Lisa's that had helped me move saying 'Living at home won't be so bad".

Dad and I , it seems to me now, were equally handicapped.

Dad used to tell me the Doctors were wrong. Dad used to tell me he could "beat this thing". We would be heading out the back door to look at the Alaskan Freight Canoe that we had bought. We were going to cover it with an Epoxy resin Dad knew about. She was was in bad shape, this vessel, and a real concern for my Mom.
Mom would whisper to me in hushed tones "You and he both try to fix things with gum wrappers and soda straws, you will never get that thing afloat!" Looking back I know that she was right, but at the time I thought she was kind of poisoning our well. All we ever really did was look at it and discuss the potential possibilities.

Dad would say 'These Doctors dont know what they are talking about. I can beat this thing. I can see... the nit... on the nut... of a gnat." His is voice would crack with something torn between a rage and a will and a fear.
"Sure you can, Pop... if anyone can , it will be you."
And we both would enjoy a somewhat disingenuous Belly laugh.
His ice blue eyes would dance and look straight into mine for moment. Then he would turn and ask
"Now wheres that doorknob?" He knew the door was there but the knob always eluded him.
"I got it Dad"
Now the laughs came real. With his quick wit, the irony never eluded him.
Laughter always trumps sorrow.

And it reminds me of just how quick and observant you have to be to catch a Night Crawler, much more dceptive a creature tham one would imagine, and the importance of gathering bait. To be continued.....

Another addendum*
You can google Early Onset Alzheimers for the Medicos on it so I will refuse leaving the link. I can put it into a bit of a personal perpective for you... you hears about folks in their 60's and 70's that are Alzheimers victims... my Dad became completely disabled at the ripe old age of 58 and unable to work...I was barely out of High School...and the story you just read was but 2 years later, Dad being 60.

I won't try to tell you that these were the best days of my life, but I will say that there has been much fruit and treasure; still today there remains both of these, unimagined, yet to be fully realized... so many potential possibilities...

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

A ROY-TAN CIGAR



"O Father! - chiefly known to me by Thy rod - mortal or immortal, here I die. I have striven to be Thine, more than to be this world's, or mine own. Yet this is nothing; I leave eternity to Thee; for what is man that he should live out the lifetime of his God?"
Father Marple - Moby Dick

Part 1
1981
I pulled into the VA Hospital parking lot in Waco , Texas . It was a 100 mile drive from my home in Fort Worth . I was there to see my father, an Alzheimers patient. Four years ago I had never heard of Alzheimers. He had been here for two years now and this was my third visit. That’s not very many.
I should mention that for the years dad spent at the VA hospital he received outstanding care. Normally I would see him in the visitors area on the first floor. I don't recall ever seeing his room exactly.
Today Bill, the male nurse, ushered me to the second floor and the exercise area where Dad is on a treadmill.

"Jack" says Bill" "your son is here".
"Hmmm?" Dad grunts over the top of his glasses.
"Hey Pop, its me, Steve" I offer.
He is still treading away and...
'What's that?" Dad asks.
Its your son , Jack" Bill talking… "You have a visitor"
'Hi, Dad"
"Its your son, Jack"
"Whose what?"
"I'm right here Dad, in front of you" and touch his hand that clutches the treadmill handlebars.

Dad laughs his fake belly laugh (it’s a coping mechanism, I have it too) and says
"Bill, theres someone here to see you from Chicago ".

I know that he can see me but you wouldn't know it by his expression. Of course Dad can hear us fine, but we are getting louder.
The problem is not his ears ; that would be too easy. Its further in.
Still, you can't help but get louder.
Finally after about ten minutes of this verbal escalation, and the foggy, blank stare that the Alzheimers patient has where they are not quite looking at you, not quite looking through you and not quite looking past you, but a sort of Brainsquinting thing where they are doing all three, Dad bursts out with amazing focus and clarity:

"THATS MY DAMN SON"
Damn right!
He is looking me right in the eye.
"Man to Man, its a Roy-Tan*, Dad" as I hand him his cigar.

There won't be any matches, there haven't been any matches for a while.
His belly laugh has changed to the genuine one.
There was nothing here that could explain the swiftness of the degenerative process that I had seen for the last 4 years. And there was nothing here that could prepare me for the sharp moments of greater clarity that my father would summon from somewhere within in the next few years, even after the further erosion of his faculties.

to be continued…

*As an addendum and for those of you born later than 1970;
Dad smoked big Cigars- Stogies they called them and they were not namby-pamby cigars- they were big and thick and puffed great clouds of smoke. In the 60's Tobacco was advertised freely on the Television; hell, you could light a smoke while doing your Grocery shopping- and there was a hugely successful commercial for Roy-tan Cigars.
The commercials all followed the same story line, but the one I remember best was a little be-spectacled fellow, Pee-Wee, hitting a large truck with his car. He gets out of his vehicle to survey the damage as the Truck-Driver, Bruno , a huge hairy man gruffly removes himself from his truck to do the same. Just as it looks as though Bruno is going to snap Pee-Wee in half, Pee-Wee produces a Mammoth Roy-Tan from his pocket and Bruno, delighted, lets him off the hook. The announcer says "Man to man it’s a Roy-Tan" and all is well as Pee-Wee and Bruno light up, huge clouds of smoke, and slapping each other on the back.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

The Priority vs. Whats Important

ANOTHER WISE MAN
Allow me to direct you to David, and a poem that he posted a few days ago. Funny how you can hear a song for years and like it but never quite get it completely, then one day you hear it and 'Grok' it fully; usually because a life experience has widened your persective, I suppose.
Maybe its just the week I have had, or the fact that there are some close to me that have crept closer to Mortality, and brought me closer as well...
Maybe its the State of the Planet right now as we and our leaders seem to be so concerned about "everything" while making progress on nothing...this poem speaks hugely to me right now. See also"Doing the Right Thing".
GoGoGoGo.. now! I mean really see it! You must!
It also reminds me of what I learned from years of being a Chef...you know that you are in trouble when you are working on the priority instead of what is important...

Thanks David, very nice!!!

Monday, February 05, 2007

BEESWING

I claimed to have a wide and varied taste in music... but check out my buddy Soubriquet who has graciously posted one of my favorites, "Beeswing" by Mr. Richard Thompson...it is a live version.
Soubriquet takes the cake.
When will they Knight both of these lads?

The lyrics were posted last weekby the Red Dirt Girl as well.

Sunday, February 04, 2007

THREE WISE MEN

Throw a penny into the Indian Ocean

You jump right in

Three Wise men in the Indian Ocean

And you jump right in

Sometimes it doesn't take throwin it all away

To find out what you’ve got

Sometimes it doesn't take a good friend to say

Its more than time that you lost

Alejandro Escovedo



You may remember Bruce from "Gullywampus", "Ghosts in the Fire" and the continuation 'Man Overboard". There is more to Bruce than that.

When I lived in Detroit, Bruce came to see us. Dad met him at the Airport. It was in January of, let's say, 1967. On the way home Dad and Bruce stopped for Bruce to see something not too many Texans ever see…. The three foot thick sheet of Ice that covers even the Great Lakes during Winter in that part of the country. I know that it gets that thick for two reasons;(1) I have seen the chunks of Ice the icebreaker Ships throw up to allow the Ore boats passage and (2) I have been huddled over a small hole in the Ice trying to catch a poor frozen and starving little fish. Let me assure you it is cold out there, with not so much as a Barb-Wire fence to break the wind.

Back to Dad and Bruce- apparently they stopped at a local pier in the dead of night and in the middle of winter to inspect the Ice. Clambering down the ladder to the ice at the Pier must have been a trick, but not nearly the trick it would be getting back up.

Especially after Bruce and his 300 pound frame had slipped and fallen on the Ice resulting in a shattered wrist and forearm. No one besides Bruce and my Dad will ever know how much panic there was or how much danger they must have both been in as Dad tried to help Bruce get back up the 10 rungs of ladder that had to be climbed.

They made it, and spent most of that night in a Detroit Emergency Room.


As I write this, Bruce finds himself in another great battle. His daughter Jan has described him as a "jolly soul that drives like a Bat out of hell and eats Like a farm -hand, and still loves a good party."that sounds like the Bruce I remember.

But today, Bruce is in ICU and the description, today, is that he is "Responding, but delirious".

I don't like the sound of that.

So for those of you that pray, pray for Bruce. For those of you like myself that don't, then,like myself, pray a little anyway.

I have so much hoped to someday to see Bruce again.

When he comes out of this, perhaps I should give a call… it’s the next best thing.



While we are at it lets ...also think about Jeff's (The XMRSB'HOLES husband) father who has suffered a bad stroke the last several days. I don't intend to turn this into a prayer group, but I want all to know whats up out here. I should also mention that the 6 degrees of separation you hear about is more like three degrees in my case.... not only is it a fact that in my Senior high School group picture, jeff and I stand together but remarkably.... his father and mine worked together years before jeff and I were friends....this we did not even know until recently.

In fact, given that Dad and Bruce worked together at the same time, Bruce most likely knows Jeffs' father; Austin Yeats! Bruce, do you remeber Austin from those Hyde-pak Days when, as Dad liked to say, ya'll were "G-Men"?

Saturday, February 03, 2007

VOLTAIRE

I have mentioned A tag circulating concerning books we have read.
One of the categories asks for "A Book that Made You Laugh".
Now I have a real tendency to laugh at inappropriate times, quite loudly I confess, and have been known to snicker when I would have been better served by simply nodding or looking all serious or something, but I would like to suggest that I have never read a book that did not make me laugh at some point.

Having said that, I will propose that one of the most amusing books I have read was "Candide" by Voltaire, aka Francois Marie Arouet. Actually, the book was titled "The Portable Voltaire" a selection of his stories and letters. "The Portable Voltaire" allowed me to read him in the most inappropriate places such as Math class and during assemblies. He was a master of sarcasm, and not so subtle guile; please forgive me should I fall into his style of writing.

Sometimes when I was making out with Mona, I would have one studious eye cast upon the Sacred Text which I held just over her right shoulder in my left hand, all the while my tongue would be in her cheek, then vice-versa, and my right hand would be busy cupping her left breast and giving an occasional assist in turning a page.
Then the bell would ring and I was off to P.E. where I was known to read aloud, in the original French no less, as I played Badminton, taking on any and all comers, often two at a time (I'm really quite good, my hairpin dropshot is Barbaric) and putting them away forthwith.
Really, Truly Portable.

"Candide" is his best known work and very well done.
For now I will leave you with a Quote from Voltaire;
"WHAT ME WORRY?"
Hold it.... thats not Voltaire, thats that other guy.I shall do better than a Quote and supply Chapter One for your perusal....
http://www.literature.org/authors/voltaire/candide/chapter-01.html

In Chapter 1 he is expelled from the Castle for bustin' a move on the Lord of the Castles' Daughter, the lovely Cungonde...

Thursday, February 01, 2007

TOO MUCH INFORMATION

"Share five off the wall, strange, unusual or just little known facts about yourself.” Part 5

I have never breathed a word of this to anyone.... ever!

In the 5th Grade my best friend Greg and I had a couple of Girlfriends that we would meet at the Park and play ‘Spin the Bottle”. After a few sessions it was my idea to ditch the bottle and just go for it.
And somewhere along the way Greg and I decided that it was in the best interest of all if he and I were to practice our kissing on...
EACH OTHER!!!
So before we met up with the young ladies, we would do a few warm ups.

I like to think that it was his idea.

I remember the day that some ‘Big kids’ came upon the 4 of us and Greg and I ran for our lives. That was the end of that. The girls never spoke to us again. And it wasn’t long before Greg and I weren’t talking either.

It was a few years later that a girl named Venita showed me what a kiss could truly be. My knees buckled and my head spun and time stood still. It felt like I was in orbit.

I’m pretty sure that Greg and I had been doing it wrong.

To read about love....