LDKBox

In my effort to become more centered on the blog posts I have set up a time in my busy sedentary life dedicated to thinking about the blog.  That time, in essence, is any time that I am not catering to the whims of my family.    Ok, quit laughing!  It really does take a lot of time  keeping a 8 year old full.  I find that he gets hungry every two hours.  It does not matter if he eats a buffet style breakfast or has an apple.  Two hours after eating anything ,  he has burned up all the fuel in his tank.  In the last month we have eaten the best of the best.  From fine home cooking , to fast food over load, to lean European cuisine on the high seas.  I could set my watch to the needs of my son’s food habit.

I have to give my son a little credit.   Here in Texas he does not live as I did on the farm in Iowa.  Food served at the house of Leota was warm, regular, and plentiful.  Add to that list …Good as well.  I think that I can say that the food that I produce is warm(thank goodness for microwaves) regular(hey I am here 24/7 ) and plentiful(I have receipts from the grocery store) but there won’t be any comments on how good it is.  Hey,  three out of four ain’t bad!!!  But don’t ask Kellen.  He is jaded now that he has experience the good life as well as my wife’s cooking.

I try to keep the staples in the fridge.  Lot’s of eggs, milk, and butter.  Bags and bags of apples.  Green is preferred by the Little Detailer and Red is preferred by my wife, Ellen.  Bananas once in a while.  The same for strawberries, blueberries, and cherries.  We always seem to have some oranges, grapefruit, and grapes.  Both red and green grapes.  Seedless is preferred by all.  Then there is bread.  Wheat for me.  White for the kids.(yes they ask for white.  I don’t understand it either) and a low cal bread for my wife.  All the while I know that there are supplies of canned fruits and vegetables in the pantry.  I also know that there are frozen assortments of fast food, complete meals, vegetables and meat in our freezer.  All of these supplies are supplanted by my many trips to the store to obtain the ingredient of the day that I have not mentioned previously.

I know the cupboards are full.  So is the freezer.  I even go and get fresh items from the store.  Why is it then that everything I cook ends up to be skillet surprise?  I always start out with the best intentions.  Gourmet this…Gourmet that.  Hey,  it is a skillet dinner.  It is hot,  fresh,  and regular.  Why is it then that my son.  Who I cater to,  for each and every whim,  prefers the cooking of his Mother.  Who bakes, fry’s, and creates food that not only tastes good but looks good as well.  Go figure.

Believe it or not it has been two hours since I started this blog post.  Guess how I know?  Yes,  he is hungry again.  I believe that I will try some imported noodles( Top Ramen) and some fine domesticated meat(hot dogs) and some fresh steamed vegetables(microwaved in a bag).    I bet he eats it.  Ha! Ha!  Ellen is not home.  I don’t think he can make it four hours without his fuel tank topped off.

Comments (0) Jul 31 2009

Gosh,  it is raining here in drought ridden Texas.  This will clean up the area of all the dust on the roads.  You know it is dry when one has to slow down in a residential area because the dust that collected on the streets is bellowing up from under the car in front of you.  Now that is dusty.   It almost conjured up images of my youth when I would wait at the corner of highway 181 and our gravel road  for the school bus.  Our neighbor had recently married a young school teacher who would appear in her car on the way to her job teaching about three minutes after I went out to meet the bus.  She would barrel over the hill driving a rather large size passenger vehicle.   At legal speed a vehicle of this size would and does create quite a dust column as it approaches the stop asthe gravel road intersects with highway 181.  There I would stand looking south to Inwood and a view of the school bus as it picked up the neighbors kids.  Each day,  as the car approached the stop sign,  I would stand and smile as the neighbor’s wife passed by after making a California stop on the corner.  As I remember…(I always smiled)…. the dust of the car  would curl up around me like a Sahara dust storm.  Usually blocking the view of the school bus as it ambled its way towards me.  What is interesting to me is that I did not move away from my self-appointed spot. Hmmm does the old adage,”Not the sharpest tool in the shed”   come to mind.

Since I never know what the blog is really trying to be each day that I write…I must confess I cannot remember the other dust stories in my life at the present time.  I know that I spent a good deal of my adult life in the dust.  I wonder if this is a metaphor of my life.  The dust from the road that the neighbor’s wife made really kind of capsulizes my life until leaving the farm.  Standing in a dust storm…smiling.  I can admit to at least twenty years of the dusty road.  A time where values were low.  Expectations practically non existent.  Attitude(not good attitude) at an all time high.  Judgement at the time was more than a little suspect.   The things that I did and the way that I treated people is something that embarrasses me at this point in my life.  Was there a rain that settled the dust after those twenty years to see my way to a clear picture of the time at hand? 

There seems to have been a dust cloud in every one of my endeavours.  I think it is mainly a lack of faith on my part.  Even as I was protected I faught against the hand of my higher power as it waved the winds of the storm away to  view the path that I needed to take.   Are the my tears shed the rain that helped clear my vision of life?  Is the rain of Texas this morning settling the dust no less than than tears of joy that are brought about each day when I think of what could have been instead of what did happen in my life?  How does one say thanks for the memories?  Without the hand of God clearing my own dust storm where would I be?  I pray that the rain falls for those that need to get the dust settled in their life.  I pray the dust stays settled in my life so the mission of my life will become clear. 

IT would seems that the dust is settled outside now that the rain has stopped.  IT is still over cast and dreary.  Yet,  I can see the neighbors both near and far.  Not unlike my future.  My thankful prayers,  that each day bring tears of  joy, are clearing my own dust storm. IT may still be overcast.  IT may be dreary.  Just like the rain of Killeen and my neighbors I can see the future both near and far.  AND…  just like the settling rain of Killeen and seeing the neighbors near and far  do I  know them any better.?  No… IT just seems clearer.  Is that a comfort?  To me IT IS…!

Comments (0) Jul 30 2009

My wife and I completed a 5 day cruise with our son, Kellen, the other day.  We had a glorious time with good weather, good spirits, and good fellowship.  It is a wonder how we all got together on the cruise.  All of the people that we met were smokers.  Smokers are an odd bunch of people.  We seem to congregate in pairs.  It usually starts with a husband/wife team coming out to the Lido deck to get some fresh air and away from the constraints that are a constant anywhere inside the ship… less the bars and casino’s.  

Once out on the Lido deck the pair turns the numbers of couple to many.  Someone wants to bum a smoke.  They have 15 minutes before the next event that the spouse wants to attend.  Another needs a light.  Still another wants to use theashtray.    It really doesn’t matter what the reason to gather.  Once all gathered up in the corner one soon becomes friends with the people.  Heck how can one not…?  Everybody but me had a drink in their hand.  There were nothing but friendly inebriates on board during the day.  Cannot speak for the nite life because I am an old man and did not attend anything late.  I did manage to dance with my wife a few times but I am sure that it was not enough for her own tastes.  But truthfully I did dance until I my legs started to shake.  What can I say…I am a light weight.

After the initial smoke frenzy meeting on Lido deck the smokers quickly became friends speaking of everything to pass the time.  With all the hubbub on the Lido deck they were not wont for conversation topics.  IT was couples, children,  and singles  stopping periodically throughout the day.  My son, his friends, and the children of the other smokers all made the day pass quickly.  If it was not a woman so obese  as to need a  electric cart to move about the ship it was the young inebriates horsing around after a day at one of the beach parties held on our day in port.  The topics never ceased.  As we become fast friends topics turned to the spouses.  At least according to my wife.  Now she never named names in this little information glut but I had a good idea as to the names of each person of which she spoke.  When completed with this little book of information I was asked if the husbands spoke of their wives in this manner.  I had to laugh because the only thing that the husbands that were with me talked about was work, fishing,  food, gambling, and the amount of drinking that they did or were going to do. 

I am not surprised that I enjoyed the cruise so much.  If planned well in advance it can be relatively inexpensive considering its all encompassing compensation of food, drink, and housing.  I did the cruise the first time because I had never done it.  I did it a second time because I enjoyed the first cruise.   Ellen and I are anticipating a third cruise but we are unsure if it will be a seven day cruise of a five day cruise.  The truth of it is I am surprised at how tired I am after having so much fun for the better part of a week.  I am recuperating nicely here at home.  It is nice to know that the chairs only move at my house if I move them.  On the boat one cannot always say that.

Comments (0) Jul 29 2009