Children

Top ten things that you must be aware of when you have a child:

1.)  While You Sleep:  You are most vulnerable while you are sleeping.  Never trust a child.  They can be so mischievous.  Children are never tired and as adults, sorry, you will be tired. You are not four no more. While you sleep they have the whole run of the house.  Put all snacks away, including chips, candy, and other kinds of junk food.  If they are missing in the morning do not I repeat do not blame the dog.

2.)  A Moment of Silence:  This may not be listed as rule of thumb one but is the number one thing.  As a parent you should expect NO silence ever.  If you ever hear absolutely nothing.  Run, duck, hide, take cover, and get ready for the worse.  Children are never quite so if they become silent you know something is about to go down.

3.)  The Bathroom:  The bathroom is a battlefield with an endless supply of weapons and ammunition.  Anything is the bathroom is fair game for a child.  Toilet paper, shampoo, soap, toothpaste, and other items like dental floss.  Toilet paper is an especially useful weapon for children.  It can be used to plug a toilet or run ribbon through the house.

4.)  Litter Box:  The litter box can have multiple purposes such as a cat box/sand box.

5.)  Keys:  We all know keys jingle like little bells.  It also has buttons which make your truck or car alarm go off.  What child wouldn’t want to rattle those keys around and just plain and simply fuck with you.  They seem to always go for the red alarm button.  Horn honking and lights flashing and your heart pounding from being scared.  Keys can double as a object for children to hide.

6.)  Sippy Cups:  Sippy cups are a must.  Open top cups can often be spilled and will be spilled.  Even if they are eight, nine, or ten give them a sippy cup.

7.)  Mud Puddles:  Puddles are a inviting hole of water and mud.  If he/she is dressed in their best outfit for school watch them closer then close.  The are and will make it into that puddle on way or another.  Carry them if possible.

8.)  Bed Time:  This can be the toughest time of the day.  They never want to go to bed.  No matter how tired they are they just wont quit.  They will fight you the whole way.  Expect them to get up at least one or twice.  Be prepared for water or with the toy they previously had.  For some reason they will want one or the other.,

9.)  Toys on the Floor:  This can really put a man to his knees.  Stepping on that sharp edged toy.  It hurts like no other and will get a swear out of you whether you swear or not.

10.)  Cuddles:  Take the cuddles while you can.  As they age cuddles will grow to be extinct.  Take advantage of any chances of them cuddling or loving you.  When they get to old you mine as well forget about it.

The Game of Life.

He awoke on a daily basis to be the father people could only dream about having.  A hard worker and someone that everyone looked up to, especially his own daughter.  The man was a rather big dude in his prime.  Six foot two and two hundred fifty pounds.  The weight was muscle weight and not that chubby beer belly type of weight.  The funniest part about him is that he wore bandannas just like Hulk Hogan did in the eighties which made him look identical to Hogan, as well.  Children in the school would come out and ask his daughter if her dad was a professional wrestler.  She would giggle and become embarrassed.  He would egg all the children on by dressing in parachute pants, bandana and a ripped shirt like Hogan and show up to pick his daughter up.  The children loved it.  Any reaction of smiles really got him off.
He always talks about how the smile on children’s faces made his day as much as it made theirs.  That is a inspiring way to look at life.  Always putting someone else first to an extent.  You always get what you put in and he put in a lot and in return had a lot.  At that point in time in his life he had a great wife, a wonderful daughter, and nice things including house, job, and vehicles.  Good things come to people who wait and he waited long enough.  He struggled his whole life and worked hard and his dues had finally been paid.  Life was on the up and up.  It is the little things in life which make the greatest impact and he took advantage of that saying.
His daughter came home from school one day and was incredibly embarrassed.  As all the kids peered out the small little rectangle windows of the bus and looked into the front yard they couldn’t believe their eyes.  The lawn had been cut in a special way for his daughter.  He mowed a large heart with her initials mowed in it.  He knew all his daughters friends and all the kids on the bus would talk about how cool he was and elders would think he loved his daughter to the max.  He got his point across to his now embarrassed daughter.  Most children would be spoiled to have these things happen.  To be shown love.
His entire life came crumbling down almost instantly.  It started with the loss of his job.  He had no problem finding another but nor making the same kind of money.  Something had to give and something’s went unpaid.  The worse thing is that he let go of more then he should.  Two weeks before they were having their house foreclosed on, his wife found out through the paper and not from him.  He was losing it all.  His wife and daughter moved out, he lost his house, one of the cars, and everything in the house;  This was all in the matter of a month or two.  It doesn’t take long to lose everything but it takes so long to get things.
The point of this story is that good things come to good people.  You get what you put in.  Is there something everyone didn’t know that explains what happened.  Until this day no one knows.  We all ask repeatedly but get the same answer.  A shrug and a tear.  It doesn’t matter how big you are or how great of a parent you are it only takes one mistake to lose your entire life without losing your life. Life can throw curve balls at anytime and no matter how prepared you are for them you just never know which curve they may make.  Every curve ball is different and you cannot prepare for them all.  Just do your best in life and make every moment count.

week 13 my precious box

I could be considered a hoarder but I don’t think I am.  I always save many trinkets and others little memory artifacts for my pleasure.  I have a hard time letting go of the past.  Missing my childhood and never wanting to grow up is just part of my issues.  I like to hear songs from my past, game systems, and other reminders from my childhood.  The eighties were great and we all know that.  Hair bands and Nintendo what more does anyone need.  It is funny because as I go through boxes in my closet which I have no remembrance what fills these boxes.
I saved everything in my cardboard drawer.  My blue cast was right on top and I almost didn’t even dare to touch this.  This cast had impressionable writings on it from eighth grade friends.  I could barely read some of the words on it where they have been so weathered.  The cast was full of love letters from my middle school years and notes which buddies wrote back and forth to me.
It was funny to see these letters and this cast.  Such simple things that brought up hurtful memories from my this time in my life.  I keep around this box full precious materials to remember certain situations of my past.  To other people in this world these box full of my precious memories would mean nothing.  As time goes by these trinkets will always be here to remind me. Who would have any meaning for this dirty old cast full of notes from my broken ankle I had in the eighth grade.
As I dug threw this box some more I found other neat little life reminders.  A rock collection from my Dad, a coin collection which I received many of them from different family members, and even something as stupid as a ring I found at Echo Beach.  I keep it all and it is so “I” can look back.  Then it hit me.  A shimmering in the corner of my eye.  I knew what it was instantly but tried to ignore this part of my life due to the immense emotion it had brought on.
My grandfathers cuff links is was this shimmering was.  Why it was so dear to me was the fact he had passed away.  He was a great guy and meant a lot to many people but he had a special meaning to me.  These cuff links were more then just cuff links.  They told a story of his life.  They told a story of his struggle with cancer which he over came multiple times only to trip over his oxygen line and hit his head and pass away before his time.  These cuff links had meaning to all that seen them but they had there own special meaning to me.  That is why they were in my box of special items which I will remain saving through out my life and time.

week 13 I wanted and lost

I don’t know how it all came about but it happened.  The cats were here and that is all that mattered to me.  Me and my future wife lived in this small little house in which we rented.  Being on a main road you would think that we would hear all the traffic passing by but we couldn’t.  We enjoyed that a lot.  What we enjoyed most was the company of the many people that stopped in to see us.  I enjoyed all the company.  Different friends and relatives all the time and even sometimes I wouldn’t even like them but I enjoyed their company still.  For the want of company I got it whether it was good or not.
You had to pick and choose your battles and that was one of them.  On person whom came by on the regular was my girls uncle.  He was an older fellow but he took a great liking to me.  Gay as could be he was but I made sure first thing their was no misunderstanding.  He appreciated me being honest as everyone does and we hit it off.  He was a prior chef who worked at many famous restaurants around the country and use to make me things all the time.  Hopefully his potentially want for me was never an issue between us because we had a great friendship.
My birthday rolled around and I received no presents or even a call from all my so called friends.  I never wasted my time caring and that’s how I grew to choose.  Everyone seemed to want something from me and I blew their wants off.  I knew how they really all were.  People show their true colors eventually and it was a way for me to know how they are.  Her uncle though, got me two great gifts and a cake.  The cake was not an original cake it was a whoopee pie cake.  He knew me well.  The presents were great it was camping gear and I loved camping.  He knew what I wanted.
Was this all because of his sexual preference.  Not at all but most would insist it was. He was just a nice guy and he loved his niece.  I took great care of her and he knew it.  I received this call from a friend of both me and her uncles.  It was disappointing.  I knew he was diabetic and he went into a diabetic shock.  The one man that cared for us was having health issues beyond my control.  I felt helpless and I looked for a way out of this mess but all I got was a seat in the waiting room.  The things you always want and care about always seem to turn into something else.
He was dead by this time.  He lost his battle which he had won for years.  I always seem to lose the things that are most dear to me. He was one of them.  I only knew him for about 3 years but that was long enough to know he was a great guy.  Bad things always happen to good people and this was another prime example of this.  From this simple want of a great friend the friend was lost.  I had all kinds of emotions running through me like was it my fault, I asked him for a cake (did he eat it while making it, and other questions kind of blaming myself but the simple fact was it was his time.

week 13 Grain of sand within my hand.

Just another day being a young punk living in a small town or as Mainers would call it, city.  Brewer, Maine is where I grew up as a child and where I had the most fun that a child could ask for.  A lot of the things we use to do I look back now and wonder why we did the shit we did.  Most of it was “childish” like you would think.  Even though I call it childish you needed to hang on to your britches to survive.  Parents really lacked in their parenting so we ran ramped around the trailer park which I resided.
I refrain from telling people about my child hood because they will either think badly of me or feel so bad for me.  It is kind of a catch twenty two with my life.  I remember it all started around Christmas.  We were out shopping, me, my brother and my mom, when I saw something I wanted.  It wasn’t like I wanted some expensive oversized toy.  What I wanted was a little tiny Christmas stocking.  By little tiny, I mean it could barely fit a package of Hubba Bubba gum.  I had to have it though, it drew me in like a kid in a candy shop.  It was going to be mine.
I asked my mother if I could please have it and she told me no.  Well I wasn’t taking no for an answer.  So, when she wasn’t looking I through it in one of the bags that had already been checked out.  This stocking was MINE… When we got home, of course, my mother saw it.  Instead of getting in trouble, she chuckled.  This egged me on to do this some more.  I was three and a thief.  A outlaw and I was no robin hood.  I was stealing from the rich and I was the poor.  If my mom would have been a mom and told me it was bad and done the parental thing, maybe all the negative may have left my childhood.
We were at Shop ‘n’ Save getting a few groceries not two long after my prior theft and the rush I had prior came over me once again.  I saw a bin of lighters.  They use to have lighters back when I was a child in big bins at the check out isles.  So I grabbed a few.  I knew what I was doing was wrong but no one was their to tell me so.   As a child you see the world as a grain of sand.  You don’t understand the way life works.  How time goes by or how the flowers bloom.  I had the world in the palm of my hand but at this moment it was a few lights of all colors.
I stashed these lighters behind the shed by our trailer and saved them for a rainy day.  That rainy day came, but not literally, me and a few friends had gotten together at a fort we had in the trees outback.   Once again, I held the world within a grain of sand upon my hand and little did I know these next few actions could have made me live eternally, but not alive.  We lit the woods on fire.  It is disturbing to talk about due to how this could have been avoided by parents just being their for us children.  As the grass and trees started to really get going in flame we heard the sirens.
The sirens screamed toward us and we were panicking.  What the heck did we do!  Why the heck did we do this!  All these feelings were screaming through my body.  It seemed as time stopped but it sure didn’t.  People were running towards were we had done this disgraceful deed.  I knew something had to give and it wasn’t going to be me. We all scattered into the bushes and I knew I had a spot that made me invincible.  Stupid us we hid next to the small blaze at this time.  As people by the dozen showed up to put this fire out, I knew we got over our heads this time.
They found all the rest of my crew and I was thanking god at this point they didn’t find me. I heard the talking of the firemen to my friends.  They didn’t give me up though, thank god.  As I returned home I got the wrath of my Dad whom just happen to return home at the worse time possible for me.  Not just the wrath of my father but next thing I knew we had to go to the Brewer Police Department for lighting the woods on fire and for stealing lighters.  Why the hell would I ever do this.  What was I thinking.  I thought I ruled the world upon a grain of sand within my hand.  I held the world upon my palm and cared not for the feelings or thoughts of anyone else.

week 13 from small to big or big to small

The day starts out rather slow and steady as I roll out of bed and do the usual, morning day off routine.  This starts with me pulling my mask off my face, which I use in order to get a good night sleep, but this morning it wasn’t on.  I’m no fortune teller but I can tell I’m going to be ignorantly tired all day since I chose not to put on my mask.  I know this makes me so tired not using it but I still do it.  Usually my wife will wake me up with an elbow to the ribs telling me to “put my damn mask on” in a rather vicious way though.  As I sit on the edge of my bed and pull up my sweats I try to remember the simple task that my, once in a blue moon, day off  has in reserve for me.  I have nothing planned, as of yet.  I usually don’t try and plan things I am more of a, go with the flow, kind of guy.
This morning had gotten my full attention rather quickly as I looked out the window and saw all kinds of that white stuff, yuck.  I really cannot complain due to the great year we have had thus far.  I remember as a kid sometimes putting on a snow suit just to go trick or treating.  I know what all this snow means for my day off, kill it.  Soooo, as I was rather comfy in my sweats I was within minutes of changing into jeans, sweatshirt, wool socks, and most important of all, my carhartt jacket, hat and gloves.  I knew this storm was coming and the night before was out until 10:30 pm firing up my plow truck.  The truck doesn’t run but a handful of times a year.  It takes a little finessing to get the truck ready.  I got the magic hands.
One tire was flat and it was out of gas which wasn’t that bad considering.  Little did I know, at the time, that filling the tire up was no simple task.  After firing the truck up I drove it to the house so I could pump up the flat tire.  With the muffler unhooked I drove carefully down to the house. For as slow as I was going, it sounded like I was racing on the Daytona 500 track at full speed.  I could see the neighbors looking out their windows at me; I just smiled and waved.  What else could I do when it was 10 at night. The tire was quite a challenge.  I had gotten to the house and tried repeatedly to pump this frozen tire up but it wouldn’t take the air.  The seal was comprised due to sitting for such a long time.  I was just about to quit when I realized I would be easier to just jack up the truck, so that what I did.  Now that this tire was full I parked the truck and was ready for the day.
Snow littered the ground in such a way to say, “I am winter let it snow.”  I took the challenge head on but was only about half prepared.  I went out and knew the truck was ready for me.  I gave it a little shot of ether, why it needs it to start I don’t know but it works, and broom broom the truck fired up first turn of the key.  “Thank god,” I thought to myself.  The plowing was a bit chilly due to the two side windows half covered with plastic, my head sticking out the window due to the wipers not working, but one thing proved strong the truck pushing the snow with ease.  I was proud and was doing a great job.  I was like a dog riding in a vehicle without my tongue hanging out.  My eye brows were frozen and the road was just about done.
The truck, with only 3 or 4 gallons in it, ran out of gas.  This was bad timing but was a blessing in disguise. The blessing was that I didn’t have to plow anymore but the bad timing was I ran out right in the middle of a steep hill.  I pumped the peddle hoping it would pick up a splash of gas but it didn’t.  It died out and I was sliding backwards.  Uh oh….. I had the plow up so I dropped it real quick to aid in stopping the truck from sliding backwards.  Oh man here I go.  I hated this feeling of no control.  The brakes were weak but still did nothing to slow my slide.  I finally decided it was now or never.  I cut the wheel and put the truck in the ditch.  By this time I had gained a little speed sliding so when I hit the unforgiving ditch I lunged me forcefully into the seat.
I got out a little shaken up from the slide and little winded from the scare.  Heart racing and truck stuck I didn’t care.  I was done plowing for the day.  I walked away glancing back at the truck as to thank it for its job that it did.  My long driveway was plowed and that’s all that mattered at this point in time.  I had a quarter mile walk home which was going to be a little chilly but other then that the day had gone pretty swell.  I figured I would go out after the storm and yank out the truck so until then the ditch is its resting place.  It could have died in a worse spot such as the middle of the road but it didn’t.  I stumbled through the front door and my wife had hot chocolate for me all ready with those little marshmallows and I knew from here on it was going to be a good day.

The most amazing person I met

I couldn’t have asked to meet a better person,
The man I met not saying on damn cursing,
My words no matter how harsh,
Played no effect like water on a marsh,
I met this man in the man in the grocery store,
He made this place far from a bore,
We got to talking about things,
Even with the interference as his phone rings,
Was it your wife  I told him,
It was these words I think that sold him,
He had it tough I thought,
As his wife called back and they fought,
When he was done,
We left off were we started,
He grabbed a ham bone,
As he lifted it he farted,
This man had no shame in his game,
This man I had not even known his name,
We pushed on to finish this shopping,’
So much I wanted to get home so wine bottles I could be popping,
I invited him back to my place,
He gave me such a look on his face,
I could tell something was going on,
The thought of a drink made him not want to come along,
As I finished up and pushed out my cart,
I pulled out the parking lot of Wal-Mart,
The man was in disarray,
As I got home he was in the drive way,
I looked to see him in the rear view,
Thank god I met this great man, phew.
I found out why we had so much alike,
I found out his name was Mike.
Mike was my name,
This man was me and this was all just a game,
This was the most amazing person I could have met,
The most important person to me I bet.