What's good for the Gander

Here a while back i saw a commercial on TV that made me giggle. The basic set-up was designed around something like "The Antiques Roadshow". In the commercial, a woman had taken her item to the appraiser and he gave his appraisal. She brought him a mannequin hand with a little yellow bird in it and he told her that her bird in the hand should be worth two in the bush. This one made me giggle pretty good. I like it almost as much as i like the one where the retired drill sergeant is a therapist. That one is just funny to me. !!Cry Baby!!

This commercial reminded me of a writing class i had in school where we had to write a number of aphorisms. You know, singular truths, like Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder and so on. This is the class where i penned my now infamous aphorism; Always a bridegroom, but never a bride. I admit it's not very original, but it's cute all the same.

I remember this exercise as it was quite difficult for me. I met my deadline, but i wasn't very proud of what i accomplished.

Anyway, it snowed like mad here last week. I mean about a foot or more and the wind was

blowing like hell and the kids were home for a day or two. So, i was off my groove. I was Marshalling TV channels when this bird in the hand commercial came on and instantly i was struck with an idea. Why couldn't i make a bird in the hand??

I started running all of the old adages i knew through my head. I didn't want to re-do the bird in the hand, a penny saved is a penny earned lacked something creatively and what's good for the goose is good for the gander just didn't sing to me. Then it came to me, my adage.

I've had this old clock for some time and i've wanted to do something for my sewing room with it. Though, i no longer actually have a sewing room. What i do have is a kitchen table that suits me just fine for now. So, i presented my adage in a clock. Which now only seems fitting. Now for your enjoyment and mine, of course, here's my adage clock for my sewing room when i get one again.

I'm not going to tell you the adage that was the inspiration for this, but what i will say is that every time i look at it i giggle and swell with a sense of pride. I'm such a Wacko!!!

My wife has a clock and watch fetish, so naturally, she loves it. I was sort of inspired by the museum watches put out by Movado. I got Donner one shortly after she first saw one and i took the hint it was something she had to have.

I hope you can guess the adage, but if you can't i'll post it in the comments in a few days.

While i'm at it, i should tell you that my next project is a pair of house shoes. My feets get cold here and well i wouldn't be me if the design for them wasn't ridiculous. Think Stingray meets Patent Leather.

Until the next time i write, may peace be with you, Dave

Make that Fifteen for Bucketface

The calendar page fell and the temperature went up. June came in like an Acme Anvil from the roadrunner cartoon. Now i ask you, what would the world be like if the spring football game were played on a temperate afternoon instead of a blisteringly hot one?? Even being particularly susceptible to heat stress, i wouldn't have missed it for the world.

I'm going to stray from my narrative briefly, but i hope at least one of you can follow what i'm saying or perhaps even how i feel. For all intents and purposes, i'm a Catholic. I am not however a strict dogmatic Catholic and there are many notions the church has that i just don't hold in the same regard. If the truth be known, i'm about half Catholic and half Buddhist. At any rate i don't hold life to be man's dominion, but rather the dominion of God. That being said, (just to clarify that i'm not speaking of abortion) i am neither for nor against abortion. As with all things in life there are decisions to be made and repercussions surrounding those choices. As for what i am saying, God may not be overtly present in every moment of my life, but there are times when i know with a certainty that i've had help.

So, there i was with my wife and youngest son at the spring football game. My son, in the picture, was playing. He's too thin to be center, but he started every game this year, save the one he was out with the flu, and has already been given the starting center spot for next year. While it is true he's pretty much a big dumb jock, we have worked together to make him stronger and more academically sound.

This year was his Freshman year. Going in he had a history of being a "C" student and always on the verge of summer school for TAKS test remediation. I, like any parent, poured a lot of blood, sweat and tears into making himself more confident and raising his awareness that school and mom and dad are only temporary. I worked hard at convincing him he wouldn't always be a kid and that being grown up meant he was going to have to figure out what he is best at and what he loves to determine a career path. Over the year, his grades improved and he came up nearly a hundred places in his class ranking. I'd like to take credit for this but it wouldn't be fair. He did it. He was moved out of his normal English class and placed in English Honors/Pre AP. He has a wonderful written voice for someone so young and a grasp of story elements that amazes me. The only other thing he did that really stood out this year happened during the Track and Field season. He was the only Freshman from his school to consistently compete. Now before you think "hey, he must be fast" let me share with you that he competed in Shot Put and Discus. These are strength events. Although he didn't place a single time and this causes him some angst, most meets he was the only Freshman throwing against mostly Juniors and Seniors and the important thing to consider is: He was competitive.


He turns fifteen this week and after the effort he made, he ended the year as a "B" student, i pierced his ears for him. Which leads me to the point of all this drivel. I Love him as i do all of my children and i do anything i'm able to help them realize those things they want as long as they seem reasonable and their rationale is sound. The only question i've ever had, other than am i doing all i can, is do they understand why i'm so hard on them and am i a positive influence on their lives?? (So that's like three questions, but it's my blog and i can cry if i want to.) Then just when i think i'm beginning to see my kids pull away from me, God drops by to let me know what's really there. Rarely is there an instance when i can share these moments of grace with anyone. However, there was one of those moments of grace at the end of the game the other day and Donna caught it. Maybe God caught it. Who am i to say? All i know is the result is the following picture and there are no words needed to know where i stand with him. Equally, there are no words needed for where he stands with me. He's just beautiful and is going to make a fine man.


A Note to my Son:

Son, I don't give a hang if you are a Model, Wrestler, Actor, English teacher, or Tattooist in this life. Ultimately, i only want your life to be rewarding and for you to be happy with the "Skin you are in".

I Love you Bucketface, Happy Fifteen



To the rest of you, that's all the sap i have at this moment. My tree has once again gone to winter. Until the next time we meet, take a moment to notice the grace in your world

Be Very Well My Friends, Dave

One lit in my face and one burning in the ashtray...

Well it's three in the morning and i just cracked a Dr Pepper and choked down a couple BC Powders. I say choked down, i think I'm starting to take them for the same reason some old people eat dirt or corn starch. I'd like to say that i have a headache every time i take them, but I'm not entirely sure that would be accurate. One thing is for certain, i endure chronic headaches. Oh, and no my BP and sugar are both fine, but thanks for asking. I think it has to do with when i fell out of the sign at the Bien Venido Motel some years ago and i whacked my neck pretty good.

My 14 yr old has sprung from his chrysalis and come out the other side a social damn butterfly. Thank God we have an unlimited plan because between his one ring tone for text messages and his myriad of ring tones for his friends, I've made him set it to vibrate anytime it's within ear shot of me. Some days it's maddening!!! He has really started coming into his own in school too. Well, Football for sure, I'll know about the academics in a couple of weeks and as all of you know that's where i live. It sure isn't football. Anyway, he's gotten his permanent position as the starting center. He really didn't think he could do it because, evidently, there is a lot of responsibility in that position. However, he likes to yell and block and tell people when they aren't doing what they are supposed to. Stupid me, i thought the center just gave the quarterback the football and then blocked, but he's told me tons of other things that he has to do to make sure the play comes off the way it is designed to. I have to admit, i look at him when he starts explaining, the same way i used to look at Mrs Davis when she tried like hell to explain to me the objective and nominative cases in English in 9th grade.

OK for the next part to make any sense at all i have to preface this with a little bit of an explanation. Our boys are 15 months apart. The one mentioned above is red headed, six foot and built like Adonis. The 13yr old is 5'4", sandy blond hair and the closest he gets to sports is the chess club. Yes, the older one is a fair student and a great athlete; the younger one is totally an honor student and no athletic prowess what so ever (save possibly the remote for the TV)

I pick the little one up from school everyday and i always ask him the same thing. It's kind of like a catch phrase at this point, i say,"good day, bad day, or okay day??" He'll usually give me the old "good day". Then I'll ask him what the best and worst part is, this is where he goes into a soliloquy on par with "Song of Myself" and will talk for thirty minutes about how unrealistic it is to put kids like him into regular classes with kids that don't want to be there and only want to cause problems or tell him he's retarded and give him the finger. Here again, i digress into my own school experience and have much the same look on my face as when Mrs Morgan tried so desperately to teach me, "Order of Operations".

Then my lovely wife locks up the administration at her school around eleven most evenings and calls me. Naturally i am twenty minutes from the end of a movie i am completely buried in like Wednesday. I was watching, i really love Netflix!!!!!, this movie called "Elegy" with Penelope Cruz and Ben Kingsley. It was so tragically amazing. I'd say that it made me cry, but we all know guys don't do that. Just like the first time i saw the movie "Philadelphia". (Vamos Aver) I was buried in "Elegy" and there was about twenty minutes left and my phone rang, i saw it was her and i hit the end call button. See that way it could go to voice mail and she'd think i was on the phone and i could finish the movie. I'd tell you what they were doing but i won't in case the odd one of you watches it. If you liked the "Notebook" or "La Puta Y La Ballena", you'll love this. Anyway, about two minutes later she called back and i hit the end call button again. The movie is just that good! Well, then that old devil on my shoulder started talking to me about her car being broken down or of her getting mugged in their parking lot and i had to stop the movie and call her. So i did. I asked her if she was OK and she said yeah, she was on 35, blah blah blah. Here again, my face went as blank as it did every time Mrs Matley used the words several (serval) and she had another one she used to screw up too, but that used to just send me into an out of body experience.

(and Yes, i made that dress)

The wife blathered on for her entire thirty minute ride about things that happened at work that were funny and some stuff that was un-called for and the like. All the while, I'm blindly listening to these things and i don't know any of the people or anything about where she works other than it's on 35. I went there once to start her car and thus the sum total of my knowledge of the events in her world. About two hours later i restarted the movie and watched it from beginning to end and it was worth the interruption just to get to see it again. I have to admit that i, probably from being a man, needed to see it twice to understand what it meant and that was fine too.

I guess it's days like these that make me love that new Zac Brown Band song "Toes" so much. There is a verse that goes:

I got my toes in the water, ass in the sand

not a worry in the world, a cold beer in my hand

Life is good today, Life is good today

I have got some more of "Perfect" to put up, but i just have to get my arse in gear and do it. Plus, here a while back Paige had asked me what it is that i sew and that is such a hard question to answer this way. I don't want to put up a slide show on facebook, but if blogger will let me, I'll throw up a slide show. I just have to figure out if i can or not. If not, i may just have one huge posting of pictures. But those are the things on my horizon and i plan on doing that in the next couple of days. If it starts to look like I've gone blog happy don't worry it's only the 24hr kind.

Till i share with Y'all again, Take care of Y'all, D