Sunday, September 29, 2013



Did you ever wonder why things have to change? For example, if we are a traditionalist, then change changes tradition, or going to a new school, or new job, or new friends. At first glance it always seems bad, but if we look at it in a positive light, then we learn, and when we learn, we have the ability to make even better choices.  The key is to make good choices from the change.
This past weekend Ash and I loaded up the old truck-ster , to include some high quality merchandise  (chairs), and yes Eddie I do mind telling you how much they set me back! They were a perfect fit, and no I do not have a chair fetish! We hit the road on Friday afternoon, and joined all the other deranged Loony tunes and departed our Nation’s Capital. Think of the worst rush hour traffic you have ever had the pleasure of sitting in. Bingo! That’s the beltway is like on any given Friday afternoon. As we relished the pleasure of averaging 5 mph, while listening to the “traffic on the 8’s” (Like that is going to help us) we heard that our Nation’s Capital has the highest median income of any city in the US! (88K) Ponder this for a moment: Traffic jam 1:00 Friday afternoon, weather perfect, no accidents, average income 88K, our national debt increasing faster than a gator attacking its prey, the worlds coming to an end because of the debt ceiling continuing resolutions and our budget , you are on the threshold of hell! You then ask yourself; self does anyone in this city work? Let’s see??? Oh they work for our government, you expect these people to actually work 40 hours a week! So I want all of you to write to congress and ask them to raise our taxes, and give those poor Gov’t employees a raise, this way they will even be more worthless and leave in the morning, so I will not be stuck in traffic! We turned the radio off, and broke into a chorus of “Deck the Halls” Moving on, back to the topic! Let’s see …. We had some goooood burgers on Saturday night; they were done to perfection on the family grill-ster. Tradition calls for the fire to be ignited with a small pile of charcoal, and a can of lighter fluid. I don’t really know if that is done that way in the summer.  I know that I appreciate it in the fall, especially after a long cold day of rain. As you are standing aerating your glass of Rex, enjoying the cool crisp fall air, you start to feel a little chill come over your body. Never fear, because the next thing you see is the constant stream of fluid being put on the red hot charcoals. You are immediately transported to the mandatory morning beach walk, where you experience that warm glow of the sun raising over the beach. Three of us can related to the experience of the morning walk, and appreciate the controlled explosion, but to the other slackers yes rule breakers all you see is some loco, nut , deranged, eccentric, bonkers, batty  (Uncle Lewis) standing there trying to replicate the blazing Christmas tree.  After dinner we moved to the fire pit to enjoy a nice fall evening under the starts, with great company, intellectual conversation while being warmed by the camp fire. The fire wood was soaked, but that did not stop us, we were armed with plenty of paper, and our trusty second can of lighter fluid. After an hour or so, we had a roaring fire. I am much of a traditionalist, so this part I really do not understand.  Last year we had PBR, and this year, some of the intellectuals turned in to elitist social climbers, and had bottles of Moose head! How in the world, was anyone supposed to tie a 6 pack of Moose head bottles to their belt!  Now what’s up with that! I guess they were just trying to get into the social class of those who drink the mighty Rex. People it is going to take a lot more than going from cans of PBR to bottles of Moose head! Rex puts you in a social class of its own! Since we are all aware of our clans pro-environmental stands (for example recycling every morning at Kiawah), we were face with a new problem, what were we supposed to do with the empty bottles? Last year when we had cans we did our own recycling and casually place them in the fire so they would melt down, that worked well, contrary to some sage edumacated advice. So once again contrary to the advice, we put in the bottles, and what else would you expect to happen, but they melted. We are the poster family for responsible re-cycling; I can see it now, guest speakers at the next presidential conference on climate change, front and center with the Gore’s and Obama’s! We will all be rich! Vegas here we come, they might even give us some free Gov’t land! I hate to end this on a bad note, but I have been suffering some severe mental anguish over this. As I always say, it is better to be upfront with things then to disappoint people. Here goes.. There will not be a center piece on our thanksgiving table this year. Yes.. No gourds, pumpkins and fall Bucket (pronounce Bouquet) illuminated by a single bee’s wax candle. Every year we plan something “real nice” I am just out of time! Please don’t feel shafted.  We spent hours molding a Rex bottle, and made a creation that was worthy of the Warhol museum, but we received some sage advice! Take it out of the fire and put it on the grass to cool, take one guess what happened… thanks to that advice our good old hap-hap-happy traditional family thanksgiving dinner will not be as festive this year. No center piece, we will now just have to focus on that old dried out turkey! Oh one final note, at the end of the night all cars started, no dead batteries, so that is a good thing, the down side to it was we did not have the pleasure of listing pre-season music.

Words of Wisdom: When you take action that you know is good; then what happens happens.

Friday, September 27, 2013

Patience



We are in no man’s land now, vacation gear is all packed away and the holidays are still a few weeks away, so what is a person to do with their time. What’s a mother to do??  Watch football, play golf, read, study, eat, rake leaves, sleep, go shopping? Well how about this one.. This past weekend I engaged in one of my favorite activities, intellectual beach. Believe it or not, I accomplished this while making a trip to the mall. Right about now those who are not on par with my superior intelligence, are scratching their heads or just calling me pompous dumb butt. So for the idiots among you let me explain. First it will take a little bit of imaginations and a lot of being in the right state of mind.  The Mall and the beach are really the same thing, there are only two differences;  first you don’t have the sun, sand, fresh air, waves and my nice comfortable re-furbished quality beach chair and second people are dress slightly different. Other than that what is the difference?(If Hillary can use it so can I) Understand yet? Well I thinks I may need to continue, by providing a few examples for the imagination deficient.  Think about it; When you enter the mall, it gives you a feeling of nirvana, you are in a Mecca of everything you can’t live without is now right at your finger tips: shoes, tops, pants, bags, dresses, shirts, three piece seersucker suits,  make-up, coats,  underwear (Mary)did I say shoes and bags. Your mind is focused on the new styles the sales, the choices; it is an overwhelming feeling of joy and happiness.   Let’s see the beach: as I have described it before, Narvania and Mecca…… the same thing! Now don’t be dissing me, we all like to go shopping, just as much as we like going to the beach, the only difference is some only like the mall for a few minutes and others can stay there all day. What else, some people are walking around with bags of stuff, while others are sitting down watching people walking around with bags of stuff, see same thing! Alex, I think I saw your buddy (Booooobs’s) wife, she must have been at the mall, as we were walking down the beach oh I mean mall, there was a lady waddling just like your buddy  towards us, with a  nice straw hat, grey hair, a powder blue leisure suit ( not really a suit) but she did have a powder blue outfit made of 100% spandex where her stretchy pants did not quite cover her massive stomach, and her top must have cropped up a few inches with each waddle thus exposing a nice big belly that matched your friends boooooobs’s. They would make a great couple! They could waddle down the beach or mall holding each other’s hands, stopping traffic in either place while the go off into the sunset or Jenny Craig.  BTW that was my first sighting of Clause family for the year, so you all better have been good! (Really Clark). Or does anyone remember the squatters that came and sat down in front of us? The three guys and two girls we thought that they were college students. The one boy, who thought he was god’s gift to women. His ego was suddenly deflated as he would fall on his butt each time he jumped on his board, while the girls he was impressing were laughing at him while they watched a 10 year old masterfully riding his board across the waves. Well at the mall you can see a very similar sighting. This time you see the guys standing in front of the malt shop (Stawbucks) watching the girls walk buy in their six inch platform shoes. They guys are laughing as each step they take is a calculated move, out of fear of falling on their butts. Or again you can’t tell me that you have never gone to the mall or the beach and not seen domestic squabble? Or again on the beach you stand in line watching the big buck eating the foliage on the beach, at the mall you stand in line and watch your big bucks disappear.  If my point is not made by now, I guess your iminagtion, and logic left you just like your Atari. I also know that you all are wondering what my point with all this gibberish is! I guess I will lay it out for you, again!   Now that we are approaching the shopping season (Hap Hap Happy) , I just want you to all to get your beach hats out, put on your favorite shades and proudly walk thru the mall, don’t be bothered by slow people, long lines, spending money, little disagreements, irritating teens, just enjoy the old  guy in the red suit!
Words of wisdom: Patience is the key to paradise……..Turkish proverb.

Friday, September 13, 2013

Reality Check!



Early one morning I entered the abode of group #2 and they were all watching Good morning America, as this was the week of Kathy Lee 60th birthday. Now tell me that was not a good use of day time prime time TV!  It only got better.  On this day Hota Kotb (pronounced Kabob) was hosting a guest whose role in life was that of a “Life Coach”, Need I say anymore anyone who knows us could imagine the conversation. It was at this point that Natalie came up with a brilliant idea. We should start our own TV show and call it “Reality Check”. It would focus on TV and life in general  and provide a forum to spread our intellectual wisdom among the not so well informed around the world. I even came up with a motto “An intellectual commentary (Including one Idiot) on the American way of life which is  the blind leading the blind”    For example, I will pass on the week long birthday celebration, and the “Life Coach” that is just way to easy to comment about, so I will start the “Blog reality check” (BRC) on a more difficult issue.  On that same show, Kathy Lee and Hota Kabob were drinking wine! Let’s set the scene, it is 8:30 in the morning, parents all across America are getting their young children ready for school, and of course they have the TV on to impede any possibility of conversation in the family. While the kids are drinking their juice box and eating their pack of sugar frosted pop tarts, the mother and or father, have their coffee cup in one hand and their smart phone in the other. Little Johnny is intent on watching these American icons on TV and notices that they are drinking wine. Fast forward 5 years Johnny and the kids are now home alone getting ready for school, because the “parents” have better things to do and Johnny is now 10 so he can get the kids ready for school. He comes down stairs and opens the fridge and guess what the parents forgot the juice boxes, so he looks around and finds a bottle of wine that his parents had last night.. Grape juice. Good idea starts them out early. Johnny will need a “life Coach” later in life, after all his parents did not care and the American idols could care less unless they could build a show about it. Wait a gosh darn minute the can “Why have our pre-teens turned to drinking”?   And as a side benefit it will keep the “Life Coach” in business! By the way it is 5 o’clock somewhere!

Words of Wisdom: You can notice the spec in your neighbor’s eye, but don’t see the log in yours.

Sunday, September 8, 2013



One of the best things to do on Kiawah is to get up early and take a nice long bike ride, but it can be a challenge. Getting off of the streets tends to reduce your awareness of the many obstacles that you may encounter along the tree lined paths. One morning a group of us were out on our ride and low and behold as we came rocketing around a corner in the path a little boy was crying while sitting on the grass with his bike perched across the bike path. His old man was engaged in a conversation with a nice woman all decked out in her $2,000 road bike, and dressed to the nines in her biking gear. The conversation from the old man was very blunt and mean while the lady was agreeing with him, and could not do any more apologizing other than to get down on her knees and beg for his forgiveness. At some point I think that she realized that he was nothing but a big (you fill in the word) and said to him “ I am 60 years old and your son is a kid, I would hope that he has much better balance than I do, and if he doesn’t then he should not be out here riding a bike! “ This just made the big (fill in the word), even more angry. So she said I am sorry and I have a first aid kit on my bike if you would like it you are welcome to it if not I will continue my ride! He said nothing so she continued her ride. In retrospect the boy was crying not from any injury, but more because he fell on his bike and had an old man like he does.  Needless to say the next day we went the other direction, and would you know it we encountered another incident!  We decided to ride down to the Beachwalker public beach. As a side note we found a place to park RV’s. We arrived at the entrance of the beach and in order to get there you had to go across about 2 or 3 hundred years of boardwalk that was elevated about three feet off of the ground. In typical Kiawah way nothing is ever straight, so you had to wide your way thru the brush to get there. Oh I forgot the most important part, and the beginning of the boardwalk there was a big sign not a little one that tells you not to bring glass on the beach, bit a huge one that said DANGER! DO NOT RIDE BIKES ON THE BOARDWALK. (Do you wear glasses?)   Well I don’t have to say, some of our group saw the sign and others I guess need glasses. About half way to the beach there was a group of people (woman) and one of them slid right off the boardwalk and into the dunes! She had to have been hurt, as she pulled her bike back up on the boardwalk, while her companion stood there and watched her, one of them ask if she was hurt and you have to love her response, She said that her body was not hurt anywhere near as much as her pride. How true! I guess riding a bike is kind of like life there are dangers in the road ahead, and if we don’t pay attention to the path we are on, we get hurt, sometime physically, but all the time our pride!

Words of wisdom:  Pride is a wonderful gift, when it is because of honor and not ego.