Ever have rodents enter you home?   I am talking about the ones with the big long tail better known as squirrels.   We have trees around our house and they have grown over so that the squirrels can jump from the tree branches onto our house. Well, somewhere they have been able to get into the overhang   or the chimney perhaps, I am not sure where.  I can hear them when the house is quiet, running around. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr   I had a dream the other night they were hanging on my ceiling fan above my bed with teeth showing ready to pounce on me. Lol

The tree guy came today and cut back and trimmed out 4 trees.   Over $1,000 later I hope the squirrels can no longer get up on the roof. We will see. Now I have to hire someone to go up on the roof and find the hole they where getting into and then fix it.  I have been trying to trap them for the past week. Each and every night my bait is gone, but no squirrels.  Maybe a gun would work better. Lol  

Hope your weekend is going well and squirrel free.  

Enjoy,Ed

     The past two weeks have been very hard for me.   On Tuesday, March 12, I went up to Iowa to visit my Dad in the hospital and to help mom with some household business.  I came back to KC on Wednesday.   Then, Thursday morning, March 13, the hospital called and said that Dad had turned non-responsive and I should come up soon.  So, I went back up to Iowa Thursday morning and saw Dad that afternoon.  He was not good.  At 1:00 am Friday I was awakened with a phone call from the hospital that Dad had died.  I woke up my mom and told her.   After making arrangements, visitation, and the funeral, I came back home to KC on Thursday, March 20.  The following is the eulogy that I wrote and somehow found the strength to read at the funeral.  It took me just 20 minutes to write it, but a lifetime to live it. 

Dad

            My heart is filled with sorrow and grief.  I miss you Dad.  Today, however, my sadness is slowly being replaced with joy; the joy of seeing all of you here today, family and friends.  Dad loved life and life loved you Dad.   Not only is this room filled with each of you, I see others that have joined us.  Look Dad, there are your parents.  I feel joy that the three of you are together again in heaven.  There are also many of your friends from your farming days.  I see Dale and Francis, Nellie, Roe, Elsie and Raymond.  Dad, there are so many people that you have not seen in such a long time. Oh!  Look!  There is Ray, he has checked out all the fishing holes in heaven for you Dad.  The sorrow and grief I feel, is starting to be replaced with joy.  I know you are in a place with friend’s and family. 

Dad had many talents. One was his ability to take the lead in order to get the job done.  Each school year I would greet my students with a first day speech.  One of the things I would talk about were heroes and how having heroes help you to develop who and what you are as a person. As an example of this I would talk about my heroes.  My first hero has always been you, Dad.  Although I never heard you speak these words Dad, you lived them every day of your life.  “If it is worth doing, then it is worth doing well”.  Your leadership and hard work not only touched me, but also touched every student I have ever taught. 

I have come to learn that Dad had an ornery side. During the course of the past 3 months, Dad and I have been able to have some nice long talks. One such session led us to be talking about San Diego. I was telling Dad of a recent visit my wife and I had made to the San Diego Zoo in Balboa Park. Dad then proceeded to tell me of his time in military tents in Balboa Park.   He was there waiting to be deployed during WWII.  Dad said it was the coldest he has ever been.  (Hard to believe that growing up and living in IA, that San Diego would have been where he was the coldest.).  At any rate, one time, as the story went, Dad and his buddy devised a plan to get warm.  They found their way into the nurse’s tent. ……… Ok, it’s not what you think!……… The two of them “borrowed” two mattresses from the nurses and took off running back to their own tent. With one mattress to sleep on, and one mattress as a cover, they were never cold again.

Dad also had a practical side.  He had a knack of seeing a simple way to solve a problem. I remember one time that we had a sow with baby pigs back in the pasture that needed to be brought up to the barn. No easy task. So Dad said:  “Eddy, grab a couple little pigs and take off running towards the barn”.  So, there we were, me, and 8 yr old boy, with two squealing pigs in hand, followed by a very mad sow, followed by all the little baby pigs, followed by a protective and smiling Dad, knowing the problem had been solved.

Anyone who knew Dad knows that he had a very loving and caring side.   My children will forever remember that love. It came in the form of fishing trips.  Each summer we would come to Iowa, fishing poles in hand, set to once again break our record of bluegills on the hook.   What was that final record?  130? 145?  170? -- In just two days!  And of course Dad would help clean each and every one of them.  Then, on that final night, we would have a huge fish fry followed by homemade ice cream.  Those fishing trips are memories my two children will have of you Dad for a lifetime. 

Everyone here has a story or a memory of Dad.  I hope that at sometime, if not here today, you can share that memory. For it is in this sharing that we will keep the presence of my Dad among us.

Goodbye Dad; we will be together again someday. 

Trip To Louisiana

On Friday, we left from KC in a snowstorm. It is times like that when you wonder, “What have I gotten myself into?”  After only 10 minutes driving south, the snowstorm was over and we had clear roads the rest of the way.  Heading down 71 highway, knowing we were headed to Lafayette, LA, had me thinking warm weather and shrimp. Lol 

As you leave Missouri one of the first towns you come to in Arkansas is Bentonville.  Ok now. you wonder; “where have I heard of that town before?”.   Got it yet????   ………………………………………………………………………………..

Ok, time is up.  Bentonville is the hometown of Wal-Mart.   Yes, Sam Walton started it all there in this small little Ozark town called Bentonville.  I have visited their headquarters there.  As world headquarters go, it is not very impressive. But then I guess that goes with Sam Walton’s’ life.  He tried to keep it simple and humble.  Not sure that tradition is still true but you must admit. Wal-Mart has done very well.

Heading south from Bentonville you drive through the Boston Mountains.  The wooded pictures showing are of that area.  The first night found us in Texarkana, Arkansas.  We stayed in a La Quinta there and feasted on Denny’s senior menu. lol 

An early start Saturday enabled us to make it to Lafayette, drop the vans, and then head back. An interesting town you travel through is Natchitoches, La.  (I would tell you how to pronounce it but would have to kill you. Lol ).  Back in an earlier blog I have pics and a story of a past visit to this wonderful little town.  Yes, it is the sight of the filming of Steel Magnolias, a house I have viewed in the past.   The second photo album above is of that visit. All we did this time was stop at the local McDonalds there.   One of the drivers I was with LOVES McDonalds.  So…. We hit about every one of them between KC and Lafayette.  Lol 

On our return trip we ended up once again in Texarkana for the night.  I vetoed Denny’s this time, so we went exploring to see where the locals eat.  We ended up at a place called “Cattleman’s Steakhouse”.   While my two buddies opted for steaks, which they said were wonderful, I went back to my childhood and had frog legs.  Yum, Yum.  Ever had them?  

Our final day, Sunday, we took a slight detour and drove through Devils Den State Park, just south of Fayetteville, Arkansas.  What a wonderful place to camp and hike.  I was inspired and hope to make it back there this summer and spend time exploring the Boston Mountains area.   

 Today, Monday, I am trying to catch up on things here around the house and will be heading to see my parents in Iowa on Tuesday.  My plan is to be back sometime Wednesday.  I have also tried to fix the link to the “Booty Song” I have playing. Let me know it works.

Today has been another day of semi-crises coming from my parents in Iowa.  Each time the phone rings I feel this knot in my stomach come over me.  Sometimes when all around me seems insane I just have to sit back and feel silly. This song does that.  

Booty Song

Enjoy,Ed

 Love, believe in it, live for it.  For love is worth the risk.

Essence Of Time

It has been many months since I last tried to update my sight.  My life has been stressful to say the least and neither time nor motivation has allowed me to keep in touch with friends here in blogland.  I do hope to get back to posting pictures, adventures, poems and just being me again soon.  Thanks to all that have left messages and well wishes during my absence. 

Without getting into detail about my life the last several months let me just summarize a bit.  My wife has been battling cancer.  The surgeries are done, the chemo complete and it looks very promising.   My Dad is dying of advance stages of Parkinson’s disease and the recurrence of prostate cancer to the spine. My mom is struggling living alone with the worsening of her Alzheimer’s. I have spent much time in Iowa (a 4 hour drive) including all of Christmas and New Years trying to make very difficult decisions about their care and comfort.  Their conditions will for sure become worse before the end comes but I am beginning to come to grips with it all and the life decisions I have had to make. 

Ok, enough about that.  My hope is that coming back into the blogosphere I may once again gain some sanity to my life.  I have been able to make a few trips; the most recent one was to Kingman, Arizona, then up to Las Vegas. I spent the night there, oh darn lol, and then drove on to Sacramento CA.   It was a great trip and I crossed Hoover Dam for the first time.

My wife and I are planning a weekend getaway over St. Patrick’s Day to San Diego.  Have you ever been to Coronado Island? It is where the Navy seals train.  A couple of days in the sun and on the beach there should lift our spirits.   I hope to start taking pictures again and sharing my adventures online.  Until I return, thanks to all of you I call friends.  For sure you mean so much to me.

With the “Essence Of Time” being the healing factor, I say until next time.

Ed