Weekends Are A Blast!
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The weekend started with a blast! My neighbor Daryl blasting 70s music from his car radio that is, and no Daryl to be found. I didn’t see his rusty step van / shuttle craft sitting around, and being from outside of this world Daryl probably got an urgent call from the mother ship. My other theory was that there was a beer festival, or a weirdo convention someplace that he had to rush to. I think I’ll go with the mother ship explanation.
The rest of Saturday was a rollercoaster ride of grocery shopping, the library, little league, and ending with me bringing my boys to sing at a gala charity event. I felt a little under dressed as I watched them perform in my shorts, and sweaty T-shirt but we barely had time to get the boys changed after a baseball game, and unfortunately I was still in my baseball watching duds. They enjoyed singing to the –half paying attention- group of wine sippers, and I’m glad the crowd was drinking it up because their money was going to support autistic kids. I think my boys enjoyed being at the ritzy affair even for a short while, but as we were walking back to the car they inexplicably started bugging me about buying them cake. Fortunately for me in my rush to get them to the event I left my wallet sitting on my desk at home, so no cake today! All I wanted to do is go home and sit down; sometimes kids have to give dad a break.
Sunday started off with the usual Sunday newspaper comics, and a cup-O-Joe. I then move on to other news, like the story about the 40 pound cat. At first I shook my head and then I remembered I had a cat named Bear, he was a mild mannered black cat that was great with kids but had an eating disorder. Other cats would stop eating when they were full but not Bear, that cat could really put away the kibble. One day I actually saw him get stuck in the cat door while he was trying to chase some feline interloper, he made it through the door but it wasn’t pretty. Bear was a hearty cat, and one day I accidentally backed over him with my car! He survived, and I rushed him to the cat emergency room, and after several hundred dollars in X-rays they couldn’t find anything wrong with him. He was a bit crooked for a while but he was OK. I just loved that cat.
“He took your stuff, he took your stuff!” is the sound of Sunday morning in my house. Sundays is when my 12 year old talks to his friend -who is in Sweden- on Skype while they work together in an online game called Minecraft. His 8 year old brother is his cheerleader as he makes his way through the imaginary world they are playing in.
“How much pork do you have? And how many arrows?” he shouts. I take two ibuprofen tablets and decide to do some writing. The sound of a blender mixing waffle batter also enters into the noise.
The words “I’ve got a set of gills too, and guys we are going to have to stay together” echoes in my brain.
“Can you refill my coffee cup?” I ask my lovely spouse as she takes her turn working in the kitchen. I did the dish cleanup to get everything ready for her waffle making.
“No I’m not shooting at you I’m trying to hit the spiders! Oops, sorry I think I hit you with an arrow senior” hit’s my brain.
The timer is set for one more hour and I kick them off of the computer so they can enjoy the beautiful warm spring day, being a cave trolls at the keyboard is not an option. To drown out all of this noise, I have my ear buds in listening to the old 70s group “Heart.” My wife is in Graduate school and has me proofreading her papers, ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz. “Coffee, fill er up stat!” I say as I try and keep my brain from daydreaming about fun things like sandy beaches and drinks with little umbrellas in them while I’m proof reading.
I received a political advertisement for Matthew Robinson on Saturday, and was looking at it Sunday morning. I had compared Matthew to Opie Taylor in “Opie for Congress! And Other Batshit Crazy News!” and was wondering when I would see some of his Koch brothers funded advertisements. When it arrived Saturday I immediately scanned it and sent the picture of Opie –Matthew- to a gentleman named Bob who is making a video. He was searching for a larger picture and this was serendipity. I’m helping to spread the word about the Robinson -whack job- duo and their quest to feed me radiation. The funny thing is that I actually agree with one of his talking points in the flyer. Apparently he believes in only using our military to protect our country in case it’s attacked; which I basically agree with. But, he and papa Robinson also want to balance the budget by cutting out school funding, and putting senior citizens in poverty. I think they have been sampling way too much radioactive waste over at the Robinson household.
Sundays have always been my favorite day of the week, Saturdays are busy but Sundays always seem more peaceful especially when you get to sit outside and read under a big umbrella in the sunshine. In the evening the doors were still open, and a chorus of a thousand and one frogs could be heard emanating from the yard down below. I saw two garter snakes today, and our little dog visited my neighbor next door, not Daryl but Daryl’s buddy, you know the one who threw fish on my roof. She barked at him for a while before crawling under the fence when I called her to come back home. She gave him a good talking to; it’s funny how people seem to get what you deserve sometimes.
The weekend is now over and the kids are in school. Spring has sprung, so I don my tool belt and start swinging my hammer. I have a room to finish, half a house to paint, and endless other things to do. If I see Daryl I’ll let you know, and for some reason I have a feeling he’s up to no good.
Weekends Are A Blast!,
I would describe myself as a father first, and married to a wonderfully supportive spouse that works her butt off for the family. I'm also a writer, techno nerd, and humorist. I always have more things to do than I have time to do them, and have many interests. View My Profile
As far as my writing goes I consider myself an observer of human nature, and a lifelong writing student.
Tags: art, cat, coffee, Dan LaFollette, Daryl, Eugene, matthew, minecraft, Opie, Oregon, robinson
Where’s Daryl?? Oh no…
I understand the weekends with kids routine…shooing them out the door while they whine they don’t want to go outside and play because they would rather be on the computer is a normal exercise.
Headphones rule! Rock on, Dan!
Katy, I need Monday so I can have a break. I actually had the boys wanting to go outside and play yesterday, it’s been pretty nice here and I think they’ve been cooped up. They are pretty lucky to have a backyard they can explore, which reminds me that I better start mowing the grass down there before someone get lost and I have to send in a search party.
When my kids were growing up, Dan, I used to say that I couldn’t wait till I went back to work on Mondays, just so I could get some rest! And don’t let your guard down. Beware of Daryl!
Cher, the Mr. Mom side of me definitely loves Mondays. Tomorrow we are dropping the boys off for game night someplace and we get to have a date! I can’t wait! Then the Saturday crazies will start the next day.
With all of the work I’m going to be doing on the house this summer I’m going to have to device a plan for keeping Daryl away… maybe I’ll just keep the hose handy.
Dan how the hell do you pack so much into one weekend. Yeah that old leaving the wallet in the house tricks works everytime
Get TJ to draw Daryl as a Simpsons character, would love to see that.
Garry if you were to look at the wall in my kitchen you would see a large calender with columns for Mom, Dad, son 1, and son 2. Everything that needs to happen is meticulously entered into this non-tech like system. I also have reminders that hit my computer and iPod of things that need to happen like “Pick #2 son up from school.” On the Saturday that I described it was a matter of keeping an eye on the clock and hustling the kids from one thing to another at the right time. I did the scanning of the political advertisement in between things as kids were changing cloths.
I’m no magic man, but I am Mr. Mom these days, and every mom knows that you just put your head down and follow the plan for the day and it should just work. Oh, lack of sleep and lots of coffee helps get things done too.
I think Daryl is a cross between Homer and the guy who runs the comic book shop.
Rip a few pages out of your calendar Dan and watch the chaos develop. Hats off to you though for keeping all of that together sounds like a full time job indeed.
I think Daryl lives in my neighborhood, only he rides a Harley, has lots of tattoos, long hair and a long beard. His neighbors call him “Dude.” He’s actually a pretty nice guy, according to my ultra-conservative(NOT politically, thanks to me)husband, who walks our two dog children around the ‘hood every day. My husband thinks he’s nice because he loves our dogs, especially Little Liz, who weighs less than 5 pounds and barks insanely. She likes “Dude” as well, and gives him doggie kisses. Rod cannot bring himself to tell the guy that Liz catches and EATS lizards, so those kisses are seriously tainted.
Weekends can really be a whirlwind, Dan. I remember that fact when our kids were little. Now they only CALL on the weekends, and if we’re “busy” with something, we let the machine pick up.
I enjoyed this post! Wanting more!!
Hey Judie!
Daryl would love to be called “The Dude.” I think he thinks he is “The Dude,” and claims to be an authority on every blue collar task that can be conceived. I’m sure he sits at home wondering why there isn’t a line outside of his door with people begging to give him fists full of cash to solve their problems. But most of his neighbors know that he’s just crazy and off of his pills, or an alien.
We have two yappers too and they are a lot of fun. I always know when a crow, or a squirrel has entered the yard. The weekends are nutty but they’re good exercise. I had my kids at an older age than most people so they are keeping me on my toes.
There will always be more, I can’t help myself.
It’s the weekend again! So did you find Daryl? Or did Daryl find YOU? I totally imagine him standing behind a tree observing a leaf or something OR he jumps out of the bushes wearing a cape, yelling “My Mission shall commence NOW! NOW I say *storms off*…maybe he doesn’t storm off, maybe he teleports or something. After all there’s a chance that he is an alien.
Bear sounded like a friendly Garfield
I love that your little dog “talked” to your neighbor! Haha. So cute. Although, if it happened to me, I’d only say “Yes, Ma’am. No, Ma’am. I won’t do it ever again, Ma’am. I promise *faints*”
Looking forward to next post!
TJ, Bear was a great cat, he lost a lot of weight in his old age but was still the friendly cat he had always been. The thing that impressed me the most is the way he let little kids play with him. Then again he might have been too lazy to move out of the way when they came to maul him.
I’m seen Daryl poking around the yard today, I’m not sure exactly what’s going on but somethings up.
I am amazed at how much goes on in your life. Are you always dizzy and tired?! One would think just dealing with Darryl would warrant a nap at some point.
You guys have frogs too? I often wonder how I’d do if I lived anywhere where I couldn’t hear their melodies at night.
Jen, I do get to sleep in a bit on the weekends but then I tend to stay up a little later working on something. When everyone else is in bed is the time I can have my brain space all to myself. I keep Daryl at an arms length, but I have big plans for him, he just doesn’t know it yet.
We have an area that only fills up with water if we have a lot of winter rain, and this year we had plenty. The frogs really thrive down there, and we find them in unlikely places sometimes, like inside of our house. I wish they ate grass, I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me this morning.
Thanks for finding time to scan that pic of Matthew aka Opie for me during a hectic weekend, Dan.
In the end, we were able to use the pic from little Matthew’s website. The Robinson clan sure didn’t make my life easy with their extremely poor quality pics/websites/materials. I’m pretty sure I would never hire whoever is doing their graphic design work…Regardless, thanks again! And try finding some “you” time
Hey Bob!
The video turned out great; you do very high quality work. I posted your video all over the place, and even posted it on Pete Defazio’s Facebook page. I just checked and it looks like 74 views so far today. I’m very curious as to how many votes that little Matthew will get in the primary. Is this the best Republicans can come up with in our district? A total whack job and his mini-me. I mean give me a break, the bunch of crack pot nut jobs the Republicans have been coming up with these days make Richard Nixon look like a Socialist.
Keep up the great work Bob!