Ak holic

I just got back from a two week visit to Alaska. I suppose I'll bore you with an essay entitled "what I did on my summer vacation". Guess how many pictures I took. None. I like it when somebody else takes the pictures, and has the camera. Alaska is beautiful. So beautiful in fact, that there are lots of wonderful pictures of it all. You all know what it's like. I wasn't in the cold part, like Fairbanks. I was in the balmy area, Anchorage. I had been to Anchorage a few times before, back around 94. That was when I was a First Officer on the 757. I knew everything back then. All I saw though was Anchorage airport and the hotel where we were laid over, and a bit of the town. The flight from Seattle took about 3 plus hours and you saw nothing at all on the way except frozen tundra. So this recent visit was really seeing Alaska for the first time. I ate salmon almost every day. I saw a moose right by the house I stayed at. I worked on a log cabin, mostly stripping bark. I soloed in a small power boat. I soloed in a canoe. I got a ride in a big Grumman amphibian airplane called an Albatross. I got a ride in a "float plane", a bush plane called a Piper Super Cub. I helped tow logs across the lake to the cabin. I stayed in a tiny log cabin for a few nights. I slept in the Albatross one night. I slept in a beautiful luxurious lake house most nights. On clear days I could see Denali more than 100 miles away and her sister peaks, snow capped. I went to the town of Wasilla several times for supplies. I went to the Alaska State Fair in Palmer. At the fair I watched loggers do some pretty crafty chain saw art with the long mufflers on their saws to protect the ears of the crowd as they carved beavers and bunny rabbits out of logs. But their skill was no better than the expertise of my buddy that I watched free- cutting notches in logs for his cabin. The lake was so clear you could see the bottom details and the fish. The sunsets were so bright you couldn't even look at the reflection in the lake. The nightly campfires were large and fun and kindled by birch bark and fed by birch and spruce logs. I got to sing a bunch of ballads by the fire. There were three guitar players at the fires. I was the third best. There was an amphibian fly-in at the lake on Saturday the 4th. It rained all day. Two Grumman Wigeons flew in. And a Grumman Goose. A couple of Cessna 180's on floats. A couple of Super Cubs. Our hosts provided food and drink for every one. And T shirts. The day after the fly-in the weather improved and we did it all again. Then the weather became clear and sunny for four days and I was back to stripping logs and clearing brush. When I got back to my truck in the pay lot at BWI, the bill was $114. It had taken me 20 hours to get home riding space available. Now I get to go to two fly-ins here in the Md, Pa area this weekend. And I get to hang out with my son before he leaves for California. But I just can't get back on east coast time. And when I close my eyes I still see the log and the hatchet and the bark. And I've got that good kind of ache again. LLITTY :::::_:::::

Plaster is thicker than drywall

well, this is embarrassing. It has been one hell of a long time since I've posted anything here. All winter long I stuck to my rule of doing only one thing a day. If i took out the trash, or did the dishes.....that was it. But now it's summer, and I hosted a party with my son and wife to celebrate birthdays and graduations and plain old swimming in 95 degree heat. I devoted prep time to that, and prep time to getting my airman medical exam renewed. The party got done July 10. The medical exam got completed July 21. There were a couple of rogue parties on the western shore. I'm too old for those. One of them I didn't make it back home from until the following night. I've barely flown the airplane. I've been hiding out from the heat, and hiding out from the world. Lately I've been kind of cleaning up the place for a party I'm having this coming Saturday. Our house and grounds are kind of run down, and all the mowing may not be done in time for Saturday. Our house. Well, it's never been very presentable. We had six dogs, and two have passed away. So we have four dogs. They live in the house with us. They stay cool in summer and warm in winter. They are spoiled. My dog "Jaker" is lying here at my feet as I type. The dogs just make the house dirty. If you want a nice presentable house, leave the dogs outside. But wife and I are not real picky about the housekeeping. The house is never neat and clean. But let me say something. Dogs are better roomates than people. Way, way better. Not even close better. Even when a dog acts badly, they don't mean to. They always love us. I get sick of people after a couple of get togethers and then I need a break. I don't really get sick of the dogs.So it's hard to "slick up" the house for a party. But as far as the dogs, I think it's a fair trade. Besides, I have no choice. My wife is the animal lover. I just follow her lead on that, and almost everything else. I've been married 23 years. My advice to married men is this: think what you want, but do everything your wife's way. It's just easier. My wife makes all the small decisions, like what kind of car we will have. Where we will go to dinner. What chores we need to accomplish. How will we spend our paycheck. I, the "Man" make the big decisions, like whether the US should be in Afghanistan, Red China should be in the United Nations, Obama should run for re-election. I'm very lucky in my marriage, because I chose late and I chose well. My wife has her own identity. She has never used me to define herself. She has never used me to "complete" her life. She has never expected me to "entertain" her. She has enough self esteem that I can go off and do things on my own without her feeling "left out" or "left behind". I think we leave each other alone enough that we don't get on each others nerves. Oh yes, and we have separate bedrooms, and separate bathrooms. That is really important. Don't get me wrong....we don't live in a big fancy house. Remember the four dogs. We live in a one hundred year old farm house, that is sturdy and plain. The walls, windows and siding leak air. The plaster is aging and falling down, and I patch it with dry wall. The exterior always needs painting. It is about 1500 square feet depending on what you call living space. We have 3 bedrooms and 3 baths. One bedroom is tiny. Two baths are tiny. One bath is in need of renovation. All three baths work. But wife and I do have separate living space. When I see my wife in the house in her grubbies, or when I see her in the barn in her chaps, or when I see her in her jeans in the garden, or when I see her cleaned up to go to DC.... I look as long as I can and I can't take my eyes off her. And she's going about her business don't you see. She's not saying, "Lloyd, why don't we ever do anything?" Ah, except tonight: she wanted us to go to "Jimmy's Grill" in Bridgeville. And I was a lazy curmudgeon and wanted to chill and I had already done at least "one" thing today. LLITTY ..... ::::+::::

Geezer Ride

This last Tuesday our farm was visited by six BMW motorcycles and six geezer cool guys. One of the beamers was a Yamaha. Another beamer had a sidecar. These guys had come from various places on the Western Shore. They congregated at the Double T Diner in Annapolis and had breakfast before crossing the bridge. We knew they were coming and son, and wife, and I, all kept a weather eye out for them and we saw the bikes pull in the driveway. Their leader, Doug is an old family friend I have known almost 50 years. But I had never met the other fellows or so I thought. It turns out I did know Mark who had the sidecar. It was one of those times that sociograms cross. Mark is a musician, a pro. And I knew him from my music friends and even have a bit of him on video on my you- tube channel. But I didn't know he was into "air head" motorcycles. Anyway the guys hung out an hour or two and checked out the place and all were invited to the fly-in on Aug 14th. I wanted to ride a few miles with them as they left. I had a lot of trouble starting my little antique Suzuki, but got it going. Two of the biker geezers had already taken off for the western shore, as they had meetings with Doctors, Lawyers, Real Estate Agents, and pills to take and ailments to salve. The other four weren't too crazy about me going along. They had me lead the way and stayed far enough back that they could keep an eye on me, and always claim they didn't know me, and weren't with me. Somehow my little Suzi 425 kept running and made it to Preston, where I pulled off into the Shore Stop, and those big quiet, smooth, expensive, beautiful touring bikes blazed on by with double clicks on their horns to say goodbye. I watched them until they were out of sight. The Suzi made it back the 4 miles home. And I was back in my little isolated world again. For a few minutes I was riding with the big boys, and maybe I can check something off the bucket list. Thanks Doug and all you guys. That is one hell of an Ad Hoc, pick up, we just wanna have fun, tribe. I made five new friends. LLITTY......................::::+::::

The past and future are just illusions

I think the best way to live life is "in the moment". I'm not saying that I do that much. This time of year is my favorite time because I still have autumn to come yet. Autumn is my "real" favorite time. Actually, my favorite time of year is late summer when I feel the first sign of autumn. It might be a breath of cool wind, just a hint, from the north. It might be a tree I notice beginning to change. It might be a store full of school supplies, or a vendor with too early Halloween stuff. It's hard to explain about a favorite time without referring to this "in the moment" concept. You see, this post fourth of July mid summer period means that the dog days of August are around the corner. At that time, Autumn will be next. So since it's hard for me (and everyone else) to live in the moment, I enjoy the time before the moment. Somehow I can be in that moment easier than the "real" moment. Maybe this makes no sense...... but this is really why we like Friday so much. It's not because we like being at work on the fifth day in a row. It's because of Saturday coming. But on Saturday, we'll be too busy doing our Saturday R & R to be "in the moment" and say to ourselves "gosh this is nice, just what I have been looking forward to. I'm happy now". So what I'm saying is that I love the "ides" of July because I'm looking forward to the "dog days" where I can really start looking forward to Autumn. Talk about dwelling on the future. But I'm getting better because I "practice" living in the moment. Right now I'm typing at you and it's what I want to be doing and I'm enjoying it. I "feel like" doing it. Being retired, much of my time is my own and there are few responsibilities which I must dwell on because they loom in the future. Time is a wonderful gift. But alas, the things that we have, we don't value as much as we should. We often wind up overvaluing the things we don't have. It seems I enjoy looking forward to an event more than I enjoy the event itself. This will be true of my "fly-in" on August 14th. If you come and see me here, remind me that my preparations and looking forward are over, and that I can and should "be here now". It will be in the "dog days". My favorite "time". LLITTY...........::::+::::

now that I'm retired, will I run out of things to do?

I want to tell you about a day I had. It was busy for a retired dude, who is naturally lazy. It was last Tuesday, July 6th. The day before my son's birthday and three days before a party we were having for his birthday and graduation and post 4th of July swimming. It was a very hot day in the middle of a heat wave that lasted two weeks. I awoke at 7 and got up at eight. With the parties coming, I resumed the working I had been doing the last few days. I did the dishes. Made coffee. Put in a load of laundry. Went out and picked up the cluttered deck. It was already 93 degrees in the shade. Went back up to my air conditioned bedroom and made a bunch of phone calls, and kind of planned a trip of running errands in the afternoon before the end of the business day. Then back out into the heat to work on my pet project. The project was in the hangar. In the shade which was now 95 degrees. The project was building three small 5' X 5' prefab deck platforms which could be bolted on to my deck in back of the house. But first they would be used as a "stage" in the hangar for three parties. One party in three days. The next would be the fly-in on August 14th. The third, a "coffee house" in mid October, yet to be announced. By then I will be out of money. I'm actually already out of money! The July 10 party is history and it was quite rained on, but not out. We had a great time. And played with the "stage" to stay out of the rain. Anyway back to July 6. So I went out to work in the shade of the hangar building the stage. I had two fans going and the oldies on the CD player. Soon it was time to run those errands. I was covered in sweat so I jumped in the pool with half of my clothes on. Then without lunch I was off to the first errand. It was to the Doc. who was going to write me a letter I need for my FAA flying once- a- year physical. Good news was that my lab work was in and they shot me a copy, and the results were good enough to pass me. Bad news was the Doc had dislocated his artificial hip and was headed for surgery and could not see me or write me a letter. It's a long story, but I really need that letter by July 18th at the latest. And there is no way he can do it. And I feel for him too as he has two replacement hips and as u can imagine, it ain't no pic a nic. Back to my Corolla and the errands. Next I gotta get to the hydraulic shop in Preston and drop off two hoses which will be rebuilt to get my back hoe up and running again. (You never know when you're gonna need to dig a hole). Before I can get to Preston though, something pops up. I see my neighbor digging a big hole in front of his property next to an old building that has collapsed. As I drive by and slow down I realize he must be getting ready to knock down and bury that building. He's got a dump truck he's filling with the dirt. I make a quick decision and a u turn. I drive through the two track in his field and it's so dusty in the drought I'm leaving a plume of smoky dust behind me. He can see me coming a half mile away. He shuts off the excavator and comes down to talk. I ask him if he would like to sell me a load of fill. He says he's very busy. Can I do it now and for cash. I say yes yes. In two minutes he's in that dump truck following me to my house and I'm on the cell phone calling wife and son and house guest and telling them to find all the cash we have. Cookie jar, pizza money, my desk, the bottom of mother's purse. And move the cars out of the driveway--put them anywhere. So the guy dumps the load and it's beautiful clean fill. We pay him and he says he'll try to come to my fly-in. His buddy has a Grumman Cheetah. Now time was getting shorter on my errands. I run in the house. It's so hot I get three beverages. A low carb shake for the lunch I didn't have. A diet coke. and a water. Run back to the Corolla. Off to the the hydraulic place to drop the hoses. But I had to wait about ten minutes, because the guy was in the back and finishing up somebody else and about to tell me he couldn't do it today when I told him I just wanted to drop my hoses off and get them another day. Back into the Corolla and off to Koons Toyota where I was to get a sign off on a repaired tag light bulb. My son had gotten pulled over in the middle of the night for the tag light, and you gotta get it signed off in ten days or else. I wanted to catch the state inspector before he left at 3:55. And I made it. Then off to Pasco before they close. Pasco is one of those battery, alternator, starter, places. I had the starter from my International 574 gas tractor which my mechanic had pulled the day before. The good news was they had an exchange in stock and the clamps I needed. The bad news was the price was north of $200. Credit card. And they locked the door behind me as I walked out at 5. It was 100 degrees out. Next stop was Lowes and they were open for many more hours, so I slowed down and chilled at McD's drive thru with a burger and a coffee and sat in the air conditioned Corolla under a tree by a pond and sort of meditated and made a few phone calls to mentors about what to do about no doctor's letter for my medical certificate. At Lowes I got some joist hangars for my pre fab deck project and a can of white spray paint for the deck chairs, and a solid cement block I needed for my crawl space project. Then I head home. Wife, son, and house guest were in Salisbury celebrating son's birthday at a movie and Outback. When I get home I take the cement block and use it to finally finish an ongoing project in the crawl space and put up the crawl space door. It's nasty and hot in there and now it's done and I jump in the pool with no clothes on. Then I redress and toss those crawl space clothes in the wash, and I paint the deck chairs with the spray paint. Then I mow with the push mower, but it's so dusty I have to wet the ground with the hose and it takes too long and it gets dark on me and I quit. I come in the house and do the dishes for the second time today. Wife and son come home and they brought me a steak from outback. I wolf half of it down and save the rest for breakfast. I go out into the warm night. Son has turned on the pool light and lit three tiki torches. I caution him of open flames in this awful drought. I take my fourth and best swim of the day. And to think.... I usually only do one thing a day. LLITTY ::::+::::

at least let me have my coffee before I have to answer questions

I go to my local McDonalds once a week or so with my dog Jake. My trip is always combined with other errands. I always get one or two "McDoubles". This is a $1. cheeseburger. I never get a drink. So my bill is either$1.06 or $2.12. I eat the meat out of the burger. Jake eats half of the bread, and the rest is thrown away. I always have diet coke and water in the truck. Jake goes nuts when I tell him we're going for a ride. He goes outside and literally runs in circles. When I go to a drive thru there can be no other cars in sight. But when I pull into the restaurant 2 or 3 cars will appear from nowhere and somehow be in front of me. Then one of the cars will spend a long time ordering because he is buying the food for a family reunion of 500 people. Carts and shopping bags full of food are carried out to him. And 500 drinks are passed one by one through his window and into his hand. Jake doesn't mind waiting. Then ironically, when I get my order and drive away, there is never anyone behind me. So if I would have shown up at that moment.... no waiting. I'm used to this. It happens every time. It doesn't bother me at all. But there is something that does bother me. It's when I pull up to the "speaker". Before I can place my order, I must answer a question. "Welcome to McDonalds. Would you like to try our new angus burger?" Does anybody else just hate this? I want to scream at the person waiting on me. But you can't do that. They will spit in your food. And it's not the employees fault. They are told what to say. This making you answer a question also happens at "Outback" and at "Red Robin". Before you can even order your drinks, you must answer the question: "Have you ever been to Red Lobster before?". This is so inane that I want to say something flippant like: "yes I have been here before, but the rules are so important and complicated that you better go over them again, especially what to do in the event of thermonuclear war." But I don't dare be flippant, because of the spitting (or worse) into the food! Just about a week ago my wife and I were in the Giant Food grocery store in Easton. At the checkout, the nice pretty lady said "Do your know about our points system we have with Shell gas stations?". The geezer inside of me took over and politely answered the question. "I'm sure it's great. I don't feel like hearing about it right now. Could I hear about it another time?" She gave me a funny look, but said "OK". And I didn't have to worry about the "spitting or worse". LLITTY. ::::+::::

Lloyd's 115th geezer rant

There's new books about health and diet coming out so fast, there's no way of keeping track of the reviews, let alone reading the books. The internet is such a miraculous thing. It has taken me a long time to just learn the basics of operating a computer. But now I don't watch TV at all. The internet is TV and books combined. If I watch TV, I'm in a really bad funk. Or under the weather. There's a kind of common thread in many of these new diet books. The recognition that obesity, heart disease, and diabetes are on the rise. And we are treating the symptoms of these diseases because we can't treat the cause. We can't treat the cause because we still have a long way to go in understanding the hugely complex metabolic system that is our body. It's the study of life itself. The uptick of these diseases has been in the last 25 to 40 years. Some hypothesize that these diseases are "diseases of civilization". That our "cave man" body is not ready for the flour and concentrated sugars and starches that come from no longer being a hunter/gatherer. No longer living from feast to famine. It's always a feast in the USA. The new diet books will tell you to stay out of the "middle aisles" of the grocery store. Buy the produce and meat from around the edges, but stay away from the "processed" food. The middle aisles are the constant feast with no famine. A feast specializing in foods that were not available to primitive man. A diet that may be bringing on the surge of these diseases. I believe this for the most part. But all I really care about is me. And the things that affect me. Yes I do go to the grocery store and I "hunt and gather" around the outside edges. But I do it for a low carb. diabetes diet, not because of a new "cave man diet" fad. Another reason for the "diseases of civilization" rise is simply that we live so much longer now, that we get a chance to get these diseases. 140 years ago our life expectancy (if we survived birth) was about 40 years. They say that gen X's kids will live to be 100. And they're searching for the "aging" genes in our DNA. And through my reading I have learned that "growth hormones" keep coming into play in the metabolic cycle. And that hormones and enzymes are molecules that act differently in different places and time in the blood or tissue. Book after book is being written about the hormone insulin. Of course it's not just for control of blood sugar! We are coming out of the dark ages in this metabolic cycle knowledge. And we don't agree about the cave man diet theory. We don't "agree". As if science is something a committee decides to agree on! People don't agree on science. Whether it's how the world began, whether man's use of the planet is causing global weather, whether stem cells should be used to further research, whether a low fat diet is best for us, whether caffeine, or wine, or animal fat, is bad for us. We don't know these things. But we will. So why can't people just wait for the knowledge instead of shooting off their mouth. You don't know. So start learning. Don't waste your time teaching me your "dark ages" fears, superstitions and habits. They are not knowledge. They never were.