wrong weekend, again

I am going camping with my buds

     A bunch of guys I grew up with, plus a couple of people I recently met....like within the past 5 years..head out into the woods for a weekend of fellowship and fun.
     We like going in early November.  The bugs are gone.  The people are gone.  The nights are crisp and great for sleeping.
     In all the years we have gone, I only remember one that got rained out.  I may have been at fault.  When Dave and the kids showed up at my house, I said, optimistically, "The rain will pass by the time we reach Savannah."  After we sat in the car watching pouring rain in Savannah with two kids and three slightly grouchy adults for what seemed hours, we gave in and went home.
     One time we were at the Mississippi Palisades and it was pretty cold.  I remember waking up and thinking leaves were hitting the tent top.  It was snow.  While we were OK, all our water was frozen.
    We stopped going to the Palisades when we goofed and picked a bow hunting weekend.  We were warned not to stray too far from the campsite and to wear orange.
     In subsequent years, we ended up at Apple River Canyon.  It's a beautiful park with several nice hiking trails.  We seemed to find large groups of Boy Scouts camping next to us on our last two trips.
     So we moved to Lake Le Aqua Na.
     In November some of the camping grounds are closed....go figure.
     We always look for one site that is a little secluded, not near other campers.  I snore.
     We bring our own wood, pay our fees, clean up the camping site when we leave in the morning.
     We do have some nature based products that we bring along to ward off the cold.  Some of these products are made from grapes, some from rye grasses.  We listen to Simon and Garfunkel, or Coyote Oldham,  watch the stars and tell stories.
     Some of the stories are true.  Many of them have been told before, but have grown in scope with each passing year.
     We remember those high school days, when we had no worries.
     We remember the difficult times in life, when life itself was a challenge.
     We talk about the Cubs.  The Bears.  Sometimes the other sports, but mainly football and baseball.
     It's going to be cold as hell this weekend.  27 for a low Saturday night.
     There is a time change.  So when we go to bed at midnight, half frozen and maybe slurring words due to the cold, we will really be going to bed at 11.
     To me, it means an extra hour of freezing my butt off in a tent.
     The really hard part is getting out of the bag in the morning.  I have to get dressed, take down the tent, throw (literally, it's usually damp from the dew) the tent, rain fly, tarp, sleeping bag, extra clothes, empty bottles, and everything else I can find into the car, which is running with the heat on high, within 5 minutes or literally freeze solid. OK, not literally.
     At breakfast at the restaurant in Lena, we will all complain about how cold it was, talk about going earlier next year, talk about not going at all next year because at age 66 it's hard to sleep on the ground, pay our bill and part.
     And secretly, we will all be looking forward to next year.

this is a first

I can't think of anything to tell tonight

I may have hit the wall, in the vernacular of marathon runners.
I have posted nearly every single day.  I have been funny, insightful, sad, thoughtful, boring...... but tonight I am empty.
I have told you just about everything about me, from shaking hands with a real president to my first ever stage appearance.
But tonight, I guess I am too tired and headachy to think.
That's it.

why didn't I think of that?

Sometimes I don't plan ahead

     I ordered the tin ceiling.  Now all I have to do is put it up.
     This is not as easy as it seems.
     First off, I have to decide on plywood or firring strips.  Firring strips are cheaper and easier.  Plywood would make it easier to install the panels, which are 2 x 2.
     First decision, plywood.
     Now, I have to fasten the tin panels to the ceiling.  If I use round headed screws, will they show and be a distraction to the pattern?  Will flat headed screws work better for the overall look?  Should I just get black screws so they stand out and become obvious to their presence?  Will trim screws work, with their tiny heads and custom colors?
     I don't want to nail the panels because the soffit covers water and gas pipes.  I thought, in my little mind, that if someone ever needed to get to those pipes, unscrewing stuff would be easier than unnailing.  If you can unnail.
     Emily, who has done more reading on this than I have, said wood trim is not recommended, because the wood will not set evenly on the tin tiles.  I hadn't thought of that.  Not sure what I will do in that case.
     Bob, Jackie's brother, asked what I was doing on the facing part of the soffit.  Hadn't thought too much of that either.  Originally thought I would get a 1 x 12 piece of pine and paint it red.  No reason why, except to add some color.  Maybe I could stain it to match the oak trim.  Maybe I can just paint what is there and not spend money on it.
     And all of those questions are part of my problem:  I get an idea and proceed, not thinking it through to the end.  Maybe it's ADD, maybe it's just optimism that all will work out.
     I can get the big picture.  I just can't get the focus to get there.  I don't want to be negative, but that's how my personality developed.  (If you are counting, that is four photo references in two sentences.)
     The tin tiles should arrive this week....which means I am going to work on this eventually.
     I wonder:  How many people does it take to put up my ceiling?  Time will tell.
     Meanwhile, feel free to volunteer.  You could hold tiles, cut plywood, or make cream puffs.  In any case, help would be appreciated.

I have a social calendar

I swear, sometimes I get too busy

     We have only been back from our trip for 9 days....but I feel it has been longer.
     It's been a busy few days.
     I had a zoo day Friday, and Friday night I spent 3 hours at the museum playing a former mayor's ghost.  It was a pretty fun time.  This ghost walk attracted about 34 people....last year only 20 came, so that is a pretty good increase.  Next year I hope we hit the 45 mark!  We do three tours, and I think 15 people would be a maximum.
     I even heard one little voice say, "Is that Mr. Dickow?"  But I never saw who the youngin' was, or their parents.
     Saturday I got up early to sell Rotary calendars.  And we went to a birthday party for a pretty cool 2 year old.  Tomorrow we have a pumpkin decorating thing at church and dinner in De Kalb Sunday night.
     I am starting the week tired already!
     Tuesday I have four events, Wednesday I am going to Chicago, and sometime Thursday and Friday I have to clean house and do the kitchen cabinets.
      I have to figure out how to move all the dirt to my newly built raised garden without using my right arm, 'cause every time I do anything with it I hurt like hell for two or three days.  And I need to do that before the freeze comes, because I don't want to have to play with frozen dirt.
     Usually I am complaining about having nothing to do.....but that doesn't seem to be the case for the next two weeks.
     Jackie and I start volunteering with the Hub project Tuesday afternoon.  And we still have some physical therapy appointments.
     Even the county wants me.....got a notice for jury duty Nov. 3.
     The upside is, I have less time to play on the computer.  After going three weeks without playing spider solitaire, I have fallen back into its trap.
     Less free time will help me cut back.
     I just hope I can keep awake.

And now a little poem

I am a closet poet

I've played the numbers
I thought would win
I played them over
and over again

I picked birthdays and primes
But none were a winner
now that money's gone
and my wallet's thinner

This time I  felt lucky,
my number was up, my fortune due
But the odds are against me
and now I'm sorta blue

I enjoy the dreams
a dollar will buy,
and if it rolls over
again I will try

I have better odds
being struck by ligntning
or getting flesh eating bacteria,
and that's really frightening!

But the lottery beckons,
so many dreams to fulfill
Somebody somewhere's a winner,
Someday I'll win, I will

deja vu....all over again

I am close to being a millionaire!

     All I need to do is pick the right numbers!  Tomorrow night's Powerball, or Mega Millions, I am never sure, is over 220 million smackeroos!  The other game is over 100 million!  My odds of winning one are 50-50, right?
     I (we, if Jackie finds out) will be rolling in dough.  Literally.  I will sprinkle my bed with $100 bills and lay on top of them like they do in the movies.
     New car.  New wardrobe.  New house. (It will have to have a security system and razor wire topped chain link fencing to keep out the bad guys,)  New golf clubs.....and I don't even golf!
     But I won't forget my friends.  After I collect my millions, I will treat everyone to a hamburger at White Castle.  My close, personal friends will even get fries and a drink.
    I know I won't get $200 million....taxes will take half, or more.  That will still leave me with $100 million.
     Enough to fund the Dickow Recreation Center, Dickow Soccer Complex, Dickow Center for the Performing Arts.....but it's not all about me.  It's about improving life.  For my family.  And me.
     So Julia gets a chunk to buy a house on the lake in Switzerland.  Believe me, it will take a chunk.        Emily gets an equal chunk to buy a small farm with a large fenced in area for her dogs, cat, guinea pigs, rabbits, horses, and even and emu or two, if she wants.
     How to choose the numbers?  I always use a combination of birthdays, anniversaries, ages, my IQ, and get a series of numbers that have never won a single penny.  But if I stop playing them, they will win.  Eventually.  It may be 100 years, but like the Cubs, it has to happen eventually.
     And I will buy a quick pick.  Maybe two.  The answer is yes to the question, "Well punk, are ya feelin' lucky?"
     I am feeling lucky.
     Or maybe it's just indigestion from all the Halloween candy I put in a bowl and shouldn't have because I eat a piece whenever I walk past.
     Tonight I may have a dream about numbers!  Maybe the gods of lottery fortune have chosen me this time!
     You can tell I am excited.
     Just think, this time next week.....I'll be hard to find!

school days, school daze

I might have tanked a few classes

     The University of North Carolina may have an academic problem.  It seems several hundred students benefited by taking classes they didn't have to attend, take notes, pay attention, or read materials.
     And while the bulk of the students taking these classes were athletes, it seems non athletes also were given the opportunity to take a class where they had no lectures, readings, or attendance.  And since the classes were available to both non athletes and athletes, no NCAA rules may have been broken.
     Well, sad to admit, I also enrolled in classes where I didn't attend, take notes or read the materials.      And I paid for it.
     I enrolled in one class, criminology, which was rumored to be the largest lecture class in the US.
     There were several hundred students enrolled in the class.  There was no way to take attendance.   There was two announced quizzes, a mid term and a final.  That is all.
     The final was done like a group project.  That was not how it was designed.  But with so many kids in a lecture hall, there was no way to monitor the group.  People were yelling out answers to the multiple choice test:  21 is C; 14 is A; and on and on.
     I moved to the end of a row and took the test by myself, blocking out the distractions.
     I got an 86.  Not too bad, right?  The average for the test.....average....was 94!  And since he graded on a curve, my 86 was good for a D.  88 fwas a C.  88.
     I think I had the only D in a class of 400 people.
     I took an art history class.  That one I did attend.  It was preJackie and there were a couple of attractive girls in the class.  However, since I was in the midst of a severe acne breakout from the ages of 13 to 27, they were not too interested in me, no matter how many times I asked if Picasso's nose grew when he told a lie.
     But there were no books, no notes.  We looked at thousands of pictures.  The midterm and final consisted of watching a slide presentation and giving the correct artist for each painting.
I got a D in that.
     In case you don't get the drift here:  Rather unspectacular high school career.  ( I graduated in the upper half....by two people.  But it was the upper half.)  Less than stellar college career.  (I hold the record for final academic probation at NIU.....3 semesters.)
     In general, I was a lazy student.  I don't know if I was a dumb student, but I never did apply myself.
     It wasn't until I started taking courses I actually liked that I did well.  Or at least better.
     And at age 66, that is one of the lessons I have learned in life.  We do things well that we enjoy doing.  We suck at things we don't enjoy doing.
     I pour a great glass of wine.  I cut an excellent slice of cheese.  I sit on the porch very well.
     I have found my time in life to be like a class from UNC.  I don't have to do anything and I still pass.