Yes! I'm recovering superbly from my knee surgery last Thursday. It doesn't seem possible with stitches still in and only 5 days past, but I feel like it already feels better than it did before surgery. And it was a constant pain before surgery. I also discovered the harsh side effects of some pain medications, but I won't go into that here. Let's just say that a steady diet of grains, fruit juices and Metemucil is a good idea for a few days after surgery. Stitches are scheduled to come out on the 25th and I find out then when the Doc is going to release me from work. I'm pretty anxious for this appointment. As those who know me well, I don't like sitting around and "relaxing" all that much. My Dad used to say, "You ca sleep when you're dead, there's work to get done!"
Speaking of Dad, I was listening to "The Hawk", classic country music radio earlier today and there was a song on by Alan Jackson. The title was, "When Daddy Let Me Drive." I didn't remember this song from "days gone by", but immediately it brought about memories from my early teen years. Dad had an old green Chevy flatbed pickup truck with a starter button on the floor board and a gear shift on the driving column. "Three on the tree", as they say. Many times, well before I was of driving age, Dad would tell me to get behind the wheel and we were going to town. Most times this happened on a Saturday morning after tinkering around the farm a while. It was always a treat to head into town with Dad because we always went to the FS gas station where many of his friends were hanging out. Big John owned the station and all the guys would sit around telling stories or talking about the current "going ons" of our busy village of 450 people. The absolute best part of the trip was when we arrived at the FS, Dad would buy us each a Pepsi, still in the glass bottles, and a bag of Planters peanuts. We would take one big drink out of the pop and then dump the bag of peanuts into the bottle. It was so good, it tasted like you were eating a Payday candy bar. This was one of my Dads favorite things. We would have our pop, listen to the latest hubub and then run any other errands we had or head back to the farm. If we were going back home, sometimes he would let me drive home too. This was just one of the great memories I have of Dad.
Every once in a while, I'll get a Pepsi and a bag of peanuts and sit in the truck and enjoy that treat again. I realized as I got older, I preferred Coke, but it doesn't taste the same. It has to be Pepsi, and of course, no longer in glass bottles. Every time I see an old pickup truck going down the road, it makes me think of Dad and I smile. But when that song came on the radio today, I listened to the lyrics and a lump formed in my throat. The story the song told could have easily been Dad and I with a few minor changes. As the song was coming to an end and my eyes were watering a bit {probably allergies} I was getting ready to turn into our neighborhood. An old red Ford pickup truck passed me going the other way on Rt.36..and yes, I smiled. It's been 15 years sinced Dad passed and even the memories make it seem like not long ago. He was a great role model, friend, Dad and all around great guy. On this rainy day in central Ohio, he is missed more than he'll ever know.
That's the view from my stand!
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Catching Up From A Busy Spring!
Wow! I guess things have been really busy. I sat down this afternoon and opened my blog, only to realize I hadn’t written a post since mid-February. {That and my Ohio Mom reminded me she hadn’t read any of my ramblings lately.} Like everyone else when winter breaks, our family is ready for some time outside. Even with the incredibly wet spring, Barb and I were able to take the kids down to our farm in Kentucky for spring break. They enjoyed riding the quads through the woods and creek, cooking out and roasting marshmallows over the open fire. They weren’t real wild about sharing their sleeping quarters with a few country mice and some spiders, but they lived through it.
Barb and I celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary since my last post. The time seems to have flown by because I still remember so much from our early years. I wanted to get her something a little different from our usual routine; massages, spa days and gift certificates. Do you know what the traditional gift is for the 27th wedding anniversary? Well, I didn’t either, but I looked it up. Come to find out it’s a sculpture or statue. So I decided to go “traditional” this year and gave Barb a little statue of a boy angel with stained glass in its wings, holding a bird in its hand almost as if he rescued it. Just the significance of the statue and the beauty of the stained glass wings, makes it a pretty special gift. She really loved it.
After scheduling 2 or 3 times, the spring rains and other events, we finally got our spring turkey hunt in down at the farm. I took a couple of friends with me, Gary Ballard and John Ford. John was on his first turkey hunt. We’ve been seeing huge flocks of turkeys in the bottoms every trip down as well as a scattered single or double tracking through the higher woodlands. The 450 acres were holding a lot of birds. We arrived on the property about 4:00 in the afternoon and after setting up camp, decided to head down and check on the ground blinds I had set up the week before. After getting to the old tobacco barn in the bottoms on 4 wheelers, Gary hit his mouth call a couple times and sure enough, a gobbler answered. As we moved into position to see the bird, we realized 2 of the “thunder chickens” were answering the call. John was carrying my Remington Nitro Mag and started up the hill to see onto the field where the birds were strutting their stuff. As John got into position to shoot, I was watching the birds with their tail feathers fanned, all puffed out and gobbling away. It was quite a sight. When Gary got the birds to come into range, I told John to shoot the nearest bird. He put an excellent shot on it and 1 hour on the property we had the first bird in the bag. We checked out our blinds to find them lying down due to the storms that had riddled the south the week before. We sat them back up and prepared our sites for the Saturday morning hunt to come. Unfortunately, the birds didn’t cooperate on Saturday and all we got to see were a few hens and a tom running full speed into the woods. We did celebrate the weekend right with a Turducken and Cajun potatoes cooked on the grill, good scotch and a Padron Anniversary cigar. The storms moved in Saturday night and we ended up packing out in a frog strangler Sunday morning. It’s always a good time getting away and I really enjoy sharing the farm with good friends.
As the spring sports season starts winding down, I only have one more game that I have to umpire this next week. Unfortunately, my left knee has been aggravating me since the first of the year and on Thursday the 12th our Doc is going to scope it. He says that there are some spots of arthritis in it but thinks there might be something more. I’ll be off work for a couple of weeks, but that will allow me to catch up with the lure making. It’s that time of year and I’m looking forward to trying a couple new patterns that are featured in the NA Fisherman magazine.
While I’m wrapping up this post, my mind is on the end of this month. Our Abby will be graduating from HS and preparing to move on to Bowling Green State University Business School. It seems like just a few short years ago we were putting her on the bus for her first day of Kindergarten. We’re so proud of the young woman she has become and we’re excited about what her future holds. I’m certain she’ll do great with whatever she chooses to do, but like any parent; I will still worry about her. If you’re attending her Grad Party on June 11th, we look forward to spending some time with you. Thanks for reading, and that’s the view from my stand!
Barb and I celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary since my last post. The time seems to have flown by because I still remember so much from our early years. I wanted to get her something a little different from our usual routine; massages, spa days and gift certificates. Do you know what the traditional gift is for the 27th wedding anniversary? Well, I didn’t either, but I looked it up. Come to find out it’s a sculpture or statue. So I decided to go “traditional” this year and gave Barb a little statue of a boy angel with stained glass in its wings, holding a bird in its hand almost as if he rescued it. Just the significance of the statue and the beauty of the stained glass wings, makes it a pretty special gift. She really loved it.
After scheduling 2 or 3 times, the spring rains and other events, we finally got our spring turkey hunt in down at the farm. I took a couple of friends with me, Gary Ballard and John Ford. John was on his first turkey hunt. We’ve been seeing huge flocks of turkeys in the bottoms every trip down as well as a scattered single or double tracking through the higher woodlands. The 450 acres were holding a lot of birds. We arrived on the property about 4:00 in the afternoon and after setting up camp, decided to head down and check on the ground blinds I had set up the week before. After getting to the old tobacco barn in the bottoms on 4 wheelers, Gary hit his mouth call a couple times and sure enough, a gobbler answered. As we moved into position to see the bird, we realized 2 of the “thunder chickens” were answering the call. John was carrying my Remington Nitro Mag and started up the hill to see onto the field where the birds were strutting their stuff. As John got into position to shoot, I was watching the birds with their tail feathers fanned, all puffed out and gobbling away. It was quite a sight. When Gary got the birds to come into range, I told John to shoot the nearest bird. He put an excellent shot on it and 1 hour on the property we had the first bird in the bag. We checked out our blinds to find them lying down due to the storms that had riddled the south the week before. We sat them back up and prepared our sites for the Saturday morning hunt to come. Unfortunately, the birds didn’t cooperate on Saturday and all we got to see were a few hens and a tom running full speed into the woods. We did celebrate the weekend right with a Turducken and Cajun potatoes cooked on the grill, good scotch and a Padron Anniversary cigar. The storms moved in Saturday night and we ended up packing out in a frog strangler Sunday morning. It’s always a good time getting away and I really enjoy sharing the farm with good friends.
As the spring sports season starts winding down, I only have one more game that I have to umpire this next week. Unfortunately, my left knee has been aggravating me since the first of the year and on Thursday the 12th our Doc is going to scope it. He says that there are some spots of arthritis in it but thinks there might be something more. I’ll be off work for a couple of weeks, but that will allow me to catch up with the lure making. It’s that time of year and I’m looking forward to trying a couple new patterns that are featured in the NA Fisherman magazine.
While I’m wrapping up this post, my mind is on the end of this month. Our Abby will be graduating from HS and preparing to move on to Bowling Green State University Business School. It seems like just a few short years ago we were putting her on the bus for her first day of Kindergarten. We’re so proud of the young woman she has become and we’re excited about what her future holds. I’m certain she’ll do great with whatever she chooses to do, but like any parent; I will still worry about her. If you’re attending her Grad Party on June 11th, we look forward to spending some time with you. Thanks for reading, and that’s the view from my stand!
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