dual personalities

Category: family

July 17, 2017

Weekend update

by chuckofish

How was your weekend? I went to an auction on Saturday but didn’t buy anything. I sat and watched and learned. I realized that I really go in case there is something there I can rescue, something no one wants. There was an old 19th century wardrobe that they basically gave away for $100, but I had nowhere to put it and no way to get it home. If the boy ever gets a pick up truck, I may be in real trouble…

Meanwhile I continued to tie up loose ends from the wedding. I took the wedding dress to the cleaners and such. I had coffee with my girlfriends. The wee babes came over to celebrate Pappy’s birthday with their parents.

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The little gal conked out after awhile,

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but the little guy was raring to go…

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(BTW Earlier in the week the little guy even stood up on his own! He may be in the one percentile for weight, but he is mighty!)

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Well, the good times continued after they went home for bath time and we wound up our evening watching The Rockford Files, Season Two, which the OM received for his birthday.

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Have a good week!

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July 14, 2017

“And life barrels on like a runaway train:*

by chuckofish

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I was chagrined to realize that yesterday’s post included a poem and a painting that I have previously included on the blog. Oy. I really am getting old. But then again, my taste in stuff does not change, so bear with me. And, yes, I know I’ve used the quote in the today’s title before…but it’s a good one, right?

This week went super fast because it was very busy at work. Occasionally I would pause and think, gee, last week I was doing such and such with my DP or my daughter, who were actually here in town with me!

I didn’t have time to be really sad about this, because another thing that happened in this week of weeks is that daughter #1 got a new job which will bring her back to our great flyover state of Missouri. We are all so pleased and thrilled! Of course, this requires numerous myriad, a multitude, yea, an array of tasks to do on both ends. After 10 years in the Big City, she will have to learn how to drive a car again! Zut alors!

And now the weekend is upon us. I am looking forward to watching this movie tonight,MV5BNDlkZjJjYTktZDI4OS00MWFkLTg1MzMtNTY3MmI2OTBkMTU1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjUzOTY1NTc@._V1_UY1200_CR78,0,630,1200_AL_

which I saw for the first time when it was released the year I was a freshman in college.

Also, the wee babes will be coming over to celebrate their Pappy’s birthday.

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They sure are enjoying their strained bananas and oatmeal!

Have a good weekend!

*Ben Folds, Fred Jones, Pt. 2. The embroidery is by yumiko higuchi.

 

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July 11, 2017

Vibe

by chuckofish

Hey, Big Mike is a grandpa!

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Grandparenthood is pretty great, right?

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Have a good Tuesday!

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July 6, 2017

Welcome back to the land of the living

by chuckofish

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Going back to work today…so a real post will (hopefully) appear tomorrow! Zut alors–what a week!

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June 28, 2017

Two better hemispheres

by chuckofish

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The Good-Morrow

I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved? Were we not weaned till then?
But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers’ den?
’Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be.
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desired, and got, ’twas but a dream of thee.

And now good-morrow to our waking souls,
Which watch not one another out of fear;
For love, all love of other sights controls,
And makes one little room an everywhere.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,
Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown,
Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one.

My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,
And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;
Where can we find two better hemispheres,
Without sharp north, without declining west?

Whatever dies, was not mixed equally;
If our two loves be one, or, thou and I
Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.

 

–John Donne

I am off for a week of wedding merry-making! Check back next week for photos of the Big Day.  L’chaim!

“God, the best maker of all marriages,
Combine your hearts in one.”
—King Henry V, Act V

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June 27, 2017

“Velvet I can wish you For the collar of your coat And fortune smiling all along your way”*

by chuckofish

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The sign’s up at the boy’s store! He’ll be open for business shortly. Can you believe it?

When it rains, it certainly pours.

Did I just mention rain? I didn’t mean to…

More on this exciting mercantile development later.

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Right now we are trying to focus on the upcoming nuptial events later this week.

But More I Cannot Wish You
Than to wish you find your love
Your own true love this day
With a sheeps’ eye
And a lickerish tooth
And strong arms
To carry you away.

*More I Cannot Wish You, Frank Loesser

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June 22, 2017

“Don’t call me sweetheart. Call me Batman.”*

by chuckofish

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The boy and daughter #1 c. 1990 (Check out that wreck of a blankie draped on her lap!)

One consequence of buying the vintage desk the other day was having to move our other vintage desk out of the room, emptying the drawers etc. Inside I found several old desk calendars. One from 1990 was particularly interesting as I had written down notes referring to the infant daughter #2’s progress and also cute comments her older siblings had made during the year.

The three-year-old boy–whom I had forgotten was such a spiritual child–was the star with these classic statements:

[The boy] says at lunch, pounding the table for emphasis, “God made us…with nails!”

“When I drink water God takes a bath.” (He knows God is “inside us all.”)

[Daughter #1] is washing doll clothes in the bathroom sink and [the boy] is bothering her, so she kicks him out, shouting, “I don’t want any company!” “Well,” he replies, “you have company. You have God!”

Comments pertaining to the new baby were also prevalent and reflect the siblings’ healthy self-esteem.

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On the day the baby is born I tell daughter #1 that the baby looks like her, and she says, “I knew she would.”

When the baby is six-months old I remark to the boy that she loves to look at him. He says, “Yes, she just loves my brown eyes.”

Anyway, here’s a reminder to write down those wonderful statements your children make. Chances are, you will never remember them otherwise. I sure didn’t.

*The boy, of course

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June 20, 2017

‘Just the place for a Snark! I have said it twice: That alone should encourage the crew…

by chuckofish

Just the place for a Snark! I have said it thrice:
What I tell you three times is true.’*   

I had such a busy weekend! I accomplished a few things on my to-do list, like getting my hair cut, but not a lot.

Sometimes a thing becomes a whole ‘nother thing and you have to go with the flow and adapt. This happened when the OM and I ventured once again into terra incognita for an estate sale on Saturday afternoon. I was curious to see what the pictures online suggested–a lot of antiques in a modest home in a part of town I do not know well.

It was a nice little neighborhood and the house did indeed have a lot of good stuff. Nothing, however, that I really needed or couldn’t live without at the asking price. (I am so restrained.) Anyway, we had to get on the road to a graduation party for a child of the OM’s cousin (and only living relative with whom he is still speaking) who lives in St. Charles County, so there was no time to dilly dally.

Sunday morning, though, we thought why not check back when everything would be half price? So, of course, we couldn’t pass up a real bargain of a vintage desk. And, of course, it was too big for either of our cars, so we texted daughter #3 to see if we could borrow her SUV. Long story (kind of) short, we then drove to their house to pick up the SUV and back down to south STL, loaded up the desk, drove back to our house, unloaded the desk, and returned the SUV to daughter #3, and (finally) drove home.

Then we had to get ready for our Father’s Day barbecue that evening. The boy then helped us carry the desk up the steep garage steps into our house.

Do other people do this sort of thing?

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I didn’t get a lot done on my to-do list, but I did get a vintage desk and we drove all over the place in the process. It’s all about the hunt, right?

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Cousin Joshua approves.

*Lewis Carroll

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June 19, 2017

Monday again?

by chuckofish

I had such a busy weekend, I didn’t have a chance to write a blogpost for today. All I have is this sweet picture of the wee babes on their dad’s first Father’s Day.IMG_1295.jpgThey had a busy day too, so by the time they came over to our house for a Sunday night barbecue, they were a little fussy. No picture taking. C’est la vie

Have a good week!

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June 16, 2017

“Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

by chuckofish

Tomorrow is our maternal grandfather’s birthday (Bunker Hill Day) and Sunday is Father’s Day. Here he is in c. 1929 with our mother.

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And here he is around 1964 again with our mother and her sister Susanne.

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Bunker (1900–1968) was quite a character (as I’ve written before) and our mother thought the world of him. He was a great sportsman and outdoorsman, a devoted fly-fisherman. He even went deep sea fishing at least once. He was a competitive table tennis player. It’s a good thing he never took up golf, because he would no doubt have become obsessed with that. The same goes for bridge. He loved baseball and Ted Williams and the Red Sox.

He took up furniture-making late in life as a hobby and turned out reproductions of antiques that were like works of art. He took classes and studied how to do it and read up on it and practiced and drew plans. Although not an academic per se, he was a student all is life. Our mother took after her father in that way.

Bunker was a manly man who didn’t have sons. C’est la vie.

So a toast to Bunker on his birthday and to all Fathers who do their best on Sunday. The boy will be celebrating his first Father’s Day–pretty exciting.

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Enjoy your weekend–keep cool!

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* Proverbs 22:6

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