We share a driveway with our neighbor to the south. In the four years that he's lived there, he had one son mow the lawn once, the other son laid sod in the front yard, and neither he, nor his sons, have ever once shoveled the walk in front of their house, the walk to the porch, or any part of the shared driveway. This year, Bruce decided that with ( Read more... )

Last night was the annual chili cook off here in town. We did the shirts, again. It's our one steady job. 40 shirts, once a year. This year, the towns' resident artist was out of town for a funeral, and we had to do our own artwork. No biggie. We've done it before. This year we decided to get creative and we got some clip art programs for the ( Read more... )

We have raccoons. They are cute, but destructive, and vicious. Last year we set a trap, but only managed to get two babies. The mama took her other babes and left. She came back this year. They knock the bricks out of the chimney, eat the cat food, and our little dog fights them ( Read more... )

We have this old grizzled tom cat who showed up about four or five years ago. He was a sorry sight and camped out in our garage. We, being suckers for cats, fed him, and made sure there was fresh water in the summer. Well, about a year and a half ago, he decided we could pet him. Now he is the most affectionate cat I've ever known. He lets Chance ( Read more... )

I've been at the new job for nearly three months. I get my insurance and all that good stuff then. It has been, and will continue to be a learning experience. They do things differently at this place than at my last job. I did just about everything in the same department, and then some at my last job, and here, it seems I know so little. It is ( Read more... )

My dad was always a very strong man. He grew up on a farm and being strong of body and strong of character were natural bi-products of that environment. He was small in stature, so his physical strength was surprising to many who dealt with him away from the farm. Three and a half years ago, he had a heart attack. By the time he decided something ( Read more... )

I work in a cabinet shop. It's pretty dirty. One day I noticed a guy working in shipping. He'd pull a pallet of cabinets this way, tote another one that way. Back and forth, all day. No biggie. that's his job. But his hair, it was like, immaculate. He's wearing overalls, T-shirt, tennis shoes. But his hair looked like he should be wearing a suit ( Read more... )

Chance started his new school on the 11th. Well, they had an open house for it on the 11th. It still wasn't ready, so they started the 12th. It was nice to see other parents reacting to their kids the same way we react to Chance. Sometimes you think you're such a bad parent for losing patience, or yelling at him. But some of these teachers have ( Read more... )

I was afraid we wouldn't get everything done in time, but we did. We got the catmasters finished, 4 drums assembled, about 3 dozen pair of bones cut and sanded, and 6 kilted hat & glasses racks painted and kilted. We got the artwork and shirts done, too. Those were the biggies. We added 3 new designs this year. One of them we sold out of and took ( Read more... )

My son has come home from the residential treatment center where he has been living for the last five months. He was supposed to go into a group home, but there are some problems with the insurance for that, so he is home with us. He is better than he was before he went in. But his little brother is being difficult. He's been almost an only child ( Read more... )