Busy

How does life get to be so busy? It seems to get even busier the older you get. Work has been crazy lately and now there is graduation time here in Arizona. My niece graduated last night and all of a sudden it hit me how old she had gotten. When did this occur? Next she is going to go to Northern Arizona University to be an elementary school teacher even though I tried to talk her out of it.
Soon we will be going back to New York on vacation. We are going to drive as we have to go to Michigan for a graduation there. I'm a little worried about the drive as I'm not as young as I used to be, of course it'll be one continuous drive. Can't wait to see who I can back there. I don't know if I'll get to see everyone I want to as it'll be a busy time with my daughter and grandson and my family. Anyway, I can't wait! I need a vacation!!!

How Long???

So how long or how old do you want to be before you die and do you think you have a choice. Having grown up with a wild bunch of guys(Roberto), I figured I might make it to 26. Lo and behold that came and went ages ago. Now I'm hoping that I live to be at least as old as my Mom and Dad who are 77. This will give me time to be with my Grandson and my daughter with whom I have many years to make up for, for not having been in their lives. My wife wants to live to be 100 as long as she is still able bodied. I happen to believe that a person's days are numbered from birth. That when your time is up, it is up. That you have no control over it. Look at the guy in Texas this past weekend who was riding home on his motorcycle in a windstorm with his helmet on and an exit sign flew through the air and killed him. Now was his number up or what? Anyway, I guess only time will tell but just in case I'm wrong I'm drinking lots of green tea and exercising and taking lots of heart medicine, as in red wine. Here are some pictures of a palo verde tree and some cactii in bloom. Notice no lawn to mow! That's what I like, a low maintenance yard. Of course I just say that I am really with the Green movement. HA

Remiss

Sorry but I have been remiss in my blogging of late. First I had a problem with a generator at work. It didn't want to work. Still working on that. Ha!! Then yesterday I had to go for my colonoscopy. Piece of cake. I've had a few cuz my dad had colon cancer a number of years back. What crappy genes I have. Cancer and heart disease. My thought on this is that if you live long enough you 're gonna get something to die of.
I am kind of scatter brained right now. Must be the drugs from the colonoscopy! Again HA!! Where was I? Choices. We all have the right to choose. To choose who we marry. To choose what we eat. To choose how to live our life. To choose to have a gun or not. Life is nothing but decisions or choices, however how you want to put it. Either the glass is half full or half empty. Is it going to be one of THOSE days or is it a day that didn't start out like I had imagined but I'm sure it is going to get better. Things don't happen in threes. Oh I've had two bad things happen to me today, I only have to get through one more. Come on, you can at least choose to have good things happen to you. Why do you want to wait for the third bad thing? Make your choice. Choose to smile. Choose to be happy. Pass it around!

Hunting

Just found out that Sharon and I both got drawn for elk hunting this coming December. Man am I ever excited. However, Sharon is a little nervous about this as it will be the first time that she has ever hunted. She's worried about getting buck fever. I'm more worried about having to drag two dead elk out of the forest. The last one I shot took me over five hours to drag out. And it was only a mile from the road. I am wondering if we got drawn because Sharon is a first time female hunter. That is OK with me though. If that is what it takes to get drawn to hunt she'll have to put in for everything with me. In June we'll be putting in for deer and javalina.

YUCK Factor

So what is your yuck factor and how many do you have? You know what I mean. What makes you say yuck? My wife has lots of yuck factors and this is what started this. The other night I was cooking fish on the grill and I realized that my brush was worn out so I went and I got the wire brush that I use on the bones that I paint. Now you have to understand that some of the bones that I acquire aren't all pearly white when I get them. Some may have various pieces of flesh or dried skin and other things hanging on them. So before I can paint them I have to wire brush them or sometimes use a wood chisel to scrape things off. So while we were eating that delicious marinated Ahi Ahi from Trader Joe's I happened to mention to Sharon that I needed a new grill brush as I had to use my bone brush to clean the grill before I cooked the fish. YUCK ,of course, came out of her mouth. So I got thinking about it and realized that I can't think of any YUCK factors of my own. Sharon yucks blood, vomit, and dirty diapers amongst other things. So what makes you YUCK?

What Do You Do?

It is almost the weekend. What do you do on your weekends? My typical weekend starts by driving four hours to our little house in Northern Arizona. When I get up there on Friday night by 9:30 pm I will buy the local paper and sit and catch up on local events till I get sleepy but this is after I grind beans for coffee for the next morning.
Saturday morning we will drink coffee on the porch and watch the birds at the bird feeder. Then it will be off to the swap meet where you can buy most anything except small children. Things like guns & knives, goats, chickens, dogs and what have you. Last weekend I bought a GIRO bicycle helmet for a $1 and a knife and a case for my Gerber tool. I looked at a bunch of guns but I resisted the urge to buy. Then we might go to the county gravel pit to dig petrified wood. Remember I said that I have collections and rocks are one of them. Then we may go shopping as it is more fun to shop up there than it is to shop in Tucson where the traffic is abysmal. Then it's back home to relax with some reading. Sometimes instead of shopping it is off to do a hike or wander in the woods looking at stuff or looking for a new walking stick to carve. Aspen makes wonderful walking sticks.
Sunday morning it's back on the porch for coffee. Sharon will usually do some school work on Sunday so I will either go fishing in our creek in my kayack or else I'll do any chores that may need doing around the house. It is kind of a pain having two properties as you have double the upkeep but our Show Low house, "baby Hughes" is its name, is our way to keep our sanity from living in a sardine can in the desert. Do you name your stuff too. Like cars & blankets etc?
Anyway, if we aren't running up to baby Hughes we are usually off to La Jolla or down to Mexico for scuba diving. That's also why I have to do my chores around the sardine can during the week after work cuz after all weekends are meant for adventures!

Why???

Have you ever noticed that the older you get time seems to go by faster? When you were a kid, days, especially during the summer, seemed to last forever. Now, boom, gone in a flash. Look at it. We are already into the third month of 2009. How did I get to be 55? When the heck did I get so old? I've already been at this job for 13 years which is a record for me. This summer Sharon and I will be married for 29 years and it seems like only yesterday that we were in college. Time definitely seems to go faster as you get older. Is it that we get so wrapped up in work and taking care of the house and stuff like that? I don't know. It is probably one of those vagaries of nature. I know that I have been trying to get some bones done so that I can send them to New Hampshire so Jen's friend can have some and it seems like I am always short on time. I'll try to get them done tonight so I can mail them this weekend, if I can find the time! HA