Uncle B’s Golf Cart.

From a long time back my youngest brother has had a golf cart parked inside the carport. Fmom’s house is right by a golf course and my youngest brother fell in love with the game. He’s the only one in the family that did. After playing for a number of years he finally saved up enough money to buy a used golf cart. As time passed he played golf less and less with family and work taking up his time, but the golf cart remained in the carport. Even after he and his family moved away the golf cart remained. Now here’s why the golf cart is so important.

When my girls were small the first thing they asked about when we were coming home was could we ride in Uncle B’s golf cart. They liked seeing all the relatives, but the golf cart was the most important thing. Uncle B never had any qualms about the children using the golf cart. With the smallest ones he would put them in his lap and let them steer while he worked the pedals. The little bit older ones he would let them drive by themselves, but they had to go around and around the house never going out on the road. Then the older children who knew how to watch for cars in the neighborhood could go out on the road. My children are grown now and they still remember the golf cart. My nephews and nieces are grown too and they remember. Now it’s my great nephews and nieces who are asking about Uncle B’s golf cart. They look forward to that old golf cart as much as my girls did. All this time Uncle B could have sold the golf cart and gotten some of his money back from it, and I don’t know why he didn’t. But I do know that every time the children come home they seek out their Uncle B and ask can they ride the golf cart. As I said, I don’t know why he hasn’t gotten rid of it, but I like to think he knows how much it means to the kids every time they come home.

Post T’giving.

I was right and we had 30 out at the farmhouse yesterday. We had the usual fried turkey, baked turkey, ham, casseroles of untold numbers, cakes and pies. My youngest brother bought a new cooker for his turkey. He called it an oil-less turkey fryer. It looks like a regular turkey fryer that is hooked up to a propane gas bottle. This was the first time he used it and we all weren’t sure how the turkey would turn out. While he was cooking the turkey in it, I had a question for him about it. I asked how could you call it a fryer if it doesn’t fry? He started to give me this long convoluted explanation, but I told him he was baking a turkey using indirect heat. After awhile we put an end to that world-shattering question. Then it came to the question of frying in oil versus indirect heat frying (I know it’s not frying, but……). With the oil frying I was told the meat is juicer, but since this was the first turkey on the indirect heat fryer, we didn’t know how dry or juicy it would be. Everyone I asked about this question said they didn’t like dry turkey. I told them it really didn’t matter to me, because the majority of turkey I would eat would be afterward in sandwiches. I told them that as long as I could slap some Miracle Whip on bread the turkey could be as dry as it wanted. Anyway, my brother’s turkey came out really good. It was just as juicy as the oil fried one and it was browned to perfection. So I saw two things going for the oil-less turkey fryer. One, it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than buying all that oil to fry with, plus you don’t have to worry about the disposing of the oil. Two, it sort of gives you the feeling of being outside and frying the turkey. I’m not sure if that’s one of those pre-historic things about being outside cooking meat over a fire. I myself am happy to be in a warm house with the turkey in an oven. However, the turkey was good.

Back at the house I woke up this morning with George barking like crazy because the four dogs outside of my room were barking. With 8 adults, 4 kids, 5 dogs and 6 puppies here at the house, I knew when I took George out that the house would be a wreck. I was right. With the exception of George and me all the adults, kids, dogs and puppies are my brother’s family and guest. So I decided not to even worry about the place getting cleaned up. I’m leaving that all to them. I found out yesterday, the puppies aren’t even 4 days old. They’re full-blooded Cocker Spaniels and all girls. George hasn’t even seen them, but the four other dogs in the house have him jumpy. I took him out to play with them earlier and they all wanted to play. George just barked at them and then ran back into my room. He wouldn’t even come out when I was calling for him. George has never been socialized with other dogs, so I think he’s afraid of them. I think everybody will be leaving here on Sunday so things will finally quieten down some. I feel the inner curmudgeon coming out, so Sunday will be a good day.

I hope everybody had a good T’giving and to the ones travelling be careful.

Take care

FM

Happy Thanksgiving!

It looks like this Thanksgiving theme for us is “Tail Wagging T’giving”. It seems everybody that is coming is bringing dogs. The nephew is bring his dog, the niece is bring two dogs plus six puppies one of her dogs just had, and friends of my brother bought their dog in last night too. George has never been socialized to much with other dogs so he has been barking on and off all night with just one dog here already. I figure just here at this house, we’ll have 12 people, 5 dogs and 6 puppies. I still don’t know how many people will show up out at the farmhouse. God, how I love the holidays!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and take care.

FM

Meteors, Snow and Memories.

The Leonid meteor shower happened last night and I missed it. It got me to thinking of Fmom. Most everybody must remember the Hale-Bopp comet when it came by. When this was happening I was still in the military, and I would come home on the weekends. When I came home I remember Fmom and I would go out and set the lawn chairs in the back yard to watch. We would sit there for hours sometimes and just talk and watch. We would never talk about anything in particular, but just talk. I remember telling Fmom that she was alive to see something that might be only seen by humans for this last time. I told her that we don’t know what will happen in the next 300-400 years, much less a few thousand. Fmom would tell me about some of the meteor showers she had seen, and she would really go into detail. I just wish I could remember what she had said.

The reason the Leonid shower got me to thinking of her is because once I moved home to take care of her, we would always get up in the middle of the night, put the lawn chairs in the front yard, bundle up and sit and watch. We tried to do this every year, but we did miss a few. Fmom would be almost as excited at seeing the meteors as she was whenever it snowed down here. I can remember many times she would wake me up if there were even a few snowflakes coming down. It usually didn’t last long, but she was like a kid a lot of times watching the snow. She used to say that she wanted to see one more good snow before she died. In January of 2008 we finally had a good snow down here. Oddly enough I thought about what she said about seeing one more good snow, and sadly she passed away that same year.

So when I look up in the sky, a lot of times I’ll think of Fmom. I’ll be thinking of the times we just sat, talked and watched the night sky, or when we would look out of the windows and watch snowflakes dancing down to the earth. I missed the Leonid meteor shower last night, but I really didn’t have to see it for so many good memories to come back. I hope all of you have such good memories.

Take care

FM