Why Not

When I was 10 years old I was walking past the TV one night when my parents were watching Lawrence Welk. Myron Floren was playing the accordion and my mother loved Myron so I stopped, lie down in front of the TV, put my chin on my hands and watched him play the accordion as only he could do. When he was done my mother said would you like to play the accordion? I said sure. Thinking why not. Well 4 days later I was sitting in a stranger’s house with an accordion strapped to my chest learning the song “Go Away”. I stayed with it for 2 years only because my mother liked the accordion and why not. When I quit at the age of 12, I could play like a really good 12 year old. Even at the age of 35 when I took it out the last time to play Christmas carols I still could play like a really good 12 year old. Now after 25 years I have taken it out again and I have found that I play like a really bad 10 year old.

Why have I waited 25 years to play the accordion again? Because my granddaughter really really LOVES the chicken dance and I really really love my granddaughter, and why not.

Bonding with my Grand Daughter

My Grand Daughter Hadley has come to visit and she brought her mother. Her mother is the one with the arms and legs in the pictures. In this picture we are having lunch with some christian bikers in Litchfied CT and she is wondering if we should say grace before we eat.

Here she is telling me that she has just had a diaper change. I am telling her that it was about time for all in the near vicinity.

Here she is telling me that she is having a bath in the sink and to bug off.
Here is a bonding moment. She said Granpa feed me.

It was a great day.

Highlights of my trip to Korea

Meeting the Cha Family
Spending time with my Son and new daughter in law
The Wedding (of course)
Traveling and sight seeing
Eating the food
Finding Western bath rooms
Eating more food

On looking back I found that I did not take enough pictures or video of the trip. Every experience seemed new or different and I guess I was more into experiencing the moment then in taking a picture of the moment. Korea is a beautiful country, with wonderful people and now I can better understand why my son enjoys living and making a home there.

My daughter, Christy Twitface , thinks I looked like the butler Mr. Belvedere in the wedding but I think I looked like THIS GUY You be the judge.

Proud Parent

As a parent there have been events in the lives of my children that have made me proud, and brought me great enjoyment. On August 10th 2008, one such event will be taking place in Daegu, South Korea. The wedding of my son Michael to Yoon Mi Cha. It makes me Proud as a father that he is getting married and happy that he has found such a wonderful partner as Yoon Mi.

Now all I need is chop sticks with little forks on the end.

"The Bear" of Canton Connecticut

Thanks to my wife who from this day forward I will call Hawk Eye, not the Hawk Eye from M.A.S.H the TV show but Hawk Eye from “Last of the Mohegans”. Thanks to her sharp eye we have documented proof of the invisible bear. Or as I can now call it, “The Bear”. It seems like a small bear, but a small bear that would rip your arm off and run up behind a tree and eat it.

How many is too many, how many is not enough.

As all who read my daughters blog know, christyallbee.com , my grand daughter became very ill with infant Botulism. During this time the only thing that mattered in my life was her recovery. I could not watch the news or read a news paper or concentrate on anything for a long period of time. The world did not matter any more, only the recovery of this little baby girl. Now that all is much better I have been going over all the pictures I have of Hadley which brings me to this question.

If we have deleted 7 out of 10 pictures that we have taken of my granddaughter, and we have 1000 pictures left, how many pictures have we taken. The answer is not enough. Click the play button and if you watch very closely because they go by fast, you will see 270 of them. God help me if I have more grandchildren. Where will I find the time.

Life in Canton Connecticut

Monday morning while sitting at the kitchen table, I saw what looked like a German Shepard loping through our back yard. It happened so fast my mind said dog, than wolf, no can’t be a wolf maybe it is a whadda you call it. As I was telling Judy what I had seen she noticed 2 more whadda ya call its loping at high sped through the back yard one with a limp. They made a U-turn one smelling the ground as they ran coming back through the yard up the mountain down the mountain circling in the back yard. The one with the limp finally stopped and waited for the other to make up its mind. Then the other picked up the scent again and they both loped off in the direction of the first one that I had seen. Thanks to Google we found that they were Coyotes. COOL!!! Judy got the camera out just in case they came back.


Fast forward to this morning, sitting at the kitchen table with a coffee and camera at the ready, Judy noticed this whadda you call it. I almost fell out of my chair getting the camera. I made such a loud noise that the whadda you call it stopped and look right at me. There is a little glare from the window but it’s a Bobcat. COOL!!!!! I would hate to clean that litter box.

swaddle :To restrict free will

While visiting our granddaughter this Christmas I have learned that when it comes to caring for a baby things have changed since 1971. Things have changed so much that I am surprised that either of our children made it into adulthood. Yet they did and our 1st born gave birth to the most beautiful grandbaby ever in the whole world, and I’m not just saying that.

Oh, and what the hell is swaddle. I got out the parenting dictionary from 1971, and it defines swaddle as, to bind an infant in cloth, to restrict movement and free will.

(Ok I added free will) It is kind of like you can’t do anything else so you might as well fall asleep.

Her joy is my joy

One of the joys for me in becoming a Grandparent was the process that my daughter went through during her pregnancy. Through our telephone calls I experienced her joy, concern, excitement and anticipation. 2 weeks prior to the birth of Hadley, She left a message on my cell phone. When you double click the video play Icon you can hear the message.

Her excitement was my excitement. Her joy was my joy.

The most beautiful Baby ever in the whole world

We recently purchased a Logitech QuickCam Video camera so that we could place a video call to our new Grand baby. “The most beautiful baby ever in the whole world”. I took a video of the computer screen as we were talking. I need to hold her before she loses that new baby smell.

The most beautiful baby ever

Hadley August Gannon.

Born

7:42 am, Denver Time

November 27th 2007

19 inches, 6 lbs 1 oz

Farmington River

This picture was taken from a bridge just west of where I live. If you go to the following link Farmington River you can see an arial view of the bridge (Route 44 crossing the Farmington River) and also an arial view of our house.

The Farmington River is a beautiful winding river that we have to cross 2 or 3 times to travel any where. All the leaves that you see will be in my backyard by Thanksgiving. Lucy, I gotta lotta raken ta do.

Damn That Invisible Bear

Every night no matter what time it is I bring my bird feeders into the house to protect them from the bear. Yup bear. Never seen the bear, never heard the bear, but ever once in a while there is a neighborhood story of a missing bird feeder.

There are some nights when it is late and I’m half asleep and forget to bring the feeders in. Last night was almost one of those nights, but I walked back from the bedroom onto the deck in my bare feet cursing the damn bear I have never seen. I have 3 feeders and it takes 2 trips, but I was lazy and only brought in the squirrel proof bird feeder center and the suet feeder left. I didn’t bring in the cheapo Wal-Mart thistle feeder, right. OOPS, What cheapo Wal-Mart thistle feeder? Exactly, It’s gone, history, tail lights. Not even one little piece of thistle left as evidence. Just one mega bent metal bird feeder post. Damn that invisible bear.

She has always liked a good deal

Friday my sweetie went in for her second round of heart Stents expecting to have only one installed, but they were having a daily heart Stent special. Buy one get the second one almost free, next to nothing. Hey while we’re in there would you like another. Why not she said? Of course she was buzzed on happy juice and would have said yes to anything. A snake, you want me to hold a snake? Surrrrrrre.

Pictures 1A & 1B Show the before and after of the first Stent.
Pictures 2A & 2B Show the before and after of the second Stent

As you can see from the pictures it was a good choice. 2A was badly closed and may not have responded to medication. Everything went fine and she was home the next day. She has always liked a good deal.

Epiphany

During the winter of 1974 I was deer hunting in the woods of N.H. when a beautiful doe stopped right in front of me. Neither of us making a sound, she gave me a look that said what the hell are you doing. I gave her a look back that said I am freezing my ass off. It was at that moment I had an epiphany. Well actual 2. The first was, there is not much difference between hunting and just sitting in the woods freezing your ass off. The second was that I could not kill this magnificent animal.

Fast forward to 2007 and one of my greatest pleasures is shooting deer with my video camera in my back yard.

Memories

For 35 years we have saved our children’s baby clothes and stuffed animals for when our grandchildren are born. Well the point has FINALLY come and it was time to bring it all out of storage and answer the question, “Was it worth saving all this stuff?” My wife has never faltered, but I on the other hand have often questioned the reasoning and sanity of saving things for this long.

I see now that it was all saved for that very moment. That moment when we took each item out and shared our memories. I can now say it was worth it and thank God it is gone.

Sorry to say we found the stuffed animals to be a bit toxic and we had to give them a proper ceremony and burial.

Life is good

Then there was Thursday. I received a call on my cell phone from my sweetie of 42 years asking where I was. She was at the health club having chest pains and wanted too know if I could pick her up and take her to the hospital. Calmly I said “Have them call 911”. She said “but how far away are you. Not so calmly I said “CALL 9 1 1 !!!!!!!!!”

In joining the health club to get healthy, my sweetie found out that she was not healthy. We also found out that a health and fitness club was not a bad place to have a major heart attack.

I have always believed that a good and happy life is determined by the personal choices we make and the ability to let yourself be happy. I will now add that luck helps to. The luck of having a severe heart attack with doctors around, the luck of having an ambulance service close by, the luck of being close to a hospital with doctors that have the skills to do what they did. All in less than 2 hours from start to finish. Without one of these my life would not be so good.

Home

Over the years when people have asked me “Where do you live” I have said, Maine,Indiana or Connecticut depending on where life had taken me. I would often add, “but my home is in New Hampshire”. I have not lived in New Hampshire for 35 years but when I think of home I see New Hampshire. This is a picture of my home.

Daughter not always accurate

It will be rare that this blog will ever change from what you see at this moment. However if you do visit please leave a comment so that I know you have visited. Strangers and strange people welcome.

The picture is my lovely daughter http://christyallbee.com/ and her husband http://davegannon.com/ . They have much more interesting blogs.

However my daughters blog is not always accurate in repeating what her father says, has said in the past, has done in the past, or plans on doing in the future. All corrections will be made here.

Everything else she post is interesting and accurate.