About Dad

Dad's been gone for a year now. I find it amazing that it's been that long but the calendar doesn't lie. Until now I haven't been able to talk about Dad much and I haven't wanted to really share him either. I somehow felt (and sometimes still do) that sharing my memories of Dad was somehow giving him away or losing him...in any case it was too painful. Now I think I can handle it in small doses at least. And if all goes well I will periodically drop a story or two in here for all to read. This is my first. I hope you enjoy it or maybe it will jog a memory of your own that you may want to share. :)

My earliest memories of Dad are of Mom yelling out "Daddy's home!" and running to hug and kiss him at the door. I was very young ; I have no idea what age I was then. Dad would hug and kiss us all (although there were only 3 of us to greet him back then and I don't know which 3 we were) and often have something to eat before taking a nap. He was a milkman; starting his day at about 2:00 am and coming home in the early afternoon. We knew at an early age that we had to be quiet when Dad was sleeping but we had no idea how hard he was working to support our family. He never complained about the hours and I never recall him saying he was tired. He just did what had to be done. Apparently that one phrase stuck with me during my life because even now I find myself saying "Mommy's home" to my dogs....and they come running to greet me too.

Fashion Statement

And this fashion statement is saying......I don't want to pick blueberries anymore, Grandma. (she's wearing the bucket on her head)

Spontaneous

I was going through the line at the grocery store, not thinking anything in particular. I felt quite normal as I loaded my items onto the belt. I bought ice cream on sale...stacked the little cups together as I tend to pile all like items together. I sometimes wonder if that's normal..but I've had baggers tell me they like that I do that. Then came the bags of frozen veggies and the other sale items and at the end of the line came the Cornish game hens.

I don't know what possessed me to do it, but I suddenly found myself laughing and telling the cashier that I like to make the Cornish game hens do a little dance before I cook them. I made the motions of dancing game hens with my hands in the air in front of us. He starred at me and I continued to tell him that I used to make them dance for my kids when they were young and now I do it for my granddaughter...only you have to be sure to not do it too much because then they seem like real little dudes and it's too hard to eat them. That's probably why our parents always told us not to play with our food.

There was silence...

I looked at him...he looked at me... and then we both started laughing like our guts were going to explode. I did the hand motions again and asked him if he could see the dancing hens? He laughed harder and said it's so nice to come across someone that isn't so serious or stressed out. I said you mean someone who's crazy? He smiled at me and I smiled at him. He said you have a great night and I said I just did. I hope you did too!

What a odd and wonderful moment.

Lou's Blues

Florida has a night life much like any other place...with one exception. This place called Lou's Blues, is definitely the exception! Never in all my born days (just had to get that line in there somewhere) have I seen a club like this! There are so many oddities hanging from the walls; the ceiling and standing on display, your eyes don't know where to look first. And just when you think you've seen it all...you find something you missed. It's fantastic and one of a kind!

The band that played that night 'Vilify' was so good I stayed for 4 hours and I had originally intended to stay for only a little while. I spoke to the lead singer, Shain Honkonen who was really great. He writes most of the bands music and sings everything from Aerosmith to the Beatles. He's clever, humble and really quite talented...and of course HOT too! We got quite friendly with Larry who was the sound man but all the staff was extremely friendly there.

I took so many pictures that night I had to make them into a couple of videos. If you ever get a chance to visit Lou's Blues you have to do it. I even bought a t-shirt and I don't usually wear t-shirts with free advertising on it. :)

Brevard Zoo

Now as bad as the animals were at the Jungle Adventure, the Brevard Zoo was that much better. This was a REAL zoo...not a zoo wannabe. The animals were in spacious habitats that resembled their natural habitats, they seemed very content, no one was panting or pacing restlessly, and some of them we didn't even get to see....which means they were off doing whatever a wild animal does. (I suspect some of them were at their mid-week poker game) That is fine with me. Yes, I didn't get to see some animals that I really was interested in, but in a zoo environment if the animals are happy, so am I.

The day was very hot...but what day wasn't? Every animal has access to clean water and plenty of shade. Those that enjoy climbing trees were doing just that. Just as those that enjoy playing in water were doing that too. Everybody seemed to have what they needed to make them as comfortable as possible and I really can't object to that. In theory at least I don't really approve of zoos in general. I believe that wild animals should be left in the wild. But I also know that it's out of my control so instead of avoiding zoos on principal I go to them to satisfy myself that these captives (lets face it, that's what they are) are at least being well treated. Most of the time that is the case. There may be something that isn't as good as it should or could be but overall there is a sense of caring and responsibility with most zoos. However, that does not extent to a circus. I will never set foot in a circus again. Keeping wild animals captive for the enjoyment of humans is bad enough...when you start making them perform stupid tricks and un-animal like stunts (riding bikes/jumping through flaming hoops, etc.)..well that's where I draw the line. Why do you think elephants go crazy and kill their trainers??!!

Anyway...we had a lovely day at the Brevard Zoo. It's well run, clean and seems to be a happy environment for all the animals. They had brightly colored birds in different areas of the wooden walkways that would sometimes talk to you. You never knew what they'd say. It wasn't always the usual bird lingo. First we came upon a very blue parrot that kept calling me a cracker! He wasn't saying he wanted a cracker...he just kept calling people cracker. Then we came upon a happy older man that worked there and he offered to take our picture with some very pretty red parrots. He told us when he first started working there he eventually ended up working with these parrots. He was doing his job and suddenly one of them said 'your fired'....later on the other one started telling him to 'get back to work'. He said he found himself telling the birds to make up their minds..is he fired or should he get back to work??

We seemed to have a lot of bird interaction while we were there now that I think of it. One area was exclusively for birds and I ended up having three very brightly colored small parrots following me. It started with one bird and I swear he said something to the others and before I knew it I had three of them walking on the railing and following me. They cracked me up! As it turns out there is some kind of honey cup that they sell to people on the way in and the birds are used to being fed. I didn't see the cups being sold so I came in empty handed. Poor birds were probably wondering why I was holding out on them! Good thing these birds didn't talk. I can just imagine what they would have said to me.

So here are some of the pictures I got from the zoo. Of course I have tons of them but there are just too many to post.