I'm looking outside at a cool,crisp day,drinking some coffee and talking to a bear. Yep,I speak bear fluently,its a skill I picked up about 13 years ago back in California. I learned it from my friend Melissa who in turn taught herself when she befriended her first bear about 15 years ago.
I rarely get a chance to use this skill but do enjoy it when I do. My bear friend,who is named Kendra,used to be a happy-go-lucky bear but now has settled down and is raising a family now so we don't many chances to chew the fat. She is a wonderful mother and a one of a kind bear!
So much has happened since I last blogged. Of course the BIG story was the Yankees sweeping the Mets over the past weekend! So happy about...not only they won but also scored 18 runs while holding the Mets to just 7!! But now my good buddy Tom is saying he isn't going to wear the Yankees cap if he loses....sort of bummed about that but I know he'll come up with a clever way of paying off our annual bet.
Lori's folks came down for a visit and as usual it was a eventful weekend full of weirdness. Her dad calls us because he is restless up north and wants to get away for a few days,I can understand that....I really do. Lori and I planned a nice weekend for the visit but all we got was a bitter old man who is obsessed with money and expecting to get paid back for every little kind deed he does. He wonders why he has no one ever come to visit them....why?
This story he has told me twice now....a neighbor's trailer blew up and he lost everything. Lori's dad gave the guy 100.00 towards recovering his life. Nice gesture,right? Well,not really.....because of that gesture,Phil (Lori's dad) now feels that the guy,who they ran across at a local diner,should have bought them a fish dinner! No,I'm not kidding....he then tells me 3 or 4 more stories like that. I was just shaking my head...and wondering if he was spewing such crap about us. While we are very thankful for his help during our medical ordeal this past year,its very disheartening to know that is how he is expressing himself. But I think he knows better then that...after all...we took care of his sister and her severe injury last year and the side effects of that. Lori is a such a good daughter who really has helped her parents in so many ways and her dad should be very proud of her. To expect people to repay a kind gesture,I mean really....if anything,you want that person not to repay YOU but hopefully pay it forward to someone else who might need a helping hand!
Anyway,we did end up going to Cabelo's down in Dundee. This place is HUGE
Its has 2 levels of whatever a hunting,camping,fishing fanatic would want. The place is always packed and you can see cars from Ohio,Illinois and Indiana in about the same amount of Michigan license plates.
Phil loves the outdoors so we thought this would really make his day....we got Lori's momma (who has Alzheimer's) into a wheelchair and I kept her entertained by pushing her around the store.
This enabled Lori to help her dad spend a little fun time just poking around...looking at light jackets for her mom. We spent about 2 hours there before we left....without finding a jacket despite many cute ones for sale. He stated he wasn't impressed because had already been to Bass Pro Shops (but didn't find a jacket there either)
We decided to have lunch at a local place in Ann Arbor called The Bread Basket,he ordered 2 corned beef sandwiches while Lori had a salad and I had a roast beef. He bitched about his sandwich...I ended up giving him half of mine. Lori told me he had bitched about the hamburgers she has grilled up...and while she was fixing dinner,he was watching TV but told her "keep a eye on your mom". Now I was at work so I missed that but that would have set my teeth on edge. This is why I hate when he comes down the most....as soon as he gets here,he dumps his wife's care on us completely. Now I don't mind helping out but its important he stays in the picture because Lori's mom is used to seeing him every day when it comes to cleaning her up,feeding her and getting ready for bed. Just to quit doing it puts a lot on undue stress on her...so we have to tell him to stay involved.
Sunday was much better and no drama,I worked and came home and grilled up some steaks we got from Marv's (aka Eastern Market of Canton). We watched the Tigers for a while then I went to bed early since I opened at 6 am the next morning. Lori's folks left later that day and got home safely. But as far as them coming down again....Lori is pretty much dead set against it. Its sort of sad on many levels because her dad wasn't always like that....not by half.
Oh yeah.....I almost forgot....because I guess I am just embarrassed by my stupidity. Saturday night after dinner we were all sitting outside just chatting. Lori was telling me that they had knocked down a yellowjacket's nest that was between our screen door and patio glass door. We could see the remains while we talked. Now I had nuked the two nests that once again had been built last year with bug spray. In fact after seeing that destroyed nest,I peeked at one of the nest and only saw two dead yellowjackets that had been killed but not fallen.
Good news....but now we saw that they had moved to a new area by our kitchen window. Now this is where its gets stupid.
We see the nest....now instead of waiting til it got cooler or the next day when I could safely nuke the nest,what did I do? Went inside and grabbed a small stick....now I know what you're thinking. Don't put a stick in a hornet's nest,right? Well....I go back outside and said "This might be a bad idea" But Lori had a watering plant can and said "I'll drown them when they hit". So we proceed to knock down the small nest and sure enough,she drowned about 4-5 yellowjackets. Yay team!
We then proceeded to the second big nest that I had nuked before,I peeked in and saw activity. I turned around and said "I'll have to hit it tomorrow" but Lori said "we'll use the same tactic as before". Good in theory,bad in reality. Against my better judgement,I stuck the stick in the nest behind the light and ......BAM! Saw the empty and a instant sting on my lip! Yep....I had been stung and it hurt like a motherfucker! First time I had been stung by a yellowjacket and wow....I had been stung by bees before so I knew what do and I rushed to get a credit card...which I carefully scraped across my lip which by now is starting to puff up.
This isn't me.....and it was my lower lip that looked like this. I put ice on my lip,then baking soda and water paste to help draw out the poison. Lori gave me a benedryl and after 2-4 hours,the swelling was much better. I couldn't use my CPAP machine that night because of my face but I still slept fine anyways.
Felt back to normal the next day.....after all I am a Roughneck and wouldn't want to let Rico down....right?
I still haven't taken out the second nest as of yet,going to wait til tonight when it gets cooler and then I'm going to spray the poo outta that nest and kill 'em all!!!!!
Okay.....I have spent way too much time on here and I have a yard that is calling my name. So I'm outta here for now....but I like to thank Christopher Petersen who tirelessly helps promote other writers and their work. In this day and age...one needs all the help they can get in promoting a new blog,book,album or whatever a artist may create. So Chris.....thank you again!
Okay,that is all I have for now.......be safe!
Laurel- Dobermans rule!
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