Time has taken it's toll upon my old steed.
I took it all apart to start removing the surface rust and discovered that time and water have rusted the main beam through to the point that I doubt that no matter how much I clean it up and repair the paint, my buddy will not hold weight anymore.
I don't have the heart to just throw it out. So the tricycle is going into retirement in the guest room by the fireplace as a token to my childhood. 

From Drop Box

It's Christmas Eve so I thought I would share a little Christmas story, in hopes of spreading a little cheer around.
In the Winter of 1981, my family was in the middle of building the cedar house on Groaning Rock Road. I remember how we didn't have heat the first winter. I remember sleeping between my father and mother in the living room next to the fireplace since it was the only source of heat in the whole house. We really shouldn't of moved in yet, since the back wall of the house wasn't even closed in yet, but they were at the time so poor that renting a home wouldn't of allowed them to work on the house. I remember laying in my little crib/bed and hearing Mama and Daddy fight about finances and if they could even afford to buy me any presents that year. The fights were so common and loud in those days that my Great Grand Parents would often come up the hill and take me back to their house down the hill. It was this Christmas that Santa didn't come to my house. I was told that the chimney was stopped up and that Santa would have to come back later to bring me something.
So, Christmas morning, instead of opening presents, Mama let me sleep in. It was my Papa Jack, My Great Grand Father, that woke me up that day. He burst into my room, yelling that Santa had come to the wrong house and had left all my presents at his house by mistake. He knew my parents were going through a tough time. He knew that they wouldn't of been able to give me anything that year. So... the story goes that at 2am, he had called one of his friends who just happened to manage the Sears store in Commerce and convinced him to let Papa come by for some, really last minute Christmas shopping. I remember walking into Big Granny's living room and seeing a candy apple red tricycle right next to her heater. It was gorgeous! The reflection of her dining room lights made the paint glow like as if it were on fire. The little tassels would flutter each time someone would open the door. To the four year old me, this was a Ferrari. I loved that tricycle so much that I never let anyone else ride it, if I could help it.
I remember seeing Mama hugging Papa Jack and crying. I remember him saying that "A boy needs a tricycle. A young boy needs a Christmas".  That tricycle went through some rough times with me. I would ride it all over the areas dirt roads. It was my main transportation on many trips to the creek on Dunson Cemetery Road for a hot summer afternoon of Horney head fishing. It may of lost the tassels a week after I got it, we may of wore through two sets of tires, and it may of been beaten up by a young rough and tumble boy, but the greatest present of my life never lost that gleam and glitter in it's paint job.

If I thought the way you think I do, why would I dream of being with you every night?

Still here.... Oh well, guess I will have to go to work in the morning after all. 

R.E.M. - It's The End Of The World

Family recipes:

Tis the season for food. I thought it would be nice to share some of my families signature dishes in these times of family and friends.
At the family dinners, we had every Sunday night, I would always pick out these dishes as my favorites and usually stuff myself to the brim with them.

Banana Bread

3 Bananas
1/2 cup of cooking oil
 3 eggs
2 cups of plain flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder

Mix bananas, oil, and eggs. Set aside. Sift all dry ingredients together. Combine banana mixture with flour mixture. Add one cup of chopped nuts (Opt) Cook in loaf pan at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.

Betty Corn  (Grandmother)

Chicken Dumplings 

Boil one chicken and debone it. In the broth, put 1/2/ stick of butter and bring to a boil till reduced down to 10 cups. Drop in 3 cups of  biscuit dough, small pinch of dough at a time and boil for 10 minutes. Add one cup of milk and stir in 1/4 cup of flour to thicken. Cook about 5 minutes, stirring to smooth lumps. Add back the deboned chicken that you have chopped up and serve.

Roberta Dunson (Great Grandmother)

Cornbread

2 cups Cornmeal
3/4 cups of lard
Enough buttermilk to moisten

Heat and melt shortening in a black iron skillet. Pour melted shortening on top of cornmeal in a bowl and put skillet back in over to keep blistering hot. Add buttermilk to make it very moist. Mix well. Pour mixture back into the skillet and bake at 350 degrees until golden brown on top.

Aunt Mae ( Great Great Aunt)

Onion Cheese Supper Bread 


2   1/4 cups All-purpose flour
3/4  tsp Salt
1 tsp Sugar
4 tsp Baking powder
1/3 cup Butter, very cold
1 cup Milk, very cold
2 Egg
1 tps Lard
1/2 Cup of chopped yellow onion

1 cup of sharp cheddar cheese (shredded) 

2 tps Poppy Seeds 

2 Tbs melted butter

Saute' the onions in shortening. Once they are translucent, mix them in a small bowl with 1/2 of the cheese. Mix in the dry ingredients, milk and eggs. Pour mixture into a greased round baking pan. Sprinkle the remaining cheese and poppy seeds on top. Pour melted butter on top of all at the end. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. 

Patty Standridge ( Mother) 

Family and Friends mean a lot to me. Friends come and go through our lives. Some stay for a while, some just pass through.  But, when you are invited in as family, you are always going to be known as family. No matter how far away you are. No matter how long it has been since you sat down with us to break bread.
Enjoy.

Z

   

I may of over planted seeds for my Celosia bed this year.
Anyone want some?

Vindication

You are too old to start a new career. 

You aren't going to be able to keep with work and school at the same time. 

Why are you doing this? The kids are going to get better grades than you and it is just a waste of your time.

Fuck you all!

DEANS LIST BABY!!!!

I really miss talking to you....

Had to share this:

My reward for giving Braxton silly string for Christmas this past weekend in Commerce.

Biopsy done.... I was in and out in 2 hours.
Why the hell would you put that off till mid January as my ex-general practioneer would have me do!

Mouth breathers need their own waiting room

Just bored  and annoyed while waiting. 

After my frustration with the local GP, I have taken off to Atlanta in hopes that a real doctor could give me a second opinion.

Bonus: I'm apparently going to see the Handel, Messiah performance at the ASO tonight!

Office cam is  back up.
I don't know how or when my server went down. Sorry.

Small town country doctors are the absolute worst thing on the face of this earth. Who in their right mind would give someone the news that their cancer has come back and that you need surgery, then give you a month of waiting till they can do anything about it!
How in the hell am I supposed to enjoy my holiday with that load weighing down upon my shoulders! I'm to the point, after looking for a new doctor that can take me before January the 10th and having no luck, that I have been debating for the last couple hours that I can do the surgery myself. If a Russian doctor can take out his own appendix in Antarctica, I should be able to find someone qualified to work on me in this god forsaken crap hole of a state.
God! I hate Georgia!!!!

I don't know if anyone really reads this anymore. It really doesn't matter who does since this is not going to be the "stuff I don't want to put on Facebook" blog anymore. This morning, I was given some horrible news from my doctor and I just wanted to talk to someone, but since no one cares to listen anymore, I'm just going to get it all out here. I tried to just ignore this blog and let it slip into internet obscurity when my one reader I cared about stopped reading. But, there is a definite calming feeling after I post something on here that has substance pertaining to what I am doing in life.

 No real details, no questions of "what is it all about", no more desperate unrequited love notes to a lost love, just me talking about my life.