bedtime for bonzo

I don't have to put Katie to bed anymore.  I do Kelsey.  She's 10 years old and loves for her dad to tuck her in.  We always pray.  I'll pray and then she'll pray.  She always has simple and sweet little prayers.  She has an innocent and sweet little voice.  She's a good soul.

Katie will often join us.  She'll stop what she's doing and come into Kelsey's dark room and pray with us.  Tonight we thanked God for loving us so much that he sent his son Jesus. We gave thanks to God for our family, each other.  We are very blessed to have each other.  We prayed for Mary who lost her husband (Gina's dad) a few months ago.  We also prayed for our pastor Jim Bentley who just lost his dad a few days ago.  The girls both prayed for the healing of my diabetes and my hurt toe.  These prayers are important to me.  They are simple prayers, but powerful, prayed by little ones with a big faith.

I still get nightly hugs from Katie, our 16 year old.  She's always had a need for hugs and "I love you"s.  I hope she never changes.  Kelsey seems to always want a little tickling before she goes to sleep.  Not too much, but just enough.  She giggles and laughs a little and then says "That's enough".  I oblige and give her a hug too.  She hugs and always hugs making me think she doesn't want to let go.

Kelsey goes to bed easily.  Sometimes she wants a story.  I only tell her stories if she's in bed early enough.  Stories can and have included, the Hulk, Puff the Magic Dragon, Iron Man, Superman  Ned the Squirrel and Mario.  She loves those stories and I love it when she gets so rapt into the telling that she chuckles with glee during the telling.

After the stories are told the prayers are said, tickles and hugs administered, we say goodnight in the dark.  This is what goes on most nights.  Good moments.  They'll grow up and these moments will be no more~only memories of them.  I treasure these days, I treasure my children.

"Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward."
-Psalm 127:3

painting painting and painting

The kitchen renovation for the most part is behind us.  A recent illness kept me from finishing the painting.  I painted the cabinets and the walls before the new tile, the counters and the back-splash.  Grout from the tile installation got on the freshly painted wall paneling.  Tearing out the old counter top messed up freshly painted cabinets to some degree.  A new piece of paneling had to be replaced several weeks ago and I had to repaint all the paneling so the paint would match.  I feel as if I am painting my kitchen over and over again.  In fact, I am.  The door that Jose' installed needed priming, sanding and painting.  I finally got that done today.  It'd look better if done by a professional.   I'll be so glad when painting the kitchen is over.

I spent much of my day today painting, then waiting for paint to dry in order to paint some more.  I am not a very good painter.  I try to be neat, I try not to make a mess, but I feel as if I get more paint on me than the object I am attempting to paint.  I did a fairly decent job, but not completely satisfied with my lack of skill with roller or brush.

Over the years I have acquired a respect for a good painter.  A good painter must be both highly skilled and patient.  I used to think anyone could paint, but I was so young, so naive, and so very wrong.  You really have to know what you're doing to be a good painter...and I don't.  Whenever I go to the paint store for a bucket of paint, I do my best to ask questions from the paint gurus.  I return home with instructions and the best paint money can buy with a high hope that I'll paint like a pro.  Nope.  I never do.  If I had the money, I'd pay someone to do it, but I don't so I don't.  I do the best I can and try to look at life as a big picture, not focus on the little things.  If I'm the dude doing the painting for you, I recommend you not looking too close.  Gina hasn't complained because she hasn't offered to help with the painting.  My rule is, you can't issue a complaint if you don't help paint.

I just did another walk through and see where I need to re-open the paint can yet again and go over where some more grouting mix stained the paneling.  I keep missing stuff!  Did I say that I am tired of painting?  Maybe I'll touch up those areas and finally get to move the rest of the kitchen stuff back into the kitchen.  We've had our kitchen remodeled for two weeks now and still not able to sit around the table for a family meal.  I'll continue to remind myself where I started and quit being impatient.  I've come a long way.  I'm almost there!  A little more painting and we'll be good to go.

I am so tired of painting!

finally a pretty kitchen

It was a busy-busy-busy day.  It was a very productive day. Some days can be busy but not always productive.  This was a productive day.  This was a productive week.

The kitchen looks better than it ever has looked.  Tile went down Monday.  Counter, back-splash, new cook-top and vent were installed today.  We even got a new storm door installed for our front entry.  Now Kelsey can sit in the warmth of home while she waits for the bus on those cold days.

There's so much more to do to our house, but I really feel good about what all has been accomplished.  Jose' is dropping by tomorrow to make a cabinet door to fill in a hole that the old trash compactor left.  I've got a lot of paint touch up to do after workmen have been banging around in there.  It shouldn't take long.  There's still some trim that needs to be hung.

I have a perfect area for a cupboard.  Eventually I'll have a cupboard to keep the microwave, convection oven, and small appliances.  Eventually Gina and I are going to have a table base made out of wrought iron to hold up a large round marble slab that my aunt Millie gave me years ago.  It will make for a beautiful kitchen table.

There's still work to do, but it's a different room now already.  It will be great to finally cook on a good cooktop ~ in such a nice kitchen.  It's take us a long time to get here.

look ~ a squirrel!

I love to write. I started blogging back in 2006.  I moved over to Blogger and launched an online journal called Long Journey Home in 2007.  My old Tripod blog location started inundating me with pop-ups and I got so frustrated that I ditched the site and moved on over to a new, quieter neighborhood.  Long Journey Home reflects  whatever is going on in my life or on my mind.  My mind is always going every direction, hence all the  varied interests, sites and groups.

I found myself launching another blog, about all things relating to growing up as a baby-boomer. So I pronounced myself Mayor of Boomerville, USA back in 2008.  Boomerville has been a fun trip for me.  I enjoy it because it's a place where we aging boomers can look back, mostly with fondness, and relate.  So many of us, no matter what part of these great United States we were born and raised ~ we share a common experience.

When facebook came along, I remember being invited into the realm by a dear old friend.  I originally thought facebook was a place to share pictures and chat and poke each other.   I had only two friends on facebook for about a year before it seemed to catch on.  After a while more and more family and friends started joining facebook and I was suddenly among a sea of people.

I still don't get the poking thing.

Having been a graphic designer for years with busy fingers, and an interest in political discussion, I ended up using my personal account for posting politically related graphics for encouraging conversation.  I create and post a lot of conservative minded original images and back them with related links and news items.  Sometimes there's been very lively debate.

In 2009 I created my  first facebook group out of boredom.  I had been instructed by my doctor not to lift anything after a surgery.  I didn't have anything to do around the house ~ so I scanned and uploaded a bunch of old photos and postcards I had of Etowah County.  Membership jumped day by day without any promotion or effort.   It just took off and has been up there ever since.  There's over 3,300 members today and still growing.  People have upload their own old photos and share their countless memories of Gadsden past.  We've had old friends that hadn't met in decades reconnect via Welcome to Gadsden.  There are many people there who were raised here and hadn't been back.  They come to reconnect and take part in this e-community.  It's been a wonderful experience.

A smaller group that I really enjoy contributing to is my Boomerville,USA group on facebook.  The reason I launched this group was as a means to link posts from my Boomerville blog.  I like to write and I want people to read what I wrote.  I was initially trying to herd people from facebook over to my boomer blog.  I don't really know if the group members even read the blog, but they seem to have plenty of fun at the group.  I love it when other people started making the group their own.   Both Welcome to Gadsden and Boomerville, USA have taken on a life of their own.  I've tried to keep both of these sites apolitical.  If people don't like my political stance, I can tell them a place where they can go.

Like I wrote earlier, I can and do get political, but not on certain sites.  I have a voice.  I have a desire to use my talents to state fact, truth, share news and inflict visual satire.   I post political graphics and commentary on my own personal account as well as The Daily Bullet.  It's a gun site, and I post A LOT of info regarding our inalienable 2nd Amendment Rights.  Most of my time on-line these days is used reading and gathering daily gun news, 2nd Amendment updates for this particular group.  I've acquired a bunch of on-line resources and feel it's a great reference for TDB members.  I've noticed that most news sources have an average of 1 to 3 gun related news stories daily.  I spend time going from news source to news source to news source, culling and posting relevant items for TDB ~ about 10 to 12 gun news items daily.  I have less than 200 members in this group, but it's been the place I've contributed the most.  I'm not a even a gun aficionado, I just started it to learn and I learning every day I am.

DISCLAIMER: No animals were harmed in the making of this blog.

that 70's kitchen

To own a home is continual upkeep.  Gina and I kind of got behind when we opened our business.  Everything we had went into the business.  Besides, we spent more time at the office than we did at home.  Now we the business is gone and we are home.

Our kitchen is finally getting a floor.  We had a tile floor laid yesterday and they are finishing with the grout today.  Hopefully Friday we'll have another crew in the house to install new counter tops, cook top, vent hood and back-splash.

I spent Monday painting trim that's going down at the base.  I had extra paint left over from painting the paneled walls in the kitchen two years ago and gave them an fresh coat too.  The floor has already made a big difference in our kitchen.

When we first moved in our house 16+ years ago, it was what I called 'a very Brady kitchen'.  Back in the 70's, hip housewives really dug Harvest Gold, Coppertone an Avacado (Wasn't that an Eagles song?).  Down through the years we replaced our harvest gold refrigerator, disposed of the harvest gold trash compactor, replaced the harvest gold (chipped) sink.  Jose' and I ripped up the harvest gold floor tile two years ago.  Hopefully by Friday evening we'll have disposed of the harvest gold cook-top and cook-top hood.  We've been getting rid of the far-outdated harvest gold stuff only as the hardware died.  I've been cooking off the two small back eyes of the cook-top for three months now.  The big burners died out and replacing the eyes was a waste of money.

The new cook-top will have five eyes and I'm a happy camper.  I do most of the cooking in our household and I'll be relieved to have a fully operational kitchen again.  The only thing harvest gold remaining will be the double oven.  It's ugly as hell, but it still works.

Jose' is going to try to come by Saturday and work on installing a trash bin drawer to go in the hole where the trash compactor used to be.  He's going to make a new door front and I've got enough paint left over to match the rest of the kitchen cabinets.

There's some other finishing touches to mind after that, but I'll get'r done in good time.