Entertainment

My dearest son caught Hand, Foot, Mouth Disease.  So, he was home sick for a bit with blisters in his mouth, on his hands, and on his feet.  Miserable little dude.  And bored.

So, how did we entertain ourselves?  Well, by switching things up a bit.

He got purple hair and all the popsicles he wanted.

And I got, uh, red streaks in my hair.

He's better now and I'm really glad of that.  But we sure tried to make the most of our "down" time.

  

hbk

The Smoke is Boiling

My wife says I'm a freak.  We were sitting on the couch tonight watching the closing ceremonies of the olympics when the hair on the back of my neck stood up.  I told her, "We're gonna get a call.  Where's my pager?"  I went to the front door, opened it and stepped out to look at the mountains.  There I saw it, a grey boiling column of smoke rising up from the hillside just south of us.

Ghosts in the night

I turned on my radio to hear the rising voices of my comrades.  I could feel their excitement.  I sauntered into the other room and got my wildland pants on.  Sauntered into the living room and casually pulled on and laced up my boots.  I listened to about 6 engines leave the barn and head up the mountain.  I got my camera and keys and drove slowly and carefully through the chaos to the scene.

Yes, I do know how to fill this truck.

Going to a fire can be a complicated thing.  Tonight, for example, there was a grandpa driving oh, so slowly and carefully up the very middle of the road.  He probably had no idea that there were lights and sirens all around him.

"the guys" digging line at night. 

Then, a little further up the road, off the pavement and into the clouds of dust, there were 3 girls on horses dancing in the middle of the road.  You can't really blow past in a big loud truck when it's gonna cause the horses to buck and hurt their riders.  We tippy-toed around them.

My friend Joe.  Happy with his saw.

Then there's the traffic coming down.  "Hey, do you know there's a fire up there?"  No, I was just heading this way, why?

1020 Pump Panel.  Uh, looks like ya got a limp hose there.  Hmmm. . . 

Anyway, I didn't really go to fight the fire.  I went to play.  I took pictures.  I helped fill coupla trucks with water.  I drained a hose.  I made bad jokes and had a great time.

The guys.  

It was good for me to get out.  It was good for me to play.  It was good for me to feel useful.

When I get home from a fire, the animals are always curious about where I've been.  So many interesting smells!

HBK

photos by Kiss the Fiddler (uh, that's me)

one month down

Here's my one month 90 Day Body by Vi Challenge update. Start weight, 225 pounds. Current weight, 211 pounds. Inches lost: 1/4 from my neck, 1/2 inch from each upper arm, 1/4 inch from each wrist, 1 inch from upper chest, 2 inches from lower chest, 2 inches from waist, 1.5 inches from hips, 4 inches from each thigh, 1/4 inch from each ankle. Thank you, Body by Vi! 

It takes guts to put it a

ll out there like this. I'm proud of the work I'm doing to get healthy. I'm grateful to ViSalus for giving me the tools that I've needed to turn things around.

I'm not doing anything too special. ViShape shake for breakfast, snacks, ViShape shake for lunch, more snacks, sensible dinner. Not much working out at all. It's hot and I'm lazy and don't want to pop a migraine by getting too hot. So, mostly by sticking to the ViShape shakes twice a day. Yummy! 

If you're interested in beginning your own transformation, leave a comment and lemme know. 

hbk

Sometimes, to be kind in life, you have to lend a hand to death

This evening, on my way home, I spotted a minivan stopped in the middle passing lane on the highway with it's flashers on.  On the northbound side of the highway was a pickup, stopped also with its flashers on.  There was an individual out of the pickup.  I carefully drove through the scene and notice that the headlights on the mini an in the middle of the highway were trained an a beautiful little spotty fawn who was in the road, injured.  I flipped around, pulled OFF the road, put my flasher on and waited for a break in traffic.  I advised the woman to call 911 and request an officer come dispatch the animal.  Then I asked her to remove her vehicle from the middle of the road.  The man from the truck help me gently move the fawn to the side of the road.  He was upset and I told him that I'd be find if he wanted to go.  He gratefully left with tears running down his face.

I knelt there, knees in the gravel and grass stickers on the side of the road, cars whizzing by.  I put my hands on the little fawn and she immediately stopped struggling and relaxed into me.  I could feel her pulse and her breath.  Her breath slowed and stopped before her heart stopped.  As I was breathing life out of her, I heard a sound behind me.  I glanced back to catch mama deer out of the corner of my eye.  She was so close I could feel her breath on the back of my neck.  She stomped her foot once and let out sort of a strangled chittering sound.  Then she pressed her chin into my shoulder, exhaled and turned and left.  I told her I was sorry, that I'd done all I could.  She was gone in the darkness.

Then I heard another noise behind me, in the ditch.  And I smelled the unmistakable smell of a billy goat in full scent.  I turned around with the dead fawn gathered in my lap to see a huge stinky billy goat snuffling his way through the ditch.  I found it to be so funny and out of place that I could not help but laughing.

When the officer got there, I was sitting in the grass and gravel on the side of the road with a beautiful dead fawn in my lap, laughing my food head off with tears streaming down my face.  The officer musta thought I was more than half cracked.  I showed him the billy goat and yes, he thought it was comical too.  He thanked me for my assistance in helping the fawn die.  He said he hated having to shoot injured animals.  He said I'd made his night easier.  I untangled the fawn from my lap, gathered up it's soft legs and tucked its little head in.  Got up and shook the officer's hand.  We went on our merry (or not so) way.

Such are the adventures of my life.

HBK