Sunday, December 3, 2017

Christmas-always & Day 352 CJSM-book IV



Each Day is Christmas!

 

 

 

Live dawn’s new day as though it be your last

One dusk shall tell that any future time has past

Bring Christmas spirit to new discovered morn

Ever proclaim awaits fresh great adventure born

 

Sleigh ride delight glisten diamond crystal

“Giddy-up!” bay Stormy prancing proud

Bright New Year sun promise false warmth

Pull afghan tight, singing “Jingle-bell” tune

Chocolate hot assures arrival home quite soon

 

Arise at dawn, hairy prognosticator beast

Fear not just thou own dark shadow cast

Dare six week retreat to warm winter borrow?

Care I what might be your cold declaration?

Find warm comfort love in Valentine celebration

 

Subside wild wind, usher in mild lamb

String kite climb through fluffy white clouds

The Ides this day portend Caesar’s demise

St Patrick’s Day harbinger Vernal Equinox spring

Late season storm reminds remember Lion King

 

Warm showers gentle like Emerald Isle weather

Meadows greening sweeten Bessie’s milk gold

Reticent buds explode myriad rainbow palette

Forest-leaf floor release Morel mushroom yellow

Incessant Spring fever catches un-ambitious fellow

 

Must work harder to secure that needed promotion

Threatening damper saved by bright flower outlook

Bluegill are spawning, I know of a secret lake pool

Good intentions pure for meaning all I should do

Too beautiful a day to pass up firing the bar-b-que

 

Sipping lemonade cool in Maple shade dappled

Alfalfa bales waiting in the field keep calling

Oiled leather mitt and caught the smell of summer

Baseball game harkens, here comes Bob and Jim

Need one more to play, better call on ole Slim

 

Iced down watermelon in Mom’s borrowed wash tub

Fried chicken picnic, hot afternoon fun games

A refreshing swim in the creek before sunset

In “America, the Beautiful!” dusk flees coming night

Red-fire painted sky echoes bombs bursting delight

 

 

A hot time in the old town every day and night

Humidity so thick the preacher prayed for gills

Dog days of Summer not fit for man nor beast

Children immune to the whims of Nature kin

I cry, too, when the school times do begin

 

Soft cotton-white puffs traverse cerulean abyss

Stirring winds ripple on placid pond reflection

Hunter’s blood stirs with early teal migration

Longed for Fall hint promised in cool night air

Tethered child spirit breaks, adventure dreams flair

 

Bare skeleton limbs claw at alabaster full moon

Colored fallen leaves rustle, play tag before the wind

Bounty harvest in the barn, pantry larder full

Night time chill at bay by warm fire wood stove

Family safely sound in farm house treasure trove

 

Daddy and I chase cottontails with howling beagle pets

Logs chopped then split piled by the back porch door

Thin ice upon the lake in frigid dawn’s pale light

Thanksgiving reverence prays the evil world has ceased

Love shared among these guests to celebrate His feast

 

Deliberated decisions for that special treasure gift

Bright gala paper wrapped, tied with a ribbon red

Festive decorations adorn center-stage fresh cut tree

Blessings more this day and each one since the last

Each day’s been Christmas, Lord, in the year just past

 

Amen!

 

Merry Christmas!

 

Plus:



Day 352

 

 

Candy moved the staircase one too many times,

so Carl stabilized it with over 100 nails

 

 

To say that I have a penchant to “over-kill” might be a severe understatement. Hmm!

I do not “worry” about future outcomes nor do I fear “reality”; I can be cautious.

What I mean by that admission is that if I am building and 1 2X4 would suffice, I’ll install “2”, just to be “safe”. I once put an “office”-alcove in a basement setting where the lower level was completely finished with a huge bedroom and bath, a pool-table room with plenty of area around the perimeter for “fancy” shots. The 12’ opening called for an interior right-hand hinged door; I constructed the “opening” to be 8’ with an “arch” incorporated; I used 8-2X4’s for support. The fact that the opening was under an 8” supporting I-beam did not deter my call.

As, we are in the process of building our home on our newly purchased 200+ acre farm when  Candice decides to change the arched opening to the family-room---not once…but, 5-times.

I just got the crowbar and went into demolition-mode---each time she changed her mind; it turned out Okay[ we sold that place for a tidy profit some 11-years later and moved northwest.

The story about the stairs is very cute---much to my chagrin…good thing I have a sense-of-humor! Any “serious” personality would never confess such an obvious idiot-transgression.

I put a stair “framing”-header at the top of the stairs which terminated in a long hallway.

All of that is, on the face of it---pretty simple…for most mortal-men!? Well! Not so, for me!

Just maybe? I might have been a bit miffed over the 5-time “re-design”; to make sure the “header” held the weight-load of the stairs, I nailed those 2X12’s, already “overbuilt” with 3 boards where 2 would have sufficed. Well! I nailed that sucker---and nailed it…and nailed it!

My “real” carpenter-friend stood back with his habitual cigarette hanging from his lips, watching the “idiot” display while trying, unsuccessfully, not to laugh at the novice “nailer”.

When I got done hammering those myriad nails into that supporting structure, Jim laughed.

I had erroneously cut the final step of the stairs coming onto the upper floor---into the hall!

Jim said not a word, but he was very obviously most amused. I looked and looked, thinking he was amused by over-zealous habit of over-doing everything. Too may nails!? Way too may!?

Suddenly, when I, at long last, stepped up the final stair into the upper hallway floor, proud of my handy work, as it was, The hall floor had a distinctive “hole” in it at the stairway. What!?

Yup! I had built that final step coming up to the hallway---right into the hallway…Duh!

If left in that configuration, anyone coming down the hall would step into a 7’’ void. Not only is that mis-step very dangerous, it is definitely not code! Where did I leave that stupid crowbar?

It took me much longer to extricate those 100 nails than it did to errantly drive them home.

 

Ah! Cookie Jar Sweet “Live & Learn!”  (Hopefully) Memories!

 

 

 

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