I visited the zoo...and they let me leave!

It was in the cards; the Broyles family was destined to visit a zoo on Monday. That's just what happened. The whole family got to visit a zoo. Thing 1 and his 1st grade class visited the Kansas City Zoo and that's where Sweet Thing went. He rode on the bus with the other students and she rode along with another mother, who is a teacher at his school. Thing 2 and his preschool class paid a visit to the Topeka Zoo, so Thing 3 and I drove over there as well. It was cold (relatively speaking) and windy, but we saw some cool animals and the boys enjoyed playing at nearby Gage Park.

Friday night we stayed home and had a campfire in our backyard. I played a little guitar (the amount of playing was small) and we busted out the little guitar (an actual small guitar) we'd been saving for just the right time for the boys to learn. It was fun and I enjoyed hearing the boys make up songs of their own and just sing out of pure happiness. I've also learned to loosen up a bit enough to just make up some kind of chorus to sing along of my own. There's few better feelings than the pure joy of singing. I love it.

Saturday we went to a small little family get together on Sweet Thing's side of the family. Several kids attended, which I like to see, and it was a nice day for grilling hamburgers. We got home late and bathed the boys and put them to bed.

Sunday, we cleaned house and caught up on laundry and I worked on reorganizing the garage and workshop, which had slowly accumulated a bunch of junk.

Monday, zoo. Then, I operated concession stand number six out of seven for the freshman class. I left there and headed immediately to play rehearsal. I've almost got all my lines memorized and the dance we have to do is coming along nicely.

Today, it's cold and rainy. It looks like I'll be riding my bicycle home in the cold rain. Bummer.

As usual, I pray overflowing, huge portions of blessings upon all my friends and family and their friends and family as well as my enemies.

something new

All of my devoted followers/readers (10) will know that I mentioned I've secured a role in A Midsummer Nights Dream. What they might not know is the role is Francis Flute. Francis Flute is a "rude mechanical". In Shakespeare's theater, this meant Francis was a blue collar laborer valued for his muscles, not for his mind. The rude mechanicals are to be a little rough, a little uncouth, a little bit on the vulgar (rude) side, because of their social status of not making much money and not possessing an education. Flute and the other rude mechanicals have made a play to perform for the wedding celebration of the king and queen. It's a competition, and if they win, they stand to win a sum of money to split between their company. Flue is excited to be a part of the production, but is picked by the amateur rude mechanical director to play Thisbe, the female lover of Pyramus. Flute is disappointed by being cast as the female.

I've seen productions where Flute is played by a young man with a thin figure and clean baby face. I've also seen it played by fully mature grown me with a thick beard. This shows the Shakespearean text can be interpreted at least a couple ways. One: Flute is the youngest and looks the most like a female of the participants; or would pass as a female the easiest. Two: Flute is clearly the ugliest, most masculine of the troupe and his playing Thisbe will be the most comical. Either way, Flute disputes the choice on the grounds that he has a beard growing.

Our rude mechanicals scene is supposed to be nearly a disaster, for comic effect. We try hard, and our hearts are in the right place, but is comical in our lackluster finished product. However, they end up winning the prize, and it's pointed out by the royalty in attendance that it was Flute's performance as Thisbe that sold the audience and caused them to win.

This informs my performance. Presently, I have a mustache and soul patch and I'm clearly not "youthful" as a young man. Also, what makes it slightly more complicated is our rude mechanical group, which is made up of men, has two female actresses in it. This begs the question obviously, why did the rude mechanicals director choose Francis Flute to play the female role of Thisbe. Now, this situation is specific to our production, it's not the case in all the productions I've watched. So, I'm thinking the reason the director would choose Flute is because he's incompetent, or has something against Flute, and he's taking it out on him in this way. We've decided one of the females, playing Robin Starveling the tailor,  will show her disdain at being cast as a man when there's a perfectly good male (Flute) to fill it.

At any rate, all of that was to say that I'll be doing a couple of firsts in this production. It will mark the first time I will be portraying a female on stage, even if it's known that I'm a male character playing a female character. Secondly, I'll be dying for the first time on stage, even if it's a fake death and it's in the play within the play. It will be my first comedy. Also, it will be quite physical comedy.

It's going to be great fun, and very funny for the audience.

Those are some firsts for me.

Spring cleaning

Friday night I ran the third concession stand for that week, with only five more to go! It was for a league track meet and we stayed there until nine o'clock. I cook the dogs and burgers and let the freshman students run the inside, including making change for customers. I have another to run tomorrow night, and it's for a big league middle school track meet, so we're expecting quite a number in attendance. The first two I worked were for the spectators at the girls varsity and junior varsity soccer games, so there was not a lot of crowd. Friday, I just set my portable radio on the end of the grill and listened to the Royals win their home opener against the White Sox and turned and flipped and wrapped about five dozen or so burgers and probably twice that number of dogs. Good fun. We had a friend's son over to stay the night on Friday, as his parents were out of town. They were still awake when I arrived home.

Saturday we gathered ourselves and left a little before noon to take the son home and to go to Sweet Thing's parents' house for Sweet Thing's father's birthday. They had the little outdoor fireplace going and her mother had cooked up a big batch of good lasagna and salad and other stuff. It was good and the sun was out and I took a small nap in the afternoon out in their yard in the grass. It was enough for me to get a touch of sunburn on my face. the rest of me was covered. Saturday night, we got the kids in bed and I wasn't too terribly sleepy, so I stayed up to watch a production of A Midsummer Nights Dream, starring Kevin Cline and Michele Pfeifer, from the nineties or early two thousands. It was good and it gave me more of a perspective on the character I'll be playing in our community theater's rendition for early summer. I also watched Saturday Night Live, which these days I don't choose to watch fully often, due to its time. It had me laughing out loud with some of their skits. I used to think that was my ultimate dream, to be on SNL. Is that sad that I never pursued it? Is it too late?

Sunday, I slept in as best as I could, then fried bacon and scrambled eggs and made toast to go along with it. We all ate breakfast and gave the house a quick once over before we all headed outside. At first the plan was to dig up the garden dirt a bit, but before we did that we wanted to just rake away the windblown leaves from along the edge of the house and from along the fence.  Well, it turned out we couldn't very well stop there, but ended up raking the entire backyard and south half of the yard and burning most of the leaves in the ditch. While near the end of the burn, the Ottawa Fire Department visited me and reminded me to call and acquire a burn permit next time. They were friendly and didn't even tell me to stop. Sunday's temperature was cool; clouds covered the day and made things a bit moist, and the wind speed was quite low. I had filled our two watering cans to have on call for immediate use (which I didn't need) and we were on the south side of the house and within about fifty feet of a hundred feet of active garden hose, ready to go) I stayed right next to the fire as it burned and I felt I had used precaution.

 I also removed the good compost we'd made, and which had turned to near dirt, enough for five or six wheelbarrows full which we dumped on our garden plots. What leaves we had left which we did not burn for a couple of different reasons, we placed in the compost pile where we'd removed the good compost earlier. I made the compost location bigger. I had a partial sheet of cement board leftover from tiling the bathroom which I hung on the bottom of the side of my workshop where the compost pile was expanded. It's down low to protect the wood siding of the workshop from the rot that's encouraged in the compost pile. I also had a little two by six fence that I'd built earlier for a task I don't remember any longer, which I installed at the end of the sidewalk to make a little wall for the expanded compost pile. Lastly, I used the leaf blower to blow off the rest of the detritus from the sidewalk and patio. I hope it looks much better when I approach it today returning from home. We worked until after dark to get it done and the kids didn't get to bed until after nine, and it was a school night!

We have a birthday party to host this Saturday afternoon. Thing One is turning seven years old! It's hard to believe. He's decided he want to visit a place called Zonkers! It's an arcade type destination. It's been difficult for me to accept that my exceptionally bright and extraordinarily mature and intuitive child wants to do something as common as go to an arcade, like any lowly plebeian. I guess he's just completely normal and healthy after all. It's just me who wants my sons to be of the cut that would decide a museum or a theater performance would be more in store. They say time flies when you're having fun. Well, I must be having a blast, because time has already flown!

Blessings upon my house, all those I know and love, and my enemies, too!

April Showers!

Yes, the obvious must be acknowledged.  April has not disappointed us in the rain department, so far. April has indeed given us several showers, thus far, just four days into it. We are thankful, moreover, for said showers. BUT, that's not the entire meaning of the title of this post: April Showers! No, the more exciting of the two meanings in this double entendre of the non-sexual sort gives a clue to the almost near completion of a long incomplete project of mine.  I finally installed a working shower in our house. (Cue applause)

Yes, it's true. Our family has lived without a shower for, I don't know, three years, I suppose, if I thought about it. We have been bathing in our bathtub as a way to preserve our good hygiene. It was a project i started about five years ago, I suppose and I completed a great deal of it, but never did acquire the shower surround, nor the wall mounted light fixtures for above the sink and mirror. 

Well, over the recent spring break I enjoyed, I installed the shower surround and mounted and connected the lights, mounted another wall mirror, and hung a cabinet, too. Sweet Thing hung up a nice looking shower curtain and, I swear, it looks like an honest to goodness, legitimate bathroom when we walk in there. 

I still have some things to do. For instance, Sweet Thing wants a shelf built and installed. I also need to repair a few dings in the wallboard I made when I wrestled the surround into place. Also, Sweet Thing wants the bathroom repainted. And the toilet paper dispenser installed. But, did I mention, we can take a shower now? 

Thing Two celebrated his fifth birthday, and we invited his grandparents and some friends of his over for birthday cake and ice cream and to play in the yard. We did that over this past Saturday.  Once they all left, we drove to Topeka to visit the zoo for an hour or two, then let the boys play in Gage Park, across the street. They had a blast in Gage Park and played until dark and it became too cold.

Monday was his true birthday, so we reserved some presents of our own for him to open in the morning before I left for school. I didn't get to see him after school, because I am the freshman class sponsor and the freshman class is responsible for operating the concession stand for the spring soccer games and track meets, of which there was one on Monday after school. I got home too late to say goodnight to the boys on that day. Thing Two got some cool gifts, like a light saber I would have loved to have had as a kid; rollerskates; and a pogo stick. He's a good kid, that Thing Two. 

I also have agreed to play another role in another play. The director for ACT Ottawa contacted me desiring for me to play the role of Francis Flute in A Midsummer Nights Dream. I knew of auditions and their production, but I had refrained from participating due to the demands it makes upon me of my time and the stress it places upon Sweet Thing when I am gone even more than I already am. Anyway, I thought I'd better say yes when opportunities arise of this nature, so I agreed. It will be the first time I will dress as a girl, in any situation, as far as I remember. Francis Flute is a man in MSND, who is cast to play Thisbe (a woman) in a play they put on for the king and queen. So, it's a play within a play, and I'll be playing a man who has to play a woman in a play. The scenes I'm in are meant to be funny, so I'm trying to get our little scenes to be as funny as we can.

I'll try to remember to upload some Youtube videos of different productions of it, so my innumerable readers (10) can watch them and get an idea of what I'll be doing.

May the month of April shower blessings upon all of you my friends, and all my enemies, as well.

 

Becoming more familiar

I'm becoming more familiar with posting videos I take and syncing a think-pad I use with the laptop I use and the two most frequently desktop computers I use. I'm not an expert, mind you. It's a trial and error type thing where I don't really know what I'm doing. I'm just clicking away most of the time and signing up my email the rest of the time.

Today is Thursday March 13, and tomorrow is the last day of school before the beginning of spring break 2014 and my family is on its way to beautiful Panama City Beach, Florida for our spring break vacation.

Wait a minute, that's not true. I confess. We're not going to PCB, Fla for spring break. We don't have any plans in the making to visit that place. Monday is St. Patrick's Day and we'll likely go to Lawrence, Kansas to watch their parade and let the kids go home with their grandparents who live in Lawrence, while "The Best Thing" (you like what I did there? You know, I'm Swamp Thing, my boys are Thing one, two and three) and I go to a pub and enjoy an afternoon kid free.

Then, I reckon I'll spend the rest of spring break doing things to repair and improve my home and property. If the weather gets really nice, I'll take Thing one and Thing two to pitch a tent at a nearby lake.

I hope to sell one of our surplus vehicles this Saturday. That will be nice to be shed of that. Then, we'll have to decide if we wish to keep the other vehicle that's not the van. We'll keep the van and, speaking of the van, we'll get it serviced over the weekend as well. I'd like to sell the wagon and then purchase a pickup by the end of the summer. I'm also on the lookout for a good single axle trailer to purchase and implement into our plans.

Well, enjoy Things two and three in the video and the backyard of our house. Blessings upon you all.

Have you seen this man?

Clearly, the reward amount is a typo in excess of $900!

That folks, is not an exaggeration. That's me after a typical day teaching sophomore English.

Today, more sunlight and warm southerly breezes. Last night, more sleeplessness.

I don't have much to report. Dad is down in Daytona, Fla. for bike week as a representative of Chariots of light.

Early spring is making us all a little crazy.

We're all a little crazy already.

Love and blessings to you.

It is tomorrow, today!

The sun'll come out, tomorrow...

Tomorrow is here today! The sun is out in east central Kansas! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! What a welcome sight to behold. The glorious sphere of near infinite nuclear fusion and white light has dissolved much of the atmospheric water vapor (clouds) and has warmed the air and cheered our hearts and has given us hope that June, July, and August are indeed on their way.

The sun being out has had a quite discernible impact on my own attitude. It was just flat out nice to be out and about yesterday, on Sunday afternoon, and to get all the tires aired up on the bikes for a family bike ride to the park. It was a popular idea, too, for the park near our house was filled to capacity with smiling adults and children and the screams of delight tumbled on the strong breeze from out of the south. 

My oldest and I had made a Pinewood Derby car, and Friday night we had three test runs, then Saturday morning was the competition. He placed 3rd, 2nd, 4th, 4th. His last race he placed 3rd, then they re-raced for some reason I couldn't discern, and he placed 4th that time. It was a hectic event, and pretty enjoyable for the most part. 

Saturday afternoon I spent cleaning up the south half of the yard inside our chain link fence. It was a complete mess and was in need of attention. I finished up well enough for the afternoon and I burned up all the little sticks in the yard and then we enjoyed a campfire into the evening with some of the firewood we had. 

Sunday, before the bike ride to the park, we had a fit of spring cleaning and I brought in my shop-vac to clean some hard to reach areas and up high. We finished off the weekend with some shrimp cocktail, grilled pork chops,  and a nice salad. 

The clocks have changed, of course, and I'm looking forward to more evenings of outdoor activity with the added daylight. Spring is on its way, people. Get your work gloves out!

Sister, sister

Yesterday was my sister's birthday, so I'd like to wish her a happy birthday: Happy birthday sister!  (I thought I better not use her name for cyber security reasons). She's been a good sister to me. I would supply all my droves of readers (10) with pictures of her and us from our childhood or our adulthood, but I have no pictures to share, sorry.

I'll share a story with all of you (10) that's from my sister's and my childhood:  when I was little, I didn't like steak. I know, go figure. Anyway, I would chew it, but I wouldn't swallow it, because my dad pretty much made me try it. Often I would receive derision from my family for "storing" my chewed up pieces of steak in my cheek; chipmunk style. Well, once I had removed said chewed pieces to the side of my plate and my big sister, always the surrogate mother, wished to make a point by stabbing one of the pieces onto the end of her fork and eating it, along with the admonition "You're wasting perfectly good pieces of steak!"

What a satisfying experience to reveal to her what she'd just stuck in her mouth and where it had been.

As I said, I don't have any pictures of my older sibling...to share on the internet.

The sun is starting to peek its head out. That makes me happy. The snow is almost completely melted. That also makes me happy.

Blessings upon you.

More blessed than I deserve

I received some bad news about a colleague today. Though my masses (10) of readers won't know her, I nevertheless don't feel comfortable divulging the details of her loss.

It was this bad news that prompted the title of the post. I am more blessed than I deserve. None of us is born deserving anything. We, all of us, disappoint those we love and who love us; we, all of us, make mistakes; we, all of us, fail at times; we, all of us, at times are self centered and unappreciative of how good we have things and all we have. I am no exception. I strive now to be appreciative of all God has provided for me, and to be appreciative of all that's given to me.

So, take the time to tell those people that matter to you that they matter to you. Just look at all I have to be thankful for.

February's sputtering

Not much to report, other than I've not slept well for two nights straight. Each night, I've awakened after midnight, near one or two a.m. and have not been able to return to sleep. To tell the truth, it's my future and my family's future which is causing me worry and loss of sleep.

I've been taught, and I think I believe, that I'm destined for something great. So, I'm on the lookout for opportunities. I am guilty of letting opportunities pass me by, and I want that practice to end. I want my eyes to be open to new opportunities and to be able to discern where a good opportunity exists.

I'm also guilty of being a coward, at times. Opportunities often require a risk, and I've had some difficulty discerning what it is I want or what motivates me. Therefore, I've been guilty of being a coward in the area of experiencing new opportunities. I've been averse to taking a risk for the sake of an opportunity. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained," so they say. Well, I've not gained anything from my current modus operandi.That's not true. I've gained a wonderful, loving family. Worth more than all the riches in the world.

I live in the United States of America, though, the home of capitalism! It's the beautiful thing about America, is that people may strive for greatness in the free market. Striving for that goal entails the risk of failure and financial ruin. It is financial ruin for me and my family which I've feared. It's also the sacrifice which is required in order for success, which has caused my hesitation and fear. I have to KNOW THAT I KNOW THAT I KNOW that whatever it is I sacrifice my time with my family for, is something in which I wholeheartedly believe.

I don't want to be a coward. I want to be fearless and decisive and to know what I want and how to go about getting it. I want to be a success at something. I feel like I've never been a success at anything. It might be partly true, because I've not striven for much, not attempted much, not sought to win. Where's my competitive nature? Where's my drive to win?

This post has been probably too uncomfortably personal for the masses of readers (10) following it. Yes, I'm vulnerable. I'm not happy with myself, and I will change it, and change comes so slowly. I want to experience what is so great about America, but I've gone away from my earliest education and now I'm muddled in the muck and mire of indecision and fear.

I'll post some more pictures of my kids and me and my wife, for whom (besides my own well being and personal satisfaction) I want to be successful, in order to be the best father and husband I can be (which I haven't been, except on the love angle)  and leave you with a question: Any advice?

Look at how happy and innocent we all start out.

Filling up their daddy's boots.

One of my boys showing he's brave enough to go down a long dark tunnel slide.

The snow adventurer!

You wanted the pix, you got the pix!

Look how clean the walls are behind him! Early days in the house!

Hey everyone!
Welcome to Monday. It was a short weekend. At least, it seemed short. There's never enough time for family. Unless you are other people. Other people, I've come to realize, don't value their time with family. Other people actually can't wait to get their parental obligations out of the way so they can have their own life back.
For now, at least, I enjoy my family more than any other people in the world. That is, I prefer their company to any other peoples' company in the world. For now at least. Maybe there will come a day when my kids so disappoint me, that I'll be thankful they are no longer living with me. I hope that never happens. I know there will likely come a day when I am not the person with which my sons choose to spend their time. I will be sad on that day, and maybe happy as well. I hope and pray that I raise capable men who are ready to leave the nest and make their own way in the world. I hope they are better at it than I am. I am living proof of that old adage which indicates that a horse can be brought to water, but can't be made to drink. I was taught the right way, but I didn't learn. That's on me and no one else. I own that. Owning it doesn't make it any easier, though.

When was the last time you were this happy?

Brotherly love.

In friend's tree stand.

Also in a tree stand, just lower.

Working hard having fun.

Here are some pictures of my boys.

That's my "Tom Joad" character from The Grapes of Wrath along with an outlaw cowboy and a pumpkin for Halloween a few years ago.

Another Halloween critter.

Things is good.

Things are grand around the homestead. Other than the fact that there will be little to no grass growing in our backyard this spring and summer due to the kids just plain wearing it down to the dirt, things are going fine. I'm serious, our yard does not look like it will recover very well. I guess I need to do some patching with the grass seed. I guess I am mistaken when I think grass will spread and grow, like weeds do. I guess I'll need to plant the seed and cover it with some straw.

I attended the Flint Hill Nature Trail Design Workshop last night at Ottawa City Hall. It was somewhat informative. I realize and anticipate that it won't be finished for 10-15 years. I guess I should be happy about that. I'm happy it will be finished, but the 15 years is so long to wait! I've seen the rails to trails plan for the state of Kansas: an entire network connecting K.C. to Wichita and Topeka and some other corridors. It's exciting for me to think of all the potential for traveling around Kansas with traffic problems nearly eliminated for a cyclist or hiker and in some cases an equestrian.

Thing #1 attends Scouts. Perhaps I'll write more on that another day.

Thing #2 and 3 are fine as frog hairs and full of beans. That means they're good. I'll now try to upload some pix for practice! Love to all of you and blessings.

P.S. Please let me know if I should use all of our names and real names of places or if I'm supposed to be safe and not... Sometimes I think it's kind of silly to use other names besides our real names and locations, and I know I've been inconsistent, too. Let me know what you think, please.

I think this is thing #2?

Thing #1 with his old favorite hat.

Thing #2 in his bunk bed pre-hair cut.

Here's how the trusty steed looks reflecting lights!

Thing #3 out for a brisk ride with Swamp Thing.

All three tearing it up!

Hottie!