Summer Gone By

Breeanna and I having a little golf outing. 

       This summer I have been in the process of trying to discover any new talents that I could possibly have acquired while aging away.    Some friends asked me if I would like to join their small golf group that they had put together years back.  They had lost one of their foursome so they invited me.     We would golf every Wednesday.    We would travel to a different courses.   We would put small wagers on the side.   I have to admit that I did enjoy that little outing, but of those in the group I continued to hold my position at the bottom of the rankings.   I even got on "Craig's List" and hunted down some newer clubs thinking that maybe my lack of skill could be my lack of name brand equipment.   Of course that was not the case.  (I have come to the conclusion that I just lack golfing skills.  We will decide next summer if we are going to trying that golfing thing or not.)
      I have a classmate buddy that is deep into growing dahlias.    He belongs to a dahlia club and raises several hundred flowers.   He goes to the state fair and also enters other showings.  It appears that he constantly comes home with little trophies and ribbons of sorts.   In fact he gave me several bulbs last winter and I was thinking how could I not be a dahlia champ like him.  I planted those bulbs.  I staked those plants.  I watered them when needed.   I did get several nice looking flowers.  I managed to dig up the new bulbs this fall that I can hopefully replant next spring.   I thought I did alright, but when I saw the pictures on his plants and the ribbons he won at the 2016 fair - I decided that I'm just an ordinary flower guy.  (Jeeze.   I can't even pronounce the names of 95% of them).   

 

     I always wondered if I could have been a painter.  At one time I did take an artist course.   And I did paint a couple of canvases.    We are so proud of them we hung them on the wall in the basement storage room.   (I'm not sure why they even qualified for that.)   
    For a couple weeks this summer,  Pam and I busied ourselves painting the house.    I noticed that ours is the only house in the neighborhood that still has to be painted once in awhile.   The rest have vinyl siding or whatever you call it.   For those of you that forgot, there is this process of power washing the house and scraping and finally the painting.   We matched to the same color as what was previously on the house.   That was kind of a blessing.
   I discovered that I lack any kind of artistic painting talents also.   By the third day of slopping that paint brush back and forth I discovered that applying paint is not my source of fun.

   So now that summer is over, and now that fall is just about over, and now that the election is over it is time for me to realize that no new talent is going to show up as life moves on.  It is time to go back and play with my toys.   It is time to get back into the wood shop.   I got so excited thinking about it that I went out and bought myself another sander.    I have come to thinking that sanding a board is better than golfing, gardening, or painting any day.    Even sweeping saw dust off the floor gave me a little buzz.

       Slowly I am moving my tools back down to the basement shop.   Slowly,  I am compiling my new "to do list".  Slowly I am trying to get back into the blogging habit.  (I even had to hunt down where I last left my camera.)   You know what?   Who needs to be a super talented guy anyway.    I just received another donation of wood scraps.    It was like an early Christmas.      I love my big pile of scrap wood.   I love my washed out apron.    I love my new sander.    I love my cat...   Wait...   Scratch that last one.