Star Wars Night at the Bison’s 2012
I've always wanted to be in with the show on-field, but could never commit to all the practices and rehearsals. Well, behold! The Universe found a way! About a week before, I was asked if I could stand in as a "captured Jedi", went to a rehearsal, and ended up on field! It was an amazing whole-day experience, being behind the scenes and actively being in photo shots, collecting donations, and visiting boxes with...
Personal, Hard Lessons Regarding My Country
I was in my second parade of the year with the lodge, this time for West Seneca Community Days. I got to hold the American flag again, and again I got salutes from a few vets. However, one caught my attention above all others. In front of one house stood a man whose apparent age could mean only one thing -- he was part of the [[Greatest Generation]]. His face was resolute as he saluted the colors, and I could...
Keyboard Desk
Mike asked me to make a keyboard desk for him. Apparently he just wanted something utilitarian that wouldn't fall apart. Apparently he didn't know who he was asking to make it. I also figured I suck at birthdays and such, and wanted to do something nice for him. I built it with an adjustable angle of 0, 10, and 20 degrees, with multiple holes for weaving cords as necessary, also holding the keyboard an mouse in...
Too Many Commitments?
Now might not have been the best time to start a block club. I already accepted the position of [[Tyler (Masonic)|Tyler]] at the Lodge, and although it does not involve duties beyond being a doorman at meetings, it further ensures I must be there at nearly all functions. AND I now belong to the [[Order of the Eastern Star]] with my wife AND the WNY Lodge of Research. Anyway, we held our first two organizational...
What’s been going on? Nothing much? Much.
When people ask what I've been up to, I sometimes have the knee-jerk response of "nothing much" or "I've been busy" but neither describes this year. There are just so many different things going on. They shot my (three) scenes for a new movie I'll be starring in called "Brandonwood", a full-length drama that at first I thought was a "friends"-style love story, but apparently is much darker and intense (I never did...
Poem in a Parking Lot
{I wrote this after getting gas today, thinking about my wife and that I'm tired of not writing poetry ... } You are not my Rock for a rock is cold, unyielding No, you are my very Earth support in every place I tread bearing blessings in a regular harvest You are not my Venus neither blinding nor fleeting with the pass of sunset or rise You are my Polaris the immovable constant of all that is good giving direction...
Not Quite a Spring
I hear the sound of lawn mowers, interspersed with the silence of snow, putting on a scarf to scurry beneath the blazing sun, birds chirping but bitter wind blowing. The color is heavy green without the accompanying smells of what nature intimates to be the season. And I do not know if I really want to be outside for tea, or to walk, on any given day, or moment. It has been like this since January. I would...
Our First Greehouse … In My Office
Merry found a great deal on a covered, 4-shelf rack greenhouse. I immediately went out and got it (at Big Lots), along with some potting soil. We went through our seeds and bought some others -- we're starting tomatoes, peppers, sunflowers, and various other flowers, some of which we will use at the cemetery in Dunkirk. We plan to save a fortune doing it this way ... if they take. But now, days, later, we have...
A Little Visitor
A client at the vet hospital, someone who devoutly cared for her own animals, finds a teacup poodle in the middle of the street, so dehydrated and hypothermic it was unable to do more than twitch in an effort to avoid oncoming cars. She scooped him up and brought him in, willing to pay for any treatment necessary. Comatose, the hospital did what they could to warm him and inject fluids. This was a Friday night,...