I keep on walking away and they keep yanking me back in. My my it seems like an eternity but I am certainly not complaining. Folks are busy making music, building houses, engineering locomotives and building glass houses from which absolutely no stones will be thrown. I digress…
Item 1: Our annual spring campout is rapidly arriving and I have heard from reputable sources that the Turlock Fairgrounds has agreed to be a far much nicer landlord than last year. Considering Turlock my adoptive home I felt a little sting of hurt when I was made aware of the problems that happened last year. The sting turned into an ugly red welt when I was informed that none of the Turlock entities took responsibility for the shortcomings that were in abundance on the fairgrounds. Business minded folks should go out of their way to make paying guests feel welcome, not like a fourth cousin who was recently released from San Quentin and needed just a few weeks to get his feet on the ground and needed a small space to set up his newly created “shade tree mechanic” car repair business for his recently paroled cell mates.
Item 2: J.D. Let us know how you are doing. We are all thinking about you and your return to a healthier you.
Item 3: Speaking of a healthier you. Mr. Cornish will be looking at a heart procedure coming up shortly if he fits the criteria. You can e-mail Rick or phone him and he can give you the run down. As much as Rick has endured these past couple of years (Including leaving his beloved fiddle on top of his truck and taking off only to have it found and returned to him in one solid gorgeous piece) all this has strengthened his grit and determination.
Item 4: One Button Suit will be playing next week at the West Side Theater in Newman with the wonderful Red Dog Ash. My sister, Maria Nadauld, (Above the Bay Booking) shared with me the meaning of the name “One Button Suit.” Very original indeed.
Item 5: A couple of weeks ago on St. Valentine’s Day Sheila and I wanted to celebrate the forty-ninth anniversary of our “first meeting and date” at the lengendary White Hall in Hayward on “B” Street at a Valentine’s Day DeMolay Dance. I think Sheila and I were the only Catholics at the dance. Sheila was with a good friend of hers who was a Jobs Daughter, the female equivalent to being a DeMolay member,what my best friend Bill Cross was. I believe DeMolay is the grammar school before graduating to full fledged college Shriners mode. Bill’s father was a Shriner and the Shriners certainly new how to enjoy themselves.They did sponsor the East West Shriner Bowl Game and Bill and I made a couple of trips on the Shriner Bus to Candlestick to see the game and the bus was rocking and rolling with well oiled Shriners and friends. It was fun.The dedicated work they did with their hospitals and helping young children is legendary. A tip of the hat to them. I digress, back to Valentine’s Day.
Sheila and I wanted to celebrate a bit differently this year. Our youngest daughter Rhiannon has been prodding us to locate and adopt a dog. We have been dog free for the past two years and dog and cat free for the past 18 months or so. I can’t say it has been a bad thing. We had all of our carpeting taken out and replaced with lovely laminate flooring and then we had our bathrooms completely redone. We wanted to enjoy the newness and freshness of our remodeling just a bit before those pesky stains and odors somehow magically appear when you have a pet.
Rhiannon kept sending us pictures of adoptable dogs and she found this kennel-dog adoption facility in Patterson that had a good reputation with many dogs needing a loving home.Sunday on Valentine’s Day they were having an open house and adoption fees were being lowered to lure in the public. We decided to go because well it was time to get a dog.
We made the trip and our eyes were directed to a pumpkin colored small bouncy friendly dog that we were to find out was a mix of Basenji and Chihuahua. I took the year old bundle of energy on a walk around the premises and my mind began the process of projecting images of my beloved Sadie and I walking happily down the tree lined streets of Turlock on the hundreds and hundreds of walks we took on beautiful days.
I had promised myself that there would be no more dogs after we said goodbye to Sadie and Pepper. Losing them was just too much to go through. I didn’t’ t want to go through all that sadness again. On the other hand I was getting along in years and dogs can do so much for your mental and psychological well being. By the time I had finished my walk I was thinking of names for our Basenji mix. Sheila and I signed the papers, notified Rhiannon and Jessica that they were now god parents and we made our way home. We tried a few names out and Maggie was good for a day or two but Zoey came into the picture and that name stuck. She slept on our bed curled up in a tight ball the very first night and I now have a walking partner who will share the tree lined streets of my adoptive home with me for many years to come. I am a happy man and I believe Zoey is a happy puppy.
Until April Fool’s Day April 1,2016 or the Twelfth of Never whatever comes first… Read a book, hug a child, pet (or adopt) a dog, stroke a cat, eat a bar of chocolate and… Ikiru…
Brooks