15 years of companionship

After my wife, Jessie was the longest running relationship I had. 15 years ago my wife called me at work saying that she had found a puppy and it was cute. Later that night I picked up the smallest ball of energy that I had ever come in contact with.

We did great things together. We vacationed, swam in the ocean and chased ducks at the lake. She would always fetch the ball, but not give it back to me and only one time did she catch a Frisbee in mid air.

She was genuinely happy to meet anyone…aren’t all dogs. She never fought with other dogs; she treated me better than I ever treated her. She got out 5 times in her life. Once she ended up at the Los Coches Saloon eating pizza and beer I presume. She hated loud noises…the reason for the a fore mentioned escapes on the 4^th of July.

Today is sad day in the Vossbrink house. I carried the once jubilant puppy to the car as her body trembled. She was shaking on my lap as we waited in the lobby, and when she went into the exam room she looked worried. She never really liked going to the vet to begin with.

As the Vet tried to get a catheter into her leg, she fought. I’m sure it was painful…this was spunk that I hadn’t seen in a year or so. Her last few months have been painful with arthritis in her hips. The Doc finally gave her a shot in her bum. She had enough energy to eat a couple of doggy treats, but in about 7 minutes she was asleep and relaxed.

A few minutes later the Vet came in with a syringe and injected the meds that would eventually ease her pain forever. Even though she was sedated, her back legs and tail curled up under her body. 30 seconds later she was gone

As she slipped away I whispered into her ear….”Run Jessie…run” something that she hadn’t done in a long time. I don’t know if there is a heaven for dogs, or maybe they share the same Heaven where I’ll be, but I know that the vivacious puppy that was a apart of this family will be missed by more than just we five.

She was a great dog and I will miss her bark

Santa Up!!! (Part Deux)

Ed note: the body of this text was lifted from a brilliant piece I wrote 2 years ago.

Some Tradition: As long as I can remember I’ve been getting gifts from Santa and usually at multiple locations. Along with the stockings he stuffs here at the in San Diego and gifts under the tree, Santa still leaves a gift for me at my parent’s house every year…and he drops off gifts for the kids there as well. This is a family tradition that my parents fostered through the years. Every Christmas eve, we would open the gifts from friends and family, and while we slept, Santa would stop off at the house, and re-stock the tree. It was really pretty cool.

Some Reality: I know there is no one “person “Santa that flies around the world in one night. Now that my twins are near 10 and they are having their own realizations that Santa may not be a real person. We have sort of a Don’t ask, don’t tell policy about him. We tell the kids, “You may not believe he’s real, but, if you write him off completely, he may not bring you gifts.” This may seem like a back handed way to continue their belief, but it seems to work. We are very clear with the older two, that if they don’t believe, they have no permission to taint their little brother. He has not reached the age of consent, and he believes 100% that Santa will be here in a few weeks…and he will.

Keeping the Dream Alive: The great thing about Santa is that he has no reason to give gifts, other than for the joy of giving. I will admit that Christmas true meaning lies in a different location other than packages, boxes and bows. The tradition of giving at Christmas, at any level, to anyone, can bless the giver and the receiver. If you don’t believe me, just give a homeless person a ham sandwich and you will figure it out.

The True Santa: My point is that Santa is in every one of us. He IS real, because he is in every one of us. His character traits are consistency, trustworthiness, tradition, fairness, giving, love and joy. The traits that parents should hope to emulate throughout the year. As my kids get older, Santa’s true identity will be reviled, but that won’t stop his return.  I’d hate for my kids or their kids, to grow up in a world where Santa is a character, relegated to department stores. He is a part of my family tradition, and I hope that he will live on for generations to come.

Santa Up!!! To Santa or not to Santa (Part 1)

I’ve got two soon to be 10 year olds…do they believe in Santa? It’s hard to say…they may have their doubts, and they have heard the talk at school that Santa is actually mom and dad. I also have a six year old…He is firmly in the Santa camp. Just this week while driving from campus to campus, he was telling a friend in the car about how Santa comes into his room and takes his favorite blanket from his bed and puts it in his stocking. Her reply was that Santa brings her Cheetos

Now there some Church going friends of mind that believe that the idea of Santa defames the real meaning of Christmas. Sure “Jesus is the Reason for the Season” as the slogan goes, but there is something about a complete stranger that would monitor your behavior all year long so that he may deliver toys and goodies on Christmas Eve. As for myself…I don’t think it hurts so long as Santa is put in perspective.

I can say that my family takes Santa concept to a much higher level than most families…it’s not just Santa…come Valentine’s Day the “Great Heart” will bring gifts…the Easter Bunny duh, “The Great Firecracker” on the 4^th of July, and the “Great Pumpkin” and “Great Turkey” for their respective holidays. These lesser great phantoms of the night don’t bring huge amounts of gifts, but maybe some candy for a treat or note pad for the kids to journal in.

More Tomorrow…

Entering the Christmas season

If you stopped by any retailer lately you will see that the Christmas shopping season is upon us. Frankly it’s been pretty noticeable since the end of October. As of yet, I haven’t been out shopping for anything other than pantry items and the essentials for around the house.

In a time when we are bombarded by ads for flat screen TV’s, wii, and iPods there seems to be something that is lost in all the hustle and bustle. I need not venture far from my house to find people that have nothing at all. The town that I call home is also the home to many homeless people. They are more than visible at the parks, street corners, and parking lots of El Cajon.

This year my family will celebrate Christmas in the way we always have. We will get and give presents, attend church services, and we will do one more thing…help the needy. Last year I made a stack of ham sandwiches that I gave to a homeless tribe behind the Planned Parenthood building. Needless to say they were well received. It was a great gift for those who had nothing more than vodka and a pack of smokes in the days before.

So as your standing in a long line waiting to pay for your items…some of which will be neglected or even forgotten in a week’s time think about those who are down on their luck…out of work or living on the streets…

Go buy a loaf of bread and some lunch meat and feed those who are hungry…make someones day

to be continued

This is the end

I’ve decided call it quits.

Thanks all for reading….

Eric

An awesome shot

 

too bad there is no other player in the area to take recieve the throw in

For the Cat Woman

I was chastised yesterday by the Cat woman/nurse in my life that I had been negligent in my blogging responsibilities, so here are some observations from the last few weeks

–The commute: This year my kids are split between 2 campii. Most mornings of the week my girls are picked up at the house and delivered to their school by one of the teachers. The only cost to me is that I need to take a second passenger to school with my son. No problem. In the afternoon, I pick up both first graders and deliver them to the camps across town….that is when the fun begins.

The drive up Mollison is like that scene from the “French Connection.” It’s about a mile and a half, but if you are in the wrong lanes at the wrong time the trip can take 15 minutes. I’ve pretty much figured out what lanes at what time to travel in.

Literally:

Right lane: ¼ mile

Left Lane: 500 feet

Right lane: to the signal

Left lane: to the next signal avoid the right lane because people are picking up kids at another school…turning right and waiting for kids walking home from a third school and using the crosswalk. You get stuck in the right lane here you’re stuck for 3 or 4 lights

Right lane: before you get to the Arco. About 300 feet if you’re in the left under the overpass, you’re screwed with traffic trying to get on the freeway and people trying to get by the people trying to get on the freeway. This is dicey as well there is a lot of foot traffic here and 2 freeway onramps to contend with

Left lane: before Broadway…another busy right turn/crosswalk intersection.

From here it’s about a half mile to Bradley.

A quick right turn and you have to deal wither left turn into the school lot. The rub here is that other families come from the other direction. This is also congested by the traffic coming out of the other end of the pickup line.

The whole thing takes about 25 minutes from campus to campus and home again. It’s a pain, but it is the price of going to a great school. In 3 years all my kids will be on one campus anyway so there is a hope.

–observations while on campus: This school has students from 4th-10^th grade.  You have all types of students from the gangly teenager to the pimply kid with a peach fuzz moustache. My favorite observation is seeing how badly the girls apply eye makeup. It looks like they all went to the same beauty school. Lots of eyeliner

–Job Hunt: I’ve applied for a few jobs around town. To date, they all seem happy to take my app., but really, they’re not hiring right now. I wonder if there is anything left in my truest fund…probably not. Meanwhile I’m working on a few instruments in the garage. I’m hoping to sell them in the weeks ahead. I’d better do something or look busy. All the open projects are closed now and all that’s left is to paint the outside of the house. It looks like there are brushes and rollers in my future.

–Tour of the old digs: last week I took the off the shelf tour at Taylor Guitars. A friend of a friend was in town and wanted to see the factory, and I agreed to go along.

I arrived early and hung out with some old friends back in the mill. The scary part is that there these people are still doing and acting the same way that they were 10 years ago. The one thing that was very different was that there was a slower pace. About half of the guitars are Hecho en Mexico now, and the hurried hum of a busy factory was missing. It was kind of sad to see a robot buffing guitars and machines dormant. The factory has a larger footprint now so this makes sense to me.

I took the tour and was still impressed by the product that is made within the walls every day. One observation that I made years ago to a friend was that Bob just happens to make guitars. I think that he is probably more proud of the factory that makes the guitars than the guitars themselves. Would it be as impressive or cool if it were Taylor Clock Radios? I will say that I’ve seen a computer chip making facility and it is just as impressive, but still not as cool.

–Return on Investment: You hear a lot about R.O. I. in business, but this is a n investment in something completely different. I must say that one of the best investments we’ve made in the last 2 years in one in out marriage. Next weekend we are celebrating our 18^th wedding anniversary. Things are better now than ever have been. We are communicating better than ever and remaining “present” in the process. I’ve not had to put a cork on anger so much as I’ve learned how to deal with it in a different way other than blowing my top. Personally I have some issues that I’m dealing with but as they come to the surface, I’m learning about how to deal and move on with life.

Sunday Night Ramble

a big do nothing day today…well for the most part. Church in the morning followed by a mountain of folding laundry and a quick trip to Sea World.

This week I’m looking forward to things like:

Cleaning the garage — needs to be done again. with the bulk of the home improvement done, I need to dig down to the floor and put some stuff away. looking at the general storage in the place. there are a lot of improvements that can be made.

Painting the rest of the fence – I need to finish a project from last summer. I had my kids paint the first half of the fence for the dog run. now it’s time to tie this one up as well.

Planting some Flowers – The front landscaping is pretty minimal. With a drought here in the desert, I let the front grass fie over the summer while letting the back yard thrive. This year I think we’ll do some low water plants that hopefully do well…theupshot is that there may be an El Nino this season. rain may be on the way

Watching When Harry mer Sally – Tonight we are watching this favorite of ours. I tried to rent it from Blockbuster a few months ago, but they told me that they no longer carried it. It wa only at 2 locations in the San Diego area. this movie night brought to us by our friends.

Birthday parties galore – This weekend started the long series of friend and family birthdays that are hitting our pocketbook. we are literally booked thru mid October not counting the inevitable pop-up birthday at school.

Upcoming wedding anniversary – in a few weeks we will be celebrating our 18th wedding anniversary. Not a bad ride I must say. some bumps her and there, but overall… I’m still likin it…I’m still lovin her.

Trading services — A friend of ours is a vocal teacher. today we talked about trading voice lessons for Blondie for guitar lessons for the voice teacher. I’ve never taught guitar to anyone, but could probably come up with something.

more tomorrow

 

Playing some catch up…

- Soccer season started today…the first loss of my son’s career went along with it. I dont want to complain, but the ref was a parent from the other team, and he was coaching from the field. he also did not call any… I mean ANY bad throw-ins against the other team…there were about 5 by my count. he also did not know the lay out or the penalty box leaving each goalie to handle the ball in the smaller goalie box. at least he was fair on that account. My team had a bye today. next week we play a team with at solid coach that I respect…I hope to wipe up the field next saturday afternoon

- The interior of the house is finally done.really it only took two years. in that time we painted the house, tiled a couple of floors, removed the popcorn texture from the ceilings, put down laminate and. this was the long list. there is still a few other things we want to get done, but they are one day projects. next in line the exterior of the house. fresh paint, some new landscaping….things like that.

- School is in…for about three weeks now. the girls are settling into the new campus, and my son has made the adjustment to going all day long in first grade. I havent done anything in the garden yet, but with hopefully cooler weather ahead, we’ll get some winter veggies in the ground in the near future.

- Feeding the hungry. the school changed lunch suppliers this year. the jury is still out on this company. the food..although it is supposed to be good for you doesnt taste good to you. my kids are not crazy about the new menu. with the change, the free and reduced lunch option for low income families was tossed out the window. the principal said tha it would cost between $25 and $30 thousand a year to keep this option going. for this the School council stepped in and bought makings for sandwiches and other snacks for the kids that dont have a healthy lunch to eat. the only requirement is that the kids are hungry.

- New computer: I’m liking the new laptop. I think i’ve gotten used to the new keyboard but not the mouse. I think we need to get a wireless setup for mousing. it’s the HP artist Edition loaded with music editing/composing along with several Corel programs. I reloaded the desktop computer and set it up in the girls room…no internet, but plenty of homework opportunities.

- I applied for two jos this week. the first at Carls Jr on a wim. I happened to be getting lunch at the time…the other at a home center that is not either on the big two national chains. I applied for a lumber handling  job. something that I spent many years doing at the conglomerate guitar company.

-  I stopped loosing weight. Honestly, I having been trying at it the last few weeks. I’ve still cut out the sugar and soda, but  I’ve been atttending parties and get togethers where I’ve partaken a little more than I should have….Tomorrow is a new day. current weight… 200 lbs

- I’ m playing in a band now. I auditioned last week, and I guess they liked me. Palying rhythm is the place where i’m comfortable, and I seemed to fit in just fine. I think my overall feel is a little harder thn the rest ofthe band, but I can tone it down a little. the band “Remedy 4 Life” is a n outreach that started at Sonrise church in Santee. you can read more about the band here.