the trouble with voicing fear

 

P1080170Man.

I’m thinking about that treehouse….imagining how to make it “baby proof”….figuring out how to keep physically competent maniacs from launching themselves over the edge.

And….that’s a problem.

The trouble with voicing fear is that, sooner or later, if something ever does happen, even if it happens in another place and time, even if it happens in a different treehouse in a different state….even if it happens to SOMEBODY ELSE….someone could come back and say, “See? He knew. He knew the danger.”

You don’t voice concern.

You certainly don’t write it down.

Now, I wouldn’t do anything to place my children in harm’s way.

I wouldn’t do that.

Finished out, that treehouse is going to be a monument to FUN.

It’s not a house of danger and despair.

It’s going to be a wild retreat.

But….I’m a worrier.

Time has proven that if there’s a weird unknown and a way to misuse something to find the dangerous aspect or event, my children will be the ones to do it.

They are all sweet as can be….they’re just adventurous and strong and very curious….and they can climb….and jump….and do some crazy things that make me worry about prevention more than I should.

The “no more monkeys jumping on the bed” story is a cautionary one…..but my children seem to take it as a call to ACTION.

They jump.

This treehouse is going to be great….safe and great….so once again, I worry without reason.

But….again….and always…..”but”…these kids!! These kids are crazy!

How do you protect against every random event?

Here’s some fodder for the folks who say, “See? He knew. He knew…..and he did it anyway.”

The only really safe thing is to never do anything.

And…..that’s the most dangerous thing of all.

Do something….even if it’s wrong.

HOLY SMOKES!! IT’S A TREEHOUSE!!

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The older kids had a treehouse when they were little.

I built it out of scabbed together wood and rough materials…..and a lot of love.

That’s all you have sometimes….a tiny bit of money….and some love.

I painted it green.

I hope that they enjoyed it….and that it was fun to have a place up in the woods that they could call their own.

Now I’m building a treehouse for these little guys.

The old one rotted at a main support….and after it lay cockeyed on the ground for a couple of years, I burned it.

So….now I’m building a new one.

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The thing about this new one is that it’s really pretty high off the ground.

I suspect that if I’m nervous getting up there to build it, it might be kind of terrifying for these little ones.

The ground slopes….so even though it’s only about ten feet off the ground in the front, it feels like it’s about a hundred on the back side.

That’s an exaggeration….it’s probably only about fifteen feet or so….but it feels high.

I’m going to have to put up a good railing.

That’s the thrill of a treehouse, though….it needs to feel like it’s in the clouds for a kid to feel like he or she has “gotten their money’s worth”.

These pictures are early ones after today’s work….all it shows is an eight by ten platform….no decking or structure….no railing….no way to get up to it other than the ladders.

That all is going to come later.

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It feels good to finally get something going after a couple of years of promises.

Now all I need to do is find us a good dog.

What was it like to be Shirley Chisholm?

26chisholm-slideshow-city-slide-P42G-superJumboI don’t know a whole lot about Shirley Chisholm.

What I know is what I remember from reading the headlines on my paper route back in New Jersey….before we moved to Georgia…..and what I read in Wikipedia now….so I don’t know much about her.

Shirley Chisholm was a woman who sought the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in 1972.

She was a black woman….who sought the nomination.

The “black” part makes it ….something.

I think that it probably makes it pretty darn gutsy.

She was a brave lady.

But…like I said….I don’t know much about her.

To put it into perspective….maybe….Lester Maddox was the governor of Georgia from 1967 to 1971.

Google “Lester Maddox” to see what some people in the Democratic party were up to at the time.

It wasn’t anything that necessarily supported the nomination of a black woman to ….well…..anything, really.

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(Not even eating some chicken at his restaurant…black people weren’t welcome there…..back before the Civil Rights movement ….)

When we moved to Georgia, I think that I remember eating at Lester Maddox’s restaurant once in downtown Atlanta….and it seems like I remember that you could buy souvenir ax handles there.

That was nuts….and a different time.

That would have been in 1973….maybe 1972.

I was 12 when we moved “down south”….so it could have been 1972…

Lester Maddox is another person that I don’t know a lot about, either.

This picture of Lester Maddox is an early one.

Things have really changed….in a lot of ways….and stayed the same in a lot of ways, too, unfortunately.

Check out Shirley Chisholm.

This blog post is really one about her….not Lester Maddox.

I think that it’s a pretty amazing story.

1972.

What was 1972 like for a black lady in this country?

Man.

pickrick drumstick

to be 12…forever

Dan Price out in Oregon….in his small underground home.

Pared down to the essentials….constantly getting rid of things.

I like to go to thrift stores and BUY, BUY, BUY!!!

A bargain that closes things in around you is really not a bargain, though.

If you watch this video, you’ll get a chance to see the progression from a teepee to a small dome….to a tiny house….to a tiny house with an underground attachment….to just the underground part when the tiny house was robbed.

He rents the property that his home is on….2 acres….for $100 a year.

What an interesting character.

Check out Kirsten Dirksen’s other videos.

They’re all pretty great.

You can buy Dan’s ebooks on Amazon…..here’s a link.

all the youtube weirdness….

I watched some of this video this morning and thought, “man….there’s a lot of weird stuff on YouTube”.

Then I remembered that a documentary was a film about real things.

IT’S NOT YOUTUBE THAT’S WEIRD….IT’S ALL THESE UNUSUAL PEOPLE!

Pretty strange.

Slab city.

Weird.

There’s a commercial that I hear driving around where the guy doing the commercial says that you’ll need a million dollars to retire.

This video disproves that.

Look at this place….a millionaire would never fit in Slab City.

 

trash can strat

A co-worker at the post office found a guitar in a trash can a while back.

She gave it to me.

It was an old Ibanez copy of a stratocaster….a “Silver Series” guitar that, even though it was pretty beat up and covered with goofy stickers, was actually pretty cool.silver series

The guitar looked like this one.

Pretty great to find something like that in the trash.

I put new tuning gears on it….but the electronics are kind of messed up….so I think that I’ll probably buy a cheap “loaded” (with the pickups already installed) pickguard and put it on and see how it sounds.

Here’s a video about the pickguard…..should be pretty easy.

I get a lot of pleasure out of playing these “junk” guitars….not much to worry about with a guitar that you rescue from the trash….

Hah!! Soda bottle Star (or Moon?)!!

OK….check this out.

My daughter sent a photo of the moon in to Jones Soda for possible use as a label picture….and hers was accepted!!

Pretty cool.

Here’s the label:

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I was pretty proud of her….that’s a fun way to get your photo seen….

I think that she took it from our front yard….I don’t think that she was up in space or anything.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s the original….

This actually might be the original photo….there were a bunch of pictures of the moon.

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Man….now that I look closer, it almost looks like it was an over-ripe cantaloupe.

I wonder if she scammed those Jones guys?

the hardest way.

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We’re building a treehouse.

We’re building a treehouse the hardest way.

The hardest way is me….yelling on a ladder…..balancing one side of an unfinished rectangle…..trying to figure out how to screw the end that needs to go around the outside of the second tree to complete the rectangle….all while perched on a ladder on uneven ground….ten feet off the ground….my patient son trying to balance the other wobbly side….while my six-year-old son is scampering around underneath a hundred barely suspended pounds of wet pressure treated two by six…..lumber that is flexing and balancing in a bad way….while it’s starting to rain….really hard.

It’s the yelling part that makes it really hard.

I’m so nervous most of the time.

I think that I think that I’m pretty laid back….but I’m really pretty nervous.

We’ve planned to build a treehouse for a while.

It was easier to build when it was in my head.

We’ll get this treehouse built.

Nate and I went to McDonald’s for a little lunch today when we went to get the wood.

I hate McDonald’s….but Nate likes the Happy Meals.

So….we went to McDonald’s.

Maybe that’s one of the pleasures of being a parent….doing things that you hate because you love the people you’re doing them for.

Anyway….I was feeling a rush….to get home….to start building before the rain came….and Nate was telling me something about Amazon Prime…..no….the Transformer….it’s not Amazon Prime….it’s…..ummmmmm…..the other one….Optimist Prime….no…that’s not right, either….OPTIMUS PRIME!!!! THAT’S IT!! OPTIMUS PRIME!!

He was telling me why he was the greatest….or why the character that he got in his happy meal might be Megatron….even though he was the color of Optimus Prime….and I was feeling like we needed to wrap it up and GO!!! WE JUST NEED TO GO!!! GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD!!! BUILD THIS THING!!!

And….and then it hit me that my agenda is something that is going to be forgotten so soon…..but this moment with this little guy is going to be something that I should be trying to remember like my life depended on it.

The good part of my life does depend on it.

“My agenda”.

What a crock of ….

I don’t want the memory I’m helping these kids build with this treehouse to be of me yelling on a ladder.

There has got to be an easier way to do this thing.

Jon Gomm

OK.

So, I’ve complained about the romance being gone when I’m looking for music.

It’s easy to romanticize looking in bins for cheap vinyl.

It’s harder to do the same thing when I’m clicking a mouse at the computer.

But….how would I find people like this?

The happy accident is a lot easier to have when I’m using the internet.

It’s easy to find stuff.

What an excellent guitarist!

It’s fun to discover people like Jon Gomm.