The Most Wonderful Time of the Year... yeah, right!

So, it's my least favorite time of year... because I'm surrounded by... by.... BIRTHDAYS! Apparently my parents and other relatives back then needed to keep warm in the winter because there are about six of us in the family that have birthdays within a month of each other. And that includes a number of my nephews and a niece so that means shopping for gifts... Ugh! I've got another birthday coming up in a couple of weeks. I don't mind that I'm getting older. I still feel reasonably good, thank the Good Lord. And I know that I'm not a kid any more. But I still feel like one sometimes. I enjoy that when I can do that... I don't mean it as in calling everyone "dude" or watching MTV or something stupid like that. No, I am a guy who is pushing 47 and still loves sports in large quantities much to the chagrin of my gal pal. But she loves me anyway. I still live old school rock music and culture. I still wear cargo shorts even though I'm too dang big to be wearing them. I eat more tv dinners than home cooked meals which may have something to do with my being too dang big in the first place!

When Mayflies Become June-flies

OKAY... what is worse? Mayflies swarming on a few trees? or Hockey fans in Vancouver being Canuckle heads for burning cars, looting, and just out and out stupidity. Hey, at least in Miami they didn't trash the place because D-Wade and LeBrick couldn't shoot a basketball... Just finishing up my winter sports fix for the summer! Seemed odd to say but I digress. It's summer so it's time to endure the mayflies for the next few weeks here on the lake. Before beautiful weather without swarms of pests takes over. Hope all of you dads have a good father's day and for those of you that are sans offspring enjoy it anyway...

Oh Deer...

So here we are heading into summer ( I don't think anyone reads my blog from the southern hemisphere) and man oh man is the weather messed up. My thoughts and PRAYERS go to the fine folks in Tuscaloosa, Joplin, and Springfield (both IL and MA). This is plain nutty.
Speaking of weird, I went down to see the gal pal (always a picker upper) and we got to spend a couple of nice days together. On my way back home, I began to notice something that I wasn't particularly aware of prior to this past weekend. At first, I saw a deer that had been run over and it's remains were on the side of the highway. Never a nice thing but I understand that when these creatures dart out in front of the semi-trucks that are going full tilt carrying their loads, that things like that can happen. What struck me as odd, was that I didn't even go a half mile (or kilometer for those of you outside of the States), before I saw another deer that had been mowed down on the highway. I think the thing that I thought most bizarre was that usually, the folks that take care of the highways in their areas, usually are first to clean up any unfortunate mishaps like this. I guess it wasn't in the budget this year because as I drove over a 2-hour span, I must've saw about a dozen deer who where struck down by oncoming traffic. Of course, me being the type of goofball that I am, the first thing that occurred to me was "awww... potential Bambi and Thumper..." of course the next thought I had wasn't quite so nice because I thought of the old Gary Larson cartoon "The Far Side" and the cartoon where he has Santa at a keyboard and the title of Santa's entry was.... "Nine Ways to Make Venison..." I know, I know.... I'm such a dork!