Entirely Offtopic: Amazing Facts About and Experiences Of Me!

[Howie]

SpongeBob Howie with a pet spider? That's just crazy talk!

[Virginia]

Not for the SpongeBob Howie I know. He's been known to do some really weird things.

[RandomThought]

1. I remember from photos the color, make and model of a certain spongebob loving poster's beloved car.

2. I have worn a beard most of my adult life. In recent years it has been removed during the summer heat and bets are placed in the fall about the strength of the upcoming winter based on how thick it has regrown.

3.I smoked cigarettes for 28 years, loved it, and forced myself to quit with great, grouchy, difficulties for the sake of my child nearly 15 years ago.

[Howie]

RT (that's what I'll call you unless you have a shorter name) I still have Pinky, and plan to drive it come Spring.

I also have a beard and just let it grow. Soon, I'll look like a real hillbilly. Then again, I may look like one now. Yeeeee Haw!!!

I still smoke, but did quit for 14 years. Boredom was the reason for starting again. It gives me something to do with my hands.

[RandomThought]

RT (that's what I'll call you unless you have a shorter name) I still have Pinky, and plan to drive it come Spring.

1A. I surrendered my motorcycle years ago. The present owner gave it a "ground up" restoration and recently offered it back to me for cost. But the reasons I couldn't ride anymore haven't changed; with my bad vision and questionable balance I'm better off with four wheels and a good set of anti-lock brakes!

2B. We keep an old truck mostly for hauling gardening mulch and gravel and such. In the winter it gets studded snow tires on all four corners. With four-wheel drive we can still churn through the occasional 1-2 foot snows we get for a grocery run (7 or 8 miles to town).

3C. Today that old truck needed a new starter motor. Seemed to me that it was my wife's turn as I had installed the last one. As you might imagine this is getting harder and harder to do... and now I've found out that it is always MY turn!

4D. We had a white Christmas (stupid truck wouldn't start) but it was nice anyway.

[RandomThought]

A face to the name !

Winter Me:

Cafe.jpg

Summer Me:

Cabin.JPG

Silly Me:

Look.jpg

[RandomThought]

So....

My daughter exclaims, " Hey!, the cat drank out of my glass"

I hear a splash of water in the sink and question her, "Did you pour that out? You could have put it in the cat's water bowl. What ? Do you think I'm made out of water?"

She thinks briefly, with a big smile she says, "Yes, yes you are made out of water."

And I say...."That's my AP Bio girl !"

[Virginia]

I bet you drive your wife and daughter nuts. How many do you have - that's daughters?

[RandomThought]

I have, in the course of the last twenty years, driven my long suffering wife quite insane.

We have just the one child but she's a good 'un. Since she knows no better she generally finds me amusing, for an old guy.

With a sharp wit I often find her points of view compelling and her jokes insightfully funny.

We make up a slightly unusual, fun family.

[Lazarus]

1A. I surrendered my motorcycle years ago. The present owner gave it a "ground up" restoration and recently offered it back to me for cost. But the reasons I couldn't ride anymore haven't changed; with my bad vision and questionable balance I'm better off with four wheels and a good set of anti-lock brakes!

2B. We keep an old truck mostly for hauling gardening mulch and gravel and such. In the winter it gets studded snow tires on all four corners. With four-wheel drive we can still churn through the occasional 1-2 foot snows we get for a grocery run (7 or 8 miles to town).

3C. Today that old truck needed a new starter motor. Seemed to me that it was my wife's turn as I had installed the last one. As you might imagine this is getting harder and harder to do... and now I've found out that it is always MY turn!

4D. We had a white Christmas (stupid truck wouldn't start) but it was nice anyway.

We are in sync! We are searching and maybe have located a new starter for our farm truck...a 1948 Willy's jeep. My husband and I used to plow with it when we were first married (52 years ago) it has a new engine and we have been restoring it for about 3 years now.

*your comment about studded tires was interesting. We have had very little snow in our area this year.. But our farm has dirt roads and no paving. When we were plowing the one big storm three plow trucks got stuck! The roads around the farm are dirt roads and packed down with 70 years of driving over them but..,,we have even been stuck in 4"storms,.big heavy Tundra but....only the big John Deere can pull the truck off the glaze it is spinning on.

All this stuff was more fun a few years ago...lately it is a headache.

[RandomThought]

We are in sync! We are searching and maybe have located a new starter for our farm truck...a 1948 Willy's jeep. My husband and I used to plow with it when we were first married (52 years ago) it has a new engine and we have been restoring it for about 3 years now.

*your comment about studded tires was interesting. We have had very little snow in our area this year.. But our farm has dirt roads and no paving. When we were plowing the one big storm three plow trucks got stuck! The roads around the farm are dirt roads and packed down with 70 years of driving over them but..,,we have even been stuck in 4"storms,.big heavy Tundra but....only the big John Deere can pull the truck off the glaze it is spinning on.

All this stuff was more fun a few years ago...lately it is a headache.

Another coincidence...

One of my brothers used to collect Willy's trucks and Jeeps, models from the forties and early fifties. His yard was full of "iron" and his head was full of dreams of restorations.

I believe he divested himself of the collection when he moved cross country a few years ago and is now living in...dun dun dun...Massachusetts!

My favorite picture of my favorite cat was taken as he sat in a Willy's truck; Here, let me show you:

Barrykitty.jpg



Edit to add: I've always liked your signature line.

[RandomThought]

Funny what you find on the road sometimes...

One fine spring day driving down a local, 35 mph, rural road I said to my wife, "Do you see what I see? Am I seeing this right? A BABY! A baby in the ROAD!!!?".

She says, I see it! STOP!"

Not another soul in sight, just this lone 18-20 month old, more than 100 yards from the nearest house.

Now with baby on board I backed up over a football field's distance to a driveway up which we found a second, unattended (excepting two large dogs), small child . This one old enough to talk a little.

With the house door hanging wide open I rang the bell, knocked, and eventually shouted into the house. No answer.

Fearing what may be found inside I called 911 with my little flip phone. Dispatchers felt that the nearest deputy was at least a half hour away.

After about 10 minutes ( a very long 10 minutes I might add) the crunch of gravel signaled the arrival of a man the toddler identified as "Uncle Billy".

Uncle Billy rousted a sleepy, angry young woman who demanded to know what we claimed had happened. She never thanked us for getting her child out of the road while she slept.

My guess is she deeply resented the child protective services investigation which followed.

It's funny what you find in the road sometimes.

[agate]

What a story! I'm sure that the woman's churlish reaction was exactly as you suppose. She must have known perfectly well that she shouldn't have left those kids unattended for a minute. You had just rescued her child from being run over and possibly killed.

[RandomThought]

What a story! I'm sure that the woman's churlish reaction was exactly as you suppose. She must have known perfectly well that she shouldn't have left those kids unattended for a minute. You had just rescued her child from being run over and possibly killed.

*scuffs toe* and says,"Aw shucks it were nuthin. Muh wife was the real hero that day."

[Lazarus]

Another coincidence...

One of my brothers used to collect Willy's trucks and Jeeps, models from the forties and early fifties. His yard was full of "iron" and his head was full of dreams of restorations.

I believe he divested himself of the collection when he moved cross country a few years ago and is now living in...dun dun dun...Massachusetts!

My favorite picture of my favorite cat was taken as he sat in a Willy's truck; Here, let me show you:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5550[/ATTACH]



Edit to add: I've always liked your signature line.

We are in western MA and do farmers’ markets in Northampton, Amherst and Florence.....just in case your brother is nearby! We used to participate in 6-7 markets a week but, it is such an enormous effort to participate in a market. We are both retired and the farm just kept growing and growing ....a nice way to retire!

I love that picture...it could be our Jeep and cat....a universal and timeless picture. Thanks for posting it.