Weird but just right

Sometimes in my world things are off. No, not me, thank you very much, other things. I realized that while I have been busy rehearsing Decibells and doing things like talking to a local reporter (who seemed to be fixated on how old the songs we are playing are even though they are NOT old unless you consider the Mamas and Papas old, or Willie Nelson or….oh never mind), the world tripped on by, with acts of weirdness blipping on a radar screen. I love this world and I love people because they are weird, and over the top, and just right. Keep in mind that I’m writing this while my husband is watching youtube videos on how to carve a SPAM turkey.

First our crazy weather, warm one day and snow another. Here is Chester, who couldn’t even dry off before lying in front of the fireplace.

Did you ever see such huge snowflakes? In March?

The Model A group travelled to Castle Noel, a tucked away Christmas wonderland in Medina. The good slightly obsessive people at Castle Noel are really into Christmas.

I loved it! So much so that I slid down the big “Ralphie” slide at the end.

Almost all the Model A folks slid down the slide. So much for being old.

We also went into an antique store. My husband said it was stretching it to call the items antiques, that it’s really just old stuff. So I guess it was an old stuff store. These are (guess what?) salt and pepper shakers. Nope, not getting salt and pepper out of a foot. Not gonna do it.

After it snowed one day, it was nice the rest. Chester and I went to a park. He decided to go in the pond. Oh well, such is life. We have muddy paw prints in the house might as well have them in the car too.

We went to the Home Improvement Show and saw the house of the future.

Seriously it is for sale. You too could have this magnificent structure in your neighborhood for only $99,500 plus shipping. How the heck do they ship it???? Oh, right, it flies over like one of the weather balloons. Here is where we are going to place it.

We watched the grandsons for a couple of days, and they got Chester a new toy. It lasted about a half hour so was a success.

My grammie in law took them for the next couple days and got me these flowers. Don’t they look beautiful in the afternoon sunshine?

I had bird seed sitting outside the door in an all purpose Dollar General clear plastic container.  One day the handle was broken off.

Later, my husband said he saw a tail sticking out of the container. I caught the culprit, or so I thought.

I put a smaller container of birdseed on top thinking I would outsmart him. The next morning the handle of the little container was also torn off. Thinking we have discovered the “Rocky Balboa” of squirrels, I brought the seed container in before going to Dollar General for another one. Lo and behold the next day a raccoon strolled up on the deck and looked in the window. Chester jumped at it but it didn’t look fazed. It ambled off, only to reappear that evening. So bottom line I have maligned the squirrel who it appears is just taking advantage of a beneficial situation. The raccoon was the real culprit. Here is the false arrest and mug shot of the squirrel.

You have to admit he’s pretty cute! Probably is just plotting ways to torment Chester.

We have been on the receiving end of some garbled communication. We swung by Dunkin to get a caramel cold brew (get it! It’s delicious!) and the person taking orders asked us to wait. Then we heard him ask what we wanted but it turned out he was talking to someone else because he then told us to wait again. We heard some sort of conversation then we thought he came back but no, not yet. We left thoroughly confused but in possession of the treasure that is the caramel chocolate frosted cold brew so all’s well. Then we ordered Chinese food and while I was placing the order the guy asked me to hold but didn’t put me on hold so I kept trying to give him my order but I don’t think he heard because finally he said “Go ahead” and I already had gone ahead a few times. Nonetheless, he got our order right which is more than you could say for McDonald’s or Taco Bell.

The church had an Easter egg hunt for the kids today. Since the only place to hide them is a big field it wasn’t eggsactly a challenge but they had fun. The people helping the Easter bunny hide them were just kind of tossing them on the ground. I remember when my dad and uncle would hide eggs and our cousins and my brother and sister and I would become competitive egg hunt Olympians kind of like gladiators in Rome. To this day I still hear about the time my sister saw an egg in a tree (come on, seriously? How does a bunny get into a tree??) and couldn’t reach it. While she pointed to it and my dad was on the way to help her, the evil cousin shimmied up the tree and grabbed it. He kept it too. We were ruthless. We embodied the joy of Easter, right?

I hope to write more often. I’m working on grants and publicity for Decibells and trying to combat self-doubt. When my eyes start falling out of my head like a Looney Tunes character I clean muddy paw prints and do dishes, laundry, and clean kitty puke. But writing this blog is a happy place for me, a time to reflect on the absurdity and imperfection of life. It’s weird…but somehow right.

Have a good week!