Leastbest - But Still One of the Best

Things that annoy me #27

leastbest — Fri, 18 May 2012 10:38:26 +0000

I love my iPad. I use it every day but one thing that frustrates me is that every web site I go to tells me they have a dedicated app. One example of that is Slate. I enjoy reading their articles so I downloaded the app. I liked it immediately and then I noticed that the bottom ten percent of the screen is a rotating advertisement for the very app I downloaded. It rotates to the android app.

It makes no sense. Take a look.

I’m Back

leastbest — Thu, 17 May 2012 13:31:58 +0000

The funeral yesterday was beautiful. Everything worked out and thanks to my sister we had a wonderful reception.

I plan to get back to this blog. I’ve written so many stories and have so much to share from the banjo to the ukulele to cycling. It’s been a rough couple years but I feel so much better.

My Brother and The Age of 47

leastbest — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:04:10 +0000

Last Thursday night my younger brother Terry died after a long bout with colon cancer. It was a long sad journey.

Terry was a triplet, eight years my junior. I can remember the day my parents brought them home. We went from a family of six to nine overnight.

Our family was already different having an alcoholic father and an agoraphobic mother. The triplets added notoriety and they were featured regularly in the local paper. There was a full page spread when they got their first hair cuts.

Left to right in the above picture is my older brother Brad, me, my younger sister Cindy, my older sister Debbie and then the triplets.

I have so many memories of the early days. The mountain of cloth diapers that my mother was always washing. The endless boxes of baby food jars (that my father insisted on saving to store nuts and bolts that we threw away anyway).

My mother would lose track of who was who so put a dot of nail polish on their ear lobe. Now if she was feeding or changing a diaper when the phone rang she knew who to go back to.

So many memories.

But this is really about Terry.

I moved out when I was eighteen and the triplets were frozen in time as ten year-olds to me. Life and work took over and I only saw them at family functions.

In 1998 my older sister Debbie died from a brain tumor at the age of 47, a few days short of her next birthday. A year later my older brother Brad had surgery for colon cancer and during treatment he died of a heart attack.

I was working long hours when I found out that Terry had colon cancer. It was especially troubling because it is so aggressive few in the family seem to beat it. It’s taken my grandfather, uncle and cousin.

My sister worked hard to create family vacations taking Terry and the family to Myrtle Beach, Ocean City and Presque Isle. Her hard work really helped the family.

Once I retired I was able to spend more time with him. I took him to doctor appointments and out and about. We talked and I found him bright and articulate.

I took him to my poker group a few times and he played well, even cashing and had a great time. I had no idea he was that social.

It wasn’t long before we found out how serious it was and how long he really had. His energy was diminishing and limiting what he could do.

I was determined to do as much as possible with him and one of my friends volunteers at The Medina Raptor Center. He was excited about going and had a good laugh when I got lost going there. We saw many different kinds of hawks and owls and even saw an eagle.

It was a thrilling day that he talked about for a long time.

It was an incredibly warm February so I would take Terry for long drives. he really enjoyed seeing the country. We’d head out to Amish country or just drive along the lake.

One day in February it was nearly 80 and we went to my favorite beach and just soaked in the sun. The warmth of the sun and the cool air off the lake was perfect. He was so relaxed. We sat there without talking for over an hour.

The very last time we went out together was to see the new Three Stooges movie. I didn’t know it at the time but we were both Stooges fans. I’ve read every book I could find on them and so had he. The movie was much better than I expected with some real laughs.

After that he barely had the energy to get out of bed. Home hospice came in and helped but it was tough.

I’d go over and each day I would see him grow weaker. I’d sit there and just talk. I’d tell him the old family stories that he’d heard a hundred times or I’d just tell him about the poker tournament I had been in the night before.

Through it all I was amazed at his generosity and kindness. He seemed to only care about the people he was leaving behind. I got to know the best of him at the end.

A lot of people at his wake were surprised to find that all three of my siblings died at the age of 47. It is an odd thing. Cancer claimed my grandfather at 40, my uncle at 41, and my cousin Bobby at only 35.

I wonder if my father hadn’t died in a car crash at 42 if he would have developed colon cancer since he obviously carried the gene. We will never know.

Today is Terry’s funeral. I’m glad I got to know him at the end. Rest in Peace

A Changing Life

leastbest — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 05:17:21 +0000

Retirement is truly incredible.

It is taking some time to adjust to the freedom. I find I am adjusting well. A typical day is a relaxing breakfast, playing guitar or banjo for an hour or so, going for a bike ride, doing some writing and catching up on books and movies that I’ve been meaning to get around to. I see friends, family and play a lot of poker

One thing that has changed radically is watching T.V. Working long hours meant little television. Truth is it never really interested me that much. It wasn’t long ago that I discovered BBC America. I found great shows like Luther, Top Gear, Torchwood, Life on Mars and Dr. Who.

At night I sit and work on a song that I want to learn like Sally in the Garden. I take a musical phrase and play it over and over until it becomes part of me. I have the T.V. on and I find the distraction helps with the repetition.

Couple weeks ago we were watching Animal Planet and a new show came on and I was gobsmacked. The show is called Hillbilly HandFishin’. The gist of the show is people pay money to a couple of guys who take them out to body of water where they stand in the mud and stick their hands or feet in holes where large catfish are. These fish can be anywhere from five to sixty pounds. The fish bites down on your appendage and you yank it out. The people claim it is like being hit in the hand or foot with a hammer. Many of the hands come out bloodied with skin missing. It’s called hand fishing or noodling.

I went online and found they charge $350 a day per person not counting food and lodging. I was planning on taking the wife on a cruise but for the same money we can stand in a muddy river and stick our hands in holes and get bit by slimy fish. It’s a toss-up. We’ve been married twenty-seven years and I may have to save it for our thirtieth anniversary.

Retirement and a New Beginning

leastbest — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 15:41:42 +0000

When you are in your fifties you still have time, but no time to waste. Alec Baldwin

August 31st was my last day at work. I retired after nearly thirty-seven years at UPS after just turning fifty-five. I started there in 1974 as a loader and in 1978 I became a delivery driver. I started delivering in Avon Lake, then East Lorain and finally Sheffield Lake where I delivered for over thirty years. I have hundreds of stories from my career and plan to share them here. I’ve met so many kind and interesting people. I’m very lucky because I have a really good memory and I write things down.

I’ve taken a few weeks to transition into retirement. Been playing a lot of banjo, working on old fiddle tunes and trying to figure out exactly where I plan to go. Things are becoming clearer.

I do a lot of things and I want to become the best at all the things I do. I want to become a really good poker player, competent musician (guitar, banjo, dulcimer, ukulele and harmonica). get my master’s rating in chess, get my writing published and so much more.

Being raised by an agoraphobic created an odd anxiety about travelling. I found it ironic that I didn’t go more than a couple blocks from my house growing up and then as a UPS driver I was locked into a route three miles wide by a half mile deep. I want to see the world and meet everyone. I want to bicycle the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, I want to visit South Africa and see my beloved lithops in their native soil.

Essentially I want to become the person that I’ve always known that I wanted to be. I no longer have any excuses.

Ukulele Update

leastbest — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 10:54:21 +0000

Last Christmas I wrote about my new ukulele and about one of my old ones. Here is an update.

Few years back I bought a circa 1920 tenor ukulele from a guitar maker that I know. It needed work and I finally got it to a luthier. I took it to Woodsy’s in Medina. Here is what it looked like when I took it in.

Notice it is missing pegs and there is a blue piece of thick rubber near the bridge.

Couple weeks passed and when I picked it up I was amazed. The pegs were replaced with grover tuners and the piece of rubber is gone. Turns out the rubber was a mute used to quiet it down.

The uke has a clear, loud, bright tone. I am working on some tunes and when I’m satisfied I will post them.

If you need work done on any instrument take it down to Woodsy’s and you won’t be disappointed. Make sure you stop across the street to Sully’s for a great Irish meal and some Guinness.

Real Classic Rock

leastbest — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 11:04:10 +0000

Just a few songs that I’ve gleamed from BBC’s Life on Mars

Life on Mars (BBC)

leastbest — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 14:59:29 +0000

I don’t watch much American television. I used to watch House before it jumped the shark. For diversion I will watch The Middle and Modern Family but they really aren’t must see tv. The wife and I watch Burn Notice because we are such big fans of Bruce Campbell but that isn’t great television. The only American television that I have to watch is Breaking Bad. That is great tv. I’ll write about it sometime.

For the past year I have been totally fascinated by British television. Shows like Luther, Top Gear and now Life on Mars.

Sam Tyler (John Simm) is a police detective in 2003 who is hit by a car and wakes up in 1973. He doesn’t know if he is mad, in a coma or a time traveler.

The show is so well done. It mimics many of the 1970s’ tv shows like Starsky and Hutch. The best part is the music. They play great music from the late sixties and early seventies like Uriah Heep, Atomic Rooster, Sweet and The Move. Much of the music is a bit obscure and incredible.

The funny thing is the show was on in 2003 and I live in the future so as the songs are playing I point my Iphone at the tv and use the soundhound app to tell me what song it is.

The wife brought home the American version of the show and it was horrible. The actors looked like models and the music was the same old classic rock that they play on the radio.

The wife pointed out that the women on British shows have rounder faces and look more like real women unlike American tv. Here is WPC Annie Cartwright on the BBC series.

Now here is Gretchen Mol from the American Version

One caveat is that the accents are a bit rough and we had to go back and replay some of the scenes. We finally put subtitles on and then we tried to decipher some of the British sayings. I had to google, ”Ee wants jam on it!” to find out that it means the person is greedy.

The library has the series so check it out.

Tale of the Nail

leastbest — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:10:45 +0000

First of the year I really got back into playing the banjo. Twenty-ten was a rough year but having a short on-line lesson with Patrick Costello really got me motivated again.

I’ve been playing the banjo every spare moment I have until Friday when we had the horrible storm. I worked like a dog in the foulest of weather. That didn’t bother me until I broke a nail. Don’t laugh! I broke the nail on my middle finger on my right hand. The nail that allows me to frail on the banjo.

At my lunch break I normally play for a half-hour, so I grabbed a sandwich and coffee and grabbed my old banjo. It was horrible. I tried switching to my index finger and it partially worked but all of the fun went out of it. I needed to fix it. That night I talked to the wife and we decided to go to a nail salon.

I got up late Saturday (due to playing poker until three in the morning) and spent the next two hours shoveling snow and ice off off my driveway. The broken nail slipped my mind and I spent the rest of the night catching up on one of my favorite shows on BBC America, Being Human.

The next day I took the wife out for lunch and she reminded me that I needed to get my nail done. We were in Oberlin but couldn’t find a nail salon open so we headed to the wilds of Elyria. We found a salon and went it. They seemed amused by me and I had to explain to each person why I needed a nail. The woman told me the price and said that I could have color on it for free. I declined her generosity.

I sat down and the guy started to work on my nail. I was surprised at the softness of his hands. He applied a fake nail using glue and after it dried he cut off much of it. He then used a dremel type tool to rough up the nail and then applied a mixture of powder and strong smelling liquid. He scraped off much of it and did it again. Much shaping and buffing and work go into a perfect clawhammer frailing nail. Finally he finished and I paid the four dollars.

I got home and picked up the banjo. I played Little Sadie on the banjo and life was good. It doesn’t take much to make me happy.

Retirement Plans: Choir

leastbest — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 21:17:28 +0000

This vacation is essentially pre-retirement. I am rested and feeling great with another week off until I return for the six-month grind until retirement. With that I’ve been thinking about all of the things that I’ve been wanting to do but unable because of work.

For a number of years I sang with a wonderful community choir, Choral Spectrum in Oberlin. Singing with them was a true joy. To create something so much greater than oneself was a truly spiritual experience. Unfortunately when the company I work for went public, the hours I worked went through the roof. I seldom got off work before 7:30pm and many times much later. This made it impossible to go to practice sessions that lasted from 7 to 9pm every Monday. I’m not complaining, it was just the was it was. I hated quitting.

I’ve missed the choir a great deal and after retirement look forward to returning to it. I just went to their website and my picture is still on the homepage.