The Horizontal Stripes Brigade
Posted by Flickr Photos on September 1, 2010 4:57 PM
| Comments (0)
Search Posts
By Date:
By Words:
In a world where I propagate my thoughts 140 characters at a time, I tend to forget that I can extrapolate some of my thoughts into more meaningful content. Sometimes, I'm afraid to do that for fear of writing about my frustrations at work. Work frustrations are nearly universal and don't make for quality writing.
Sarah did a great job eulogizing Grandpa Zera in her previous post. I want to thank everyone for their outpouring of support and good wishes. Grandpa died on his 91st birthday. At the funeral, Dad returned our unopened birthday cards to Grandpa. Here's what I wrote to him:
Happy Birthday, Grandpa! You've achieved so much in your life. you raised three boys into men who appreciate the value of hard work, sacrifice and strength. You've protected and served not just your community but your country as well. Being your grandson fills me with pride! We love you.
Since last Wednesday, I've been very bad about what I've eaten and my body is starting to tell the story of a man forlorn for food. Burgers, gizzards, pizza, McDonalds breakfast, steak hoagies, beef jerky, and more Diet Coke have all crossed my lips and my body is starting to show its discontent with my decisions.
The good news is that we've got lots of fresh and unique vegetables from Michigan to get us back to eating better. From John and Becky, we procured a grip of tomatoes, a spaghetti squash and a few beets and carrots. From a farm stand in Charlotte, we bought some fresh corn, some beans and some onions. Initial reports are that the corn is delicious. I'm looking forward to some roasted beets. I recognize how much better I feel when I eat fresher, more sustainable food.
Saturday, we took Grody and went to Grand Mere State Park in Michigan. Nearly a mile hike from the parking lot and over a huge dune is some of the most remote, most undisturbed, most dog-friendly beach in Michigan. Grody and I ran on the beach a bit and played fetch in the water, although he didn't go too deep. Sarah did some reading and some sunbathing. We drove to Lansing and the sun's toll on my body became evident as I crashed hard. So hard that I missed Grody swimming on his own for the first time. Unfortunately, he was swimming because he wanted to eat the geese in John's duck pond, but I'm proud of him for overcoming his fear of swimming.
After I woke up, I examined my splotchy sunburn and we went to Joe's Gizzard City just in time to be seated next to the loudest children in the world. After a beer and some dinner, we were all pooped so we went back to the homestead and went to bed (but not before discovering the Netflix app for the iPhone!).
This morning, we visited Pa in the nursing home. His nursing home was immaculately appointed. It was more like a high-class lodge than a nursing home. Inlaid stone walls and nice big TVs everywhere. He was in good spirits and we shared some time with him before Sarah went shopping with Becky and John and I went skeet shooting. I hit 13 out of 50, which is respectable for a city boy who shoots maybe three times a year. On our way home, we hit some serious traffic, but some McDonalds ice cream made the post-traffic home stretch much more bearable.
Once we got home, it was pizza and TV time. Sarah was motivated to do some running while I did some freelance work. Grody curled up on his blanket, content after a weekend of terrorizing anything that moved and was remotely his size.
Public note to my cousin Jarrod: It was good seeing you at the funeral. Why don't you ever comment on our blog? Send me your email address: Mine is bryan.zera@gmail.com
After a great time at the beach on Saturday we headed to my parents house for the night. There garden is amazing. We ate tomatoes at every meal and they were wonderful. We also had hot dogs smoked right at the local grocery store. On our way to visit my Grandpa (who is doing better in rehab) we found a farm stand. On our way back we stopped and got green beans, onions, a melon for mom and dad, and sweet corn. We talked to the farmer and the corn was picked THIS MORNING! Yum! Unfortunately our drive home was so yucky we couldn't get it together enough to cook dinner and opted for pizza. I'm already looking forward to eating lots of yummy things tomorrow. From mom and dad's garden we brought home carrots, beets, spaghetti squash, and tomatoes. I feel a batch of gazpacho coming on...
Jared reminded me today that we never post here anymore so I'll try to get started again.
Today we attended the memorial of Bryan's Grandpa. Grandpa always made me feel a true part of the family. It's not always easy for someone to marry into a family. It seems small but it's special to me that he always sent me a birthday card. That's something a lot of Grandpa's don't keep up with when their wives can't do it anymore.
I witnessed my first 21 gun salute. I'll admit it made me jump! But it was pretty special and what man doesn't like to be honored with guns? I also liked that there was a women shooting too. I think Benny could appreciate that.
On another note I'm pretty proud of the fact that we purchase our eggs from local farmers and aren't worried about the big egg recall. Although Lawless John's eggs are always the best we do what we can in the big city. If I remember right they might be looking at some legislation to allow you to have a few chickens in the city. Not sure how my neighbors would feel about a chicken coop on the roof... they do seem to be pretty tolerant of the garden. We had a rough start until we discovered mulch. (Thanks to a drunk girl we met on our roof.) Since we've cooled down the soil we've been doing pretty good. I've been making lots of pesto and even freezing some for later. Our cucumbers are the best we've ever tasted. The tomatoes are taking off too. I'm already looking forward to what we can grow next year!
