For many moons now, we’ve enjoyed the ritual of pumpkin carving prior to Halloween. Our son-in-law has been providing the gourds for the past several years from his pumpkin patch. My Beautiful Girlfriend puts on a big pot of her amazing chili, complemented by some delicious corn muffins. After dinner we spread newspapers all over the kitchen table, put a bucket in the middle for all the guts, and let our imaginations soar.

Once the jack o’ lanterns are complete, it’s time for the traditional group photos. We line up our artwork on the breakfast bar, and each carver sits behind their sculpture. I set my camera on a tripod, set the timer, and take a couple shots with the lights on. Finally we open the pumpkins to light the candles, kill the lights, and get a shot with each person’s face glowing in the night above their respective pumpkins. We’ve had some pretty cool photos over the years if I must say so myself. Here are a couple samples from this year’s carving fun.

We’ve also subjected our grandsons to annual viewings of It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. This is an old favorite of course, especially so in the case of my Honey Pie. Very important for her to watch that flick every year, and I have to admit that I enjoy it too.

Ollie, our oldest grandson is 13 this year, Gabe is 9. Both watched the movie politely and even enjoyed it… but Ollie mentioned he’d like to watch something a little more terrifying for Halloween. I mentioned Frankenstein, and his eyes lit up a bit. I followed up with a suggestion of Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein and a big grin brightened up his face. But guess who’s gonna enjoy trick-or-treating more on Monday?? If you guessed both, I’m thinking that’s accurate; although Gabe will likely be more pumped up about the whole deal. But this is part of the tradition too, and of course we’ll accompany them on their candy collection journey. As a bonus, it’s at least as much fun to enjoy the getups of other people’s kids (and often their parents) as we traipse through the neighborhoods.

As I began writing all this I couldn’t help reflecting on how blessed we are to have a loving family that enjoys such annual celebrations. I know “Happy Friday!!!” is often a vehicle for me to present a humorous spin on things (and often be just plain silly), but once in a while it’s good to let the gratitude fly out of my fingers and onto the keyboard. So Monday brings yet another Halloween, complete with walking a few miles while the grandsons go trick-or-treating. Doesn’t get much better than that.

And we might even mooch some candy!!

Now please to enjoy the seasonal video surprises.

Been a bit soggy and cool here in Beautiful West Michigan lately. Guess that’s to be expected in mid-October, right? However, I didn’t really expect the thunderstorm we had the other night. And I really didn’t expect miniature globs of ice to fall from the sky yesterday. There I was, minding my own business, on the couch enjoying some coffee, when suddenly a dark grey cloud zoomed in from the west. “Oh, here comes more rain,” I thought aloud. Sure enough, it began to pour, but then I noticed the “raindrops” looked oddly large and were bouncing off the deck. That’s because it was hail!! No damage mind you. Just little globs of ice.

I took a few pictures and posted them on the BookFace. Several people reacted, some saying “Ohhh I’m not ready for that!!” I replied that one can’t really prepare for hail… it can come pretty much any time. Apparently they mistook the hail for snow, even though the top of my post stated that we “Just got a load of crunchy raindrops!” I’m beginning to learn that lots of people don’t read the text for posts at all, they just look at the pictures. So one of these days, I’m gonna post a picture of a bowl of ice cream and put some text above it like, “My wallet ran out of kidney beans last November.” Just to see if anyone actually reads.

Anyway, we really did get some snow sometime last night, as evidenced by a slight dusting on the deck and the tarp on the woodpile. More like snow globs… but snow nonetheless. At least that’s what I called it. Didn’t get cold enough last night for it to stay very long, but there it was, an unsettling reminder of what will soon be falling from the sky.

Called a friend of mine who is taking a paid separation from work. Cost cutting you know. Called me yesterday but I couldn’t talk. He did say he’s actually OK with it, but I just wanted to check back with him to make sure he was doing alright. The topic soon shifted to the recent weather changes. When I described the blobs of snow he said, “Oh yeah, they call that graupel.” “Huh?? I thought it was just sleet…” I replied quizzically. “Yeah, that’s the name of that kind of snow.” “OK,” I continued, “but I think I’ll just call it snow globs.” After we hung up, he texted me, “Look up graupel.”

So I did.

Sure enough, in the Merriam Dictionary (online) it’s defined as “granular snow pellets — called also soft hail.” While on the Merriam Dictionary site, I clicked on the little speaker icon and learned that it’s pronounced GROU-pel. This intrigued me, because my high school German classes told me that the “au” combination is always pronounced “ow” in German. Off I went to Google Translate, clicked in the box set for “Detect Language,” and typed in “graupel.” Google said that Luxembourghish was detected. OK… interesting right? On the other side of the screen, the English translation said, “hail.” But the snow globs from this morning didn’t look like hail. OK, now for some more fun. I set the language selector on the left to German, and then “graupel” was translated into some obscure English word called “sleet.”

THAT’S WHAT I SAID, DARN IT!! Too funny. So Mr. or Ms. Meteorologist Person, please forgive my desire to remain old fashioned. I will continue to refer to graupel with my favorite single syllable name for snow globs: sleet. But I do like snow globs better, only because it’s sillier. I like silly. Therefore, Ms. or Mr. Meteorologist, if you don’t like my animosity toward graupel, try sending us some better forecasts if you please. I still have lots to do outside and I don’t like getting clunkified by graupels or sleets or any other ice globule face biting frozen rain projectiles. I mean really, who ever heard of graupel?? Anyhow?? Although I can foresee a fun conversation where I will impart this newfound knowledge to my grandsons, and pronounce graupel with a very guttural rolling of the r.

In the meantime, I hereby reserve the right to call them snow globs.

Thank you.

Here’s an old classic about the weather we’ll be getting soon. Keep your wood dry!!

“Today I have good news und I have bad news. Die erste Hörster das nicht verstehen was ist jetzt eben gesagt haben; und die zweite Hörster weiss noch immer nicht was ein Earschplittenloudenboomer ist.” And so goes the introduction to the Steppenwolf song, “Earschplittenloudenboomer,” which is anything but an assault on the eardrums.

HUH??

Yes, it’s real. The rock band Steppenwolf preceded the the song with John Kay saying silly stuff, the beginning of which was English. “Today I have good news and I have bad news.” Then he broke into German, the translation of which is (roughly) “The first listener doesn’t know what’s being said right now, and the second listener doesn’t know what an Earschplittenloudenboomer is.” And yes, it’s a real song, but as I mentioned before it’s pretty mellow for a hard rocking band like Steppenwolf. So, speaking of IMAX. Weren’t we speaking of IMAX?? Well it’s in the title, right?? Pay attention!! Oops… sorry I’m grouchy but my ears still hurt from das IMAX Earschplittenloudenboomer!!

There we were, minding our own business, going to the IMAX in Grand Rapids to enjoy Moonage Daydream, the new film about David Bowie. We went to the 12 noon show to avoid the Covid crowds, and that was very successful as there was only one other couple besides us in the whole theater. So here come the commercials. Pretty loud. VERY loud. Ouch with the ears awreddy. Then come the previews. OH MY THAT’S TOO DARN LOUD!! I was sure the speakers in the place were about to spew their innards at us!! I called the theater on my smellphone and asked them to please remove the auditory anguish from our ears. The (not) happy theater employee grudgingly said she’d tell the projectionist, who apparently listened to our plea.

I know we are old retired people, but hey, we are Officially Receipted Volume Veterans (O.R.V.V.). All you have to do is take a gander at our album full of concert tickets. We’ve seen loudenscreamers like Slade, Joe Walsh, Hollywood Vampires, Foghat, and even David Bowie (twice times). And that’s just a small fraction of the list. So it’s not like we’re wusses or anything. We’ve had our cochlear hair cells flattened lots and lots of times.

For whatever reason, this time was different. Maybe it was the lack of bodies… previous noise kabooms could have been absorbed by the crowds around us to some degree. Maybe it was that we’re not getting any younger. Or maybe it’s just because the IMAX audio was just too damn loud! Lately, my Beautiful Girlfriend and I have asked each other to repeat things while we’re trying to converse; then both of us lament that our ears are still in shock. Typical conversations have been dismantled into nonsensical exchanges. For example:

“I’m going to the store, do we need any cheese?”

“Not sure why it matters but I brushed my teeth a few minutes ago!”

On the other hand, one of us will say something that is completely incomprehensible to the other. Solution: we get closer and face each other to watch lips move, then ask, “WHAT??”

Ah well. We very much enjoyed Moonage Daydream. We might go back to the IMAX some day, but we might also bring some ear protection. At least until I can call and ask for them to turn down the audio to avoid another Earschplittenloudenboomer.

This video has nothing to do with the film, but it’s quite an imaginative way to associate video with David Bowie’s Moonage Daydream.

It’s almost the middle of September outside already!! That of course means something very sad: summer is on its way out. This makes me cry in my noodles, because although I have Norwegian blood in my toenails, I love summer time!! I’d rather sweat than shiver any day of the week. And these days, that means I can live outside and get mosquito bites so I can have the West Nile virus. Isn’t that nice??  I’ve always wanted to visit Egypt…

Anyway, Michigan summers also mean there’s a lot of free food to be had in the woods and fields, and yes, even on the roadsides. And no, by free food on the roadsides I don’t mean that I encourage people to steal from roadside veggie stands. I’m talking about all the fruits and wild foods that sprout up around these parts.

I’m amazed (and grateful) at how many people miss them. Dunno about you, but when I go for walks, I keep my eyes peeled for snacks. That’s because I’m a food addict and I really love to eat. Once in awhile I find a half eaten McBarf burger or maybe half a bag of fries that someone kindly tossed out the car window. I generally do not eat those. Ok, I never eat those. But I have become pretty good at locating the berry patches and fruit trees that live near our house; and I make it a point to check on them occasionally to see what’s cooking. Strawberries are usually first, but there usually aren’t too many of those in the wild around here. Then come the black cap raspberries, then the red and yellow (yellow?? Yes, there are yellow ones too…) raspberries, and then the blueberries, and then the blackberries.  Nearly all the berries are finished berrying by now, but there are a few blackberry stragglers left on our favorite walking trail.

The only problem with blackberry hunting is this: if you hunt for blackberries in earnest, you’re gonna get stabbed. Pretty much no likelihood that you’ll get away with no owies, unless of course you don’t want very many berries. Many times I’d find myself going on a hunt, in my protective berry pickin’ clothes: shorts and a tank top. I’d zero in on a marvelously loaded patch, and commence to getting all nicely scratched by blackberry vines.  I filled up a quart yogurt container in nothing flat; and stuffed my face with a few handfuls on my way out of the patch. Then the skeeters found me and wanted my blood, so of course I simply had to get just a few more handfuls before making a break for the car.

I was in heaven.

The next day, I was sitting with some friends and they asked me, “Holy Cow Ken!! What happened to your legs??”  I had to think a minute, then I remembered I was picking blackberries.  Might sound unbelievable but when I’m focused on getting Nature’s Candy, I really don’t notice the leg scratchings.  Well OK, sometimes I might yell “OUCH!!” during a berry picking excursion, but I continue on, oblivious to the status of my ouchy legs.

Berry picking just plain makes sense. You get outside, free and very healthy snacks go ploonk in your pickin’ bucket (in spite of those pokey-ouches), and for this berry picker at least, it sets the mind free for meditation. When I’m out in one of my favorite patches, my mind is focused on just one task: picking. That gives my brain a much needed rest, and allows me to revisit the past when my Dad used to take advantage of our small size and send us into the thickets to get the big ones. Dad was always very intent on making jelly every time he heard there were ripe berries. So being the fine kids we were, the four of us soon learned that if we didn’t want to spend a whole day or two picking and cleaning wild fruits, that we might just forget to tell Dad that we found any.

I’m often astounded at the lack of knowledge out there about these natural candies. In previous years I’d go picking during my lunch hour and bring my bucket full of goodies back to the workplace. Upon my return, I’d offer friends and neighbors some berries. Some dig in, and others say, “what the heck are those??” Then I tell them, and they might ask something like, “are those washed??” “Well, Mother Nature washes them every time it rains,” I’d reply. After a few careful peeks into the bucket, several of my coworkers have shrugged and said, “no thanks.”

There’s only one logical response in such a situation.  I’d tell them, “that’s ok, that’s more for me!”

Well, I looked for a berry picking cartoon, but found this old classic instead.  Here’s why you should consider planting onions in your garden!!

So there I was, using the Magic Bullet Blender Thing, making Cream of Half and Half Egg Soup for our poor hospice kitty cat, when I noticed that as I removed the blending doohickey all kinds of leakage was happening because I didn’t set the seal properly and Holy Cow what do I do with this now; the Soup is oozing out of the bottom of the blender motor thing so all the stuff seeped down into the motor machinery mishmash and how the heck-a-laney do I get that out but you know that’s quite enough of this run-on sentence that described a real event but is way too long and suffering from questionable punctuation.

I think.

What the hoodley-doo do you do with such a mess?? Anyhow?? Being the human I am, I thought to myself, “Self, I guess since the Soup went all the way through I should rinse it out, yes?” And my self answered, “Yes!” And I did. And the very hot water went from creamy pale white to clear. Then I noticed all the warnings on the side of the blender. In English. Numbered for your convenience. And of course the one (probably somewhat important) numbered item that I completely ignored was: “DO NOT IMMERSE IN WATER.” Well, technically I didn’t immerse the thing in water. I just flushed it out!!

After reading the “DO NOT IMMERSE…” instruction I began to wail loudly with hearty crying noises, which were followed immediately by my dropping to the floor, rolling about, and shouting, “OH GOD!! OH GOD!! WHAT HAVE I DONE?? WHAT DO I DO NOW??” Well OK maybe I didn’t really cry and roll on the floor. But I was of course a bit annoyed with myself by the whole thing. I’m pretty sure, though, that there are no electronics that would die from all this wibble-dee-boo. Not like you find in a smell phone for example. Therefore, I vigorously shook the blender thing to get as much water out as possible, then popped it in the oven at 1,750 degrees for 91 minutes.

NO!! Not really.

I found myself grateful that our ultra-precise (I hope a little precise…) electronic oven controller has the lowest temperature setting of 170 degrees. I placed the blender on the center rack without a baking sheet because I prefer a crispier crust. Oh wait, that’s pizza. But seriously folks, in the oven it went, and yes on the center rack. Turned the oven on and watched the preheat countdown until it was up to temperature. Then I turned the heat off and I’m hoping for the best. I’ll probably goose it with more heat before I hit the hay.

Speaking of hummingbirds… oh wait… who was speaking of hummingbirds?? Well we are now!! We love to feed them, and have a nice glass feeder made by Parasol. Here’s a picture for you… what is not shown is the little plastic container above the feeder. We keep water in there to prevent ants from getting into the feeder. Very effective!!

Also not shown is the raccoon who likes to pull the shepherd’s hook that’s mounted on the rail of the deck to bring the feeder down for its enjoyment. That’s because I’ve never gotten a picture of the rascal, I’ve just seen the feeder on the ground with one of the little red glass flower inserts broken. Fortunately, I was able to find replacement flowers; but needless to say I bring the feeder in when it gets dark now.

Remember that ant deterrent I mentioned earlier? Well it works great for the army of carpenter ants that patrol our grounds. We have several trees that are getting hollow but hanging on; and around our house trees don’t get cut down till they die. Carpenter ants, of course, love these dying trees to make their homes. But they are always on the prowl for food; and they often literally wait at our doorstep for a chance to sneak inside. Apparently, several of these little boogers were successful; because they like to crawl inside the hummingbird feeder when I set it on the counter for the night.

Because we are both tree hugging, Nature loving hippies, we have often caught any rogue ants and tossed them outside for another chance at life. However, after awhile this gets a bit old, so we ask Mother Nature for forgiveness and send them back to their maker (in other words, we squish them). I’ve made a sugar water trap for the ants; and that’s working pretty well. In the meantime, when the feeder is brought in, I stick it in the microwave to keep the ants out.

No cooking occurs.

Oh… gotta go check to see if the blender is done!!

Maybe I’ll ask Betty for some cooking tips…