I love me-I love me not

You may have noticed that I changed the title of my last blog.  I'm telling you, unless you're blogging under a pseudonym, you have to be careful of what you say.  

I was thinking of how we accept so many things as being true without examining them at all.  The one I'm talking about now is, "You have to love yourself, before you can love someone else."  Why is this so widely accepted?  I've heard people try to explain that if you don't love yourself, you don't know what love is, therefore how can you love someone else?  I have also been told the analogy of someone coming to you for money.  You can give him money if you have it.  Likewise you can give love if you have it.

Well, I know I love some people, who shall go unnamed.  Does that mean I must love myself?  I think the jury is out on this idea.  I don't believe it.

 I've spent a fair amount of time this week working on the volkswagens.  I had spent a lot of money on the convertible and thought I'd fix one or two things myself.  The car would be in better shape and I would feel good about improvement without spending money.  The rear bumper has been loose on the left side since I bought the car.  I looked underneath to see if this was a welding issue or what.  I could see two bolts that were just not tightened up.  Hey, easy fix-right up my ally.  It turned out, there were three bolts on each side.  One (on each) had been broken off.  The others were frozen (a rust term).  By the time I had removed the bumper, each side had two frozen broken-off bolts and one usable threaded hole.  I had to drill out bolts, find new bolts, disassemble the rest of the bumper, wire brush the interior of the bumper, rust bullet the thing, etc.  These jobs keep going on.  Meanwhile I wanted to scrub the top of the camper.  I noticed one edge doesn't have a protective strip so I decided to use a similar item to replace that.  It was rusty in the gutter up there so I used more Rust-Bullet.  Both projects are still uncompleted.  I'm going to put the bumper on this afternoon.  Eventually, I may get to the ultimate goal of cleaning out the garage so I can store the convertible in there along with my screw-driver collection.  Then maybe I will love myself.

By the way, I fixed the bathtub drain lever.  That was very easy.

Let's blog

Hi all.  Just another day in the life.  We went to a few sales today...a good way spend some of our remaining time.  The best sale was an estate sale of a guy who had been a wood-shop and drafting teacher.  He was also said to have worked on old clocks.  There were a lot of tools at the sale and some collections of junk you would find in an old man's garage.  I've bought boxes of miscellaneous stuff at others sales and enjoyed sorting through to see what was there and if anything was interesting or of value.  The best item may have been a Yankee screw driver.  My father had one and I used it a lot as A youth.  There were a couple of small punches one of which was ground down by the deceased and for some reason I feel these were special to him.

I now need to integrate these tools into my collection.  I may have one of the greatest collections of screw-drivers in Genesee County.  Well,  it was fun looking through all the items.  The family of the deceased were a nice group of people.
One of the best things about going to estate sales is learning about the people involved.  Figuring out who is who in the family.  Seeing how someone lived their life.  Kind of creepy, maybe. But, I do have a minor in Sociology.

Later...Ken.

Christine ?

I read the Stephen King novel about the car that transported you back in time.  It's been a while since I read it but I'm pretty sure it was Christine.  I'm too lazy to check it.  Today I picked up my 1977 Volkswagen Champagne Edition convertible.
The repairs cost so much that it was almost the original amount I paid for this car.  I put the top back and lowered the passenger windows, leaving the rear window glass up in the European style of autobahn driving.  The car drives like a dream.  It has an old Mitsubishi cassette, AM-FM radio in it.  I was tuning it as best I could while taking the curves of Milford Road and finally landing on something that came in strong and clear I kept it there.  One of the first songs was Kenny Rogers and I believe Dolly Parton singing Islands in the Stream.  I thought how appropriate for the old car.

  If you don't have a history with old cars it may be hard to understand how driving one can affect you. It supplies so many memories that you had forgotten about. They're still in you.  The cost is'nt important.  You're driving a time machine...sit back and enjoy.  It's as good as a ride at Disneyworld.  I could write a small book about my experiences with the old air cooled VWs.  Just one here.  My first volkswagen convertible, when I got it to a place where I wanted to put back the top, I was relying on my experience with Ross Weinstein's convertibles and thinking there must be a button to push and the top will go back.  No, Ken you just release the two latches and then using good old hand power, you lift the top and put it back.  You need to fold one part of the top so it will lie flat enough to be held down by clips.  I liked the idea.  No motors to fail.  These old VWs are one of the true loves of my life. A couple of others are Elvis, UofM football, tennis, golf and a few more.

The car still needs quite a few fixes.  I can handle many of them myself and Steve of Steve's European Automotive says the car is exceptional in it's power and drivability.  With a little love it will be a great car.  I would sell it at the right price but, for now I want to enjoy the ride and hopefully Brooke and others will share it with me.  Want a ride?

Quiet

Everyone has fled the residence.  I've been a bad host to our guests and A selfish husband to my wife.  Brooke is still quite sick and is carrying on as well as possible.  She and Lisa and Gabe have gone to Toronto for a couple of days.  Jman and Helene have headed to the West Coast of Michigan for a similar timeframe.  I have some time to feel like I've gained some control of things around here.  The newlyweds are in Costa Rica.

We went to a local beach yesterday where Matt and Rissa provided hamburgers and cheeseburgers and watermellon.  We provided kooskoos and something else.  I am not in the loop.  Gabe provided entertainment.  It was a nice evening. 

This post is just to let you know what is going on in our lives.  I thought Genevieve might like to know.
Otherwise you might as well read the ingredients on a box of cereal. 

I was out in the drive-way talking to Jman and playing with Gabe when a middle-aged couple walked up to ask."Who is the beer brewer?"  They've been enjoying watching the progress of the hops growing on the side of the house.  Dave, the man, wondered if there was a brewing club around here.  There is one in Ann Arbor.  The woman, whose name escapes me, complemented us on the flowers that grow in such abundance here.  I mentioned The Fenton Vortex to them, which they thought was interesting.  Jman thinks such things are foolish.  It took me a long time to appreciate my fathers stories.  He would tell the same story over and over often with different endings.  He was a great story teller.  

Golf

It was nice to see John Daly near the top of the leader board at the British Open.  He appeals to many of us commoners.  I'd love to see him win another major tournament.
Watching the tournament makes me want to go out and hit balls.  I played a round of pitch-and-putt with a few guys this week and it was gratifying to see I hadn't lost all my old bad habits.  They're like old friends. They come around when you least expect them.  I will try my hypnotic tools when I get back to the golf course in a more serious way. That should be Spring of 2011.  I've gotten away from the hypnosis for a while.  Partly because so few people are willing to try it.  Basically fear of losing control or divulging secrets.  That can't happen!  If you're a good liar without hypnosis, you're a better liar with it.  The other thing that holds me back is my own lack of confidence.  I do believe though that after the operation I will develop a servitude in "The Work".  I know when I studied in Florida it all fit so well with my life experiences and consolidated many ideas.  It's really perfect for me. 

A potential client actually called the house but we were out of town for the week end.  I'm going to go with smoking cessation, stress relief and sports improvement.  Want to improve your golf game? See Ken.  Want to stop worrying about money? See Ken.  Are you tired of being tied to the cigarette habit? See Ken Lamson!  Rates are low now.  But with increased demand will likely rise. Be decisive about your future!

Tour de france

We have been watching some of the Tour lately.  A Danish team is doing well there and it is something to watch that is pretty non-controvercial.  With Europeans all over the place here, Chris Hall is here today too, we are drawn into World Cup, Tour and British Open.

Brooke is ill. Gabe seems good today and all is well.  The young adults are blending well.  Helene mowed the lawn yesterday.  She likes riding the mower.  The relatively healthy life style of the Danes is apparent in Jake and Helene.  Lots of energy.  Bye for now.

post wedding blues?

I don't know where these titles come from.  We are all trying to get readjusted around here and it seems Brooke, Ken and Emma must go through a period of "needing extra sleep".  We have to get used to living with six adults and a baby in the house.  I think in about two days we'll have most of the problems straightened out.

If you were a part of the wedding I will say thank you one more time.  A guy I know has five daughters.  The first one was getting married the same time Emma was. He must be thinking of suicide about now.  I have a problem telling the adults around here that we need to put the dirty dishes into the dishwasher and put the food back in the refrigerator etc.  It always comes off badly.  We may have to resort to assigning duties.  Lisa, You have kitchen clean-up on Wednesday.  Must be done by 10AM.  Jake has vacuuming on Thursday.  Emma cleans the cat box.  It could be fun, kinda like camp. 

Gabe is feeling better but not really getting rid of the pressure in his ears so more unpleasantness could be on the way. 

When the DJ at the wedding put on Della James-"At Last", I was moved to take the dance floor with my wife.  She said no so I went up with Gabe.  Then she did join us.  We were enjoying the dance for just a short time when an unidentifiable smell was detected by me. I said what's that smell and Brooke and Mike Kennedy said at the same time,"Fire!"  It was put out and we continued dancing.  I leaned over to say to the Kennedys,"I thought the Srylankans were burning incense".  Just as I was saying this the music stopped and it was loud enough to be heard by several people on the dance floor.  Those things always happen when we get together with the Kennedys. 

If I go on I may offend somebody (else) so I'll sign off for now.

Barber Shop

I went to the barber shop today so I would look as good as possible for the wedding photos.  Usually I cut my own hair with the Flowbee as many of you may know. Hey, it is now Wednesday because of Blogus-interruptus caused by Gabriel.  The barber shop was very much as it had been two years or so ago.  The same barber was there and he is one who thinks it's part of his job to talk up the customers.  That was alright, but I felt like saying could you keep cutting while you talked? If you watched The Sopranos it is similar to the chef who comes out and talks to the customers.  Barber shops will probably be with us for a long time.  Hair keeps growing and it's quite hard to trim it yourself.  A willing wife would be a Godsend in this situation, or A friend who has roughly the same skills as you so you could cut one another's hair and neither would be left with the short end of the deal.  

Wedding events are heating up.  Lisa will be arriving today and J* and Helena will come in tomorrow.  Things are going pretty well.  Rebecca cleaned a lot of the house yesterday and Gabe of course has come down with an ear infection again.  He has his medicine now though and should be fine to perform his ring bearer duties.  I am also prepared to be the ring bearer bearer if necessary.  Looking forward to a lovely day with many friends and family, thank you all for sharing this day with us.  I must run now to clean the bathrooms.