From the barber chair

 This is the first blog post … from my new barber chair!

***

Last day of September. Can you believe it? It’s Fall all of a sudden. I got out the Halloween decorations today. Boyd’s birthday is on Monday. The air is crisp; the sky is bright blue and the leaves are flying through the air. No need to mow the lawn every five or six days.

Breathe DEEEEEEEP.

***

Last night we all watched the first presidential debate. Judy also stopped by and Lupe popped in too. 

It was awful. Trump being Trump and Biden trying to navigate the noise. 

I’ll be honest, I was disappointed in Biden’s performance. I felt like there were some openings he could have taken, some moments he could have had… but there will be no T-shirts or bumperstickers made using content from that mess.

I take that back, one bumpersticker could be, “Stand Down, Stand By.” That’s spooky. 

The whole spectacle made everyone just feel uncomfortable, bloated and old. (Maybe not the kids, I don’t know. OK, that just describes how the debate made me feel.) Evey (and I know she reads the blog now) is really rooting for Biden and that’s sweet. I can’t imagine what the home life must be like for a 13-year-old who watched that and embraced Trump. I would hope that spectacle would make a young teen either 1) disgusted 2) disinterested 3) dejected or 4) a hopeful Biden supporter. That’s just a random generalization. 

We’ll watch the next one. Evey is interested for sure, and so are Adro and I.

***

How about those CHIEFS!?! MNF was great! Nice 34-20 W against Baltimore.

Ted and his son Noah came over. As is tradition this season, I made chili dogs. Right before we started eating, Noah asked his dad, “have I ever eaten a chili dog?” To which Ted replied, “I don’t think so.”

I told him, no pressure. If you just want a hot dog that’s fine. Or a bowl of chili. But some combination; this is what I’ve got.

I was self-satisfied to see the kid slam down TWO chili dogs. Indeed, my chili dogs have become quite popular in just three weeks at the Casa de Jones. It’s a recipe I pulled off Google.

We watched some of the game on the projector, on the side of the HOJ, like we’ve been doing with movies. That was pretty awesome, but it got pretty cold that night. Eventually we had to move it inside the HOJ and watch it on the flatscreen in there (still a good TV though.) 

Noah is a mirror image of his dad. A little shy like any 12-year-old around adults he doesn’t know well. But he had the line of the night, in my book.

They did a segment of how good a year Mahomes is having — Super Bowl W and MVP; new contract; buys part of the Royals; gets engaged. (Later we’d find out they’re expecting.)

Evey goes, “Mahomes bought part of the Royals?!? Why???” I said, “Because he loves baseball and he has all that money! His dad was a professional baseball player. If I had that kind of money you know I’d buy something cool!”

And Noah, under a blanket, deadpans, “yeah… like a space heater.”

That was a good line, but that kid is good in my book mostly because Ted texted me this morning: Noah is still raving about how good your chili dogs were! He told me again before school today.

A space heater, some day. 

Royals first. 

***

I just remembered to record the COVID-19 South Park special tonight. 

I’ll be watching Game One of NBA Finals tonight. I’m taking Lakers in 6. LBJ/AD are too good together, and LBJ has been a monster. 

Mostly hopeful for a good finals, but also rooting a little for Jimmy Buckets to upset the Lake Show.

***

You know the only thing the barber chair needs? 

A cup holder.

But that’s probably not sanitary, is it?

***

Boyd turns 9 on Monday. He’s a character.

He’s a jokester and likes to mess with people. For example, his fake cobra? It somehow follows Adrianne all around all day. 

He does a Fortnite walk from time to time, because he likes the attention it brings. It is funny.

And he gets in trouble once in a while for giving one-word answers, not picking up after himself, getting upset when he can’t play on the xBox.

So yeah, he’s almost 9. Good kid. 

**

Evey played her last game of volleyball yesterday, as an 8^th grader on the jayvee team. She was co-captain and the fulltime setter.

I was really impressed to see her going from never making a set (none of the team tried this concept in 7^th grade) to setting everything passed to her, either off a true set or off a bump. Her running bump sets were especially impressive to me. (Too bad she never had a hitter to take advantage!)

She signed up for basketball and I’m excited for that. I was banned from her first volleyball scrimmage (by Evey, true story.) But I was a good (quiet, say nothing negative or positive, just sit there quietly) fan in volleyball, so I’m hoping good behavior(?) gets me good access to basketball.

We’ll see!

But seriously, going to Evey’s volleyball games and rooting for her was a great mental break from the drama that’s going on in the nation, and just being a sports dad. 

Evey is a great teammate … and an even better human. (Sorry I didn't get a photo of you for this post Evey!!!)

Beautiful Kansas sunsets

Maybe because of the wildfires, but the sunsets have been especially beautiful lately. Enjoying them in the front yard with the family, watching the sun set, listening to good music. Feels great!

Play 7810

 Pretty good weekend here. I’m feeling mostly normal now, two weeks removed from my surgery. Tested my limits a few times (picked up a package of bottled waters; did some yard work) and felt good!

Saturday was a cool day. I’ll tell you why.

I woke up at a decent hour and went and did the recycling, took the dog with me. We then went and got some tortillas for breakfast. Came home and I fired out an epic Country Breakfast on the flat-top. Scrambled eggs, sausage, breakfast potatoes, bacon… so good! 

After breakfast I mowed half the yard, then I watched KSU lose their home opener (I love it when KSU loses football games… and it was also an exciting game.) The girls had hair appointments, so Bub and I would be on our own for a bit. What to do?

We took it easy and just went for a cruise in the Impala, to Sonic. Got lunch, drove around a little bit. I could tell Boyd was getting a little sleepy. By the time I pulled in to the house, he was OUT. I left the windows down, snuck out, and let him sleep right there while I got comfortable at the HOJ.

Girls are doing good at the hair appointment? Boyd is doing good, taking a nap in the Impala? The weather was perfect, there was this layer of clouds that move in, and it was cool, overcast… 

I did what any man would do at that moment. I took off my T-shirt, cracked open a beer and played 7810 on the jukebox. Then I heard the thump-thump-thump of a Chinook helicopter. I walked outside the HOJ in time to see two Chinooks following each other, low, flying right at me. Soundgarden’s “Day I tried to live” started playing on the jukebox. I threw my hands in the air, impressed by the moment. 

And then suddenly I was soaked in sunlight. There was one little hole in the clouds… and it was beaming on me.

I’m not the most spiritual person in the world, but at that moment I waved at my parents, I thanked God, I threw a first in the air to Allah, you name it. AWESOME. I felt so… alive.

I sat down with an Iron Man comic from 1975. Cold beer, good music, perfect weather, son sleeping peacefully in the Impala 10 feet from me… all was right in my world. I got to page two… looked up… saw my neighbor the Cowboy on his horse in the field across the road. Gave him a wave. He waved back, and rode over…

We chatted for about 20 minutes or so. Nice guy. We don’t have a lot in common (interests, politics, etc.) but I like him and I know he’d give me the shirt off his back if I needed it. We wrapped it up and he rode off.

I got a new beer (keep in mind I’m on beer # 2 at this point, so the sunbeam wasn’t me just hammered or something) and sit back down. Start back up on Iron Man. Weird comic. Make it about three more pages. And a white Mustang pulls into my drive. 

It’s another neighbor, Matthew, I think? Bill’s son. He paints cars. Wanted to show me his new project. It looked nice! We walked around this Mustang three, four times and agreed how nice it looked. At one point I saw Boyd pop his head up; he saw me, closed his eyes and fell back asleep…

Matthew and I wrapped up. Grabbed beer # 3. Went back to the lawn chair. Sat down. Read the most bizarre nonsensical Iron Man comic to the next-to-last page. And then Boyd woke up.

It was a memorable Saturday afternoon. And I didn’t even mention the Mittens story, or the new pigs the neighbors have…

First day of school!

8th and 3rd grade!

No belly moshing this weekend!

Adro and I in Omaha, last summer.

 Hello from the Hall of Justice, 9 a.m. on a beautiful Sunday morning. Me and the dog are out here enjoying the weather. I’m catching up on unread emails (I just discovered the ‘schedule send’ button here in 2020) and listening to Pearl Jam live at Benaroya Hall Disc 1.

***

It was an interesting few days for sure, memorable because on Friday morning I went in and had hernia surgery on my belly button. 

The doctors and staff at LMH (Dr. Park did my surgery) were all fantastic… professional yet compassionate. Thumb’s up review all around on how they took care of me.

My recovery at home has been good. Day one was a little rough. It was hard to move around. And the painkillers made me paranoid. I felt like Cheech driving around in L.A. traffic at 10 mph. Sleepless first night for sure.

As of Sunday morning I feel pretty good. I can get up out of the chair relatively quickly, using my arm strength, avoiding stomach muscles. No painkillers for almost 24 hours now, just a little sore. I went to Aleve/Aspirin for a little bit and that was much better than the prescription stuff they gave me.

***

All the family pitched in to help me out. For Boyd, it was not being a wild man around me. For Adro, it was keeping everyone fed, to bed on time, etc. Grandma came over and hung out to make sure we were all doing good. 

Evey was the one who was so worried about me and willing to just stay close to me. She said to me Saturday night, “I don’t care what we do, but I want to do something with you.” We played an easy game of foosball, and then played Battleship (she destroyed me in both). Boyd came out later and we played Uno until the sun went down. Such sweet kids! Especially Evey.

She also told me later on that when she grows up, she thinks she’ll come over to check on me and mom often and make sure we’re doing good. I hope she’s right!