Redneck French food

A short note about my surgery: everything went as expected, I'm home and recovering, and I owe a great deal of thanks to many family and friends for thoughts, prayers and other contributions that have made our lives easier during this time.  We may delve into this topic more later, once I'm past the recovery, but for now I'll just say that we're beyond it and moving on.

The morning before my surgery, I rode up to Kearney on my motorcycle just to kill some time.  I tooled around town a little, just soaking in all the places I'd hung around the first 18 years of my life.  As I left town on Highway 33, I passed a subdivision.  It was once a very large cow pasture, past the southern-most developed part of Kearney, and it contained a pond in the middle of it.  It belonged to the uncle (I think) of a friend of mine, and one night in high school, a group of us - probably five or six - decided to have a campout at the pond.  

Except for rare occasions, Kearney was too small a town to have parties without it getting back to your parents.  So back in those days, a campout was a good reason get away from the adults, have a few beers and shoot the shit.  It took a four-wheel drive or two to get us all out to this place in the middle of nowhere.  We must have had four cases of beer between us.  We always over-provisioned for events like this.  Where were you going to get more if you ran out?  

After several hours of drinking late into the night, we decided we were starving.  At that point we discovered we hadn't supplied this trip very well.  As one of the guys summed it up, "We brought four cases of beer, and not so much as a fucking cracker to eat?"  There wasn't a place then that was open late enough you could go grab something to eat in the middle of the night even if you wanted to, and for that matter it would have taken a while to get to a road.

Pretty soon, we found ourselves walking around the pond, flashlights and guns in hand, searching for frogs.  One guy would spotlight the frog, and the other would shoot him.  I can't be sure, but I don't dismiss the possibility we discussed shooting one of the cows instead.  We were pretty hungry.  

We must have shot a dozen or more.  We cut off the frogs legs, skinned them, and threw them in the ice water of one of the coolers to clean them off.  Then we open-roasted them over the fire, had a few more beers and went to bed.  It was the first time I'd ever had frog legs.  I don't remember much of what we talked about for hours, and I hadn't thought about it probably 25 years, but I still remember it as a fun night.  One thing I do distinctly remember, before I took my first bite, was wishing we'd had some salt.  

The Boy Scouts would probably not advise going on a campout, bringing nothing but beer, guns, knives and something start a fire with, but that wasn't very notable in Kearney in those days.

Ready

We've been busy lately, trying to get ready for a few weeks away from work, and a few weeks of single-parenting.  Since our summer plans came to an end, we've both been getting edgy and anxious, simultaneously wanting to get this event behind us, and not wanting to face it.  Mandy described me as not being "present".  She was right.  I was a million miles away.

As I put the finishing touches on work on Tuesday, and drove to meet Mandy out on an impromptu date, I realized I felt more relaxed than I had been in weeks.  With getting the to-do list done as best I could, and the inevitability of what was next, I was now just along for the ride.  We had a great time out, and talked about the next few days.  We're pretty ready at this point.

This morning, I got up early and went for a ride. I left the house about 5:00 AM and headed north, with no particular destination in mind.  I don't usually ride much in the dark anymore, but I enjoyed it.  I like the lit-up skyline profile of downtown Kansas City, and seeing the stars once the city lights dim and you're in the country.  I ended up in Kearney, where I grew up, and drove by places where many of my early memories were created.

I headed back home to enjoy a day off with the boys, stopping to watch the sunrise from the riverfront.  Only Elliot was up when I got home, so I sat and played "cars" with him - he likes to crash these two cars together over and over - until Noah got up.  I made pancakes for the boys while Mandy went for a run.  They wanted to go to the park afterwards, so that's what we did.

It was hot, but Noah insisted on playing tag and hide-and-seek, and swinging in the sun.  We brought food for a picnic.  I was on a clear-liquid diet, which is about as fun as eating grass.  I've had a jello cup, a couple of popsicles, some chicken broth, and one of the powder packet from a pack of ramen noodles. I must eat out of boredom a lot, because I kept catching myself opening the refrigerator looking for something to eat before remembering I couldn't.

It was pretty relaxed day, and we had fun with the boys.  Noah asked me a few more questions about going to the doctor, and told me he would bring me an entire box of popsicles.  All on his own, he made me a hand-lettered card that said "I HOPE YOU FEEL BETTER.  NOAH".  He asked me whether I wanted it at the hospital or at home.  I said, "home".  He told me "No, I'm going to tape it to your bedroom wall".

They're now in bed, and we're waiting for tomorrow.  See you in a little while.

Sunrise on the Missouri River.  No one was around, so I just drove up the sidewalks near the riverfront and sat for awhile.

Sliding at the park

Playing tag

Riding bikes

Noah hauling ass around the playground.  Not sure why he wasn't wearing his helmet

Sweating like pigs, but having fun.

Trying to get a good picture with both boys is, in fact, impossible. But we tried.

A visit to the Grandparents

Yesterday I took Noah and Elliot to Grandma and Grandpa's house for lunch, and a little play time with their cousin Dylan.  We went to two parks, one just up the street and the other at Jesse James Park, which had a rope bridge that was right down my little climber's alley.  

After playing for a couple of hours, we had a nice hot dog lunch, then Grandpa Larry took the them on a 4-wheel drive ride in the back of his pickup truck around the back yard.  For some reason, Noah and Elliot have this intense fascination about his truck, and the camper shell on the back of it, so they loved it.  They both whined intensely when it was time to leave, but about 10 minutes later, both were sound asleep.

My 4-year old, climbing like a champ.  He said he was scared to go to the top, but 5 seconds later, there he was.  I'm at that point where I like to let him explore, and take risks that my parents let me take, but which also make my heart beat faster when he does.  A fall would have done none of us any good, but he used good judgement, climbing when he was comfortable, staying put when he wasn't.