Chapter 87 - A Hat Trick

No, not hockey. Nothing so pedestrian as that. No, my 'Hat Trick' is with a photo that started out innocently enough and has just blossomed.

I was, as usual, reclining in my, er, uh, recliner. I had been fussing with the camera and wanted to shoot a test shot to see if it had helped. Casting about the room, my eyes lit upon the caps sitting in a row on the top of the couch. I now come into the house from the back door and have gotten into a habit of tossing, setting, placing my caps on the back of the couch. It's handy and I know where they are. When I was using the front door, I used the ottoman by the door as a repository for the caps.

They looked interesting and I shot. When I downloaded, the image was interesting to me and I kept it.

And thus the saga was born. Here, in this image, is the genesis. I guarantee you'll see more.

Ah, life in the Fast Lane con El Jackie.

Sitting in the recliner and out of the blue, I got a text from Carol. "Do you want Breakfast?"

Hahaha, silly question, Carol. I wrote back, "Sure, what can I bring?"

And then she explained that it was Tuesday and that meant Boomer Tuesday at the Chinook Winds Casino. An all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet for only $4.95.

For a while we had gone on a weekly basis but we haven't been in, well, months.

And so we were off for the buffet.

And it were good.

Ah, I miss the old days when I could take down this plate and then go back for Round Two...and, on good days, Round Three. Those halcyon days of yore are long gone. Prudence, health and a decidedly weaker stomach have all combined to disabuse me of those wondrous days.

But I miss them.

At any rate, it was good food, good company and a good time.

And it was a good day for a walk. Which we did.

And we saw this as we left the Casino. They'd just finished "Honor Week" where they had displays and events for Veterans. This was one of the static displays...a chainsaw carving of the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima.

Always a sobering sight. especially considering three of the six men shown would die within days of having their picture taken raising the flag. The battle itself would see nearly 7,000 Marines, Sailors and Coasties die. That's a lot of misery for one small island. The defenders would lose 21,000 men. Of the original Jap garrison only about 200 survived the battle.

But on to lighter things.

Walking across the RV Parking Lot on our way back to the Dorchester House, we passed this Mobile Mansion. Times two.

Yeah, Ol' buddy goes riding with his Boss and has his own trailer. Ain't that something!?! As we were walking near the entrance, a vehicle pulled in and I saw Buddy giving us the Evil Eye. I mean he was locked in on us and I was glad the window was up on the car.

Riding Doggy Style. Ah, it's a Dog's Life, isn't it.

And he's got it color coordinated with his motorcycle. Good golly, Miss Molly, we need to be concerned for our culture.

Whup!!

The pile-up continues to grow. But now I find I am becoming more careful about placing the caps on the pile. Whereas before I would casually plop, throw, toss, drop, place the cap down now I am aware that I will probably be taking a picture of it soon. It isn't that I am overtly positioning them but I am aware and that is enough to have changed the arrangement and my feelings towards it.

Being aware of something changes the whole dynamic. That's why I've never liked 'real-life' TV Docu-Dramas. Like the Louds, the family in "An American Family. Everything they did after they turned on the first camera was changed. They didn't act as they might normally have because of the cameras. Because they were always aware of their presence.

It changes things.

And this, while OK, is not as attractive to me as the first one where I was unaware I might take a picture of the tableau. Things change and the changes are affected by being aware.

A friend, Amy Jones, gave this nightmare to me.

She has a boy in the Troop, one in the Pack and one that will, in a year or two, join the Pack. Consequently, Carol and I have become friends with her. Carol, or Grandma Carol as Isaiah calls her, sometimes sits him for her. I've taken a boatload of pictures of her middle son, Noah, playing baseball.

Anyway, she's aware I do puzzles and she saw this one day and thought I might enjoy it. And it was on sale, too. 

She was wrong.

It looks like a real pisser what with all the red and gray. 

See what I mean. It will take a lot of time and attention to detail. I have an overabundance of the former and not enough of the latter. 

Oh, man, way too much red. 

But that's in the future. Right now I'm gonna have some fun with this one.

OK, Kids!! Here we go!!

And it was fun. I enjoy a puzzle between 500 to 750 pieces. I like them with a lot going on...devoid of large, same-color, areas. Like this jar for cookies. No surprise to me that this is where I would put in the last piece.

And, yeah, I enjoyed the feeling of having completed something when I put in that last piece.

Ka-Ching!!

Here's the whole thing.This one was fun. Lots of different colors and details. Lots of fun details like the book titles. The play on everything shown. "Spay Poupon" is just one of them. Lots of fun in building this puzzle.

I also enjoy looking at the small things, the details, shown in this puzzle.

Hahahaha, "Puffed Mice". Good one. And just above it, "3 Wined Mice Marinated in Grape Juice".

I really like these kinds of puzzles. I don't need a headache. Like with that Red Beast. Ugh. 

And I left this one just because. I was walking across the hall at the Volunteer Fair. Carol and I set up a table to let folks know we need adults in the Cub Scouts. Plus we gave out information about the Kiwanis Club, too.

Anyway, I was just seeing how things looked with the flash. This was a total impulse shot on my part. Walking. Thinking "Hmmmm, flash? What would that look like?" and then, POW!! I shot it.

Carol was talking with Dana, a friend of her's from the Dorchester. Dana was there giving out info about a homeless shelter. Looking for help.

And there they are. 

Hannah, Don, Jedd, Mike and Carol. Oh, I was there, too, but someone had to take the picture.

Hannah, Mike and Jedd had just arrived for their turn. Carol and I set up the table and manned it for the first two hours. They took it to the end and then packed it all out.

All of them are on the Pack Committee and all of them are members of the Kiwanis Club of Lincoln City. Mike and Hannah run their own carpet-cleaning business while Jedd is the Manager of the Oregon Coast Bank. Don has been retired a LONG time but once owned his own furniture upholstery business.

We planted a lot of seeds. Now we need to wait and see if anything comes from them.

Hooray for me!!

The Kids gave me an iPod way back in 2009 or 2010. I used it to record Harry Potter books on so I could listen to them on the train ride to and from work. Plus I put a LOT of music on it.

Other than that I didn't use it. It's been in a drawer for, ummmmm, maybe five years now. I got it out the other day and decided to try it in the KIA.

It was frustrating because I couldn't figure out how to get it to work. And, then, I did. I got it to play music!! It's magic!! Hahahahahaha, it's amazing!! 

And now I have music whenever I want it. My music. 

Hooah!!

I am very pleased with myself.

Wrapping up old business. When I get the energy, I will box these things up and ship them to Operation Gratitude who will, in turn, send them to troops in Afghanistan. The Troops give them to the Afghani kids for goodwill. Trying to make friends.

Here's my inspiration from Operation Gratitude.

Good on them!!

It's growing. The Army cap has migrated to the far left end and then got put down backwards. 

Oh, the horror!! I put the Air Farce cap on top of the Army cap. Shame.

But the still life is growing. See the original three caps? Still there.

This is Lori Arnold (I asked her husband and, no, I don't think they're related to my Grandma Seagrove who was an Arnold before she got married). She runs Granny's Attic and helped the Cubs sell tickets to the Pixiefest.

Help us once, well, we'll be back. And we did. She graciously agreed to put a box of Scout Candy on the counter for sale. And you can see it's working!!

I have plans for this kind of selling.

Just coasting around the 'Net and found the most popular vehicle for the Year You Were Born. This was Carol's. A German invasion...of Love Bugs.

And now they are discontinuing the Bugs. I think they should go back to the 1966 model (that was the model I had after I got back from Overseas). Keep it simple and make'em cheap and I bet they'd sell enough to keep them profitable.

Anyway, this was the most popular car the year Carol was born.

And this was the one for me. The Tucker Torpedo.

Like me, it is unique and packed with promise.

I'll stop right there. 

And good news. Dave's son, Justin's boy, Jacob, got recognized for being a member of the Comanche 11 Team who won 'Best Tank' in the 3rd ABCT.

Hooah, Jacob!!

Boredom. It makes pictures like this. In real life it was a bit darker but I put the camera on the beanbag on the arm of the recliner and used a time setting. A couple seconds and it looks like daylight outside.

Now it was dark out and I've closed the slats. This time I put the exposure at 30 seconds. Really pulls in the light, doesn't it.

Now if I could figure out how to frame it, invent a artistic hoo-hah about it and sell it for ridiculous sums of money.

Any help!?!

Oh, crap!! I couldn't keep putting it off. Seeing it sitting there on the table mocking me.

"C'Mon, Chicken!! Wha'cha 'fraid of!?!" it softly mews at me.

Taunting, daring, challenging me. 

I finally gave in and opened it.

It looks as ugly and dangerous as I thought it would.

See what I mean. Red and gray.

But I got the borders fixed and I've now started on the easy parts. The ones I can identify.

But I'm not likin' it!! Not a bit!!

So the morning light was coming in from the panels on either side of the front door and lighting up the growing cap still-life.

You can, I think, make out the original three. I can.

It will be time to start over again soon. I am running out of space and caps. Notice the Army is now visible. The Air Farce has moved to the right a bit. Each time I wear a cap it ends up here. Some of them were put on this pile two or three times. I'd pick it off the couch, wear it and then, plop, back on it went.

OK. Here's the deal. Michelle whined enough that I wrangled a Sleep Study to see if there was something they could do for my snoring. Michelle, sweetheart that she is, was pushing for a C-Pap machine. 

Anyway, yesterday I went. I slept for about three hours and then they woke me up to try sleeping with the C-Pap. I did and slept with the C-Pap on for about three more hours and woke up with a hugely dry throat and had them take it off. I was so tired I was able to go back to sleep for another hour before they woke me at 0600. End of Test.

This was my deluxe room as I was getting dressed to leave at the end of the test.

The whole thing was totally different than the last sleep study I took. 

They had me totally wired up. Here's all the crap I had on for the study. One strap around my chest and one around my waist. Maybe 11-12 nodes on my head alone. And some on my legs, too.

She didn't give me any results from the study but she did forcibly suggest I take a C-Pap machine. I was surprised. The last time I had to wait for the results to be interpreted and then make an appointment to come in and pick up a machine. Here she had it ready to go and gave me one of all three of the available masks for it.

What the...!?!

Now I've got a C-Pap machine and I don't like it.

Not a bit.

Ah, the things I do for my kids.

Are you happy now!?!

I was wondering if I could throw together a mash-up of flower pictures into something semi-pleasing. 

I learned a couple things.  Number One: I've got a LOT of flower pictures. Number Two: It's not as easy as you might think. It wasn't as far as I had thought.

This is my first effort.

Then I thought I'd try to build a collage around the chair.

Not. Easy. At. All.

But it was interesting. Now I just need to practice and get better at arranging them. Using my eye. And exercising more patience than I usually do in selecting the pictures.

Ah, still learning. Still growing. Sort of.

I've already written about this on my FB Post so I'll just exercise my Constitutional Right to be Lazy and copy and paste that here. Hush, it's all good.

In the main foyer of the Portland VA Hospital, they had posters showing each major unit, by branch, that served in Vietnam. I was able to find two of mine and then got the last one off the 'Net.

I've never seen them set up like this, all together. Memories. Disappointment. But I'm still alive, right!?!

Been thinking of my time in the Marines. I saw a layout of the Marine units that served in Vietnam and got these pictures of the ones I was assoicated with. 

I searched around and found the 5th Comm Bn Patch. I didn't know these existed. I had seen the FLC patch a long time ago. 

I was there from December 22, 1967 to December 28, 1968. I left for overseas on the 5th of December and then waited in Okinawa until my orders caught up with me. When they did, on the 21st, I was on a flight to I Corps the next day. A C-130 loaded with cargo. 

They sent me home about a week or so early for the Holidays. I made it back in time to celebrate New Year's Eve with my two brothers.

I was in the Comm Support Co. It was III MAF when I was there.

The 5th Comm Bn was part of the Force Logistics Cmd (FLC) which was, in turn, part of the III Marine Amphibious Force (III MAF).

And there it is. Another chapter. 

I'm learning and growing still. I have a life and it is not perfect. But it is, for the most part, satisfying. I've made my mark, left my legacy and now I am amusing myself as I fade off into the sunset. 'Taint bad. Not at all.

And now I'll see how lovely it is to let things go.

Hooah!!