The little things

Times are crazy, we all know that. All the news is bad. Attitudes and morale are low. Folks are hurting and afraid. Summer is effectively canceled for many. All with little hope that things will return to normal any time soon. Its easy to get down, depressed, angry. 

Im not having it. Humanity has been through way worse. Things are bad and I can't fix that, but I can do my part to stay positive and hopeful and to try to help others do the same. So this thread is for me (once a day for as long as I can remember) and anyone else to post something positive. Something that happened today or something I learned or heard. 
 

So to start this off I'll relate my day. I dug a big ditch for my parents (I work for my dad and sometimes he has me do stuff like that). It's 105f outside and I spent 5 hours of my time in the sun with a shovel. Pretty rough by most counts. But near the end my kid brother (10) comes out and says he wants to help and "If you find any buried treasure I need to know first." His ignorant optimism is contagious. I finished today with a smile. 
 

So while things may seem bleak, let's try to keep spirits up. This place is great, you folks are great. Thanks for letting me be part of it. 

Ditches.

Ditches love barefootskater.

I've decided watch as little news as possible and take the British Approach: Keep Calm and Carry On.

It's hard to stay positive, and you're right, ifs the little things. Last night we were picking up a scrip for the wife and saw our favorite cheapo Chinese restaurant was open again. We came home and ordered a re-diculous amount of all the Chinese food we haven't had in 3 months. Pot stickers, crab Rangoon, general tso's chicken...

It was awesome. Partly because it was a little slice of normal. 

I'm getting so much more family time with my almost 2yo son. He's growing too quickly, but I guess it's a good thing as he has a little brother on the way.

Amen brother.....get OUTSIDE IN THE SUNSHINE Y'ALL!!!!!

My son is 3. He loves hanging with his dad in the shop, wrenching on the race car. He can use the impact gun (yes, really!) to remove wheel nuts. Sometimes I turn down the air valve for the compressor, so he can play with the air nozzle at 0,5bar. 

I have developed the "twin tool method": Whatever hand tool you need (say, an open 14 wrench) you grab two. You see, whatever tool daddy has, he wants. If I grab two, we can trade a few times between us while keeping pace. I also ask him to hold or "screw a bit" on random objects on the car close to what we are working on, so he feels as if he is helping out. He loves it.

He has his own set of ear cups, gloves and mechanics wear, which he is so proud of that he sometimes wants to wear it to day-care. He gets to sit in my lap when we move the race car and (with my toes under the pedal!) he gets to reach down and push the throttle before we turn it off.

It's a bit slow work when he is there, but it is worth every extra minute I have to wrench after his bedtime. 

My wife made me cochinitas pibil for my birthday dinner. That is one of my favorite foods in the world. Yummmmmmm

In reply to Torkel :

I call him my spit crew.

Another thing I thought of. One of our friends had a birthday this week, so we went to the movies. Her husband rented an entire theater and 12 of us spread out and watched Animal House on the big screen. In fact, we were the first patrons in the theater since they closed back in April. They aren't open for normal movie showing, but you can rent an entire theater and bring up to 20 people. They have a long list of movies to choose from, some not that old, for $100. Almost any other movie is available "starting at $250" because of the viewing rights cost. 

It was really cool to sit in a theater and laugh, yell at the screen, sing, run commentary, etc with friends, knowing you have the whole place to yourself. We had a great time. 

In reply to barefootskater :

On my 18th birthday I was working on a small commercial project.  The job foreman assigned me the task of digging a ditch.  50' long, 6' deep, and wide enough it didn't cave in on me.   In sand.  In a heavy rain.

So for $10 an hour I dug wet sand in the rain. When I was done he came over and decided that instead of burying a pipe we would turn it into a water feature so he called over the bobcat operator to dig it out wider.  It erased all the work I had spent 5 hours on in 20 minutes.

I decided then and there that for the rest of my life I wouldn't work on my birthday.  And I haven't.   It's a good policy and I highly recommend it.

More ditches today. My parents are finally getting around to running irrigation water around to the back of the acre. Only took 18 years to get to it. Still. I'm grateful to have a job, even when I'm sweating so badly I bet the smell comes through this post. 
 

Today's little thing: my parents and youngest two siblings decided to go out for lunch and asked if a wanted anything. "No, I brought sandwiches, thanks though." 
They bought me lunch anyway, with a Dr. Pepper! Fantastic. 

There's something to be said for digging ditches - it's hard work, but at the end of the day you can point at the ditch and say, "I did that."  For so many jobs, you don't have anything physical to show for it at the end of the day.

dculberson (Forum Supporter) said:

My wife made me cochinitas pibil for my birthday dinner. That is one of my favorite foods in the world. Yummmmmmm

I had to go look up what that was. Now I want to make some this weekend, it sounds delicious.

In reply to stuart in mn :

I don't mind it on occasion, and I could do without the heat. I mean, kids dig holes for fun, so I'm trying to figure out why it stops being fun, or when. That said, if that's all I did I'd be looking for a new line of work. But you're right, there is something very gratifying in meaningful manual labor. 

barefootskater said:

In reply to stuart in mn :

I don't mind it on occasion, and I could do without the heat. I mean, kids dig holes for fun, so I'm trying to figure out why it stops being fun, or when. That said, if that's all I did I'd be looking for a new line of work. But you're right, there is something very gratifying in meaningful manual labor. 

It stops being fun when you HAVE to do something vs CHOOSING to do something.

My kids were asking me the other day if they could dig a tunnel in the back yard.

I said "of course!"   Kentucky clay and limestone, while awesome for raising the best horses on earth, is not much easier than concrete to excavate.   I figured they'd quit about 15 minutes in.......actually they lasted 5 

Replaced the failed ignition coil on my Italian princess last week and went for a good thrash on some windy backroads. All my cares just melt away.

I've been on a trial separation from social media for a while. Greatly reducing my consumption has been the best thing I've done in a long time. My facebook account only exists to stay in touch with friends now. 

Some friends of mine have several thousand acres of ranch land where I'm allowed to go camping. I'm going to pack up the wife and the dogs and get the hell out for a little while and hopefully not see anything but cows, elk and coyotes for a few days.

I got to spend the whole day with my kids and part of the day with my mom and part with my kid brother. And if that wasn't enough I even found ten minutes to take said brother (10) on a quick ride to see the cave he's been asking about. I didn't get any work done on the thunderbird but I think I spent my time in a better way. 
 

*edit. Also, "whipped cream" straight from the can. That is all. 

Learned a new song on guitar today. It's been too long since I've sat down to learn something new. 

Rodents had been in the dash at some point, and there had been 30+ years of "repairs" to the wiring.  I think I've got all of Bubba's fixes on the power windows/locks sorted.  It's a miracle this thing hasn't burned to the ground from an electrical fire.  Kind of neat, in an archaic sort of way, '80s Chrysler electrics, sends full power to window and door switches, no relays, all polarity swapping is done at the switch, they're beefy Eaton switches.

I rebuilt the pick nick table my dad built more than 50 years ago. I replaced all the boards on the top and one leg and started the staining process that I do every year. With my dad gone it was kind of cool to be extending the life of something he built to bring the family together and gave us so many memories. 
 

I painted a little piece of trim below our front door. My wife says it looks better. I just think it's a different color.  But she is happy about it.

Today I feel the need to express appreciation for the modern miracle we call air conditioning. June is here, stay cool, be safe, stay healthy. 

I like washing cars. Today I got paid to do it. 
 

*edit for thoughts.

*double edit because it came out preachy and that's not what I want to be. So on second (third?) thought, I've decided to keep my nose clean. 
 

I am not some cheery eternal optimist. But I'm gonna keep this thread going because if I can help anyone focus on the positive rather than the current hopelessness, it'll help me sleep better. Find the good in your life. It is there. Help others find the good. The thing about darkness is, when there is light, darkness doesn't hide, it ceases to exist. "Keep on loving, it's what humans do best and it's the one thing "they" cannot take from us."

i can't be mad when he's this comfy.