Remembering Mom: She Knew Her Tomato Plants

Back in the old days, we would buy a bag of pot and hope that no more than a fourth of it was stems and seeds. No matter what we tried, there were no good ways to consume the stems and seeds to get high. Just smoking the crap was more likely to give you a headache than a high. If a wayward seed made its way into a joint or a bowl of weed, it would pop like popcorn, except there were no kernels. The lit portions blown out by the seed popping were going to be holes in your shirts and cloth seats.

One of my final antics before leaving home was to use some of the seeds to start about twenty plants. I did it in the closet of my upstairs bedroom with a sun lamp my dad once used.

It wasn't an overly well-thought-out plan. Even cousin Guy caught me. I had to beg him to not tell on me.

Three Songs About Adultery

Nothing feels quite like finding someone to fall in love with and marry. However, not everyone has the same experiences in marriage. Some people just deal with commitment better than other people do. Each of these three songs is about love with someone who isn't committed to commitment.

Two of the songs are about people who are contentedly having affairs. One of the songs is about a married man, and the other is about a married woman. The final song is about getting caught having an affair. 

Three Songs About Theft

Like music, thievery also comes in many methods and styles. If we allow for the figurative idea of theft, the array is simply too vast. Even by limiting the topic to songs that are literally about theft, there were many songs to choose from.

I will end the post with a song about identity theft. Before that, there will be a song about shoplifting. I'll begin by one of the most common types of theft, and one that costs businesses money every day: employee theft.

Three Songs About Toxic Relationships

Even if we haven't been in relationships that were overly toxic, most people will have experienced some level of lost love by the time they are adults. For the most part, people know when to walk away. Some things are meant to be, and some things become painfully obvious they were not meant to be.

Sometimes couples do not have the good sense to walk away from toxic relationships. For whatever reasons they imagine, they keep trying to make it work despite that there are obvious problems between them.

Why I Gave Up Christmas Shopping

Christmas has always been a weird holiday for me. 

As a child, we celebrated Christmas on Christmas eve because my older sister's birthday is on the 25th. I always felt a bit bad for Maureen. People would give her one gift and tell her it was for both Christmas and her birthday. However, that was her problem. It only seemed weird to me.

The problem that I had with Christmas was that it seemed to be more stressful than happy for the adults. Also, the need to buy knickknacks for other people kept me from buying the slot car racetrack I wanted for myself. In return, I would get trinkets, toys, and clothes that cost everyone more than the racetrack that I wanted, if they had pooled their money. 

Topping Her Dad at Something

I was greeted at the door by my youngest granddaughter.

"Hi Papa. Merry Christmas and welcome," she said. 

It was not her normal greeting. She was excited because Christmas Eve is when her father's family gathers at her home to exchange Christmas gifts. I was there for the food and the cookies, and to see the grandkids before they got started.

The cousins had not yet arrived. Her mom and dad were getting things ready for the evening. She was all mine to talk to and play with for a while.

A Surprise at Breakfast

It is not unusual for me to gather my family for a weekend breakfast. This particular day was a Sunday at Bar Bistro.

I started out with my usual Bloody Meal, which is a Bloody Mary topped with toast, a hard-boiled egg, a couple slices of bacon, and some other goodies skewered on a couple of toothpicks so they don’t get into the drink. Elliana and Gemma like to take those things apart to munch on until our breakfasts arrive.

The Love of Doja

I heard a quotation that everyone believes that they have the best dog in the world, and none of them are wrong. 

I don't personally have a dog right now, but I do have five grandpuppies that I love for the love they give me. 

The oldest is Sophie. I went in halves on her with my ex-wife as a Christmas gift for Elliana in 2011. Sophie is a Yorkie mix who loves us all but would bark at us if we dared to hug HER Elliana! 

Though Sophie was Elliana's dog, she has lived her life with Elliana's grandmother. She is old now, and I rarely see her. I was teased when Laura and I bought her that I just paid half for my ex-wife's dog. That is essentially what happened.

Three Songs About Ex-Girlfriends

Music expresses moods. Whether we are happy or glad, or angry or sad, there are songs for every mood.

Love is one of the most common themes in music, and many sub-themes can be derived from within that. From first kisses to mourning soulmates, the spectrum of love is covered. Of course, part of the spectrum of love are lost loves. 

Even within this sliver of the slice of music that are love songs, we can find different moods. That is the case with these three songs about ex-girlfriends. One of the songs is about reflecting on what might have gone differently, but didn't. One of the songs is about an ex-girlfriend for whom some bitterness seems to be mixed with a bit of lingering desire. 

Before we get to those, here is a song to an ex-girlfriend that is about being bitter and spiteful, and holding a grudge.

Three Songs About Ex-Boyfriends

Heartbreak comes in many flavors, and so do the songs about the people who cause broken hearts. The three songs I've selected for this post are different in the ways the singers reflect on their ex-boyfriends.

One of the songs is deeply reflective, and just a bit bitter, about love that was not taken as seriously as it was given. One is a lady straight up telling her ex-boyfriend that he messed up and is going to be missing out.

We're going to start out with a song in which the lady is going to make it known that she knows what he is doing, she is done with him, and she is really pissed off, too!

Candace, Me, and Glass Spider Tour

Each child is unique. That, certainly, is not breaking news for anybody who has known two or more children.

Candace’s uniqueness showed up in several ways. She was beautiful beyond belief, and I don’t say that just because she is beautiful to me. People would often comment how she reminded them of the Gerber baby or Shirley Temple. Her mother entered her picture in a beautiful baby contest at the local mall, and she won. She was simply stunning!

She also learned to speak at a very young age. Adults were able to have conversations with her at two years old beyond the typical two year old conversations. She could speak in coherent, complete sentences at that age. I remember the time she brought me the phone. The person on the other end told me how darling my child was and asked her age. When I told him she was two, he said he meant the one who answered the phone. I told him she is my only child, and that she is two. His comment was "I cannot believe I just had an intelligent conversation with a two year old!"

The Family Finale

This was originally published on May 14, 2020.

* * * * *

One of the things that Dad was most proud of showing off to people was how quickly he could muster the family to gather. He has been dead now for nearly twenty-eight years, and so has the family unity that died with him. It didn't have to die, but it did.

I think the erosion of the family was mostly due to regret. I cannot get into the heads of people, but I can listen to what they say and observe what they do to figure out if they are being honest. If they say one thing, and then do another thing, they aren't being honest. It isn't rocket science; it's human behavior. Actions generally reveal more about people's motives than do words.

Remembering Dad: His Newsletter Obituary

December 1992 
Issue 237 

WAYNE C. KOECKE 
1932-1992

With much of his family and several friends at his side, Wayne Koecke died at his home on December 16th. His vigil for life, and battle against cancer, ended on a snowy evening in a room by a window that several of his grandkids had built a snowman just outside of in hopes of raising his spirits just one more time. Somehow, we think it did. 

Remembering Dad: Thirty Years Ago Tonight

This was originally written on December 16, 2022.

* * * * * 

It was a snowy Wednesday evening when Dad took his last breath thirty years ago tonight. Though it was the most significant loss I had suffered in my first thirty-four years, my initial feeling was relief. We had pulled off Dad's wishes despite it being a harrowing six weeks since he suffered the stroke that really was the lung cancer metastasizing in his brain. He wanted to die at home, and he did.

It was my night to stay with him and my brother's night off. Our godfather, Loren, and godbrother, Tim, also rotated staying with us. There is no way that we could have pulled it off without them, and neither of them ever complained about the help he needed. After all, he was their loved one, also. 

Saving CUPS Part 3: Slaying the Dragon

There were many changes in the first part of 1988. The regulatory agency had a new Supervisor. John had been Betty's attorney assigned to her as counsel in the pursuit of the accounting problem. Obviously, I was not privy to their discussions on how to attack the problem created by the managers whose plan to correct a problem with GAAP would serve as a textbook example for the rule. However, John was much more vicious than Betty was. 

He went after the jobs of these four managers. His tactic was to attend a board meeting and have the manager excused. He would then present his case for dismissing the manager to the board. In the case of Jim Whyte, one of the founding fathers of the local credit union movement, he was called back in to learn he was being fired.