a heart with a twist of lemon

the vw golf has become a lil envious. thinking things like, "punk rock van got so much more attention on the blog." and "punk rock van had a name." golf's headlight eyes became so green with envy that one of them burnt out. i reassured golf, "i put a roof over your head, punk rock van never slept in a garage." then we went and bought a new headlight eyebulb.

golf felt a lil better but was still looking dirty from several trips to duluth in the past couple weeks. so we went to our favorite place, the car wash. and i gave golf the works. the hoses sprayed rainbow colored liquids all over golf's body, then massaged it with the large blue brushes. golf was feeling pretty high and mighty. but they say "pride comes before fall." and birds say, "look at that nice clean car. for me to poop on!"

that's exactly what happened. cars must be careful about where to park, because park spelled backwards is krap, which is an illiterate way to spell crap. i drove downtown, and unknowingly parked under a billboard home to a bird family. all of whom krapped all over golf like it were a toilet. so much for the works. golf has become pretty resilient, and we had a good laugh over the whole situation. this sort of thing is only supposed to happen on tv.

Posted by david! at 11:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

being a minnesota sports fan sucks. garnett's gone, torii's gone, johan is probably gone, gopher football went 1-11, the wild are streaky, and the vikings are off to a rough start. but perhaps even more unfortunate than minnesota sports would be citizen eco-drive watches. they say their watches are unstoppable like eli manning. the QB who gave minnesota the win today by throwing 4 picks, 3 of which were returned for TDs. he was the opposite of unstoppable. the eco drive must suck, too. go minnesota.

Posted by david! at 03:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

thanksgiving is around the corner. it's a time to give thanks. and i've seen thankfulness all around me. every time i pay the gas pump, a little digital display says, "thank you." then today when i was leaving a parking ramp, a display said the same thing. even pop machines are saying thank you. but they don't just give thanks around thanksgiving. i have noticed this for as long as i've noticed machines displaying automated messages. as cold as machines are, they always give thanks.

a turkey dinner is a good way to remember all that we are thankful for, things like gravy. but there's always something to be thankful for, even on days serving frozen pizza. so give thanks everyday.

Posted by david! at 12:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

my grandpa mac. i've written about him a number of other times (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). but this one will be the hardest to write. because my grandpa mac is no longer with us.

last sunday, i went up to say goodbye. and monday he was gone. i spent most of the week with the family. helping prepare for saturday's memorial service. a service that was beautiful, complete with a 21 gun salute. the snow was lightly falling as everyone filed into pike lake presbyterian church in duluth, the same church at which my parents were married. so many people filed in that they had to use the basement for overflow. he had an impact on so many people, one of them being me.

i've received so much from my grandpa. like a sense of humor. he always knew how to make light of bad situations. when they brought him into the hospital the saturday before he passed, the nurse asked him "how long have you felt this pain?" my grandpa looked over at grandma and said, "oh, about 52 years."

that's the type of relationship they had during their 52 years of marriage. a loving, light-hearted relationship that kept them together "til death do us part." they were best friends. even at the hospital, when grandpa could barely move, whenever grandma wanted a kiss, he'd work real hard to pucker up. it's that same loving and lasting relationship that i see passed down to my parents. grandpa taught my dad how to treat a lady, and i've witnessed how he treats my mom with the same love, admiration and respect that my grandpa had for grandma. and i'd like to continue that someday.

grandpa grew up on a farm, so he knew the value of good work ethic. and he put me to work. he had me painting the house, the garage, heck even under the porch where no one ever sees. but people notice when you put in the extra effort.

i was also impressed at his way with people. that's probably why he was such a good barber. he gave me my first haircut. he was a fun guy to be around. the day before he died, one of my cousin's asked him for any words of wisdom, and he was conscious enough to say something like, "i've always tried to be kind to people, and that seemed to work out pretty well for me."

those are some good words to live by, thank you grandpa. love you forever.

Posted by david! at 11:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)