Greetings!
Sorry for missing yesterday… It’s now Day Four of “The Nuklear Powered Gran Versus The Puppers”
Telling you, if I could harness even one third of the energy these two have, I could power the Greater Tampa Area for the next five hunnerd years…
Maybe even moar.
Chili is fitting in rather well. In fact, I hate to curse myself like this, but so far she’s the most laid back and mellow puppy ever when she’s not wound up by the Redheaded Nook. Also went outside first thing and did her pee-pee thing outside for the first time… she’s only had 2x accidents ‘off the training pads’ and I’m now trying to figure out the timing for her lil butt so I can get her out before she dumps inside.
At least she hits the training pads there too. Clean up on Aisle Nine has been a breeze. The only issue is occasionally I’ve laid down the new clean training pad after she hits it, and if I don’t watch her, she’ll go over, tear it (the new one) off the floor (they have adhesive corners) and decide to play “Let’s SHRED this shit Big Daddy!”
At which point it becomes ‘hot pup-suit’ to paraphrase Roscoe P. Coletrane and chase her ass all over the house while she leaves a trail of destruction and pieces-parts of the pad and stuffing everywhere. Queue Yakkity Sax.
Send. Drugs/Monsters. NOW.
Seriously though, her and Stella have been getting along pretty well too:
…although the Sausage Princess in Dog Years is now about mid-fifties like be, and doesn’t put up with a lot of shit. She’s more being like an instructive Auntie, rather than a momma.
She also has been doing the pouncing thing like Chili is doing, and doing the play bark/growl thing, to which we’ve discovered that the Pup has a cute lil baby-bark and growl. She’s really quiet otherwise.
So today we went to the Villages for Gretchen’s Dad’s B-Day. He turned 87 this year. Still kicking it despite being all banged up. The man just needs a new carcass and I think he’d be good for another 80+ as he’s sharp as a tack.
We took the Nook AND the Pup, as well as for his lunch/supper, I also took all the fixin’s for “Breakfast for Supper” I made Eggs to order, two pounds of thick cut maple smoked bacon (the good stuff), Hash Browns, and pancakes that got topped with a Crown Maple Madagascar Vanilla Infused Organic Maple Syrup.
Hey, I’m from New Hampshire… we tend to be “Syrup Snobs” OK? This shit is THE BOMB!!! Link to it is HERE
And yeah, I get (pardon the pun) a ‘taste’ if you order some.
We then had the cake, which was a White Chocolate Raspberry “Nothin’BundtCake” with that awesome cream cheese frosting.
Gah… I’m still full from eating everything.
I had to bring my own cookware which disconcerted Mom, but hey, not to be mean, but her pans date back to when TV Dinners were the “latest and greatest” and I’m pretty sure that just looking at some of her non-stick pans from back then could cause cancer, never mind actually using them to cook.
I use All-Clad stuff for the most part. Damned shame that Willaims and Sonoma card had to go into the default mode…
Le Sigh
What? Y’all think I could normally afford the good stuff?
If it wasn’t for my used-to-be good credit from about 4 years ago, I’d be using WalMart Specials like I did when I first got divorced. Unfortunately, the Williams and Sonoma card was the last card that I had to kill off in this soon-to-be-done bankruptcy. I purely love to cook, and in many cases the tools do actually matter…
So to explain the “Squee!”
Gretchen has a Brother. Well two, but I’m not going into the whole family dynamic. This here is “GoodBro” that I’m referencing. Navy Vet. TOTAL nerd. D&D dude. BIG TIME gun guy like me. Very cool. He’s got a kid. Junior. This’s Gretchen’s nephew. He too, is a good kid, albeit a bit of a stoner and trying to figure out what he wants to do w/his life. He came down here 2? maybe 3 years ago and stayed with us for like 2 weeks.
Fucking kid practically ate me out of house and home.
Gretchen had strong words with GoodBro about the next time Junior came, that a healthy $$$ check for groceries needed to be sent with, or the kid would be stuck eating old MREs and Dollar Store Spaghetti Os.
Not that I think Junior would have noticed.
TL;DR, Junior came down for a visit with his squeeze. New G/F. Everyone is all like “OMFG!!! They’re such a cute couple!!!”
I’m like “The kid is 2 months away from turning 21… Miss Teen Queen? Unless that box is Platinum Lined and she’s a nympho, or her dad owns a Liquor Store? As they say, ‘this too, shall pass.”
And then every calls me an asshole…
Hey. Reality bites.
So they came to visit. They’re staying with her Grandma, who apparently got on the phone w/Mom and Dad… I think the Lass-in-Question’s Granma wanted to check to see where she’s be staying whilst Junior came by to visit the In Laws.
Seems they exchanged Boomerisms and whatnot, and somehow WW2 came up in conversation. Now Gretchen’s Great Grandad, Mom’s Pops, was in WW2 and was in Normandy at some point. I have no real intel and Mom is sort of really having a tough time mentally after Vax #2. I’ll see if I can get some intel and do a dive as I like doing that… if and when things slow down around this joint.
Point is, Grandma sent a gift via her Granddaughter as a ‘thank you’ for hosting her, to Dad for his birfday. Dad in turn, while really appreciating it, gave it to me, knowing it’s significance:
Holy. Fucking. Hells.
That frens, is a field-improvised neckerchief cut from a section of a 1943/1944 T-4 Camouflaged Parachute from the jump on Normandy France, the night of June 5th, 1944 from the 101st Airborne.
<Queue Angels Chorus and Shit, Beams of Light From Above>
Again….
Holy. Fucking. HELLS!!!!!
As Indy would say
“It belongs in a Museum!!!”
Whew… I am just sooooo blown away.
Tell you what, hell or high water, or I dunno how, sell plasma maybe, and get it framed. Like professionally. I did some research on it as soon as I got home… like right before I hit this. Seems the camo parachute was very rare and from what I’ve found, only used by pathfinder elements of the 101st on the late-night of the 5th, before the early morning dawn drops. I also found it’s a wee bit on the valuable side:
I can’t tell if it’s early nylon or silk. Either way
To an Airborne Guy like me?
Hell, any Wing Wearing Motherfucker?
This’s like getting a piece of the For-Fucking-Real “True Cross” or some such similar “Holy Relic.”
A piece of ‘The Big Jumpmaster in the Sky’ OG Chute so to speak.
Mind you, There’s a LOT of fakes out there.
eBay is positively covered in them.
However, according to what Dad was told, Grandma said Grandad (now deceased a few years back) landed in Normandy at Omaha in 44 on the 6th as a straight leg grunt. He ran into a couple of 101st Guys after a few days in-country who were selling sections of their chutes for $5 as neckerchiefs, of which Grandad bought one. That, by today’s standards was about 75, 80 bucks. That sounds like some guys I know, including myself… It also explains the triangular shape and ragged cut to it, as they probably had to use a knife/scalpel or bayonet.
How fucking cool is that!?!
Now this thing is a wee bit faded and stained, and I’m not sure how to get full Provenance on it, but TBH perfectly Honest, much like a lot of recovering Catholics, I’m taking this one on faith. Primarily there is zero fucking reason for an 80 year old something widow to be having a section of a fake Airborne Camo Canopy from 1943/44 laying around. Odds of this being legit?
Probably, like Ivory Soap, 99.44% Legit
So… the interesting shit that keeps coming my way Aye?
It’s not always a bad thing.
I blame MomUnit.
She cursed me long ago with the Chinese Curse of: “May you live in interesting times” I have no idea that I had pissed her off that badly at the time, but hey… sometimes it –is– fun to be me.
More Later
Big Country
Yeeeeah, Dat Me…
And, of course AIRBORNE ALL THE WAY!