Dummy!- Year in Review Wrap up

The last notable thing that happened this year, not really, but at least before the kids had gone back to school after Holiday break was that my wife called me a dummy. She had been racking her brain getting our taxes squared away before the new year began and two days into the year I asked her to pay a bill that she had dismissed. We could have financed the bailouts with my health insurance deductibles this year- we paid so much that we were up to the point we could deduct them off our taxes.


A few years ago I traded a dentist in town a root canal for some horse training. I got my root canal done- it was somewhat of an emergency. I was chewing on a candy cane and and old filling broke taking part of my tooth with it. Anyway she never collected although we contacted her several times. She was too busy or something. Anyway Pookies take on the deal was that we contacted her several times and she never got back to us so therefore she was no longer interested in the training and chose not to collect on the debt. My take was that she had done us a favor when we were poor people living in an apartment in a pole barn and we should pay her back now that we can afford it.

Being the thoughtfull and sensitive husband I am I waited till after the first of the year, "when the dust settled" to tell her that I wanted it paid off. We're talking 700 bucks here. When I gave her the news she was flat out mad. "Why didn't you tell me before the first of the year when I needed tax deductions. Dummy!"

Except for the fact that she meant it Dummy is not what it sounds like at our house. I call the kids Dummy, We call our dog and cat Dummy and our horses Dummies. Its a term of endearment. I think its funny when someone gets uncontrollably mad and calls somebody else a dummy. So its a joke.

It started for me in Alaska when I worked for fast Eddy, a local land developer who bought up parcells of peat moss and spruce trees, and developed the land using talented employees such as myself to lay water and sewer pipe in the bogs. It was glamerous work. We wore hip waders. Eddy gave me a job and invited me to go to his church. I wrangled horses for a hunting guide in the alaska range and met Ed who flew in local moose hunters to the area. After hunting season I lived in a single wide in town with another guide named Duane whose wife had left him. There was no running water or electricity in the single wide but the manager of the McDonalds across stthe street had told Duane that his wife was welcome to use the toilet whenever she wanted. But Duane couldnt figure out why she left.

Anyway I worked for Eddy that fall and he took me in as kind of an adaptee. I wore my wrinkled wool sweater and long hair and stupid beard to his church and everyone treated me like a long lost friend so I felt right at home. They might have thought I was a bum. Its amazing how people sometimes cant tell a real mountain man from a bum. Anyway I was in my early twenties and there wasnt a Sunday that went by that I wasnt invited to have dinner with Ed and somebody at church. Every Sunday. In fact Ed had a heart to heart talk with me about the Lord sittiing in Ed's pickup in the Denny's parking lot. In later years would offer me a tool shed to camp in, then one of his homes, and then his own home. Sometimes we would play hookie from work and fly his cub across the inlet and salmon fish. Once, later when I was flying my brother and dad came up for a visit. Eddy had two airplanes and he let me fly one so I could take my brother and He could take Dad. We flew to the Kustatan and caught silver salmon until our arms gave out... that was quite a deal- "Here kid- you take your brother in this airplane- pull back on this to go up, keep pulling to go back down ha ha."

My brother reminded me the other day that when we were about to land I said, "Well, here goes nothing." Gave him lots of convidence.

Anyway there are lots of stories about Ed to tell, like how his dog would sit outside the Dennys parking lot waiting for him and sometimes drag her itchy fanny across the parking lot in an effort to get relief. Everybody gave her scraps from Dennys so she stunk like a rotten billy goat- once when it got really cold we tried to let her ride up front in the pickup but she had gas so bad we changed our mines and threw her back in the back again. We used Crisco to lube the pipes and once somebody got a but chewin for not using enough. Come to find out Ladybug - that stinking dog had come behind the lube technition and ate all the Crisco.

One time at Dennys they gave Edd raw eggs- when he asked them kindly recook them they got their pantys in a wad and the manager came out and got all defensive and was a total dipstick and finally about the third time they brought the eggs back he said "Good, cause I'm just gonna feed them to my dog anyway and he took the plate outside and flipped them to Ladybug who was dragging her hiney across the parking lot with a stupid grin on her face. I'm sure he's not to proud of that story- he probobly felt bad- He was a larger than life friend and I looked up to him and we spend lots and lots of time together and were close friends.

Once we were in a shopping mall and he got tired. We worked lots and fished and goofed around a lot when we could so when he got tired, he just went to sleep. So we were in this mall and he layed down on the floor and fell asleep. He used to do that in his airplane with his kids. Here
Travis take the airplane- so Travis would steer while his dad took a nap.

People walked by and ask if he was ok- I was using a pay phone-- he was on the floor sleeping- two steet people in waders who smelled like Crisco.

Anyway, once in a while when we were actually doing some work, he was my boss you know, If I made a little mistake he would call me a Dummy. Then he would get this big grin on his face. And maybe if it was a good day and we were doing more goofing off than work he would call me Dummy twice in the same day and laugh and for a long time he was my very best friend.