Back to AHG

 AHG has begun again, and we have already had orientation and the first meeting.   Magan will be the troop leader for one more year (I think), and I will be the advancement coordinator (keeping up with badges and ranks, which is what I do with the boy scouts).  Ruby and Belle both had speaking roles in this meeting to share with the girls and new members the fun things they liked about AHG.  Ruby is in her last year of being a Tenderheart, and Belle is in her first year of being a Pioneer.  Ruby helped me take care of a new little Pathfinder, and she was a good friend to her through the meeting.  

Another Night with Sean of the South

I was very excited to see Sean Dietrich again, and when I heard he was coming back to Columbiana I was disappointed...because this was the Burkett gathering day up at Carol's.   So while I do love family and hated to see the news that the gathering did not work out, I immediately jumped online to gather tickets for this event.   But before doing so, I also reached out to my favorite fan to talk about Sean stories with...Mrs. Barbara Baker.  And she let me know right away that she was in too, and wanted tickets for her husband and her brother.  I introduced Mrs. Barbara to his books and stories, and she quickly overtook me as a fan, and she is a diamond member of his facebook followers.  

I saw Sean in 2018 and in 2019, but then he stopped touring for the last two years.   He has recently moved to Birmingham, and I am hoping I can run into him more often.   Who is this guy they call "Sean of the South"?  Well, he is a construction worker that likes to write...

"As a child, I liked to write. I filled up notebooks with tales of the high-seas, shameless vixens, and steamy scenarios combining both of the aforementioned. My fifth grade teacher found one of my notebooks and scanned through it. She told me I wrote with too many commas, and encouraged me to pursue a career in construction work.  That, old, woman, never, liked, me.

Years later, I learned my teacher had left the school. She took a job at the Piggly Wiggly as a cashier. I went to visit the old girl, to show her the man I’d grown into.

She seemed genuinely glad to see me. And I was just as glad to find her wearing that red apron for a living. After visiting for a few minutes, I realized something I’d never noticed before. Beneath her hardshell exterior was a regular lady, working from nine to five for pennies. She was doing the best she could with her life. Just like me.  Before I left, she asked me what kind of work I did.  At the time, I worked in construction." (seandietrich.com)

Before going to the event, we met at Jacks for dinner, where we met Ms. Lisa and the Bakers.   Ms. Lisa was going to watch the girls for us that evening, and we had the Bakers tickets.  After a lovely cuisine of chicken fingers, mashed potatoes and green beans, we headed over to the event.   I call it an event, because with Sean, you really never know what he is going to do.   He is a great story teller, but also great musician.  He tells jokes like a comedian, but can pull on your heart like a good Baptist preacher.  

We arrived at the new Columbiana Arts Center, and it was amazing.   I still have no idea how this little city is home to some of the best arts events in all of Shelby County, home of the George Washington museum second only to Mount Vernon, and a Main Street that is still open and seems to be doing well.  Sam and Davis are standing in front of this thing, and really, I continue to ask myself how they find the tax money for this stuff.   Anyway, inside, we found other friends from Chelsea.   Our scoutmaster George was there with 2 other families from scouting.  Then we saw Chris, Kelly and Grace Baker (Mrs. Barbara's son and family) and also Jeff and Janie Hornsby (Jeff is Davis' mentor at church).  Before we went into the event, I noticed that the line to purchase books had disappeared and Sean's wife Jamie was behind the counter by herself.   So Magan and I went up to talk to her about Sean's new book coming out in October that features her and him riding bicycles from Pennsylvania to Washington DC.  She was great chatting with us and getting a picture with us...and apparently she is one of the best makers of Cornbread in this state, according to Sean.

The show was great.   He had an opening band local in Columbiana that sang one song I really liked called "Satisfied Mind".   It had a cool line that went "the wealthiest person is a pauper at times when compared to a man with a satisfied mind".  Then Sean came out and played piano with the band for the last two songs with a solo portion Grand Ole Opry style where each player gets to play, and wow, Sean can play the piano.  He told us about how his daddy bought him a piano, and he learned to play by ear quickly learning gospel songs.  He next brought out an instrument that his Uncle taught him to play to pick up chicks...the accordion.   But he then warned the young boys in the crowd (which I am pretty sure was ONLY sam and davis, Sean captures the 40 and up crowd pretty well, younger folk can't seem to read anything longer than a text) that his uncle was a LIAR.   

He then played some songs on the accordion, hitting Jambalaya out of the park.  Then he told us about his latino friends that kept inviting him to play at the quinceanera events ("because there are only 3 accordion players in the entire state of Florida, and two of them no longer play").   But he went, and said he played while everyone spoke in spanish, and he only knew when he was being introduced when they mentioned the Red Headed Jesus.  He then sang "Cielito Lindo", a traditional mexican tune (you would know it it if you heard it).   And it was amazing, even with a traditional yipyip at the end.  

He next picked up the guitar and told stories intermingled with some songs.  His primary stories were church stories, and dreams of those pot luck dinners, with a nightmare of some tomato dish that sounded dreadful, especially when garnished by oysters.  Magan and I fit well into the older crowd, and Sean caters to us well, telling stories of a simpler time where google calendars were empty, and days went a little slower.  I looked over to see Sam and Davis laughing along with us, which gives me hope that another Sean of the South is out there somewhere to capture the fun moments of this age, one day to share the stories of families that got together around a dinner table without phones, a few stories of church families that all got together to go see a traveling construction worker that could tell some funny stories.   

After the "event", we got caught in the back of the line, which was fine, as we were in no hurry, and that is where you capture a few extra moments like Mrs. Barbara running to be first in line to see Sean.   Yes, I ran to the front with her to snap some pictures of her giving him a big hug.  I love that lady so much, and I could see that Sean did too by the time she let him go to talk to some other folks.  We met one guy in the back of the line that had the same Buccees shirt that I had on, I mean, he had not worn it that night, but he had it.   He told us about how he went to Buccees, and posted a picture of it on Facebook afterwards with the caption "I guess dreams really do come true", and then revealed that it sparked over 70 comments.   We also saw Sean visiting with a blind lawyer and his seeing eye dog that is shown in one of the pics below.   I shouldn't have, but I did chuckle when I noticed Sean reaching out to shake his hand, then pulling it back when the guy obviously did not know it was there.   Our mom dropped her phone like 4 times while standing in this line.   We had no idea what was going on.   And finally it was our turn to meet Sean, and I introduced him to Sam and Davis, and we shared a laugh about them no longer wanting accordion lessons.  He signed my book as I told him about spilling coffee all over my previous book he signed...Davis shared the even more embarrassing part about it was because I forgot to put the coffee pot in the maker.   But Sean drew a coffee cup and wrote "Do not spill on me" under his signature.  It was a fun moment, then we just needed a picture with Sean to seal the deal...And that was when I looked up to see a the lady magan selected was shaking and had a finger over the lens...Oh well, maybe one will turn out...and it was that, there were many pics taken, but only one turned out.   What a fun night!

 

An Old Fort

This was not the first fort in our backyard, the first one still sits out in the woods helping to grow some poison ivy on it.  The first fort was put into our yard in 2012.  I pulled some of the pictures of that weekend from the old blog written on that day.  It was a fort at times, but probably more often has been a princess castle.  The first fort blew over during one of the hurricane storms that made it this far north.  And shortly afterwards, a second one was built.  I think I have been pulled out to these forts by all 4 wanting me to watch them make it across the monkey bars.  I have had to watch many slide down the slide.   I have pushed some on the swings.  It is not the easiest to mow around, and is a weed eating task in and of itself.  

But it was a treasure of memories, a treasure of laughs, a treasure of fairy gardens hidden below, it was actually the home of a captured turtle for a weekend one time.   It had slowly been falling apart, and really stopped getting any attention as the girls got older.   And with a pretty significant lean, it was becoming a bit of a danger to visiting little ones.  So with bulk trash day coming up, me and the boys went out late one night and turned it into a pile of scraps.  And now it is gone.  I searched the blogs with a few key words, but only found the one with the pictures below...but I am pretty sure that this fort or princess castle is in the background of many of our pictures, many of our memories.  

Why is it that little things like this bring tears to my eyes?  Maybe it is looking back and seeing the children small and knowing those years are gone.   Or maybe it is looking forward to what is the next "fort" that will soon be a pile of scrap.  Or maybe it is looking at the present, where Sam has just asked me how to set up a Venmo account, and I feel old because I don't really know what that is.   I think I am just not ready yet to be an "old fort".

 

Ocoee Whitewater Adventure with the Scouts

This is one trip that I have been excited about, but also terrified about.   I have enormous respect for how powerful this river is, and very much aware of my limitations as a swimmer.  But a chance for another fun adventure with the boys.   We left late on a Friday evening around 6:30PM, and after a couple of pit stops, finally rolled into our camping around right at midnight, and then we began putting up the dining flys and unloading the trailers before we started setting up our tents.   So it was a very late night, I think I slipped into my sleeping bag around 1:30AM.  

And the next morning began at 6:30AM as we still had a 40 minute drive to the outfitter.  It was funny that all of the boys were up, and we were about ready to go, when we talked through riding assignments, and one of the adults was still sleeping.   But Sean quickly awoke and joined our crew.   We stopped at McDonalds for a quick breakfast, everyone getting a combo meal (Even after I had to tell JP no, to his order of 2 pieces of sausage).   

At the river, me and the boys all got into different boats, and my guide was nicknamed Mayo.  Mayo loved the Orlando Magic, and seemed to be a nomad traveling across the country picking up random jobs here or there.   A strange life that seemed to work for him for about 18 years.  The Ocoee was definitely more intense than the Chattahoochee, and all of our boats got a chance to hang out in some rapids and fill the boat with water.  I don't think any of our boys fell into the rapids, so that was good.  

After returning to the campsite, we had a quick lunch, then went tubing down the taccoa river (same as the ocoee, it just has a different name in Georgia).  Now, I have never been tubing before, and could never really get comfortable on the tube, but it was pretty fun...for the first mile, then we had 5 more miles of tubing to go.   Then the rain started, and I mean it came down hard...so the tubing was rather miserable.  I saw Sam at one time, and just busted out laughing, he was obviously having as much fun as I was...he was laying awkwardly across the tube staring off in the distance, looking like a dead fish.   I think he was visioning exactly what I kept thinking about...Where is the end of this tubing ride?   But there were moments of some pretty good rapids which was interesting in a little tube.  

After the tubing, we started drying off and getting supper started.  I think Davis patrol had red beans and rice and some sausage.   Sam's patrol had conecah sausage hot dogs with chili, and the adults had some massive ribeye steaks.  It was a great meal, then the rain came, and came and came.  Davis, in his frog toggs helped me rig up my tent to avoid a large puddle that gathers on top of my tent, we both used a small stick to remove the low point.   And as he was helping me, he bent down and ripped his pants, haha, I captured this right afterwards below.  We were able to load the trailer before the rain got to heavy, then all just sat under the massive dining flys, waiting for bedtime.   I think Sam, Cole, Noah, and Brandon all sat in Sam's tent playing cards.  I went to bed early at 9:30PM, and that night it rained hard, probably the hardest rains our troop has been in before.  Another great reason to always have a powerade bottle in your tent.  

We woke up the next morning with a short break in the rain, so we packed up our gear, had a good devotional from Luke Rumsey, and headed home.   I did skip over the Grant Dabbs stories.   One he shook up his Dr. Pepper in the back of my car to "help get the fizz out".  Another after Foster explained jokingly that leaders should never wear ziploc shoes, Grant immediately told him "But you are wearing them".  We also passed a billboard that basically said "You lived well, now you can die well...Cremation with Confidence".   And before we left Friday evening from church, I farted, and tried to get out of the car quickly, but it had already settled and was lingering towards the back of the van.  Which also prompted Grant to ask "Who farted" at each and every smell.  Oh and Matthew Kirby asking random strangers to hold his phone while he went tubing.   Always fun, but I can't remember anymore...I think i was just too tired.   And it took a long time at the house to unload everything and let it dry.