Do you hear what I hear?

I basically enjoyed school from the beginning. I had fantastic teachers and performed very well starting in the early grades. There were really only 2 things I definitely despised about school- Mrs Stelter a first grade teacher (not mine thankfully, I had Mrs Loworly who was a very gentle old lady) and that blasted hearing test!

In grade school, if you fail the eye test they move you up front and notify your parents to take you to the eye doctor and all is well. However if you fail the ear test.... We all remember that don't we? They take you into the room and place these large, space-like, rubber ear things over your ears (and half your head) and ask you to raise your hand on whichever side you hear the obnoxious tone... simple. Well when I took it FAIL! I would say in my nice small voice "I have a perforated eardrum" and they would say YOU FAILED!! Quite loudly, perhaps in case I could not hear them. Now what? Do I get moved up, like the not-so-sighted kids? Will the teacher just yell a little louder ... nope , nothing! Until a couple days later..."HEY KID, YOU GOTTA TAKE THE HEARING TEST AGAIN!" Why would I do better? I had not done any ear exercises and the cycle continued, every couple of years, I hated that test. A quick story about Mrs. Stelter.... she once lifted me off the ground by my ear during a filmstrip, mean lady... I wonder if lifting a small child into the air by his ear can cause a perforated eardrum.... I smell a lawsuit!

My hearing today is on again off again...can't quite figure it out. My lovely family will often saw they just told me about a certain something and I honestly did not hear a thing. However, when I am in the shower I can hear amazingly. I can hear the phone ring and nobody else hears it! Perhaps it's the neighbors phone, WOW! I almost always hear the garbage truck picking up the garbage bins while the shower is pelting me in the face. Sometime it is not even garbage day so it must be from a mile or two away... amazing! Sometimes I can hear Mrs Stelter saying in that sweet small voice "ARE YOU TALKING DURING THIS HOW MILK IS MADE FILMSTRIP!" can't believe she's still out there teaching....

Eye will see you later...

Has anyone seen my spatula?

It started out great this week, I purchased a sticker for my sons car. The old license plate sticker was an '09 and when I finished the paper work and received the new one it was a 2011...what luck! No extra fee, no slap on the wrist, just a smile and a "there you go!" Lady luck was smiling on me and on the silver bullet. That's my sons car, we nickname the cars, that's for another blog. He and I settled in the car and headed to an NBA game. A night of fun! However....the next day we notice that someone took some tin snips and removed the right third of the license plate to get the 2011 sticker which had just brought me so much joy. Vandals! I am sure it was some poor person who not only could not afford a new sticker but was also carrying around his only possession ... tin snips. Last night I returned to the silver bullet to move it off the road and into the driveway and I found another surprise... egg all over the side of the car. Evidently some poor bird lost her eggs as she went flying by. A few times because I saw other droppings on the street by other vehicles...sad for the bird. Anyway the spatula...this morning as I was leaving for work the car windows were all frosted. So there it sat, frosted windows, egg on the window and 2/3 of a back plate. Our scraper disappeared about a month ago so my lovely wife had replaced with a spatula. Guess what? No spatula! It's gone. So I did what every brilliant person would do, I took out my drivers license and started scraping my windows. All of a sudden SNAP! I now have a jigsaw puzzle for a license and lady luck is no longer grinning. So I asked again, has anyone seen my spatula?

Eye will see you later.

Creatures of habit...

Habits-an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary

We all have them, some we are aware of and some we don't even know they exist. I would say we can split habits into 2 categories

the "bad" habits - smoking, biting your fingernails, picking things, swearing, those hats the nuns would wear ... stuff like that

and then the "other" habits which is what was on my mind yesterday.

This "habit" has to do with picking... picking my seat to be exact. Yesterday was Sunday, Sunday church...everybody happy, well I should say (good ole camp song). Yes church. We arrived at church and I greeted a few people, put my coat on the hanger, talked a little more and my family entered the sanctuary a few minutes before I did, as usual. I tend to dilly-dally slightly and therefore I end up coming in last, on time but last. With roughly 220 people in there preparing for worship I am never afraid that I will not find them because I know the secret, the map, the code of the Koskinens, the treasure hunt ends right-side about 1/4 of the way back from the front....BINGO! Those are our seats. Not to the extent that if there were others in our seats we would be offended, it's more of a general area deal. There they were and now I had joined them, my family- towards the front, right-side in their habitual spot...they are quirky.

Then I started thinking about my optometry conventions 500 docs, nice auditorium, many different doors to enter and no matter which door I go in I always end up 1/4 the way back, right-side! Even if I enter in the left doors, I go all the way around in the back, through crowds of drs who came in from the right but must sit to the left, and find my seat right-side and towards the front. What?! It's me, not my beautiful family! We went and saw the dead sea scrolls, there was a movie, I lead my wife to our seats, right-side! It's like a white-water deluge of thoughts coming to me, no matter where I go if I get to choose the seats I end up 1/4 the way back, right-side. Two weeks ago, Sunday morning, there were only 4 of us at church and I tried to shake things up - 3/4 of the way back, left-side! It was awful! Sound was bad, sight line was way off, people around me were nice (even though I did not recognize some of them). Pastor even looked different! So I am guilty, I have an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary...and that's fine. You know where to find me, no matter what event I'm at ... right-side, 1/4 the way from the front.

When church was over I went to leave, walked into the coat room and found my coat.... about 3/4 from the end, right-side....ridiculous!

Eye will see you later!

Play ball!

I am going to the Milwaukee Brewers game tonight and baseball is linked with many memories for me. While my family is traveling we go to baseball parks that are near to our paths. I would like to share some baseball memories, so sit back, hum a quick "Take me out to the ball game..." and enjoy my ballpark recollections....

• Many times as a child I would go to Wrigley Field and cheer on my beloved Cubs. It was mostly a large family trip - my parents, my brother and I, my grandma, my aunt, cousins, and my Uncle Fred and Aunt Phooey and her cowbell! Yes, Phooey, that's another blog someday. She would clang that cowbell whenever the men in blue would do something positive... what fun! We would bring our own lunch, pb and j sandwiches smashed into a brown bag. I think I had pb and j for lunch for 15 years straight and I am not complaining. To be truthful I had one today also!
• My brother and my parents went to County Stadium many times growing up. I remember seeing Reggie Jackson smash 2 HR's in one game. I remember seeing Jose Canseco steal 2nd base and become a member of the 40/40 club in 1988. (40 homeruns/40 stolen bases). I also recall not seeing much of a game because some yahoo was a big fun of Rob Deer and brought some huge cardboard Deer cutout and would raise it up every few pitches...."DEER, DEER!" he would bellow.
• While in college in Chicago I went to a few White Sox games. In one game the southsiders started off the game with back-to-back-to-back homeruns. Greg Luzinski was next so we were hoping for 4 in a row but he flied out to deep center. Still cool because we all know, chicks dig the long ball! I also saw the final 14 innings of a Brewers/Sox game in Chicago that ended in the 27th inning!
• On vacation we have seen the Cardinals win in St Lois. We saw 45 couples get married or renew their vows in the Metrodome before a White Sox/ Twins game. We cheered for the Red Sox in Tampa Bay because the devil rays were no good. For that game we purchased 4 $2.00 bleacher seats and sat in the second row by firstbase because there were only about 2,000 people at the game. Shelly and I sat in the shade at Coors Field in Denver watching the Rockies. Unfortunately, Shelly picked up an awful striped sunburn on her legs which she still displays today. Denver is really closer to the sun! In Georgia we had great seats to a Braves game, very nice stadium! Very few Braves fans show up until the post season, they are spoiled in Atlanta.
• One of the funniest memories involves my dead grandpa and my very much alive son. My Papa lived with my parents and my brother for some 10 years or more and whenever we left the house he would hollar out "Don't forget your shoes!" I always thought, are you serious, who forgets thier shoes. Thanks to him I never did, not once! One night we arrived at Miller Park for a fantastic night at the Brewer game and one of my sons timidly says "I forgot my shoes." Here we are, ready to enter the stadium and he has no shoes, no sandals, nothing..... We went in a group, surrounding him so he could get past, got in and bought a pair of brewer flipflops.

So off we go, shoes and all, looking forward to more memories......

Eye will see you later.

I could have been an astronaut...

I own a decent telescope and once and a while I set it up in the backyard, drag my kids out there, focus, realign, bump the telescope, focus, realign and make them look at the moon.   They each look for the required 10 seconds and spurt out a hardly sincere comment....nice, cool, huh, wow and then they move on.  I could honestly stay out there for hours looking and I am not sure why.  It's just a larger view of the moon. But it is so awesome to see the craters and the textured surface. Just to think that somebody walked on it is amazing.  I know there are theories that it was all a hoax but I don't buy those thoughts.  I am sure it occurred and wish I could have been there!  I also know they hit a golf ball because I have one that says first golf ball on the moon.  Okay, that part I don't believe but it is a cool golf ball.  It had to be very peaceful on the moon, quiet and awkward yet at the same time heavenly.  To stand there and look out into space and see the Earth just as we see the moon from here.  I never wanted to be a fireman when I was a kid but an astronaut, maybe for a day or two.  I remember seeing a video on the training and for a kid who got sick on the spinning teacups I quickly accepted that I was probably not going to be a spaceman.  So for now I will continue setting up the telescope on those nice nights, drag my kids out, focus, bump, refocus and listen to them share my joy, "Yep, that's still the moon dad." "Nice"  "Can we go in now"

Eye will see you later.

Oh yeah, 2 chapters to go in The Shack.... another milestone just around the corner.

The Robin....

There are a lot of things in this world that I do not understand.  Sure, there are somethings I am good at knowing, eye stuff, cubs,  useless jeopardy trivia (far right category slot) and a few bible questions, but there is an abundance of stuff that a would place in the category where I am relatively ignorant.  The fax machine I have not figured out, my writing, a phone line, my writing on the other end.... no way.  For that matter the radio still has me baffled... music through the air and it comes out through this little radio thing.... amazing.   As I was thinking of stuff in the air my good friend robin red-breast flew into mind.  How does the robin builds it's nest.  The bird has no hands to grab the gathered twigs and wrap them together nice and tight. There is no jr. apprentice helping out, doing the dirty work.   Yet the robin makes a nice nest that stands up to wind and rain the occasional thrown rock from the neighbor kid....no harm, solid, still completely intact.  Nest building, amazing.   A second astounding feature of the robin is the worm hunting.  They fly into my nice green yard, take a few steps, stick their beak into the ground and there is a worm!  I think the beak is an undiscovered worm magnet.  Fisherman should try to tame the robin so when a fisherman needs some worms, he leashes his robin, sticks his head by the dirt and snap...worms galore.  I have heard the "explanation" that the robin hears the worm....come on.  Worms are very quiet creatures, I have never been kept awake by the crawling or howling of the worm at night.  Lastly, I need to know where robins go in the winter.  I have never seen a robin fly more than a neighbors yard length or two at one time.  I do not believe they fly south two yards at a time and I have never seen the flock of robins going south.  Yet every spring we get all excited "Oh look, a robin" winter's almost over!  So where are they all winter, under the porches is my guess.  Waiting, feasting on the porch hiding loud worms, just practicing the beak knot with the few pieces of unfrozen grass....waiting to make the grand entrance....

Eye will see you later....

It's ketchup day....

Thank you to all who are checking in and reading my blogs, I do like hearing from you!  Today is a summary to catch up on past blogs so here I go

• one of my heroes had a birthday yesterday, happy 13th buddy!
• Tigers in first, I am getting my hat ready just in case he needs my help this weekend
• I said hello to the geese this morning
• Ice tea and 5 pills for breakfast, no Quisp today.
• I am on chapter 12 of The Shack
• I have seen 10 bands since the STYX concert
• I haven't lost my teeth during the night lately.
• CUBS lost yesterday, makes me glad to see somethings never change
• No CROCS yet but these new shoes are killing me.....

Eye will see you later!