Random Thoughts on Man Time
[Visited a friend yesterday who just had his first baby.]
1. It turns out that I still enjoy cigars, good ones anyway. That's not encouraging.
2. Those earmuffs and gloves I keep in my car...good idea.
3. Does it, in fact, get better than this? Well, yeah. But not too often. (Or did you mean for you? Yeah new dad, it's up there.)
4. I slept fine.
5. Beautiful. Honest. She looks just like you. (And not at all like a little raisin.)
6. A dozen years from now, you may have your gigantic home paid off and a pile of savings besides, but I'll be just getting my house to myself. We'll call it a wash.
7. "Uncle Keifus." Not related at all, but I think it works.
8. They're cute when they're little. Did you know they grow up to be big kids? Oh man, she's grabbing my finger!
9. Time spent cajoling, corralling, arranging, camping out, driving, and getting furlough: about forty-eight hours. Beers and cigars and cribbage: about three hours.
10. Floor to ceiling plastic clutter? Excuse me a minute. Hahahahahahahahahahaha. Ok, all better. No, wait...
11. I can hold her before I go, right? Okay, that's enough.
12. Congratulations, dude.
15 comments:
Is this about the mandolin?
heya, uncle keifus!
looks just like you. when my brother's first new baby started growing hair, i used to tease him: he's got his daddy's hairline! fortunately he was just sappy enough over the new baby to [mostly] overlook this.
cribbage. is this a new england thing? because i'd never even heard of cribbage till i spent time in maine, where i became tolerably good at it [and where i also learned to shoot a shotgun and an uzi. don't ask.]
wkmexk: dubya will make those mexicans work!
ivapb: i have a peanut butter sandwich!
my favorite babies are other people's. having a grandchild is wonderful in that respect.
here, i'm done.
i.e.
"here, i'm done."
hipparchia: I heard that same joke when my kids were born. "A high forehead, a sign of intelligence," was my reply. But oh man, did it hurt. (not really.)
I think you're right about cribbage, didn't know anyone else outside my family played the silly game (though they did have a board in the downtown bar you could ask for, and in my twenties I'd hang out with my dad from time to time and do that). In college, I met some guys from Maine and New York who did, though.
[where will he let them work?]
Also, now I want to ask.
kitty: You got that right. The handoff felt great.
K
bcamr: bicameral (but I can sign in with one arm, if need be)
my folks have a cribbage board. i've never bothered to learn how to play though. besides, the family [card] game was always setback.
keif: nearly anything (really) is okay in moderation. a good cigar every once in a while isn't going to hurt. i still prefer my pipe though.
Interesting, twif. If cribbage is a NE thing, I'm not sure I've found anyone outside of Connecticut plays setback. (Hearts or some variant, sure, but not that game.) And it may even be narrowed to a certain part of CT.
K
possibly. actually, rather likely. a shame though, as it's more enjoyable than hearts or spades.
ah, apparently other folks know it as "pitch". though slightly different, as you apparently don't get set back in pitch.
The only gambling I ever enjoyed much was playing setback for quarters one summer in my misspent youth. I guess because it was dynamic and vengeful. It would be a quarter per point (double if you went in spades), and if you got set back, you had to pay your opponents.
K
gambling is always better when you win, too.
used to be pretty good at setback. regular and 9-5.
I think all babies look like Winston Churchill. Except mine, who came with serious hair (child of an Italian-Irish and Sephardic Jew. We could have put a bow in it to take her home from the hospital. [Sure she has guilt, but she can drink her way out of it!]).
They really are appealing for that minute, aren't they bub? So soft and tiny and needy. Then you start calculating the education costs, and for a minute you don't mind. Then you think about the car you're driving, the furniture you just passed up, the vacation you didn't take and you say: no, I think we're done.
Nice.
Mandolin is lovely, by the way. Your dad is good. Has he ever made a lute?
I've got it on pretty good authority that the only cute newborns were my own. But you know, I'm a little biased that way. And costs? Oh yeah.
Dad's made fiddles, mandolins, guitars, banjos, dulcimers (for some reason), and a double bass. No lutes, though.
aren't dulcimers supposed to be rather easy to make, as far as instuments go?
[i had another comment a day or so agao, but blogger ate it i think, and now i've forgotten it]
hcknfjh: hacking fish
I think it was his first go at the instrument making thing, and not very challenging as they go. I think he did it for a buddy.
[appreciate the thought!]
K
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