The Native Iowan

Sunday morn here. It is becoming autumn. It is getting chillier. It’s 10am and Im sitting with one of granny’s hand tied afghans wrapped around me. The house is open. The sky is blue. Down to 14c/ 60f over night. Single digit temps soon to come.

This is a good time of the year to be here on the farm. The cooler weather allows the old, big house to be open and stay breezy. Last night I had to put a sweater on, with a stocking cap. Im sure that by the time November rolls around I’ll be waiting for summer to heat my bones up. Tho, of course, winters here aint nothings far as WINTERS go.

Im watching WrestleMania. All the signs of a misspent youth, I know. But I dig the physicality and the risk-taking entertainment. I grew up on this stuff and I guess Im kinda bent and twisted by it. Which makes me smile.

This is a spectacle… 

Analysis: Wrestlemania 38 had about 57,000 paid attendees each night, generating an estimated $18 million total. Based on our analysis of WWE’s second-quarter reporting, the two-day Wrestlemania on April 2 and 3 generated between $17 million and $19 million in ticket revenue for the company

It is a spectacle!

So, as I watch the spectacle, which is very good, I contemplate, ruminate, travel the back roads of my memory…

Talking recently with my oldest, longest serving friend, Rick. 

Rick and I met in 5th grade at St. Johns school in Independence, Iowa. Tho the primary school remains open, the high school consolidated with the public school decades ago. 

In “my day” high school classes between both the catholic school and the public school were open for all students. I’d take some classes at the public school, French, Shop, Science. Of course the govt school had the resources for such. But the English and Math were much better when taught by frustrated old Nuns. 

Rick and I were friends through it all. 

He had a 1970 Plymouth GTX when he was 17… imagine giving such a weapon to a couple testosterone poisoned kids…

The GTX was positioned as a “gentleman’s muscle car”. Standard was Plymouth’s 440 cu in (7.2 L) V8 engine called the “Super Commando 440” rated at 375 hp (280 kW).

Funny thing about Horse Power… I have a 5litre V10 that puts out 600hp from a naturally aspirated engine. This old monster was 7litres and produced less HP than my 2.5litre inline turbo 5cyl. 

Rick was/ is a genius. We got up to amazing things together. He was raised by his grandmother. After he was about 10, he lived in her basement. There he dismantled anything electrical and rebuilt/ invented/ reconstructed apparatus that started fires, tripped breakers, caused problems…. He was the smart one, I was the observer… We both got into trouble equally… as he took carbon rods out of old distributors, hooked them up to household current and created a carbon arch, then proceeded to cut everything made of metal in that basement. Until, of course, we fried our eyes (took a couple hours)… so we used plastic Folgers coffee can lids granny had saved, opaque plastic as protection against a carbon arch. Sure, makes sense, eh? One, two didn’t work, so we stacked the lids together and tied them on our faces… didn’t work. Took us a while to figure that one out.

He is a great musician. Pretty much capable of playing anything with strings. He was the first guyI knew working with computers

Always and all ways good to have Old Friends. Nice ruminations.

I have three bitches on heat. I brought my 2yr French Mastiff, Big Red, out to have a couple weeks of unabated sex. He has been here a week, is getting very skinny. 

You can see the slobber streaks on the window. He is a slobber-puss. 

So my two 2yr mastiffs and the 3yr maremma are all on heat. Makes life interesting to have so much furry frenzy happening at once. Luckily I have a good kennel set up, so I can manage them, a bit. 

So I went out and fed them, let them out from their night long penning. I put the male by himself last night. As soon as I opened the kennels he was on the maremma. And the mastiffs were on him. Fur flying, snarling, penetration and fangs all at once. 

Took me a bit to sort them out.  Ive now got the male and maremma together. The mastiffs separate. Should do a for most of the day.

And the beat goes on…

Smiles