Author: Shane

The Yearly Tradition

/ Shane / 1 Comment

That’s right folks, it’s applesauce time again.

a boy and his apple

I love our yearly tradition of making applesauce. I love it before and after making the applesauce. During…well, the loving it part lasts for 364 days of the year, so I can’t complain.

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Everyone enjoys the apple picking part, at least. There’s usually a tractor ride, finding the different varieties, apple eating, and sometimes some kind of crazy contraption for picking the higher-up apples.

picking apples

I was saying to Sara that, when our kids are graduating from high school, the one consistent set of pictures we will have to display is the kids cranking the strainer every year.

Making Applesauce

Last year, we made 43 quarts and 13 pints of applesauce. The mind boggles. Since we still have some left from last year, we didn’t need to go quite so hog wild this year. We made 14 quarts and about 3 more quarts we will make into apple butter. We’re also going to try and make some apple cider vinegar this year as well.

ApplesauceNothing says fall to me like making applesauce. Here’s to a carrying on traditions!

 

Whiffing on a big milestone

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I had been keeping my eye on the fact that I was coming up on my 2,000th post here on the blog. You know how they say to keep your eye on the ball? Okay, so, this is actually my 2,004th post on the blog. Whoops.

In any case, 2000 is a pretty big number considering how short lived most blogs are. On the other hand, it sure feels like I’ve written more than 2000 of these things (you have, you idiot, 2000 and FOUR of them!) WordPress doesn’t appear to have a way to count the total amount of words I’ve published, but if we pick a nice conservative number of 200 words per post (I suspect I’m well above that…I do tend to go on), we’re talking about a minimum of 400,000 words (again, I think that’s low, but that’s not even counting stories I’ve written in that time, papers at work, etc.)

And yet my wife still says she can’t get a word in edgewise.

So here’s to another 2,000 opportunities for me to go on, and on, and on, and on…

 

…and on…

 

…and on…

 

 

…and on…

Quote Monday is not a Jason Schwartzman fan

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Sara: “Can we just make a rule that we block any movie with Jason Schwartzman in it?”
Me: “He’s hardly in this.”
Sara: “Doesn’t matter. If he agreed to be in it, if someone agreed to put him in it, then I don’t want to see it.”

Ollie: “If you want to be rich, you should sell things.”
Sara: “That’s right.”
Ollie: “If you don’t want to be rich, you should go a lot to the place where they sell things.”

Sara: “Can you make an app? So I don’t accidentally see a movie that has Jason Schwartzman in it? Like, it stops me somehow? Or blocks it?”

Me: “You can either keep thinking you have all the answers, or you can listen to your daddy who’s been doing it for 30 years.”
Evie: “Hmmm…”

Well, you know, take your time and weigh out all the options…

Art & Words Show – Happening Right Now!

/ Shane / 1 Comment

Oh my gosh, I almost totally forgot! Right now, as I type this, the Art & Words Show is happening!

As a quick refresher:

13 stories and poems have been selected, along with 13 works of art, for display at the show. Now that the selections have been made, the writers and artists will swap. My story will be given to an artist who will make a painting, picture, or sculpture to represent that story. Meanwhile, I will receive a work of art and I will write a new story to accompany it. All of the resulting art and stories will be displayed in the gallery, including a reception and reading of the written works on Saturday, September 27.

And that’s today!

The first story I wrote for the Art & Words Show was “Copy Machine”, which I’ve since sold, so you can read it online. (I was given a sneak peak of the visual interpretation, done by Bob Crow, and it’s great!) Let’s hope my 2nd story, inspired by Stephen Daly’s drawing, “The Wheel” sells, so you can all read that one as well. 🙂

“The Wheel” by Stephen Daly

 In any case, I’ve got two stories hanging in an art gallery, which is quite alright by me. Wish I could be there for the opening!

For posterity’s sake

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I just wanted to make sure I had a record that this was a thing that actually happened.

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