I mossied up to the Park today for the David Crockett Days event. Crafts people from all over the South come here to sell their handcrafted items. It's a fun event, the products are amazing and the folks are real nice.
I bought me a smokin pipe from Mark Stencll, to replace the one I bought last year from him. The old one had little legs coming out from the side that kept the pipe upright, but they broke off when it fell off my table.
Mark and I hit it off as he sat in his chair watching folks mosey thru his cool stuff. He's got a farm down in Georgia, been creating unique ceramics for decades, married to his wife Linda for forty years.
Here's Mark:
Here's his pipe table, looking awful thin, seems like business is doing well:
Here's his latest design, which I bought for ten bucks, and has a flat surface on the bottom that holds the pipe upright, when you set it down.
Animal furs were a big item here, but I would never own one:
There was a lot of cool stuff here, and I admire and respect the craftsmanship these folks create:
But in the end, it's all about the experience:
Ok, I think I have this Steph thing figured out. I thought she was still around, my friend, and we could occasionally have lunch together. It shocked me to find that she had moved from Tennessee, and that I was partly to blame for it.
She started blocking my texts at some point, and I didn't know it. We were together for twenty years and I still considered her one of my few friends here.
So, it's alright. I figured she got tired of sleeping on her daughters couch, babysitting her beautiful grandkids, and fed up with me sending posts about my life to her phone all the time.
She probably moved back to the Seattle area, with a sister, brother, a son and grandkids. I'm happy for her! I hope she has landed well, and is doing great.
As for me still being in love with her, that's over. I still care for her because she was my decades long lover, now she is just a friend who has moved on.
I always maintain that I don't hate anyone, and Steph is not anyway near that category. I love her as a friend, and wish her the very best!
Goodby Steph!
Ibuprofen, vodka, and maybe a little smoke might settle this shoulder down. I bought some Motrin rub in cream, but when I got home it said don't use it on your shoulder. Daniel thought because of it's proximity to the heart, and what's wrong with that, it hurts too! He talked me down and I'll take it back to Kroger.
Speaking of talking me down, he sure failed last night, or maybe he urged me on. I knew early on in the day that it was going to be one of those days. I ended up calling my favorite grand-daughter Shelby and having a speaker phone chat with Daniel included.
They both concurred that I wasn't going to remember it today, and what can I say, ok, you were right!
The last time I got that sloshed was a week ago Saturday night when Shelby and I tore up Broadway in downtown Nashville, then played cards and drank into the night after an Uber back to our condo. I remember most of that night and btw Elizabeth, it was two flights of stairs I fell down, not just two steps.
If I'm going to do it, I do it right. There were two indentations in the dry wall at the bottom of the first flight, and I remember banging into the entrance door at the bottom of the second. It's a good thing the door was closed, otherwise I would have rolled out into the street, bloody and naked.
I'm beginning to think that I should slow it down at 77, but you have to be motivated to do that, and my giveafuck is broken. There's a lot of people my age who would love to be living the life I have, and to have the body to survive shit that would put most people down.
Now if I could just get laid, one more time...
Here's some shots from Shelby's phone:
Wooden steps, omfg, how did I survive this?
The big hole was probably my shoulder! Daniel said if you're going to be dumb, you got to be tough!
I processed some video today.
Here are my two favorite grand-daughters.
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This is a montage of Nashville clips.
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Here's Shelby and I hanging out with friends.
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I finally figured out why I tumbled down the stairs the other night. Back home in my little house, the right side of my bed is up against a wall, as is the foot of the bed. I am totally conditioned after five years to getting out of bed on the left side.
My bathroom is just a few steps away and I can get there in the dark. As it turns out, the steps are in the exact position my bathroom door is. So, I got up to go pee in the darkness, stepped out into empty space, and tumbled down two flights of stairs.
I'm really lucky I didn't do more damage to my old body, other than a few scrapes and a sore arm. The pool helped me regain mobility, and I'm back! Shelby barricaded the steps with an end table before we went to bed last night.
Today we're having brunch with the kids and them I'm getting Shelby to the airport. Other than stairs pretending to be a bathroom, it's been a great adventure.
Shelby and I walked over to the popular Nashville breakfast spot down the street this morning. It was a beautiful morning and we sat outside for thirty minutes before being seated. The food was great, and we didn't have to cook it ourselves.
Then we headed up to Riley and Jess's condo, jumped into their ride, and went to the Zoo. The day was heating up into the nineties as we started seeing the animals. R E Ella was riding along in a stroller with a canopy, and she had a ball. What an amazing little almost two year old she is, we bonded finally, I am Popa.
I have so many amazing pictures of everything the last few days, on my phone, on my Sony camera, and my DJI Pocket 2, I'll wait until I get home tomorrow evening to process them.
We worked up a great sweat walking the Zoo, and couldn't wait to get back to their condo and jump in the pool. I finally bonded for real with R E Ella, she was in a floaty thing that I pushed around the pool from behind, kicking her legs. She would turn around and look at me, and call me Papa!
We then went and had Mexican food, and my favorite grand-daughter Shelby and I drove home. We proceed to play cards and talk about life. We talked about her love life, honestly, and I think this FBI guy could be a keeper. Shelby is the hottest catch on the East Coast! I really love her!
Tomorrow we hook up with the kids one last time for brunch, and then I drive her to the airport. Her friend, who has been blowing up her phone, is going to pick her up at the airport.
Hmmm... Stay tuned.
Ok, my beautiful grand-daughter Shelby and I have made it back to our BNB, via UBER from downtown. What an amazing day!
We started out looking for a place to have breakfast, which led us to a place that was booked 45 minutes out, so we moved on to the next. As we pulled into the parking lot, a Tesla began backing up into us, and he banged into my front end. We both stepped out and he wanted to give me his insurance info.
I declined, my steel front bumper was bent in a bit, but my genius auto body son said, his Tesla back end took the worst.
We went on to have an interesting day. The next place we found was cool. I wanted eggs over easy, hash browns and toast. They brought out two eggs in a container, hash browns in a bowl, and said cook it yourself! They even brought out pancake mix for Shelby's breakfast. The griddle was right in front of us, and thank god Shelby was willing to cook, other wise I would have told them to go to hell.
Then we hooked up with Riley, Jess and the baby and we toured the Grand Old Opry. That was fun and then we had lunch at the Aquarium. Fish swimming around while we ate fish.
Shelby had a surprise waiting for us downtown. A couple we had met on the Christmas cruise ship a couple of years ago were in a hopping downtown bar, and we hooked up. They had some friends along and we partied into the night. Riley and family smartly went back to their condo
Then we Ubered back to our BNB. My truck is still at Riley and Jess's condo.
Shelby and I played cards, and then we went to bed. Sometime in the middle of the night I got up and I fell. I'm siting here writing this with a banged up leg and a sore arm.
I have a ton of content sitting on my phone, my Sony, and my DJI pocket 2, I'm just not capable of putting it out there yet.
I think the zoo is next...
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