Always nice to stop and make a hot lunch for dad when I can. And today I could. I guess it's our 'family time'. We always find a chance to do the daily questions-- one of our local papers has a quiz every day, and we make a point to do it. Just tradition, I guess.

So we chatted awhile, naturally, and started talking about a newspaper he gets in the mail, from back home in upstate NY. And that naturally led to some recollecting. Now, I should poit out that if I live a charmed life-- and I do-- I got it from my dad. He's avoided disaster and death more times than people are allowed to!

I knew about the turtle story from years ago-- he lived on a farm and at age 2 wandered off. They couldn't find him, until they looked down the road and saw a little figure waddling from side to side. Dad had found a HUGE snapping turtle and sat on it for a ride. Fortunately he still has all his toes and fingers to this day. But dad told me a story today I only remembered after he was done.

Still living in upstate nY, he was about 3 and was crossing the road with his dog to go see his grandfather across the street. A car came along, too fast and the dog pushed my father away and got hit by the car. The dog managed to crawl to the side of the road where dad was sitting, licked his face, and then died. Chokes me up to think about it.

Besides being in WWII and having a narrow escape on shipboard from a German fighter plane, there are two 'brushes with death' I distinctly remember because they happened in my lifetime. One time, while dad was working as a night auditor for a big Princeton hotel, a masked guy came in with a shotgun and tried to rob him. Dad wasn't about to let him get away with it! for his trouble he got knocked on his head and later got a bunch of stitches. And before the guy left he leveled the gun at his gut and pulled the trigger both barrels-- neither went off-- and it was loaded.

Then just a couple years ago-- maybe 5 or 6-- a neighbor's tree fell one night on the wires out front. It yanked the wire out from the pole in front of our house and since it was night time, we both went out to see what was happening. We didn't see the wire. Dad stepped over it TWICE-- going out into the road and then back up the driveway-- and a neighbor came running over screaming, 'Look out! Live wire!!' When the firetrucks came, they hit the wire and man that think jumped, spit flames, and set the lawn on fire-- and the driveway and curb are still marked with holes from the thing. Scary, too, because the wire was laying right under the gas tank of my car.

I guess each event is pretty interesting in itself, but when you consider these all happened to one guy-- well, people have remarked the angels watch over him! I'd tend to agree.

Anyway, that's my blurb for the day. Next I need to work out the latest get-rich-quick schemes we've been hatching.... I write scripts, ya see-- one even made it to local TV-- and the show, by the way stars me and friend Dave and it's on the ineternet somewhere, need to find the link. (not a really quality production, but two episodes, filmed at many historic locations around town.) Anyway, the suggestion was made for writing scripts for porn...YEH, those things DO have scripts!! Made a deal with Dave-- I'll write the storyline, lovely artsy prose, Victorian period pieces, etc-- Dave can write the 'action sequences'! LOL!

Oh yeh, and I need to invent a Victorian christmas for the museum! cheers!