To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
An eternity in an hour.  ~William Blake

We found this feather in the woods in Cortland, New York. It became the focus of our attention for a while. Kyle was cracking me up! 8/31/13

Dad gets his hunting license not only for Westmoreland County, but also for the surrounding counties and his New York license.  In certain areas, dad has his tree stands set up, keeping them there year-over-year.  Yes, that wasn’t a typo.  Tree stands!  As in plural, meaning more than one.

So what does all this have to do with me?  Let me tell you were I was this past weekend.  In Cortland, New York moving a tree stand.  Why?  Simply, because last year, someone hit a big buck up the hill from where dad was sitting.  Ever since then, dad has been talking about moving his tree stand up the hill.  He believes it would have been his buck if he was positioned at a higher elevation.  Is that a fact?  Not necessarily, but I do trust dad’s hunting sense and his observation.  Previous to that, Dad’s was actually talking about moving the tree stand for a while now, but since the buck incidence, that made up his mind for him.

Now don’t get me wrong.  Dad’s not bitter in any way shape or form, for the lucky hunter, not at all.  He’s happy for anyone who gets a deer, especially if it’s a prize.  But he’s had it in his head for a while now to move the stand, pretty much where Larry, a good friend of the family and my mom’s boss at Gutchess Hardwoods, suggested in the first place.  Dad said, “I should have listened to Larry, but I was being so stubborn and had my mind made up.”  Can’t imagine!

Moving a tree stand seems simple enough, not really.  First we had to drive six hours to Cortland, New York to get to the woods where the tree stand was situated.  Then, we had to drive back into the woods, only so far, before all piling on the quad and riding it another couple of miles, before getting out and hiking to the hunting spot.  Yes, somewhere in the 500 acres, was this big metal tree stand attached to a tree.  Did I mention I was the one who had to assemble the beast a few summers back?

Let’s start off with Saturday morning.   I mean morning.  We got up around 3:00 am, and we didn’t leave until 4:30 am.  There used to be a day when dad was up early and started on his day right away.  No sitting around, none of this taking his time, watching the news, finishing his coffee blah blah blah.  Nope!   Dad used to get up, make sure everyone else was up, get dressed and out the door like lightening.  Boy have times changed.  Usually Kyle does pretty good in the am, but this time was a bit different, not that I can blame him, even for me this was a bit early.

Kyle shooting pap’s .22 rifle at the shooting range. Not a bad shot! 8/31/13

Once we were off, Kyle slept in the backseat of the truck.  He really wasn’t ready to get up and get moving, that is until we made a pit stop at Sheetz.  Naturally, he had donuts on his mind and with his pappy there, he pretty much gets what he wants.  Although as in keeping with tradition, I raced him in and out of the gas station, to and from the truck.  At one point, we both tried to wedge ourselves out of the door and practically got stuck.  Dad saw us and just shook his head and chuckled.

While on the road, once we finally got Kyle up, Kyle and I started to play a game of War.  You know the card game that goes on forever and requires little to no thought.  That game seemed like it was the longest ever played!  Seriously.  Me and Kyle were in amazement because it was never ending.  We kept joking around that we were going to make it into the Guinness Book of World Records.

The drive was pretty uneventful.  It’s actually kind of nice to be up before dawn and watching the day unfold before my eyes.  We passed Beaver Stadium, my sister’s Alma Mater.  We joked around a little and called my mom and my sister to check in.  I was even fine with the Willy Nelson Serious XM radio station on, that is until it stayed on the entire time to and from New York.

Dad cracks me up.  When he had to pee, he just pulled the truck, which was hooked to the trailer containing the quad, onto the side of the road, peed and left.  Back in the day, when I was little, dad NEVER stopped for no one.  Not himself, not my mom and certainly not for his kids.  We had to go before we left and we learned to hold it until we got to our destination.  Granted, we never really traveled for than four or five hours, but regardless that’s how dad traveled.  Come to think of it, that’s probably why I am, the way I am, when traveling.  I never stop, I keep going till I reach my journey’s end.  Now-a-days things are different, very different.  I swear we pulled over every hour!  Every roadside pause gave me and Kyle the giggles.  Then it would start the teasing towards dad.

Dad was checking the shots with the spotting scope. Kyle was reloading, ready to go again. 8/31/13

At one point, Kyle had to use the restroom, as did I but I can hold it because I knew dad would expect me to go along side of the road.  Fat chance!  Dad pulled over for Kyle, but not just on the side of the road.  He pulled over were they were doing construction.  To reach the side of the road, dad had to weave the truck and the trailer between the cones.  Me and Kyle were dying!  For some reason we thought that was the funniest thing ever!  Keep in mind this is around ten o’clock or so in the morning, along a major highway.  I knew Kyle wouldn’t use natures facility, and I was right.  But what made the situation even funnier, dad drove down the road that was coned off, and as we progressed the cones got closer together.  We were taking bets if dad was going to knock down a row of cones.  Nope!  Didn’t even graze them!

After we checked into our motel room in no-man’s-land we headed to the woods.  The minute we got out, I was attacked by mosquitoes!  Anyone that knows me, knows I am always the first person to take fire from the blood suckers and I usually get it the worst.  My bites always swell and linger for twice as long as most.  Would you believe no one thought to bring bug spray?  Nope!  We were screwed!

After we unloaded the quad, dad had me plant my buttocks on the front rack, while Kyle was seated right behind dad, beside the chainsaw, tools, salt block and extra chainsaw gasoline.  Yes, that was my first reaction too!  What are we cutting down?  The layout of us all situated on the quad was nothing new, we rode like that before for hunting season and I suspected it was going to be that way.  But what I didn’t know is that we had to chuck wood too?  Yes, apparently we had to clear out the roadway back to the tree stand.  This just keeps getting better!

The Piper outing at the shooting range. Nicole got back into the swing, not a bad shot. Kyle was shooting pretty good & mom shot a couple, but just observed. 8/31/13

The ride to and fro was quite an adventure!  We hit a few pond size mud puddles, which at one point I thought was going to sink us all whole.  Then, let’s talk about the cliff of death.  The trail was pretty wide, wide enough for a full size vehicle.  So naturally one would think we had enough room for a quad.  Well, we did, but dad kept driving along side the brim of the edge, while looking down!  Me and Kyle were hanging on.  I stated, “Dad, they had a ton of rain this week.  You have the entire road, use it!”  Meaning, dad get away from the edge, the ground is soft and could collapse at any minute driving us down over the edge into the heart of the woods.  Even Kyle laughed about that one and was feeling the same way.  When we later recapped the story to mom, Kyle commented on that very scenario.

We did need to hack up a few logs laying across our path, to get through and I had to get off a few times to walk.  I must say it was quite the journey.  The one part of the road seemed like it was a complete vertical shot straight down and the road looked like a miniature Grand Canyon from being washed out.  I was hanging on, trying not to be projected off from the front end.  It was hard!  The road wasn’t exactly smooth sailing.

Once dad had me and Kyle on foot, he instructed us to walk up the hill and he followed on the quad.  He even tried to go up a side of a bank and I swear I saw the front end of the quad lift, like it was going to flip.  Me and Kyle just gave each other the look, you know the kind that says, ‘Wow that was a close one.’ or ‘Something bad is going to happen today.’  Then I said, “And you wondered why I brought my phone?”

While on foot, in the hot, humid mosquitoes infested deep woods, we seemed to keep walking on forever.  Like our path was never going to end.  Kyle turned to me and said, “I don’t think pappy knows where he’s going.”  I laughed so hard, I was thinking the same thing!    We kept trucking and following dad on foot.  Did I mention I had a long-sleeved thick hoodie type of top on, zipped up to my neck to protect some of my skin from the pests, and jeans on while I dripped with sweat in the eighty degree weather?  Awesome!

As we zigzagged through the tall brush, dad would stop every now-and-again to cut a few fallen trees.  That is until we came upon vertically intimidating, reaching the top of dad’s head, “jagger” bushes, briars and thick brush.  He actually used the chainsaw to mow down the obstruction!  Me and Kyle watched in amazement.  Then, when he was done, I yelled over, “You didn’t tell me we needed the weed whacker!”  Dad gave me an already tired grin and nod, while me and Kyle found that comment to be pretty darn funny.

Dad even used the quad to knock down small trees and mow down tall brush.  Then, we started to have a field day with that saying, “Does pappy think he’s a bulldozer?” and “We know what to get him for Christmas.”  Kyle said, “Ya, he could use a steam press to flatten our path.”  Very true buddy!  Very true!

Almost there…

To be continued…

A day without laughter is a day wasted.  ~Charlie Chaplin

Me & Kyle exploring the caves with Casey in Lewisburg, West Virginia 2011

Kyle and I are back at it again, only because we have so much dashboard time and we make the most of it.  I know I’m the instigator, but I do love seeing Kyle use his imagination along with his strong personality to create these funny stories and scenarios!  I really can’t help myself, it’s way too much fun to pass up.  Not to mention, we continue quoting from our stories for days, weeks and months after the fact, laughing to own inside jokes.  If there is one bonding experience that we both equally enjoy, its laughing about nothing!

Staying to theme here’s a good one for the books.  Traffic was slower than usual when getting Kyle for his piano lessons a couple of Monday’s ago.  It looked like they were resurfacing the road.  Doesn’t matter, all I knew was that traffic heading to his music lesson was moving at a snail’s pace.  Did I mention I was running on fumes too?  Typical me, running my gas tank down to vapors and now there was another challenge creeping by in the next lane, roadway construction.  Thinking I was being clever, I plugged in my GPS and took a detour to the nearest Sheetz.  Yes, I am completely Directionally Challenged!  I knew my precious navigation system would take us in the opposite direction of the roadwork but since there was no way I would have been able to find my way out of the maze of side roads, at least not in enough time to get Kyle to his lessons or before I ran out of gas, I made that choice thinking it was best.

After we fueled up and grabbed grub, we headed back in the right direction, now running parallel to the construction work.   I don’t know about anyone else, but bumper-to-bumper traffic makes me antsy and almost claustrophobic.  Even though I was not among the chaos at that point, I was still feeling the effects of experiencing the traffic.  There is only one way to cure that, wide open roads and speed; neither of which were happening, plus I had precious cargo with me, Kyle.  So with the feeling of being trapped behind someone and moving at a snail’s pace, I became a little irritated with people in front of me.  Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t have road rage at all!  But this was my inside feeling especially now that we were cutting it close on time for Kyle’s lesson.  Just then, a slower moving vehicle made their way in front of us.  Perfect!  That’s exactly what I needed.  Now on my defense, as not to confuse me with a serious lunatic driver, they were moving slower than the established speed limit sign.  Really?  It was beautiful day, no weather conditions to content with, no additional traffic, it was daylight, yet the driver felt the need to omit the suggested range of speed at which one was legally allowed to travel.

Anyway, it was at that moment that a funny thought entered my mind and I begin to snicker to myself.  Kyle, being a curious little man asked, “What? What Aunt Heather?, What are you laughing at?”.  Oh, Kyle you asked, I shall answer, “Wouldn’t that be funny if my car had a horn like on a big truck and I blew?  Could you image?  What would that lady think when she looked at us in her rear view mirror expecting to see a big truck and it was us?”  Please keep in mind I have a Nissan Rogue.  Kyle instantly caught on to the humor and began to laugh before chiming in with his own version of this scenario.

As we laughed about the idea, I saw a bolt of lighting hitting Kyle right in the brain, just as he busted out laughing so hard he couldn’t actually laugh.  He bend over as much as the seat belt would allow, while his stomach muscles contracted with faint giggles erupting from his throat.  I knew there was something really good to laugh at, I just didn’t know what it was and so following suit, I started to laugh too.  Kyle has one of those contagious laughs when he really finds something truly funny and it makes it really hard not to join in.  My mom is the same way.  When she starts to really laugh at something, even before knowing what it is, you find yourself participating in the mysterious humor that for some reason is really really funny!

After Kyle got his composure somewhat under control, he blurted out, “Imagine driving a smart car that had a big truck horn?”  That was completely hysterical!  I busted out laughing and I couldn’t talk, besides gasping for air and wiping the tears from my eyes,  I was trying to drive safely.  Once the shock of the outrageous comment settled, we continued with the story.

Kyle was on fire!  He started our story off with saying, “Ya Aunt Heather we could pull up to pappy in his truck and honk the horn.”  This was completely silly and seriously comical.  Feeding off of his thoughts, I said, “Image if there was a fleet of smart cars with the big truck horns, all honking them.  Can you image being the car in front hearing all those horns and thinking there was a caravan of big trucks?  Then to look in your rear view mirror and see a bunch of smart cars?”  Ok, I get it, this was a really stupid conversation, but I can’t even explain how much fun we had with it.  I even told my sister about the big truck horn disguised under the exterior of a smart car.  Even she thought is was funny too and gave a good chuckle when we talked.

Kyle’s imagination is so interesting!  He is one cool cat!  Keep the stories flowing buddy, that makes life fun and interesting.  It also helps break up the norm and the repetition of the day.  Not to mention it makes for a great Twitter comment.

 Read more on our stupid humor

Laughing About Nothing
Laughing About Nothing … True Story
Laughing About Nothing … Cats!

Ever since Stephanie Meyer created the Twilight book, published in 2005 and then released the remainder of the series, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, The Short Second Life of Brie Tanner, and the not-yet-officially released Midnight Sun, my sister and I have been wanting to go to the location of where it all takes place.  The Twilight books are on my list of top books ever!  I’m not sure if I’m embarrassed to say it, but I’ve read each of the books at least three times, and they never get old!  My sister is the guilty party who got me started in the series and the movies.  I remember our conversation exactly, she said, “Heather you have to start reading the Twilight books, they are so good!”  I rolled my eyes and said, “Nicole, “I’m not reading some teenager books.”  Nicole chose to push the subject further by saying, “Heather, trust me just read Twilight and if you don’t like it, then you don’t have to read the rest.”  Fair enough I thought.

New Moon - Bella & Edwards

Well, Nicole’s persistence paid off and I was hooked by chapter three of Twilight.  What makes the books so appealing?  Enough to sell over 116 million copies world wide?  I’m not really sure.  But I do know from my perspective the story is one of a simple love story that encapsulates danger and action without gore, scandal or drama.  It almost omits the day-to-day issues and responsibilities and lets you run free, well not that you can run with a vampire, ’cause their fast. (pun)  Somehow Stephanie Meyer created this world that draws you into it and you become entranced, almost memorized by the simplicity of a small town filled with monsters, who happen to be good people, well at least the residence.  Not to mention they take place in a real life place called Forks.

When Stephanie Meyer had her dream about the vampire and the girl, she needed a setting for her story.  Where does one find answers now-a-days?  The internet of course.  She actually Googled the rainiest place on the continental United States, and what popped up but the one and only Forks?  Then of course, she did her do diligence and really researched the town and surrounding areas, hence La Push Beach and the usage of the Quileute Tribe.  This is where my story starts.

Since the books, and no doubt the movies have been released, Forks has been put on the map, literally. I’m not really a big fan of the movies, it’s more like the movies make the books so real and exciting, but regardless it’s all fun.  Fork’s, a small rural town with a population of roughly 3,000 people, positioned in the middle of nowhere on the Olympic Peninsula, is a hot spot for Twilight fans, even to this day.  Nicole and I ran into at least a dozen fans passing through the area, but I’ll get to the stories as they unfold.  Now that the background behind this trip has been established, let the trip begin!

I have always wanted to see Seattle and visit my cousin who lives outside of the city.  With this trip I was getting my cake and eating it too, plus a pilgrimage to Forks!  Nicole and I decided to do an extended weekend, sneaking out and back from Wednesday, May 16th through Monday, May 21st.  My sister was flying out of the Dulles Airport and I was coming from Pittsburgh.  The anticipation of this trip was like two children getting ready for a field trip.  As word got out about the trip, my friends wanted to come ‘vampire hunting’ and instructed me to ‘watch out for Victoria’ and so forth.  My sister and I did the typical count down and romanticized about the trip beforehand.  The weeks and days leading up to our departure we would text funny messages like, ‘I want to go here’ and show a picture from the movie.

When I travel, there are certain things you can count on.  I always pack light, as I’ve mentioned in Traveling Habits and speed walk everywhere, especially in airports.  By nature I am not a person who strolls or takes their time to get from point A to point B, I walk with a purpose, even if I’m not in a hurry.  All this sounds great, except you can also count on me arriving at my destination without bags, because the airline lost them, or me missing my flight all together.  The mismanagement of bags, I certainly can’t control, but it does seem to happen to me, a lot. Then let’s discuss my missed flights.  Sometimes it’s not my fault, just the luck of draw with flight delays and schedules.  Unfortunately, more than not, it’s usually my fault.  Missing flights on a number of occasions is a result of not allowing enough time to tackle lines and traffic, or not paying attention to my emails when flights are moved around and are ahead of schedule.  My sister is well aware of these minor hiccups involved with me traveling and her method to alleviate them is to threaten me.  A conversation with Nicole would always seem to include “And you better not miss your flight.  I’m not waiting for you.” or “You miss your flight and you’re on your own.”  All empty promises, but quite funny! Even up to the minute I was suppose to leave, I worked a half day on Wednesday, and Nicole was texting me asking if I left yet and reminding me of my departure time.  What I was not aware of, was that she registered my cell phone for calls and text message updates.  Boy, she covered all basis!  And she had alerts on my flight information sent to her phone as well.   That’s my sister, very thorough!

Leaving work halfway through the day on Wednesday, meant that I would have made it to the airport without stress.  But I decided to take a slight detour before heading to the airport.  You see, Kyle asked me for a new folder for school a week prior, he said, “Aunt Heather my fold is in two pieces and I need a new one.”  Well, I can’t have Kyle running into a roadblock such as a torn folder holding all his homework, now could I?  I had an extra plain black folder at the house and I put it in the car to leave with him, but alas I kept forgetting to pass it along.

Now, there I was leaving work, suppose to be heading straight to the airport, but I looked down in my front seat to see Kyle’s folder.  What to do? What to do? What else?  Stop by his school and drop it off with a note!  I will admit it was a bit out of my way, but I didn’t care, although my sister’s voice chirping in my ear about not missing my flight was certainly going off as clear as day.

As I pulled up to his school I was all wound up, getting ready to leave for the airport and sneaking Kyle his folder with a note, it was already a great day!  The minute I stepped into the school, who stepped off of the staircase into the hallway leading a line of kids?  The one and only Mr. Kyle Piper!  He saw me first and all I heard was, “Aunt Heather! What are you doing here?”  Being totally surprised and taken aback, I said, “I came to give you your folder silly.”  He just looked at this plain black glossy folder, and said, “Ok”.  I gave him a sideways hug, since full hugs and kisses are totally forbidden, especially in front of all his friends in school.  I asked him “Where are you off to?” with a reply of “Math class”.  Just then a few of his friends tried to catch my attention and waved at me, and then they reached for the folder in Kyle’s hands.  I heard a few voices whisper, “What’s the folder for?” and “Let me see it.” Wow!  If I would have known this folder was going to get such attention I would have purchased him a really cool one, like The Avengers or something better than just plain black, but at least it wasn’t pink!

This entire encounter took maybe five minutes.  I didn’t want to hold Kyle up, since I didn’t have permission to be in the school anyway and let alone hold up the line of students and distract Kyle.  I told him I was off to the airport to meet up with Aunt Nikki in Seattle.  He said, “You’re not going to be home this weekend?” I said, “No buddy, remember we talked about his.  I’m going to Seattle with your Aunt Nikki, I won’t be back till late Monday night.  I’ll be missing only one of your baseball games.”  He gave me a pensive look as if our plans were finally making sense to him and disrupted the flow.  I reiterated that his Gigi was still going to be picking him up on Friday.  He gave me a cute little sideways smile, before I darted right back out of the door.

As I left, I was so excited that I called my mom and told her about my little chance encounter.  It really left me with a great feeling!  Even though I knew I was going to miss him, I got to talk to him and I got one last little hug.  That meant more to me than anything!  Sometimes it’s just those unplanned chances in life that really stick with you and make the world of difference.  That was one for the books!

Next stop, Pittsburgh airport, but first one more detour.  I had to fuel up the car.  Being completely on empty is not a new concept with me.  I tend to forget or wait until I am on fumes before I fill up the gas tank.  When I noticed that I was in the danger range, according to the fuel gauge, I thought, ‘Nicole would kill me if I didn’t make my flight because I ran out of gas!’  Stopping at Sheetz, which was on my way, I also picked up a burrito M-T-O for dinner, win win killing two birds and thinking once I got situated I would eat.  Perfect!

Getting to the airport in good time, I was pretty relaxed, never loosing any of my excitement built up previously.  It’s a good thing too, because I had to park way out at the furthest end of extended-long term parking.  There were NO parking places.  I don’t mind walking, especially on nice sunny days when I have enough time, in fact I must admit I enjoyed my walk.  It helps to stretch out my legs and burn off some energy before having to be confined to a plane seat for hours.  I must say, this time the only issue I ran into was at security when they accused me of having a container of liquid in my bag.  What? I knew I didn’t have anything like that, I try to make sure I remain in compliance with the airline rules, as to not be delayed.  Here the lady with the latex gloves came over to me to inspect my bag further and she pulled out my burrito.  She said, “What’s this?” and I quickly put her mind to rest by saying, “A burrito.”  Really?  It has Sheetz M-T-O written all over the wrapper.  At first, I thought I was going to have to unwrap my dinner to prove to her it was in fact a burrito, but she put it back in my bag and instructed me to continue on my way.  I guess they are only doing their job and trying to keep everyone safe.  It just took me off guard.  Maybe the foil wrapping made the machines go off?  Who knows but now I was on my way.

I actually really enjoy sitting at an airport.  I always get a new book, and this time I bought two new ones, each one being two books in one, The Vampire Diaries.  I’ve always wanted to read those books and I thought it was appropriate on this trip.  Sitting there reading with no interruptions, except for text messages between me and Nicole, is my favorite part of traveling.  That is the time where I can relax and my vacation begins.

to be continued…