My Son the Alien

New stuff is coming...

...about - the big house on the other corner that burned down. In the picture to the right -  looking across the street from my house is another one of the large grand homes on our short block. If you examine the photo you can see Greek letters (P B X) hiding behind the palm tree on the front of the house. We woefully referred to this house as "The Fraternity." Fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you looked at it (I guess) this magnificent Victorian house met it spurious and fateful end in a colossal fire of epic proportions.  I'll describe that fateful night in greater detail later - but I can assure you that it did not burn down because of one of our UFO's. Also, this picture contains the only known photo that exist today of what later became the famous RAT KILLER. Parked right in front of "The Fraternity" is Gustav's Ford business coupe before he dropped in the notorious Rat Killer motor.  Also, a thing to note, is the little kid (in front there, next to my little sister) is my best-est friend in the whole world - Tommy Blaser.

You certainly won't want to miss when I share the mother of all Catholic stories with you - the true story of  John the Baptist and Charles Manson's offspring (I promise) it's on the way... But as for this moment in time, I have one of my boys visiting and am trying to spend some quality time with him. Oh, but remember all the alien stuff and Roswell and Area 51 in the last few blogs... well I guess some of that must have rubbed off (as you can see above).

I must have got gotten some alien radiation in my DNA when I was fighting the fire on top of the Lennon's house, which must have affected my offspring in some way!

Below is a picture of most of us... imagine adding Pinky - Mad Dog and a couple others that had embedded themselves into our  motley crew  (which you see here) and now imagine trying to fit us all around a dining room table. HA! Oh, let me tell you, the problem in that scenario is  not the shear volume of numbers - NO! It was the shear lunacy and ensuing chaos as the hungry Wolf Pack assembled as if thirsting fto make every gathering an adventure seeking the blood of its next victim of pranks and foul play.    As you can easily deduce for yourself,  "My dear Watson" our house was a regular "looney-bin."

Good bye until my next post...and think about this: If life on this planet came from outer-space, "Directed Panspermia" or by other means.... then where did that life come from? Just saying.

 Markie D.



Keep smiling and try random acts of kindness. 

How NOT to light a gas furnace! Messy Humanity

Did you hear about the time two guys passed each other in the air? One was going up and the other was going down. The guy going down shouted, "Hey, do you know how to open a parachute?"

The other one said, "NO! Do you know how to light a gas stove?"

That silly joke reminds me of the first time I tried to light the furnace in the dining room of our drafty old house. I was really, really, really young (can't remember how old, to be exact - no more than 6 or 7 I would guess). I saw my mom and dad and older brothers do it a million times, so I figured that I knew exactly what to do.  It was cold, nobody was home -  so I took matters in my own hands. I, Markie D, would light the the gas radiator

 What you have to remember is that our house was built well over a hundred years ago. 2 x 4's were sometimes 2" by 4" - sometimes. Sometimes bigger, but always rough and nasty, not like today's smooth 2x4's that are inch and a half by three. By the time we bought the house in the mid-fifties (I wasn't born yet - BY THE WAY) it had begun to lean a bit to the left and the mortar between the bricks in foundation had lost its gripping power. The older boys had removed the bricks in spots and made forts under the elevated first floor. Cool right! This was the best ever for any kid with a sense of adventure. Anyway the foundation of our home looked like a crooked pirate smile that had missing teeth, When kids climbed in and out of black holes of missing bricks is looked like worms crawling in and out of one of those dead pirates in Pirates of the Caribbean. 

That's a picture when it still looked good  (minus all the kids).

 By this time, it was a sight! 

Anyway this house had no air conditioning (didn't need it next to the beach), but our heating (you know for the times it got down to freezing - like 50 degrees in the middle of cold winter nights) we had three gas radiator heaters. One on each floor. I was all alone one day and decided to light the furnace.

There I am later (maybe about 18ish), showing everyone that I really do know how to light a match. (look at the Cool 70's pants on my brother - Kurt). ANYWAY, I couldn't find any matches. So I did what I saw them do a million times. I went to the stove with a rolled up piece of newspaper. ONLY! Only, I turned the gas valve to the on position on the furnace -  THEN I went into the kitchen to light my piece of newspaper so that I could stick it inside the opening on the bottom of the gas radiator.  YEP, you guessed it. 

I had to go and turn on a burner on the big O'  restaurant grade stove, then come back, and insert the paper that was on fire into the little hole on the bottom. WHO THINKS MY FLAMING TORCH MADE IT ANYWHERE NEAR THE HOLE?   Well it didn't!  As I bent over and moved the flaming wand near the radiator it set off the accumulated gas like a bomb and BAM! KA-BOOOOOOOOOM It blew up in my face and shot me like a missile across the room - burning off all the hair on my face - eyebrows - eye lashes...arms...  Bummer, now I would have to go into first grade Bald-headed.  I wonder what the Nuns thought about that.

I know the art work is not that great, but I think you get the idea.

Here is the point of my blog. Life is hard, it's not always fair. THINGS GO WRONG and don't always turn out the way we expect them to (like letting the monkeys out of the zoo). We have to live in the middle of this mess called humanity, so we might as well laugh at ourselves, instead of taking things so serious. LAUGH, I find it is good medicine. 

Humans are crazy wired... full of imagination, intellect, creativity, and emotions. All of that DNA longs for connection, craves acceptance, and desires to love and be loved.

I have a story, probably very different from yours! But each and everyone of us is a walking history book... full of crazy, wild, wonderful, hard, hurt, pain, and memories that make up who we are. 

I figured if anyone had a chance of getting it right... (this brother-sister thing - you know, close relationships)  it should have been Cain and Abel. They were the first children of parents who had no parent issues... right? How could Adam and Eve (The first couple - the first parents not to have childhood wounds) mess up the next generation? 

Maybe it just goes to show you that messing up is in our genetic makeup. 

You are loved! Enjoy the ride!