All the Small Things … (surprised I know Blink 182?)
Pat Fule
Fule for Thought
I was just shoveling in Maple Walnut ice cream (my favourite), and I started to think of what actually makes me happy. Maybe you’re like me, and you’ve been finding out that little things that happen, or simple family events, can bring simple pleasures.
For example, last week I was on after-school bus supervision. Yes, I know teachers have it easy with summers, flex Fridays, Christmas, and spring breaks, but after school bus supervision is one of the “lows” of a school day.
It’s great when the weather’s nice, but standing in a snowy storm watching kids get on warm buses, is not a lot of laughs. That is … until last Tuesday. I was standing in the cool, gentle howl of a typical fall day, when a student drove by. Of course, his car was full, the music was blasting, and some shrieks came from inside. And that’s when I saw it, as our teen driver drove by, trying to look cool. While his pals were all eating fast food and drinking their sugar-loaded beverages, his drink was still on the roof of the car!
In his “coolness” getting in, he must’ve forgotten the drink was still on top! I quickly pointed and laughed so all the waiting students could join me, and we thoroughly enjoyed wondering just when that drink was going to dump all over his windshield. “Enjoy your drink,” I called out, and our driver gave me a curious “thumbs up” … I wonder when it finally dumped out?
Summer barbecues are what I really love, and recently we were having one at my in laws’ house in Canmore. It was a scorching hot late afternoon, and my father-in-law was barbecuing with his shirt off! I finally said, “just my luck, I’m finally at a place with a topless server, and it has to be my 74 year old father-in-law!”
He actually took that better than I expected, he never even burned my pork chop! I shouldn’t judge, especially if you remember my tanning episode in Phoenix last year, when my own “moobs’ left a white strip across my chest! In fact, I really want to be in better shape for next year’s drivers license photo. If I don’t, then for the next five years, I get to see my serious look with its three chins staring back at me!
One of my dreams has always been to ride a motorcycle again. In fact, (pun intended) … Debbie has given me the “green light!” (hey, you’re not paying for these jokes!)
So, one of my daughter’s friends, John, and I were talking about riding together one day, if I get brave enough to buy a bike. The reason I am taking so long to buy one, is that one of my pals told me this cryptic warning: “It’s not if you have a fall … it’s when you have a fall!”
All that was missing was dark music going “dun dun duh!” Anyway, John and I were talking about a club with him and me starting off, and adding other “cool” riders. I even googled “funny names for motorcycle gangs” and we narrowed our gang’s potential names to four choices: “Hell’s Amish,” “Runaway Amish” (because John actually ran away from an Amish community in Ontario), my own idea: “Hamsters of Death,” and our favourite, “Hell’s Fluffies!”
Yep, we were on our way to some cool bikin’ together, but then the talk strangely slipped to songs we’d like at our funerals! I didn’t feel very comfortable with this, especially when my daughter started to hum the tune to Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust!” It’s got me thinking again, that maybe I should start with a scooter!
(“Fule for Thought” is a slice of life humourous column that appears in the Strathmore Times, written by long-time resident, town councillor, high school teacher, coach, husband and father of two – Pat Fule. If you would like to get in touch with Pat, you can send him an e-mail at Pat.fule@shaw.ca)