15 September 2015
Story #785
R. Linda:
The stars must be misaligned in me life, or something strange is happening. Things happen that are questionable to downright bizarre.
It all started when we had two days of rain. The first was a heavy downpour, which meant no outside activities for me and the three kiddos. Recently, the one who celebrated a birthday was given a drone-like toy with a remote control. I thought it was a gift that should have gone to me eldest, as it seemed relatively advanced for the middle one, BUT he was thrilled to have something his older brother wanted. I had been pestered all day about flying the thing and was shown the box by the older kiddo, which said the toy could be flown (yes, FLOWN) inside. I was reluctant but hounded by the two older ones, so I gave in.
The mini-drone is made of lightweight metal and has small LED lights, making it colourful and easy to see. So, caving in, I read the directions (which did make me think operating the thing would be tricky at best). Being the adult, or as me wife says, the big kid in the house, I put it on the kitchen counter, got out the remote, installed proper batteries and was all set to fly. Up it went, lights blinking, and then zoomed around the living room (good, we have the open concept). The kiddos were all enjoying it, swoop, when I learned lesson number one. Put the dogs out first before flying anything because they came in hearing the funny buzzing noise, saw the thing up in the air and started barking and chasing after it, jaws snapping. It was amusing watching Dragon's dog (yes, the hound is still with us because she didn't want to fly it back, she probably thought it would fall off her broom, and be a perfect excuse for her to come back here). It was jumping up in the air, all 70 lbs. of him, trying to grab the thing like it was a Frisbee. He looked like a twisted pretzel each time he came down to earth. This, of course, had me nervous, and I was trying me best to keep the thing from the jaws of certain destruction, and not having flown it before, well, it was dicey, to say the least. Not only were the dogs after it, but the two cats were in on the fray, swiping at the dogs as they went and leaping up at the flying ship like it was a bird to be devoured. I tell ya, chaos reigned!
I was so inundated with the unwanted activity and noise that I lost control of the thing, and it plummeted to the couch (luckily behind it), where I was the only one (with long arms) who could fish it out. That was that. I told the kiddos the next nice day we'd take it outside. I won't tell you what the wife had to say to me about it; your ears would ring.
It was drizzly the next day (Sunday), so I didn't fly the little drone. Disappointed kiddos all around and probably dogs too. Anyway, after lunch, I went to sit down and read A Light In The Forest by a partly open window. Me oldest kiddo was reading it in school, and I usually read his books to be on top of his homework. The book is about Native Americans, and as I was sitting there engrossed in the story, I heard the sound of drums, the jingle of small bells, a flute and chanting. I woke from my reverie, thinking how bizarre it was to get that into a book, BUT I could still hear the sound! It was like what you hear when Native Americans dance around the campfire, and the persistent beat of the drums and the singing didn't stop with me putting the book down.
I told the wife, and she came over and heard it too. At first, she told me I was crazy and hearing things, and then she started laughing. Nice one, give me the gaslight treatment. I was happy to know I wasn't losing what little was left of me mind.
"Oh," says she, "that's the pow-wow going on behind us. There were signs for it. The people who own the sugar shack put it on every year. I took the boys to it one year ago."
Oh, then. Gabe is quite sane and will not lose his marbles anytime soon. Good news for me. I will say the rest of the book flew by as I was serenaded the entire afternoon with the sounds of the pow-wow. Made the story very realistic. We got the boys to come listen, the middle one didn't care, the youngest had no clue, but the eldest said he'd been to the pow wow and it was a bunch of white guys making like they had native blood. No biggy. Well, then, so much for the magic I felt.
Monday, when I came home from work, I was pestered to near death about flying the drone.
"Oh, please, Da, can we fly it? Come on, Da, pull-eese!"
Oi! It was twilight, and Tonya told me we had 45 minutes before dinner, so out we went, drone and controls in hand.
O'Hare had read the directions and told me he didn't need me to help him, and off the thing flew, and I was amazed how high it went. I thought for sure we'd lose it in the clouds. I was also glad we didn't live in an airplane path! I told him to bring it down, and he eased it, but then it started coming down at him. Gees! He ran off and it smashed to the ground, but remarkably it was not broken. He told me it was hard to bring down. So I took the controls and got the thing back in the air, and as I was raising it, I was making sure it wasn't going too high, it was twilight and getting hard to see. But the flashing lights kept it in view when suddenly out of nowhere Count Dracula came flying in, in his bat suit and swooped at the drone. I was like what the hell? The drone was slightly bigger than the bat, so I thought this behaviour was strange. But the bat continued to follow the drone and swoop down at it, hitting it twice. This, of course, had Guido in a panic; his drone would be smashed by the bat. I raised the drone higher into the top of the king pines, thinking the bat wouldn't follow it, but it did! This unnerved me and as I went to bring the drone down, in me excited state, I pressed the wrong switch and the thing went up into the pine tree tops. We have no idea where it landed, but we think it will still be up there.
The bat, I don't know where that went, maybe it got the drone, but really? So for the last week, the kiddos have been doing their own dance around the fire pit hoping for a windy day that the drone will be knocked from the king pines to the ground where hopefully, the drone will be still fit to evade Count Dracula, dogs, cats and little kids on another day.
That was the start of the strangeness. Maybe not so strange for me, but it continued.
Gabe
Copyright © 2015 All rights reserved
R. Linda:
The stars must be misaligned in me life, or something strange is happening. Things happen that are questionable to downright bizarre.
It all started when we had two days of rain. The first was a heavy downpour, which meant no outside activities for me and the three kiddos. Recently, the one who celebrated a birthday was given a drone-like toy with a remote control. I thought it was a gift that should have gone to me eldest, as it seemed relatively advanced for the middle one, BUT he was thrilled to have something his older brother wanted. I had been pestered all day about flying the thing and was shown the box by the older kiddo, which said the toy could be flown (yes, FLOWN) inside. I was reluctant but hounded by the two older ones, so I gave in.
The mini-drone is made of lightweight metal and has small LED lights, making it colourful and easy to see. So, caving in, I read the directions (which did make me think operating the thing would be tricky at best). Being the adult, or as me wife says, the big kid in the house, I put it on the kitchen counter, got out the remote, installed proper batteries and was all set to fly. Up it went, lights blinking, and then zoomed around the living room (good, we have the open concept). The kiddos were all enjoying it, swoop, when I learned lesson number one. Put the dogs out first before flying anything because they came in hearing the funny buzzing noise, saw the thing up in the air and started barking and chasing after it, jaws snapping. It was amusing watching Dragon's dog (yes, the hound is still with us because she didn't want to fly it back, she probably thought it would fall off her broom, and be a perfect excuse for her to come back here). It was jumping up in the air, all 70 lbs. of him, trying to grab the thing like it was a Frisbee. He looked like a twisted pretzel each time he came down to earth. This, of course, had me nervous, and I was trying me best to keep the thing from the jaws of certain destruction, and not having flown it before, well, it was dicey, to say the least. Not only were the dogs after it, but the two cats were in on the fray, swiping at the dogs as they went and leaping up at the flying ship like it was a bird to be devoured. I tell ya, chaos reigned!
I was so inundated with the unwanted activity and noise that I lost control of the thing, and it plummeted to the couch (luckily behind it), where I was the only one (with long arms) who could fish it out. That was that. I told the kiddos the next nice day we'd take it outside. I won't tell you what the wife had to say to me about it; your ears would ring.
It was drizzly the next day (Sunday), so I didn't fly the little drone. Disappointed kiddos all around and probably dogs too. Anyway, after lunch, I went to sit down and read A Light In The Forest by a partly open window. Me oldest kiddo was reading it in school, and I usually read his books to be on top of his homework. The book is about Native Americans, and as I was sitting there engrossed in the story, I heard the sound of drums, the jingle of small bells, a flute and chanting. I woke from my reverie, thinking how bizarre it was to get that into a book, BUT I could still hear the sound! It was like what you hear when Native Americans dance around the campfire, and the persistent beat of the drums and the singing didn't stop with me putting the book down.
I told the wife, and she came over and heard it too. At first, she told me I was crazy and hearing things, and then she started laughing. Nice one, give me the gaslight treatment. I was happy to know I wasn't losing what little was left of me mind.
"Oh," says she, "that's the pow-wow going on behind us. There were signs for it. The people who own the sugar shack put it on every year. I took the boys to it one year ago."
Oh, then. Gabe is quite sane and will not lose his marbles anytime soon. Good news for me. I will say the rest of the book flew by as I was serenaded the entire afternoon with the sounds of the pow-wow. Made the story very realistic. We got the boys to come listen, the middle one didn't care, the youngest had no clue, but the eldest said he'd been to the pow wow and it was a bunch of white guys making like they had native blood. No biggy. Well, then, so much for the magic I felt.
Monday, when I came home from work, I was pestered to near death about flying the drone.
"Oh, please, Da, can we fly it? Come on, Da, pull-eese!"
Oi! It was twilight, and Tonya told me we had 45 minutes before dinner, so out we went, drone and controls in hand.
O'Hare had read the directions and told me he didn't need me to help him, and off the thing flew, and I was amazed how high it went. I thought for sure we'd lose it in the clouds. I was also glad we didn't live in an airplane path! I told him to bring it down, and he eased it, but then it started coming down at him. Gees! He ran off and it smashed to the ground, but remarkably it was not broken. He told me it was hard to bring down. So I took the controls and got the thing back in the air, and as I was raising it, I was making sure it wasn't going too high, it was twilight and getting hard to see. But the flashing lights kept it in view when suddenly out of nowhere Count Dracula came flying in, in his bat suit and swooped at the drone. I was like what the hell? The drone was slightly bigger than the bat, so I thought this behaviour was strange. But the bat continued to follow the drone and swoop down at it, hitting it twice. This, of course, had Guido in a panic; his drone would be smashed by the bat. I raised the drone higher into the top of the king pines, thinking the bat wouldn't follow it, but it did! This unnerved me and as I went to bring the drone down, in me excited state, I pressed the wrong switch and the thing went up into the pine tree tops. We have no idea where it landed, but we think it will still be up there.
The bat, I don't know where that went, maybe it got the drone, but really? So for the last week, the kiddos have been doing their own dance around the fire pit hoping for a windy day that the drone will be knocked from the king pines to the ground where hopefully, the drone will be still fit to evade Count Dracula, dogs, cats and little kids on another day.
That was the start of the strangeness. Maybe not so strange for me, but it continued.
Gabe
Copyright © 2015 All rights reserved
yea finally a story! i will guess the drone was a gift from your mother-in-law ha ha ha!
ReplyDeleteHa ha yourself. Yes, it was from her.
DeleteI want a drone! Sounds like fun. It is about time you got a story up, writer's block?
ReplyDeleteJust nothing fun happening.
DeleteDrones are fun! My son has one and occasionally uses for filming; the shots are quite amazing from that height. Hope you get yours back Gabe. My neighbor had one which ended up at the top of my tree and it did fall out eventually! Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI thought you retired Mate LMAO sorry you couldn't make the "playdate" lots of fish and rum and when boiling fish in rum a culinary delight I think, hell I don't remember. My parrot could find your drone, say the word if you need him. Or is he a dead monkey? Like I say too much rum flavored fishies matey.
ReplyDeleteI did not retire. Gees. Playdate? That's a good word. I be sorry I missed it but I be sure you and Himself had a good time pushing each other into the drink. Literally I mean that.
Delete