Just Cuz!

Yes, that's a SNIPE, or at least my own colored pencil, and help from PHOTO SHOP, rendition of a SNIPE.

But let me get to back to that.

Suggestion?  If you haven't yet?  Go back and read my previous posting. In summary it's about my self imposed 60 mile bike ride. Many of you have chided me for performing such an irresponsible feat considering the number of candles on my birthday cake.

The highest chiding rating goes to my cousin Errol. I won't paraphrase. Here is his entire comment unblemished, save some minor punctuation issues.

"Surely you jest.  Or do you prefer that I not call you Shirley! Does the name Jim Fixx mean anything to you. * Here's an interesting phrase, Orthostatic Hypotension. Or, how about this: Cardiac Infarction?  Regards, Cuz E. " **

* Long distance runner Jim Fixx died of that "infarction" thing trying to prove long distance running was good for you.

** Cuz E is an accepted abbreviated form of Cousin Errol.

(For the record both my cardiologist and my primary care shaman say bike riding is good for me, albiet I may have overdone it.)

Errol and I have had some really fun "tete a tete" banter over the years.  And the thing is? I shouldn't even like the guy.

This needs some background. Errol and I were born about two miles from each other just southeast of Los Angeles.  But Errol's family? They move back to Kansas and ultimately settle in this place named Tribune? It's a dry dusty place. There arn't many zeroes on the population sign, if you know what I mean.

Errol is about two years older than me, which means he was age 10 when at age 8, my family visited his in Tribune?

You know how when you are a city kid in the country? You get stupid and say to your cousins, " gosh, what do you guys do here for fun?"

Well, for the unitiated?  You wait until dusk?  And you go SNIPE hunting.

"Cool! How do you it?"

"Okay, Paul.  Since you're an honored guest? We are going to let YOU do the most important job.  Now take this gunny sack, open it up and wait at the top of that hill.  We're going go out in the corn field here, and make a bunch of noise so the Snipe will run right in your direction.  Then you just grab 'em and put 'em in the gunny sack. ***  But be careful, they BITE."

*** Gunny sack is a large burlap bag capable of holding just about anything, including SNIPE.

 

Well, I'm the only one that did any biting.  It was my loss of innocence. Lots of corn rattling, and Errol and his friends shouting, "Heyah Snipe...hey snipe....hey snipe..."  Funny I couldn't hear the snikering that accompanied their sham.

Well if you're a cosmopolitan type? Going to visit Cousin Errol? Here's a few things you need to know.

A snipe is a real bird. It's favorite breeding grounds? Nome, Alaska, and Heber, Utah.  It's migratory fowl. And it's primary eco-habitat?  The snipe has a long beak, and likes to take quiet walks in "marshes, bogs, and wet meadows."

For the uninitiated? There are no bogs in Tribune, Kansas.

"Oh, wait! There's Mary Bogs, isn't there?  She lives over there on First Street, behind the Dairy Queen?"

This has been fun.  But you know what?  Knowing Errol, I'm going to pay for this.