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You Pick Um

Years ago, two friends of mine, who have the kind of sense of humor and quick minds I love to hang with, pointed that the signs in Door County that advertised that U'Pick Em's were misleading in the sense that they were not a different kind of berry, but a discount for labor. They further educated me that 0%'s were neither a different model nor even a vehicle.

The Poppa is batching it a Camp Jeff this weekend. The Maria is romping in the swamps of Louisana with the Coven of the South (Linda & Meme). It was pitched to me as an opportunity to have quality time with our dog, Lucy. I don't deny the fact that Lucy is glad somebody is home, but I don't think she is sleeping any less. 

I sat with my friend Danny Chauvin and watched the Alabama / LSU game last night. We were actually in our homes, mine in Appleton, WI and he in Mandeville LA, but we IM'ed our feelings back and forth until the painful end. You can love them or hate them, but you have to admit Alabama is good.

My friend, Julie, who is writing 50 essays about her life before her fiftieth birthday, seem to hit a cord of self-realization to me about every other day. Today it was in general about, what would you do differently in your life if you could go back and change it.

Specifically, she wrote about her failed marriage. After confessing what she thought was her mistake in even getting married to her ex-husband. She followed up and remarked that if she hadn't got married, she wouldn't have her daughter. Her child then is worth the pain

I've said that about my two failed marriages. I can tell you it doesn't cut it with some of the kids. I won't go into details or point fingers. They know how they feel and that's okay. They have the right.

Maria and I have eight kids in out mashup family. We got kids we made. We've got adopted kids. We've even got one kid, who technically is not our's but she claims membership, and that's enough for me.

I love them all. They are interesting people with a myriad of talents and faults. I think, if I described each one of them to you, you would not be able to say, "He caress more about this one than the others." If you think you could, I will point out it's impossible.

Our children, all of whom ar adults now, have each in their way distinguished themselves. Some in their jobs.  Some in their Art (We have a statistically high percentage of artists in the group)  Some in their ability as parents. But all of them are good people. Most of them have gotten over the fact that they come from a broken family. I laud them for that because some of the former spouses haven't moved on very far, that's for sure

From Camp Jeff in The Fox River Valley of Wisconsin, This is Poppa Jeff saying Adios

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