Happy Birthday Lughead Larry

I DID not forget another Birthday I have just been thinking about this one awhile. Last Friday was my nephew’s birthday. He turned 17. It amazes me that my little nephew Lughead Larry turned 17. I mean it seems like it was yesterday that he was sporting a bowl on the head haircut running around the house with a full diaper waiting for the trash truck.

He has loved construction equipment, trucks and anything with an engine and could crush a house since was in the womb. It might be because his Dad is in construction or it could be because he was pre-destined to be “Bob the Builder”, which by the way was his favorite cartoon when he was little. This is the same kid who would spend hours in my mother’s garden driving his toy trucks through the dirt building his roads and hills and making ditches. He could name every piece of heavy machinery and tell you what it could do before he could read. He could also run any piece of machinery before he could tie his Caterpillar steel-toed construction boots.

I didn’t get to spend a whole lot of time with my nieces and nephew. I was always too many miles away raising my own and there never seems to be enough money or time. They are all almost grown now, what with Lughead being 17, his younger sister not far behind and his older sister no longer in her teens. I hate that I missed those years because they are great people. I did however get regaled with stories either from my mom and dad or my sister when would partake in one of our marathon phone conversations.

The one story about my nephew that stands out most of all was when he was still a little tike. He was telling my dad that he had an accident on the job site. He had two imaginary workers, Andy and Boopy, who he constantly had to move from one job site to the other or tell them where to dig etc. Well it seems that Andy and Boopy were on a job and Boopy cut off his toe. Lughead was beside himself because he was going to have a workerman’s comp claim. (Yeah, this kid was 3 and knew all this stuff) So my dad playing along with him told him that was too bad. Larry came back with the reply that it wasn’t THAT big a deal since Andy was able to “toe-nail” Boopy’s toe back on. Pretty smart kid isn’t he?

Well he is much bigger now and he is still a smart kid. He is also one of the sweetest, kindest best natured young men I know. He takes time out of his busy days of school and working at his dad’s construction company to go by and pick up his 83 year old grandfather and take him to the doughnut shop or out to eat. He goes by and hangs out with his grandparents not because he HAS to but because he wants to. I have to say I really admire him.

Happy Birthday Lughead!

Big Kahunas Big Birthday

Another Virgo Birthday. Today is my husband’s, the Kahuna, birthday. He is the sweetest, kindest, most giving man I’ve ever met. He is witty jovial and more fun than a barrel of monkeys. Oh and the best part, he thinks I’m pretty neat too.



So today is his birthday and he is 1700 miles away from his other love. The surf. Not just surf but surfable surf. He began surfing a long time ago back in the dark ages when hardly anyone did. Surfers had a sort of mystique to them. They were blond and tan didn’t know what a wet suit was and a little cold water didn’t deter them. They surfed whether it was December and bitchin’ waves or rolling June Gloom long board waves.





My Idea of surfing. Watching someone else do it.





Checking out the waves at Pipeline.





In Carlsbad waxing up the board. Studly isn't he?

Have you ever noticed, no matter what beach you go to there is always a bird man?

Now I’m no Gidget in fact in order to get me on a board it has to be at least 12 feet long and 4 feet wide. Yes I surf the dinning room table. The other thing is water temperature, it has to be at least bath water temperature or more. It has to be clear blue and it has to be in the South Pacific. I am what you would call a picky surfer not to mention a really bad surfer.





This is what I "imagine" Kahuna and I look like on Tandom.

You don't want to see what it really looks like!

The Kahuna started surfing on a board called the Dingless Dewayne. It wasn’t a real popular surf board and it wasn’t a particularly good surf board but it floated and it worked and he rode it until he wore it out. I think he re-worked it and made it over several times. He’s like that, he will take something apart rework it and make it better. He laughs about the Dingless and wishes he still had it more for a conversation piece than for something to ride. He had a 9 ft board made for himself a couple of years ago, it is a long way from the Dingless it’s a nice foam board but he still is weighing getting an epoxy board.





**I honestly don’t have any idea what I just said. I am just repeating the Kahuna’s words. It sounds like this to me: Είχε μια 9 ft συμβούλιο που ο ίδιος πριν από μερικά χρόνια, είναι πολύ μακριά από το Dingless είναι μια ωραία αφρό του σκάφους, αλλά αυτός εξακολουθεί να είναι να ζυγίζει μια εποξικών σκάφους.**





This is NOT Kahuna, but Dick Brewer.

I don't have any old pictures of Kahuna surfing so....



Anyway it’s Kahuna’s birthday and he is another year older and in my opinion, and I’m the only one who counts, another year better.



Happy Birthday, honey, and we will be back in the surf, the warm kind, soon!



Love your Gidget.





**Little known fact: The character’s of Gidget and the Big Kahuna from the 1957 Novel “Gidget” were based on real characters. Who knew?**