Dang its gonna be HOT

 When the weather sucks, 

I like to divert my attention

to other fun things.

So I'm going to catch up with what's up with Squatch. Sometimes things in my imagination get side tracked ... and sometimes I go off on a tangent.
Well here it is:

Squatch was feeling pretty down. All the hiking an hunting for relatives seemed fruitless. So he decided to take a nap in a bird nest.

"Hello, there! What are you? You certainly are not a fledgling bird!" a voice said to him.

He woke up and was staring at a tiny fawn.

"I'm a Squatch, not a bird."

"I see that. You are hairy too. I almost didn't see you because your camouflage is better than mine! My name is Fawn."

Squatch sighed, "Well, I came here looking for others like me. I was hoping to find some but so far I've been out of luck."

Fawn said, "Oh golly, can I help? I can ask my mom, Doe, and my pop to keep an eye out for your kind. There's lots of my kind in the forest. I can't imagine being without family!"

Squatch said, "Well, I've had my friend Hobby out looking and she just can't seem to find any trace of them."

"Oh," said Fawn, "I know Hobby. I see her in the forest a lot, but most of us wild critters avoid anything that resembles humans. I mean, we know she is supposed to be harmless and...but we still hide from her."

"Wow, that would be helpful. Hobby is a nice person, she has been very a very kind friend to me. You should meet her," Squatch replied.

"Ahhh. Well. Hmm." Fawn thought for a moment and then said, "Okay, we can arrange it but I hear she shoots..."

"That is just a camera, not a gun!" Squatch said.

Fawn nodded and then ran off. 

Squatch sat in the birds nest and wondered again...

would he ever find any of his family? What an odd little creature Fawn was could he count on Fawn's help? 

To be continued....

Side note:
when I was a kid we used to make up stories for our toys. All toys had a story. Imagine making up a story about a yellow rubber eraser dragon who became friends with a pink kitty eraser.

I imagined that my stuffed animals that lived on my bed came alive when I was at school and had wonderful adventures. The six foot stuffed snake would watch over the kangaroo and the zebra. I was sure that when I slept, they watched over me or went on magical trips.

Toys without batteries was a rule my father had. The toys had to be operated by imagination.
I think it was a wonderful rule.

And so it goes... ~ Kurt Vonnegut

Can I keep him?

Squatch's hut he built had been mostly demolished by the recent winds and rain. The dried grass insultation was gone and the inside was rather wet and windy. Time to search some more for a better place? Perhaps one that wasn't on the ridge. Or he could use the stick hut for a sleeping in on a hot summer night.

In the valley he admired the tree roots. What a nice cool shady spot.

The Root Caves were pretty neat, but they seemed to be occupied by chipmunks and mice. They made for annoying and noisy neighbors.

Squatch stopped to ponder the forest and admire the scenery when something odd happened.

A dog! 

They looked each other over and Squatch shrugged, the dog looked friendly enough. Maybe he was looking for a place too. 

Squatch turned and headed back towards the stick house thinking things over. 

How the Grinch was stopped by Morris the guard dog.

The Terrible Grinch was Grouchy. She hadn't had a good night's sleep because of the big snow storm.
Oh the snow wasn't bad, finding out that one of her co workers had started her car and then left with her keys in his pocket probably made the bad night much worse.

After only a few hours of sleep Miss Grinch woke up and discovered that the beautiful white snow was still coming down and by night fall it was supposed to be super frigid. Like -12 frigid.

Miss Grinch decided that instead of placing all of the nice gifts under the Christmas Chair she'd get them ready for the Christmas visit next week.

However she had an evil thought.

Perhaps she should just hide them.

If she stuffed them in a paper bag and hid them well, no one would get their Christmas gifts.

She chortled and chuckled.

Naughty Miss Grinch.
She thought she should be ashamed of herself but she was oddly pleased.

Hide the gifts!
Whoops, she forgot her boots. So off ran Miss Grinch to grab her chore boots and think of where to cleverly hide gifts.

And as she took off...

...thinking she was being wicked and wise...

...she was stopped by Morris.

Morris even made her put everything back.

Morris, the dog who saved Christmas from the Grouchy Miss Grinch.

Kid Memories

I swung back and forth, back and forth.  The old swing set creaked and it was a warm summer afternoon.

I was waiting for our Dad.  I know that each swing forward allowed me to see around the corner of the little house and look north along the blue gravel driveway.

I think my sister was with me in the other swing.  We were quiet, not talking much.  Just swinging and waiting. Glancing up the driveway with each forward swing.  
We were barefoot and had old jean cut offs on.  It was hot and sometime in the mid summer.

I'm pretty sure that my mom and Grandma were in the little house. Our two room cottage that we lived in each summer.  We had no TV and no hot water.  But we had what I thought was the neatest place on earth.

Creak.
Creak.

No one yet.

We heard a car coming down the gravel road and increased our swings.  We could hear vehicles a long way off as we were so remote and it was so quiet.

The car slowed, but went on past the driveway. It made the sharp bend and headed off towards Halfmoon Lake.

It was not the one we were looking for.  I think my sister asked something about how long did it take Dad to drive to our cottage.
I didn't know, but we knew he was coming and we hadn't seen him since school let out.
We were watching for a yellow Dodge convertible.  Dad's car.

And we kept swinging.  The drive from the Chicago area to where took at least 8 or more hours to drive.  I don't recall if the interstate had been built yet.

My sister and I conversed quietly.  Grandpa was taking a nap and Grandma and my mom were doing something in the cottage.  Maybe they were doing the crossword puzzle on the linoleum table.

Birds sang over head and time kept passing.  Time. 

We kept swinging.

Off in the distance we heard a car horn.  We jumped from our swings and stood in the grass.  That was Dad's horn. He usually honked when he was still a half mile or so from the cottage.

I recall that he had hooked up extra horns in his car to make it sound like a train.  

Dust rose in the distance.  I don't know what my sister felt exactly.  But I was excited.  I hadn't seen dad in what seemed like ages.  But he was coming to see us and he was having a vacation with us.

And I was excited.

Soon the banana colored rag-top slowed at the end of the blue driveway and slowly turned in.  

I stood still.  Dad.
My Dad.   

Funny how I thought of this tonight on such a cold and chilly winter evening.
But it was a nice warm thought.

I miss my dad.
Still miss you.