| Here for your viewing pleasure, we have the ultimate redneck appliance. This is a gas powered blender for the most discriminating outdoorsman. It's portable, so whether you are camping, hunting, or just want to impress your buddies in the back yard, be assured that you'll be able to whip up a mega sized smoothie for everyone to share...who needs Starbucks? Talk about whipping things up...Joe made this machine for someone who told him that they wanted one, for some reason. I wanted to know what the difference is between having it be gas powered versus simply plugging it into the wall. "Hello!" he said, flipping it over so I could read the label. "This is a Husqvarna 125L!" Yeah, that clears it all up. Joe likes gadgets, especially kitchen gadgets. I guess that we have moved into a new era, that of making the gadget rather than buying it. Thanks to all those who have decided to go green, as you are making up for the pollutants Joe will put out every time he makes a smoothie. We are all going to need to work together to reduce the size of his carbon footprint. I think he likes the noise that it makes as well as the idea that he has built the only known Husqvarna blender. Can you see a whole new line of bright orange kitchen appliances for men bearing the Husqvarna name? |
| Sometimes, I look at the members of my family and wonder how they became so odd. Linda Jo may be the only 16 year old female in Red Bluff who has decided that she needs her very own roll of duct tape. I wondered, "What on earth for?" She looked at me incredulously. "You can use it for everything!" The first thing she did was make herself a duct tape wallet. Then she let Jonah put a piece of it over his mouth. Ouch! "AAHHHHHH!" He had been on everyone's last nerve that particular day and so he received no sympathy for this mindless little stunt. Later in the week, he dug around his dad's box of scrap things and built what you see below. |
| This is a working fan. He makes these kinds of things all the time, and they always work. With such mechanical aptitude, I often wonder what he would do if he were in an electronics or a small engines class. Someday, he wants to join the military as an aircraft mechanic. By that time, he might be past his fascination with duct tape...give him some time, he's only 12. A word of advice: If you have a son, don't waste your money on expensive toys. Instead, let him dig around in your garage. Give him free reign and see what he ends up with. At our home, whenever something breaks, Jonah asks for it. This started when he was about 7. I was throwing away a computer mouse and he asked if he could take it apart to see how it worked, or in this case, how it didn't work. Everything, from a ceiling fan to a toaster to a computer printer and power supply and more, Jonah has examined each piece to learn more about it. He has a box of parts under his bed, cool things that he has salvaged that he might want to reuse later. I have yet to see any boy come into our house and not be interested in the things Jonah has accumulated in his explorations. And to think I used to waste money on erector sets! Jonah has always been more interested in the things he finds than in the things he is given. Erector sets were never properly used anyway. I would find them attached to cupboard door handles and other interesting places, usually tied with string...very difficult to remove. Thankfully, he stopped doing this when he turned nine years old. Having never been a little boy, I have had to learn a lot over the past 12 years. He always gives me something new to wonder about. The Mysterious Minds of Boys... They like long pieces of string, and they tie it everywhere it doesn't belong. Chair legs and door knobs are the most likely places to find it, knotted and twisted, usually right when company is coming and I have a million other things to do. A string hangs from the strap of my purse and I follow it to a bedpost, where it ends. String prevents his closet door from being shut as he has booby-trapped his room like a war zone. How does he tie so many little knots? And where does he find all this string? I expect that when I am an old woman, I shall be thinking of string, following its end around and around in my mind, wondering where it begins and ends... You'll all think I'm senile, at the end of my rope, but really, it will be the string that gets me in the end. One end connected to a little fist, and the other to my heart. by april August 2009 Have a great week. |