Jack of Spades

On top of a cabinet, where only I could spy, I noticed a playing card face down, with a layer of dust on it. This was likely flung up there by playful boys flinging cards at each other years ago.

Turning it over, a jack of spades was revealed.

In school I played a lot of euchre, and jacks are the best cards in the deck. For many years I carried a retired jack of hearts in my wallet from a trip with friends half of my lifetime ago, some twenty-five years.

I don’t know what to make of it, but this jack will go in my memory box.

Makes me wonder when the other two jacks will show up.

For Sale

We broke ground on our home July 11th, 2011.

On July 11th, 2023 I walked two realtors room to room, and the house was unceremoniously photographed to be put in a brochure and online.

A drone could be heard buzzing around while I hid in my studio waiting for it to be over.

The house will have been listed by the time you read these words.

I had a chance to walk the orchards and noticed at least three of the nine apple trees had apples on them! It’s funny that after all these years I never got apples on all of the trees, yet three trees is probably my best year ever. They look a bit small and spotty but maybe they will make it to fall.

Mother nature was in all her glory on photography day. The sky was the deepest blue you could imagine and the clouds were painted in place. No way could they be real. And the yard was a color green that you can only find in your imagination.

I snapped a few shots of the inside myself.

Notches

Every year on their birthday for the last ten years, two little boys would stand up straight, proudly against the white one inch by four inch trim of their bedroom closet. The shorter boy against the trim board on the left side of his closet door, the taller boy against the trim to the right of his closet door. Their mother would press a book down on their head, level against the trim and they’d dart out with smiles to see how much they had grown in the last year. One of us would grab a pencil and make a little mark and I’d write a number next to the mark.

4 to 14

2 to 12

And the last step each year was to take an x-acto blade and make a small notch in the wood.

Just in case the pencil ever wore off.