My dad is a journal-er. He has been for as long as I can remember. I have forbidden him to dispose of his journal books and Daytimers as I consider them treasures.  With the advent of e-mail he has taken to doing a weekly publication of what he refers to as ... The Blurp.  Lol. My dad has a few peculiarities on what he calls things.  As well as some acronyms he comes up with.  A few of those I am clueless on.  I have saved every Blurp he has ever written and sent to the DL.  The DL includes family, and friends of mom and dad.  Several "Blurpees" as he referes to the recipients are the children and even a few grandchildren of their old friends.

Glossary: 

The Blurp. Dad's weekly journal to keep people up to speed on what he and mom are doing.

Blurpee: Someone on the The Blurp DL.

Boxed Wine Workout:  When it is too cold or too hot to get in his 5-8miles at "the hill" while wearing 5Lb wrist and ankle weights he does 100 flights of stairs in their home. 10 flights then several reps of weights on his weight bench.  Lather, rinse, repeat 10 times.  He is a firm believer that if you want to see how in shape her are "Find a hill and hike it, or find some stairs and wear them out."  Approaching 83 and in the same size of 501s he wore when he graduated from HS.  His younger son and I can't keep up with him.  He drags the GKs on hiking trips up the highest mountain in some selected state that does not required climbing or inclimate weather gear. So far, he has hit a dozen of the highest hike-able mountains by state with either a USMC buddy or his GKs.

Craft Central: Mom's inner sanctum of creativity and wizardry for arts and crafts.  Primarily quilting.Though also embroidery, jewelry making, or other stuff that catches her fancy.   In addition to Craft Central there is the long arm quilting machine  annex upstairs where her quilt faces, batting, and backing are melded together in some  beautiful custom quilt stitching pattern that she creates.  Dad measures and cuts the batting then pins it to the quilt face and backing. before he loads the long arm machine. Mom then spends in some cases a dozen hours a day for several days quilting it all.

TWTWTW: I have no idea. Though my guess is To Work, To Work, To Work. But, I am most likely completely wrong about that.

Red Breasted Hawk: No clue. Though dad does tend to purposely make crap up regarding his prose on things that he Blurps about.  Interesting labels, pronunciations on city names, animals, etc...  My guess is, from the video that it is a Red Shouldered Hawk.   Though I am no expert.  Dad gets his creative pronunciation teasing hobby from my granddad. Who was a blarney slinging story teller of monumental accomplishment.  Both dad and granddad's stories are fact based but often highly augmented or spun for entertainment value.

Here is today's "Blurp".  Edited to protect the identities of the innocent or not so innocent.  As the case may be.

MARCH 17-MONDAY
Even as I type, YS is winging his way to Singapore.  His company has manufacturing facilities there..and in Malaysia.  He travels to the Far East two or three times a year to augment the numerous conference calls he seems to be constantly on.  He mentioned a possible stop in Korea on his way back home.  Closer to home, let's take a look at happenings here....  Last Monday after publishing "Coastal Redwoods vs Backyard Cedar Elms", I coached my bride on her physical therapy exercises before she sequestered herself in Craft Central.  I admire her focus!  Once she's decided on a project, the planning begins--which entails numerous hours of sketching, trying out various color combos with her colored pencils, then roping me in on design math (if needed).  It's not unusual for her to create 3 or 4 design options---in full color---then discussing them (over and over) with me until she makes a final decision as to what she's going to do.  My responses to her questions have to be carefully weighed--it's like running through an Iraqi mine field.  You've got to be tough to be a husband!  Yesterday, I was on my hands and knees measuring and cutting batting material for a wall hanging she's making for her office.  The hanging is to compliment a window valence she designed and fabricated--the valence to accentuate two new modern paintings she just acquired and placed on either side of her office window.  There is a method to her madness.  On Tuesday, I started my day off with a "Box Wine" workout--gotta stay in shape to support Craft Central.  After Charlene rolled out and we watched some news together, I headed off to the RV to do the weekly inspection and to return the small air compressor I usually keep stored in the RV.  I brought the compressor to the house to run some checks on it before we head out for "places west".  From there, I shopped Walmart for a replacement tire for my bride's bike--they had tubes and other "bike stuff" but no actual tires, unless one wanted to buy a new bike.   I see a shopping spree on Amazon coming up.  Big surprise when I refueled "The Beast"!  Diesel was under $3/gal.  That hasn't happened in a very long time.  My 3500 Chevy dually 4X4 with its 6.6L engine thanks the petroleum industry.  Finally, I hit the grocery to take advantage of $6/doz eggs--waiting to realize the drop in egg prices the news keeps talking about.  On Wednesday, I awoke to the sound of a plane trying to takeoff out back of our house.  That's what it sounded like but it was actually a wood chipper that a cleanup crew was using while they picked up debris in the greenbelt.  Our back faces a utility corridor greenbelt that isn't "groomed" but is kept reasonably free of fallen limbs by the power company.  There's a "seasonal creek" that flows through the middle and some pretty tall reeds that occasionally hosts wild boar.  When I went outside to see about the plane, I noticed that our cedar elms are starting to leaf out--a sure sign cold temperatures are about done.  Yep!  Spring is just about here.  I know this because I witnessed the "changing of the cups" ceremony that my bride performs at the beginning of warm weather.  She puts away her "winter tea cups" and pulls out her spring/summer cups.  Tea around here is serious business.  Our cleaning crew came on Thursday--usually a two person crew but this time it was three.  Our cleaning lady's grandson came along.  He's a tiny lad.  A HS junior that weighs in at 260 lbs.  I'm sure his school's football coach has that guy in his sights.  In the afternoon, a juvenile red-breasted hawk landed on our bird bath and sat there splashing around long enough for my bride to get a video of him--very impressive bird.  We have a family of hawks that have staked out our greenbelt as their hunting grounds.  We often see mama, papa, and their two "babies" flying up and down the belt probably looking for field mice.  Saturday, I picked up my bride's gardening helper and the two of us moved the potted plants from inside the garage to where ever she wanted them placed.  We did this in what can only be described as a "force 10" gale.  The wind actually blew over some of the big pots before we could get them anchored and weighed down with rocks.  Fun city!  That took care of Saturday!  Sunday, we had a visit from our next door neighbor and her three children.  That's always exciting...especially the youngest boy who has to touch everything.  They were with us for maybe a half hour, mostly watching my bride make a "shoo-fly pie".  OS sent a message --he and his bride were in the Spring Mountains to the west of Vegas watching the locals play in the snow that still covers the surrounding peaks.  I also visited with my cousin who lives south of St. Louis.  Like me, he's enjoying the benefits of cataract surgery...and snow flurries that still plague the frozen north.  With that bit of trivia, I'll end this edition of "The Blurp".  TWTWTW!  Have a great day..and a great week.