In the woods with Junior

I don't see Junior that much anymore.

He's holed up in his Mom's basement down in the city. Used to have a job at Wal-mart, but he quit to focus on his music.

I didn't actually notice much in the way of music when he took his hiatus from the world of work. Got the impression he was more focused on pussy and pot-smoking than he was on music.

Not that he's faking it in the musical talent department. There's a little thing he did called Nicotine run that you can find on You tube if you're interested.

Oddly enough he managed to put that together back when he was working at Wal-mart.

So I was thrilled when he e-mailed me last week to ask if this weekend would be a good time to come up for a visit.

WTF, he's my kid, anytime is a good time for a visit. And his mother was giving him the car for the weekend. It would be the first time he found his own way to Falling Downs!

I damned near exploded with pride.

Friday night I called to ask the particulars of his itinerary. Nobody picked up so I left a message.

Thirty seconds later his mother called back. I like to avoid talking to the mother if at all possible.

"Junior isn't getting the car unless blahblahblah yadayadayada.

Hmmm...

Well, maybe I won't be seeing Junior this weekend after all...

Couple of hours later Junior calls up.

"Hey Dad, any chance you can pick me up?"

Well, godammit, I hate to be a sap, but I want to see the kid, so we strike a deal.

I'll make the three hour drive to the city to pick him up; he takes the bus back.

So I pick up Junior and he's got it all going on. Sporting a new look. Trench coat and Sherlock Holmes cap. And he's got news.

Got his Wal-mart job again.

I never dreamed I'd feel elated on hearing the news that the fruit of my loins is working at Wal-mart, but what the fuck, at least it's a change from sitting in Mom's basement smoking dope.

The mere fact that they hired him back says something good about him.

The fact that he hates it says something good about him too.

So we hung out for a couple days. He drank way too much of my beer. It was great to see him.

Before he headed home I wanted him to have a taste of the real Falling Downs. It ain't all about smoking the weed of wisdom and drinking beer.

I took him out to get a load of firewood.

He was a bit out of sorts at first. Just watched for the first five minutes. Then he got into helping load the truck.

When I fired up the Stihl he asked if he could give it a try.

Music to my ears. Within the next five minutes he'd got the lesson on the cold start, the hot start, and how to figure if you should make the cut from this side or that.

Have to say that with the trench coat and the Sherlock cap he was the most nattily attired lumberjack of all time.

We loaded up the truck and then had a beer, just me and Junior in the woods.