My Dad Goes Shopping On The Internet

Karen and I had a good weekend. The weather was nice, the neighborhood was quiet, and we were able to accomplish several projects around the house, in the yard, and in the garage. Speaking of yard work, you may remember my lament about not being able to find Jalapeno flavored sunflower seeds to split and spit while I mow and work in the yard. Click here to read the related post.

In an unexpected response to that blog, one of the families at church delivered a bag of Jalapeno flavored sunflower seeds to me. They offered to pick-up additional bags for me as needed. It seems they drive past a store that sells them on the way to and from work in a different county. I was, and am blessed by their generosity. Thank you Troy and Michele!

My dad, out in California, tried to find the seeds in a store near him but wasn't able to do so. Being the internet savvy guy he is, he located a vendor that sold the seeds on-line and, without any warning, ordered some to be shipped to me.

Consequently, I was completely surprised to find a rather large box on our front porch from a candy supplier in California. I opened the big box and found two smaller BOXES of David's Jalapeno flavored sunflower seeds! That's twelve bags in a box for a total of 24 bags of sunflower seeds! That's a lot of sunflower seeds. When I called my Dad to thank him, he was as surprised I was as he thought he'd ordered two BAGS of seeds to be sent, not two BOXES...we had a good laugh and I hope you did too!

Here I am with my two boxes, 24 bags, of Jalapeno flavored sunflower seeds!

Eat. Spit. Be Happy.

"Eat. Spit. Be Happy."

It really feels like spring is here today. Blue sky, puffy clouds, warm sun, cool breeze, fresh-cut lawn, Robins are eating worms, Cardinals are calling to each other, all after a day of rain. Very spring-ish indeed. But there are a few other signs that winter is losing its grip on Coshocton County...Karen's baking for Easter, the garden bulbs are in bloom, and the sunflower seeds are flying.

We'll be with friends tomorrow for Easter and to watch The Master's Tournament. Karen's in charge of the baking. She just made her first "peanut butter pie" which is a dessert mainstay of the local cultural cuisine, she baked a fresh loaf of bread with flour she ground herself, and she just finished a raspberry cream pie.

Karen adds the raspberry filling to the cream base on graham cracker crust. Notice the loaf of bread.

Karen planted a bunch of bulbs last fall and they've come up very nicely. While I don't have a shot of every variety of tulip, daffodil, or purple plant, I did snap one that brings out some nice color representative of the other flowers.

Flowers in our garden

However, the hallmark of spring for me is when I break out the sunflower seeds. That means I'm mowing. Which means the grass is growing. Which means the sun is out and temps are climbing. As the lawn mower needs gasoline to run, I need sunflower seeds to mow. I load up my cheek, keep the bag of seeds in my back pocket, split the seeds between my teeth and then spit the shells into the grass as I walk behind the mower.

I eat David brand seeds and prefer Jalapeno flavor but you can't get them in Coshocton. The best I can do here is BBQ, or Cool Ranch, or Original. I settle for BBQ. While as I believer in Jesus Christ I do have a theology on which my life is based, the David brand philosophy of life, as printed on their sunflower packs, is rather deep and multi-dimensional:: "Eat. Spit. Be Happy."

David brand BBQ sunflower seeds

Indeed. I'm all about that.