EPISODE - LAST

While most of you did what you do, during this last weekend......

Klecko crossed the wasted plains of Iowa...............

To get to Nebraska -

To visit his daughter -

And her husband -

Not to mention my granddaughter -

But truth be told, the main reason I made this trip was to dump off a Tonka Dump Truck to my newborn grandson -

Bennett Daniel !

Some people suggested that i would like this kid more than my granddaughter, just because he was a boy.

I considered this (wisdom?) some what stupid and unwarranted, but after sitting with my namesake, I think what those people were saying is not so much that I would love him more.....but perhaps I would understand him more.

They may be right.

I am married to a woman that I have known most of my life, what is she....45?

Dude, I still don't have a clue what is in that head of hers....LOL, but Benny-D, I so get that kid.

It's hard to be in the midst of a moment, a moment that tells you......"You are on the brink of greatness, you are staring directly into the face of God."

I don't mean that to come across sacrilegious, I get it. The kid will be human, faulted....and possibly high maintenance.

After all, he has me for a grandfather, and lives in Nebraska (insert laughter).

But I just sat there, my daughter and her family are busy preparing to sell their house, and i sat there.

I sat there holding Benny - D.

And i felt connected in a way that only a grandfather can feel when he holds his grandson.

Within seconds, this little babies life flashed before my eyes.

Within the editing room of my mind, the kid turns out great and has a wonderful life, but................

When you are 50, you know what the price of happiness is, and then I just sat there and enjoyed that kid and his pressed steel Tonka Dump truck for that fleeting moment.

It might sound weird......but I crossed some sort of finish line that second.

I think I'm done talking to you guys.

I think theres not much left more me to say.

Who knows? Perhaps in the future I will make a surprise post, but even that will be different.

The bottom line is I think baking has dropped several rungs.

I'll talk bread all day long if you want to send me a big paycheck, but I am not sure I want my free hours in this camp anymore.

I guess I must be going through the same phase Bilbo Baggins went through when he left the Shire to pursue adventure.

However.......I think I just want to write poems, discuss love and spend as much time with my family as possible.

It's been a wonderful ride, and thanks for all the input you crazy L.A.B. Rats have contributed.

I can't thank you enough.

If I've said it once.......

I love most of you.

Dannu Klecko - The Last American Baker