Apple Picking

The family went apple picking over the weekend. It’s been a tradition for the last few years, ever since the kids could walk. There is a place up here called Riley Farms and it’s one of those places that was once a real farm but turned into a tourist farm to make ends meet. Once a year, about now, they let people come up and pick the orchards clean of about ten different types of apples, blackberries and raspberries. The kids had fun and my wife likes it because she says she can go home and make a fresh apple pie.

“That’s the most expensive apple pie you’ll ever make”, I said. “Those apples cost us forty dollars!”

They also have other attractions for the kids to do. They shot arrows, four arrows for a buck. I sucked at it. If I was an Indian in a past life I starved to death. I also received a feather splinter from one of my shots. They are nasty little buggers. I got it out but it took a while.

What I was good at, which shocked everyone, was the tomahawk throw. Six throws for a dollar. I nailed them. The guy in charge, who also monitored the archery, gave me this creepy sideway glance when I was done. Don’t tick me off, at least when I have a hatchet. I felt like Mel Gibson in “The Patriot”.

Super Guy Michael

Halloween is coming up so we asked the kids what they wanted to dress up as for Trick or Treat. Rose said “Cinderella”, Joseph is going as “Mr. Conductor” from “Thomas the Tank Engine” and little Matthew is going to be “Winnie the Pooh”. Michael, who obviously has a healthy ego, said he wants to go as “Super Guy Michael!”

We said, “OK” and will put together some kind of a super hero costume for it. It’ll probably have a cape and some boots and we’ll design a chest emblem for “Super Guy Michael” to go with it. This lead me to think what kind of super power I would choose if I could pick one.

I think everyone has this fantasy at one time or another. When I was a kid I wanted to fly. I wanted to fly like Peter Pan more than anything in the world. It was and still is my favorite of all the Disney movies. And, for nostalgic reasons, it’s my favorite ride at Disneyland. I remember many nights lying in my bed, shutting my eyes tight and wishing so hard that I’d give myself a headache. But, no dice.

I went through several Super Hero phases, Batman, Iron Man, Reed Richards from the Fantastic Four. I liked him because he was the smartest man in the world, not because he could stretch. That guy could think of something to invent, and BAM, right out of the box, the first time, he built it and it worked! No prototypes, no months of testing, and never a mistake! Try that Bill Gates! If Reed Richards programmed Windows for you, there never would’ve been a “Blue Screen of Death”!

Anyway, now that I’m my age and have had soooo many years to think this out. I’ve decided that the super power I’d finally choose would be the ability to heal. I mean, laying on hands and whatever you had would be gone whether it was physical, mental, or emotional. I wouldn’t let anyone know I had it. Not my wife or my family or friends. I’d just keep my eyes and ears open and when the opportunity came up to help someone, I would.

I don’t know how long you could keep something like that a secret, but I’d try.