Stop by, I'll be in the Backyard

The late great baseball pitcher, Leroy 'Satchel' Page was once quoted saying, "Sometimes I sits and thinks and sometimes I just sits." At seventy-seven, I epitomize Satchel's stated life-style. Therefore, to avoid the pending likelihood that the 'just sits' will soon consume more time than the 'sits and thinks,' I'm contemplating taking-up whittling. Why not? My Grandpa E. V. Bennett was a dedicated whittler. Perhaps it's in my DNA.

Let me clarify the difference between 'whittling' and 'wood-carving.' A wood carver begins with a block of wood, carving tools and a blueprint pattern or preconceived notion for a finished product. A whittler picks up a stick or chunk of wood and with his trusty pocketknife begins trimming away the exterior and continues the brain-dead activity until the whittling object is reduced to shavings. Come to think, I must acknowledge 'the carver' is required to 'sits-carve-and-thinks' while the whittler just 'sits & whittles.'

I need to buy a pocketknife...and band-aids.