WUFU3 Blog

Winter Things to Celebrate

Tue, 16 Jan 2024 12:02:25 GMT

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Tired of snow, freezing temps, and slick roads?

Here are some:

Winter Things to Celebrate

Walking in unmarked snow

Dog sleeping by the fireplace

Flannel shirts

Long underwear

Mittens

Hot chocolate

Christmas

Football bowl games

It’s a Wonderful Life

Christmas cards

Skating on the pond

No school---snow day

Snow angels

Christmas carols

Snow cream

Cross country skiing

Christmas cactus

Walking in the snow in moonlight

Making snowmen

Oatmeal

Poinsettias

Hanukkah

Grandma’s baked country ham

Cutting our Christmas tree

Seeing our Christmas ornaments

Christmas lights

Making Christmas candy

The color red

Basketball games

Taking the annual Christmas picture

Snowflakes

Christmas in Hawaii

Black trees against gray sky

Trees covered in ice

After Christmas sales

Salt trucks

Birds on the feeder

Icicle

New Year’s Eve

New Year’s resolutions

Rose Parade

Long dark nights

Bushy haired animals

Super Bowl

Sock caps

Fur coats

Valentine’s Day

Crackling fire in the fireplace

Seeing neighbors house through bare trees

Neck scarf

Snow tires

Heated car seats

Garages

Four wheel drive vehicles

Green wheat fields

Hoar frost

Watching snow fall

A bowl of steaming soup

Staying in with a good book

A hot cup of coffee

Seeing your breath

Florida

Seed catalogs

Our daughter’s birthday

Our wedding anniversary

Caribbean cruises

Snow mobiles

Hockey

Winter Olympics

Hot chili

Watching the fire in a dark room

Snuggling

David B. Hazelwood

September 20, 2006

Lane's View

Sat, 12 Jun 2021 13:21:19 GMT

Lane's View - February 2021

Lane’s View

I Own the Place

June 12, 2021

-This regular column is from Lane III, the Golden Retriever who owns the Hazelwoods, the farm, and who-knows-what-else.

The Hazelwoods say they own this place, but I just let them keep thinking that. I know I’m really the owner. I’ll be the first to greet you when you arrive, unless I have made David take us for a ride in the truck.

In the mornings, if you want to go for a jog, I’ll run along with you. While you’re loading up on David’s made-from-scratch biscuits or Claudia’s quiche made from her hen’s fresh eggs, I’ll relax for awhile on the front porch of the guest cottage.

If you want a morning walk, let me take you to my favorite place down at Russell Creek. You don’t have to chase the rabbits or squirrels, since you’re here to take it easy. Besides, that’s one of my main jobs around here. I have to keep an eye on a lot of animals on this place. There are chickens, cows, deer, ducks, and a goose named Princess under a pear tree. David gets mad if I chase the cows, so I just bark at them when they get too close to the lawn fence.

I recommend you take a nap in the afternoon. Get someone to scratch you behind the ears after dinner and fall asleep by the fireplace at night. That’s what I usually do. I like owning this place. It’s a great place to live and visit. It’s a lot better than living in town where my cousins live.

Come back to see me sometime. I’ll be happy to see you. Don’t tell the Hazelwoods I told you all this good stuff.The body content of your post goes here. To edit this text, click on it and delete this default text and start typing your own or paste your own from a different source.

Book's I'm Reading

Sun, 06 Jun 2021 17:10:30 GMT

Books I'm Reading - May 2021

Books I’m Reading

David B Hazelwood

May 2021

May was a busy month around here with all of the spring chores calling for me, so only two of the 3 Rs got much attention. The big news was that we sold Parish Patch Inn and are now fully retired. That created some Rithmatic attention. I’ve also been working on the final edits on the two books I want to get published by the Fourth of July, so that has taken my Riting attention. Here’s my Readin’, such as it is.

IRS Publication 17 by The U.S. Department of the Treasury

Tax filing got a COVID delay until May 17, so I did my annual read of this thrilling mystery. A page turner it is not but I recommend everyone read it at least once even if someone else prepares your taxes. After all, you send more money to these folks than any of the authors and book publishers you support. It will give you new ideas about how to structure your finances during the year. By April 15 it is too late for that kind of planning. The tax preparer can only work with what you give them. Just one tip can earn you hundreds of dollars. I do know now to hold my stocks one year and one day, not just one year, to avoid paying short term gains tax. What’s one day?

DR Horton Company prospectus by David V Auld, CEO

I read this one and several others in the genre of companies whose stocks are investment prospects. Thirteen years ago, all of my investments were in mutual funds, which are fine, but index funds are better. One cold winter morning I read several of my mutual funds annual reports. Ever read one? I recommend reading at least one in your lifetime. I did and decided to invest in individual stocks instead. That may not be your conclusion, but at least one will know what they are doing with your hard earned money. Oh, by the way, I decided to buy some DR Horton stock.

Animals Who Own Us by David B Hazelwood

This book will remind you to be careful what you own; it will eventually own you. You don’t own an animal. It just lets you think you do. At first, you’re putting them in their proper place, making them look the way you want, and training them to obey your wishes, but soon they are telling you what to do and when to do it. Then they punish you when you don’t.

This book is for all lovers of animals and those who willingly become servants of their pets and livestock. This collection of twenty-eight narratives chronicles my fifty-years of remarkable, but true, experiences in “owning” animals. While the cows, horses, pig, turkeys, mules, goat, ducks, chickens, and peacocks are from our Tennessee farm and country inn, the dog and cat episodes could have happened in a Manhattan high rise studio. I have owned a lot of animals, but never had to say, “I’m owned by a monkey.”

Book of the Month

Cooking Southern: Recipes and Their History by David G Smith

and David B Hazelwood

My third cookbook is more than a collection of historic recipes from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It explores the reasons why Southerners ate and cooked the ways they did in early America. Without the enslaved Africans cooking for them, the Southerners would not have learned to eat turnip greens, okra, sweet potatoes, benne seed cakes, or grits. The European immigrants were added to this menagerie of Southerners and brought with them jambalaya, roux, syllabub, scones, shortnin’ bread, and chocolate to make a meal.

Without the Civil War, cornbread, black eyed peas, and hominy wouldn’t have become Southern staples, even though some swore never to eat them again. We are glad for all of the contributions and you will be too, when you discover more of the history of these eighteen hundred historic recipes and make your own version of Cooking Southern.

In preparation for our annual Kentucky Derby Party, I used the Frozen Custard recipe on page 425 as the base for a Kentucky Derby Bourbon Pie. (The ¼ cup Bourbon I added prevents homemade ice cream brain freeze.)

Books I'm Reading

david@wufu3.com (David Hazelwood) — Thu, 06 May 2021 10:43:03 GMT

Books I'm Reading - April 2021

Books I’m Reading

David B Hazelwood

April 2021

Observance of Lent is new for this Baptist. I was forty before I started choosing something to give up for the forty days of Lent. I still haven’t graduated to choosing something to do for Lent. This year I gave up bacon. Half way through Lent I decided it was a bad choice. Since it’s not July and fresh tomatoes don’t abound, BLTs aren’t being celebrated yet. I guess my choice to read some religious books this month was my choosing to do something for Lent.

Book of the Month

The Promised Land (2020) by Elizabeth Musser

Reading this novel during Lent gave me the vicarious spiritual experience of walking the French portion of the Camino. All of the characters on the pilgrimage have their personal issues that spill over into their relationships ending in divorce, disease, murder, withdrawal, alcoholism, and brokenness. They carry you along, but let you see their healing. It’s splashed with Christian material in a tasteful manner without seeming preachy. I made my own list of “Life Giving Things.”

Beautiful Outlaw (2011) by John Eldredge

Here’s a book that doesn’t end like it begins. It starts by giving a fresh look at the human Jesus. He is accurately described as playful, irreverent, witty, fierce, generous, humorous, exasperated, humble, extravagant, honest, cunning, amazed, beautiful, and true. This all appeals to the non-believer’s head in a non-preachy way. But in the second half, the author turns evangelistic and speaks to reader’s heart. Believers will find the second half devotional.

The Dutch House (2019) by Ann Patchett

OK, I didn’t read it. I heard Tom Hanks read it aloud on an eight hour car trip to New Orleans. Tom wasn’t with us on the trip. We listened to a recording. It’s very descriptive, detailed writing about ordinary events in the life of a family. Only a couple of the events rise to the level of unusual. The rest of the book follows how parents, children, and grandchildren sort out those events. You can tell I wasn’t on the committee that made this book a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction award.

A Murder in Music City (2017) by Michael Bishop

Those who like murder mysteries like them even more when they are a reporting of an actual murder. Through ten years of research, Bishop documents reasons for doubting the conviction. While not a novel, it read like one instead of documents with connecting commentary. If he truly wants to write a novel, he has what it takes.

The Secret Pilgrim (1991) by John le Carré

This book reminds me of one I read earlier titled “24 Hours”. Both had depth of detail, but weren’t fast moving. I recommend the first one. Pass on this one. It’s not thirteen chapters of an espionage mystery novel. It’s eleven episodes trying to be held together by a common character followed by two chapters in search of a conclusion. Only the detail of his descriptive powers kept me reading to the end of what never started.

Books I'm Reading

david@wufu3.com (David Hazelwood) — Sun, 25 Apr 2021 18:35:38 GMT

Books I'm Reading - March 2021

Books I’m Reading

David B Hazelwood

March 2021

Three of the books I read this month were birthday gifts. Most months I celebrate birthdays with a group of friends and books are common gifts. I told them years ago that I didn’t want them to buy gifts for me. Just go to your book shelves and select ones you think I would like or should read. Some years I get as many as thirty books. It’s always interesting to see what they choose for me. Fortunately, they aren’t the type to underline passages or I would think it was meant for me. I confess these three were given to me three years ago, so I have been behind in my gift book reading.

Olive Kitteridge (2008) by Elizabeth Strout

This book has no beginning or end. It could go on forever with tales of one troubled relationship after another. Take your pick---spouse, children, parents, co-worker, neighbor, in-laws, even friends. Like the lives of any community, the names changes, but the stories continue and could go on forever. There are a lot more cold prickly lines than warm fuzzies in the thirteen vignettes that Olive Kitteridge either observes or experiences. To be fair, don’t each of us have our warts and cracks in relationships? I hope you don’t want to read about mine.

The Other Einstein (2016) by Marie Benedict

We seldom get the back story on famous people like Albert Einstein. Reading about his relationship with his first wife (now three’s a clue!) made me feel sad, proud, empathetic, and finally respectful. It was painful reading about repeated experiences of unrewarded contributions and sacrifice. It was uplifting to learn of her professional skills that equaled or maybe exceeded her husband’s. Yet, through repeated deceptions, her contributions were stolen and unrecognized. As her marriage dissolved, she first lost her scientific partner, then her husband. This was my Book-of-the-Month runner-up.

Book of the Month

The Queen’s Promise (2019) by Brenda Vantrease Rickman

This Nashville author has coached me with some of my writing and publishing pursuits, so I may be prejudiced in naming this my Book-of-the-Month. If you like seventeenth century historical novels, I predict you will name this your Book-of-the-Month without prejudice. Brenda delicately places shards of history from her deep research and makes you think every word is from her eyewitness account. She places imaginary characters alongside historical figures in a Forest Gump way, but more believable. Only two years of King Charles reign is covered, so she can get a lot more books out of the English monarchies and does in the Broken Kingdom series.

The Blue Kingfisher (2018) by Erica Wright

When you have known an author for thirty years, it’s easy to imagine that a character’s words have come out of her mouth, even if the novel doesn’t even closely resemble an autobiography. We usually write from what’s in us, so if Erica lived there, it will become a story setting. I’m just glad I’ve never shown up as inspiration for one of the characters, at least I don’t think I have. Usually, I want murder mysteries to get to the big reveal. I wanted the intrigue of this one to keep going and never get solved. I guess that’s what makes this Kate Stone series a success and leaves me waiting for the next edition. Maybe it will feature Knoxville.

Books I'm Reading

david@wufu3.com (David Hazelwood) — Sun, 25 Apr 2021 18:18:06 GMT

Books I'm Reading - February 2021

Books I’m Reading

David B Hazelwood

February 2021

Only three books made the list this month. I’ve been busy editing the new cookbook, Cooking Southern. Reading does help me write, but hasn’t improved my ‘rithmatic. This month I was reminded of the power of “like” in writing. I guess today’s teen discovered it too.

The Library Book (2018) by Susan Orlean

The author is a journalist and has definitely chosen the correct field, unless she decides to become a full-time novelist. This book about the burning of the Los Angeles library spoke to me more as a writer than a reader. All writers have the same cache of words to use. Some just choose proper words and arrange them better than most. She has the power to describe mundane subjects with such clarity that they become significant. She shows the power of “like”. It’s almost on every page. “The damaged books were like…” I like this book.

Book of the Month

The Painted Veil (19) by Somerset Maugham

Before I was thirty, I seldom read anything I didn’t have to read and not even all of that. So, I missed most all of the classics. This is the only Maugham I have read. I suspect his trade was using his characters to exemplify the human condition in all of us, especially our frailties. Most of his characters were bold enough to share their non-traditional positions on life situations at the risk of rejection. All the while they echo my driving force that humans have the capacity to grow, to change, and to forgive. His characters come out from behind their painted veils.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (1924)

Harold Fry walked over 600 miles across England from its southern to northern coast to say thank you to a dying friend. Like his walk, this novel wrings out all of the guilt, failures, and hardships that burden him. His wife, who is left at home, is doing the same things. Being dragged through all of these negative emotions wasn’t a pleasant journey for me, even with some joyful resolutions at the end. I’ll stick with reading Peter Jenkins’ “Walk Across America”.

Books I'm Reading

david@wufu3.com (David Hazelwood) — Sat, 06 Feb 2021 16:01:06 GMT

Books I'm Reading

January 2021

I get inspired to write from a lot of places, but one frequent one is the books I read. It was reading that inspired me to start writing. I once realized that I read 50 to 75 books a year, but wasn’t writing anything. After all, that’s why we have a thumb- to hold a pen and write. So, I decide to take the year off and not read any books. I used the time to write and have been writing ever since.

I’m back to reading again, but at a slower pace. I only read twenty-six books in 2020. It was a year when a lot of our lives went at a slower pace. A lot of my reading is from gifts people have given to me. Some years ago, I told my friends that if they wanted to give a gift to me, don’t go out and buy one that will end up in my white elephant box. They should go to their book shelf and pull off a book they want me to have. I get a menagerie of book, which keeps my reading diverse.

The past two years my reading was been guided by the PBS poll of America’s 100 Favorite Books. I was surprised at how few I had read, so I decided to read them all, even the ones I had already read. I’m so glad I did. Some of them I couldn’t even remember the ending and all of them gave new insights on the second read. I’m only on number seventy-four now, so you will be seeing some of them on future editions of Books I’m Reading.

This month I’ve been reading…

The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler (1985)

This is one of the selections that came from my wife, Claudia’s, Normandy Book Club. The main character lives in Baltimore and is a travel writer who hates to travel. As he accidentally travels through this novel of his life, we experience many of his accidents- loss of a child, separation from wife, broken leg, moving in with sister and brothers, and living with an unlikely love interest. After reading about thirty pages, I told Claudia, “I hope this guy doesn’t remind you me.” Like many of us, he finally gets himself back on track, quirks and all.

The Rooster Bar by John Grisham (1985)

This is one of two birthday books given to me by my friend, Randy Deering. Like others, I’m guessing he was cleaning off his book shelves. It’s a Grisham book. You know lawyer character type. You know the rescue the downtrodden story line. You know the lawyer wins ending. You know you will enjoy every page of it. Here’s the story anyway. Three last semester law students attending a for profit lawyer mill school realize they are buried with two hundred thousand in student loans that they will never be able to repay, so they drop out and go after the guy at the top who got all of their money.

Book of the Month

Poirot Investigates (1924)

This was a birthday book from my daughter, Whitney, who didn’t pull it off her bookshelf, but actually went out (to Amazon) and bought it. She knew I had enjoyed my Sunday mornings watching Poirot on PBS. I don’t think I had ever read an Agatha Christie novel. I’m one of those who usually waits for the movie version. I had to wait a long time for PBS to produce the Poirot series. When I started reading this book, I couldn’t imagine they had based the series on these eleven chapters which ranged from five to nine pages each, but they did. Mon ami, you won’t get The Orient Express, but you will be able to envision our little French speaking Belgian detective on every page.

Rooster – The Life and Times of Rooster Cogburn by Brett Cogburn (2012)

This is my second birthday book from Randy Deering in his rooster series. I can’t wait until next year to what series he chooses. If it’s from his shelf, it will probably be something like the theology of Wolfhart Pannenburg. Since He knows I already have all of them, that’s out. This is a collection of the history the author has collected about his great grandfather, the inspiration for John Wayne’s True Grit character. If you are searching for details of Arkansas moonshiners, this is your book.

With Love and Prayers by F. Washington Jarvis (2000)

Having spent half of my working life in campus ministry, I was absorbed by this collection of assembly addresses given to students at Roxbury Latin school in Baltimore, where the author was headmaster for a quarter century. I suspect they were like daily chapel addresses my daughter, Whitney, heard in her six years at The Webb School in Bell Buckle, Tennessee. Every address is chocked full of quotes from the world’s greatest minds, but also quotes this man’s mind and heart. One my favorites on happiness from him is: “If you want to be happy, you begin by accepting reality-and the reality is that you don’t deserve anything in life. Life doesn’t owe you a damned thing; and you don’t always get what you want.”The body content of your post goes here. To edit this text, click on it and delete this default text and start typing your own or paste your own from a different source.

What's WUFU?

david@wufu3.com (David Hazelwood) — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 11:25:37 GMT

wufu\ ‘woo-foo\ noun (esp Southern)(1988) n. 1: a name for addressing anyone or everyone in a group 2: either of you, 3: both of you, 4: any of you, 5: all of you

When Claudia and I married, Whitney was seven years old. “Almost eight”, she would say. Like most children that age, her mom was the go-to person. Momma. Momma. Momma was the chorus and refrain. It was natural that this song continued when I came into her life. I was a recent addition, a David come lately, not the go to guy.

One day in the middle of the Momma song, Claudia told Whitney, “You know, you can ask David things sometimes.” Whitney stood still and silent for a few moments, just processing this new information. I could see the idea turning over in her mind as she looked for the right mental folder to file it. Having found the right folder and filed it away, she said flatly, “OK, I will.”

I thought that was the end of it. The end of the conversation and the end of the new idea. Even though I admired Claudia’s timely instruction, I had no expectation that it would stick. That’s when Whitney gave me one of her many surprises. The new idea had not only stuck and would be retrieved on some appropriate future moment, she was about to take the concept to a deeper level.

She looked at both of us and asked with all the seriousness and philosophical insight of Plato, “So what do I say when you are both here and I don’t care who answers?” It was one of those moments when you are prone to say what first comes to your mind, because it is such a small routine question and should get a small routine answer. But then a bell goes off in your head and you hesitate a moment. In that moment there is a flash of recognition that this is no ordinary question, no ordinary moment. So, you swallow your shallow response and try to think of something profound to say.

I said, “Wufu. If you don’t care who answers, you just say Wufu.” It wasn’t so profound, but it created a puzzled look on Whitney’s face when she heard the sound of the new word and she asked, “What does Wufu mean?” Having just assigned a new word with a meaning, I said with great confidence, “It means either of us or both of us.” That was the question she asked, so this answer must be the right meaning. She stood there again processing this third piece of new information. She turned it over in her mind, found the right mental folder, and filed it. She said, “OK.”, turned on her heels, and was off to do whatever it was that she had come to ask about.

I didn’t invent Wufu by just pulling it out of the air. In the desperation of the moment of being challenged by a little girl almost eight, I pulled it from the memories of my own childhood. Our family was friends with the Weigel family, who were actually our distant relatives. Our grandfathers were cousins. I’ve never really known how to count cousins past first cousins. They weren’t my first cousins, but were they the second, third, or fourth?

Their youngest of four boys was named Bill, but since his dad was also named Bill, everyone called him by his nickname, Wufu. Since I had moved away and hadn’t seen him in twenty years, I figured it was safe to use this word and give it a new meaning. Grown up now, he is probably finished with Wufu as a name anyway. The name worked for a small boy, but you couldn’t call your doctor Wufu and then take him very seriously.

So, the stage was set for a new expression. All that was left was for it to be used two or three times and it would become institutionalized. First it would become a natural part of the family vocabulary and who knows, it could ultimately end up as six across in the New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle. “A four-letter word for either, both, all, or any.” Or it could be added to the 2029 revised edition of Webster’s dictionary as “wufu\ ‘woo-foo\ noun (esp Southern)(1988) 1: a name for addressing anyone or everyone in a group 2: either of you, 3: both of you, 4: any of you, 5: all of you”

Phase one surely took hold quickly. First it was Whitney digging into her mental files for her new behavior as she came into the room and asked Claudia and I, “Wufu, can I go to Erin’s house and play?” On another day Claudia would leave a note on the kitchen table. “Wufu – when you get home, take the chicken out of the freezer to thaw.” Whoever read the note first, took the chicken out. On another day I would leave a message on the answering machine, “Wufu – my meeting is later than I expected. Let’s eat dinner at seven.” When Whitney went to summer camp, her letters began with “Dear Wufu,” Wufu also became our designated secret code word that could be used if you were ever kidnapped and wanted the others to know the message was really from you. (I guess I shouldn’t have told you this. Now our cover is blown with the crooks.)

Wufu even adapted itself to the advent of technology as we created an email group on our computers and named it Wufu. When it came time to designate a name for our website domain, Wufu was the obvious choice. Who could possibly already have that domain name? Surely no one but Michael Weigel. Actually, it was already taken by a Japanese technology company. They probably sell anything to anyone anywhere! So, I submitted WUFU1.com. It was already taken too. All of a sudden Wufu didn’t sound quite so unique. Had Michael incorporated himself? Since there were three of us in the Hazelwood version of Wufu, we went with Wufu3.com. That’s where you will find either of us, both of us, any of us, all of us, anything of ours, or everything of ours.

Books by David--- Overview and Index

Mon, 29 Jun 2020 10:29:08 GMT

Overview and Index of Blogs

These blogs come right out of my head which means the subjects are scattered. Hopefully you won't find most of them scatter brained. A lot of the blogs will relate to books I have written, whose topics are also scattered. Cookbooks, Animals, Lists, Love, Stepdads, and ...you get the picture. I am also a ghost writer for my Golden Retriever, Lane, who will post her blogs here too. She is our CCO, chief canine officer. I send her blogs because people usually read them before mine.

Date Subject

September 14, 2020 What's Wufu?

September 14, 2020 Overview and Index of Blogs

September 13, 2020 Release of Animals Who Own Us postponed

February 6, 2021 Books I'm Reading - January 2021

Click To Paste

February 6, 2021 Books I'm Reading - January 2021

Animals Who Own Us

Thu, 24 Oct 2019 10:51:09 GMT

Release of my new book, Animals Who Own Us, has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It's difficult to do release parties and book signings and keep our social distance. The book will probably be released the same time the rest of us are released from our pandemic prisons. For now, here is the cover release. The cover is a fast read. I hope it makes you want to read more later.

Read More

https://www.wufu3.com/animalswhoownus/