thanksgiving....

wasnt the same

my tarantula

    So for my 9th birthday i received a tarantula for a present, which was pretty cool to me and also served as a kick ass show and tell item as well as an easy animal to write papers about for elementary school papers.  Well as i got older the crickets we used to feed it would chirp at night keeping me awake so i would leave the spider in the kitchen or it would be in my dads room.  well weeks turned to months then years without me having the spider in my room.  fast forward 19 years and we still have the spider who now resides at my sisters apartment keeping her and my niece company.

whats in a name?

   so i share a name with my father and his father before.  I wear that as a badge of honor. Joseph Andre' Ouellette III will be something that will never let me forget my father....and I am proud of that.  A lot of people who didnt work with my old man or see how he was on a daily basis didnt realize how damn funny and goofy he was. He had nicknames for everyone, some we made up together, others were his own.  Not only nicknames but ballbusting was his second profession which is probably why chrisitine barbara and I are the way we are---luckily :).
     Everyday we go to F.W. Webb to get parts, one afternoon Jason happenned to say hey "dirtbag" or something to that effect to my dad....he looked around like DeNiro in "Taxi Driver" like "You talkin to me?"  and from that point on in dad's book jasons new Name was "DirtBag"-a tradition i will continue till the day i join my father in heaven.  Another thing i will never forget is every single time he would call randy in the warehouse he would call him a "big freak" cuz hes like 6 ft 5 and 270 lbs....to be continued-----work called---im back....so yeah Randy's a big freak.  Another nickname we made up together was for a truck driver named mike ferguson...i saw a clip from "saturday night live"  called celebrity jeopardy and burt reynolds changed his name to "Turd Ferguson" 1/2 way thru the game..so i told dad about that and mike was turd from then on...he was so funny...ha ha....no he loved the guys at webb's like family. so do i....He also called his friend olli "the king of ashby".....i remember (with a smile) seeing multiple rent checks shoved into envelopes labeled "the king"....my dad was the biggest ballbuster on earth....thats where i get it from and i do it proudly in his honor...he was so funny hed give chris rock a run for his money...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN6rjLcpBnI

cant sleep tonight.....

     I cant sleep tonight thinking of the eventuality of thanksgiving and how hard its going to be on everyone...i know me christine and barb plan on having a small get together to be together as a family and grieve...because lets face it it is a long process.  i think i might bring a green bean casserole and mashed potatoes.   I will never forget the pride our dad put into his thanksgiving turkey he would tend to it and baste it every hour.   it was his job that day.. he  always and i mean ALWAYS took care of everyone---we would have to beg him to sit down with us and eat and stop doing dishes and or serving people he was always on his feet making sure EVERYONE else was eating and their needs were met...I will miss that so much.....however much like your work ethic christine and i watched u cook and we will carry on the tradition dad... i love u....the picture below is of dad checking the turkey while barbara is trying to get him to take a good pic--and it was...<3 u guys

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw8W6hYGZ0E


i cant stop listening to this and thinking of christine.....i love u sis

hunting bears in new brunswick

    The last time i went out hunting with dad was on our bear hunting trip to New Brunswick canada.  It was a spring bear hunt and it was a gift for my 21st birthday.    i stuck out the first day covered in may flies and being scared out of my mind in a thick pine forest all alone with a barrel loaded with donuts and soda syrup.  It was dark all around me and the only thing illuminated was the barrel in the twilight...well truth be told i was fidgety and probly scared any bear withing a mile of me away.  After 4 days of frustration i was moved to this big stand next to a swamp that was a big platform that could sit 2 or more people.it was funny to look back and see my dad with a sore back laying down behind me trying to ease the pain of his achy back.  when the bear finally came by he was there with a camcorder recording the whole thing.  He wasnt prepared for the shot i fired and it looked like the blair witch hunting project. I ended up taking a 130 lb spring bear making my dad as proud as ive ever seen him. i wish i could have seen him and christine on her hunting trip with him.

Dad on top of a beautiful mountain who knows where...in his favorite gloves....he only wore glasses when he hunted... always too good lookin for glasses. lucky me and christine look like you. lillys got those ouellette eyes too :). i know every single time someone says i look like him its a huge compliment. and they say it to chrissy too...she looks just like him....a funny story about him and his good looks lol.....during parent teacher conferences i would go with him to show him where the rooms were.  The following day i would always razz the teachers some sarcastic way he would have taught me....I said to our latin teacher Mrs. Sullivan...."hey now you know where i get my good looks from"  she turned to me as serious as can be and said "Your Father is a very good looking man".   i smiled and didnt know how to take it but as i look at pictures and hear stories i get what she meant :)

tomato.......

   one thing about dad was he had a love for gardening.  He used to plant tomatoes, broccoli, radishes, squash, cucumbers and strawberries amongst many other things.  SOme of the best dinners we had were stir frys from the garden.   I remember stopping by his electrcian friend donnies house to steal tomatoes from the garden on our way home from a job near his house.  In fact he told me one time that he and donny had a beer after work and he didnt eat much for lunch so he caught a buzz and had to eat a few tomatoes and hang out for a minute before he drove home...Hahahah.  he cracks me up.  He even used to plant a garden at my sisters ex-boyfriend terrys house and tend to it every year.  At his wake a friend of his mentioned to pop that he like the acorn squash my dad gave him, he said the next day when he went outside the porch musta had 10 of them on it.  Dad just started liking squash a lot but his thing was tomatoes.  I will always remember fondly when, during the day at work, we would discuss what we were gonna eat for dinner he would always describe with such admiration his love for tomato sandwiches.  he would tell me his recipe a few slices of tomato miracle whip wheat bread and salt and pepper...he loved them.  he loved to be adventurous and travel the globe but he was also a man who enjoyed the simple things in life.

the pinch

every morning almost while id be half asleep or day dreaming in the seat next to him he would pinch the back of my arm to wake me up....man ill miss that

softball.....

     Dad joined a mens fast pitch softball league when i was around 12 years old.  The team was a bunch of guys from a local carpenters or plumbers union or something.  A lot of times we would go to the field only to have 6 guys show up and forfeit the game.  That wasnt so bad because he made a few friends on the team.  One guy was a blonde, loud, Finnish electrician named Olli.   Olli had 2 kids eric and zachary.  Erick was around 6 i think at the time and zacky was just a baby.  after most games we would go to Ollis house to watch the then just emerging Ultimate fighting championship on pay per view.  Well Ollis wife Lynn worked nights leaving olli alone with an infant who would never stop crying.  well my dad would pick up the little ball of tears and rock him to sleep like it was nothing.  he wasnt just a good dad to me and my sister he extended that love to so many other kids.  He quickly went from Joe to Uncle Joe in that household and has been ever since. 

my dad was a selfless guy....

     Ill never forget the day my good friend Adrienne asked me to install her Window Unit Air conditioner in her ne apartment.  All was going well until the humidity made the window stick and i lost hold of the A/C unit that was already plugged in and fell 2 stories to its demise destroying the plug in the wall at the same time.  I ended up changing the plug by candle light in a 95 degree apartment later that night.  Well, Monday came and i told my dad the story which he promptly repeated to EVERYONE we saw at the supply house, on jobs, or family dinners, and never ceased to laugh his ass off while busting my chops about how i dropped that damn air conditioner.
     The story most people didnt hear is that i bought Adrienne a new A/C the next day because i felt bad for messing hers up.  That week I asked my dad to help me install her New A/C and he went there after work as hot as it was and as much as he didnt have to he did it with no complaints because thats how he was.  he did things for other people without hesitation and i will never lose that trait because i know he passed it on to me.

everything i see in nature that is beatuful reminds me of you Dad.  You are my <3

SO my first day here......

i dont have much to say except i am doing this to cope with how i feel right now after losing my dad and best friend...stories and memories and pictures to come