One of my favorite shots of a spider. I found this guy after moving, he must have came from the storage place. Do you have an idea of what kind of spider this is?

I remember:

Holding the flashlight in the garage

Abalone on the garage floor

Dad using my brother’s wood-burning kit to make tire tread for the dune buggy.

Mom’s clothesline became a roll bar & a 55gal drum was the gas tank. I remember the cherry picker & the creeper. His tattoos. His hands.

Pet rats, dogs & bunnies. Hot dogs & marshmallows over a campfire. Watermelon eating contests. Grunion runs. Rip Van Winkle the dog always getting the 1st motorcycle ride when Dad got home from work.

Riding the Tilt-A-Whirl, splashing and T.P.ing. Sneaking into the school pool at night, Knott’s Berry Farm too. Stuffing the scarecrow with leaves from the old Sycamore tree. Hitting my head on the Jeep roof the 1st time out. The little truck with the backwards window washers for squirting unsuspecting pedestrians and Dad could make it backfire at will! The A&W drive-in root beer stand where girls on skates brought floats to the car.

Playing in the dirt meant hill climbing. Granny Gears & wheelie cages and almost rolling the buggy. Mexico, Glamas & Huntington Beach. Highway 39 where I learned to drive & crashed the dune buggy into a really big tractor.

Giant inner tubes and walks in the rain while he sang Lemon Tree. He loved to sing before his voice box was scarred.

He came to my baptism and my Phoenix House graduation. He was quick to laugh and quick to give. Strong, smart & adventurous, his work was pristine. He was bilingual. He lived in the moment. He was an artist. He joined the Coast Guard when he was 17 and he went to Korea. He was a fearless prankster. He once fashioned a small weapon for me to use against the bullyboy across the street.

I remember helmets with our names in calligraphy for Christmas and the year we got the giant leftover tree on Christmas Eve. Dad was always the first one up on Christmas & he couldn’t WAIT to wake us all.

He once pushed a friend overboard in shark-infested waters (Dad knew they were Nurse Sharks, his friend didn’t). Lobster & scallops & Sea Bass. Snorkeling in the Sea of Cortez. Bodysurfing.

I remember Harry’s Hill, mud ambushes, heart shaped Valentine candy & the story about sneaking onto the Queen Mary before it was open to the public.

I remember the old Swap meet early, early on the weekends. Once he skipped down the aisle just to embarrass us. I loved it…

- Kelly Weaver
August 23, 2008

Welcome to BranndonCoelho.com I am Branndon Coelho. I have decided to start a site for my friends and family to check in on and see how I’m doing. I will also just post about anything I find interesting. I don’t expect to have anyone I don’t know reading this too often, but if you are here by accident, leave a comment!

I’ve been married to my high school sweetheart, Brianne, for almost 3 1/2 years now. We just moved to an apartment in Anaheim, California and love to spend time together. We’ve been together for about 8 1/2 years. She loves cooking, art, and anything dealing with nature. She has her own blog Naturally Earth Friendly.

Her nickname is Bug.

This is Percy. We call him Percy Butt most of the time... I have no idea why.

Tobey is the far dog, the one standing in the back. The one on the left is his brother Meatball, and the one laying down is his brother Peyton.

 

Since we don’t have kids yet, we want a large family, right now we have 2 cats and 1 dog. Our cats are Charity (the white one) and Percy (the black one). We adopted them both and they are 6 years old. Our dog, Tobey, is a Golden Retriever. He just turned 5 years old this month. He just had knee surgery and is making a fantastic recovery.

Now that you know a little about me, please feel free to stop by and see what’s new. I’m just working out some kinks in the website code.