A Whole Lotta Stock

Ah Monday, come and gone.

Fires, fires, everywhere. Smoke you can taste. Not healthy. The closest is about 50 miles from here. Problem is all the firefighters in CA are on the other 1,000 fires that are burning. Prayer for the fire crews, the displaced families, and most of all a turn in the weather. We could use the rain that is soaking up the midwest.

And this year, if you are here in CA, forego the at-home fireworks. Please.

Hands-free Comminication device (HCD) now required in CA. I think they are just as bad ~~ worse even.

My soap box ends here.

: )

what a whirlwind of a weekend

Okay I feel like I have traveled to Colorado and back, visiting relatives and friends along the way. Gee, its good to be back. What a lovely time we had. So relaxing. I just hope no one falls and fractures a wrist. Good grief. BETHS WONDERFUL ADVENTURE

The pics for our boatless adventure are still on someone's camera. Maybe some day. We did go boating last week and the boat worked. Yahoody. Got to try out the new 3-man raft, courtesy of Ashley. Had lots of fun......til the rope broke. Did you know tow ropes are weight rated? Go figure. I think it was due to the age of the rope and has nothing to do with the weight the boat was trying to pull.......say no more. Those pics are on someone else's camera too.

Okay the heat is killing me. We are mid-summer now, I can not complain about the weather, but my body is just not taking it. Its draining itself from the inside out. Miserable. Its the only reason I go to work now...to suck up the free AC. C'mon October!

Nap time.

Weekend We Cap

ACK!

Yearly boat "check up": $200.00
New tow float: $150.00
Dead battery: $0.
Sunburns: according to all medical reports a price will be paid in our future
Visit with family: priceless

Oh yeah, I found out I haven't tagged my boat since we first purchased it. LOL We are into our 3rd year w/ no registration. My contribution to the State deficit, I guess. And why do they always look at you funny when you say, "Uh I didn't receive my registration in the mail." I wasn't lying!!!! Dont tell anyone, but the bill which is through December, 2009, was ONLY $45.00. And that was with 50% penalties. Interesting.

Hasta la vista

Please Pass the Poupon'

Such a silly saying. Has nothing to do with this blog ~unless of course I feel like telling you about the time Mr. Mustard was caught with a knife and a rope in the library or perhaps when I attended a Jewish circumcision in the back seat of a limo.

Hey so whats new in your world? What can you be thankful for today? Have you given it much thought? Have you thanked Him for it? Have you talked to Him lately? Did you listen? He did. In my world, I am thankful for my family. Such a stock answer, but where would I be without them. I am thankful for the country I live in, where I am fairly free to travel to and from where it might be that I am going. I am thankful for my church. It is really cool to fellowship with them. We cheated tonight,,,,,well actually we went to church tonight, Saturday night!!!! I felt like I should be wearing a yamica or washing feet. But it was kind of challenging because normally the 9:30 am Sunday worship has about 200 people and this one only had about 50, 10 of which were in the baptism group. So singing was, well it was challenging. Because you know you have to be careful not to sing any louder than anyone else lest someone hear you. The organ was nice.

Tomorrow, boating. 1st of the season. Pictures to follow. Hmmm, I am wondering if I said that already. I have a feeling I have. Well so, you've read it twice.

It is already 9:00pm. I gotta hit the hay. G'nite

Freakin' Friday ~ Finally

"ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh," she said to herself as she left the building. i didn't think 5 pm was going to get here, lucky for me ms. ashley called and said, "let's go" at 4:30.

i wish i could share some fantastic story of the day, but um, there wasn't one.

the watermelon i ate today was good. cold. sweet. and seedless. cant get any better than that. unless, of course, you intend to have seed spitting contest, you would need to go with good, cold, and sweet. otherwise you might find yourself spitting chunks of chewed water melon instead. eeeeeeeeewwww. that always grosses me out. national watermelon seed spitting contest the record is 61'3'' for men and 39' for women. hmmmmmmm, i'm thinking there's a record to be broken.....especially for those of you w/ no front teeth.

And so the story goes

Normally my days zoom by. Normally? I haven't had a normal day in six months. As a matter of fact this is my first 40 hour week I have worked since the beginning of the year. Yeah I cut myself down to 8 hour days, 1 hour of vacation a day to make a 9/80 schedule. So since I burned out a lump of vacation time I decided to go back to a straight 5/40 schedule. You know, plain old 8 hour days with Friday or a Monday here and there to maintain your sanity (what's left of it.) Then gas hit $4.00+ a gallon. So lovely little Ashley and I are carpooling. It's a twist for her, she doesn't like getting out of bed, but after 30 years, I refuse to start any later than 7. Getting off at 5 is killing me. Such long, long days!!!!!

What are we going to to about gas???? Captain Kayak continues his 45 mile trek over the Grapevine every day. Really, 55+ is too old for a motorcycle. Besides, its too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter. There's an RV park down the road from where he works. Right now rent is cheaper than monthly gas, but it means getting an RV trailer that we don't want. He is looking for work here locally,,,,,,do we wait it out? I'm thinking this calls for some serious prayer time.

Started riding my bicycle in the am's before work. It feels good. Well, it will after my butt stops aching. I do believe it is time for a wider seat. Hopefully by Monday we will be putting on some serious time and effort.

peace out

All good things must come to an end.....

Day 8, Friday, May 23rd we woke up and found ourselves dockside in Seattle. And it was raining. I can not believe we went the entire week with blue blue skies and not a drop of water falling from it. That was the blessing in this trip. One of the many, actually. It was great to spend time with our kids, fine young adults that they are. It was great to work towards a common goal and do this trip together. It was great to laugh with them, explore the world, and just share this time with them. We were home at 9:00pm after a 4-hour trip from LAX. I don't believe I have ever seen the traffic as heavey as it was that night. I can say it just made our "own beds" even sweeter when we climbed into them that night.

Cruising was great. If you haven't done it, make a point to do it. It really is a relatively good investment in terms of vacation time and relaxation.

Alaska. The Last Frontier, they call it. It is exactly that. Go. If ever I were to go back, it would be with the intent of spending time there to explore the nooks and crannies of history and culture. Denali calls my name. Maybe someday.

I hope that I have not bored you to tears over the last seven days of blogging. It has been fun to remember our trip. Seems like it made it last just that much longer. There are more pictures that have not been loaded to the computer. When they are, I'll share them. We didn't get as many as I had hoped, but we did get enough good ones to post. I think this one sums it up: