Late September Update

 

Doing another Chipmunk rescue from the cats.  Joe has this one in the aquarium to heal up.  Joe put some peanuts in the corner for him to munch on. He curled up and is now napping on top of them.  Sort of like Scrooge sleeping on a pile of money...

 Chelsea is enjoying her job at L-3 Communications.  She has found some significant problems and is working with her boss to get them corrected.  Her predacessors never analyzed the numbers on the reports and so now she is finding problems that go back to 2008.  She is also inspecting labs and whatnot.  So she is very involved.  She also has bought a new car - a Jetta.  The Toyota has never been the same since Ron attempted to hook up the battery backwards and cooked several components.  I told her to not let him near it!

Chad is still working on getting his Sprint fixed.  This has been going on for like 6 months.  I wonder if Sarah is starting to feel lonely...

 Vanessa is still working like crazy, putting in the long hours.  No school this term.  I hope that Eric doesn't get laid off from Home City again when business slows down for the winter. 

 Uncle Vaughn gave me his old Porsche.  A 73 914.  Still in great shape.  Some rust, but not much particularly when you consider the year.  Should be a winter long project to get it road worthy.  It is running now, so that is a good start. 

Fall begins

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well I guess that it is only fitting that Joe's last school year star the way that his first year of school did - with a trip to the principals office.  In Kindergarten, he got into a shoving match with a kid trying to butt in line and Becky got a call about that.  This year he was being an idiot in the stands at South's last scrimmage game.  Got caught by a teacher and ended up with a three day suspension.

But he seems to be getting onto the right track now.  Last week he got a pat on the back from a teacher for doing a good job mentoring some of the juniors.  He is thinking of going to Sinclair, but hasn't made a final decision yet.

Chelsea is co-op'ing this term at L3 Technologies which by coincidence is about a quarter mile from where I work.  She is commuting with me on days where there are no classes.  She is helping the company stay EPA compliant and is maintaining their records and what not.

Vanessa and Eric went out last night. So we got to watch Elaina.  I took her exploring in the fields.  Where we 'climbed a mountain' and 'made big splashes in the creek' and fed the cows some apples.  

Got a baseball bat done for Cash, a little late, but the first try developed a crack in it so I had to start over. I made it from Oak salvaged from the old barn.  Chad helped us work on Uncle Vaughn's Porsche. He got more done in an hour than Joe and I had done in the previous Saturday morning.  It is now trying to start - but that old gas is going to have to be drained from the system.    

 Me I am now 50.  Had some friends over to celebrate.  Chelsea bought me some "Arrogant Bastard Ale"...   

End of Summer

 

 

 

 As always summer seems to have gone by so fast.  Cash celebrated his second birthday.  He and Elaina had a good time snacking on the chocolate tools on his cake.   We all had a good time at Chad and Sarah's party.

 Speaking of grandchildren - another is on the way.  Vanessa is expecting, she is due in March.  So we are excited about that.

Took Joe to see the Henry Ford museum.  He really enjoyed it.  Even spotted flaws in the paint where restorers allowed paint to run on the presidential limosine.  Got to watch them get an old 1903 Packard running. 

  Chelsea had no luck with her Toyota.  It was left sitting for two weeks and wouldn't start when she got back from Florida.  Got it jumped but the next day it did the same thing. So I bought her a new battery.  Only Ron installed it backwards and got a big spark when he did so.  That burned out some fuses and Chad found that the instrument cluster had a short.  So we bypassed it. But the next day it wouldn't start again.  Another check by Chad found a bad alternator.  That was $100. Oh and I did pay Chad for his time to troubleshoot.  Her vacations are costing me money :- ( 

 

 

 

Fair Time

 Well July ended up the second coldest July on record for Dayton and the coldest ever in Cincy. Maybe we should start churning out more carbon to counter act all this 'global warming'.

 Painting the school house roof did not go off exactly as planned. First of all the spray gun was plugged up with goop from some old paint that was used last and never cleaned out. Plus the paint holder had rust in it.  It was cleaned with water but not dried.  After getting that cleaned and working we saw that the paint that the guy sold us was going to be short.  He must have calculated about half of what we needed.  So I sent Joe and Asa to the Tractor Supply to buy more.  We didn't get it all done on Saturday, but then we wouldn't to have all the fun on just one weekend would we?

 Sunday was the Preble County Fair.  Elaina and Cash had a blast. Elaina wanted to go on all the fast rides and Cash wanted to ride anything with wheels.  It was fun to see them both so excited.  

 Asa spent the weekend with Joe.  There was a campout in the backfield with some of Joe's friends.  Jorden Krickenbarger kicked a cat, only it wasn't a cat.  It was a skunk.  Needless to say, he didn't stay around very long.   The boys seemed to spend a lot of time playing video games.  The last morning they staying up until 4am playing Xbox.

 

 

 

 

 

Mid Summer

Well we are in the middle of summer and it feels like fall. Had a cold front come in from Canada and it actually feels chilly. A good time to snuggle up.

Last weekend we went to a benefit for a neighbor of ours that has Lou Gehrig's disease.  It was called a "Ride for Randy" it ended up at the VFW in Eaton where they had a live band.  The proceeds are supposed to help him with his medical bills.  He has had a tough go of it.  There was also an accident several years ago where an engine accidentally got dropped on him and badly crushed his leg.  At one point they wanted to amputate it. But he persevered only to have this happen.

Two of the youngsters are vacationing.  Joe is in Massachusetts where reports are that he is having a good time with Michael. They went to one of the 6 flags parks last week.  Chelsea is in Florida with Jessica and kids for a two week stay.  Joe's whole summer has been a vacation since he lost his job at McDonalds.  But Chelsea is taking some well deserved time off.  Working and going to school has been wearing her down.  So this will be a time for her to decompress.

Eric has not been pleased with Home City Ice.  The routes are down - rain and the cold front have dampened the ice market.  He is thinking of looking for work with more consistent income.  

Chad and Sarah are doing OK.  Chad found another engine and transmission that he wants to pick up and add to his collection.  He is borrowing my trailer this weekend to retrieve it.  

 

4th of July

 

 

 Need a light???  don't worry these are just highway flares.  Thought that I would have a little fun.  Despite the rain all day things went fairly well.  Lots of folks cancelled, but we still managed 20-25 people.  Got a gap in the rain around 10pm and it held off until the grand finale. Everyone still has 10 digits so it was successful in that regard.

 Not much to report on with the kids.  Chelsea did make the deans list last quarter. So we are proud of her for that.  She leaves for Florida in a couple of weeks for a well deserved vacation with her cousin Jessica.  Joe is visiting his cousins in Massachusetts later this month as well.  This is the last year that we are sending him.  I told him if he wants to go next year, he will have to go on his own dime.  Plus we are celebrating the graduation of our last fledgling along with Chelsea's graduation next spring by going to South Carolina next summer.

 Local paper had an article in which it stated that the only good thing about Ohio's economy is that it is better than Michigans...  Net loss of population in Preble County.  So even with things showing signs of turning around, it is still dismal locally.  Most of the folks that got laid off when I did have gotten jobs by now.  But four are still looking. 

 Beginning to look like we lost a calf.  Momma has been moo'ing since yesterday.  Took a quick look thru the fields and didn't find it.  If it is dry enough today we may go back out.  Neighbors report seeing a large coyote the other day.  The calf was only a month or so old so it wasn't that big, so we worry that it was chased off and killed.  

 

 

Camping

 

Had a rocky start and a rocky ending.  In between we had fun.  Had an electrical storm on Thursday and coupled with a leaky trailer - it made for a long night.  Vanessa and Elaina and Chad and Sarah and Cash abandoned their tents and spent the night in our trailer. 

 The kids found the water fountain to be a novelty and gave each drinks and played in the water.  Later we went swimming at the beach.  Played some rummy - one of the worst weekends for me. Chad was the winner one night and Becky the next.

Becky took a tumble on Sunday and was bruised.  So that put a damper on things as we packed to go.  It was nice to get away and forget about things for a weekend.   Next up our 4th of July party.

rabbit rescue
Topic: Elaina

Last week I did a rabbit rescue.  Cleo the cat was roughing up a little rabbit on the front porch. Becky came to get me to save it.  Got a towel and got it free.  Then chased it around the porch and finally caught it for release in the back yard.  It was chewed up some, but scampered away with no problem.

Went to Elaina's third birthday party.  Found that cake, icecream, and sand make for an interesting combination.  Glad that I did not have to do any cleanup.  I would have just dunked the kids in the wading pool.  Was pleased that the first gift she went for was the baseball bat that I made on the lathe. The wood was from the old barn that we tore down.  All the youngsters had a good time.

Then we went to Valley Vineyards by Morrow Ohio.  Nice place, good wine. Their deal is that you cook your own steak on their big grills.   Had a good time there as well.  At least I didn't burn the meat.

 Crops are looking good locally.  Plenty of rain over the past few weeks.  Too wet to get into the garden, so we have some catchup to do this weekend with the weeds. 

 

obamer
My Dearest Obamer,

Comrade, things are going swimmingly here in your first year of office.  You snap your fingers and you get what you want. Which is easy when both houses are filled with Democrats.  Buy up bad banks, snap; Buy GM, snap.  Need a trillion here, a trillion there, snap snap.  But I wonder if you watched the movie a bridge too far.  Where the allies tried to capture a string of bridges with paratroopers.  But ended up only reaching 2 of 3 bridges and losing the paratroopers at the last bridge. With the Koreans shooting off fireworks like the 4th of July, China trying like the dickens to make any currency but the dollar the standard for international trade, and enough unemployed to fill the state of New Jersey - that maybe it is time to stop and take a breath. It's been a good run and why spoil a good thing by going for nationalized healthcare. I think that folks are starting to wake up and realized that things are changing, but are they changing for better or for worse.  Oh, and great idea to get Pravda er, uh, ABC to broadcast from the whitehouse during your big push for healthcare.  

Folks say that this administration is no different from the last one. But I feel that you have exceeded Bush's presidency already. Sure he ran up deficits - but they pale to the deficits that you have amassed here in just a few short months. Wait and see what they are in another couple of years. Why Bush will look like Scrooge compared to the IOU's that you are ringing up. Here Bush just piddled around in Afghanistan, but you have pressed the throttle and soon there won't be a hillside or a hut that won't have a special ops soilder or a helicopter behind it. I think that Nancy Polosi's husbands defense company was getting worried, but they will have work for years to come. Now you are lagging in gas prices. But I see that they are now heading the right direction. $4 dollar Gas?? Ha! I think that can easily be doubled, just like the deficit.

Great ideal about getting corporate pay under control. But thats just a start isn't it?  My gosh, when I think of folks who are over paid I think of Shaq dragging his big behind up and down the court. I've seen garbage trucks that show more hustle than him. And how about Tom Cruise, seeing him in Valkerie strutting around in his uniform like a spastic rooster was unbearable. He shouldn't have been paid, heck he should have to pay us to watch that.

Waiting to hear from you,

Your Bolshevik in arms

What times
What times we live in.  North Korea is firing off rockets like a 13 year old on the fourth of July.  Obama is throwing money around like confetti.  And soon it will have the same value... We need more money - just print some more.  Just like Rhodesia and the Weimar Republic.   Russia is commenting that we are becoming too socialist.  GM has gone from being the worlds biggest auto company to being Government motors.  Mom, Apple Pie, and Chinalet.