Joe Drives
Mood:  celebratory
Topic: Joe

Well the youngest now has his drivers license. Took a little bit of effort.  The first go round he got dinged for not stopping for a school bus. An automatic failure of the drivers test.  The second go round he did great and passed.  We had some last minute work to do on his car.  Becky was driving it and the brakes got really mushy.  Come to find out a brake line blew out.  Upon examination, all the rear brake lines need changed.  They were an odd size so I had to order the parts.  We got them and got the job finished late at night. It was tough to bleed the brakes for some reason, it took forever to get the fluid to the back.

Once we finished and had the car road ready, he wanted to drive the car over to Cody Clarks house.  He was the one who gave him the car and he wanted to show it off now that it was all fixed.  Got a little misty eyed seeing him pull out of the driveway for his first solo drive.   Watching him grow up, it is a series of last times.  Last time to change diapers, last time to teach a kid to ride a bike,  and now last time to teach how to drive a car.  

Chelsea is going to be a nature advisor now.  The person originally hired by the camp backed out and so she now has the position. It was what she was hoping for in the first place and so she is excited about being able to do it.

Vanessa and Eric have most everything unpacked. Their place looks like a home. I asked if she met any of the neighbors. She had met a few.  She did comment that the one next door neighbor mowed his lawn with his shirt off - but had a physique where he should have left his shirt on!  They stopped by the other day and it was fun to have Elaina crawl up my chair next to me.  She had a good time with Becky too. 

Not much from Chad and Sarah.  Sarah did let Joe borrow her car for the driving test.  One complicating factor was the letters across the windshield. A short person can see out OK, but both Joe and myself had our view obstructed.  They are doing some mulching and landscaping.  The place is looking nice.

Changes

Well no more pitter patter of little feet around the house. At least not on a daily basis.  Eric and Vanessa moved into their house in Camden this past weekend.  So no more Elaina's toys on the floor, messes, or saying Hi! when I came home.  So I won't miss stumbling over toys in the morning.  But I will miss seeing her blue eyes when I come home at night.

 This makes Joe an only child once again.  He has been doing some work on his camaro. It is drivable, but needs a few more things fixed to be 100%.  He takes his drivers test this Wednesday and if he passes he can drive to school on Thursday. 

 Did see Chad and Sarah briefly over the weekend.  I think that both are burned out on the wedding deal.  All the planning and making arrangements, phone calls, etc.  I think that they want it over with. Young Cash is doing fine. He certainly seems to be a stout young man.  And always happy, quick to smile and laugh. 

Chelsea will be a counselor at a camp down by Kings Island this summer.  She will be in charge of a cabin of girls for a week.  A scary thought, I wonder if the parents would have sent them knowing that  Chelsea would be in charge!  But seriously she is good with youngsters, so I think she will do well with it.  

  

April update

Vanessa and Eric are working furiously on their house.  Have been able to give them some help on the weekends. They are learning how to do drywall, etc. on the job. Got the Cabinets installed, and the old ones removed.  Lots more to do over the next week or two.

 Chad and Sarah are getting their wedding preparations done.  I guess Joe will the DJ at the reception. Chad and Sarah have put together a playlist for him. I am going to pay for the rehearsal dinner.  There is place outside of Metamora called the Hearthstone where we have reservations. 

 Chelsea is thinking about making the switch to Wright State next year. Forget about the 2 year degree and go all out for the 4 year degree.  I hope that she does that.  She is still jobless since leaving Speedway, but she hasn't seriously been looking.  She is starting to call around  now, so she should be able to find something in short order. 

Joe is in the final stages of Drivers Ed.  I think he has a couple more driving sessions and he is ready for his test.  Chad was able to get the camaro running.  It still needs some attention, but we can work more on it once we get it home.  They are putting the title in his name this weekend, so we will drive it home once that is done.

 Felt the earthquake this morning.  Becky was up and felt her chair shake and heard some of the knick-knacks clinking against each other. I was semi asleep and took the movement as the cat jumping around on the bed.

My work has finally given us their game plan.  Half the engineers in my group will be released on June 23.  Better than some of the other groups - one group was told that 100% of them will be released on that date.  We all have to apply for the "new positions" and then on the 23rd we will either find out that we have been hired in the new position or scheduled for eventual seperation.  I tell folks that this is like a Dilbert cartoon. The evil HR wins either way they get to terminate half of us and torture the other half that stay by having made us reapply for our jobs.  What joy, I am sure someone is doing a happy dance in their office.  

camaro
Topic: Joe
Joe's friend Cody has a 1989 Camaro.  His father bought him a '66 Impala, so he no longer needs the Camaro and gave it to Joe.  Chad had to come over and work on it to get it running.  Thank goodness that we have a mechanic in the family. For a car that age it is in fair shape.  He has plenty of time to get it fixed the rest of the way.  A little body work and the heater blower is missing.  We hope to get it home this weekend and get it titled and so forth.  Joe did get an F in Algebra and so he is grounded. He does really well at the classes that he likes, but slacks in the classes he doesn't.

House woes
Mood:  sad
Topic: Vanessa

At the 11th hour a monkey wrench has been thrown into the works for Eric and Vanessa.  Everything looked to be ready to close on the house in Camden today.  Yesterday Chase Bank sent a rep out to inspect the house.  Now they say that they want an escrow set up to do some of the fixup. So needless to say they are disappointed about this.  So they are going to have to negotiate if they still want to go after this house. Eric is not happy with the realty company anyway. They waffled on the water being turned on. Turns out that they previous owners owed a water bill and so they were delaying turning on the water because they didn't want to pay it.

 

Easter

Good Easter weekend all in all. Weather has been cruddy, but the weekend was passable. We were even able to go outside and catch some fresh air after eating.  Elaina came along and just had a good time. She did not want to come inside when we got back home. Went down to the bridges and she had fun throwing rocks in the creek. Rode in the wagon and was even trying to stand up in the wagon - not a good idea.

 Every one was out Easter Sunday, just at different times.  So we got to see everyone thru out the day. Becky wondered if she made too much food, but it worked out just about right by the time the day was done.

Eric and Vanessa won't be closing on the first. But sometime in April.  So it will be several weeks more before they can move in. They are definetly excited about their first place. 

 

blizzard of '08

Well I guess it wasn't officially a blizzard.  But close - about a foot of snow and high winds.  Enough to keep us snowed in all day Saturday.  It brought back memories of 77-78. We played xbox monopoly - even got Becky to play.   Becky made several trades with Eric - but none with me. I had the first set of houses, but Eric kept accumulating property and so he eventually won. She accused me of pouting when I lost.  Then we played Civiliation on the lan, but couldn't finish in time to determine a winner.  All in all it was good weekend just stay home and snuggle.

The next day Elaina got out in the snow a little.  Vanessa pulled her around in a sled and made her some snowballs to throw. She did not want to come back inside.  

Eric and Vanessa have made an offer on a house in Camden.  It is a ranch style home and is in walking distance of the elementary school.  It is in fairly good shape and just needs a few minor repairs.  With the housing market slowing down, now is the time to be a buyer.  If they get it for the price they offered, it should be a good deal.

Chad and Sarah are still busy with wedding plans for the 31st of May. I am sure they will be glad when all of this is over. 

 Joe is doing drivers ed right now.  A friend of his has a camero with a v-6 in it and they are going to let Joe have it.  We are going to get a starter for it and see if it runs OK first.

 

farm - stress relief.

 

Well one of the reasons that I do the part time farming is that it gets your mind off of work and gets you involved in menial tasks.  So working on fences, working on equipment helps get you mind off of things, plus gives your body a work out. This past week I got too much of both.  Cut some firewood, but got the truck stuck leaving the field.  So got the tractor out and got it stuck too. So all I could focus on Sunday afternoon was how to get the blankety blank tractor out of the blankety blank mud. 

 The top part of the ground had thawed, but under that top layer, the ground was still frozen hard.  So the bucket on tractor couldn't dig down under that layer of frozen dirt. And the ruts had thawed enough that the mud made it hard to get traction.  Vanessa came down and gave Joe and I a hand getting it out. We dropped bricks and stuff down in the mud so that the tires could get traction.  What a way to spend an otherwise pleasant afternoon.

Did get to meet Eric's friend, Matt Apple, over the weekend.  A pleasant guy, he is a graduate assistant football coach over at Findlay. Played some computer games and hung out. 

Joe = 16
Mood:  celebratory

Well the youngest has finally turned 16.  And to boot it was a snow day, so he got to stay home and play world of warcraft all day.  He still has to do drivers school, then he can get his license. Not sure if he will use Chad's car afterall or not.  He may have a lead on a camero from his friend Cody.  He did get in a fight the other day.  The other kid started it and Joe finished.  Still has to do a Saturday school. 

 

tractor owie
Joe got the tractor stuck on ice.  There are some ruts going into the field by the schoolhouse. They filled with water and it froze.  Joe got down in the ruts and couldn't get out. Vanessa tried to help out and ended up taking a tumble when she stepped down from the tractor. I guess her foot snagged on something when she dismounted. She took a tumble and now has a nasty bruise on her elbow.  They finally got it loose and put away.