It’s still hot and dry.
I spent time yesterday watering the trees out front. This evening after work I put some water on my nearly lost flower bed and the lawn out back.
I was surprised to see that one of my potted plants was hanging in there. Little pink blossoms thriving in spite of the heat and the drought.
Me too.
Yesterday a friend called for help with a car that wouldn’t start. I hopped into my car and headed over to meet her. Diagnosis was dead battery. We had her up in running in under 5 minutes.
As I was driving home, my mind drifted back in time…to a memory… from the summer of 1985… I had just bought my first car. It was a 1975 VW Rabbit – neon green (the picture doesn’t do the color justice).
The day I brought it home, my dad came out to the driveway to take a look. The first thing he said to me was, “do you know how to change the tire?” I nodded yes. He said, “show me.” I proceeded to root through the trunk to find the jack and spare and got down on the ground to look for where the jack was supposed to be placed under the chassis. When I wasn’t sure of the next step, he gave me a little help. After about 15 minutes I had it jacked up, the nuts off and the tire changed. Dad inspected it and then said, “do you know how to jump start a dead battery?” I said no. He proceeded to open the hood and show me the basics, which I’ve carried with me through the years since and many a dead battery – including yesterday’s.
He also showed me how to check the fluids and change the oil and filter, which I did myself on my cars for many years.
Afterwards, he turned and walked back into the house.
My dad was a man of few words and little emotion. I didn’t understand him back then. With the help of time, I have come to appreciate his intentions. He just wanted to make sure I knew how to take care of myself. So far, so good 🙂
Thanks Dad!
P.s…. here’s a youtube link to a little CSNY that came to mind as I wrote this post.
We have three (3) upright vacuums from different decades in vacuum cleaner history. They are old, in various states of disrepair. Each has its issues… doesn’t suck (in this case, sucking is good), difficult to maneuver, weighs a ton, louder than a jet engine, etc, etc. We’ve been schlepping these vacuums around since we combined our households. They have done their share of cleaning up remodel debris, sheet rock dust, etc, etc. As of late we don’t even use them. But we can’t seem to part with them.
So, we have resorted to alternative devices… the Roomba, which works pretty well, but I spend as much time watching it vacuum for me as I would have if I had done the vacuuming myself. So much for being a time saver. Lately we have resorted to using the shop vac in the house. A bit of overkill, but at least it cleans. And the hearing protectors we wear while using it make quite the fashion statement.
Today I decided it was time to get a new vacuum cleaner. A good one that will work really well (hopefully) and last a long time. So I logged on to Consumer Reports to do some research. Turns out the highest overall rated one (which also has the best rating for noise) is a Kenmore canister vac. Hmmm. Sears? I haven’t shopped at a Sears in a looooong time. I don’t even like the idea of going into a Sears store. But I was determined to buy that vacuum.
So…. I did. And I even bought a bunch of other stuff I found there that I would usually go to a Bed Bath and Beyond for. Note to self: Sears is alright! I’ll probably be back again when I want other housewares stuff.
It only took me a few minutes to put the vacuum together. I’ve used it now for about 30 minutes. My first impression: I love it! It is very quiet, can do wood floors w/o the beater bar, or carpets w/ the beater bar, lots of good attachments, even one designed to clean ceiling fan blades – haven’t tried that one yet to see if i can do it from the floor, so we’ll see.
So, now I’m off to play domestic goddess for a bit this afternoon. But, let me leave you with this…. a shopping cart with a cupholder… what will they think of next?
One of my never-finished projects is doing research on family genealogy. I have had a lot more luck tracing monte’s ancestors than mine, as there are many more documents that I can view online for 18th & 19th century USA than for Ireland. So, between reunion activities last weekend, we took several drives to family grave sites across the area to visit relatives’ graves. We had been to all of them before, but this time I’m taking photos for my records. This is the gravestone for monte’s great, great, great grandfather, born in 1758 — the oldest one we’ve visited.
Tonight I’ve dusted off my subscription to ancestry.com and logged in to tend the family tree. If you have done genealogy research you know what I’m talking about when I say that you can lose several hours at a time as you crawl through the past. I’ve been absorbed in searches and downloading of newly found records documenting land ownership, census information, military service, etc.
But, it’s getting late. That’s enough for tonight. It’ll keep.
We had a leisurely morning getting ready to check out. Breakfast at Jacks. Then we stopped at the store — the home base for the family. Got in one last visit and said goodbye to Uncle Raymond, Judy, Gary, David, Marla, Lauren, Laken, Bryan and Dorothy.
We had no problems on our flights. We were able to package the power tools that Monte bought and send as checked baggage.
We had a wonderful time at the reunion, but no matter where you’ve been or how great it’s been, there’s always that special feeling when you’re back home. This is a picture of the giant Gibson guitars that decorated downtown Austin for a long time. Several are now on display at the airport.
We came home to the uninterrupted drought. I hope we can catch up on watering enough to keep things alive. I took a long walk around the neighborhood before dark, and monte is still out in the shop, playing with his new toy, I imagine.
I can’t wait for the next big reunion – Lanny & Mica will be hosting in 2013!
I was bummed that I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to Susanne, she left without waking us up this morning…we had gotten in very late last night from Madison. But, I’m so glad we had a great visit.
Today we headed to Cincinnati again to visit a friend of Monte’s from many years ago, Gwen, and her son Devin. We met at her house and after a quick chat I found out that Gwen and I may be related (!) Her dad was born in Ireland and some of her people come from the same town where my dad grew up. Small world!
After putting away the family trees, we walked down the street to watch the Northside 4th of July parade. A very funky affair indeed. This is a shot of the Northside Men’s Drill Team. Get it? DRILL team?! 🙂
We had a great walking tour of the Northside neighborhood and got a chance to check out some beautiful restored homes, and a former, old time can factory which is being renovated for apartments.
After a great visit in Cincy we headed back to IN and made the obligatory stop at Skyline for a 3-way. Then we drove to Gary & Judy’s to visit with them. As (fantastic) hosts for the reunion they were pretty busy all weekend, and we didn’t really get a chance to spend time with them. So I’m very glad that we were able to do that tonight.
For now, back to the Courtyard, getting ready to pack everything up for the return flight tomorrow.
Goodnight!
Today started with a bunch of people piling into the restaurant at the Courtyard. We kind of took over the place. Some people peeled off in the morning. The rest of us headed to yet another reunion celebration. This time a combination of Monte’s mother’s and father’s sides of the family. There were so many people there, and so much food! We had many wonderful visits over and over today.
Monte made plans to hook up with a high school friend in a town about an hour away. We took another drive through the back country roads of Indiana. It was another humid, sweaty day, but it ended with a thunderstorm, which will hopefully dry the air out a bit.
We met up with Charlie and Kathy at their house in Madison, and had a really nice visit with them, and their son, Lou.
Family Reunion Day 2. Today started out slow and foggy. Appropriate, given the festivities last night. We made several pots of coffee and the various Copeland’s staying at the Courtyard popped in to say good morning.
Monte and Lanny ended up heading out to check out some wood working tools that were for sale by a friend. Lanny bought 2 truckloads (luckily they are driving home), and monte got a few things that we’re going to try to see if we can ship home.
Everyone met up at Gary & Judy’s for the afternoon. We walked down to the creek to look for fossils, and I found some keepers. Susanne aired her radio show live from the reunion. Several Copeland’s got on the air to share stories.
We had a special moment when Susanne led a remembrance for all those that we have lost since our last bi-annual reunion… my dad, Marla’s dad, Patricia’s grandmother, Nora’s uncle Jim, Aunt Hazel, and our angel Amanda. Then everyone was handed a balloon and we gathered together under an opening in the trees and released them skyward.
Amazingly, we had even more festivities planned for the evening at Josh and Mary’s. Even though it was in the 90s, people gathered round the campfire to roast weenies, brats and s’mores (after dark).
The kids have been amazing. They are so sweet and have been running around, playing outside all weekend. No indoor gatherings for this crew. I especially enjoyed watching them chase (and catch a number of) lightning bugs.
It’s great to be a part of this family!
We had a great day. Got up early to watch the sun rise over the Ohio River. Coffee on the riverwalk. A stroll through town. Finding a barbershop on a side street. Lunch for 20 or so at Jack’s.
After lunch we all went our own ways… and Monte, Susanne and I took a drive through southeastern Indiana for a couple hours to drive by things not seen for many years: old towns, homes grown up in, schools attended many years ago, neighbors’ homes, store fronts, side roads, covered bridges, state parks. Old stories retold.
Then we met at the community pool for dinner. 40 or so people sharing a family connection. Gary & Judy and Josh & Mary were fabulous hosts. Josh makes the best pulled pork. All the kids, big and small ended up in the pool for the better part of the evening.
We were treated to an awesome aerial diving exhibition (..competition?…) by Monte and Dan. This is one shot of many. Gotta love the height, form, synchronization and all out gusto of this one.
Afterwards we all crammed into Suite #2 for margaritas, and more fun into the wee hours.
Happy birthday Egan!
We are on VACATION!!! We flew into Cincinnati airport (which is, ironically, in Kentucky) this afternoon. Monte lived here for 2 years in 1977-78. Since we had some time to burn this afternoon, we drove up to Cincinnati to take a tour of some of his old haunts.
We drove down by the waterfront and saw the new football and baseball stadiums. We stopped by a bar called Arnold’s. Back in the day, monte lived a few blocks from there, and in the evenings would pop in.
This was the first bar he ever played darts in (with his friend Caleb). It is also where he met a legendary musician named Pigmeat Jarrett. Pigmeat was originally from the Queen City, and had spent time playing piano on riverboats along the Ohio River, and woud also play soundtrack for many silent movies. When he was in his golden years he would sit at the piano at Arnold’s and play into the wee hours. He would welcome others up on stage to play with him. It was in several of those sessions that monte joined in on saxophone and, i understand, a good time was had by all.
Pigmeat passed away at a ripe old age in 1995, but his picture still hangs on the wall in Arnold’s.
This is a shot from this afternoon of monte tinkling the keys on the same piano that Pigmeat played in his stints at Arnold’s.
o·ver·whelmed /ˌōvərˈ(h)welmd/
past participle of o·ver·whelm, verb
1. Bury or drown beneath a huge mass
2. Defeat completely
3. Give too much of a thing to (someone); inundate
4. Have a strong emotional effect on
5. Be too strong for; overpower
Today is the last work day before taking several days off for a well earned vacation. A vacation we’ve had on the calendar for over a year. No matter how well I plan, or how hard I try, there’s no way to painlessly go on vacation, much less come back from vacation, where work is concerned.
This week has been crazy. But come hell or high water (yes, those are my mother’s words coming out of my mouth) I will set my “out of office” notice on my mail server tonight, shake it off, and happily trudge forward into several days spent with family. I’m so looking forward to it! 🙂
Our garden is taking a beating in this heat and drought. Monte has already pulled up the tomato plants. They stop putting out flowers. But we did harvest some pretty red tomatoes off of them this year. The basil is getting tired, too. It dries up during the day, and in the evening it gets watered and pops back to life.
Our sprinkler system is shot, so we have been doing the manual watering thing this spring and summer – lots of hose schlepping. We know we will be out of town for a few days this summer. So instead of just letting the plants die, Monte is trying to use up as much as we can. We’ll plant more when we will be here to water them well.
So, tonight Monte cut some of the nicer sprigs, put them in bottles of water and walked them around the neighborhood to give to several of our neighbors. Hopefully they will use and enjoy it. For the rest, a marathon pesto session is in order. You can freeze it, if you hold off putting the cheese in. Maybe put some in an ice cube tray or two for future use in small amounts.
Yesterday I went over to Laura’s for lunch around the pool with Lori and Ann. As usual, she had a beautiful bouquet of flowers on the counter. I love the colors of these lilies. The shot above is the original. Below is the same shot in black & white, after messing a bit with the color levels and brightness/contrast in Gimp. I was trying to create something for this week’s Technique challenge over at the Photoblog Challenges website (check it out, you’ll find lots of weekly and monthly challenges – fun for photographers of all skill levels out here in the blogosphere).
Probably too dark. I was hoping the stamen would still be crisp. Waddyathink?
Woooo-weee what a party! Well, we will NOT be doing that every weekend!
After the beer can race yesterday everyone jumped in the water and stayed there for quite a while – me, monte, joe, kurt, wally, lori, dave, marty, sue, wiz, david (new guy on b-dock w/ Misguided), robert, and his friends who own Hakuna Matata on a-dock). After last weekend’s very wake-y raftup spot in Cypress Creek, this weekend we’ve planned to have a party on B-dock and just sleep on our boats.
Doray, Tom and Judy joined us after the race and stayed til after sunset. Teri and Jim showed up around 11pm. We brought a blender, and lots of ice and margarita and pina colada fixins. Staying in the slip has its advantages. What a fun time. Dave left about 9 or so, when his teenage son called my cellphone looking for his parents… heh, heh (isn’t that supposed to be the other way around?! 🙂 )
We pulled out the coleman stove and made a bazillion quesadillas. Sue brought her legendary bean dip. We played iPod wars into the wee hours. There is a digital recording floating around somewhere of what may perhaps be the worst rendition of the happy birthday song ever. (Happy birthday Mark!) The security guard even stopped by about 2AM, wasn’t that nice of him? I think it was about 4AM when everyone headed back to their boats for the night.
I’m so glad we started working on that first wooden boat 13 years ago or so. We could never have known at the time that it would lead to us learning to sail, making a bigger sailboat, getting a slip at Yacht Harbor marina, landing on B-Dock, and meeting such fantastic people that are so easy to have fun with.
We packed up early this morning and got home about 10AM. On the way home we took a short detour up to Vintage Villas to see if I could get a shot of the lake from up there. This is a shot looking down on Arkansas Bend. In the distance you can see Hurst Cove, where our marina is.
Check out the clouds.
Sheila365 