Monday, June 26, 2006




This is the backside of the Chinese horses.
They are very modest and have a heart decoration covering the back. I stood out in the rain to get this shot, hence the water drop on the bottom right of the picture.
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Corbin had gas for $2.56 AND they had some. Once we hit Ohio I don't think we'll find any good deals on gas.


Tonight at Dry Ridge, KY and on to Cedar Point tomorrow. We know the Cincinnati area will have major traffic, but at least we're not staying in a factory area tonight.

Trip Day 4





We had lunch at this really old McDonald's. They had a lot of memorabilia from the past. Speedy was the mascot burger not Ronald.
P.F.Chang had some cool statues of Chinese horses.















We stopped at Cumberland Falls near Corbin, KY in the Daniel Boone National Forest. It's supposed to be the biggest falls East of the Mississippi and South of Niagara. They also experience the rare 'Moonbow' that may happen when the full moon is out and the air is dry and there is just the right amount of wind (or not) and you stand in just the right spot.

Everything around there is 'Moonbow' something.

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Gas

I have to use Picasa to publish my pictures as
they won't load any other way. I'll have to
practice another time to get it better. :-) Posted by Picasa

Trip Day 1-3

We left home headed for Penguin's apt to help him move into his new condo. He's a homeowner now and brother Steve came on Sat and with 2 vans and a Rav among us, we hauled a lot of heavy stuff. His entertainment center and the heaviest TV on earth went down 17 steps and up 18 steps at the new place. My knees had a workout.

Today we left for the northern realms. Checking the weather via cell phone internet we think Gypsy may be having a time of it. Blaine has never seen arrows like that on a weather map and she may be experiencing a tornado. She doesn't like loud noises either.

Gas prices were $2.87 in Coral Springs. In Kissimmee it was down to $2.72. What a difference 200 miles made. Take a look at the prices on this sign in Georgia. We were unable to get the lower priced gas. All of the pump handles had plastic bags taped on them. They probably sold out. We had to get the EXPENSIVE $2.61 gas. Still a bargain for us.


Traffic around Atlanta was fierce for late Sunday. It took an hour to get through. We stopped at Rome/Carterville. We had been here on a previous trip with NinJa and Penguin. This is the place with the ant hill on the slope where Penguin was bitten or known as the place NinJa and Blaine posed as the two drunken sots on the bench. Trees have grown so tall that the bench has been turned around or you'd just be looking at tree trunks. The anthill slope/cliff is covered in tall pine trees too.

Got to develop a trip butt to handle long days of sitting.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Heelies

I went to Sam's club today to buy detergent and there were 2 boys with heelies. I don't like being in stores with children skating about. They look like skateboarders without the board. I never see them take a normal walking step but that they begin skating. All the time. What was their mother thinking? Seems like they should be banned from 'heeling' inside commercial buildings. They ban skateboards, bicycles, and probably regular skates as well.

I'll bet I sound older than the hills, but I get tired of trying to watch which direction they are coming and making sure I'm not in their path. Accidents could happen to my feet.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Patio-Day 15 Blue


The pool guy came and added
more chemicals and every day
the water keeps getting bluer
and bluer.

Blaine swam last night. It
MIGHT be a tad cold for me, but
when we had to take cold showers
when Wilma was here we coped and
this is directly from the same
source.

The day is beautiful and now it's my
turn to try it out. Come and join me.

Patio-Day 12 filled



Well the pool is full, but who would have
guessed that the water of Coral Springs is
so green.

It took about 18 hours to fill and then we
start the filter. It's the weekend and our
pool people won't come till Tuesday, so
Ken will be over to add chemical while we
are gone.

Friday, June 09, 2006

Patio-Day 11


Oooh wheee baby. The pool is finished. It is filling up right now, but I don't know how long it will take to fill the whole pool.

Someone will need to put in the overflow pipe and I hope there is not so much debris in the pool pipes that it will be able to filter.

Oh well, but doesn't it look GREAT!!!

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Patio-Day 10


Nothing. Nada happened today. Blaine moved some of the patio furniture back in. The yucky plans are history. They are not allowed back in.

Kevin came by to check it out and get another installment on the bill. He didn't know for sure when the pool guys would come. Maybe Friday....maybe Saturday. I said if not Friday they had to wait till Monday as we were going to be out of town. He said once they're done the pool must be filled immediately and continuously. I guess it leaves a line in the finish if the process is stopped. Kevin wondered if a neighbor could come and turn off the water if it was a Saturday. NO! Never IB. Don't touch my stuff and it's not fair to expect neighbors to hang around on week-ends either. Dick & Jane often go to St. Cloud. Nope. They're going to have to wait till Monday.

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Patio-Day 9





The ladies have finished. They finished the patio including the immediate edge around the pool and the front stoop and walkway. It's got to feel a lot better on bare feet than that crumbling Chattahoochee.













This is the remains of the rock pile. We have hauled river rock from this pile and edged everything around the property. There are still good rocks in there, but most of that is sand and cement shards.








The rock line edges the entire ficus hedge. I don't know if you can really notice, but they also surfaced the slabs just outside the screen doors to match the patio.








This is the street view.

More canal drama. Another couple were back there today measuring off the property line trying to establish where our lot line was and the water management easement started. Right now is 'Phase One' where they remove damaged trees from Wilma. We qualify. Those stumps don't have much soil under them. If we can fend them off till "Phase Two' they will remove the whole line of stumpy ficus, bring in dirt to build it back up and put down sod. Great! They we can worry what kind of privacy vegetation to put down.

I pointed out the the last crew broke our sprinkler line. She said we were supposed to have gotten a letter explaining what would happen and to remove sprinkler draws before that began work. She took down my information and would see about having it repaired. Yeah! But I won't hold my breath on that promise.

Betty said a black crew will come and do the pool and immediately start to fill it. I can't wait to see the totally finished job and begin to move all of the stuff out of the garage and S&R bedroom back to the patio and get my van back into the garage.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Patio-Day 8


Spanish. Spanish all day long. The ladies talk and converse all day long. It's exhausting. I have to admit I hid with the verticals drawn.

They got more tiles completed. Jorge came in installed the bull-nosed tiles on the edge of the pool steps.I really think that will look nice.










Kevin sad he thinks they'll be done with EVERYTHING tomorrow. The rest of the pool tiles, the edging, the front walk and stoop and the coating for the pool


I can't believe it.

Monday, June 05, 2006

Patio-Day 7


The day started out with me showing Penguin my library on his way out of town, dropping off the lost-and-found jackets and sweaters at Salvation Army and caming back home to find that I had locked myself out of the house and had to sit in the garage until Blaine came home.


Today the ladies came. They are the colorers. They pressure cleaned the whole deck and the pool. Blaine & I worked on the river rock pile. I chiseled off the concrete and he carted them off and made more borders.



Betty then made the color palette for the floor. We wanted more grey so she had to call have have it delivered. It's not what we were visualizing, but I looks nice.

Jorge came by and coated the freshly pressure cleaned pool with some kind of dark grey stuff. I imagine it's so the 'gem' coat will REALLY stick well.

Because I was working on the rocks I totally missed my eye appointment.
I get another chance on Wednesday and hope my muscles are recovered by then.

This evening another county guy came by and said they want to cut down and grind the stumps of the trees on the canal that had blown over in Wilma. They said there's not enough soil and that they would bow down again. We countered that IF we kept them hedge high and not tree high could we keep them, if not go ahead.....take them all. Then we would plant something again. We'll find out.





Sunday, June 04, 2006

Patio-Day 6






The 2 man crew came and worked on Sunday. They spent the day putting on the new tile.

On with the new.....out with the old!










After the tile was installed, they cleaned the pool with some kind of wash. He would mix the solution with water in a huge watering can, pour in down the edge, then rinse with the hose.





They finished by totally pumping out any water left in the pool. It's dried much lighter. There is still a lot of look surface material so they will have to pressure clean before applying the 'gem' coat.

The step will have a blue bull nose on the edge to define them. We also had to chose the grout color.








Saturday, June 03, 2006

Patio-Day 5





The Everglades is on fire. All Day long you could see and smell the smoke. White ash is covering everything. The haze you see in the 1st picture is the smoke haze. The ash PROBABLY helped fuel the thunderstoms. It poured,










The workerss were into the scribe phase when the rain hit. They scrambled to cover their work with plastic, but some area will need to be reworked.
















This is the staging area for all the work. Their supplies, the tiles, the removed river rock heap , and a seating area are here on the west side.








This is the front walk with the layer of plastic covering the just worked skim. The water puddled on the plastic, but it pounded down on the corner of the unprotected front stoop. It might need a touch-up too.

Friday, June 02, 2006

Patio-Day 4

They poured a really thick coat white stuff and inscribed
the lines to look like stone.



We chose a finish that will be applied later in a range of greys that will be applied to look like stone and not a jigsaw puzzle.

They still have the other side to do, the front walk, and the stoops. Whooppee!

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Patio-Day 3

No work today. There was thunder this AM and they can't do what they need to do with rain.




They did drain the pool. The bad stains show up like someone pooped on it. Although, after it dried all day the stains faded out to a buff tan color and didn't look that bad. Add water.....bad.