Trip Day 5 through 10 continued.

This is at the library. Their theme for the summer program is
explore. They seem to have a very good program and I took
a lot of pictures for ideas. I don't have the wall space, but I still like the ideas.

Our school's theme next fall is 'World of Discovery' and that can include these pirates here.







Today we visited Steve and ThiThi. Their house and grounds are beautiful. Steve has stocked his pond with fish that he feeds dog food everyday. The bass and blue gill gobble it up. It will be very easy for him to capture them when they are big enough to eat.

They have some little fruit trees planted. Little being the main theme and the pine trees are so cute.

We drove forever into Tennessee and are staying at the Hampton with the lake and llamas. Tomorrow on to Gaitlinburg and the Christmas store. Besty gave me a gift certificate at that store. :-)

Tomorrow over the mountains and whatever spot we can easily find on the way home.

Trip Day 5-10

We met up with Steve and Rhonda & kids in Cedar Point. Trans Air
lost his luggage and EVENTUALLY they delivered it to the Breakers. They were staying at the campground.

Uncle Sam was on display at one camper's spot. At night it had red, white, and blue lights all around the canopy.

Highlights: CJ is a adult and can ride all the rides and pay the adult price.
Cotton candy is only 25 cents!!! This is from the same place that will chare $5 for a hot dog and fries.
Rhonda found a huge diamond ring in the bathroom.
I won mini golf!
The flume ride is gone and their already building next year's huge new ride.








We got to Huntington just as Steve B was closing on the house. The new owners let us tour the empty house as long as we wanted. You can really see the flaws and they will have to invest a lot to make it livable.

I've never seen the garage nor the basement so clean and bare. I took tons of pictures.

We stayed at an AmeriHost located where the Bingham farm used to be.

Dad looked chipper and played Uno with us. Mac-A-Do helped
him play his cards.

We also visited Mom. She's agreeable, but 'leaves' us while we're talking to here. I can't understand what she says, but she seems glad to see us.

Blaine played the piano at both places and Mac danced and danced.













Our hair is the same color! We're both BLONDS.

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.


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.

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. :-)

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.

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.

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.

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!!!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Patio-Day 2

What a difference a day makes. The fountain in gone and you can see that the

little flower bed in filled. The white is the skim coat to fill in. The depressions where the river rock is filled in.












The white skim coat reflects the light into the house and really brightens it up.




This morning the knock on the door asking for permission to cut across our lawn to pull the debris out of the canal.
YES! They piled it up in the cul-de-sac.

This evening, another knock and the city architect said we had a hazardous stucture in front of our house. They also had left a pile blocking a lane down the street. We explained that it was the city of Coral Springs who did this and he said he would have to make a phone call to get this stuff picked up.





The front stoop and walkway is getting processed.











Here is the river rocks around the tree. Tonight we will put more of the rocks around the bushes.









Here is what our new tile will look like.

Patio-Day 1

We are improving our patio. The fountain is our water feature.
Today they FINALLY began to work on it.

Before..........
After.........
We decided this AM that the fountain was going.

Note that the river rocks around the pool have been removed. We used them to make a border next to the East side of the house and circle the tree in the front yard. We will also use them to border the little bushes in front.

The water is suddenly green. No swimming for a while.

Hurricane Preparation

The last two weeks have been tax-free on hurricane preparation items. Outside of food, water, and ice we feel pretty set. We are buying Steve's generator so that we won't be beholding to IB for a hook-up for our refridgerator. But we did make a really good find on a crank radio/tv/flashlight from of all places, Pep Boys. Expecting to have to pay $79, it was on sale for $49.

We've played with the features and are charging the nic-cad battery. The tv part does not run by crank. Neither does the 'beam', but the LCD light and the radio do.
I've named it. I've named all of our light sources. It sounds silly, but I know exactly which light it is with its name.


Starting with the smallest.
Flicker. Looks like little candles with the slight flickering light.











The next is called Cranky.
It is a little LED light that gets it power from cranking. It has two brightnesses

and is a Cracker Barrel purchase.









Our next model has a 'goose neck' that can be positioned up or down and can even be hooked over something to position it. It was from DARE purchase at school.

Its name is Goosey.












This bad boy is powerful. It has two settings and can cut clear across the
backyard. It's VERY heavy and can lose its charge quickly.

Its name.....Jim Beam.






And finally the newest member of the Hurrican preparedness family......Buzz.
It looks like a bumble bee or yellow jacket. Those are not positive images for me

since both could kill me, but Buzz or Buzzy works for me.










We have AA batteries to get yet and have already added another 5gal gas container. Steve said we should be Carbon-dioxide alarms. We have 3 days left.

I'm PSSSSTTTT!

I'm so angry I can't talk about it.
I'm running a book fair at our school now. It's chaos, but we do it to raise money to buy resources for the library.
Here is the crappy part. This or next week is teacher appreciation. My pricipal and AP want to 'honor' teachers by giving each person a $10 gift certificate to get books from the fair. They come off as Ladies Bountiful. I work the fair, they give it away. My name isn't even on the certificate. They contributed NOTHING!
AAaaaaggghhhhh! That's going to be $600 credited to my fair.
"It's for the school. It's for the children (said with the guilt giving lilt in the voice)
NOT FAIR!!
Aren't they just Wonderful Bosses. Gee....even I get a certificate. Big Whoop!

Click...Another change

We went to a play at Lynn last Friday. It was a collection of plays that force you to look at situations in different realities. Doppelgangers that are next to you living your life, then click, they switch places with you and you become the doppelganger. Change is part of life. It can’t be stopped no matter how much you try not to.

Click. How did I get to be the age of my parents? Click. My parents are really old, infirm, and unable to live on their own. Click. It’s time to sell the home they’ve lived in for 52 years.

That last click kept me awake this week. I’ve already taken items, but is there something I’ve forgotten that I wished I had? Logic tells me that I already have too many things, but this is final. No do overs. Click. It’s time to turn the wheel to the next position. Our ancestors faced this and now it’s my turn.

Click. Children, this is a click in your wheel of life too.

REALLY Big Babies

This last weekend we went to Disney World and Sea World. We had a great time, BUT I have complaint to lodge against these parks, especially Disney. There should be a law that you can't rent strollers out to parents whose children are over the age of 8. Giant children were being pushed about by their parents. The kids could barely get their feet on the footrest their thighs were so long. Even worse were the parents who rented a double-wide so that 2 of these overgrown babies could ride around.

Babies & toddlers who don't have the size and endurance are the intended riders, but I can hear Jay Leno say, "How lazy have we become when our fat-assed kids have to be pushed in strollers." Parents need to plan less and go back to the motel and rest up and come out again later.

I saw one wall of strollers behind me ready to clip my heels. It was a double wide next to a single next to a guy in a wheelchair. Stoller people are on a mission and you'd better not be in their way. At another spot I saw where the adults had given over the electric cart to the 2 young boys to play with. They were not using it responsibly and as you might expect it was a big toy for them.

The parks are SO expensive and have so much to do in them that people squeeze as much time as they can and that means they lug , tote, and wheel their too old kids around. Those parents looked done in to trying to push their big babies around. Kids, you need to WALK.

Living in the Present

I don't usually plan way-far ahead. It probably started that way because Blaine didn't like things planned. He would then feel obligated and fret about what ever function was coming up even if he would enjoy doing whatever it was. I now live in the present and what ever comes up in the short-range we can switch , pick and chose.

This week end it was an Arts Festival at The Walk. If money were no object, I'd have a lot of pretty things now. But it was not planned way far in advance even though we knew it was coming. It was 11:00 and 'hey, want to go to the festival?' OK. Yeah. Let's go. This works for two people, but when you try to work around other's schedules it can be disappointing. They may have planned way in advance to do something else.

I don't know what summer will bring. As long as I don't have to decide right now, I have unlimited possibilities. I live day-to-day working to survive all of the school craziness coming up. As soon as I commit to something for vacation, I'm stuck. Right now I don't know what I may want to do, but I THINK I can do anything thing. It's a false feeling because I like to do stuff with others and they have already planned something else. Oh, well, get over it Iris.