100 Days of Rain (or It's a Jungle Out There!)

Today, July 19th, is the 200th day of the year. Officially we have had 100 days of rain so far! Hummm…I suppose that means we’ve had 100 days without rain. And I think I’ve had the mower out 100 times this year!

The Grass is Always Greener...

Oh my...we have grass - it is mid-July.... It is hot. It is steamy. And our South Texas grass continues to grow...and grow and grow. Normally during the months of July and August we mow the yard once every 2 or 3 weeks, and that is if we water the grass.

But this year we have had so much rain - Lake Mathis is overflowing, the Nueces River is overflowing , Labonte Park has become Labonte Park Lake, and houses near the river are flooded; people are out of their homes and in shelters. Thankfully we are on 'high' ground and our house is safe.

It seems that since the new year, rarely has a week passed that we don't spend two evenings a week (between rains) mowing the grass! And now that summer is here it is 98 degrees, 98 percent humidity and 98 mosquitoes per square inch of human being - mosquitoes the size of small birds!

You'd think that with an over abundance of mosquitoes, they would be smaller (the law of supply and demand - more mosquitoes, less food supply). Well apparently that does not apply to these particular mosquitoes; these creatures are huge...very plump...and quite juicy! Wonder if there is some type of delicacy that can be made from plump, juicy mosquitoes? (That's quite alright, I really don't want to know!)

Bottom line...I am feeling overwhelmed with the tall green stuff. Help! I need some lawn-mowing help!! Tell me again how old those Grandboys need to be to handle a lawn mower!?

Go figure. It is raining again.

Is the Maytag Repair Man trying to round up business?

First the television, and now the dishwasher! Ach!

I get a lot of junk mail and much of it gets thrown into the trash. Yesterday there was one from Maytag/Jenn-Air; the outside of the envelope said "IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTICE." Since I have a Maytag dishwasher I decided it might be prudent to just have a look inside this particular one.

As instructed in the letter I called the 800 # and after a considerable amount of time, one hang-up and a lot of talking to a computer, I was able to find that my Maytag model could catch fire and has done so in 135 reported cases. I was to unplug the thing and cease using it immediately!

My dishwasher is defective! I am devastated. Like the dilapidated X-television set, the dishwasher is quite old. It doesn't do as good a job as it used to do (better than I would do on my own however) and is beginning to look a bit worn...it may be 10 years old but I am not certain.

There are two things I do not like to do around the house...#1 is dust and #2 is wash dishes!

The offer: I was to choose between 2 options. I could either have a Maytag Repair Man come to my house and repair the defective unit, or I could get a $75 credit toward another Maytag/Jenn-Air dishwasher. Those are not very good choices! My dishwasher is OLD - it is on it's very last leg - and even though I know the Maytag Repair Man is desperately looking for work (I even saw him on a TV commercial repairing a copier), I hate having repair men come into my house.

And, I have used that dishwasher for years without burning the house down, so does it really need repaired? On the other hand, I don't want to spend $469 on a new one (even with the $75 credit they are offering, that is a LOT of money!) Wonder if I could handle not having a dishwasher?

There was a time when the kiddos were little that the dishwasher crashed - 'crash' is a word used a lot in our racing family; a simple fact of life, not pleasant, but still a fact. At the time Roger was racing and we had a separate 'racing account' at the bank. I replaced that dishwasher with racing funds! Back then not having a dishwasher was not on my list of options.

But, that was then...and this is now - the kids are gone, we occasionally use paper products, I rarely put any pots or pans in the dishwasher anyway. Do I really need that dishwasher? I suppose I will continue to use my old, dilapidated dishwasher until my Cascade runs out and then see how long it takes me to get tired of washing dishes by hand. Can I make it 2 weeks? 6 months...how about a year? Anyone care to place bets?

Afterthought: How many paper plates can I buy for $400 anyway?

Sheesh! What have I done?

Part 1: It was a Thursday afternoon. Our district accountant (Ramona) had been in the Director's (Erich's) office with the door closed. With the DOOR closed! This is an extremely rare event. Erich is an 'open door' man. He's a big guy; young, easy going, sings in his office with his feet on the desk, his gigantic cowboy boots taking up an entire corner of the already oversized desk.... (When Erich first arrived at the school, he had to put blocks of wood under the legs of his desk to raise it enough so his knees would go underneath...you get the picture!)

I could clearly see through the large glass window (he never closes the blinds) that his feet were not on the desk now, but I was so busy with year-end items - special programs, summer school issues, purchase orders, invoices - just normal stuff, and after the flitting thought of 'the door is closed, how weird is that' I blew it off.

The day went on, people came and went, issues were resolved.... Late in the afternoon Erich called a meeting. Erich doesn't call meetings...we do! What is going on? We all sat around the big table in the center of our office. Erich, slouched in his chair and with a strain in his very large but gentle voice, softly announced that our beloved accountant, Ramona, had resigned. She'd accepted a position with the City of Corpus Christi. I could see the fear in his face! Ramona was our backbone. Ramona knew everything. We all depended on her for our daily needs! Ask Ramona, she will know what to do!...and she always did.

A week has passed and we are all adjusting. The nausea caused by the reality of this untimely event has lessened. We will miss our Ramona terribly.

Part 2: Yikes! What have I done? How has this happened?! It wasn't long after Ramona announced her resignation that words began to drift in my direction. Would I be interested in Ramona's position? I have never been one to glide gently into anything...you know, slide easily feet first into a pool of soft blue water; rather, I tend to just jump into the frying pan head first!

I was planning an early retirement in a year and a half. Well, plans change and life goes on - thank goodness for the small things! I suppose I could work another 3 to 5 years with the proper incentive...good, cold hard cash goes a long way!

The nausea is back, my brain is nearly fried from overload, my replacement has been hired, and I am the new accountant. Sheesh...what have I done!

An Old TV

The problem:
When is the right time to replace an old television? Should I wait until it goes completely out? Or do I keep trying to watch it even though the picture scrunches all up and becomes blurry; sometimes it even snaps instantly to a very loud picture of snow. (Loud snow? Now that's a contradiction!)

This has been going on for several years now, and recently I noticed a variation in the sound quality. At first I thought it was just the commercial that was playing at the time; then I heard the sound waver again...the commercial was long gone.

How old is this television anyway? Where did we find it? I do remember it died once - it was nearly out from under a 5-year extended warranty. An EXTENDED WARRANTY!! We never purchase those things! Why did we even have an extended warranty anyway? Regardless, we had one. The repairman came to the house and fixed the 32" GE television - I think that was in 1990.

Solution!
When this one dies, we simply won't replace it! Just think of the money we will save!? We can cancel the Time Warner Cable subscription. I could do housework instead of watching episodes of 'Deal or No Deal' or reruns of 'Lost.' Hmmm...maybe not.

The Reality:
We are TV addicts - when we are not watching television the thing is on - so if it is a new television we need, it is a new television we will get. So off to the store we went; we looked at Target, Circuit City, several on-line stores and finally found just what we were looking for at Wal-Mart. It looks real nice sitting in the corner of our living room - all shining and sparkly with its slim clean lines and wide screen. Time Warner Cable offers us at least nine hundred and ninety nine channels to choose from...and not a decent thing to watch!

Think I'll just turn the thing off and read my book.

Grand Papa Goes Home

May 8, 2007 -

The alarm was set to wake us at 4 a.m. but we woke before that and began getting ready for our short journey to the airport – as difficult as it was, the time had come for Dad to go "Back Home Again in Indiana."

The Corpus Christi International Airport must have been quite a let down over the airport in Louisville. No alarms went off as he passed through security, so they did not have to pull him aside and use the magic wand on him as they did in Louisville! He breezed through with no problem and was wheeled to the waiting area where I watched through the glass partition as he immediately found friendly faces and conversation.

Later that morning: Chance lay at my feet with a rawhide on the floor next to him. Normally he would devour the rawhide immediately, but not today. It will probably take most of the week to get him back to normal, as he will likely spend his time pouting and sleeping! And awaiting the return of his Grand Papa!

I left his staff (the one we use when we go to Big Bend for mountain hikes) standing in the corner by the living room door and told Dad it would be there when he returns. However, I’d like to get him a nice one to keep here, somewhat like the one he has at home, and will immediately begin looking for one in anticipation of his next visit.

Turbo Busa Tumble!

Take a good look at Jenn on the turbo busa at the Texas Mile. This is the only picture of the busa in action before it crashed! Looks good, huh?!

We were excited and anxious - Roger had worked on that turbo busa for months - night after night out there in that shop, week after week. Well, sometimes things just don't quite go as planned.

We arrived at the Texas Mile in Goliad on a Friday afternoon. The place was packed with exotic cars, speed racers, motorcycles, landspeed bikes, Vettes, Mustangs...you name it, it was on the Texas Mile that day. Jenn and Roger were able to get the bike through tech and loaded back into the hauler. After a restless night at the hotel, we woke early and headed back to the Mile.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, Jenn was sitting in line to make her first pass on the Mile. Roger was at her side and I was at the 1/2 mile marker across from the truck and hauler. Grandpup Chance sat anxiously at the hauler on his tether. How is it that animals always feel our anxiety?

Waiting to run : I watched through the binoculars as they made their way through the line. Finally the time had arrived and she was at the starting line.

Watching the run: There is just no good way for a mom to watch her daughter on a turbo charged Suzuki Hayabusa 1300 trying to make the thing go down the 1 mile track at over 200 mph. But watch I did...breathe - nope, that was not going to happen. I listened to the sound of the engine and strained to see the tiny speck flying down the track. It looked good; it sounded good. I heard her shift into 6th gear and thought I heard a pop. But on she went.

Sky full of dust: I'll just tell you right now that a sky full of dust on the Texas Mile is not a good thing. It began as a touch of dust a little more than a mile away from where I stood. I did not move. The dust cloud thickened and grew monstrously ominous.

Waiting: Waiting on anything is difficult, and seconds can seem like minutes or even hours. I saw the emergency crew heading toward the end of the Mile and in my mind was wondering why. Jenn had finished with her run and even though I could not see her yet, she would be riding up that return road any second. But she didn't. This is where my mind did not accept what my heart already knew. The ambulance lights flashed. Had I breathed yet?

Soon - not soon enough - I heard someone say, "She's O.K." She is alright...what does that mean?! Is she talking? Is she moving? How many bones are broken? Eventually Roger and I were told to bring the truck and hauler to the end of the Mile to pick up the bike. The bike? What about the girl?!

The ambulance approached our Ford pickup and turned in front of us before coming to a stop. We were blocked. The back doors opened and an EMT hopped out, Jenn close behind. She was holding an icepack on her left arm. After looking her over from top to bottom (and getting a look at the tumbled motorcycle) I decided that we were extremely lucky...and grateful. A broken arm - what a huge blessing!

Jenn watches as her dad once again works on the busa...night after night...but not for months this time! We are so fortunate that the damage is fixable - broken arms heal! Bent busa's can be unbent! Broken parts replaced.

The next Texas Mile - October 2007 - she will be back!

Next drag race - San Antonio, Texas, May 2007 - coming soon to a drag strip near you, watch for her to be transformed from 9SecondJen into the new improved 8SecondJen. To be continued...

Now, just one more thing - just when is it that the mom gets to breathe again?