~ Those Grandboys are Growing Up! ~

I realized my little grandboys were growing up, but that really hit home when they were old enough to go to camp.

AJ, Caden and their mother, Kathy, at camp ->

The oldest grandboy, AJ, will be 10 in just a few short days! They are calling him the "double-digit midget." He is not very big, but is growing like a weed during the rainy season! All their pants are high-waters, and there is no point in purchasing new ones before school begins next month because they would be too small before school even begins!

<-- AJ smiles for the camera and says he is now big enough to mow my front yard!

They are using big words that I don't understand. I can see their little brains working non-stop and the hard drive in those brains is about 80 million GB vs. mine, which is a 1 MB and has to frequently be reformatted!

Caden watches intently and learns as a camp counselor demonstrates the art of baiting a hook --> Looks to me as if he is pondering a better way to handle the worm/hook situation!

What is a Grammy to do? How do I manage to keep them 'little' boys? I suppose there are consolations to the boys growing so quickly; maybe I won't have to mow the yard as much...

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.