Steve Freeland made the comment the other day that this has been the year without a summer. I believe he has been correct through July, but August is shaping up to make up for lost time. Both the temps and the humidity are cranking up around here. Its been foggy the last couple of mornings which reminds me of what Aunt Ruth used to say, “The number of fogs on August mornings will be the number of snows you’ll have in the winter.” I’m not saving up for a snow blower no matter how foggy it is this month.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEN! Ben celebrated his 9th birthday Monday. Actually, we celebrated as a family Monday and will have a swimming party for his friends this coming Tuesday.
Monday I met everyone in town after work at the bowling alley. We bowled a couple of games while Mom, Aunt Mar, and Pauline looked on. I bowled pretty well considering my expectations were to score better than my age (I think I tripled that). Nate was the first one to get a strike and you should have seen him celebrate. Actually, everyone did well considering we haven’t been bowling in a couple of years.
When we were getting ready to leave the bowling alley I asked if it would be possible to go back and see the pin setters in action. I’ve always wondered what goes on behind the scenes to stand all the pins back up after you knock them down and I thought the kids would like to see it as well. Its actually an impressive piece of machinery when you consider the models we were looking at are older than I am. Ben even got to take home his own bowling pin as a birthday souvenir. From there we went to Arby’s for supper and ended up at Pauline’s for cake. Between the food stops we hit Wal-Mart where Ben spent some of his birthday money on a G-force game for the Wii and a few other things.
STOLEN PANTS. The other day I came into the living room where the kids were playing the Wii. I looked at Ben and all he was wearing was a t-shirt and underwear. I knew I had seen pants on the boy earlier so I asked, “Ben, where are your pants?”
He stood up, looked down, and was literally in shock. Trying to pull his shirt down to cover himself he said, “I don’t know. Someone must have took them while I was playing the Wii!”
“Surely not son. I think you would have known about that.”
He was at a loss for words and a bit embarrassed at his predicament.
We finally got to the heart of the matter when I asked him to think about the last time he saw his pants. He thought a moment and took off to the bathroom. Earlier he had paused his game to use the bathroom. He had taken his pants (but not his underwear) off in the process. Don’t ask me why. He must have been so anxious not to waste a moment getting back to his game that he ran off and left his pants behind. Good thing this wasn’t the halftime break at a basketball game!
DEHYDRATED. Pauline gave us a little scare Wednesday. I was parking my truck at work when Vicki called telling me to come back home. Pauline had called Vicki to say she was sick, and when Vicki went over to check on her she decided to call the ambulance. They spent most of the day at the hospital. At first we thought this was related to her diabetes because all her vital signs were good except her sugar, but with further investigation she was diagnosed as dehydrated. Talk about a best case scenario! Anyway, Pauline is drinking more water and is feeling better. She went back to the doctor yesterday for a checkup.
MISPLACED. Vicki has misplaced some of her keys...down an elevator shaft.
Yes, you read that right. As She and Pauline were leaving the doctor she was absentmindedly playing with her keys while waiting on the elevator. Her key rings are connected with a plastic key ring clip and she was flicking this open and closed with her fingers. When the elevator door opened one part of her keys came off the clip. She watched in horror as they tumbled right through the crack in the elevator doorway and then heard them hit the bottom of the elevator shaft three floors below.
This story ranks up there as one of the strangest things I’ve heard over a cell phone. She went on to say, “These kind of things aren't supposed to happen to me. They happen to Kenny or Lori, but not me!”
SCHOOL STARTS SOON. This is the last week of our summer break. The kids have a half day of school on Monday and classes officially start Wednesday. I am never mentally prepared for this. We went to open house at East Robertson Elementary last night, and I must say the school looks very nice. With all the changes to the building it is easy to get lost in there, which is a bit disconcerting because I attended school there for ten years and have been in and out of the building as an employee for the last twelve years. Our community should be very proud of the facility.
We have familiar faces as far as teachers go. Ben is starting third grade with Mrs. Robbie Kiernan who was Jenna’s third grade teacher, and Nate will be in Vicki Rippy’s first grade class. Vicki had both Jenna and Ben when they were in first grade. As I said last week, Jenna is starting the sixth grade at East Robertson High School. Their open house is Monday night.
THE WORLD CAN END NOW, I’M ON FACEBOOK. I have resisted this for months...years even. The last thing I need is another computer addition when I should be spending time with the people I love most. Wednesday I gave in to temptation and signed up on Facebook. (I’ll blame it on Pauline since I was home keeping the kids instead of being at work where Facebook is blocked.) I think Kenny was shocked when he found out so that, at least, was a good thing. I have been amazed at the number of people I know on Facebook. Several people have asked why Vicki isn’t there yet. She wants me to give her a tour, but we’ve been so busy each evening neither of us wants to sit down in front of a computer after the kids are in bed. As soon as I show her what to do she’ll be there (though I keep telling her to sign up without me as she’ll learn more discovering things for herself.) If I’ve done it correctly I should have our newsletter/blog linked in to my Facebook page.
Joe
