More Quirkiness

It doesn't feel like early May. I heard one day that our high was 15° above average for this time of year. We also need rain. We are getting a few showers here and there, but the ground needs one long drink of water right now.

Rereading that it sounds like I'm being really hard to please. Our days have been exceptionally pretty and we've enjoyed them. That just doesn't diminish the fact that it's hotter and drier than what's normal for this time of year.

SHOP NEARLY DONE! I am happy to report that my shop is just about done. The electricity was hooked up last week and the concrete floor was poured yesterday. Once that sets I need to hang more lights and then I can start moving some stuff in there. I'm excited!

One thing that's fun right now is the small dirt pile that's outside the shop where they scraped off the vegetation before pouring the concrete. The boys love it! Give a boy a pile of dirt and you have a happy boy.

SKATING. A few months ago I reported that we were invited to skating birthday party. We were invited to another last weekend. Ben was right back out there giving it his all. Nate made one lap around the rink and was done. Jenna put on her skates but never skated. I think Jenna and Nate are both done with skating.

GARDNER'S WARTS? So we were in White House on Friday to drop Ben off for a camping trip. After this and eating out we needed to do some shopping so Vicki asked if anyone needed anything not on the shopping list. That's when Nate spoke up saying her needed medicine for gardner's warts.

Jenna and I looked at each other in confusion while Vicki burst out laughing. Nate had gotten confused. He needed medecine to treat a plantar wart on the bottom of his foot. Nate was a bit defensive about being laughed at and defended himself to Vicki saying, "But you told me it was a gardner's wart!"

CAMPING. Speaking of Ben's camping trip, he attended a scout camporee last weekend. They had pleasant weather for it. The only rain they got was Friday night. I know we got some thunder and lightning here along with about a half inch of rain. I assume they experienced the same thing since they were only 20 minutes away but Ben said he slept through it.

I think Ben had a lot of fun. The scout troops had a competition to build a tank that fired water balloons and then have a battle with the tanks. Ben's troop didn't do so well and were mostly target practice for the other tanks. At any rate, he came home tired, smelly, and happy.

UGLY BABIES. You may recall I went with Ben on a scout campout about a month ago. While there I saw a fire pit made out of an old 55 gallon drum. Well, I remembered there was an old drum in one of the sheds around the house so I went to get it yesterday so I could have a fire pit of my own.

When I walked up to the shed I scared off a buzzard (actually, a black vulture). I didn't think anything about it until I heard something hissing at me when I stepped inside. The hissing was coming from one of the two baby chicks that were still in there. They appear to be about 8-12 inches tall and are covered in light brown fuzz. They won't win any beauty contests, but they're cuter than their mom by a long shot.

THAT'S MY HILL! If you drive out Highway 25 to the interstate you'll pass a prominent hill on the left side of the road. It's not really tall, but it's tall enough to stand out as a significant feature in the immediate area. For those of you familiar with the area this is the hill on the Rainwater place across from Village Green Drive.

As a boy Aunt Mar and I usually had a little competition to see who was the first to claim the hill as we drove by. The rules were simply that the hill had to be in view before you could lay claim to it. I say the competition was between Aunt Mar and me. Mom would be in the car as well, but she would usually be talking too much to notice and call out, "My hill."

Some time last year I thought it would be neat to continue the game with my kids. Let me tell you, what works well in a family with an only child doesn't work so well with a pair of competitive brothers. Within a month Vicki was muttering some very unkind things to me under her breath for ever starting such a stupid game.

Well, things have settled down some and there aren't as many arguments now. The funny thing is that about half the time we go to the interstate we don't got the "my hill way" but we take the back roads to Highway 76 and the White House exit. One day we were doing this and Nate looked up from a video game and claimed, "my hill."

He was a bit disappointed when we informed him the hill was miles away on another road, but he quickly recovered and defended himself by pointing out that it was still a hill. It's really not. It's more of a slight ridge that may gain 10 feet of elevation from the level of the road and I pointed that out to him.

To make a long story short, this route now has it's own geographical feature to claim. If you are riding down Cross Plains Road with us you'll hear one of the kids call out "my general rise in the ground" just as we get near the sharp curves at the intersection with Pinson Lane.

Aunt Mar, just look at what you started.

Joe