TOUGH WEEK

This week I went to three funerals of friends and relatives that have died. Those were a little tough for me to go to. I also went to one birthday party. It was the 100 year birthday party for my childhood baby sitter. I love that lady a lot. Here are a couple of pictures of her from today.


The next two are pictures of the demolition of my childhood home. It is nearly complete. AND for you firebugs---I have told you a thousand times that fuel will not burn in an enclosed container. I know for sure that is true. See that tank---it is a fuel oil tank for furnace oil. My brothers and I dropped thousands of strike anywhere matches down the fill pipe trying to get a little flame out of it. The only way you could ever get it to burn is to pipe oxygen into it. I'm not telling you to try it---I'm just sayin'!!!

The new plywood is the seal for the part of the house that is not being demolished so you can see the demolition is nearly finished.

YOU CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN FOR SURE NOW !!!;-)

My youngest brother and I inherited the house we grew up in together. I really didn't want to be partners in the house with anyone and he has the money and desire to remodel it so I sold him my share for $10.00 and other goods and services received so that he could do what he wanted when he wanted. He started remodeling it and found that the foundation on the North 2/3 had failed. So much for going home. Best decision I have ever made to get out of it when I did.

BEFORE DEMOLITION

DURING DEMOLITION

MINI VACATIONS

Since about the 12th of July we have been taking daily mini vacations south to see family and friends. There have been good things to do and also a funeral to attend but it has been good. We have logged over 2600 miles in travel but there were good things about the driving too.

I went to the all school reunion in my home town and found there is not enough time in a day to do all the things and see all the people you want to. It was great to see all of the people I did see but there were many others that I know were there that I didn't get a chance to talk to.

Oh well it has been 44 years since I graduated from High School and I haven't seen most of them in that time so maybe I'll see them next year. ;-)

I also figured out that you can never go home again. I already knew that but I re-learned it during the reunion.

DON'T MESS WITH SUCCESS

In my career I got pieces of equipment into some pretty serious construction problems simply by trying to improve just one little thing at the very end of the job. I learned the hard way that you don't mess with success.

We just about learned that lesson again in the Gulf of Mexico. Who would ever remove a cap that had shut off the oil for several days just because they couldn't read the monitors. If they had decided to remove it there is a good chance that they could never recap the well and get the oil completely shut down. I would say a very good chance.

DON'T MESS WITH SUCCESS. Good call Thad.

ENUFF TA MAKE YA PULL YER HAIR OUT

I have spent over four hours today dealing with a bank regarding a title for one of our cars. They are the lien holder and wanted me to make a change to the title. I have told them a hundred times it shows them as the lien holder and I can't make any changes to the title---THEY HAVE TO. I have been given a new number and told to call this number and maybe they can fix it--I called there and they wanted to know why I called them and gave me exactly the same number I called to get them.

I got pretty hot and told them what I had found out and finally one person said "well I'll call the dealership and have them make the changes." The dealership told them they couldn't make any changes now because the bank was the lien holder as shown on the title at UDMV and the bank would have to make the change themselves and order a duplicate title. The dealership told her to call the UDMV and see what they needed to do.

UDMV gave them all the information they needed and the lady called me back and said she was making the changes and requesting a duplicate title from UDMV---HMMMMMM Wonder where they heard that before.

Oh well at least that is one less thing I have left in my life to straighten out---maybe when it is fixed I'll change banks.

TRIPPIN' AGAIN

Yesterday we went south to visit my in laws. Got to see Nene and Delirious and her spouse and youngest son in addition to MIL and FIL. They came out for the family reunion a week early. We had a good visit and came home to what appears to have been a pretty big rain storm. The garden looked really good and the temperature was down a bunch from earlier in the day.

We are going back over today to visit some more. I think it is pretty nice that Inklings is getting to see her family for a few days. Not sure all this travel back and forth is what she had in mind but it isn't that far and it is nice to sleep at home. We are having a family reunion over there Saturday and that ought to be a really good day for visiting folks I haven't seen in years. I have only been to this family reunion a couple of times because I have been gone fighting forest fires for most of them. A week after this is over I will make myself available again to go out on fires. Not much of a fire season this year though.

MOVIN' ON

Over the weekend Inklings and I took a road trip north. We saw five of our seven kids, one of my really ill friends and then went to a happy event. One of my really good friends got married Saturday---the pictures below are of some of the FS folk that showed up. It was fun to see her happy. She's the second from the left in the photo.

We learned on this trip that there isn't enough time to do everything and see everyone for as long as we would like to see them. Since we really could do things differently with the travel we probably should.

Scott---thanks for the photos ;-)

Maybe I can move on from the writer's block I have had the past while.

4th OF JULY

We went to the kids parade in town for their celebration of the 4th. They are cute kids and there are a lot of little ones in this valley. Here is a picture of our neighborhood kids in the parade. Inklings painted their faces---I watched. ;-)

AHHH SPRING

We went for a ride Thursday evening and came across the local buffalo herd. This year they have reproduced very well. Seemed like every cow had a calf. They are over a month old but they are still cute little things. Too bad they have to grow up into big ugly buffalo.