If he breaks a leg I hope he lets me sign the cast. Do you think he would?
Dave!
Blipey's really a sweetheart. He clowns around and obviously has quite the sense of humor.
Regardless of your being on opposite sides of the evolution/ID fence, I'd bet he would.
How've you been, Dave? How's the wife and kidney bean? And the pups?
I spoke to Kaylaface on the phone yesterday, and she asked about you. Methinks there might be a long-distance crush going on, but you didn't hear it from me.
She's been busy doing teenaged girl stuff, and her attention span on the blog thing seems to have lapsed, so she hasn't been at the blog lately.
How're you keeping busy? Enjoying the retirement, I hope.
Kisses
JanieBelle and Kate
I'm willing to bet that if blipey breaks his leg, and you make the trip all the way to KC to sign his cast, he'll have it framed and hang it over his mantle.
Kisses,
Kate
Wife? Oh HER. I talk to her twice a day on the phone and see her on the weekends when she has time out of her busy schedule to drive out to the lake. I think I've set a new record for unbroken number of days on the houseboat - 3 weeks. Just me and my huge puppy here. Closest neighbor is about 300' away but I walk or drive down the shore to visit with them daily. Lots of boats come through and I hop in my jetboat once in a while and putt around visiting people that live beyond walking distance. The excuse for being out here is that Tucker (my pup) hurt his shoulder (typical of large breed dogs) and he keeps reinjuring it at home playing with his sister. So I removed him to the lake to let it heal. He swims a lot and doesn't get tackled by a 60 pound sister. I have him fetching a ball from the water thrown from the upper deck of the boat. I should start timing him with a stopwatch. He has to run down the stairs, 16 feet across the front deck, drop down a foot onto a 4 foot wide finger dock, leap a gap onto an 8 foot wide utility dock, dive into the water from that, swim about 50 feet to the ball, swim 50 feet to shore, then back along the shore to the finger dock, 60 feet up the dock to the front deck of the boat, then across, back up the stairs, and drop the ball at my feet. It takes him less than a minute if he doesn't stop to investigate any stinking dead clams along the way.
Anyhow, soccer season starts soon and I never miss a game so I'll be going into town for more than just provisions. My youngest daughter moved up from recreational to select soccer. The select league has been trying to get her for a couple of years. She's a bit on the short side but faster than greased lightning. First time spectators jaws go slack when they see her lay on the speed. She won't stand out quite so much in the select league and I might have to see her team lose for a change.
My son is moving back to Austin this weekend after a failed attempt to move out to the country (east Texas). He's going to live at my place while he rebuilds his computer repair business then send for his wife and son who're going to stay with her parents in east Texas until he gets reestablished in Austin. Meanwhile pregnancy is agreeing with my middle daughter (due to present me with my first granddaughter in October) and she's happy with her most recent job at Dell.
My cup overfloweth. The only thing I missed this year was a trip to the old homestead in upstate NY. The drought here has been causing the lake level to drop a foot every week and my beach is on a 10% grade so I have to move the houseboat and dock about twice a month and be prepared for the big rain event which eventually refills it in a matter of a few days. The lake hasn't been this low since I bought the houseboat and while I graded the beach and pulled all the stumps during the last drought I still have to stay on my toes. I'm sinking concrete/steel anchors into the shore every 75 feet - one out to either side of the boat about 75 feet and one centered on it. When the lake refills all those anchors will go underwater and make the anchoring system a lot stronger and easier to deal with. Right now it takes me about an hour to move it and I need almost calm winds. A big storm (any winds over about 45mph) can drag my big anchor. That's because the only anchor in back of the boat is a 6000 pound concrete block (although I added a 135 pound steel claw anchor 100 feet farther out than that in May after 4 consecutive storms each dragged the concrete anchor about a dozen feet). I hope the claw anchor will add enough backup to the concrete so it won't drag again. But once all those anchors I've been sinking into the exposed shore are underwater and on the side of or in back of the boat then I won't really need the big anchor any longer and moving the dock should reduce to a 15 minute job that can done in anything up to a stiff breeze.
Everyone said this couldn't be done. I'm on relatively open water (for an inland lake) with a lot of big wakes from huge cruisers and a few miles of unobstructed water on each side for the wind to build up waves. It's a pretty big boat (66 feet long) and can catch a lot of wind like a big sail. I calculated 6000 pounds of force on it in a 55mph broadside wind and that doesn't count the added force of waves bashing into it which I have no bloody idea how much that adds. I figured the waves were temporary and if everything was spring loaded they wouldn't matter much. Straight line constant winds would be the problem. It's been almost 3 years and I'm still here. THEY don't know what a dedicated Marine/Engineer can do when he sets his mind to it.
Dave said:
Wife? Oh HER. I talk to her twice a day on the phone and see her on the weekends when she has time out of her busy schedule to drive out to the lake. I think I've set a new record for unbroken number of days on the houseboat - 3 weeks.
Wow, Dave. I can't really claim to be any kind of expert, for obvious reasons, but that doesn't sound like it's good for your marriage. I hope everything is OK.
I'm glad the puppy's getting a chance to recouperate, though. It's good for him to get a break from the sister until he heals.
Sounds like you have quite a bit of work to do on that boat dock. Doesn't your wife help at all?
So you have 3 girls and a boy? And you're going to be a grand-daddy? I just never really pictured you as old enough to be having grandbabies.
You speak with too much youth, I think. Or at least you type with too much youth, I guess.
THEY don't know what a dedicated Marine/Engineer can do when he sets his mind to it.
You know, Kate says something rather similar...
;)
Kisses,
JanieBelle
Two girls and a boy plus one 5 year old grandson. I've been married 25 years. Absence makes the heart grow fonder you know. Not many women do the kind of work that needs to be done keeping up boats and docks. When I was your age I'd already rebuilt several engines, done a lot of body work on cars, and was handy with welding equipment. Except for in the movies I've never even seen a girl holding an arc welder or torch. Come to think of it I've never even seen a girl change the oil in her car or do a brake job. The help I get is being able to come out to the lake and stay as long as I want without getting any grief about it. While I've been out here at the lake though she painted two rooms in the house and tore down an old fence in the backyard. And she has a full time job managing a surgical practice whereas I haven't had a regular job in over 6 years. I'm a lucky guy with a great wife, great life, and no strife.
Wow Dave,
That one gave me a laugh that put coffee up my nose.
As I was reading it, I was thinking "I gotta suck this coffee down faster" 'cause my butt is dragging a little this morning... and I misread the word "brake". I was thinking "NEVER????" I'll let you figure that out.
Sounds like you've got it pretty good out there.
Lots of girls hold welders and torches. I ain't one of 'em, but they're out there.
I used to change my own oil, but now that I'm out, or soon will be, I'm letting my nails grow. No WAY I'm spending fifty bucks on a manacure and then sticking my hands up under a car. Plus I get free oil changes at the dealer.
You know what's funny, though. There's all kinds of road work going on around here, and there's always two girls on the road crew... One for each stop/slow sign at the ends. You never see them doing any of the actual work. That dog don't hunt in the Corps but it sure does with the civs.
Kisses,
Kate
