Southern Claifornia

We just spent the last several days at Disney Land, CA Adventures, and Sea World. I beleive that all had a good time. We are definitly ready for a vacation from the vacation. My poor feet are walked out. Here are some pictures of the events. We started out at Cystal Cove Beach where the boys were told to stay dry so that we could go to dinner next. You can see how successful that was. Next D-Land, and then etc ...

Greetings all, been a while. This being my busy time of the year I haven't had time to post much. Here are some pictures of my latest project.

Just in Case your wondering, its a 1947 Pontiac Convertable with 1990 some thing ventage Camero engine and a beefed up front end. The little Lady says that I need to sale the 1949 Apache to pay for the restoration on this one. Anyone know someone that wants to buy an old Pickup?

Cousins Week and the Chinese Restaurant

Today after a trip to take the cousins to Tombstone we went to the chinese buffet for dinner. The fortune cookies were in rare form, here's a sampling:
Grandpa: A smile is a curve that can get a lot of things straight ... in bed!
Grandma: There is no need to move if you can wiggle ... in bed!
Rachel: If there is a no wind there will be no wave ... in bed!
Caitlyn: An understanding heart warms all that are graced with its presence ... in bed!
Leora: If you look in the right places you can find some good offerings ... in bed!
Angie: A short saying oft contains much wisdom ... in Bed (Grandma's translation ... be quiet ... in bed!)
Heston: Allow compassion to guide your decisions ... in bed!

Like the man said, "my future's so bright I gotta wear shades" ... in bed!

:-)

Never have kryptonite for BreakFast!

Well it was a tough day in Smallville today. Superman was slipped a kryptonite-mickey in his blender pancakes. We think that Lex Luther, desguised as the faithful family hound, Bosco, slipped a little kryptonite into Supermans Pancakes when no one was looking. This unfortunate cycle of events was not detected until Superman lost his balance while perched high above the limites of a normal dining room chair and plumeted to a near fatal "crash" at the foot of Grandma Jones's table near the staircase landing. Now normally, such an incident would have gone un-noticed by the citizens of Smallville. And likely would have this time too, if it were'nt for stoic demeanor on Superman's face and splattered blood across his chest. At this point we realized that someone had poisoned Superman with Kryptonite. As a result Superman (and his mommy) had to make a rush to the emegency room where superman was given 3 staples to ensure that his brains didn't fall out and a popcycle because he had faced the staple process without fear or crying; well, almost anyway. But never fear, Superman is back on the job tonight making sure that Smallville, and the rest of Cochise County, are safe from illegal border runners, garden chickens, and scarry black bugs. We keep looking for a big Toad, but so far haven't seen one.

My Summer Vacation - Part 5

Well, I left my laptop at work, and it has most of my photo's on it. Soooooo, you get to see the end of the Utah portion of the trip now (i.e., Part 5) and Parts 2 (Family Gathering), Part 3 (Navajo Lake), Part 4 (Bryce Canyon), and Part 6 (Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood) later on. I just got the pictures from the Zions portion back from the photo-shop today. I forgot the camera charger and the camera ran out of juice just before we got to Zion's; so I had to buy a disposal camera to capture pictures from Zions.

We spent two days and one night at Zions National Park. We stayed in one of the Lodge's Cabins and did meals in the Lodge restaurant. Leora drug me around all but one of the trails. The only one we didn't do was the "Angel's Landing", we just didn't have time to fit that one in. We hiked to the Grotto, the Emerald Ponds, and the Narrows; then rode the shuttle to all of the other locations (i.e., Prophets Seat (??), the Big Bend, Museum, and Visitors Center). We got to see several varieties of critters up close; deer so close you could touch them, chip monks and ground squirrels that were begging for food, blue jays and wild turkeys that simply ignored your presence, and a whole bunch of lizards. We attended a lecture by a Park Ranger titled "Our Furry Friends" and learned that the furriest beast in the park is the ranger. We attended a 25 minute film at the museum that explained how the park was formed. Unfortunately this was right after all of our hiking and I snored through the back half of the film; what can I say, it was cool, the seat was soft, and I was tired.

We met people from all over the world. A group of Auzzies trying to hike up to the Emerald Ponds. A group of Harley Davidson riding Frenchmen& Frenchwomen that we had met earlier at the Cameron Trading Post. We ran into folks from China and Japan; met some castilian speaking folks from Spain. There was a guy from eastern Europe and several Russians. All of them were truly impressed with the "West"; we heard descriptions like "magnificent" and "glorious".

I got to sit out on the cabin porch and impress all passers-by with my fantastic guitar playing. Well, at least no one ran away screaming.

And our bed was actually much, much, much better than the bed at Navajo Lake (part 3).

All in all, we had a grand time communing with nature. But its all good when your with your Lady.

My Summer Vacation - Part 1

I just got back from taking about ten days off. We loaded a lot into these ten days. I've decided to spread this out a little instead of trying to tell you about it all in one swoop. So let's start out with the best. My contemplation of bubbles!

Did you ever contemplate the “Bubble”? Think about it! There exists a thing that is lighter than air; that possesses a skin so thin and fragile that the slightest touch will penetrate it; malleable enough to be stretched and pulled into oblong irregular shapes during its creation, yet when left to its own devises will form a perfect sphere. When fully formed is crystal clear, yet capable of shimmering with all the colors of a rainbow. It can be found under unique conditions to form naturally; and is capable of being manufactured by the dozens for just a penny, one red-cent. Bubbles used in the right circumstances can be quite erotic; but are found most frequently as sources of shear joy by the young of heart!
I’ve often wondered how the world be changed if the most serious of us were subjected to “bubble therapy” as part of our lofty existence. Think about it, presidential debates wherein you had to create a perfect bubble prior to being allowed to express each campaign promise. Or soldiers that were required to qualify with a bubble making machine, then run through the bubbles without popping any prior to graduation from basic training. What if engineers were required to take “bubble breaks” once every morning and once every afternoon just to bring them back down to earth? How about requiring managers in any field of endeavor to play with bubbles at lunch every day as a means of ensuring they retain a sense of humanity and humility?
Think of the educational challenge if you had to measure the viscosity of a bubble prior to completing high school chemistry; or to be able to calculate internal and external pressures of bubbles made from different substance at different temperatures in high school physics? What if in your art class your entire grade was dependent on your ability to paint the rainbow sheen seen on your standard soap bubble?
Ahhh, but that’s way too deep! I think the best use of bubbles is to give the means of making bubbles to a bunch of kids, and then re-learning what pure joy is made of by watching them. The only thing better might be to join them in their merry making.

The Moon was Full

Last Friday night Leora and I declared it date night and went to an early diner and a movie. We called Angie at work and let her know that she and the boys were on their own for diner. Around 5PM while we were waiting for our food Angie called, she was pretty distressed. She wanted to know if we had the boys, the school bus run had been 30 minutes earlier and she still hadn't seen the boys. She had called the school, but no one answered. She was hoping that for some unknown reason we had picked them up. Leora told her that we didn't have them and really didn't have a clue where they were. While Angie was talking to Leora she was walking through the house looking again, and then went outside walking around the house. As she rounded the north-west corner we could hear her shouting at the boys. They had gone straight back to the trampoline when they got home, their book bags were in a pile at foot of the tramp. We could hear Angie scolding them for not coming in and letting her know that they were home. Crisis solved and the evening moves on.
Upon our return from the movies Angie met us at the door with Bosco. It seems her adventures had not ended there. She had decided that she was much to rattled to cook, she drove into town and picked up a pizza and movie to bring back for her and the boys. They settled down in her bedroom for a snuggly treat. The boys had pretty much had their fill and selected one last slice of pizza each. Angie collected the remaining pizza and carried it into the kitchen and put it in the refrigerator. As she was turning back around to go back to her room she noticed a glow from light in the master bedroom closet. She was sure it hadn't been on earlier so she went to investigate. There was nothing or no one there, but she started checking doors and found the master bed room door leading to the porch unlocked, so now she is starting to get scared. She locked the door and hustled back to the boys, grabbed a flashlight and made the boys go with her to check out the outside of the house. As she rounded the southwest corner of the house she saw a tent with a lantern on inside it pitched behind the house. Now she was really scared, so she called a friend. He told her to call 911 and said that he was on his way. Angie called 911, they dispatched a Sheriff's Deputy and told her to take the boys out to her car, lock the doors, start the motor and wait for the Sheriff. If she saw anyone she was to just drive away.
About the time she had her car running and locked her friend arrived, and a minute or two after him the Deputy Sheriff arrived, then another, then another, until we had 4 squad cars with six Deputy Sheriffs on-hand. They checked out the inside of the house and found nothing, so they proceeded outside. In they back yard they found my 14 foot aluminum boat mounted upside down on the trailer, I keep it upside down so that it doesn't collect water when it rains.
It seems the "full moon" shining on the hull of my boat is what Angie thought was a tent with lantern on inside it. My guess is that she walked out my bedroom door onto the porch when going out to the trampoline. And most likely I left the light on that morning when getting ready for work, and no one noticed it before because it was still light outside.
She thanked the Deputy's and they left. She thanked her friend and he left, then she and the boys came back inside to finish their cold pizza and the movie. As they walk into her room they notice that all of the pizza is gone, only empty plates are sitting there, and now they are really scared. As they are backing out of the room they notice Bosco sitting in front of the TV with a slice of Pizza hanging out of his mouth!
As Angie finishes her tale of excitement along the border I only had one question for her; "Did you find out if any of those Deputies were single?" I mean the setting was perfect, full moon, scared girl, hero to the rescue. But no, she didn't.