NoSHAVEmber

I usually have a goatee. Last month we had an early cold weather spell so I decided to grow my beard. Its not much of one...I keep it trimmed about one inch wide with my trimmers. A week ago I noticed it was getting lopsided, so over the weekend I let it grow, then on Monday I trimmed my beard down with the clippers to be about the same height as my 3 day growth (which is to say not much). This weekend I was going to trim it all up again, but I logged on Facebook and saw where my 21 year old nephew and his buddies were doing this thing about not shaving for the month of November, calling it Noshavember. Always a fan of a good stupid immature whim, I decided to join them. This is like my first week, it itches just a little, and my nephew has already wussed out. These kids today must not understand commitment...

Lexie Haircut

Lexie got all the dead ends trimmed our of her hair and now its quite a bit shorter, but more managable. I think it looks cute!!!

Nice Ride Tomorrow

I have organized a nice ride tomorrow. We're taking some back roads
up to Madison, Indiana on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River. We're
going to stop for lunch at a sandwich shop, then come back through
Clifty Falls State Park and on down the Indiana side of the Ohio. It
is supposed to be near perfect temperature and weather. So far I have
a couple folks confirmed and a few more who may or may not show up. I
hope to see a good crew. We are meeting at 930AM at Doughnut Kastle
near the corner of New Lagrange Road and Lyndon Lane.

Waiting to pick up Lexie

We are waiting to pick up sister from the zoo where she had an overnight field trip to learn about the nocturnal habits of the animals!

More clothes for Lexie

For a girl who never asks me to buy her clothes, she sure loves them! These are more hand-offs from Kathy via a co-worker! Lexie has her own tastes, and often picks things that are not very flattering. If I tell her "that doesn't look as good as some other things..." (or whatever) she will wear it anyway. If a girl (i.e. Kat) tells her "this really brings out yor eyes!" or "that is very flattering!" then she will latch onto whatever it is for life and wear it until its worn out! She's a good kid...

Well, I think she's an ANGEL!

My favorite scout leader, Paula, dressed up for Halloween as a witch! She always dresses up for Halloween!

My Halloween

Kathy totally ROCKS!! I looked all over for this candy--the only candy I really wanted. These peanut butter kisses were the candy that my mom got every single year. I remember other stuff too, but she would always get these! I like 'em because they have that little glop of peanut butter in the middle.

Lexie's Bountiful Harvest

Can you see the sugar-crazed look in her eyes? She merrily traded Logan to get all his Twizzlers...

Halloween: the aftermath

Can you just see the tooth decay? This is only part of Logan's haul. He was happily in the middle of organizing!

Kathy likes to be bouncy!??!

Here is Kat in her Tigger costume. I thought it was cute but there are really better feline costumes... I think any version of Catwoman would be excellent!

Lexie Full View

Lexie had these cute little tights that went with her costume, but also drove her crazy trying to keep them up!

Lexie dressed up as Elphaba

Lex dressed up as Elphaba from the musical "Wicked". All the greasepaint makeup on these kids was murder!

Scary Logan!

Here's Logan taken outside Mark's house. Mark had a bonfire with weinie roast. It was really nice!

Logan's Costume-Full View

Here's a full view of Logan's costume.

Logan's Halloween Costume

Logan wanted to be a black-face spector with red glowing eyes, but every item of red makeup said not for use around eyes...so he settled for being death/the grim reaper.

Lumberjack Splott

We got Splott this plaid doggie jacket. It was only $2.50! He likes it better than his sweater which you can tell because he doesn't try to rub it off on everything. Lex also gave him a bath this weekend!

Saturday Afternoon

Lexie wanted to go to a soccer game with our neighbor Janet, so Logan, Kat and I went to do some errands. We had to run to Target. We got Logana new hooded zip-up sweatshirtbecause the zipper had broken on his. Here is Logan sitting on the post thing outside the store.

Logan's Lego Creation

Logan was in a Lego mood this weekend. It was cold and nasty most of the early part of the day Saturday. He built this Legomobile...

Why Men Should Not Write Advice Columns

I got this from a friend today and it was so funny I had to share it...

 

 

Dear Jim,

 

I hope you can help me. The other day, I set off for work leaving my husband in the house watching TV. My car started stalling and then it broke down about a mile down the road and I had to walk back to get my husband's help. When I got home, I couldn't believe my eyes. He was in our bedroom with the neighbour's daughter!

 

I am 32, my husband is 34, and the neighbour's daughter is 19. We have been married for ten years. When I confronted him, he broke down and admitted that they had been having an affair for the past six months. He won't go to counselling and I'm afraid I am a wreck and need advice urgently. Can you please help?

 

Sincerely,

 

Beatrice

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Dear Beatrice,

 

A car stalling after being driven a short distance can be caused by a variety of faults with the engine. Start by checking that there is no debris in the fuel line. If it is clear, check the vacuum pipes and hoses on the intake manifold and also check all grounding wires. If none of these approaches solves the problem, it could be that the fuel pump itself is faulty, causing low delivery pressure to the injectors.

 

I hope this helps,

 

Jim

Spirit week against drugs

It was anti-drugs spirit week for Logan. They did themes of mix match, hats, yesterday was ties(he wore Spongebob Squaretie as you can see) and today is school spirit day.

Spirit week against drugs

It was anti-drugs spirit week for Logan. They did themes of mix match, hats, yesterday was ties(he wore Spongebob Squaretie as you can see) and today is school spirit day.

Birthday Luncheon

Yesterday they had the October birthday luncheon. The ladies here at work all pitched in. The food was great and we played a game. There were prizes, and my friend Mindy always puts on a big show about winning a prize. She is so dramatic... but I mean that in a good way!

Thursday night is Scouts night

The kids, Logan in particular, has a great time at scouts. Mark, Paula and Brian are all great folks and very nice.

Gummie eyes

My friend Doris at work gave me these gummie eyes to give to the kids...

"Something's got me!!!"

I just turned 42 this month.  I don't know why, but its got me thinking about my mom, and my step-dad Jack who have both passed away for several years now.  I talked to my sister Patti a couple weeks ago and one weekend stopped in to visit with my brother Mike.  The other day I was wondering how Jack's kids are all doing.  This got me thinking of something that happened when I was a kid.

 

When I was in my early teens, as a summer job, I would work at Sligo Feed Mill which was owned by my step-dad Jack. Jack "dated" my mom for like over ten years. He had been divorced for a long time so one day I asked mom why they didn't get married.  Mom told me it had to do with Jack feeling like it was a sin because his ex-wife was alive. I never understood that because his ex was remarried...  But mom never worried about it or pressured him (not that I ever heard about) and finally they did get married. There was a teen period where I didn't get along with Jack but seeing as I didn't get along so well with mom at that time either, I know now it was no biggie and nothing to do with Jack. Anyway, Jack had two sons, Tony and Tom. Tony has a wife and two kids (one of which was a little ass-hat named Matt: when we went to Opryland and I lost the totally cool Greek fisherman's cap my sister Bonnie got me from Greece said "that's okay. It looked stupid on you anyway!"), lived in Kokomo and worked for Delco. Tom (at the time) was a wreck of alcohol, drugs, and had a rap sheet--for stabbing the local sheriff's son in a bar...  Jack's two youngest were twins. Sandy stayed with their mom I think because I didn't see her much. Sam, on the other had, just got his permanent drivers license.  This memory is about Sam.

 

Sam and I got to go every once in a while and deliver feed. I always liked that part because you got to see the animals which were mostly just cows and pigs, but sometimes quarter horses, Thoroughbreds and even a couple farms that had Arabians!  The Mill would custom mix any feed to specifications, then deliver it.  We would get it all loaded into the machine called the mixer.  The mixer was this big blue metal bin with huge motors on the top and sides which drove large mixing blades inside.  It had windows so you could see, but they were usually crusted over with grain dust and molasses (the liquid pumped in to make the feed more appealing to animals).  It had this auger in the bottom where you could dump the ingredients (namely vitamins and minerals), the grains would be pumped into the top or come in through the hammer mill if some farmer came in with their own corn/hay/soybeans/etc. to grind.  The whole thing was supported on a scale which took of the weight of the machinery and the mixer itself.  Lastly, it had three hatches you can open to dispense the feed into bags.  Each hatch had a lip where you could put a heavy woven plastic or burlap feed sack and let the mixed feed spill out into the bags.  When the bag is nearly full, you take it off (closing the hatch at the same time) and tie it up with a special knot that I still remember how to tie.  These were loaded onto a pickup truck and driven to the stable or farm for delivery.

 

One day we were out to deliver feed.  We got only about a quarter mile away and Sam told me it looked like it was going to rain.  For rain, we always had a tarpaulin (tarp for short) to cover the bed of the truck.  To tie it down we used the same twine that we had tied the bags shut with.  I had a pocket knife, and Sam had this big lock-blade knife that came with a large leather belt case.  It was about the size of a cell phone case.  So we get out the tarp, and some twine, and tie it all down so that no water can get in.  After making sure that everything was secure, we got back in the cab and headed on down the road.  It was only a few minutes and I heard this "slam" noise like we had hit something.  I look over at Sam, and he looks sort of scared, but the truck kept going and we had no flat or anything so we both just sort of ignored it.  About a mile down the road I hear the same noise and I look over at Sam and he is white as a sheet.  It is clear to see that he's scared and I asked him "What's wrong, did we hit something?"

 

"I don't know..." says Sam.  At this point I'm thinking he's on drugs or something, so I begin to watch him out of the corner of my eye.  Next time I hear the "slam" noise I see movement out of the corner of my eye.  I look at Sam and he says "I think something's got me!"  Now I am positive he is on drugs, so I continue to watch him closely in case he goes into a seizure or something.  The guy is p*ss-your-pants scared!!  The next time I hear the noise, I see his whole body jerked over toward the door, his head is pressed up against the window for a split second!!  The truck, fully loaded with feed, jogs over into the oncoming lane a little.  I fasten my seat belt.  He gets the truck under control quickly saying the whole time "Something's got me, man!" and completely freaking out!  I actually believe him as it happens again and I can see that his whole body is jerked around like something from the Exorcist!  He's still saying "It's got me!" as he pulls off the road--this mysterious force slamming him into his door a couple more times as he is getting the truck stopped.  For a minute he just sits there breathing heavy and shaking, his eyes are wide and white like his skin.  He is scared sh*tless!!

 

He opens the door cautiously and discovers that a long piece of twine has made a loop around his knife case.  When the end would catch onto the rear wheels of the truck, they would run it over and jerk the case hard which was firmly connected to his belt...and thus his whole body would slam against the truck door. 

 

If I remember correctly, it never did rain...

Flat Logan - Our Orcadian Friends Come Thru!!

Thanks to Mark and Sam for offering to help Logan with his school
project and getting such cool pictures and taking Flat Logan on some
really grand adventures! His final due date is Friday and he will
have just enough time to get it finished! You guys rock!

Dead Flat Logan

I sent Flat Logan UPSP to some friends in Orkney who offered to help
out Logan with his project. The teacher extended the deadline like
three times, and the last day is this coming Friday. Aside from
International Next-Day service, there is no way to get it back in
time, so Logan will end up with an "incomplete" for this project. I
am sad for him because he really wanted to be the kid who sent their
Flat Person the furthest distance, but sometimes these things happen.
It's hard on him to get a poor grade because he usually does very
well. This morning I was going through his papers and tears started
to well up about some "C" grades he'd gotten and he started making
excuses telling me why... I told him not to sweat it. We counted up
all the A's and B's and there were over twenty of them (mostly A's!)
and I told him it couldn't be enough to affect his final grade and he
would still get an A. I just hope the failed Flat Logan project
doesn't bring it down too much, but I fear it might---even a bad grade
is better than no grade at all.

The Circle of Blood!

So this morning I am slicing some Amish cheese, and Logan says "Wait Daddy! I need to get out of your circle of blood!" I asked him what he was talking about (I think it came out something like *snort!* "What the hell is that!?!??!!") And he explained it was something they taught him in scouts about handling a knife and using it. I was ecstatic that he learned a good skill and some responsibility! Well, ok...I think I was more impressed that he learned a new totally kick-ass term. I would guess its not an official scout term, but it is a cool way to cement that little safety device into an 8 year old's head. Next: The Triangle of Death!

Splott to the Vet

I needed to get Splott's seizure medicine refilled so I called the vet. They told me since it had been six months since he started on the phenobarbitol, they needed to do bloodwork. That sucks because it costs so much, but otherwise it has to be done, so here we are at the Shively Animal Clinic. Whoo hoo! Spending money I don't have again! The good thing is I feel a little better about it this time because I think he's starting to "get it" about the housebreaking. Much fewer accidents, and he's doing a lot better going outside and hitting the pee mats!!!

This is tea...

I am trying to drink more decaf and green tea...less coffee. This would be Kathy's influence. She has this crazy idea that I should do more things that are better for me. I guess she's right and so I'm trying. Possibly very trying to her patience... But I am doing a bit better with some things... Still, there is something very comforting to have someone around who cares about you.

Reserved Scooter Parking

Wouldn't you know the Highlands would be the first area in Louisville to have dedicated scooter parking! This is at the ValuMarket in Mid City Mall on Bardstown Road. I wrote to the corporate to see if they are going to put them in other locations. It had a great welded steel frame with loops to chain your scoot up if you wanted. This is a big mile-stone for us scooterfolk!