YAY CHRISTIE!!…and…Things could be looking UP!!

  Well, Christie did her first Triathlon and did great…

…Left shows her transitioning from her 500 meter swim to her 10 mile bicycle ride…and right, she is on her 3 mile run, giving her sons a high five   The kids, Aiden and Maddox are ages almost 5 and 2 1/2, and their Dad (who is a Marathon runner) took them to see Chris run…Chris finished 66th overall out of 372 …She was 188th in the swim, 77th in the bicycle and 41st in the run.  Her rank in the category of ages 39 and under (Chris IS 39) was 14th…and her finish time was 1 hour 18 minutes and 46.9 seconds….YAY CHRIS!!!!

Happy family after the race..Notice Aiden has his mom’s medal around his neck…

Yesterday was Uncle Clarence’s 90th birthday…We had a pizza and cupcakes at the Rehab .  He is doing really well and looks soooo much better than he did when he came there in June.  He has gained 16 lbs in 10 weeks…from 126 to 142….

Left is Uncle Clarence on June 30th….and on the right he and Jeanette yesterday on his 90th birthday…Just look how much healthier he looks…amazing!  He will be released very soon and we are hoping to get them both into a great assisted living apartment…We shall see..

Our son, Kelly, is a Lieutenant on Oswego, IL Fire Department, at Station 2…and the station he works at is very close to the Rehab we frequent to visit Uncle Clarence…We stopped the other day to see Kelly at his work…

He was the “officer” on duty that day…They usually work one on and two off, but that can flex a lot..Above is the duty board..His department just got a new engine and it’s just like a new toy to a firefighter…or an old retired firefighter…We have 3 generations of fire fighter Caves…Den’s Dad, (Cam Cave)..Dennis, and now Kelly. WOOT!WOOT!

Last week I began the washing of our Hiker…I started at the top, which means climbing up on the roof and hauling the hose a bucket of bleach/soapy water and a long handled scrub brush.  I have discovered one thing about washing our fiver…Because the whole thing is white, you can go “snowblind” if you wash it in the bright sun ….I have to pace myself as the cloudy days roll in…It took me about 2-3 days to get the whole thing done..and that included the awning, which was mildewed and gross….Now the front and back need a coat of wax…That is MacGyver’s job…

…Here she is…all dressed up and no place to go… YET!   ….We are making some progress getting our elders to assisted living…We are supposedly moving them in this Friday…But, as MacGyver says, “ They aren’t in yet..”  Keep your fingers, eyes and legs crossed for us.  This could be the beginning of a couple carefully timed camping trips…..

Triathlon Wolff

  Short blog this time…I PROMISE, OK?..Den and I are busy helping our elders transition into some assisted living quarters next week, and that means that my blogging time might slow up…even more than it has. 

Our youngest daughter is running in Go Girl Triathlon this Saturday in Indianapolis…swim 500 meters, then bike 10 miles…and last run 3 miles.. Both our daughters and their hubbys are runners….didn’t get that from me!!!

Running is NOT my idea of having fun….

….but being this nutsy is “right up my alley”, yep…these chicks didn’t fall too far from the nest!   Makes a mother hen proud!

We can have an endlesss supply of “Guinness”…

  Our son, Kelly and his wife, Cindy, were married in Ireland on Dingle Penninsula.  They have always had a great  love of that land…Cindy is “Southside Irish” and Kelly’s Great Grandfather Fry had some Irish blood in him.  So, when they decided to adopt a rescue dog, imagine their surprise that one of the dogs they looked at was a German Shepard named Guinness…Guinness came from Kentucky, is 5 years old and quite a handsome guy…

…but poor Guinness was badly abused.  His ribs show through his fur, he had ear infections and flea infestation so bad he had chewed the fur off his hind legs.  He was actually going to be euthanized if no one adopted him.  Some people are very leery of a dog of this breed, but Kel and Cin weren’t.  Because Kelly works one day on, 2 off, as a firefighter, Cindy has many nights alone and they wanted a dog who would be a deterent to anyone thinking to do some harm…enter Guinness the German Shepard.  Just for the record, he is VERY well behaved, walks on the leash right next to them, and seems to socialize well. When they take him in the truck, he just lies down in the back and sleeps…

 

He loves to ride in the back seat of their truck..just like a baby he falls asleep.  Now they just have to put some meat on his bones, poor baby.  They have only had him one week, so he is still meeting our family a little at a time…As some of you may know, our entire family at one sitting can be somewhat OVERWHELMING!

Tomorrow is our daughter, Chris and her hubby John’s 8th Wedding Anniversary!  That is one week we sure won’t forget ..for MANY reasons.  It was a beautiful wedding held at the Hilton in Longboat Key, Florida…

Ninety people attended and they were married at sunset on the beach….We all gathered for a family picture…John has a step mom and step dad too, so it made for very large family photo!

It CANNOT be 8 years already, right????

Two days after their wedding, Den and I headed for South Florida and the Florida Keys in our Cougar fiver.  We had reservations at Long Key State Park…We actually ended up spending a day with Chris and John, who were honeymooning on Key West..

I know, I know..come on, Ma..it’s their HONEYMOON!…As soon as MacGyver and I arrived at our park,  Chris called and told us to drive down to Key West and spend the day with them…on their honeymoon…”Are you two NUTS? Why would you want to hang out with 2 old people (not to mention we’re your parents) …and…on your HONEYMOON?????”  Chris replied, “Come on, Mom..GET OVER IT! LET’S PARTY TOGETHER ON KEY WEST FOR THE DAY!”….Well, they talked us into it and we had a great time…That evening when we arrived at our camper, what had only been a tropical storm became Hurricane Katrina ..and she was due to make landfall over South Florida and the Keys the next day. ….HOLY TIDAL WAVE, BATMAN!!

This picture was taken the night before we left Long Key, looking East out on the Atlantic.  The park ranger advised us to leave at first light in the morning, as they were evacuating the park.  The next morning when we left the  park at 4AM, it was lightening off the coast and heading our way…yep, a Category 1 Hurricane named Katrina.  As we got off the keys, they were closing the bridge behind us.  We drove North all day, until we crossed the Florida/Georgia coast ..and we came through some pretty heavy rain squalls and winds.  That Cougar did some rockin’ and rollin’….You should have seen all the Electric Power trucks headed South in the opposite lane of traffic…We sure did boogie outta there..But..that darn Katrina kept growing and growing…and we all knew what happened..devastation for the Gulf Coast…

Chris and John called us from the Hilton at Key West.  They had a room on the ground floor and Chris said it was raining sideways.  They had no power, ran out of food, and worst of all NO BEER!! She said that they waded through the street to Sloppy Joes and had bottled warm beer and a sandwich.  Their flight out of Key West was canceled, so John got a rental car when the bridge re opened and drove to Miami to catch a flight out…WE WILL NEVER FORGET THAT WEDDING…SHEESH!

Sunday night Dennis did some serious tag team grilling.  We had sweet corn and ribs ….and each required grilling on different  grills.  The corn we soaked in a bucket of water with husks on and that went on the gas grill.  The ribs I precooked in the oven at 250degrees for an hour and Den finished them on the Weber Charcoal grill….

……Left, just thrown them on the grill.     On the right…TRADA! PERFECTISSIMO RIBS!

Chef Dennis has both grills going at the same time…..no easy feat, but he managed nicely..(I like my chefs in shorts and shirtless )

“Saving one dog will not change the world, but surely for that one dog, the world will change forever.” 
                                                                                             ~ Karen Davison

Don’t ya know?…Half the FUN is in the “planning”…

First of all, I need to give a big “shout out” to 2 very lovely ladies who have decided to take a chance and follow this train wreck….Welcome aboard to grammynmaggie…and also Skylady.  Neither one had a blog, but they gotta be fun loving people if they climbed into OUR truck!! Glad to have you riding along..If either of you have wine, you can ride up front with ME ..

  We have been having such GREAT weather for August!! It has been 80 and sunny, and a campfire is in order every evening…My Wren family “flew the coop” and I am now an empty nester.  My  hummers are getting more frequent and way more aggressive!

Please note that my pictures are not near as good as some, but I have to wait outside the backdoor and hope one shows up, otherwise I have to take the pictures through our screens..NOT a good photo!

We’ve been pretty busy around here.  MacGyver finished our front porch screens, installed new garage doors and took down a tree or two…We are still making trips to Montgomery every 3rd day to see Uncle Jr.  He is doing well and we hope to see him released before too long…and that is will open up another whole can of worms..

As I said, Dennis has been a busy little bee.  We got a call from our oldest daughter, Terrie, who lives about 1/2 hour from here.  Seems their 10 year old hot water heater “bit the big one”and decided to spring a leak…Enter MacGyver..

 

Dennis took the ol’ blue truck, picked up Tim, and they went to purchase a new hot water heater.  I was still at home.  Now Dennis discovered he needed LOTS more tools for this job…(We love our son-in-law very much. He is a wonderful Father, Dad and Detective…but he doesn’t know diddly squat about the right end of a screw driver, and has almost NO tools at their house!!) So Dennis called me at home, and talked me through gathering all the tools needed for installing a hot water heater, so I could take them over the them. This does NOT bode well for a congenial relationship..

  I went into our garage, cell phone in had with Den giving me orders of what to find and where to find it.  As you might imagine there was LOTS of heated discussion in that phone conversation.  The following are just a few finely chosen quotes from MacGyver.. “What do you mean you don’t know what a pipe wrench looks like?”…and..”Donna, that solder HAS to be right in front of your face…NO, NOT the acid solder, the solid solder!! “…”Now don’t forget my drill and socket wrenches…oh, and the pipe salve, sand paper and blow torch”…This next comment was the best..”Jesu_ Chr___!  I could have driven home and got it myself by now!!”  Holy Crap, please don’t let me forget anything!

TRA DA!!  Only one little glitch..Turns out that what I thought was steel wool was some kind of padding for some whatchamacallit…Hey! That was my only mistake!!  As you can see, their dog, Bogie, was lots of help with this project…And what does it call for when a big job like this is finished????…………

…why, a couple cold beers, of course!!!

Some of you may remember that MacGyver is a farmer “wanna be”..and he helps a good friend, Jim Fritch, combine the corn in the Fall.  (This often becomes a bone of contention when I am spinning my tires to get the Heck outta here in the Hiker, and the harvest goes on until December. Just for the record, these following 3 pics were taken Nov. 20th, 2008..I rest my case.)

Anyway, Jim called Den yesterday and told him we could go pick us some of his fine sweet corn.  It was in a small cornfield in back of his Dad’s house on the East edge of Sandwich.  So, on our way home from visiting our elders, we wheeled into his Dad’s yard and drove right around back to the corn…

 

As soon as we stopped, I jumped out of the truck and headed toward the cornfield….Just as I was about to climb over what I thought was just a fence, Dennis said,” “Be careful not to touch that electric fence when you step over it”.  WHOA, TONTO!!…Gee, thanks for telling me SWEETHEART!  “So….would it KILL me if I touched it?”, I had to ask.  “ No, but you will get one Heck of a shock..It’s there to keep the racoons out.”…OK, so now I am paranoid about this little nasty fence just a few feet from MY feet.

We managed to get out dozen ears and didn’t even drop one ..My evil twin was really wanting to throw one of the ears of corn at that fence and see what would happen.  I had to rein that twin in, and it wasn’t easy!  She’s a tough old bird!..

I guess that just about does it for excitement around here.  The Hiker still sits idle.  I did have a brainstorm though.  If we can get our elders safely ensconced in assisted living next month, maybe …just maybe we can go to Shabbona State Park for a couple weeks.  Shabbona is about 30 miles from here.  I told MacGyver that if he is making me a farmer’s widow again this Fall, first he has to take me and the Hiker to Shabbona State Park and PARK US!!  He can still play in the corn, and we are only an hour from the elders…It’s not far from where Dennis combines the corn, and about 45 minutes from OUR house in Sandwich.. See?? I gotta plan, Stan!! WOOT!WOOT!…please let this work out, please let this work out, please let this work out….

“Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans. It is lovely to be silly at the right moment.”

                                                           ~Horace