moving forward

Yesterday, we had friends from Florida show up in their newly acquired motorhome, along with their dog and cat. Virgil and Helen Jarrett are from W. Virginia, but currently live in Pomona Park. Virgil is an excellent folk singer and Helen is an artist(painter). They will be here about a week. So naturally, Laura had to make a double batch of sticky buns which we took over to Lester and Sues to bake and eat. While they went touring, we went to lakeside to check out the boat.

It was a big day today. The sun was shining, no rain was falling. The boat lift let the boat settle gently into the water, both engines fired up, and we took a nice ride about the upper part of the lake. We stopped at the Vikings so Laura could retrieve some stuff she had forgotten. Then the lift gently picked the boat out of the water again. a successful water day. Now we can take boat rides, or fish. We recently got fishing licenses for life in NY State for $50.00. All this before the end of July. Although we were late with the boat, we did not miss much usage as we are enjoying one of the coldest, wettest Julys in recorded weather history(about 130 Years). Many of the other boats have not been used much because of the weather.

last Saturday, was town wide garage sale day in Sugar Grove,PA. Guess who bought a bass guitar , two amplifiers, and a an old guitar? I still do not know how many banjos, fiddles, guitars, etc that Laura has>

Sunday was family picnic day at the Vikings. Jerry, Alison, Shawn and Cheyenne were all here, along with Derek, Liza, Charlotte, Grace and Eli. Eli is a walker now. Everybody had a good time, with numerous games and prizes. Charlotte did very well in the money scramble, and won some money, winning one of the foot races for her age group where she won quite easily. She is fast.

When time permits,we continue to filter through some of the stuff we brought from Amherst, moving stuff from the solarium to the pole barn, and starting to organize the pole barn. It seems like we are never going to finish these jobs, and get into our rocking chairs on the porch

last Monday, I played golf(51) and we went to the Chautauqua Idol program at Bemus Point. We stayed overnight for our 7th nite. We have to stay at least 10 nites to fulfill part of the requirements to retain the right to keep the viking site.

Did I mention that in between the rainy periods, we have to mow lawns. Fortunately, Dick Hiam at Lakeside mows there. Laura and I did the Vikings monday, and today I got Ripley done.

We continue to burn up the roads, traveling to Sardinia (about 90 miles) to play with the Fiddle Club.

The weather man just reported that we have warmer weather coming next week, but predicts rain every other day. Poor Heidi is living with the high 90's in Seattle. At least we do not have to use our ac units., enough for now.

what happened to summer?

Today is the 19th of July, yesterday was the 4th of July. Where is the summer weather?

This week we got the boat all together, both motors running well, some cleanup, etc, and Friday, it went to the lake and is now resting on the lift. If ever we get some nice boating wether, we will go to the lake and enjoy it. When we put it in, it was cold, windy, choppy and rain threatening, but it went in anyway.

Wednesday, we went to Magnolia Springs area on Chautauqua Lake to visit with Donna and Sandy. Sandy and Tony Triscari had rented a cottage on the Lake and Donna was passing through on her way to the East Coast to visit her sons and families. She is retiring and plans to leave Minnesota for the East Coast. Doug is in Georgia working with the University of Georgia.

Tony and Sandy are doing well, with growing families. We missed Gloria, who had been there the night before.

We are struggling to catch up with sifting through all of the stuff we brought from Amherst, with some stuff finding a home in the new building, some stuff going to the curb as "free", and some stuff being placed in another pile for further evaluation. Very shortly, I will be assembling all of the musical instruments together, and I will be able to tell how many banjoes, fiddles, guitars, fiddles and other misc. I have. Then maybe, I can begin to eliminate some of them.

Last Sunday, Derek and Charlotte, and Grace and Eli came to visit at the Vikings, and they are expected again today, so have to go.

Speaking of the Vikings, they had their second annual pig roast for the Trailer Association last night. We missed the first one last year because we were in Seattle. The event was well attended, and was complete with a live band. The band was good, but definitely too loud.

enough for now, more later.

musings and reflections

Today is an anniversary of sorts. Six months ago today, I had my partial replacement of my left knee. Although the hospital stay is short, being only two days, and there is no re-hab in a nursing home, there is a long healing process. At this time, I am finally getting to the point that I can take longer steps, bend the knee when walking, start walking shortly after exiting a car or sitting for long periods, go up or down steps using both knees. I also have longer periods where I can walk more or less normally. However, after a workout or heavy usage, there is some discomfort. Oerall, I would put my recovery at about 75-80%, but gaining steadily. There does appear to be a light at the end of the tunnel. Hoo-ray.

Although summer has yet to show up, the weather has not been too bad. If you discount the week of rain in late June. Erie had 5 inches of rain that severely flooded the Millcreek Mall area. We had several days where we traveled around the county, and it would be raining hard here and not at all somewhere else. Anyway, we put the room air conditioners in, but have yet to use them. Decent days followed by cool nights work out well. We have secret info from Florida, that our area has been enjoying 90-100 degrees.

Speaking of Satsuma, we were wondering about the abduction of Hailey. We called Lavern who indicated that nothing has changed, and the situation is slowly fading away. Someday, we will hopefully learn the whole story and it probably will not be pretty.

It has been about 11 days since the last blog update, and we have been somewhat busy.

Despite our distance from Buffalo, we continue to participate in the doings of the Niagara Frontier Fiddle Club, when we can. On Sunday, June 28, we traveled to (hold on, News alert, Today, July 8th, ABC News did not mention the name of Michael Jackson even once, poor Michael, so soon he is forgotten), back to June 28th, we traveled to West Seneca( did you know there is a East West Seneca?) anyway we went to a fiddle club meeting, and practice. Naturally the club is not the same as it used to be, due to the passing of the older members. They do have a good core of members, including lots of new,younger members, so they should be ok in time.

Monday, it was back to Buffalo, for a Dr visit. Laura did not like the Lady Dr in Westfield, so we make the trip to Amherst ot see our old Dr. I figure this will work until one of us develops a real problem, needing more attention and care. Anyway, our blood work is ok, we still need to get our wts down, and we received our shingles shots. They cost $210 each, but Independent Health will reimburse us $206 each. not too bad. With the completion of this trip, we have logged almost 3000 miles since we returned in late April. Laura does need a mammogram, so we have been practicing, using the leaves of our dining room table.

During late June and early July, we were involved with maintenance at Ripley and the Vikings. Things like lawn mowing, cleaning up, minor repair to the Ripley roof.

July 4th , we had a picnic lunch at Lakeside, a tradition we helped start and continue to assist with. Norma, Ray and Luella came, along with Derek and the girls. The girls enjoyed the games and winning small prizes.That night, we went to Bemus Point, where "Elvis" sang and the girls enjoyed their first close up fireworks. We went to Lakeside and Derek had the misfortune of somebody opening their driver door right in front of him. no one hurt, but a major annoyance.

Sunday morning we assisted the Viking Trailer Association with their annual fund raising pancake breakfast.,Then we went home to Ripley to crash

Monday the 6th was golf day(57)( I miss the chipper I lost) as well as Chautauqua Idol night.They have 12 singers, with 2 being eliminated that night.They are all very good and the balance of the program should be very intersting. We became very famous as a result of the program. It seems the Post Journal had a picture of the judges on the front page of Tuesdays paper. and guess who was clearly visible sitting behind the judges? yep, it was us. We are still waiting for all the phone calls and letters that should be coming our way.

Tuesday, yesterday was a momentous day. The boat came out of its storage building where it has been warm and dry. (You all should remember "Mohr-Fun". It is a 1964 Glastron V-184, currently with a 65 hp Mercury).We have owned it since about 1973. It used to go to Florida every year until the trailer started to break up. We had some problems with the gas line, that needed some parts etc, so today we went to aoerbics at Harborcreek, then Harbor Freight, CVS, Walmart, cherry picking, etc.

Tomorrow, we will try to get the boat ready for introduction to the water. I hope it remembers how to float.

Now we have to deal with Birthdays, Luella and Eli on the 10th, Shawn and Cheyenne on the 12th and 14th.