Busy, Busy, Busy

Since returning North, we have been to Buffalo area a half dozen times. This last Friday, we went for a fiddle gig in Buffalo and went to the GM Tonawanda engine plant open house. On Saturday we worked 0n the ice cream social at Lakeside, then went to Buffalo, got our haircuts at Wally and Joan Tanners. Spent the night with Heidi, then went to North Amherst Fathers Day breakfast, and after that went with Derek and Liza to Darien Lake, followed by a Birthday Party for Gracie at Dereks house.

Then home to Ripley, where we mowed the lawn, cleaned up the yard and started to get the boat out, find the batteries and charge them. Now we can et the motors running and take it to the lake. We put the catwalk in a week or so ago and are waiting for the lift to be put in.

We have spent our first night at the Vikings and of course have been mowing the lawn, putting in flowers and readying the camper for the season.

I was able to rototill Lauras' gardens, and she has them both pretty well planted. This was a little late because of all the rain we had been receiving.

My knee has been doing fairly well. I work it hard all day and it is tired at the end of the day. Basically, if I am using it I forget about it and go about my business. If I sit for a while, it takes a little time to get it moving

It is still difficult to get down on the floor and up again, but it is improving. I am beginning to start to catch up with the many little jobs, that were neglected last year. We have several projects in mind, but I am waiting to get a little more flexible before attempting them.. I will try to keep up a little better from now on.

Summer 2011?

Well, we left Florida on Friday morning the 6th of May. We ran into heavy rain in Jacksonville, Savannah, and Pittsburgh. Fortunately, Thursday before we left was a fairly cool nice day, so we were able to load the trailer and protect it fairly well, so very little damage was incurred due to the 3 rainstorms. We wound up in Wytheville, Virginia for the night, and arrived in Ripley about 6:30 PM Saturday night. We had no problems, paid as little as $3.67 in Virginia and as much as $3.99 in W. Virginia. When we arrived, Ray and Luella and Lester and Sue showed up to help unload everything. Ray brought his mowing tractor and gave the lawn a much needed "haircut". Thanks Ray.

Ki-Ki rode loose in the car while yellow belly? was confined to the cage.Both behaved very well during the trip.

Sunday, we went to the Vikings to meet with Heidi and Cat, and Derek
with Charley, Grace and Eli. The kids enjoyed the Vikings even though it was a little cool. It was good to see everybody and to demonstrate that I really can walk without assistance.

As I said, I can walk without assistance, but need more time to become fully healed and rehabbed. I do my exercises every day and am slowly getting close to "normal".

Monday, we went to Amherst to do some shopping and to have supper with Jerry, Alison, Shawn and Cheyenne. Everybody appears to be doing well and that is good.

Tuesday, we remowed the lawn and started to clean everything up and putting things away. Thursday, I played golf for the first time in 2 years and did ok. Some good shots and some bad ones, final score 66 for 9 holes. Knees were really tired, as we had mowed some at the Vikings prior, and the last 3 holes are up and down hill. Even with a golf cart there was a fair amount of walking.

During this week, the weather was quite nice, even Saturday was nice although heavy rain was not too far away to the South and East. Sunday was typical of the weather here, cold and wet. Monday and today are typical of earlier this year and I think I would rather have 85 and sun. We are tempted to drive back to Florida for a week or so until it warms up.

We have two furnaces and the one for the back addition works fine, but the one for the front part does not want to behave, so we have to resort to electric heaters live in the front part.

We have been having some difficulty with Lauras' computer, but Lester came over last night and straightened it out, so now we have all three computers working.

We have been free of Doctors for a while and medications have been reduced to a relative minimum, while I regain some of my former strength and appearance. We are looking forward to a busy summer, including having a boat in the waters of Chautauqua Lake.

We are going to our local GP on Friday, and will include some garage saling, some music at a fiddle club jam and a short stint at the Hamburg Fairgrounds Casino. Don't tell the IRS, but I left the Casino last time with $40.00 more than I started with. Laura, on the other hand, left a little lighter than she started.

Don't forget that Saturday the 21st of May is JUDGEMENT DAY. Some of us might not be around after that, and some of us will just have to wait until October 21, to learn our fate when the World Blows up.

Until then enjoy yourself and keep in touch.

closing out Florida Winter/spring 2011

We have been working so hard lately, that we are tired.

We are leaving Friday AM May 6, 2011 for cold and rainy New York. Should be there Saturday afternoon. We ask which is better, 85 degrees and sun or 50 degrees and rain. It is hard to decide .We have been busy building a 12x 10 shed. We got it done except for the roof, which will be completed in the fall. We learned that Kayla, Annettes oldest daughter has been doing very well for Flagler Palm Coast softball. So we were able to attend several of her playoff games. Whey wound up losing in the playoffs,but over all they were somethin like 24 and 6 for the season. Kayla was the leader in runs scored, stolen bases and had a high batting average. She graduates this year and is going to University of Tampa, where she hopes to earn an athletic scholarship.

The world has been a very tumultuous place lately, with the huge number of tornadoes. It appears there are hundreds of people still missing in Alabama, and other southern states. How about Japan where there are many thousands still missing. Then we have Osama leaving us for wherever he is going. We went to the Easter parade in St Augustine and read signs telling us about the upcoming Rapture. I remembered seeing something about this but looked it up again.

There are several different versions of this but in essence, the religious "experts" have decided that Christ is coming back to earth on the 21st of May. All believers will fly off to Heaven (or somewhere), leaving all the non believers behind. Then on October 21, the whole world is destroyed(possibly a huge earthquake). I for one am anxiously waiting to see how this all comes out. I do have some questions but do not know who to ask. enough of this for now, see you all in New York.

what is happening?

Here we are in sunny Florida with 90 degree weather and nearly constant sunshine. It is almost too much, but not quite, not yet. I was trying to send some pictures with the I-Pod, but sort of forgot how. The one of the whale is Tillimuk(whatever) the real killer whale. This was his(her?) first day back on the job since that fateful day a year or ago. I have a better one if I can get it to work . The dog is part of the disc chasing dog show at Clay County Fair. It was hard to get a picture with the dog actually in the picture, because they move so fast. We are winding down here in Florida. Lester and Sue leave about the 20th of April and we will be heading North about May 4th or 5th. I am doing quite well, walking is gettting better, sleeping is getting better, everything is getting better. We continue to be busy with the different music venues, yard sales, boat rides and enjoying life in general. It is a far different world today than it was one year ago. When I get the other pictures on, will write more