Archive for August, 2005
Everyone has a list, right? Some people’s list contains the things they want to do before they die, and they check each one off as they do it. Skydiving, bungee jumping, running with the bulls, whatever. I don’t have a list like that. I’ve always thought that if I did manage to do everything on my list, what else would I have to live for? So my list isn’t titled “Fun things I must do before I die”, but instead “Fun things I’ve done while alive.” That way, my list can grow and grow, and I never feel I have to stop adding to the list, and I won’t be disappointed if I leave this life before my list is complete.
So I added “floating” to my list yesterday. The rivers here in Missouri are very different from the rivers in Oregon, at least the rivers I’m familiar with. Oregon rivers are deep, fast, and they seem to claim the lives of about a swimmer a week during summer. Here, the rivers are shallow, slow, clear, and warm. Kathy’s cousin and his family took us to a place called Dawt Mill, where we rented two canoes and four tubes. We were then taken by converted school bus, with the canoes and tubes and our coolers on a trailer behind us, upriver about eight miles, and we got in the water about 12:30. We floated back downriver, and arrived back at Dawt Mill at about 6:30.
During those six hours, the water never got more than about four feet deep, and in some places the bottom of the canoes actually scraped along rocks and submerged logs. We stopped a few times along the way at little sandbars along the banks, to have lunch or to relax. It was a completely wonderful time.
Now for the bad news. If you’ve ever been in a canoe, like Kathy and I had not, you know that they can be really hard to keep balanced. Number of times we flipped? Two. Seconds after we got in the water that we first flipped? About 15. At some point along the way, Kathy switched with Matt, so he was in the canoe with me, and she was floating in the tube behind us. We went through a bit of a “rapids” section, and Matt and I got hung up on a submerged log. Kathy came barreling toward us, and flipped her tube. As she was trying to right herself, her glasses came off, and she dumped her beer. Tragedy. She had just opened that beer. We never did find her glasses or the beer.
So this morning, we’re all putting aloe on our sunburns, massaging the bruises we got from falling in the water and hitting the rocks on the bottom, and getting in touch with a local optometrist to get Kathy replacement glasses. We leave Missouri tomorrow morning for a long slow drive back home through several points of interest none of us have ever seen.
August 29th, 2005
It is so humid here! Everyone here has air conditioning, so it’s fine being inside. Outside, though, it is sweltering hot, and I can’t be outside for more than a few minutes before I’m drenched, stinky and dehydrated. The TV was just interrupted by a severe weather warning a few minutes ago, apparently a big thunderstorm is coming soon. Then it will be hot, humid, and raining.
I know it sounds like I’m complaining, but I am actually having a good time visiting family. Nature is just doing her part in reminding me why I love living in Oregon.
August 26th, 2005
So I took the kids (my three, plus nephew Andrew, who is also visiting here from his home in L.A.) to Branson, Mo.
What. A. Trippy. Place.
Bart was spot on when he said “It’s like Vegas — if it were run by Ned Flanders.” A lot of theme buildings, shaped like strange stuff, and a lot of eye-candy, interestingly right next door to motels obviously more than 50 years old but still kept in pristine condition, right next door to similar immaculate motels that are out of business.
And the shows! Oh my goodness! Baldknobbers’ Jamboree, The Brett Family Singers With Bob Nichols, Buck Trent Show, Circle B Chuckwagon Music Show, Clay Cooper’s Country Express, Dixie Stampede Dinner and Show, Kirby Van Burch & Brett Daniels, Mike Radford’s Remember When Show, Rodney Dillard & the Boys From Mayberry, and many more that I also had never heard of and that are undoubtedly so white-bread as to be blinding to the naked eye.
The kids and I went on a really cool go-cart ride. The track is actually four stories tall, and loops around over itself until you are all the way at the top, then it curves around through several tight turns and bumps and back down to the start. I got some pretty good pictures while piloting the car Lexi and I were in. I’ll put them in the photo gallery as soon as I can.
We also went to the Ripley’s Believe it or Not museum and had a blast there.
August 26th, 2005
OK, so I wasn’t able to post during our trip, due to circumstances I will explain another time. Now, we’re in metropolitan Cabool, Missouri (pop. 2100), and Kathy’s aunt and uncle even have high-speed internet access! Unfortunately, they don’t have wi-fi, and so far I haven’t been able to get the laptop to work with their cable modem. In addition, their computer (on which I am currently writing this) is an old AMD K6 with 60MB ram, running Win98 SE, and the one USB port isn’t working, so I don’t have an easy way to transfer any of the photos to the gallery on this site.
I hope to have another update soon, if I can find a place around here that has some sort of public wi-fi access.
August 24th, 2005
I can only imagine by Mercy Me
Hotel California by The Eagles
Courtesy of the red, white and blue by Toby Keith
Who’s your daddy by Toby Keith
Still waters run deep by The Bee Gees
Butterfly kisses by Bob Carlisle
Alone by The Bee Gees
God’s eyes by Rescue
She thinks my tractors sexy by Kenney Chesney
Where the stars and stripes and the eagles fly by Aaron Tippin
Black velvet by Alana Miles
Don’t let me die young by Andy Taylor
Watermelon crawl by Tracy Bird
Proud Mary by CCR
I tag Steph, Justin, Billy, Matt
August 19th, 2005
We leave Saturday on our big road trip. We’ll be driving about 2100 miles in three days. Beaverton, Oregon to Cabool, Missouri. We’ll be visiting Kathy’s aunt and uncle, and staying with her cousin (their son). Then, another 2100 mile drive back home. It’s gonna be nuts.
I’m actually really looking forward to it. We drive to southern California all the time, generally about once a year. Until recently, all of our immediate family (with the exception of brother Gabe) lived somewhere in the L.A. area. My dad sold his house in Orange County a few years ago (for a very healthy profit) and moved to the Phoenix area. Last summer, we took a long road trip to see his new place there, then continued on to L.A., and finally back home.
Besides that, this is going to be the first long road trip we’ve ever taken, and the first one where we haven’t already seen the same scenery dozens of times before. We’re going to be just like the Griswolds, except I’ll never be nearly as cool as Clark is, and, you know, I’m real. Come to think of it, there are a few other scary parallels there:
- Our minivan is green, like the family truckster (I don’t think the airbags are made from Hefty bags, though).
- I’ve plotted our course on the computer just like Sparky did, except I used Google Earth’s satellite imaging, not some blocky early ’80s Apple II graphics. Plus, Billy didn’t use Pacman to eat the family car.
- We’ll be staying at cheap motels each night, but I swear I won’t be ordering any drinks from the “pool waitress”.
We’ve got the portable DVD player and a bunch of movies, and I’ve got the DC to AC inverter ready to go, so the boys can power their Playstation 2. I never had this kind of entertainment for road trips when I was a kid.
I’m such a geek, I’ve even researched free wi-fi hot spots near each night’s motel, so I can hopefully upload photos and update this site every day.
August 18th, 2005
I wrote this a couple years ago and found it while I was packing. Hope it is an inspiration to you too.
1. Inward beauty must shine outward.
2. I am God’s answer to my husband’s incompleteness.
3. We were created for a position of honor so we must act like it.
4. Regardless of the circumstances, I am a significant and an important part of my families lives.
5. Through it all, I am still the mother of my children.
6. The Lord is my strength and salvation.
7. I can always lean on Him.
8. He is all I need.
August 18th, 2005
I just received a visit from a lady around the corner. She said that she has been walking door to door to see if anyone owns a gray cat. Well, we do. Apparently, a gray cat is stalking the neighborhood attacking cats. Now if you know our cat Tiger, he is not even aggressive with anyone or even with our other animals. I told her we have a cat and four dogs and he has never attacked them. Now come on he sleeps in Lexi’s bed. If I thought he was aggressive I wouldn’t have him here. She tried threatening me that if she sees him again she is going to call the humane society.
So, what is with people these days. Don’t people have better things to do with their time.
August 17th, 2005
The next few weeks are going to be crazy. I have been packing for the last 2weeks for our official move on Sept. 10th. Then, the kids are starting the year out at the new schools. So, I had to go to each of the schools and register them. For the first four days I am going to have to drive them to and from school because we won’t physically be in the new place until the weekend.
I am also packing for our vacation. We will be leaving Saturday for Missouri. We are driving to go visit my family. It will be a long 3 day drive and roughly 2100 miles.
On top of all that, the house still has to stay presentable because the landlord is showing the house. He wants to make sure that it is rented before we actually move.
Needless-to-say, if I haven’t been the happiest or friendliest person to be around now you know why. Where’s my xanex when I need it!
August 17th, 2005
So as you can probably tell, I made a few changes to the site recently. I’ve set it up so Kathy can post things, I created an email address for her and put a link to it at the top left of the site, and I modified the style sheets so that our posts are different colors. I also reworded a few of the sidebar items to reflect the site’s new plurality (”we” and “we’re” replace “I” and “I’m”, “our” replaces “my”).
Next on the list is to import all of her posts from her old site, but I need to do some testing to make sure that I don’t inadvertantly wipe out all of the existing posts that are already here. I’m also going to make each of our names (under the title of each post) a link, so you can click on it to show only that person’s posts. I might do a few other minor cosmetic things too, like maybe round the corners of the boxes that surround each post.
What do you think so far?
August 16th, 2005
Happy Birthday, beautiful!
August 13th, 2005
Today is my birthday. I have been 21 for the last 7 years. We are planning to go to the movies and dinner tonight alone. Hooray!!!!
August 13th, 2005
Many of our close friends know that we are moving Sept. 10th to an apartment. We want to save money to purchase a home in the near future.
Well, last week I called all of our utilities and what not to have it all changed to the new address. Except, when I called a very well-known “satellite company” that we have been with for the last 8 yrs to cancel service they tried everything in the book to keep us as customers. We have been offered a great deal with a digital cable company that also does our internet for the new apartment. This lady that I spoke to was getting very rude because I stated to her “we are moving to an apartment and they can offer cable for cheaper”. She proceeded to say this and that about the cable service and why they offer it so cheap, and the bad reception that we will get with the new company. I didn’t want to tell her how unhappy we have been about our service like having to replace the receiver 4 times in the last 3 yrs because there is a hard-drive malfunction with their systems. I also didn’t tell her how many times in a week that the satellite receiver locks up and we have to shut the whole system down and restart that can take up to 5 minutes. Needless-to-say at the end of the call she stated to me they couldn’t help me because their calendars only go out for a month and I would have to call back (even though I called on day 28).
Well, I called back this morning and they had to transfer me to an account specialist. He tried to start by saying the same things. This time I wasn’t as nice about it. I stated why I was so unhappy with the service that I received the previous week and why I felt their service stunk. He then proceeded to tell me that if we ever decide to come back they would install a new dish for free. AS IF!!!!!! Why can’t they just take “NO” for an answer.
August 13th, 2005
I am getting pretty popular in the plant world now. I received an email today from a lady in Indiana asking how to propagate a particular spider plant species. I guess there may be some people out there that are interested in the plant world. In the near future, there will be an ASK KATHY link to email me any questions or concerns about plants in general.
So, for all you plant loving people out there. Stay tuned.
August 11th, 2005
This is Kathy. I have decided to blog on Bill’s site. My old site is not going to be valid. I will have much more to say soon.
August 11th, 2005
My non-blogging brother Josh shared this one with me. Apparently, there was a news story about a fire that was spreading and threatening some homes. The road leading to these houses was jammed with traffic, and the TV news reporter said something like “These residents are obviously leaving work early, rushing, fighting traffic, knowing that if they don’t get home soon, it’ll be too late for them to evacuate.”
August 10th, 2005
I read anything, all the time. If I can’t find something to read with breakfast, I’ll read the back of the cereal box, the nutritional info, the ingredients, anything. I’m always reading, and I read all kinds of thing. I have subscriptions to two computer magazines, I used to have several subscriptions to RC Car magazines, and I’ll even buy any issues of Mad magazine I see when I go grocery shopping. In fact, solely as a geek exercise, I recently created a “What I’m Reading” sidebar for this site (you can see it on the right, under the random Simpsons quote.)
I have a desk at two different offices, and when I’m working at the far office (which is basically one week a month), I’m on Max for about an hour in the morning and another hour on the way home, plus I usually read for an hour at lunch. During these weeks, I can easily read two novels a week.
Despite all this reading, I came to an intereseting realization recently: I’ve never really read any classic literature, with just one exception. Just like probably everyone, I was forced to read a bit of it in high school. I remember having to read The Scarlet Letter, but I really don’t remember anything about it, nor whether I thought it was any good or not. And I don’t mean the story; Of course I get that, but I don’t remember whether I enjoyed the style of the writing, the prose, the symbolism, all that stuff.
I’ve read every single fiction book written by Stephen King, and I’ve almost read everything by Dean Koontz. I immensely enjoyed Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker series, and I’ve read a few other suspense, horror, and science fiction authors. But I feel like I’m missing out, never having read anything by the greats: Hemingway, Steinbeck, Faulkner, et. al.
So, my question to you is: What should I read next? I’ve got my library card in my hand, ready for that bar code scanner to do its thing, I just need you to give me some ideas. What do you recommend?
August 4th, 2005
We’re gonna get rid of a whole bunch of, well, junk and stuff, this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We’d love for everyone in the area to stop by, maybe to atone for not making it to the picnic, hmm? Just kidding, totally. Seriously, please stop by, even if you’re not in the market for our leftover crap fine used household items. We’ll have some snacks ready for any friends who stop by.
If you want our address, phone number, or directions, just email me (link is at the top left of this page). If I don’t email you back, it means we probably don’t want you showing up anyway!
August 2nd, 2005