So you may have heard about the tornadoes that touched down here Wednesday night. Or may be you didn't. But either way they touched the ground in the towns west of us and east of us, but skipped Abilene. Abilene really is a pretty blessed town. Mom, Dad and I spent about 30 minutes in the courthouse storm shelter, because believe it or not, my house doesn't have a storm shelter or basement. The town east of us, Chapman, got his pretty hard. It's about 12 miles from here and they are estimating that about 75-80% of the town was demolished by a 1/2-mile wide tornado.
Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures - but here's the link to the Abilene Newspaper.
Amazingly - we didn't even have any major limbs down. Our wireless antenna did appear to be struck by lightning... but that's getting off pretty easy considering.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Friday, June 6, 2008
But you can't make me blog...
if I don't
You cant make my hand type something it wont
Here in the park, in these summer hours
I will turn on my 'puter and I'll feel the power
And you will, oh you will
But you cant make blog, if I don't
Ah Bonnie... so versatile.
So, I have been away for far too long. Although the tree scaling post was awesome, it will not be my final blog. My final blog will probably be able something excessively lame, like how much I like gold sandals, because I will be an 80-year old woman living in Texas. So no fears. But you can't make me blog. I blog what I want, when I want! Cuz I am SASSIE!
The truth is, there is a ton to blog about! So much has happened: my ninja gear has come in...we had a heck of a storm last night... Summer bowling league has started...I rode a tractor... we had a Lewis family reunion that was awesome (the only way it could have been improved? a little less rain!) So this will mostly be a blog of catch up and pictures of the happenings... this blog is going to take me at least 30 minutes to complete.
The Ninja gear.
It's freaking awesome. Well, most of it - the ninja grappling hook is so much fun. I am not strong enough to use it completely as designed, but I have a lot of plans for altering the methods. The toe spikes are a little out of touch - they tie onto your shoes or boots with wimpy shoelaces- so when climbing vertically, your shoes slides backwards and the spikes stay in the tree. I have some alterations for this - I think I also have to accept that until I am stronger, I will need to use the ladder to get up the tree, then the ninja gear to scale it higher. Here are several photos of the first and only (to date) attempt with the gear.
Preparing to climb, installing Cyborg Ninja Monkey gear.
Proving I am not a ninja by requiring help from my brother in law, Steve, and niece, Molly. I love the cigarette, I hate the facial expression. You could've at least tried to make it look easy.
Showing my technique. Questionable at best.
I would like to say for the record - I did get up the tree eventually....and like I said - alterations will be made and there will be success.
Riding a tractor
I have done this on several occasions, but I've never had anyone around to take a picture.... I look just right on a tractor!
Summer bowling
It's 9-pin no-tap, so it should in theory be much easier. But the few weeks off have made me lose what little skills I have... so my first night, I set a very low average...I would bet around 95. So that leaves plenty of room for huge handicaps!! :)
Stormy weather
So it's tornado season here.. and yesterday the conditions were just perfect...luckily nothing really bad here happened except some downed limbs...which I have yet to clean up! Sorry all of these are so fuzzy - the wind was still really blowing when I went to take pictures. We got (I would guess) about 2 inches in about 10 minutes. Somebody's mesh sun shade (like a tent) blew away - so put on my rain coat and dragged it back and secured it, but when I finally got inside, I looked like a humongous drowned rat.
This is the limb that fell on my parents motorhome...
My foot for perspective.
Family Reunion
It was awesome. It was great to see Mom, Dad (who will be back in a few days), Mike, Tara, Erikka, Steve, Molly, Cari and Grandma. At the last minute, Grandma Rae was able to make it out. We literally took hundreds of pictures. I will try to share a few of the best ones here. Mike/Tara, Steve/Erikka, Cari... CDs with all the pictures are on the way to you. And for $10, I will send copies to anyone else :)
Me, Dad, Erikka:
For Mike:
Without Ninja gear, Cari was by far a better climber than me. Monkey.
Erikka, Baby Wareham (hiding), Steve, and Molly.
I tried to teach Molly to say that Kansas was paradise. Step one of that is relaxing in the hammock. You can't do that with shoes on... even if they're crocs.
Mike and Tara. Adorable.
Paradise. I think this was probably actually taken at Tara's at Thanksgiving, but I couldn't resist.
She really is incredibly strong...when we were trying to get her in her raft in the pool the first day... well, let's just say it didn't happen. But she's clearly one of the coolest people I know... one of her favorite songs is "hello, goodbye". I have some recordings of her singing... maybe I'll make something and YouTube it.
The pool was the best of times and the worst of times. Molly would put her feet in, despite the all day clouds, declare it 'just right!' and then fight viciously when we tried to put her in the raft. And when Zach and Brooke would go home, she would ask, "Where's Booke?"
And here's the main event, the coup de grace, the gravy, the icing. The family:
Now- a bit of seriousness... I love my space... and I have to admit, I was happy to get my bed back and a little bit of my routine is falling back into place. But I see that picture...and I tear up. I love all of you guys (all my people - not just the pictured ones) and wish we could all be in the same place forever. Well...maybe not the same house, but the same county would be cool.
Love.
You cant make my hand type something it wont
Here in the park, in these summer hours
I will turn on my 'puter and I'll feel the power
And you will, oh you will
But you cant make blog, if I don't
Ah Bonnie... so versatile.
So, I have been away for far too long. Although the tree scaling post was awesome, it will not be my final blog. My final blog will probably be able something excessively lame, like how much I like gold sandals, because I will be an 80-year old woman living in Texas. So no fears. But you can't make me blog. I blog what I want, when I want! Cuz I am SASSIE!
The truth is, there is a ton to blog about! So much has happened: my ninja gear has come in...we had a heck of a storm last night... Summer bowling league has started...I rode a tractor... we had a Lewis family reunion that was awesome (the only way it could have been improved? a little less rain!) So this will mostly be a blog of catch up and pictures of the happenings... this blog is going to take me at least 30 minutes to complete.
The Ninja gear.
It's freaking awesome. Well, most of it - the ninja grappling hook is so much fun. I am not strong enough to use it completely as designed, but I have a lot of plans for altering the methods. The toe spikes are a little out of touch - they tie onto your shoes or boots with wimpy shoelaces- so when climbing vertically, your shoes slides backwards and the spikes stay in the tree. I have some alterations for this - I think I also have to accept that until I am stronger, I will need to use the ladder to get up the tree, then the ninja gear to scale it higher. Here are several photos of the first and only (to date) attempt with the gear.
Preparing to climb, installing Cyborg Ninja Monkey gear.
Proving I am not a ninja by requiring help from my brother in law, Steve, and niece, Molly. I love the cigarette, I hate the facial expression. You could've at least tried to make it look easy.
Showing my technique. Questionable at best.
I would like to say for the record - I did get up the tree eventually....and like I said - alterations will be made and there will be success.
Riding a tractor
I have done this on several occasions, but I've never had anyone around to take a picture.... I look just right on a tractor!
Summer bowling
It's 9-pin no-tap, so it should in theory be much easier. But the few weeks off have made me lose what little skills I have... so my first night, I set a very low average...I would bet around 95. So that leaves plenty of room for huge handicaps!! :)
Stormy weather
So it's tornado season here.. and yesterday the conditions were just perfect...luckily nothing really bad here happened except some downed limbs...which I have yet to clean up! Sorry all of these are so fuzzy - the wind was still really blowing when I went to take pictures. We got (I would guess) about 2 inches in about 10 minutes. Somebody's mesh sun shade (like a tent) blew away - so put on my rain coat and dragged it back and secured it, but when I finally got inside, I looked like a humongous drowned rat.
This is the limb that fell on my parents motorhome...
My foot for perspective.
Family Reunion
It was awesome. It was great to see Mom, Dad (who will be back in a few days), Mike, Tara, Erikka, Steve, Molly, Cari and Grandma. At the last minute, Grandma Rae was able to make it out. We literally took hundreds of pictures. I will try to share a few of the best ones here. Mike/Tara, Steve/Erikka, Cari... CDs with all the pictures are on the way to you. And for $10, I will send copies to anyone else :)
Me, Dad, Erikka:
For Mike:
Without Ninja gear, Cari was by far a better climber than me. Monkey.
Erikka, Baby Wareham (hiding), Steve, and Molly.
I tried to teach Molly to say that Kansas was paradise. Step one of that is relaxing in the hammock. You can't do that with shoes on... even if they're crocs.
Mike and Tara. Adorable.
Paradise. I think this was probably actually taken at Tara's at Thanksgiving, but I couldn't resist.
She really is incredibly strong...when we were trying to get her in her raft in the pool the first day... well, let's just say it didn't happen. But she's clearly one of the coolest people I know... one of her favorite songs is "hello, goodbye". I have some recordings of her singing... maybe I'll make something and YouTube it.
The pool was the best of times and the worst of times. Molly would put her feet in, despite the all day clouds, declare it 'just right!' and then fight viciously when we tried to put her in the raft. And when Zach and Brooke would go home, she would ask, "Where's Booke?"
And here's the main event, the coup de grace, the gravy, the icing. The family:
Now- a bit of seriousness... I love my space... and I have to admit, I was happy to get my bed back and a little bit of my routine is falling back into place. But I see that picture...and I tear up. I love all of you guys (all my people - not just the pictured ones) and wish we could all be in the same place forever. Well...maybe not the same house, but the same county would be cool.
Love.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Tree scaling.
I wonder what's more difficult - scaling mountains or trees? Trees are sometimes straight up and mountains at least occasionally have a slope. But mountains are (usually) much taller.
Anyway - the reason why this question comes up is simple. A couple of weeks ago, a tree guy came out and trimmed a tree that was badly broken from the ice storm. He was very reasonably priced and responded to phone calls quickly. Great customer service. But he didn't use a bucket truck - he just shimmied up the tree using ropes and special shoes. This instigated a thought - I could do that with the right shoes. I'm an eternal optimist. Anyway, I bid on some shoes and a harness on Ebay - but lost. and they went for really expensive. I decided to spring for the harness but build the shoes. "Idiot Boots" as my dad calls them. See below.
A few looooong days later, UPS delivered my harness... and up the tree I tried to go. This is a picture story.
You may not be able to tell - but the boots are duct taped on - because they were my dad's old cowboy boots and I had to cut them open to get the screws in.
Also please note the ladder.
Anyway this was only attempt #1. I am building a second pair of idiot boots. Plus I'm thinking - tie the rope to a car and pull forward slowly, it would make my job a little easier.
Anyway - the reason why this question comes up is simple. A couple of weeks ago, a tree guy came out and trimmed a tree that was badly broken from the ice storm. He was very reasonably priced and responded to phone calls quickly. Great customer service. But he didn't use a bucket truck - he just shimmied up the tree using ropes and special shoes. This instigated a thought - I could do that with the right shoes. I'm an eternal optimist. Anyway, I bid on some shoes and a harness on Ebay - but lost. and they went for really expensive. I decided to spring for the harness but build the shoes. "Idiot Boots" as my dad calls them. See below.
A few looooong days later, UPS delivered my harness... and up the tree I tried to go. This is a picture story.
You may not be able to tell - but the boots are duct taped on - because they were my dad's old cowboy boots and I had to cut them open to get the screws in.
Also please note the ladder.
Anyway this was only attempt #1. I am building a second pair of idiot boots. Plus I'm thinking - tie the rope to a car and pull forward slowly, it would make my job a little easier.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Cable saga is complete!
SO! The cable saga began... well, I don't know when. Maybe a month ago? When I blogged about turning off the cable was the start of the cable saga. Basically we have an 'old' section of the campground and a 'new' section. The 'old' section, appropriately, has old cable. That was, inappropriately, run illegally by the prior owner by splitting the signal and running it through boosters. We got legal pretty quickly, but the cable was never replaced and we were still running through boosters. Right about the time I cancelled cable, a customer complained that a cable plug was sparking and melting his cable. BIG problem. So obviously - I called the cable company and through a long drawn out fight through customer service, we finally just accepted their first offer. They really had (have?) us over a barrel. Basically they would provide us with the cable and we would trench and dig and bury and hook it up. So we did just that. I have to say - a trencher - probably the hardest machine to maneuver so far. It wasn't actually hard to do, but difficult to turn because I am so used to how a car turns and handles. There was definitely a bit of a learning curve. Anyway, today we got it completely completely finished. Check. Oh - and we got a good tidbit of conversation out of it:
Setting: Campground, Cassie's hands are in an electrical box.
Mom: We should probably turn the power off before we do this.
Cassie: (grunt)
Several minutes of silent effort pass.
Cassie: (jumping back) Ah! I just got shocked.
Mom: Did you pee your pants?
Good to know that my mom's first concern is "Do we have to do laundry on top of cable work today?"
Oh! And a little benefit...we had to have cable turned back on it the house. Have you seen that show The Alaska Adventure? What a delightful waste of an hour! I almost don't know what to do with myself having the TV on right now...
Setting: Campground, Cassie's hands are in an electrical box.
Mom: We should probably turn the power off before we do this.
Cassie: (grunt)
Several minutes of silent effort pass.
Cassie: (jumping back) Ah! I just got shocked.
Mom: Did you pee your pants?
Good to know that my mom's first concern is "Do we have to do laundry on top of cable work today?"
Oh! And a little benefit...we had to have cable turned back on it the house. Have you seen that show The Alaska Adventure? What a delightful waste of an hour! I almost don't know what to do with myself having the TV on right now...
Thursday, May 8, 2008
I broke Stella.
(Most of this blog is tongue-in-cheek- I'm mostly joking.)
Who's Stella you ask? Well, a couple of days ago my mom found a robin's egg on the ground un-broken. It was a chilly morning and odds were if it was kicked out of the nest, the mama bird knew that it was a sick egg or unfertilized or something was wrong. But I, on the off-chance that the baby was viable, wrapped it gently in one on Vixie's T-shirts and placed it on a space heater.
Well today, my monkey toes did their thing... and unconsciously gripped the t-shirt on the space heater and pulled. Stella was broken.
Stella was going to be a beautiful song bird if she lived. And I was going to teach her English - because I read that baby birds learn to sing just like baby humans learn to talk - by cooing. I was going to feed her a mixture of smashed peas and bananas, because I thought that would look close to chewed worms. Stella would sit on my shoulder and greet campers and mow! :( All my dreams of Stella are gone. Damn you monkey toes!
Who's Stella you ask? Well, a couple of days ago my mom found a robin's egg on the ground un-broken. It was a chilly morning and odds were if it was kicked out of the nest, the mama bird knew that it was a sick egg or unfertilized or something was wrong. But I, on the off-chance that the baby was viable, wrapped it gently in one on Vixie's T-shirts and placed it on a space heater.
Well today, my monkey toes did their thing... and unconsciously gripped the t-shirt on the space heater and pulled. Stella was broken.
Stella was going to be a beautiful song bird if she lived. And I was going to teach her English - because I read that baby birds learn to sing just like baby humans learn to talk - by cooing. I was going to feed her a mixture of smashed peas and bananas, because I thought that would look close to chewed worms. Stella would sit on my shoulder and greet campers and mow! :( All my dreams of Stella are gone. Damn you monkey toes!
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Good quote!
So I came across this quote today and realized how much it fits me:
When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not.
- Mark Twain
For those of you who don't know - I have memories that aren't mine. I'm so good at internalizing the stories of others that I remember riding in the back of a pick-up truck under a tarp holding a baby during a thunderstorm. My mom insists this never happened to me... and bears a striking resemblance to an actual memory she has.
The world may never know...
When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not.
- Mark Twain
For those of you who don't know - I have memories that aren't mine. I'm so good at internalizing the stories of others that I remember riding in the back of a pick-up truck under a tarp holding a baby during a thunderstorm. My mom insists this never happened to me... and bears a striking resemblance to an actual memory she has.
The world may never know...
Friday, May 2, 2008
Strangers in the night...
It probably does feel like I'm a bit of a stranger to you... it's been forever (figuritively speaking) since I've blogged to you - a couple of decent excuses come to mind - I'll let you pick the most likely:
1) An old acquaintance found me and exacted revenge for an imagined offense by cutting off all of my fingers, and I've just now learned how to accurately control the prosthetic digits. Luckily I apologized and we worked everything out and are going to get together for a movie or coffee next week.
2) I got wrapped up in a drama involving the Dalai Lama, China, and oddly, Colin Farrell. China is overdramatic and sometime the Dalai Lama refuses to speak. Colin was just upset because he felt like the theatrics of the other two were overshadowing his beauty. I convinced him this could never be true.
3) I was hired by several Off-Off-Broadway theatre houses to improve their current schedule. This required flights to NY and Turkey City, Ohio. I've just now gotten over the terrible jetlag of traveling across two time zones.
4) I am a lazy sack.
Sadly, I've had plenty to blog about. Mom and dad got into town last week - it's been nice to have company and fun watching Beppo and Baby (their puppy) play. Here's a picture of the bookends being princesses.
And just Baby:
We've started working on the pool - there will be many many more hours of scraping before we paint. Hopefully the pool will be painted and ready to fill by mid-May.
We had a tree guy come out and trim a tree. He shimmied right up the tree thanks to some handy spike-shoes and a rope. I'm looking on eBay to buy myself these tools, because he made it look really easy. I wanna try. Plus I can add that to my resume, save the campground some moola and maybe start doing that in the spare time.
Cable finally was trenched and replaced yesterday evening. That was a big stress, but it seems like it's all going to work out. I got to play in some big boy toys- a skid loader and a trenching machine and was thoroughly dirty. I love my job some days. Seriously!
I've gotten to mow and spray for weeds a couple of times this year, which is delightful. I feel like my routine from last summer is coming back and I'm glad. Weather is turning, I'm walking and life is good here.
I hope life is good in your corner.
1) An old acquaintance found me and exacted revenge for an imagined offense by cutting off all of my fingers, and I've just now learned how to accurately control the prosthetic digits. Luckily I apologized and we worked everything out and are going to get together for a movie or coffee next week.
2) I got wrapped up in a drama involving the Dalai Lama, China, and oddly, Colin Farrell. China is overdramatic and sometime the Dalai Lama refuses to speak. Colin was just upset because he felt like the theatrics of the other two were overshadowing his beauty. I convinced him this could never be true.
3) I was hired by several Off-Off-Broadway theatre houses to improve their current schedule. This required flights to NY and Turkey City, Ohio. I've just now gotten over the terrible jetlag of traveling across two time zones.
4) I am a lazy sack.
Sadly, I've had plenty to blog about. Mom and dad got into town last week - it's been nice to have company and fun watching Beppo and Baby (their puppy) play. Here's a picture of the bookends being princesses.
And just Baby:
We've started working on the pool - there will be many many more hours of scraping before we paint. Hopefully the pool will be painted and ready to fill by mid-May.
We had a tree guy come out and trim a tree. He shimmied right up the tree thanks to some handy spike-shoes and a rope. I'm looking on eBay to buy myself these tools, because he made it look really easy. I wanna try. Plus I can add that to my resume, save the campground some moola and maybe start doing that in the spare time.
Cable finally was trenched and replaced yesterday evening. That was a big stress, but it seems like it's all going to work out. I got to play in some big boy toys- a skid loader and a trenching machine and was thoroughly dirty. I love my job some days. Seriously!
I've gotten to mow and spray for weeds a couple of times this year, which is delightful. I feel like my routine from last summer is coming back and I'm glad. Weather is turning, I'm walking and life is good here.
I hope life is good in your corner.
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