Holiday weekend

Afternoon all..................
How is everyone this wonderful holiday weekend? Yes it is Memorial Day weekend. We took a vacation day on Friday so we could have a long weekend nad it has been nice. Well, started out crappy, but got better. We had to drive 200 miles away to take my daughter to visit her mom for a few weeks. Then the drive back. I did pass the time somewhat while my wife drove. I was taking random pictures along the way. Messing with the settings and all that. Some of the pics were kinda cool in negative image format. It was a long drive but it's over and we are home.
We went to visit my parents on Saturday. I got to ride my dads bike (motorcycle) a few times. It is a Honda Rebel 450 (rare bike). It is going to be mine soon, so I need to start riding again to get back in the swing of riding. It's a little intimidating right now because I don't know everything about it. After I learn more and ride it more, I'll feel better about riding it. After that we played Guitar Hero (PS2) for a while and then watched some movies. It was late when we finally got home so off to bed we went.
Today, we slept in. That was nice because we still have tomorrow off. I went outside and jumped on the trampoline for a little bit. After that, I decided to work on the tree root in the front yard. After the tree was cut down, now the hard work of getting rid of the roots. That was about an hour or so and lots of sweat and A LOT of exercise.
So, after a shower and relaxation, we are gonna go see The DaVinci Code. I have heard it got bad reviews but normally bad reviews mean it is really good. So we are off to see it..........................later!

Tonight......

Evening all...........how is everyone? Good I hope.
I was looking over some of my previous posts and I think I might start putting in comments. At least this way, IF someone ever does happen along this pitiful blog, it will look like it is being read. Someone I work with (W.S.) did actually read this and said they were concerned for me. They were talking about my posts about daily driving. It does seem that I have road rage, but this is my way to rant about it without getting myself in trouble. So W.S., you need to put in comments and pass my blog along.
Anyway, as I am a divorced parent, it is that time for me to travel. I have to take my daughter to visit with her mother for a few weeks. The total trip is about 400 miles and 8 hours of driving. You do the math. Her last day of school is tomorrow and she is getting out early. I hate the drive, but my lovely wife has been driving half the trip the last few times we have went. It does make for a shorter trip as I am not driving the entire time. I miss my 3 boys, but they will be here just before the 4th of July. That will be fun to have them here for the holiday this year.
My daughter just turned 16 recently and we had her a birthday party at home. It was not cheap but she had loads of fun. I made VCD's of all the pictures for her to give to the people that showed up to the party. She seemed to like what I put together for her.
I turned 37 a few days ago. My boss thought I was around 28 or 29. I really do not look my age and most people are shocked when I tell them my age and that I have 4 kids. I get that from my dad I think. He doesn't look his age either. Me personally, I think it is because I don't want to grow up. I think the fact that I have a good sense of humor and am a BIG kid at heart, I will stay young, in my mind, for a long time.
Anywho.............it is getting late and I have a long trip tomorrow.............have a great holiday weekend all and happy surfing......................

Playing Catch-up........again

Hey all...............what's been going on?
Been away again for some time...............almost 2 months now, where does the time go? As always, for those who read, how is everything? Me, not much has happened since the last post. Same ol' thing, work and pay bills. Well, back in March or the first part of April, it started getting really warm in our neck of the woods. It was in the 80's quite often. I decided to check on prices to get a very bothersome tree removed from my front yard. I enjoyed the shade, but all the other problems did not justify keeping it around. The tree was rather large, almost 3 feet in diameter at the trunk base. With that said, raking leaves and cleaning gutters and paying plumbers to clean out the drain lines was much more work and $$$ than I wanted. I had to replace carpet padding and dry out carpet.........you get the idea. Because the tree, a water Maple, grew into my drains 2 times, it flooded my basement. After the second time, I went ballistic.
So, finally started calling people to price tree removal. For those who have never done this.........it is not cheap. So, 2 of my neighbors,1 which I appreciate more than he knows, said they would help me do this. One Saturday morning, my brother and 2 neighbors went to work on this mammoth in my yard. My brother did the climbing and cutting as he was probably more agile than the rest of us. The first 2 major peices we cut went rather smoothly. However, the third, which was slightly leaning over my house, damned near caused me to have a heart attack. After the first chunk that was cut to help start the break, it started to break towards my house. You can only imagine the fear I felt after seeing that. I was scared and my heart was going a thousand miles an hour. Fortunately, after the first CRACK, I was able to get up a ladder and on the house fast enough to get a rope thru a fork in the tree. We got it tied to a truck and put tension on it to hold in place.
After a couple of failed attempts to pull it over away from the house, we tied another rope to the tree and another truck. We cut a little more of the tree and it started moving. The 2 neighbors in their trucks started pulling and got it to fall in the street. After it was down, I had to sit down and relax. I thought I was going to literally get sick at one time.
All of our utilities are underground so that was never a problem. We finally got the rest of it down and the hard part was done. It took a couple of weeks to get everything cut up and the yard cleaned up, but we did it. Even thinking back about it all, I can remember exactly how scared I was when I thought it was gonna fall on my house.
That has been pretty much all that has happened since the last post. At least anything major. Hope you enjoy the post and happy surfing to all..................later