I must apologize to all 3 of my faithful readers…I have been slacking! BUT, not including this one, I have written four new posts today! I am in the process of gathering all of my Florida pictures into one place to put together a slide show for another post. I will try to do that while I have the next two days off, but no promises. Enjoy!
While going out earlier, we noticed a large yacht in the canal with a sail that was lowered so it could pass under the many bridges along the canal. On our way home, it was still in the canal, but on the other side of the bridge from where we had seen it earlier. I decided to take my camera and go get a couple shots of it. Kyle, Joe and I went for a walk to find it. By the time we got there, it had moved too far down the canal to get a good shot, so we walked to a nearby foot bridge hoping to get there in time to catch it before it continued on the canal or turned up the river. When we got to the foot bridge, the boat was no where in sight. Annoyed at having missed it, we looked to see what else was in the water.
As we were standing on the bridge, Kyle said, “Look, there it is…”
I looked straight down into the water from the bridge and sure enough there was the yacht.
Notice the guy in the dinghy? He was pushing on the front of the boat, like a tug pushes the big ships in ports. As we watched, it became clear that the rather large boat was stuck. At one point, another smaller boat came up behind them and the guy in the dinghy cruised over to talk to them. They loaned him a hand held depth finder. I think I heard the guy say it was only about 6.5 feet near the middle of the boat. My guess is that there is an accumulation of silt at that point. They were stuck about 20 or 30 feet from where the canal meets the river. The two bodies flow in perpendicular directions, so I imagine the much larger river leaves messy deposits as it passes by the canal.
The front of the boat…
…the back of the boat…
…and one creative shot…
Joe decided he wanted to see as well…
If you blow up this one, you can see his little tongue hanging out. When we got home, he was very happy to see his water bowl and then sit in his favorite summer spot, under the ceiling fan.
At one point the guy on the boat was directly below where Kyle and I were standing. I asked him if they were stuck and got a grumpy, French accented, “looks that way.” At that point, I decided we probably shouldn’t gawk any longer, or press my luck taking any more pictures.
On Wednesday, I bought a few things while I was on lunch at work. I got Jeff a deck of Indiana Jones playing cards, Kyle a set of Star Wars good guys and bad guys playing card decks, Sarah a set of mini gel pens, Erin a Hannah Montana pen, and Joe a moose. I think Joe sensed his moose as soon as I walked through the door. He tried to ’steal’ it before Kyle could get the tags off of it. Then once he was given it, he ran around with it in his mouth, laid down and set to work looking for the all-important squeaker, then plopped on the couch exhausted, but happy to have a new squeaker toy.
Joe absolutely thinks he is human. Here are a couple of his “personalities.”
Joe being a baby, cuddling with Sarah…
Joe thinking he is hungry and allowed to sit at the table…hmmm!
I honestly don’t know what we did before Joe came to own live with us!
Last Sunday, when I got home from work, the kids were bugging to do something fun and Kyle mentioned a craving for Long John Silver’s. I was tired, but decided a short road trip might be in order (the closest 3 LJS are an hour away). I woke Jeff up and asked him if he wanted to go. He suggested that since my car has front end issues and his is long overdue for an oil change, not to mention the stupid check engine light, it probably wasn’t the best idea. I told him I would change the oil and look into the light. He said okay, so off I went. I recently acquired two ramps, thanks Mark, so the oil change took all of about 20 minutes. As I thought about the engine light, I remembered having difficulties getting the gas cap on properly the last time I got gas and not bothering to take the time to adjust it, so I figured that must be the problem. I was correct; the problem righted itself the next day.
So we set out for a ride. First we had to stop for coffee, chai, and money. As we were pulling into the bank parking lot, Jeff pointed out some little birds, so I stopped and Sarah and I each took a few pictures.
There are two juvenile killdeer in this photo, one on each end.
At first we saw one adult and two juvenile birds, but we kept hearing one crying. As we pulled around to the ATM, we noticed that another young bird had been run over and there was another adult crying and running over to nudge it with its beak, then running to the grass. Back and forth for quite some time as we watched. We went to the Starbucks next door almost a week later and there was still an adult there, in almost the same spot, sitting on the edge of the parking lot. There was no sign of the other 3, just the one, seemingly mourning the loss of its young. I read that both parents sit on the eggs, so I wonder if both raise the young as well. Perhaps one was the mother and the other the father. At any rate, it was quite sad.
We did have fun on our adventure though. We got Long John Silvers for lunch, watched a spectacular storm front move through, complete with lightening and rain. We stopped at a way cool hobby store, and checked out a fairly new Wegmans.
By the time we got home I had been up nearly 22 hours, so I fell into bed around 6:30 pm and didn’t get up until 7 am the following day. Boy did that feel GREAT!
Kyle and I offered to volunteer at a race the day after we got back from Florida. We really had no idea what we would be doing, but we showed up at 6:30 AM ready to help. Once we found the person coordinating the volunteers, he asked us to go with 2 guys from the water authority, who had a ‘Water Buffalo,’ to hand out cups of water at one of the water stops along the course. As soon as the words Water Buffalo fell from Pete’s lips, Kyle and I both giggled and started humming ‘Everybody’s Got a Water Buffalo‘…
Turns out a Water Buffalo is a tank that holds 500 gallons of water.
We filled all the cups with a hose and a couple of pitchers.
Here are the two silly guys from the Water Authority that gave us the water as well as a hand.
If you have never handed out water to thirsty runners, you should give it a whirl. Our stop got hit twice, once about 1 mile into the race, and a second time somewhere around mile 5. There is a definite art to holding out a cup for a runner who is really thirsty, but doesn’t want to slow enough to get a drink. I wore the first couple of cups. Some runners indicate to you that they are going to take a cup by making eye contact, pointing, yelling yes, or something. Others simply run up looking very much as though they are going to pass through, then at the last minute they grab. The grabbing runners are the most difficult, as you want to offer, but not get run over. Without a clear indicator of whether they want the water or not it is difficult to not get soaked if they do decide to take it, as there is no time to lead them, they just snatch it!
My two favorite runners where the one that yelled just throw it on me, so all four of us did, and the lady who took a cup from the first guy (who was in front of me), took half a sip, and threw the cup on my foot as she ran by. Speaking of throwing cups, no matter where the garbage can is, runners won’t use it. They toss their cups where they finish drinking. Some are kind enough to drop the cup on the edge of the path, while others lob them into the tall grass along the sides of the path. I’m really glad there wasn’t any poison ivy there, as I was up to my neck in weeds a few times, trying to dislodge a cup.
Many of the runners thanked us for volunteering as they ran through. They seemed truly thankful that we were there to offer water and support. Runners, although competing against one another, seem to be very supportive of their fellow runners. There seems to be a lot of camaraderie.
While waiting for the race to start, a gold finch flew by. I took its picture, but when I looked at the picture, I couldn’t figure out why I took a picture of this tree…can you find the finch?
So far the weather in Florida isn’t that much hotter than the weather in upstate NY last week! The kids went swimming yesterday afternoon, and I took tons of pictures of their pool adventure. Hannah was absolutely adorable, so the majority of the pictures are of her…
Hannah took a nice nap before she went swimming. Doesn’t it look like she is napping?
The weather was perfect for the pool. Sarah, Erin, Eli, Alan, and Hannah all went swimming.
Eli had to fix her hair when Erin accidentally pulled out her pig-tail holder.
Erin likes the pool noodles; they seem to give her added confidence.
Hannah loves to play with a ball. She signs “ball” all the time.
Apparently a hair got stuck on Hannah’s finger, which seems to have bothered her. What a face!
Erin is just learning how to swim, but she loves to play in the water and doesn’t seem to have a fear of the water.
This is probably my favorite picture of the day.
That is one BIG noodle!
The kids had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed themselves!
Check out the pretty flowers…
Yesterday was a blistering 95 degrees. My comfort zone is between 45 and 75, with 75 being barely tolerable! We needed to go get Jeff some new clothes for his new job, so a trip to Waterloo Premium Outlets was the order of the day. We planned to drop the kids at my in-laws around 11:30, so I had some time in the morning to accomplish a few important tasks.
The first task involved taking pictures of my wild rose which has finally bloomed for the first time since we bought the house 6 years ago. Living in an urban area, I am so pleased to have a wild rose growing in my back yard. It’s the “wild spot” in my lawn. Each summer I am careful to not mow it under as I cut the lawn. A few years ago, my mom brought up her chainsaw and I cut down a tree right on the fence. We left the stump high, but it still tries to grow shoots every summer. In order to get a nice picture of the rose bush, I had to trim back the shoots and weed around the stump. Here is the end result…
Next I turned my attention to my “not wild” wild rose bushes. They are not wild in that they were intentionally planted, not by me, along the side of the house. They are wild in that I had no trellis or anything to control them. I cut them back to the ground each fall and each summer they attack anyone who tries to walk on the sidewalk to the side door of the house. I decided today, that I would take an unused trellis, bought for something that the bunnies stole, and use it to “control” my rose bushes. I will take some pictures of the roses with the trellis later, but here is what the roses look like up close.
Finally, the heat outside was unbearable (I was out for maybe 5 minutes) so I went inside and guess who was dancing around, waiting for me?
Poor Joe hates the heat! He lays around looking sad and pathetic in the middle of the day. When the sun goes down and I open the windows and put fans in, he revives and gets all excited like his usual self. This morning there was a great breeze as a storm front moved through. Joe went outside with us as the kids and I hauled some old logs and limbs to the front for the garbage men to take away. He found nice shady spots in the breeze and seemed to thoroughly enjoy himself. He was rather happy to see the neighbor’s dog, Rocky, who looks like Joe but with long legs (dachshund / beagle mix). We all came inside as the rain began. Joe abhors the rain!
I posted some pictures, earlier today, from the rehearsal yesterday. These are from today, as the girls were getting ready for the recital to begin.
Congratulations girls! These girls worked all year and their talent and dedication was evident in their dance routines. They did a great job on their soft-shoe routine, and an absolutely superb job on their hard-shoe number. Great Job Ladies!!!
Sarah has a dance recital today, so I decided to take a few pictures. Normally, I try to take pictures at the recital, but the lighting is too low and the stage too far away to get good shots. I thought I’d be smart and take them at the rehearsal, but I still should have gotten closer. There are a few shots of the girls getting ready and a couple of them dancing. I tried to adjust some of them to look less grainy, but I am not thrilled with the results. I think I need to invest in an add-on flash if I plan to take a lot of low-light photos. Click on any photo to enlarge it.
