New Years Resolutions

1. Stop laughing at Obama's ears
2. Be more tolerant of stupid people/drivers
3. Drive slower
4. Eat less red meat
5. Eat more veggies
6. Stop smoking
7. Tell the people I care about that I love them more often
8. Spend less time in front of my 'puter
9. Learn another language
10. Ignore resolutions 1, 3, 5 and 8

Goin' Mobile

Gavin's walking!!

Next thing ya know it'll be ...

Dad, where's the keys?

Merry Christmas To All

Baby, it's cold outside

Just watched the Bears beat the Packers, Packers should have won, Bears sure as %&#@ didn't deserve to. But that's not what I wanted to rant about. It was 7 degrees, with wind chill it was 0... did ya get that "0" degrees. I used to live in that crap... what ever was I thinking.
It got down to a chilling 31 here in Eureka the other night, a nice fire in the woodstove and we were just toasty warm and snug, but "0"... no thanks. I remember getting up in the morning and having to spend 30 min. digging my car out of a snow drift before I could go to work, and the temp never getting out of the teens all day. Nope I'll take the occasional 31 (with a winter average of 45) here any day.

Gavin's First Christmas

yummmm yummmm Fresh crab!!

John, Jasmine and Gavin came up from San Jose for the weekend, and we celebrated Gavin's first Christmas (a week early) Had a wonderful crab feed on Saturday night and the kids opened their presents Sunday morning... saddly they leave today, but the time they were here was wonderful.

Christmas lights are up!!

The Hotrodders Prayer

The V-8 is my Shepard:
I shall ALWAYS want!
It maketh me burnout on black pavements:
It leadeth me down the busy freeways:
It restoreth my soul.
It leadeth me in the path of quickness
For its name sake.
Yea, though I drive through the valley of RICE,
I shall fear no turbo,
for torque art with me!
Thy headers and posi,
they comfort me.
Thou preparest a track for me,
in the presence of mine enemies:
Thou hast anointed my bearings with oil:
My car overpowers.
Surely traction and victory shall follow me all the days of my life.
And I shall dwell in the house of the High Performance V-8
Forever and EVER
Amen!!

Winter Is Back

After weeks of some really nice weather, at least for Eureka area, the rain has arrived. Lots of people "dislike" the rain here, but after growing up in and having to deal with snow intimately (shoveling the sidewalk, digging ones car out to go to work, poor traction and so on) rain is no big deal, besides, it is the main reason this area is so beautiful.
Things out at the Mill are still idle, no word yet when it will start back up. hopefully it will soon after the first of the year. Marie is getting jealous of my time off, odd thinking coming from a teacher, but I, myself, wouldn't mind getting back to work. Makes me wonder if I will be able to handle retirement?

A New Look

Set up a new blog template for this thing... tell me what you people think of it.

Here we all are

A truely great Thanksgiving

Front: Lily sitting on Marie's lap, Amy, Brady and Gavin on Jasmine's lap

Back: Me, Brian and John (what is with the gangsta look guys?)

Kathy's missing... used some lame excuse about being in France

Back to normal?

All the kids and grandkids have gone home. Our house is back to normal, or so I thought.
It seems that since this was the first time any of the grandkids have been to our house, it has changed... taken on a different air so to speak. The house will never be the same. It now echos of their presence. I've heard of this phenomena, but now I believe it. Marie and I are just so proud of everyone. Brian has a beautiful loving family, John's life is headed in the right direction, Kathy is just about done with France and her education, everyone is doing wonderful and we are so happy for and proud of them all.

Well Brian, Amy Brady and Lilly left to back home to Alabama. They were anxious to get home but Marie and I, we're sorry to see them leave. I think all in all it was a good week, Amy thinks this is a beautiful area, a tad "backwoods" so to speak, but to those of us that love this area that's the big attraction of it. Marie and I will miss the kids. Lilly, the Princess, and Brady are just a joy to be with. Amy is a sweetheart. Both Marie and I think Brian did good to marry her.

Will tomorrow every come

Getting real excited about tomorrow... Brian, Amy and Brady and Lilly will be here mid-afternoon. The real pisser is that we've had really nice weather for about the last week and on the day they are coming the weather says rain. I hope that prediction is wrong.

Long time gone

It's been awhile since I sat down here and wrote anything, and a lot has gone on since my last post.
Our son John's new baby, Gavin, had his Christening down in San Jose. Hot down there!
Marie and I took a trip to Huntsville Alabama to visit our son Brian, his wife Amy and the grandkids, Brady and Lilly. Got to meet Amy's family, Mom, Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, her brother and family. Visited the U.S. Space and Rocket Center (If you ever have the opportunity, see this place). All in all we had a wonderful time there. Even the weather was nice, not to hot for August, but still a little to humid for my taste.
The mill has shut down for several months, and will in all probability start back up after the first of the year. I'm keeping busy... working on my solitaire skills... catching up on my Hogan's Heroes episodes... keeping the bird feeders full.
And now Brian and his family are all coming out here for Thanksgiving, Amy and the kids have never been here, so the redwoods will be new to them. I remember the first time I saw them and I hope they are as awe struck as I was.

Heat

Marie and I just took an adventurous trek over to Redding. With all the current wild fires in the area most of the normal routes were closed Highways 299 and 36 the most direct roads both closed. Highway 96, a more convoluted route also closed. We ended up driving all the way up into Oregon and hitting I5 and then coming back down into Redding, turning a normally 3 hour drive into about a six hour jaunt. Now that may seem extreme but some good came out of it. We passed through some beautiful country (scenic views of Mt. Shasta, the Castle Crags etc.) that Marie had never seen before. But the really bizarre thing of the whole trip was the temperature swing. Coming back home, As we passed form Oregon back into Calif. on route 199 (From Grants Pass to Crescent City) We stopped in Cave Junction for some refreshment at the Dairy Queen 'cause the temperature was at 104 (way to hot for a couple of fog crawlers from the coast) as we proceeded south and home we passed through the tunnel at Oregon Mountain just inside the Calif. border, temperature still at 104. almost immediately the outside temp started dropping. with in minutes the temp had dropped to 80.... by the time we reached highway 101, about 35 miles)the temp. was down to 57. That's a change of almost 50 degrees... amazing !!

Rudy's a Crossdresser !

Recently it was stated to me, as a fact that Rudy Guliani was a confirmed crossdresser. Now as one that listens to way to much talk radio (ya gotta love Sirius) this was something that I had not heard, so I decided to do some checking. What I found with just a few minutes of research was this. There were two times that the man has dressed up in drag. Once for a skit during an apperence on Saturday Night Live, and once when he did a "tacky" Marilyn Monroe impersonation at a friends celebrity roast.
Now if this is the criteria that makes a crossdresser then there are thousands of men all across this country that are guilty.... the guy that puts on a dress and goes to a Halloween party as a Russian Beauty Queen...... the guys who put on leotards and tutu's for the lodge talent show, or what about actors like Robin Williams as Mrs. Doubtfire, Dustin Hoffman as Tootsie.... or all the guys that have put on a grass skirt with a coconut shell bra for that scene in South Pacific.
The article that was the fuel for this rumor was printed in the Washington Post and filled with inuendos and few facts leading those that wish to be led to draw from the inferences, and thats just plain wrong. But whats even worse that that, is to read that and even though it sounds like BS, to take it as fact. Like I said it took me less than five minutes to find the facts.