Graduation Day and Weekend....

     Well, things have calmed down some as it is now Sunday and the family is making their trip back up to the Mountain State. It has been a weekend of yawns and eating. Still trying to catch up on sleep and too much food left. Not such a bad thing.

     The boy is slowly adjusting to civilian life. He isn't comfortable in regular clothes and he also likes wearing his uniform in public. He does get some compliments and a lot of "Thank Yous" from the older men he meets. I don't think that this will wear out on him any time soon.

     The Sargent that recruited him had a party Friday night as he was rejoining his unit and shipping out. Party was at Hooters so I'm sure he had a good time.

     We went out Saturday and got a new I Phone that he wanted and did some running with the guys only. Did some eating later that evening and he went out again with his girl and brother to the movies. This running around is going to catch up with him soon though. He plans on seeing a few people that he knew well here throughout the week and then it will be to WV this coming weekend. A few more pics from the past few days.

 A lot I know but it was well worth the time :)

     More updates to follow later this week/weekend after another party! You can not know how proud everyone is of him. And I have to say that his younger brother has been great too. The oldest boy has been getting a lot of attention and he's handled it well. His turn will be around before we know it. Time really goes by too quickly anymore. Remember when you couldn't wait to turn 16, then 18, then 21? Well, I wish this would slow down. Getting older really sucks.

After 13 Weeks.....

Parris Island, Day 1

Parris Island. The land where Marines are made. Swamps too but it's mostly about the Marines (or should be recruits, then Marines.) Rather warm this afternoon but getting ahead of myself. They did their motivational run this morning which we arose at 4:00 am, and arrived at 5:40 am to see. I took some video but it was dark when they started. It did get lighter when they came back around so I did get some footage but not sure we got the boy in it. After siiting in the hall for about 1 1/2 hours, they finally marched them in, gave us a few instructions and we had the boy for about 4 1/2 hours. Everyone was happy to see him and I think the opposite was true. We took a look at his rack and he showed us some other things around the base and told us some stories as well. A lot of people here so lunch was tight and long but that's OK. He had to get back in formation so they could practice their parade march and setup for tomorrow's graduation. I stayed and watched for a little bit. A bunch of people will be here tomorrow so it's another early bedtime, at least for me. Some pictures for now and maybe a good post Saturday when we have the boy for 10 days.

Saying hello to family outside of the assembly building.

 

Reliving his first day there!

Pic with one grandpa.

 

And a pic with the other grandpa.

 

Maybe the brother will take a place here some day? That will be up to him.

That's all for now. Until Saturday (or Friday night if I get a chance, we'll see. :)

WBGV, Travels, Gardens (or lack thereof),Upcoming Ventures, Hurricanes and Quakes

Well, to say the least from my last post, it is either being busy and on the road managing a lot at the same time, or when downtime does come it is about doing absolutely nothing. This summer has been it's usual hot self, enough to make Alaska (or North Dakota as some people say) look good. Still holding out for the upper California, Oregon coast but that's pretty unlikely. Oh well, here we go....
Picked up the youngest boy from his grandparent's house in WBGV (that's West By God Virginia for those of you that don't know West Virginia is it's own state) and we made a pleasant trip back to the Piedmont.

I never get tired of seeing these signs anymore. You can't take the hills out of the hillbilly, that's for sure. I really miss hills and mountains.

The main stay of WV industry, coal barge heading south on the Ohio River Got this picture in Ripley, WV where we stopped for lunch. 

Got this picture while driving through the northern part of Virginia along I-77. See those hills!!!!

I have been traveling some for work and one of my trips takes my down the South Carolina about every week or so. A few trips ago on my way back up to the house, I was going though a construction zone where everyone slows down to about 55, or so they say. When someone passes me and something really catches my eye. 

And I say to myself as he passes me "Bot, he really looks comfortable, laid back." Then I did a double take and looked again.

Driving with your knees. He looks like he's driving a matchbox car anyway but come on. At least he wasn't texting. 

So the garden this summer has been a real big let down. I could have stayed more on top of things but nothing else was working out right either. We were able to get a few squash and cucumbers off, some tomatoes. The green beans did real well this year as did the peas. A previous post was about a beaver. It is actually a ground hog. Apparently my garden was his buffet. I went out this weekend and did a lot of cleaning up, ripped out the cherry tomato plants as well as the old Roma plants, planted some new bush bean seeds I got from Gurneys. It's Thursday and they are already up. I'll have pics of those this weekend. Tied up my other Tomato plants as high as I could but my stakes are not tall enough. I'd say if I stretched them out, they would be about 11'-0" to 12'-0" tall. I have 1 Better Boy growing right now. I'll leave then alone, see if I can get some pollination going on a few of the flowers and see what happens. My green peppers are doing pretty good and the Tomatillo's look good as well but I'm not sure when to pick them. 

I looked last night and my new cucumber plants that were doing so good died because of all of the rain. They drowned. Speaking of rain (and wind), hurricane Irene gave us quite a bit. I would have liked to seen it stick around for about another 4-5 days as we really could use it. Hard to get that song out of your head though.

Flowers surprisingly liked the rain.

Did some weeding on the front beds this weekend and got them looking much better. If they could find a way to make that stringy weed/grass stuff edible, the world's hunger problem would be solved. That stuff will grow on a rock. You start to pull it when you find it and the root ends up being 5 feet away from you!

Looking forward to next week, Thursday and Friday in particular as that's when the oldest boys graduates summer camp. Not a moment too soon for the wife, that's for sure. More on this next week....

WOF of the week!

Well, she's certainly been woffie a lot this past month. With the new couch came a love seat too. So she has certainly been testing them out over and over.

  

And of course we have to fur up the love seat that I use. not real sure why she put her snout down between the cushions like that. 

Everyone knows about the east coast earthquake, right? Well I wasn't in town when this happened but the wife, youngest and WOF were. Apparently she can predict earthquakes. Wife said she went crazy before the tremors. And the aftershock too I guess. Anyway she freaks out at the sweeper and thunderstorms. We had (me) been considering the Thundershirt. Anything to get her off of you during these times of distress. I got the bright idea to try a regular small tee shirt, to no effect.

Maybe it's worth the money, I don't know.

On season 5 of Northern Exposure and have season 6 in the wings. Then I'll probably watch them again. Too bad they don't make shows like this anymore. I hate reality TV. If it weren't for my British comedy show or occasional golf, I don't really like to watch TV anyway. 

Until next time, let mother nature enlighten your path to inner peace and wisdom....  My Chris impersonation. 

Long Time, No Updates

So, so sorry about the lack of updates lately. Just seems like when there is free time, I just want to do nothing but veg. There's a lot in the past and a lot upcoming and there will be a post later this evening about all recent events, some good, some bad.