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October 07 My friend Mark in EthiopiaI am not writing my own post today. I have a friend, Mark Pierson, who lives in Greeley Hill. I was friends with his wife Cathy, who died about two and a half years ago in an accident along with their 7 month pregnant daughter-in-law, Kandace. Since that time, Mark has been doing missionary work, along with his two grown sons, Mark II and Luke. Luke was married to Kandace. He has sent out an e-mail about what he is currently experiencing in Addis Ababa. I'm copying it here, with his permission.
Hi everyone,
It's Sabbath afternoon, October 4, 2008. I'm staying at the Ethiopian Union of Seventh-day Adventist office building. They have three guest rooms. I came to Addis Ababa last Wednesday so I could retrieve our video camera that was kept by the Customs office. The hospital vehicle was going to Addis and if I wanted to get my camera this was a good chance. I was given about a 45 minuite notice so I packed my packback and headed out with Ashebir the driver. His name means terrorist, but he is already a good frined. I should have obtiained permission to bring the camera into the country prior to our arrival but I forgot to do that.
The guest room I'm staying in for 5 nights cost 120 birr per night for a total of 600 bir or $60.The unskilled employees at Gimbie Adventist Hospital earn about 320 birr per month or less. It was very hard for me to pay 600 birr for my room. You should see the simple, poor conditions those employees live in. I felt something in my stomach when I paided that money for my room when there are so many here that don't have basic needs such as food, shelter or parents.
Then on Thursday I went to the Ministry of Information offices in downtown Addis Ababa. Addis Ababa means "new flower". Giram drove me to where I needed to go. Girma, I learned that day, is a very wise man. He is 70 years old. He knows his bible well and he knows alot about world politics He taught me some things as we drove and he talked. I had to go to the Ministry of Information to get a letter giving me permission to bring the camera into the country and then we had to take that letter to Customs at the airport to retrieve the camera.. I like Girma very much. At the Ministry of Information Girma had to argue a little with the people to persuade them to give me the letter. When we left the office Girma said that it is good to have to persuade someone to do something, that means it is a worthy thing to do. He said like when he asked his wife to marry him. She resisted a little and he had to persuade her and then she said yes and he has been happy ever since. By 3:30 Thursday afternoon I had the camera. The Customs official said that if I do not have the camera with me when I leave the country they will tax me $2000 to $3000 US.
I was done with what I needed to do here in Addis and I would not be leaving for four more days.
I had brought the book "Redeeming Love" by Francine Rivers with me and had been reading it in the evenings in Gimbie. So I brought the book along to Addis, God had wanted to spend some quiet time with me here in Addis and I love Him for planning that. During my free time here in Addis I had been reading Redeeming Love. About 3.5 years ago Cathy had read it to me each evening for about two weeks. I loved to listen to her read to me. If you have not read Redeeming Love, GET THE BOOK NOW AND READ IT. You will want to read it a couple of times though if you are living from your heart.
After Cathy had read this book to me I remember thinking, I'm most like the charcter Michael Hosea, the good guy in the story. I thought I had the desires and needs of others above my own. But through reading the book again I see that I AM Angel, the prostitute in the story. I've been very good at deceiving myself about myself. Jesus has been my beloved all my life but I have sold my heart to the enemy. By that I mean I claim to care about needy people. I don't. I claim to love the people Jesus loves. I don't. I claim to be generous. I'm not. I claim to love others. I don't.
From reading this book again I am beginning to realize I don't have to earn love from God, Jesus or anyone else. Love comes to me in spite of my behavior. No one can ever earn love from someone else. If you do earn love from someone, then it is not love. Cathy loved me unconditionally but I thought I had to earn her love not just accept it from her. She was not perfect but she did love me unconditionally, I will never forget her love.
In this book, the character Angel, also taught me that I don't know how to love without wanting something in return, for that is how Jesus loves me. Oh, there is one thing that Jesus wants in return for His love for me. He wants me to love Him back. From what Jesus has showed me since Cathy died I could now love her as she wanted, needed and desired.
This book has changed me in the last few days. I am beginning to see how it is possible to love without desiring anything as a reward, except love in return.
My room here in Addis is in the middle of downtown in a city of 9 million people. Not a nice city. Most you you know that I like to take walks so I have been taking a walk here each day. The sidwalks are full of children begging, people who limp or can't walk at all. Many have not function in their legs so they literally drag themselves along the sidewalk as they beg. On the few blocks I walk I will see two or three draging themselves along with their legs out behind them. I've seen several with elephantitis. It's when lymphnodes in the legs and feet swell.Their feet and legs are huge. Those people drag along the ground also. There are many, many young woman usually with one child, they are dressed like they come from the north part of the country, from a rural tribe. There are many of them begging all over the place as I take my walks along the streets.
But this afternoon was difficult. I came across someone literally sitting in the gutter. I could not tell if it were a man or a woman. I will call it a man because it gives me a sick feeling inside to call it a woman. The man was trying to cover his face with his hand and a filty rag. His teeth looked gross sticking out at wieird angles. The skin hung away from below his eyes making him look gross. I turned my head away. The clothes he had on were little more than filth rags, just like our rightousness. He was about 20 feet ahead of me when I first saw him. He was barefood. All but 2 or 3 of his toes were totally gone. He was holding out one had for money. All of his fingers were a third of their original length or less. The lower half of his face had thick white scales flaking from it. I rushed by him repused by just looking at him. I remember actually feeling a little naseauted as I walked by him, I was so repulsed. Within getting a few steps past him, my heart thought of Jesus touching and healing the lepers.
I thought this must be leperosy.
I stopped and started walking back towards him. As I walked towards him I took 10 birr out of my pocket - $1. I rolled it up to give to him. Then I unrolled it to make it longer so that when I gave it to him there would be a lesser chance that I would touch him. I thought Jesus touched the lepers. But I couldn't touch this person.
He reached up with both hands to take the money because his fingers were too short to grasp the money with one hand. Fingers were maybe an inch long. Then my hand touched his and I pulled away quickly. The expression he gave was one of appreciation. I turned and walked the couple of blocks back to my room. The first thing I did when I got back to my room was to wash my hands thouroghly with soap.
I know I am not perfect but Jesus is working and drawing me to be like him because my heart ached with pain and sorrow at seeing a human being that looked SO unloveable.
The book Redeeming Love has showed me that I'm a repulsive, nauseating beggar that is loved by a passionate, unconditional, forgiving, unchanging, everlasting and self-sacrifing bridegroom whose name is Jesus.
How did Jesus feel when he walked the streets full of beggers, cripples, prostitutes and pharisees? I'm beginning to see a little what He felt like, so very little, because he is God and I am the begger.
I can not find ANY words that begin to express the love I feel towards my Jesus and the love that I now experience from HIm.
Jesus is guiding me very slowing along the way to Him. He wants to take me along slowly but I want to go fast. I'm learning to slow down and not push Jesus along.
It's easy to skip meals here. Everyone on the street is asking for food by their gesture.
Only 8% of the people in the world own cars and I have three.
I've been changed this last couple of days as I was alone with Jesus in a city of 9 million. I used to dread being alone.
You may pass the email along to anyone, I actually hope you pass it alone. Being rich, and you are rich, blinds us Americans. Americans spend $10 Billion on ice cream. How far could that go in helping hungry people.
With Ahava. (Ahava is Hebrew that means connected love).
Mark
October 03 Boing!!Alicia started gymnastics on Tuesday. She was very excited to start this new activity so I took her to Target the night before to buy a leotard. Being the savvy shoppers that we are, we hit the clearance rack first. We hit it just right and found a bunch of leotards in different cuts, but all were red and blue with silver stars. Very patriotic. Since they were marked down to $4.74, I allowed her to get two of them. She tried them all on and picked her two. Boy, was I glad that I bought them there when I saw the prices at the gymnasium. They want $35 for one leotard!! That is outrageous!!
We showed up bright and early on Tuesday for class and....we were locked out. I checked my calendar. 9:00, Tuesday. Called home and had Mike check the calendar - 9:00, Tuesday. I called the school. No answer. We were just getting ready to leave when I saw a woman pull up and she was wearing a polo with the gym name on it. Turns out, class was at 11:00. That's fine. We went home, did some school work and then went back.
Alicia loved her class!! First they did stretching exercises on the floor. She's not as limber as I thought she'd be, but I guess she will be soon. Then they started on the balance beams. There were 4 beams at different heights. On the first beam they walked forward. On the second they walked backward. Thirdly, they walked sideways. On the fourth and tallest beam they walked forward again. Then they repeated.
They don't allow parents in the gym so I attempted to take pictures through the window. They aren't great, but at least I got some. Here she is walking forward.
She needed a little help with the form of her arms (close to your ears, close to your ears!).
They also did a forward roll on the balance beam.
They're a little blurry, but she did the follow-through.
They also did the rings. They were supposed to loop their feet through the rings, hold on and then arch their backs. She had trouble with the arching. That is when I realized just how long her legs are!
They also worked a little on the pommel horse. All they had to do was hoist themselves up straight-armed and swing their legs from side to side. I noticed later that another girl is standing behind her and it looks as if Ali is standing on the ground while leaning on the horse.
They also worked on the bars, but I didn't get any pictures of that. That was about the time that the instructor started losing control of the class and had to sit them down to remind them that they are not to put chalk on their faces, dip their faces in the chalk or run around like banshees when she is not looking. Luckily, Alicia was mostly minding herself and was not in on the chalk debacle.
The nice thing about this class is that it is all homeschooled students. I get to talk to other homeschooling moms while she plays, uh, learns.
On Wednesday she started choir but I have zero photos of that. I think she likes it as well. These homeschoolers are one busy bunch!
September 28 goshI've had such a yucky weekend. Without going into detail and being accused (again) of running and telling all of my friends everything that is going on, let's just say that it was yucky and I can't believe that I will have to raise 2 more teenagers.
I had a horrible migraine this weekend, the sort that makes me sick to my stomach. Boy, do I hate that! Throw in some insomnia and it's gearing up to be a fun time! I feel a little bit better today and hope that my upset stomach was only due to the headache. Maybe I'll know tomorrow!! Yippee!!
Man, am I boring. I do apologize. September 25 Spidder!!I know it has one "d", but I have a friend who says it is infinitely cuter to say spidder rather than spider. There was a spider sighting today - in the house - but not a black widow. Reece was sitting on the floor putting together a puzzle and a black spider (not a black widow, not a field spider, but just a general spider) was headed right for him. He didn't see it so I pulled him up onto the sofa. We went looking for him, not exactly to be friendly, but, well, you know...but we didn't find him. He's probably hiding under the piano, something he will regret tomorrow when he discovers that Reece is fond of low "C" in repeat.
Ah well.
My shoulder is feeling better today. Raise your hands and say, "Hallelujah!" I'll join you! Up until today I couldn't raise my arm. I'm getting a lovely bruise on my shoulder, but it isn't nearly as indicative of the pain as it should be. I mean, really now, if I have to suffer so much that I can't raise my arm and I gasp in pain when the kids give me a hug I should at least have SOMETHING to show for it, right? If it gets any darker tomorrow I'll try to take a picture but at this time it just isn't worth it.
Speaking of pictures (yes, I did speak of them, just in the last sentence), my camera is on life-support. I'm afraid it is going to have to retire and be recycled. My screen went out. I don't know if there is anything more wrong with it or not. I guess I could take a few pictures and then load them on the computer to see if it works at all. Mike pointed out that I have a lovely camera that served me well prior to this one. Well, yes, and it takes beautiful pictures, but you see, it is not digital and therefore much more cumbersome in this instant gratification world. He asked if I could hold out until Christmas and I said, "But of course" but inside a little piece of me said, "What?! Are you kidding? How am I ever going to remember Thanksgiving or Alicia's birthday or DAYS AT THE PARK?" I have been spoiled these last nearly 5 years with my cute little compact camera that I could hang from my wrist and take short videos with.
I wonder if I could get an SLR out of this?
No, I'm not going to even suggest it to him. As much as they make me salivate (read: Drool), I'm not serious enough about photography to warrant that expense. Sigh. I think I'll get some batteries and film tomorrow and remember the joy of printed pictures. September 22 Oh what a day!!So I realize that a lot of my posts are going to share a common thread, something that anyone reading will realize before long - I am a klutz. Seriously. It's almost comic movie status. Except that it isn't really funny, I just tend to spin it that way for your enjoyment. Oh, and black widows will probably be mentioned more often than you can imagine. I assure you, this is all real. I do not exaggerate what happens to me. I don't have to. If I were ANY klutzier, I'd be dead!
On to today...it started off well. I got up early enough to do my mile and a half on the treadmill before taking Anayla to school. That's always a good thing. I developed a migraine half way through it but I have decided to just push through those unless I am nauseated. I was on a roll, Reece was still sleeping, Alicia had just gotten up and I had swept the front porch. I decided to do something about the back porch because Mike is always tracking dust in. I was in the swing of it (haha, swinging the broom, anyway) and making some headway. I took some things out to the garbage can and moved a few things around. I noticed that on one of the chairs was a HUGE dead black widow.
I thought it was dead, anyway.
This thing was the Arnold Schwarzenegger of black widows and like the Terminator, came back to life!! This, of course, did not make me happy. Although it was roughly the size of a SUPER BALL, I still tried to knock it off the chair with the broom so I could, I don't know, JUMP on it and hope that its exoskeleton would actually crack. It was not about to get knocked off that chair. I decided to grab bug spray to stun it. Of course, the sliding glass door decided to lock on me. I was outside, knocking on my door, yelling for Alicia while keeping that spider in my peripheral vision the whole time. I finally got in the house and by the time I got back outside, I could no longer find it. Mike pretended that he was going to look for it, but I think that he was secretly afraid of Frankenspider and he left for work without finding nor killing it.
Giving up on the back porch (I mean, really, can you blame me?) I decided to go run a few errands. I took our environmentally friendly bags out to the van and put them in the back. I have to point out that I'm not so keen on saving the planet as I am on not having a billion bags hanging around the house, literally hanging, from drawer pulls. I grabbed the hatch and pulled on it really hard so that it would have great momentum and fully close the first time.
It didn't close. Why? Because it nailed me on the left shoulder! How on earth did that happen? It struck right where my bra strap sits and it struck HARD. I almost passed out, right there in the driveway. I yelled "Ow!!!" and I think I may have said something else because the old lady across the street RAN into her house, but I was trying to stay conscious, so I'm not sure. Sorry old lady!! I usually have a very clean mouth!! In every sense!!
I went into the house and was in tears before I even reached the door. Mike met me at the door (this is before he fled the spider) and asked what happened. I told him and then I went to the couch and sobbed. He brought me frozen corn and I informed him that we have real ice packs on the top shelf. He brought me a real ice pack without a towel. I asked if he could wrap it so I don't get burned. He went to get a towel and Alicia came in with the corn, promptly spilling it because of course it was half used. I told Mike to sweep it up before it got soft, and he missed his opportunity and it may have been funny if I wasn't weeping. Keep in mind that Mike is a NURSE and he was ready to give me freezer burn. Anyhow...
He gave me acetominophen and I sat and recovered and then I went on my way. I've been in pain all day and my headache just keeps hanging in there, but I'm alive!! I'm going to bed soon, probably with pillows on the floor, just in case I fall off, as my friend Erin suggested. September 16 Just a little nibbleSomething bit me today. I don't know what. I'm scared to know. It was on my left foot and I had two itchy spots. Immediately I started to feel a little panicky, due to finding out a couple of summers ago that I'm allergic to black widows. Do you know how to discover you're allergic to black widows? Why, get bit, of course!
I've been working outside a lot, I worked in the front yard for 2 1/2 hours on Sunday. I did find one of the dreaded bulbous spiders that day, but dropped the rock and smashed the offender to smithereens, oddly enough with my foot instead of the rock...that may have been safer.
Anyhow, what do you figure the chances are that his bride was watching and is now a TRUE black widow and hell-bent for revenge?
I'm just kidding. I seriously doubt that it is a black widow bite, mainly because I haven't broken out in hives to the top of my head. Still, I have to wonder what wanted a piece of me. Whatever it is, it should take note that I'm a part of the Family...you know, an Italian Family...they're mostly dead and gone and not my blood relatives, but the hungry, hungry creature doesn't have to know if we don't tell!!
I think I'm a bit tired and perhaps I should go to bed. I'll bet this isn't half as funny when I read it tomorrow. September 14 Interesting nightI won tickets the other day to go see Martha Muzzini at the Gallo Art Center. I had never heard of Martha Muzzini, but I've also never been to the Gallo Center and was dying to go there. I had two tickets and wasn't sure who to take. Mike is working super early in the morning so he didn't want to go. Anayla is helping out at the Amazing Adventure seminar at church. What to do? I thought about my friend Donna as she's my usual fall-back for just about anything. As I was going through a mental list and narrowing it down, my friend Carol was brought to my attention.
Carol and I were best friends at a time in our lives. We met in the 8th grade at little tiny Turlock Adventist Elementary School. The school was eventually closed 8 years ago and is now rented out by the church to Sierra Vista Children's Center (where one of her boys now attends. Pretty cool, huh?). Our memories, however, are still there as strong as ever, especially since it still sits on our church campus. We went on to Modesto Adventist Academy, now Central Valley Christian Academy (and oddly enough a different facility on the same land as the original), for our freshman year. We were split up sophomore year as she continued at MAA and I went on to Turlock High School. We still remained fast friends, spending as much time as we could together. Our junior year we were roommates at Rio Lindo Adventist Academy, a boarding school in Healdsburg, CA. It was there that our relationship changed. Rooming with your best friend is probably not the best idea. Taking several of the same classes together doesn't help, either. I'm sure that on my part I wasn't always the best roommate. My parents announced their divorce to us kids two short weeks before school started and I moved a couple hundred miles away. Eventually, I left school at the end of third quarter and came home, finishing the school year up with home studies. My senior year was back at Turlock High while Carol stayed at Rio.
Carol went on to college and I stayed in town and worked. My mom had 4 kids and a high school education. I worked so that I wasn't a burden to her and tried to help out as much as I could around the place. Carol and I kept in touch when she came home on break, working hard to stay close. Somehow, though, it just wasn't the same. We managed to remain friends even with our different lives.
I met Mike and a few months later moved in with him into our first apartment. Carol got back together with her high school boyfriend (also named Mike) and they soon got married. We continued to hang out as couples and do things together although it was getting harder to do so. Then her Mike got accepted at a college in Southern CA and they moved on an extremely short notice, so short that she didn't even know where they were going to live! For the first time since I was 13, I didn't have an address or phone number for her.
I missed Carol greatly. Our lives had taken pretty different paths at that point, but we had tried to stay friends. She had two kids and was married, Mike and I were co-habitating with no kids, just a dog and a couple of cats. She was going to church, I was feeling too guilty to go to church.
Fast-forward....Carol is back in town. She and Mike moved back when I was pregnant with my first child and she was pregnant with her fourth. I had Alicia in November and a month later she had Justin. By chance I happened to run into her Mike at the physical therapy office that was, at one time, her dad's. We were friends again. We had things in common again. We both had babies. We were both stay-at-home moms. We were both broke, haha.
Then things went sour for Carol. She started pulling away again. I learned that her Mike was doing a lot of stuff he shouldn't do. I learned that she battled depression and he certainly wasn't helping. Eventually, they got divorced.
Carol and I stayed in touch, as much as she allowed. She had to go back into the work force and had to move often, but always stayed in town. I was back in church, but she was pulling away. I was losing her again and didn't know how to keep her in range. I spent many hours praying for Carol.
Recently, she has been putting herself out there, which I know is a hard thing to do. She is ready to have friends again, to get out there and be....Carol. This brings us up to speed thus far.
I sent her a message on Facebook (she had had to change phone companies and I didn't have her new number) asking her to go with me to the concert. She was excited and said yes, providing her oldest would be at home to babysit the two younger boys. He agreed and off we went!!
Neither of us had heard of Martha Muzzini. I looked her up on Youtube and found a couple of grainy videos with sub-par sound that people had taken and posted. I didn't make it all the way through any of them. We figured we'd find out something about her together. Let me tell you, it was an experience!!
I picked Carol up and after a bit of difficulty getting out of her neighborhood (all the houses look the same and there are these big round-abouts and she hasn't lived there for long!), we were headed up to Modesto. We found the Gallo Center even after I turned too soon and we had to navigate the one-way streets. Then we had to find parking. We followed the signs to a garage where the guy asked for $5. They don't take credit cards so between the two of us we scrounged up enough to change to park. I mean, we were counting pennies!! By the way, when there aren't signs saying that it's parking for Gallo, the parking structure is free. What a rip-off!
We walked the two blocks to the theater and got in line for our tickets. I was very impressed with the way the center looked. It had really been hyped and was living up to all the hype. After a few minutes we entered the actual theater and there I wasn't quite as impressed. It was pretty plain, pretty much like any basic theater. Maybe I'm spoiled by the beauty of Turlock Auditorium? People who appeared to be from all walks of life and backgrounds filed in and were ushered to their seats.
Not too much later Martha was introduced. The crowd was on its feet!! On its feet and JUMPING!!! When you read this, please remember that Carol and I are Adventists, born and raised, and Adventists don't dance. I still don't even clap in church, although many people do now. Martha was jumping and dancing, her backup singers were jumping and dancing, the people in the crowd were jumping and dancing. Arms were not only lifted, they were waved around and swung about and, quite frankly, I'm glad that no one was seated by one woman in particular because she would have knocked them out cold!! There was a lot of clapping, which doesn't bother me in the least, but as I said, the dancing took me off guard. Did I mention that this was gospel music? Much different from the Contemporary Christian concerts I've been to, where someone may lift their hands to Heaven and maybe clap a few times sedately.
Since we couldn't see the stage due to everyone standing, we took to people-watching. Boy, was there a lot of watching to be done!! Every now and then we'd comment on someone who seemed particularly spry and energetic. We don't talk in tongues in our religion, but we found out later that we were both half expecting to hear some of that tonight, and then got a good laugh about us both being so funny about that sort of thing. I wonder what we would have done if someone HAD talked in tongues. It probably would have scared us a bit, seeing as how we are used to the sound of amen only ending a prayer, much less someone talking in something we couldn't even begin to decipher.
The concert lasted for a couple of hours and that Martha, well, she was bouncing around the stage the whole time. She admitted to turning 40 in February and then I felt so completely out of shape that it was a bit sad. When the concert ended we decided not to stay for the meet-and-greet and to just head back to Turlock. We were both hungry because we skipped dinner so we decided to grab something to eat. Did you know that most fast food places close at 10pm? We didn't know that! We ended up getting Taco Bell at the drive-thru and taking it back to her house to eat where we talked and laughed some more. Finally I turned my phone on and Mike happened to call. It was nearing 11 and he was worried - not to mention tired! I bid Carol goodbye and came home.
Carol and I have been through a lot through the years, both together and apart. I am just so grateful that after 25 years we can still get together and pick right back up where we left off. I look forward to getting together with her again. Who knows? Maybe one of us will win tickets to something else and we can go people-watching again. September 01 The Columbia tripOur trip to Columbia was so nice!! It was hot, but not unbearable. I think it was around 100 degrees, but there was a nice breeze that kept us cooled down. We got there a little bit late for my liking, but there were 10 of us going and we ate lunch before we headed out so I guess it wasn't so bad.
The first thing we did was look for a bathroom when we got there. Luckily we didn't have to use this one.
They have nice modern bathrooms for the public to use.
There is a lot to look at in the tiny town. Our first stop was a barn full of different carriages, including a hearse. There's no artificial lighting in the barn, though, so it's really hard to get a picture. Our next stop was the museum. Mike could spend all day just in the museum. Alicia was fascinated with the display case that had the artifacts that women used in "the olden days". Here the kids are in front of one of the display cases.
There's a new addition to the displays in town - a bowling alley!! The sign said that it was a pasttime mainly for young men and I think it was pretty obvious by all the pictures with half-naked women hanging on the wall, tastefully done of course. The kids took turns rolling the bowling ball at the wooden pins. I only got pictures of Reece because I was too busy setting pins after that.
That's Lindsay watching him roll his next frame.
There is an old buggy that is prime for pictures and we made all the kids (including teens) climb up for a photo op. They weren't exactly cooperative, but it's probably hard for most people to get 7 of them looking at the camera at the same time.
There is still a privately owned house within the park. The family refuses to sell it to the state, which I think is kind of cool, but it would be neat to be able to tour the house itself. It's very pretty, though, and a classic example of the popular architecture at that time.
We looked at some chickens in a coop (I'll spare you the pictures) and then headed over to the fire station. Of course, the viewing space is itty-bitty, you can only fit about 4 people in it, and really dark. There was some guy taking pictures with a really fancy camera (I think I drooled a little), but he was a jerk so when we realized that Reece accidentally stepped on his bag in the dark I didn't feel so bad. Really now, it's dark in there and you can hardly fit anybody in and the guy leaves his equipment bag lying in the dust and expects that it's going to be fine. I noticed that later he carried the stupid thing. Serves him right. Anyhow...I did get a picture of the outside of the building. I have to point out that every time I tried to take a picture of something, someone had to walk into the shot. I gave up and just let it be.
Mike wanted me to get pictures of the architecture but he wouldn't stay out of the pictures and neither would my sister Karnette. I took them anyway, defeated, lol.
Tyler and Anayla are soooo gangster, haha!!
All of that foolishness made us thirsty so we hit the sweets store for sarsparilla. Those old labels sure are informative, hehe.
We wandered around some more, encountering a man who played the piccolo. Other times we've been there we've seen small children playing the fiddle, that sort of thing. They're in costume so it's pretty cool.
We went into the smithy shop and the kids wanted personalized horseshoes, but it was getting close to closing and I wasn't about to spend money on every single kid. They had some cool dinner bells, though, for a price.
The town closed up at 5 pm, a bit early if you ask me, for a Saturday in the summer. We weren't ready to head back yet. The kids decided that climbing the rocks would be a really fun pasttime so that's what they did while we took pictures.
I'm going to leave you with some pictures of buildings, 'cause I know that's what you want!
August 29 Just JabberToday was officially Mike's last day at DBHC. It will always be remembered as The Nut-Hut to me. On his last day of work, he was flexed, called off of his shift. What a way to go, huh? Last night his coworkers threw him a going-away party. Altogether he has been working that facility for about 10 years. Even his patients had tears; he has always treated them right.
On Tuesday he starts a new chapter in his life. He will start working at Sierra Conservation Center. It sounds all nice, like a green place to work, somewhere that is working toward using less energy or saving trees. It's a state prison. It is in a gorgeous area, right below Jamestown, CA. You can read about Jamestown here http://www.jamestown-ca.com/ It's a lovely, quaint little town with a lot of gold-mining history. The prison, of course, isn't quaint. Mike is a little nervous, he has been at the same job for a really long time, but I am sure that he will enjoy his new one just as much.
Tomorrow we are going to church and then headed for the hills. We're going a little past Jamestown to Columbia, which is a state park and also an old mining town. You can read about Columbia here http://www.columbiacalifornia.com/ Every now and then one can read in the newspaper about someone finding a gold nugget while panning at Columbia. There's still plenty of gold in them thar hills! I plan to take my camera and get lots of pictures of the kids walking around town. I love Columbia. The park employees dress in period clothing and still do things like shape horseshoes. It's supposed to be hot, but that's okay. It's still a fun place to be.
There really isn't a whole lot going on right now. Karnette and her girls are pretty much settled into the house. They still have boxes, but they are now completely out of the old house and the keys have been returned to the owners. It feels a little crowded, but I think that pretty much any house would with 8 people living in it. Alicia is in the swing of homeschooling. I am enjoying teaching her and I like that we have flexibility so she isn't exhausted from a rigid schedule. She still has her days where she can't concentrate, but on those days I let her take more breaks from her work. If she needs to catch up I can work with her another day.
Oh! History has been made today!! Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, was chosen to be the running mate for Republican presidential nominee John McCain. This is the first time that the Republican party has had a woman nominated for Vice President. Looks like whether the Dems or Reps make it into office in November it will still be a historical event. We will either have our first black president or our first female VP. I am hoping for McCain and Palin to win. Not just because I am a registered Republican, but also because I really admire both of them. I don't exactly agree with everything that McCain does (embryonic stem cell research is a failure, they've only had success in using adult stem cells so I don't like that he backs the embryonic research), but Palin is a woman after my own heart. I really hope that they can pull this off because I cringe at the thought of a liberally run country for the next 4 years, especially if most of the Senate remains the way it currently is. Did you know?Did you know that you could add your own pictures for a background? When did that happen? I swear, I have tried in the past and it didn't work. It almost didn't work tonight. But I got it to work! Isn't it beautiful? I didn't take the pictures, but I did make them into a collage and then use that for the background. Nice and summery. August 28 Quick update on the washer situationMy floors are ruined. My beautiful, two year old laminate floors are ruined!! The water damaged both the laundry room and the kitchen. I was cleaning the floors in the kitchen today and I noticed that the seams on all the boards are coming up. I could cry. I told Mike that I don't want to replace them until we move out of this house, whenever that may be. He said he is fine with that, since the kids are hard on things anyway.
Still, I could cry. August 27 Whew!!I got up early this morning so I could drive Anayla to school. This was a feat since I didn't go to bed until about 1 am, but my lovely sister has a wonderful habit of making a pot of coffee every morning, of which I drink roughly 2/3. On the way to school the guy on the radio said that it was supposed to hit 101 degrees today. He was right, by the way, the thermometer on the back porch says 101. Go figure!
I debated on mowing the lawn this morning, but since it is watering day I figured I could wait until tomorrow (forecast, 104). I decided to do some other stuff in the yard instead. I need to preface this by saying that I used to enjoy yard work. I enjoyed it clear up until I discovered that I was allergic to black widows. Do you know how one finds out there is an allergy to black widows? There's only one way to find out and I did that in my yard - over a year ago. Needless to say, I have a healthy fear of the yard and it shows.
I worked in the front yard since that's what people see as they drive by and it has fewer spiders. I was just getting up my momentum when the bug spray guy showed up. He promised to kill any evil (pronounced E-vile) spiders that he may see. He did the backyard first to allow me time to finish what I was doing. I hula hoed the weeds in the flower beds. I also attacked the weeds that wedged themselves a home in the cracks of the sidewalk. I don't know why they're so hardy; I do spray them with weed killer. Incessant little suckers, they are. I got out my handy-dandy electric trimmer and squared the boxwood hedges and trimmed back the camellia bush. I cut down a large portion of an insidious sucker plant that grows to tree height and is currently knocking down my gate. I didn't finish completely, but it looks so much better!! Whew!
I came in the house and went into the laundry room to switch over the clothes from the washer to the dryer. When I opened the door I was in for a big surprise. The hose for the discard water had wiggled its way out of the pipe in the wall and as a result the water drained out all over the floor. First, though, it went into the litter box right next to the washer and filled it up very full. Of course, once it was full and the water had nowhere to go and started to flow over the edge, carrying lots of....natural.....stuff.....with it. It took a lot of time to mop it all up (and a lot of towels!) and get it all sanitized. It is now done and so far so good. I've done more laundry and it's been leak-free since then. Whew!
This afternoon Anayla decided she wanted to level the backyard for the pool. She did a pretty good job, but thought that it was a lot easier than it is. I told her that now we need to check the sprinklers and see what needed to be capped. As far as I can see, there is only one. We did have a gusher, though, on another line and two sprinklers on that line that weren't working. I put a new sprinkler head on the gusher, turned it on and....it didn't work!! However, the other two started working. What the heck? I still can't figure that one out. Anayla is now out there trimming back the wisteria and star jasmine to make more room for the pool. Whew! August 20 More crunchiness I forgot to mention previouslyI almost forgot!! I cook from scratch often and I sew. I have made several things for Alicia and myself.
It's not a lot, but I wanted to throw it out there, lol. A Little Bit CrunchyI have come to the realization that I am slightly crunchy. This is a phrase that a friend of mine uses a lot to describe herself. It means that she is a more natural person. I am not going to claim that I am totally into the save-the-planet-forgo-all-conviences thing. No, but I am far more crunchy than I thought.
I am a mostly AP parent. AP stands for Attachment Parenting. I didn't know what the term was even while I was practicing it. I wore my children. I only wish I had known about slings before my kids were too big for them. I had the uncomfortable Baby Bjorn, which was okay, but now that I have seen the wonderful slings available I know that I would have given a lung for one of them. I could have carried my kids for so much longer!! We have a family bed. This started originally out of laziness on my part. I was breastfeeding (also AP) and getting up in the middle of the night to feed was killing me. So, I started to just bring the baby Alicia into the bed...and she never left. Reece came along and he joined us. It wasn't too bad because Mike worked nights so it was usually just the kids and myself. Now, however, Mike is more likely to come to bed and it is getting CROWDED!!
Now, I homeschool. At the moment it's only Alicia because we decided to wait for Reece as he just turned 5. I was a little scared but we are adjusting well. We can do things on her time, which means that we can start school a little later in the day. This is important because she is a little bit grumpy in the morning and can focus much better after being up for an hour or so. I let her decide which subject she wants to work on. We hit them all, but I am not going to say something like, "English and reading first, Social Studies second..." and so on.
I am a little less crunchy in other parts of life. I clean with vinegar and baking soda (not together), but I also still use chemical cleaners. We aren't vegetarian, although I have been in the past and still cook lots of vegetarian dishes, but we don't eat unclean meats, either. I vaccinate my children. I had Reece circumcised. That wasn't a religious thing, but more of a health issue. Mike and I saw far too many old men having the procedure done because they got infections when they could no longer care for themselves the way they should.
I will probably never drive a car made to save the planet, unless that is the only choice out there. I'm sorry, but I researched the Chevy Tahoe and the hybrid is $20,000 more just because it is environmentally friendly. My old van gets about 24 miles to the gallon, which I think is pretty good, and I own it free and clear. I use CFL lightbulbs because they last longer, but now I worry about the disposal of them. I recycle my bottles and cans. Our city requires that we separate and rinse our recyclables so I figure I may as well get paid for the effort instead of them getting the cash. I mean, I have to pay the five cent deposit so I may as well get it back, right? I call it my mocha money.
Anyhow, I guess I'm a little bit crunchy and a little bit....rock and roll? (insert canned laughter here) August 18 Oh, the humanity!It just doesn't seem right. Almost every night, when I am supposed to be sleeping but cannot (surprise, surprise), I have all sorts of blog ideas racing through my head. Snappy titles. Wonderful allegorical stories. Publish-worthy material!
As you can see, it doesn't make it here. Perhaps I should start sleeping with my laptop. August 11 So fast!I have my orientation tomorrow morning for the homeschooling!! I am so excited - and trepidatious! I have no clue what to expect, but I am looking forward to starting my new journey.
I have to admit, it will also be nice to spend a morning away from the daily chores and cooking...hehehe. August 05 HomeschoolingI took the leap today - I enrolled Alicia in the homeschooling program through Hickman Charter School. I took her with me so that she could see how long the ride is (the map said 20 min, but it's more like 30) and what the school looks like. She declared the school to be very large, which is funny to me because it really isn't, but in comparison to the Adventist school she attended before it is pretty big. They seem extremely nice there and I can't wait for her to start the program.
Next Tuesday I get to go to my orientation for the program. I will hear an overview, pick up the curriculum and have some "classes" with the math and reading teachers. I assume that I also get the teacher assignement that day. Each child/family is assigned a teacher that they report to once a week. Alicia will also be paired with a reading specialist to help get her back up to speed. I think she's doing great, but they'll decide that, I guess, officially.
I can't wait to start this new chapter in our lives! August 01 The Jonas Brothers I promised it so here it is. On July 16th I took Anayla and Alicia to see the Jonas Brothers. It was Alicia's first concert and she was soooo excited! One of the radio stations had some sort of contest going on and there were tons of vehicles with their windows painted.
Of course, we didn't see these right away because it took us FOREVER to get there! We left the house before 3:30 and didn't get to the venue until right before the show was supposed to start, at 7 pm. When I bought the tickets, it said N. Cal. and I thought it was in the Bay Area, but I got the amphitheatre confused with another one. This one was out in the middle of nowhere, above Sacramento. It probably would have taken about 2 hours, maybe 2 1/2, but there was roadwork on I-5 that could not be avoided. After that we hit 70 where there was more roadwork and we traveled at the brisk pace of 20 mph.
Finally, after snail-paced traffic and a detour, we came upon the entrance.
We found our parking spot and walked to the amphitheatre in a swirl of dust. The first thing we saw upon entry was the tour bus. Alicia thought that the band might be in there, but of course they weren't. It was hard to convince her, though. However, they allow fans to sign the bus and had paper taped to it so that even more fans could sign. I got some pictures of the girls in front of it. They were getting really excited by now!
We hit the bathroom (because it was a loooong drive up!) and then went to find our seats. They weren't bad...we were pretty much in the middle. We were in the sun, pretty much everyone was, and we commenced to our waiting. And waiting. And waiting some more.
Finally, there was movement on the stage. The opening act was starting. It was Demi Lovato, the girl from their Disney TV movie "Camp Rock". She wasn't bad. We didn't know any of her songs, though, so we just kind of sat and listened to her.
She played for about 45 minutes and then we had to wait some more for the set and instruments switched out.
We got a little bit bored...
We're angels!! We don't show up on film, just like Nick Cage in "City of Angels"!!
I guess I was wrong; it must have been the flash.
Finally, FINALLY, the headliners came on. By then it was dark and pictures were really hard to get. Of course, all of the young, waving, teenaged arms didn't help our view any. So, due to no flash and being jostled, the shots I got were really, really poor. I'll post them anyway, for your viewing tortu...I mean enjoyment.
They had a lot of pyrotechnics in their show. Also lasers. And a stage that could bring up a grand piano. And these small discs they chained themselves to that lifted them up about 25 feet above the stage...
I can't really describe the pictures to you because obviously, they are too blurry, haha!!
I have a video, though. I actually have a longer one, but this doesn't support it. Ah, well.
Once the concert was over, at around 10, we headed out to the parking lot and just sat. I have never seen such slow traffic leaving a venue! We actually sat in the van for half an hour, listening to the radio, and watched people pull out of their parking spots and race toward the exit and then....just sit there. They actually did not move an inch for at least half an hour and had their engines running the whole time. It was ridiculous.
There was a young girl who was desperate for attention - she probably was ignored by her father - who was dancing and dancing in the parking lot. The debacle was ridiculous and I refused to play into her ploy by taking pictures so I can't show you what an idiot she looked like. She's probably on Youtube because her friends were taping her. Just look for "Spaz dancing in parking lot at Jonas Bros. concert" or something like that. You may see my van!
Finally I noticed that the other exit seemed to have some movement. We started the van and headed out. I decided not to go home the same direction we had come due to all of the construction. I saw a sign that said "Roseville, 27 miles". Dang, we were waaaaay out of Sacramento!! We headed out. Traffic did not move very quickly on this 2 lane highway. We stopped for gas because I had no idea the next time I would see civilization. Eventually, we were on a highway. We found Rocklin. We found Roseville. I decided I did not want to hit I-5 since Southbound was closed.
I decided to trust my internal compass, which rarely drives me wrong. I got off on an exit that said Sunrise. It took some guessing, but it eventually did lead to Sunrise Ave. We drove through downtown Sacramento, which was very eerie at midnight. We hadn't had dinner so we stopped at Burger King and had some so-so food, but it was the only thing open at that hour.
Pretty soon I realized that Sunrise was exactly what I needed because it would lead me to Grant Line Road, which would take me to 99 at Galt and I would have bypassed all of the freeway work. Great!!
Except that it was later and later and I was sooooo tired. I called Mike, hoping that the talking would help me stay awake. The girls were sound asleep. I was beginning to wish that I had set it up with Aunt Betty and Uncle Gene that I would stay the night with them and drive home in the morning. Comfort Inn, Holiday Inn, Motel 6....I rushed by all of them, wistfully dreaming of stopping and renting a room for the rest of the morning.
Finally I called Mike again and said I could not safely make it home. I pulled over at Pelandale and parked behind Denny's. Mike and Khori came up and drove us the rest of the way home. I couldn't make it from Modesto to Turlock, I was THAT tired. We stumbled through the door at 3 am and went to bed.
What a great night and a great first concert for Alicia. July 20 Headache optional but presentI have a headache and the kids are playing sooo loudly. I know they're having fun and actually getting along with each other for a change, but it sure is hard when my head hurts and I suspect that a migraine is rearing its ugly head.
Sometime, remind me to tell you about the Jonas Brothers concert. July 11 Oregon!!Last weekend I hung out on a mountain in Oregon.
My nieces Lachelle and Lindsay had been up at my dad's in Lakeview for a few weeks. Karnette needed to go up and get them, but she didn't want to drive alone, understandably. It is a 9 hour drive, after all. Mike decided that he wanted to go with us, but he wasn't sure if he could get the time off or not. His job had to call by 1 pm on Thursday if they wanted to call him off. They called at 12:58. Wow, way to cut it close, guys! I packed his stuff into the suitcase and off we went!
I wanted to leave by 2, but it was closer to 2:30. We picked up Karnette and went to fuel up since I had a discount at the Raleys in Modesto. We stopped in Riverbank and grabbed some food and off we went!! Later than we expected, but we were going. We reached Reno at about 7 pm and stopped to eat at the Black Bear Diner. Yum!! We never should have gone there...the waitress was sooo slow. I think she was new to it, but my goodness!! 2 hours later we were on the road again. Yes, 2 hours. We did fill up in Reno even though we had enough gas to reach Lakeview. The prices outside of Reno were about $4.57 a gallon. Inside Reno - $4.07. Whoa.
We drove through smoke and heat and got to dad's house a little after 1 am. He had Mike, the kids and I set up in the trailer. I didn't mind that because the bed in the house is as hard as a door. It's like sleeping on a piece of plywood. The trailer is more comfortable by far. Karnette went into the house and we all fell asleep.
The next morning, July 4, I was awake and up by 8 am. I didn't get 7 hours of sleep. It took awhile to settle in so it was closer to 2 am when we actually climbed, no FELL, into bed and I did not sleep well at all. Reece was sleeping with me on the smaller bed and that child has to sleep so closely that I could hardly breathe. I got a few hours of sleep, I suppose.
Dad had coffee ready. Thank goodness!! Everyone else wandered out of the bedrooms and we had breakfast. They all took so long getting up that Dad ditched the big breakfast he had planned and we had cereal. That's okay. I wasn't there for the food! My cousin James showed up, which was nice because I hadn't seen him since Grandpa's funeral. Unfortunately his wife Karen had to work, but at least we got time with him! My Aunt Lenora, Uncle James and Grandma also came by. Dad got busy cleaning his BBQ grill because we were going to be eating good! We got our showers and the day was going.
Dad was eager to show off his latest hobby - archery. He is a member at the club in town and all members have their own key to the building. It's not much of a building, just an unfinished rectangle with targets, but it's a safe place to shoot. I drove the kids and Mike in the van, following Dad, but James wanted to drive Dad's scooter so he followed me. Dad set up some targets and went over some safety tips and explained how to use his very complicated bow and Mike took a stab at it. He did alright, not perfectly, but he enjoyed it. Next up was James.
James kept saying to be careful not to dry-fire because it will completely mess up a bow and you will have to have it re-wound and recalibrated. I had him in my line of sight for the camera and next thing I know...he dry-fired!! I seriously did not see him touch the trigger, but Dad swears he had to have. I don't know about that, but it's neither here nor there because it happened. When it happened, LOOK OUT!! Mike jumped right into action, grabbing the first aid kit from the van (good thing we brought it).
James had about 4 big welts on the inside of his left arm. The last one, the one closest to his hand, was huge and bleeding. He says it didn't hurt, but come on! It was about 2 inches long and puffed up pretty thick. Mike covered it (drenched is more like it) in antibiotic cream and we wrapped guaze around it. I taped it in place. Amazingly, the shooting went on.
Dad had bought Lindsay and Lachelle a bow while they were up there. It is much smaller and lighter in weight and has an easier pull. Lindsay loves to shoot and was anxious to show her mom her skills. She shot a few times and then offered it up to Karnette. Understandably, Karnette was a bit reluctant to try the bow after seeing what happened to James. She finally gave in and shot a few arrows. I declined since I had no desire to have my kids see my arm all torn up and bloody. We packed up and headed home with James still on the scooter.
Are you wondering why Lachelle wasn't shooting? Poor Lachelle managed to fall off a bicycle two days before we headed up and broke her wrist. She loves to shoot the bow as well, but obviously one can't shoot while in a splint and sling. She was at her grandparent's, sleeping off a pain pill. Poor baby!
We came into the house and of course we beat James there. I know that my Aunt has sort of a low tolerance for bloody things so I decided to prep her for her son. I walked in and said, "Well, James got hurt at the range, but he has no holes in him....pretty much." I explained that the string got his arm but the wound was dressed and he wasn't feeling any pain. It's probably a good thing I pepared her.
I remember one time that she never could have been prepared for what happened to James. When he was about 3 (27 years ago!), he was injured very badly. We were temporarily living with them while my parents were buying another house and their house was in the country. James had been outside on the property and walked behind a horse. Of course, most people know not to do that, but a 3 year old doesn't. He was kicked in his face, square in the middle of his right cheek. We could literally see the inside of his mouth while it was closed. He spent close to a month in the hospital. It broke every bone in that side of his face. He had a horseshoe-shaped scar for years, but now all he has to show for it is a small scar on his upper lip and some discoloration on his nose. He's a little self-conscious, but he turned out to be a pretty handsome guy.
Dad started to prepare for the BBQ. I forget that he was once a butcher, but watching him split the beef ribs brought it back home to me. He is so fast and accurate with the knife!! He prepared FOUR racks of big, meaty ribs. We went a bit easier on the sides, with ready-made mac & cheese and boiled corn on the cob. My cousin Linda Kay was bringing potato salad. The men went outside and bonded over the BBQ, "Oooh! Oooh! Fire! Man make fire!"
We prepared the food inside, such as it was and then it was time to just sit and wait. We were pretty much talked out and just kind of sat around. I picked up a book, Reba: My Story and started to read. I didn't get it finished, but I have it on order here at our library. At one point in the afternoon, after dinner, Karnette and I both decided that we were too pooped to keep our eyes open any longer. She went upstairs for a little nap and I went into the trailer for one myself. I said goodbye to James as he had to head home on his 2 hour drive and then collapsed.
Mike woke me when dinner was ready and I went back into the house feeling just a little bit more refreshed. It got pretty hot in the trailer so I wasn't as well-rested as I had hoped. That was okay, because I was STARVING! Linda Kay hadn't shown up yet, but we decided not to wait any longer since we couldn't reach her. We just had to assume that she was on her way. Dinner was delicious and we enjoyed our food and laughed and talked the whole time. The ribs were juicy, the corn was sweet and the mac & cheese was, well, cheesy.
About an hour after we all ate, Linda Kay showed up with her husband and her mom. For the life of me, I can't remember her mom's name!! She is my cousin, but I can't remember her name. She remembered my name, though, and was just as sweet as I remembered her to be. Linda Kay was just as aloof as always. She has never really been a friendly person and is actually pretty rude. I enjoyed her mom, though.
As the evening wore on we decided to head down to the fairgrounds to watch the fireworks. Karnette warned us not to expect much, especially considering the town is probably around 2,500 people, give or take a person or two. I made sure to cover the kids in bug spray because the mosquitos were looking for their 4th of July feast! I also put solid shoes on myself and Reece because the first thing I noticed when I pulled in was stinging nettles. Oh, the tormentors of my youth!! My kids have never experienced the pain of a stinging nettle and I didn't want it to start then. We waited for quite awhile and made nice with the people parked next to us. They had brought sparklers so the kids enjoyed playing with those while waiting.
I had backed into our spot and opened up the back of the van. We had prime viewing seats. We could see them lighting the fireworks before they shot up into the sky. They were directly overhead and they were beautiful! Karnette was wrong. It was spectacular!! It rivaled the show at the University here in Turlock, population 60,000+. The kids oohed and aahed and applauded and cheered. It lasted for about an hour and we headed back to the house, where we set off the fireworks that Grandma Carol had bought. We all fell back into bed at about 11 pm.
Sunday morning we were up bright and REALLY early. We were leaving for home that day but wanted to go up to Aunt Lenora and Uncle James' property before we left. Mike took his guns up and was dying to shoot them. We were up at around 6 am and Dad made a blueberry pancake breakfast. No showers that morning because we were going to get dirty! We loaded up the Jeep and Dad's big pickup. Dad put his huge ATV in the back of the truck. I discovered the 5th seatbelt hiding under his seat and we were all safely buckled in and ready to go. Dad, Alicia, Lindsay and I drove the Jeep and Carol followed with everyone else in the pickup. I, of course, was driving because it's fun to drive on untamed roads!!
Aunt Lenora and Uncle James live 5 miles out of town and then 3 additional miles up a dirt road (of sorts) to their property on a mountain. Once we made it up and parked, Carol backed the ATV out of the truck, Mike unloaded his guns from the truck and the fun began! Carol took my kids out for a leisurely ride while Mike set up his guns. I had the forethought to bring ear plugs, and boy am I glad I did! The AR-15 is one LOUD gun! While Mike and my uncle (and Karnette) shot guns, Dad took me out on the ATV and taught me how to drive it. We went over a couple of little hills and over some rugged terrain and then Dad let me go on my own. I went down below the trailer and tooled around the mountain. I went back up onto the road and sped along. I came up to a hill Dad and I had gone over and decided to give it a whirl.
I got stuck.
I put it in reverse and it didn't work; it just dug in further. I put into 4 wheel drive with no luck. I turned it off and climbed down. I had bottomed out. The wheels were digging in further and further and it was about to teeter-totter on the rise. I took about 5 steps toward the barn and trailer and stopped. Dad would never let me live it down if I went and asked for help. I could just picture it, me toeing the ground, not looking him in the eye and saying, "I, uh, got the, uh, ATV stuck..." I turned around and looked again. I kicked dirt out from under the frame and grabbed some substantial rocks, jamming them under the wheels. Turned the key, put it in gear and gunned the engine. It worked! I was free!! I rode around a little longer and then headed back. I did tell Dad, but I got points for getting it out myself.
I took my turn with the guns, firing the 9mm first. It has a little kick to it, but it's a fun shot. I did get smacked by the hammer a bit on my thumb, but it wasn't too painful, just bloody. Mike talked me into the AR-15 next. I was hesitant because the last rifle I shot had quite a kick and led to a painful shoulder. This gun has next to no kick at all!! It was fun to shoot!! I did skip the shotguns, however. Unfortunately, even though I took pictures of everyone else, no one bothered to get me shooting....or riding the ATV....or just sitting around shooting the breeze.
It's as if I wasn't there, if you relied on photos for evidence.
Karnette and I took off on the ATV and rode like wild women, nearly tipping over backwards. We decided to calm it down since we have kids and Mike wouldn't be too happy if we came back home dead. We parked the ATV (not for long, Mike took off) and headed inside for our lunch. We ate, cleaned everything up, the kids picked out cool rocks to bring home and we headed back down the mountain. A couple of quick showers later and we were headed back to California, tired but happy. |
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