Sunday, May 29, 2011

Drain update

So I am chasing my dog down the street where the neighbor is working outside. He is always outside since he has a mini auto shop in his garage. He is always tinkering with something. I asked him if he was flooded as well and he said yes. He told me that the neighborhood is divided into four zones for drainage. Two out of the four zones in the neighborhood were plugged. They had massive root penetration. The city knew about the issue but was "getting to it". My neighbor has a picture of the truck that was cleaning the roots out of the drains. He said once it left, basements drained. I guess there is a Town Hall meeting Thursday at 7:30pm. So it wasn’t a decision just laziness on the part of the city that ruined homes.

A wet Sunday

Ok, it looks like my blog went to a once a week thing. I will see what I can do. I was doing laps around my basement looking for leaks. It rained so much I wasn’t sure what to expect. The whole neighborhood wasn’t flooded just parts. From what I have heard they had water shooting up through the basement drains. It didn’t make a lot of since since we sit above the freeway and on high ground mostly. There are rumors that the city made the decision not to dump the water on the freeway but let it flood the homes instead. Not sure what’s true but the pattern of flooded homes is rather strange.

I was worried about our flowers and garden getting enough water. As it turned out a couple of the larger flowers were damaged from the heavy rains. Needless to say they have plenty of water. Hopefully in a few months the weather will have evened out. I am really hoping for no rain this weekend. I am heading up north camping and dry would be better.

I was sitting here writing this and hoping for a relaxing morning but I have kids, so no luck.

See ya soon.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Baseball, veggies and cars

I need to start growing gills. It has rained quite a bit in the last few weeks. Jason’s baseball game last Thursday was a muddy mess. It took me three washings with stain stuff to get the crap out of his pants. The coaches were brooming off home plate, the pitches mound and 2nd base. The benches were unusable. The teams sat at picnic tables. They still played well although they ended up losing. They are now 1 and 1 for the year. We have a game today and I am hoping the weather hold until after the game.

Samantha and I planted our garden yesterday. We have two types of tomatoes, strawberries and cucumbers. I picked up a mini-irrigation system to see if that will help out with our crops when summer rolls in. Neat little setup. ¼” tube with mini sprinklers attached. So far it hasn’t been needed.

Got the car dropped off at the shop to have the struts replaced. I am sure there is an advantage to struts over shocks. I am not a mechanic so I am not going to try and guess what that may be but it seems shocks are easier to change. I am not even going to try since I would need tools I don’t have, and patience I can no longer muster. I have changed shocks in the past and although it wasn’t easy it was doable in an afternoon. Struts require spring compressors, mounting bushings and who knows what else.

Holy crap, I must be getting old when I start waxing nostalgic about how it used to be!

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Baseball Picture Day

Baseball Picture day was last weekend. I almost forgot to put the pictures I took up. These are not professional grade, but not bad.
Squirrel !
Jason profile

Jason
The Pirates

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Mothers Day

Samantha really wanted to plant flowers. So on Mother’s day we went to Costco and Home Depot to get the supplies to start us out. I picked up two pots to put big plants in but Sam insisted on flowers. I would like to remove the bushes that are in the front of our house. It would leave the front of the house bare so I thought big flower pots might do the trick. Anyway Sam went through the garden section of Home Depot like a tornado. She picked out a bunch of flowers. We bought them in the little six packs. We also picked out two large flowers and two rose bushes. Sam has wanted rose bushes since she saw the plants last year. We got impatiens (12), marigolds (6), begonias (18), petunias (18), and moss rose (24) for a bit of ground cover. That was a few too many. We ended up putting 9 of them in different pots. Hopefully it will all add a bit of color to the yard.

My back hurts.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Life on Thursday

Ok, here goes. This is the first chance I have had to sit and type. I somehow booked every day solid. Jason has to stop growing. One of the pair of pants I bought him for the trip no longer fit. I need to relax and just go get him some shorts as it should warm up. I believe summer is right around the corner. The sun and warmer temps have been eluding me. Jason is really into baseball this year and is doing well. He wants to learn how to be the catcher and the coach is working with him.

I went to the Parents Cheer meeting and picked up our fundraising raffle tickets. Basically I now own $100 dollars worth of raffle tickets. First prize is $1000 so it might not be so bad. I scheduled a sleep away camp for Samantha right in the beginning of Cheer season. Dad’s, what are you going to do with us. Luckily the coach understood and Sam will pick up the stuff as she moves on. This year is the first year of real, serious type cheerleading for Sam. She is on the freshman squad and will practice 4 days a week. I can’t wait. I love to sit back for a couple of hours and do nothing except hang with the crew on the sidelines. Abby still prefers me but is a little less fanatical about it. It is funny to see a dog get so jealous. I have had to wake Samantha up this week and Abby will jump on her bed and get between us so I will pet her and not Sam. She doesn’t get mad or nippy just weasels in between. Very cute.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Grandkids


This is my oldest and my two Grandkids. I am thinking of you even when I am running around like a mad man.

Love you guys.

Dad / Grandpa


Tuesday, May 3, 2011

My musical Girl

She wrote this out on a piece of red construction paper:

Singing like there’s no tomorrow

It’s all you need

Nothing will change my mind

Getting gifts isn’t the fun of your birthday

If you love me I’ll love you back

Nothing will get me there

Getting me there to love you

Pranging (sp-no idea) along like a little girl

It’s no help

Writing up a song

Telling you about the time when I was a kid

Yeh, yea, yea

Where does the musical stuff come from?

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Baseball Season

Today turned out pretty good. It started out fairly crappy. It has been a rainy drizzly mess for a week now and I am kinda over it. I know we need the rain, lake levels and all. Never-the-less, I am looking forward to some warmer days.

At the uniform sizing yesterday the kids went to the library since we were there. Jason got books about Spartacus, Sam got a fun book, and I even found a book that I can read in my spare time. (He He) Jason uttered the phrase “I love reading.” I almost wrecked the van. He read until we got home and then a little bit there.

Today was a Scrimmage game to help teach the umps. Jason got the first run. I was very proud of the team and how well they did. Jason’s second at bat was confusing for everyone. The head ump was at the mound. The kid behind home missed a strike call. The Head guy called time and corrected the ump. Jason hadn’t meant to swing. He was getting out of the way of a bad pitch. He turned and the bat crossed the plate. He swung. Jay was so off put by the stopping that he didn’t get back into it and struck out. He did well the rest of the game. The coach used this as a teaching moment.

It was funny to see the kids light up as they suddenly understood why they were out so fast.