Ol’ Farts Night Out

The breakfast bunch plus one went honkey tonking last Thursday night.  Well we really went to a Baybears baseball game.

Tom, John, James and I have been eating breakfast together for several years and have developed quite a friendship, so when I got tickets to the ball game they were invited.  James couldn’t go so we invited a neighbor, Gary.

The games was rain delayed and boring so we left after 2-1/2 innings and stopped by Krystal.  Three beers and a sackful of Krystals are about all the honky tonking we could handle so we were home by 9 o’clock.

Exciting evening!

A New Look For The Old House

Granny Grumps and I, (mostly Granny Grumps), decided that we needed a new roof and other costly improvements at the old homestead. So far we have (mostly me) begun rebuilding the deck , and contracted to have the roof replaced.

The plans are for us (mostly me) to remove the screen from about 20 feet of the back porch and replace it with windows. I found six 3 foot by 5 foot insulated glass windows on Craig’s List and bought them, but we (I) won’t start working on the porch until after our September trip.

The roofers will finish the roof tomorrow, and I should finish the deck within the next few weeks.

Homer Simpson and Ta Da!

I have been startled many times in my life, but this past week has been a doosie!

First, Saturday after Ken, Lisa and the herd has left for Denver we needed our quite time. That evening I decided to work in the shop and prepare my fishing rods and reels for my next fishing trip. All was peaceful and quite as I concentrated on my work.

Robert, Pam and the boys had sent me a talking birthday card and as normal I had stapled it to the shop wall. The tip of my rod moved the card and Homer Simpson said in what I considered a booming voice “You know when I was a boy”. WOW I almost jumped out of my skin. Took me a minute to recover and discover what had happened.

Then yesterday Evelyn and I were riding to Crestview Florida to pick up 6 windows for the new sunroom that I had seen on Craigslist. We were using my Tom Tom for directions and as we pasted a Good Sam’s Campground it suddenly said “TA DA” very loudly. Both GrannyGrumps and I jumped as I jerked into the left lane. Thankfully there wasn’t another car beside me.

We are getting too old for that kind of stuff

Well, I can relax now. Darn it.

The chicks are all in their roost and are safe from the bad fox. I am geneticly predisposed to be a worrier. I come from a long line of worriers. So I am always worried when any of my “kids” are somewhere in the great unknown. I don’t know why I think they are safer in there home towns, but there it is. Ken and his brood have arrived back in Thornton and have dutifully reported in by email so all is well.

We had a wonderful visit with lots of happenings. With 10 people in my little house, it is no wonder we are seriously thing and planning on enclosing part of the back porch and making it an all weather sunroom.

Das Boat

Well the pontoon boat is gone and I am ready to go fishing.  Sonny gave me his old boat, it’s a 1987 VIP with an 85 horse power Suzuki motor.

Granny Grumps and I went to Montgomery last week to pick it up.  Sonny had bought one new tire for it and we thought the other one would make it home.  Thank goodness we had a spare.  We had a blowout about 30 miles north of Saraland, and I have to tell you that changing a tire on the side of I-65 isn’t much fun.  Luckily the lugs came off easily and the GMC jack worked good on the boat trailer.

When I got it home, I went right to work on it, then I discovered a problem.  There was nothing to fix!  One lousy piece of rotten wood was all.  The hull is in good shape, the trailer is good, and the motor looks like new.  The gas in the built-in tank  was old and bad so I haven’t cranked it yet but knowing Sonny I am sure it is perfect.

I am taking it to the shop tomorrow to have the water pump replaced and the lower unit oil changed, then it’s off to the river!

Out with the old!

The grandkids are coming next weekend, so GrannyGtumps is cleaning up.  I would say GrannyGrumps and I are cleaning up, but I’m not being much help.  She has gone thru all our old paperwork and thrown so much of it away.  she only kept things she thinks the boys will like to go thru when we are history (smile).

So far 2 large 4-drawer file cabinets have been reduced to 1 small 2-drawer cabinet.  Everything else is burned, thrown away or stored in plastic tubs in the garage.

It Gone, But Is Being Replaced

We sold the pontoon boat today.  It has been wonderful and we have really enjoyed it, but we haven’t used it much in the past year.

Last week Sonny called and wants to give me his fishing boat.  It is an older fiberglass fishing boat with a 50 HP Mariner motor.  This will be better since Granny Gtumps seldom goes with me and I can better handle a smaller boat when I am by myself.

“You gotta be kidding”

For two months, at least, Floyd and I have spent a major portion of our time sitting on the couch on the back porch watching a couple of Mockingbirds set up housekeeping on top of the hummingbird feeder. They worked dilligently and tiringly for several days building a nest and evidently doing everything else necessary to produce and hatch eggs, in this case less said the better. They have been exhaustively caring for and feeding two or three hatchlings. For the last few days we have noticed that they have been scolding them and not bring as much food as before. Well evidently sometime this am or last pm, they pushed them out of the nest. They are still watching over them and the little birds appear to be hopping around and flying short flights. As amazing as this is you are not going to believe this. They appear to be starting another nest in a different part of the yard. You see them carrying straw, etc. to another tree. I couldn’t believe it so I looked them up on line. Yes Mockingbirds can and do produce two or three nest a year. This is definitly “above and beyond”. I can’t believe that once they had “raised” the kids, they would be so anxious to jump back in. Who Knew!

Who does my son think he is to be disciplining MY grandkids?

Sara, the female half of our youngest grandchildren (she shares the age with her twin brother Matt) phoned us Tuesday morning.  She wanted to know what out phone number was when we lived in Dothan.  Although Evelyn and I usually have no problems remembering things from 20 years ago, it’s the things from 20 minutes or 20 seconds ago that create a problem, neither of us had a clue as to what the phone number was.

Sara needed to know the number because my evil son Ken had punished Sara, Matt and Nate by locking their electronic toys in a safe as punishment for not cleaning the house yesterday.  He told them they could have the toys back when he came home from work today or when they found out the safe’s combination, our Dothan phone number.

Evelyn and I both lied to Ken by promising him that we wouldn’t tell Sara the number if he would just remind us of it, but he didn’t believe us at all, so we went to work trying to find the number.  Our Red Book (address file) gave us no information so we called everybody, and I mean everybody.  Lynn- no luck, Mamma’s old phone book, no luck, Sonny and sue lane, Tiny, Julia Ann, even Robert couldn’t help.  Lynn even called back to have me tell Ken that she was writing him out of her will for punishing her grand niece and nephews.

Evelyn went through old paperwork and finally found our Dothan phone number on a quote we had gotten for re-roofing the house in 1981.  Just proves a kid should never mess with a grandmother!

All is well now (except for Ken being left out of Lynn’s will) the grandkids are playing with their electronic games and Evelyn is smug in the knowledge that she solved their problem.

Well the Old Man is kissing a lot of frogs!

For forty two+ years I have been acquainted with Floyd’ passions. His latest one is with the cute little mopeds. He has already repaired the first one he brought home from the junk yard ( I mean car lot). It runs good. He is in the process of painting and prettying it up. We currently have one from little Gene that he is gonna try to get started for him, an electric schwinn that he brought from the junk yard/car lot and he has now broght home one to try to repair for someone/( he put an ad on Craigs list saying he would work on mopeds) This one is a scooter. I can tell it is love at first sight. (looks like piece of junk, but he has done lots with a lot less in the past) I have taken pictures and will post as soon as I figure out how.