Pummeled..

Well, the game was not for the faint of heart– 2:30pm kick off temp of 94 degrees, almost cloudless and not a breeze. Sunscreen and cold beverages were the essentials. Texas pummels Univ of Tx-El Paso, 64-7. And, the score wasn’t that close, seriously.

Teri and my last date before I return to work tomorrow and it was great to  have Austin join us. A sea of burnt orange with attendance at 100, 200–yes, ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND at a college football game. And, it was great to have George Strait in attendance with us. All complimented by the largest video screen, outside of the new Cowboys Stadium, in football.

Enjoy the photos….

Semper Fi!

How about hearing a Town Hall discussion straight from a Marine, one of the great military folks who are entrusted to lay their life on the line to protect our freedom and liberty. While he defends them, our “President on training wheels” tries to strip them.

My favorite part Rep. Baird stating ““I didn’t call you brownshirts, but I apologized for it”

Huh? I’ve never quite understood someone who apologizes for something they claim not to have done.

The Happs…

Well, three weeks from today, the Penske 22 footer will be pulling into our new residence just north of Austin, TX. A 90 day rental agreement was signed at a brand new complex just about 10 minutes from Teri’s parents.  This will give us time to decide on career locations and systematically search for our final resting place. It is a bit weird thinking “this might the place where we die” when you are deciding on homesteads, what is that all about?

We are allowing 2 days for the 1,100 mile journey and are not absolutely sure of the travel arrangements.  Teri could be up in the cab with Shelly and I if her car is sold before Labor Day. We listed it on Thursday to give us a couple weeks to move it. If unsold, she will follow behind the big yellow box.

The dog that won’t die . Fourteen years old in a couple months–I guess “98 canine years  is the new 70 years”. Me thinkey she needs to meet Michael Jackson’s doctor. Just trying to figure out how we arrange the fat dog and her round cushion onto the truck’s narrow bench seat. It might be a very, very long ride.

Cam is all settled into his new job as Flight Coordinator for Mountain Aviation at the same airport he has had 2 other jobs. It is a great gig! Half of his job is coordinating ‘organ donation’ flights as they have  a contract for a four state region and the other half is arranging for high end clients to fly to all points around the world using their fleet of aircraft. Cam finished his internship with Frontier airlines last week and was awarded 4 round trip passes for working with them this Summer. Him and his girlfriend used 2 passes on Wednesday when they flew to Las Vegas and stayed at the MGM and went to the amazing Cirque du Soleil. as a way to end his busy, busy Summer. He starts his senior year in college on Tuesday.

Teri and I went up there today and he toured us around their gorgeous facility.

Austin is doing well living with grandparents in Texas anxiously awaiting his parents to arrive where he will join us until he finds employment and can get his own pad. We are sure he misses chores and taking care of the dog, so glad we will be able to help him feel better about those areas of his life. He starts school his college freshman year in 10 days.

While Texas has melted this Summer, Denver has had one of its nicest ever. I think we are shooting for  78 today, even unheard of here. I wouldn’t be shocked if we touch upper 40s here.

Work is work. From the archives of the moronic and insane we have the following gems over the past couple of weeks:

Caller (night-time): I need to report a suspicious vehicle that just zoomed away from the area, I am not sure what they were up to.

911: What direction did the car leave?

Caller: It’s dark, I am not sure, but it headed toward the moon.

911: Toooowwwward the moon??? Would that be north, south, east of west?

Caller: I am not sure- I am from Australia and we don’t have directions down there.

*********

Paramedic dispatch: Can we help you sir?

Caller: Yes, I need an ambulance for myself.

Paramedic dispatch: What’s the problem sir?

Caller: I have stomach pain and am bleeding from my stomach.

Paramedic dispatch: Bleeding from your stomach-have you had surgery recently?

Caller: Well–kind of– I did it to myself with a butcher knife.

1st arriving officer: Can you step up paramedic response–he is holding his innards in his hands.

I am so blessed each day to come home from work to my normal family….

Til next time..

Horsey, come with me!

After a 60 hour 911 work week, it is hard to decipher this week’s most charming call, but I have determined a winner.

Ever have a bad day wondering why you were in an extended relationship? Your thoughts of revenge may have included canceling movie night, perhaps making him sleep single in a double bed or maybe even the dreaded “you make dinner yourself” punishment. Let me describe an idea that came to a woman’s imagination this week in which, of course, she acted on.

Again, I am describing a relationship in which the other half of this world lives, unfortunately I speak with them for a living. I present to you a 43 year old woman who is 15 miles away stewing in her own shack about the treatment by her baby’s daddy who resides in the city where I work. Perhaps she is perturbed because she lost her job sweeping floors at Fantastic Sams or maybe the mister in her life has misplaced the 2-1 Taco Bell coupon or Obama’s promised new car has not shown up at the doorstep–whatever the cause, the anger is raging. It is fueled by the significant intake of barley flavored cold beverages.

When the alcohol content exceeds the hemoglobin blood count, she takes a gander out the front porch where she sees her stallion enjoying a nice Colorado afternoon. In her intoxicated state, she backs up the horse trailer and heads west 15 miles to seek revenge. She safely arrives to Mr. Charming’s house where she is greeted at the front door by him. He clearly states his displeasure with her wobbly state and asks her to leave. She returns to the truck and he enters back into his homestead.

When he is clearly out of sight, she decides to unload the horse from the trailer and sneaks him around to the back door of the house. Unbeknown to the soon to be ex-lover, she opens the door and parades the equine inside the house and let’s go of  his tether and she exits.  The horse explores his new well decorated barn and turns the corner only to be greeted by the family rottweiler. Result–absolute mayhem inside the residence! Plan from her view point has been perfectly executed!

The neighbors confused by naying, barking and a male yelling immediately call 911. We arrive expeditiously to discover the Mrs. Charming passed out in the front yard. When we ask her to stand up, she attempts to. As the officers place the chrome jewelry around her wrists, what do you think she does—think horse—-she K I C K S the officer. Stop restraints are quickly placed on her feet and she is escorted off to jail amidst several felony charges. It takes over 2 hours to coordinate the safe transport of the horse off the property to a local fairgrounds where he is returned to familiar surroundings.

Although the relationship has now concluded, she now has established the high mark on the “Jerk, I’ll Show You!” meter…..

Bach-ing it has its privileges…

In 23 years of marriage, we can only recall one other time we were apart for a 2 week period, and that was probably 16 years ago. Another ‘1st’ was Teri, until 10 days ago, had never spent herself totally alone in our house– e v a h! She is a bit of a fraidy-cat, especially with our handicapped dog, but she survived just fine on 2 hours sleep.  She is now house hunting in Texas and getting our nearly 18 year old ready for college years.

She has left me in charge of the 963 square foot castle. While I am overwhelmingly bored and lonely for the most part, I have discovered bach-ing it does come with a few rewards….

My own menu planning! Grocery bill would have been much less if the dog didn’t go through the cookies and hair gel so darn fast…

A NEW permanent position for the toilet lid..is that a crack in the ceramic or a hair? Me hoping it’s a crack….

Sorting is WAY over-rated….

FOX news, all the time….

Wife’s trick on husband, discovered at 8 p.m….fyi, paper towels don’t flush well…

Someone who probably isn’t missing the matriarch of the house..she is hoping by covering her face she will go undiscovered…

See ya in 6 days honey…I promise to vacuum the bed…

Final Independence Day…

With the path this political administration is taking us on, I thought I would head out to our town fireworks show to enjoy our last Independence Day. Perfect night with temps in the 60s, nice and cool weather for the 4th.

Next year….Dependence Day

1) Dependent on a teleprompter
2) Dependent on foreign oil
3) Dependent on handouts and pork
4) Dependent on the money printing press
5) Dependent on the Chinese loan machine
6) Dependent on Czars to control industry
7) Dependent on a single payer health care system
8 ) Dependent on contrived and staged town halls
9) Dependent on the Main Stream Media
10)Dependent on narcissism

and that’s the short list..

..maybe next year North Korea will supply the fireworks…

CHAINS you can depend on….

When it is hot…

When it’s 9,000 degrees in Texas in June, you camp out in the A/C rich environment of your in-laws and look for funny things to post. As a passenger several times in a small airplane, I empathize with this passenger’s struggles. But, it is still funny! Do NOT watch on a full stomach.

Transitioning continues and other useless info..

• We had Brynn over for her monthly visist, the usual great time.
• Cameron and Amie joined us for Father’s Day dinner on Monday as he had to pull a double at work on Sunday. BBQ’d steaks and pigged out. He remains one busy dude with a full time job, 25 hrs weekly as Frontier Airlines intern, Summer school student and full time boyfriend! In the past 2 weeks, he has spent time in Philadelphia and Gunnison, CO. for school/career purposes.
• Austin and I are heading to Texas this weekend. We are taking his pickup down– a 1,000 mile road trip in late June with no A/C– way down on my Bucket List of things to do! He will enroll in Austin Community College to establish residency with an eventual goal of getting into the University of Texas. Grandpa and Grandma will play host to him until he can get a job and move into his own place to enjoy paying bills, like the rest of us.
• Teri will fly in on Monday and her and I will go out with our realtor to explore a few properties. I will fly back on Tues and she will remain behind for a couple of weeks to enjoy her family and help get Austin adjusted.
• I will return back to work Wed. Shelly will house sit for me, but being 14 years old, deaf and partially blind dog, I will keep the rental insurance in force.
• Speaking of, our rental agreement expires in 3 weeks, we officially will be month-to month— a good place to be!
• We are in the process of selling vehicles, or at least readying them. I took photos of Teri’s car yesterday and it will go up on Craigslist upon my return. My pickup–well, that is another decision. 4×4 in TX. on acreage and for hunting could be handy, but yet I hear there are a few pickups in that great state, so probably can find one. My hood and roof top are oxidized, so got to get it into a paint shop to give it more eye appeal. Runs like a champ though!
• Exercise goal of 1,000 miles for 2009 has been accomplished! I am at 1,077 miles, almost all cycling. Now I can rest–well probably not, since weight goal is lagging. I wish exercising would not make me hungry. Perhaps Teri being gone for 2 weeks I can focus on salads, but my dog is very saddened by that thought …
• Enjoying the Colorado Rox 17-1 in their last 18 games, unreal. Rooting for the Longhorns to rally and take the College Worlds Series–they r e a l l y let one get away last night!

Til next time…….

Colorado bucket list item– checked..

Teri and I have been talking about a few final things we would like to do in Colorado before we head back to God’s country. One that I wanted to tackle after learning our bike trail system can take me from the suburbs into downtown Denver was to ride into the big city and back one morning. Well, that morning was today– accomplished!

I started preparing for departure at about 7:30 a.m. I had a hearty bowl of blueberries, granola, yogurt and a sliced banana fueled by 1 cup of java. Found my jar of Vaseline (cyclist’s best friend) and lubed up all of my moving parts and I was off!

I took a few photos as well of the journey here.

The stats:
Rider age: 50
Cycle age: 4,388 miles
Starting temp: 51 degrees
Total miles today: 40.1
Time on the trail: 3 hrs 3 mins.
Average heart rate: 121
Calories melted: 2,214

You will see the South Platte river, host to many Denver kayakers, is flowing freely!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zgXj_WCjOg&feature=channel_page

Time to go soak in the hot tub, I think the Vaseline application process missed a few spots..

Iberostar Lindo Cancun

Your worst day in Cancun is better than your best day at work. We returned from 7 heavenly days to confirm that statement is still true. “Eat-drink-sleep-repeat” are the marching orders when you arrive at one of these all-inclusive resorts and we were happy to comply. What did we do other than that–n o t h i n g–a real vacation. When we had “zero” to declare on our return customs form the DFW agent inquired mysteriously “are you sure you didn’t buy anything?” We were out of money paying for the vacation .

Temps in the upper 80s and the sun roared on for almost the entire duration, maybe one hour of cloudiness the entire week. Activity is definitely picking up after the swine flu scare with the hotel occupancy rate at about 70%. Entering and leaving Mexico you complete a health assessment form and turn it over to airline reps and they take your temperature when you return back to the Cancun airport. Mexico is a bit “3rd worldish”, so the line of people sharing a rectal thermometer was a bit disconcerting. (Just kidding-don’t cancel your travel plans).

Teri worked feverishly for about 6 hours trying to merge our photo slide show onto You Tube with a couple of great country songs, but no way around the copyright laws, although the very same 2 songs were all over You Tube on other posts. From our research, it is hit and miss on who gets banned. So, you will have to enjoy the photos sans country music (which I know won’t disappoint a few).

Grab a cold bev and enjoy the photos here.