Thursday, August 23, 2007

The Broken Grandson

On Tuesday I got an unexpected present. A broken grandson.

The six year old, Austin, had just arrived with his mom and sister. I was moving some things in the bedroom and folding clothes so my sister went outside to watch the kids till I was done.

Suddenly my sister comes in the room and says I have to call Ian. Well, Ian should be at home getting ready for work. When I asked why she said Heather was heading to the hospital with Austin because he broke his arm. I said "WHAT". I didn't hear a thing and it happened not to far from the bedroom window. Granted the air was on, so was the TV for background noise, but you would think I would have heard something with the screaming they said was going on.

Yep, he broke that arm. Mom was headed to the roof and he wanted to say something to her before she got to that point. So he ran. He ran right around the lounge chair that has been sitting there all week long, but he tried to cut the corner. Didn't work. He tripped over the leg of the chair and went down.

Now you have to understand, this is nothing new for Austin. Since he could walk he has run. Since he could run he has fallen, over and over again. This time he landed on a hose, but that is not what broke his arm. The land on the hose caused him to have an extra bit of forward motion that shoved his hand into the ground a bit harder. Normally this kid lands full arm on the ground, not putting out hand to break fall. Well, that hand shoved into the wrist which shoved the arm bone and broke both, yep both, bones in his right arm.

He gets back from the hospital and he is so matter of fact about it. He tells Aunt Crystal, I slipped and broke my arm. ROFLOL Crystal looks at me and says that was matter of fact in the way he said it. Well, that is just Austin.

Can you believe it. They gave him pain meds at the hospital, but since then, remember this was Tuesday, he has had a couple of doses of Tylenol. Yep that's all. He seems to be doing fine but that arm sling they gave him is for the trash as soon as we can figure out how to make one better for him. That sucker doesn't have any back ties and he needs those to keep his arm at a certain angle.

If this would have been me I would be showing the signs of suffering. He isn't. You'd think he was just playing at being a broken grandson. LOL

Roofing

The roofing is going nicely. Most of the house is done and they are working on the last sections now. Well that is the last sections that need the shingles. Then there is the new continous ridge venting that needs to be installed. That ridge venting is pretty neat. It is a long plastic piece that has little straw like openings in it that face downwards. It helps to vent the heat that builds up in the attic.

One part of the house had no venting at all when they started and now has a lot. The hubby also added some gable venting all around that side of the house. Can you believe that there was no felting, no sealing material of any kind uses, no venting used. What a mess.

Then the added on addition of the house was done wrong, but we knew this. All the water from the main part of the house flows to the newer section of roof. The problem we some time back, was that they people who build this section for us did nothing to prevent water from flowing down a gap on either side and right into the walls of the new room. We managed a quick fix to stop that mess but this time the roofing is being done differently. There will now be solid protection for that area.

It sucks but it is not hard to believe that so many things were skipped, cut out, rigged wrong on this house. It has been many years (about 25 or 26), when the hubby had to replace water piping under the house to the well (yes we have a well). When he dug that all up he found quarter inch pipe going into half inch pipe into three quarter inch back to quarter back to half and it was a mess. We had so much trouble getting water to flow right in the house. We found out why. Where were the inspectors when this house was build. Did they not exist (I know they did), or did they just not worry about what they found? Seems that there is a lot of that sort of thing that goes on.

So soon the roof will be done then it is on to find and purchase new gutters for the house. We didn't do that yea as he wanted to know just how he wants to do those. Being up on the roof has showed him some better ways to install the gutters so that there is more protection from water damage. Then because there is some water damage from before there are some other minor repairs that have to be completed and some other round vents to install (holes have to be drilled for this type in the gable areas.

Guess what? I will soon have a vent for the back bathroom. It has never had one. We bought one and the hubby installed the roof portion, now all that is needed is the inside portion.

Heather and Shaun have worked so hard on this. You can see how tried they are at the end of the day. Tired is not really the word for it, it is more like exhausted.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Busy

We have been busy with roofing, well the hubby has. He and Heather, our extra kid, one of them we have many, were up there last week removing the many layers of shingles that some sections had.

They found a problem. In the first place the person who did this roof never used any type of sealer, no felt/tar paper, and the nails use were much to short. Then there wasn't any sort of ventilation. So all the boards on that side were rotted. They all had to be replaced.

So all the boards came up and new ones went down. The last ones to be replaced was to be a couple of end panels and then the laying of the felting and starting the shingles today.

Oh yea, it rained last night and today. Oh boy did it rain. We never get rain, or at the very least a bit of a drizzle here and there in the month of Aug, but it rained heavy.

Water leaked through the light fixtures in all four bedrooms, and both bathrooms, plus numerous other places in those rooms. The front room had already been painted not long ago and it has the worst damage. The entire ceiling on one side of the room is water damaged. Oh nuts, this sucks. The room will have to be painted all over again and to top it off there was no getting on the roof to do anything but lay plastic to protect against the more rain that they say we might get. Bummer.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Again that chip

I had thought to not move one post over from one of my other blogs. It is the huge gripe I had about a member of a group I was on. I left that group because the manager allowed this person to rejoin after having been banned for some really nasty attitude and postings.

Upon being allow to rejoin he never again did the YELL in super large letters things that most people don't even utter, but that did not keep him from being the same nasty mouthed person he was right from the beginning. So I finally left my longest standing group.

I then found I could still keep up with the group members that I enjoyed by just reading some of their posts now and again. Whoops that has brought me to this point. That certain member with the huge chip has a new nickname and I did not know this. Now I do as I read a posting, well two, and there is no doubt in my mind that it is him.

You see he is complaining that someone joined his group under a false name and that this is hiding. He thinks this member of his group is also on this group that I was reading at. He was griping that members should not join his group except under names he knows as this is hiding.

Hum, hiding. This man changes his email name and address on a regular basis. He only posts his first initial in messages. He says he won't post his full first name as there are prying eyes to see him. So I ask you, is this not HIDING? The man frustrates me but this one had me laughing so hard. Can you believe he is complaining about someone hiding on his group while he hides on another group. That is just royal. It is the icing on the cake. In that one posting he shows the type of person he is and I got a huge kick out of that.

The man also says that the person who joined his group used an ID that was not recognizable, but in the same posting he admits to using several different ID's himself. Hum, sounds like what is good for the man is not good enough for others.

Anyways, now that I know he has a new ID, I can go to the group and possibly avoid having to deal with messages from him that annoy me. Then again, he does change those ID's often. Do you think he might be "Hiding"? ROFLOL Oh what a world, what a world. (yes I feel a little witchy today, LOL).

Does he read my blog? Oh I so hope he does. You see, I never went along with his nastiness to others, always being one to tell him that what he was doing was not nice. That post with the really large letters with the really nasty messages, well that one was for me. I chose to disagree and he chose to flame. Oh for those of you who might want to know, his first name isn't M, it's Matt. ROFLOL Oh almost forgot, he will answer to Justin, or Matthew also (I have that in an email, oh yes I saved them all, be prepared is always a good motto should it come to a necessary accounting at a time in the future)

Chips reposted

Oh not the kind that you eat, but the kind that sits on a person shoulder and allows them to believe they can say whatever they want and no one is allowed and opinion in return.

To those of you who read my blog and are sensitive please pass this one by. I am a bit put off and I am about to say so. It is in no offense to the wonderful people I run across daily on the web. It is for one person only and that one will will know who he is.

Opinions are abound on the web on many things. We all have one. Some express them in ways that seem to be aimed at doing the most harm to others. If a return opinion is given the giver is deemed to be flaming and is a bad person, by the first.

I have such a person around me on the web. He has the worst attitude of anyone I have met on the web. To point out the actual fact, I have met no one worse then this person.

In the past he has demanded what is not his to demand. He has cursed openly on groups, yes this was to me. Oh such name calling. Can I prove it, yes I still have the post that came from the group it was done in. Oh not a nice post at all.

What we have is a nasty little minded person who deems that what he gives as an opinion is tops, while others opinions are flames towards himself. If you do not agree with him, you are a bad person, and he lets you know. He yells and screams and demands that the person who disagreed with him be removed from the group.

So it seems to be OK for him to say statements about groups of people or stores or whatever, but you had better not have a mind of your own or you should be removed from his presence. Oh what a little, little mind in this little, little man. I use that "man" only because of his age. I have seen little boys who have much more manhood in one tip of one pinky on one hand.

I loved the group that I am discussing, but now I rarely visit it. The presence of this thing that calls himself a man truly makes me sick. I tried avoiding him in the message posting but today something I read made me angry. How dare he generalize about a whole group of people and then say that those who speak against what he says are flaming him. What a little mind this person has. What a big ego to think he is all that matters, and his word is beyond question.

The Internet is full of misunderstandings and a person needs to take care in the words they use otherwise you insult. It is extremely hard at times to word something so that you do not insult. Take for example the following statement:

"Yes, Wal-mart does what they please, because they hire developmentally disabled people and promote them to management."

I took objection to this statement. Why, because is sounds like a generalization of all Walmart employees and I know it to be wrong. I have one family member and several friends who work at Walmart stores. None are the developmentally disabled that this statement makes them sound. It is an insult to those who do work at Walmart and to the Walmart stores who are trying to help those who need a hand up, not a hand out.

So I have given you the reason for my blog entry, but I haven't given you my reply to it which would only be fair:

"Well, now I object to this general statement for Walmart employees. That may be happening in your area but to generalize this way about all Walmart employees is rude and uncalled for.

I know many people who work for Walmart that are not of the sort you label them to be. We probably have many who work for Walmart in our group and you have insulted them all. That is not nice.

How unkind of you. Sorry you voiced your opinion, now I am voicing mine. I would send this private to you but your mail address isn't available. Why do you always start trouble this way. Take a better look at the way you like to insult people and change that attitude. Groups should be helping to people not used to sling insults."

So now I am told that my post is horrid and I choose to misinterpret what was being said. Be that as it may be it is how I interpreted the meaning to be and having re-read my post, I do not consider it horrid to ask someone to not insult others and consider that maybe some of the groups members might be employees for Walmart and they could have their feelings hurt.

So here I post because I am disturbed by this person. For a while now I have tried to figure out why this person acts this way and can find a couple of reasons. Have you ever watched certain programs that are geared towards the affront of others. They are out there. There is a certain cartoon one that I find extremely offensive. This person has an entire group that began with almost a worship of this type of program.

They do say that some things we view will affect our attitudes and this shows me that all these years when I restricted my children from viewing programs that I found offensive, I was doing the right thing. Too bad someone didn't restrict this person. He might have turned out to be a nicer person then he now is.

So I know that folks from that group will visit my blog. I know that I chance being removed from that group. I would be saddened the day it would happen but I would live and life would continue. So if it would be, then it will be.

Chips, it is the other thing that seems to be wrong with this person. A huge chip on his shoulder that no one has been able to knock off. He is a member of a certain class of folks and I do think it affects his overall judgement for the ones of us who are of a different walk of life. Too sad. In this area, I can but feel true pity for him. Believe it or not we in the other walks of life really are not out to "get" him. We really could give a D... what he does. He is a little man, with a little mind who is not very nice as a person.

I think I have had my last posting to the group for a while. Maybe I should just leave it, but it brings such joy from some very special people, and I would surely miss them.

PS: Those members of the group who could possibly be Walmart employees are valuable. If you are reading this, know that I consider them to be of much greater value then you are.

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Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Hooks Finished

Well, the cables came out of one set of the easy tunisian hooks and the hooks went on the other set of hooks, on the cable part naturally, after I pulled off the stopper. They have been glued and I have given them a quick check after they had sat for several hours. Everything seems to be fine but I am going to let them set for a full 24 hours before I mess with them.

Now I can use them for both tunisian and cro-hooking. Very large projects in both techniques will work better now. No more worrying about not having enough space for a very large project.

LOL, it took about a whole 15 minutes to do this whole process, only that long because I was being picky. You can actually do this in just minutes.

In the previous post you can see a little of one of the ponds the hubby has been working on building. These first pictures are of the first pond he built right next to the house. I even managed to get a picture of one of the very ellusive gold fish in it. These gold fish are ones recused from a pond that is soon not to be, there will be houses instead. They plan to just cover the old pond with dirt and that is the end of any fish left there. This is the second batch we have given a home too. Later you will hear what happened to the first batch.










Our front yard has very little grass. It just won't grow. We have these tress who's root systems just took over. So it is either get rid of the tress, yea right, never going to happen, bring in some soil to bring up the level for grass to grow, or do something else. The hubby decided on the something else.
So our front yard is beginning to look like a forest area. The pond is above the ground in containers. There are water plants, different kinds of rocks, redwood tree stumps, and even some little gold fish. How long the gold fish will last is anyones guess. We have a resident raccoon that comes out at night and he has already feasted on one set of gold fish that was in the first pond. That pond doesn't have a lot of hidy holes so it is now covered at night. It is impossible to cover this next one it is just too big.





All around the pond you can see a ground cover. These are bean bags, you know the kind the beans come in to your local coffee shops. The hubby has a source and picks them up all the time. These will help prevent any of the old grass from trying to come back, and serve as a base for the ground cover he is going to haul in.
He says that once he is done there will be walking paths and more coverage in other areas for plants. He has already set up a raised bed partially around one tree and planted wild plants and some he has bought. The ferns he is choosing are quite lovely.

It sure is peaceful sitting listening to the flow of water in the ponds. If you close your eyes you can actually imagine being near a creek in the wild.

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Cool, found this on Bety's site. I love checking out these things to see how close they come. This one is right on, well at least the last part. That brilliant part has to go. ROFLOL



Your Personality is Very Rare (INTP)
Your personality type is goofy, imaginative, relaxed, and brilliant.
Only about 4% of all people have your personality, including 2% of all women and 6% of all menYou are Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Perceiving.

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I have a Panasonic camcorder. It is not a really top of the line but it is not a bad little recorder either. I bought this just a month or so before last Christmas. So I only had one little battery and wanted to have some back ups. I searched and searched trying to find the right ones and I did, on sale no less. I got them last January from an online store called Suntekstore. Oh bad mistake.

I have used these batteries only a couple of times. One now won't charge, one last about 15 minutes out of the two hours it is suppose to last. The third one hasn't hardly been used at all so I am not sure how well it is going to hold up.

So I went to the company website today to see what kind of guarantees they might have. Many places have a one year on their battery sales. Bummer, this site says a problem must be reported in the first 35 days to have any kind of replacement. So now I am out of luck on these. Hopefully the last one will do a good job if not I am out the entire amount of money on these.

I ran out of battery time this weekend for the wedding because I didn't know I was going to have these problems and had left the one battery at home. Gee, I had the original, and two backups, so I figured that six hours of taping time would be more then enough. Especially when the wedding started at 5:30pm and every thing was completely over and bride gone by 9pm. You'd think I had enough to work with, NOT. I was disappointed in these batteries.

So I went online today looking for more batteries. My son says check eBay. He says he bought his from there and got a one year replacement for the ones he bought. Well, I thought, it is worth checking. So I found a seller that has extended batteries, eight hours, for about the same price I paid for the two hour lousy ones. They have a one year replacement, and they combined shipping as I got two batteries and a car charger. Neat, a car charger is what I have been wanting and it was only $14. What's the good in having a camcorder if you have no batteries to work it. Duh, it becomes worthless, just a thing to set around collecting dust.

So now I wait to see if these will work. In the meantime, I will just have to take care on time if I have to use that camcorder.

For your viewing:



My son-in-law, Travis, my daughter, Athea, and their baby Mason, my grandson.


Travis and Athea

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Wednesday, August 1, 2007

You Are 28% Girly

You are a pretty hardcore tomboy, and a very free spirit.
Gender roles be dammed, you like to do things your way.

You Are 72% Lady

Overall, you are a refined lady with excellent manners.
But you also know when to relax and not get too serious about etiquette

What Mary Means

M is for McSteamy

A is for Angel Face

R is for Red Lips

Y is for Yummy Lips

You Belong in Summer

Energetic, creative, and very curious about the world...
You're not going to let anything hold you back, especially a cold day.
Whether you're chilling out at the beach or partying all night, you live for the warm weather.

You Are Not Scary

Everyone loves you. Isn't that sweet?

You Are a Mermaid

You are a total daydreamer, and people tend to think you're flakier than you actually are.
While your head is often in the clouds, you'll always come back to earth to help someone in need.
Beyond being a caring person, you are also very intelligent and rational.
You understand the connections of the universe better than almost anyone else.

You Are 87% Creative

You are an incredibly creative person. For you, there are no bounds or limits to your creativity.
Your next creation could be something very great... Or at least very cool!

You Passed 8th Grade Science

Congratulations, you got 7/8 correct!

You Are The Hanging Man

You represent the seeking of enlightenment and spiritual clarity.
You tend to confuse others, but your oddities seem deeply satisfying.
Self sacrifice is easy for you, especially if it makes you a better person in the end.
You are the type of person who is very in touch with your soul and inner spirit.

Your fortune:

Right now is a good time for reflection and meditation.
You should stop resisting the problems in your life, and let yourself be vulnerable to them.
You may need to sacrifice something important to you to move ahead in your life.
Accept your destiny with courage, and learn to let go of what you think you need.

You Are Artemis!

Brave, and a natural born leader.
You're willing to fight for what you believe in...
And willing to make tough decisions.
Don't forget - the people around you have ideas too!

You are Ocean Blue

You're both warm and practical. You're very driven, but you're also very well rounded.
You tend to see both sides to every issue, and people consider you a natural diplomat.

Your Birthdate: October 24

You understand people well and are a natural born therapist.
A peacemaker, people always seem to get along when you are around.
You tend to be a father or mother figure to friends, even to those older than you.
You enjoy your role, and you find that you are close to many people.

Your strength: Your devotion

Your weakness: Reliance on others for happiness

Your power color: Lilac

Your power symbol: Heart

Your power month: June

You Know Some State Capitols

You Got 14 State Capitols Correct

You may just be a very good guesser. Or you actually do remember something from elementary school!

Your Love is Based on Commitment

You believe that love is something that develops and grows.
You don't believe in love at first site, and you never mistake lust for love.
For you, love is about mutual devotion, respect, and understanding.
You don't feel comfortable in a relationship, unless you're both in it for the long run.

Why your love can last: You don't take commitment lightly - or leave relationships easily

Why your love can fail: You're so committed, you often can't see the most obvious problems in your relationship

You Are Teal Green

You are a one of a kind, original person. There's no one even close to being like you.
Expressive and creative, you have a knack for making the impossible possible.
While you are a bit offbeat, you don't scare people away with your quirks.
Your warm personality nicely counteracts and strange habits you may have.

You are a Lavender Rose

You represent love at first sight and enchantment.

Your vibe: intense and intriguing

Falling in love with you is: deep and meaningful

You Are the Ego

You take a balanced approach to your life.
You definitely aren't afraid to act out on your desires - even crazy ones.
But you usually think first. Morals drive you as much as hedonism does.
You've been able to live a life of pleasure... without living a life of excess.

Your Christmas is Most Like: A Charlie Brown Christmas

Each year, you really get into the spirit of Christmas.
Which is much more important to you than nifty presents.

You Are a Good Friend Because You're Honest

Like it or not, your friends are going to hear the truth from you.
You know that the truth hurts, but living a life of lies is much worse.

So while you're definitely kind and supportive, you don't pull any punches with your friends.
Everyone knows where they stand with you. And what you like and dislike about them.

While some may be initially turned off by your honesty, your friends have come to consider it a virtue.
After all, in world of white lies and deceptive politeness, you can be counted on for honesty and integrity.

Your friends need you most when: They need good advice or an intelligent opinion

You really can't be friends with: Needy, emotional people

Your friendship quote: "True friendship can afford true knowledge. It does not depend on darkness and ignorance."