Yayyy!!!!! High School football season is officially and totally over!!!!! Dustin's team actually won their Division Championship game yesterday, and I am sooooo glad there's no more football practice to have to deal with - especially on holidays and in-service days..

Of course, there's still plenty of it to go around, and then some, on TV - Sunday, all day, Monday night, Thursday, and Saturday - since my guys just HAVE to watch college as well as pro, but at least there's no more transporting and picking up to do!!!

Did I mention I HATE football?
Unknown Serene - 15 years, 6 months, 1 day ago

On a brighter personal note, a lot of people locally have had a lot of problems from the remnants of hurricane Ike - power outages and trees down and such - I have to say, our Guardian Angel was with us over the weekend.

We only lost power for about 45 minutes late Sunday night, and we only had a few minor dead branches come down, and only one of any size at all - a 6' section, but only about 2" diameter from the Ash in the big flower bed, but it didn't hurt any of the flowers. The rest was all small stuff.

We fared much better than a lot of people in the area who lost power from Sunday evening through at least Tuesday morning, or lost cars, garages, or more, to trees falling on them..

I have to give thanks that we got off so lightly, and no one we know (that I know of) was hurt!
Unknown Serene - 15 years, 7 months, 25 days ago

It's been a month since my last tale so I decided maybe I'd better write something to let everybody know I'm still kicking around... somewhere... Be prepared - I'm going to do some automotive venting here... and yes, I WILL have some very sharp Cheddar with my whine, thank you very much!

Our trip home from the Adirondacks was nice and uneventful, which has been made up for, and then some, since... but I have gotten a little weeding done in between, even if I still haven't planted my booty from my favorite Adirondack nurseries yet... At least I know where most of it's going - weather's supposed to be nice this week again... maybe I'll find time and ambition??

Anyway, as for the 'and then some'...

Dustin's hand healed in record time - and on one of the first days of football practice, half the exhaust system on the car fell off. Can't have everything go smoothly, after all! - or, maybe I should say ANYthing...

We got the brakes changed on the car, but the bleeder valves on the front calipers wouldn't budge. We managed to get them 'mostly' bled from the rubber hose connection, but they're still not what they should be.

Just when I thought everything was getting caught up, the fuel filler neck sprang several pinhole leaks, so when we tried to fill the tank, it dripped out on the ground on us. This, after replacing the tank earlier in the summer... So, the filler neck got replaced.

The following week (last week), we finally had enough money to get the exhaust fixed ($463 JUST in parts!!) and the inspection done, and this Friday it goes back to have the bleeders changed and get the system properly bled. Maybe then we'll be done with car repairs for the summer?

Well, I had thought so - but on the way to the doctor on Saturday morning, it felt like the transmission was slipping. We checked the fluid before we left the parking lot - fortunately, we only sprang a leak and didn't damage the tranny, but we DID have to forego a couple of shopping stops and get the stupid thing towed home.

Shotgun, anybody? I'm definitely ready to shoot it and put it (and US!) out of its misery!! - now that it's almost a 'new' car, of course!

Luckily, we had great weather on Sunday and we were able to get the line changed without 'TOO' much hassle... although bending 3/8" tubing is NOT my idea of fun.. I'm just glad it didn't crink on us! Brake lines are SOOOO much easier to shape to fit!

And, of course, we couldn't just get under the car and change the line - the leak was immediately behind the nut where the line goes into the bottom of the radiator, soooo, the air cleaner, BOTH fans AND the radiator had to come out in order to get the nut out of the radiator (the line, of course, broke off - and by that time, the nut had rounded up pretty well, too). I'm just thankful we have the truck to go get parts with!

All this, AFTER getting 4 tires, lower ball joint and front end alignment early in the summer.. I think we put about $1500 into the stupid thing this summer - and there's still an exhaust leak up front somewhere that would require pulling the motor to fix (so that one's obviously not getting fixed for a while yet), and the driver's window still doesn't go down. Need to do some electrical testing to figure out exactly where the problem is on that one before we can fix it, though.

At least we can do a lot of the work ourselves - the gas tank, brake job, and tranny line repairs, at least.. That saved a lot in labor costs!! And, I suppose it could have been a lot worse (not including needing a whole new transmission), so I'm pretty sure we DO have a Guardian Angel looking out for us!

Football season has been interesting - Dustin's knees have been bothering him for several months now, and during Dustin's first game, an away game, he got the outside of his knee bashed by somebody's helmet during a tackle (and they lost, really really badly!). He didn't practice on Monday after that one, and then for the rest of the week, he borrowed somebody's knee brace...

Then, this past week, they won, but Dustin did a full-out run to try and prevent a touchdown, and the pressure he put on his knee by running that hard didn't help it any. So, on Saturday morning, we went to the doctor to get it checked out - he now has a referral to the Orthopedic doctor (same one as for his hand) to see if there's something actually wrong with it, or not, on Thursday morning.

In the meantime, he's been 'excused' from gym and football practice until further notice. His coach is not at all happy: he puts him in a game on Friday night, and on Monday afternoon, he can't practice - twice! He still needs to show up at the game to support his team, but he won't be playing this week, at least, with no practices under his belt for the week. We'll see what the Ortho doctor says about the rest of the season...

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, while I'm whining - we also had to get our septic tank pumped out a couple weeks ago, in between the brake job and the fuel filler neck replacement... Fortunately, THAT problem 'ONLY' required the tank to be pumped out and the 5' section of cast iron pipe to be replaced... Could have been a lot worse with that job, too!

So, other than that, all is well here, for now.. Except, of course for all the financial mess that all the vehicle repairs has caused, but I'm sure that, given enough time, it will work itself out eventually.
Unknown Serene - 15 years, 7 months, 26 days ago

oooooh, bad news, folks... We've been too busy up here in the Adirondacks to be able to get my pics resized and uploaded, so it's going to have to wait until I get home. Maybe I'll have a chance to get to it this next week... and maybe not!

It's been a good trip, with perfect weather - SO FAR - and Graduation went off without a hitch. So, now, when I thought I'd have the evening to relax and play with pictures, Geoff just called me and asked if he could get a ride to a friend's house for the night, AFTER he gets back from the movies, AND goes to have something to eat...

I didn't really want to drive anymore tonight, but I guess now that I'm going to. I suppose that's what Mommies are for, after all... We leave to go home in the morning, so I'll add more another time, when I have more time!

And, yes, Kelli DID go to the family reunion for me...
Unknown Serene - 15 years, 8 months, 26 days ago

The family reunion is coming up next weekend, and it's iffy whether or not my daughter will attend - she doesn't know too many of the few people that WILL attend, so she may not, either, without me. My mom and I will be going to College Graduation at Word of Life Bible Institute in Schroon Lake, NY (about 45 min. north of Lake George) in the Adirondacks - again - this coming weekend...

It will be Mom's third trip up to the area with me! The first time was when we took a car up on a dolly for my daughter, Kelli, to use while she was working up there for the summer - it wasn't quite ready yet when she had to be up there, so we took it to her when it was done. The next time was last year at Graduation time, to pick up my middle son, Geoff. He had been on the college's Impact Team, a group of talented guys who go around to different churches and schools and whatever doing missions work and singing and helping out, then they all go down to the College's Florida campus and put on a Christmas production. They do an overseas missions trip in the winter, then back to Florida for an Easter production, then back up to WOL - NY to finish up the year and they are the guys who do the set-up and tear-down for Graduation, as well as some singing.

Anyway, Mom went with me last year, and we spent two days shopping at different nurseries in Vermont and one in the Lake George area (Queensbury & Warrensburg) doing nothing but sight seeing and flower shopping!

This year, she's going along again, but we're going to take it easy - we're leaving on Friday, and it's a 7+ hour drive up, so we'll just relax on Friday, so some more picture taking and maybe shopping on Saturday, but since Geoff's graduating, we have to be back in time for Baccalaureate on Saturday night. Then, Sunday is Graduation (last year, we went shopping instead because Geoff wasn't IN the ceremony except to sing, and Impact Team members didn't get tickets to graduation...). Geoff has plans for the afternoon with his friends, so we'll kick back and relax; prolly some nursery-hopping involved in that, whether or not we buy anything, since we'll likely have to top off the gas tank in Queensbury before heading home on Monday morning!

Whether or not we do any shopping, while we're there I will be updating my Facebook photo albums, since we will have hi-speed internet available and I can upload so very much faster than with dial-up... The photos are, for the most part, ready to go, but I don't want to use up all my available hours doing the uploads! And, the cafe downtown has been having a lot of problems with their connection, so I haven't been able to do it that way.

Anyway, it promises to be a full, fun weekend, starting on Thursday, when I go to pick Mom up and bring her home with me, so we can leave whatever time we get up on Friday! Then, on Tuesday (if we do it like we did last year) my Dad will come down and see my flowerbeds and all the cleaning and rearranging we've done on the garage and potting shed, see the new photos - on the TV, courtesy of the laptop - and take Mom home again...

Next year I get a break - Dustin's a senior in high school this year, so even if he goes up for camp or to work the summer up there, we won't have to stay for Graduation - we should be able to come back on Saturday, so I can finally, after 5 long years, get back to my family reunion! (Kelli did 2 years, Geoff did 1st year, then Impact, and now 2nd year) I will say that we have made a few friends up there, and there's a good chance we'd go just for our own vacation - but NOT on that particular weekend!!! (We'd go earlier, so we could actually get some decent fishing in! - since we've already seen most of the local tourist attractions except for a couple of museums in Burlington, VT - that Mom and I might hit up THIS year!!!)
Unknown Serene - 15 years, 9 months, 2 days ago