Halloween

Here it is Halloween, Samhain, All Hallows Eve, Reformation Day or Mid-Autumn. This is the first Halloween in our household without Jack-O'Lanterns. I stayed up late last night drinking Molson XXX and watching the Cartoon Network. Around 1am I turned off the TV and started into my laptop screen trying to decide which TV show I wanted to watch on Adobe Flash Player or which film to "watch now" on Netflix. The longer I took to decide the longer it took me to decide and I ended up going to bed around 3am feeling more more dead than alive.

I woke up around 11am with Nathan saying, "dad I need breakfast and mom said it is 11 and you need to get up." I got up and make him Peanut Butter T-O-A-S-T. He had already put the bread in the T-O-A-S-T-E-R. I cut his toasted peanut butter sandwich into two triangles and poured him a glass of Root Beer left over from the two liter bottle from last night.

Yes, last night, Thursday, or Survivor Night in our household. Lori and I ate Chinese from China Inn and the kids had pizza from Little Ceasers. In addition to pizza they had crazy bread, hot wings, and garlic butter dipping sauce. Only 10 hot wings were left over.

Around 11:45 Evan said he was hungry and wanted lunch. He was looking for ravioli in the pantry so I reminded him of the hot wings. He said, "oh yeah, that's what I want." I warmed them up in the microwave and gave them to him with some Ranch Dressing in a custard bowl. He poured himself a glass of Root Beer and I thought all was fine in the house.

I went into the kitchen to eat my own lunch of Chicken Vegetable Soup and a salad. I sat down to eat it when Nathan stormed into the kitchen protesting Evan's lunch of hot wings. "It's not lunch yet. Lunch is at noon. Evan is eating chicken wings and it's not fair!" Those were his exact words.

I went back into the living room where Evan was enjoying his hot wings and counted them all. I reminded Nathan that he(Nathan) had six hot wings last night, and when asked how many he had, Evan replied, "None! I had none!" I told Evan to give Nathan two, then they both would have eaten eight. Nathan agreed to this and Evan agreed to the arrangement. I sat back down at the kitchen table. We don't have a dining room. I began to eat again when Nathan entered the kitchen and said the he wanted lunch. I told him that he just got eating at 11:24 and now it is 11:54. He said "it is is lunchtime. I want lunch, please."

I tried to finish my lunch as I asked what he wanted. He got out the peanut butter jar again, bread again and olives. I said you just had peanut butter, and you want it again. "Yeah, but for lunch I get to have something with it and I want olives." I made him a peanut butter sandwich cut into two triangles and put some olives in a custard bowl. Those custard bowls sure do get around.

I was still finishing my lunch when Nathan returned to the kitchen he wanted to try on his costume. He is a Ninja. Evan is James Bond. He got the pants and the shirt on; they both fit snug but it would work. Finally, I cleaned up from breakfast, lunch, and lunch and last nights dinner, that is, I put all the dishes I could into the dishwasher and ran it. I then went outside and raked the leaves in the front yard.

While I was raking Adam asked me when were we going to go for our drive. I told him as soon as I finish raking and shower, we will go. I told him that if he wanted to speed up the process he could help me rake. He said "no thank you" and I raked leaves into piles and then raked them onto the tarp. Once the tarp was full I pulled the corners together and carried the leaves to the top of the ravine in our backyard and dumped the leaves. I repeated this process several times.

While I was raking I was thinking of what to write to the members of the church budget committee and the church council concerning the status of congregation. They seem to equate stewardship with paying the bills, when the New Testament writes clearly show that taking care of one another is true stewardship.

I got the front lawn raked around 2:10. Adam dumped the last load of leaves for me and I went inside. Nathan and Evan were watching Sponge Bob Square Pants; it was an episode I haven't seen before. Sponge Bob was turning into a snail.

Lori came home with the candy for the Trick-or-Treaters and I went to take a shower. She seemed angry that I hadn't showered yet, so I told her that I was raking the leaves in the front yard. She said that is your thing. Two weeks ago she wanted me to rake the front yard. Am I the only one who sees a contradiction with this? I showed and shaved while she got Evan and Nathan in her car to get pumpkins.

Adam drove the blazer and I rode. He wanted to find the old Starlight Theater in Saugatuck. It was on Blue Star Highway. It was the perfect day for a drive on Blue Star. The leaves are in full color and most of them are still on the trees, that is, there are some bare branches to be seen, but most of the branches are brightly lit in colors of red orange and yellow. The sun was shining, the sky was an autumn blue. A beautiful day to take a drive in the country.

He got off US-31 at the Saugatuck exist. I thought he was going to take the Blue Star exit, but he surprised me. Adam surprised me even further when instead of going South like I thought he was, he turned left and headed North. He said that it was supposed to be 1.5 miles North of the exit. It wasn't there so I had him go further to the gas station. While I pumped my gas, Adam went inside to ask about the Starlight Theater. He said, "The girl in there said she knew nothing about it." I said well let's go down Blue Star again.

He drove South on Blue Star and I thought he might head to Glen, Ganges or Fennville, instead he turned right to go to Mt. Baldy in Saugtuck. As e climbed the 17 flights of stairs to the top two squirrels were in a panic. I looked up and saw and eagle soaring overhead. He was looking for dinner and thought a squirrel would be delicious. The squirrels ran to the trees and hid. When we got the top we took some time to look around a little. The scenic view was breathtaking, really it was, we were both out of breath from the climb. I kid you not. Saugatuck looked peaceful and past the buildings on the strip all we could see were trees in full color. It was a gorgeous view.

I was glad to see from all the carvings on the lookout that Ashley and Jon were together in '03, and that Tatinerina Roquist had been there as well. I looked around and saw a path. Adam and I followed it to a look out point were we could see Lake Michigan. Mt. Baldy is the top of a very high dune over Oval Beach. I almost walked down to see Lake Michigan up close again but that would mean I would have to walk back up that dune. I didn't want to.

The walk along the wooded path on the dune was wonderful. It was just the perfect day for a quiet adventure. There aren't many adventure as quite as quiet as looking and seeing West Michigan autumn beauty from the top a sand dune. Finally we walked back down the stairs and came home. Once home I set up the pumpkin torches. Adam put the black light bulb in the fixture by the front door. In liew of Jack O'Laterns I light orange and black candles on put them by the Oak Tree where those creatively carved pumpkins were placed in years past.

We have a medium number of Trick-or-Treaters. Considering it is a warm night, I thought we would get more. Lori took Ninja and 007 Trick-or-Treating with her sister-in-law, Paula in my father-in-laws subdivision. How many hyphens can I put in one sentence?

Adam and I listened to his compilation CD's on shuffle mode. He and I took turns handing out candy. He played air guitar and solitaire. I wrote this blog.

Happy Mid-Autumn everyone. Remember to read T.S. Eliot's "Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock before this soft October night ends.

Feeling Better

Sunday, after church, I was feeling a migraine coming on. I took ibruprophen and drank some coffee and ate a sandwhich. Later in afternoon, I took the boys to Timbertown to feed the ducks. Nathan really wanted to feed the white duck again. Canadian Geese had come in droves. Can flocks come in droves? Don't know for sure, but there were a lot of them there and more arrived while we were there.

After all the old stale bread was gone, the boys wanted to play in the Timbertown park. I was not feeling energetic and I just wanted to sit and relax. We were in there about five minutes when Nathan said he had to use the bathroom. So I walked ahead of him up a small hill to the flush toilets near the ball park.

As I got to the door to the men's room and smelled smoke. Nathan said he didn't smell anything. It smelled like burring wood. I opened the door and the restroom was filled with thick smoke. We went further inside to see what was burning and the smoke burned our eyes.
I took him to the other side and told him to use the women's room. He was uncomfortable with that, but I told him I would stand guard at the door. When he was finished Nathan wanted me to fix the men's room. His words, "fix it, get the smoke out."

I propped the door open with the Rubbermaid Trash Bin from the men's room, and waited for about 10 min. When the smoke cleared, I went back in there and stomped out the fire. It was made with three roles of toilet paper, a pack of cigarettes and box of candy. My head was really starting to hurt at this point. I was able to manage. The boys played for about an hour. Adam went to the Blazer by this time and Evan wanted to go home. Nathan was still having fun, but I told him we had to go anyway. He wanted to go back to the restroom and so we did. It was much better but still smelled like smoke.

Nathan took his time getting back to the Blazer; a white dog really got his attention, and not me, his Dad. We got home, had dinner, and I went to bed. My head was hurting. The migraine had kicked it full tilt and I was feeling pain and dizziness. I slept from 8 to 5:30 when the alarm went off. I could barely move and felt like I was going to vomit. I ended up vomiting, in a most horrible way around 8 am. Although the pain was no longer in both sides of my head, the pain in the left side was still strong. The pain, which I thought would be cut in half, only dropped about a point, from a 10 to a 9. I stayed in bed all day, only to get up to drink, eat and use the restroom.

Tuesday morning wasn't much better. The pain remained the same and wasn't showing any signs of dropping. I stayed in bed, at it wasn't until 5pm that it was finally manageable. I went to work today, late. Migraines like this leave me weak and feeling tired. I went to work late, but I worked until 6:30. I should be able to work Saturday, which will make up for most of the lost hours.

Not really an exciting way to start the week. It must have been the smoke that put me over the edge. My mom talked to me for 37 minutes on Tuesday, that made me feel a lot better. I told her that I did eat. I had cereal for breakfast around noon. Lunch was at 7 and I had a bowl of chicken vegetable soup and a toast with peanut butter, Jiff Extra Crunchy with honey. and for dinner, a bowl of oatmeal and a banana. I ate healthy.

I called the doctor to get a different prescription because Maxalt just isn't working. He wants me a diet which avoids excessive caffeine, sugar and chocolate. I only drink about 3-4 cups of coffee a day. I rarely add sugar to anything, and only eat chocolate about twice a year. I just need a more effective medicine.\

I am off to bed.

What do you do when your brakes finally fail? Well, I decided to use my vacation day to get them repaired. We don't have the money of course, so I had to take out another 401k loan to get the money. Lori called Tuffy and they said the worse case scenario would be $800. They fixed the brakes on my blazer at the tune of $750. It needed new calipers, new roters, new shoes, new pads, new hoses. It was leaking brake fluid all over the guy said. I could barely stop my blazer. I had to come to stops really slow and the brake would go to the floor. It stopped but I sure didn't feel safe driving it. The money hasn't been despoited in our checking account yet, but I really won't need it it until Tuesday.



I raked the leaves two Fridays ago and Evan built a fire in the fire pit with just a little help from me. Today, you would never would have known I raked the leaves. The backyard was full of leaves. I worked on it four three hours and got most of them, but the wind blew and brought down some more.



The lawn was thick with leaves and tomorrow I am working on the front lawn. I came home from work Tuesday and saw a bucket truck and a larger chipper truck in my yard. The large oak tree in the front yard had a few limbs gone. I came inside and was surprised by all of this and asked my lovely wife, Lori, what was going on. I said, something like this, "are the tree trimmers from the electric company or we paying them?" She said that they came by and asked if we wanted the trees trimmed. They agreed to $100 down. They did a great job and they sped of the leaf falling rate.



Evan is a special child, and he loves trying to be a grown up and do things that he thinks grown ups do, such as, using knives. He was surprised that we gave him permission to make a fire. He tried starting it by burning a twig, I showed him to get a fire started by burning newspaper first. He got it going and kept it going. The idea was to burn all the twigs and branches that had fallen in the yard while I raked.



Today Evan stayed home today because his sinuses were congested. He wasn't feeling well. I let Lori decide. She knows how much school the boys have already missed. He wanted to play outside. I told him that if he felt good enough to play outside then I would drive him to school. He went back to bed for a little while then played downstairs.



We didn't have internet this morning; Lori paid the bill over the phone. Can't wait for my big paycheck and the money from the loan.

Another Friday

Last night was our weekly pizza and Survivor night. Usually we pick up pizza from one of many pizza chains the populate the North Side of Holland. There is only one locally owned and operated pizza take out place near us, but they have limited items. Last night, Lori brought home frozen pizza. The kids ate their fill and their own complaint was that there weren't any hot wings nor were there bread sticks. Oh well, kids, learn to do with less until the money situation gets better here. Speaking of which, I am working Sunday and getting paid double time, I told Pastor Mark that I wasn't going to be there on Sunday.


Speaking of Pastor Mark, yes I was; it was contrived but I was talking about him. I met with Pastor Mark this morning to work out an Evangelism Budget, actually an advertising budget. I agree that we need to advertise, but there is no way the budget committee will ever approve the $7,000 budget I complied. But, I am aiming high.

Because I met with Pastor Mark at 10 am I did not take my morning walk through Riley Trials. I did get Adam and Evan on the bus. Evan was in a good mood and very co-operative. Adam got dressed at the last minute. The bus had to wait for him. I woke Nathan and he ate Peanut Butter Toast and drank a glass of orange juice for breakfast. He got dressed and I drove him to school. I came home, made coffee ate a bowl of cereal, took a shower and got dressed.


How exciting my life is! Isn't these mundane actions of our lives that define who we are or at least anchor us to reality. We all eat, drink, and sleep. But our individuality is best expressed in when in how we shower, dry off and brush our teeth. Everyone has their own technique and style. I will you spare you the details how I wash myself and hair and rinse and towel dry my physical body.


I forgot to take the trash out last night! I usually take the trash bin to the street (we don't have curbs in the suburbs) when I take those large cardboard pizza boxes to the trash. The frozen pizza boxes are smaller and thinner so the trash bin wasn't spilling over and I told myself to take it out later. I failed to remind myself to do that later so it didn't get done. I didn't think of it until I heard the garbage truck and then it was too late.


I arrived at church shortly after Lori got there. I gave her a 10 min head start, by drinking another cup of coffee and pulling up the heals of my Nike's that go squashed from my laziness of putting them on without untying them first. She must have stopped somewhere along the way. I wanted to to all the research in Pastors office so I could give him the information as I complied it. But, the Internet Signal was weak in his study and I had to move to anther room.

I used Lori's phone, the one in her office, to call Yellow Book and AT &T yellow pages. I was able to talk to Ashley at Yellow Book and get the rate for the ad we wanted to run. Ma Bell, (can we still call AT &T Ma Bell?) no? well I will anyway. Ma Bell tried to transfer me to the appropriate representative, but ended up back at the main menu and had to try again. A different person told me that the man I was trying to talk to doesn't work for them anymore so, they finally I was connected to a local rep. He phone rang and all I got was her voice mail. I left her a message to call me, but she didn't. Ma Bell indeed!


I deposited a check at the bank after I left church, and then came home and ate lunch. I had a sandwich and chips while watching The History Channel. I love that channel. It was their show on pirates. It was fun and very informative. Hmmm teaches and delights--that is how William Wordsworth defined poetry? Why yes it is. I love answering my own questions.


I told Lori that I wanted to grill something for dinner. She suggested getting Sizzler's from Bob's Butcher Block. She said four. I got there and told the guy four. I pointed to four. The guy and I got to talking about how good their Sizzler's are and somehow, as I recently discovered I only came home with three. He only charged me for three. I asked for four.


I folded and put away socks while listen to a CD of Buzz songs. Then I read for a while. In between my mom called and Lori came home. I put all the dishes in the dishwasher. Wow! this is a thriller blog episode. I went to pick up Nathan just as the phone rang; it was the High School telling us that Adam left school early so he could walk to the Performing Art Center. It was long walk. Why the school couldn't transport him is beyond us. He will have to ride with someone or Lori will have to drive him. Walking is out of the question; if he doesn't like making the props for The Music Man then maybe he shouldn't do it.

Right before I left to get Nathan I saw a large Praying Mantis on the slider. I didn't want to catch it but I knew the kids would want to see it. Lori said that I should close the screen on the outside and trap it for them. I did. It reminded me of when we trapped a mouse the same way.

I got Nathan at school just as I pulled onto the road, he said, "you have to go back. I forgot my prize." So, I pulled in a guy's driveway and had to back out onto the busy road. Nathan and I went back to his school and walked to his classroom where he found his sucker inside his desk. We said goodbye to his teacher, again, and came home to find that Evan caught the Praying Mantis in the bug box.

I picked Adam up at the Performing Arts Center and came home and started the grill. I was bout half way into grilling the Three Sizzler's and the four frozen sausages when Lori's dad wanted me to come over to his house and talk to me. Imagine me rolling my eyes. Anyway. I listened to what he had to say and came home to a warm dinner. It was still delicious

Some days, I think, not much happened at all, But, perhaps even in the most usual Fridays I can find drama, excitement and something to remember. That Praying Mantis is four inches long. Evan and Nathan wanted the sausages more than the steak. Funny how somethings work out anyway.

Flash Drive

About two and half years ago, my friend Jerry at work bought a 1 gig flash drive. He needed to save data from the computer we used to do vibration testing on our parts. He told me that he submitted the receipt for reimbursement, but if he had to it would come from his own pocket and he was alright with that. This was in late spring 2006 and his 1 gig Flash Drive cost about $90.

Lori wanted to use Quicken on my laptop to enter receipts and balance the checking account. This is Quicken 2002 and I was able to install on my laptop very easily. The next step was to backup the data from the desktop in the basement and restore to the Quicken Program on the laptop. Sounds easy right?

I made several attempts to backup the file onto a CD to no avail. I managed to copy the backup file from the Desktop Hard Drive to a CD but my laptop wouldn't read it. We asked Adam if we could use his 1 gig Flash Drive that I bought him at Circuit City for $6; he said he left it at school, and he forgot to bring it home today. We asked him to bring it home! Teenagers!!!

So Lori and Adam went to Wal*Mart tonight among the few items Lori wanted to purchase was our own Flash Drive. She called me soon after she left asking my opinion on what size memory to get. I told her that I thought 1 gig should be enough but two would definitely work. She said that if she could find a 2 gig for about $5 more than a 1 gig would get it.

Well, she came home with a 2 Gigabyte Flash Drive for under $13! The price on those sure has dropped since the Spring of 2006, although gas prices are considerably higher. I opened the Flash Drive from the packaging, no doubt not an easy task. and was able to back up the Quicken file from the desktop easily.

My trusty laptop restored the file in a second and all the old data was there. It was very simple. It won't break and I will take care of it. It was a good investment, and much cheaper than it would have been two years ago.

Walking and Watching

Saturday mornings are wonderful for sleeping, and that is exactly what I did yesterday morning. I slept until 9:30 and made coffee. I rinsed the pot and cleaned the parts, expect that I forgot to put a filter in the basket and coffee ran all over the counter in a steady stream toward the sink. I dumped out the coffee and cleaned the basket again and started all over.

Lori told me about this new show on the Fox Network that she wants to watch called "Fringe." Apparently, my mom and step-dad are watching it as well. So, if I want to stay in the loop I had to get caught up quickly; the show airs on Tuesdays. So, I watched about five hours of TV on my laptop. The show is produced by, Abrams, the same producer of "Lost," one of our favorite shows.

Don't think I spent the entire day watching "Fringe" and gazing into my laptop screen, because I watched most of the Michigan game. U of M started the game well but Illinois thrashed them soundly. It was sad to watch. I am am avid fan so I watch as much as time allows. Dinner was ready before the game was over. But, alas, I did not see the final blow to what was once a strong football program that had a long winning streak over Illinois.

Before the game started. i took Evan and Nathan for a walk. Evan wanted to walk on trails and Nathan wanted to go the Nature Center. I decided to take them to Riley Woods. They liked the footbridge but were disappointed in the natural woods trails. The Nature Center has wooden paths making it accessible to wheelchairs and strollers.

We walked down the yellow trail and then backtracked back to the bridge. There was a father and son fishing in Riley Lake/Pond. Really, it is too small to be called a lake, but calling that body of water, Riley Pond probably isn't as dramatic as Riley Lake. The kids like drama too. They would parent that there were bad guys in the woods and Nathan would shoot at them with his cap gun. He didn't have any caps so he only annoyed the sparrows.

Nathan got tired and had to rest on a fallen tree for awhile. But, once we got back to the "Lake" he wanted to walk around it. Evan wanted to wait by the bride. Evan and I were sword fight; he with his plastic Captain Jack Sparrow sword and me with a stick that I using to draw maps on the ground to show the kids where we were.

Evan wanted to wait by the bridge as Nathan and I walked around the "lake." Evan joined us by walking around the opposite way. We then walked across the footbridge and to the Blazer.I got home after the kickoff, but I was able to see Michigan make their first touchdown.

As I am writing this, I am watching Crucifixions on the History Channel. Before that, Lori and I watched a show on Nostradamus. I should finish reading his book. Penn of Penn and Teller made a really good point. Where were the Nostradamus experts on Sept 10, 2001 warning us about the attacks? These experts always see the prophecies after the fact.

The History Channel experts claim the Jesus died of a heart aneurysm. That would explain how he was able to cry out just before he died. Jesus was one of many victims of that cruel and humiliating death.

The alarm went off and Lori hit the snooze several times. I thought I was going to get out of bed in time to wake the boys, but I fell asleep again and didn't wake up until 7am. I woke up Adam and Evan in time to drive them to school and we would have been on time, except, Evan could not find his shoes.

He was certain he took them off in the living room while watching Survivor. As I looked through the house I realized that Evan was mistaken. I asked him again where he took them off and then remembered he was watching TV in our bedroom earlier last night. I found them on the floor, under the window next to Lori's side of the bed.

I drove them to their respective schools and walked to the office with them. I believe that makes there tardiness excused. The reason I gave was the truth. Evan could not find his shoes. He is in a special ed class, they have to understand that it can be a challenge for him to remember where he left them.

I got home and woke Nathan up right away. I explained to him that I was running a little behind because I had to drive his brothers to school. He got up right away got dressed and was ready to go. He was happy that I found his missing jacket--it was hanging on a coat hook. Yes, a coat hook that is why he couldn't find it.

I got him to school on time and he rode right next to me. I felt a little rushed all morning, but getting him to school on time made me feel calm and relaxed. So, as I drove him I had to stop at The Riley Trails.

I took a walk on the trails again this morning. The foot bridge was slippery with frost. The woods were peaceful and there was a dense mist rising from Lake Riley. I walked out of the woods and around the lake as the sunlight was shining through the mist creating a bright glare. The amazing sight was seeing the melting droplets on the bridge reflecting in the sunglight. It was bright and sparkling.

I got home was going to blog about this morning right away but Lori called me to remind me that I had a doctor's appointment. Dr. Smith was glad to see that I lost 6 pounds and that I was doing better. He thinks the dizziness should improve. He gave me a perscription for a year supply of Prozac. I got home and I was tired and went to sleep. When Lori got home I was sleeping in bed.

I picked Nathan up at school and then drove to the Eye Doctor to pay a bill. I got home and finally took a shower and shaved. Lori had gone to the store and made a simple dinner of hotdogs and Lloyd's BBQ. I cleaned up after dinner and ran the dishwasher.

Evan, Nathan and I watched The Clone Wars on the Cartoon Network and I watched The Soup by myself.