Passing The Torch

When someone makes you a promise do you take it in jest or do you take it seriously? Cindy and I threw out a a promise a few years back that was taken in jest, but proved otherwise while we were in New Mexico.

Do you remember the story I told you back in January of the Evil Twin? If not click The Evil Twin and check it out but be sure to come back and pick up here because I just think you may get a laugh out of this one too.

At the end of The Evil Twin I said “My Buddy did come back to live with Cindy and I, He survived the move to California and is patiently waiting for the right day when he surprises someone else”, with this said My Buddy now has a new home..For now anyway.

Way back then we told the boys that the first one to get married would be the one to get the surviving My Buddy Doll, they both laughed, you know that laugh that says Yeah Right!! This is the laugh that we got.

Now after several years of hiding and protecting My Buddy, the torch has been passed to Tim since he was the first of the kids to wed.

Right after Benjamin’s Birthday party I went to the car and got a gift out of the trunk for Tim, I made a big presentation stating Family Tradition and how something sacred was being passed to Tim to protect and pass down to his first child that married.

Tim seemed to swell with pride, I actually saw pride in his eyes imagining holding onto something so sacred as a Family heirloom to pass down to his children.

When he opened the bag I actually had to hold onto him to keep him from falling out of his chair.

The look of shock pride on his face while I made the actual presentation told me that holding out this long to pass My Buddy along was sure worth it.

Now isn’t he cute with his new Doll.

Now that wasn’t nice was it?

Benjamin’s First

It seems like about this time last year Benjamin was just born, so once the word got out that there was going to be a party Granny and Papa loaded up in the car for a road trip, we can always use a good excuse for a road trip and what better excuse than our Grandbaby is turning one.

Granny and Papa got there just in time to take charge so to say; well we at least took charge of spoiling Baby Benjamin.

Benjamin is walking really well so we were on our toes more than we figured and he is calling me Papa already, as for Granny he has not used that name as of yet, instead he came up with a name all his own “Mimi” pronounced “Me Me” is what he is calling Cindy so it appears for now the Grandparents formerly known as Granny and Papa are now Papa and Mimi.

Benjamin’s party went really well and he was a lot of help getting things ready for the crowd that would fill Tim and Elisa’s home for the big Birthday Bash.

There were balloons to be filled, yes we told the kids of the balloon dangers with little ones but I thought this was a cool picture, Benjamin did laugh a lot while Mimi gathered the balloons for Papa and I had to properly and safely dispose of them.

There was a lot of paper to be crumpled

Presents to be opened

Cake to share with Dad

 And even cake for Momma

 New toys for outside, (I think Tim has a future lawn mowing chore in store for someone)

 And others for inside

But at the end of the day while Momma and Mimi cleaned up the mess that is always left after a Birthday blowout, Papa’s lap is where Baby Benjamin fell sound asleep.

Mimi and Papa were not too far behind him either.

Ninety For Thirty

Made it home a few days ago but finding time to write is almost as hard as it was to type while we were away, by the time evening came around we were so tired that getting on the computer was out of the question, and while I had a bit of quiet time on the road typing and driving was something I did not dare attempt.

The trip in our new car went really well, the gas mileage was impressive, we actually went over five hundred miles on a tank and averaged about thirty two and an half MPG, got nearly thirty five once so I am happy with that, the gas prices on the way home I had to laugh at, we stopped in Arizona and filled up for 3.39 a gallon then drove nine miles into California to see the price jump up to 4.39 when we got into Needles, another forty something miles into Amboy and we saw 4.89, I’m sure proud our car will go five hundred on a tank because we are now home with still a half a tank of the 3.39 stuff and our price here looks pretty good at 3.79.

On our way out to see the kids, well to tell you the truth we were going to see the Grandbaby, the kids are just part of the deal being as he lives with them and we had to have a place to stay, so we will go with, we were going to see the kids so they wont get their feelings hurt, and make us stay somewhere else next time.

Like I was saying on our way to see the kids we filled up in Flagstaff, AZ and drove all the way to Moriarty, NM where we stopped for the night, the Best Western there was awesome so if you are ever in Moriarty I would suggest them as the place to stay, next morning I complimented the man at the desk and told him that we would see him again when he asked how our stay was.

We hit I-40 and saw that Santa Rosa, NM would be our next stop, about eighty miles away we would fill up, since the car said we had about one hundred forty four miles before we hit empty this should be a piece of cake..Right? Well thirty miles down the road Cindy asks me “Jimmy did you get my cell phone charger off the table?” to which she already knew the answer.

After a call back to the motel and making a turn around for thirty miles to pick up said cell phone charger, I told Cindy to tell the desk clerk that I knew we had promised we would see him again but, I really didn’t think it would be this soon, she just kind of rolled her eyes and said I could stay in the car, I don’t think she passed my message along either. We then drove thirty miles back to where we already were and saw the sign which read fifty miles to Santa Rosa and the car said fifty-four miles to empty, piece of cake..Right?

At fifty miles to empty the car starts doing a count down, fifty miles to empty, forty nine miles to empty, forty eight miles to empty, this is where we saw the sign which read forty four miles to Santa Rosa, pulling into the Loves Truck Stop the car was screaming curse words and telling me things like, you only have four miles to go, you should have stopped and bought the expensive gas you passed up, you should have never pushed me this far, we will never make it. When I placed the nozzle into the tank with five hundred two and a half miles on the last tank of gas and four miles until empty per the computer that figures this stuff out,  I swear I heard that car say, “Hey Jimmy this was a piece of cake..Right?”

Our trip was really great and I will fill you in on more of it in the next few days, in the meantime just remember that when you drive thirty miles and forget something, going back to get it gives you ninety miles for thirty traveled and with averages like this you can actually drive five hundred two miles in a four hundred forty mile stretch, I wouldn’t suggest that you try this at home but with a car that gets good mileage, it is always a piece of cake..Right?

Computer Age Gardening

We have been working on getting our garden growing and have gotten pretty successful if I say so myself, I moved my pepper patch this year to give Cindy more room in the garden for what she calls “actual vegetables”.

Next to the driveway in full sunlight I planted six jalapeno pepper plants, two hot banana peppers, and two chili pepper plants of an unnamed nature (actually I lost the tag and forgot what I bought) that are loaded down with more chilies than I ever could imagine, the first one set me on fire so I have a plan to pick a whole bag full and sneak them in on Tim. Five bell pepper plants got relocated back to Cindy’s garden since they are really not “actual peppers” and shouldn’t belong in a pepper patch.

Crookneck and white patty pan squash we have already begun feasting on, I say slicing them lengthwise and marinating them in Italian dressing then cooking them on the grill is the best, give it a try if you haven’t done so already, works well for zucchini also.

Corn will be coming on before too long, as the plants are already about as tall as I am and tasseling out, we had a few cucumbers and are seeing at least four cantaloupes already, an egg plant blooming back in the corner showing promise of good things to come.

Tomatoes we are going to be overloaded with it appears, I have been working so hard, tying up limbs and pulling up weeds, pruning and staking vines, hoeing and digging dirt, I told Cindy that I was a “Good Hoer” which got me a non amused look and a “Yeah right. You are sick” as she walked away.

What else we have that is threatening my tomato crop is “Critters”, I have already lost about ten tomatoes and my second red one was partially eaten, looks like birds have been pecking my crops as the marks appear to be peck marks, although the half eaten one has me wondering, so I had to investigate.

Getting online and searching for the terms that took me everywhere but to sites about "birds pecking tomatoes", still not sure where "bird peckers" came in nor how they got one that close to a magnifying glass but that is entirely a post for another site.

The computer age told me something I already knew, I have seen aluminum pie tins and little mirrors hanging in gardens to deter birds in the past, I am sure we have a bunch of computer savvy birds now days so I did something that should remedy my bird problem and scare the majority away, you know all those old AOL discs you never knew what to do with:

You think this will help.