Tuesday 9-6-06

It is Tuesday afternoon, .. hard and long day at work. The problem with my car is the 'harmonic balancer' or whatever it is called. I will drop it off at Brake Max tomorrow at O-dark-thirty. My engine is a 3.8 and so the part is $190 ... if it had been a 3.1, the part would be $80. My luck, huh?? The labor for both jobs is about the same.

I have to clean up / straighten up the apartment ... two teenagers will definately get stuff out of kilter given a chance. First, .. I will eat and shower and sit on my butt some. Then comes the computer desk ...... it is covered with printouts, game 'cheat' sheets, tab tops, pictures, et al. I mess it up pretty well, but they outdid me.

Steve Irwin ... "The CROC guy" is dead. He accidently got hit by a stingray's tail (stinger), in his chest, off the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. There is only a 3 square inch area that can be deadly if a Ray hits you there. He got hit in THAT 3 sq in area. Too bad. I had only watched one of his shows, not really my cup of tea, but his is a loss. He seemed to being doing stupid things on TV, but he was well prepared and knew his animals and their behavior.

On the home front .... I am having "slight" doubts about Hilda and I living together or getting married. I have become so accustomed to living by myself (at least for the majority of the week) that I become uncomfortable thinking about someone else being here ALL the time. Is this a thing that OLD people go through?

Anyway, must figure out my finances tonight ... the auto repairs are looming tomorrow. Have a great week.

More pics - Monday

More pics from the weekend.














The boys in the bumper boats, Devin driving the Go-carts, Abel in his bumper boat, me and the McGowens

Monday

It is Monday afternoon / evening ... almost 1800 hours. I was supposed to take the boys back to Benson today, but as we left K-Mart the engine started clicking. I got it home (2 miles) and called my ex in Benson about 1400 (2PM). They (her and her 'guy') just came and picked them up. The engine is not running hot, it has plenty of water and oil in it. I do not know where the clicking is coming from .... only that it is where the serpentine belt is and the alternator, etc. It could be in the engine, but I am not a mechanic. I could get no one to look at it on Labor Day. I am going to call my helper to get a ride to work tomorrow.

The weekend with the boys was fine. We spent a ton of money at Golf n' Stuff, but had a great time. I am attaching pictures of the weekend, including our visit with the McGowens ... Dr Stan, Jolene and Travis.




Top is Hilda watching Devin drive the Go-carts, then Abel, me and Devin at Golf and Stuff, and the McGowens ... Travis, Dr. "Valdez", and Jolene (and Ethan the Dog).

Saturday AM

It is Saturday, the first one of September ... where did the summer go? Of course, we here in the southwest will still be in "summer" weather conditions (according to east coast types) until late November. We will be in the 80's this weekend and back into the high 90's about Tuesday.

It is 0500 and I am heading out to Benson to pick up the nietos (Abel and Devin). Hilda and I got to see my best friend Dr. S.S. "Valdez" McGowen and his wife and son over dinner last evening. Travis (his son) had a shoulder operation on Monday and is going back to Texas with his mom and dad on a little leave ... he is in the Army at Ft Huachuca. We had a full table .... Hilda, me, Valdez, Jolene (his wife), Travis and a friend of Travis' named Paul (and of course Ethan, Valdez's seeing eye dog). Stanley (his real name) told me that his original service dog, Nicro, died last January in his sleep. He had been retiredfrom servicefor several years and was just a pet. He had been such a wonderful helper and friend to Stan all those years. He was such a beautiful dog. Ethan, another golden lab, is a pretty dog .... but Nicro was a special animal. We mourn his passing. Well, better get on the road. More later.

Later:
I am here again. It is Sunday though. The nietos monopolized my time and my computer (both of them) since yesterday. They are asleep now and so I get 15-20 minutes on it.

The U of A Wildcats... huge underdogs to BYU of Utah ... won their opening football game of the season last night. Congrats to the Cats. It was a great game. "Headline City" here in Tucson.

We are going to Golf n' Stuff after 12 today. They want to ride the Go-carts, etc. Hope that the Labor Day weekend is going well for all of you.