A flood of good times?

This is a story that starts a long time ago in a galaxy far far away. Ever since my family moved into our new house, when I was five, we have had problems with flooding. This is not flooding from tons of rain but mostly from mistakes in watering the lawn, flowers, and garden. It didn't matter too much as the floor was cement and we had most of our possessions out of the way. Now that we have finished half the basement it has become a bigger problem. It involves taking out carpet and replacing carpet pad and the like.

My Mom has had a knack for flooding the basement several times a year. She turns on the hose to water her flowers and forgets it is on. This happened earlier this year and while I was not here, I heard it was really bad.

I guess you could call me my mother's son. While watering the yard and trying to water the garden, I opened a valve to get a better flow. Unbeknownst to me, the tap by the window well was wide open. It was about an hour before anyone knew. Whitney sent Autumn and the neighbor girls down the basement to play. They came back up announcing that it was all wet. Whit ran to tell me, I was outside, I went running to the window. That is when I found the faucet. After turning it off and rushing to get a bucket with a rope, I bucketed out the water from the window well. It was 2/3 of the way up the window. Whit ran to a rental place to get a carpet cleaning vacuum which sucked better than any shop vac I have ever seen. Scott called friends family and neighbors to come and help us. It took 4-5 hours before we were done cleaning up. At first the water would seep over the top of your shoes when you would step on the carpet in the bedroom. It was really muddy too. But we got it all cleaned up and now we are trying to get it really dry. We will have to replace the carpet pad in the bedroom. This happened on Saturday.

On Monday one of the neighbors that help us clean up called and asked for our help to clean up their basement flood. We thought that it might be a prank they were trying to play on us. So, in the spirit of good fun we decided to dress the part. Here is a picture:





There really was a little flood, but they thought it was hilarious. I hope you do to.

The world continues to turn

It has been awhile since I blogged. Things are starting to fall into a routine. Wake up at 5:00, get ready, catch Van Pool by 5:35, ride into work by 6:30, work, work, work, ride home at 5:00, arrive home just before 6:00, eat dinner, find something fix my lunch for the next day, find something to do, and go to bed a lot later than intended. I always have plans to make it to bed by 9:00 or 9:30, but I always end up not getting to sleep until 10:30 or 11:00. So this part of my routine needs a little work. It is just hard when you only have 2 hours in the evenings to do things with your wife, relax, or do something athletic.

Whit has been terrific! She is a great wife. She cleans all the time, makes me dinner, does her little projects and is all-in-all AMAZING. I am so happy that I am married to her.

I have been learning a lot at work. Many times I feel really stupid because I don't know how to do something. There really is no substitute for experience. Contributing to the problem is the fact that people have different words for the same thing. Occasionally, someone will ask me if I have done something before. I say no. When they sit down to help me I realize that I have done something similar but called it something different. Not that I couldn't use the help anyway. I am trying to learn as much as I can so that I will be more prepared for my next job. This job will probably last 3-5 years. More likely to be 3. Anyway, that's enough of my ramblings. Thank goodness football season is here again!

Proof

So I heard some people doubting that I was a cowboy and they wanted some proof. O ye of little faith. O ye that must see to believe. Well, here is the proof.

How do you stack four ton of hay? One bale at a time.

A few days ago, a man came and dropped off some hay for our horse. He brought us four ton of hay when my dad had only ordered 2 ton. Not only did he bring us more than we needed, but he pushed it off his tractor in one very tall stack. As happens in the Tri-Cities, the wind blew hard that night. You can guess what happened next, the stack fell over like Humpty Dumpty falling off the wall. Fortunately for Scott (my older brother) and I, we are not part of all the King's horses or all the King's men so we were able to put it back together again. We also had Whit snap a few pictures of our exploits. Have a gander.



Can you see the fallen stack on the left?



You gotta lift with your legs.



You tend to get a little dirty with all the sweat and flecks of hay flying around.



The stacking job is done!



I'm exhausted.

Rodeo Drive

Though you may not know it, I am a cowboy. I grew up with horses and rode for 4-H in our County Fair. Walking around the fair and smelling all of the animal stuff brings back memories. Riding our horses to the fairgrounds, dressing up in the cowboy shirts that have snaps instead of buttons, wrangler jeans, boots, hat, the whole bit. It was wonderful times. As gross as this will sound, I like the smell of sawdust, dirt, and manure. There is just something that says fresh and clean. Something that says your in the country with people who have wholesome values, are easy going, and work hard. Maybe you know what I am talking about maybe you don't. But I love it.

Well, the reason for all this nostalgia is I went to the fair and rodeo tonight. It is such a fun atmosphere. Even Whit thinks the rodeo is fun and she doesn't like very many sporting events. We watched the bareback and saddle bronc riding, the steer roping and wrestling, team roping, barrel racing, sheep riding (for the little kids), and bull riding. The announcer was funny as always, the clown was hilarious (he told a joke about how his girlfriend wanted him to take her out to someplace expensive so he took her to the gas station), and the riding and roping was terrific. The only bull rider to stay on got a score of 90! It was an awesome ride. Here are a few pictures from the evening (they are from the beginning because it got too dark to shoot any good pictures).











I added a picture of the "Saloon Girls." Tanner (my nephew who is 1 1/2) had a good time flirting with them. He would wave at them and they would wave back and he would get a big smile. Anyway, if you have never had a chance to attend a rodeo, I would recommend you do so as soon as you can.

Television Heaven

Some of you already know this as I have talked with you about televisions. My dream television (though I will be the first to admit that future TVs are sure to pass it in time) will be coming out soon. It is a Vizio VP505VXT 50" 1080p plasma TV.



I love this TV. It is a plasma, which I love because of the great colors, deep blacks, and smooth motion. It is nice that it is 1080p because it will be future proof for the next little while. But the thing that I like best is the Silicon Optix chip. This thing is awesome. It helps to process the input to make it the best possible picture. Check out the technology at the website by clicking the link above.

Despite all the love I have for this TV there is one thing I wish it had, a wireless card and the ability to be a media center extender. I love windows media center and it would be awesome to be able to connect the TV to my computer.

Anyway, I won't be getting it anytime soon. So it is just a dream for awhile.

Come on down, You could be the next contestant to have a new Car!

Well, for those of you who read Whit's blog you already know this but here it is again. We just bought a new car. A 2009 Toyota Camry. It is Whit's dream car. White with a Bisque interior. We really liked our salesman, but not the financing manager. Anyway, go to Whit's blog to check it out.