She Survived and is Highly Annoyed

I spoke to College girl right before the storm. My last words were to keep us up to date. I think she took that as either "I wish they would leave me alone" Or "They will know I'm alive when I call next week for money".

Yesterday morn I was online watching the storm and checking the local weather stations for wind speeds and the Progress Energy power outage maps to see how her area fared. The winds were down but as expected there were lots of power outages.

We had no news so the wife finally texted her and we got a reply of "I'm fiiiinnne".

Later she called to say the stoplights were out but her apartment still had power. "See, I didnt need to come home" From now on she is going to be one of those that doesnt leave because she survived Irene.

In other touching survival news My oldest daughter's friend posted this on Facebook.



The old American resolve lies on.

I hope everyone else survived the storm unscathed.

I Cant hear you, Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah

So you raise them the best you can. You try to teach them to make good decisions. Then they go away to college. I think last years Freshman focus taught them that parents are stupid. Ok, maybe thats just natural.

My daughter goes to college on the coast of NC.

Me, You coming home?

Her, Why?

Me, Theres a hurricane coming.




Her, Yeah?

Me, It's big.

Her, Yeah?

Me, You need to come home.

Her, Why?

Me, Cause I dont want your car getting flooded.

Her, We are parking it in the parking deck and we are going to ride it out in my apartment on the 3rd floor.

Me, You need to come home.

Her, Why?

Me, I give up. Stay inside and in touch.

Overheard on the Airplane

Back in May I was on the way home from Denver and had a layover in Houston. The flight was delayed a couple hours due to storms in the area.

After waiting we finally boarded the plane. I was sitting in the 2nd row of a too small plane when the crew started the departure speeches. Suddenly the Pilot came out of the cabin reopened the hatch and started berating the ground crew.

"Why didnt you put fuel in my dang plane?" Well maybe he didnt exactly say "dang".

Good Catch there Mr. Pilot.

Rat Wars or Hey Ya'll Watch This

Life has kept me kinda busy lately so my posting has been a bit sparse. I have also been using up my creative juices on a couple designs at work so I kinda strained my brain.

That said, I am reposting one of my older post from the days before I had many followers. Which wasnt very long ago.

Hope you enjoy.

Years ago I went out to feed the dog in her pen. When I opened the gate I saw a tail sticking out from under her food bowl. I flipped it over and there was a king snake coiled up under it. It shot out and crawled under the dog house. Being a fan of snakes I flipped the house over to try and catch it. When I did I saw a huge hole under the dog house with a big rat head sticking out of it. It had gnawed a hole through a drain line and was using it as a subway between the field, where the washing machine drain dumped, and the dog food bowl. I forgot all about the snake and ran into the house to get my pistol. Things went downhill from there. The rat ran down the drain line but I was there at the end when he got there and I popped a couple rounds at him. I assumed I missed because he ran back up the pipe. I saw him run by the hole under the dog house and he was heading to the washer inside. I hollered for the wife to fill the washer and then drain it. I’m sitting there waiting for a gush of water when she walks out. I ask what was going on and she informs me she just started a load. Good grief. I grabbed the flexible pipe and pulled about 4 feet out of the ground. I had her fetch the garden hose and I started filling the drain pipe up with water. After about 10 minutes water started flowing from the drain pipe and a minute after that the rat came out, Splat on the ground. The wife ran to the house, I backed out of the pen and it followed me and then took off across the yard. I took my best marksman ( I ain’t) stance and proceeded to empty the clip as it ran across the yard. It stopped in the ditch and I ran down to see if it was dead. I nudged it with my foot and it let out a scream and lunged and grabbed the inseam of my jeans about the knee. Thank goodness my clip was empty or I would have prolly shot myself in the leg. I am standing/hopping on one leg, shaking the other in the finest Hokey Pokey dance you ever saw trying to shake the rat off. That sucker was not about to let go. I finally hit it with my gun and knocked it off. It lay in the ditch and I was not about to poke it with my foot again so I ran back to the garage to get my shovel. When I got back it appeared to be dead. I whacked it for good measure to make sure. I started up to the house with it when I saw the wife in the window about to fall over laughing. I tried to tell her about it but the adrenaline was still flowing pretty good and I could barely speak but she saw it all and was already on the phone to her sis. I had won the war but lost my dignity.

Overheard At The Resturant

Man and his son sitting in a booth at a local greasy spoon.

Man watches a lady walking by.

Man says, "Son, now theres a woman that can pull a plow".

I'm pretty sure she would be flattered, don't you?

Simply Updates

My last post was my 100th post. Amazing to me that I reached that milepost. It was going to be Grand. But instead The Oldest had the accident and everything else took a back seat. Who am I fooling. It was going to be like all the others.

I want to thank all you guys for your kind and supportive words. Is nice to have those when things get a bit stressed.

I also want to give a bit of an update.

The wreck was on a Tuesday as she was heading to work. She is a surgical technician in the womens unit mostly assisting in C-Sections. She missed that nites shift and took off Wednesday and Thursday as well due to soreness. She spent the weekend with us before returning to her apartment Sunday nite. She went to work Monday only to struggle with her left hand trying to retract and other things. After the same issues Tuesday and having the Dr. get ticked at her she went to the Orthopedist.

Turns out she had torn the ligament that closes the thumb. She is now in a cast for 4 weeks and is out of work. After the 4 weeks they will determine if she needs surgery. Hopefully not because she is about to burn through her PTO and I think she is tired of other folks having to cut her food up.

Her spirit has picked up a bit as she bought a new car last Thursday. She found a red 2009 Corolla with 15000 miles on it. It had an IPod jack and a sliding sunroof. Seems that was the important stuff. Oh it had 4 wheels too! I am happy because it doesnt have quite the peppy engine the other had. The girl has a lead foot and knows how to use it.



It was hard to get her to look at cars. She liked her old car and it was almost paid off. She also went to a couple dealerships where she felt attacked. She called me in tears so I paid them a visit. Needless to say we didnt buy the car there.

Again, Thank you guys for the support and thanks for stopping in.

OH! BTW today is my Birthday. And NO! We cant use the 100 candle cake for that too. LOL

Bye Bye Baby

You dread the call. I've gotten it a couple times before but you are never really ready. "Daddy, I've been in a wreck, can you come quick?"

I got that call yesterday as I was returning from lunch. Thankfully the wife had already called and I was well on my way to the accident site speeding along, only hitting the high spots in the road. She assured me she was OK, I told her I would be there as soon as I could. She was sitting in the back of the ambulance with the Paramedic with ice on her wrist when I arrived. Tears let loose as soon as she saw me. "Daddy my car is torn up".

We took her to the hospital. She had X-rays and an exam. She has airbag burns on her arms, seat belt burns on her neck and sore hands and knees. She is fine but will be sore for a couple days. We do not know about the guy that pulled in front of her. She T-boned him and sent him down a small embankment into the woods. They carried him downtown in and ambulance but I dont think they were running the sirens. Hopefully he will be OK.

This is my Baby's Baby. It gave up its all and airbag to protect my oldest. Thank you Mazda/Volvo.




Thank you folks that stopped. Two nurses and Lucy Ricardo stopped to help along with witnesses that said he just pulled in front of her. It was a 55 zone but she was slowing due to an approaching light. The impact was about 50 mph. Lucy showed up first asking if she was OK. My daughter stated she thought she was ok but was having trouble breathing due to the (Immediately Lucy starts screaming "She Cant Breathe, Come help she says she cant Breathe!!") air bag smoke. My daughter said that made her laugh. The nurses then showed up and things calmed down a bit.

Thank you Officers, Firemen and Paramedics for your swift arrival and caring service. They had to pry her door open and deal with heavy traffic in 95 degree heat.

Thank you Police department for only charging me $2 for the accident report. Grrr.

Thank you Mr. Paper truck man for going slow enough I could pass you. Please dont call the cops.