Not The Best Way to Start Off

Yesterday I was on the way to my sons wedding.

As I headed the family van down the road, from the hood came an explosion of blue feathers.

Hopefully not an omen.

Who Knew? Writing Could Be Hazardous

Would it have been Headline News if he had been caught cheating with his autobiographer?

Overheard At The Zoo

Sunday was the little one's tenth birthday. In leiu of a party, the family and her best friend headed out to the NC Zoo. Left to right, College girl, Best friend, Little One and Oldest.

One of the last exhibits we saw was the lions.

 

Folks were commenting on how momma cat wandered off.

Being ten she has a comment for everything. Very similar to when she was 9 or 8 or 7 even.

She said in a daddy lion voice, "Hurry back down here, I can't hold my leg up like this forever".

Out loud. In a crowd.

She got a few laughs.

They may never let her give Zoo tours.

What Price RNC/DNC?

I woke this morning to the sound of fighter jets over my house.  The invasion has begun.

Charlotte, NC is hosting the DNC this year. I was disappointed to find out we were chosen but we were and now we deal with the influx.

The City leaders have been spouting how downtown will be business as usual.  Ask the many folks who can’t park there now because they have closed most of the parking decks. They have also closed most of the streets downtown and moved the bus station away from uptown.

My daughter went downtown yesterday to the gym and felt intimidated when she was being followed by a SWAT Team. There is a greater police presence in the surrounding area where I live. They passed laws giving the police more power to search folks without cause. They tried to make it a permanent law but in the end it only runs thru the Convention. They also brought in police from all around and gave them jurisdiction.

I don’t stand with the Occupy Wall Street folks or many of the other groups picketing downtown during this Convention but I do respect their right to free speech. Well the DNC didn’t see fit to see it like that. They had groups apply to protest and march and then gave them a limited areas to move in. This is the USA folks we have rights but our City was quick to set many of them aside just to host this party.

Today’s paper suggested that the forecasted economic windfall is going to fall short. Really? Surprised?

Do we need a week to nominate a person that is basically running unopposed in his party? Do we need to spend millions on a big party so lots of folks can get drunk? Do we really need to shut down a city? Are there not bigger issues to address than completely remodeling the football stadium?

Is it really worth the freedoms they took from folks to have a party?

And to top it off, the wife went to the store to get balloons for my oldest’s birthday tonite only to find out there is no helium available in the Charlotte area. Did they have to use it all?

I don’t rant much but dang it, don’t wake me up with fighter jets on Saturday morning.

Overheard In The Preschool

The wife relayed a story from the preschool she works at. She doesnt know that it is going on the Blog so no telling, K?

She overheard one of the assistants at the preschool was telling another teacher that her twins were going away to college this fall. She said she sat them down to have "The Talk".

She said I know you are going to be away from home, and you'll prolly think about experimenting with ........meat.

Meat? The wife said she got so tickled that was all she heard.

Seems this lady is a pretty strict vegetarian.

I wish that was all I was worrying about when the kids are away.

Simply Chill'n

Well Chill'n aint exactly the right word.  We arrived at Surfside Beach about 3:00 Sunday afternoon. The drive down was amazingly smooth considering it was the weekend after the 4th.

When we got here the thermometer on the van said it was 91. Wow that sounds so nice but when we got out of the van we started panting for some AC. Spoiled we are I spose. After unloading the van and toweling off the sweat I whooped out the handy dandy tablet and pulled up the weather. There it was right there 91 degrees just like the van said then it said "feels like 108". Yes it did. Every bit of it.

Regardless, we changed from driving shoes to strolling flip flops and took a small hike. The breeze on the beach really helps. The water is pretty warm. A good bit cooler than the air but not so much it takes your breath for that first moment.

Going to be hot again today. Only spose to feel like 105. Any small change is appreciated. They say it will almost 10 degrees cooler the rest of the week.

We went out to eat last nite and picked up some groceries. The girls are still snoozing at 8:15 this morn. I am ready for some breakfast.

Hope you all had a nice 4th. I am looking forward to a restful week here.

SS

Fathers Day Was A Blast

On Saturday before Fathers Day, my wife’s sister’s husband’s sister’s husband invited us and other branch kin to a barbecue and skeet shoot.

Yep, we did it again.

If aliens attack in little red flying saucers we are prepared.

Last time we just hand threw the clays. This time we had a bench mounted thrower. The lady shooting is my old Sunday School teacher from when I was a tot. I didn't remember her from there but I used to work with her at my last job. Turns out she is my wife’s sister’s husband’s sister’s husband's sister. Got That?

The little one tried shooting. She shot the .410 single shot several times. She finally winged one clay. It doesn't kick much and she never complained.  She loved shooting the pistol as well.

This is my sons head. If you look close you can see the clay exploding. He shoots amazingly well. He didn't learn it from me. I did end up winning the group shoot off. If you remember he won the last time.

Here are some of the young ladies shooting. They shoot pretty good as well.

After a while we broke out the pistols. They had set up a pistol target and this time I remembered my Colt. It shoots as good as it ever has. This is not me and my Colt.

We could not have asked for better weather or better food. We had wild boar and deer.

And hot dogs. They cooked the corn on the grill still in the husk. It was delicious.

Here is the back of the house. Its about 200 feet from the field.

At the end of the day everyone had a good time and no one left hungry.

It was a great Fathers Day. Hope yours was.