Better than I deserve...

was how I would describe my Father's Day!

Sorry about the lack of updates...between the "whirl" of life and overtime at work, the hours seem to be disappearing quickly! This last week it was announced that they are cancelling the rest of the Saturdays for the year because starting in August our start time moves to 5 pm and we will be working 10 hour days, 5 days a week until further notice. (That's 3:30AM to us!)

So I'm glad to have my weekends back, but not quite sure how tired I'll be when I get there!

After I was here last I did get the lawn mowed and the trimming done (thank goodness as it's storming again today). Thursday I spent putting the sonar transducer back on the transom of the boat as I ripped it off Tuesday evening when we bumped over a floating log. Friday we found out that my younger son's 10th reunion was that evening and we were keeping Talia and Caleb overnight while Dillon went to my sister's house, so I did all of the shopping that afternoon before work. Though I had to work on Saturday, after we were all up and around we took the two of them to a sporting goods store they hadn't been to; both of them had great fun petting the deer and turkey decoys, and playing in the open bins of plastic worms...

After my shift that night we watched a bit of one of the DVD's that was part of my Father's Day then went to bed "early" (for me, around 2:30). Dottie has been fighting a wicked cold for over a week now (refusing to pay for a doctor's visit has probably cost us it's equivalent in over the counter medicine, and finally she's giving up and going to see someone after her shift this evening). It's already getting warm enough here that the heat bothers her, and I knew it would be 90 by noon yesterday, so instead of fishing I got up at 9 and we went to an early show of "Ocean's 13". Good movie; four thumbs up, lol!

Bass Pro is right across the freeway from the theatre, and I planned on spending $20 there the next time I was out that way; Dottie put some things in the basket as well, and by the time we were through watching them feed the fish and rang out it was over $70.

She has been trying to talk my into combining down my tackle boxes into a bag and tray system, so we went by Cabela's on the way home to look at one that was on sale. It would take up as much room as what I'm using now so we decided to think a bit longer about that. By then the muffin and coffee we had for breakfast was worn off, and since it was Father's Day I got to pick lunch, and I love McDonald's chocolate shakes and hadn't had one for a very long time...

We got home a bit after 3; Bill and Laura were supposed to come at 4 and John and Noel were supposed to come for dinner later in the evening. Laura is working this summer and taking 4 classes, so we haven't seen much of her or Bill of late. They kept saying pick something to watch, so I put in a movie I bought last week (one of those I remember from childhood and couldn't resist when it jumped in my cart at Costco; Betty Grable and Dan Dailey from 1950 in "My Blue Heaven"). We were 2/3 of the way through it when the phone rang and it was John saying the battery in his minivan had died and he needed a jump start. He said he was in front of a place in the shopping district in Johnson County that I know sells batteries (NTB), but it was 5:30 on a Sunday so I gave him the benefit of the doubt and thought perhaps they were closed. I got cables out of my truck, Bill and Laura insisted on going along "for the ride" (the wheels are turning, you know...)

When I pull in to where we were supposed to meet, I could see the doors were open to the NTB shop; John was standing not in their parking lot but Olive Garden's, so I went ahead and pulled Dottie's Malibu into their handicapped parking, making him walk back around to the front of the restaurant...where of course, he said they had all been plotting this all week.

Though I had pretty much surmised as much, it was still a nice treat! Very seldom as schedules get busier and busier can we all get away for a few hours for anything! With Laura taking classes and working odd shifts, it's gotten even harder, so I was very grateful for the time with them all!

The funniest part was after dinner when we went to leave and Talia asked "was I going to fix their van now"? Though she was riding in it when John called me, she was still convinced it was really broken!

May her honesty never come back to haunt her like mine has me sometimes through the years!

I hope you all forgive me for the lack of visits of late; the few times I got here this last week I booted my Opera browser (loads quicker, has most of my bookmarks and it's the one I use for paying most things because no one bothers writing viruses for it). Since the "new" Blogger came around, I can read all of your blogs in it, and update my own; some of them I can comment on, but other's I can't unless I boot IE. (Oddly, since the "new" Blogger came into being, when I open it in IE, though my blog is in English, the log-in headers are in Cyrillic...hmmmmmmm! I double checked my language preferences to make sure I hadn't moved...oh well!)

I hope all of you are doing well as we approach the midpoint of the year!

Thank you all for your visits and kind words. I think of you all so often as I work my way through another evening...

alan