Just a quick update on day to day life. The boys have their first day back at school on Aug. 1st. It's just for orientation so I don't expect it to last more than an hour or two. They officially start back the 11th of Aug. I've said it before, I'll say it again summer is way too short. They have almost achieved year round school by simply paring down summer vacation to barely two months and giving frequent week to two week breaks during the school year. Personally I miss the good ol' days when summer vacation was from June to September. Even then summer still felt too short.
I suppose I shouldn't beat up the school system too much as it looks like they will be my employer shortly. As soon as the necessary paperwork is finished up I should be officially an employee. The job sounds like fun as I'll be an EA. Took me a little bit to figure out what in the world an EA is or does, but I'm fairly certain it stands for Educational Assistant and means I'll be a jack of all trades as I will be the EA for 4th through 8th grade. I'm looking forward to it so we'll see how it goes.
Other than that not a lot. We finally had some rain which means we now have a heat index of around 100 degrees in the afternoon and also means my garden has gone nuts. I literally had a wheelbarrow full of corn and tomatoes yesterday. Lil' Vance is mostly to blame because he wanted to sell tomato plants at the spring yard sale. We planted almost 200 seeds and none of them were ready for the yard sale. So I gave away some, threw out some that insisted on taking root despite my attempts to discourage them and finally planted 30 plants in the garden. I don't quite know if I was thinking rationally when I did that. I've got tomatoes everywhere and am sure to run out of people to give them away too before the growing season is over. Can we say Christmas present anyone?
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Sailing Adventures
After much ado we finally purchased another sail boat. We wanted a slightly larger one (the Hobie is a 20 footer), but more importantly a family friendly one. We found a 22ft Southcoast that is capable of sailing up to 6 people and supposedly sleeps up to 5 (if 3 of them are midgets). Okay, I could actually see it sleeping 4 comfortably, I can't imagine where the 5th person is supposed to sleep, but the inside of the boat has been modified somewhat from its original conditions.
We had looked at many sailboats and almost bought one other, but we finally found the right one for us and are glad that we waited. Vance went with his buddy Bill to pick the boat up in Chattanooga a couple Saturdays ago. I had been waiting to put up pictures of the boat until we actually had it on the water with the sails raised. Alas, the powers conspired against us.
First Vance took the Wednesday off before the 4th so we could all sail. It stormed all day! We knew we didn't want to take it out on the 4th of July for our first time because of the crowds and the drunks so we waited until this last weekend.
Friday night after work Vance and I took off for Edgar Evans State Park, the boys were in IL at a family reunion. We'd checked the forecast and Saturday had a small chance of rain at only 20% with most of the storms not moving in until Sunday. We camped over night and first thing Saturday morning got up bright and early to put her in the water.
Bill, Tammy and Adam met us at the boat launch and we were ready to go. We stepped the mast, had the jib in place with not a cloud to be seen and we were ready. All we had to do was launch her and finish raising the sails and we are off. Then over the hill tops we hear it, thunder. Not a little thunder a LOT of thunder, big dark clouds coming over the tops of the hills. And for those of you that might be wondering why we didn't see the storm brewing keep in mind this is middle TN with lots of hills. To get to Edgar Evans State Park you climb steadily upwards and wind your way around into the park. The lake is large and sits entirely in the bottoms of these hills. So where we were attempting to launch from was somewhat like a large bowl with high hills all around. Needless to say with much disappointment we took down the aluminum mast (not the best task during a lighting storm) and tried to wait out the storm. It stormed ALL day. One storm would move out and another would come in. We called it quits after about an hour of this. It was more than a little bit of a bummer, and once again I am cursing the National Weather Society. The rain predicted for Sunday came a day early. So I decided to heck with it I'd post the pictures of the first day we had it. Hopefully more will be forthcoming that actually have us sailing it!
Shane and Vance checking it out! Vance had just pulled it in the driveway and we were all oohing and aahing over it.
We had looked at many sailboats and almost bought one other, but we finally found the right one for us and are glad that we waited. Vance went with his buddy Bill to pick the boat up in Chattanooga a couple Saturdays ago. I had been waiting to put up pictures of the boat until we actually had it on the water with the sails raised. Alas, the powers conspired against us.
First Vance took the Wednesday off before the 4th so we could all sail. It stormed all day! We knew we didn't want to take it out on the 4th of July for our first time because of the crowds and the drunks so we waited until this last weekend.
Friday night after work Vance and I took off for Edgar Evans State Park, the boys were in IL at a family reunion. We'd checked the forecast and Saturday had a small chance of rain at only 20% with most of the storms not moving in until Sunday. We camped over night and first thing Saturday morning got up bright and early to put her in the water.
Bill, Tammy and Adam met us at the boat launch and we were ready to go. We stepped the mast, had the jib in place with not a cloud to be seen and we were ready. All we had to do was launch her and finish raising the sails and we are off. Then over the hill tops we hear it, thunder. Not a little thunder a LOT of thunder, big dark clouds coming over the tops of the hills. And for those of you that might be wondering why we didn't see the storm brewing keep in mind this is middle TN with lots of hills. To get to Edgar Evans State Park you climb steadily upwards and wind your way around into the park. The lake is large and sits entirely in the bottoms of these hills. So where we were attempting to launch from was somewhat like a large bowl with high hills all around. Needless to say with much disappointment we took down the aluminum mast (not the best task during a lighting storm) and tried to wait out the storm. It stormed ALL day. One storm would move out and another would come in. We called it quits after about an hour of this. It was more than a little bit of a bummer, and once again I am cursing the National Weather Society. The rain predicted for Sunday came a day early. So I decided to heck with it I'd post the pictures of the first day we had it. Hopefully more will be forthcoming that actually have us sailing it!
Shane and Vance checking it out! Vance had just pulled it in the driveway and we were all oohing and aahing over it.
Later I went to work cleaning it. The former owner had shut up the cabin with some water still in the hulls. Can we say mildew?? The good part was Mean Green knocked it down pretty quick and it was kind of fun to see it shine again.
Lil' Vance wanting his picture taken with the boat.Oh, and notice we don't have a name for it yet, very bad luck in sailing terms, might actually explain recent events. So if anyone has any suggestions I'd be interested in hearing them.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)