Tsunami Subaru

The subie turned 1 year old in march, so i thought i'd splurge the 20 bucks and get it a birthday present.  Since i've been the drafter since like the invention of the internet, and now the subie would be towed behind the motorhome, this was twice as appropriate.

SURPRISE!

yeppers, I'm still kicking!

we slogged through the winter, we're dancing through the spring, and here we are at almost summer.
and with that, we're all caught up, so I'll start with May.

We went off to the Richmond race the first weekend.  We were surprised that they ran the race, as it had rained pretty much the entire day.  But, as soon as the cars started, the vortex kicked in and the rain held off.  Until the race ended. 

The second weekend was when the fun began.  We took the motor home down the road to the hagerstown speedway where they have the Fireman's Bonanza Extravaganza! every year.  We have a bunch of crazies that stay with us and i don't have to worry about anyone driving home.  butch actually took it down on Thursday.  while i worked all day Friday, the boys had spent the day recovering from Thursday night.  Way too much fun, and alcohol involved. AND once again, with all those prizes that they give away (at least 1,000 every 5 minutes), once again, NO ONE won anything.  had fun anyway!

we came home Sunday afternoon and made a quick turn around and unpacked and repacked the "beach house" and towing my little tsunami Subaru, we headed off to Hatteras island.  we spent 10 days down there in Frisco.  only came home the Thursday before memorial day, so we'd miss the crazies.

oh, I've got some pictures to post, and will fill you in on the monsoons of Hatteras next time.  but i will leave you with this.....

when we finally got home after 16 days, the first thing we did was to start unloading the refrigerator.  i loaded up a box, and handed it to butch and he left to take it into the house and never came back for the second box.  so i grabbed it and came in with it.  when i walked through the door, i didn't see butch.  then i saw his feet down on the floor sticking out behind the island.  i dropped the box on the table and ran around the island to see him on his hands and knees yelling at me to stay back, don't walk through it!  um, okay....walk through what?  well, it seems i gave him the box with eggs in it. 
oh....yes.... he...did. 
but as he was quick to point out, it wasn't a doz and a half like last time, it was only 3 or 4...or 6 (he sounded like he was at an auction)
(i knew you'd like that, V)

End of year-2011.......thank goodness

the days are short enough now, the sun slips below the front porch roof, and shines down on me through the office window.  it's just for a moment and then it's gone back behind the clouds.   just like this past year. 
don't ask what that means, how the hell would i know.  it will just be good to see tomorrow night over and done. 

bartender.....fresh starts all around.

i know it's been awhile but i just haven't had much to say lately. 

i promise i'll do better next year.  









k3, doc, butch and i went down to big meadows campground on skyline drive in october at the height of leaf season.  it was a beautiful weekend, except for the 40mph winds.  oh, and k3 and doc in a tent.  butch and i put it up for them since they were going to have such a late, and dark arrival at the campgrounds.  neither of us had set up a tent in a while and with the wind that strong, i basically acted as a paperweight while butch ran around hammering stakes in the ground as fast as he could before the collapsed tent, with me in it, blew down the appalachian trail heading towards georgia.  thankfully, there are no photos of that little adventure, and eventually, we got it up and they managed to stay warm enough they didn't freeze during the night.



november flew by even with thanksgiving and the forced holidays of "first two days of deer season".  butch used his retirement present from k3 over the thanksgiving weekend and we drove to manasass for him to do a drive and ride experience at the old dominion speedway.  he had a ball.  when it came to the "ride" part of the day, he had to climb in on the passenger side of the car.  he didn't however tell his legs that he was going in on the wrong side and they were still climbing in the drivers side.  which, i guess, is how he ended up going in butt first and having his legs still sticking out the window.  and yes, i got it on film.

DUDE!  WHAT THE HELL??

UPDATE: I've made a mistake i never even knew...k3 called to let me know that butch's driving experience was not just from her but also k2 and doc. butch read the card, and i never saw it, just what was on the gift certificate, which was purchased by k3. when i asked butch about it, he acted like i was crazy for not knowing...."of course it came from the 3 of them" ....like my esp was just faulty and how would i not know that? so many thanks to all 3....k2, k3 and doc!

and then it was december.....

and, well, you know...

and then, a friend lost her fight.  it's been a really bad year for tough 'ole broads. 

butch is a good man. he tries to understand.
i know it will get better, and maybe a bit easier, and life does go on. 

just like the sun slipping back behind the clouds.

September

September is always the best month to vacation.  The weather is (almost) always great, the kids are back in school (so it's alot quiteter), and because of that the crowds are not as bad.  It's a great time to just go.....except for that hurricane thing.
September is always brutally busy for us.  Nothing like 10 lbs of shit in a 5 lb bag...

Irene.  The bitch took out Rte 12 South, which meant we could not get to the island for our week on Hatteras.  Lucky, everyone there was safe and in the dark, but in good shape....if we could have reached them.  So we went to plan b.

Labor day means we haul our asses and the beach house to Atlanta.  As I've said before, there's nothing like driving a 36" motorhome through Hellanta in Labor day traffic.  Thank chemicals, I make it.
This year, we made it through the truck, and nationwide races, which were really good races.  Sunday rolls around and all the weather forcasts predicted massive amounts of rain starting around 5pm coming from a hurricaine that was coming up through the gulf. 
You know, the time the Lynard Skynard concert was about to start.  The weathermen were not wrong this time.  We never even walked up to the track.  When they eventually called the race, (to be run on tuesday) we had the motorhome packed up, jacks up, and rolling before most of the people even got close to their cars.  We made it up the road in good time considering we ran just on the rain line all the way.  We were somewhere in the hills of Virginia when my friend AS called.  He was keeping an eye on the house.  Apparently, we had had a squawl/mini tornado/wind sheer event that took out the big pine tree at the end of our drive.  As AS put it, "Do you know the 60 foot pine tree that used to be at the end of your driveway?  The one that was 45 feet away from butch's truck?"  um, yeah.  Not even our tree.  But somehow through the convoluted insurance system, we not only have to pay to get the truck fixed, but to add insult to injury, we have to pay for the freakin tree cleanup.  I can't even get into all the details of not being able to fix the truck, the damn old people who's tree it is was, and insurance companies, or my mind will melt out again.

The second weekend, we're at Richmond for the nascar race there.  It was a great weekend.  Big Dog and Sandy go to the fall race with us and we always have a ball.  Normally, we would head to Hatteras from Richmond, but we had to book a week later to get into Myrtle.
Silly me, after that I thought we had all the bad things behind us.

So we have plan b....
We went to Myrtle on monday of the 3rd week.  butch was not feeling spiffy on the way down.  he didn't get better and spent the better part of 2 days in bed....on vacation....and not in a good way!  i made it to the beach a couple of times in between the rain that was coming in from another hurricaine.  i started feeling bad on thursday, and i packed us up, and we came home 3 days early.  since then, he's had a round of antibiotics, i've had 2 rounds, and an ear infection (i still can't hear in one ear), we've cornered the market on puffs with aloe, and we're STILL not over it.
Which leads me to the race at dover on weekend #4.  with rain in the forcast (from the remains of a hurricaine-go figure) and both of us sick, butch yelled "uncle" and axed going there on saturday morning. 
much to my relief. 
So how was your September???

Seriously??

 Walmart parking lot (where else).  i made butch turn around and circle this so i could get a picture. 

um, really??

i'm so glad that they have this spelled out for me, cause i was thinking that maybe we could hire this for the trip to atlanta this weekend.  i'm sure that it is probably really tricked out on the inside, they just don't want to give it away from the outside.

AND, if you have that sporting of an rv, you just must have the trailer to go with it..."private use only-not for hire" taped to the it's side.  the truely funny part, they were obviously coming from the carlise corvette weekend, because on the back of the trailer it said "Corvette parts for sale".....um don't think they'd be too reliable!

I feel the earth..move..under my feet...

yeah, i know, entire east coast, not special here.  but still.......
my first nano-thought was that bucky, who is planted next to me in the cubicle farm, was messing with me.

working with the big cranes, and having r&d literally 20 feet away from the wall behind me, and also with a history of them running into the building......

my second nano-thought was SHIT!  they really hit hard this time!

the next actual thought was WTF?, the building is still shaking, why is this not stopping?

EARTHQUAKE!!!!!!

we're under 100 miles from where they said the epi-center of the quake was, and the rumble just kept going, and going.  as about a kabillion people on the east coast experienced, the building shook, i mean SHOOK.  ceiling tiles rattled, crap on the walls fell,  it was wild.  when the floor finally stopped moving, everyone was standing looking at each other and had the dazed looks of east coasters whom had never been through an earthquake.  one of our tech writers is from california, and i called down to him---was that what i think it was?  and he said it sure was, but it was just a baby one.  spoken like a true californian.

k3 works in downtown b'more in the deutch bank building on the 18th floor.  she had a great view of the block when it caught on fire a couple of months ago.  however, evacuating the building at 100mph when your on the 18th floor is apparently not too fun.  she thinks she'll start to feel her legs again in a week or so.  see, heels are bad for you.  AND her man, bmr, the one who cares so much about her........ran.  if she'd been in his way, he'd have probably taken her out.  i'm not saying i'd have done differently, but, well, you know, i'd have at least acted like i was concerned for her.

EDITED to add-per bmr, he only went to the stair case to stand in the stairs until some big chick pushed him and screamed run, bmr, run!   um, yeah, okay-----LMAO!!!

40 lbs

this is what happens when 40 lbs of bird seed falls over into your river rock pathway and after all summer of no rain, the rains finally come and everything starts to turn green again. 

the statements made by the responsible party were....i was filling YOUR bird feeder......i had no idea that it would grow........so just spray it with the round-up.
i'm glad we put down that black fabric that is supposed to keep weeds from growing up through the rocks.