Tag Archives: swimming

Family News, News

Weekend wrap-up

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Getting ready to go to bed after a busy three-day weekend.  We swam every day, which was great.  Today Kevin and I took Socks for a walk just before the parade kicked off, and I decided we’d walk to Library Park, since the parade route goes around the park.  I figured it would give us the most exposure to the sirens so Socks could sing like he always does when he hears sirens.  As it turned out, we ran into Brittany and her family, and tried sitting next to them in a good spot to watch the parade, but Socks wasn’t having any of it.  He was way over-heated as it was, and just couldn’t sit still, panting and pacing constantly.  I was a little concerned he might collapse again, like he did the other day, and the spot we picked, in the bright sunlight on fully browned, hot grass, certainly didn’t help.  Brittany was nice enough to give us juice boxes and chips, but we just couldn’t stay there–Socks needed some kind of relief.  So we walked around the park, and Socks stopped several times in shady areas to rest.  That helped a lot, and he managed to make it the rest of the way without issue.

Once the rescue vehicles came around, marking the official start of the parade, we were very disappointed to find that they weren’t doing their constant blaring sirens we always get a thrill from.  That was the main reason we went down there–so watch Socks sing.  After they all went quietly by with only lights flashing, we left, very disappointed, and didn’t even want to stay and watch the parade.  We beat the crowds, walked home straight away, and then Kevin, Tyler, and I went swimming at Rec-Plex for the rest of the afternoon.  I figured, with everyone at the parade, it shouldn’t be very busy at Rec-Plex, and I was right–Hardly anyone was there, so we had a very nice swim.  I did another 10 reverse laps in the current channel, then some hot tub, and then we played in the swim lanes for awhile.

After swimming we picked up Matt and went to George’s for a nice chicken supper that Sandy prepared.  Overall, it was a very nice weekend, except that Sandy couldn’t enjoy it with us–she was at George’s all weekend while Rick is up North camping.

Oh–and I removed the “wood paneling” from my website temporarily, and replaced it with a swimming collage instead…I figured with the local ban on all open fires in all public places in Kenosha because of the heat wave, I’d do my part to protect my own website from disaster… HA! You see what I did right there?

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More swimming

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I wasn’t sure we’d get any swimming in at all today.  The storm heading toward us was huge, and the sky looked pretty threatening, but it must have all went around us, or dissipated, because we ended up not seeing a drop of rain, and all the lawns remain brown.  Kinda looks like Arizona around here now, except for a few neighbors that water their lawns daily.  We even have a burning ban in effect now, and can’t even use grills in the parks “until further notice”.  Even our own firepit is loaded with brush and kindling, but we can’t have a fire because it’s just too dangerous with everything so dry.

Tyler was also much later than we expected, so it was pretty late, but we managed to get a couple hours of swimming in at Woody’s after all.  This time it was Kevin, Tyler and I, and the squishy ball fights were in full force!  I think we all took several pretty solid smacks to the face before all was said and done.  Rosemary took a few photos, and they turned out pretty funny.  It took 3 takes to get a good group shot with everyone smiling, but she got it done!  Take a look.

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Entertainment, Movies

My Birthday

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Everyone wants to know if I had a nice birthday.  At this point, I don’t know why you’re supposed to celebrate getting another year older… maybe you’re supposed to be glad that you’ve managed to survive this long.  Believe me, I am.  I’m 49–or as Mark says, “older than dirt”.  Everyone says that about their grandparents.  I’m not quite there yet.  Not a grandparent anyway.  And I FEEL better than I have in years.  I’ve been losing weight with all of this walking and eating right, and it’s making a lot of things easier.  Heck, I can almost see my feet again!

We went to visit George in the hospital yesterday.  He’s doing better.  He’ll be going to a nursing home for rehab next, and we’re hoping for the best.  Next I worked on Ty’s laptop.  He somehow managed to spill Aunt Jemima over his keyboard, basically gluing down several of his keys.  This took some work, carefully popping off, and removing, each glued key, cleaning it, and cleaning everything underneath it, then reassembling it.  Not an easy task on a laptop.  On a regular PC keyboard I would have just replaced the keyboard with a new one, but on a laptop this can get pretty pricey.  It worked out ok though, and the keys are working fine again.

Next, Kevin Ty and I went swimming at Rec-Plex.  I did 10 reverse laps and the current channel–this is a hot-dog-shaped channel of current where you can basically just ride the current around the loop with no effort at all.  Walking in reverse, however, is just the opposite.  It requires MUCH effort, and after a few laps you can really feel it.  My goal is always 10 reverse laps.  After 7 laps I got a cramp in my left calf, but I managed to still complete the full 10 laps.  Kevin, as usual, got “carded” again a couple times when we got in the hot tub.  The age requirement is “12-16 year olds allowed if accompanied by an adult,  under 12 not allowed.”  Apparently Kevin always looks like he’s under 12, because they always catch him and look to me.  He’s 14 now, so this has been going on for almost 3 years.  He just hasn’t “sprouted” yet.  Ty, on the other hand, with his “hint of a moustache” is never an issue.  But since Kevin and I are members, I am relieved to know that if he ever REALLY gets carded–where the want proof–all they have to do is check their own records.  They have his photo on file, along with his date of birth, which proves his age, and they’ve had it since we started going there.  I think we even went there right after his 12th birthday, just to celebrate him now being “hot tub-eligible”… yes, I believe we got carded that day, too.

When we got home from swimming, Sandy had an awesome supper of cheese ravioli & meatballs with marijuana sauce (yeah, it’s marinara sauce, but I pronounce it differently), then it was on to a video chat with Jay and his family.

I had planned to have a fire as well, but we quickly ran out of time and had to get to our double-feature of MIB and MIB II to get ready for MIB III, which we’re going to see today.  Ty passed out halfway through MIB II, and Kevin opted out of the whole thing, since he has watched them both so many times in the past.  I guess we’re about as ready as we’ll ever be for today’s matinee.

Photography

Happy Labor Day…without the Labor!

I just realized, looking back on our summer this morning, that I haven’t posted any swimming photos this summer, except the tiny one of Ty diving in on opening day. So I went back and dug up the only few I took this summer–from July 4th.  There’s seven of them, so I uploaded them to the “Swimming at Rosemary’s” set.  They’re the first seven photos there.  Now it’s off to George’s for our Labor Day cookout! L8r!

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Father’s Day 2006

This Father’s Day was a little messed up for me.  I worked Saturday night, and got probably less than an hour or two of sleep before our cookout.  So I was a little drained, to say the least.  It was a great get-together though, despite the bad weather.  We spent the day at Rosemary’s, swam, cooked out, and played some Left, Right, Center for nickels.  It rained a lot of the time, so we moved the picnic table into the garage and ate there.  Later on the weather cleared up and we were able to finish the party outside where everyone wanted to be.

I missed a good chunk of the party myself though. Bear and I swam for a while before we ate, and that, combined with my lack of sleep, really knocked me out.  I went in the house and rested on Rosemary’s couch for awhile and I passed out.  When I woke up, Sandy had already taken my dad back to the nursing home and they were having some great desserts–including a great ice cream cake from Dairy Queen.  Sandy said my dad had a great time though, so that’s good.

I expected Kevin to join us in the pool, but he chickened out this time.  I think he remembered how cold the water was the last time we went swimming at Rosemary’s, and it wasn’t much warmer today.  So he was happy just to stay out, retrieve our balls when we threw them too far, and yell at us when we got him wet.

Everyone had a great time, the food was great, and we all went home stuffed, so it was a huge success.  Click here for a few photo highlights.

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Old Car Lovers Show

Kevin and I walked over to the car show at Baker Park yesterday morning. Take a look at the photo highlights. Kevin seemed pretty much disinterested, however. He seemed to be just tagging along, not thrilled at all by all the old cars, except a slight perk-up when he spotted a bright yellow one (his favorite color) and a flashy purple one with flames (mom’s favorite color). I was thinking maybe the car show would touch a nerve with him and spark some interest. He has expressed an interest in cars in the past, hence his collection of hundreds of Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars, but that seems to be fading these days.

I’m always searching for that one thing that’s going to thrill him to no end, to pique his interest enough to spark some sort of direction for him. For me it was computers and electronics. Once I found that, which happened at around 9 or 10 years old I believe, I was hooked for life. I’m hoping to help Kevin find that one thing too. I’ll wait as long as it takes. And until then we’ll try to expose him to as many different things as we can, giving him the opportunity to find his niche for himself. One thing is true though–he loves going “places.” No matter where, he just always wants to go to more places. Take him to school, then shopping, then swimming, which fills out the whole day, and he still says “I wanna go to more places!” even though he’s half asleep from exhaustion. He seems to just want to experience more and more of what the world has to offer. Perhaps he’ll be a traveler of some sort when he grows up, who knows.

But the car show was nice. As you can see by the photos, there were some awesome vehicles there, including the Prowler and several “Deathmobiles”, complete with coffins and–in some cases–skeletons. Kevin was afraid to approach the hearses with the skeletons and body parts all around them. I told him, “Come on, it’s not real, it’s make-believe” but he wouldn’t get close, so we moved on.

We had lunch there (hot dogs, soda, and ice cream), Kevin played on the slides and swings a little, and then we walked home. Later in the afternoon, Kevin, Sandy and I went to my dad’s to visit for Father’s Day. Sandy cooked burgers, brats, and hot dogs on the grill and we had a good meal. Overall it was a pretty nice Father’s Day all the way around.

Oh, and make sure you don’t miss Socks’ audition photo for the part of “Odie” in the new Garfield movie….

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Stray dogs

We went to Rec-Plex this evening to swim. Had a great time too, but before we left there were a couple of stray dogs wandering around the neighborhood. A neighbor called us and asked if they were ours, since one of them appeared to be a chihuahua and both of them were relatively small. Peanut and Socks were in the house though, so it wasn’t them.

As we left to go swimming we saw them outside. They appeared to be friendly, and always stuck together like they were either from the same owner or just really good friends. I sat down in the grass to see if they’d come to me, but they stood away and barked at me cautiously. I was almost able to pet the chihuahua a little, but they she jumped away. We got in the car and left carefully, taking care not to startle them or cause them to run into the street under our car.

After a great time swimming we returned home and guess who was locked in our backyard, behind the fence!?! Yup, our two dog friends. They greeted us home, just as our own dogs would have if they’d been outside. We’re not sure how they got in the backyard though, since it’s entirely fenced in. Someone had to have put them over the fence or opened the gate and let them in. We assume a neighbor may have let them in and figured they were ours, since they were hanging around our house, probably after hearing our dogs barking from inside.

We knew we couldn’t just let them go free. We didn’t want to think about them possibly wandering a block east to Sheridan Road…they’d certain get hit by a car. And we certainly couldn’t keep them. Four dogs is a bit much. We have our hands plenty full with just two of them. I decided to call the Police for advice. They sent out an officer to verify that we had the dogs, and then called Animal Control.

The dogs were barking quite a bit whenever no one was with them, so I sat on the deck in the backyard with them while I waited for Animal Control. Both dogs were female. One appeared to be a poodle/Shih-Tsu mix and the other one a brown and white chihuahua mix. They were very friendly and warmed up to me quickly. They sat next to me and nudged my hand whenever I stopped petting them. Sandy put out some water and they drank that, so I brought out a couple of dog bone treats for them. They took them, but didn’t eat them. They left them lay out in the backyard.

A while later the Animal Control car came and picked them up. I said goodbye, and he took them away sad . Now, as I sit here typing this I realize what would have REALLY topped off this entry–A photo of these dogs! I didn’t take one! I’ll never ever see them again, and I forgot to even snap a single picture while they were here. Sheesh, what kind of geek AM I??? rolls eyes This is the best I can do:

straydog (32k image)

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A day at Beth’s

Kevin and I spent the day at my sister Beth’s new house today. She has a nice big pool in her new backyard (along with a lot of bugs). Kevin and I had a great time, did a lot of swimming and had lunch. I should have photos posted soon. For now though, I have just this one. Are there any bug people out there? Can you identify this one??

It was about an inch and a half high and stuck inside her screen door window

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Waterboy

We went to Rec-Plex tonight, and Kevin took a major step forward in his swimming abilities. Since he began swimming he was always afraid to put his head under water. He’d get very upset if you dunked him, even if by accident and even if only for a short moment. Tonight he took the plunge (pardon the pun) and went under… He seemed to be amazed that he survived such a traumatic experience unscathed, so shortly after that he did it again…and again, and again, and again. We couldn’t stop him, and now he’s swimming like a fish all the time! Matthew even took it a step further and showed him how to go under without even holding his nose! He picked it up quickly and was even more excited to show off after that. I know it’s a simple accomplishment for most people, but he’s very proud of himself, and we’re proud of him too.

Our lil Waterboy! Call him “Nemo!”

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Stairmaster Swimming

Kev and I went swimming last night. Rec-Plex is amazingly uncrowded this time of year. Everyone must be doing outdoor activities instead. It was good to get back to it though. We love swimming, so I always try to go at least a few times a week but with the leg problems I’ve been having, the swims have been few and far between. The leg is looking almost completely normal now, and feels pretty good.

Kevin and I did 4 trips down the huge waterslide, which was no easy accomplishment (for me, anyway). It’s like a giant stairmaster, then a 15-second looping slide back to the bottom. It didn’t phase Kevin though, he was ready to go several more times if I had let him.

And check out my new toy… Briggs and Stratton engine… right outta Tool Time! Arrr arrrr arrrrr.

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Swimming and Nemo

Kev and I went swimming last night at Rec-Plex.  Three hikes to the top of the waterslide, 10 laps in the current channel (against the current) and a 15-minute hot tub and I was beat.  Kev just wanted to keep going and going though. Afterward I offered Kevin a reward for good behavior.  He wanted a Nemo fish.  He said he saw them at the store Clayton took him to the other day when my dad watched him.  Couldn’t remember the name of the store though.  After a few minutes of driving he said “The store with the big “K” like MY name!” I said “K-Mart?” and he said “Yeah, that’s it, K-Mart!” So I went that way.  As I drove into the K-Mart parking lot he said “No, it’s not THAT store, it’s BY that store.” and he looked all around until it hit him–two big stores down he spotted Wal-Mart and said “THERE! THAT’S the store!” I told him “That’s Wal-Mart.” so he’d remember it.  He knew for sure that was the store, so we went there.  We found the Nemo toys quickly.  He really wanted a talking one, but I didn’t have that much on me.  He settled for one almost the same size (close to a foot long) that didn’t talk, just a stuffed plush fish.  It’s the orange one from the movie–Nemo himself. Kevin calls him Diddley Squat though, from the TV commercial he’s seen about a thousand times.