Christmas Parade

Our town held its first ever Christmas parade last weekend.

Here's photos of me and the rest of the lead singers and dancers from the Christmas show as we are getting ready for the parade to begin.

(That's me second from left.)


(I'm all the way on the left in this photo.)

The entire time we were on the float we sang and danced one of our numbers from the Christmas show. The song had kind of a western flair about going on a sleigh ride. Ten people dancing on a hay wagon was challenging; not a lot of room to be swung by your partner. I'm not complaining though. The dancing kept our toes from completely freezing off our feet.

Tim pulled our float with his truck; Logan was his co-pilot. Luke marched in the parade with the high school marching band.

It was great fun and I feel lucky to have been part of it.

A man and his tractor

Strange things happen to a man when a tractor comes into his life. It begins innocently enough. A simple thought: Hey, let's cover up the place where the foundation shows by building a flower bed along the side of the house.

A call to our landscaping friend causes a load of rocks to be dropped off. Building commences. Our great nephew, Cory, is visiting and he thinks riding with Tim on the tractor hauling real live rocks is as good as life gets.


A wall takes shape.


Logan is a good worker and a good guy to little kids.

You have a tractor, therefore the work is not unbearable; so even while this wall is being built your eye begins to wander. You think, we could finally tear out those ugly bushes in front and do something about that perpetual bare spot by the red maple. Besides, there are always enough rocks left over from one wall to get you started on the next wall; before you use the last rock you place another call to your landscaper friend and say, hey, when you get over this way, and several days later there are more rocks and you finish one area but have enough rocks left over to make you think you can do another area and just before you use the last rock you make another call...

The next thing you know you've used your tractor to pull out those ugly bushes at the front of the house and you've found the coolest ever stepping stones for a front walkway...

And your tractor hauls in the sand which makes the stepping stones lay perfectly.

Miracle of miracles, you exhaust the manure pile filling up the new beds. Then piles of mulch appear in the driveway and a week's worth of evenings are spent in the hauling of mulch...

...and the spreading of mulch with Trixie for quiet and pleasant company.

Bushes and flowers get planted one bed at a time. Things grow and bloom; the flit and buzz and flutter of bees, hummingbirds and butterflies are hearty accolades for this thing you have wrought.

The cat lolls in splendor and thinks: All this for me / As well it should be.

You hose down your sweaty tractor and tuck it into the barn for a rest. Yourself gets propped up on the deck from whence you can survey your work, drink your ice water, and make plans for next summer.

I smile a wifely smile to myself and think, I should have bought you a tractor a long time ago.

Eventful week

School started Wednesday so herein are posted the obligatory First Day of School photos:

Luke, now a senior


The Snoginator begins eighth grade.


No parents needed; Luke's driving to school now.

Also last week, Luke and three friends sang the National Anthem at a Dayton Dragons game.


Grandma Rose and Poppy were in the ball park, of course.


The Dragon's mascot, Heater, joined the singers for a photo.


On Friday, Luke came home from school bearing a packet from the National Merit Scholar folks that notified him he was a National Merit Scholar semi-finalist. Very exciting. Then Friday evening was the first high school football game so Luke and the marching band had their first performance.

All in all, it was an eventful, fun week.

Dog Days

The dog days of August roll on.

And school starts waaayyyy too soon.

Time, why you punish me?

Burning question 2:

How old do I have to be before my mom quits calling to tell me a storm is headed my way? I'm forty-six years old, for crying out loud! And every time it storms here, my mom, who has seen the report on the weather channel, calls to warn me.

Someday rescuers will find my cold carcass, cell phone locked in my hand. They will pry the phone out of my stiff fingers only to hear my mother giving me the details on the direction and duration of the storm and advising me of the precautions I should take for safety.

Moms.

(Any family reading this better not breathe a word of this to my mommy. I might make fun of this in public, but secretly, her calling makes me feel beloved. As a matter of fact, I wish everyone, no matter how old, had someone who called when a storm was approaching.)

The Wilds

Today Logan and I visited Ohio's best kept secret, The Wilds. Oh my gosh, what a neat place. As soon as we got there, Logan claimed the camera so these are all his photos (except the one he is in). You'll see he had a thing for asses.

For instance, the onager, an ass from...somewhere in the Middle East. Iran? Pakistan? Anyway...


And the Przewalski's horse, an ancient horse whose likeness is often depicted in cave paintings. These had been extinct in the wild but due to conservation efforts and captive breeding programs a herd of 250 animals now grazes in their native Mongolia.


The giraffes were very cool. Two of them are basking in the shade of the trees behind Logan.


This guy was up by the road, clearing standing guard...


...over this.

Notice the baby giraffe and the baby white rhino. There were an amazing number of babies throughout the park. The guide said it was rare for the giraffe parents and the rhino parents to be so close to each other's babies but they were sharing the available shade. The sun was merciless.

When I first spotted the Grevy's zebras, I gasped out loud at how perfect they were. Those stripes, that color scheme, their expressions and outrageous stuffed-animal-looking ears. They were breathtaking.


This was the only place where we didn't see any babies. They think the stud zebra is shooting blanks so they're in the process of swapping him for another stud.

They are perfect.

The bison herd tried to keep cool in the 95 degree weather. They were panting from the heat.

Our vehicle was an open-air safari bus with a canopy overhead. It was breezy and amazingly dust free even on the gravel roadway. Ours was driven by a guide who clearly had been around the place awhile. She was a good talker who liked what she was talking about.

The pin-up girls.


If you find yourself near southeast Ohio (Zanesville area) don't miss The Wilds. Even when it's hot, it's very very cool.

Snoggy turns 14

Happy Birthday to my baby Logan.

He turned fourteen yesterday. For his birthday, he went to King's Island with his friend Ryan, came home to his favorite dinner - meatloaf, baked mac and cheese, and peas - went golfing with Tim, then had four friends over to play Dungeons and Dragons all night long.

His gifts reflected the fact that golf is his latest passion.

New golf shoes.


All decked out and practicing his swing.


He might stink up the course with his playing but he sure looks good.

In case you don't know, Snoggy stands for "very beloved son."