Blogging

I have decided to post yet another blog about blogs.

It seems that there are thousands of blogs laying around cyberspace and most are unique, but basically it is one person's means to express themselves, or at least communicate something that others will find as having value.

Most of what I blog is for my family, therefore limiting the meaning or value of the blog to those not related. Unless they find my family interesting for themselves. I find some personal blogs interesting, but I'm not going to invite it over for dinner and a movie. I have no time for Blogs that are out to sell something. Not the ones with an ad, but when the entire blog is about what they are selling.

I have a cluster map which shows that there are many people looking at my blog. I did post a poll to find out which of my favorite television shows were liked by those that visited my blog and for 6 days only one person responded and stated they did not like them. One person..that's like 100% of the number of people that participated in the poll did not like my favorite shows. What up with that? There have been 200 people visit my blog, I know at least 19 of those folks. So who are the other 181? And which one answered my poll?

I think my stuff is interesting. Jorge Garcia, the guy that plays Hugo Reyes on LOST, one of my favorite television shows that was listed in the poll (see above), he has a blog. He post about stuff, just normal everyday stuff, like growing plants, his dog, or the time he was in Monte Carlo. Okay touring Monte Carlo is not normal everyday stuff, well not for me anyway. However, he gets lots more comments than I do. I post about normal stuff, well not Monte Carlo. My time with my family at the beach was great and normal. I guess I would have to be an actor starring in a hit show, to get more comments. Still a comment would be nice, maybe I will blog about something controversial

It seems that I have gotten to my preset limit on the length of a blog. I think the longer blogs are not read as much as shorter ones. Maybe I will post a poll on the length preferences that folks like to read, and if they like or don't like to make comments.

A Day at the Beach Part Three

A day at the beach part three.

It has been about a month since the beach trip, however, there are still a few more things left to share about my time with my family.

This "Day at the Beach" blog is about my mom. She is a special lady. She is patience, caring and very helping. She is a great Mom!

She loves to spend time with her Greatgrand children.

Savannah and...

Mason, to name a few.

She likes cooking for the family.......

She enjoys visting with friends...

And to go on walks with her husband.

She is a great Grandmother, Mother, Friend, Wife, Cook and Housekeeper

I am proud of my Mom.

I am not ashamed to be out in public with her at my Dad's 80th birthday dinner.

But when the cards hit the table and the shuffler come out..

She is a sight to behold.

She whooped up on her sons, with the help of my wife Susan. When it comes to Canasta, my mom become a machine..but not an adding machine...as my dad states.

She don't cheat just makes math errors...

Seriously, I love playing cards with my mom..who wouldn't..well someone that don't like to lose..that's who.

A Week at the Beach Part Two

The following sequence of events happened during a week at the beach. This is what occurs when a Great Grandfather decided to play with a Great Grandson. They decided to wrestle and the gloves..or rather the socks came off..and the winner of the match goes to....

I guess I would fall down if I smelled those toes!

In pure Tyler fashion he bounces back..

Tyler wins with a Knockout!!!! (We all know that Dad also won..see the smile on his face.)

A Week at the Beach Part One

A week at the beach, part one.

Yeap, that's about it, when looking out over the great expanse, the final frontier, the big blue sea, well you get the point. It just keeps on keeping on, wave after wave. All I did was step in.
Do you think the hat is a bit much? It is either that or sunburn on the ole noggin. It was very windy the day we walked on the beach and had much to be concerned with like loosing my hat, and what hair I have left..However, Katelyn, figure out an intresting was to keep from being blown away..
Lucky for her, she had friends and family about, to make sure any wayward dogs, did not find their way to her spot on the beach.

There was one person in our group that was not effected by the blustering wind, because he moved a bit faster than the malstrom..

Tornado Tyler, Joe and Amy's son and Savannah's younger brother. Here is a better picture to see what happens when Tyler is confinded indoors.
What Tyler lacked in staying in one place, he made up in just being so darn cute.

Laying Flagstone or How to Drop Flat Rocks

Previously on.....Extremely Slow Yard Makeover.
Phase One: Digging the dirt, aka clay aka red mushing stuff when it is wet or red cumbly stuff when it is dry.
Phase Two: Covering the area with a base of gravel, and leveling it as much as possible which is more not as possible as it is possible since the area has a slight slope. You think that is confusing, try leveling on a slope.
Phase Three: Spreading a layer of sand, or creating a tempting bathroom for the local feline residents


Now we are into Phase Four: The laying of the flagstone.


There are many way to express oneself, the written word or painting on a canvas. I've always looked for way to express myself through art and for me writing is bout right, however there are other means that I have explored. I have found out that placing flagstone as a means of artistic expression is not the way to go. It is not as complex as other venues, just carry and drop.


This is the best help anywhere, My Dad, who I think is part mule due to how hard he works, not to mention his near-mule like stubbornness.
Picture by Mom

I am glad my Mom was there, so she could hang out with us while we worked, she read and took a few pictures.
Picture by Susan


This is Buddy, he just watched.

He did not take any pictures, but was a bit upset due to what we did to his outdoor "sandbox"


Here are the results of some hard work and patience. The hard work was done by Dad and myself, and the patience part was Susan, who was the "artist" of this project.


She is the one that is solving the "jigsaw" puzzle, cause only she has the picture.

So basically here is how it was done.

Chose a flagstone:
Which consisted of picking up the closest one, look at it, then look where it can fit, which is almost anywhere, however, there are some decisons to be made, see Susan above.

Then carry the flagstone to that location and drop. This by far is the easiest aspect of the project, but one must be alert as to where one's toes are during the dropping. Then all you have to do is...............

Dust off and repeat....

Over and over and over again......

This is mid stage of Phase Four. There will be more flagstone to lay, and then shift them around until they "fit". Then onto Phase Five, getting this thing finished.

Parking Area Update.

The easy part was digging the hole, now I have to go back and fill the thing up, somehow the logic of that escapes me, but I guess the ends justifies the means..or at least the process.

This is not the final stage of Phase Three. It is the middle of the process, however I had some help. Which was very helpful and without a doubt the best help out there.

Wait a minute, that is not the helper I am talking about, that's me.

Here's the guy that really made a difference in the project.

My Dad...best help...anywhere!

The rest of this phase will be leveling and tamping down the sand as much as possible, then start laying the flagstone.

Extremely Slow Yard Makeover

Welcome to Extremely Slow Yard Makeover. Today the project is filling in the hole we dug Friday. What makes this show different than the one we did three years ago. Where we had some trees removed, was that the family went to Disney World for the week. This year the family is doing most of the work.



As you can see the gravel has been spread, however it seems that we may need more. The task was not as difficult as expected, the gravel was a mix of rocks, and dirt, making it easier to shovel. It is going as planned.

The next phase is to tamp this down, which will consist of the use of a tool we purchased a long time ago for this project, it has been used only once before on a similar yet smaller project we did a few years back. Had this tool been on trial for not having been used in the past six months, it would have been convicted and sentenced to a yard sale.

On a side note, this is a good analogy of my life, I spent lots of time planning, than actually doing anything. So when it is time to do anything, I am at least ready, as far as applying the "six-month" rule, with me. I would be sitting at a yard sale with a price tag hanging around my neck.

Well I am done for today, blogging that is. I am planning on tamping the dirt during the week and if needed, will call in some more gravel.

On the next episode of Extremly Slow Yard Makeover or in Phase Three, we will be laying the flagstone and we may have some suprise guest to help.