Schoolyard With Sophie

I was able to have 2 exclusive play periods with Sophie this Thanksgiving weekend. When Tim, Karen, Sophie and Lucy arrived here, Karen had to run an errand. I used the opportunity to run off and play with Sophie. She had a lot of energy to burn after sitting in the car. Just before they left at the end of the weekend I also ran off with Sophie to keep her occupied while Mom and Dad packed.

On our first outing we started in the backyard looking for kitties and then decided to go to the swings in the schoolyard. The swings are on the far side of the schoolyard, a pretty long walk for a toddler but Sophie played all the way. First it was the red sand she liked. Then she would take off and run and tell me to run, too. If I didn’t hold my arms just right and run just so she corrected me.

When we got to the swings, Sophie picked her swing and had to brush off every grain of sand that was on it before she would allow me to put her on it. She likes the swing. I got her going and she said she wanted to go higher. Every time she swung back to me for a push she would yell “Higher!” and I would push her a little higher—except for the times when I acted as if I was going to push her and just left my hand up in the air. She thought this was hilarious and she would laugh and giggle all the way through the swing until she came back for another push. Then it was back to yelling higher.

She stayed on the swing for a good long ride, directing me to also swing on the adult swing next to her. When I was swinging she, of course wasn’t being pushed. She looks at me and says “slowing down”, which was my cue to get off my swing and start pushing again.

After the swing we went to the slide area. It soon turned into a routine that we repeated many times before a tired out grandpa suggested we head back. The routine was this: I had my stairs (a metal net that I told her I could use but not her) and Sophie had hers. She would direct me up the stairs while she used “Sophie’s stairs”. I would tell her not to bump her head climbing the stars and she would say OK. We would meet up at the top of the spiral slide. Sophie would then decide whether I pushed her or she pushed me down the slide. If she pushed me I had to climb back up to push her and then slide down after her. I was climbing up twice as much as her.

We did some of the same stuff on the second venture to the swings but Sophie was not as enthusiastic for round 2. She perked up a little when I showed her a big branch on an oak tree that she could pull and make the whole branch bounce up and down. When she got her hands dirty with sand I found a water spigot to wash her hands. She liked that, too. Finally I found a nice straight stick for her to play with so she proceeded to “spell” everybody’s name in the sand. She’d poke the ground and say a letter and when she was done she’d say the name. Here’s how that went—“S-I-O-T-P-H: grampa!”

I told Sophie it was time to go home and she informed me that no, it was not home it was grama and grampa’s house we were going to. On the walk back we met Tim Karen and Lucy coming to find out what I was doing for so long over in the school yard.

When Sophie is away from her parents she is more cooperative and easy going. She played with me as if I were one of her playmates but, more importantly, she listened to me and did what I asked to be safe while playing. When we met up with K&T she went back into her normal mode. She turns a little more needy and less cooperative with a touch of Lucy jealousy in there.

I told Karen that the first play period I had with Sophie was precious to me. I wish I could have the whole session recorded somehow to pull out and cheer me up when I’m feeling down. I’m glad I had Sophie in such a wonderful mood. It was priceless!

The Wedding House

We had a Waffle House breakfast and then headed out to Grayton Beach to look at the beach house we are renting for C&C’s wedding.

We came away even more thrilled about the location.

The house sits on a private lake and the gulf .  Here's one gulf view from the house.

Here is the lovely couple on the gulf-side dock:

Here they are on the dock on the lake.

Here’s the view looking up to the house from the gulf side.

Here’s the view from the lake dock.

Tim and Sophie  in the loft.

It's a great location and even I'm getting excited about the wedding.

Thanksgiving Weekend

We are having a great weekend. I’ve chosen to spend time with family rather than to write a detailed blog. So here is a picture story of the weekend so far:

Clean Up

I caught a little of Karen’s clean –up and organize bug and found myself organizing my CDs and all of or photo paper. In the process I am collecting my mp3 files in one place. I’ve got files scattered on CDs going back to the last century.


In the process I found a postage stamp sized picture of my mom and dad from I would guess the early 40’s. It had gotten mixed with some photo paper. Also on one of the CDs was a story Karen had done about “The Beach Lady”.

I’m supposed to be getting the house ready for Thanksgiving.

Kids Dancing 1981

Here's a short clip of K & C .  I don't know what I did to lose the audio.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Tasty Birthday Lunch, Cold Morning Kayak

My taste finally retuned on the 17th. So yesterday after 2 weeks of no taste I finally had a tasty birthday lunch—at Harbordocks, of course. Yesterday Penny was stood up by her friend so she and I went out for lunch. We also did some shopping. Penny wasn’t feeling great and the half-day venture was good therapy for her.
Today started out at 38 degrees and calm winds so I went kayaking in the bayou. About ¼ of the way up the bayou the wind started picking up and I found my progress slowed by the cold headwind. The wind doubled the time it took me to reach the head of the bayou. I explored a little and then headed back. Fortunately the wind was a tailwind in this direction and I cold make my normal pace with minimal effort.



I got a good workout on the paddle out.

The rest of today was spent doing housework and transferring the videos of the kids from digital tape to DVD. This will be a long term job. I’m going to leave the setup so I can pop in a tape whenever I have the opportunity.

It is quite interesting seeing Karen and Christy at Sophie’s age again, seeing the similarities and differences. When I hear myself calling the 2-year old in the video “Christy”, which is correct, my mind gets confused. I get Sophie and Lucy and Karen and Christy all mixed together sometimes now when I talk to Sophie so when I hear the name Christy or Karen being used for a toddler my mind tries to make the correction.

Cool, Exciting, Kayak Adventure

We’ve had a long string of beautiful weather that for one reason or another we haven’t taken advantage of. I’ve been fighting a cold for 2 weeks now. So last night as we went to bed I told Penny I might go kayaking in the morning. She asked what time I wanted to get up. (It’s too cold for Penny to kayak right now but she wanted to make sure I went.) I would make the final determination in the morning as to whether I went or not. I’ve been sleeping hard lately and not getting up until 7 or later due to the cold.

I woke at 5:30 and lay there thinking if I fall back to sleep it means I shouldn’t go. At that moment Penny poked me saying it was time to get up. She thought it was 6:30 but read the clock wrong. I saw it as meaning I would go kayaking today.

It took me over an hour to get going. I had to put the racks on the car and untie and remove the security cable from the kayak. I had lashed it down to withstand Ida last week. In the process I made first use of the tie-down hardware I got at Harbor Freight and they worked as advertised.

There was no wind this morning leaving the Bayou looking like a big mirror. It was a cool 50 degrees. I showed myself that I was out of practice for kayaking by stepping into the water with my right foot as I got in the kayak. I usually get off dry. That was soon forgotten when I started paddling. The rising sun shined like a spotlight on the western side of the bayou. It made for a brilliant reflection on the relatively ripple free water.

On the way up the bayou I was passed by 3 pelicans (one at a time) flying using ground effect to skim only inches above the water. One of them startled a fish which splashed away in turn startling the bird out of its graceful flight.
At the head of the bayou fish were feeding everywhere. They either made a small splash as they snatched their prey or made a circular ripple as the turned and dove to pursue their breakfast.

                               ripples left by fish--also Fall on the bayou


I went up the small stream at the head of the bayou slowly and carefully making sure I didn’t startle any nasty critters. I didn’t see any but I did hear something that worried me a little. When I was about as deep in the woods as I could get in the stream I heard something big plunge into the water out of sight from me but just on the other side of a small hill. I thought, when I heard 2 heavy footfalls in the water, that it was a deer. But then there was no sound of anything running away. In fact, there was no sound at all. It sounded as if whatever it was took 2 heavy steps as it waded into the water and then went under. My thought was gator or very very big turtle. I’ll never know. This was the point where I decided to get out of there. Senses alert I floated downstream and back to the bayou.

When I broke out from the stream I could see a huge wake being made about a quarter mile from me. Then I saw the porpoise that was making it. It was leisurely feeding on all those fish that I had seen feeding earlier. The porpoise usually work their way up the bayou and then return back down so I headed down the bayou on a course that might intercept its path. Unfortunately it was too fast for me so I just continued heading back to the car.

To my surprise the porpoise came back and started surfacing about 100 ft to my side. I took some pictures and was happy. Then the porpoise went under and I didn’t see it until it surfaced about 300 ft down the bayou. So I went back to paddling thinking it would leave me in its dust.

After a couple of minutes the porpoise suddenly surfaced and exhaled just off to the left of me. It was close enough that it startled me. I once again stopped rowing and grabbed the camera and the porpoise disappeared again. So I went back to paddling.

The next encounter was amazing. I’m paddling and looking around for the thing when I catch motion in the water just to the right of the bow. The porpoise was swimming along with me right next to the boat. As it began to cross the bow I tried to get a picture. This is the result. The camera picks up all the reflection.  The eye filters it better and I had a wonderful view.

The porpoise then surfaced in front and to the left and I got this shot after he exhaled. You can see the spray from his blowhole if you look carefully.

I finally figured out at this point that the critter liked it when I paddled and left when I stopped. I decided to forget about pictures and just paddle and enjoy. The porpoise returned 2 more times and actually swam with me for about a hundred feet. It ended its inspections of me by once again passing under the bow—so close I thought it was going to bump me and surfacing off to the left close enough that I could have poked it with the paddle. It was a great experience.

Friday the 13th

This cold is hanging on. Still no taste or smell. Still tired. All I got done today was Target and grocery shopping and a little light housework.

I did nap for an hour with Brie on my lap.

Here’s to having a better day tomorrow.

Raccoon, Haircut, Dentist, Beachwalk

Yesterday I finally did the month-long pile of laundry we had. That was sufficient to take most of the day. Since I still have the cold and the lack of taste and smell I was tired in the evening without attempting much more.

I must have needed the sleep because I woke up at 6:30, thought I was getting out of bed and suddenly it was 7:20. The first thing I checked was the trap and it had a raccoon in it. That made the morning complicated because now I had to go release the animal and get to my haircut appointment at 9AM. I skipped showering.

Christy and I had seen the raccoon at the feeder on Monday night (I think). He wasn’t that afraid of us and he went right up to Meredith a little too aggressively. I’ve been setting the trap each night now. Last night after I set it I watched as the raccoon entered it completely twice without springing it. I checked the mechanism, added a bigger pile of food to it and went to bed. This morning he was trapped. He was lying on his back scratching at the door trying to open it. I know that a trapped raccoon will grab anything it can reach and pull it into the cage. This one grabbed the power cord going to my surveillance camera, pulled it in and chewed up the live power line. He was saved by the ground fault circuit which tripped the power. I didn’t think he could reach the cord from the cage. That shows how smart I am. I released him at the usual spot and instead of running away he walked, turned around and looked at me and then walked off.

Next was the hair cut. I brought the book of vacation pictures for Barbara to see. She loved the picture of the little alpacas touching noses. She was also thrilled to hear about C&C’s wedding plans. She said she’s available if you want to use her hairdressing services.

Penny and I usually go to the dentist together. This time I had to change our appointment because we were in VT and they gave us separate appointments—until I got a call from Margaret who noticed the appointments and asked if that’s what we wanted. We ended up with a joint appointment again. Tonight I’m trying to get a headache from the work on my teeth. The hygienist was very thorough today and my mouth is telling me about it.

We had lunch and since the day was essentially shot we did a little shopping at Tuesday Morning and Ross.

I decided to wrap up the day with a sunset beach walk at Navarre. We were told that there were a lot of shells there and I thought that it would be a good time to look. There were shells but not a lot of pretty ones. It’s not worth the ½ hour drive.

Kitty Update—Last night no kitties showed up but the raccoon did. Tonight, as if they know the menace is gone everyone but Marmalade showed up—early for dinner.

Still Tasteless

It’s Christy’s birthday! We had lunch at Harbordocks to celebrate. We are having ice cream cake in about 15 minutes to cap off the celebration.

C&C have been here since Sunday evening and are going home tomorrow. They came here on a mission—to make plans for their wedding. They decided to rent a house on the beach and spend a week there culminating with a wedding ceremony on April 18th (I think). On Monday we began the search for the house to rent by looking at the one they wanted the most first. It is perfect. It was available and now it is reserved for them. Here are a few pictures.

private lake

ocean front

wrap-around deck

inside

I got to see Christy’s eyes light up 3 times today. First was when she was talking with Karen on the phone when Karen called to wish her a happy birthday. Second was while she was selecting her flavor of ice cream cake. She took about 20 minutes to look at every cake in the freezer. She got to taste 3 different flavors of ice cream to help her decision making. She finally chose the mint ice cream chocolate cake cake. The 3rd time was when she watched Sophie sing happy birthday to her. Actually, I lie. I saw her light up more than 3 times. Several times a day she lights up when she’s talking with Christian.

We spent the rest of the past 2 days making plans for the wedding and shopping for Christy’s birthday.

I’m into my 8th day of no taste. I couldn’t really enjoy the food at Harbordocks today. Donna told me on facebook today that she’s in the same boat except she hasn’t had her taste for 3 weeks. Now I’m worried. I keep thinking that tomorrow I will wake up and taste.

I’m Tasteless

In many ways perhaps—but today it is the sense of taste I lack. This is the 4th day that I can’t taste and I’m finding the experience interesting.

I can taste only a slight amount of salty, sweet and some other things. I get the full tactile experience of the foods. Crusty bread with peanut butter is a weird experience with no taste. Oddly enough I can taste pineapple. There were several large pieces in my edible arrangement. I can also taste fruit to some degree.

Today I figured I might as well drink my coffee black and not waste sweetener and milk but I found I could taste the bitterness. So even though I can’t taste the cream and sugar, they are necessary to kill the bitter.

Along with no taste goes no smell. Today I caught a possum. They are smelly critters. I didn’t smell a thing. I don’t even know if my car still smells like possum. Yesterday I had some lunchmeat that we’ve had for a week. I sniffed it out of habit to see if it was bad. I couldn’t smell anything, it must be good. Today I was working on the lawnmower and got gas on my hands. I know that a gas smell stays with you but I had no idea whether I smelled like gas.

Lack of taste has not killed my appetite. I don’t know why not. I’m even hitting the Halloween candy. Go figure.

The cold is actually worse today than it was yesterday. It’s trying to make a comeback. I was hoping to taste today but now I don’t know what to expect tomorrow.

A Little Better

I actually was able to do things today. I still can’t taste and still have sinus congestion but I’m not as worn out as I have been.

So today I spent some time cleaning up the backyard and shed—and it didn’t wear me out.

Today is Karen’s Birthday. She had a gazillion birthday wishes on facebook. That girl has lots of friends.

I’m hoping for my taste to come back soon—I hear Harbordocks calling.

Still Draggin

Once again, due to my cold I didn’t do much today.

The morning was spent preparing for and going to the doctor for a regular checkup. Everything is looking good. Blood pressure OK, heart steady and strong, Cholesterol 159, liver function, blood sugar and all the other parameters were normal. Except for my thumbs my body is hanging in there. I do need to get more exercise and eat less before my body decides it’s time to go downhill faster.

I went with Penny this afternoon to get her a better quilting machine. She found a nice one that was a “low mileage” store demo unit. It comes with a full warranty. We pick it up tomorrow. Penny is excited about it. I’ve been encouraging her to not put off this purchase. We don’t know, with our health and the economy what the future holds. We are in a mild live-for-today mode. We hoping to enjoy the fruits of good decisions before the Govt decides to take them from us and give them to those who made poor decisions. We see it coming but can’t seem to do much about it.

I wrapped up the day with a sunset beach walk. I like sunsets. Tonight provided a nice one. At first I thought it would be spectacular but the cloud spacing didn’t allow for that. Nonetheless the setting sun provided a number of bright moments followed by a surprise grand finale. A heron decided to land in front of me to make some pictures more interesting. Here are some pictures.

I felt OK while I was on the beach but I was reminded I had a cold on the drive home. I’m getting better slowly. I still don’t have my taste back

Happy Birthday to Me

My cold is hanging in there. I’m able to taste some sweet and herb tastes so when my sister’s gift of an edible arrangement arrived today I could still enjoy it. I can actually taste fruit—not completely—but well enough to enjoy.

Penny and I put off our usual birthday lunch at Harbordocks until I can taste all foods again.

All I accomplished today was to do some housework that's piled up and pay some bills on-line.

Shortly after noon I had to dash outside and rescue Meredith from a big gray cat that had her cornered and was intent on doing great harm. I got them separated, Meredith ran through a gap in the fence and got stuck. The other cat ran off to the side but seeing Meredith stuck came back and jumped on her again. This time the bad cat ignored me as I approached—it was too intent on hurting Meredith. I was able to drop kick the bad cat as hard as I could. It was very satisfying. He flew up against the fence at about 3 feet high and ran away. I chased him—he was still looking for Meredith.

I haven’t seen Meredith since, so I don’t know how she is. I’m going to try to catch the other cat and either take him to the pound or take him far away where he won’t find his way back.

After the adrenalin wore off I found that it wasn’t a great idea to run around like that when I have a cold.

I got "Happy Birthday" calls from Karen and C&C who sang me a duet.

Blog Update - Meredith did show up late tonight and seemed OK.

Still Sick

I thought that after all the business had passed I’d jump right in and get all those other things done that are on my list.

Then I got this cold and I’ve done very little. At least I don’t have to burn sick leave.

On the plus side Brie slept with me for about an hour today and yesterday..

I’m hoping to feel better tomorrow. One shouldn’t be sick on one’s birthday