Tuesday is Sunny!

Wow, after the rain yesterday we have the sun today! Awesome. I was surprised at all the issues we had with a mere 6 inches of rain; Childsdale road was washed out and impassable, the power was out for long enough to get air in the system and now we're on boiled water.

It's funny how put out we are and yet, in April Ian and I were in Port Au Prince Haiti and we drank bottled water everyday, took bucket showers and brushed our teeth with bottled water. We forget how nice we really have it some times.

Here's a picture of a little cutie we met face to face while there. Her name is Kalencia and she's staying at Hope House until she can get an operation on her heart. When she first came to the house she had rusty red hair, now it's black. They say the reddish hair is a sign of malnutrition. She's doing great and scheduled to come to Michigan for that operation later this summer.


Have a great day!
Pat

Memorial Day Post

Happy Memorial Day! The day dawned wonderfully and I got up and let out Bean, the loaner dog. As we went out for the morning bathroom break I noticed it was raining, no problem I figured, it's pretty warm and light, I can still get the work done. Next I see flashes of lightening and rolling thunder which became streaks of lightening and crackling thunder and finally Bolts of Lightening and Crashing Thunder, and then the power went out. Hmm, guess I was stuck inside after all. I did what I always do when I have my plans hit the skids, I went back to bed and took a nap. When I woke up it was clearing and so I went out and finished it up, by noon all of us were out and putting the finishing touches on the yard and it looks great! Here's the front bed, we bought these last year thinking they were annuals and they never looked this good.


Here's the typical from Bean, she's at the end of the lead pulling as hard as possible. Then, just before I snap the leash to get her come back, she goes to the bathroom. Crazy dog! She's stretching out my arm.


After all of our hard work I went on a ride with a buddy. It was touch and go, but we figured we could buzz northwest and then scoot back without getting wet. We got to the Croton/Hardy Dam area and it started looking really bad, by the time we go to Morley it was pouring. We pulled off for a few minutes but realized that it wasn't going to let up anytime soon, so we headed for home, in the pouring rain. Not a good ride, but hey, the leathers needed the bugs washed off anyway.

Have a great day!
Pat

Took a day off the blog

Well, that was weird, I somehow posted without typing anything.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!


As usual, we have bitten off more than we should. We've been hauling mulch most of the weekend. I work with Holly and the boys in the morning and then we're off during the heat of the day and if I'm lucky, later in the day when it cools off we haul some more. Today was just the AM shift. We're down to about 3 yards left to go. I'm going to try to finish early on Monday so that we can have some fun too.

I haven't posted a shot of my new ride and thought I probably should, so here it is with my old ride. It's a Honda VTX1300 and it's awesome. I got it just before I went down on a mission trip to Haiti. I've added a backrest so that Holly is more comfortable with me giving the boys a ride. Oh yeah, I sold the 750 in 2 hours on Craig's list, guess I didn't have the price high enough.


That's it for now, have a great day!
Pat

Could it be? It is! 4 in a row

Sure is easier to come up with a title lately, but I'm sure it's not too interesting. Maybe you guys could help me with the titles?

Anyway, another shot from our Supplier Day, "Collaborate or Get Crushed" was the theme. Warm and inviting slogan isn't it?!? Anyway, here I am leaning up against the monster truck, FullBoar. Pretty cool. If you haven't see the video from before, you should check it out. I'm not a monster truck kind of guy, but it was awesome.


Tonight Holly and I went to the West Michigan White Caps Baseball game. Couple of interesting stories:

Never actually sat in our seats. We located where you could order a 5th/3rd burger, it's 5 quarter pounder burgers on a bun with chili, nachos and other stuff. Not bad, but the challenge is to eat it all yourself. We didn't try, 4 of us split it. Two table over in this dining area a gentleman took the challenge and won. It wasn't a comfortable looking win, but he won. The next table a kid took the challenge and lost in the most colorful way imaginable, nuff said.

On the way out a guy walks up to us and asks where the nearest "Gentleman's Club" was. That was a weird conversation, we Googled one on my Blackberry, gave them directions and sent them on their way.

Driving out of the parking lot were these guys with the illuminated flashlights. Our guides and problem solvers? Anyway. As we're slowly rolling by one of these guys I point to him and say; "Thanks for coming out tonight!" He was so blown away that he snorted, then he recovered and said the same thing back to us. Holly and I thought it was hilarious and chuckled for about a mile.

Here's a shot of Holly and the field behind her. Our seats were actually on the side of the field in the photo, but you couldn't get the big burger on our side, so we wandered over and sat in a party area that was unoccupied for the night. Fair seats and easier for a conversation.


Have a great Memorial Weekend!
Pat

Hah! 3rd day, I knew I could do it!

OK, now that I've done it, what to say?

Work today was pretty good. We had a recap of our supplier day. If you follow this link to Youtube you can watch the Monster Truck video that was taken in back of the manufacturing plant. It was awesome! Watch the volume for the first minute, it's pretty loud.

Here's a shot from our trip to Haiti in April. Ian's in the back of the truck and from the looks of him, we're on our way back to the compound after a hard day. Totally cool trip.


The momentum continues! See you tomorrow!

Have a great day!
Pat

On a 2 day roll!

Thanks to Cindy, Dave and Larry for the encouragement. It meant a lot.

Interesting day here today. We had our annual supplier day at the company. The theme this year was collaborate or get crushed. I gave a short presentation on some projects that I was involved with and then bailed out to get some work done. I came back at 3:30 for the main event. We hired Ed Ekert, owner operator of Fullboar, a Monster Truck, to come out and show us how a truck worked. He put on a pretty short show, but it was very cool making some jumps over a small pile of dirt and ending with him doing a donut that tore the lawn up something terrible. Here's a stock photo of the truck and Ed, not sure who the kid is, but I liked the haircut so there you go. Someone took a photo of me standing next to the truck, so if that turns out I'll share that one too.



Here's a shot of a dog playing with Ian. We're doggie sitting for a few months for Mallory, the lady that runs the place that we went to in Haiti. She appears to be about 4 or 5 months old, fairly well behaved and Ian's digging it. Spencer isn't quite as keen, but I think he'll warm up to her.


That's the news that's fit print,
Have a great day!
Pat

Long time, no chat

Wow, has it really been 2 months since I last posted something? Brother David, you have encouraged me to try again.

Well, let's see. Did you know that I went to Haiti on a mission trip? I guess I'll try to tell a few stories from that and see if I can get some momentum going again.

Trip done was pretty uneventful, we flew from Grand Rapids to Chicago to Miami to Port Au Prince. It was once we got to Port Au Prince that things got interesting. They have Porters that work inside the customs area and want to "help" you with your luggage for a small fee. With 9 of us we felt that we would be better off taking care of it ourselves. I stood next to the conveyor and caught the luggage as it went by. We each brought two carry on bags and two 50 pound bags with food, clothes and other stuff. So we rented those luggage carts and stacked it up. The heat was really extreme and the porters were really pushy, but we just muscled our way out, located our hostess, Mallory Thurlow, founder of Haiti Foundation Against Poverty. She had help with her and we were hustled out to the trucks. All the luggage went into one truck and all of us, into the other. It was almost a fight with the porter over if we needed to pay, but we held our ground and didn't, tense, but OK. Most of us had to sit in the back of the truck. What a wonderful way to see the city of Port Au Prince. Out in the sun and the air, seeing the sights, smelling the smells, hearing the sounds. Ah, international travel to a third world country, wonderful.

Truck load in front of Hope House.


Have a great day,
Pat