My Car has a Tapeworm?

So as we are turning into the carport after a trip to our favorite grocery store, we see a strange feathery looking thing sticking out of the tailpipe of my Honda Civic. We debate on hair, feather or other for a few minutes before taking a closer look. My first though is a peacock has crawled into the tailpipe to get away from a fox hunting it through the underbrush. Cathy thinks it looks like synthetic hair. Ok, so maybe some kids have played a prank and pushed a wig into my tailpipe. I get a pair of pliers from the toolbox (I'm not touching that thing!) and pull it out. To our surprise we pull out over six feet of what looks like synthetic hair. One end of the mess looks like it may have been in the muffler itself so if someone pushed it in there, they used a long stick. Another thought since I am not a car aficionado, is there this type of wadding in the muffler acting to mute the sound a bit which may have come out accidently?

Trying to Keep Up

Things have been pretty quiet on the homefront lately. We have been plowing through Girl Scout Cookie Sales with Ashley pretty close to reaching the goal set for the troop this year. The money raised will be used to send the girls to New York, so we have been selling like used car salesmen to reduce our out of pocket when the trip come up. Sounds like a great opportunity that we don't want her to miss.

We are still in the same house with several options in front of us. We have decided we do not want to commit to either another rental house or to buying until the tenure decision has been finalized.  We should know something in mid-May. So for now, when a storm brews, such as last night, I put on the rain gear and act as the human sieve down by the drainage pipes. Last night's storm brought winds gusting to around 40-50 MPH and a period of intense rain which did fill up the small drainage basin rapidly. Luckily the downpour lasted only about 5 minutes and I had spent much time removing pine straw and leaves a couple of days earlier. We should be out of the house before fall, so hopefully there will be no more big storms (like Thanksgiving or New Year's) before then.

Ashley's recital will be coming up in May as well and this year they are staging Tinkerbell. Ashley will be a beach fairy for one number and I' m not sure about the other two, but she should be good. The costumes have started to come in and they are the typical little girl gaudy type. Ryan is cruising along as always as the cute, funny little boy who can turn it on and off in a flash. He is quite the romeo still with as many as 3 girlfriends each day in class. Speaking of such, Ashley has starting creeping in on that age as well. We were eavesdropping on her phone call with a friend as they were talking about whether Ashley "liked" a boy. I just can't wait for the whole boy thing to get rolling. I guess I should start my collection of exotic weapons already!

Oh well, work calls, so until next time, keep the future in front of you.

Snowed In!

Who would have thought that a mere 6.5" of snow would be enough to shut the area down and strand everyone in their houses. Northern Alabama received the 3rd highest snowfall of all time Sunday and everything is shut down. Grocery stores, restaurants and schools. All roads in Decatur have been deemed "impassible" for Monday and Tuesday and we may be snowed in until Friday.

In Thanksgiving's Wake - Part 1

It has been one of the longest few weeks I can remember since Thanksgiving. For those of you who do not know, the Tuesday morning after turkey day we had nearly 5" of rain and as usual a flood.

It was 2:30ish in the morning and I was experiencing a little insomnia due to cold medication. The weather channel was reporting that we might get up to an inch of rain, but it seemed to me that it was raining harder than that. Around 3:00AM, I was going to bed since the weather guy was still not indicating flooding and decided to look out the window. To my horror, I saw the water already up to the center of the car tires in the carport. I ran and woke up Cathy, put some jeans on and headed out to try and avert the flood.

I grabbed a rake and started clearing the drains but it was already too late. The water was not moving into the drains and the rain was not slowing down. While I was keeping the debris away from the drains so they wouldn't clog when they started to run, Cathy was moving stuff inside away from the doors and off the floor.

It was pure helplessness. I watched the water rise and hoped for the rain to stop and minimize the damage. The water peaked nearly 2" above the bottom of the doors, but due to Cathy's efforts, the flow into the house was not as bad as it could have been.

From 3:00AM to 6:00AM, I watched water rise and then fall while outside in 40 degree rainy weather. I was cold and Cathy and I were tired. She got the kids ready for school in the sloshy house and I started bailing water with the wet vac. Cathy got the carpet guys on the job and I called in sick to work.

By noon we were checked into the hotel and moving furniture for carpet removal. The hotel stay lasted nearly ten days, and except for some minor water damage and frayed nerves, we have gotten back to normal. But this was definitely the last straw, even for our landlord. He has decided to sell the house and is letting us out of our lease. So after the holidays we will begin the new house hunt.

Ashley's Christmas Program

Ashley had her school Christmas music program earlier this week and she did really good as usual. The finale was pretty cool in that they turned off the lights and used flashlights as stars. In the picture, she is in the middle looking to the left.

Another Ryan Update

Ryan finally had his followup visit with the sleep doctor and we were told his apnea was cured by the surgery. We suspected as much since he had been sleeping very well since then, but it was nice to hear it from the expert. Now we will be having Ashley checked as well after a series of throat infections which may or may not have been strep.

Happy Birthday to Me - Mid Life Crisis or Lifelong Dream

So my 44th birthday rolled around last week and it wasn't one of those birthdays with a ton of soul searching and nostalgic what-ifs, but the timing was perfect for the initiation of a childhood dream of mine. 

Let me take you back to late summer early fall of 1977. Star Wars was still in the theaters and I was beginning 5th grade in Mascoutah, Illinois. The 5th grade could be considered a pivotal time for those destined to become band geeks as we were informed that we would be able to join the school band if we wanted. So for me, the eternal music lover, the choice was not if I would be in the band, but what instrument would I play. Can you guess what I chose?

So my first choice, and the choice of many noise loving boy children, was the drums. My mom was pretty adamant that I would not be playing the drums, I believe she may have even used the words, "Hell No!" So I cycled through other choices: trombone - my arms were too short, trumpet - too expensive, saxophone - too expensive. So what choices did I have realistically?

Well, in the previous couple of years, the folks had bought my sisters clarinets when they joined the band and since they had both quit, there were 2 "perfectly good" clarinets sitting at home just waiting for an eager young man to play them. So the choice was made for me, and the thought was that I would probably follow in my siblings footsteps and quit after a year. 

So, I took clarinet lessons and played with the 5th grade band. I was the only boy playing clarinet, I wore glasses, was overweight and as a military brat, I was also the "new kid". You can only imagine the teasing I endured and the number of fights I had to evade. It probably comes as no surprise that I quit the band after the first year. I loved the music and didn't mind the clarinet so much, but the social ridicule for a boy approaching puberty was unbearable.

Which brings us to the present. A few weeks ago, I was sent a youtube video via email of Steven Adler (original drummer for Guns n Roses) playing a demo at NAMM 2010 and my passion for rhythm and desire to play the drums rekindled like a reunion with a long lost friend. Upon talking with Cathy, she said I should look into cost and other logistics such as noise level and voila, I am now the proud owner of a drum kit.

We found a Huntsville music shop (Railroad Bazaar) and spent a Friday afternoon looking at different kits and discussing financing, etc. We ended up choosing a Tama beginner kit. Since Tama is an "A" list drum company, we know we have a good set which will last awhile. The smaller size of this kit (each drum is about an inch smaller than the typical drumset) makes for an easier fit in our "music" room and the sound of the drums is quite good. The cymbals sound like trash can lids though, but we can upgrade those next year after our 12 months with no interest payment are through. The kids have also shown an interest, especially Ryan. When he gets a little taller, we won't be able to keep him away. I even found a set of neoprene pads which fit on the drums to mute the sound by about 95% so I can practice at night when the kids are asleep. It has only been a little over a week, but I am able to keep a simple beat going and have started playing along with recorded tracks (beginning drum patterns) from a book Cathy bought.

So while some people might think that starting to play the drums in my 40s could be part of a mid-life crisis, I encourage everyone to find a way to make their dreams happen regardless of what others may say or think.