Dad at Grad (part 2)

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ..........  oh....... hello!!!

No I am not actually that tired (a little but not a lot).  But even if I am tired, it was worth it.  What a nice day!!

I thought that maybe grad was going to be this big, stressful thing..... but it was a lot of laughs and a lot of fun.  It was great to have our parents here for it.  I loved going to the courthouse and seeing all the kids dressed up (you know my thing about "When I am the Prime Minister I am going to make all women wear ball gowns and all guys where suits, right?)   It was great to share it with a bunch of other people that we know (good thing about staying in a smaller community for a long time, right?).   It was great to see Kendall having fun!   It was great for the four of us to share the day too.

I thought I might cry during the Daddy/daughter dance...... or when they started playing a bunch of sappy music (music always gets me) but I didn't.   It was just the next step and it was a day of happiness and fun.

I even enjoyed helping out with the "Chem-free" celebration...... I did security (kept kids in the building basically)..... loud music pumping..... lots of people to talk to..... it was great.  2:30 am is not feeling so great at the moment (hence the "ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ"...... I tried to turn on the bathroom light this morning.... it was already on) but other than that I would not change a thing.

Now we just wait a couple of more years and we get to have all that fun again!   :)

Grad Pictures

Just a few... more later:

Grad Picture

A Dad's look at Graduation (Part 1)

So today our oldest is graduating and I thought that maybe I would give you a bit of a "play-by-play" from a Dad's perspective.

First observation:  It is a lot less stressful being the Dad.  I don't know anything.... I have not thought about dresses.... or shoes.... or where people will sleep.... or how we are getting from one place to the next... or who is going to do our child's hair.... or how I am going to do my hair (At this point, I don't have much to worry about in that department).  What I am trying to say is, so far, it has been a very relaxed event for me.

Sari, on the other hand, seems to have a lot more on brain than I do.  She has a lot of stuff going on.

So you can take this one of two ways (or both).....

1.  Sari is amazing!

2.  Guys have it super easy (if they have an organized wife) 

Either way - it has been a nice day (for me) so far.  More reports to come.  :)

Ooooohhh - Shiny!!!

Some pics from the Weyburn car show (just for fun).  170 cars spread around the downtown.  Beautiful day.   What do you like?????

Should I be insulted???

My wife sent me this video and said "Reminded me of you".  I think I am supposed to be insulted, but I am not....... Comments?

Saturday update

Here is what I did yesterday.   I helped my buddy Dennis take this......

And turn it into this.......

1983 Honda Magna and we took it from dead to running like a new one. Nothing says "fun" like spraying carb cleaner in your eye (yes - we did that a few times.... hard to guess where it is going to splatter to sometimes).

So Katie is Ontario at Kendall's graduation..... Megan and Sari just left for a "Mommy/Daughter day" in the great metropolis of Minot, North Dakota...... and I am about to go out to my garage and continue working on the two old motorcycles that I have out there.  Then - if the rain stays away - I will be off to the speedway tonight to help out with the "Super Truck Series" that is coming in.

Sounds like a good day all round, no?  Everyone off doing their own thing once in a while is good - but I am looking forward to everyone being home.  The house is sort of quite without them.

Happy Saturday, y'all.

Think about that, Jack

I usually don't share stuff like this here, but I needed to save it somewhere and thought this place is as good as any.

Being a hero is not always glamorous

So what does it look like when you pick up a turtle off a grid road so that it does not get run over and then it pees on you before you can put it in the ditch????  Well.......

I was not there but my sources tell me that this particular turtle learned how to fly moments later.

Jacques Cousteau - the the landlubbing equivalent of him - would have been proud.  (As too would have the Wright brothers)  :)

A Preaching First

 

So, I think I set a "preaching first" this morning. 

I was asked to do the "Sunrise Service" for the "Canadian Cancer Society's Relay for Life", so I arrived at about 5:20 am and walked the track with the girls for a while. 

Then they announced, "The church service will start in 5 minutes" so I went to the stage and waited.  As I waited on stage to get things going, the DJ was blasting "Rebel Yell" by Billy Idol.  When it ended, I started.

Now I am not sure.... no, check that....  I am absolutedly positive that no one in the history of the world has used "Rebel Yell" as their lead up to preaching.

Maybe it should be my new thing.... my theme song.... and maybe I should dress like Billy in the picture above.  Thoughts?  :)

A Saturday in our life

So, we went and did a family photo-shoot last night with Trinda Jocelyn. It was a "pre-grad" thing.  Here is the only picture that I am allowed to show you of Katie in her dress......

She is being a little secretive..... I am sure you will see some sooner or later.  Anyway, it was a lot of fun.

Speaking of fun.... I went to a car show this afternoon at a place about 8 miles north of town.  It was a ton of fun too.  Lots of cars.... lots of people I knew.... nice day..... here are some pictures of that just for fun.

First line up of cars..... 

A mud bogger.... just in case you have an old pick-up and don't know what to do with it

They drove the big one over the little one just for fun

 
Does this look familiar, Lenny???  My dad had a car like this only it was a Torino (this is a Mercury Cyclone) but virtually the same car and it is the same colour.  We used to go to A&W every Sunday in that car.  I ate my first "Animal burger" in it (6 or 7 patties... I forget).  We know where Dad's old car is rotting away in a field but the guy won't sell it.  Maybe I will have to buy this one and go to A&W in it instead

They had a burnout pit. Anyone who wanted could come and cook about $300 worth of rubber off of their tires just for fun

Only a small fraction of the vehicles in the back.... or the "field of Dreams" (maybe 500 -600 cars or more back there.  Fun to wander through)

Line up of old "junk" bikes.  Look about as good as the project bikes I am buying only he leaves his outside and thinks they are virtually worthless

And I ran into an old friend.  My 1979 Ford 1/2 ton.  I liked this old truck (till the fuel pump starting giving me a bunch of trouble.  I had to replace it three times and then it kept losing the prime so I had to suck gas up to the carb to get it to work again.... one time I wasn't paying attention and I was being impatient.... took a big suck on the fuel line, sucked gas right out down my throat and it came back out through my nose!  And then my nose started bleeding!!!  And then I could smell nothing but gas for three weeks!!!! And my breath smelled like gas and Sari wouldn't kiss me!!!!   Some people are super picky!!!!!

Come to think of it...... maybe I am glad it is in the bone yard. 

However, it is the vehicle with which I moved everything from our old house to the house we are in now...... even the kid's swing set - just hung it over the edge and went.  Megan was just 2 months old, so Sari was home all day.  She would pack boxes and load the truck while I was at the office and then I would come home and take it to the new place.  Good times!!!  The truck even smelled the same when I opened the doors (which may mean that it smelled like mouse dropping when I had it).... it made me sad!!!  :(

Lenny, your racing dreams start here.  Fuel cell is still in it.... a couple of gauges in the dash ... the tires even have some tread and it is the right colour!!!!  Let's go!!!!

Or you could buy this and relive the old days.  Lenny's favorite stock car when we were kids was an old Ford Torino that was about this year.

While I was out goofing off, Sari was playing in the yard.  She has a couple of vines that need a trellis to grow on, so she decided to take an old screen door that she got from her "secret farm stash" and make a trellis out of it.  I think it will look cool when the vines fill it all in.

And she worked on the front beds too (She told me that I should not post these pics.... that I ought to wait till they bloomed.  I think they look nice though and it will be a good before/after thing too)

And, lastly, the girls are doing the "Canadian Cancer Society's Relay for Life" tonight.  They are on separate teams but hanging out anyway.  This year (after many years of bad weather - one of which almost froze us to death before it started torrential down pouring on us) they are holding it in the old Civic Auditorium.  I was asked to do the opening prayer and go back and do the "Sunrise church service" at 5:45 (I think). 

Here are a couple of pics from the stage as they were setting things up.  Megan's group is to the left of the chairs in the first pic and Katie's is the group in the lower pic (they were right beside the stage)

So that is a Saturday in our life.  Oh, I went to a farm auction that a friend of mine was having too.  That was up by Stoughton but I did not bother taking pictures of that so you will have to imagine me riding my motorcycle, visiting with a bunch of nice people, seeing a bunch of tractors sell and then riding home.  :)