Monday, August 20, 2007

Mary back to school!

So Mary got the jump on the kids this semester... she went for her Graduate Orientation today. She will go again tomorrow too. I'm so very proud of her! She is very excited about the program, so much so that she didn't sleep much last night. She is not looking forward to the commute, however.

We got some much needed rain last night! All of the rain barrels are full, and I'll be moving more water (time permitting) to plants and trees and stuff. Trying to keep the soil hydrated too.It is amazing how quickly the plants turn green when a good soaking rain sets in. And the forecast is calling for some more showers tonight! I do hope we get some more.

Monday, August 06, 2007

Visit with Granny.

After our sky dive on Saturday, Mary, Eliza, Tori and I went the rest of the way down to Waynesboro to visit with Granny.

Granny had a couple of things that she wanted me to check for her. The oil in the car, the fluid levels and what not. I topped up the windshield fluid for her, but the rest looked great. Her car doesn't have 3000 miles on it yet. She also wanted me to check her downstairs toilet. It had a flapper problem. That was an easy fix. Replace the flapper.

She is doing very well these days. She says she still hurts, but is doing the best she can. We visited for a while, then went out to "linner" with her. After eating we stopped by the Lowes and I went in and found a new flapper for the toilet. She of course insisted on paying for it. So when we got back to her house, we had a little toilet repair class for Granny and my daughters. Really simple fix. I talked them all through the repair, showed them how to turn off the water, remove the old worn out part, and how to put the new one back on.

Like I told them, and easy fix. Now Granny can use the downstairs toilet and not have to travel all the way back upstairs.

It was a good visit. It was very good to see her and she was very glad to see us.

Sunday, August 05, 2007

Skydiving!

Mary and I took Eliza to skydive yesterday. Now that she is 18, she can sign away her life and JUMP! We drove down to Skydive Orange. We got there at about 9 am, and signed in, went through the simple ground training and then Eliza and I filled out the long legal paperwork. Mary convinced me to take another skydive at the same time. We turned in out paperwork and then had to wait. We signed up for the tandem skydive.
While we were there, we noticed that the U.S. Army Golden Knights were at the dropzone, practicing and having a relaxing day of skydiving. One of the Golden Knights is an amputee, who lost his leg above the knee. He is still on active duty, working for the Army, and oh, darn they pay him to skydive!
We got into the airplane at about 12, and flew up to about 14,500 feet! The plane carried 20 sky divers on our trip, and Eliza had a blast! She had another skydiver taking video of her jump so that she will be able to prove that she did it! Anyway, I got to watch her make her jump and then my jumpmaster (Mike) and I headed for the door and followed Eliza and her crew out. What a ride! As I moved to the door, I thought to myself, "I'm really doing this again!" That was jump 18 for me.
As we were falling, I got to watch Eliza as she was skydiving, as well as that fantastic view of the world coming up to meet us. And, as always, the skydive is too short, and we opened our 'chute at 6000 feet. We had a nice long ride down. While we were flying, we flew our chute close to Eliza's and waved and smiled and hooted at each other. Then we flew away from each other and got to play with the wind! Mike (the jumpmaster) got us spinning around really fast and turning this way and that. Lots of wild fun. As we were flying back toward the dropzone, we watched Eliza and her jumpmaster land, and then we did a few more of those spins and s-turns and then we were down. I really love that feeling of flying!

Eliza said that it was great and fantastic.

I can now brag at work that I jumped with the Golden Knights! Oh, and Eliza can brag about that too!

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Liza's Driving Lessons

Yes, I'm back in the passenger seat, while another one of my daughters learns to drive. I'm doing well, and Liza has done well. No shouting matches, just gentle corrections, and lots of practice. Lots of brain power for her to learn this new skill.

We've seen a lot of our neighborhood today, and Liza is getting the hang of driving pretty well. I think we will be doing fine, and will go out tomorrow evening after rush hour to the faster roads.