Trick or Treat

Halloween is my least favorite "holiday". I just don't get it. "It's fun for the kids" is all that I can come up with.

We did the annual pumpkin carving on Sunday. I have to admit that I stole the idea for the pumpkin's face from a friend. It came out ok I guess. Madeline really got into it. She thought it was cool that I let her play with a knife and that she got to stab something. I think it's her mom's east sider coming out in her ;-)

Thanks to Angie, Abby has a great hippie costume this year. Too bad she doesn't know what a hippie is. She won the costume contest at the local community center.

Virus

The third annual camp out with the Troutslayers was last weekend. I'm still feeling the effects. I had a lot of fun, as usual, but I went in with the beginnings of a cold and came out with what feels like pneumonia. I went down on Thursday afternoon. It was fairly warm. It was nice on Friday too. Friday night it rained and Saturday it was rainy all day and never over 40 degrees. The cold weather and all of the smoke (many cigars, campfire, ribs in the smoker) put a hurt on my lungs. I'm still coughing up shit. Was it worth it? You bet it was. Cold rainy camping with friends, good food, beer, & cigars beats working any day.

I went down a day early to get some alone time. Damn I needed that. I'd like to do that more often.


I took the day off Monday too. I went to the Apple Orchard/Pumkin Patch with Madeline's preschool class and hung out with her all day. It was great being four for a day. That felt more like vacation than the camping did. I'll try to get a few of the orchard photos posted soon.


Angie wants to go to a costume party at the local bar this Saturday. I'm not looking forward to it at all, but if she wants to go, I must accompany her. I really think I have some sort of social disorder. When I was younger I enjoyed hanging out in crowds and socializing. As I age, I've become more and more withdrawn. I get stressed out when I have to go to parties and socialize. I don't small talk well at all and avoid it as much as I can. For this same reason, I don't take customers to lunch or chat over the fence with my neighbors. Angie thinks I hate people. Maybe I do, but I can't help it.


Alex is addicted to instant messaging. She can sit there for hours and chat with her friends. Well, some time in the past few days, she's picked up a virus through MSN. I think she clicked on something without knowing what it was. A BIG NO NO. The virus is buried deep in the hard drive and may have infected the other two computers we have connected in our home network. Our internet provider told us that some hacker is using our IP address to send out spam. FUCK! Angie is taking two of the computers in to her company's computer guy (move!) today to see what he can do. Alex claims that a few of her friends got infected the same way. I told her no more MSN. She's taking it pretty hard.

What if

Today is Robby's 12th birthday. I often wonder what it would be like to father a son. I'm not sure I'd be cut out for it. Girls are different, harder is some respects, but easier in others. My personality is more suited to living with females. I think God knew that ahead of time.

Is Robby 12 in heaven or still a baby? Maybe there is no age. What's his body look like now? Is it completely rotted away to just the skeleton, or does it take longer than 11 years and 7 months? I guess I'll find out someday. I remember when they buried him. We didn't pay for the big iron vault (is that what they're made from?). They just put his little blue gingham casket into a pine box in the ground.

Every now and then I'll find myself studying a boy that would be Robby's age. Sure are lot's of what if's in life.

The boss asked me today "So you'll be here tomorrow?". I said "Yeah". He said "But not Thursday or Friday right". I said "Monday too". Cool, he thinks I'm off all day Thursday. Fine with me. I'm ready for a few days away. I hope the weather cooperates.

Clean Living

I'm so fucking ready to go camping next weekend. Life is getting to me bigtime and I'm ready to escape it for a while. I wish it was for a week, instead of 3 days, but I'll take it.

Madeline was painting the shower yesterday. Some of the shots turned out a little spooky.

Float Trip

Moonlight


This weekend was the annual river ride with two of my brother-in-laws. I suppose this was the 6th or 7th one, I'm not sure. It was a great time, as usual. For the third year in a row, the weather cooperated nicely. The leaves are a week or two from peak color, but still nice. I'll take the good weather over good leaf color anytime.

The full moon was pretty sweet on Friday night. Frank the phone charger told us it was the "harvest moon". Not sure about that, but it was big and bright and lit up the campground. The above shot is of the campground lit by moonlight. This is a 20 second exposure. I started the exposure when a car was driving through the frame. I wanted the light streaks and it worked pretty good. Click on it for a bigger photo.

Birthday Bash

Abby's 10th birthday was this past Wednesday. Angie's 40th was yesterday. We had a family get together today to celebrate both. It's always nice to get everyone together. I had fun shooting hoops with my brother and my dad.

Angie and I went up to the town bar last night to watch the second half of the Hawkeye game. Abby was at home alone with Madeline, so I left after an hour or so. I woke up at 2:30am to make sure my wife made it home ok. I found her lying on the bathroom floor moaning. She was pretty drunk and regretting it. She never drinks, but everyone wanted to buy her a drink for her birthday. She's still feeling a little green even tonight. I should have snapped a photo of her hugging the toilet, I doubt it will happen again.



Fall is here, and I'm loving it. The trees are changing colors fast. I left the windows open last night and it was 59 degrees in the house. I love it, but all of the females were bitching.