Sometimes, you just gotta make do . . .

It was simple, really. Unclogging a clogged toliet. A little chemical, wait a few hours, and viola! Right? Um, not exactly. Okay, how about using a hanger? No? How about two? Wrong again. The lastest attempt I could hardly behold. And while I can not in all good conscience devulge all the horrific details, let's just say that Gary is not afraid to get dirty when the job calls for it. Sewer man to the rescue! Able to leap . . . well, maybe that doesn't apply here. All I know, is I would have just called Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs fame and let him handle it. Nope, not our Gary. He dove in there (okay, not literally) and well, has any of you seen the movie 'RV' with Robin Williams?? Well, it wasn't quite that bad. (Thank God) At any rate, while he's in there plugging away (pun intended) the rest of us wimps just stood back and held our noses! Poor guy. But, hey, a little soap, a little bleach and lots of water later, and, well, I wish I could say it was fixed, but it isn't. Not quite. But hey, you have to give the guy MAJOR points for the effort, I say. But, I think we're on to plan D about now. I'll let you know how that works out.

And do you know what to do when you don't have a real gasket for an outside light fixture, well, you improvise. You have Judah trace the light's shape onto a styrofoam plate, cut it out, stick it in there, and viola! Hey! It worked! One job complete, and one, well, not so much.

This is totally off topic, but I have to stick it in. The golfing's been hit and miss for Judah and his dad this trip. You know how it is - you play some good rounds, you play some bad rounds and then, every now and then, you play one of those out-of-your-mind rounds. Even if it wasn't on a normal course - it was sort of a Par 3 course - well - 6 par 3's and 3 par 4's. Anyway, Gary pars all of the par 3's and birdie's all the par 4's. He was quite pleased, I must say. Then a few days later he gets a 38 on a regular course. For not playing but once a week all summer, he'll take that. And Judah's been doing pretty good as well, shooting 6 over par the last time they played. Not bad for a couple of duffers!

Okay, what do you do when you can't swim and you can't rollerblade and you're bored out of your mind? You invent games. Like - roll the golf ball down the street. Or use the caps from water jugs and flick them at targets. Or cut the plastic frame that the steering wheel cover came in and use it as a frisbee. Hey, you have to come up with something when you don't have TV or video games!

It's going to be 90 degrees today and 95 tomorrow, so we're hoping Gary can actually take a day of vacation so we can go play on or near the river. Or maybe rent bikes and ride the Douglas Fruit Loop or hike the Audobon Nature Trail. We have to do Something. But, I think we'll stay away from Bombing Range Loop, as that goes around the government's nuclear testing site that's just down the road from where we are staying. Yeah, and you wonder why nothing grows in the hills out here, well, except those lizards with two heads. I just hope we don't start glowing. :0

Well, enough tidbits. I'm really going to try to have shorter posts.
(Oh, stop laughing.)

Blessings,
jill and all