I Should Post More Often

 

Aahhhh.

It's still too hot, but the rats are gone,

 the rains have finally come;

 and although the vegetable garden is a total loss...

the grass is greening up again,

and here's a single beautiful bloom. 

 

Had to take the brother to a doctor's appt.

Terry had to take another afternoon off;

and we had to drive downtown to pick him up,

then drive to Utica for the appt.,

and then take him back downtown,

and then all the way back home.

 

Here's what gets us through...

Giant McDonald's Cokes.

 

Oh yes,

and Shawarma from the Bucharest Grill, downtown.

So good!

 

They replaced some sidewalk slabs earlier in the summer,

but this corner has been marked for work, and ignored until now.

 

Every day for a week, they came back and re-evaluated,

and took out more slabs,

until the whole corner was torn out.

 

Here they are taking out more slabs of concrete.

 

Terry has been working massive overtime,

 but he works on little projects when he can.

 

He's taking all of the old paint off of the fan vent.

 

Not sure what we're going to do,

probably just paint it again...

 

We did find some time to do some work at mom's house...

 

Painted the garage siding,

and it looks great.

 

Stripped and sealed the fancy front porch tiles.

 

We still have to paint the back of the house siding;

just waiting for a cool day.

 

Back to our little corner...

Here it is,

ready for concrete.

 

Oops, another trip downtown to take supplies to the homeless guy...

 

The Woodward LightRail project

 is really making it hard to get around downtown.

 

Back home,

and the concrete has been poured.

 

Look at the fancy curbs they had to install here,

because our property is raised...

 

and handicap bumps too.

 

Thank goodness it's over.

I am sick of their machines waking me up every day at seven o'clock.

 

Look who's back from vacation...

 

Petey must have a summer home,

because he has been gone for weeks.

But he surprised us one day

and we were ready with the peanuts!

 

And finally...

 

for my birthday weekend,

Terry and I went to Mount Pleasant for some R & R.

 

Nice weekend at the Soaring Eagle Casino,

and Terry even won a little jackpot,

that paid for whole weekend.

 

SWEET !

 

 

Worst Summer Ever

 

This is officially the worst summer ever.

 

The drought has been so bad that everything is dead...

except for the rats.

 

We fed the birds, and we fed the squirrels,

and we never realized that we were inviting rats to the party.

 

 So, we stopped feeding the animals we like,

 and started on a mission to get rid of the pests.

 

There's one gone.

 

 

There's another one gone.

 

Old fashioned traps, newer style traps,

 and poison bait,

 strategically placed where our dogs wouldn't be harmed.

 

Last weekend we did get away for a while,

and went back to the Woodlawn Cemetery.

 

We found my grandparent's grave,

with a little help from the groundskeeper.

 

It was completely covered over,

so Terry got to work.

 

There we go,

all cleaned up.

 

Back home...

 

and another one bites the dust.

This one ate the poison.

 

Ha ha ha, there's Terry,

 out there at night with his BB gun,

waiting for his prey...

 

And, back downtown,

to take a homeless man some cigarettes...

 

and back home.

And another one.

(That's not a small rat, it's a giant sized trap).

 

There's Terry, on his dusk watch.

 

Happy to report,

after two weeks of this nonsense,

the rats seem to be gone.

 

Worst summer ever.

Friday to Monday...

 

Friday morning, the cement workers showed up

 to eradicate the "L.M.A.O." etching in our new sidewalk.

 

He used something to scrape it off, while adding a liquid.

It seemed to work, but he worked at it for quite a while.

Still easier than replacing the slab...

 

Saturday morning it was rainy,

 and we decided to get some much needed tires

 replaced on Terry's car.

 

We took the car to Belle Tire in Warren.

$500 seemed like a decent deal,

 and we opted for an oil change too.

The guy said, "about an hour",

 so we left it and walked over to the restaurant next door to wait.

 

We had chicken and fries at "Uncle Joes".

It was surprisingly good!

 

We sat in the restaurant

 and watched and waited

 for them to take our car into the shop...

 

1/2 hour...

hour...

 

Terry called to check on the status.

They said they were bringing it in...

 

Another 1/2 hour and we had enough.

Terry went in to get the car,

and the guy told him that it was in the oil change area.

Terry informed him that it was still in the parking lot.

 

OMG.

 

We left, and went home,

kind of dumbfounded.

 

 

I spent the rainy afternoon bleaching my hair...

 

while Terry finished his garage gutter painting project.

 

He does good work.

 

Still waiting for rats...

 

Caught one, but we know there are more.

 

The drought has ruined everything in my garden this year.

 

Everything is dying,

and we have given up.

 

Sunday morning,we went downtown,

 to take homeless Tim some cigarettes.

 

We got kind of lost

 and ran across this yard full of sculptures.

I don't even know where we were,

 but it was strange and intersting to look at.

 

Then we went under this overpass,

very strangely painted and has little white tags all over it.

 

I tried to get a good pic,

but Terry always speeds up when I'm trying to get a shot...

 

So, we took Woodward home,

and decided to stop in the Woodlawn Cemetery,

 where we drank Mcdonald's Cokes

 and ate french fries

 as we looked at all of the amazing mauseleums and headstones.

 

My grandparents are buried here,

but we couldn't find them if we tried.

 

I will go home and find that info,

so the next time we stop by,

we can visit them...

 

(I did catch alot of Pokeman during our travels).

 

When we got home,

Terry decided to strip the garage door

and repaint it.

 

Monday morning,

the cement guys were back to do the corner sidewalk.

 

The never ending circle of life.