Me n Beau n a dog named Joe: Skating Lessons

You’d think that when something hurts, you’d stop doing it, instead of getting up, doing it again, and then calling it fun. But that’s the way it goes when someone is trying to learn to ice skate. I was about 8 years old when us kids got some skates for the first time, and after a couple years I was still having trouble staying on my feet, I seemed to be spending more than enough time on my butt. My friend Beau had been skating a little longer than me but he had to borrow skates that didn’t fit so he hadn’t got on to it yet either. The hardware store in town started to carry new and used ice skates so that more of the local kids were able to own skates. Some of the neighboring parents decided to get together and keep a spot clear of snow on the river for anyone that wanted to skate. So sometimes there was people of all ages out there trying to learn to skate or even just re-learn. Like my mom’s friend Darla, who was trying to re-learn but caught her skate on a rough spot and fell and hurt her knee and decided enough of that, she was too old to skate and would stick to a less slippery surface. And then there was the time that Nat, who was dating Beau’s oldest sister, tried to show off and ended up wishing he had just skated slow with her instead. The river usually was a good place to skate. There was some backwater that froze over fairly smooth, with only a little grass sticking through the ice, but needed the snow shoveled off once in a while. Beau’s uncle had a pump of some sort that would pump river water on the skating area that would then freeze to make it smoother. I guess the big cities had indoor rinks where the ice was like glass, but I wouldn’t know, that’s just what I heard. Beau once built a sledding hill that was almost as smooth as glass, by using a garden hose to ice down the driveway slope up to the house. It was a blast! With a running start, we could make it nearly to the road, where we would veer off into the ditch to keep from going out onto the road itself. I don’t know if I ever had more fun sledding, we could really fly. Although it was a bit of a surprise when Beau’s mom came flying by with the car on her way to the store. If she hadn’t been going so fast, she probably would have been able to stop at the end of the driveway, and that pickup truck wouldn’t have had to go in the ditch to avoid hitting her. And then we got blamed for her reckless driving, plus we had to sprinkle sidewalk salt on our awesome sledding hill! Nat was not really as good of a skater as what he thought he was, it’s just that he didn’t know it. There were several kids on the river skating that Saturday in December when Nat met his ‘waterloo’. He seemed to think the log that we sat on by the fire would be a good log to jump over when it was drug onto the ice, and it may have been, if he had known what he was doing. Unfortunately he never bothered to tell my dog Joe what his plans were. Joe wasn’t much of a skater either, he usually stayed off the ice because he had trouble keeping all four feet going in the same direction. If Nat had been as good as he thought he was he may have been able to jump over Joe also, after jumping over the log. But Nat landed wrong and was off balance when Joe chose that particular moment to run to the other side of the skating area, so that after Nat stumbled over Joe, he clumsily skated with arms twirling right into the open river! It didn’t take him long to check the water temperature, he was out and headed for the car, shedding clothes, almost before the ‘Ker-plash!’ died away. I’m still not sure how he drove home with those ice skates on. After Nat’s silly antics, the rest of us got down to some serious skating, well, as serious as you can get when you really don’t know how to skate. Some of the older kids were better skaters so maybe that is why they were able to talk me and Beau into playing a game called ‘crack the whip’. They said it was a lot of fun and people played it on rinks all around the country. They said it was pretty simple, you don’t have to skate real well, just hold onto another person and let them pull you. OK, simple enough, I thought, even I should be able to do that. We all got in a line and the older kids started pulling, with me at the end holding onto Beau. Well, I don’t think I need to tell you the outcome of this game. But I can say that Joe probably saved me from getting wet, because after the line stared to move, Joe got all excited and forgot he couldn’t skate, so he went skittering and sliding across the ice, coming to a stop on his belly just before I lost my grip on Beau’s hand. I had never gone so fast, upright on skates, for so far, until I collided with Joe, cart wheeled over him, coming to a stop inches from the edge of the open water, although my sister claimed it was more like 10 feet. Beau had problems of his own. After he lost his grip, he went flying across the ice, did a few flips up the bank, and parked himself head first in a snow drift. We started to think that maybe Darla had the right idea, might be better to just stay off the ice.

Thus endth our Florida vacation.

I didn't need to scrape ice off the windshield this morning, but it almost felt like it. It was in the low 50's with a strong wind. I doubt it made it out of the 60's today. Patty did sit on the beach for an hour or so this afternoon. There are plenty beach chairs and plenty of room for tanning, if the sun shines! There was someone lounging on the beach most of the time.

Speaking of beach, this was our swimming beach, all 30 feet. The water was fairly clear out about 15 feet or so. That is where the underwater grass started. I would expect that the pool gets used more than the swimming beach for swimming.

It was not waste of time or money to come here, just a little disappointing that the weather was not nicer. We did get to visit with Kevin K and meet Philip F and a young couple from Arizona, Cody & Kayla. Cody is working in Florida. We had a good visit over supper last night and then saw Kevin at meeting in Homestead this AM. We head home tomorrow.

More from the Florida Keys

On Friday we visited John Pennekamp State Park. It was overcast but nice, but as we were waiting for our glass bottom boat ride, it started to sprinkle and then rain. The boat ride of 2 1/2 hrs was nice, calm seas, no rain, until about 10 mins before we docked, the rain started again. This pic is just before we left the channel and headed out to open seas.

I took several pics through the glass in the bottom of the boat, but they do not come out real nice. We were about 6 ft above the Molasses Reef, third largest reef in the world.

 

Even though the seas were fairly calm, it appears that Patty had no faith in the Captain. I wonder if she was praying for a safe return.

After we got back and went for our daily swim in our heated pool, this was looking out into the bay with the pool behind us.

Today, Saturday, we haven't done much. We planned to go out in a boat to see dolphins but it wasn't running soon enough for us. We have supper plans to meet Kevin K and Philip F here in Key Largo at 4:30. So we did some shopping, driving, and lazing about the motel. We stopped at a pull-off about an hour south and I walked in the ocean. Patty seemed to think I looked funny holding up my shorts. Well duh, I didn't want to get them wet... except I did anyway.

I liked this view of low hanging branches over the water. I walked under it and took another shot from the other side. The water was a foot or so deep and very clear. Most places where we went to the waters edge, the water was kinda like lake water in Wis, cloudy with stuff floating in it, even the swimming beaches. There is a lot of grasses growing underwater that adds to the cloudiness of the water. Now realize, we stopped at only a few places. I would expect that there are some nice swimming beaches through out the Keys.

Patty has been trying to sit out in the sun, but it keeps clouding up so she gets chilly, as the wind is blowing hard, so she has to come in again. In, out, in, out... she is getting  lot of exercise.

Florida Keys

I'm no travel agent, but I will relate what we saw and experienced today. We are staying in Key Largo, a little over an hour south of the Miami airport. Key Largo is the first town you come to on reaching the keys. We need to do some more looking around here but so far what we saw is not upscale touristy. There are nice places here but also a lot of kinda dumpy business'. But to be fair, we have not toured the main part of Key Largo. We left this AM and headed south to Key West, about 105 miles away. Lets see, 105 miles, that's about 1 hr 30 to 40 min, right? Wrong! How about 2 1/2 hours. The speed limit is 45 most of the way, sometimes 55. But it was worth it. There are several keys, maybe 15 or more, some upscale, some not. A LOT of business' geared toward boating, fishing, diving... No machinery dealers, snowmobile shops, the normal kind of thing you'd expect to see. There are gated communities in several places along the way. But also average houses, and trailer courts with little space between trailers. In some cases there is only a small channel of water between keys, in other cases they are separated by much wider expanse of water. In one case there is a 7 mile bridge. 

 

The bridge on the right is the old one that is not used, it is actually falling apart. Most of the way we couldn't see the water because of the trees and shrubs growing long the road. In a lot of places there was a lot of low scrubby unusable land between keys, not open water. Key Largo was overcast with rain in the forecast, it is raining outside our open patio door as I write this. Key West was slightly overcast with some sun, probably about 80 degrees. Nice. Patty said "beautiful"! We walked a long ways up Duval St and back. Duval seems to be the main tourist area. A lot of souvenir shops and a lot of eating joints. And even a Coach store, that Patty HAD to stop at. I still don't know what THAT cost me! I did get to blow $40 on a pair of Corcs, the first fashionable thing I've bought in probably 10 years.


Patty also enjoyed the flowers. Unfortunately some dude jumped in the way just as she took this one. We also were able to stop at a public beach to dip our tootsies in the brink. I snapped this one of a babe that was walking by. She even stopped and posed for me.

 

We drove by the marker that indicates the southern most point in the US. From that point it is 90 miles south to Cuba. I thought about driving on down but it looked like that the road might be covered with water, like... the Atlantic Ocean! We left beautiful weather in Key West and ran into dark clouds by the time we got back to our motel about 6 or so. It has been raining almost steady since. During a break in the rain, (we didn't want to get wet swimming while it was raining!), we did go swimming again in the heated pool. Last night and tonight we had it to ourselves.

We're off...

to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of... Key Largo!

Me n Beau n a dog named Joe: The Bus Ride

You’d think that school bus drivers would keep their eyes on the road as they are hauling kids to school. If he would have, I wouldn’t have had to serve detention that week in late April, for something that was not even my fault. My friend Beau came up with the hair brained idea that we could sneak my dog Joe on the bus on Sadie Hawkins Day if we dressed him up like just another one of the kids dressed crazy for the day, especially since that goof ball Bruce dressed like a dog last year. Bruce was not the smartest kid in school and came from a poor family so the threadbare clothes he wore every day were what we got to wear for Sadie Hawkins Day. I guess he figured that to be different, he would dress like a dog, being as how Sadie Hawkins was from Dogpatch. Bruce had trouble with his costume right from the start. I’m thinking a real dog would know to keep his tail out of the bus door as it was closing. Being a tail-less dog was the least of his problems. Our ‘no-nonsense’ teacher, Mrs. Sternhart, who was not in favor of Sadie Hawkins Day in the first place, was not impressed with the work Bruce had put into the dog mask, which is why it ended up in the trash before the day even started. Hard to be a dog with no tail and no dog face. How he thought he would talk and eat, or even play at recess with that costume on, I don’t know, but that’s Bruce. ‘Course, Joe didn’t need a dog mask or fake tail, but he would need something on to fool the bus driver if we were going to get him on the bus. There actually have been other animals on the bus in the past. The frogs, fish, hamsters, and occasional cats were nothing compared to what the high schoolers snuck on the bus. Us grade schoolers brought pets to school on certain occasions, in proper containers, of course. But the pig that Dick snuck on the bus was not in a proper container, or any container at all, just wrapped tightly in a blanket that I suspect came off his bed that morning, perhaps without his mother’s approval. It was a very well behaved pig, just laid down and slept, even after everyone was off the bus. It was no longer there when we got on to go home, but WHEW! we could tell it had been there, especially after Bruce stepped in something slippery. That wasn’t even as bad as the time Dick and his buddy Howard brought the four pigeons on the bus. When they let ‘em go, all heck broke loose. Suddenly there were birds flying everywhere! Swooping up and down, flying back and forth, pooping on kids heads, little kids scared and crying. The poor bus driver didn’t know whether to drive, catch birds, or holler at the seniors. She just ran into Mr. Wilson’s ’58 Caddy instead, that Mr. Wilson was in the process of washing. We had a substitute driver for the rest of the year for some reason, and I heard from Beau’s sister something about Dick and Howard getting jobs and not bothering to graduate. Beau had it all planned out, dress up Joe like one of the kids, get him into the school, then turn him loose in Mrs. Sternhart’s room before any of the kids were there. Joe was a friendly and playful dog and Mrs. Sternhart hated dogs from when she was a kid and got bit on the leg by a rat terrier, which she reminded us about way too often and which was why no one was allowed to bring a dog on pet days. Beau figured this would be a good way to get back at the teacher for the ‘D’ he got on the last test. He didn’t figure he should get that bad of a grade just because he didn’t study, and besides, he couldn’t study because he hadn’t been able to find his book for at least a week. All went well until that ding bat Bruce opened his lunch box. We had found some old clothes that actually fit Joe quite well and crammed a floppy brimmed hat on his head. I half carried Joe onto the bus after Beau engaged the driver in conversation about the new growth in the hay field off to the left and whether there would be a good crop that year. We took our seats near the middle of the bus and settled down for the ride to school. We were almost to school when Bruce decided to study his lunch. Why anyone needs to open a bologna sandwich on the bus, I don’t know, but one whiff was all Joe needed. He was up and headed for Bruce near the front before I knew what was happening. The driver looked up, saw Joe headed down the aisle, slammed on the brakes, sending Joe flying into the windshield next to the driver. The driver thought he was being attacked, stomped on the gas, swerved, and promptly slammed into Mr. Wilson’s ’59 Caddy, that Mr. Wilson was in the process of washing. Joe never made it to school that day, and me and Beau had to stay after school for a week and do homework. But at least I had a book to do my work out of, and didn’t have to listen to Mrs. Sternhart’s lectures about caring for school property.

Kylie's birthday

It is hard to believe, but Kylie is 9. And she loves cats, so she got a cat cake for her birthday party.

And after two years of asking for a cat for her birthday, she got Ariel!

Kylie and Ariel had a lot of fun together.

But Kylie has a history of liking cats. Here she is at 9 months playing with Little Girl.

And again at 16 months. That cat took a lot of abuse, and liked it. She loved attention.

Time brings changes, part 2

Heather made reference, in a comment, to a fine lady to whom time has brought change. Those of us who knew Frances, and there have been many, have enjoyed her. But we have also ached for her in these last years as her health failed and she was so weak. In spite of that, her spirit remained strong and she continued her labors when it seemed she wasn't able. I think we all felt it was best when she finally stepped aside. As Heather said, we would like to keep her with us to continue to enjoy her presence, but she has achieved what she has has spent so many years living for, she is now home. So Frances, thank you for your spirit, your life's dedication, your labors in our field and your time in our home. 

 Frances

  1932 - 2012

Time brings changes

We all know that with time there are changes. Some of those changes we like, some we don't. Of those we don't, some we just simply accept, and others we very grudgingly accept, if at all. There is a change that I HAVE to accept, but I don't like it one bit! There is a family that suddenly appeared about 8 years ago, that has come to mean a lot to the folks in this area. BUT... they are moving away! :(  He is originally from Canada and he would like to be closer to his folks in their declining years, but mostly he has a job opportunity that he doesn't want to pass up, so they are moving this week to Canada, about 9 hours away. They are leaving a huge hole and will be missed, but they are leaving us with wonderful memories, and invitations to visit them!

 

So Darla, if you read this, yes, we will all miss you lots, but really do wish your family the best in your new venture. I hope you find much joy in your new life and that the change is actually for the better.

One thing about change is that we usually judge it by how it affects us personally. But sometimes we need to realize that maybe we are just a bystander and that the change is a benefit to someone else. And even though we don't like it, we need to be willing for it because of what it means to the other person, and even encourage them in that experience. A change can be a benefit in a lot of ways, and maybe that person is benefited by the change in ways we don't know. I've seen difficult situations as a result of change, that then resulted in spiritual benefit. So it is wrong to discourage someone just because the change is not to our liking, when in fact it is to the benefit that person.