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Well, we decided to take our little girls fishing at the city park the other day.  Rory has been hyped ever since she caught her fish at the lake.  So we loaded them up and joined Daniel and his two boys, Colton and Nick, for some good ole fishing fun.

Colton catches a fish and Rory poses with him.  What a supportive cousin.

Rory shows off her two fish.

Rory and Colton racing off the dock.

This is what my fish looked like.  Yep, I caught nothing…sigh.

As we were getting ready to leave, the Fire Department was doing exercises with their trucks.  We got to watch the world’s biggest sprinkler at work.

Well, as I mentioned in an earlier blog entry, I had a little trouble with my motorcycle.  I am a little disgusted by this but cannot say that I am disappointed with the bike.  I have had relatively little trouble out of it in spite of all the arduous traveling that I have put it through.  The list of mechanical problems are:

Rear light fell off back fender  OOPS (factory flaw fixed with hillbilly ingenuity)

Handle bars get twisted out of straight line when on extremely bumpy roads

and then routine stuff:

Change spark plugs

Several rear tires

I need a front and rear tire

Rear brakes replacement

All in all, for a motorcycle that has traveled 11,500 miles that is very good.  This is including that around 1/3 of its mileage is off-road, snow, mud, and hill climbing travels.  So again I am still satisfied with the motorcycle.  Besides that is a lot of miles on a bike anyway.

Well, now for the matter at hand.  I have sprung an oil leak.  In a car this is a minor annoyance that will cost extra in oil replacement.  ON a motorcycle that problem remains along with the lovely saturation of my pants leg on the guilty side.  Yep, I drove all the way to Dale Hollow with an oil leak that totally ruined a pair of jeans and got my leg nice and oily…yum.  It appears that driving at around 70 MPH will keep the leak off my leg but travels it to the rear brakes.  Hmm, the lesser of two evils?

It appears that the problem is in the jug.  More specifically it is where the cylinder head meets with the block.  So in order to fix this I will have to tear down half of the bike.  More fun for me…yay.  Luckily the replacement gasket only costs around $20.  That is a small consolation for the time without my motorcycle in prime riding season.  Anyway, rest assured that there will be a blog entry as I tear this thing down and run into a multitude of problems.  Until then you will have to content yourself with looking at pix of the leak on the bike, its messy carnage, the bald tires and the beautiful sky I was driving into.

As I discovered the menacing leak, the sky looked ominous in the distance.

The irritating leak in all it’s glory.  What a mess.

And the mess continues all the way up to the rear flares.

As if the oil leak was not enough I have two bald tires that need replacing…sigh.  That will be $200.

So we were given a 10 gallon aquarium and we really liked it.  So in traditional American thought: “More is better”, we found a larger one.  Just a little larger.  We went from 10 gallons to 55 gallons.  Yep that is a lot of water.  We actually had to get the water hose over to the window to fill this thing up.  We got a good deal on the aquarium itself, but there is no such thing as a cheap fish tank.  We soon realized that we needed something to set this thing onto.  55 gallons is close to 550 pounds.  So in order to make sure that the floor suffered minimally, we put the tank in the corner of a room.  Thus having two outside walls for maximum support. 

So after cleaning the very nasty tank, which Becky said was quite the chore.  She even found two old cigarette butts in the film of dust and dirt that layered the tank.  After all the cleaning was done and the water added, she arranged the decorations and rock.  I never knew what level of difficulty that is employed to this kind of operation. 

Now the fun part.  We took our three fish from the ten gallon and introduced them into their new home.  Whereas they seemed to fit their environment quite nicely before, placing them into this new tank was like dropping a grain of sand into the salt flats.  So now we get to buy more fish and more decorations.  Remember what I said, there is no such thing as a cheap fish tank. 

All in all, we are very happy with our new addition.  I live in fear of the possibility of this thing springing a leak onto our hardwood flooring.  Or worse yet, living the event that occurred to my friend, a golf ball thrown into the glass creating a deluge in the house.  But I am still satisfied with it.  I would advise anyone to have one, especially with kids.  Our kids love it and so do their cousins.  It is an instant attraction.

Those are not smudges, those are our little fish in a whole new world.

So it is time for camping at Dale Hollow.  Man it was hot and muggy.  But there was little rain so the weather cooperated fairly well for us.  As a matter of fact, I got home with just 10 minutes before the rain started on me.  Since I was riding home on a motorcycle this was a close call.  Nothing like the problems that I came across on the way down (which I will tell about in a future blog entry).

The fishing was pretty good.  Rory had a really good time catching her fish and I am afraid this has spurred an addiction.  There was also a lot of lounging and general good ole camping fun.  Thus all the fun that camping is supposed to be.  This year was especially interesting as this was the first year that RaeLynne could walk on a camping trip.  Yep there was a lot of “ hey come back here little girl!”

We all had a good time and look forward to the next one.

It is sorta a tradition and just plain fun.  I did it as a kid and so did my wife.  I am sure that all of you have if you lived out somewhere that you saw them.  Catching lightening bugs is a whole lot of fun and a good way to get kids to not be afraid of ALL bugs.  My daughter has been aching to get some, so last night Rory, Becky, Kristi, and myself began our hunt.  It was quite clear that we had waited too late as most were high in the trees.  So tonight Rory, Becky, and I tried it again.  Poor RaeLynne misses out on these adventures for now.  We started half an hour earlier and yielded much better success.  How many did we catch?  Not many.  But it was fun to see Rory running with her butterfly net to capture the luminescent bug.  She might have caught more had she not been so worried with dirt getting into her flip flops, but it was fun for all anyway.  Even our dog, Blanco, seemed to enjoy our activities so late at night. 

The picture is not great but hey it was dark and all I had was a cell phone.

Well, maybe it is not Barna and Bailey Circus, but there was nowhere else that I wanted to be this evening.  Rory’s school had a variety show in which each grade level performed some kind of act or skit.  Thus every parent was obligated to brave sweltering humidity, walk half a mile (due to near no parking lots), and pay a dollar to watch their child (children) perform.  I was quite taken with the fact that most of the music was stuff that I listened to when I was in high school.  Yup, I am getting old.  Soon this stuff will be elevator music. 

The kids all did well.  I saw very few that just bucked up and refused to participate.  Pretty good considering you are dealing with ages 3-13 respectively.  It was hot but entertaining.  So being the proud father I am, I have got pictures to show.  Here we go……

Here are the stars of the show…well as far as Becky, Ben, Melanie and myself are concerned.  Thanks to Melanie for taking this picture that only someone on the “inside” could get.

Rory is anxiously looking for Becky and I.  To her right is her teacher and to her left is Rachel and that is Toby with the cool hat and glasses.  Rock on Toby.

And then she finds us…

Ok, here is a basic breakdown of the skit.  In the background is “When the Sun Goes Down”, the kids are all lined up, and then they are off.

First to the left…

…Then to the right…

…Then shake it this way…

…and shake it that way.  And then the boys react with a …

They look aghast don’t they?

While the girls were shaking it, Toby spent much of his time looking too cool for words.

Not just anyone can pull that outfit off.

The whole skit was wonderful and cute.  Thus it was just what it was supposed to be.  I took sadistic pleasure in watching the teachers on the side lines having to act out the actions to be sure that the kids did the same.  Where else can you watch grown adults voluntarily behave that way?

Yum Yum!

Well this post is very late, but I have been equally busy.  Recently Rory went on a school trip to the Knoxville Zoo.  Lucky for us she was able to take her family.  It was hot, smelly, and a good trip all in all.  It was extra fun in that Ben, Melanie, and the twins (Toby and Rachel) also were there.  Of course they are a part of Rory’s class so this was a given.  We all had fun and spent too much money.  No one can forget a $3.00 hot dog. 

This is how our trip began, following a bus in some heavy traffic.  My uncle craftily drove the bus.

Rory and RaeLynne sporting their matching lion shirts and double stroller.  You can see Toby and Rachel in their stroller behind them.

We saw some of the basic animals that a zoo trip requires.  As Rory watched the rhinos, she noted that it stunk here.

The many rides at the zoo.

There was also a living ride.

Rory, Toby, and Rachel did very well riding the camel.

And then some photo opps.

And then we found a monkey totally on the loose.  Someone had better get this guy.

Well, it is getting nice and warm and I still have not gotten my truck fixed.  I have had to fix a starter on the Camaro (several times) and do multiple deeds but still have not got the truck fixed….sigh.  Anyway, Daniel called us up and said that he was taking a trip on the mountain, nothing too rough, and wanted to know if we wanted to go.  After a very short discussion about whether to go or not, we went.  We had a good time and saw just how different the terrain has changed in the past year.  We even stopped a little while for the kids to play in a good sized mud puddle before Daniel decided to disrupt the calm waters with his Durango.

The kids had a lot of fun throwing stuff in the puddle. 

They even discovered some tadpoles!!!!!

And now Daniel messes up the water.

Then we inspect the mud coverage of the Durango.  Not too bad for a leisurely trip.

It is a beautiful view from the top of the mountain.

Well this trip has inspired me even more to get my butt in gear to fixing my truck.  When I have it done I can begin to take rougher trips that will involve more vehicles.  In essence, I need other people to have around so we can pull each other out of holes we are ignorant enough to put ourselves in.  lol.  So hopefully my next muddin’ entry will be picturing my truck in all it’s rusty glory. 

Well, we had the second part of Easter with my family this past weekend.  We decided to combine it with the multiple birthdays that occur during the month of March and around that time.  It was quite the bash.  Everyone had fun, eggs were hidden and found, and food was eaten.  What more could you ask for?

Rory had to help her little sister open the presents.  But soon she was getting the system down pat.

She scored some really cool presents.

AND THEN THE EGG HUNTING BEGINS…

They scoured the yard for the elusive eggs.  Some were easy to find…

…and some were just out of reach.

What a bounty?!