THE PERFECT STORM

It started out beautiful and sunny. The morning was perfect with the weather warm and the grand kids still sleeping I was able to grab myself a cup of coffee and go out on the patio to enjoy the morning and the quiet. About ten, people started to stir and at that point things changed. Grandpa I'm hungry, grandpa Spencer is picking on me and so forth. With all of this being taken care of the day progressed. About three in the afternoon Spencer, Delaney and Angelica wanted to go around the lake, that being a small lake in the sub-division where I live that is about 4 blocks round. The clouds were gathering and you could hear the rumble of thunder in the distance. I told the kids to stay near the house because it was going to rain. Our weatherman, Spencer, said "look grandpa, the clouds are not that dark". With their persistence I said they could go but they would get wet. About five minutes after they left, this would put them about half way around, a few drops of rain hit the ground. I went through the house to the open garage when the skies opened up. I kept looking down the street for the kids, there wasn't any lightning or thunder so I wasn't worried about that. Two blocks down I saw three figures round the corner, two on bikes and one on a scooter coming down the street as if being chased by a herd of wild bulls. As they got closer you could hear the screams and as they got even closer you could see there was not a dry piece of clothing on any of them. Screaming, laughing and smiling the three of them rushed into the garage, glad to be safe at home. We had a good laugh that Spencer shouldn't be a weatherman when he gets older. They had a good time and talked about it for a long time.

WORK BOOTS USA

If you are in a trade where you are required to wear work boots, especially steel toed work boots, you may want to check out this website. http://www.workbootsusa.com/ . At Work Boots USA you will find famous brands such as Wolverine, Bates, Magnum and Converse just to name a few. And should you decide to purchase a pair of these great boots there is FREE SHIPPING on orders of $50.00 or more which is a considerable savings right there. And with the purchase of selected boots you can get a free pair of socks. It will take just a moment of your time to log into http://www.workbootsusa.com/ and select a pair to suit your needs.

Look at the different styles available to you such as soft toe, insulated, side zip, slip resistant, oxford's and the ever popular composite toe and steel toe boots Military and uniform boots are also available for purchase. Go to their website and look at the categories such as Best Sellers, What's Hot and Featured Brands. It's all there for that one stop shopping experience. No fighting crowds, and traffic and you can be assured that you are getting the best price for boots that you need and want. Do yourself a favor and visit http://www.workbootsusa.com/ today.

STICK IT TO CHINA

A few weeks ago I received an e-mail saying we, Americans, should hurt China buy not buying products made there. When purchasing something, look at the bottom of the item and if it says made in China, put it back and buy an American made item. The e-mail targeted Wal-Mart.

I was at my camper this past week and was in the process of staining my deck. I needed a new brush so I went to, yep, Wal-Mart. I went to the isle where there sold the paint equipment to look for a brush. I picked up a brush in a plain plastic wrapper because it was the cheapest price. I turned it over and yes, it was made in China. Looking around I saw a name brand brush, higher in price, and looked at the back. It was distributed by a company in Nappanee, Indiana and yes I was prepared to pay more for an American made item. Reading further I discovered this too was made in China. Same brush. Unfortunately I needed the brush and didn't have time to go around looking for an American made brush, so I bought the made in China brush. Next time I will go to ACE Hardware or Sears and maybe, just maybe they will have an American made brush.

A FRIEND CAME HOME YESTERDAY

As I have written before a very good friend of mine passed away on the first of July. Her name was Mandy and she was a West Highland Terrier. A real beauty. I had her cremated and her ashes returned to me in a beautiful Chinese urn, white with blue flowers. This may sound crazy but the urn sits on the top of my entertainment center along with the picture of my beloved wife who passed two and a half years ago. Mandy was my wife's dog but Mandy and I became very good friends after my wife passed. Needless to say I miss both of my girls and that's why I have Mandy's ashes and my wife's picture on the entertainment center. At least that way I can have both of them near me. I know she is just a dog, but to me she was a special dog and friend. Welcome home Mandy.

When she passed I cried and when I took her remains to the vet I cried. When I left it was easier. Yesterday when I went to pick up the ashes I thought I would just pick them up and leave but when the doctor brought out the box the hurt came back even stronger and again I cried. The female doctor gave me a hug to help ease the pain. With tears in my eyes I accepted the box and walked the full length of the store not getting out soon enough and came home.

I love dogs but will never have another and have to go through this again.

ZENNI OPTICAL

If you are in the need for eyeglasses and are looking for inexpensive glasses I highly recommend Zenni Optical. Visit their website at http://zennioptical.com/. You can get 1.57 High Index Lens Complete Prescription Eyeglasses from just $8.00. Depending on what you want they can supply you with complete Bi-Focal's starting at just $25.00 and complete Progressive eyeglasses starting at $37.00. Included with your purchase you get Anti Scratch coating - FREE -, UV protection -FREE-, and Lens Edge polishing and Beveling -FREE-. Also on this website you can see what upgrades they have to offer you. Frames? They have frames of all styles to fit everyones fancy. Frames come in metal, plastic and acetate. No matter how many pairs of glasses you order, shipping and handling is on $4.95 per order. Do yourself a favor and visit ZenniOptical.com and see how you can get quality eyeglasses at a reasonable price.

GOOD FOURTH OF JULY

The fourth was a beautiful day. Mother nature was kind to us with pleasant temperatures and partly sunny sky's. The morning was filled with hustle and bustle of preparing food and cleaning because we were have friends over for a BBQ. At 12:30 we left for the Crown Pointe, IN parade. Found a great parking space near the parade route. My grandchildren from Texas don't see parades like we have here so they were really excited. Parade started right on time with the usual fire trucks and police cycles and cars with sirens blasting. Each child was equipped with a bag to fill with candy as people on the trucks and floats and horses were throwing huge amounts of candy to everyone on the parade route. After seeing numerous trucks, politicians and church groups the Crown Point High School Cheer Leaders came by. My 9 year old grandson, Spencer's, eyes lit up because the girls were wearing short shorts. His comment was "now this is more like it. They are showing a lot of leg". Is he growing up or what?. All in all it was a nice parade, the kids got a lot of candy and my daughter and I got a good sunburn.
We left the parade and went home to prepare for our guests. We had taco salad, fruit bowl, hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, baked beans, strawberry jello with whipped cream, potato salad, noodle salad, pickles and the best of all was the sugar tasting corn on the cobb not to mention the sugar tasting watermelon. That made my sugar count go up. We ate, sat back and had good conversation and waited until dark to do fireworks. My daughter stopped in Missouri and bought fireworks at a place called Boom Town. I'm sure a few of you have passed or stopped at this place. She bought some great fireworks. One was an American flag with what she thought were fire crackers. Directions said to place on a flat surface and we did not know they meant lay it down so we stood it on end so we could see the flag. It was lit and it started shooting little rockets at us. Everybody scattered. My friend Steve kicked it down to lay flat and for at least five minutes it shot little plastic rockets that went into the air like little spirals. We were laughing at the way everyone was running for cover that my granddaughter wet her pants. I know it's not funny now that we think back on it. Nobody got hurt and we had good fireworks not only at my house but throughout the whole neighborhood. Spent all of this morning picking up the aftermath of our good time last nite. I know yours was just as good.
Thanks Dalene, Steve, Mia and Mia, Gage, Lorri, Delaney, Trent, and Aiddin for making my fourth of July a good one.

GREAT SHOW

From the time I was a kid I loved fireworks. When I was a kid you could buy huge sets of fireworks from ads off the back of comic books. The fire crackers were cherry bombs, m-80s and I think some were like half sticks of dynamite, rockets, fountains. You name it and it was there. The price was usually around $10.00. When you unwrapped the fire crackers and added them to the cherry bombs and other things you would get an entire shopping bag full of stuff. One year, I was about 10, I went to the beach with some of my parents friends and we were going back to my house for a BBQ and fireworks. After we had been at the beach for a couple of hours this friend, an adult, told me I should put a shirt on because I was getting burned. Of course I didn't listen and by the time night came I looked like a lobster and my legs were so burned I could hardly walk. My dad was afraid that I would kill myself with the fire crackers so he took a railroad flare and stuck it into the shopping bag. What a show that was along with the bottle rockets, sky rockets and fountains. With my sunburn I was laid up for a few days and believe me I never did that again. In those days there was no such thing as sun block.
Just thought I would share that little 4th story with you. Have a great and safe 4th.

A FRIEND HAS PASSED

In the year 1995 a friend of my wife and I was born. The cutest little thing you could possible envision. It was a West highland Terrier and we named her Mandy. At the end of nine weeks we brought her home to be part of our family. Wonderful friend and companion. She was my wife's friend more than mine, maybe because my wife was with her all day and I worked. She was gentle, friendly and was always there to listen to our problems. After listening she would let us know that everything would be alright by wagging her tail and giving us a big sloppy kiss and a bark. My wife passed away two years ago and Mandy was lost but as time went on we got closer and closer. Over the last year she developed an enlarged heart and a few other problems, but that didn't seem to bother her. It was in the last week that things went drastically down hill with her not drinking or eating and steadily getting weaker and weaker. Yesterday she could hardly walk and I had to pick her up to take her out. About seven last night I put her out to do her stuff and all she did after I set her down was to lay down and do her stuff in that position. I brought her in and layed her on a towel where she stayed without moving or lifting her head. About 9 pm my daughter and I went out and sometime between then and 10:45 she went to join my wife. I will really miss her because it's like losing my wife all over again. The pain is there and so are the memories. Take good care of each other Andie and Mandy. I love you both and miss you both.