Car Racing and Birthdays

KaCe is in Scouts and Tuesday was the Pinewood Derby Night.  Of course I missed a still of the cars coming down the track.  Figures.





 Here is a group of supervisors.  Wonder what they're talking about?

The race car driver and the head mechanic.

Prerace observation walk.

 Surveying the scales.

And they're off!

Maternal and Friends Box Seats

Inspecting the track!

Winner of the Most Fuel Economical Car

The pit crew learned al lot and are already planning for next year's derby.  Way to go KaCe!!  We Love You!













Then we trekked to Gillette for a short visit.
How awesome to learn that Alexa's Birthday
Celebration was going to take place while
we were there!  Wootwoot!  We got to see
ALL of them!

Erick, Jaci and Lori.  The gun on the wall was her Dad's that he used in the War.

Wiley is certainly making sure he gets loving from both Lori and Kevin.  The Brat.

Kim went outside to run the dogs.  They had a blast.

The "streak" is Lola, Kim/Phil's Corgi.  Can that dog run!!

        Phil, GDad and Adam
                             When's the cake??

   Mike, Alexa, Hayden, Andy & Rachel
   
Auntie Jaci says SMILE!

 ummmmm Sometimes the pictures just do their own thing.  Whatever!

Phil and Adam - Where's the cake??

Jaci & Dad Kevin

I think I see a pattern here.  Phil's Grandma, Phil and Adam........does he slways have his tongue out?   M a y b e..

The two Beautiful Granddaughters!

We sure do love this family!!

The precious Greats    Miss Hayden    age 5

Miss Andy  age 4

Miss Alexa  age 3

A GRAND time with the Greats!!










And then
It was time to get On The Road Again!

On The Road Again - Or maybe Not

This year we got Steer Safe installed on the motorhome.  We made a big circle through Deming to get it installed then on around Las Cruces to get the car hauler.  We parked at the Moose RV lot in TorC so we'd be closer to CarQuest.  Ken worked diligently to get the trailer lights hooked, and the brakes working again on the MH.  We were to head out April 19th the day after Chile Rellanos at the Moose! (Were they ever good - I'll be working on THAT recipe next fall when we get back to Big Jim Green Chile.)

I heard the biggest racket up by the billboard.  Yup baby crows or ravens. (I'm NOT a bird person.)  These kept the mama very, very busy as they seemed to be hungry all the time.

 

                                                               

The 19th dawned and we proceeded to embark.  Hmmmm yup got good brakes...........don't I?

Off we headed and the farther north we got the colder we got.  I decided to pull over to frind my long pants, heavier socks and a sweatshirt to get warm.  Holy Hannah!! I couldn't stop very good. And then the Park Brake didn't hold.  Yikes! This is NOT good.   so I very carefully mapped our route in my head, figuring our which lane to start in to end up where I wanted to be on I40 and used the gears to control speed etc. always looking ahead.  Limped into Camping World then Peterbilt then the RV Park and settled down to wait 2 days to get it fixed.  Ken had readjusted them again Friday morning (Bill had adjusted them last winter).  Called Whit about the situation; she called Trav; he called Ken and said "Sounds like your slack adjuster lock is stuck in the wrong position".  Ken had an ahah! moment."  One was; one wasn't.  15 minutes later we had our refund and were on the road again.  Made it to Colorado City that night then onto Rawlins the next,  Perfect brakes - trailer lights - not so much.  However Trav took care of that when we landed safely just in time for Easter Dinner.

The afterchurch egg hunt

Aedan

Ethan

KaCe

Change without Perspective OR The Messes We Leave In Our Wake

Change is often a horrible predicament.  We know we must do it but often it heads sideways and we reap many onions as we try to sow sweet flowers and perspective is shattered and often not found again for years.  This season was such a season for park management.  Us vs. them and then there were the rest of us.  We were constantly bombarded with us vs. them. As far as I'm concerned there was no right side.  Everyone was making crappy decisions.  Perspective for management was a thing of the past.
And then it happened-I lost my perspective - which as we know is mighty dangerous.  I had no dog in this fight so why was I getting so worked up?  I seemed to be torked at all of them. It wouldn't take me long at all to get on a soapbox.  Good grief time seemed to be racing backward and I was in 2000 watching "She Who Will Remain Nameless" 's antics.  Then to 2007 when I did my change-always remembering how SWWRN left under much drama and a turf battle.  I had vowed to not do that. I didn't.  Hello perspective!  Where are you???
Perspective - perspective - perspective.   When I was first told I'd lost perspective years ago I lit a fire under them! I not only didn't know what it was but couldn't even spell it.  However one of my friends cared enough to pound it into me over and over it until I took a step back and finally found a small peice to cling and build from.
 I found that generally time will (if it is not feed from out influences) help bring us to our senses-if we don't have friends that can slap us sharply back into reality.
So I tucked, ducked and ZLP'd my lips.  (Zip your mouth, Lock your mouth and put the key in you Pocket)
Time away will give us all perspective and when we again reunite the subject will be sharply excised if it comes up.   It's going to be an awesome summer visiting old haunts and showing all our friends (that follow us) new sights and sounds to them.  Woohoo!!

Coming Up For Air - February thru Mid-April 2014

(Actually updated in May, but What the heck?)  What a spring!  Ken is thankfully feeling much better and he began "getting into trouble" reminiscent of years gone by.  We are still weaning him off one of his medications (epilepsy) and he appears to be doing good.  His brain is working at a MUCH faster gate than it has been for about 4+ years.  Instead of planning his funeral (last September) he has moved on to upgrading the RV (I said NO!) right into upgrading the pkup.  Oh boy!! The stress of this decision is STILL riding on my shoulders as we had to go to Plan X in order to get IT north!!

 4 of us went exploring in Albuquerque. (Thank you Kathy for sharing your room and points with us.  We DO appreciate it!)  It had been years since I'd been to Old Town and we spent an afternoon there while Kathy let the slot machines cool off.

Route 66 Casino Hotel (I make that sound like it's separate from the Casino don't I.  NOT!

While in Old Town I decided to have Ken's old ring (1971) resized for his finger.  I had bunged up mine and the knuckle won't ever be smaller.  HE doesn't load logs any longer so it is now safe on his finger.

 During this time Debbie got us hooked on Temari  (say this with the LITTLE finger of the right hand extended and dulcet voice.  Yuk, Yuk!!)  You can find WAY more information than you probably want here:


Balls for Brains  Yes Debbie thought this title up.  It's our ball blog.  :)

 We assimulated another couple this year.  Betsy and Tom Rhomburg - great people!  Although Tom is having health problems they are managing.  The VFW got a shuffleboard machine and we went there on Tuesday afternoons.  (Free on Tuesdays.  What else?  We're retired.  )

Here is Tom and Maurene

Betsy and Bill

Then Ken got a haircut.  He got stung a few years ago so he no longer says there's only 3 weeks between a good haircut and a bad one.  The guy's been cutting his hair for 7 years.  Not any more.  :)

 Ken and I made a trip to Silver City where I got a horrible cold!!
This is between Silver City and Roberts Lake.

We did see wildlife - just one!

Silver City is a pretty little town in the hills - however it's too cold up there for our taste.

 Maybe this will be the year for mailboxes again.  Who knows.

In between times we went to Mexico to the dentist.  It was Kathy's turn in the chair and as she had been a trooper and gone with me I returned the favor.  This day Tom and Betsy went with.

And finally it was April we prepared to go to Las Cruces to get the new drive shaft put in that would enable us to tow 4 down. (Just like Jim & Claire have.)  The day before Mike called and said it was on back order and wouldn't be in until May sometime.  GIVE ME A BREAK!!!  That afternoon we found 2 car hauler trailers in TorC.  One needed brakes, one needed tires and both had seen better days. Grrr!  So off to Cruces for yet another doctor appoinment to see what we could fine.  We found a wonderful Mexican restaurant that makes to die for tomatillo sauce and Ken literally downed his sorrows in it and a Mega Burrito!!  Oh and yes we found a new car hauler with brakes and tires and the whole enchildada.  Of course it's price tage came with the enchildada also.  Decision time!