We are Grandparents!

We are the pround Grandparents of a baby boy "Callen David" born on June 14th Flag Day.

We are now back in New York at our summer place enjoying working and playing while getting our list of projects and supplies ready for Kasidah this fall.

My how time Flies

My How Time Flies

Well it seems like just yesterday I moved to JFK JR High School in Southington CT.      A lot has happened in this short time,.. a lot! Soon I am to have the honor of being called “Grampa” It happens every day, to nearly every family that is blessed, all across this world.

I’m sure by the time you read this it will be know the outcome of this.

Back up a few steps and when last we posted here we had just arrived in NY for the summer of 2014. We had a few good days to open the camper, AKA, our summer home and get ready for a busy summer. The work van had a few issues that developed over the winter but I was able to take care of them myself. We started off our short summer season with a note from the Commissioner of Jurors for me to be a Grand Juror, the note said please set aside 6 weeks of your time for this. Yeah Right!!, that is more than a ¼ of the time that I would work to earn any money for us. Now I have never applied for unemployment, food stamps, (but could) or anything from the system, all I want to do is work at something I’m very good at, pay my fair share of taxes and move on. I explained this to the Commissioner and they did allow me to postpone until September. That is when 6 weeks of my summer here is measured differently. It reminds me of a wise Native American, (wait, I was born here, can’t I be called that too? Nope) that said, referring to the introduction of Day light saving, “Only a Government Agency would think that if he cut one foot off the end of a blanket and sewed it onto the other end, he would have a longer blanket,…”

Our first job of the year was planned at the end of last year, and involved the remolding of a bathroom. Arline and I worked about 2 weeks on this. We tore out an old tub, and sink, put new subflooring down, new tub and shower enclosure, new toilet, new vanity and sink with marble top, plumbing, sheetrock work and painting. It really did turn out nice and our friends love it.

From there we started with real work of just electrical; we did a couple of small camp projects and have more to go.

Memorial Day was the earliest it can be this year and we went to Amy and Jeremy’s, Arline had her bags packed planning to stay a while, and for me to return to NY working till the baby comes. While there Amy found out from the Air Force that she did qualify for VESP (Voluntary Early Separation Program). Think I got that right. It’s very complicated but the easy way of telling this is that she now is going to fly for the Air Reserve unit out of Dover and going back to the big C-5. It will be a lot easier for a mom and dad. I think she’ll be able to fly more on her terms, when she and Jeremy can rotate around baby care stuff.   

I returned to NY and Jae Bee Electric working on several things when a customer called and asked how far I would travel for a couple of days of work. He had a camp in the Adirondacks that the local electrician just couldn’t get to for awhile. It was a small camp that needed to be roughed in and a service installed, he wanted me to go and just kick it in the ass as he and everybody knows I do with any project or work I’m involved in. I drove the 3 hours to Speculator on Lake Pleasant and worked 3 days, he set me up in a camp of a friends, right on the lake for a couple of nights. It’s a very small town and by the time I left everybody knew where I was working, and who I was. I knew the lady at dinner worked at the hardware store, the 2 guys at the pizza lunch counter were a father son team that had on the side of their van; carpenter, plumber, mason, electrical, nuisance animal control and tour guide. (You needed a van to put all that on, it wouldn’t fit on a pick-up truck door). One night at dinner at the lodge/bar a handful of locals saw my van and found out where I was working that evening was a great conversation of all things. The small shop had a sign that said “Beer Bait and Diesel” what else do you need. The last day working at the camp I only had half a day to finish what I wanted, but the contractor friend asked if I could look at the 2^nd camp where I was staying, it had no water to it and worked off the camp I was staying in. I put on my plumbers hat and crawled under the camp, found the garden hose that supplied the camp, turned the valve to on, and that’s when I saw all the leaks. What a jury rigged contraption I saw. After a trip to the hardware store, a bag of parts I crawled underneath again and put it together, not right but better.

A few more projects came in while Arline, Blue, Amy and Jeremy were waiting and playing tennis. Two projects that came in are marine related. I have some electrical work at a marina and some dock work. This is a marina we meet on our way to NY with Kasidah in ’06, Kim at Ess-Kay Yards runs and works her family owned marina and has been a friend ever since. She has also helped us with Westerbeke motor parts while we were in the Bahamas. Her prices always beat shops in FL. I also have a sail boat that has an electrical problem. He knows my trouble shooting work and hasn’t been able to get anybody to even look at his boat. I’ll have to wait till after the grandchild shows up to travel to the Brockport-Waterport area.

Arline and I are back together in MD waiting for this event of a grandchild. The 3 weeks without Arline went by fast but slow if that’s possible. I got a fair amount done but spent a lot of time looking for my keys, or the note I just made. Often I would find myself just moving things around while looking for something different and then losing that too. Maybe Arline will find it when she gets back to the summer home. I hate the laundromat by myself and hate cooking alone,…..along with all the other things I had to do alone.

I realize just how much Arline and I share in common every day.

As I’m writing this Amy thinks her water broke and will go to the hospital to find out. If it did break this is it, if it didn’t it will be soon as she is almost a week over do. At this time as our family gets ready to celebrating a new life and learning how to live with the newness that’s coming, a friend of ours just lost his wife too early in life. Their family will be gathering and remembering a wonderful lady and learning to live with the change and loss. Our heart and prays go out to them.

It seems like it was just yesterday that Ro,Terry,Sue

and Donna walked me home to Kasidah that first night and weekend at the marina with Kasidah and the campfire where we meet Cameron and Rosemary.

My How Time Flies.