Now which end is up with me?

My gas prices are up
My mileage is down

My expectations are up
My poll numbers are down

My job index is up
My productivity is down

My step count is up
My cholesterol is down

My daylight is up
My snow shoveling is down

My sleeves are rolled up
My mulch is lying down

My ticks and mosquitoes are up
My ants are down

My things to read are up
My time to read is down

My floatings are up
My fallings are down

My family is up
My detractors are down

My things to remember are up
My memory to remember is down

My ying is up
My yang is down

What are your ups and downs?

Spheres of various locations

We managed to get ourselves spread out this weekend. Friday morning Carol and Lois traveled up to northern Maine to visit their mother (Margaret), do a bit of work at the camp, take in the Swedish Midsommar Celebration in New Sweden and visit their father's (Alton) grave.

Margaret wearing a floral wreath Carol made for her at one of
the activity areas at the Swedish Midsommar Celebration.

Swedish May Pole

The south end of a moose that Carol
and Lois encountered in their travels.

Meanwhile Ian and went out for supper that evening and later watched my Blade Runner DVD. Saturday afternoon he took off for Vermont to meet up with a group of fellow students from the EcoQuest program they attended in New Zealand during this spring semester. So here I am at home - Ian 4 hours west of me and Carol 5.5 hours north of me, then by 4:30 today we're all back home. Just struck me kind of funny last night , home alone (with the furry beasts) and thinking about the relative locations of each of us at that moment.

from bad to a lot better

My weekend got off to a bad start when I came down sick while at work Friday. Early I began getting a headache and a queasy stomach. It faded away as lunchtime approached so I headed out for some lunch, unfortunately shortly after returning the symptoms returned stronger than before. By the time I picked up Carol after work she had to drive as I slept most of the way home. I immediately went to bed where I was able to sleep a little or lay there feeling crappy. I did manage to get up for an hour and watch some TV with Carol then continued my mixed sleeping pattern. Saturday morning I was feeling a lot better but I tired easily. In the afternoon Carol, Ian and I attended a Eagle Court of Honor for one of our Troop's Scout. Great kid, did it all in the Troop and had a good project: benches and picnic tables at a pond side park for the neighboring town he lives in. Light snacks and a cake at the reception afterwards, some chatting with folks there then back home to close out the afternoon with another nap. Sunday morning, a rainy Fathers Day (hope any Dads reading this had a happy Father Day), I felt a whole lot better. A while after breakfast Ian gave me his Fathers Day gift, a real nice reciprocating saw. Really cool tool, which I think we'll both enjoy using. Cuts through all kinds of things. I always wanted one but never could bring myself to buy it.

Here is the Fathers Day award presentation as Ian
presents the Dad with his trophy reciprocating saw...
not quite how it really went down - gift wrapped and
opened properly at an earlier time but a fun picture to take.

Afterwards Ian went to meet up with some friends for lunch and Carol and I went over to Lois and Jim's to visit over lunch where Lois had prepared a big salad and cooked up a batch of baby back ribs - worthy calories, I needed them to make my recovery complete. Spent the rest of the afternoon watching NASCAR, Redsox and Tiger. Called Mom in the evening and caught up to what she has going on (the Cat Chronicles). By the end of this day I was feeling pretty good.

The return of "Old Rope"

Another day of yard work, hotter than yesterday. As I was gassing up my tractor I glanced to my left and there was a snake hiding it's head under the tractor seat. I believe this may be a milk snake. When I described it to Jim later in the day that was the first thing that came to mind for him. I looked it up on the web and a picture I found there looked something like this guy who appeared to be over three feet long as I picked him up and put him outside of my utility shed, hopefully so he'd continue eating the bugs and mice in the area. I've named him "Old Rope" as I do with every large snake I seem to come across each summer. I'm not a fan of handling snakes and I'm usually startled every time I find one but I try not to disturb them so they'll go about their business. Found a baby snake later at the other end of the yard as I was string trimming along the house. Tossed him under some bushes a short distance away to keep him out of harm's way while I finish up the task at hand. I hope he had been munching on the ants near the house.

Turn up the heat

Finally had something close to hot weather today. So what are we doing?... yard work, which is fine. Both Carol and I went at a couple of things that we wanted out of the way. A particular area to one side of the driveway. Finished clearing out an overgrown part and cleaning up a old brush pile, old enough to have composted at the bottom. We also cut down a scrub tree that had broken during one of the nastier winter storms. We definitely felt like we accomplished something in spite of the heat. We're also gearing up to start building a deck on the backside of the house. Paid a visit to one of the home improvement big box stores (the blue one) last night followed by picking up a few items at WallyWorld. Ian is away this weekend at an Order of the Arrow Conclave being held in upstate Vermont. I hadn't mentioned it in any earlier blog that Ian had some surgery on his left foot which he is recovering quite well from and after three weeks he can now start putting some weight on it reducing his time on crutches considerably. He also began his summer job at a nearby day camp which he did last summer where he is in charge of the nature program.

Hey, that Priest is a cousin of mine! Congratulations Chris!

Last weekend I attended a "Solemn Mass of Thanksgiving" to celebrate the Ordination to the Priesthood of one of my cousins, Christopher. He had been working for a long time to become a Priest and was a very proud time for his parents, my Uncle Peter and Aunt Shirley and their family. Many family members turned out for the service and the following reception which I attended with Mom and my sister Kathy. In addition to witnessing a cousin perform Mass it was a great opportunity for me to visit with relatives I don't see very often. It was a terrific evening.