This weekend the kids went on the Adirondack Railroad’s Halloween Train from Holland Patent to Remsen. Spiderman (Trevor), Shadow Ninja (Eric) and the Princess (Dakota) enjoying the ride.
This morning we carved pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns.
I was killing time on the computer and did a search from within YouTube for “Winter Camping” and this popped up – posted by Mohawk Valley Living. If you didn’t see the TV show then you can catch the show here. Most of the pictures were collected by Mohawk Valley Living, the only one from our WinterCampers.com website is the group shot and Matt’s head got nearly chopped off.
Eric has progressed in AYSO soccer from not kicking the ball in week 1 to dribbling down field and taking a shot on goal in the next to last game of the season. He missed the goal, but has gotten the idea of getting the ball away from other players and trying to score. At this level – no one passes. Here Eric brings the ball into play.
Thursday morning I had surgery to cure my Atrial Fibulation at
After about 3 hours of surgery I was discharged to the cardiac ICU with two drainage tubes from my chest, IVs in my arms and caratroid artery, a foley and an oxygen line. My internal organs were pretty swollen and sore and most of Thursday afternoon was spent trying to get some pain medication to kick in. All things considered I slept OK Friday night alternating sides to facilitate drainage from my chest. I thought I would be sore on my sides, but my ribs didn’t bother me. The discomfort was caused by swollen internal organs and the 10-12″ of drainage tubes that extended into my torso. I could feel the drainage tubes whenever I took a deep breath and expanded my lungs.
Friday morning I tried my 1st foods and got pretty nauseous – by lunch time I was able to eat a little solid food. Friday afternoon I was walking and my left chest tube was removed along with my caratriod IV. I was glad when the rest of my tubes were removed on Saturday and I was discharged. I have a blistering reaction to the surgical tape that holds my chest bandages but otherwise feel good – all things considering.
On this date in 1860, 11-year-old Grace Bedell wrote Lincoln the fateful letter suggesting that he grow whiskers. Though Lincoln expressed doubts about it, within the month he had grown a beard and he became the first bearded US President. Except for William McKinley, every President through William Howard Taft (1908) sported a beard or mustache. Since 1908 every president has been clean-shaven.
“All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you and then you would be President.” — Grace Bedell, in her letter to Lincoln
We received .95″ of rain on Monday night in a thunderstorm followed by an long steady drizzle. Tuesday night we received .8″ in a gully washer of a thunderstorm at 5pm. We ate dinner and watched the rain. We watched the new pond raise up 4.5 feet in a matter of a couple of hours. My little pond by the road was overflowing; I pulled weeds and cat tails from the overflow to let it drain. The lower pond filled up slowly overnight.
We have had a female puppy in our house for almost a week now. She is pretty well behaved – for a puppy. The biggest issue is sleeping at night. We are so concerned about in-house accidents and so are attuned to waking up to put the puppy outside multiple times during the night. Between hearing the puppy stir and/or Eric moving around we are waking up hourly during the night. It is like a sleep lab experiment where they wake you frequently in the middle of dream cycles. It’s great for remembering your dreams, but doesn’t feel so restful in the morning……
Scout ‘scouting’……
Going Fishing…..
We had a three day weekend and went to Stratford Canada with our friends Jim & Pam for the Stratford Arts Festival. The festival runs for seven months and there are four permanent festival venues: the Festival Theatre, the Avon, the Tom Patterson Theatre, and the Studio Theatre. Although the festival was originally named for Shakespeare, and still concentrates on his works, Shakespeare is not the only playwright produced. The current playbill includes classical, contemporary and musical performances.
We drove up on Friday and encountered heavy traffic the whole way. We arrived in time to check in, munch and get to our evening performance. We saw Oscar Wilde’s “An Ideal Husband” on Friday night. Saturday we visited a great Goodwill store, had brunch, shopped around and caught Shakespeare’s “A Comedy of Errors” as a matinee. In the evening we saw “To Kill a Mockingbird“. All the plays were good, but To Kill a Mockingbird was spell binding. The child actors were great and the little girl playing Scout was tremendous.