Life at the Beach

Well Hello Sports Fans,   We spent nearly a week at the Beach in Gulf Shores, Alabama near Fort Morgan and had a great time with the family.  Our Niece, Amy set it up and we were in a beautiful beach house with a pool and about everything you could want.  Carrie, another niece, said that on the last day of our trip she discovered a TV in their room and she hadn't turned it on.  I guess when there are so many fun people a TV just isn't needed.  There were two sides of the duplex and most of the non TV people drifted to our side.  Our Sports nut, Kevin watched some form of sports from the time he got up tot he time he went to bed over next door.  He is such a rabid fan that on the college ball game day he had a different t-shirt for each team he watched.  He even got out a stuffed bull dog when Georgia played.

I wish I could share with you how much love and passion for life that our group had.  We had some great discussions and one or two times where the voices got a little louder.  Like most of our discussions, most of them ended with everyone just moving on.  I don't think a fellow could really have a bad time with any of the people there.  'Cides, it was more fun to pick on the people that weren't there.  We always had Jenn to remind us that our perceptions were just that and some of them may be wrong.  

MUD and Leo

There were one or two times where the southern accents got in the way of clear understanding.  The fact that they take large words and make one syllable out of them and then one syllable words often have two or three does make for interesting conversations.  We had a swimming "poo" and that wasn't a punch bowl with a turd in it.   Something simple like head came out more like "he-a-id"   Even our former Yankee Amy was well on her way to picking up the accent.

We were blessed by having a Master "Grill/chef" with us and everyone tried to fix one or two meals that was their specialty.  Keith worked his magic on the grill and we had some wonderful food.  Yesterday I got on the scales for the first time in a week and I have gained back 10 of the 30 lbs I had lost.  I am back on that forced march diet for a couple of weeks.  I do want to lose another 20 or 30 by Christmas.  Yes, I know I will probably lose 20 and gain back 10 between Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

Here in the fall, there are a few projects that I want to get done so things will be winter ready.  One of the first is to spend today on the outside here at Rabbit Run.  Things look shaggy and a few passes with a mower will be a good thing.  I need to make a plan on where I want to burn a bunch of dead pine trees.  I may need to get a bush hog and clear an area in the field to be able to burn without setting the place on fire.  The good news is that this week we got at least an inch of rain so things aren't quite so dry.  I think there is a new green tint to things that were well on their way to dry.

During our trip, my cell phone divorced me.  I got a message that my SIM card wasn't registered?  I called the Customer Service line and spent 20 minutes with an agent that kept telling me that everything in her system was working and my phone was working.  I think when I shouted at her that my damned phone wasn't working that she finally apologized but had no solution.  I hung up pissed off and applied the old MUD, "I can fix anything" attitude to it.  I pried off the back of the phone, took out the battery, reset the SIM card put the battery back in and everything worked.  I probably am better off that I didn't have a working phone on the beach.  Salt Water and sand don't make electronics work better.

Oh well, enough of this, off vacation and back to retirement.  Yes, when you are you own boss, they are a lot the same.

MUD