Marching Band Snow and Misery

Friday morning, I had to go into the office and finish up what I was working on Thursday evening. My processes that I was running did end around 12:30 AM, but I wasn't able to stay up that late to get the next segment going. It had been a long, frustrating day on Thursday. I was tired when I went in to work and had a headache from getting too little sleep. I did finish everything out that needed to be finished out before leaving work for Boondocks where our department was having a retreat.

At the retreat we saw some of the processes that are ongoing at work. We saw a little bit about the finances of the company and that we are having another good year (not as many accidents as anticipated). We had a break where we broke up into four teams and went in (two teams) to play lasertag. My team lost, but I found out later that they didn't tell our team about shooting the others base, and they did tell the other team. I think we did pretty well without having that knowledge. We then went in for the rest of the presentations that were to be given and had lunch (oh, we had a continental breakfast to kick all this off).

Just a little after 1:30 we were released to be able to go play anything we wanted to play at boondocks. I went with most of the crowd to the go-carts. We all had a pretty good time messing around in those, and thankfully, nobody was kicked out of the park. Like most people, I went home fairly early. I was kind of tired from the activities, and they were getting to be a bit boring to me.

A little later, one of the ladies from the Marching Band (actually her daughter is in the color guard) showed up to give us some pork to cook overnight. We didn't do too much for the rest of the evening.

I sat down with our daughter so we could write her talk that she has to give on Sunday. It is the same topic that they had told us (wrongly) for our son two weeks ago. That topic was "Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven". I was amazed that I was able to come up with a totally different way (with my daughter) to tell the same type of things. In both cases personalities were pretty well matched up.

Saturday morning we all got up to start getting ready to go for the Marching Band competition in Payson. We got the meat all wrapped up and in the car, and then grabbed a bunch of other stuff as well. We had to have our son to the school by 9:45 AM. The buses ended up leaving the school at around 10:45. It was raining almost the entire way down there. When we arrived there was only a small drizzle. We went into the school and kind of explored the school because it was cold outside.

We finally decided we had better find the rest of the band. We got over to where they were, and the rain wasn't coming down too much. It did get worse, and we added our canopy to two others that were already up. No sooner did we get it up, then it seemed that the whole Marching Band was under it. That lasted for awhile, and then they all had to go practice. Since it was raining, I went and handed out plastic rain ponchos to each of them.

When I got back, we decided to fire up the Coleman stove so we could start heating some water up for hot chocolate. This was a good thing to have brought with us, as it allowed to get the water just a bit hotter than it was. The band went and played, and then came back. We did not go to watch it because we felt that we needed to help out with the lunch as well as it was raining pretty hard. The weather made the instruments go a bit flat, but I guess we did as good as anybody else because we took first in our division. My son tells me that fingers were feeling frostbitten, and that the drummers fingers were so cold that he couldn't even do a drum roll. The color guard were not dressed as well as the band and were practically forzen to death.

Anyway, they all changed their clothes and came in to have some of the pulled pork sandwiches that were made for them. Thank goodness the Gassers (pronounced Gosser - I learned this from the sad experience of calling the name as I thought it should be) had taken the meat we had prepared and put some barbecue sauce with it, and they also did the shopping for all the rest of the groceries. This made it relatively easy for my wife and I to simply help. One of the problems that we had was that we couldn't get the generator started up again for awhile. I did finally get it going, and my wife told me that now I could call myself a manly man (as others had tried and failed). I don't think my wife saw me try the first time I had tried it.

By the time the band came to eat, the snow had started up. All of the band was trying to stay dry and warm as their gloves and shoes didn't give much protection from the wet. It was also quite windy. We hit down into the 30's as far as temperature goes. That was strange because the day before we were in the upper 80's. Anyway, the lunch went off without too many hitches. My wife and daughter helped in the serving of the food.

Driving home was an experience too. There were times when we were in whiteout conditions. It was a bit scary and my wife said a prayer that all would be safe. When we talked to the guy driving the trailer he told us that he had to hit the brakes hard because traffic had come to a stop and that he kept on praying that he would actually stop before he hit something else. All arrived at the school safe. I was glad that I had taken all the things that I took. We didn't end up needing the battery that I had taken, but that would've been an option if we weren't able to get that generator to work. The Coleman stove was indispensable as was the canopy (although I am wondering if the wind ruined it anymore than the one broken piece on it).

After we got home, my wife and I went out to the store to get a few things that were needed for our dinner tonight. We got home from that and were a bit tired. I did have to get things put away, and dry out the canopy in the basement.

This morning, my wife got up and started to prepare the roasts that we were to have for dinner tonight. After priesthood meeting, I headed home and helped my wife with a few odds and ends and then we got back to church for Sacrament meeting. My in-laws came, as well as Pam, Anne and Zach. Zach is more interested in the way that an LDS meeting goes. I think it was interesting to him to observe all of us.

Sacrament meeting was actually enjoyable. All of the talks went over quite well, and I think my whole family was impressed. One of the speakers (Sister Peebler) told of the sacrifice of losing her son, but that other more valuable blessings were in store from that. Pam told us that they should've handed out tissues before church for that story.

Well, once home, we had the final preparations and then we ate. Dinner was superb. My wife really did a great job at everything that she had done. I hope she knows that her sacrifice was appreciated. We were able to sit around and talk for awhile, and then everybody but our family left. My wife and I relaxed and watched an LDS flick called "Anxiously Engaged". It was kind of a cute show.

Problems at Work

Nothing much happened yesterday, but today was kind of a pain in the rear. Today started out OK, and went well for a good portion of the day. We had a meeting with Doug (in Portland) about this conversion we are trying to accomplish. He said that he would have things ready for us in just a little bit. When it was around 3:15 today, I gave him a call to see where he was. Just as I called him, we got an email saying that he was done with his part and that I could do my part.

I started up my process and then it ran too fast, and when I looked at it, I found that there were some problems with getting through at all. Doug also emailed me letting me know that things didn't look good on his end. I ended up staying at work for an hour overtime in order to find why passwords were wrong. The problem is, we have too many connectors going all over the place to be able to see where the real problem lies. We did finally find it, and corrected it. I started up the process again and left.

Now, it was rush hour traffic (this is why I try to leave work at 4:00 everyday). I got home, and immediately had to leave to pick up our son from school. We grabbed some Subway Sandwiches on the way home.

I figured everything was probably working, and my daughter was on the computer so I didn't look at the process immediately. Finally, around 7:00 I decided I had better look. Part of the job had crashed and Doug had emailed again telling us that it was looking bad. Things weren't loaded right. I ended up on the phone with Paul as to what to do about this one. After a few tries, we decided to restrict what was happening to a few rows being added to the database in Oregon. That worked great. So, I did a little bit more and then one a little more. Finally, I did the rest, which was the major part of the load. I am up watching the process, but it is going quite slow. I think I will go to bed and finish it out tomorrow. What I did, shouldn't have fixed the problem, so we are going to have to look into it and see what it is that happened.

Part of the reason I have had to work so hard on this tonight is that it has to be done by tomorrow and I don't have tomorrow to work on it because we have a retreat at Boondocks tomorrow. I guess I'll have to finish this up in the morning. I am tired.

Marching Band - Weber State

Work kept me quite busy today putting out fires and the like. I got them all out, and I'm still not huffing and puffing. It was nice to get home finally from work.

After school today, my son had come on home and got his stuff for Marching Band and headed back to the school. My wife actually let him drive our SUV. I guess she didn't say anything to him, but she told me that she was pretty darn nervous about everything with the drive over.

At home again, with me, my wife told me I had better get some pictures over to moms house soon for 2005 or we would not have any pictures in her history (and everybody else would). Our daughter went to Young Women and we were at home watching some TV. I kept on getting up during advertisements so I could do some of the work that needs to be done on those pictures. I don't even know if I'll be on time or not. I worked really late on them, and that with my daughter asking me questions about the homework that she came in to do. About the time that I was getting ready to burn some pictures to CD my wife informed me that I needed to go pick up our son because he had forgotten the phone and should be home around 11:00 tonight. Well, I left that burning until a bit later.

I got to the school at about the time the buses were arriving. I watched for our son to get off but didn't actually see him. I later saw him milling about and he claims that he was asking people to borrow their cell phones and nobody he talked to had one. He said that he had enjoyed going on this trip to Weber State, and I am proud of him for all the hard work that he is putting into that.

Anyway, after arriving home, I did some final touches to the pictures I was moving to CD and burned the CD. I now have it ready for my mom. Hopefully, it isn't too late. If it is, "Oh Well!". It's something I had to do anyway.

New Driver - BEWARE!

OK, this time I haven't written based on sheer laziness. The problem with this kind of writing is that I now have to go back in time to figure out what it is that has happened, and then try to keep a certain order to it. Well, this is my stab at that.

In order for our son to get his learners permit we had to come up with his birth certificate as well as a social security card. We knew they were somewhere in one of the boxes that has never been emptied since we have moved into this house, but the question was, where? Of course he wants us to find them as soon as possible. I looked in quite a few places and couldn't find them anywhere. So, on Thursday, I took some time to go and get a birth certificate. The cost of that was $15. I then went to the Social Security office (which is just across the parking lot from where I work) to see about obtaining his Social Security card. In order for me to get it, I need something that is current about him (showing that he has not died) with my name on it. They told me that a school transcript would work. The only other way was for him to come in with me with his ID so he could also verify that I am his father. Anyway, the transcripts that we have don't have my name on them, but my wifes. So, she would have to go in.

We spent some of Thursday evening looking in some boxes and shredding documents we no longer need. My wife did finally find the birth certificates (a waste of $15) and Social Security cards. So, we don't need to go in and do any of that.

Since I have to go into work this coming Friday, I took Friday the 21st off. When I got up in the morning, I went outside and prepped our outside door for painting, and then painted it. I also took care of a couple of odds and ends. I had arranged with our son to pick him up where he would be missing his last class (which was seminary) so we could go in and wait in line at the DMV. That actually took longer than I thought it would. We had all the paperwork, but had to sit there for almost two full hours. Everything was in order, I paid $15 and then had to wait about 20 more minutes for him to have his picture taken. He didn't want to drive home.

I had to hurry home because I had told my wife I would be on time for our date. We wanted time for me to change and get ready and get to dinner before we went to a play. I cleaned up pretty good. We went to Mimis for dinner, and then went to Murray Park. In Murray Park there was a young couple that was dry humping on the grass. We let them know it was really stupid (like that's what we want to see).

We finally went to the Desert Star where we watched Spamlet (a spoof on Hamlet). We really enjoyed the show, and it was full of all kinds of humor. There wasn't much else to do after it was over so we headed home.

Saturday morning, our son had to go to the driving range at school. I let him drive over there, and then I came home. After his driving range, I got him and our daughter to mow the lawn, and then, I took him out driving. It was raining a little bit, and we drove around in it. We went to our old neighborhood and stayed mostly on small roads. We did get onto one big road where he was able to go 50 MPH. One of the traffic lights was out, so he got to learn how to handle that. When we were almost home, there was a long cone that was covering a hole in the ground. I told him to watch for it a few times and he just ran right over it. That wouldn't have been a big problem, but it got stuck on the axle of the car. I had to get out in the rain and hold onto it while he backed up. It also pulled a bit of my bumper out of place (on the bottom). That was the only real mistake that he had made. Oh well.

Surprise, surprise, our son wanted to go get some groceries for the house. Our daughter put on three seatbelts in the back seat so she would be safe.

Sunday came and went. We went to our meetings, came home, had dinner and just kind of vegged. It rained off and on for most of Sunday.

Tonight, we went to our sons school so we could see the Marching Band perform. It was a time that we were allowed to see what kind of torture the band leader is putting our kids through. I also had the opportunity to go out on the field to try to move with him. They certainly get their exercise. It was freezing butt cold out there, and our son is down there in shorts and a t-shirt. He claims that he wasn't cold, but I'm sure he was. We enjoyed being there and seeing what it was that he does. Well, that's it for now.

Service

Today and yesterday were busy days at work for me. I have been taking care of some of the issues that have been coming up with this latest conversion and we have now found one more problem that we are going to have to rely on Doug in Oregon to take care of. We hate it when we have to rely on him because it is hard to get him to do anything that we need in a timely manner, and we are never sure of the results because he tends to do patchwork work. We'll pull through it alright, but its kind of a pain.

Well, yesterday, after picking up our son from school (the Marching Band thing) we got him home to eat some dinner, and then he and I headed out for the Wards house to help out with the sod. Sister Ward is a member of the church, but her husband isn't. He has a cast on one of his legs and the people he had contracted with to do his landscaping bailed out on him. One of the members of our ward told him he would get ten guys to come over and help him out on Monday (which is the day we did it). He thought at first it was a landscaping company and asked how much. He was told that Kool Aid ought to do it. Yes, he realized it was the ward coming over.

Anyway, my son and I were only there for about 2 hours. They had to rake the ground as well as putting the sod in. Some were working on putting the sprinkler heads on for them. We mostly hauled the sod into the backyard. It was a good service project and Brother Ward (I know he's not a member, but refer to him this way mostly because I don't know his first name) was in tears as he watched all the people who came over. He choked up every time he thought about it. That is true gratitude.

Tonight, I went in to pick up a quart of paint for my doorway on the back door. That's all I did so far, but will be putting it on sometime in the near future. I also got some colors for my wife and I to look at for the back porch. It was good to see my wife relaxing in the backyard when I arrived home. She needs that. She has been so tired lately, and I hate seeing that. She did come into the house in time for a haircut tonight (actually she did three).

The kids went over to a combined Young Men/Young Women activity. They were helping the Gustavos family move in. The Young Men moved the food storage (two years worth for eleven people) to the new house and the Young Women helped set up the new house. I think it was a good service project for them. Our daughter asked us if it would be OK to take Melina (her best friend from across the street) with her to Young Women partly because she thinks the boy her age in the Gustavos family is cute. I told her she could take Melina to any activity with the Young Women when my son pipes up that she can't take Melina to baptisms for the dead. Melina just looked a little confused with that. Trust my son to say something like that. He is a bit like me that way.

Well, that's about it.

Weekly adventures

Well, it seems that the weeks just keep on going past me. I have good intentions to write here, but it seems that I am only committed to about 1 day in 7 to write. Maybe that is about six times of a blessing to those who are reading, as my writing would be cut down by about that much.

I call my daughter in Florida about once a week as well. Lately, there have been two weeks before we actually communicate. Today was one of those days that I talked to my daughter. It's just like in the writing in here. There really isn't that much to communicate with her. At least with the communication with her, she knows that I love her and that I do my best to communicate with her. So, despite the similarity, I guess it really is a whole lot different from writing here. It would be nice if life wasn't always the same old stuff, but it seems that it really is.

Well, as usual, I'll try to only write the things that really were different about this week.

The first different thing I can think of was on Thursday. I went to pick up my son and attend a meeting for the parents and children of those who are in Marching Band. There were some papers to sign for them to be able to go on the trip to Southern California. We were also informed that there is another $150 due at the end of this month for that trip (which is at the end of October). We got all of the paperwork signed and notarized and we left.

We noticed that the Gustavos family was moving, so we went to their new home (also in our neighborhood) to see if they needed any help. They said they were only going to do one more load from the one house to the other. I offered to help. We went home and grabbed a quick bite to eat and then went to help out. We filled the trailer up in about a half hour and then emptied it at the new house in another half hour. I asked if they didn't want to do one more load for the night. They thought that would be great. It took about another hour of our time to do this. They seemed grateful for the help we gave them, and we were glad to help. They are a great family. Sister Gustavos took me through the new house so I could see it. It is a beautiful home. I went home tired on this night.

Friday was my normal day off, and my wife and I were able to go to Sams club to get a few items that were necessary for the primary/ward party for that night. My wife was a bit upset with me because she felt I should've planned something for us to do (without the kids around in the day) during this time. I guess I failed in that. I was just expecting to take care of some of the things that needed to be taken care of for the activity. My plans to go out on Saturday for a nice lunch to Park City didn't go down very well because of the timing of my asking my wife for this. I didn't really know what more I could've done on this.

We had to take our son to the high school for the homecoming football game. There were dark clouds and that was a bit worrisome. We then got to the church a little bit early to see if they needed any help to prepare for the party. Things were mostly under control, but we realized that we had forgotten cups to give water along with the pies. I ran and did that while my wife started to cut some of the pies up. Sister Lambourne came into the kitchen to help my wife cut the pies, and while the program (primary talent show) was going on, Sister May, who is on the activity committee showed up to help. This was a bit of a surprise to us, as we haven't gotten the help we have needed so far.

We got pies out there in time for all the people to have after the program. There were some home made pies as well as the store bought ones. We did keep the cost down by asking a few members to bring a couple of pies. There was two wonderful homemade peach pies at the place. Those went in a hurry.

My wife and I ended up taking four pies home. We couldn't really get rid of them any other way, so I guess we'll freeze them and eat them over time.

During the activity, we looked out at the darkness and saw thunder and lightening. My wife was concerned that our son would be hit. I told her that as long as he stayed lower than the Tubas, he should be fine.

I did leave before my son called to say they were done because we were a bit concerned. He called while I was on my way to the school though, and all went well.

Saturday morning, we woke up, and my daughter and myself went over to a park by our house where a Stake walk/run was taking place. They had a 5K (it was actually 3.1 miles) walk/run planned. I had already decided I was going to walk it rather than running because I know I wouldn't handle a run very well. My daughter ran for about half of it and then ended up walking with me and another girl I cajoled into going. I think she was glad that she went on the walk. There was one hill that I decided against taking and we took a short cut there. It took about an hour for me to walk the whole distance (minus a very small part for where I took the short cut). We really didn't do too badly with that.

After arriving home, my son and daughter mowed the lawn. I also got them to clean their rooms, although my daughter did not get her room vacuumed. I also did some work around the house. There really wasn't much else that happened.

Today was just a regular church day. My son had to give a talk that we had prepared on Saturday. He did a wonderful job on his talk and we were proud of him. Soon after arriving home, we had family home evening (I don't hold that regularly as I should). It was on service and I told them about the service project that we would be doing tomorrow. We will be going to one of the houses in our ward and helping put their sod down. It is a part member family, and they seem grateful for any help that they can get (their landscapers backed out on them).

My wife and I had an argument about the things that need to be done around our house and that we also really need to work on our marriage. I feel that I am doing the best that I can, but am still working on trying to accomplish all the things that we need to accomplish. There is still work to be done.

Just another week

It's no wonder I don't put more in here. My life is basically boring. Once again, it's been almost a whole week. We had a big storm go through here on Tuesday that blew stuff all around, and there was a reported tornado in Tooele. My son was driving on the driving range on that day and felt what that was like to be driving with. This is unrelated, but my son told me that the school is not buying manual transmissions starting this year. I think that's too bad, because I think all people should be exposed to that kind of driving. Unfortunately I don't own a manual transmission either or I would teach him to drive using that. Back to that storm, the top of our hose reel (the lid) blew off and down the street. It flew for a few houses before it finally landed at my neighbors. He told me he was wondering about it because it came flying through the air really fast.

I have been busy all week at work. It still is the same stuff. There were some changes made and I have had to keep on top of all of those. Things seem to be going pretty good there. There is still quite a bit to do for this, but I'm pretty certain that we'll get there without too many more problems. Everybody wants to just be done with this project.

I came home early of Friday but then had to work from home for awhile because we had to make a backup to the previous nights run and I had to run a days worth of stuff. It was just as well. My wife and kids headed over to my in-laws house to see Pam (after her heart attack) and because they had all the dogs over there, it was decided that I shouldn't go because nobody really wants to take me to the hospital when I have a major asthma attack. I agreed that that would be bad. I stayed home and watched my work progress and also watched the movie Les' Miserable'. In my opinion they didn't finish the movie up properly.

Saturday, we got a late start but we decided to go up to the canyons to see if any of the leaves had changed. We went to my in-laws cabin and looked up and there was some red up there. It is just barely starting though. We had a pretty good time doing that.

Sunday, after church we had a walk in the park. I got into an argument with some girls that were taking a stroller that wasn't theirs and throwing it around. They were pretty upset at me and my wife told me that I shouldn't yell so readily. So, I guess I was partly in the wrong. I still hate it when people have no respect for other peoples property.

Our tire was low again on the SUV. I had filled it up on Friday and now it was really low. I told my wife that I would fill it up tonight and then drive it to work tomorrow to take care of it. She thought I should change the tire rather than take it in. I hate changing tires and told her I would look at it in the morning and make my final decision. I really don't think I'll need to change the tire because it seems that the leak is slow enough.

Anyway, I told you my week was boring.

Heart Attack

Once again, I find myself going back a week. The problem is, there wasn't too much that has gone on to really write about. That is one reason I haven't really written anything here. Another reason would probably be something about sheer laziness.

My kids have started school this past week. I have never understood why they would start school up when the very next week they will be taking one day off for Labor Day. It just seems nuts.

Once again, we find my daughter doing homework almost every night and my son gets away with doing none. He has, at least, been staying after school so that he can learn his marching band things. That's going to keep us busy.

I have been really busy at work all of last week, and think I'll be pretty busy for the next week or two on this project. I failed to get things to the point they wanted them too for testing, but will be working on that a bit.

Friday, I had my regular day off of work. I saw the kids off to school, and my wife off to Swiss Days. I did get online briefly so I could check up on a few of my jobs at work. I had to call Paul because there was something in my connection not working. I was only doing that for a short time.

I next decided to run a few errands so we would be pretty much ready for going up to my in-laws cabin on Saturday. I got all of them accomplished and then played on the computer for a little bit. My wife came home just after noon from Swiss Days. I guess there wasn't that much that interested her within her price range. We kicked back for most of the rest of the day, other than a little bit more shopping that needed to be done before we went to the cabin.

Saturday morning, we were still getting things ready to go up to the cabin. We finally headed out around 11:30 in the morning. Traffic was a little bit harsh getting up there. We arrived, and found Rod and Margaret at the cabin. My kids wanted to go down to Swiss Days and my in-laws wanted to go also. My wife wanted to be left alone at the cabin so she could relax for a bit. I went down with them to Swiss Days. It was hot. My kids stayed with grandma and grandpa listening to various programs going on at the center of Swiss Days. I wandered through the booths, but really found nothing of major interest. I then sat down with the Perrys and talked a little bit with Ellen Decker and a few of the others that hang out in that corner every year.

My wife came on down to Swiss Days around 3:15 and did some more looking around. We had the Barbecue Beef dinner and then decided to head up to the cabin. We split up because we had the two cars. We had received a phone call from Anne just before we split up but it got dropped. My wife called Anne back while we were walking to our car. We were glad that we got dropped because Rod wouldn't have been in any way ready to drive hearing the news of his daughter having a heart attack. We arrived at the cabin before Rod and Margaret did and had to give them the news. We decided to wait and see what else developed before doing anything stupid.

We did call Anne to find out more, and she expressed that Pam would really like to see the kids. I joked, that it was to hell with the rest of us, as long as she could see the kids. Anyway, Rod was too tired to drive to Bountiful (the Lakeview hospital) so we left him at the cabin and the rest of us headed down. We found the hospital without too much difficulty, but Margaret talked all the way there (nonstop). We did go in to see Pam. I hated seeing her that way in the ICU, but there wasn't much else to do. She asked if I could give her a blessing along with my son. I explained to her that my son didn't have the Melchezedek priesthood, but that I could give her a blessing. One of the nurses had some consecrated oil (it was labeled that this actually came from Jerusalem). I laid my hands on Pams head and gave her a blessing. I really don't know what all I said, but I felt the power of the priesthood. My kids also got to see that the priesthood is something to be used for the blessings of others.

One thing that we found out was that the hospital wasn't able to do the stent (I'm not sure if I spelled that correctly) in Pams arteries because they were too small. It was a small clot that has caused all this pain to her, and that is what they were working with.

After awhile, we were kicked out of the hospital room for some more things to be done. We were told we could come back in about half an hour. We did do that, but it actually took an hour. We gave our final goodbyes to Pam (for the night) and let her know that we loved her. We left Anne there and headed back up to the cabin. There wasn't too much to do once we arrived at the cabin, so we went to bed.

Sunday morning we slept in. We finally heard from Anne (I'm not sure who called who) but she told us that they had kept Pam in ICU and were keeping her there through Sunday. We heard that Pam went into some shock from her diabetes because the ICU wasn't working with her good enough on that. That makes me upset. You would think that an ICU would be better than that.

We kicked back and watched video on Sunday. We also napped and took a few walks. Of course there was also a few phone calls here and there when people were finding out what had happened with Pam. Not much happened that day.

Today, we got woken up at 7:00 AM with Anne crying. My wife was really scared because of the crying. I guess it all was taking its toll on Anne. Pam had been moved to a regular room and probably would be going home tomorrow. Well, that was good news.

Once again, we didn't do too much. We just enjoyed the time up at the cabin, but my kids were getting restless. They played a game, we had some lunch (dinner), and it rained pretty hard. After the rain, I started to load the car and we headed back home.

Tonight, we got a doorbell ditch (this is about the fifth one) and my wife and I went out looking for who had done it. In this case, we were outside when it happened (walking the dog) and were wondering if that was what a group of kids was doing when they went zipping right past us (we were on a different road coming back to see if that was what they were up to). We couldn't tell for sure who it was, and we searched the neighborhoods to find them.

After we had given up on the search, we went and walked the dog (again). We saw a kid come out of a house and I sort of recognized the shirt and the height of this guy. I accused him of doorbell ditching and my wife at first was a bit mad at me. Some girls that we had talked too (we went to a home that had a bunch of bikes and scooters) came on down. The guy was denying his involvement, but one of the girls said that she had just seen a guy meeting this guys criteria take off another way. Since we had been around and around that area, we knew she was lying and that gave off that we had the right guy. We also had the other right house as to who did it (though all deny it). I told them that if we ever catch them the police will be involved because this is just happening too often. Anyway, that ends this particular entry.