Started this a few times and it always ends out being too long so it’ll be broken up over multiple parts; each another saga. I’ve decided I’ll save the good bit for last to end on a high note.

My son is on spring break and we’re taking the most expensive vacation I’ve ever had, 5 days at the mercy of the American hospital system. Thankfully we’re within $1500 of his out of pocket max for the year which will probably be burnt through by morning.

About 2 years ago my son started having seizures at just over 14 years old. We’ve gone through all the classes of medicines and each has given temporary relief but failed to be a long term solution.

Here we sit with him wearing a brain wave hairnet.

We’re here hoping to find out if he’s a surgical candidate without invasive testing. If these test don’t show what they want he gets to have his brain probed with electrodes.

Never thought I’d be hoping my kid can spend his summer getting his head cut into, but at this point that’s the only option for a cure. Sadly he’s now 16 and not only does he not have a learners permit, but I can’t even safely give driving lessons on the farm.

Shout out to Ronald McDonald for a decent free room for the next few nights though.

This concludes part 1, more wonderful fun to come in part 2 when I’m sleep deprived here.

Honk all ya want; it’s not gonna help!

Tall birb

Preflight check

Buzz the noisy bastards.

Finally got around em.

Cornbread is now officially middle-aged. He turned 5 yesterday.
We celebrated with the dogs joining us on a trip to Lowes. The dogs love it because at least half the employees always seem to have treats in their vests.

At least one of them comes whenever what I’m getting is small enough to easily carry while holding the leash.

Then we found a new restaurant with a dog-friendly patio to visit.
The dogs hit the jackpot. The owner and all the waitresses took turns stopping by for pets, and since we were the only ones on the patio we knew they were there for the pups. The owner brought them each a little saucer of grilled chicken, and our waitress brought them cups of steak.

Ruby wore her festive shirt to celebrate. Unfortunately Cornbread is just too beefy for the one we got him.

My wife is entitled to ten acres free and clear on her family’s farm to build a house. We could afford to do it even with the current interest rates. The reason we haven’t is my job. I’m required to live within an hour, and the farm is about an hour and twenty minutes or a touch more depending on where we built.

I have it too good at my current job to think about leaving. More importantly my employer offers insurance that no one in the industry can compete with and both my wife and son are unfortunately taking full advantage of it.

Why am I thinking about this today? Because my BIL just shared a picture that reminded me of how much I want it.

The tractor on the left was my FIL’s 12th birthday gift when he lived on the farm. The one on the right my BIL bought when they moved there to do work around the house.

A couple weeks ago I made a second attempt at my state’s level three water treatment test. Which oddly enough is the fourth level of certification.
Basically, after creating levels 1-4 there was a push to create a new lower level for folks that run water systems at camp grounds and the like which is called an A certification.

Well anyway I passed. On my first attempt I came up 2 questions short. Thanks to the fact that study programs still aren’t back to where they were precovid the most recent stats showed the level 3 exam having a 13% pass rate.

The expectation based on past conversations is that this means I’ll be offered a lead position that my facility hasn’t had yet. That should mean me being in line to take my bosses slot when it becomes available. That would probably be 3-7 years.
He expects to retire in 7 years, but his boss’s boss may retire in 3-4. My company has always been good at promoting from within. If that trend continues he may move up a step before he retires.

But it would be criminal not to drop everything and give Ruby attention when she does this.

What happens when I give Ruby attention? Jealousy thy name is Cornbread.

No worries, he got some love too immediately after I took this picture.

Let me set the scene for you. I’m outside with the pooches on a warm fall day.
Cornbread is barking across the fences to his buddies behind and beside us.

Ruby decides it’s a good day for me to chase her. She likes to play a game where she runs in circles in the yard, and I run back and forth on the deck to try and beat her to the other side.

Ruby can juke and jive with the best of running backs; passing by you at high speed with inches to spare

Cornbread, well, he does NOT have this ability. He’s more the one that just runs right towards the line and hopes a hole materializes. After Ruby had a couple laps in he decides he needs to join in the fun. This leads to me taking 85lbs of fur missile straight to the back of my knee. The knee is now slightly swollen.
As you can see, he is very sorry.

Well, this should be fun. I already started a fire in hopes that it will at least help maintain temperatures for awhile.
I have no clue what we’ll do if it’s not back on soonish given that we have 2 dogs and 2 cats that would be coming with us.
I also made a Rubyritto. Cornbread won’t tolerate blankets so the pajamas may be coming out for him.

Update: It’s back! We were only without power a touch over three hours. Naturally, the secret to getting power back was to make arraignments to take the dogs somewhere and pack what they’d need.
We just won’t tell them how close they came to staying with one of their favorite people.

I’m mildly disappointed by the quality of the photos. I just assumed all teenagers knew how to take cell phone pictures, but maybe that only applies to selfies.
Took the pup to a local park we frequent. The paths are mainly gravel so even with all the melt it wasn’t a muddy mess.

Bonus shot of the still somewhat frozen falls.

@Just-Jeepin Oops missed that it was a WJ not an XJ. They’re much bigger than XJ. I legitimately wasn’t sure I’d fit in the one I looked at.

@TheJWT I like to keep people guessing. I may look as old as a model A, but I feel….well I feel as old as a model A.

But I swear I’m only kinda old, not really old.

@HammerheadFistpunch Lexus, looking at one for justjeepin reminded me how TINY those XJ’s were inside.

@TheJWT
Caddy coupe on wire wheels or supposedly dealer sold model A replica; decisions, decisions.
Caddy
Model A genuine reproduction

@Boxer_4 The kitty in my picture is Pitch (as in Pitch black). That was the only darkness pun my wife would agree to.

@davesaddiction What is this??

@SilentbutnotreallyDeadly

@TheJWT Drop it in a Fiat Spider; all kinds of performance gains with no loss of reliability.

@Just-Jeepin