So, what is everyone doing this weekend?

[izzarina]

Scratch my first plan...Dad fell on his head again. Will head to the ER soon as I finish this burrito...

Uh oh...I hope everything is alright, emm.

[harpmaker]

Now I have two large piles of dirt in the backyard, and I need to find somewhere to put it.

You could do what my neighbors did: regrade your entire yard so any heavy rain flows into your neighbors yard.

Unfortunately, all of my neighbors, over the span of a few years have done just that, and, because mine is the lowest property on the block, I get all that run off. I ended up digging huge trenches around the house and filling them with rock to direct the water away from the house, and the dirt from the trenches was used to create a berm to force the flow back towards their properties. Any rain over an inch now results in a moat around my place

[rebl_rn]

Any rain over an inch now results in a moat around my place

That really stinks, but maybe you could get a cool drawbridge

[emmline]

Scratch my first plan...Dad fell on his head again. Will head to the ER soon as I finish this burrito...

Uh oh...I hope everything is alright, emm.

Yes...turns out he's pretty ok, for him. Taking a walk down the street with my mother (a risky proposition at best, since he's unbalanced by both Parkinson's and a previous fall injury--but, you gotta exercise...) when my sister's 2 year old veered out of his 8 year old brother's grasp into Grandpa's legs and Grandpa went down like a tree. CAT scan fine. Orientation...well, as good as it ever is these days, and he's headed home with mouth stitches and the appearance of having been in a saloon fight.

Now...what was I about to do?

[ancientfifer]

Beautiful weather, so... a long walk, a long bike ride, driving lessons with son, take yougest daughter to a rock-wall gym party, spend quality time with our very sick family dog, practice flute, work on a proposal, eat pizza, have a glass(es) of wine, a little yard work, wash the car, take a deep breath and enjoy it all...

[Innocent Bystander]

Glad your Dad is okay, Em!


Saturday: Supermarket shopping while my wife is at Weightwatchers. My treat is maybe a book from the Oxfam second-hand bookshop. Ionesco's La Cantatrice Chauve/La Leçon, Hurrah!
(I've mutinied from reading the Biography of Coleridge - although I'm grateful to know who Silas Tomkin Cumberbatch was.) The Big Issue Seller is back after two months away - he says two weeks. He had back trouble. Standing in the street all day doesn't help, poor soul. Bought a little magnetic doll thing to send to my friend in Carolina, to keep her daughter amused when I send her son the lego figurine of the (Batman) Joker. Can't send just the one thing!
Play Willowflute and Whistle in the park. Bukkehønshallingen, Barrowburn Reel and Sixpenny Money.
Walk the dog. Play willowflute (briefly - the dog gets impatient) in the woods.
Make tea for my son, bake bread.

Tomorrow I should mow the lawn, take a bunch of cypress cuttings around to Josie for her fire-pit, and play Badminton with my son and my wife. I feel tired already.

[izzarina]

Make tea for my son, bake bread.

Today is a fantastic day for baking bread. Damp-ish and rainy (my kind of weather ). That should be on my to-do list as well.

[Innocent Bystander]

Here it's hot, which meant the bread rose well. Came out nicely! Yum!

[dubhlinn]

.well, as good as it ever is these days, and he's headed home with mouth stitches and the appearance of having been in a saloon fight.

Now...what was I about to do?

Indeed....

Went down to the local this afternoon, after three night shifts, just to check up on the crack.

Seems that my dear friend Harry, who has the Als..was staring at some young boys.

Not one of them knew who he was..or had any idea about his...well..problem.

He does that staring thing all the time..who is that..who is she/he...scary. It just takes him a while to work out who is who

Turned out that one of the fellas he was staring at took the hump and gave him a bit of a slap..

Major mistake...he he he


The guy who got heavy was introduced to the Car Park and took a serious kicking..and warned never to darken the doorstep again.


I had a few beers tonight with Harry, not a bother on him...


Scary stuff..he remembers nothing of the incident...

What's he like when he is on his own...away from the boys who know him?

Slan,
D.

[cowtime]

Em, I'm glad your dad wasn't hurt seriously. My own did that years ago and he looked the same when it was all said and done. Concrete, asphalt, and gravel aren't gentle on elderly skin, that's for sure. Ah, he can do like my dad did..make up wild tales to tell folks when they asked what happened.

Mr. D, that's too bad about your buddy. It is worrisome as to how he gets along when he's not in a familiar environment. But, at least this time, I have no doubt, you took care of him-and the problem.

Unfortunately, my weekend is only Sunday. Saturday is now just another work day as usual.
After work, I got a desperately needed hair cut. When I got home I did have a great grilled hamburger plus sides ready for me. My granddaughter has been as sick as she's ever been this week, with what at first was diagnosed as pneumonia, the downgraded to a whopping sinus infection. She is finally on the mend, so she and I poured plaster in some alphabet casts, then played "kick the can" with an empty plastic pop bottle for a while outside. I am just glad to see her up and about even is she's still not completely well.
Later, I ended up scraping more paint off the garage for a while, talked a while with a neighbor who was checking his cattle that he pastures on our fields, made a lettuce bed,sewed, and covered ti, planted onion sets, practiced my music for church tomorrow morning and now I'm eating a nice bit of cheese and crackers while I unwind here.

Tomorrow I'll be at church at 8 to get my organ settings and after that... I have no idea. I'll just be glad for a day not at work. I'll definitely be putting more tunes on my mp3 player and practicing my oboe and timpani stuff.

[brianormond]

- Unpacking after vacation to the seashore where Lewis & Clark
emerged from their westward trek to the Pacific. Eagles, oysters, razor clams, pinnipeds, vultures & fish plus the waterfront delights of Ilwaco & Long Beach, WA, the beach a micro-Blackpool but quiet off-season, supported mostly by retirees, oyster farms, tourists and Coast Guard from Cape Disappointment at the Columbia River bar. The river bar is a terrifically violent piece of water, routinely capable of heaving ships over. Observers here stand safely ashore to watch USCG Motor Lifeboat School practice (and sometimes perform in earnest) harrowing rough water rescues requiring craft be fitted for rollovers.

-Easter boasted 50 mph wind with sideways south & north rains so our party set out to a cheesy, cheerful souvenir shop after first hunting down a brace of fine, plump chocolate rabbits. The shop has an array of comical, purportedly naughty Victorian-era peep shows alongside vintage orchestrions, coin-operated mechanical pianos and mechanized English miniature panoramas. The latter enact scary, miniature fates on various unfortunates from a condemned miniature man on gallows to a miniature jungle explorer about to stumble unaware upon a ravenous miniature beast. The shop's prize display is a purported half-human/half-reptile billed as "Jake the Alligator Man". This is the type of things-of-dusty/old/hidden-mystery place where a customer asking the proprietor quietly for a Jumanji game from the back room which really works as in the movie might actually get one. Its a fun place.



-The World Kite Museum in Long Beach, WA is quite good, a big barnlike building by the beach filled with two floors of kites from a world of traditions and applications- with a small gift shop. We expected a big shop and small, token museum but were happy to find the ratio reversed. Its worth stopping in and not a tourist trap.

-Brian

[Jack]

Resting!

[KNQuail]

Work, work and more work. Noon-8PM Friday, 8AM-6PM today, 8AM-6PM Sunday. Boo. Did squeeze in a trip to the mall after work with my friend so she could get a haircut, then we went to Panera for a quick (and cheap - I'm trying to save $$$ for vacation so I'm quite frugal these days!) dinner, Barnes & Noble for hot chocolate and a few travel books, and finally to WalMart because she needed to get a birthday gift for a friend. Then I came home and found a package from a friend in the UK...2 lovely CDs by Shetland fiddler Jenna Reid which I am enjoying right now.

Monday will be my weekend, as I do not have to work til 5PM. I will sleep ridiculously late, take a shower, squeeze in some whistling between numerous loads of laundry, go for a nice long walk unless it rains, and maybe find time for lunch somewhere in all of that.

[anniemcu]

Learning Planxty Hugh O'Donnell, working on a case that is already late, and gathering clothes, shoes and energy for starting work at the hospital next week.

[chrisoff]

I was at a wedding in Edinburgh. Fantastic weekend and there was a free bar. Bloody knackered now.

My girlfriend's asleep on the armchair and I'm just contemplating which pizza to order.