a grandpa story

holiday weekend

We had the family over for a barbecue. Dorothy made peach cobbler and I made Chocolate Tea ice cream. Kelly brought some delicious orange cake. We ate until we were full

Dorthy and Jenna watch as the men folk play croquet.

graduation day

Yesterday we attended my grand daughter Samantha's graduation from Fayettevill High School. The ceremony took place on the campus of the University of Arkansas at the Bud Walton Arena, home of the Razorbacks.

Up fly the caps.

Here's Sam with her mom, Rachel.

Sami and her sister Tara

with Marley

with grandma and grandpa.

with her friend, Jacqueline.

with her aunt and uncle and cousins.

surprise party

Kelly's husband, Burk planned a surpise birthday party for her at her friend Amy's house. All the guests parked in the pasture behind the house and waited in the house for them to arrive.

Here they are. Everyone yell "Surprise!"

The kids played outside until dark.

The cake Dorothy made.

36 candles make a bright light.

play ball!

We went to Hunter's T-ball game last night. Here he is on third base ready to go for home.

But his helmet keeps flying off.

Hunter takes his turn as the pitcher. Note how totally focused he is. Well, maybe not.

He dropped his hat.

He dropped his glove.

What's that over there?

Marley rides her bike around the park.

Jenna likes it at the ball park.

tara's car

Today I took my grand daughter Tara to the car dealer to pick up her car. She left the dealer to go to work ( a few blocks away ) and she was stopped by a policeman and given a ticket for not having insurance verification. She had the dealer's paper plate in the back window and all the sales papers in her possession and got a ticket anyway. This made me mad. Are we all at risk of being cited between the dealer and the insurance office? I went to the police department and complained. They weren't too receptive to my protests. If she had been stopped and it had been weeks since she bought the car and maybe even days, I can see being cited, but five minutes after she leaves the dealer? Has common sense disappeared from our society?

(she's posing with the ticket she received)

a saturday afternoon at grandma's and grandpa's house

Our cat had kittens and hid them just under the tin roof of our shed. We put up a step ladder and with the use of a flashlight we could see them having dinner. Marley wanted me to get one for her. As a grandpa I possess a lot of technical knowledge about animals and their behavior that I share with the grand kids. I informed her that to reach in while they were nursing would not be advisable. The momma kitty might shred my arm with her claws in defense of a perceived threat to her kittens. Maybe after they quit suckling we could put on some leather gloves and safely extricate the kittens. Well, grandmas don't have the technical knowledge about animals so Dorothy went up the ladder and pulled one of the kittens out for the kids to play with. Hmmmm.

miscellaneous notes

Here is my weekly garden progress photo. Tomorrow the 80 degree sunshine days start so the veggies will really shoot up then.

• This morning, before I went to the post office I checked the oil in my truck. I noticed the oil filler cap was missing. I looked for it thinking that it could have fallen down and got caught somewhere in the engine compartment, but I didn't see it. So I went to a parts store and almost bought a new one. The cap the part salesperson had in stock didn't look like it would fit so he and I took it outside to try it on my truck. As soon as I lifted the hood I saw my old cap sitting on top of the air filter housing. I had placed it there the last time I put oil in the engine and forgot to replace it. Just one more incident illustrating the disappearance of my short term memory.
• Yesterday, Dorothy made some chicken salad and we had it on sandwiches for supper last night. To this chicken salad she added grapes, apples, and pecans. I'll have to admit the flavor was not bad. But my mouth rebelled at the texture. This is not man-food! This is yet another illustration of the chasm that exists between the male and female psyche. If a man plans to cook chicken his thoughts run toward barbecue sauce or spicy batter to dip the chicken in and deep fry it. Cole slaw and potato salad are a natural choice to accompany a chicken dish. It would never occur to a man to add grapes, apples and pecans to a dish that contains chicken. I know Dorothy has been cooking for 40 years and I've only been at it for about 18 months, but I think she might benefit from my expertise if she ever asks for it. I wonder if KFC is open.
• I have Hunter and Jenna with me today. I'm able to write this post because I've fed Jenna a lunch of a Zinger, a corn dog, some animal crackers, and a strawberry-banana smoothie. Then I changed her diaper and put her down for a nap. Speaking of changing diapers, here's how I do it just in case any of my readers hasn't done this and wants a few tips: First, you have to prepare a place. I put a towel down on a bed and then get the wipes ready and the diaper in place with the Velcro tabs pulled out and ready to go. If you don't make this basic preparation you will be sorry. Next, play with the baby and get her laughing. If you can keep her laughing and jovial you can pull off a diaper change without her knowing what happened. (This is a theory of mine that has rarely worked successfully in real time). Ok, now grab her ankles with one hand and lift. Quickly pull out the nasty diaper, use the handi-wipe to tidy things up and place the new diaper under her. Don't breathe during that last step or you will have another mess to clean up. Now, bring the Velcro tabs around and secure them to the front of the diaper. This step needs to be completed in less than a second because a baby can flip over and start crawling off the bed very quickly and if you lose your grip on the ankles before you're finished with the handi-wipes she will flip over, crawl away from the towel and sit up smiling at you. That necessitates washing the bed comforter (preferably before your wife gets home). So, if you can follow my directions and learn to successfully change a diaper, it will do wonders for your self-confidence and you will certainly impress the women in your life.

hummingbirds

We've always had a humming bird feeder on our front porch. Most years we would have four or five birds vying for position at the feeder. Sometimes there would be at least ten humming birds competing for nourishment. This year it was hard to count the birds as they constantly darted in and out but we estimate that there are more than twenty humming birds this year. I went to Wal-mart and bought two more feeders. We're mixing our own sugar solution at 4 parts water to 1 part sugar. We're going through 2 cups of sugar a day keeping those little critters fed.

helping move

We spent last week end helping Dorothy's brother and his wife move into their new home. They moved here from California. We moved all that stuff from storage in one weekend, but I imagine it will take months to unpack. It's a beautiful home.

garden update

I hope the last frost is behind us now. Everything is looking green. Here's a rundown of what I've planted so far: three varieties of onions, two of potatoes, garlic, a row of green beans and another of corn. 22 tomato plants (6 varieties), 16 chile pepper plants (6 varieties), cucumbers, okra, spinach, two kinds of lettuce, zuchini, and yellow squash. I still have to plant cantaloupes and watermelons, but I need to till up additional garden space before I can do that.