Trumped

Oh Boy, what a day in America yesterday.  A bunch of people who don't have a clue followed a man who only cares about himself and really made us all look stupid.  I would not be surprised if they all follow Dip Shit Don to Guyana and drink the kool-aid.  Probably the best thing that could happen to America.  If you don't understand what I am talking about, just google Jim Jones.

So let's see what else is going on.  Started a new project this week, building a balsa Gee Bee E5.  Should have it done in about a month.  Takes a while as you spend most of the time waiting for glue to dry, so it is a slow process.  Looking forward to having another hanger in my office.

Speaking of the office, wow it has been busy, busy and I hope it stays this way.   I feel bad for all those who are struggling but am thankful that I and both boys are still working.  Keeping our heads down and staying focused and hope to return to some normalcy at some point.

Even with COVID we had to say what the fuck and just get out of town.  Candy, Clark, Haley, and I all went to Florida the day after Christmas.   We all flew and for the most part, I wasn't too worried.  I would say that flying was the closest I have been to other people in while, but everyone whore their masks.

We had a great time.  It was nice to get out of the cold for a week and spending time on the beach, eating out, and riding bicycles.  Being that Florida is flat even a fat boy like me can get out and ride the bicycle.  

Candy and I spent most of our mornings out collecting seashells.  We would hit the various beaches early in the morning about an hour before low tide.   Most days we were out before sunrise and were able to enjoy the spectacle of the sun rising.  What a beautiful site coming up over the ocean.

This is the best time if you are a serious shell hunter.  The water didn't seem too cold and I was out in it looking for shells.  Not sure why we both have such a fascination for seashells, but I think it is the hunt for that perfect shell that makes it so fun.  I would say that we are shell snobs at this point and only looking for those that are perfect.

We would get back to the Condo around 10:30/11:00 and then grab the kids and we would hop on the bikes and head out for breakfast or lunch depending on the time.  Candy and I would then head out and try to catch Pokemon and the kids headed to the beach.

I would say that we drank too much that week.   Cocktails started anywhere between noon and two and we would be celebrating the rest of the day.  Nothing like drinking frozen pina colada's in December/January in 80-degree weather when you come from temperatures in the 30's.  Luckily none of us got pulled over for a BUI, but I will say we should have been on a couple of our outings.  What is a BUI, well bicycling under the influence.

If I could figure out how to do it.  I would move and live on Sanibel for the rest of my life.  It is just a great place to be, the weather is beautiful, and being Florida the people on the island are actually friendly.

In addition to all the shelling and biking, I was able to get a little fishing in.  Nothing major was caught, but I did land a few small fish.   I would fish in the evenings in the canal behind the condo.   This is where the grille was located with a picnic table and a couple of lounge chairs.   We would hang out in the evening and grille, fish, and of course have a few more cocktails.

Coming from Colorado, it was great to see everything so green and even flowers in bloom.  Just a much different climate than what we are used to.  

Being that it was close to Christmas the bike paths were illuminated with lights and made it
fun to ride through.   I am guessing we probably got at least 100 miles in on our bikes while we were there.  On the island, it is really the best way to get around.  Even when going to the grocery store we would ride our bikes and load the groceries in the basket on the bikes.

One day we headed out by car and went to Ft. Myers and played some miniature golf.  It was an awesome course with water, trees, and some challenging holes.  I have not played mini-golf in years and I think everyone had a really good time.  I know I did, well I won so of course, I did.

With the weather being so nice we also spent some time out on the Kyacks.  We had them for a couple of days and would sneak out and go for little trips in the canal.  The girls reported that they saw some large iguanas. 

All in all, it was a great seven days, and am already looking forward to making our next trip.  Below are all the photos that I couldn't squeeze in above.

Out on the Town

Last night we went over to Fossil Craft Beer because the Lobster Bob food truck was going to be parked there and we wanted to try it out.   

We found a seat outside and had a couple of cold beers.   We ordered up a couple lobster roles and just kicked back.  It made for a nice evening.  The rolls were good but a little pricey.

Home Again

We got back from Wichita on Sunday afternoon and had Monday off for Memorial Day.  Needed to have at least one day off at home. We worked in the yard and I cooked some ribs on the grill.

Ended up spending the evening sifting through email and getting ready to head back into the office for Tuesday.   I made it through Tuesday and Wednesday and then off again on Thursday and Friday.   

Thursday and Friday were our days for making our hike.   Well, we did it and I had a blast.   Candy dropped us off at about 8:30 AM.  Clark and I put our packs on and headed down the road.  It was a great morning and not too hot.  It was 10 miles to the campsite we had scouted out earlier in the month. We would break at about every three miles.  Catch our breath and have a drink of water.

When we arrived at the spot we had picked out, it was taken.  Well, that sucks, so we kept on walking and found another spot that would work for us.   We started setting up camp, got our hammocks hung, wood gathered and had a bite to eat.  We both had beef stroganoff for dinner.  Just open the pouch and add two cups of boiling water and let set for a few minutes.  

I had a tarp that we hung up over our hammocks, but it was really made to cover one and not two.  I didn't take a tent for this trip as the plan was to sleep in the hammocks.  Well about 4 PM it starts to hail, then the hail turned to rain and it rained hard and then would let up and then rain/hail hard again.   We took everything down except for the tarp and we hung out underneath for the next couple of hours. It was still raining at about 7:30 PM and if either one of us would have had cell signal we would have called for a ride.

The rain was starting to lighten so we took down the tarp and headed out to see if we could find a little better place to set up camp.   We walked about a mile and came across a bridge.   We climbed down the embankment and made our way underneath.   We were able to hang our hammocks from a couple of support beams.  At this point, both of use were pretty tired.   We dug out our sleeping bags and got into our hammocks.

I can't say that either of us slept all the great.  Water was dripping down from the bridge, but less than being out in the rain. I woke up every other hour or so.  The sun was coming out around 6 AM and by 6:30 AM, we were back on the trail.

We had another 10 miles in front of us to make it to Victor.  We moved along at a pretty good pace and was in Victor by 11 AM.  We walked up to the only restaurant in town and had some breakfast.   We called Candy to let her know that we made it and she headed over to pick us up.  On the way home, we shared stories about the night we had.

It was a rough trip with the weather, but I would definitely do it again.  It was nice to be able to spend time with Clark, one on one and I am sure it is a trip he will remember as well.

Thanksgiving 2016

I would like to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!  Hope that you enjoyed your time today no matter how you spent it.   We broke from tradition this year and didn't cook, but instead chose to go out for dinner.

We ate at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort.  They put on a big buffet with everything you could want.  It was Candy, Clark, Clark's girl friend and I.  We all ate way to much, it was all so good.   It actually worked out pretty well, as we didn't have to spend all day cooking and cleaning.

Eric is in California for the Holiday.   Sounds like they are having a great time.  They are staying at Disney and checking out the parks.  A big news item is that he got engaged and asked his girl friend to marry him.   Candy and I both knew about it.  Congratulations!

Candy has been hard at work with her embroidery.  She has embroidered all kinds of stuff.  From shoes, shirts, towels and more.   She just finished up a snow boarding snow man for Clark.  It looks really good.  I need to see if she can put my initials on the cuffs of my shirts.

So let's see, on the hiking front I am still plugging away.   I was out yesterday with Pebbles.   As we were walking down the trail, I happen to look over and see this deer in the grass.  I stopped and fired off a couple of pictures.  Pebbles was oblivious to it even being there.

I am just about up to 80 Miles this month.  I got out both Wed/Thu and clocked a little over 5 Miles each day.   This morning it was windy so I opted to do the treadmill.   The treadmill is not my favorite as I would rather be outside.

Clarks Birthday

I find it hard believe that my youngest son just celebrated his 22nd Birthday.  Wow hard to believe, where did the time go.  We went out to a restaurant and had a few beers.  I am pretty sure we all had a good time.

We ended up shooting off a bunch of fireworks over at the shop.  Luckily we didn't catch anything on fire.  Would have been tough as it was lightly raining while we were lighting them off.

Happy Birthday Clark!  We love you!

Happy Mothers Day

Damn that was fun!  Had a great Mother’s Day Weekend!  On Saturday, Clark called me at 6:30 AM, and let me know I was scheduled to work the door at the CMHS for the dive meet.    I rocked out of bed and hit the shower.   I threw on my Slash T, a pair of jeans and my skull vans.    Got to the school just a little before 7:00 AM.    I worked the door until 9:30 AM and then grabbed a seat in the bleachers to watch the meet.    Clark did OK today, he ended up in sixth place, and he was trying a couple new dives that he wants to do in state.

I did manage to get 4.3/Miles in on the treadmill.   For the last three days, I have spent an hour on the treadmill, walking and running.    I am trying to get some weight off, and running is the fastest way to do it.   This brings my weekly total up to 26/Miles.   Glad to be home and trying to get back in the groove.

I baked up some chicken thighs for dinner and candy made a salad.  After dinner we decided we need to get out of the house, so we went to the movie to see The Great Gatsby, it was pretty decent with some good actors.   Candy was surprised because we rarely go to an evening movie, most of the time we catch a matinee because it’s cheaper.

This morning, Candy and I took the dogs over to the dog park for a walk and to play in the creek.   They both had a great time, and go nut’s when we say the work walk.  Mable starts talking and crying like a baby in the Wal-Mart.

When we got home, Candy made some chicken salad sandwiches and we loaded up a couple of packs with food.   We had the sandwiches, chips, pudding, oranges, raspberry tea.    We drove up to the top of GCR and parked and then hiked to a nice rock out cropping.  We climbed up to the top and found a place to sit down and have a little picnic.    This is what Candy wanted to do for Mother’s Day, and I have to say it was a great way to spend it.   The sun was out, in the 70’s.  We had all taken jackets but opted to leave them in the car. It was nice to have Eric and Clark with us, and I think they enjoyed themselves.  I got this picture of Candy and the boys.

We ran over to HD and got a few plants for the backyard and spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up the backyard and planting our new flowers.

Five dollars please...

Left the house at about 6:40 AM and drove to the high school and checked in.   My job today was to collect the money at the door for the CMHS Indian Invite.    I was on the schedule from 6:45 AM to 10:30 AM. I had a pretty good time chatting people up as they came in the door to pay.

Clark did great today, he finished with a score of 399.50 that landed him with second place.   Today's meet started with 26 divers and was narrowed down to 12 for the finals.  He has been doing pretty good this year and is already qualified for state.  Hard to believe this is his last year and he will be graduating on May 26th.

Below is his scoring for the last three meets.  Doesn't include today's scores as they haven't been posted yet. Also included a picture of Clark from the meet.

Go Clark

I didn’t walk today, like I should have.   Candy has Friday’s off and we ended up staying up late watching the Hunger Games.   I didn’t get up until 7:15 AM and needed to be in for an 8 AM call.   Hard to do calls, when you are walking and with the background noise it just doesn’t work for me.

On Thursday I did go to the U.S. Forest Service open house where they presented the proposal for the trails and access to the Bear Creek area.   I was very impressed with the turn out, at one point I would estimate there were 60 + people in the room. One thing they strongly recommended was to get your comments in before April 30^th.   If you would like to learn more about the proposed changes and to leave comments visit the U.S. Forest Service.   You could really tell what group people were with, motorbike, bicyclist, hikers.  Motorbike folks had on their Fox Head dirt biking shirts, bicyclist had on bicycle shirts and the hikers filled in the rest.  Not sure what they thought of me as I was wearing my Slash T.  I have to say it is a bad-ass t-shirt.

Looked online tonight and see that the Walter Publishing Company used my letter to the editor in both the Cheyenne Edition and the Woodman Edition.  Will be interesting to see what backlash this causes me.

I have to go folks, need to be the high school at 6:30 AM to start getting ready for the swimming and dive meet.   Clark will be diving tomorrow and he graciously volunteered me to work the door.  Wish you luck tomorrow buddy!

The Day After

Hope you had a Merry Christmas and are looking forward to a Happy New Year!  It was pretty quiet around the Robinson house this year.    The boys, Candy and I, were together on Christmas Eve, we ate on the snacks that Candy had made and then opened presents.   Everyone seemed pretty happy with what they received.  On Christmas Day, we had all our favorites.   Candy cooked up a rib roast, cheesy corn, mashed potatoes, garlic salad and more.   

We were supposed to make a quick trip out to KS to see family.  But on Christmas day we decided we were going to stay home and relax and get ready for 2013.   I hated to miss my Dad’s Birthday, but with all the travel I have done this year being home with some time off is something I need.

I headed out this morning and did a 5.2/mile loop.   As I was walking down the street to the trail head I caught one of our neighbor’s feeding one of the deer.  She stood with a bag in one hand and her other hand was out flat and the deer was eating from it.  I will have to keep my video camera handy so I can get some footage for the television show When Animals Attack.

While on the trail, I did manage to get a couple of decent pictures of a chickadee and magpie.   I was lucky that they sat still long enough, which is usually the problem.   It was cold out this morning, around the mid 20’s.   I was dressed warm enough so the cold didn't bug me.  Made my way down along the creek and took a couple of pictures.   The snow still covered the trail and the trees.   With the light breeze blowing snow off the tree’s it almost appeared as if it were snowing.

We went to see The Hobbit this afternoon.  I really enjoyed it and the 2+ hours blew by pretty quick.   Many of the same characters from the previous movies were in this movie as well as many new characters.   If you were a fan of the Lord of Rings trilogy, you will probably like The Hobbit. 

Happy Hiking

Another week gone bye, I just can’t believe how the time is passing.   Candy was out of town this weekend visiting family so it gave me a chance to get some work items knocked off the list.

Friday night I noticed I had a broken sprinkler line.  So I went ahead and dug up the area and found the cracked pipe.   I left it open overnight so that the water would evaporate and that I could fix it on Saturday.   Over the years I have become quite the sprinkler repairman.   I compare myself to Mr. Parker from a Christmas Story.   I can fix a broken sprinkler line in minutes.

I have an area in the back yard that doesn’t get water so before I headed over to pick up sprinkler parts I went ahead and dug a trench and dug up the line where I would need to tie on to get water.  This should help my transplanted Lilacs, now I don’t have to run the hose up there to water.

Once I was back it took me 20 minutes to get everything hooked up.  Ran a quick test and didn’t see any leaks so went ahead and filled in the trench.

Along with all the laundry, dishes and other house cleaning items, I also managed to get the garage swept out, some pictures hung, deck swept.

Saturday night was Prom for CMHS.   Clark and his friend Nicole went with another couple.  They looked great and from what I was told about the evenings festivities it sounded like they had fun. 

Sunday I worked over at the shop, it was time to mow and clear the weeds.   I am trying to get grass to grow but the weeds keep choking out the grass.   Helped Eric to put together a bed and cleaned up the storage room.   Things are starting to look pretty good, may not have grass but we have weeds and they are green so from a distance after a mowing it doesn’t look bad.

Happy Birthday Clark

This last Friday we celebrated Clark’s 17 Birthday.  We all met at the house at 5 and had ice cream and cake.  Candy baked up the cake and it looked great.  Clark had his girl friend and a buddy over.

He got a couple of skate tees and couple of cards.   By six the party was over and Clark and his friends were on there way out the door.  Something going on at the school, I think a football game.

Pictures from the Party can be found here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/115678648713324071004/20111003?authkey=Gv1sRgCJ3yhqiXxo_4Cg