White Lightning Axiom: Redux

Active weekend .. again. Late Friday evening, I got a call from the local swim club. It turns out that for some unspeakable reason, the pool would be closed this weekend. I'll assume it was for some cleaning or health reason, but I dared not venture deeper into the reasoning. All I could think was that it would be a good morning to sleep in, children permitting. This could be the start of a relaxing weekend, except I was doing the 'lion taming' of the children solo this night. The Mrs called me in the afternoon and let me know that she had a MOM meeting the same day and asked permission to go. Sure, why not. Bank one for dad some other time. So the kids and I lolled about for a bit and exercised our addition skills. Jake is starting to get the whole 1+1=2 and 2+2=4 thing. We'll see how it goes when we move on to subtraction. One thing I did have to do was to drop off Gus's Diesel Benz Sedan at the Mechanic's place so he could look at it and tell me what it would take to fix the oil leak and wrap up any other little quirks. It started on the first crank like the other 3 times I started her up and it lurched to life as I put her in gear and rolled out of the drive-way. It is a cavern inside the passenger compartment. Compared to the SuperSaturn, this thing is a beast. It's still shocking to find a car built 20 years ago and made mostly out of metal can get 40 miles to the gallon. It did have a bit of an acceleration issue but I cannot see that as a big problem with the Mrs. She is a bit of a cautious driver. We'll have to see what Chris can do for us with this baby. (UPDATE: Turns out that Chris did not make it in for the weekend and when called, was not in on Monday. His staff does not work with Diesel engines either! Not a good sign.)

Saturday morning rolls around and the kids are up at 0700. Urgh, I watch my sleep flutter away like the morning doves shaking the heavy dew from their wings as the kids begin their weekend ritual of jumping on our bed to wake the slumbering giants. It would be sweet if I were not so groggy from an ill conducted rest. So be it. I look outside to see the sun quickly being shrouded by the greyest of clouds and think to myself that if I am to get any yardwork done today, I must strike while the iron is hot. But now, it's breakfast. Bacon, of course, is the first order of business, then toast and eggs for the hungry troops. The dogs get fed too, but not the priceless bacon of course. No, they get their kibble which disappears quicker than it takes me to fill their monster bowls ... bowels ... whatever. In any event, they've taken quite nicely to the new feed we got for them. Same brand but instead of the Lamb and Rice variety, we got the Soylent Green stuff. Much cheaper if you get the right composition. When they wrap up their feeding frenzy, we go outside and I let them dig up the back-50 while I get my gear gathered up. I'm going to try to cut down a tree today.

My intentions were that I would cut down the tree in three parts this drizzly and uncomfortably chilly morning. I had Hero-Dad's chain saw, a branch lopper, a few lengths of cord, a tree saw and a gut full of bacon. That and my usual helping of gumption and fool-hardiness should be more than enough, you think? But no, the 60 foot white pine would stand firm (Fir?) against me and resist my efforts. First, the Ladder would only reach to a foot shy of the 'Y' in the tree where I intended to work. Second, the gas in the 20 foot chainsaw (ok, only 2 foot but the thing is unwieldy as hell when you are on the top rung of a 12 foot ladder) ran out just as I was getting into the cut. Ok, find a tank, mix up the oil and gasoline ... add pixie dust and head back out to the tree-line. Just as I was climbing the ladder to get into it again, I heard the tell-tale creaking-crack of wood starting to give way under the harsh bite of a metal chain .... ut-oh. I quickly scurry back down the ladder as fast as my feeble legs will carry me and bolt off to grab the tow line so I could direct the branch as best as I could. But challenging the science of physics and probability is what my fate in life falls to. It fell about 1 foot shy of where I wanted it to go and only a small branch hit the deck promptly snapping at the point of contact. My efforts at the line came too late to do any good, but luck smiled upon the hapless lumberman in sodden clothing. Yes, wet from perspiration and an ever increasing rainfall, grimy from bar-oil soaked saw-dust and fallen needles, and just the right around of mulch and garden soil. All I could hope to do now is to take off the smaller branches and chop the 'trunk' into manageable rounds. If I could get that much done before the rain-fall became a down-pour, I would declare the day a success and go in to spend time with the family. And that was that. After cleaning up a bit, we headed out where I bought up all the gasoline at my new favorite Wawa at 2.55$/gal and did a bit of R&R at Lowes. Went there to pick up some small items and ended up buying 100 feet of poly-braid rope with a load-bearing limit of 1092lbs. Good stuff. Never can have too much rope, you know?

Sunday came in like a roaring lion. The sun was shining and there were ethereal wispy clouds dotting the skies at a level beyond bird and man. Oh, if the ground were not a soggy layer of muck, I would have given the lawn one last pass with the mower, but I had slept in and church was in the cards. We missed the 1000 mass by a mile so the wife was able to attend the 1200 mass with me and both of the little ones. They were active, but not too much so. Having the Mrs along to help was a blessing. We had arrived early and as it is with the Noon mass, everyone showed up in the last 5 minutes before and after noon. We managed to get a very good parking spot which allowed us to escape immediately instead of having to wait 15 minutes for the straggling chatter boxes to wander out to their cars and release us. We had plans today to go see some farm animals at Freddie Hill Farm in Lansdale. It was a fun-filled agrarian afternoon. There were pig races, hotdogs (gotta do something with the loosers!) chocolate milk, ice cream and a hay-ride. The grounds were a bit soggy, but the proprietor did his best to spread out enough saw-dust to soak up some of the muck. He should have let me know, I have loads of the stuff now! The kids got a bit impatient after a while and we took off towards home, only stopping at the Super Asian Market Assi to pick up some items we can not find in our local stores. Jacob was intrigued by the multiple frozen delicacies from the sea, however, Alexis was horrified by the frozen Squid, octopus and flounder. The live crabs in a bowl was also a bit too much for her sensibilities. The tanks of grouper, lobster and eel were a bit more acceptable though. After an exhausting hour of trolling the aisles for delectables, we loaded up the SuperSaturn and headed home. Within moments, the twin tyrants transformed into heavenly cherubs and dozed off. Of course, this did not last long and they were up to their typical dinner and pre-bath antics. 2200 hours is much to late for them to be going to bed. Much to late for the Mrs and I as well after a day like this. Oh, did I mention that I cut down the rest of that tree later? No? Just 11 more trees to go.

Monday. Not much to say about that awful day except that there was an accident on the turnpike. GASP! I know, so shocking isn't it? Closed down my exit at KOP. To make the week that much more rotten, I called Chris the Mechanic only to find out the bad new about Gus's diesel. I'm not sure what I'll say to Gus, I'll probably let him take it away and sell it to some Philly native who will run it into the ground within a year. Shamefull.

# posted by mdmhvonpa @ 6:58 AM