Rain, Rain, Rain

They have been forecasting a cold front to move through the Charlotte, NC area and it arrived today.  We went over to Larry & Jane's house to spend some time with Grant and soon after we got there the thunder started.  Grant had the foresight to come in and keep away from the lightening that lit up the sky a few minutes later.  

It came down in buckets and the back yard quickly filled up with water.  They have a small drainage ditch at their property line and it was about 3ft deep and then it spread into the yard. 

 It started to hail and the wind picked up and brought down some trees and branches in the neighborhood, but no damage to our immediate area.  Finally, the power went off and the lightening storm continued.  Now that is what I would call a monsoon type rain.

Not to belittle the display of nature, but we had rain like the above just about every day in the rainy season when we lived in Costa Rica.  Our gutters were about 10 inches wide and 12 inches deep and they couldn't handle the water coming off the roof.  This started around May and lasted through October.  All your outdoor activities had to be planned for the morning since the afternoons were extremely wet.

Recently, the house cat Sherman disappeared and never returned.  He was 13 years old so it is a mystery what happened to him.  Now they have a new kitten in the house and it is full of vim and vigor.  He has two speeds, uncontrolled and sleeping.  We seem to be there for the uncontrolled portion of his day.  The kitten is quite entertaining to watch.  He loves to attack their 100lb black labrador dog all the time.  Guinness, the dog, just looks at the cat with amazement and doesn't respond.

Jane, Montpelier & Grant

 Since we lost electric power, we went out for dinner at a local Mexican restaurant.  Gerry enjoyed her meal, mine was ok (what can you do to ruin a burrito?) and the others weren't that impressed with their meals.  The fish ceviche was good, but Gerry makes it better.  Oh well, you win some and lose some.

By the time we returned to their home the power was back on, so we visited for a while and finally decided to hit the road.  We ran into a very heavy rainstorm all the way back to the motorhome and had to slow down to keep from hydroplaning.

The roads near the campground had large amounts of water standing in the road and there were small river like amounts moving at high speed.  We finally arrived back at our nice and dry motorhome and collapsed.

That was our day, how was yours? 

Just Hanging Out

 Gerry and I have just been hanging out here in North Carolina visiting with our family.  We've managed to put a number of miles on the car running around between visits to family members. 

One evening we went out to dinner at a local family restaurant and the TV was on just behind us.  It must have been something interesting to have Grant, Jane & Larry, Jr staring so intently.  The meal turned out be just so so, while the desserts were great.

We stopped by Barbara and Henry's home today to watch the World Cup final game between Germany & Argentina, but first we had to endure the final few laps of the NASCAR race in New Hampshire.  Just kidding about the race, it had a great ending.

The photo below includes our three grandsons, and two of their special ladies in their lives.  Our granddaughter was in Maryland for a motorcross bike race and couldn't make the party.
 

Gerry, Ryan, Taylor & Sean, Hannah & Jared, Larry Sr

Grant joined us for another grandchildren photo and had on his Ivory Coast soccer team shirt.
 

Larry Jr joined his sister Barbara, Gerry, me and Henry for another group photo.  It's hard to believe than Larry Jr. was always known as Little Larry for so long and now he is 6' 3 1/2" tall and big.  No longer Little Larry now, but still is in our minds.

Barbara had prepared pulled pork bbq, coleslaw and other fixin's.  We managed to stuff ourselves and enjoy the great pulled pork.  There goes the diet.

Right after the photo taking everyone started to head on down the road and it was just Barb, Henry, Gerry and me to sit around and chat.  Barb & Henry both have busy days ahead of them on Monday and we left early so they could get some much needed sleep.

Oh, BTW, Germany won 1-0 in overtime and it was their 4th World Cup championship.  I expected them to win 3-1, but Argentina put up a stiff defense and it took Germany until the 113th minute mark to score.  Great game.

Gerry's great nephews Christopher and Caden both compete at a high level in Karate tournaments and did very well at the 2014 USA Karate Nationals in Reno, NV this year.  


 3rd Pl. in Boys 6 y.o. Beginners (out of 20 boys) in the 2014 U.S. Karate National Championship is Caden!

 THE winner of this year's Nationals, boys 11 y.o. Intermediate is Christopher! Very deep division with 26 boys.
With him is the 2d pl. Girls 11 y.o. Intermediate champion, and they were (good) friends in Park City, where she still lives.

The 1st and 2nd place per division starting at age 12 represent the U.S. Karate Team at the 2014 World Ch., this year in Peru.

 Do you think they have proud parents and great aunt & uncle?  That's the way to go, you guys.

July 4, 2014 Independence Day

Happy 4th of July to all who read the blog.  I hope it is a great day  for the celebration wherever you are.  We celebrated the 4th of July overseas a number of years, however it is great to be doing so in the U.S.A.

 

We will be celebrating the 4th with two of our children and some of their families at Larry Jr. & Jane's home with a nice picnic and then some fireworks afterward.  It looks like it will be a perfect day weather wise with nice temps and lots of sun.  Cassie and Jack couldn't make it down here for the 4th, but we will still be thinking of them.

Have a great day all of you.

Henry - Mother's & Father's Day dinner

Good morning Henry.  Have you read the Yahoo News website yet?

Thanks to you and Barbara for the Great Meal last night for the Mother's & Father's Day celebration.  Surf and turf is one of our favorite meals and it was delicious.  The steaks and striper bass were grilled to perfection.

Henry, Gerry & Me

Barbara took the above picture, so I am including a photo of her taken on the patio.  What a great smile.

Barbara

 
 Grandson Jared and his girlfriend Hannah showed up after playing doubles volleyball at the court by the community pool.

 Grandson Sean and Taylor (wife) showed up at the same time after the volleyball game.  The guys played the girls and the matches were very close.  Both girls played high school volleyball and are very athletic.

I think the grandsons must have smelled the steaks that Henry grilled on the patio and rushed on over.  Uncanny how they can do things like that.

Gerry and Barbara worked on craft stuff all afternoon and I took the opportunity of having fast internet service to download some files and tune up the computer.  It worked out great for all of us doing our own thing.

Can anyone explain to me why the Immigration people would fly illegals from Texas and drop them off in San Diego to be processed.  The processing was to take their names and have them promise to show up in court the next day.  They take them to bus depots and see them off to destinations all over the U.S.  Do they really expect the illegals to show up the next day?   I think not!!!  It seems to me that the Immigration people are just completing the work of the Mexican coyotes who sneak them across the border.  What kind of insanity is going on with the U.S. Government?  I wonder if Obama knows about this???

Time to finish off the blog and hit the hay.  Have a great day wherever you are.

Darts & Blueberrys

We have been visiting with family since we arrived here in Concord and are having a nice time.  We last saw them in October of last year and it's great catching up with them and what has been going on in their lives.

Larry Jr. is a lifelong Pittsburgh Pirates baseball fan just like me and also likes to throw darts.  It must be an inherited thing through his DNA.  He combined his two interests and made a beautiful dart board with it showing off guess what.

Yep, he made it in Pirates colors with their old time uniforms.  Now he is going to have to make another one for me when we settle down and get off the road.  I just hope I can lift my arm enough to throw darts when that happens.  He did a super job on the dart board and put a lot of loving time and care into making it.

Gerry decided it was time for some blueberry pancakes and made a large batch of them today.  I was so busy eating and enjoying them I almost forgot to take a picture.  As you can see, I had almost cleaned the plate of the pancakes.  They are every bit as good as they look and I could eat them 3-4 times a week.

Later in the day we went over to Barb & Henry's house to watch the US-Belgium World Cup Soccer game and have dinner with them.   As everyone who loves soccer knows by now the US lost in extra time 2-1, but they held the Belgium teams scoreless during regular time even though Belgium tried furiously to score.  The American goal keep, Howard, managed to block 16 shots on goal and that ties the record set over 50 years ago.  He was fantastic and played a game that will be remembered for a long time.  

Belgium did control the game for most of time and US blunted their attack so much it seemed impossible that Belgium didn't score for such a long time.   

Henry grilled some pork chops and we sat around a managed to finish off a number of them.  I had an especially tender chop and it was one of the best I've had in years.  We finally wore them out and when Barb's eyes started to flicker, we knew it was time to hit the road.  It was great seeing them and actually have time to visit with them.  

Today was SIL Jack's birthday and we called him late in the day to wish him Happy Birthday.  Luckily he was still up and we managed to talk to him for a few minutes.  We will celebrate his birthday more when we get back to the cabin. 

That is what we have been up to since we arrived and it's been great seeing everyone.  There is a big 4th of July celebration at Larry & Jane's on the 4th with lots of food, drinks and fireworks.  

Hope everyone out there is having fun and staying safe.