I'm a Lumberjack...

Well, not really...but Saturday I did my best at being a "weekend lumberjack." I decided that some limbs of a crab apple tree near our house needed to be cut down since they were growing over the roof. One limb had even peeled back one of the shingles. So, we moved our vehicles, got out a ladder, and I proceeded to cut down a limb that was almost as big around as my leg. I used a bow saw and slowly cut it so that it would fall as gently as possible on the house. I was able to ease it down on the house, and then it got hung up a bit. We didn't have any ropes, so I just had to continue to cut and work with it until it came off the house and landed in the driveway. I was pretty proud of being able to get the limb off the tree without breaking any windows, damaging the roof of the house, or imitating a scene from America's Funniest Videos.

I cut down two other smaller branches, and then I cut up the branches. I did all of this with the bow saw and pruners. As I was working on cutting the largest branch, our neighbor pulled in his driveway with his car. He got out all smiling and said "You know we are living in the 21st century!" I had to laugh...I guess I'm just too cheap right now to buy a chainsaw. Anyway, I got the job done even if it did take a lot longer than it would have with a chainsaw.

3 More Inches

During the night we had another 3 inches of rain. The rain came down pretty hard last night around midnight along with a lot of lightning and thunder. At least we didn't have any hail or strong winds...and we missed the tornados and flooding that's occurred in other parts of Minnesota and Iowa.

I still haven't hear whether we had any damage on our roof from the hail storm a few weeks ago, but I was told it could be a few more weeks...and the landscapers are probably way behind with their work due to all the rain. I just hope the landscaping is started soon or it might not be done by the time we have our annual BBQ. We'll manage with whatever happens...

Craziness

Life can be rather crazy...I got home from work yesterday and was getting ready to start to mow the lawn when Richard called. He was calling from his chiropractor's office and said he had a flat tire. I told him to try to change the tire and if he couldn't get it changed to call AAA.

I went ahead and mowed the lawn and called him again after I was finished (about 1.5 hours later). He was still at the chiropractor's office waiting for AAA. I was hungry and he was too, so I offered to run to McDonald's and pick us up some food and take it to him. I figured we'd just have a tailgate party in the parking lot until AAA arrived.

I ran to McDonald's, got the food, and drove to meet Richard. As I was driving there, I noticed a tow truck driving away. I got into the parking lot and Richard's car wasn't there. So, I called him, and he was headed back to our house. I drove back to our house and met him in the driveway, so we ended up eating at home ...if I would have known, I could have just warmed up some leftovers in the microwave instead of running all over town. It would have been quicker and cheaper...and Richard ended up warming his hamburger and fries in the microwave anyway.

In the end the lawn was mowed, the flat tire changed, and we had got to eat dinner together. So, I guess it all worked out.

Fashion Bashin'

Last night we attended a "Fashion Bashin' Ugly Shirt Party." It was a lot of fun and there were plenty of ugly shirts. The hosts gave out a number of prizes to people at the party. Both Richard and I won prizes...I had decided to do sort of a '70s retro look, so I ended up winning the "That shirt would make Stevie Wonder cry award for best ugly shirt that would scare a blind guy." My prize was "bling" which actually ended up adding a special touch to my outfit:


Richard won the "Say, you're kinda hot award for best ugly shirt that actually works for you." His prize was the stuffed monkey that he's holding in his lap in the picture on the right:

Anyway, we really had a great time socializing, laughing, and enjoying all the ugly shirts.

Rain, Rain, Rain...

This week we've had rain pretty much every day. At least we haven't had any hail or severe storms. I just hope that we have some dry weather tomorrow. We need to remove a section of fence in our backyard so that we can have our landscaping done possibly next week. It's possible that all the rain this week has put the landscapers behind schedule, but it would sure be nice if they could start next week.

The basement at least has been staying nice and dry since we had the sump pump system installed. This week was certainly a good test for it.

Last night we went to a happy hour and I met a guy that was from Utah and went to BYU. It was fun to compare stories even though there's about 20 years difference in our ages.

I took the following picture on June 1, 2008 after a thunderstorm had passed to the north of us: