Friday, August 30, 2013

How I Spent My Summer


    It's been quite a while since I put up a blog.  For whatever reason, the summer just got away from me.  Me?!  And I'm semi-retired???!!!  So let me explain in pictures what I've been up to.

    Of course, being a grandpa, I spend some time with the grandchildren.  In fact, on one of my days when I play the retiree, I become grandpa's day care for Grant, the eldest grandchild in the picture above.  No way could I handle both Grant and his baby brother Luke, shown with his prison green stripes in the picture above.  More on Grant later.

     I'm also trying to get a handle on my garden.  Some vegetables, such as the pumpkin below, thrived while others literally never got off the ground.  And I neglected to label some of my vegetable plants so now I'm not sure if they're a pea or a pepper.

    And this pumpkin is growing in the middle of my backyard.  Pumpkins need their space, lots of it I found out too late.  So it was either having a nice, neat manicured lawn back of our house or two pumpkins, both like the one pictured.  Since I love all things Halloween, I picked the pumpkins.


     Grandson Grant really gets a kick out of my pumpkins and I hope he got a treat out of watching them grow.  He has his favorite routines at bumpa's day care:  check out the 'lawnmower house', turn my bike over so he can spin the wheels with cardboard pieces making motorcycle noises, play at the 'castle'--an elaborate play structure at the local park, and engage in long coloring sessions of Oso the bear.



    He loves all things Oso, a character on the Disney Junior channel.  Just when I thought I was on easy street with 20 episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse recorded for playback, he decided he didn't like Mickey any more.  Oso was his new fav.  So I have 20 episodes of Special Agent Oso recorded and spend almost as much time drawing him on whiteboard as we do watching him on TV.  Grant draws him too.  See if you can tell which Osos are mine and which are his in the above picture.  "Draw Oso," he tells me.  If I had a nickel for every time I've heard that . . .
 

    Wendy and I did manage a couple Michigan trips too.  I mentioned one in my previous blog.  Our second trip took us to the Upper Peninsula where I took the picture below.




     What happened was that while we were driving on a busy, tricky road in the U.P. a bug landed on our map of Michigan which was open on Wendy's lap next to me.  Wendy hates bugs and panicked, quickly opening her passenger side window and pushing the map to the open window to get rid of the bug.  Both bug and map got sucked out the window, and it was too dangerous to try to retrieve it on this stretch of highway.

     As far as the picture above, here's the caption I put on it in Facebook:

When your map gets sucked out the car window, you rely on a free tourist map. When you rely on a free tourist map, you go down unfamiliar roads. When you go down unfamiliar roads, you end up in Bigfoot country. Don't let your map get sucked out the window.

8 Comments:

Blogger Carine-what's cooking? said...

look at the boys!!! what is happening w/ our grandsons Dave?????

all 5 just becoming more handsome and big by the moment!

Love your pumpkin. Adam brought home one as a kindergarten project at the end of the year.

It turned into the plant that took over Laguna Hills. we left on vacay for a week and came home and it had grown from a little nothing to literally spanning the length of 1/2 the yard.

as for the map-is bigfoot country that bad when a new adventure is afoot?

11:07 AM  
Blogger Lee said...

Who wants to waste time mowing anyway? Stick to the pumpkins...you get rewards in the end! I loved roasted pumpkin; pumpkin soup; mashed pumpkin; pumpkin scones!

I think it's great that you can spend so much time with the kiddies...and I bet they do, too! :)

Take good care...and don't go losing any more maps, or you'll end up getting lost!

2:16 PM  
Blogger CAROLDEE said...

Wonderful update Dave..glad you are enjoying the summer and the grandkids and the garden. No garden here this year..too many critters to eat it all up.Our groundhog is so large the neighbors thought it was a DOG..yikes..it lives under the barn I think..sure hope to get rid of it soon. I say..better than a SKUNK! Hehehe Glad you enjoyed the U P but NEVER heard of any BigFoot up there. Glad I don't go there I guess. Hope you are staying cool and have a great rest of the summer. :-)

6:50 AM  
Blogger Big Dave T said...

CARINE--I can't believe how fast these grandkids grow up. Everytime you turn around they reach a new milestone. I didn't know they had pumpkins out in California but then again, why not. I do think they have Bigfoot out there as well.

LEE--I remember Merle's granddaughter making good use of pumpkin in her cooking for Merle not so long ago. Maybe you use pumpkins for cooking more over there than wee do here.

CAROLDEE--My son had a groundhog fall into a window well at his home. Greg heard a noise, went over to the basement window to see a groundhog staring back at him. He couldn't get back out either. Greg had to put a board in there for him to climb out. It was big too.

5:38 PM  
Blogger Mrs. Dike said...

You say Bigfoot; I say Sasquatch.
Let's call the whole thing off.
You say Wolverines; I say SPARTANS;
"GO GREEN" makes you roil and scoff!
We can agree on the cuteness of your grand lads
And on how pumpkin-picking is loads of fun.
And, on two more obsessions that are more than just fads:
Music and football - best things under the sun!

10:40 AM  
Blogger Big Dave T said...

MRS DIKE--Cute video though I think your Spartan offense needs to spend more time practicing and less time on their music lessons. But looking ahead at the toughness of their schedule, maybe they don't need an offense ('cept for us of course).

8:14 AM  
Blogger riptideselkie said...

What a great summer, and a great blogpost. I used to follow your blog ages ago but lost track. It looks like you and life are getting along just fine.

Have a great fall!

9:10 PM  
Blogger Big Dave T said...

riptideselkie--Thanks. Fall aims to be pretty busy as well. Some time I should try to track down some of the blogs that I used to read. Sounds like fun.

10:31 AM  

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