Bedtime update

Last night Evan slept in his “bed” fairly well. He spent the night there, waking up a couple of times (which isn’t altogether unusual for him).

Our little cat Ginger curled up with him for a good portion of the night, since we left the door open and the baby gate up. As you can see from the picture below, he insisted on all his kitties and puppies as well as his cup, but the cow was repeated evicted!

Evan in his bed

Tonight I’m heading out to the garage again to do some painting on his real bed. Hopefully soon I can post pictures of that.

Getting ready for his big boy bed

For the past couple of weeks, we’ve had a twin size mattress on the floor of Evan’s room next to his crib. There have been a few nights where he wasn’t sleeping well, so that way one of us could go sleep in his room to keep him company so the other could get some sleep.

Well, tonight, after his bath, Evan decided he wanted to go to bed. Rather than reach for his crib as he normally does, tonight he laid down on the bed on the floor. Fine by us, if that’s what he wants! We left his room and we could hear on the monitor that he got up and moved around some but wasn’t complaining any. After a couple of minutes we could hear that he’d fallen asleep.

A while ago we thought we’d peek in to check on him. We shut off all the lights and started to open his door, but it wouldn’t move. He fell asleep on the floor against the door 🙂 He woke up just a little bit ago so Dusty settled him back into his bed (he still refused the crib). I guess we’ll see how he does tonight. We’re building him a special bed, so maybe he’s getting about ready for it!

Bicycle Camping on the Rock Island Trail

Last weekend, Derrick, Dave and myself finally got together for a guys-only winter camping trip. It was my first tent-camping trip in a couple of years and the first guy time I’d had in quite some time. In the days preceding the trip, we decided to do a sort-of double trip. We planned to camp from our bicycles on Friday night and head to Jubilee for Saturday.

On Friday night, we met up at the Alta trailhead for the Rock Island Trail. We got reacquainted, shuffled around some gear, and loaded up into my pickup to head to our starting point north of Princeville, leaving Derrick’s truck in Alta. When we got there we set up the bikes and loaded the trailers with our gear. We didn’t all have lightweight backpacking gear, so Derrick and I pulled toddler trailers full of gear. Dave strapped some firewood to his bike rack and carried a backpack.

We’d initially planned to get started on the trail around 4 or 5pm, but due to some unforeseen circumstances we didn’t set out until about 10:30pm. Oh well 🙂 The temperature was around 40 degrees and it was misting slightly for most of our journey. Unfortunately the hard pack trail was a little soft and made the going a little tough. We took our time (mostly because we weren’t all in stellar shape), stopped fairly frequently and headed through Princeville and Dunlap. About 8 miles in, we were making pretty slow progress. It was about 12:30am and I was having a hard time keeping up, being up way past my bedtime and in awful shape. I usually ride a recumbent, so I was also experiencing the joys that mountain bike seats provide! Derrick lashed my trailer up in tandem with his (each of which weighed probably 50-60 lbs). Obviously in better shape than us, Derrick easily pulled the 6 wheeled monstrosity and we made great time finishing the last three miles.

We pulled in to the Kickapoo Creek Recreation Area around 1:30am It’s a nice little campground accessible only from the Rock Island Trail, and since it was winter it was all ours. We rested for a while at the picnic shelter, set up the tent, sat by the campfire and had a snack. Around 4am we turned in for the night. The temperature was pleasant and I for one slept very well.

In the morning, we packed up camp and looked for a geocache in the campground. We finished the ride back to Alta, picking up another cache on the way. At the end, Dave waited with the bikes while Derrick and I took his truck back up to the top of the trail to retrieve my truck. We loaded up, grabbed some lunch, and headed out to Jubilee.

At Jubilee, there were a number of hunters at camp, but still plenty of room to breathe. We set up camp and started a hike. We picked up three geocaches and made our way back to camp as the sun started to set. After a mighty meal of bratwursts and chips, we settled in around the campfire to relax. As we turned in for the night, the temperature had dropped to around freezing and was rather humid, so we left the door flap partially open. Apparently Dave got cold in the night, so he shut the flap in the middle of the night, resulting a very crunchy tent in the morning. The condensation made the entire outside (and most of the inside) of the tent covered in frost.

On Sunday morning, we broke camp early and went our separate ways. Dave and I were home before 9:30am. I had to travel on business in the afternoon, so it was good to have some time at home before then. I was bummed it was over, though. It was nice to have a little time to be a “guy” again, at least as much of a guy as I ever was, anyway.

Oh yeah, a little epilogue: when I got home, I set out my stuff to dry. I put the tent up in the back yard and staked it down. When I returned from my business trip 4 days later, I thanked my wife for taking the tent down. When she didn’t know what I was talking about, I searched the neighborhood. Despite the stakes and my 6ft privacy fence, my tent traveled about a block and became firmly lodged in the thick woods at the edge of the neighborhood. One pole was broken and I’m assuming the tent itself is a little messed up from the thorns. Oh well, the tent served me well, but new gear is fun too!

For photos of the trip, see the photos page.

Video of Tim Storms

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Tim Storms is the current world record holder for lowest vocal note. I found a clip of him singing “Amazing Grace” with the group “Rescue”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFbjtmubBFQ

The lowest note he sings in that clip is the lowest C on a piano (C1), approximately 32Hz. That’s over an octave below textbook bass range. According to the record, his lowest recorded note was 8Hz, which is two octaves lower yet, and well below the range of human hearing.

Travel issues

This week I’m traveling on business to the lovely state of Alabama to do some testing of our software in the field. Right now it’s almost 10pm, and I’m going to bed soon, having been awake for the last 40 hours, not counting a 45 minute nap. Let’s just say, the travel didn’t go as planned.

The original plan was to fly out of Peoria at 4pm into Atlanta then catch a connecting flight to Birmingham after a reasonable 1.5 hour layover. My traveling companion and I left Peoria without incident but when we got to Atlanta they weren’t landing any planes there due to the weather. We entered a holding pattern for about 45 minutes or so and had to divert to Huntsville, AL when we ran low on fuel. We stopped in Huntsville and they fueled us up but we didn’t go to a terminal. No big deal- I’m sure we’ll be moving on soon…

After 5 and a half hours of sitting in the plane on the ground in Huntsville, they cleared us to fly to Atlanta, a very quick flight. We were assured that all other flights into and out of Atlanta were experiencing the same delays. We went directly to catch our connecting flight and found that we’d missed it by 5 minutes… It’s now after 11pm. We made some calls and got in a VERY long line at our airline’s counter to see what we could do. At around 1am, the emergency lights started flashing and a muffled announcement came over the intercom about the weather. No one left the line. At 2am they came out and said all the hotels in Atlanta were full, and they switched from handing out hotel vouchers to handing out pillows.

Finally, around 3am we reached the beginning on the line and learned that we could fly to Birmingham at 11am the next day. Between the fact that we were scheduled to start work at 8am and our unwillingness to sleep on a tile floor, we asked the ticket agent to cancel our flight to Birmingham but keep our return flight.

We rented a car and took off, arriving at our hotel in Birmingham at about 6am. Mercifully, we weren’t expected anywhere until 8am so we went to our rooms for a quick nap. At 8am we did the work we came to do, dressed in the clothes we’d worn the day before (our bags would be taking the next flight…) After work we ran to the airport to get our bags and trade in our rental car for the originally scheduled contract.

The worst part is that we needed to end up in Decatur, a mere 25 miles from Huntville, where we sat on the plane for so long without the possiblity of escape. The second worst part is that we spent 14 hours traveling via airline when we could have driven the whole thing in 9 hours…

Thankfully, today went just fine and everything worked out well. We’re tired, but our host took it easy on us, and we’ll get caught up on rest tonight!

Proof that I’m lame

Here it is New Years and we’re sitting alone at home, having a snack and watching New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, so this post is proof that we’re lame. In fairness, we did have an invitation to a party out of town, but that wouldn’t be very fair to Evan. If he doesn’t get his nap or get to bed at the proper time, things don’t go very well… So, we get to spend some time with Ryan Seacrest and Fergie…

Speaking of Evan, I’ve spent a good portion of my time off working on a new bed for him. I have sawdust in places I didn’t even know existed. I basically finished up tonight, so I’m about ready to pass it off to my wife for painting. One nice thing about the project is that I got to buy some new tools. I finally got myself a compound miter saw (no more manual miter box for me!). I also got a small air compressor from Sears and found a very inexpensive brad nailer at Harbor Freight. All of them work great!

On Tuesday it’s back to work, but this time I don’t feel bad about that. I’ve gotten some things accomplished and spent a lot of quality time with my family. I will miss getting to hang out with Evan all day, though.

Door surfing

Tonight at 7pm, right after we got home, there was a knock on the door. It was the girl from across the street, whom we hadn’t really met before, asking to use the phone. She’d gone out to walk the dog she was taking care of and discovered her apartment door wouldn’t open with her key. Her cellphone was in the apartment, the landlord was out of the state, it was sprinkling and she was 9 months pregnant.

After she got off the phone with her boyfriend, I went across the street to try to open the door. I messed with the key for a few minutes before deciding that wasn’t helping. The key tumbler turned and the knob turned but the bolt didn’t retract. Thankfully they’d left their front window unlocked so I was able to remove the screen and climb in. I disassembled the lock from the inside, but the bolt still wouldn’t retract, so we decided the best idea was to take the door off of its hinges. The hinges were pretty well corroded, but with a little “finesse” the pins came out, but I couldn’t remove the door from the hinges from the inside. So, my bright idea was to climb back outside and hit the door until the hinges detached. It took quite a bit of force on the bottom hinges, so when I moved on to the top hinge, my strike quickly dislodged the door and sent it tumbling inside. Momentarily forgetting all my high school physics and geometry, I figured I could help the situation by trying to grab the door. That’s where the door-surfing occurred.

Thankfully no possessions or body parts were damaged, and access to the apartment was now achieved. We put the door (sans latch) back onto the hinges and decided that was good enough for now. The good news is that it’s nearly impossible to get locked out by a door with no latch…

Out of gas…

Yesterday we were around town and decided to test drive a full-size truck, just to see what it was like. Our salesperson was a young lady who’d only been on the job a couple of weeks. She came out to meet us in the lot and let us take one for a spin by ourselves.

We left the parking lot, drove about two blocks and turned onto a busy road. As I came out of the corner, I gave it a little gas and the engine began to sputter. Looking at the gas gauge, my suspicions were confirmed. We turned into the next parking lot and the engine sputtered to a stop as we were coasting into a spot out of the way.

We called the dealership and our salesperson came to rescue us with a shop employee and a gas can. They were apologetic, but we thought it was an interesting adventure! Thankfully we were able to coast off the road, since there were no shoulders on that road, and pushing a vehicle that size probably wasn’t going to work very well! For the record, we hadn’t even gotten to the nearest gas station when we ran out of gas, so someone was going to have problems in any case!

The Christmas (shopping) Spirit!

I’ve always been under the impression that Christmas, regardless of your religious affiliation, was a time of giving and goodwill toward your fellow man. Whereas Christmas might bring out the best in people, Christmas shopping certainly must bring out the worst.

In an attempt to get past some of the incidents of this Christmas shopping season and get back into the holiday spirit, here is a list of people who will be getting coal in their stocking this year.

Diagonal parking lot crosser:
One thing that has always bothered me is people who tear across a parking lot diagonally, without regard for those who travel properly within the lanes. Normally it’s not a big deal, but a couple of weeks ago, I made the mistake of pulling into a space at the end of a row (leaving a couple of empty spots like I always do). Apparently Ms. Diagnonal Crosser wasn’t happy that I’d blocked her way and proceeded to berate me from the safety of her car with the windows up. She appeared to be asking her male passenger to escalate the situation, but he declined.

Intersection blocker:
Sometimes we’re not paying attention and find that due to traffic we don’t have room to exit the intersection we’ve just entered. An unfortunate but honest mistake. Less forgivable are the folks who, seeing that the car in front of them has been trapped in the intersection, enter as the light turns yellow. After watching this happen for three lights in a row near the mall two weekends ago, I gave a short honk to the folks stopped in front of me preventing my turn. I was wrong though – they indicated to me (in various ways) that they were in fact victims, not perpetrators of this offense. My mistake.

Checkout line sore loser:
After waiting for several minutes behind a shopper dumbfounded by the self-scan machines at Walmart, Dusty noticed the next lane over was about to be vacated. I carried Evan to the line while Dusty wheeled our mostly empty cart behind me. This did please another customer (unseen by us) who rounded the corner as Dusty was pulling into position. She immediately entered verbal attack mode and proceeded begrudgingly to the line we had vacated. In fact, the lane she entered opened up before ours, but that didn’t stop her harassment as we left the store. Perhaps the most disappointing facet was the lesson she was teaching her kids.

Parking space squatter:
In a great mood from our encounter with the sore loser above, we headed out to the parking lot. Dusty loaded Evan into the car while I put our packaged in the back. Behind our car was an SUV driven by an able-bodied man, followed by several cars, blocking our exit. The cars behind him were honking as he waited for a family to reach their van, load up, and leave an empty spot for him. I stood at the back of the car with arms crossed and waited for a couple of minutes until he claimed his prize.

Slick road honker:
Last week the roads were a bit slick, and the snow plow crews really dropped the ball. We were out shopping and spent quite a bit of time standing still in traffic near the mall. When the drivers actually left the intersections passable, some cars had problems getting enough traction to get moving into the intersection, since the snow and slush tended to pile up there. The correct thing for drivers behind to do might have been to get out and help push the car to get it moving, or at least leave a little room for the troubled drivers to back up for a running start. One notable offender was a young couple in an old VW camper van. Not only were they honking at a front-wheel drive Chevy in front of them, but they also pulled right up less than a foot behind every time the car made progress. Eventually I, waiting to turn into that traffic (for 10 minutes), honked at the van and motioned for them to stop and leave the car a little room. They got the idea…

Cart flip watcher:
Yesterday I took Evan out and we picked up a few gifts. The parking lots were mostly clear but had snow, slush and hard packed ice in spots. When we were done, I put Evan in the truck and jogged with the cart the 40ft to the cart corral (which no one apparently uses when temperatures are under 40, but that’s another story…) I hit an unexpected patch of semi-soft snow into which the wheels of the shopping cart stuck. The cart came to an abrupt stop, but I didn’t. Some quick reactions and more than a little luck helped me vault over the cart and land on my feet. A girl 50ft away saw my trick and began laughing. Her family was kind enough to wait for me to stand up and say “Tada!” before joining in. Not a big deal, but making sure I was OK first might have been nice.

Ok, that’s all. Thankfully, there have been a number of nice people I’ve encountered, and I will say that Evan’s doing his part to spread Christmas cheer. Very few people can resist smiling when he runs up to them and says “hi!!!” We also made it through a couple of hours tonight without incident, which surprised me. All the same, I think I’ll be doing more Christmas shopping on Amazon.com next year…

If only I had a camera…

This afternoon was the last performance of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” for the season, so Evan and I hung out backstage while Dusty was getting ready. Evan got to meet most of the cast and run around a bit, but his favorite element was the group of cloggers (ladies ranging from teenagers to retirees) warming up on the other side of the lobby.

Before he saw any of them dancing, he ran over to say hi. One of the cloggers bent over to talk to him and gave a few taps. Evan quickly returned the favor, stomping in his non-tapping shoes. Within a couple of minutes the whole group was clogging in a half circle as Evan twirled and stomped in the middle! When they finished their routine Evan led a round of applause and ran up and down the line giving high fives and shaking everyone’s hands. For some unknown reason, he skipped one of the ladies on both passes down the line. I guess now we’d better get him some tap shoes 🙂