A House Full of Flashback
Well it was just two months ago that me and the wife(and the dogs of course) had the whole house to ourselves. The juvenile deliquent son was living at a friends house and things were pretty quiet, old people quiet. Well, that all changed this past Saturday evening when Jennette arrived from Kansas with minivan full of munchkins. 3 of 'em to be exact. Ryan, who's gonna be 3 in September, Jason who'll be 2 in July and Ethan Thomas (had to get that in there) who'll be turning 1 in July. Don't ask me which days I can't keep 'em straight.
To say it's been a bit chaotic is understatment but I ain't complainin', it's cool to have some little ones around for awhile, finally. This time around I can spoil 'em and send 'em home and I ain't changing any shitty diapers, that's where I put my foot down. My job as grandpa is to spoil 'em, play with 'em and teach 'em what little I know. To explain how this adventure has started off I need to go back to the beginning of the weekend.
Friday afternoon me and Chris took off for Meadowview Castle (thanks for the handle Wolfgang). The plan was to just stay Friday night and come back home Saturday evening because Sunday was Mother's day. We got up there about 6 and started working on stuff until it started to get dark. We hung around the fire for the remainder of the evening and I called it a day a bit after midnight.
Saturday it was 38° when I got out of a nice warm camper. invigorating to say the least. I got a small fire going to warm the bones and then once I got the blood moving me and the dogs took a hike around the campground for awhile looking for deer and turkeys. Saw tracks but no live animals during the jaunt. When we got back to camp I started in making breakfast. After sausage and pancakes I was feeling feisty so we started in hauling wood into piles to cut and then later in the morning fired up the chain saw and went over to the next lot and started in logging a big ole Oak tree that had fallen over and couldn't get up any longer. Now about here is where experience in life is suppose to kick in.....normally when working in the woods and fields it's wise to keep the body completely covered to avoid coming into contact with nasty things.....ticks, spiders, plants that make ya itch......but no, I'm out there with just a short sleeved T shirt on and without a care in the world. We spent a couple hours cutting up the big limbs of the old oak and hauled it over to the wood piled and stacked it. By the time that was done we were ready for a bit to eat so Chris make us up and couple cans of spagetti and meatballs which tasted pretty good in the out-of-doors.
After luggin' all that heavy wood around all morning I decided to work on cleaning up the piles of leaves that I'd raked up the night before. They were much lighter. After a couple hours of that it was breaktime again. Chris wandered off into the camper and I sat down in a chair by the fire pit and both of us crashed out for a good hour or so. After nappy time was over we decided it was time to pick up, lock up and head for home cuz we just gotten a text message on the phone that said Jen was on the way to Grand Haven with the midget army.
We figured that we'd beat them there and have time for a shower but when we came down the street to the house the place was overrun with cars and inside was a group of folks all there to celebrate the arrival. Saturday evening went by quick.
Sunday morning I got up, got stuff around and headed off to the folks house with Mercury in the co-pilot seat as pre-planned. We made a stop at Bill's on the way up to get a potted plant (potted plant, not a pot plant) for mom. We got there a bit before noon and left about 5:30. In between I showed off Mercury's tricks to the folks, played soccer with him for awhile, had hamburgers and french fries for lunch, spent some time on mom's computer helping with stuff and then before heading home took a nap for an hour or so cuz I was just pooped.....from all the excitement of the night before no doubt. During the course of the afternoon my right arm started to feel very warm and it looked like there might be some kind of infection going on. It was uncomfortable but not painful and it wasn't until later that night that I realized what I was dealing with.....it was Poison oak! somehow Saturday up at camp, while cutting wood, I must've run into a plant with issues and it lashed out at me. Later on when my arm started to swell up and puss started oozing out I was certain what the problem was and vowed a trip to the doctor first thing Monday morning.
I got back home about 7:30 and Ri was there babysitting and had everything under control so with my condition and not wanting to share it I headed for the basement for the rest of the evening.
Monday morning as promised I was at the doctor at 9am. I got a shot in the butt and two different medicines to kill off the swelling and the itching. I also have some topical spray to keep the burning under control. All will be well again by the end of the week I hope. I don't dare touch the grandkids until I'm whole again...nobody else needs this crap, that's for sure.
I expect it's gonna be a busy week and I plan to take as many grandkid pics as I can so there should be another entry before too long. Not sure what's happening yet for the upcoming weekend. The Burn Survivors car show is Saturday but we might take the whole crew up to the castle if the weather cooperates but the way it looks right now car shows and camping trips are both gonna be iffy affairs. We'll see, there's plenty of time yet for those overpaid guessers to change their minds for the weekend. Pics to come later.
To say it's been a bit chaotic is understatment but I ain't complainin', it's cool to have some little ones around for awhile, finally. This time around I can spoil 'em and send 'em home and I ain't changing any shitty diapers, that's where I put my foot down. My job as grandpa is to spoil 'em, play with 'em and teach 'em what little I know. To explain how this adventure has started off I need to go back to the beginning of the weekend.
Friday afternoon me and Chris took off for Meadowview Castle (thanks for the handle Wolfgang
Saturday it was 38° when I got out of a nice warm camper. invigorating to say the least. I got a small fire going to warm the bones and then once I got the blood moving me and the dogs took a hike around the campground for awhile looking for deer and turkeys. Saw tracks but no live animals during the jaunt. When we got back to camp I started in making breakfast. After sausage and pancakes I was feeling feisty so we started in hauling wood into piles to cut and then later in the morning fired up the chain saw and went over to the next lot and started in logging a big ole Oak tree that had fallen over and couldn't get up any longer. Now about here is where experience in life is suppose to kick in.....normally when working in the woods and fields it's wise to keep the body completely covered to avoid coming into contact with nasty things.....ticks, spiders, plants that make ya itch......but no, I'm out there with just a short sleeved T shirt on and without a care in the world. We spent a couple hours cutting up the big limbs of the old oak and hauled it over to the wood piled and stacked it. By the time that was done we were ready for a bit to eat so Chris make us up and couple cans of spagetti and meatballs which tasted pretty good in the out-of-doors.
After luggin' all that heavy wood around all morning I decided to work on cleaning up the piles of leaves that I'd raked up the night before. They were much lighter. After a couple hours of that it was breaktime again. Chris wandered off into the camper and I sat down in a chair by the fire pit and both of us crashed out for a good hour or so. After nappy time was over we decided it was time to pick up, lock up and head for home cuz we just gotten a text message on the phone that said Jen was on the way to Grand Haven with the midget army.
We figured that we'd beat them there and have time for a shower but when we came down the street to the house the place was overrun with cars and inside was a group of folks all there to celebrate the arrival. Saturday evening went by quick.
Sunday morning I got up, got stuff around and headed off to the folks house with Mercury in the co-pilot seat as pre-planned. We made a stop at Bill's on the way up to get a potted plant (potted plant, not a pot plant) for mom. We got there a bit before noon and left about 5:30. In between I showed off Mercury's tricks to the folks, played soccer with him for awhile, had hamburgers and french fries for lunch, spent some time on mom's computer helping with stuff and then before heading home took a nap for an hour or so cuz I was just pooped.....from all the excitement of the night before no doubt. During the course of the afternoon my right arm started to feel very warm and it looked like there might be some kind of infection going on. It was uncomfortable but not painful and it wasn't until later that night that I realized what I was dealing with.....it was Poison oak! somehow Saturday up at camp, while cutting wood, I must've run into a plant with issues and it lashed out at me. Later on when my arm started to swell up and puss started oozing out I was certain what the problem was and vowed a trip to the doctor first thing Monday morning.
I got back home about 7:30 and Ri was there babysitting and had everything under control so with my condition and not wanting to share it I headed for the basement for the rest of the evening.
Monday morning as promised I was at the doctor at 9am. I got a shot in the butt and two different medicines to kill off the swelling and the itching. I also have some topical spray to keep the burning under control. All will be well again by the end of the week I hope. I don't dare touch the grandkids until I'm whole again...nobody else needs this crap, that's for sure.
I expect it's gonna be a busy week and I plan to take as many grandkid pics as I can so there should be another entry before too long. Not sure what's happening yet for the upcoming weekend. The Burn Survivors car show is Saturday but we might take the whole crew up to the castle if the weather cooperates but the way it looks right now car shows and camping trips are both gonna be iffy affairs. We'll see, there's plenty of time yet for those overpaid guessers to change their minds for the weekend. Pics to come later.
Ethan, Jason & Ryan @ tubtime.
posted by Tom Eckels at 12:17 PM
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