Tuesday, the 4th day of May 2010

Lots have happened lately; I'll give you the highlights...

First, my oldest daughter - Clarissa Ane - got married this past Friday down in Coral Springs, FL to a wonderful boy/man called Damon Stinson, a son from a Kentucky family. I now have a son! It was a weekend full of activities, emotions and feelings, and it all turned out wonderfully!

Since none of my family could come up from Venezuela, and I did not have the latitude/opportunity to invite any of my friends (and the relationship between my ex-wife and my family and me, have never been minimally civil) Jan, Alex, Leah and I cautiously walked alone into potential 'hostile territory' starting on Thursday night with the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner, Friday for the wedding ceremony and reception, and Saturday for the Kentucky Derby celebration at Calder Race track.

With a couple of minor exceptions, my older daughters, their mother and her immediate and extended families were warm or, at least, gracious and proper at all times; further, we were able to pair up frequently with the groom's family and really enjoyed meeting them.

I also got to spend some time with my ex-father-in-law, to whom I was once very close and with whom I had not spoken in over 24 years... It was also soul warming to learn that his feelings and appreciation for me haven't changed over the years either...

Bottom Line: all stars aligned and many people put their best effort forward to make this past one a truly memorable, in the most positive way, occasion!

Other headliners:

My second daughter, Valentina, is returning for her last year of Medical School after a Sabbatical in which she got a Master in Journalism. She is engaged to be married and have set no date yet.

Alex & Leah finished their semesters in good shape, and are in TN with the family. Leah stays for the summer while Alex goes back to Gainesville next week to start an internship and summer classes...

Lastly, the house in Sunrise went up for sale three weeks ago and it sold in a week; we are currently working on small items found during the inspection and expect to close towards the end of this month.

Saturday, the 17th day of April, 2010

The Ides of April (read IRS day or Tax Day) came in very threatening and ominous; after a couple of days of anguish, pressure and lots of research, we actually did not have to pay any more taxes.. In fact we got a relatively small refund - enough to pay our CPA and that was it!

In that day, the 15th, Jan and I went to a neighbor house for dinner to celebrate the end of the 'killing season' or tax season... You see, people in our community here are retired or semi-retired and taxes are a very serious issue since a larger-than-expected tax bill may mean a change of lifestyle (either liquidate assets which are producing the money you live on, or go get a job!); additionally, the same people in our community need very little reason or cause to get together and P-A-R-T-Y!

That night, one of our friends decided they were going to have a girls night in their house themed "Margaritas in the hot-tub" on Friday, last night; to compensate, I asked the boys to get together in our place for a night of good ole pool hall fun!

Jan and I are moving a little slow this AM; but we will pick up the pace after a cup of joe...

Stay tuned...

Monday, the 12th day of April, 2010

Jan and I took Pancho, Bo & Bella to the vet's today... Since Pancho was bit quite a lot by ticks, he put him on antibiotics for the next two weeks, just in case he was infected with any nasty stuff. He said that, if Pancho was infected, it would not show in a blood test until three weeks from now; so, as a preemptive measure, he is on antibiotics! Further, they all received a manicure and the booster for their rabies vaccine...

Besides that, Jan and I continued to work on several projects around the house: she is working on the painting/finishing of a bench for the front of the house; I am working on a rustic board to hang my guitars off, restoring the frame of an old sewing machine to make a table out of, and on a cabinet for Jan's closet... Full hands indeed!

I am also looking for a job; need to back to work; UGH!

More later...

Saturday, the 10th Day of April, 2010

After several months of planning and pondering, I finally completed our coat rack (a couple of elk antlers), finished and hung our key-chain holder, and finally hung our welcome sign. Here they are:

There are bunches of other good news, and here they are... The ticks ordeal seems to be subsiding; we found some ticks yesterday around Pancho, but none on him (they're jumping ship!) or on Bo and Bella. To close this chapter, we will take them to the vet on Monday for blood work to ensure that, if they contracted any infection from the ticks, we are swift battling it.

We brought our big move up from Florida about three weeks ago. After placing all the furniture (well, almost all) in their rightful place, we were left with no energy and with a garage full (up the the rafters!) of large boxes. Yesterday we started to tackle that task and we made relatively good progress since now one can get out of the house through the garage!

I worked on our bicycles yesterday; almost all of them survived years of neglect and inaction, except our tandem: as I was road-testing it, the front tire blew off... Have to add to fix that tire to the list of projects! Regardless of that setback, Jan and I jumped on our individual bikes and went for a short ride around the neighborhood... My world! All the seemingly gentle rolling waves on the terrain turned out to be as challenging as the bloody Alps! But we were able to ride (instead of walk) back home without incidents and with happy, though racy, hearts!

Last, but not least, as I was trying to get things out of the way in the garage - specifically our bike rack - I overloaded one of the shelves I had installed a month ago and it, without warning, came down crashing! That was a good indicator that the work-day was over; it would take about two hours to fix all that and it was after 7:30 PM. We decided it was time to come in to shower, prepare and eat supper, and crash!

More tomorrow...!

Friday, the 9th day of April, 2010

There is a whole chain of errors and misunderstandings between our Vet and us regarding the protection we were providing for the pups... He had given us a solution back in September, to be administered monthly and orally, which Jan and I understood was to replace Heartguard (for worms) and Frontline (for ticks). Well, we misunderstood and such solution was only to protect against worms (replacing HeartGuard); so, literally, our pups went unprotected against ticks for a long time. Since it was mostly late Fall and then Winter, the lack of protection did not manifest itself until Spring sprang and ticks (and all other God-awful critters) woke up from their slumber.

So, we bought the actual Frontline yesterday and administered right away to all three pups. Overnight, ticks have started to get off Pancho like if somebody had yelled 'fire!'. The concern we have now is that he had so many on him that his chances of having been infected with either Lime Disease or Rocky Mountain Fever are quite high; so, to the Vet we march again on Monday AM to do lab work....

Thursday, the 8th day Of April, 2010

In the past two weeks or so, Jan and I have been working on our yard quite a bit, mainly planting trees (over 300 of them!), cleaning up dead wood debris left around over many years, clearing up a path to the creek, and preparing a garden. While doing these chores, our pups are always with us. Bo and Bella are very mindful of our expectations they stay close by; they do not wear/need a leash. Pancho, on the other side, has a mind of his own and he 'roams'; and this is the reason he is always on a tether; well, almost always...

After seeing him suffer for not having the freedom the other two enjoy, we decided to turn him loose; he actually behave quite well, disappearing into the bush for about 10 to 15 minutes but coming back to 'say hello', except one time he was gone for about two hours and, eventually came back dirty & tired but happy!

We suspect that, on those treks he took through the bush he got ticks on him; and we expected 'Frontline' to do its job (kill the ticks as they bit him). No such results... He is miserable and Jan and I have pulled over 200 ticks off him in the last three days, most of them alive and well, and some of them the size of a dime!

Jan called the vet on Tuesday and they said to give him another dose (3 cc) of 'Frontline'; we did this on Tuesday afternoon and last night we were still picking alive critters off him - IT IS NOT WORKING!

We will take Pancho to the vet's today (later this AM) and get him taken care of!

Friday, the 16th day of January, 2010

Another new year brings another new set of challenges, goals and realities... It is also right to say that some of the goals and challenges are not so new; they seem to linger around due to either procrastination, lack of focus, or - most interesting - lack of relevance or impact if they were achieved... Oh well, we will deal with them with renewed interest and energy.

Down to the more mundane issues, the weather of the past two weeks up here in the Plateau were about 20° below normal; now it seems to be trending to a more expected range; as of now, 9:15 AM CST it is 37° F, sunny and crisp!

Took Alex's car top the shop yesterday; must add that the nearest Toyota/Scion dealer is bout 55 minutes away. The little Scion xA had been running rough, vibrating when reaching speeds of 55 MPH and higher. After a couple of hours of tests they found out both rear wheels rims were bent to the point that the tires may lose air/blow up at any time. These little cars, although efficient and limber, are not designed to fall hard into pot holes and come out of it OK (like the Jeep does!). Oh well, after ordering the rims we left the car there until it is fixed - some time next week, I hope.

Read something in one of the e-mails sent by friends: "When you are feeling down and out, good for nothing, remember you were once the best and fastest of the whole (sperm) bunch!"

Let's live to write another day...