Back in the saddle, so to speak.

Wow It's been a long time since I wrote here. I thought it was deleted, but it seems it's survived. But there are bugs abound. So many things have happened since I last wrote something here. The big things are that my niece Alex died in a car accident in 2011. She was born on my birthday and died on my dads birthday, how odd. It didn't hit me as hard as one might think. For a few years prior we had a falling out, and in a sense she had already died to me. We never really talked other than an occasional hi if I made it to town. She also managed to give birth a little over a year before that. So now my parents are looking after the kid, Tristen, because the dad is out of the picture.
The next big thing was my cat Chewbacca "Chewy". Now that one hit me hard, mainly because it caught me off guard. In September of last year he had difficulty pooping. He managed to work it out and he was fine again. October the same thing, November the same thing. In September I brought him to the animal hospital because he was looking so pathetic. The helped him out and he was very grateful to me that night. He was very clingy, his way of saying thanks. Octobers incident lasted most of a weekend but it worked itself free and he was fine. I didn't care by this point that he was dripping liquid poop everywhere. I did kinda attempt to follow him around and assist when I could. I did give him a bath in sink when he was done. He hated water but we managed. So November rolls around, about a week before Thanksgiving. I bring him to my normal vet and she does an X-ray on him, after they cleaned him up. She comes out and tells me he has a football shaped tumor that was very large. It extended from his bum to his rib cage. It was pressing down on his intestines, which caused him to get backed up. I agreed to an operation to determine the origin of tumor. After a few days she identified it and said it hadn't spread and recommended steroids to reduce the size, but said he wouldn't live past Christmas. Things were going fine the first week, he hated his steroids and fought me every time i gave it to him. I also had to give him pain meds for the surgery. He didn't like the original stuff, but did get some tuna flavored stuff which he liked. But unfortunately he had another episode of blockage. He back legs had gotten all weak and one leg looked like it popped out of socket. He had lost alot of weight in the last few months. He used to be a good 12 - 13 lbs in his prime. When he died he weighed like 8. The last night we had together his frail little body climbed in to bed with me. We had this routine where he would sit next to my head and massage my shoulder for a good 5 minutes. Well his weak little body managed to get up on bed and do it one last time. (I'm crying again just thinking about it) That night I made up my mind to set up an appointment to put him down. The date would be two days before Thanksgiving. I managed to get the day off of work for this. I shared some ice cream with him that morning, which he weakly licked up. He wasn't eating much anymore. I gave him 2 treats a day and didn't care if he ate it all. It appeared the dry food hurt his mouth to much. We hugged in the vets office as she administered the shot and he quietly slipped away. I stayed home for Thanksgiving as I couldn't let my other cat stay behind as he was grieving in his own way. I decided to look for a new cat while I was at home. I settled on a Chewy look alike name Cole. I seem to call him Colby though. Well that's enough for tonight... the next one will be on the 3rd big thing my trip to England.

Graduation

Well Alex's graduation has come and gone. Our relationship has spiraled down to almost nothing in the last 6 months. She doesn't want to talk anymore, but yet claims that she does. She doesn't listen to my advice either. So now she's abandoned her plans to go to college and is taking her dad's advice about getting an apartment with a friend of hers. We will be taking a trip together along with Gabby. I fear this is the last time we'll be spending any time together. I've given up on Alex because it's to painful to care anymore. I see her throwing her life away. Her number one priority in life right now is getting a boyfriend and obsessing over him. She's gone through a number of them this year already. Of course each one she's "in love" with and after a month has wedding bells on her mind. I agree her current boyfriend, of one month, is the best yet. But he's only 17 and still has another year of High School... I don't see it lasting because of that. I don't agree with her dad that she needs to see what it's like to pay for things herself. Escentially living in poverty. She says she doesn't know what she wants to do and doesn't want to be rushed into college. She says she might start school in January or next fall. I don't see her going through with it.

So my Kentucky trip is nearly upon me. I've set aside 2 weeks to entertain Gabby & Alex. I've started to get a little closer with Gabby... now that Alex doesn't want to spend time with me. Before she was distant and we didn't really do things together. Now I spend time & attention with her and I think she appreciates it. So we'll spend most of the time just hanging around my house. But I've booked 4 nights in Lexington, KY where I plan to go hiking, go caving and see the horse farm. Hopefully the weather cooperates.

I did get Alex's money she borrowed back. I intially wanted to just give her the $2000 for her car. But her dad and my mom didn't want me to. So I agreed it would be a loan. So she handed over all of her graduation money to me to pay back $1000 of it. My mom agreed to pay $500 and I already recieved $500 over the course of the year it was borrowed.

I hope that I can continue to have at least Gabby over for special holidays which used to be just Alex. I'll invite her over for Christmas when I get some time alone with her again.

Danielle's First Visit

My oldest niece decided to go for a week away from TC before she heads away to college. So half that week was spent over my house with 2 of my other nieces. They arrived Thursday with my sister (their mom), husband and other kids in tow. My sister was scared for her, since this was her first real drive in big city traffic. After my sister left we all headed to the grocery store to pick up supplies for the weekend. During this process Alex was attempting to direct activities and dinner, but much to the dislike of Danielle. Not sure if this was because Danielle is used to telling the other two what to do or what. But I stayed out of it. After dinner we all went bowling and they were disappointed that no bumpers were available. Since they are all new to bowling they were hoping for this feature. Bowling ended at 10 minutes to 10 when I suggested ice cream but with only 10 minutes to closing we all rushed out and headed there just in time. Friday got started pretty late as most of them were all ready by around 11am. This was the norm for the weekend. It doesn't help when planning to go places though. But I don't worry about it as long as everyone has fun. We went to Dave & Busters in the morning followed by a walk at the park after that. We then watched a movie to finish off the night. Saturday we went back to the part for some kayaking. It didn't go as well as last time as our kayak didn't seem to want to go straight, but it was still a good time. We then headed to CJ Barrymores for some Go-Karts, Bungee, Laser Tag. After this we all headed to the mall where I bought Alex a new haircut for her birthday (a little early). Later that night the three of them wanted to do some modeling so we stayed up late doing that. Sunday they were up bright and early, 9am, because Alex had plans to meet some friends that afternoon. So I was left with cleaning up all the mess.

Holiday - July 2007

It's been over 6 months since my last post so I thought I'd update after my brief vacation. It started Saturday as I drove up to TC. The traffic was light so it was a relatively pleasant drive. I arrived pretty early, around 11. My parents were home and the nieces were about to go to work. So I just hung out in the yard, bought my parents some ice cream. This vacation I was planning on taking my niece Alex with me. We now make it a yearly ritual.

Sunday morning Alex and I departed TC for SH. Soon after we arrived at my place we did a quick trip to the grocery store for our supplies for the week. After that we headed to a festival near by. It was mildly entertaining, but still a bit of a let down.

Monday I set up a campus tour for Alex at a local University. She's interested in going so I thought I'd show her the plusses. I intend to let her stay at my place, pretty much rent free, if she decides to attend. She's a senior in HS this coming year so it still gives her at least 7 months to decide. After the tour and lunch we headed to a local park where we did some kayaking. It was a first for both of us. It was real fun, might have to do it again in the future.

I managed to wake her up pretty early Tuesday so we could depart to Lexington, KY. It was roughly a 5 hour drive and she spent most of it buried in her puzzle book. After checking into our hotel room we quickly departed to go see the Natural Bridge in the Red River Gourge. We dined at a local restaurant which served deep fried pickles. It was a suprisingly good treat to go with a mediocre dinner.

Wednesday we headed to the Horse Park, which was the main reason I chose this sight for our vacation together. She loves horses, and most of all Arabians. To top it off they were having an Arabian competition there for the week. After spending the entire day there we headed off to another local restaurant located on a river. It was very good food there and their specialty of deep fried mild bananna peppers was very good also. But it started to rain so we didn't get to see the surrounding area. The ride back was very scary for Alex and hell to drive, due to the severe Thunderstorms.

Since the rain continued Thursday morning we decided just to head back to SH. But on the way we did stop at the Air Force museum in Dayton. It was my third time there, it changes every time. I don't know how interested she was in this, but at least mildly interested.

Friday we both slept in and went to Dave & Busters for lunch and games. After we did that for a few hours we headed to the park again to ride bikes and see the nature center.

Saturday we drove back to TC. Where she anxiously awaited seeing her friends. My sister managed to show up unexpectedly forcing Alex to sleep on the floor for the night :(

Sadly Sunday I headed back to my condo and cleaned up the place.

It's always so depressing coming back from these vacations, but overall it's worth the time on vacation.

Christmas

Well another Christmas and New Year is over with. I started out by driving to TC and staying the weekend, including Christmas, at my parents place. Some things have changed since my last blog. My niece Alex got kicked out of her house and now lives with my parents, along with the older niece Danielle. But I won't get into those detail... this blog is about me after all. So I spent the days leading up to Christmas just hanging out and visiting friends and Christmas shopping. I think I did a good job at picking em.. cus everyone loved em. I also managed to finally get hired direct at the company I've been working at. A little over 2 years as a contractor was more than enough. So now I get more money per week :D Anyway I took my niece Alex to stay with me for the week off between Christmas and New Years. We mainly just hung around the house, cus she sleeped in til noon. But managed to go shopping, swimming, eating out, seeing movies. I just enjoy hanging out with her. I guess I need a girlfriend to do these things with, but that's easier said than done (in my case). I spent New Years with my parents, sister and all four nieces. Tomorrow I get to go back to work.... well hopefully I'll write these more often.

Is it me?

Well it's almost the big 4 day weekend for memorial day. I'm in work right now, with no one around, so I can leave early on thursday to head to TC.

I was wondering why I get people that don't bother to call me when they say they will. Or don't call me back when I leave a message. I have been talking online to these two women and actually went out on a date with one of them so far. So that one wanted to go out again. Now I'm not into her, we're to different. So I agreed that we would, and I'm a man of my word. So I've already made two attempts to set up a time. Each time I'd call her and she'd have something else going on, but she'd call me when it was done. No calls, not even the next day to say she was sorry for missing our 'date'. The other one just got divorced and seems a little scared to start dating again. I left her my phone number and she said she'd call. No phone call, no email nothing. It's been a week now with no word. I left a message on her page but nothing.

Family is just as bad, with the exception of my brother, I almost never get phone calls. I always seem to be the one that has to keep in contact. Within the last year I've stepped back and not even bothered to call anyone. Once in a while I'll still call when I have a specific question. So far this year my sister has called me once, i haven't called her. My mom hasn't called me I've probably called her 6 times. I've called my nieces alot and recieved one call back after leaving a text message. Thus the title of the blog... Is it me?

My dad is the worst offender. I rarely talk to him when he's present. Never in my life has he called me, wrote me anything. The only time I usually talk to him is when I have questions on my insurance, which I share with him. But I know if I need him for some construction work he'll be here to help... on the plus side.

So I'll be 'home' this weekend to see the family. I try to hang out with my niece Alex because at least I'm never bored with her around. My parents idea of a good time is renting a movie. They never go out and you practically have to twist an arm to get them to do something social (like play a game).

Well that's it for now.... not that anyone reads this shit ;)

Easter 2006

I left my office on Thursday straight for Traverse City. The drive was uneventful except for one instant when an old lady almost hit me from the side when she changed into my lane without looking into anything but her mirrors. I was the first to arrive so I staked out my usual room. My brother, his wife and her 2 kids arrived late that night. I didn't do much that night except surf the web.

Friday morning not much happened either, so I dropped off my car to get it's 30,000 mile inspection. When I got it back in the afternoon I spent part of the nice day cleaning the car inside and out. My brother scheduled some dinner time with our 3 nieces, but he did this through their dad and none of the girls were aware of this.... until the phone call by him asking if they were ready. So I went over their house early and hung out. When dinner hour approached I took Alex and Gabby to the restaurant. I called my brother and he was running late and asked me to pick up Danielle at the mall. After a nice filling meal I took the girls back to their house. Alex, Danielle and I went out on some bikes and played around the yard. Things like hitting tennis balls etc. Around 8:30 I took off to prepare to go out drinking with my brother. We convinced my sister and her husband to join me, my brother and his wife at the bar. They only ended up staying for one drink though. They just had to rush off to the casino. We all had a good time and walked home at around 1am.

Saturday the nieces came over around 10am. No one did anything until around 11am when us kids split into two groups. My brother and family plus Gabby went to the mall. Me and my sister, husband and Alex and Danielle went for a drive into the country. We drove by one of our first homes and looked how much it changed. During the trip Alex and Danielle drove for most of the way... minus the city driving. We ended up going out toward the Sleeping Bear Dunes. We took a seasonal road to the edge of the dunes and climbed up to the top until we could see lake Michigan. I took some pics of it... hopefully I can attach one. More are at my forum which is linked here... I think. I was exhausted after the climb and found myself on all fours at one point just to continue on. But being dehydrated from drinking the night before didn't help at all and led to a queesy stomach near the top. I asked Alex to scout ahead and she went another ridge ahead of us. When she got there we heard some voices and noticed a group of guys taking an official trail in the park. I guess one asked another why he was taking so many pictures of my niece. We could hear good and one could hear another in normal voice over a great distance there. When we left we headed to Moomers, an Ice Cream place. My mom had Easter dinner ready at 5 because everyone was leaving on Easter Sunday.

On Sunday I took off after a few hours since everyone else was doing so. Since my parents don't do anything when I'm there I might as well spend time doing nothing at my place.