LEFTOVERS

It's starting to get warmer and maybe it'll start drying out also. Hints of spring are showing themselves. Lia is busy making more Hoops and dancing with Lauren and Jen and Angela and Kelly and Eli and Doris and Roxy and ... whoever happens to stop by while ABBA is filling the LZ with thier happy sounds. Lia is rockin' the hoops at least 2 - 4 hours everyday. I try for ten minutes and start sweating and breathing hard. It really is a great workout, and fun to watch the girls learn some pretty cool tricks! (not sure how to make a new paragraph, so this is a subject change.) I got a chance to run my paraglider off the side of the mtn. the other evening. It had been a soarable day blowing a bit west with some strong thermals coming through. Maybe a dozen pilots flew. As the sun started getting lower in the sky I could tell conditions were mellowing out, so I ran home and had Lia drive me up top with the bag. It was PERFECT! I laid my wing out, got in my harness, hooked in, preflight, and with my first attempt of the year (on the paraglider) was up and off into the sky! Everyone went out and landed leaving me all alone for a 50 min. flight into the sunset!!! It was awesome. None of these pictures are from that flight, nor do they have anything to do with that flight. This first pic. is a leftover from last halloween. It is one of the CRAZIES that help keep this place what it is. He showed up at my house already a bit strange, and with a few shots of tequila and a bit of paint we were able to calm him down and send him off into the night a more happy, carefree, sort of fellow. WHY SO SERIOUS? These are the pumpkins I painted for the holiday celebration during the same time. Yep, you've already seen the snotty nose one, and then there is the swine flu guy, and the lil' eye guy. This is one of the things I try to do every year for halloween. It gives me a creative outlet and makes people smile. Or wonder whats wrong with me. Either way they are kinda fun.

This last picture was taken on one of the last days of winter. It was cold and beautiful, and as the last hint of sun left us I thought maybe i could capture the elusive (spelling?) GREEN FLASH. I didn't. I'm told that it happens more on the water than over land. Don't know what it is? Me neither, look it up and leave me a comment. Until something more exciting happens, see ya.

HoopTonic Takeover

It's everywhere I try to walk in the house! There's tape all over our table and plastic tubeing spread around like we are gonna irrigate the landing field. I think my wife has gone crazy!!! The reality is that she is diggin' the HOOP DANCE. We all played with hula hoops when we were kids, right? Well this aint yo' momma's hula hoop. Lia took a Hoop Dance class last year when we were living in California and started swingin' her hips and shaking her booty. She would go each week and learn a new move then come home and show us what to do. or at least how to try. Her sister Jessica was catching on but Chip and myself would struggle for a few minutes, start sweating and fall off to the side and let the girls do their thing. Lia ended up buying herself a couple different styles of hoops, and one for Jessica, and stayed at it everyday till we left. We drove home and got caught up in work and play and the hoops sat around for a little bit till one day Lia grabed 'em and remembered how good she was feeling when hooping everyday. So she got our friend Lauren to come out and start dancing with her, then Jen stopped by and started hooping. Then other folks would want to try but we only have two hoops. Hmmm... seems like people might enjoy this and get exercise without even knowing it because their having too much fun. We could make these things and turn other folks on to this, so we are. Lia did some research, found some materials, and started learning why they cost what they do. They aint cheap to put together and then the time it takes to wrap them in tape real pretty like is an art form that will be a great test of patience and creativity. So here she goes. She took another class last weekend down in Atlanta and is starting the process of teaching others the tricks she is learning. Already sold two Hoops and has others ready for anyone interested in a fun workout! Here are some of the colors and designs so far, and Lia will be happy to make you one to your specifications if you would like. Most of them are 42 inch hoops which move a little slower and make the learning process a little easier at the start. Lia and Lauren are using 36 inch hoops because they are getting good at it!!!

It would be really great if YOU, whoever you are that reads this, would come by and pick yourself out one that makes you feel good, so I can have some room in my house and feel good as well. Because tripping over hoops in the night when trying to use the facilities is starting to be tricky. They are only $25.00 and are made with Love. Plus it is a great workout! I belive Lia will include the first lesson with your purchase, after that it's $10.00 a lesson, plus tips. What, I'm trying to help her be a succcess.

I'm serious, they are everywhere. You can see a leg and foot with a hand holding a roll of tape at the edge of this picture. Thats my girl wraping a green and Hot pink one. Looks really cool!

St. Patricks day at Jen and Keiths. Lia and Jen and acouple from N. Carolina, Mary and Richard, Hoopin' it up around the fire warding off the rain with their Happy Dance. Lia hooped for about four hours that afternoon. She has had type 1 diabetes since childhood and with all the excercise she is getting has lowered her daily intake of insulin by half! Plus she has lost 15 pounds in the last 6 weeks!!! (workout plus watching whats she eats) Ready for that Hoop now?

Past Life screechin' to the scrapyard

It was a Dark and Gray day that they came and took her away. The mold clung to her sides like my memories of cross country travels we had made together for ten years in the early '90's to the 2000's. She had almost 50,000 miles under her when she came into my life. I more than doubled that in our time together. I could write a book, should write a book, about our adventures across and around this great nation. She took me into S. Florida down to the Keys. Up through New York where we crossed over into Canada. Across I-20 into Arizona down through Yuma where she took me into the Baja of Mexico for 15 weeks in '97. Countless states and county fairs. Illegally camped in parking lots, rest areas, dirt roads that went nowhere. Getting escourted off daytona beach while cooking dinner because the tide was coming in. Sleeping on a giant incline on Lovers lane in West Virginia till the parts store opened the next morning. Throwing parties in downtown Atlanta outside the clubs my friends bands were playing at. The stories are almost endless and very entertaining, maybe I will write them down someday. Till then, these pictures will have to help keep them alive in my head. I thought the tow truck was gonna be a little bigger than what showed up. Did the job though.

The right rear wheels were locked up, so the driver just dragged her away hoping that that they would break free once on the road. We have a real nice trench in the yard now.

The wheels did not break free right away. The driver kept draggin' her while I sat and listened to the scream coming off her smoking tire. I'm not sure she wanted to leave but after about a quarter of a mile she went silent. The driver picked up some speed and a part of my past life disappeared around the corner leaving me with my memories and a open spot to put something else! Anyone have a big boat that doesn't work? Lia would really love that!

I forgot to watch the local news and see if there was any stories about a motorhome falling apart on the roads to Alabama. Hope it went OK for the guy. NOT MY PROBLEM ANYMORE!!!

Mo' Snow pics.

OK... Eric came over and helped me figure out how to git me pics. into the belly of this beast. so here you go. The first one here is a closeup of me standing behind the arm of our creation with his lil' minnie man growing out of it. Don't ask me why. Ron was working on the fellows left arm when a tumor started growing. The more Ron tried to fix it the more it started growing into a new lil' friend to keep the Big guy company through the cold dark night. Side angle shows him sitting on the first snowball we rolled up. We guess he was close to half a ton at least.
Next day showing a little loss of details. Ears disappeared with the snow on the ground.
Ron, Eric, and Meself, just to show the size of our new friend before he goes away.

SNOW AGAIN ! ! ! ?

Yep, it snowed again tuesday morning for 'bout 3 hours or so. It was a wet snow, good n sticky. A few of us got bundled up to go out and brave the conditions long enough to create a big 8 foot tall snow critter. We started with no idea of what we were doing, just roll snowballs till they are to big to move any further. Then try to pick 'em up and stack 'em. Took 3 of us to push the bottom to the build site and then pick up the second lump to start the ART. We kept stacking till we could reach know higher then started packing, molding, and scraping snow till something started to show itself. Still not sure what it is that came to life, but we had a great time and laughed alot! I took some pictures but can't seem to get 'em over here yet, so GO TO ERIC'S BLOG and look at them there. He has one of me looking from behind the head (and the little wierd minnie man that grew on the snowmans arm) and I'm standing up at my regular height.