Granddaugher Lisa gets her first look at the real Statue of Liberty after five years of looking at the half-size reproduction at the New York-New York Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
That’s her mom, Nicky, on the left. Son Steve shot the photo about 1:30 p.m. CDT today.
My son Steve posted this photo of granddaughter Lisa this afternoon during a layover at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport’s Humphrey Terminal.
I presume they are flying from their home in Las Vegas to New York City to spend a weekend with Nicky and maybe do a little house-hunting.
Lisa, as always, is a Force of Nature.
If my day was going according to plan, I would be sitting in my $8.43 red Walmart chair right now, next to my tent with my Indianapolis BMW Club friends at the European Riders Rally in Burkesville, Ky.
But my day did not go according to plan.
I am, instead, sitting at my desk in my upstairs office and my bike is directly beneath my feet in the garage.
I’ve been looking forward to this weekend since I got back from Daytona Beach Bike Week in March but digestive turmoil and a rain-filled forecast trashed my plans.
Mostly it was the rainy forecast. It’s a 6½ hour ride from here to Burkesville, not counting gas and rest stops. I had planned to hit the road about 7 a.m., but it was raining steadily and an examination of the radar made it clear that I would be in rain most of the way to the rally and could probably expect to set up my tent in the rain.
And the Weather Channel app on my iPhone says there is a 60 percent chance of rain tonight and again tomorrow, decreasing to 50 percent on Sunday.
As much as I enjoy seeing my Indy friends and rallying, that doesn’t sound like a good time to me.
I just sent an email to the rally organizers asking if I can still get a rally shirt and pin, since I pre-registered and paid $40. I am hopeful they will say yes.
I toyed briefly with the idea of driving my Lexus SUV to the rally, but dismissed the idea after I calculated it would cost close to $125 in gasoline. Plus, I would still end up setting up a tent in the rain and spend the weekend dodging raindrops.
And, yes, there was a time when I would have gone anyway. But when a guy gets to his mid-60s with more than 300,000 BMW miles behind him, he has pretty much run out of things to prove to himself. I’ve ridden hundreds of miles in downpours and, even though I have the best waterproof gear I’ve ever owned, I don’t care to do it this weekend.
I probably paid about $10 too much for these two Pioneer Trails cups from the Wallace China Westward Ho series, but they don’t show up very often on Ebay and I had none in my collection.
So there.
But I was a little alarmed when I picked up the package at the post office and heard the clink of cup-against-cup when I tipped the box from one side to the other.
When I got home and opened the box I found the sloppiest job of packing I’ve ever seen in my years of buying Western themed china online. It’s a testament to the hardiness of Wallace China’s restaurantware that there were no chips or cracks from rough handling in transit.
So now I await the arrival of three Pioneer Trails saucers and three Pioneer Trails dinner plates from another Ebay vendor.
My dad had a compass installed on the dashboard of our 1951 Ford and I thought it was ultra-cool.
This one is more advanced in that it pretends to give you information on the side-to-side tilt of your car and the rate of acceleration (or deceleration).
And how about this offer of a car tire for a buck? But wait, they’re used tires.
Maria and I were married 12 years ago today under this quilt in the rotunda of the Boone County (Ind.) Courthouse by County Clerk and longtime friend Lisa Garoffolo.
Given Maria’s love for quilting and fabric art, it was the perfect venue.
The timing was perfect, too. We had both been divorced, but had taken our time about jumping back into marriage until we had our heads on straight and knew it was right.
It was right and I think God every day for this brilliant, loving woman.
We gave Jack a $2.50 Walmart beach ball a couple of weeks ago, which lasted all of 90 fun-filled seconds until he punctured it.
I searched the internet for an indestructible ball and discovered the Varsity Ball which has survived prolonged encounters with lions and tigers and bears.
I ordered one and it arrived this morning. Here’s how it went before the Varsity Ball wore him out.
Yesterday’s Pipida scan showed my gallbladder is working fine.
So now I get to endure an endoscopy and a colonoscopy on June 4. At 6:15 a.m. Oh, well. I’ve been putting off the colonoscopy for a couple of years, so I might as well get it over with.
My M.D. daughter-in-law opined that I may have diabetic gastropariesis. I just looked up the symptoms:
Typical symptoms include:
I’m more inclined to think I’m dealing with stress-induced or aggravated Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). I had something like it when I was in my teens and early 20s, but it stopped cold when I learned Transcendental Meditation. I haven’t been a regular meditator since late in 1992, but the times I’m included TM in my morning routine lately, my symptoms have abated. Since it costs me nothing to try, I’m going back to the prescribed regimen of 20-minute meditations twice daily and see what happens.
God knows I’ve been under enough stress over the past couple of years.
Does posting about my medical adventures qualify me as an old person?
Does riding 1,000 to a weekend motorcycle rally redeem me as an active late middle-ager? One can hope.
One of those little gray butterballs is our little girl Dora, shown here with her littermates and her proud mother Mercy.
Here’s Storm, the father:
This is how I spent a couple of hours this morning at St. Bernards Medical Center, getting my gallbladder function scanned.
The worst part of it, aside from the discomfort of lying flat on my back for two hours on a steel table, was the tedium.
I was glad to have Maria along for company and photography.
We expect to get results tomorrow or Wednesday.
