Visit

My youngest son and his fiancé came for a visit this weekend. I don't know if 'youngest' is really appropriate for someone in his mid 40's, but there you are.

They didn't bring the kids so it was a much more different experience than I've had before with them. I got to sit down and actually converse rather than have them dealing with all the kids.

I finally found out how they met, why they met, and how Jer's life has changed since they met. Jer is the kid that wore his heart on his sleeve. 

An Angelic child? Nope. Funny? Sometimes. A Pain? Yes. Hyper? Yes. 
Obnoxious? Sometimes. Big Heart? Mostly. Organized? Nope. Impulsive? OHHHH yes.

I could add more regarding my 'kid'. But I've settled on not trying to tell him on how I think HE should live his life. 

I'm the parent and I always want to see my sons do their absolute best.

Jer's relationship with Em seems to have pointed him in a different direction. He told me he was no longer going to be mad at the world. [Truly, I don't know what for.]

Sunday morning I took them to breakfast [they'd taken me to supper!]. Then I asked him if he'd like to visit Readstown's indoor Flea Markets. They were game.

Crazy Frank's has two stores in this small town. Two stores that are basically huge Garage Sales by Vendors. You can find baby shoes to antique glassware, toys, clothes, and absolute junk in both locations.

While we were in the first one, Jer said we should play a game next time he visits. The game would involve going into to these Crazy stores and purchasing an outfit from head to toe from the items we could find.

He put this hat on and modeled it for us. 

The crazy thing was, we walked around and found the most ridiculous clothes we could find. Future planning for the 'contest'. 

Jer had his eye on white and rainbow white jumpsuit. I started looking at some of the odd and crazy weird hats. Em picked up a pair of rubber cowboy boots that had daisies on them. We laughed and giggled as we went through all the booths and items.

I did find a 'monster toy' for a $1 along with a nice bud vase to add to my collection for $3, and a $1 old metal tractor.

We actually spent hours in both stores, enjoying wondering about who collected these things and how junky some stuff was and how nice other pieces were. I found a rocking chair that I fell in love with. Dangit! Sold!

The weather outside was rather horrid. The temps were below zero and the windchills pretty nasty. Plus it started snowing again while we were in the stores.

But we had a blast. 

The stores got seriously busy while we were there. It seems to be a place that anyone can go on a crappy day to browse through other folk's stuff on a subzero snowy day.

Thing is, my weekend would have been a bit lonely. I do get lonely once in a while so there is that.

So my weekend was full of laughter and chit chat catching up with one son who had been so distant for so long. [actually it was a mutual distance thing, I hadn't liked his attitude or what he was doing and he didn't care if I cared or not]

Wild Weekend! Sort of!

We had 7 inches of snow on Thursday through Friday morning. It was up to Charlie's neck. That is how we measure snow around here.

Thankfully, around 9am on Friday, Frank showed up in his old beater pickup truck and plowed us out. I was in the middle of cleaning when he showed up and stuck my head out to thank him so much for his work. Yes, I pay him $50 for each time he plows, but IT is worth it for me not to fret about it or try to tackle that long hill on my own.

Just after Frank cleaned us out, I got a text saying that Dennis [18 yr old Grandson] was on his way to come and spend the weekend with us.

Saturday morning it was below frigid. It was 5 degrees below 0 F or -20C.  I waited until it was just above zero to do chores. Dennis wanted to take a hike through the woods. 

Charlie wanted to go but it was too cold for his paws so for most of the 2 mile hike through the forest, we took turns carrying him. Dennis actually dressed for the weather in his new Carhartt's. He has just landed a full time job doing finishing work in construction. It sounds like it is a good trade to learn and he'll always be busy. His finishing job is doing trim around doors, windows, and floor boards.

I may hire him to finish up what hubby couldn't do when he had his stroke.

We had a wonderful visit with his parents. Rich's daughter is an amazing cook and she prepared Prime Rib and all the fixin's to perfection at our house. We had an early supper and enjoyed each other's company.

They left, Dennis stayed as he wanted to go see the Ice Caves and give Grandma a ride in his new to him Truck.

Getting to the caves this time was a bit harder with the snow hiding all of the rough footing underneath. However, we got there. 

Infrared photo of the ice caves:

We bypassed going into the second set of 'caves' and headed instead to admire the ice along Weister Creek.

Hey! A shot of me with Charlie in front of one of the most beautiful places at the Reserve in the winter. Dennis took this for me.

The creek in IR:

Not IR

See that hillside behind me on the other side of the creek? There are a few 'sketchy' trails that go right above that ice and head further east of the creek. We went there to go see this...

There is a cable that runs across the bottom of the ice here. I've never figured out what it is for in the 10 years I've been visiting this spot. What was it for? Where did it go?

The water here is too deep to try and follow it out across the creek. It seems to end in the rock. 

Here is the same scene in IR unprocessed. Wild right?

Eerie! 

With channel swapping which basically swaps the colors nearly opposite of what they are. There is more to it than that, but this is the simplest explanation.

I'm fond of the cool blue tinted ice. 

...and now?

Onto the next phase of this week. Some fun and some quiet.

Santa is inrtoduced to his relief driver!