3 Fawns, 2 Foxes and a painted kitchen

Yesterday moring we looked out the back window of our house only to see three fawns hanging out in our backyard. One was walking towards the house and came within feet, before my daughter moved quickly in the window. Then they all took off.

Just the day before we were standing on our front porch watching two young foxes playing in the street in front of our house. It was the middle of the day, which is unusual, but they looked healthy and ran when a car came. That was kind of funny, because there are the three of us out on the porch, and I have my bioculars staring at the road. The driver waved, we waved back.

Yesterday I finished painting the kitchen. We had done on wall last summer. I did the other three in a contrasting color. It looks good, and I am glad it is done.

Another New Motorcyclist

today was a big day in my life. My 5 and 1/2 year old was big enough to go for her first motorcycle ride with Daddy. Ok, no big deal really. we just went around "the loop" that our house is on .8 miles around, not a public road yet.

For this first I chose the R75/6. It was my fathers, so now it has been ridden by three generations of Clausses. I really do not think that her feet would have reached the pegs on the K1100 either.

I just love this shot, very dramtic.

She is back there somewhere. Please pardon the Max Biaggi replica helmet. It was her mother's. I had one just like it before I learned what a putz he is.

On the loop. You can't even see one of her little hands clutching at my shirt. She did very well, and really did not seem scared at all. I expected to hear little screams, but she was quiet the whole time. This is the same girl that hits the brakes every 5 feet on her bicycle, because she is "going too fast".

The ride over, she has a big smile. She told her Mom that now she needs a helmet that fits correctly and a bike of her own. I told her that she needs to get the training wheels off of her bicycle first.

Schools Out For Summer

The school year has ended. But here I sit in a school, doing in-service. Anyone stupid enough to say that teachers get the summers off is not worthy of intelligent conversation. I basically spend all summer long getting ready for the next school year.

My lovely wife and daughter left today for their "family" vacation. With them are my mother-in-law and my sister in-law and my nephew who is 2. They rented a minivan which they packed with stuff and off they went to Virginia and North Carolina. When setting the whole thing up they forgot about Father's Day weekend. When I was akid Father's day was a big deal. Every year we went to New Hampshire to camp and then watch the motorcycle races at the conclusion of Bike week in Laconia. It was funny to see my father conversing with Hell's Angels and Warlocks that he knew from the shop. He did not really like them, but they were customers so he dealt with them. Now that my Father is gone I ache all day on Father's day. Right now I am getting misty over it.

So to distract myself I am going to paint the garage. I figure I should also lose about 10 pounds because I tend not to eat. Not that I am too lazy to cook, but I get busy doing stuff and before I know it the whole day has passed and I haven't eatin a thing. When I was single it was not uncommon for me to go a whole weekend only eating dinner on Saturday night when I was working at the video store.

Back to work.. .

6 hours for 7 minutes

Saturday was my daughters first Ballet recital. The above picture is her, with her Belle gown on. Ballet is not cheap. There were the lessons, $36 a month for 9 months. Then the gown which was $45, the tap shoes $25, the ballet shoes $12, the tights and other outfits. Add to that the cost of the tickets. 9 bucks each, and we bought 8 tickets. But to get to see her on that stage dancing on Saturday was aboslutely priceless. She has always said that one day she wants to grow up and teach ballet, so she has to learn how to do it first. The recital was actually really good as well. There were a variety of students of all different ages from 3 to adult. The mixed things up really well and you didn't see the same routine twice. My daugther had a friend in a different class who did hers on Friday night. All told they must have had 10 different recitals. 2 Friday night and then 4 each on Saturday and Sunday. At about 1.5 hours eachm thats a lot of dancing. well soon we will get the $25 DVD so we can see it over and over.

Jacklyn actually did really well. I would be the first to say if she was horrible, but she wasn't at all. Jacklyn is really quite klutzy, she often falls down for no reason and during the summer her legs are covered with small bruises from running into stuff. We often joke that someone will call the authorities on us because of it. When she dances a change over comes her. She is no longer a hyper - wound up 5 year old. But very serious and intent on what she is doing. I love seeing that.

During all of the performances there was usually 1 kid that stood out because she was much better and in tune with what was suppossed to be happening. There was usually 1 that stood out because she was clueless. Jacklyn was with it the whole time. She really looked like she had a lot of fun as well, and thats all we care about. Afterwards we all went to dinner to celebrate.

As for the title of the post. My mother is still recovering from her accident but she had made a remarkable recovery. So on Saturday morning I drove the 75 miles down to pick her up. I loaded up her walker, scooter and oxygen tank. We went out to lunch and then headed back up to this area for the recital. We got to the school where it was being held about 1/2 hour early which was good, we were able to get in and get seated, we got seats in the middle. Soon my wife and her parents and Aunt arrived. Her sister was late, as usual. We went out to eat as I mentioned and then I drove Mom home. 6 hours of driving for her to see Jacklyn dance for about 7 minutes total. But it was totally worth it. Mom was crying during the first ballet dance. She said she had always wanted to be able to do that as a kid, but they couldn't afford it. Neither one of my neices did dance either, although the oldest went quite far with ice skating, so it was special for Mom. She did show how out of touch she can be. When I got there in the morning she handed me a $20 and said "That should cover the gas and stuff." I chuckled because the gas was $30 and the tolls were another $13, but it really didn't matter. Mom had a goos time, Jacklyn had a good time, and that is what was important.