Saturday randomness

First a rant. I've been collecting these "Privacy Policy for Consumer Information" pamphlets that keep showing up in my mail. I'm on the do-not-call list, but somehow, since these people have my information, they feel like they can give this to other companies they're affilated with. And now days, isn't that a rather large number and growing regularly? We've noticed a large increase in telemarketing calls recently and although we answer these and ask them to take us off their list, there's still plenty of others who now have us on their lists.

So I've been saving these pamphlets for a day where I felt ornery enough to call these people and ask them to NOT give my information out. Today was that day.

First up, Charles Schwab. Yay, it's automated and they only want my SSN, and then my PIN. What? I don't know any PIN for them, so I have to answer a series of other questions, including my date of hire. I struggled with that for a moment because it was the week after Thanksgiving about 4 years ago. Is that November or December??? I guessed correctly and finally got to "reset" my PIN. And then I find out that their Customer Service department is closed on the weekend and I'll have to call back on Monday. Strike one.

Second up, Lane Bryant. Also automated, but you need your account number to change your privacy policy. I don't have this, so I tried to figure out how to talk a human being. Hitting 0 didn't work, so I just waited and didn't hit any more buttons. It hung up on me. Strike two.

Third up, Fifth Third Bank. Once again, automated. However, after hitting a series of buttons, I'm informed that I need to submit my request in writing or talk to a customer service. So I wait for my call to be transferred to customer service and then I'm given another number to call. I didn't write down the number, hoping it would transfer me again... and then it hung up. Strike three. I'm out.

Guess the telemarketers finally got around the do-not-call list.

I'm stashing the pamphlets in my work bag and I'll try dealing with this again at work next week. I don't want to waste any more time on a Saturday.

Next topic... wedding album. After spending weeks working on our wedding album on iPhoto (on my mac) I've figured out that they're more than twice as much as mypublisher.com. And they don't have as many options. So... I downloaded the mypublisher software and started working on my wedding album. Again. I used the same layout as before, but got to tweak a few things. So it took me another week to finalize this next album. And it'll be about $30 after the discount.

I haven't ordered the book yet, I'm still looking for critical input from people. I think I finally have the book how I want it, but the last little details is the "our wedding" on the front. I'll probably take it off, but there are quite a few who actually like it.

To view our wedding album, click here. If it asks for the ID and password, here's the info:
Your Share ID # is: S1715562
Your Share password is: 2342225

Last topic of randomness... the new Parsons kitten, Ginger. (That would be the Kentucky Parsons household, not the Ohio Parsons household.) Meet Ginger:

Gayle, Jason's mom, found her on the road, dragging her back legs. She was so little that at first she thought it was an injured squirrel. The little cat's stomach was huge, like it was about to pop, and there was a sore on her side. Gayle took her to the vet and the vet recommended putting her to sleep, but Gayle wanted to do what they could to save the kitten's life. Her bowels were impacted and she wasn't peeing on her own. The vet checked Ginger's legs and there was nothing broken, so he assumed that she had nerve damage. They think that maybe a dog got her and shook her. The vet wasn't sure how badly she was hurt and whether or not she'd make it. She weighed a pound and a half.

Gayle took her home, started feeding her baby food and laxative, and she would express her bladder. Every few days Gayle would take the kitten back to the vet to get her checked out again. Each time she was worried she'd hear him say again that the kitten would need to be put to sleep. But each time she was getting a little better. She was still a pound and a half after a week though.

We came to visit about a week after Gayle had brought her home. She was finally using the litter box on her own and she was getting around a lot better on her back legs. Her back legs would move, but very slowly. If she tried running too fast, she would end up dragging her legs behind her again. You could tell her ear would itch, but she couldn't move her leg to itch it. She was also was eating quite a bit more and getting more and more playful. By Sunday she was playing the entire day with almost every cat toy she could find. Yes, I have video and I have to share. :)



Also making their video debuts are Bella, the dog, and Simon, the cat, who isn't too excited about a new kitten being around.

We'll be back in Olive Hill October 17-19, we'll have an update (most likely in video form) on little Ginger for you in about a month.

Wind update - it’s now Saturday afternoon and we’re in Kentucky at Jason’s parents’ house. A house with electricity. When we left Dayton last night, we still didn’t have electricity, though most of our friends had theirs back on. This was a good place to go to unwind and not think about the disruption to our lives last week. Few people around here even knew what happened in southern Ohio last Sunday.

Just a few minutes ago I got a text from my friend who is checking our house - we have electricity!!! When we get home tomorrow, we'll be busy plugging everything back in and resetting the clocks. We also need to move everything from the cooler and the counter back into the fridge. (I took the opportunity on Wednesday to thoroughly clean out the fridge and sanitize it.) And yes, we unplugged almost everything before leaving last night. There had been reports of people who lost their computers, TVs, and alarm clocks from the electrical surge when the power is turned back on.

Yesterday as I was driving to work on Wayne, the truck two cars in front of me suddenly stopped and the driver ran across the street. He almost got hit by a car turning left onto Wayne, as did his passenger. The driver had his cell phone out and was looking at something in the tree branches sitting by the road. (All the storm debris was moved to the curbs and often blocked the sidewalks.) Suddenly I realized that there was a person, a teenager, laying on the sidewalk within the branches. He wasn’t moving and his backpack was beside him. I drove by knowing the men from the air duct cleaning truck would make sure the boy was alright.

I called Jason right away and told him I saw something disturbing. Teens don’t suddenly collapse on the sidewalk. Was he hit? Shot? When I got to work I checked the local news sites and they didn’t have anything at first. Later I finally found one site that reported that a Dayton teenager had been hit by a car and had died. The truck that hit the boy didn’t even stop. It was just so sad and suddenly not having electricity didn’t seem so important. Later I noticed that all the Dayton news sites were carrying the story and little by little they were getting more information. They had a description of the truck, but still had not identified the driver.

Later in the afternoon I checked a couple of the news sites again, to see if they had found the driver, and I couldn’t believe what I read. The teen did not die, he was in critical condition! Somehow the police and the school had passed along the wrong information. A few of us were following the story and we were so excited that he was still alive - and we don’t even know the boy! So now we’re praying that he makes a full recovery!

Here’s the entire story.

The night the lights went out in Dayton... okay, more like days

Sunday morning the remnants of hurricane Ike met up with a weather pattern from the West. The combination of these two resulted in severe winds blowing through Ohio, oddly enough, with little to no rain. Wind gusts were 60-70 mph, almost hurricane strength, and tore through our neighborhood. Trees, power lines, and shingles littered our road after a few hours and there was still more wind to come.

Sunday after church we noticed that it was really windy. We went to lunch and noticed several smaller trees almost bent all the way over. When we got back to our house, there were already a few leaves and limbs blowing around, but just small ones. We started watching TV and the lights flickered a few times. Around 2pm we lost our power. Thinking it would just be an hour or so, we got our books out and started reading to the howl of the wind.

Jason noticed the neighbors out walking around their houses and we started wondering if something was wrong. First I noticed that our neighbor’s shingles were blowing up and looked like they might start coming off. Jason then called my attention to the caution tape that was now blocking off our road. I went to get my shoes on so we could see for ourselves what was going on. When we went outside we saw a tree down across the road to the north of our house, with power lines on the road. Across the street, a tree had fallen on our neighbor’s garage, once again knocking down power lines. And just a couple houses south of us part of a tree had fallen across the side walk and into the road.

We also saw a neighbor’s downspout blow off the house and flashing from another’s roof beat around for awhile before blowing off. We walked around the house a few times and only saw smaller branches and a few shingles laying in the back yard. We checked our shingles and they all seemed to be in place. Our plastic patio furniture got knocked around a bit, but no damage. At one point the spa cover flew open but thankfully we were standing there when it happened and closed it again right away. (But what an awful noise when it smacked together!)

There are no trees behind our house or our neighbors’ houses except for what’s across the ally from us. A branch fell off of this tree bringing down our neighbor’s phone and cable lines. In the front each of us have one large maple tree. Amazingly, our neighbors on either side of us had no large branches fall and we didn’t lose any branches at all. There was one that was twisted around but never ended up falling off.

We saw shingles fly off our neighbor’s roof. We saw the wind push large branches down our street. We saw a lot of people moving their car into the garage, including us. It was all so surreal, branches down everywhere, neighbors standing around outside, yelling to be heard over the wind. And all of us wondering what was really going on. We’ve had hurricane systems move over us before, but it’s never been like this.

I sent out a text messages to my friends in our area and most of them were without power but a few were not. It seemed very hit or miss on who had power and who didn’t. They said close to 500,000 people in the Miami Valley area lost their electricity. However, I’ve seen this number change so often, who knows what the real number is. I’d rather not be a number anyway, so I’ll let you know how bad it is this way: it’s now Tuesday and we still don’t have power. On Sunday they said it would take a couple of days to get power back on. It’s been a couple of days and now they’re hoping they can have power restored to everyone in Dayton by this weekend.

We took care of some things on Saturday that we had no idea how glad we would be about it on Sunday. Jason cleaned out the garage and put all our camping supplies in the basement. Therefore we had room in the garage for the Vibe when the wind storm started. I also did most of the laundry on Saturday - except for one load that didn’t make it to the dryer. The clothes were hung in the basement to dry. I had also taken down the the curtains in the basement to wash them, so we had full light down there while we were working down there during the day.

I had just charged my laptop and cell phone, so those were ready to go. And I also balanced the checkbook (on the computer) and got all our bills paid (online). I had just done a spa shock on our hot tub, so the water should be okay without being run for a few days. And we didn’t go grocery shopping thankfully. We had our Coleman lantern ready and several packs of matches. We were all set to go!

Sunday night we went to a special service at church. We figured if the church didn’t have power, we could find dinner and then come home. The church didn’t have electricity, but they did have a generator. There were just enough lights to get around and some candles in the bathrooms. Most of us who were there did not have power. Others were just realizing the destruction around the Dayton area. Just a small group was there, maybe 100 people, very small for a gathering at our church.

The worship team was a group of young people from different churches and they did an excellent job of leading without overheads to follow. The speaker was from Canada and due to the wind, spoke mostly from his heart, though I’m not sure he really had an outline or an agenda when he came. I did a lot of chatting with God that night and he bonked me over the head about some issues I was having. Basically that I need to let him take care of things and stop worrying so much. I also felt like he was saying that the wind was a gift and that there was much to learn through this experience. (I’m still rolling this one around in my head, I’m not thankful for the wind at all.)

We headed home around 10:30 pm and tried to find some fast food for dinner. We picked Wendy’s but then realized the line was all the way out to the street. Then we went to Burger King and after waiting 10 minutes in line we saw a sign that said no debit/credit cards. We only had a little bit of cash on us, so we got out of line. We ended up at McDonalds (which had no line at all - surprising?) and got just enough food to take all our cash and feel like we had something of a dinner. We headed home and crashed for the night.

The next morning we got ready in the dark, thankful to have a gas water heater, and then headed to work. Both of our work places had electricity, however, Jason’s had no network. He did as much work as he could without his computer and then headed off to find gas. Originally he was going to search for ice too, but thankfully his boss sent him home with a trash bag full of ice from their kitchen. I had a full day of work but had a difficult time concentrating. Our biggest issue was the food in our fridge. We hadn’t opened it yet, but we didn’t think the food would make it. Jason got home and put what he could in our cooler and the rest ended up getting thrown out. We left the freezer shut and hoped it would last for another day.

That evening we had left over pulled pork for dinner and later made popcorn the old fashioned way - on our gas stove. We read by the light of our Coleman lantern (a wedding gift) and then watched a movie in bed with my laptop. With candles all around us, munching on popcorn, we forgot we had no electricity for a couple of hours. It was fun.

This morning we woke up and decided it was time to check on the food in the freezer. It was still cold, but no longer frozen. The meat was put in the cooler and the rest of it was thrown away. Honestly though, most of it needed to be thrown out anyway, so we didn’t lose that much stuff. We went through the items in the cooler and picked out what could go to work with us to eat the rest of the week. We threw out all the mayonnaise, which most of it we had no idea how old it was. So, not a bad thing.

We got ready in the dark again. This time I had to wash my hair and ended up going to work without makeup and wet hair. Thankfully someone else was getting ready in the bathroom at work and had a hair dryer I could borrow. I talked to several people at work and it seems that there were three groups of people. Those who didn’t lose power at all. (And actually had the nerve of complaining about not having cable to me.) Those who lost power but then got it back Sunday night. And the rest of us who still didn’t have power. Today’s hot topic of conversation was the amount of food we had to throw out.

Jason headed home and I worked late. I anxiously waited for Jason to call and let me know if we had power or not. Not. Jason made spaghetti with tons of meat sauce (not tons of sauce, tons of meat in the sauce). It was good and we didn’t have to throw away most of the meat. We sat outside and enjoyed the evening and decided to let the kitties out for some entertainment. Lenny is skittish and takes off, so we have to put him on a leash. After some reading (and blogging) we’re getting ready to watch another candle-lit movie.

Movies of the wind (after the worst was over)...

A view from the front of the house:


From the back of the house...


And one more from across the ally behind our house:

Wedding Album

I've been working on this for awhile and I think I'm finally done.



I made this using iPhoto on my Mac book. My apologies if you can't read the words, I haven't figured out how to upload a high-quality version of the album. The words are straight from the wedding invitations and the programs, including participants and order of ceremony. Each slide is a page from the album. There is a book jacket, so this is the first two slides, and the last two. And no, I didn't pick the music.

Now all I need to do is find a discount coupon somewhere. (Anyone know where I can find one?)

Camping in Hocking Hills - Labor Day weekend

We returned to Top of the Caves Campground and this time friends came with us, Jonathan and Becca. We picked out two spots when we were camping 4th of July weekend and hoped for good weather - we got it!

We got to the campground around 7pm Friday night and got our tents set up and our tables situated near the fire ring. We were the last two spots in a row of sites in the trees. As Jason got the fire going, night set in... and our neighbors started showing up. Along with two couples who decided to share a spot next to us, about 20 children showed up with (what we think was) 2 adults. We watched a tent go up near Jonathan & Becca's tent, then a screened in awning, also very close to their tent. And then another tent - even closer to their tent! We were assuming that in their attempt to stay away from the children on the warpath (seriously!) they ended up partially on our site. (This was verified in the morning.)

Quiet hours start at 11pm and we headed to bed. I believe we were the only ones. I was exhausted and fell asleep even with all the noise. Becca had enough around midnight and went around asking people to quiet it down. The people next door were nice, but suggested she talk to the sites with the children. Becca said she intended to. Of course, finding an adult amongst the children running around the fire was difficult. When she finally found an adult, she asked "are we being too loud?" If you have to ask, you already know. The neighbors were quieter, but the children were still wound up for awhile. (This is when you wish it would start raining.)

The next morning we were in better spirits and decided not to say anything to the neighbors about being on our spot. We had plenty of room (we could have fit on the end site) so we just left things as they were. Besides, the neighbors had a cutie little dauchaund dog that we enjoyed saying hi to. The next two nights were much quieter, so we didn't need to worry any further.

Breakfast Saturday morning was bacon and eggs with Jonathan cooking and Jason tending the fire. After breakfast we headed out to see Cantwells Cliffs and Conkle's Hollow.










We had a picnic lunch at Conkle's Hollow and then made a stop at the Grandma's place to get forgotten items and some ice cream. We vegged back at the campsite afterwards while Jason went to get gas. (He finally found a gas station about 15 minutes away!) That evening Jason made a great dinner of cheddar smokies and baked potatoes. Afterwards we made pie iron pies with cressant crusts, cherry (or apple) pie filling and cream cheese. Yummy!!

We also had a great time with the huge bubble wand I had found at Walmart. We quickly discovered the bubbles above the campfire would float upward until they hit the trees or came back down. I'd blow the bubbles (actually wave the wand above the fire), Jonathan would shine a flashlight on it, and Becca would try to capture the bubbles with her camera. They look like UFO's in the pictures, but really, they're just bubbles.

That night we had a visitor. Becca heard rustling and wasn't sure what was going on outside our tent. When she peeked out she saw a raccoon hanging upside from our trash bag. She and Jonathan scared off the scavenger and locked the trash bag up in their car. Jason and I slept through the whole thing.

We got up at 7am Sunday morning and got ready to go hiking at Old Man's Cave. We grabbed some snacks, bottles of water, our cameras, and headed out. Our reward for getting up so early was getting there with basically no one else around. It was wonderful! (And quite a contrast to the pictures I took the 4th of July weekend.) We really enjoyed walking around at our own leisure, taking as many pictures as we could, and then heading back to the campsite to make breakfast. We had breakfast burritos with sour cream, salsa, and guacamole. Yummy!

Oddly enough, most of the children left that morning. About half our neighbors packed up their cars and headed out. This gave us the opportunity to walk around and scout out good spots for the next trip. We also decided to check out the state campground while we were driving around. The upkeep seemed better, but the bathrooms were lacking and the sites didn't have as many trees. We decided shaded spots and private bathrooms at Top of the Caves would keep us coming back there.

That afternoon we headed out to Lake Logan and just hung out watching the boats and the people on the beach. We then headed to Millstone BBQ (same BBQ place we ate at last time) for an early dinner. Our waitress (different than last time) loaded us up with their mini corn muffins to eat for breakfast the next morning. The food there is good, you get plenty to eat without having to get appetizers, and the service is great. Once again, we highly recommend this place!

After dinner we went to play putt putt at Adventure Golf. This was the first time all weekend that it was really hot. There was plenty of goofing around, several holes in one (I got 2!) and Becca learned that if she claimed she could get the ball in in 2 shots, she usually did. Camping just doesn't seem complete without a game of putt putt. (Jonathan got the best score.) Afterwards we headed back to the campsite to veg for awhile.

One last evening of campfire stories and smores. One last attempt by the raccoon to get food. This time it was Jason and I who got up and put the trash and all the food in our car. It was also a horribly cold night. We really need to get sleeping bags!

Monday morning we got up, ate our left-over mini muffins and got our campsite packed up. We took our time and got done around 10:30 am. Much faster than last time! We decided to hit one last cave, Ash Cave, before heading back to Dayton. We were quite impressed by the enormous size of the cave and ended up getting quite a few pictures!





On the way out we saw women with dresses on in the distance. Amish tourists? No, a bridal party! The bride had a gorgeous white dress on with her bridesmaids in apple red. (All David's Bridal dresses.) The mom with them invited us to the upper ridge to view the wedding at 1:30 pm. All I can say is that was one brave bride!

Jonathan and Becca headed back to Dayton but Jason and I decided to stop at Chillicothe to eat lunch at the park where we had our first date. (Yoctangee Park) It was fun reminiscing while walking around and feeding the ducks. One thing though, there were a lot of strange people at the park. We probably won't visit there very often. (Were they there the first time we were and we just didn't notice???)

We got home about the time the temperatures were hitting 90 degrees. We were so thankful for the beautiful weather we had the whole weekend. Such a relaxing and fun weekend. And Jonathan and Becca kept things silly and fun. :) (I'll see if I can't get them to post some thoughts and comments after this post.)

Honduras - Days 7 & 8

Pictures from photobucket.com
And a few more pictures

Friday, August 15 and Saturday, August 16

Got up early the next morning, packed, got breakfast, loaded up the truck and left Comayagua. Stopped at Bongos for a few minutes. We got twisty bread and a donut for about $2.

Went to Lake Yure and saw the International Extreme Camp. Got to see future site of camp.

Where the girls' cabins will be:

Where the boys' cabins will be:

Where the auditorium will be: (where the big tree is)

Staff rooms and dining hall:

Digging a well:

Part of the obstacle course: (8' wall)

Went to place that had hammocks last year - hammocks were gone. Cement patio with bright awning in their place. (This is where the campers are staying until the cabins and other buildings are complete.)

Had to switch trucks - driving back to van people had to sit on luggage in the back of the trucks. Those in the back of our truck had to get out twice and walk up the hills otherwise the truck wouldn't make it! (That would include Jason, but not me.) Side note - at this point one of the suitcases was left at Lake Yure but we didn't realize this until the evening. This was Kathy's suitcase which was holding our machettis.

Had lunch at Power Chicken and the food was better than ever! Put the excess food into containers and gave them to homeless kids in downtown San Pedro Sula. (Including flan.)

Went to market next and got great finds - including a parrot made out of a gourd. (I'll have to paint it, but it was much cheaper.) Check into bed & breakfast for the night - it was beautiful!! Dinner was delicious! (Not that I had any room after eating Power Chicken.)

Shared a room with Julie and Kathy. All 7 of us women had to share a bathroom. Worked out well. (Another God thing that week.) There were more guys, so they got a different area where each room had their own bathroom. The women had the family's area - they had moved downstairs to a smaller area.

After dinner played a game of Uno for over an hour. Little Isabella was sitting on my lap bugging Grace who was sitting next to me. So so so funny!!

Headed to bed, but ended up giggling with Julie and Kathy for awhile. Julie's ocean sounds very soothing - didn't hear the storm approaching in the middle of the night. Crack of thunder scared Kathy and me!

Woke up next morning, got showered and repacked. Breakfast was eggs, turkey/ham (?). Am officially tired of eating eggs. Good toast and coffee! (More pictures of the house...)

Behind the house, where the family lives:
(the women stayed upstairs)

Looking at the house from the upstairs area:

The front of the house:

Sandra & Jimmy Pinell (B&B owners), Eber, Josh & Samuel (Heart to Honduras staff)

Link to Casa El Meson

Left to go to airport early. Waited and waited and waited for Kathy's suitcaes. Gregg got us all checked in while we waited. (We didn't have to stand in line or check our own suitcases.) Smooth transition getting through the airport.

Four hour layover in Houston. Jason and I took the opportunity to eat at Chilli's and watch some of the Olympics. (Michael Phelps was going for another gold.) Joined up with the group to find out the plane had been delayed 1 1/2 hours. I warned Jason that our "hedge of protection" would start to lift when we got in the US and he said he could tell.

Discovered there was a Brighton store at the airport in the next terminal, so we had to go find it. The store also sold Tommy Bahama clothes (Jason's thing)! Didn't buy anything, only looked. Registered for a Brighton contest and talked to the girl at the counter for awhile. Amazingly her mom is from Honduras! (If I can run into someone from Honduras in an airport, why not in Dayton too?)

Finally got on plane and landed in Dayton around 12:45 am. So tired, in every way possible. But so happy to have gone again.