Idiot on the Jesse Stewart Memorial Bridge (Greenup Dam)

Around 4pm yesterday we were driving along the Ohio River about to cross over to Kentucky. (This is normally where Jason breathes in deep and says "ah, Kentucky.") We turned to head over the river and there was a back-up. There was construction on the bridge, so it was down to one lane. As we waited behind several cars we saw a truck driving towards us. What was unusual about the truck was that the front end was severely bashed up with the hood up, blocking the windshield, and a cone underneath the front of the truck. I couldn't figure out how he could see! He was driving really slow with his head stuck out the window!

At first we thought he was just pulling off the bridge to get out of the way but then we realized, he was just driving off! He went down a country road like nothing had happened. Unbelievable.

We sat and waited about five minutes wondering what had happened when a long line of cars came through, following the truck. Finally it was our turn to cross the bridge. We saw where the cones had been scattered and were assuming that he went across the line of cones and hit the side of the bridge. But we could see any marks on the side of the bridge or any debris from the accident. There were several construction guys standing around and one was trying to straighten the cones and get them out of the way.

We then drove past the construction area and past the other cars waiting to go the other direction when we saw where the accident had happened. There was an older Jeep with the back end completely smashed in. Several people were standing around the Jeep with a guy holding something against the back of his head. There was debris from the collision everywhere and then skid marks after the accident. 

We think what happened was that the truck wasn't paying attention and was probably going too fast and couldn't stop in time when he saw the traffic stopped. He rear-ended the Jeep, pushing it about 100 yards into the opposite lane. Thankfully it seems there was no traffic there due to the one lane being closed. The truck then tried to speed off, but with a twisted front wheel and hood blocking his view. We're thinking the skid marks were from him accelerating after the accident and trying to manuever over the bridge caused him to pick up a cone along the way.

We headed down the river on the other side and saw several emergency vehicles heading towards the accident - about 15-20 minutes after it happened. This morning I tried to google the accident to find out what happened, but as expected, nothing showed up. I'm sure whomever did it was "caught" shortly after he got home. However, as Jason has experienced personally (when he was hit by a drunk driver), he probably didn't get arrested.

Life in the Parsons house...

(repost from myspace)

life in the Parsons house...

Current mood:amused

The 3-month mark. Some days it seems like more than 3 months, sometimes less. But everyone says that.

Went to Kentucky Memorial Day weekend and stay at the cabin the whole weekend. It was so peaceful and relaxing. Hit the drive-in Saturday night and saw Indiana Jones. The *perfect* drive-in movie. Loved it!! People asked if I'd recommend it. Sure, everyone who loves Indy should see it, but lower your standards a bit or you'll be disappointed. It rates third out of the four Indiana Jones moves. (Temple of Doom being the worst. And yet, I had to watch it again recently...)

Sunday was a reunion of sorts with Jason's family. I got to meet some new people on his mom's side. All very nice people. They all talk in low tones and they're very laid back. I took this as an opportunity to not have to chat with people and just sat and listened all afternoon. There are times I feel obligated to be "on" and entertain the people around me. I figured that afternoon I'd have to be "on" but thankfully didn't need to be. Jason did most of the talking and I just shared wedding pictures.

Monday was quite the adventure with taking Jason truck to his parents' house get their lawn mower. The truck is old, and for some unknown reason is caked with mud on the inside. Yes, INSIDE of the cab. I got my neat sheet (water proof picnic blanket) out of my car and set it on my seat. It didn't have much cushion left, so this also helped. I couldn't believe the truck ran, but it did and got us to about 10 minutes before his parents' house - then we had a flat tire.

We have AAA and within half an hour we were on our way again. Amazing, huh? Another perk of a small town. The guy that came to rescue us even invited us over to their family's truck washing. He said the kids were happy as long as they were getting wet. Do kids wash trucks in Dayton? Probably just take them to the local car wash. Wait, do they have car washes in Olive Hill? I don't remember seeing any...

In our driving back and forth we drove through the area hit by the tornado. We could see the path by the damage left behind. It apparently crossed the road, but then stayed along the road for awhile. There were tree stumps everywhere - from the trees that had falled across the road being cut down. I tried to count the stumps along the road - more than 50.

I wish I had my camera, but maybe an out-of-towner gawking and taking pictures of the damage would cause more pain for those who were hit. People were still cleaning up their yards on Memorial Day. The greenhouse had plastic back on the frame. And the debris was still in the trees that were standing.
Lastly in the adventures of the Parsons house, we got a hot tub. It's my dad's old hot tub that he wanted to get rid of. The hot tub itself is about 17 years old, but the electronics is only 5 and the motor and pump are 3 years old. We got an incredible price (Dad was just happy to have his back patio clear) and there is now a hot tub on our back patio. Yay!!

Huge thanks to: Tim (and Sarah), Rob (and Heather), Jonathan (and Becca), Charay, Ralph, and Don. And of course Jason who got the truck and put up with me changing my mind as to where the hot tub should go... Thank you guys!!!

I got home from work Friday night and started cleaning the tub and then rinsed it out. I couldn't figure out how to drain the tub. We looked for the plug, called Dad's cell phone and left voice mail. Crawled around some more and then called Dad's home phone and left voice mail. Poked and turned things and still nothing, so I called Claire's cell phone. She said Dad always used a hose and if there's a plug, they're not aware of it. Oh. No wonder we couldn't find it. So Jason used a bucket to drain it. We'll get a siphon with a pump and a long hose next time we want to drain it.

I had plans with girl friends and I left around 7pm. (Actually, Jason was supposed to come, but REALLY didn't want to. Used the excuse of working on the hot tub to stay home.) I got home after 11pm to the report that the hot tub was full, but the jets weren't working. The motor was running but nothing was coming out of the jets.

The next morning Jason got brave and got into the water (63 degrees - he was singing soprano for awhile) and took the top of the intake off. He cleaned it off and the jets started working! We went to bed Saturday night with the temp in the 80's. So a little over 2 degrees/hour. We figured out that with the wind, if we would have put the top on, it probably would have warmed up faster. (We left the top off so we could keep checking the temperature...)

Sunday morning we checked and the temp was 101. (I think we set it at 102, but have reset it for 98.) I did the spa shock before we went to church and then added chlorine and the ph/alkalinity stuff after lunch. It took a couple applications to get the levels right, but by 4pm we were good to go. We noticed that when the top was off the temperature dropped from 102 to 99 and it didn't go back up until we put the top back on.

We've decided we need a floating cup holder (do those things even work?) and some kind of steps up to the spa (can double as a table if we don't find cup holder). We also probably need to get a new lid, though putting it back on the hot tub has been a good exercise in communication. (We need more practice... "push it my way, MY way" and then I get squished between the lid and the wall.)

Tornado in Kentucky

(repost from myspace)

Tornado in Kentucky

Current mood:indescribable

Jason and I are in Kentucky this weekend. We spent last night at the cabin, about 20 minutes away from his church. We figured we'd leave at 10am, get into Olive Hill around 10:20, hit McDonalds for coffee and breakfast and make it to church early for the 10:50 service. (We brought our wedding pictures to share.) So that was the plan. The morning didn't quite turn out as we planned.

We walked out of the cabin around 10:00 and we were talking about a noise we heard that sounded like a truck on a highway. There's no highways around there (there's no roads out there) so we figured it was thunder from the clouds that were rolling in. We get in the car and start down the road. About 5 minutes later we start noticing trees down and up the road a bit there was tree across the road. We turn around and head another direction. Another 10 minutes down the road there was another (larger) tree down across the road. We pulled over and waited for the storm to pass before trying a third way into town.

After sitting a few minutes the rain stopped and we could see blue skies peeking through the clouds. We headed back in the first direction, thinking maybe the trees had been cleared. (And also to see if maybe it was a tornado that brought the trees down.) As we approached the first tree down it became clear that a tornado had gone through. We could see down into a ravine, where there were trees and structures blown apart. The houses seemed untouched, but a large greenhouse and a couple of other sheds (or other small buildings) had been destroyed. With the number of trailors around that area, it's amazing that none of them were touched. We saw some firetrucks so we're hoping that there wasn't destruction further down the road where we couldn't see.

So we headed off in another direction and after an hour and fifteen minutes of driving, we finally made it to church around 11:20. The service was almost over, so we dropped off a few things and headed to Jason's parent's house. As we drove we talked about the sound we heard when we headed out of the cabin. We're thinking we heard the tornado tearing things up. I have to admit, I was quite shaken up. Funny thing, we had been discussing all the amazing things we've seen God do lately, especially in our own lives. I guess we can add this to the list.

Here's the only report we're finding so far...
http://www.wsaz.com/news/headlines/18843534.html

little vents... big praises!!

(repost from myspace; some content has been removed)

little vents... big praises!!

Current mood:adventurous

Little vents first.
Funny how people come into our lives and right back out sometimes. Some you stay aquaintances with, some you completely lose touch with. A friend posted a while back about the Michael W. Smith song "Friends are Friends Forever." The line he was debating was "friends are friends forever, if the Lord's the Lord of them." He said this was wrong and I disagreed with him. After my brief email encounter this morning, I guess I agree. You can be Christian brothers and sisters, but that doesn't mean you have to stay friends. I think it's okay to let people go and place your focus on others. (Others who don't raise your stress level.)

Another little vent - work. We started a new software for the database I docket on. (I'm the only docket clerk right now. Everyone else just views the information I manipulate.) It just amazes me how people get so dead set against something that once it's staring them in the face, they can't accept it. My mom once said that my gift was explaining things that are complicated. I would agree with her until now. I can't seem to explain our new software. I've tried and tried, but there's people who just don't get it. I've lost my knack of explaining the complicated. Or maybe I've just lost my patience.

Really, I just want to do my work and not have to explain things over and over.

And for the record, I LOVE the new software. I've turned into a complete geek and I've had so much fun playing with all the gadgets and gizmos that I've never had before. They're threatening to take away my Admin status, but no one else understands it enough to have that status. Heh. (Technically I shouldn't be the admin since I'm a clerk. My supervisor, or someone in IS should be Admin.)

Other little vents - Jason's cabin not selling, not having the money to fix up the house like we really want to, gaining weight (I went off the diet), working long hours, the weather... blah blah blah.

Big praises...
Jason's new job. First I was asking everyone to pray for wisdom for Jason. The next day he put in his 2-week notice at his old job. I had a minor heart-attack at first, but then just let it go. I felt peace about the situation and knew things would be taken care of. Three days later he had a job offer for an awesome job! I'll let J give you the gory details, but basically, it's doing what he was doing in Kentucky, what he enjoyed doing at his last job. It's M-F, 8-4:30. (Wooo hoooo!!!!) And he has 2 weeks vacation the first year. He already has off for Honduras. I wanted to cry when he got the job - it was just so amazing and so quick! And I have my husband back. :)

We went to Kentucky last weekend (J's first weekend off since January - other than the wedding). We had a great time hanging out with his parents and all the dogs and cats. (J's 5 dogs, and 3 cats.) We spent Saturday night at the cabin. I suggested we watch some old scary movie before going to bed. I thought it would be fun. We watched "Night of the Living Dead." Dang that was scary!!! They may not have had the special effects that we have now, but the mentality was still the same. As we were falling asleep Jason kept saying "they're coming to get you Cyndi." (If you've seen the movie, you know why.) And then he wonders why I didn't get any sleep.

We don't have a mattress in Kentucky, just boxsprings. We took an air mattress, but noticed that when we went upstairs after the movie, the mattress was already half deflated. Great. (Cats must have gotten to it when it was home.) So we went back downstairs and pushed the loveseat and couch together and put the sheets down. Jason slept great, I didn't. (See above.) When you turn off the lights out there, it's DARK. Seriously black. No lights from anything anywhere. Glad I had my flashlight.

Other little praises... Honduras. Yeah, I know, don't get me started. :) First, 116 days until we leave. (You knew I'd do the countdown again.) We're going from August 9-16th. Since there's 2 of us going this year, it'll be almost $4,000. We have almost half of it from income tax returns and I'm sure the rest will come in, no problems. (I keep telling Jason to just wait and see... it's the coolest thing!!) We're doing construction this year, so if you have any hammer and nail type projects that you want some help with... let me know. :) (I'm a bit rusty on these sorts of projects... pun intended.) Just need to get the last name updated on the passport and I'll be already to go.

So excited!!! :)

Other praises... warm weather coming, hanging out with so many friends this weekend, the first outreach at Dayton campus this year... and so much more, but my lunch is almost over.
Feel free to share you little vents and big praises... :)