I’m on my second cycle of 10 hour shifts here at
work. These have been rough and it’s been DEAD at night. Which I know
isn’t a bad thing because that means nothing bad is happening. But man
does it make for long nights.
I was fortunate enough to be able to attend two wrestling shows on consecutive days Friday July 25th in Fairfield for Maine Event Wrestling and Saturday in Augusta for IWE. Canaan and Alex came along Saturday.
Attendance was
low both shows, but they were both entertaining in their own way. I
know I got my $10 worth! My next wrestling outing is shaping up to be
IWE in Fairfield on Aug 8th.
Saturday
morning before going to the matches we took the kids to the beach. We
tried to go to Popham but they closed the road for an hour to celebrate
Phippsburg’s 200th Anniversary, very inconvenient! We turned around and
went to the half mile beach at Reid State Park. We brought a cooler with lunch and the kids had a blast, we all did!
I had been doing quite well on my exercising and
eating write, I even managed to drop several pounds the last couple
weeks. However, some very unpleasant chafing has but a hiatus on my
walking until it heals up. I’m feeling motivated
and want to get moving so this is upsetting because I don’t want to
lose that motivation.
I’m approaching 5 months since I submitted by story
to Tor.com. Their website states they usually get back to people in 3
months, if it’s been 4 then most likely it’s in the second look pile.
Of course it follows that up with at 7 months
you should hear from us, if it’s been 9 months we probably don’t have
it. I’m hoping it’s that they are considering my story for
publication. That would be a dream come true!
That’s all for now, check out this great cover version of “I’m on Fire” by Town Mountain, great stuff.
Tuesday plans were made and Saturday
they were executed as Kate, the kids, Mom, Irving, and myself headed
north west into New Hampshire for a night camping and to spend the day
at Santa’s Village.
We loaded up the van and the 6 of us made the drive
to Lancaster, NH and Rogers Family Campground. Our tent site has water
and electric and it ran us a mere $44 for the night. Where they got us
was the
firewood. You cannot bring your own across state lines because of bugs
so the charge $6 for a small bundle. We went through 3 of those plus a
bunch of woods for the surrounding forest that totaled the equivalent
of two more bundles plus.
We set up our tents; Addison slept the Mimi &
Pappy while Canaan slept with us. We all went down to the pool for a
refreshing dip in one of their 3 in ground pools, a wading one, a 3
footer, and one that
went from 3 feet to 10 feet deep.
We cook hotdogs on the fire for dinner, the kids
each cooked their own it was awesome! Reminded me of our honeymoon and
solidified that whenever we go camping hotdogs will always be cooked
over the fire
for dinner. Everyone but Kate went down to the game room to waste
some quarters. I won Addison a purple elephant from the crane game, she
was super excited. After Irving and I vanquished some young punks from
the pool table Canaan played his first game.
He was rough, but got better as he went.
The kids hit the sack and we sat out by the fire
enjoying the beautiful night air. It’s so peaceful sitting by the fire,
not talking at all just watching the flames and the stars.
Kate didn’t sleep well to say the least while I myself was exhausted as I had gotten out of work at 7am and only slept a couple hours before hitting the road Saturday. It was a bit chilly at 5am and Kate
was stoking up a fire when I exited the tent.
Kate cooked up breakfast a delicious spread of
bacon, sausage, and pancakes! Mom brought real maple syrup for which is
the only way to go. We cleaned up, packed up, and arrived at Santa’s
Village before
the doors opened at 930.
The place was already hopping when we got there, however, waiting to get in was the longest line we waited in all day.
We were there for just over 6 hours and worked out
way through the whole park with the kids riding on every ride they
wanted to go on, sometimes more than once. We adults joined in on the
fun and partook
in several rides ourselves. Addison was the champ though, riding the
most and being the most daring! A couple she wasn’t a big fan of but
she was brave and out lasted them with the help of Steppy who was
cheering her on yelling “that’s my girl” which gave
her confidence. She didn’t hesitate to try any of them!
We had a picnic lunch in the park of peanut butter
& jelly sandwiches and chips in the Gingerbread Forest sitting on a
picnic table in the shade. It was overcast the first half of the day
and the sun came
out the second half of the day, but it never got too hot. You couldn’t
ask for a better day.
Santa’s Village has changed so much since I last
went over 20 years ago. The park is modern and updated, super clean,
bathrooms everywhere, and while they sell food and drink for the
standard elevated prices
they also supply several quaint picnic areas for families to bring
their own lunch.
Everyone had a fantastic time!
We stopped in Bethel on the way home for dinner at
the Crossroads Diner. We had passed it on the way over the day before
and the parking lot was packed, today though, no so much. The kids got
cheese quesadillas,
Irving soup, mom chicken fritters, and Kate and I got burgers.
Those burgers were fantastic! At least a
half-pound patty with cheddar cheese, bacon, this slices of tomato and
tangy pickles with mayonnaise on a soft yet golden toasted bun. Mine
was cooked a perfect
mid-rare! Kate also enjoyed hers immensely! We agreed that we would
go back again if ever in the area for another rock solid burger!
Back on June 12th I made some declarations of how the rest of the year was going to be and so far I have stuck to them.
I have not had fast food except as outlined on June 27th
I have dramatically increased my water and decreased my soda intake
I’ve cut out many foods that I shouldn’t be eating like sweets, chips, good stuff
I’ve increased my exercise
This wasn’t all done on the 12th,
I mean yes I stopped fast food then, but everything else has been added
incrementally so as to wean myself off all the junk I was eating.
It’s
been difficult at times, especially during my nights at work when I had
gotten into the habit of mindless eating and eating
out of boredom.
WWE
Network posted the first 3 years Saturday Night Main Event with the
remaining episodes to be added later. When I was a kid I used to go to
bed set my alarm for 1125pm so I could wake
up and watch it on channel 6 from 1130 – 1am,
it was awesome! I love having WWE Network with all the PPV’s and shows
like Clash of the Champions, World Class, ECW, first year of RAW and
the Old School WWE Arena shows. I have had the most fun though,
watching
these episodes of SNME.
I
was going on a Wikipedia Journey, it’s the same thing as a You Tube
Journey just on Wikipedia. I stumbled across a bit history from WWII
that I had never heard of before.
Back
in September of 1942 off the coast of Oregon a Japanese submarine
launched a float plane piloted by Nobuo Fujita who, on two occasions,
dropped incendiary bombs in an attempt to start
fires in the great Pacific Northwest Forests. Needless to say it
didn’t work out. What’s truly amazing is what happened after the war
was over and the relationship Fujita created with the residence of
Bookings, Oregon. It’s worth reading about at these
two links:
For my birthday my buddy John bought me a Bubba
thermo mug. This mug is nothing short of spectacular! It is double
lined to prevent sweating, except on those excessively hot and humid
days, holds 32 ounces
of water and it keeps it ice cold for hours, which is exactly how I
like my water. In the past my water would get warm after a bit and I
wouldn’t drink it because I don’t like warm or even mild water. In the
week that I’ve had it I have increased my water
intake while at the same time decreasing my soda intake. I have drunk 3
– 4 mugs a day!
Kate and I went and saw Phantom of the Opera in Boston at the Boston Opera House on June 27th
which coincided with our 1 year wedding anniversary! On the drive down
we stopped at Chik-Fil-A at
the North Shore Mall Food Court in Peabody for our Anniversary dinner.
Kate was super excited! It’s where she wanted to go, sincerely!
We got parked literally just around the corner from
the Opera House at a surprisingly reasonable $16 for the night. We had
a bit of time to kill so we check out the area hitting the outskirts of
Chinatown and ended at the Central Burying
Ground in the Boston Common. We enjoyed the weather and the shade of
the trees at the fencing surrounding the cemetery. It was here that a
squirrel scared Kate by approaching a bit too close for her comfort
before jumping into cemetery bringing momentary
relief to our heroine. Cleverly though, the squirrel came up from
behind and was about to pounce when Kate moved away to safety. A recent
video of a squirrel attacking a child was fresh in her mind and she
didn’t want to risk experiencing that for herself!
On the walk back Kate noticed the strap on her shoe
looked worn and could possible break, two steps later it did. I
scurried back to the parking garage to get her other shoes because yes
she brought 3 sets of footwear with her. Boston
has the weird public trash receptacles that function similar to the
blue mail boxes, still though she managed to throw her shoes away in
it!
The show started at 8pm
and we made it to our seats in plenty of time, I even picked up my
souvenir magnet before the show began. The best seating section in the
opera house is the dress circle. The seats to the far left and far
right
are reduced because they are considered limited view. After research I
discovered that the limited view is very limited indeed as you only
cannot see what is happening on the very far left or very far right of
the stage depending on the side you are sitting
on. I was assured by others online that these seats were wonderful and
worth getting. I was hesitant but took the chance, you see I have
wanted to go and see Phantom of the Opera again ever since I saw it the
first time at the Wang Theatre in July 17, 1994
with mom and Gram-Gram. I’ve built this show up in my mind, to the
point that it quite possible might not live up to the hype that I have
created for myself.
I can honestly say that the performance far
exceeded any hype that I had built, and we literally missed nothing on
the stage! We both agreed that the show was phenomenal and it just blew
us away! The sets were amazing, the singing was
fantastic, the entire package of the show was just outstanding! Here’s
the thing about out seats, they were $45, while the seat next to Kate,
just 18 inches over, was $145! Let me tell you, their view was not $100
better than ours!
We got stuck in traffic on the Tobin Bridge taking
45 minutes to go 2 miles and getting a bit of Carbon Monoxide poisoning
when we were trapped in the tunnel leading to the bridge.
We stopped at Sonic for a cream slush and midnight snack before heading making our way home.
It was fantastic night making our first anniversary quite memorable.
