Catching up

It has been a really busy couple months in my life. With the kids back in school and all of those activities that come along with it, and add in a wife that works and is a full time college student, you can imagine that I have very little "me" time.  When I do seem to have a few minutes to sit by the computer, I have a habit of dozing off.

I did get a bit of a reprieve 2 weeks ago when I headed to Charlotte, NC for an annual business meeting. Some of you probably saw my drunk blog from there. Even though it is a work conference, there is plenty of fun time built in.

We arrived in Charlotte on Saturday morning. The Hilton hotel where we stayed was gorgeous. After walking around a little bit it became evident that Charlotte is not what I am accustomed to in a city. It is made up primarily of hotels, office buildings and parking garages. There were some places to eat. What it lacked was any type of retail stores.

Sunday was the first official day of the conference. It kicked off with a golf outing. What a beautiful day that turned out to be. The weather was spectacular. I was actually in shorts and a short sleeve shirt. The course was amazing and we played really well. I am not an avid golfer but I love the game. I always worry a little bit when I play in these events because my skills could use some fine tuning. Luckily I played awesome that day. You could never guess I don't play all that often. Sunday night we headed to a local bar where it was a "meet the candidates" meet and greet. I had a few drinks and ate some great food. I stayed fairly sober. lol

Monday was the opening meeting which was fine, but not the reason I was looking so forward to that day. It also happened to be the night of the welcome event. This year the event was in the NASCAR Hall of Fame. I was in my glory! I got free admission into the Hall and got to do all the interactive stuff there. Add in the open bar and buffet that we had in the lobby area and it was a perfect evening. In all my years of attending these conferences, this was by far my favorite welcoming event. My son thought I was going to be total redneck when I got home. lol

Tuesday was the annual business meeting and elections. The morning was filled with speeches and campaigns. It may look boring on C-Span but, being there you can not help but get caught up in the whole process. We had a nice lunch and then I had the afternoon free. That night was delegate photos and the exhibitors reception. Again with a bar and buffet. this is where the trouble started. Every year, the New York delegates ( I am one of them) hosts a hospitality suite. We do it in conjuction with a few other states. This year it included NC, ND, RI, UT, KY and I think NJ. We had an open bar and some snack foods. I admit to getting totally smashed this year. Thankfully my room was only 8 floors up. I will not get into details here. Let's just say I ended up making the swear "Dear God. Let me live through this and I will never drink again!" I lived. So far I have been pretty much sticking to the promise. I will probably keep that promise......till next years conference in Phoenix AZ!

Overall, I had an awesome time in Charlotte. I brought home a lot of great memories and a bunch of pictures.

 

This was Saturday. You know where I was on Monday!

 

I managed to change the tire in just over 20 seconds. 

Guess I should not get a job with a pit crew!

 

At the trade expo on Monday

 

I had such an awesome time here!

 

That's my favorite!

They have actual cars sitting up on the track that wraps around the ramp to the second floor.

the track display. All full size cars.

 

This was the simulator area. You sit in the car and drive a simulator.

I managed a 1:00.564 lap time at Talladega!

This was actually after more than half the people left.  

And before you ask, the lady in the lower right was dancing to the DJ. lol

Week in the woods

I have been home for a week but, just trying to play catch up after being away for a week. Last week was my annual trip for Summer Camp with my scout troop. Every July we take the boys up to Camp Yawgoog in Rhode Island. 1800 acres of nature and fun.

This year was different in a couple ways. This was the first year that my oldest son was not with us. Now that he is over 18 he is considered an adult leader. While he would have been able to come as an adult, he now has a job and was not able to get the time off. The other reason this year stood out is because on Monday the temp hit 101 degrees. Sounds hot? Well, Tuesday it hit 106 with a "Real Feel" temp of 117! And that was in the shade! It was a bit warm to say the least.Thankfully the army style tents allowed us to keep them wide open so that air would circulate at night.

Now I am sure that many of you may think that spending a week in the woods with 25 boys sounds anything but fun. I have to say that it is the most relaxing week of my year. The boys are so busy with everything there is to do that they do not spend a lot of time in the camp site. Add in the fact that there is no electric, no television, no radio, no video games and no wife, and you can see where this may be very very relaxing. I did have my cell phone with me but, unless you walked up the road and out the gates of the camp, there was no cell phone service. That was alright by me.

The only one that seems to have a problem with me going away for a week is my daughter. Now, before you sit there thinking, "Awww how sweet" let me explain. My birthday is July 8th. (Before you ask or before Dena rats me out, I turned 47 last Thursday). It is always the week I am away. That means I am never home on that day. If I am not home that means Katie has to wait for Birthday cake. Waiting is not something Katie is skilled in. lol

The week always seems to go by so fast. I am already looking forward to next year!

Tyler and I had a great week despite the heat!

Thankfully the sides all rolled up to allow air to pass through the tent.

It got a weee bit warm!

I like to torment my GPS

I have GPS on my cell phone. I always use it on long trips, even if I know where I am going. Because it is on my Verizon phone, it has up to the minute traffic reports and it gives me a pretty good idea of how long it is before I will reach my destination. It is pretty accurate too and if I pull into a rest area or off the highway it alwys self corrects and gives me the voice saying, "Recalculating route." Sometimes I do it just for fun. The kids like to hear it get mad at me.

This past weekend I used it on my way back from our camping trip. As I got closer to home I took a different route and of course the GPS made adjustments. My son commented about the female voice almost sounding annoyed at me for making up my own route. Of course I am not about to give into a female telling me what to do, even if she is nothing more than an electronic device. You ladies have your BOB, us guys have our GPS girlfriends. I somehow think your pleasure is better but hey, it's what I've got. So anyway, I made another non-approved detour and again the GPS yelled at me. It reached a point that it was telling me to turn onto streets that I had already passed. I think I may have really pissed her off. Either that or she has blond electrons. Because when I pulled up in front of my house, instead of getting the normal "You have reached your destination" my nagging electronic copilot decided to tell me to "Make the next legal U-turn" (I live on a dead end street so she knew I had to turn around). Of course I wanted to see what she had in mind so I started to scroll through the directions. This is what she was asking me to do: (I am abbreviating street names to thwart the paparazzi).

GPS: Make Next legal U-Turn (Note: we did not actually do this since we had just been driving for 4 hours to get here).

Me: Uhm I am already home here on O Avenue

GPS: Make a right onto O Street and prepare to turn right.

Me: That is the way I just came from.

GPS: Make a right onto L Ave. and proceed .2 miles to H street.

GPS: Make a right onto H Street and prepare to turn right on M Avenue.

Me: Why?

GPS: Make a right onto M Avenue and proceed .3 miles to O Street.

GPS: Make a right onto O Street and prepare to turn right onto O Avenue. Your destination will be on the right.

Me: Yes I am aware of that because I am already here.

My boys and I sat there hysterical laughing. I sure hope she forgets our laughing at her directions or next time she may direct me into a lake. LOL

This past weekend the boys and I went camping in CT. We left Friday morning to head to Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken NJ. Kevin had an admissions interview. From there we headed up to the CT / RI border for the weekend. It worked out very well that we were using a cabin instead of tents for this trip.

While we were away The north-east was hit with a major storm. It rained for a couple days. We got close to 4 inches. Living on an island means we don't get the same magnitude of flooding that many see on the mainland, but we do have some. Primarily along the coastal areas when the tides are extra high and back up through the storm drains.

The big problem was the wind. We were having gusts of 60 MPH. With all of the rain, the ground was soft. Add those two together and it leads to a lot of downed trees. My last couple days have been spent inspecting damage from the storm. Some very large trees fell on homes. Roofs were ripped off. Awnings were torn from walls of stores. The municipal gazebo collapsed. I even saw a portable carport hanging from the electric and phone wires. Many areas are still without power. Luckily the sun is out today and it is near 60 since no electric also means no heat.

My house sustained some damage. I lost roof shingles. I also had the hood ripped off one of my cars and it hit the sunroom. Fortunately it only dented one of the walls instead of going through it. We never lost power. Compared to many of the houses I have seen, I consider myself lucky.

The area we were camping also got hit pretty bad, but not as bad as what we saw when we got home. So now that the sun has returned, I will be spending tomorrow afternoon up on my roof fixing the mess that Mother Nature decided to leave me with.

Tyler and some friends played Monoply to pass some time.

While Kevin and friends opted for what turned out to be an 8 hour game of Risk

This was the cabin we stayed in

This is the type of destruction I came home to deal with at work.

Well, the do call them "portable!"

It helps to know some people still maintain a sense of humor! LOL

Random Pic of the Day

This was how I spent my morning.
Dena was busting on me for "working" so hard.
Obviously she is not a golfer or she would know that golf IS hard work!

Random Pic of the Day

We just returned from spending a couple days in Pennsylvania. Monday we were in an amusement park called Knoebel's and Tuesday we went to Camel Beach which is a water park. The picture above was actually taken Monday. My daughter had the best time. She is a daredevil and will try pretty much anything. But, the best part of the whole trip for her was having her oldest brother back after a whole summer without him. She dragged him on many rides with her. When I saw her reach up and take his hand, I just smiled and snapped this pic.