Here’s a quick recap of a truly fabulous weekend: My buddy Mike AKA “Motorcycle Mike” is one of my best friends and lives about four blocks awa. I hang out at his place an average of 2 – 3 times a week because he has a really well equipped home gym and I have been telling him for a long time now that he would have the best gym in town if he had a pool and a hot tub. (I don’t have enough yard for a damn pool) 🙁 Boo hoo!
Hell I told him I would even consider doubling my current membership dues if he added one or both of those, which of course is truly generous of me considering I pay no dues now so twice that would still not break the bank too badly. 🙂 <ha ha> Anyway, so Mikey called me up around lunch time on Friday to say he was finally going to put up the pool I have been pestering him for and he wanted to know if I would be willing to come “pick up some sticks to help with that”.
Well I was dressed and there about 20 mins later and the “sticks” as he put it was actually a couple of piles of leaves and brances almost as tall as I am that were the remains of a tree that he and his buddy ripped out of the ground with a pick up truck that morning! Umm yeah he does nothing the easy way. 🙂 So I proceeded to spend the next couple of hours cutting these branches down to size and stuffing them into barrels and bags to be hauled away. By the time my darling Brett had arrived and I roped him into helping with the next stage of the project which incluided digging up a 20 foot round patch of soil and trying our best to level it off.
We jetted off to Home Depot to rent a rototiller to help with that goal and we and a few other friends all ended up busting our butts for the rest of the evening but succeeded with getting the pool up and relatively level! By the next day (July 4th) it was pretty much full (8000 gallons goes quick when you are running 2 hoses thanks to one of the neighbors help) and we had a lovely afternoon get together withg Mike, some of his family, the neighbors, me and my sweetie and a couple other mutual friends.
Later that evening, Brett and I and my neice and nephew walked down to Wayras Park to check out the fireworks display over the hudson river. We were remarkably close to the action! So close in fact that the people in front of us had a chunk of still smoldering firework fall on the jacket one of them was sitting on and they had to beat it out. 🙂 It was really amazingly beautiful and romantic and fun being so close and snuggling almost directly under the display!
Sadly though I heard that not everyone that attended had quite as lovely an evening. I read that there were dozens of people who had their cars parked at the nearby Poughkeepsie train station who returned to find their car paint jobs ruined by the falling embers and ash! I was really sorry to hear so many people had trouble but boy was I glad we left my little Versa home safe and sound!
Sunday my sweetheart decided to treat me to something a bit different and so he took me to check out the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome to see the airshow. This is something special for Brett because he fondly remembers going as a young teen over 35 years ago and pretty surprised to discover that the show hadn’t changed all that much in three and a half decades! Even the names of the charcters were the same! OK so I thought it was a bit cheesey but it was very educational and I saw some really amazing old planes that I could hardly belive were still getting off the ground! I took a bunch of pics but will just share one of them with you here.
Monday I decided to take my neice and nephew to the Great Escape and Splashwater Kingdom in Lake George. It was a perfect day weather wise and we all had a really great time! I admit to being a bit of a wimp with some of the roller coaster type rides, (I don’t do upside down or backwards) but since my neice is a whcko speed junkie and guilt tripped me I did find the courage to go on Sasquatch which drops you like 15 stories straight down and the Comet which was one wicked fast scary but “normal” roller coaster with her! My favoriet though were the water rides! I went on every single one! The Tornado was truly a trip where you get dumped into a giant funnel that rocks you back and forth until you finally shoot out the bottom into a big pool! Ohh and the Black Cobra which shoots you down a twisty turny tube in a total black out! Whew !! We did something like 8 full hours in the park and a 5 hour round trip drive but when we got home we all decided to hit the shower and go down to Mulligan’s for a few drinks and to check out Nadia’s friend TC’s band and some of her other friend’s at open mic night.
It was a really great action packed and totally fun weekend but I was actually really grateful to have a quiet day today to catch up on mail and stuff! Ohh and I signed on officially to do Folsom Fringe ’09 in San Jose CA Sept 25 – 28!
