In My Own Defense, I Was Left Unsupervised!

So the question is; Did I really get into any trouble while Maureen was on her trip?

I'm afraid I have to confess to a "missed opportunity!" The potential for trouble was there but I don't actually think I reached my potential. If you read my last blog entry then you know about my "Piedra" kayaking adventure. Well I sold the Piedra for exactly what I paid for it so no harm no foul. What I decided I needed was one of the rare sit-on-top kayaks designed for whitewater. I arranged to rent a Dagger Torrent 10.0 to try before I buy, but the trip with my meetup group that weekend canceled. Did I mention my new meetup group? It's titled; "Asheville Old Farts Whitewater Canoeing Meetup." I also just joined the "WNC Kayaking Meetup." Anyway, I was not able to demo the Torrent, not that it mattered that much because there just aren't that many sit-on-tops designed for whitewater and apparently the experienced (used) ones out there just don't come up for sale on Craigslist or the other resale markets out there. And when they do they are snapped up almost right away every time if their condition is decent at all. 

But wait! As luck would have it, in the middle of the week a Dagger Torrent 10 popped up on the WNC Gear Swap Facebook page.   And this is where being retired has it's advantages. The kayak was located in southern Kentucky. The owner agreed to meet me part way, and because I could travel any time, even with all the posted interest in this kayak, I was able to stake my claim and meet them early during a weekday around their work schedule. So now I'm the proud owner of an "Experienced" Dagger Torrent 10. 

I'm still trying to workout an opportunity to try it out. Neither of my Meetup groups have an event pending. 

The ten days I spent in Richmond while Maureen was on her trip, aside from my minor kayak adventure (see my last blog entry for details) was primarily to have some quality time with my mom on and around Mother's Day. So how much trouble could I get in with my mom? You might be surprised. Of all my immediate family, my mom is the most likely to be involved in a "Pub Crawl" with me. Seriously! But once again, a potential missed opportunity. I spent Mother's Day weekend working a craft show with my mother and sister. My mother, sisters, and sister-in-law, have a "Craft Show Enterprise" for lack of a better description. On any given weekend they might be found at a local craft show or farmers market peddling their wares. Their stated goal: The primary objective of Hootie Mama & Company is to ensure that none of our respective craft rooms are featured on an episode of "Hoarding: Buried Alive"! (A link to the Hootie Mama Facebook Page) If you are interested in where the name "Hootie Mama" came from, on the Facebook page choose "About" and then "Who We Are." Anyway, while I was in Richmond I completed a number of pencil drawings about Virginia landmarks for the show that are now posted on my drawings page. I even sold my colored pencil drawing of the sea turtle.

Other than that, everything else was fairly routine. There are a group of us that bowl once or twice a month. That originated out of our wives getting together regularly and leaving us behind. We needed an excuse to get together for a beer without them (turnabout is fair play) every once in a while. If I can plagiarize a bit; We're beer drinkers with a bowling problem! I've also used Maureen's time away to work on my golf game. I was an 18 handicap "BL" (before Liam). It turns out golf is a perishable skill, definitely not like riding a bike. However my short game wasn't bad when I started up again and that's improving along with my full swing. My scores are headed in the right direction and last time out I was nailing my irons, even the 4 and 5 irons (I've been struggling with my longer irons a little). 

I'm taking a couple of Poker themed classes at the OLLI Center this summer. I slipped into second place with my poker group, worked myself back into the lead, then missed a couple of tournaments so I'm a few points back in second again. But it's only June and the December final tally is a ways off.

I almost forgot to mention, I did spend a few days modifying the back of my truck.  Just a simple storage solution to a perceived problem (along with too many shop tools and material laying around and too much time on my hands).

I think Maureen will admit that the house was not a complete disaster when she returned.  Just to illustrate that everything I learned from My Uncle John was not always a great idea, if not brilliant.  Uncle John pointed out that instead of vaccuming your car, if you have a good air compressor with a high volumn air nozzle, you can blow out the interior of your vehicle with the compressor.  And of course he encouraged me to explore whether that little cleaning hack would work on the house as well.  It turns out using the air compressor was quite effective.  And my electric leaf blower did a great job cleaning off flat surfaces and clearing out behind furniture (just kidding)!  I never quite got around to dusting while Maureen was gone but everything else got straightened, cleaned, vaccumed, etc... at least once. All-in-all, it might be that I don't need the same level of supervision that I used to.

Na, you're right, that can't be it!

That's all for this update! Until next time... Try to be as good as me (like that's possible)!

😉

R

PS  I do a lot of cutting and pasting when writing my blog.  I mistyped "Hootie Mama" once, then copied and pasted it a couple of times.  Imagine how much fun we would have had if I left it as............."Hottie Mama"!