New Car

A few months ago, the car I bought back in November was totaled. Bode and I were out driving in the rain, and we did not realize there was a very large puddle; long story short, water can really wreck a car. Hence, this car is no longer part of the McGuirk fleet.

For the past few weeks, I have been driving the Jeep, and this really irritates Ashley because she can't be expected to drive just one car (the 370Z); she needs to have options when she goes out to the garage. I'd been looking around but hadn't had much luck until this past weekend. I got a 2021 BMW 330i; the best part is the car only has 5200 miles.

We did not do much this Memorial Day. Bode is done with school, so he is starting the summer swim season. He's practiced a couple times, and we also lifted (ugh--I am sore). Sunday afternoon, we did a low country boil on the patio.

The dogs seem to enjoy it when we are outside, although we did have to keep Rowdy away from the food.

I don't imagine we will do much more today other than lounge around the house and relax :-) 

Mother's Day

 We took Ashley to the Goofy Golf and also to the Waffle House for mother's day. I took some pictures, but nothing was too spectacular.

Here is one of Bode mid-shot.

At the end, I videoed Ashley and Bode's attempt at the snake's mouth. Bode was irked in that I interrupted his first attempt.

I think Bode beat us rather badly. I certainly did not have my A-game. But we did our best to cheer up at the Waffle House.

We didn't do much else on Mother's Day. We told Ashley she could put off the laundry and cleaning until Monday :-)

Healing up

Ashley and Bode continue to recover from their injuries. Ashley saw the doctor two weeks after her surgery; he removed the bandages, and as you can see, it's quite a scary scar.

The skin has already almost flattened out, so it looks much better than it did. Ashley is going to the gym as often as she can, trying to work on her lost range of motion and muscle strength. I'm sure it will take time to get back to how she was, and I'm sure she is a little frustrated, but she is improving a little every day. On Friday, she bench-pressed the bar, which is rather amazing considering her arm was broken less than a month ago :-)

Bode had his four-week checkup with the doctor. Bottom line: his thumb is healing nicely--"some good bone-growth" is what the doctor said when he saw the x-ray. They took Bode's permanent cast of, and he was quite happy to have this done.

I took a movie of them sawing the cast off; thank heavens that didn't cut his arm :-)

He is not yet fully healed--can start swimming in two more weeks, which is fine; I think Bode was just happy to be able to shower again without wrapping his arm in plastic.

We had the annual Coast Aquatics swim banquet last week. It was nice to see everyone, but I'm sure it just made Bode more anxious to get back in the pool :-)

Nothing else too exciting is going on. It's final's week for me, so one more real week of work, and then it's summertime :-)

Bode Awards

Bode was fortunate to receive some awards this month. First, his high school swim coach nominated him for an FCA Champions of Character award. Bode (along with a couple hundred other athletes from schools around the region) were recognized at a nice ceremony a couple weeks ago. Bode sat with the other athletes, and I tried to take some zoomed in pictures, but they turned out all blurry.

They called the name of all the athletes. Here's Bode getting ready to be recognized.

There were some pictures after the event; I think Bode is somewhere in this mass of people, but I'm not sure where :-)

Bode was also recognized as a Indian scholar by the high school. I think this has something to do with his GPA; I guess he was recognized last year in a similar ceremony but the little sh*t didn't tell us about it. Fortunately, we were able to attend this ceremony. Sadly, I was a little late starting the video, so I didn't get the calling of his name.

A friend of ours was right up front, and she managed to get some good pictures of Bode shaking Mrs Heck's (the principal) hand

Bode even found us after the event and took a picture with his mother. He looks thrilled.

As always, we are very proud of our little guy :-)

Carnage in Colorado

On Thursday morning, I got a phone call from Bode. I was working, so I ignored it. He called again, and I ignored it thinking I'd call him back in a few minutes. I then got the dreaded text: It's urgent. So I dropped what I was doing, called Bode, and found out Ashley had broken her arm after a bad fall while snow-boarding. She had to be skied down the mountain by the snow patrol, and they took x-rays in the hospital at the base of the mountain; not good.

That is Ashley's right arm, and she was in a lot of pain. They considered doing surgery, but opted against it, so the poor girl had to fly home with her arm in a splint; any type of motion caused those bones to move, and that, according to her, was very unnerving (and painful). Fortunately, Ashley has some amazing friends that got her in with an incredible doctor over in Pensacola; he was able to get Ashley in for surgery this past Monday; doc patched her up with one plate and ten screws.

Amazingly, she is not even in a cast. She can start moving her arm now and can start rehab next week, so she is very blessed that it was not more serious than it was; in fact, the doc told her this surgery is "a layup" for him--very straight-forward, does them all the time. She actually worked most of this week, and she even was the track official at a high-school track meet this weekend. Go Ashley!

Sadly, Bode did not return without an injury. He fell early during the ski trip and thought he sprained his thumb. It didn't seem to be getting any better, so I took him to the doc. He has something called skier's thumb (yes, really), and a small bone in his thumb is displaced. It is the small bone at the bottom left of the middle joint; it is not where it should be.

We had a lot of different options, but long story short, the hand specialist over in Pensacola said "no surgery; we'll put him in a cast for six weeks, and he should be fine." Not what Bode wanted to hear, but he knew he was going to be sidelined for awhile after the initial diagnosis, but six weeks from this past Thursday is probably the best news it could have been. What I find funny (not really) is that Bode has such a small break while Ashley's arm was snapped in half, yet he is the one in the cast. He can't swim for six weeks, so I'm trying to do stuff with him to help him stay fit. We did get everyone out to Peppers for dinner the other night; all seemed in good spirits.

Bode has some Go-Pro videos from the trip, and he has promised me he'd get them to me, but as of yet, nothing; I'll gently nudge him with a cattle prod to see if I can get him to do something :-) Here's hoping everyone heals up quickly and we can get back to our normal routines (I'm currently the only one that can shower without first having to put a plastic bag on :-)

Spring Break Part 2

 The ski conditions were great. I think the mountains got almost three feet of snow a few days before Ashley and Bode arrived, so they were blessed with good snow and fantastic weather. First, some scenery photos.

They skied for four days, and had beautiful weather every day. Here is a nice picture of Bode and Ashley.

Here is a selfie of Ashley.

And here is one of Bode when needed a rest.

Bode skied with Teddy and Charlie a few days. Here is a nice one of the three of them at the end of the day.

One night, the whole crew went out and did an escape room.

All in all, it was a great trip...until the very last day of skiing; then, the bad times started :-(

Spring Break Part 1

A couple weeks ago, Ashley and Bode headed out to Colorado for their annual ski trip. They had a great time (sort of). They arrived on a Friday night and spent a couple days at Uncle Dave's. The highlight of this had to have been going to a boxing gym. First, here is a nice picture of Bode and Teddy.

Next are some action shots of Bode learning how to box. First, we have Bode getting taped up.

Next, some action shots.

Ashley had some videos, but (per the usual), it was too hard to get them from her phone. Bode said he had a great time learning how to box, but I don't think he'll be fighting in the Gold Glovers any time soon. Next up, the mountains.