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 :-)
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 :-)
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 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 :-)
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 :-)
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 :-(
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.
I can't believe it has taken me so long to get this posted to the website. Per a previous post, Bode qualified for the Southeaster Swimming short-course championship meet in the 100-butterfly, the 200-butterfly, the 200-freestyle, and the 50-butterfly. This is the first time Bode qualified for this meet, so he was excited to go. I drove him up on the Friday (this meet took place in the middle of February), and then Ashley came up to see him over the weekend. Thus, I only have the pictures and movies from when I was up there. There are more pictures on Ashley's phone, but it seems like its easy to break into a bank than to quickly get large movie files off her phone. First, some pictures. The meet was in Huntsville, and the venue was very nice.
Here's Bode talking to a couple of his friends before the meet.
I only have videos of Bode swimming the 50-fly and the 200-free. He swam personal bests for both, which is good, but he always seems to think he could have gone faster. Below is the 50-fly (he is in lane 1).Here is the 200-free. He swam in 1:48:69 (or something like that--not sure of the exact hundredths of second that he got); pretty amazing considering he only went below the two-minute market less than a year ago. I was very high up in the bleacher, so it is not a great video.
When I got home from the meet, Rowdy had let me know his displeasure about being left alone. Such a sweet dog.
Of course, it is always good to see the dogs no matter how bad they were. Here is a cute video of the two playing tug-of-war.
Ashley and Bode are currently skiing in Breckenridge, so I'm sure I'll post some pictures of their vacation.
Jon and Shelly Peterson visited this past weekend. They were on their way to Panama City, and we got to spend Saturday night and Sunday morning with them. After they arrived, Jon decided to recreate the iconic Bear Photograph that has become so popular.
Saturday night, we stayed in and ate BBQ and had a wonderful time visiting with Jon and Shelly. Sunday, Ashley cooked us a nice breakfast, and then we went out to the dock for a few photographs.
The weather wasn't great, but we had to take Jon and Shelly out to Sandestin to meet up with Shelly's sister, so we decided to stop at the Harbor Walk; needless to say, we got a little wet.
We had a great time with them even if it was only a day-visit; hopefully we'll get out to Nebraska and go golfing with them at their exclusive club.
I ran in a 5-mile race yesterday. It is far too long of a story to explain why Ashley didn't run with me, but hopefully, we'll both be racing together at the next local race. I earned the title of Grand Master at this race, which means I was the first finisher that was over 50 years old. Plus, I also managed to beat the top female finisher (I knew she was behind me, and I wasn't going to let her catch me at the line :-)
Bode and I have a big trip to Huntsville this week for the SES short course championship swim meet; should be fun!
There was a pickleball tournament here in Fort Walton Beach this past weekend. I played in the advanced singles division, and due to my increasing age, I was able to play in the 50-and-over bracket. I got second place, so I was pleased; of course, there were only five players, so second place is like the top 20% :-)
We also took a group phot with our medals. We played until about 9:00 pm on Friday, well past my normal bedtime, and it was also quite cold out there.
The men's doubles bracket was supposed to be today, but we had a lot of rain, so it was postponed until next weekend.
In a previous post, I think we mentioned that for the first time in his swimming career, Bode qualified for the Southeast Swimming championship meet. The meet is in a couple weeks, but the t-shirts for the team came back on Friday. I think we bought one shirt for each of us.
Bode will be swimming in four events--50-fly, 100-fly, 200-fly, and the 200-free. It should be a fun trip. Otherwise, nothing too exciting going on this week--work, school, swim, repeat :-) Pleasant week to all.
We have had an uneventful January--Ashley has been working, I have been working, and Bode is pretty self sufficient with school and swim practice now that he drives. Ashley has begun work as a volunteer track coach for Fort Walton Beach High School. She goes three days a week and seems to enjoy it; it really puts a strain on her ability to get home and cook dinner, but I tell her that if dinner is a few minutes late, so be it :-)
I did some "spring" planting. This year, I finally planted before March--you'd think that after six years in Florida, I would have changed my habits, but it takes time to unlearn things. I spent today raking and tilling my plots. I then positioned my wire to give something for the peas to cling to, and then I planted a whole packet of peas.
I also planted a number of onion buds and placed some mesh wire over the area where I planted to keep the birds away from them. In the second plot, I planted beans, half green, half black. I've never had bird issues with the beans in the past, so here is hoping for a similar result.
Finally, in the third plot, I cleared out a bunch of leaves and trimmed the dead off the black berry vines. I then planted two raspberry plants and two additional black berry plants. I was going to prune the blueberry plants, but I will wait until they start to bud up so I can see which parts are dead--I'd hate to cut away a fruit-bearing limb :-)
Ashley and I have been watching the True Detective series on HBO. A new episode airs tonight at eight; sadly, we'll probably record it and watch it tomorrow, as history has shown us we have a hard time staying up past 8:30...yes, we are old :-) Pleasant week to all.
It is hard to believe it is already January 21st, 2024. Where has the time gone? Bode and Ashley spent last weekend up in Auburn. Bode had a swim meet that started Friday evening and went through Sunday evening, so they spent Thursday through Sunday up there while I slaved away at home cleaning the house and ensuring the yard was free of sticks and debris.
Bode swam all sorts of events at the meet--the 50, 100, and 200 butterfly, the 50, 200, and 500 free, and the 200 individual medley. The Coast team went to this meet knowing they were in mid-training; this means they didn't taper, and Coach Brad has really been working them hard. Thus, they weren't expecting PRs, which is fine, and Bode swam well and was pleased with his efforts, although I do think he thought his 50-free time was a bit slow.
This first video shows the venue--the pool is awesome, and you can tell there was an enormous amount of swimmers at this meet.
Next we have Bode doing the 200-free. He swam in 1:53, which is a great time for Bode. He is four lanes from the bommom.Here is one more video of Bode doing the 200-butterfly. This is a brutally hard event. He is in lane two. I think this video was the preliminary swim--he made the finals for this event, but I don't have that video. Ashley also took some good pictures. First, here is Bode and one of his teammates goofing around after the warmup.
Next, here is a funny one of Coach Brad (in the gray Coast t-shirt) encouraging Bode to kick more during the 500.
On Sunday night, a lot of the senior swimmers went out for pizza.
As luck would have it, Auburn was playing LSU on Saturday night. Ashley scored herself a ticket (Bode wanted to stay in and rest), so she went to the game solo. She had a pretty good seat and took some good pictures of the team during warmups.
She also had to get one of Coach Pearl.
Auburn played great and ended up blowing out LSU.
Ashley stuck around and was in the stands for some post-game interviews that aired on television. I recorded SEC Now, and you can see Ashley in the red seating section just above the right-shoulder of the guy being interviewed.
It has been bitterly cold here--we actually had ice on our patio! Fortunately, it is supposed to be back up to 70 by the end of the week, so winter is over :-) Happy week to everyone.
