Carriage House

 We see the glimmer of the light at the end of the tunnel for the carriage house.  Water and sewer were connected this week, and we are waiting on the power company to connect power.  All the major painting has been done, but there will be some touch-up work done after everything is complete.  Once we get power, the AC can be installed.  Once we have AC, the floor can go in.  There are some other minor items like the setting of the toilet, the shower door, and plumbing all the fixtures.  Plus, we still need garage doors, but hopefully that happens this week.  It feels real close though, and we are excited.

It's hard to tell from this first image, but all the exterior painting is done.  The doors have also been painted.  The tractor is still here because there was a significant amount of digging to find the hook ups for the water and sewer.

Next is a shot of the house from the front.

This is the interior of the garage; there is a lot of trash, but note the outlets are wired and the fuse box is in.

The kitchen cabinets are installed and the sink is in place.  The counter tops have been templated and should be installed in a week.

The fridge will go in that gap on the right; it's currently sitting in the middle of the room, and they won't put it in place until everything else is done.  The bathroom tile looks great on the floor and in the shower.

Finally, here's a view of the whole upstairs.

The big pile of boxes on the floor on the right is the floor, so it's ready to be installed once AC goes live.  Here's hoping this happens this week.

Water Fun

Ashley and I have our 21st anniversary coming up on the 25th.  The first games for SEC football are on the 26th, so we figured if we wanted to celebrate, we better do something before that first SEC weekend.  Thus, today, the three of us headed out to Pickos Ski School and did some skiing and boarding.

It was a beautiful day--not too hot, but also warm enough so we wouldn't be cold when in the water.  Before we started, Bode and Ashley posed for a nice picture.

Bode was the first to go, and he popped right up.

Here are some good still shots of Bode

Bode did try to slalom.  Here he is try to drop a ski, and then he went down :-(

Fortunately, he did successfully drop a ski and do a lap around the lake

After Bode finished up, it was time for the master, and by master I mean Ashley.  She popped right up and was off.

She's quite good and even managed to do a jump or two.  

There are pictures of me on Ashley's phone, and I'll try to upload some of those later.  What's neat is our instructor today was Adam Pickos.  He is a two-time World Champion trick water-skier.  It's not often that we've been taught by a World Champion, and it's hard to argue and say he doesn't know what he's talking about.  Adam was skiing when we arrived.  He does things like hold the rope with his feet and does 360's; pretty amazing.

Bode has been back in school for two weeks.  No issues so far--let's home it stays like this!  

7th Grade

 After almost six months, Bode returned to Meigs Middle School today as a 7th grader.  There are a number of safety protocols in place, and we will just hope things go well.  Bode wasn't thrilled about going back to school, but he didn't seem like he hated it.  He even got up at 0545 without anyone prompting him.  Before heading out, Bode took a picture with Ashley, who had just returned from the gym.

It's only a matter of time before Bode is taller than Ashley.  He definitely outweighs her, tipping the scales at just under 130 pounds.  He's pretty solid for a 12-year old.  

Here's to a great school year--we'll hope for the best and prepare for some hiccups along the way.  Pleasant week to all!

Inanimate Objects

 This will be a rather dull post, as there are no pictures of people or dogs.  A week ago, Ashley and Bode were involved in a minor fender bender.  She was in her little rocket sled and got dinged by a dump truck loaded with sand.  I don't think anything happened to the truck.  Thankfully, Ashley and Bode were fine, but Ashley's little car took some damage.  Here are some pictures.

The red truck behind the fence in the picture below is what hit her.  Note it is full of sand.

Ashley's car was taken to the hospital, err, body shop on Monday.  They've been very responsive and hope to have everything finished by this Thursday.  Ashley has been in a deep funk, as she's been stuck driving the 2002 Xterra as opposed to her little rocket machine.

We've been trying to make the best of the COVID situation.  We've done a lot of goofy-golfing.  Yesterday was Bode's first total victory over Ashley and me.  Below is a picture of the score card.

UWF starts classes tomorrow.  I'm doing mostly online lectures, but I do have some labs that are face-to-face.  We will see how long those last, as many think it's only a matter of time before the university has to shut down and resort to everything being online.  Here's hoping.

Bode Photog

 Bode is a published photographer!  Each day, our newspaper will publish a photograph of the "Pet of the Day."  Bode takes a lot of pictures of the dogs, so Ashley decided to send one it.  Ashley was notified yesterday that Bode's picture would be in today's paper.  We didn't tell him about it, so we filmed his response of seeing the picture in the paper.

We then took a nice picture of Bode and the paper.

Finally, here is a picture of the picture and Bode's tagline.

The Big 10 and the PAC-12 both cancelled their fall sports.  We are hopeful that the SEC will still play games.  Here's hoping!

Swim Meet

Bode's swim team had a swim meet today.  It was not a typical swim meet with swimmers from other teams.  Rather, Bode's team swam in Destin, and a team from Panama City swam the same events.  We didn't want to hold a large gathering of people, but we did want to give the swimmers a chance to compete, so this was a good compromise.

Here's a picture of Bode relaxing before his first event.

Next are some pictures of Bode doing the 100 individual medley.  His best time coming into the race was 1:25; he clocked a 1:19, and looked great.  Here he is getting ready--note the timers had to wear masks.

 Here's Bode doing the back stroke.

 Here's Bode doing the breast stroke.  We were very impressed with how much he improved with this stroke.  His coach had noticed his kick wasn't quite right; now, he's not the fastest breast-stroker, but he certainly didn't lag behind like he used to do :-)

Bode swam the 50-freestyle in 32 seconds, matching his previous best.  He was a little disappointed because he said he had swum 31's in practice, but the race did happen less than ten minutes after the 100-IM, so he was probably tired.  He finished with the 50-butterfly, and, amazingly, he won in a time just under 36 seconds, almost two seconds faster than his previous PR.

We aren't doing much today--it's now raining, and Ashley has been doing a lot of cleaning.  I guess I should go help her... then again, maybe I'll go play Mario Kart with Bode :-)

Bode Off the Pier

As part of junior life-guard camp, the kids get to jump off the Okaloosa County Pier.  It was a beautiful day, so Ashley and I went out to watch.

 The pier is about thirty feet up, so it's a bit of a jump to the bottom.

 Before coming over to the pier, the crew was finishing up a run on the beach.

After the run, the kids came out to the pier.

The head life-guard gave the kids the instructions.  They were to have their arms over their heads so they'd enter the water nice and straight, and once they surfaced, they were to give the all-clear sign, which is a pat on their head.  After some nerves, Bode got up the gumption and decided to jump.

After the jump, the kids swam out and hung in the water while everyone else jumped.  A few kids weren't able to do the jump, so we are very proud that Bode was able to do this.

A few more days of camp; not sure if they'll be able to do much because there is a tropical depression in the Gulf of Mexico which might make the surf unmanageable.  Here's hoping.