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.
Sunday, December 31, 2023
Another year has come and gone. Ashley and I spent the last two days in Auburn. We went early on Saturday morning so we could watch the Auburn football game in an Auburn bar...big mistake, as the team was just destroyed by Maryland. But we are happy to say the Auburn basketball team had a "rebounding" win against Tennessee Chattanooga, easily beating the Mocs 101-66. I took a number of pictures. First, here is Ashley in the parking lot with glorious Jordan Hare stadium in the background.
During the game, I tried to get a shot of Bruce Pearl, but none of my pictures came out very well.
After the game, we took a selfie with the court in the background.
We also took a shot of the scoreboard.
You might be asking, "Where was Bode?" Well, he had swim practices that he didn't want to miss, so we took the big risk and let him stay home all by himself. Yikes! Fortunately, the house was still standing and both dogs were still alive when we got home.
I don't really have any new pictures of Bode. However, I do have a funny one. A friend sent me this picture--she was taking pictures of her kids, and Bode decided to photobomb them.
We had a wonderful 2023 and are looking forward a fun-filled 2024. Happy New Year to all
We had a wonderful Christmas weekend. Bode had a couple days off from swim practice, so we got to hang out with him at the house much more than usual. He even went to church with us on Christmas Eve :-) We went to bed fairly early on the night before Christmas, as we wanted to give Santa plenty of time to bring in the mother load of gifts. I took this picture of our tree all lit up with the presents beneath.
We slept in until eight or so Christmas morning; even Bode was up early, but I guess when you have been getting up at 0600, an extra two hours of sleep isn't really early. We did pose for some obligatory photos. First, we have Bode, Ashley, and Barkley, while Rowdy is busy with a bone.
Next, a good photo of Bode and me.
We received some great presents--books, clothes, gadgets, some coin to spend on ourselves, and other odds and ends. We couldn't rest once the presents were opened because Ashley's family was coming over. We ordered a honey-baked ham, and Ashley also made a prime rib, which turned out great. JoAnne was nice enough to send me some pictures she took while over here. First, we have Rowdy and Jay.
Next, we have Bode with his cousin as well as Rowdy.
Here is a nice one of the Rankins.
Finally, a nice one of us before we feasted.
After we ate, I impressed JoAnne with some of my card tricks :-)
Ashley and I ran a 5k today--the Egg Nog Jog. Bode did not run because he is in the middle of two-a-day swim practices, and he didn't want to miss a training session. The race started early (9 am) on a bitterly cold morning (55 degrees). A number of our friends ran with us. Tim Tobik and his son, Carter, who is home from his freshman year at UCF, pried themselves out of bed after a late night last night; I would have stayed in bed, but they are more dedicated than me. It is always great to run with Tim--reminds me of a long time ago when we were both much faster and less greyer :-) Here is a nice shot of Tim, Carter, and me after the race.
The best part of the race is the free Buffalo Wild Wings that you eat AFTER racing (not before--that would be foolish). We all had a nice meal and some cake (and I think Tim and Ashley both had a few beers) while we waited for the awards to be announced. Ashley's friend, Jenna, was the overall female grandmaster winner (50+) while Ashley was first in the 50-54 female age group. She amazed herself by running a sub-28; last year, she was in the 29's so she, like a fine wine, is getting better with age :-)
Jenna is the gal in the middle; I don't know the girl on the right, but I think Ashley told me she works with Jenna and also took home some hardware in her age group.
Tim's niece, Kim, won the 35-39 age group, Tim got second in the 55-59 age group, and I also got second in the 50-54 age group. We then had to get a picture with all our medals; we did give Carter a hard time for not getting one, but to be fair, he wasn't a runner in high school, and there were some cross country kids that ran and swept up the medals in his age group.
This next picture is one I took a few weeks ago. It is almost impossible to recognize Bode when he's wearing a hat--it doesn't look anything like him.
The big fat man comes tomorrow night--we can hardly wait!!!
It is with a heavy heart that we post the final concert of Bode's musical career. Bode is retiring from the trumpet...I guess he just doesn't like it anymore; perhaps it's just not that cool to a 16-year old. We are sad that Bode wants to stop doing something that he is so good at, but forcing him to play the trumpet would create too much tension :-) Thus, Bode's final Sinfonia Youth Orchestra concert was Sunday night, and we were on hand to record all pieces. There are six total. We realize you are pressed for time, so if you want to watch only one, watch My Bonny Boy (the third movie below). The trumpet solo at the beginning is just Bode playing, and we think he sounds amazing, although we are a bit biased.
Sadly, you can't really see Bode in any of the movies; he is in the middle-back, and the conductor blocks him. Oh well--you just really need to hear a concert, right? :-) So without further adieu, on with the show. The first piece was Heatherwood Portrait by James Barnes.
The second piece was Seventeen Come Sunday.
The third piece was My Bonny Boy (Bode's solo is right at the beginning--the trumpet is him and him alone playing).
The fourth piece was Folk Songs from Somerset.
The fifth piece was Christmas Bells and Brass.
The final piece was The Polar Express.
I assume we'll have to pack up the trumpet and store it away. Hopefully Bode will start to miss it and want to play again. Until then, we will have to be content with watching the old videos :-)
Our neighborhood does an annual contest and judges who has the best Christmas decorations. I'm happy to say that the months of planning paid off and that we won! We came home today and found this sign in our yard.
If you can't make it out, it says "Best Overall." To commemorate this historic event, I figured out how to take better night-time pictures on my phone. The below pictures do a good job of showing what our house looks like when it is all lit up.
We can't rest on our laurels. We'll enjoy this while we can, but come December 26th, we'll be scheming about how to improve on our design and go back-to-back :-)
