I'm back...

OK...

I've been gone WAY too long from my blog (54 days to be exact). It started off as a slump that was fueled by some transitions at the church and turned into a full-blown case of unintentional neglect.

Now I'm sitting here wondering, "Does anyone care? Have I lost my audience? Did I ever have one? Is Mom still reading?"

So here, on the day of my return, I give you a story:

I got a boat. a free boat. That should have been the warning sign.

The trailer tires were bald. No one wanted to work on the trailer because they couldn't put the trailer on the hydraulic lift because the boat was on it (are there any mechanics that work at tire shops any more - can you say wheel chocks and a jack? But I digress...).

I finally found someone to put the tires on. Then a few miles down the road, the brakes locked up. Did I mention I was about 5 hours from home down in Riverside?

I dragged the boat into a trailer place and finally got a nice man naemd Caesar to help me (the lady at the desk was less than cooperative and helpful). Caesar basically disengaged the trailer brakes and off I went. I left to boat in Castaic for trailer repairs and returned a few days later to pick it up.

It worked... or so I thought. A few days later the brakes locked up again. this time, I dragged the boat over to my friend Manny's, where it stayed fr a week while he determined and fixed the problem (it was a bad master cylinder).

Now don't get too bored... the pictures are coming.

While the boat was at Manny's, I got the side yard ready for concrete, which my dad and I poured together. While I was taking the side year down to grade with the Bobcat I rented... wait for it...

I ROLLED THE BOBCAT!

My friend told me it would take a lot of guys to get it righted, so I called about 20 guys. Fortunately it only took 6 guys. Unfortunately, the other 14 showed up. I am still trying to live it down.

The Bobcat took out the neighbor's fence. The good thing was that it fell into the neighbor's fence. If it had fallen into the house, I would have ruptured the gas main and then you would have REALLY had to wait for me to finally blog again.

Oh yeah... the youngest blonde boy had the best line. He came around the corner, saw the Bobcat on its side, looked at me, looked at the Bobcat again, then said, "Well, I guess we're gonna have to go back to using shovels again!" Check out the pix at the bottom. The one of him is priceless.

Enjoy the pictures. Talk your trash.

And come back tomorrow...

Here's the side yard AFTER "the incident."




And here's "the incident."