Easter a-ok, Vette, Mini-vaca

Even though I had a terrible attitude about Easter on Friday, it turned out to be a nice holiday all the same. On Saturday we had chores a plenty to get done (what else is new) Since we are going to be gone this upcoming weekend we had to knock some stuff out ahead of time. My mom is going to be house sitting for us and she loves to use the pool so I have been doing battle with some stubborn algae that keeps clouding the water. I hammered the water with enough shock to strip paint as well as replacing the main pool filter and the mineral cartridge. The water is better but not good enough, hopefully I can get it all straightened out by this weekend. Saturday night we watched the “It’s the Easter Beagle Charlie Brown” special. Although it doesn’t pack the same punch as the 3 classics (Christmas, Thanksgiving & Halloween) the Easter special is still a favorite. Unlike the others, I have probably only seen this one 2 or 3 times in my lifetime.

On Easter I hid a basket for Ali in the microwave. It was equipped with some Peanuts Easter treats as well as the customary Peeps (one of Ali’s favorites). Then instead of someone working 3 or 4 hours on a meal that will be consumed in 15 minutes, we decieded to take my mom to Carraba’s for Easter dinner. They opened at 12 and we got there shortly thereafter. I was sure it would be a mob scene but surprisingly we were able to sit right down and were out of there in less than an hour and a half. We went back to Mom’s place where she asked me to rake up some leaves from a huge tree that is dropping leaves like it was fall. She said something about they were blowing around the neighborhood and she didn’t want to be a bad neighbor or something like that. She said she couldn’t rake leaves because of her bad shoulder. Mom has a number of things wrong with her. Her method of handling her ailments doesn’t make much sense to me. She hurts herself doing something, then she is scared to do anything so she restricts her activity, her muscles get even weaker so she is more susceptible to injury, and so it continues to spiral downward. It frustrates me to see her in such shape and I have repeatedly encouraged her to do some sort of regular exercise. (along with quitting smoking) But for whatever reason she fails to do so. So I have adopted the “Can lead a horse to water…” attitude. She has to do it because she wants to, I can’t make her. Mom also has some sort of weird crusade about air conditioning. She wears the fact that she hasn’t turned her AC on yet like a badge of honor. It was 88 and humid yesterday, yet she had her windows open. She said there was a great breeze blowing through the house. Yea, a hot, humid, sweaty breeze. 🙂 Weird.

Anyways, after the leaf raking we walked down to the beach and spent some quality time there. Even though we were only there maybe an hour and a half, I was toasted. The highlight of our stay was me stepping in to try to help a young boy retrieve a kite that was at least 500 feet in the air. He was trying to reel it in and wasn’t having much luck. The string was hooked around some tree tops so it was angled low to the ground so people kept walking into the string and in the process almost falling over themselves. (the beach was very full) I thought I could save the day. Well during the 15 minute reel in process I came to learn that this kid was the 4th or 5th owner of the kite that day. Evidently some older guy put the kite up, got tired of it and then gave it to a kid. That kid got tired of it and gave it to another kid. This process evidently continued for awhile until we got to junior here. So I tried to hurriedly reel it in but quickly noticed that the kite was not breaking free of whatever it was hooked on in the tree tops. When I got it as far as I could without pulling the kite into the tree I told the kid I can either yank real hard and hope it breaks free or just leave it. He didn’t say much so I decided to pull like hell on it. The string broke but the kite remained tethered to the tree tops. Oh well, sorry kid. He still didn’t say much. I asked if he wanted the string, he shrugged and said I guess. About that time his FATHER comes up and consoles him, saying it wasnt a big deal. I am wondering to myself “Why am I the one trying to retrieve this kite for this kid when dad was right there?” Dope, help your kid.

The gulf water was pleasant, around 75 degrees. The wind was really gusty so it whipped up some waves making the beach sound more ocean like. It was relaxing to just sit back and enjoy. We hoofed it back to mom’s and headed home in the Vette.

There was some minor work on the vette done this weekend. I got my replacement shifter knob. Remeber 90 bucks new? I got one used off ebay for 18 bucks that looked brand new after some leather conditioner was applied, a nice find. I really need to get down and dirty and tackle some of the bigger issues soon. I think I need to replace the intake gasket on it, a huge job for someone with limited experience ripping apart motor components. I once replaced the intake on my 71 Chevelle but that was a hell of a lot simpler. While I have the intake off there are probably other things I should do while it is apart. I am a bit scared to do it because once I have it ripped apart , there is no return. If I mess something up it could be a real PIA to get it working correctly. So many bolts, brackets and other parts have to come out to get it off. I also need to replace the transmission fluid, a potentially VERY messy job.

This upcoming weekend we are heading to Daytona Beach for a little mini-vacation. While up there we plan to go to the Kennedy Space center. Outer space was one of my first fascinations I can remember growing up so I am really pumped to see the KSC. I checked out the web site, tons of things that look interesting to me. Should be a blast.