Whats happenin' update

1) Went to White Water yesterday. Was fun. Got burned on my shoulders. The new ride The Tornado is really cool, but not worth a really really long line. It was good to ride it once though.

2) Finally got my surround sound system hooked up. It rock-diddily-diddily-rocks.

3) Have a couple from our Sunday School class coming over tonight. So that ought to be fun. And Tori is cooking a chicken ring. If you don't know what that is...then I pity you.

Recent Charlie Moment

Tori and I were out to eat with a bunch of people from our Sunday School class. Somehow, the conversation became about childbirth. This is a close approximation/ paraphrase of the conversation:

I said to a guy sitting next to me: "It's normal for them to gain 60 lbs. during pregnancy."

Tori overheard me, and said: "No. Normal is 30 lbs."

Charlie says, "60 lbs. is normal for a BIGGER woman!!"

Woman sitting near Tori: "....I gained 60 lbs. during my pregnancy...."

Losing Your Forever

I was going to wait and try to write more extensively about this; but I just don't find myself having the motivation right now. So I'll just throw it out there. (For all 2 people who are reading my blog right now.)

Micah thinks he is going live forever. [physically]

At least implicitly. I'm not sure that he thinks "I'm going to live forever." But I believe he at least assumes his continuance. And over the next couple of years, he will naturally embrace the idea of living forever.

But then there comes that point, when the truth is broken to us. When as a child, we are faced with the fact that one day our body will die. That can be somewhat traumatic for a child. I remember hearing an apologist talk about that once. He said he cried when his dad told him that. His father tried to console him by saying it was a long way off. But as that man said, once he had lost forever, he had lost everything.

There is that initial shock and dismay; but luckily that mental block that God created to keep us from jumping off cliffs kicks in and we stop thinking about it; only occassionally daring to re-enter that childhood moment to consider it for ourselves again.

But part of me wonders if that isn't part of being made in the image of God. We are distraught at the idea of death. Only we humans are. I think we reject it, because we feel like that is not what is meant to be. The neat thing, I think, is that it is not really true. We do live forever. Somewhere.

So it's like a circle. You lose your happy forever. And then, through Christ, you can get it back. That hope, that fulfilling thought, satisfies that primal desire that was once taken from us as a child.

My Sunday School class (Young Marrieds) have a once a month fellowship and also a once a month work project. This month's project was a Habitat for Humanity house out in Cleveland. We painted, put down moisture barrier in the crawlspace, and did some other carpentry work. It was a great time.

Me and another fellow, Austin, putting up some beam support for a vinyl ceiling in the carport.

Tori and Wendy paiting the door frames.

Tori and Amy Gailey painting. Her husband (who you see sitting next to her in another picture) is the guy who came over to give me a hand on the shed.

Tori and the other women workers.

New Micah Videos on Little Sugar Mama

There are two new Micah videos on "Little Sugar Mama and Son". See side bar for a link.

P.S. Leave a comment so Tori will know people are actually looking at it.

Staining the Back Deck

Me staining the back deck, and a quick look at the shed (still under construction).

This is where I'm at on the shed construction - thanks to help from Dad and Tate. Tate helped for a couple of hours yesterday, but there are just so many dad-blamed screws and bolts to this thing....it just takes forEVER.

Shed Update (especially for Michael)

Well, I thought I'd be able to build the shed and then stain the deck yesterday. Of course, as ususual, things take longer than you think. Dad came over early and we worked on the shed. But it was only half completed when I had to go to church (I had responsibilities there) and dad went home. So it is only half done. The problem is you need two people. So a friend of mine in my sunday school class (Tate Gailey [son of Chan Gailey - current Ga. Tech Football coach and former Dallas Cowboys head coach] is coming over at 5 this afternoon and is going to give me a hand for a couple of hours. His wife Amy is coming with him and the ladies will hang out and when we are finished we'll have dinner.

So....don't worry (Michael) I'm working on it, and hopefully it will be done by the end of the day today.

However, right now, I'm staining the back deck. I'm trying to get that done before Tate comes over.

Update complete.

Charlie Builds the Shed Floor

Charlie buys small tool shed. Floor no come with it. Charlie buy lumber and build floor. Snickers...no help...no help at all. Also starring a torn up skill saw that smokes. Watch the end to see the credits.

A whole lotta shakin' goin' on...

I have a lot of irons in (or about to be in) the house project fire over here. I sanded, primed, and painted the back porch rails. I bleached, pressure washed, bleached and pressure washed again, the back deck. But it looks uneven in color, so I'll (after conferring with David, not-so-local paint guru) probably be going with a solid stain to cover up the uneveness in wood color.

Thats just the back porch project...

I actually have a couple other things going....

Tomorrow morning I'm going to Lowe's and buying a small, cheap tool storage shed. First I've got to clear the place I'm going to put it, then I've got to put the kit together on the spot. Then I'll fill it with some stuff.

I'm going to redo the whole garage. I was going to buy one of those large wooden storage buildings, but the cost is too prohibitive. So I'll use the little metal one for basic storage of a few things, (ex. pressure washer, weed-eater, air compressor, etc.) [Not the lawn mower, I am parking it under the truck camper-cover I have put up on two picnic tables.] Later, I'll probably buy some wooden posts and put them in the ground next to the little shed and put the cover on that and park the mower next to the shed.

So, here's the plan for the garage....I'm going to take EVERYTHING out of it. Everything...the 5 million pound metal cabinet and all. I'm going to take everything off the wall...everything comes out. I'm going to put it all behind my house, instead of the backyard to keep my neighbor from having a coronary.

I plan to buy some of that epoxy floor paint for the garage. You have to put some chemical on it first for a few days, (3) and then after you paint it, you have to wait like 10-14 days before you can park on it. But it looks really cool, and you put these little sprinkles on the paint with like a salt-shaker thing, and the floor looks glossy and you can mop it and about nothing sticks to it. They have several colors...but I'm thinking about going with the dark blue with white "sprinkles", and then after priming the garage walls, painting the bottom half of the walls the same tint of dark blue...probably from the ground up to about 4 feet...and then the rest white. I'm going to super organize the garage, and buy some cabinets and shelfs and put up ALOT more peg board. This is all the plan anyway.

Also, I may be repainting (at least pressure washing the front porch), I KNOW I will be pressure washing the trim after bleaching it. And we are even considering in the fall, redoing our master bedroom with pergo wood floor and new bedroom furniture.

So.....alot going on. Maybe I can use my new-found blog video powers to take you along for the ride. Oh and if you have any experience with these types of projects, your advice would be appreciated.

Micah the helper and mailman

Micah likes to imitate the work we do around the house. He saw Tori sweeping, so when she put the broom down, he went to it. He also likes to check his little mailbox. But whenever the little plastic envelopes get left out, Snickers chews them up.

Everyone know what time it is?!?!

It's Tool Time!

When Micah saw me put the sander down for a minute, he promptly took over for me. He even does the motor noise. (Which happens to be the same noise he does for toy cars and trucks.)

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Red Barron's Buddy

I have a very nice local airport in town. Reminds me alot of Berry Hill Airport where I lived growing up. It has your typical elements: airport dog, old guy that seems to just live there, etc. My local guy's name is Jim. His counter-part's name at Berry Hill was named (it was pronounced anyway) Ma Perkins. But it was an old man. I guess that wasn't his real name, but thats how I always heard it. ...anyway, I'm getting side-tracked...

Dad really likes my local airport, and I introduced him to Jim, and the rest is history. He likes to go over there and be the caretaker of all the old and new airplanes. He loves to just hang out and piddle in the hanger. Jim gives him some free flight time for his work.

So these pictures are of the kit plane dad few to Hiawassee and back, and pictures of the new construction on McConnell Memorial Baptist where they (and I used to) go to church.

The kit plane is one of those experimental plane you don't even have to have a regular license to fly. But I've looked in it and it looks like a conventional plane to me. I think it's the weight that makes it the class it is. But dad has flew in several of the planes stationed at the airport; a taildragger, 150, this kitplane, and I think a couple others.

(BTW - My dad's nickname is "Buddy" - hense the title.)
(Also, remember you can click the pictures to see a larger version.)

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