The Bocce Boys of Tybee

Photos from the boys’ get-away. We missed Bob and said so several times, although Ted did a pretty good job of cooking bacon.

Click to view: Photos

Drink: Lime Beer

Phrase: “You idiot!”

Come backs: UGA, ND

Loser: Falcons

Winner: New Orleans

Crossword: Irony vs. Coincidence

Driver: Grant

Before Dinner: Alligators

Center of Dinner: Hole / Trashcan

Snack: Peanuts

Dessert: Susan’s Brownies

Nourishment: Mom’s soup

Forgot: Beach towels, sunscreen, bug spray, beach chairs, PAL

Frustration: Cemetary Geocache

Danger: Swim to pelican sandbar

Distraction: Biting flys

Irritant: The guy from Jersey

Find: 4 bottles with messages

Excess: Sand dollars

Lost: Michael’s football

Disputed: Definition of lost

Pew buddy: Aunt Margie

Most missed: Bob E.

The game: Bocce

Kelly’s First CC Meet

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Kelly participated in her first cross country meet this morning. This was a county meet, so there were hundreds of kids participating. While the morning was cool at first, it warmed up, and unfortunately for Kelly, the JV girls ran last.

The course wove in and out of a huge soccer field complex and included a couple of tricky hills and bridges. Kelly started off strong, pulling well ahead of her Brookwood peer group. In fact, she pulled too far ahead and clocked a 7 minute 16 seconds on her first mile. While she has been able to run 3, 4, and 5 miles in practice fine, by the time Kelly passed her second mile mark, she was in bad shape with a terrible side ache. Getting dizzy, she sat on the side of the course almost about to pass out.

A kind dad (not me… I was waiting to photograph her around the bend and didn’t see) carried her to the Brookwood tent to recover. She felt awful and took about 15 minutes before she could even try to stand back up. She napped all the way home (with air conditioning turned on to max.)

It probably didn’t help that she had been sick earlier in the week, and was still a little on the mend. But we are still proud of her, and doesn’t she look like the real athlete with her race number and her uniform? For at least a mile-and-a-half she looked like a pro!

The Start

Going Strong At 1.5 Miles

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Claire Mows Yard

MCC Mows Yard.jpgEarlier in the summer, Mary Claire asked if she could mow the yard when Danny left for college. I told her I thought that would be fine, and we even had a training session where she mowed the top part of the back yard. She learned how to open the shed, back out the mower, check for gas, adjust the wheel height, prime the engine, and start it.

I also showed her how the blade worked under the deck so she had a sense of what was spinning under there. Before actually mowing, she wanted to practice without the engine running. That was a pretty good idea. She “mowed” several rows, practicing how to turn the mower. Finally she started it up with only three pulls, and mowed the practice session. She put the mower back up, and ran in to report to her Mom what she had done. That was several weeks ago.

With Danny off to Spring Hill, Claire mowed the entire front and back this weekend. She really did a very good job and earned full pay. Grandaddy and Mr. Pink both reviewed her work and were impressed. Grandaddy wants to know if she will learn to edge.

Kathy’s Cow

Over the past several months, the family has watched Kathy’s Cow develop from a white canvas to, based on her announcement Friday, a finished painting. Carol put in a request that we post a photo of it here. It will likely get hung in the dining room, which is a fitting place of honor for beef.

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She is considering the rear end of a greyhound dog or two chairs on the beach as her next project. I favor the latter.

Young Like Regis

Last night we were watching “America’s Got Talent”. Kelly was amazed when she found out that Regis was in his 70’s. “He looks young for being in is 70’s,” Kelly said. “He’s like Grandaddy. Grandaddy and Regis both look young.”

One odd thing about the Mac5 blogs is that the moments of crisis we’ve experienced around Grandaddy’s misadventures at the hospital this year are really not recorded here. Kelly’s comment is especically appreciated on this side of Dad’s third hospital event.

FOPAB at Anna Maria

We all converged on Anna Maria Island without incident, although Dad’s trip down the day before involved a 3 hour delay in getting a flat tire replaced. Carol had FOPAB shirts ready for us. The houses are much nicer than we expected. Bob bought a wireless router to hook up to cable, and we now have 5 laptops with internet access (in case in rains.) We look forward to Nicole and hopefully Ted joining us.

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Kathy + Sun = Color

When we moved into the house there was a square plot of ground raised with a border of landscape timbers. It only contained tomato cages and weeds. Kathy attempted to grow some vegetables, but we have too many rabbits living in the neighborhood. So she converted it to a flower garden.

Before:

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After:

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