Two Hundred and Thirty One

What kind of a title is that? Well, I just thought I'd put that in there as a reminder that today is our - the United States, that is - birthday and 231 years is how many years it's been since those good old boys, the Founding Fathers, began the signing process of the Declaration of Independence.

So Happy Birthday, Uncle Sam! Hope everyone has a really great Fourth of July!

And now- on to other things!

Last evening, my son-in-law (Bill) took his daughter (Kate) fishing. They left here about 5:30 p.m. and went to a little stream about 5 miles from here - one of those fast-running, mountain streams. They left before having supper too although I was not "cooking" a meal per se - we were going to have the lasagne Mandy made Sunday afternoon and each on just heat a big serving of it when the desire to eat hit.

But, I really figured they would be home by 8 or 8:30 at the latest - considering they had no food with them and Bill had worked all day and Kate had - ok, well Kate had been flopped basically the entire day watching the "Soap" channel on the tv.

One of Bill's buddies had phoned for him a little after 8 p.m. and I told him Bill was fishing, not home yet but I expected them back very shortly. A little after 9 p.m., that guy called back and he was pretty surprised when I again told him "No, they aren't home yet!" He was concerned that perhaps they got out to that stream and perhaps had problems with the truck or something and Bill's cellphone isn't working right now either so they would have no way of contacting anyone to come give them a ride or assist them in getting the truck going - whatever scenario, ya know. So Josh -the friend - said he thought maybe he would take a run out to Six-Mile Run and see if they were still there; see if they were ok, etc.

And, wouldn't you just know though about two minutes or not much longer than that after Josh called, Katie and Bill arrived back home. Talk about two happy, excited people too that they were because, surprise, surprise, they had each caught a fish!

Bill couldn't wait to open this newspaper out to show me their bounty too and it was really something to behold - for sure. There were two fish alright. A little tiny fish that Bill said Kate had caught and probably had just made it to the length of being legal. But laying right next to that tiny fish was a really nice BIG trout! I'm a lousy judge of length of anything but I'd guess the big fish to be at least 18 inches in length and a pretty good sized girth to it as well!

I don't have a digital camera here but if we had one, you can bet there would be a photo popping up here about now to show you Bill's Big Catch! He cleaned both fish and he' s the one gonna cook supper today too - and yes, it will be trout tonight!

My niece and her husband along with their two children will be here shortly for a little 4th of July visit. They live about 100 miles west of here and we haven't seen them since last summer some time so it will be nice to see them again. And also will be interesting too in that her little girl, Lizzie, who is four days younger than our little Princess Maya, to observe how much both the girls have grown and matured too.

I'm hoping I can find a camera here (disposable type) with some pictures left on it so I can get some shots of Miss Maya and Lizzie together. Last year, because of the issues Maya has, Lizzie often got the upperhand when they would play together. However, this year now - Maya has learned more about social interactions and playing (productively, that is) - so the girls might be on a bit more of a level playing field now. It should be interesting, to say the least.

And, the little Duke - Kurtis - well apparently he must have really wore himself out yesterday too because he went to sleep probably about 11:30 last night, didn't wake up at all during the night either (which made for a better restful sleep for old Grammie that way) and he is still zonked out and it's now after 10:30 a.m. here! It's not all that unusual for him to sleep late but he doesn't usually sleep solid for that many hours at a clip -usually tends to wake up at least once or twice - sometimes more - then go back to sleep. But I sure as heck am not going to go wake him up ya know!

And now - so I will be all done playing on the computer for a while, got my post in for today now too - I'll give you the Bushism for today - the 231st anniversary of the Fourth of July! (Yes, I know there were oodles and oodles of 4th of Julys but you know what I mean there! I hope!)
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
"Well, it's an unimaginable honor to be the president during the Fourth of July of this country. It means what these words say, for starters. The great inalienable right of our country. We're blessed with such values in America. And I --it's--I'm a proud man to be the nation based upon such wonderful values." - Visiting the Jefferson Memorial; Washington, D.C.; July 2, 2001.

Huh? What did he just say there?