Dull Moments? Not Here!

So, I posted earlier today about the small war that almost erupted here this morning with Maya being totally jacked because Kurtis ate her little box of Cinnamon-Life cereal. Then, I got the phone call from the kids' BSC telling me that the activity originally scheduled for today at the Summer Program at the Bigler Playground had been changed and the tie-dying was going to take place tomorrow.

Keep in mind, any sudden changes of plans, particularly where Maya is concerned, can be quite detrimental to the adults around her and their peace of mind! That was my major concern that the change pertaining to the tie die might just trigger a monstrous kind of meltdown from Maya that her TSS would be left to deal with -pretty much alone.

But, I'm really happy to report that all's well that ends well and the transition at the playground program went off without a hitch! YES! What a relief it was to learn that didn't blow up on her TSS!

Kurtis and his TSS went to Curwensville Dam for the afternoon and that too went very smoothly -or as smoothly as things can go when one is accompanying a five-year-old who can talk non-stop and ask more questions at times than Carter has little Liver Pills -as that old saying goes!

Dawn -Kurt's TSS -reported to us that there are, I think she said, four separate swimming areas at that park at Curwensville Lake and Kurtis managed to hit all of them before Dawn said they had to leave to come home.

She said she had initially asked him if he wanted to go swimming or go fishing and he had selected the swimming -which was fine with her. However, when she told him they had to leave as it was time to come home, that spawned a good bit of whining and complaining and insistance then on going fishing because, after all, he hadn't gone fishing yet!

Yeah you just know this little guy was going to try to milk Dawn and the day at the lake for every ounce of fun he possibly could get out of it!

Mandy and Ken took Maya into Philipsburg then this evening for tonight's play practice and after that was over, she was going to Mandy's best friend's house to spend the night with Jenn-Jenn and Nick-Nick and their family -better known as Maya's other family and her home away from home.

Which is nice too -for me now -because my older grandson came up this evening, is spending the night here and early in the morning, he's going to be going up to a friend of ours -up the street a ways -to weed her garden for her -for a nice little chunk of "pin" money for his labors! But when he gets back from there, there will be no rest -or very little -for that weary young man as he'll get nailed then to help Grammy here ride herd on Kurtis the rest of the day!

Doesn't that just sound like excitement unlimited for an almost 14-year-old teen though? He's happy about it because he's had good training on weeding gardens from Robert -his Mom's fiance -plus, the fact that this task in the morning is a paying gig really trips his trigger too!

This evening though, after a lovely supper that Alex and I had of grilled delmonico steaks and fresh corn on the cob, we (Alex, Kurtis and I) drove up to Patty's house (our friend with the garden) so Alex and she could meet, face to face and she could show him then exactly what she wanted him to work on, etc., etc.

Now, the neat thing about going to Patty's place is that not only does she have a really super great garden but she also has a veritable mini-zoo at her place too!

She has chickens -about 100 of 'em -plus two turkeys and even a few ducks and Kurtis was in seventh heaven seeing all these fowl running around in her penned up region.

Here's a few of the pictures I took of our visit to Patty's farm, er zoo! First -her garden -so you can see all the stuff she has growing -and GROWING really large at that!

Here's a shot of some of the squash she has planted -on the left -and to the right -there's her tomato plants complete with some nice sized tomatoes on them already.

This is just a bird's eye view of the
tomatoes she has planted and they
are all as big as these plants if not
a lot larger! Incredible, really it is!




Left -another view of some other squash
plants she has -which are in blossom already! And on the right, lettuce, onions, spinach and well, who knows what else she has planted there but whatever it is, it's all growing big, tall and strong!


Now -to the animals!

Here's Patty as she introduced Alex and Kurtis to the duckling -all of 7-days-old -and which they refer to as their "Steelers" duck because he is black and gold. Appropriately enough, his name is Hines! (Actually, I think Patty was calling him Heinz -after the big company headquartered in Pittsburgh (think Ketchup, ya know) but I typed his name as being "Hines" as in Hines Ward, since the duckling is also referred to as being a "Steeler!"


Here's Alex holding the baby duckling, little
Hines, with Kurtis looking on to the left side and on the right, a closeup of Alex and the baby duck. Gotta admit, he sure is a cute and very soft, downy little thing!



An overview -to the left -of the chickens
-or some of 'em -in the chicken yard and on the right, here's Kurtis holding a handful of chicken feed and putting his hand through the fence to allow the chickens to eat right out of his little hands! Brave little guy he was there tonight!

There's "Papa" duck to the left, as
he was strutting around the yard.
And on the right, Patty's holding a
feathered foot Banty chicken -a
rooster, no less! (Did you know they can grow up to be really mean little
creatures? Remind me sometime to
tell you about the three Banty roosters I had when I was about Kurt's age!


And, last but not least, here's Patty showing us what has to be the most unusual chicken I've ever seen! This is a Polish chicken, named for the region of France where it originated but it is also known at the Top Hat Chicken (if I remember the information Patty gave us about this bird correctly anyway!) This particular chicken really fascinated me -first because I'd never seen or heard of this variety before and also, because I was actually in awe of how beautiful this bird is! Really, it is quite pretty to see.

And so, that now ends the garden and zoo tour for today but, the evening is still young and there was still more excitement yet to come!

About 9:30 p.m., I got a phone call from my son, who had a big favor to ask of me. He wanted me to find a towing company or a mechanic in or around the Williamsport area who could go out on the eastbound lanes of Interstate 80 and locate his girlfriend, who was stuck there with my son's big old yellow banana colored, old Chevy pickup truck which was sporting a big old flat tire!

Hmmm. How the heck was I gonna do that anyway?

Mandy suggested I contact the State Police Barracks here in our region and see what they suggested could be done to get some assistance out there to Elizabeth, his girlfriend.

And that's exactly what I did then too. The trooper here at our Barracks gave me the number of the State Police Barracks at Lamar as he wasn't sure exactly which Barracks would handle that region and so I called the State Police at Lamar. The trooper on the desk there took Elizabeth's phone number and contacted her, giving her the number of the next State Police station up the line -which was the one whose jurisdiction she is broke down at and they in turn, would then send a trooper out to stay with her until they got either a tow truck or a mechanic that could/would come out and tow her in or fix the tire for her!

So now -just like those old time serial movies -think "Perils of Pauline" ya know -that's where I'm gonna bring this post tonight to an end.

Stay tuned for further information on how Miss Elizabeth fared with getting the old pickup truck fixed, back on the road again.

I would say the next clip is "Film at 11" but that might not be timely as we don't know how long it's going to take for the police to find someone to assist her in her hour of need.

But, rest assured, I'll keep you posted!