Archive for the 'Family' Category
Halloween 2009
We had a good time yesterday, all things considered. The rain made the day less than we had hoped, but somehow it all turned out pretty good. Amrin was dressed as John Cena, the WWE Superstar who has appeared in a couple of films including the Marine and 12 Rounds.
He feels bad that we only made it to the first room of the haunted house we went to, but no one else minded. Ellyn made rat meatloaf, witch vomit, dragon toes and mummy wraps for supper. The mummy wraps tasted really great with the witch vomit on them. It was really obvious but was a pleasant discovery around our table last night.
We hope you all had a great Halloween weekend too!
Ellyns’ Little Pepper
This is just precious. Ellyn has planted a small container garden on the deck this year. She has pulled out a bunch of salad stuff and herbs and various other items. She was especially excited when this pepper finally came in. It is just so cute. It’s almost like Barbie food because it’s so small. The picture I took almost makes it look larger than it is. I put a penny in the frame to help see how small it is.
1959 Dodge Parts Car
Feb 9th 2009carlton1959 Dodge & Family
This project is still in it’s infancy, but several pieces and parts have sort of fallen in my lap. There’s someone “up there” who wants this car back out on the road, and I feel the same way. If it is divine providence that I get this project done, who am I to stand in the way? My dad and I traveled to New Ellenton, South Carolina to pick up a parts car.
The trip to S.C is one of the most breathtakingly awesome benefits to taking on this project that I have experienced so far. My dad and I took an all day road trip together and that time together is something I will always treasure. If there is not one single usable part on that car, the going to get it was worth a million dollars to me, maybe even more. I am still flabbergasted that the car was given to me, but without being too corny, what Richard Hayes gave me was not a parts car, it was unforgettable time with my Dad. It’s not that it was a pristine example of a 1959 Dodge. Quite the opposite, this thing is completely falling apart, but the parts I need are all there including the engine, transmission and drive shaft. In addition to these, there may be several other things that are likely to still be good that are general unknowns with respect to my own car. One of the things I may have to get creative in order to restore, for example, is the radio. I want an original radio, and the buttons on mine are completely and totally gone. The buttons on this one at least still have the chrome surrounds. I am planning to make some wooden blanks and employee some of the mechanical engineering fabrication ideas I learned in college to make new ones out of resin. Who knows how successful I might be, but then again, I might wind up with a good way to help others who are restoring these cars to fix things in their cars.
This is yet another big motivation for me to get a shed roof in the air so I can start some serious work on my car. Here’s a thought, when I build my car, I want to use only stainless steel fasteners, and I want every single metal surface to be coated with the most resilient and longest lasting protective material possible. These cars are beautiful and it is sad that they are so vulnerable to the elements in their stock form. It’s so important to have a place in the dry to park them. There are so many nooks and crannies where water can pool up behind trim, inside various cavities where the bodies are put together, and everywhere else. That coupled with what appears to be a pretty lousy manufacturing process that permitted metal surfaces to go uncovered, and allowed water to enter places all around, make these cars particularly vulnerable. All of these are things I want to do my best to address as I re-manufacture my car.
I am considering a modified version of a plan on this page (Plan 6356) which is a 24′ x 36′ pavilion style structure. My plan is to alter that room at the end to have a sliding door, basically just a sheet of plywood hung on a roller track, so a car can occupy that spot near it and still allow you to have plenty of room to get in there. Also, I plan to locate that end of the structure over my current well house, which will serve the dual purpose of providing dry storage for parts and tools and replace my very sad looking well house. Also, it gets me what I need without having yet another building in the yard. This is probably one of the single biggest expenses for this project, but it will serve me forever. Eventually, I see the entire building being enclosed. My Dodge is 18 feet long, so a 24′ deep building should provide enough space to build cabinetry and work benches. This space will also eventually serve as my long desired woodshop after all is said and done.
And about that trip? I missed one of the more important details. Dad and I met up with my awesome little sister Susan, her husband Jeff and their two boys, Matt and Harry, to eat at Gary’s. Gary’s is a burger place in New Augusta and they have excellent onion rings. Thanks to Susan for making the time!
Mount Rushmore
We have had a great day in Keystone South Dakota. After sleeping in the ghetto and then gaining a better bearing on where we are, we made it to a pretty good spot. Ellyn read the monument was best photographed before noon, so we headed that way pretty much first thing. It was a blast.
There are a lot of pictures. Now that we’re in a better hotel, we have wifi, and I am posting lots of pictures of our trip. We also tripped out to Reptile Gardens. Those pictures are uploading now. I’ll get some links going here with some thumbnails, or you can just go over to the gallery and check them out.
Internet Wasteland
I have just arrived in Rapid City South Dakota with my family following a trip to the edge of the civilized universe in Laurel Montana. I got to sleep with my son in a basement that was not cold at all (my preference and his) in a bedroom beside the loudest damned water pump in the known world. Frankly it was miserable, but I really don’t wish to complain too much.
We’ve all had our fun even though there hasn’t been enough time to play like we really wanted to. We attended the 50th wedding anniversary party of Ellyn’s parents, Byron and Arleen. Ellyn didn’t get a minute to visit any friends during our trip. I was fortunate to get to take lunch with a good old friend of mine and his wife, though I had to miss the golf trip he invited me to.
Amrin had a very strange vacation indeed. His is really just about to start. We’re going to Reptile Gardens and Mount Rushmore. Since he doesn’t read this blog, I’ll post the spoiler to the surprise scheduled for tomorrow evening… Pirate Golf! It should be fun. Ellyn’s folks are with us. We’re staying in the ghetto tonight and hopefully can upgrade a bit for tomorrow night. They like it as cheap as possible. Ironically, there are vacancies all over town for less than this dump. They claim to have made a great effort, but I think they are just used to staying in these drive up motels. I feel lost in a sea of neck tattoos. At least they have cable. 
I’ll check for bed bugs before I go to sleep. I should take a picture. This place is raggedy.
It should be interesting getting everything out of here in the morning and repacked into the trailblazer.
I really have been trying to get pictures of the trip on this site. Keep your eyes peeled. When I get a chance, I’ll post them up.
On the Way to Montana
We took off yesterday, pointing our car towards the mountains of Mon
tana. Ellyn’s mom and dad have been married 50 years. What else were we to do? We stopped at Nostalgiaville where Amrin finally found some glasses he wouldn’t feel like a nerd wearing.
Our canine companion has been amazingly well behaved. Seriously at one point we freaked a little because we almost thought we left her at one of our stops. This picture was taken in the Ingles parking lot right as we were setting out on this journey.
We Had Birthdays
It was odd for two reasons. First, we combined two of my nephews birthdays into one party. Parenthetically, this must have been some kind of punishment for the audacity to be born near the same time. The other reason it was odd is that Ellyn took a huge bite and I got a picture. Soon I will post the rest of the pictures taken during the party, but I couldn’t wait for this one.
As promised, here are the other pictures…
More of Savannah
There were a lot more pictures taken in Savannah. It’s just taken me a little while to get them all resized and uploaded. My gallery for some reason was giving me trouble, so I took the easy way out… Still, I hope you enjoy these. The picture above is one Amrin took. If there is anything I have learned having a child it is to hand them the camera. Amrin has always made remembering trips more interesting. If you see a picture of nothing but a leaf, or the sky or a beautiful flower, it is probably the work of a child who took the time to notice what we didn’t think was so important at the time. It is ironic how they are revered treasures now.
Amrin also made a couple of videos which I have published on Google Video. It seems like they just turn out crappy when I do this, but here’s a link to one of them: 
. The original files are in the 100-200MB range, so I guess we have to put up with some quality degradation to get them out there. Just make the window smaller I guess.
Savannah, Georgia
Ellyn was tired and left work early Friday. It gave me a wild idea to go to Savannah. If there were a bull, I was in the mood to grab it by the horns. So here we go. The picture above is of us goofing off at this little seafood restaurant. Ellyn wanted to eat someplace with a dock and a view of the ocean. This place had a dock and we were close to the ocean. Close enough, right? Click the image above to view the gallery.