July 5th

It sounded like a mini war was going on last night. We didn't see many sparklies over the tops of the trees, but we heard a lot of noise. Around 9 pm, we took the dogs down the splatzone for a evening romp. They loved it. Kelly the cat, has run off. I opened the door to go in on Thursday and he ran out and would not come back when I called him. After a night out, I figured his tummy would tell him to come back home.. no. He's still out somewhere. I have seen several cats in the area, so maybe he followed one home and is now someone else's pet.

I think our dogs handled the fireworks well. No whining or barking, Rocky did run from window to window trying to look out, only I still have them all covered with windshield covers. Jerry and I tried sitting out for a bit, but he got ate up with misquitos and we gave it up. Jerry grilled up some burgers, 6 were in the package and 4 ended up on the ground when the grill slid on the table. Yep, the dogs ate more burger than the people did.

We did drive around this weekend, looking for the lakes. We found two of them, only to find that there is no free access to them.. got to pay to get into the swim areas. One woudn't even let us drive around because all the camp areas were full. We found Holt lake. and found boat ramps and harbor's but no place for us to go to, no swim area, no small park. We were hoping for an area we could picnic in and take the dogs for a walk. We found two hiking trails but we didn't get out and explore them. We found the dam and lock, but can't get close enough to really see them well. Ever since 9 11- 01 all public access to them was shut off. I use to really enjoy walking out onto the dams and watching boats go through the locks.

This morning we did our usual. Got up later than usual. Sorted out laundry. walked the dogs, Went to Ryan's for breakfast. Washed and dried the laundry. (we need new baskets for the laundry) then came back home, to walk the dogs, again. Been watching the tv ever since. Jerry got hooked on survivor man, and I took a long nap. When I woke up, he was asleep on the couch.. it's too small for him to lay out on, though. The dogs needed another walk, and I obliged them. Dinner was a large salad for me, Ramaem soup for Jerry, and sandwiches. We had a quarter of a watermelon for dessert and I'm full.

Tomarrow will be cleaning day for me. Picking up and cleaning up and putting away. I'll put away the laundry then, when Jerry is at work. It's hard to do much when only one person at a time can be up and moving around.

We did pick up some new canopies. Yes, two of them, buy one get one.. the box says 10x10 but when Jerry put one together, it's more like 7 x 7. We only put up one, and took off the tarp after he finsihed cooking those burgers. Good thing since we had a lot of wind earlier today and some rain. We could use lots more rain, right now. I'll have to figure out a way for me to put the tarp on it, if I want to cook outside, I guess. It's a bit too tall for me to reach standing flat footed on the ground. (don't snicker, Thom, I know I"m short) After we put it up the first time, we took the tarp back off and headed to town, and picked up 8 cinder blocks. the ground here is full of large gravel and we can't get the tent stakes that came with the thing to go very far into the ground. So it's easier to just tye to the blocks than struggle with an iffy at best tent stake.