Wait, Wait, Hoad On

Before moving on to the rest of the trip, where we live now etc., I thought I should throw up a couple of pics from the days we had at the farm before heading out east. Ellis and Silas are now big enough to really enjoy the tire swing in the shop. I suppose you have to be familiar with the shop to really appreciate how high they were going in this pic, but it was about as high as I could have gotten them with a good underdog.

We spent most of the days I was there working on the Blazer. Mainly, we knocked off a lot of rust and repainted the silver sections. All in all it came out nice for the amount of effort in. Ellis insisted on doing whatever job I was doing, so here he is glazing. He is now too old to be given a worn out piece of sandpaper and be led to believe that he is really helping.

The Blazer performed admirably on the trip out and the odometer passed 212k. Not bad for a Chevy product made in 1992. Most of the credit for its longevity goes to my father-in-law for keeping her up and a little to us for being too stubborn to buy something newer when this thing still goes down the road.

Dispatch, Erie, PA

450 miles behind us.

Highlights:

Rachel speaking of the Ohio turnpike: "Why does anyone ever take this road? The road is shitty, the speed limit is low, there are cops everywhere, nowhere to stop for food or gas and then they make you pay to drive on it."

Ellis split his time between riding in the front seat of the Blazer and watching movies with me or riding in the backseat of the Volvo with Scout.

A scene from Ellis's time riding with me in the Blazer:

I am driving one handed with my left hand while the right one sits on the console and he decides he is tired of Nemo and wants to watch something else.

Ellis: Daddy, I wanna watcha different one.

Me: Ellis I can't change the disk for you while I am driving.

Ellis reaching over and grabbing my right hand: What is this hand doing? Change it with this hand.

Otherwise, the day was without incident other than a bit of trouble finding the hotel.

Precipice

We are currently stationed at the farm for one more day before we head east on the next adventure. I imagine the trip out with two vehicles, a dog and a 3 yearold will be where the adventure peaks and from there it will mostly be down hill, which is ok, because we will probably be tired.

Thanks to the many who have already wished us well and apologies to the many with whom we failed to squeeze in one last visit. Of course, you are all welcome in Vermont anytime.

Hopefully, the move will bring new energy to the blog. At least once we have internet as of next Tuesday.

A little light

Well, it seems that my MI no-fault insurance might cover the damage caused by the semi. We won't know how to proceed until Monday, but it does appear that this is an "eligible situation".

Because of the accident, Ellis's ear surgery wasn't the biggest news of the day yesterday. It went fine. The doc said his ears were about as packed as possible and that his hearing would improve immediately. Ellis had two red popsicles in recovery and ate them with such gusto that one of the nurses asked, "Does he enjoy every popsicle that much?"

I think his hearing is improving. For about three hours after the surgery he kept asking me,"hey what's that noise?" I don't know if he was hearing things he had never heard before or hearing the antibiotic drops sloshing in his ears. He is certainly no worse for the wear. He hasn't even mentioned that they hurt. He is even being cooperative about the ear drops he has to have a few times a day.

One more reason to say "smell you later" to Michigan

Many of you were probably expecting pictures of a few lucky fisherman or at the very least a very excited little boy. Instead, our luck was all applied to not getting hurt in a car accident. Again, everyone involved was unhurt.

Basically, we were fully stopped on the highway due to a traffic jam when a semi came on from the ramp at ~50 mph and couldn't stop in time. It tried to squeeze between the cars in the left and right lanes (I was in the left) and it side swiped us. Considering how out of control the semi was, this was a remarkably minor accident. I can't believe he didn't hit more cars. Other accidents meant we spent better than an hour waiting for an officer who was at least speedy and safety conscious once he got there. Of course, the semi driver was found at fault and cited, probably for failure to control his vehicle.

One side of the front bumper was pulled loose:

The running boards on the passenger side were a bit smashed up:

And the front bumper being pulled loose on the passenger side twisted the bumper into the drvier side tire.

So what is the one more reason to say "smell you later" to MI? The insurance of the guy responsible for causing the accident isn't responsible for damages to the vehicle I was driving, which unfortunately, wasn't my vehicle, but one borrowed from Mike and Lise. Thanks to the magic of no fault insurance, in MI, it is each driver's insurance that covers damage to that driver's vehicle regardless of who is at fault. Since the vehicle I drove was insured in IN under IN law, they expect that the insurance of the guy who caused the accident would cover the repairs, but he has MI insurance that won't. I still can see if my MI insurance will cover the damage and call the trucking company and see if they feel like making it right (unlikely). So basically, it is possible for a driver, and in this case a professional driver, to cause an accident by losing control of his truck and then not be responsible for the repairs to vehicles he damaged.

All in all, it could have been much worse. Someone could have been hurt and they weren't. But, for cripes sake, if someone hits your car, they ought to have to be responsible for it.

Step I: Prepare your tackle for the coming season.

Ellis participated in his first fishing ritual last night: getting out all of your tackle and sorting it in the tackle box. This is accompanied with discussion of the proper uses of various items, the size fish that will be caught and a few accidental self-hookings.

Since his rod, reel and tackle are all new, he missed out on untangling snarled lures tossed back in the box in disgust when they failed to catch fish last year and taking apart your reel to get the sand out of it and then discovering you have lost parts or still have parts left over after it is back together.

winding down

Today is Ellis's last day of daycare here. Tomorrow he will get tubes put in his ears and I'll have my last full day of work.

Growin' Up

Ellis's birthday week started with decorating cookies to take to school. Apparently we are lucky in that our school still allows homemade treats for birthdays, as most schools do not.

Torrey, also a contributor to our Christmas tree this past year, came over to pitch in and the results were quite impressive.


Grandma Audrey came over Saturday morning for another round of birthday fun. Unfortunately, many of the pics came out dark. But this crown from Grandma Audrey that Ellils covered with stickers was quite a hit. She gave him several presents that will serve well on the trip east, including a bunch of coloring books, markers, crayons etc.
Then we had a big picnic party at Delhi metropark. The adults had a nice time as we worked our way through cake and presents.
Grandma Lise made these super cool bug cakes for the party.

I think Aunt Catherine must have eaten a cricket, or maybe just bitten its head off, judging by Ellis's face.
Cooperation was on display in the cake eating.
And, then there were presents. Here we will highlight a couple of favorites. Grandpa Hank came in big with E's first fishing rod, wisely going with a little "real" rod and not one of those awful Snoopy deals. I still have my first one from my Grandpa and I still use it. Hopefully his will last similarly. Tackle and box were included. When asked who would teach him to fish, Ellis appeared to be at a complete loss. Suggestions of grandpa and daddy were met with a dismissive, "Noooo." Holden was mentioned as a possible teacher, but the picture below indicates that Ellis's attitude did soften a bit.

Then Grandma Lise and Grandpa Mike came in big with a Like-Bike. These are what every kid in Germany starts on. Rather than training wheels, it is a two wheeler without pedals that they push with their feet and then can coast to learn balance. First we had to adjust the seat height.

And then he was off to the races. We have had to futz with the seat height a lot but he is starting to pick his feet up and coast and he is talking about it all of the time.

While we don't have photographic evidence of everything, Ellis also recieved and loved a "stomp rocket" from Jodie and family, his own copy of "Lady and da Tamp" from Lucy and Vaughn, a pair of screaming slingshot monkeys from Bridget, Silas and Emmet, and new storybooks from Catherine.  Thanks everyone! And finally, our young man now, unbelievably, 3 years old: