5/30/2011

The (2 older) boys and I took the truck to it's first official outing of 2011 yesterday, to the Perkasie Car Show. Never went to this one before; didn't take any trophies but it was a real nice show still the same. Lots of nice folks, lots of nice machinery there, and they had great door prizes!!! You got a numbered ticket as part of your registration. The door prizes were numbered sequentially in however many there were. If your doorprize ticket was drawn, you then drew a number out of a bucket which was your door prize. Our ticket was drawn for a door prize, and we ended up with a gift certificate for an 8" ice cream cake from DQ. NICE!

It was a pretty hot day, but I dont think it was as humid as they were predicting. There was a very nice, large covered patio nearby where I was parked, and we spent a lot of time under there. It wasn't too bad with a breeze blowing. The boys packed their Nintendo DS games, and some toys. I packed some PB sammiches and some other snacks and a load of bottle water in the cooler to save on money. Note to self: Need to remember to take sunscreen, especially for the little guys. Cody has a slight sunburn on the back of his neck. Shane and I (who share my dark, mediteranian skin) just got nice and tan. Oh and I should mention that on the way to the show we stopped by our Barber's house (he is actually retired but still cuts hair in his basement) and all got buzzed, which helped with the heat. All in all a very nice day.

And, today is Memorial Day. I need to share a quick pet peeve of mine: For some reason or another, many people seem to not understand the meaning of, or confuse Memorial Day with Veteran's Day.

Memorial Day (May) is a day set aside, to remember those in our Military Forces, who have given the Supreme Sacrifice to our Country. Veterans Day (November) is set aside to thank ALL Veterans (alive and deceased, having served in a theater of combat or during peacetime) of our Armed Forces for their service to our Country.

That being said, today I thank John Kulick (whom I previously blogged about: http://engine1102.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2010-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&updated-max=2011-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&max-results=7) and Tristan Smith, for giving their lives in the service of The United States Army, and the United States of America. John was a career firefighter with the Whitpain Township (Montgomery County 33)) Pa. Fire Department, and also a volunteer for the Enterprise Fire Company of Hatboro (Montgomery County 95) Pa. I had the pleasure and privelege of knowing John personally, and working along side him as a volunteer, and as a DOD Firefighter (US Navy) at the Naval Air Warfare Center FD (Bucks County 69) Pa.

Tristan Smith was a member of my volunteer company, the Bryn Athyn Fire Company (Montgomery County 11) Pa.

The New Crew Member

My apologies........When I started this thing back whenever, I sorta told myself that I would try to post at least once or twice a week, even if it were to post a short paragraph instead of my usual novels. However, as we often do, we push certain things to the back burner and then eventually forget about them. I am going to ATTEMPT to ressurect this blog, and I am going to ATTEMPT to post at least once or twice a week as originally planned.

That being said, a new member has been hired to crew Engine Company 1102: Casey Joseph Yardumian was born on May 13, 2011 at 2:55pm.....7lbs 7ozs, 20" long. 10 fingers, 10 toes, 1 penis, everything in the correct places. Mommy and Baby CJ and the other crew members of E1102 are doing well and adjusting to the new arrival. Life in the bunkroom has been a little rough, as CJ does not sleep as well as Cody or Shane when they were Probies (they would go for 2-4 hours at a time for the first few weeks and then went all night long after 4 weeks or so......) Proby CJ will only go for 1-2 hours so far. We have hope for him yet.

That is probably the biggest event so far in the life and times of The Yardo household. I did get a new (used) vehicle.....traded in my 2004 Ford Escape for a 2008 Chevy 1500 Z71 Silverado pickup. Extended cab, 6' bed, 4WD, 5.3L (thats a 305 CID for all you old-school motorheads) and a really nice factory sound system. The only thing so far that I dislike about it is the fuel consumption- although it does have computer controlled selectable V8/V6/V4 modes, the average consumption rate is 16.2mpg (according to the computer.) The Escape would do 17-19 depending on it's mood and that was driving the hell out of it doing 80mph on Rt 309.......I am finding myself setting the cruise on the Chevy at 65-70.....And it kills me sometimes!!! LOL! Some have asked "why not a small truck???" Well, the simple answer is: The Crew. I actually did start out looking at 4-door Toyota Tacomas, however 2 booster seats and a baby seat would not fit across the back seat. So....Full size it is. Another person, who knew that I was a diehard FORD man, asked if I got hit in the head because I had purchased a GM......Answer: I didnt like the newer F-150's.....And would never buy a MoPile.....So Chevy it was.....(Actually I was looking for a GMC, but didnt find any to my liking.....ok ok ok my wallet's liking.) The Escape had to go. It had 137,000 miles on it, and was just in the beginning stages of "nickle and diming" me to death. Plus, I think the same week I traded it in, the transmission (which was replaced around 78,000) may have started to act up...not too sure, traded that bitch in fast enough NOT to find out!!!! It's someone elses problem now!!!!!!)

What else has happened???? We went to Disney at the end of September into October as a family, by ourselves, for the first time (last 2 times were with her father & stepmom, and my parents respectively.) Also this time, we flew down. What a difference!!!!! I will never drive down there again if I can help it. I mean, yes, you arrive in 2 hours as opposed to 16, but the whole spending 2 full days in travel mode just SUCKS. We planned this trip so that we would fly out of Philadelphia Intnl Airport early in the morning (I think the flight was at 7:00am....) so that we could be IN THE PARKS by lunchtime.....And it worked out perfectly! I should backtrack an mention that the Ramada Inn in Ridley Park Pa. (just outside of Philly near the airport) had a good deal: Up to 7 days parking in their secure lot, plus one night in the hotel for just a hair under $200. They provide bus service over to the airport. So we got the room for the night before departure, got up at 0330, were out of the hotel by 5:15 and over to the airport. We went right through Security (which was like a week or two before the mandatory pat-downs or the super x-ray machine...) and the flight departed on time (AirTrans.) The flight was the first airplane ride for the boys, and I was just as excited for them as they were. I was apprehensive about Shane, who I thought would be scared, however I was very surprised and amused that the Evil Kenievel in him came out- as the place accellerated, he had this low guttoral giggle.....which got louder and faster as the plane went faster. Then when the place went nose-up, he started laughing out loud, which caused me to start laughing, and then the people next to us started laughing too.

I was not too sure if they would let the boys see the cockpit in this post 9-11 world. I mean, I knew NOT while in flight, but I did ask a flight attendant if they could see it when we were on the ground, and if we stayed until everyone else was off the plane. She said she would check. A while later she came back and said that the Captain would be more than happy to greet us when everyone else was off the plane. Sure enough, he did, and not only did they get to see the cockpit, they got to go inside and sit in the co-pilot seat. Daddy was uber-jealous.

And we had a GREAT 8 days in the parks, which I must say was the PERFECT amount of time- not too long and not too short. If you ever go to Disney, plan on at least 2 days PER park.

That's about it for now. As I said, I will TRY to post!!!!