It's cold and it's getting colder
Gray and white...Winter all around
And Oh, I must be getting older
Cause all this snow is tryin to get me down
There's a fire in the corner slowly dying...away
Sometimes I just don't feel like goin' on
And yet I know it's more than worth the waitin'
For another chance to see the summer sun.....
come on shine on me
words & Music by John Denver, Mike Taylor and Dick Kniss
from Rocky Mountain High (1972)
Alrighty Then,
So now Christmas and the New Year have come and gone.
We made it through the Y2K period with only one minor incident.
At exactly midnight the cable went off!
No watching the ball drop in Times Square for us!!
We were outside setting off those fireworks Tim had bought after the Fourth on sale. It was pretty cool, except the smoke hung in the air too long so we quit early for fear the fire department would show up!
Danny slept through it, but much to my relief he got his mist treatment at midnight without any problems.
If the dooms-dayers would have been right, we would have been packing the bag for Riley ER because I had no backup system for treatments and we all know how much he needs them right on time!!
So at Christmas I gave in and bought Summer the Pokemon cards because she had wanted a GameBoy and there was NONE to be found on the East side of Indy!
The way I heard it is that the distribution center was caught in a hurricane and burned down...GameBoys and all.
So we promised her one just as soon as they were back on the shelves!
She got a Kodak Advantax camera instead which she loves!
Although she'd like a digital camera more, she'll settle on waiting until the pics are developed and put up on Kodak Photonet and download them.
My dad sent them enough money so that Summer could get one of those Sony personal CD players (like a walkman, but for CDs) which she's always wanted, and Danny got the Tonka Mighty Backhoe and we all know how much he loves those digging trucks!�
I think Danny's favorite Christmas present was the Tonka remote control jeep.
It has a steering wheel that you turn instead of the regular remote.
He has a tendency to break the little lever thingys on remotes, so you can bet we looked long and hard to find a remote vehicle that was "Danny Proof" and I do believe this one fits the bill!
It's still going strong with all it's wheels and parts AND the same batteries that 'Santa' got for it I might add!
Now the kids are back to the old school grind.
Summer is waiting impatiently to find out what class she'll have instead of gym.
Tim and I are waiting impatiently to find out what her report card will say.
Her science fair project will be involving testing water for certain elements.
Now I find that pretty ironic in light of the recent situation with the White River!
Boy wouldn't that be something if the kids at school figured out what the problem is!
Danny has begun Special Olympic ice skating practice.
We bought him his own helmet this year...a black "Dayle Earnhardt" one instead of using sissy's old Barbie pink bicycle one like last year!�
Emmett Lee has gotten back in touch with Summer through the email.
When he initially called I naturally freaked out, after not hearing from him since the kids were 3 and 4...
but told him he could email Summer, since no matter what fears or angers or reservations I may have, I have no right to deny her knowing her father.
So far I'd say it's gone really well and once again I'm thanking God for modern technology!
I just have no remote idea of how I would explain this situation to Danny.
I thought of getting out old pictures and saying "This is the man that used to be your Daddy, and when he went away Tim was your new Daddy"...
But that might give him the impression that Daddy's are like nurses or teachers that are around for a few years and then you get a new one!
So I just haven't told him anything...
Oh well, I'm sure I'll figure out something if the need arises!
Tim just bought me a new sound card for the computer.
It isn't installed yet and I'm hoping the little old 166mhz can handle it!
Then maybe I can do the telephone thing with cousin Terry!
A new computer would be fun, but the price isn't!
This is the one The Children's Wish Foundation got for Danny two years ago.
He still has alot of fun on it with all his Tonka software and especially looking at all the photos we scan and make into photo albums (maybe they are more like slide shows) for him...
(he can't tear them, but he can accidentally cut them up with the photo editing tools!) Maybe a CD ROM writer would help that situation?! :-)
Summer's new hobby is collecting MP3 files and playing them!
I find it rather interesting.
It's like when I was a kid and we bought 45's.
Collecting one song at a time!
Well, that's the end of my rambling newsletter update!
The kitchen table is covered with photos that I'm sorting for my web page.
The years 1986 & 1987 are a real unorganized UNLABELED jumble!
Soon as I get them figured out, I'll scan them and finish my page!
Well, the sound card upgrade didn't work.
In fact for a day I couldn't even boot the computer up.
It may have been a problem with the card itself, because it had been opened and returned when we bought it, although Best Buy assured us it was ok...
Something definitely was not OK!!
So Tim returned it and we decided after finding out that the sound card and the graphics card are connected to the Motherboard,
that we would get an envelope out and put money into it every week
(which is how we saved enough money to buy our big pool last year!)
until the next computer show comes around and Gary,
my guru...(seen in this picture)
would help us to piece a kick-ass new computer together
leaving Danny's "Wish" computer intact,
but back to the original setup he got it with!
It works fine for Tonka and Toy Story!
But I will take the new memory card and extra hard drive and SCSI port out to use for the new one!
The boxes at the back of the table are finished and perfectly in order
(as long as I don't find out Summer got into them and rearranged them!!)
because those are the dated ones from the camera...
The ones spread all over the table have no information on them so I have to guess by how long Summer's hair is or what bed Danny was in!
