Sick News

Madeline was deathly ill the first week of school. She went for two days then was home for three days. I haven't seen her sicker. Terra was sick last week. She thought it was the flu, turned out to be strep throat.

Now, when you go to the hospital with flu-like symptoms you are going to get a surgical mask handed to you. I thought it was a trip. Like MJ out on a trip in the town, the girls gets to wear a surgical mask to not infect us others.

Trains

"Choo-choo." Misty found out about a reading session at one of the book stores. I've got one thing that I think a book store would be able to give to the reader of the book, and that would be a book, right? But evidently, the book store didn't have the book, the lady was reading from a photocopy of the book. A photocopy?! What the heck, man.

So Jack listens to the story for a little bit, screams out "truck" every chance he can, then goes off to find a train set in the store and falls in love. Little did Jack know we have a storage box filled with trains. I got it out that afternoon after Misty told me his joy over the trains. It's setup now in the TV room. Jack loves it.

So do the girls. They are all over it, the train set is everything that they wanted and didn't get in . . . wait, uh, I think they have everything they wanted. I remember with Terra, my biggest trap was setting up the train track so it was too complex. Now the girls are ready to setup the complex mazes that are possible with the tracks, but Jack gets overwhelmed and the trains get frustrating for him when he can't make a 270 degree right turn on a Y shaped track.

Alea is over and has put together a nice track with bridges, circle's, curves, and all the goot stuff. Jack is ramming his train head on to her train.

No Shirt, No Shoes . . . fun

Jack's new thing is no shirt. He doesn't like to have a shirt on, especially when he is outside. I think this is a phase every boy goes through. This is how the no shirt rule started out; he got something from the ice cream man, it melted and created a mess all over himself. When it's all over the boy, then the shirt needs to come off, and the next thing you know he's trying taking his clean shirts off that we just put over his head three minutes ago before going outside.

Truck Fixed

Truck finally fixed. It wasn't the catalytic converter, thank heavens. I tried to remove the catalytic converter just to see if that was a problem, but the bolts are rusted on there so bad, it was going to have to come off the hard way.

Travis brought his OBD, connected to the truck's computer. I'm not sure that's what lead to the fix though, it though the neutral safety was an issue. Real problem turned out to be the fan clutch. Bought a new one and replaced the old busted on this afternoon.

Jack's words

Jack's day care teacher at the hospital told Misty, "I love how he says Truck, and what."

Jack's filled with words now. He's bursting with them. It's so hilarious to listen. He's always been the strong, silent type, but now he jibber jabbers like nobody's business.
"I want down."
"Don't want down."
"Mamma's jack"
Both his sisters' names
"No." one of his favorite's
"Apple"

There's a ton more. The really funny part is he will just jack jabber for ever and is very serious about what he's saying. I know this because I can play respond in different ways and it's obvious from his reaction that I completely missed the topic.

"Yeah, Jack, the truck is white." Jack replies, "Jibber jabber,jibba jabba...." and goes a mile a minute.

"Yeah, Jack. Red is my favorite color when the maple's are turning, too." Jack's response, " . . . "

But his teacher's favorite words are my favorite words. We are going to get a video of it. Jack says "truck" with his mouth contorted on one side. And he says "what?" with the best emphasis, like, "I'm busy, what do you need?!"

Clean Truck

The truck had a few mouses [sic] that made a comfortable home in it for a little while. Not the funnest thing in the world to smell, it's not like it has a great bouquet or anything. And believe me, it's hard to think of Mickey Mouse or Jerry while vacuuming mouse turds with a shop-vac.



Now, the truck is relatively clean. My allergies are like a punch in the face right now so I can't smell a whole lot, but I can say, it smells a lot better than before. Nothing a little bleach can't help.

Then the engine started acting up. It loses all power after 2000 RPM, so if you're behind a '88 Ford truck in Kansas, don't expect to pick up speed very fast or go over 55mph. I called Travis, he thought, given the history, this was a problem in the air box with a mouse nest. Sure enough, that was a problem. The breather filter needed replaced. Still didn't fix the problem.


Called Travis, "Try the fuel filter." Replaced the fuel filter, which needed to be replaced, still no go. Now we (aka Travis) thinks the issue is with the catalytic converter. That's past my skill. I can't even see how to get in there.


Also, look at this bandsaw, it's from Atlas (built in USA!). I got some arn (see Old Wood Working Machines). I'm trying to figure out the date it was made based on the serial number, I'm guessing the 1960's. This thing has no plastic, no aluminum just iron (arn).

Gerbils

A little bit of background story here for everyone at home. Terra and Madeline begged for gerbils, Terra a lot more than Madeline. Finally, after literally an entire weekend of begging, Mom and I caved in to the request. Actually they wanted dwarf hamsters but after a few hours of searching on the Internet, I found the pet qualities of a gerbil to be greater than those of a hamster. I nixed the dwarf hamster request. However, gerbils are not as popular with the laymen out there and it's not easy to find them at pet stores, at least compared to rats, guinea pigs, mice, or hamsters.

The girls got some money from Grancy and Big Daddy for their birthdays and while Grancy visited we went to a few pet stores to find gerbils. The first didn't have gerbils and Terra was devastated. While we were driving away from the store back home to regroup, she convinced herself that I wouldn't take her to any more stores and she wouldn't get a gerbil, and she sobbed. Madeline sobbed, too, but it sounded so half-hearted. I asked, "Madeline, are you crying." She pulled her hands down from her face -- no tears. She laughed. "No, but I'm just trying to fit in back here." Grancy and I could barely hide our laughing.

We found a pair, finally, and got them. I built a cage for them and the girls love putting scrap pieces of wood for them to play. They quickly became proficient at getting out. I put some netting, the kind to cover a screen door, over the top and weighted it down, I meant to get some more wood and build a second tier to the cage this weekend with the girls. It was going to be slick. Mitred edges, panels using plywood, then the second tier would clip on to the first level of the cage. I wanted to get those suckers out of the garage and downstairs so the girls would tend to them better. However, the gerbils gnawed their way out of the screen netting that easily secured them for the last week. To make matters worse, they did this while the garage door was open.

I found one of them under the compartment in the deep freeze that houses the motor. He usually hides there. The other one though . . . gone. Probably out the garage door and hiding in some bushes. Maybe we'll find him, I doubt it.

The girls are taking it well. According to them, it is Madeline's that made the great escape.