Monster Truck

There really are monsters out there, and this is Benji’s and Trey Davey’s favorite. It is usually parked about a mile from our house at a car lot on the northwest corner of 20^th and Triplett Streets. This is along a common route we take to the city’s east side, and every time we head in that direction the boys want to go see the Monster Truck. Recently, the truck was moved across the street and parked on top of a small Japanese car to attract attention to a new business on that busy street. The boys went crazy when they first saw it and wanted to go see it. The highly modified Ford pickup is actually a publicity tool for the Daviess County Sherriff’s Department to illustrate their efforts to crush local Meth labs. All the boys understand is the big green machine is cool.

Benji’s Slide

I love this slide. All I can think about as I slip quickly through its cylinder is how mature it makes me feel. The folks wouldn’t even let Davey and me play on this equipment the first time we visited this park. Instead, we had to play on the preschool structure. That’s a fine unit, but way to elementary for my skills. I wanted to climb on the big boy unit designed for kids 5 to 12 years old. They let me try it on our next visit, and I immediately climbed up into the lower clubhouse, then up a ladder to the upper clubhouse. Daddy helped me the first time while Mommy worried. Once I slid down the two-story slide that first time I owned it. It was mine. And from then on, I wanted to do it again and again, all by myself.

The Legacy House

Downtown multi-family housing units are commonly grand old homes that have been subdivided into apartments. What caught Pa and Granny’s eye about this home in 1970 was that it was solidly designed as a 4-plex money-maker. It is located on a quaint little street one block from Brescia University. Great Grandmother Embry bought it from them in 1980, and she lived in one unit and rented the other three units to provide her with retirement income. For 25 years, we visited her here every few weeks. When her mother died in 2005, Granny inherited the house back into her possession. The boys and I visited the grands here today to see the many improvements they’ve made over the last few years. As solidly as this nearly 100 year old house is built, it may be providing retirement income for the boys many years from now.

Air Hockey Dave

We went to a birthday party recently at a place called U-Bounce where they had this funny looking game. I watched some of the older boys play it, and then gave it a try myself. It is called air hockey. Air is blown through little holes in the top of this table, and that makes this little red disc float, which is kind of fun to watch. I pushed it around with my finger, and it slid all over the table. Another boy showed me how to hit the disc with this short plastic bat and make it go fast around the table. That was fun except when it slipped under the table top seam and into a shelf below. That was really annoying. Someone should repair that slot in the table so the disc won’t slip inside.

Little Engineers

As the temperatures outside have risen, we have begun to dip more and more into the t-shirt and shorts drawer. There we have found a number of new clothing articles that are now large enough to wear. Among our new threads are these train engineer t-shirts. Mommy bought them for us last summer at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. She bought them one size too big so the shirts would fit us this summer. We opened them at Christmas, but forgot about them. Today we were able to wear them for the first time. To complete the ensemble, we donned our Chattanooga Choo Choo engineer’s caps and played with our trains all morning.

Happy Birthday Mommy

I first met Sandy in person the weekend before her birthday. Counting that first one, this is the eighth birthday she’s shared with me. While The Olive Garden has become our favorite choice for birthday celebrations, each has been different and its own unique blessing. My parents joined us beginning the second year and for every year afterward. I’m not sure Sandy fully envisioned four of her birthdays ago when we started down the parental path how precious the sound would be of her twin boys singing “Happy Birthday” to her, but tonight she enjoyed their serenade. By looking at her smile you can tell Sandy loves celebrating her special day with her local family.

Twins on Tandem

This bicycle-built-for-two has been in Great Uncle Gene Ray’s family for nearly half a century. The newspaper featured a photo of Great Aunt Peaches and him riding it back in 1974. Cousins Marc and Logan rode it over to our house today to say hello. Sometimes called a twin, the technical term for this type of bicycle is a tandem, which refers to the seating arrangement (fore to aft, not side-by-side), not the number of riders. A bike with two riders seated side-by-side is called a sociable. Marc says the tandem is easier to maneuver city streets than two separate bikes riding side by side and easier for the riders to talk than two bikes riding front to back. Our twins can’t quite reach the pedals yet, but maybe we’ll find a tandem of our own by the time they can.