I haz a BICYCLE!

As mentioned in the past, I've been getting into this bicycle commuting thing. Also mentioned in a previous post was the spill I took when I was just starting out. My beloved 24-year-old Nishiki Olympic 12 has never been the same.

I know Nishiki is just another brand, but I've had this bike so long, I've kind of developed a fondness for Nishiki bicycles. Sadly, they stopped producing them in 2001.

However, my friend that owns a bike shop let me know of a mutual friend that mentioned she had a bike for sale. I check it out today; it turned out to be a Nishiki XRS Sport Hybrid.

And it gets better: It is brand new! It still had the price tag and the little tire nubbies! She wanted $100 for it, and I handed it over quickly (original price tag was $379).



She said when her daughter-in-law's father died, they found the bike in his garage. Apparently he was the type that picked up a bargain when he found one, whether he needed the item or not. This particular bike had been marked down to $240. So he bought it and apparently never rode it.

Thank you, sir. I will treat your bike well.

And for those of you who think...

...my sons, nieces and nephews are "little angels" based on the pics in the last post, well, you're sadly mistaken.

Graduation Party!!!

So the reason we had to be up to New York by Sunday is that Mrs. Doohickie's niece, Shay, had her graduation party that day. She moved it to that date so we could be there.

Here's Shay in the middle of it all. I told her I'd have to retake the picture because she had "something on her shoulder."


It was a good turnout. And perfect weather too. It's a good thing they got tents though; the shade was welcome.


Here's Shay's dad manning the grill and fending off the hungry wolves:


Lots of fun in the sun too, for kids of all ages:




Shay and her cousin Cove:


Various relatives catching up on things. That's Mrs. Doohickie in front in the white shirt, talking to Uncle Herb and Aunt Liz. If you've been following my blog a while, you've met Uncle Herb before.




And now Uncle Derrick performs the ceremonial dunking of the new grad:






At the end of the night we took some family pics. That's me in front wearing the plaid shirt.


A pic of Mrs. Doohickie (white shirt, standing), along with her brother and sister (who is Shay's mom) and mom and dad.


All the grandkids.


The older grandkids- my two sons and Shay.

Vacation 08

We drove on our vacation in July. The posts I made earlier about vacation were about the second part, when we spent time in Buffalo with my family. The first half, though, was spent with Mrs. Doohickie's family in Albany, NY.

The route we took was from Fort Worth to Albany going through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, a little bit of Georgia, then swinging north through Tennessee, Virginia, West-Virginia-and-Maryland (cutting across both states in about a half hour), Pennsylvania and on into New York State. A few scenes from along the way. This was a random church tower you could see from the highway.


We made a left just before Atlanta and swung north. Which is good, cuz I HATE driving in Atlanta.


I think the rolling hills of the Appalachian Mountains are just beautiful. The Rockies are awe-inspiring, but the Appalachians are gorgeous.


Somehow, when you arrive at a Motel 6 and the police are trying to get a domestic dispute between guests settled, you notice signs like this more.

Another driver on the road

Someday I'll go back and post some of the pics from the vacation we took in July. Until then, you'll have to just read what's going on now. Our youngest son got his license a couple weeks ago and we picked up another car so he has one to drive. We got a Mercury Tracer which is pretty much a Ford Escort with power windows. For a ten year old car it has low miles- only 85,000.

On another front, a new school year starts tomorrow for Mrs. Doohickie. She's pretty geeked up about it. For our son, the school year starts on Tuesday (different school district). He's a senior, so after this we won't have any little Doohickies in the public school system.

Goodbye, Grandma

Grandma is gone. We got a call from my sister-in-law this morning and found out Gram passed away. After we got back from vacation, we found out she was back in the hospital and that her vital signs were dropping. We then learned that on Monday, she had a heart attack, and they found bladder cancer. So... it was time. 90 years is a good run, but I'm gonna miss her.

Since we just took a two-week vacation and I'm behind on a lot of stuff at work, I don't think I'll be able to get up to Buffalo for the funeral, but we'll see.