B.G. Willers

06.24.12

To Grandma’s House We Go

Well you know in my last post I’ve been talking about how it’s tiring to be off traveling so many weekends in a row.  But at the same time how it’s completely worth it?  This weekend is another great example of that. 

Andrea, Luke and I came up to Sabetha this weekend.  We carpooled with Jamie, Bryan and their family to come to Grandma Pat’s and Grandpa Wayne’s memorial. 

It was a very nice service.  Lots of people there.  I saw some people that I only recognized by name as I’d hear Grandma or Grandpa talking on the phone.  I always rememebr often both Pat & Wayne would pick up the phone at the same time when someone called, so a lot of times, when you called their house, you’d get to have a conversation with both of them at the same time.  Haha. 

There were a lot of nice touches.  I really liked on their memorial stone, how Grandpa had a horse engraved on his side, and Grandma had a little rocking horse on her side.  Grandpa always loved horses, and Grandma has SO many rocking horses that she had collected over the years.  I thought it was very fitting. 

The preacher asked if anyone has stories to share, and man I could think of a ton from when I was groing up, but I didn’t want to speak, because I knew I’d lose it and no one would be able to understand me. I remember how she worked at the rest home and would always save soup can labels that we could turn in for school.  And she always had iced tea, and this sweet 10 sweetner.  It was kinda like Sweet & Low, but it was a liquid that you would drizzle in to the drink.  I used to make the sweetest tea ever at Grandma’s house.  Grandpa also like to drink coffee down at the old “Midway” truck stop.  I remember sitting in the booth out there while the guys chattered.  Lots of great memories. 

We’ve got to spend a lot of time with Grandma & Grandpa Althouse too.  I hadn’t realized how long it’s been since I’d been back here.  The old gas stove is gone that heated the house, and now they have central air!  Some things like that have changed, but walking around, I still see so many different things that I used to play on and around, that haven’t changed all that much. It’s been good to see everyone.  Bittersweet to be sure.  We’re off to church here soon at the old place I used to go to vacation Bible school, then the long road home.

01.2.12

Holidays are over, it’s 2012.

Well I’m finishing up my last day off before getting back into the regular world.  This time of year is always crazy with all the people there are to see, so there’s just not much of a routine.  It will be nice to get back into something consistant and being able to spread out all my work over a whole week.  It just doesn’t pay to take time off because I have to do all the work either before or after I leave anyway.  But anywho.

It was a really nice holiday season as far as I can ascertain.  Doesn’t seem like as stressful as those of the past few years.  Even with Luke here, it just felt like everything kinda fell into place.  We made it out to Cimarron, Wichita, Kansas City… all in less than a month.  It kinda blew our gas budget, but we made a little extra money with side jobs to come up with the difference.  Seems like the Lord still finds ways to provide!

This last quarter of 2011 has really rekindled my excitement for gaming.  I got Zelda around Thanksgiving and the new Mario Kart for Christmas.  On top of that I got back into Guild Wars for the Wintersday, getting hundreds of holiday items that I need to consume now.  Let’s just say I’m not too worried about Death Penalty for a while!  I still need to get Super Mario 3D land, but I think that can wait while I work my way though Zelda and Mario Kart.

I’ve been having more fun with Mario Kart 7 than I’ve had with any game for a real long time.  Honestly after the Wii and GameCube versions being so similar, I really didn’t expect this to be so compelling.  But I’ve really been enjoying the new courses.. a lot.  Online mode has been pretty fun too.  There’s no communication between you and the other players, but it’s clear that you’re not just racing the computer.  Mostly because there’s so many more cheap shots in Muliplayer.  In the context of Mario Kart though that’s a good thing.  For everytime you get screwed at the finish line, there’s an equal chance that you’ll be able to screw over somebody on the next race, and really that’s what Mario Kart is all about.  Haha.  I haven’t played a whole lot of Time Trials yet… but the couple ghosts I raced were very fun.  I’m not quite ready to give a final review of the game yet, but initial impressions are very good and I’d already recommend it if you have a 3DS.

I’ve been getting into retro gaming more too.  I’d like to bolster my collection some dating back to the Super Nintendo and before.  I have the N64 pretty extensively covered, and besides a few more brand new controllers, there’s really not a whole lot else I’m looking for right now.  I want to go real old skool.  In fact at the top of my “retro list” right now is an old “Vectrex” console from the early 80’s.  I never had one.  And until a few months ago I didn’t even know one existed until I started watching some reviews from Classic Game Room on Youtube.  I think I like it because it’s so far and different from anything that is still around today.  It really hearkens back to the day when the real games were in the arcades, and if you had something at home that could approximate that experience… man you were living.

Well, happy new year.  Hope yours is a good as mine is going to be.  I’ve pretty much made up my mind it’s going to be awesome.

09.26.11

Luke’s First Trip

Well we just got back last night from Wichita.  Luke’s first real road trip.  It’s about a 2 hour drive to Wichita, and he slept (like a baby) all the way down there UNTIL we got off the interstate.  We had to pull off for a detour for road construction and he just cut loose for the last 10 minutes of the drive until we got to Andrea’s sisters’ house.

He just has no tolerance for slowing down, haha.  On the way home, Andrea was driving and I sat in the back seat next to his car seat.  He would zonk out… until we hit a red light.  He’d bawl and bawl, then once we started going again he’d calm down.  Hit another red light, same thing!  It was so funny.  Once we got on the interstate doing 70mph he was out for good.

All in all he traveled pretty well.  We had to stop once on the way back so Andrea could feed him, and after he had a full tummy, he again slept great all the way home.

It was nice to see everybody.  Always seems like so much running to see everybody when we just go back for a weekend, whether it to Wichita, or Cimarron.  But it’s always worth it.

05.11.11

How the dog and the car almost died

Well last weekend was the big camping weekend at Kanopolis Lake.  We got off early, but everyone else had headed out there first thing so we were already going to be the last to arrive.  Andrea and I got off at about 2PM and stopped by the post office to pick up the mail before we packed up and hit the road.

As soon as I got back in the car, Andrea said, “Um… its stuck.”  Sure enough the damn car was stuck in park!  And we were double screwed because we couldn’t even put it in neutral to get a tow home.  So we walk back to the house.  Luckily nothing is farther than three blocks away from anything else in Albert!  We loaded up the tools in the back of the other car and headed back to see if I could figure anything out.  I tried several things, but finally just had to unhook the shifter and craw under the car and shift the transmission by hand, which at that time caused the car to start rolling with me under it!  Luckily Andrea was quick on the brake.

Next I swallowed some pride and walked over to the local restaurant and got the owner to help push the car into the street and give us a tow home.  I told him I’ll stop by his place and rack up a big bill here soon.

So we made it home.  And since we weren’t planning on taking Andrea’s car anyway we loaded up the Toronado as planned and got the heck out of town.  Figured I’d worry about the Cutlass when we got back.

Camping was great.  It’s always awesome seeing the family and the kids, and it was especially fun haning out with my buddy Chris!  We just don’t keep in touch the way we should so it was great to spend a little time hanging out.

One of the nights though, Daisy (who loves to bark at anything that moves within 1,500 ft) took off after a truck.  Andrea had her on a leash, but the leash slipped out of her hands.  So here goes this stupid little wiener dog chasing after a big ol diesel pickup in the middle of the night with a leash flapping behind her.  She runs along side yapping and yapping, then all of a sudden we could see Daisy in the headlights of the truck.  About half a second later she appears to trip over something and the truck rolls right OVER her.  She goes right between the tires and the truck keeps on going and a bewildered wiener dog finally notices Andrea screaming at her, and in a daze, trots straight back over to the campground.  Our guess is her leash she was dragging behind her got caught under a tire and tripped her up.

But despite some unnecessary excitement it was a very excellent weekend.  We got Andrea’s car fixed that following Monday after work and Daisy is still the same as always.

11.21.10

So I missed a day…

And so it’s already tomorrow on the east coast.  I warned that the posts weren’t guaranteed to be packed with life lessons or interesting tidbits.  And even then I forgot to even pull out my phone yesterday and at least post a “Sup”.

Oh well.  The craziness continues.  Went out to SWK this weekend.  Kinda on a whim.  But it’s always nice to make the rounds.  As always just wish there was a little more time to spend with everybody.  We really only have about 20 waking hours out there on a weekend and about twice that would make the whole thing a little more laid back from my perspective.  I just always feel like I’m neglecting somebody.

So now it’s off to bed.  A super busy week with Thanksgiving coming up and everything.  Gonna have to scramble to get everything done in a short amount of time.  Yay, Holidays…

08.16.10

Camping at Kanopolis

Took the weekend to go camping for the first time this year.  It was just Daisy and me.  Andrea was down in Wichita doing some much needed wardrobe shopping.  It was nice to get away for a while.  It’s nice to be away from the world once in a while and alone in my thoughts.  While I’m not a very social person, there’s times when you’re out camping by yourself and about three hours go by and you realized you haven’t said a single word out loud, you feel the need to just start talking, just to say something.  I ended up recording a few videos into the camera for no reason.  I read a lot of my book, and otherwise just did a lot of thinkin’.

Kanopolis seems like a nice enough lake.  I didn’t really stay near the water, I didn’t have a fishing license anyway.  But I sure could have.  There weren’t that many people camping there at all.  Pretty much had my run of the place.  And best of all.  It was quiet and peaceful!  Here’s a few pics of the outing.

03.3.10

Yup, I guess it’s official. I’m an old man.

For those unfamiliar with the Dropkick Murphy’s, here’s a video of their latest song:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-64CaD8GXw]

We went to Kansas City over the weekend with Andrea’s sister Trina and her husband Jason.   Had a good time roaming around, but the main reason we went up there was to see the band.  It was at the Beaumont Club which was basically just a giant room with a dancefloor, a bar, and a stage.  We showed up shortly before the first band went on.  I was optimistic about the experience because while there were quite a few people there you still had room to move around a bit.

The first band was Larry and His Flask.  To be honest I think I enjoyed them even more than Dropkick.  Maybe it was the crazy dude jumping around stage with the bass violin, or just the fact that we hadn’t been smothered by people yet.  But either way I thought their music was very different and cool.  The second band was just a bunch of screaming.  And by the time the Murphy’s took the stage it was so packed in there I was sticking my head up, not so much as to see the band, as I was to get a gulp of fresh air.

Don’t get me wrong, it was still a good time and I’m very glad we went.  But given the choice I’d actually prefer experiencing my live music in a place where I can sit down, listen to the band, and perhaps even enjoy a cool beverage.  And this I why I say, apparently I’m already a grumpy old man.

12.23.09

Let the travels commence!

Well tis the season to hit the road and visit all the family.  Andrea’s been down to Wichita the past two weekends while I had to work.  But either tomorrow night or Friday morning we’re both heading to Cimarron to make the rounds.

It all depends on the weather.  First they were calling for a Blizzard Watch, then cancelled the Blizzard Watch, then this morning they re-instated it.  Doesn’t sound like we’re going to get a lot of snow, but the wind will be the problem.  It sounds like it’s going to all be wrapping up Thursday evening, so if the roads are fairly clear we’re going to make a break for it.  If we can get out there, the trip back should be a piece of cake!

Got all my Christmas shopping done except for one person.  And that Christmas isn’t until January, so I’ve still got time!

Merry Christmas, everybody!

09.30.09

To da Nort der, doon cha no?

Well this past weekend Andrea and I went to the Twin Cities, primarily to watch my team (the Vikings) play the (49ers).  I was telling Andrea that I’m glad I have her around, because trips like this I would never convince myself to go on because it’s:  too far, no time, expensive, or whatever until I talked myself out of it.  Luckily she just orders tickets and says, “We’re going.  Too late!”  ha ha  It really was a blast… and an adventure.

I don’t have any vacation time built up at work yet, so we had to take the trip in as few days as possible.  I would loved to have been able to fly, but that wasn’t really in the budget and would just be a lot to spend on a football game considering the already healthy chunk of change for the tickets.  So we decided to drive.  When we went to Branson we rented a car because we didn’t really trust either of ours for super long hauls.  But this time I figured, for the price of a rental car, we could get Andrea’s exhaust replaced and take her car, and rather than just throwing that money away on a one time use deal, we’d spend it on something that would actually last a few years.  So the decision was made.  We were taking her car.

Grandpa Wayne has been doing pretty bad with his emphysema and he probably doesn’t have much time left, so we detoured about an hour to go through Sabetha, KS to see Grandma and Grandpa for a short while.  I like driving through that area of the country.  Rolling hills and old barns make up the horizon, lots of old farm machinery parked here or there.  Some of it still gets used, some of it has been just sitting for sale for years by the farmer who’s waiting for the right offer.  There’s just something really rustic about the scenery and time’s erosion seems to work a little slower around those parts.

I was working late running the Great Bend HS football game until after midnight, so Andrea was sweet enough to drive the first leg to Sabetha.  We hung out with Grandma and Grandpa for a while.  Grandma has made so much progress since basically having a stroke over a year ago.  Sadly Grandpa has gone the other direction.  He was doing well enough to recognize us and recognize what we were talking about, but he kept drifting in and out.  Like you’re talking to someone who’s half a sleep.  It’s painful to watch someone who knows they are dying and it’s something I don’t have a lot of experience with.  As I think over it, I hope to write more about it as I can make sense of my thoughts.  For now, all I really know is that I for one hope my own death is swift.

From there we headed to St. Joesph, Missouri.  I don’t think I’ve been to St. Joe since Mom lived there a few years back.  It was very unique period of my life where EVERYTHING was changing.  Mom and Dad were recently divorced and I was finishing high school getting ready to start the whole college thing.  It was almost like a waterfall of experiences between what I was… and what I am.  Just thinking about St. Joe brings back a flood of memories all at once that you have to stop and sort them out.  The feelings were so jumbled at the time that the images pop in my head so randomly.  I can remember so many seemingly insignificant things, but it’s hard to put it together in such linear was as I can so many other memories.  I remember such insignificant things like using white bandage tape to hide the wires for Mom and Duane’s surround sound against their white walls, and I remember thinking that Duane’s 120MB SuperDisk drive was THE BOMB!  It’s like I remember tons of little pieces, but they don’t really fit together to form a greater picture.

Wow, this post has taken a bigger detour than I expected.  Okay, back to Minnesota.  The one thing we did do at St. Joe was switch drivers.  I took over and we turned north towards Iowa.  I did most of the driving through Iowa and was pretty white knuckled through Des Moines traffic.  I couldn’t handle that kind of stuff every day.

I had just gone to the eye doctor and got a new perscription, still waiting for my glasses to come in, but I got some contacts for the first time in probably at least 10 years.  Not going to wear them all the time, just for things it would be nice to ditch the glasses.  But the doc gave me some free ones and said to wear them for a few days and see how they feel.  They feel just like they used too.  Dry and sticky and a PITA to put in and take out.  I got a 30 pack that will probably last me a year once my specs come in.

We ended up making pretty good time we rolled in just shortly after 9:00 PM.  Our hotel was easy to find and right near the Mall of America.  After a marathon drive like that it was nice to FINALLY reach our destination!

We didn’t do a whole lot Saturday night.  We went to the MOA breifly before they closed so I could get a Vikings shirt for the game, but for a store that sells ONLY Vikings stuff, I was really disappointed with the selection.  None of the shirts tickled my fancy and most of them were around $30.  I found a polo shirt I really liked, but it was $75 freakin’ dollars!  I found a nice pair of pajama pants though, which I’ve been wanting for years!  We ended up just going to Wal-Mart down the road, and I found a t-shirt I really liked for $12.  I guess I’m just a cheap bastard.

After the shopping we headed back to the hotel.  We were hungry and there was an Outback Steakhouse in the hotel, so we decided that will work.  I ate WAY too much and probably drank WAY too much too. They were having a special on Sam Adam’s Oktoberfest beer.  Two for one.  I guess I thought that just meant half price, but nope, they brought me two mugs!  Ha ha.

So I fell asleep with a stomach ache thanks to the obnoxious quantity of food in my belly.  And when we woke up, it was time to get rolling and ready for the game!  Tail gating would have been fun, but there’s not a lot of parking around the Metrodome, and traffic wouldn’t be much fun either.  We decided to take the “Light Rail” from the Mall of America up to the Metrodome.  The whole trip was probably 30-45 minutes on a train packed with Vikings fans.  I’d say it’s a lot like a subway ride, only not under ground… but I’ve never ridden the subway so I can’t say.  It was a little uncomfortable with so many people packed in, but all in all it was probably be best way to go.

It was really cool walking up to the Metrodome.  Here in Kansas you don’t see too many things that are THAT big.  I love that gameday atmosphere, where everybody is pumped up for the game.  Andrea was worried she’d be the only 49ers fan, but there were plenty of them around that she didn’t draw too much attention to herself.  hehe

Our seats weren’t too bad.  We were in the corner of the endzone in the upper deck.  We weren’t close enough see the whites of their eyes, but we had a great view of the action.

The game itself was amazing.  Both teams were undefeated coming into the game, and both teams really fought hard the whole game.  It was just a great game to watch, and we couldn’t have picked a better one to go see in person.  The San Fransico 49ers scored what looked like a game winning touch down with less than 2 minutes left in the game.  A field goal wouldn’t be enough to tie, so the Vikings needed a touchdown in 90 seconds to win.  Somehow Farve lead them down the field, and with TWO seconds to go, Farve through an amazing pass and Greg Lewis made an even MORE amazing catch.  And after that it was over!

You just have to see it.  To me it was all a blur, but the one thing I remember was the sound of the crowd.  Listen to the roar when he makes the catch in the video below.  It was an amazing moment to be a part of.  I wanted to jump and hug Andrea…. but she’d have none of it.  I’m sure in her mind they had already won the game and she was celebrating, only to have it abruptly ripped away.  Couldn’t have been fun.  Ha ha!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLyddRYxBhQ]

After that we were really beat.  We road the train back to the MOA and did some shopping.  By the time we got back to the room at about 8:00 I was content to just kick back on the bed and watch the Sunday Night football game on some fuzzy cable TV.

The next morning we slept in and decided to take a short detour on the way home.  We’d been there once before but it was more just driving through.  This time we decided to stop and check out Wabasha, Minnesota.  A somewhat famous little town.

Last time we were hear was years ago when we had just gotten together.  We stopped by Slippery’s tavern but they were closed and we didn’t really have any extra money anyway.  THIS time they were open and we just HAD to try it out.  Now this isn’t exactly what you see in the movie.  There is a bar named Slippery’s in Wabasha, and it was there BEFORE the movie, but what you see in the movie isn’t the real Slippery’s.  Which shouldn’t be a suprise to the keen observer (or those who have just watched the movie way too many times), because the Slippery’s in the first movie doesn’t even look anything like Slippery’s in the second movie.  So visually there’s not a whole lot in common.  But it was still a cool place to check out.

After that it was on with the long trek home.  Which got even longer at around 11:00 at night.  Andrea had run over something on the way to Kansas City.  Neither one of us saw what it was so who knows what it could have been, but when we stopped for gas, Andrea noticed the right rear tire was really low.  We tried to air it back up, but it was losing air too fast.  So we dug her jack and spare out, and while jacking the car up, the jack stripped out and broke!  So we had to limp to the nearest Wal-Mart and buy a new jack, then change the tire in the parking  lot, and drive all the way home at 50 mph on an 18 year old spare tire!  Come 4:30 AM we FINALLY pulled in the driveway.  I got a couple hours of shut eye, then I headed back to work.  Vacation over.

So despite the flat tire it was a really great trip, and I’m glad Andrea made the plans to go!

09.7.09

Scenes from the Labor Day weekend.

Well Andrea and I hadn’t been back to Cimarron since April of this year.  Which is really kinda sad since we’re only two hours away.  We really have to do better.  But we took the three day weekend and made the rounds to see everybody.  Had a great time!  I don’t know about Andrea but I know I ate WAY too much the whole time.  But it was awesome to see everybody and I even got Dad to weld up Andrea’s fuse block bracket for her car.  I really gotta get him to teach me how to weld.

But here’s a few highlights of the trip.  Check out my Picasa Gallery for a ton more pictures!

It was a blast.  Should have got some pictures of the ribs from Mom and Duane’s.  MAN those were tasty.  I got about a half slab in my fridge, just waiting for tomorrow night!

Thanks to everybody that was there.  It was an awesome time!  And we’ll be back sooner next time.

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