Tag: photos

Hard to believe that he’s been gone 19 years this November.  Sad thing is I do not even remember the last Father’s Day that I had with him.  I am sure that beyond a hastily chosen card I did nothing for him.  But then I think remembering a passed father is not about every holiday that you spent with him.  It is about all the times that you remember so vividly that you can describe in every detail.

For example I can remember riding home with him one night from a Boy Scout meeting.  It was about 8:30 on a summer evening and Dad was listening to the 8-track player in his Black Chrysler New Yorker.  “My Way” by Frank Sinatra was playing and we were passing the corner of 5th Ave & 11st St at what was then the “First National Bank of Huntington” building.  We had the windows down and I was enjoying the cruise through town.

Why do I remember that so vividly?  What was so special about that moment that it was seared in my memory?  It was when Dad introduced me yet again to the music of Frank Sinatra but I actually paid attention that time.  I remember thinking that this is not too bad, maybe all Dad’s music is not awful.  Today when I listen to my Frank Sinatra music I think of Dad every time.

It is not always huge events, Holidays, or all the times that you think you should remember that end up being important to you when a parent passes.  It is all the little times that you spent with them that mean nothing right then but yet live with you so vividly forever for one reason or another.

Happy Father’s Day Dad

Greetings and Salutations Faithful Stapleton Blog Readers

Well I have let the blog go a little stale again. I guess I don’t really feel like it since I twitter everyday. But I digress.

It has been a fairly uneventful couple of weeks here at Stapleton HQ. Petey is recovering well from his procedure; he is off all of his drugs and we believe his hearing is back to normal.

Jess continues to receive therapy and treatment from the wreck. June 2nd marks 20 weeks and her recovery is progressing. There are good days and bad days, that is just about the best way I can put it. She is making progress everyday. Her attitude remains good for the most part, but bringing your life to a screeching halt for 20 weeks is hard for anyone to take. She has been a trooper, but as you can expect there is frustration, irritation, & uncertainty that she deals with everyday. I think the next big step to her recovery is getting back into the job market. She sent out her first stack of resumes on Friday and she has already received several hits. Please continue to keep her in your prayers; we still have a long road to travel to get back to”normal”. (That’s a loaded term in this family)

I have spent the last couple of weeks catching up on customer visit’s and paperwork. I took a long Memorial Day weekend and did not touch a laptop, Blackberry, or a single piece of work. It fell good but I really could have used a longer break. (I am thinking sun, sand, waves, & my cell phone floating in the surf.) Jess and I went to go see the new Indiana Jones movie, which was the low point of my weekend; I was really disappointed with it. As a special treat for my long 4 day weekend I went out and got Poison Ivy. I am on the down hill slope but it was a bad case. Hopefully it will be cleared up by the end of the week.

After a lengthy search for the Poison Ivy that infected me; I located it under the ugly, rotten, red deck that I never have taken off the back of the house. It appears that I was infected while weed eating and I threw the Poison Ivy all over my shins at a high velocity for a really nice splatter effect. This was all the excuse I needed to exact my revenge on the Poison Ivy and the deck in one act of pure unmitigated vengeance. (That sounded particularly evil, go ahead and picture me stroking Phoebe with an evil laugh)

This culminated last Saturday with the use of multiple power tools, hand tools, trash trucks, and a trip to the dump! It does not get much better than that. My original plan was to take the deck off with a chain saw last Friday evening. So I borrowed one of my father in laws trucks (yes he has 3) and his chain saw. Resistance by the deck was intense. It appears that the wood was petrified. All the chain saw did was smoke when it hit the wood. So I called for backup and Rick came down and give me a hand. So we spent Saturday morning tearing the deck off the house and killing the Poison Ivy. It was a fun exercise; demolition is always better than construction.

The entire NuVentures fleet on maneuvers.

Ugly Deck I have you now!

Crap what do I do with the space now?

I am leaning towards a screened in patio with a concrete floor. If anyone has any better ideas for the space please feel free to submit them.

Just don’t dream too big we have to be careful how much money we spend on the house. Recently we had another appraisal on the house for the re-finance/completion of our home loan. (dropped the rate 120 basis points YES!) The house came in right where we wanted it that is both a good and bad thing. It’s good because when we re-finished the house before we moved in and completed the basement we got all that money back in the increased appraisal. The bad news it that the appraisal put us in the higher end for our block and comparables. So anything else we do big dollar to the house we most likely won’t recoup in resale. So as far as I am concerned the house is done for big dollar stuff. The house still has a lot of flexibility left in it so I am not too concerned.

Well that’s just about it from Stapleton HQ. I am looking forward to the family reunion this weekend. Hopefully Jess can handle the car ride to Ripley and we can enjoy sometime visiting with everyone.

Everyone take care that’s the news I am outta here!

Greetings & Salutations Faithful Stapleton Blog Readers!

Just wanted to give everyone a quick update on Petey’s procedure just in case you don’t follow my twitters. Petey is doing very well although he is still drugged out of his mind.

Petey has been having several ear infections of late and the vet thought it would be best to clean out out both his middle ear areas. So Jess took Petey in this morning for the procedure and a teeth cleaning (might as well make the most of him being put under). After the teeth cleaning the vet did an Endoscopic procedure on Petey’s ears.

It turns out that the infection inside the ear was so bad that both ear drums had to be ruptured for a complete cleaning. It will take about a week for Petey’s ears to heal and during that time he will only hear very muffled sounds. However on the bright side he did receive a clean bill health and is expected to make a full recovery.

Ruptured right ear after the cleaning

Ruptured left ear after the cleaning

There was so much pressure in his left ear that once the incision was made it basically “blew out”. The incision made by the vet was only about 1/4 the size of the hole you see in the picture.

Petey on drugs

I swear to you this is not a photo shop. We believe that so far he has chaired several meetings with the Care Bears and it looks like a busy night ahead.

Hello this is Petey. I am writing my first blog post. Typing is not easy without opposable thumbs so bear with me.

Please see Exhibit A below.

Do you notice the bandage on my left front paw? Do I look happy about it? Well that bandage was not there until mom & dad tried to clip my nails tonight. You see mom holds me while dad clips and I pretend like I am in mortal danger. Which tonight seemed to be true. While I was struggling I moved my paw and dad clipped a nail too close and I started to bleed. I don’t do blood, I just do eating, sleeping, & being cute in that order as stated in my contract. Dad stopped the bleeding and then I started my pitiful and abused act.

You see I am in too much pain and won’t even touch my bone. They must fetch me the soft chewy treats.

Then I couldn’t keep my act up too much longer when I discovered the self stick wrap made a great bone grip.

Then all was well.

If you were keeping up with my Twitters this week you would know that I won and the insurance company finally totaled Jess’s Camry. They were up to $11,000 in new damage and counting. We received a fair settlement on the car and with our rental coverage running out we had to move fast. So I loaded Jess up on enough pain medicine to get her through car shopping the last few days. (hey I didn’t own the cars yet) After driving 4 other vehicles she went back to the Camry the car that originally saved her life. As with our other two Toyota’s we went back to Fannin Motors in Russell, KY. Our treatment was first class as always and the price was fair I would shop nowhere else for a Toyota. If you see a little Red bullet with the sun roof open wave; it might just be my wife.