(Father's Day) Weekend Cook Outs, Oh' Deer!, and Summer Officially Begins

I just looked at the Radar(9AM) and a large RED mass of storms is again heading our way....this, with the early Sunday Morning rains, will make it 23 of 27 days with at least some sort of precipitation...by my count. It actually could be worse than that....but regardless not a pretty picture on this Day #1 of Summer. Today will be the longest day of the year as far as total daylight hours...tomorrow we begin the slow side towards winter and within 6 months it will be pitch dark in Western Ohio by 4:40pm...Today, however, if we get continued sun, it will stay daylight in Mercer and surrounding counties until about 10pm this evening. I am scheduled to do another double header this afternoon, at Russia(Rue-she), but it appears likely that I will have my 10th and 11th games cancelled in the past 10 days...ouch! It has not been a nice weather this summer baseball umpire season...and costly to say the least!

Cookin' Out_____

Saturday Afternoon I headed to Nick's place on the southside of Grand Lake...for the next 6 hours folks would come and go, bring food, lawn chairs, booze, beer, etc. The highlight was the deep fried fresh Blue Gill that was served...fresh from a private pond of Barry's, not from the mud and alge ridden swamp called Grand Lake St. Marys, plenty of fixin's to go with the fish. I had a couple of Cigars, and more than a few beers....enough so, that Patricia, who had been working in her shared garden, weeding, drove out and picked me up...no way was I driving the Jeep back the 5 miles to Celina. I picked it up yesterday....just in time for Hal, Lisa, Anissa, mom, and sister Marty and her husband Pat, to come over for a cook out for Father's Day.Hal, Lisa, and their dogs arrived at 2:30 and stayed for about 3 hours before heading back to Beavercreek...they brought with them a half dozen huge, thick cut, prime steaks....Hal and I fixed them on the grill, and with the other food selections it was one of the best feed weekends I have enjoyed since the Diabetes Diet(still down 27 pounds) began last Labor Day. The dogs, including the new "Cammy" whom they plucked out of a shelter about 10 days ago, were well behaved... at least once Reagan, the old Airedale, got done checking the boys, Cameron and Alfie, out.

Deer!______

The Boys, Sam and Hal that is, have not had a lot of luck driving the past few months. Back last September Sam was broadsided near Columbus when he turned into the path of a SUV that had it's turn signals on, but didn't turn...he was sited, and the damage, including some, "injury" for the SUV driver, claim was about $12,000....then Hal hit a table that had dropped off a pick up truck on I-675 near Dayton...causing a couple grand in damages to his new Ford ride.

Last night Sam called, waking me up at 12:20 in the morning to wish me a belated "Happy Father's Day"...I was rather short with him, and somewhat irritated. He had been playing softball up north in Ann Arbor, and waited until late after Father's Day to call....I went back to sleep, only to be awoke 20 minutes later...Sam was on the ramp off Ohio 315, some 2 miles from his place in Columbus, and a deer darted in front of his Toyota...sad to day Daisey the Doe didn't survive the impact....not sure about the Corolla. Instead of having AAA(American Automobile Association) tow it to some ripoff artist in Columbus, like he had done last time with his totalled Dodge, he had the towing company bring it back here...dropping it off at about 3:30 this morning, glad we invested in AAA some 25 years ago, it's paid us all back in tow jobs... Was the Toyota totalled? Not sure, there doesn't seem to be any engine damage, just the radiator and plenty of front end repairs...2nd Major Wreck in 9 months...we will see just how much "Nationwide is on his side". Good news is, Sam is OK, bad news is...The Toyota, and I suspect his check book won't be.

So that is the Father's Day weekend in a nutshell...some good, some bad....but the weekend that was.

back later>>>>

Weekend Photos-Nick(L) and Jeff making the Batter for the Beer Batter to go with the deep friend Blue Gill, and the fine Saturday Night Sunset on the way back to Celina. Barry and his Race Boat...he and the ride will be racing in Pittsburgh, PA over the 4th of July weekend. Lisa and Hal, and the pups...and And Cameron and Alfie(R) relax waiting on the food...don't know why I didn't photograph the Steaks....they were worth the effort just on their own merit. And Sam Toyota...took him months to get a deal on it...but Daisy The Dead Doe may have taken it out in a split second.