V3N3A

Mom and Her Ideas

Jennifer Nettell

Iron Mtn. Correspondent

It all started with one of Mom's great ideas......I should have known. Back in December, Mom and Dad bought Brady a tricycle for his birthday in February. Cute tricycle, nothing against the damn tricycle. (Yes it is a damn tricycle, and here is why) Mom called before she left, and said she bought the bike, and thought it would be a good idea to leave it at her house til Brady's Birthday. It was all assembled and that way he would not see it. I am sure all I heard was 'all assembled' and I agreed to the idea without picturing an unplowed February driveway in the U.P.

Fast Forward to February and the day before Brady's Birthday. I call Jess to remind her about the bike. (She's in charge of Mom's house this year) She is working and the party is tomorrow, so guess who is going over for the bike at Mom's? Did I mention everything in town is canceled, because we are getting 3 inches of snow per hour? (We got a total of 7-8 inches)

Here I go to get the bike, there is a ton of snow, and I am lucky with 4WD to clear the mound of snow the plow truck left at the end of my driveway. I get to Mom's, park the car and put on Tom's knee-high rubber boots, and with the first step, I have snow inside my boots. By the time I am 1/2 way up the driveway, my boots are so packed with snow, and the boots are so big, that when I lift up my foot inside the boot to take another step, snow falls between my foot and the boot. I am now on high heels of snow, inside the boots, as I approach the door. Did I mention it is chilly? I forced open the door, stomped off my boots, got the bike, and back I went on limbs packed in ice. Can someone tell me why in the hell a kid needs a bike in February anyway?

Hey Mom, next year let's leave Brady's Birthday present at someone's house who shovels. Now there is a good idea.

SHE SAID.....

By Sharon

It's 10pm do you know where your parents are? We knew we were missed being gone for 4 months, but we didn't know they worried. We were 'out of touch' for three days. We had trouble with our e-mail one day, and we were on the road for two.

When checking our message service, one morning during our walk, there was a message from Jessica saying that they are worried. We immediately called 'home' to let them know that we are fine.

It's hard to pull yourself out of the 90 degree pool or the 104 degree Hot Tub, to stand in line at the one phone in the RV Park, in the sun.

HE SAID......

By Bill

There's an old Public Service Commercial that says, 'It's 10pm do you know where you're children are?' I guess there's a new twist........'It's March do you know where your parents are?'

We got a message from Jessica that said they were worried about us. WHY? We're big kids now and have been taking care of ourselves and our kids quite nicely for many years. We phoned 'home' (figuratively speaking) to check in and let them know we were okay. I say figuratively because our 'home' is wherever we decide to park it. And its been parked all over California, Arizona and selected parts of Mexico.

Circumstances left us out of touch for a couple of days, even though we check our message service EVERY day in case someone wants to be in touch with us. We have different priorities for the 4 months that we're gone in the winter. Major concerns for us are making sure that the pool-wrinkled skin tans evenly while sitting in the sun. We also feverishly try to keep the little umbrellas in our tropical beverages dry. Hey, we're semi-retired and enjoying life doing what we want to do. Everyone will just have to cut us some slack. We try hard to keep in touch, but the world is not always cooperating. We thought e-mail would be the solution. So far, it's worked less than perfect.

TOMBSTONE...................Again

A couple of years ago we went to Tombstone with Len and Rose Schultz, friends from home. This year we went back for an afternoon and walked around for a couple of hours visiting every shop in town. We didn't find anything to buy but we enjoyed the shopping never-the-less. We talked about going to the shoot-out at the O.K. Corral but the tickets were sold out. We had been to the shoot-out at the Helldurado the last time. It was hokey, but a good time. We also toyed with the idea of having our pictures taken in the cowboy get-up. We opted out of that too for the time being. And we couldn't find a good time to go back and have it done. Even though the campground was only 16 miles from Tombstone.

We did, however, go back to the Crystal Palace Saloon for Karaoke. All the 'characters' were in attendance. And one guy walked in with knee-length boots, a rebel infantryman's cap and belt buckle, long hair and a Van Dyke mustache. He could've just stepped out of the past.