Monthly Archives: August 2014

I’ve been going to this fair all my life. When I was little, my mom’s cousin lived down the street from the fair grounds.  He used to come and pick me up in the evening and take his son and me to watch the fireworks from the parking lot. Everyone in town schedules their day at the fair to enjoy the exhibits, animals, food and midway rides.

This year is the 175th anniversary of the Erie County Fair. One of the highlights was a demonstration by Nik Wallenda, a local celebrity for his historic tightrope walk across Niagara Falls in 2012, check out this link of his walk across the falls, it’s great.

We always park outside of gate 2 and the Nya:Weh Indian Village.  They are part of the Seneca Nation which is part of six in the Iroquois Nation.  We read about this powerful, organized nation last year in our history book.  Much of the geography in Western New York has Iroquois names.  The town my mom lives in is West Seneca and our high school teams are the Indians.

Today was a special day at the fair.  Celebrating the 175th anniversary, the midway had free rides for an hour and a half.  I was more excited than the kids because they usually buy a wrist band giving them unlimited rides all day.  The only ride I like is the Ferris Wheel.

When I was a kid the fair had a sky ride and a double Ferris Wheel which was two separate wheels rotating as well as unit that attached them to each other. The regular Ferris Wheel is still fun.  The view from the top made the fairgrounds look small, even though my tired feed didn’t believe it.

In Roman and Medieval times the fair was a holiday.  Traditionally in America the fair is a place to show produce and animals, new products and offer entertainment.

The 911 Standing Tall exhibit by Steel Crazy Iron Art was on display as a fund raiser. This sculpture has been on display all over Western New York since Sept 11, 2011 at the Niagara Falls Air Force Base, soliciting funds to create a 3 acre sculpture park in Buffalo.

Every year we look forward to the Peking Acrobats show. At the top of their Facebook page they thank both the Erie County Fair and the Orange County Fair in Costa Mesa, CA.  That’s cool, we live in Orange County, CA but never see them perform there because we’re always here in Buffalo during the OC fair.

Today only, to celebrate the 175th anniversary, many of the food vendors offered items for $1.75.  We had funnel cakes, cotton candy, french fries, pizza, French Waffles, and by then we were so sugared up and full of grease we couldn’t remember eating anything else.

Ahh, the favorite ride of the day is always the foot vibrator.

After a great morning with Amy and Maria Evancho (Amy and I were neighbors as kids and we reconnected when the girls played during the summers), we met up the Kelly Parker and her family (Kelly and I met when we were 13 and now get together daily when we’re in town for the summer. My maid of honor too!).

As you can see by the way we’re covered up, the weather turned chilly.  Normally, we’re all sweaty and sunburned looking for places to fill the water bottles.

The girls got wrist bands, $20 with a coupon from the grocery store, for unlimited rides all day.

A few days later we returned for the Demolition Derby.

As with all sporting events the Demolition Derby started with the National Anthem sung by Douglas Allen, the Anthem Guy.  His biography is great, he graduated from a local high school the same year I did, went to college to be a music teacher, goofed off, had fun and now sings for sporting events, gatherings for public holidays, weddings, funerals, church camps and most important he sings for Jesus at the Fellowship Wesleyan Church in West Seneca. Like our favorite California Church, Sea Coast Grace, the Fellowship Wesleyan Church offers sermons online, no need to leave home to listen to how Jesus wants to be in your life.

There were 8 heats with different categories.  They started out with drivers who never participated in a Demolition Derby and went up through professionals on tour.

The cars started by lining up back to back for a style judging.  Some of the cars were painted and decorated with themes ranging from cancer awareness, to princesses and snowmen.

The cars tried to smash the rear ends avoiding the radiators and other important parts under the hood.  Occasionally flames would shoot out from the front end and the firemen would rush out there to put out the fire.

At the end of the show we got lost leaving the Grandstand and exited through a room we hadn’t seen.  We were really bummed that everything was closing down and we didn’t have time to explore this room.

They had quilts, table settings, flower arrangements, paintings and photography, antiques and crafts.

This paint dripping exhibit with 175 for the fair anniversary gave us some ideas for leftover paint.

Then when we exited the building a crowd was gathering for a laser light show.  Marie scooted to the front and found a seat despite Roy’s insistence that we should go home.  It was a great show!

All kinds of characters that we recognized were set to motion with music. Beautiful colors and kaleidoscope patterns combined with music from the generations got everyone dancing, singing or just rocking in their seat.  Thanks to Genny and her new collection of pop music I was able to recognize the new music as well.  You know “What does the fox say!” and how about “Roar”.

The finale was a tribute to America with scenes from 911, the moon landing, and famous art and sculptures celebrating America.

Buffalo was once a great steel town with industries along the lake and transportation for all of these manufactured goods that made money contributing to the national economy.  Now most of it is gone and sent to places where the labor is cheaper.  But people of my generation remember how our parents and grandparents worked in that industry and there is still a very strong sense of pride for the American worker.
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What else did we do, how about trying to join the “I thought I killed the Van” club.  About 15 years ago, my brother borrowed the van to take a California Road trip, the screws came out of the cabinets in the back, the air conditioner stopped cooling the stories could keep a crowd entertained for an evening. Recently our pals borrowed the van for a road trip and the transmission blew up on them. So it really wasn’t a surprise when after driving the van all morning on errands it decided not to start for one last errand.  I had Eric on the speaker phone tracing wires and using the volt meter (which is about as foreign to me as a scalpel in an operating room).  By morning I decided to try hot wiring it by touching a cable from the battery to the starter solenoid. Wowsie, it started.  The kids and I danced around the driveway, the van could go to the mechanic under its own power.

He found a corroded connection to the transmission/ignition area, cleaned it up and we were off to the movies with all the kids in the neighborhood.  Yesterday I took the van into a tire shop to have it’s tires rotated and the guy there said he loves working on out of state vehicles and ours is in great condition.  Huh? This is about a vehicle that has an “I thought I killed the van” club.  Thanks guys, you made the van happy.

The van also transported a gaggle of girls to Savers thrift store for dressup clothes.  Everyone got beautiful formal wear at half the price you would pay for a Disney costume made for a toddler.  We’re planning a formal wear party for the fall.

We also had a great evening at Jim and Ania’s house celebrating my brother’s birthday.  Normally we’re in Canada on our fishing trip for his birthday, but this year we all cancelled so one of our fishing mates could recover from a health issue.  It was a fun evening with family and a few of his neighbors that dropped by.  Ania always makes some delicious Polish treat while we show up with a supply of smore ingredients and little sausages.

Other land activities we’ve been enjoying are things like laying around on the floor with dogs piled all around us.

Or how about using the curling iron.  Eric would have great anxiety if he saw a heating element like a curling iron come aboard to suck up Makai’s batteries.

Marie has new neighborhood friends.  Last year several houses on the street turned over and new families moved in.  Miranda, Christina, and Jesse are on one side of the street and little Olivia is on the other side.  Marie loves playing with Olivia, she’s so cute!

Miranda and Marie spent the day at Olivia’s birthday party, the weather was chilly, but the pizza was hot.

The weather has its ups and downs, some days it’s chilly and others we’re out at the pool swimming with the pups.

Really, the dogs own this pool.  They enjoy it more than anyone else, the two of them are nose to nose at the opening of the gate.  When the gate opens there is some sort of a competition for who can get to the water first.  They push and shove each other racing the 8 feet from the gate to the water and then leap in.  The People take turns standing at the stairs and throwing toys to keep the pups out of trouble in the pool.

The pool sounds great, but mom is tired of taking care of it.  Pools are very common in WNY but they can only be used in July and August when the night time temps are warm keeping the pool water temp from dipping too low for people to enjoy their swim.  Also, the pool requires chemicals, testing, cleaning and structural maintenance. This pool is over 20 years old and while it works great today, at anytime it could fall apart.

So Mom decided to have it removed.  We called a guy that said he has someone who would love a free pool, drain it and he’ll be there Saturday morning to haul everything away.

But when he arrived he decided it was too old to take down and reassemble.  OH BOY, it’s drained, we can’t use it, and he’s not going to take it!  I mentioned that if he had come a day earlier to tell us he didn’t want it, we wouldn’t have drained it and we could still use it until the end of the summer.  He said this and that, I said a that and this and then I suggested that he get in his truck and leave as quickly as he could because we didn’t want this 2 minute conversation to go on any longer.

What to do now?  Roy and I got out screw drivers and started to take it apart. We called Jim to come and help rescue us and by the time he arrived the pool was rolled up and stacked in the driveway.

Jim came with power tools and safety gear, a bagster (dumpster in a bag) and we got to work.

By the end of the day all pool related items were out front and there was nothing left to do but deal with the gravel, sand and mud.  The girls decided to make it a spa day.

Jim and I decided to drink beer and think about what to do next.  A few days later we borrowed a pick up truck and took the metal to be recycled.  The recycling place said that ours was the third pool that day.  Later we delivered the filter, heater and stairs to Kelly.  Now we’re left with cleaning up the gravel and sand, then spreading topsoil and planting seed. I alternate working on this project with other projects like replacing the wooden thresholds on the porch, yard work, van maintenance, and homeschooling of course.

The day after demolition we joined Jim and Ania and cousin Patryk at the Elmwood Festival of the Arts.  The street was lined with vendors selling artsy crafts, beautiful jewelry, pottery, clothes, paintings and photos.

There were also two music stages and a kids area with crafts and games.

At 4pm the parade came by which was about 20 feet long and consisted of band instruments, clowns and people on stilts.

They headed to the stage at the end of the street for dancing and speeches closing the festival.

At 5pm the mounted police rode up and down Elmwood Ave. announcing first that the festival was over and then that everyone had to get on the sidewalk.

Even though we LOVE living on Makai, especially anchored in front of some deserted sandy island surrounded by pristine water and white sand beaches, living on land has it’s good points too.  After putting Makai away for the summer, we drove through Gettysburg and did the 2 hour battlefield audio driving tour, then up to the Harrison’s house in New Jersey.  The van felt like it was going home because Ginger and Bruce have been storing our van at their house in the winters. We met the Harrison’s about eight years when they moved into the cabin at the end of the road in Angelus Oaks, CA.  We were best cabin pals for about four years and then they moved back to New Jersey.  It was sad to see them go, but now we have someone in New Jersey to visit.  First thing the next morning Bruce took Eric to the Philadelphia Airport on his way to work and the rest of us went to the beach.  Yea, Jersey Shore here we come, from the land side!

Normally going to the beach consists of a short swim or dinghy ride to shore.  We don’t bring anything except maybe a bottle of water and shoes if we think we’ll go beyond the sand.  From Ginger’s in Milford, NJ on the border with Pennsylvania, we drove to her sister’s house in Trenton, NJ and then to Seaside Heights.  Nearly two hours later we dragged bags of beach gear to the sand and experienced the beach from the dry side.

Roy was the only dude among 9 dudettes, so he dug a hole and buried himself up to his chin. Ginger’s daughter Amy is a Marine Biology student in North Carolina full of answers to questions you might have at the beach. Like pointing out the little jelly orbs which are squid eggs.  She was also happy to swim with my kids.

Amy was pretty much my first and most consistent babysitter when she lived in California.  Since Eric was usually busy taking care of his fleet of jeeps or doing projects, Amy would hang out with the kids in our cabin so I could go to visit with Ginger, have dinner at the Harrison’s cabin and have quiet shopping trips down the hill in Redlands.  Later, Amy’s sister Tess went from my helper on weekends to another babysitter.  Thanks ladies!

I thought the water was cold, but I must have been wrong because they spent quite a bit of time in the water.

I was surprised how clear the water was when I saw the photos.

Our experience as we sailed along the coast was that the water was murky, mucky, and muddy, but this was beautiful.

Well, that’s that for that, pack up and on to the Boardwalk.

Ginger and her siblings spent the summers here at their grandparent’s house when they were young.  They have decades worth of stories, traditions and favorites.  In 2012 as the kids and I were preparing to drive from California to the East Coast before flying to Makai in Grenada, Hurricane Sandy was destroying this coastline. Follow this link for shocking before and after photos of the neighborhood Hurricane Sandy devastated. Part of the community’s rebuild they started a ‘Sponsor a Bench’ program.  Ginger and her siblings chipped in to have this bench engraved with their grandparent’s names as a tribute to their childhood memories and love for the Jersey Shore at Seaside Heights.

The kids and I rode the sky ride down to the amusement pier.

It was a long way down to the sand, but the view from above the boardwalk was unique.

We were drooling as we passed the treat shops.

Finally, it was pizza time. Do you want a large, how about 24 inches large.

A single slice requires a big appetite.

How about desert.  Tesse ordered this Belgian waffle ice cream sandwich.

What a great day, the sun is setting and we have a two hour ride back home.  Everyone has thoughts of a nice hot shower and a soft cozy bed.

How about a relaxing day hanging around the house.  Oops, maybe not, its moving day.  Ginger is moving out of the antique shop she was showing her wares at.  We had a great system going on.  Ginger was in the basement directing the movers, Marie was tasked with calling the elevator down when the movers yelled down the shaft, Amy, Genny and Roy were the movers, and I packed the boxes into Ginger’s pick-up and our van. After two truck loads and a van load of antiques were transferred from the basement of the shop to the basement at home, we got our reward.

Ice cream sundaes for dinner!  Everyone scooped their favorite flavor and topped it with magic shell topping, whipped cream, sprinkles, banana, and cherries.  No room for dinner

Never a dull moment.  Today a regular old trip to the grocery store includes blueberry picking.

A sunflower field.

Pretty girl selfie. Then a stop at the Amish Market for a snack.  Apparently the Amish from the Pennsylvania Dutch area in Lancaster Pennsylvania come here and treat us with their specialties.  We were pretty hungry and all enjoyed pretzel wrapped hot dogs, fudge, chocolate covered bacon and wished we could stock up on everything in their hot deli, meat market and ice cream shop.

No time for all that, we had to get our groceries home.  Bruce took over the kitchen and made sausage stuffed zucchini and a yummy sausage stew to be served on buns.

Ginger and I enjoyed sparkling wine with mashed blueberries. A great way to end another action packed day.

Early the next morning Roy and Bruce headed out to a favorite fishing hole.

Even though Bruce and Roy make it look easy, it’s not as common to catch big fish in the rivers as it was for Roy to catch the same size fish as they swim under Makai in the Bahamas.

That afternoon, the girls and I packed up the van to rendezvous with Bruce and Roy and continue on to Buffalo.  Ginger said to go out her driveway to Church Rd and make a right.  But the GPS said to go left and the iPhone disagreed with the GPS.  Come on, which way should I go?  I followed Ginger’s advice and went to the right.

We picked up Roy and continued on another six hours to Buffalo to see Topaz, Nannie and J.J. Oh yea, shmoogle on our pup.  We’ve missed cuddling and smooching on her ears, rubbing her back and scratching her belly.

Topaz and JJ, Nannie’s Duck Tolling Retreiver, have been enjoying their own private swimming pool this summer.

But now that we’ve brought kids, they have to share.  So far they’ve had to swim with our friend Maria whose grandma used to live two houses down and her mother was my first neighborhood friend, Hannah whose grandparents are our family’s oldest friends, Sadie who’s mom is my pal from our teen years, and of course my hooligans.
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Marie made a new friend whose family just moved in down the road.

But there are bonuses for the dogs to share their private resort with kids.  Times like breakfast when they can try for a morsel from an unsuspecting kid.

Topaz went from her favorite corner in Makai’s cockpit to sharing couches with JJ.  Even though they are ‘only pups’ for most of the year, they are very good at sharing couches, the water bowl, prime begging spaces, and can even lick a plate together.

Back to fishing, Roy and my brother Jim had a great day at the Genessee River. Jim caught a massive 18 inch trout.

Jim and Ania wrapped it in foil with dill and butter and baked it for an hour.  We all ate our fill and still had the little ones left over for another meal.

The kids and I also went to work.  We trimmed the hedge and bushes, mowed the lawn, weed wacked, pulled weeds, washed the windows, trimmed Topaz’s nails and gave her a haircut, and a few other odds and ends.

Marie was so exhausted she needed to rest with visions of a day at the spa dancing through her head.

Another project Eric set us up with is the Raspberry Pi.  This is a small linux based credit card size computer. It comes to you with nothing more than a circuit board and usb, hdmi, and SD card ports for you to plug in accessories. After a few days of dealing with the knotted tangle of wires, we went out and bought a piece of Plexiglas and some zip ties to mount the pieces.

I spent many hours trying to get the Raspberry Pi connected to the local network here with no luck, so Genny decided to play with a programming game on it called scratch.

We are part of a very small family, so it’s always special to visit with my brother and his wife.  Their house backs up to a tennis court and the kids like to go on an ‘egg hunt’ to collect stray balls.

Ever since out campout with the Aanonsons, smores have been on our mind.

Why have a regular smore when you can have a giant one.

While we were discussing fun activities for us to do together, it was decided that after dinner we should run over to the Botanical Gardens in South Park.

The main event is Morty, their Corpse Flower. The long line meandered through the gardens which gave us a chance to read the signs and more slowly and carefully enjoy the other exhibits. The Amorphophallus titanum is a native to rain forests in Sumatra and Indonesia.  It only blooms for a few days every 6-8 years producing a dead flesh stink.  Roy was excited to see it because of he has read stories and seen cartoons that feature a stinky rare flower.

It sure was big, but we didn’t smell the stench we had hoped for.  This bloom was less than 24 hours old and should have been stinky.  I think the gardens had fans blowing most of the smell away.

When I was a kid my family toured the Botanical Gardens after Easter Mass at Our Lady of Victory Basilica. I remember the gardens smelling so fresh decorated with lilies and other spring flowers.  In Buffalo there could still be snow on the ground, but the Botanical Gardens was a pleasant break from winter.

Back at Nannie’s spa, Marie is relaxing in the sun.

The pups continue to swim.  Apparently Topaz doesn’t need a boat in pristine water, just a big tub of water in the backyard will do.

I like to stand on the steps, receive the toy and toss it out again.

Ah yes, this is the life.  Too bad it only lasts for a month or two, then you have to pack up the pool and put away the lounges, bring out the coats, boots and hats and prepare for winter again.

If JJ and Topaz aren’t cute enough, how about Bo, Kelly’s new puppy.

The kids have their lists of needs.  We usually save them up and then have a kid appreciation day.  Genny and I had a relaxing stroll through Khols in the morning and then Roy and I went to the newly opened Cabela’s.  Apparently, you can never have too much fishing gear.  We have learned this traveling because every new body of water we visit is a new habitat, different fish and a different set of gear.

Living on land also means enjoying the fruits of the farms.  For many years we’ve joined Jim and Ania and cousin Patryk blueberry picking in East Otto. Burdick’s property is beautiful with a vegetable garden and seasonal flowers and 40 acres of blue berries.   At the farm stand we buy containers or weigh our own and then climb into a modified pick-up truck for a ride out to the field currently being picked.

The employees direct us to the next row to be picked.  Everyone has their containers ready to fill.  The clusters of fat juicy berries drop off easily into our small containers we use to fill up the bigger boxes.

We noticed how our berry picking with the kids has improved this year. The day is usually hot and the kids get whiny quickly, but this year they quickly filled the baskets with minimum complaints about the heat.

The best part about picking berries is TASTING berries. I don’t think I’ve ever seen blue berries as big as these in the stores. It is a good thing they didn’t weigh me before and after picking, I’m sure I would have had to pay extra for all the berries I consumed.

Jim and Ania make jam and freeze their berries.  Patryk had plans to take his to a pot luck he was attending this evening.  We’ll take ours home and freeze most of them, give away a few, and eat the rest.  After picking we set ourselves up at a picnic table under the trees for snack before returning home.