Suicide Hill...

Kids will be kids. Sometimes, I just wish it would be in someone else's yard.

Today, the neighborhood kids, being good boys and girls, were riding bikes. On the street? Nope, too dangerous. Up and down neighborhood yards? Yep, sounds safer. With permission? Why?

So, the kids are riding down the gigantic Georgia hills. Are they content with that? Of course not. This explains why it is no great surprise when my children come running in to the house complaining one of the kids fell. The surprise? It wasn't my offspring.

See, they decided to ride down the side of the house with all the rocks to make things more interesting. No, they didn't fall in the rocks, that would be too simple. Nope, they rode through the rocks, through the remainder of my cared for lawn, and FLIPPED down the hill behind my house. Again, no surprise the bike was on top of the declared "Daredevil of the Decade". I also wasn't terribly surprised the kid didn't want to move. I was mildly surprised that he wasn't fully impaled upon the blackberry "bloodvines" that have fully engulfed this part of my yard. Then, the kid gets up complaining of a severely hurt wrist. (For those counting at home, this makes 3 children hurt at or near my home in the last several weeks. I blame it on not enough milk being given).

Let the lawsuit commence!!!

I'd be more worried, but see, the kids Dad won't be able to read this post, since he broke his collarbone just yesterday riding a bike. I think I can prove the family just shouldn't be on bikes; they are much more pedestrian (at least for the next 6 weeks!!!).

This is like my old landlord...

This is too funny...

Kind of reminds me of one of my landlords.

On my own...

The wife just left. Nope, it isn't for good (more's the pity...for her); she just left me and the kids to go spend time in the woods with her friends. I'm sure she'll have some good stories for you when she gets back. In the meantime, I have to figure out the dinner menu for the next several days...

Tonight - McDonalds
Tomorrow - Pizza
Saturday - Wendy's
Sunday - starve until wife gets home

Maybe, just maybe, I'll add in some alcohol for good measure. See why the kids love it when I cook?

India...

Many of you are aware I recently had a business trip to India. It was a very interesting (and intimidating) experience. From the time I got off the plane in Mumbai. After roughly 18 hours of travel, I had a nearly 8 hour layover in Mumbai. This meant a hotel. Being properly informed, I attempted to have a car at the airport to pick me up, as the locals are notorious about over charging unsuspecting tourists. Unfortunately, I got my bags, and there was no car for me or from the hotel. This made for a dicey situation. As I searched for the car, I asked a local police officer, who shooed me out of the airport. At this point, I confronted a mass of people, that even understanding India is heavily populated, I was totally unprepared for. As I continued my search for the car which was not around, I came to the realization that I would need to get a cab any way possible and hope for the best. Well, that probably wasn't the best idea either in retrospect. In the end, I spent over $100 on a cab ride of about 10 minutes. For comparison, I acquired a car and driver for a full day and only paid about $140.

The traffic was simply outrageous. From what I could tell, the only real road rule was if the vehicle is bigger than you, you should slow down. There are few lights, no road signs and no road markings. Everyone drives anywhere they want and they share the road with people (even kids), hand carts, chickens, dogs, goats, donkeys, oxen (also used for transportation), cows, horses (also used for transportation), camels (again, transportation), elephants (you guessed it), monkeys, basically, anything and everything. Not only that, but they do all of these things while driving 60 mph with the slightest clearance. I actually saw a family of 4 all riding the same motorcycle. The two year old on the handle bars, Dad driving, Mom sitting side saddle on the back with both hands on the baby. Crazy I tell you.

Sightseeing was interesting however. It was a terrible time to visit the area I was in, but you can see why people would like it there. There is a lot of trash, but that is mostly due to the amount of people I think. I did get a chance to see a cave which was carved in 0 BC and updated between 6 and 7 BC. Just amazing how this beautiful work was done so long ago and is still in such great shape.

I also went to some typical local areas (a hill station, a dam and several other small, out of the way spots).

I spent some time in a local museum which had some very interesting artifacts, and took a drive through the original downtown area which was all completely wooden buildings. Aside from these things, it was amazing how the areas were built up (many spots being simply shacks with tarps for ceilings or walls) and to just have a general idea of how things came to be.

In the end, it was a good experience, and I was sitting in the airport thinking about returning when I was bit by a mosquito. Assuming I don't get Malaria or some other such noxious disease, I might consider going back someday...

Pictures are located here. Enjoy!!!

On the jump to spring...

I know some of these musings are LONG overdue, but it HAS been busy on this front. Things are finally starting to calm down, so maybe we can get some newsworthy updates out now...

In one day, while sitting on the deck (before we got our nifty new patio furniture this year - five years after we wanted to...), we saw - a rabbit, a snake (non-poisonous and living next to our house) being followed by an inquisitive bird, a hawk (and it's nest). It was this day, we quickly deemed, meant spring had sprung.

Sometimes, it is very nice to see critters out being critters like that.