It's The New Toy On 991 Rupley....

Dad, Win, check it out...it's the newest arrival.........

Beachin It In Jax

So it's a little late, but what you gonna do. Em and I hit the road to Jacksonville (that should be a song title if it isn't already) this past Labor Day weekend for some much needed R&R and a visit with Gina and Tom-First off, let me just say that Mapquest is a bunch if liars. No way it's 5 hours, for some reason unbeknownst to the to of us in the car, the drive took 6 or so hours-which was a little longer than we had bargained for. We finally arrived in Jacksonville in the late afternoon, and spent the evening with Gina, Tom, their friends Laura and Don, and their little daughter Kacey, who is a barrel of laughs. We took a walk down to the beach, made our way to a Mexican restaurant with possibly the worst service in the history of the world, and proceeded to leave without eating when the waitress just up and ignored us for 25 minutes.
We went back to Gina and Tom's hung out at the house with some pizza, and watched Georgia Tech and Notre Dame, and hung out on their back porch laughing at-well, everything. Gina and Emmalee tend to do that.
We hit the beach on Sunday, and despite not having been on a beach since the last Iden excursion to Virginia Beach, I had forgotten how incredibly cool the beach is. After our time on the beach, we got in the car and Tom and Gina took us down the road to St. Augustine, the oldest city in North America. Can't remember the details behind it, but its OLD. We generally walked around, mocked those who were worth mocking, and took a look at the sights. Mom, you'll enjoy the picture of the "most photographed street in the world"-Although Im not sure what street it is, Tom said it's the most photographed street in the world, so who knows. Anyway, enjoy the pics......

News From Browntown

If anyone doubts that something has changed our weather just consider the fact that for the past four out of five years it has not rained between late May and early September. Summer is really and truly becoming the "drought" season with flooding rains at either end... not good plant growing weather at all. The weeds were the only thing growing by last week and the week-end rains just gave them the extra boost they needed to take over completely! We did pick four beautiful eggplants this past week-end, though, and they were delicious! There are still some blossoms hanging on the plant but I think it will be too cool for them to set fruit so we are probably done with that until next year. The dependable pepper plants got pretty much beaten down by rain and the tomatoes ... (sigh) well, the squirrels must have enjoyed some sort of acorn slumgullion dish this year. They got all the tomatoes.

The Labor Day week-end sort of got rained out but it was okay. We all spent a very quiet week-end doing indoor stuff including more homeowner projects. Got a bit of mowing done but it is not nearly so pressing now that the cooler weather is just around the corner and we are easing into Autumn mode. This year we have the Cyclone Rake to play with in the leaves. Dad is looking forward to getting it out and cranking it up. He receives regular mail from the manufacturer as it seems once you purchase one of their machines you become their new best friends.

We expect to have some time for a trip or something during October. Then in Nov. (on Dad's B-Day) Donniebiggs gets married!

There is a story in the NVD today about the last class to graduate from Warren County High School starting their senior year this week. The Iden kids' old alma mater will be no more. The new schools - yes, there are going to be two high schools in Warren County - will be named something like Skyline High School and South Warren or some such thing and they open next fall. Next time you all come home you will not believe how much has changed at the entrance to Browntown Road. The high school they are building looks like a major league stadium/parking lot with a building attached.

I remember Grammy saying that she never got over the feeling that comes from End of Summer/Back to School time even though there were no children to send back to school after we left home. She is right. It really is a transitional stage even without the Back to School preparations. It is already starting to get dark at 6:30 pm and the 6:30 am wake-up time is a bit dimmer each day now.

I know that Win, Emma and Andrew had active holiday week-ends. How about some pics??