Bugs Palace!

Been a busy few weeks. After pricing the cost to repair/repaint the body work on my truck and building it into what I envision, I decided to continue looking for a solid replacement. I found one. And it was amazing. Made and deal and left a deposit just so the seller could back out of the deal the next day when I was ready to go get it. I was beyond pissed, but in the end it worked out….

I started looking deeper and actually came across a 2006 GMC Sierra in black with a MUCH cleaner body. Went and checked it out and ended up buying it on the spot. Following day we picked it up and dropped it off at Smouts for a safety inspection. Hopefully they’ll get to it before the weekend. Basically its a continuation of the plans I had with the pewter truck but without wanting to do a full colour change paint job. Can’t wait to get it home and migrate some of the stuff into it and get the project going again! Hopefully it don’t need much for safety 🙁 Pictures to come once I actually take some 🙂

The Triumph has finally got some street time over the month of September. Only did 3500kms all summer — and then did 1500 in the month of September alone. Sitting around 5100km right now. If weather allows, I’m hoping to ride for a least another 2500km. Time and mother nature only know for sure 😉 Loving it still.

Bug updates are small. Nothing to report really. Haven’t driven much in the last month or so. Looking for a good dry day to run to Pauls place to get the bumper brackets sorted out. Hopefully able to get hem mounted  up before winter hits. Be nice to have them on when it goes down for storage so I will have no down time come next season.

House : broken hot tub has been removed and hauled away. Now I have to get a couple bucks together and re-deck over the area that it used to sit. Goal is to do before winter hits. Also, I’ve removed the front walk way to the house and layed down interlocking stones. The walk way is complete, just need to take some time and figure out a permanent step to get up to the front door and a load of dirt for the new garden. That too will come soon hopefully.

Kids have been in school for about a month and both loving it. Makes me happy knowing how much they enjoy being there. It’s funny on the weekends hearing Joe complain that it’s not a school day. I guess he’s bored with us. Hopefully their love for the place never changes. Proud of you guys!

Oh, and there are 225 days till Florida. Not that anyone is counting.

Summer break has come and gone far too quickly once again. I feel like we did fairly well this summer doing small day trips and knocking the tasks the kids gave us on their ‘to do’ lists. Had a blast having some time off with them and doing the fun stuff and seeing how much they enjoy it.

With summer ending, that means Back-to-school! Kids are doing amazingly! Joe went to JK like a champ. Dropped them off at school, and Joe took Abby’s hand and off they ran and never looked back. And it’s been that way every day since. Couldn’t be prouder. Big sister showing little brother the ropes and helping his transition into “her school” a sucesses. Love you both.

With school just starting to settle in, there was one tiny bump in the road for Abby. Enrollment is up, and that left her grade 1/2 class a tad over full. So the school has turned the grade 3 classroom into a grade 2/3 and her and a couple other little ones got to move up to the bigger kids room. I was a bit nervous as my girl generally takes to change as well as I do. Much to our surprise, she LOVED the idea, and even more has really seemed to embrace going into the ‘bigger kid class’. Great job Abs!

House updates: Been a while since I’ve had much to say about the house. After 10 years we finally ripped up the square patio-stone walkway and I spent most of my down time during August to lay down interlocking stone walk way and retaining walls around the now larger flower beds. Laying field stone with OCD was a challenge in itself. In the end i’m pretty happy with the outcome. Need to do a bit more work as I plan on curbing the sides of the driveway with more stones. Just need to get a good weekend and a saw to cut the sides of the asphalt square.

Only vehicle update to make is more of an obituary. My daily 00′ Silverado sprung a fuel leak and started running terrible. Both have been fixed now, but while I was having issues and I still was toying with the idea of hunting for another Silverado/Sierra in a better colour to build I decided to hunt down my first truck. My sleuth skills are actually pretty good. I got the VIN, followed by a owners list. This led me to what we believe is the final owener of the truck who sadly no longer owns it. Further I checked with the MTO, and the last time it was E-tested was back in 2008. Meaning the lat time it could have legally been on the road was back in 2010. 4 years ago, no more owners and the paper trail runs cold. Looks like my baby has gone the way of Jimmy Hoffa : Lost and never to be seen again.  RIP old truck, looks like my dream of making a reunion video with you are over.

Life has been busy but not really any specific updates. Think we’ve finally got enough done now to warrant an update 🙂

Been having a fun filled summer with the kids. Been doing small day trips and going to the park, etc. Spent all day yesterday in the falls and Abby had the entire day planned. Was pretty funny going through all the things she wanted to do. Hard to believe the summer is half over already. Still up this summer will be a trip to Wonderland, and some other little things. Joey’s day plan will be much easier to fulfill. Cheaper too : Mario Kart on the Wii and play on the swings. I can get behind a day like that.

Shannon and I also took a 48 hour trip down south for yet another marathon baseball tour. This time we drove down to Cincinnati to see the Reds take on the Pirates. Quick night of sleep and we then drove towards home stopping in Cleveland to watch an Indians game where they took on the White Sox. We had a great time despite the pile of driving with very little down time. Next year we hit Atlanta, Tampa Bay and Miami while we are on our Florida trip. That’s gonna be a crazy couple weeks. Three ball parks AND Disney World. Can’t wait!!!

Truck mods are nearly done for the season. Purchasing anyways. I’ve got a pretty deep pile of parts needing to be painted and installed. Speakers are ready to go in the doors thanks to a great deal from a buddy of mine. That will finish off the stereo. Once the body work is done, speakers get installed and then its time to have the alarm put in. On the upside, I believe I have everything bought and ready. Just need to pay some labour for the things I can’t do myself.  Only other item I’d like to do this summer is tint the windows, and install a rear slider. That may get put off a bit, depending on the bill from Paul’s body shop 🙂

Thruxton and Bug are running like champs still. Haven’t really done anything to them this summer other then drive/ride. Bug has hit 3000kms so far, and I believe the bug has been nearly 1000km. I’ve still got the shiny new bumpers ready to go on, but given how backed up Paul has been, they will likely end up being put on this fall. Just need to make sure they get done before the winter hits and the old girl is put into its hibernation again.

Been starting to get busy on some house updates over the last couple weeks. We FINALLY got around to getting the hot tub hooked up and just our luck : huge crack formed in the bottom over the winter rendering it complete junk. Bit of a piss off seeing as we built the lower deck and everything just to accommodate it. Oh well. Looks like I will be removing it and decking over the hole for now. We’ll look at buying one when we do the garage addition. Since then, we have moved onto the front walk way. Shannon and I were beyond busy today pulling up the crappy patio stones, and digging up the yard to accommodate the new walkway, and larger gardens around the front step. Should look nice when it’s all done.

Only other real updates are Happy 75th Birthday Grandma!! Had a great time at the Erie beach for a nice party/dinner. Nice seeing some of the extended relatives that we don’t see too often. Only weird part was the lack of Fisherville Funday. I can’t remember how many years it’s been going, but this was the first year since it ended. Sad to see the small towns lose their fairs/events like this.

Finally I’ve been busy uploading a shit-load of photos again. I know I say this every couple years, but I really MUST stop letting them get backed up like that. Browse around the site. Lots of new photos.