Had the lawn aerated, mowed the lawn, turned on the sprinkler system, and have tickets for the Rockies-Pittsburgh baseball game Saturday night. The weather forecast for the weekend-SNOW.

Great news. Neighbor Dave and Neighbor Brad are coming to Denver from Casper for a Rockies baseball game on May 17th and I'm going to meet them there. Dave is a die heart Red Sox fan and Brad is equally so a Yankee fan. When we all lived on Horizon Dr., it made for some interesting talks. I am a Twins fan so it didn't matter that much to me. I haven't seen either of them in a year and am excited to catch up on things.

Today is the grandtwins first birthday. Aunt, uncle, and cousin flew in from Ohio. The other uncle flew in from Minneapolis. I'm sure the little guys will enjoy their presents-at least the paper and boxes they came in.
Congratulations Aiden and Reid.

Today, April 20th, is the 12th anniversary of the shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. The school is closed and there will be a memorial service later today at a park north of the high school.

When the birth day of the twins was approaching we were all hoping that it wouldn't be on April 20th. Fortunately they held out for three more days.

Ironically today is my brother's birthday.

I was visiting with one of my neighbors this afternoon. He works in the distribution division of a large local brewery (guess which one. It's located in Golden, Colorado). On this panel wagon is a sticker which states neither the driver nor the vehicle carries any cash. I asked him why that bumper sticker. He said he's worked for them for six years and has been robbed three times. After the first one -losing cash and six cases of beer-he reported it but nothing was done. After the second time, they installed a safe under the seat. The third attempt they (?) stole six cases and the safe. He said they did get the cash back on that one. Now I understand the bumper sticker. Still there are people who rob the van just for the beer.

I had an old truck go sailing by me today. How old was it? It had a Ronald Reagan for President sticker on it.

This may a guy thing but some of the great moments in life are when the lawn mower starts for the first time in the spring and the snow blower starts for the first time in the winter. Today my lawn mower started after about fifteen pulls. Life is good.

One of my pet peeves is when people leave their carts from WalMart and its ilk or the large supermarket parking lots in a parking space or on a curb. Today at WalMart I found the ultimate cart abandonment. I usually park far away from the entrance for a healthy walk and fewer scratches on my van. Parked in a space was one of the electric shopping carts for the handicapped-often the overweight. I decided I should take it in so someone who truly needs it would have access. People looked at me as I wheeled down the parking row toward the great box. Where there is a slight dip, I may have been cruising around 3 mph. People got out of my way so the "poor dude" could take his electric cart and buy his survival necessities. As I got in the door and hopped out the cart the greeter thought she was seeing a miracle. I explained to her that it had been left at the far end of the parking lot and I was just bringing it. She smiled and thanked me as I pushed a regular cart into the store. I was just doing a good deed but I only got in half my walk. At times one must make sacrifices.

This one is from my daughter-in-law Kelsey> "Remember when teachers, public employees, Planned Parenthood, NPR, and PBS crashed the stock market, wiped out half of our 401Ks, took trillions in TARP money, spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico, gave themselves trillions in bonuses, and paid no taxes? Yeah, me neither." Appears we need to shut down a couple wars.

I really like getting mail addressed to me or "Current Resident" at our address. Makes the mail feel real personal and it usually winds up in the circular file in shreds.

Those who don't take a daily newspaper miss out on two of the best cartoons-Zits, about raising a teenage boy, and Baby Blues, which is about raising three pre-elementary aged kids. Some days I almost turn to the comics before reading the headlines and sports.

You have to lived back then to appreciate this. When Gerald Ford was President, he had a habit of bumping his forehead entering and leaving Air Force One and the same thing when he was using a helicopter. The political cartoonists began characturizing him with a band-aid on his forehead. This reminds me of Aiden, one of the grandtwins. He likes to explore and often crawls into different places or just runs into things and often bumps his forehead leaving a bruise or a scratch. I know it comes with the territory but he does resemble Prez Ford in hairline and complexion. You really had to have been around then to appreciate the similarity.

Happiness is today finding my 2010 "You might be a Redneck..........." calendar that I packed last June and I can go through quite a few of the past dates from June 2010 to December 31, 2010 in a few sittings. Life is good.

Ever get a new telephone number and wonder who had the number before you? We keep getting calls for someone we assume previously had our number. It happens so often that I now ask who's calling and whom they represent. This week it was a collection agency asking for some guy. Later a loan company was calling for a person I assume is his wife since the asked for someone with the same last name. It does put a certain mystique to answering the phone.

Today is our daughter Keri's ??rd birthday. Her due date was supposed to be April 5th but she wasn't ready that day. We finally got her on the 6th. It was one of the greatest days of my life. I hope that she and Eric have the same good fortune raising their two sons as we did raising Keri and her brother David. Of course, as an older sister, Keri helped shape David.

I learned a new word this week-"cremains." It's the ashes after a body has been cremated. I just referred to them as ashed but now I know the correct term. My spellchecker even knows it. I don't know if this falls into the category of useless info or not.

Yesterday it was 84 degrees in the Denver area. This afternoon it is snowing. A small southern Wyoming town store that is named "...............Guns and Grocery" will no longer sell groceries. Apparently the shipping costs and expiration dates make it fiscally impossible to continue selling groceries. The store will continue to sell guns and outdoor equipment. There must be no expiration date on guns or ammo.

It's opening day for the Rockies, temp in the low 70's, and I can watch the game on TV. Life is good. Go Rox!