Beth and Jim - Good times!

Well this has certainly been an interesting week on Beth's side of the family.  First, on Wednesday in the early morning, Beth's aunt Lisa gathered some fame for herself when she drove into a wash.  In Tucson at this time of year, it can be completely dry around town but rain from the mountains can still flash flood the washes.  It was about 3:30 am and Lisa was driving to work when she tried to drive through an area that was apparently flooded.  Usually the roads have barricades up when the washes are flooded, but these weren't up at the time.  Probably because it wasn't raining.  Anyway, she was on the news.

Here's the news story:

Woman rescued from Rillito River
Posted: July 23, 2008 06:36 PM

It's an area all too familiar for rescuers, the Rillito River near River Road and Camino de La Tierra.

Almost every monsoon drivers try to get across but have to be fished out which is exactly what happened this morning.

And for firefighters a textbook rescue

Her car, then floated about a half-mile down stream.

In the 911 call obtained by News 4, a dispatcher asks "you're stuck in the wash? Are you in a vehicle?" She responds "yes I'm sitting on the door."

Tucson fire says it makes about six rescues each year here.

"On a typical year we probably have twenty rescues. So six in the grand scheme of things at this wash could be a lot," says TFD Capt. Norm Carlton.

The city says 5,000 cars a day travel this stretch of road. For comparison, 25,000 cars a day cross at La Canada. 25,000 cross at La Cholla. 52,000 cross at Oracle. A bridge at Camino de La Tierra would cost $6 million. The city says it isn't cost effective. They don't consider permanent barricades an option, and haven't priced them out.

"Bottom line is don't get in this predicament," Carlton says.

Then, we had a funeral for Beth's step-grandfather Lindy.  We had heard rumors about him getting into a fight with his roommate at the rest home, but didn't realize that it was generating a full-blown investigation. Now they are talking about homicide!  Crazy.

Video of Lindy's news story

Elderly Man Dies Following a Fight at his Rest Home

Posted: July 24, 2008 04:56 PM
Updated: July 24, 2008 09:43 PM

By Dan Marries and J.D. Wallace KOLD News 13

An 88 year old man is dead following a fight at a local rest home.  Investigators say 88 year old Orval Lindell got into a fight at Desert Life Rehabilitation And Care near Orange Grove and La Cholla with his elderly room mate on June 12.  Lindell fell on the floor and began to complain of neck and back pain.  He was taken to the VA Hospital and for the next several days his condition deteriorated.  Lindell died June 24th in a hospice center.

Following an autopsy the Pima County Medical Examiner ruled Lindell's death a homicide as a result of his fall during the fight.  Initially, the Elder Abuse Task Force was working the case but it has now been taken over by homicide detectives from the Pima County Sheriff's Department.

Desert Life released a statement saying: "This is a sad and unfortunate situation. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family members of Mr. Lindell. The facility responded immediately to the incident and called emergency services.  The incident was reported to the proper authorities and we are cooperating with the ongoing investigation. Due to resident confidentiality we cannot comment further."

No word yet on whether or not the roommate will be charged in this case.

I didn't know Lindy too well, but I did talk to him quite a bit when he was a little younger and could still hear fairly well.  He was stationed on the USS California during the Pearl Harbor attack.  He told me stories about that day.  Some of the things I remember:

• He said when the attack started, he was below deck in his quarters and that it sounded like it was raining. He was hearing the sound of bullets hitting the ship.
• He worked as a radio operator on the California, and relayed the command to the Nevada to beach herself. If the Nevada had sunk where it was, it would have blocked the channel.  I thought it was cool to hear that piece of history.
• His worst memories were after the battle when he was working on small boats helping pull victims out of the water.  He said many were covered with oil and on some their skin was peeling away.

Pictures of the USS California (left) and the USS Nevada (right) after the Pearl Harbor attack.

Rest in Peace Lindy.

We attended our first baby class on Thursday - the first of 5 weekly sessions.  I begrudgingly attended - I'm not a big fan of spending time with other couples in a pregnancy classroom environment, but Beth wants to go and how can I say no to that?  Our instructor Wanda didn't waste any time.  She immediately showed us a video of a woman giving birth.  I think the thing that surprised me most was she wasn't giving birth in the traditional "legs in stirrups" position - it was standing up bent over.  I think it goes to show how much we absorb from movies and pop culture, and how often that information can be wrong.  Not that I'm saying people don't give birth the old fashioned way, but Wanda says that some other positions are actually easier.  As a guy, I had no idea that concept existed.  Maybe women know about it and I'm just catching up to the game.

Actually the class wasn't too bad, just a little long.  At one point, she had a couple of men volunteer to wear what I would best describe as a pregnancy simulator.  They strapped on a big backpack to their stomachs that weighed about the same as what women carry before giving birth - about 28 pounds if I remember right.  I think the point of it was to show how uncomfortable it was carrying that around, but the guys didn't complain as much as I think Wanda was hoping for.  However, it was funny watching them try to sit down or pick up something off the floor.

Next week we discuss the actual childbirth process. That should be a fun one.

Our mastiff turned two years old on July 3rd, which is supposed to mark the finish line of his growth spurt. Right now I believe he weighs in around 150 pounds or so, which is still a little on the light side for a full grown American Mastiff.  Conan has always been on the lean side...which is either due to his grazing eating habits or maybe he's genetically gifted that way.  In any case, his height seems to have tapered off but he is still slowly bulking up.  We'll see if he packs on some more poundage :)

Along with being two years old, his chewing habits seemed to have dropped off as well, so Beth and I thought we would try leaving him outside of his crate while we are at work. I have to admit, I was a little nervous about it.  The dogs are so used to going into the crates in the morning - they normally get a delicious chicken chewy - that Conan was very confused the first couple of times.  He ran to his crate in the morning (as usual) to find the cage door was locked. He was still looking at me when I locked the door...apparently wondering what was going on.  I crossed my fingers and left for work. We'll see how the experiment goes.

Ten hours later - we came home and the house was fine! It looks like he can be the house watchdog now. Scaring away magazine salesmen and other solicitors (that's one nice thing about having giant dogs). Moka on the other hand may never get out of her crate...she isn't 100% housebroken.

Beth insists that I can't start a home improvement project without getting distracted without starting three other projects to distract me...which is a nice way of saying that it takes me a year to finish anything I start. So I've set my mind to completing our backyard (or at least the lawn part of it) before our 4th of July party.  What's involved with installing a lawn? Apparently a lot more than I thought:

• Design the lawn layout

Easy enough.  I used Google Sketchup to create a backyard design, complete with garden, rock walls, lawn, gravel, drainage.  If you haven't used Sketchup, I highly recommend it - it's easy to use and FREE.

• Design the sprinkler system

This turned out to be a LOT more work than I anticipated. You have to make sure that every sprinkler head overlaps the sprinklers next to it ("head to head coverage"). If I didn't do this, then there would be brown spots on the lawn where it wasn't getting enough water. This is a simple matter with nice rectangular lawns, but my design has a lot of curves in it. Then you have to make sure the flow rates and dynamic pressure of the system gets enough water to each of your sprinkler heads. Luckily, there is a website that goes into excruciating detail on designing a good sprinkler system. We'll see if it works or not.

• Measure and layout the design in the backyard with stakes and string

Which my dog promptly dug up, ate, tore...and otherwise destroyed.

• Spray paint the layout on the backyard

Using my trusty tape measure and a special can of spray paint (it sprays upside down - genius idea!), I painted my design on the backyard.  Let's see the dog eat this!

• Repaint the layout in the areas where my dog dug up the paint or covered the paint with dirt expelled from other holes the dog was digging at the time.

Apparently I underestimated the dedication of my dog in this respect.

• Install plastic construction fence to keep the dogs confined to a small area of our yard. Ha!

With the dogs now under control, I can continue on with my layout. Note the construction fence on the right:

Now I can finally see what the design looks like in real life. And decide that I don't like it. And Beth wants more grass. Back to the drawing board, I move things around a little bit (or a lot). The bad part...I have to redo the entire sprinkler system design.  SIGH.

• REDESIGN, REDO, CORRECT, etc. etc.

Now for the fun part...

• Rent massive power tool called a trencher to dig (what else) trenches for the irrigation lines.
• Install irrigation lines

Will Jim finish it before the 4th of July and redeem his reputation? Or will Beth once again be proved right? Tune in next week to find out more!

With the onset of Memorial Day, Beth and I are starting our first summer in our new home.  Which means one thing to me...GRILL SEASON.  There is nothing I enjoy more than (and read this with a cockney accent) "grillin on me ol' weber" in the backyard.  My weber charcoal grill has served me well these past 7 or 8 years, and it appears to have built up substantial "flavor deposits" on the grill itself (other people might call it crud, but what do they know).  This year I'm going to try something new on the grill - plank grilling.  Basically you take a piece of wood and soak it overnight, then roast your food on it.  For my first try, I'm making chicken stuffed with gorgonzola and spinach.  Should be DELICIOUS.  Or a disaster.

We've completed our first home improvement project, a new entertainment center.  Now I could say that I put it in myself because none of the pictures can't prove I didn't, but really it is a local company that usually does custom closet designs.  Now we have some place to put all of our crap...err I mean CDs, DVDs and games ;)

We've spotted some more wildlife in our backyard.  The latest has been a family of quail.  Today they brought along their brood of baby chicks which is a rare sight to see.

We've also seen a bunch of other animals which you can check out on our Picasa web album, Beth and Jim's Wild Kingdom.  There are some animals I don't have pictures of yet, like the little chipmunks that eat the birdseed too.  Well, actually I found out they aren't chipmunks even though they look exactly like them; they're called antelope squirrels.  Who knew.  Now you do.