Planet Stahl

Well, that title could mean a lot of things!  What I am tryig to say is my postings on this page are falling off due to my newfound habit of GOING TO WORK!  Ha Ha…  What a change of pace!

Its been good.  I feel bad when people walk in the door and see me with my foot up on a stool with me kicked back looking relaxed…  But then again…  Screw ‘em…  I’m hurting!  Most people I know, and will realize this is not a normal pose.  But there are those people who look at me like “lazy bones”.

Once the cast was pulled off, the Doc said to expect full movement in 3 months.  But, man, this thing is stiff!  And it swells a lot when I walk to much.   I will see the doc in another 2 weeks and he can tell me if this is all normal.  Though, I may call this week to make sure.

It is officially getting to Summer when I can start grilling!

I have had the luxury of grilling steaks twice in the past 2 weeks.  Yum!

Since the kids hate the stuff… It gives me plenty of good leftovers during the week.  (To put on my salad!  I am not completely unhealthy!)

Aiden and I were looking at new grills yesterday.  I had replaced the burner units, lava rocks and lower grates last summer.  But I think this summer may be the fairwell tour.  Its getting pretty rough around the edges.  Some of these grills at the store are upwards of 500 bucks!!!  Man, I love to grill, but I think the electric spittle might be a little more than I need.  If I spend more than 160.00…  I will be shocked.

Cast came off on Thursday.  (No near blackouts)

Started back Friday.  It was slow… So that helps!  Work made sure I had a stoll to sit at for the day!  Talk about leisurely!  Ha Ha!  Actually after a day of work… I was plenty sore. 

I felt like a bad Dad Sunday…  We did not go to the Airshow in Peoria like I had told the kids we would.  My mind said yes… But the foot said NO! 

Cooked steaks on the grill yesterday…  And Ang resealed the deck…  And we have Summer on our minds!

Thursday morning… Its all over.  Well, the cast part anyway!

I am SO looking forward to putting on a shoe and starting to walk like normal.  Not to mention “steps”.  Those have been a nightmare with hardwood floors and a fiberglass cast.  Its like walking on a block of ice!

Back to work on Friday!  I will have to shave!  Had a nice beard going on!

A good friend of mine, Phil, is trying to get on the Food Network via a contest for Bobby Flay’s show. 

Here is a link to the clip… Just vote it a 5 and be on your way!  Thanks!

PS, some of you probably know Phil as Clarke from the Clarkehead Brewery.

That link is suspect…  It has not always worked for me…  If it doesnt… Just look for the “Quack-A-Dillas” by Phil.  Grilled duck quesadillas!  Yum!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_gt/

Its officially spring based on the color of the pasture…  Its finally turning green!  What a relief!  Its been a long time coming!

We went to the Renewable Expo in Chillicothe on Saturday.  It was a very small expo for companies that were promoting alternative energy and energy saving techniques for existing homes.  I have to believe that this kind of show could be a big draw… But what do I know???  It was pretty minimal as far as the attendance I witnessed.

We met some guys from Midwest Green Energy…  They are a Peoria company that work with Solar and Wind energy on a consumer level.  We are gonna have these guys come out to the house and give us some ideas for adding one of these techs to the farmstead.  Promises to be exciting!  Updates as those happen.

While at the Expo…  The Chillicothe Optimist club was handing out free kites for people to fly at 3 sisters park.  They also had coupons for free ice cream cones at McDonald’s.  Very cool!  We flew the kites and went to McDonalds afterwards for cones.  So, the kids said declared that “3 sisters park was the greatest park ever”.  It doesn’t take much huh?

The yard…  Well…  A couple of years of draught have really messed this sucker up.  Ang wanted to thatch the lawn this weekend.  We rented a “Thatcher” from A to Z Rental for the weekend at a low-low cost of $50.00.  I think that’s low???  Never really went out and priced them!

The thing about a thatcher…  The easy part is running the machine…  The hard part that no-one ever talks about is raking up after it! 

Heres what it does.  The thatcher has these “beater bars” (Any Kirby salesman out there?) that knock out all the dead grass and leaves that are impacted into the lawn…  These are keeping grass from growing naturally, and promoting weed growth.  So, running the thatcher kicks all this stuff out, and leaves you will exposed dirt underneath the layer of “pulled up” junk.

We have a lot of yard… So, it ends up being a lot of raking!  And its not like raking leaves…  No, this is ultra fine stuff.

I raked for about an hour on Saturday afternoon…  Then my hip (countering the bad leg pressure) started grinding like I needed a replacement!  So, I had to sit!  Ang loved that!!!  But then again… I think she knew that was coming!  Sunday morning I ran the machine for about 45 minutes…  Its slightly self propelled, so it was not that bad for me to hop along behind.

Ang added the first treatment of granules in our first attempt to medicate our lawn with a 5 seasonal plan.  Normally we just call True Green!  We shall see if its worth the money savings.  I can tell you that 3 bags of the first step did not seem that cheap!

Right now…  The yard is patchy green and brown…  And we have high expectations!

Less that 2 weeks and I am back to work!!!  So, enjoy these updates!

Thought of the day:  My toes are like cicadas…  They are developing shells and shedding them after a long dormency period!!!  (Even Robyn Hitchcock could not write that weirdness!)

Health Rider update….  Have not riden it over the weekend… Going for 5 days this week though!

Mosied down to the basement today…  To remove stickers from the basement windows…  No biggie.

I saw the “long idle” Health Rider sitting in the corner and thought… “Hey, I could use a little exercise”

Easy enough…  Wiped the dust off of it and sat down mid-song on my iPod…

Got through 1 song, and by the time the second song was over…  Was breaking a sweat and nearly winded!  Man!  Out of shape or what?

I can tell you that right now as I type this… I have a headache!  Almost as bad as that Wheat Grass headache I got from taking Don’s advice!

This was a good thing to do…  I will hit it again each day until I go back to work…  I really want to ride my bike… But it is still very cold, and if I tip to the right while stopping, I will probably brake other bones!

(Funny thing about spell-checkers…  Mosied does not appear to be a word!  If John Wayne were alive it would still be in the dictionary!)