'Merica!

July was an All-American month.

July 2nd was "American Day" at "Cars and Coffee", so naturally we brought Big Red to show off.  Chris and Jared left early to get a good parking space.  Lance, Titus and a friend followed a bit later in Bruce.  Amber and I stayed behind to have a nice girl chill kind of morning.

July 3rd we had our own personal firework display.  We bought the big pack from Costco this year and it was a BLAST (wink wink).

July 4th we went to the pool with the M Clan and finished off the day in true American style, watching Lance's baseball game.

July 8th Jared stared as Sheriff of Notingham in a theatrical version of "Robin Hood".  The cast worked very had for two weeks, six hours a day to get it together.  Jared had a great turn out of friends come to watch and of course he did fabulous.  Click this link to watch the whole show.

Jared thoroughly enjoyed being back on stage and hanging out with new and old friends. We are so thankful for this opportunity.

July 9th Jared had his cast party, Lance played airsoft with some old friends and Titus attended his first Sparing Team practice.  Titus was invited to join the team earlier in the week and he was thrilled and worn out in equal proportions by the end of his first class.  The jazzy uniform is a plus too.

Later that week we had the pleasure of an unexpected house guest. He is an avid Memoir '44 fan, so it was a much enjoyed visit for Jared and the rest of the family.  While he was here Lance fixed his car for him; putting on brakes, and (with a little help) wheel studs that had been cross threaded.

July 16th we went to a friends house to shoot Boom sticks, none of which the kids had ever shot before and many of which had never been used.  They all did exceptionally well and each had particular fun with different ones.  That's a big check off an old list.  Our two families get along so well we stayed long into the night with kids playing in the pool and we adults talking the night away.  It was a much needed night of fellowship for all.

July 19th William came over after work to celebrate his birthday with us.  Memoir '44 was of course part of the celebration.

July 23rd was the official Grand Opening of the new TaeKwonDo Studio location.  All the kids were harangued into participating in a class, Chris and Jared had fun breaking boards (11 and 9 respectively), then all of us joined in with the Drum Troop performance at the end.  Fun day of great demonstrations, food and festivities.  

July 28th we caught up with old friends at the pool we hadn't seen in long time.  I had forgotten how energizing having a fair conversation with someone could be.  The kids had forgotten how much fun the four of them had together.  Amber, Titus, Anara and Cordi were perfectly matched and never stopped playing and competing, it was great to watch.

July 29th Titus tested for his second TIP (He needs four tips before he can move from Bodan to Black Belt).  He passed with flying colors, though this was not an easy task and some students did not pass.

July 30th the boys had their first movie theater experience.  They went with the M-Clan to the matinee with individual reclining chairs to see "Minions".  As is the current tradition, they dressed up for the movie and wore their special badges.  They loved the experience but the movie was so-so. 

While they were there Chris and I took Amber on a date.  Picking up a new American Doll we'd found on Nextdoor, eating lunch at Alpaca and as a big family surprise we picked up a new TV at Costco.  Our previous TV was 19 yo and we needed it upstairs in bonus room so boys could practice TKD and I could do my yoga with a screen big enough to see.

When boys got back, the older boys decided to have more fun being dressed up so they headed out to grab some groceries and get gas, in style (Ava added the graphic).  People in the grocery store didn't know how to react, much to the boyz amusement.  

Next, Titus and Brogan stayed at our home and the older boys headed to another "English Country Dance".  They picked up another friend along the way and had a capital time again. M-Clan adults came over to have dinner with us and we too had a great time of fellowship, lots of laughing, till the older boys returned.

July 31st was the last game for Shakes, next onto college baseball.  Wood bat and the leg kick go away, metal bat returns.

When Lance wasn't working on other peoples cars this month, he did a lot of work on Homer.  He replaced his engine mounts, transmission mounts (realized they were worse when replacing the motor because of knocking), window regulator (window fell down in door), then while he was at it, the sliding door motors as well (the one door hadn't worked in years).  With all the TLC Homer has been getting the last two months he's practically running as well as when he was new. 

Amber continued to improve at her riding.

Finally, we made further progress on the backyard project, which is much appreciated by all the wildlife moving in.

Celebrations!

The last few weeks have been full of celebrations.

June 17th the group that organized the ballroom dancing classes a few years back, held an "English Country Dance".  Lance and Jared were thrilled to have more opportunities to dance.  The weather was rather crazy that night.  At home Chris and I were out for a walk with the dogs when this terrible wind storm kicked up.  We were of course at the opposite end of the neighborhood, trees were swaying dangerously and by the time we got back to our end of the neighborhood we saw our neighbor had a big tree down over the road and Amber and Titus were running toward us telling us the power was out.  We hoped the storm had missed the boys.  We would later learn, it hit them as well and they lost power too.  However, they just took off their cowboy hats and jackets, moved the dance outside and still had a marvelous time.

This storm was a short doozy, power was still out come morning and the contents of the fridge were in danger so we started up our generator for the very first time (with the help of Grandpa Frank who always has extra gasoline around, we found out the hard way the siphon we bought for this emergency wouldn't work on Bruce because it has anti-siphon technology.....UGH).  Once we got the generator running and food was secure, we headed over to clear up the trees for our neighbors.  They had the one down in the road and another was across their front porch blocking the entrance to their home.  A chainsaw and six able bodies with big clippers made quick work of the mess.  Then Lance and Jared cleaned up and went to their friend Nathan's last ballet performance.  Not to be left out of getting into air conditioning, Chris and I took Amber and Titus to their favorite restaurant, Alpaca for lunch. Power finally came back at 2:30pm.

June 24th was Emma's Graduation Party.  As a gift we printed out all the pictures we could find of Emma with our family over the last eight years, what a walk down memory lane that was for everyone that night.  Ironically, Amanda had decorated with pictures as well. Emma had an actual record player with old big band music to add to the reminiscent atmosphere.  Finally, to top the night off her brother Connor made a surprise visit, getting leave from the Army to come home for the week.  After the official festivities were over and things were calming down I took Emma and Amanda for a ride in Big Red.  They both like "Vroom" very much.  Then Chris took Tim for spin (or at least a fast straight). 

June 26th we spent the morning working on the backyard project.  The ponds were leveled and a lot of the rock was placed (We have literally 3 tons to put down).  Chris used some of the rock to fix his french drain up front (its looks and works much better now).  In the evening, we went to Sofia's Graduation party.  It was our first time out at their new house.  What a charming group of people, some were even old friends we forgot we had in common, everyone (kids and adults) had a marvelous time late into the night.

July 1st was the last graduation party of the season, Will's.  It was across the street at TCC and Jared had a blast, playing games and eventually marching home in formation with Will and some of his friends. The rest of us stayed home while Lance checked out Sofia's car for her.  Amber was enjoyed the girl time with Sofia.

In between all this celebrating...

our family joined a new community pool,

Amber continued to advance in her riding,

Titus flourished at TaeKwonDo, 

Lance had fun learning at Hendrick and playing baseball.

Jared had a huge reason to celebrate....one long awaited.....after five years of work!!!!

Shake it Baby!

Sunday, Lance played his first collegiate baseball game.  He is playing for the "South Wakes Shakes" this Summer.  He is so excited! He even bought himself pink batting gloves to match the uniforms.  Things were a little chaotic, he started out showing his willingness to serve by being the 1st Base coach during the first half of the game.  Then in the 7th Inning they put him as catcher, and he showed them how well he knows his craft.  He had quite the cheering section at the end, many of our friends had come to cheer him on.  Grandma Mary was hysterical heckling the other team each time they struck out with Lance at the wheel.  Amber was adorable when they got to run the bases after the game with all the players giving kids high fives and she bear-hugged Lance for a second before finishing her run.  Kids were even asking for his autograph after the game, he had worked on a special one with a baseball in one "O" and a smile in the other;  and the kids absolutely loved it.

Small world moment, there were two kids there he hadn't seen since middle school ball, one was on Shakes with him and the other was working in the stadium.

Tuesday, Jared shot outdoor archery for the first time since 2019, since he's aged over that time his distance increased to 50M.  Good news is he didn't loose any arrows.

Titus' coach is the GM of the Dodge dealership, and at practice one day he asked Lance if he was interested in working for him. Took three weeks to create the job, do background and drug testing.  Then Wednesday Lance got his first taste of corporate America. He had six hour orientation with HR at Hendrick Automotive.  They put him through the whole show, personality test and all.  He was very pleased to find out how conservative the company remains and that Mr. Hendrick is a christian and very involved with the company.

Thursday was Lance's first real day on the job and he absolutely loved it.  The guys were great and so excited to have him there.  He was taken under multiple wings, learning a bit about lube (his official title is "Lube Technician") and then about tires.

Friday, was game two of the Shakes season.  Went a lot like the first game and Lance filled the stands again with fans.

Saturday, we went to the wedding of a friend.  Everyone looked amazing and I totally didn't get a picture of us all but the boys got this one of "Da Boyz"

Tonight, was game three.  He got tattooed up by some blocked wild pitches.  Turf does not absorb any energy like real dirt.  More fans again tonight and I ran the bases with little Anna.

Five more to go!

Evolution of a Vette

When we bought Big Red in December we knew it needed a new clutch; we gave that task to a friend and month later we had him back ready for us to take on fixing everything else.

It started with simple tasks like headlight motors, then on a drive Chris wisely realized something was not right and when they got home he realized the harmonic balancer was slipping and needed replacing.  Had Chris not checked it out, it could have destroyed the engine.

This was a much bigger task, they had to take out the radiator fan, the steering rack, drop the sub-frame and move various other items in the way.  It took a lot of elbow grease, quite few days, and a blow torch but in the end they had success.

Now they could move onto the big fix they wanted to do.  A brand new Borla Atak exhaust.  With the x-pipe installed by the previous owner it makes the most beautiful sound I've ever heard from a Corvette.

Then it was back to simpler fixes, like repairing the seats, and adding details in and outside the car like black lettering for contrast on the Corvette logos.

So for now we are done modifying Big Red and just enjoying our V8 therapy.  He's sounding amazing!

 

Rabbit Rabbit New Habits

This week we started back doing a lot of things we'd had a break from for far too long.

Jared and Titus started back archery (after taking three months off for baseball) and it's outdoor season (which we haven't been able to do since 2019).  However, they started back doing indoor, partially to get back in the groove and partially because Titus needs his blue pin before he can do outdoor plus Jared needed to buy new outdoor arrows.  Wednesday was pin night and Titus earned his White JOAD pin (only two left).  Next pin will be harder but I know he can do it because he accidentally earned this pin using a 40cm target instead of the bigger 60cm target ;-).

We stopped Taekwondo 19 months ago.  Titus missed it terribly, it was so awesome to see Titus back in his dobok this week (Though he did need a new one as he had outgrown his old one by about 6 inches).  The instructors were just as glad to see him; as he was to be there, its always great to be somewhere where you're truly wanted.  When they did their breaking Master Ko waited to call on Titus till the very end.  He apparently wanted him to do his breaking alone (other kids were called in groups).  It warmed a mother's heart to see Master Ko's confidence in Titus has not wavered, and it was incredible to see how well Titus did considering the long break.  (See the Video Below)

 

Amber had an eventful ride on Friday, Scout decided to have Amber do a "horse planned dismount".  Rather than being scared, she thought it was a thrill and got right back on.  Kendall treated it the same and only instructed her on what to do different to avoid a repeat.  The horses were all really in a mood, another girl was thrown twice and more violently, not sure what was in the air but thankful all were fine in the end.

Friday night, was season end pizza party for Titus' Dillard Drive Dragons.   Titus played Wake County Club Ball this Spring, it's more competitive than Rec Ball but the biggest appeal for Titus was possibility of being with same kids for the next three years.  Thankfully, its a really great group of kids and coaches.  Jared was the official GameChanger guy and Lance helped coach whenever he wasn't playing.  The team was never skunked because in every single game Titus not only hit but scored (frequently he was the only run).  Beware of the little man!  He did some awesome saves in the field as well, one time I swear he had springs in his shoes, he jumped so high to catch a ball at short-stop.

 

This morning, boys went to "Cars and Coffee", it was Lambo Day, and Jared fell in love....which inspired Titus and Chris to do some more work on Big Red, task today was fixing the electric seats.  Isn't he pretty...

This afternoon we acquired a third dog.  Did I scare you?  It was an emergency thing we have a friend's dog for a few days.  But I thought the Medium, Large, Small photo was pretty funny.

Tonight we were entertained by Jared's beautiful performance at his piano recital, he hadn't had a formal recital since June 2019.  Miss Kathy had him as the last performer of the night and he simply blew them away with his beautiful music.  He said it was great how the professional piano just sprang back with every touch (See Video Below).  

Nice to be busy again.

TANKS! FOR THE TANKS!

Jared's big birthday gift this year was a "Climb On" tour of the Tank Museum.  His friend William and he got to geek out with the museum docent (and owners son) on and in eight different tanks for two hours.  The rest of us tagged along or took side trips throughout their tour.  Lance was enamored with the old cars, Titus with the mini tank battle going on and everything else we explored.

(In Jared's Words)

Upon arriving at the AAF Tank Museum, we checked in at the front and the lady working there told us to pick out our 8 tanks before our docent arrived. We had actually arrived so early, in addition to picking out tanks to tour, we got to watch an RC Tank Battle in the museum's arena, and tour the uniform part of the museum. Once the time came, we met up with our docent, Mr. Daniel, and the tour began!

The first tank we toured was the German Panzer Mark IV. After receiving the do's and don'ts of entering a tank, William entered the turret hatch (commander's seat) and I entered the driver's hatch, located on the hull.

In the movies, they make entering a tank look as easy as entering a car...it's not. You need some serious arm strength to get in and out of those hatches, especially tanks where there's a long way down in the turret.

I sat down on what I thought was the seat. "You're actually sitting on the ammo rack," Mr. Daniel called down to me from the turret hatch, "The seat is further down." It was then I understood how CRAMPED a tank was! Your legs were squeezed in-between the sides of the tank, with the 2 levers (for driving the tank, one controlled each track) in-between your legs, and Mr. Daniel showed me that the automatic transmission was right next to me! If I had used that as an armrest when the tank was operating, I would've gotten burnt! And as for visibility...there is ZERO visibility. The only thing to look through was a little slit not much bigger than 2 pencils stacked on-top of one-another.

William and I switched spots, and I lowered myself into the commander's seat. To my left was the gunner's seat, to my right was the loader's. One thing I was always curious about WW2 tanks was whether or not there was a wall in-between the driver and the turret. There is not. "During WW2 the crews didn't have fancy headsets to communicate with each other," Mr. Daniel informed us, "As the commander, you had to yell orders to everyone in the tank. And the other 4 people in the tank had to do whatever he said immediately. If 1 person fails to do there job for a moment...everyone's dead." He also answered my question regarding if it was true that German tank doctrine said you weren't allowed to leave your tank unless it was on fire. "That was true for almost all armies. You never leave your tank. You don't even leave if you have to use the restroom. If you had to go in a possible combat situation, you held it, or you went. It doesn't even matter if your friend is dying next to your tank, you never leave. It's sad and it stinks, but like I said, you have to do your job. If you don't, you've just killed 4 other men." I exited the tank with one of the hatches located on the sides of the turret, and we moved on to our next tank.

The second tank we toured was the M60A2 Patton, one of only a few left! This tank was much taller than the Mk. IV, and much heavier as well (57 tons to the Mk. IV's 27 tons). Climbing into the turret (and later the driver's seat) was once again a challenge, but at least there were real seats on the inside! One of the coolest features of this tank was how to move the turret. The gunner had what looked like a video game controller that he used to operate the turret. Turn the controller to turn the turret, and tilt the controller to move the gun up and down. The commander also had his own set, and he could override the gunner's control of the turret with the flip of a switch. The M60A2 also had a second, smaller turret on top. This housed a 20mm machine gun, and the mini-turret could be operated independently from the main turret. The driver's hatch was very cramped (there was no assistant driver in the M60s). The hatch was positioned in a way that prevented it from opening if the turret was pointed forwards. Mr. Daniel told us if the tank was hit when the turret was in that position, the driver couldn't get out the hatch! Thankfully, some tanks have an escape portal on the floor of the driver's compartment.

The third tank we toured was the M247 Sergeant York Self-Propelled Anti-Aircraft Gun. This tank was another one of the Pentagon's billion dollar failures. The idea was to take the hull of an M48 Patton, and slap a turret with 2 40mm AA Guns on top. This design was reminiscent of the WW2 German Flakpanzer. The problem was...it was terrible at hitting aircraft. On top of that, The M247 was so slow, a plane it tried to attack could immediately circle around and eliminate the Sergeant York. The example we toured was one of the tallest tanks at the museum. The inside was very open, except for the 2 seats, some optics, and A LOT of wires! At this point we were starting to feel the heat inside of these armored vehicles, Mr. Daniel said they could get between 100-120 degrees Fahrenheit easy in a combat situation. Not exactly a joy ride😂!

The fourth tank was technically not a tank. It was the M55 Self-Propelled Howitzer. This behemoth was mounted with an 8in Howitzer. The Cold-War Era M55 was used to shell targets once off-shore batteries like destroyers and battleships were out of range. In today's warfare, the job of Self-Propelled Guns has been mostly taken over by planes and drones. There were, in fact, 2 M55s on display at the museum, one the Army version, the other the Marine configuration. The only major difference between the two is the Army M55 has a cabin, while the Marine one is open-topped. This was by far the most roomy tank we toured, but it was not without its share of fun quirks and features. One being how to load the 8in gun. In order to load it, the gun would have to be level (pointing forward) before the shell was loaded. The shell and the power were loaded separately, with how many powder cases depending on how far away the target was. Once the gun was loaded, the gun would be raised, usually well over 45 degrees. Once the order was given, the gun would fire, and the barrel would be lowered again before loading the second round. One question we had for Mr. Daniel was whether or not the M55 could be used in an anti-tank roll. The answer was a resounding NO! Mr. Daniel said the gun was so inaccurate at short range, that it probably couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, much less a moving tank! He also said this vehicle would never be deployed anywhere near the front lines, as the 8in Howitzer could fire over 12 miles, it should never see the enemy on the battlefield.

The fifth tank we toured was the Soviet T34/85. This tank was arguable the best tank of WW2, though the one we toured was produced after the war in Czechoslovakia (modern-day Czech Republic). Even though the T34 had the most rust of any tank we toured, the tank was still drivable! Although, it would spew oil and smoke everywhere when it started. We asked Mr. Daniel if that was because it was old. "Nope," he said, "That's just Soviet tanks. If it doesn't make a big mess, there's something wrong with it." After entering the tank, William sat in the driver's seat and I stood where the commander's seat would've been (the seat was missing). Mr. Daniel then directed our attention to the many wires and different parts around the turret, and we noticed that each one was a different color. "Imagine who would be operating this tank," Mr. Daniel explained, "It's going to be farmers and factory workers who are illiterate [can't read or write]. So instruction manuals were useless. The Russian solution to the problem was to color code the tank. Green is broken, Red needs to be replaced, Brown is non-operational. It made it easy for any civilian to jump into a tank and be able to operate and fix everything with little to no training." Things you never think about! A funny moment did occur when touring this tank. I banged my head for the (surprisingly) only time when touring the museum! And this was one of the more roomy tanks😂.

The sixth tank we explored was the US M1917 Light Tank. This tank was a carbon copy of the WWI French FT-17, with only some miner changes. The tank we toured was used in multiple movies, including the Gary Cooper film For Whom the Bell Tolls. The M1917 is one of the rarest American tanks in history, so it was extremely special when we were allowed to tour it! I didn't think I was going to fit inside of that tank, due to its very small size. Surprisingly, the M1917 was the easiest tank to get into! One of the special things about touring this tank was it only had 2 crew members, so when William and I were both in the tank it felt like we could actually operate it! The thing that stood out the most to us was how advanced it was, from the suspension, to how to drive it, to the shape of the tank itself, we had to keep reminding  ourselves this tank was designed in the 1910s. This was William's favorite tank at the museum.

The seventh tank was, like the M55, technically not classed as a tank. It was the M18 Hellcat Tank Destroyer. This vehicle was the most successful American Tank Destroyer of WWII, with an impressive 2.4-to-1 kill-to-loss ratio. It had one major drawback though. "The armor has a maximum thickness of half an inch," said Mr. Daniel. "The designers traded armor for blistering speed. Meaning, while it could go 55mph on a road, it would be destroyed by any non-small-arms weapon shot at it." This M18 was hit in the turret by a 20mm anti-aircraft gun. While it didn't disable the tank, it did sadly kill the gunner (who still haunts the M18 to this day...or so we've heard). Speaking of the turret, it was open topped. While that did mean the commander, gunner, and loader were all exposed to bullets, grenades, and shell fragments, it did have 1 major advantage. American Tankers in the Hellcat could see everything! They didn't have to look through small slits to find their targets, meaning M18s had a better chance of spotting, and firing at an enemy tank before said tank could see them. This, along with it's great speed, was crucial to the M18's success. One feature worth noting was the .50cal machine gun mount. The .50cal was mounted on a circular rail that the commander would stand in. If the rail wasn't locked (like it was at the museum) the machine gun could traverse 360 degrees, allowing the commander to fire the deadliest machine gun offered to American ground units in any direction. The M18 Hellcat is by far one of my favorite "tanks."

The eighth and final tank William and I toured was the Soviet T72A/M1. This tank was one of the largest we toured today, measuring over 22 feet long! It was also the most modern. That said, it was the HARDEST to get into! When we first lowered ourselves into the turret, I nearly moved my shoulder in a way that it wasn't supposed to go, I also scraped (no blood) my leg when I lowered myself down. If you have claustrophobia, DON'T GO INTO THIS TANK! William and I were very cramped in the forest of wires, dials, levers, buttons, and electronic equipment.

The T72 was the only tank we toured with an auto-loader. Unlike other tanks (including the US M1A3 Abrams tank), you don't have to reload shells after each round is fired, the tank does it for you. We asked why more modern tanks aren't equipped with this feature. "Despite the increased speed in loading, there were many problems with the auto-loader," Mr. Daniel related. "The auto-loader would sometimes malfunction, and in many cases, cause the round to explode prematurely inside the tank." Makes sense why most main battle tanks don't have an auto-loader!

Outside the tank, Mr. Daniel directed our attention to a V-shaped strip of metal on the frontal armor. "Sloped armor is by far one of the best shapes for armoring a tank," Mr. Daniel explained. "But it does have one drawback. In between the turret and the hull is a small gap, which is very weak. If a round hits that lip, the tank is destroyed. Tank designers realized that sometimes, instead of a round deflecting off the sloped armor, it would slide up the slope right into the gap. The solution was this V-shaped strip of metal, which guided the round away from the turret! There was even a smaller version of this on the T34." WOW! So simple, yet so effective!

The final fun feature of this tank was in the driver's hatch. If you shined a light at the gauges, they glow in the dark! Very helpful in the dark, cramped environment.

With that, our tour of the AAF Tank Museum came to an end. After thanking Mr. Daniel, we picked up some COBI sets from the gift shop and headed out, not expecting one final adventure. We were driving down NC-540 when it started to rain, no big deal, right? The rain soon turned into a downpour, and we saw many brake lights ahead underneath an overpass. Thinking it was just people who couldn't drive in the rain (a VERY common occurrence in North Carolina) we didn't think much of it...until there was a loud "CLANG!" on the roof. In a split second, we went from a downpour, to zero visibility thunderstorm with marble-sized hail! Lance, who was driving, quickly slowed down and went onto the shoulder, with his cautions on. We crept under the overpass where many other drivers were already sheltered. William, who had been sleeping, woke up. "I'm awake now!" He said with a smile, which gave the rest of the car a needed laugh. We waited a few minutes for the storm to pass and we headed home.

The trip ended with us watching MIDWAY and William and I playing Memoir '44. We all had a great time at the museum, and I can't wait to go back!

(Back to Mom)

In fact, most of his birthday week involved war movies, Memoir challenges and lots of pizza; much to Jared's extreme pleasure. We finished it all off in traditional style with an ambush and Spice Cake!