Aloha Friday Archives - Page 20 of 34

Aloha Friday: The Icy Hazards of Winter

February 18, 2011 TechyDad Aloha Friday, Photos, Winter

I’ve written before about our snow problems. Chief among them are ice dams. Basically, due to poor insulation in our upstairs room, heat warms our upper roof and snow on that roof melts. The dripping water refreezes on the lower roof. Over time, the ice gets very thick and very heavy. We tried various methods of removing the ice, but had only limited success.

With the recent warm weather, we noticed two things. First of all, the ice was melting and thus was separating from the roof. Secondly, the gutter on one side of our house was bending. Obviously, the ice was shifting. Instead of putting its considerable weight on our roof, it was placing the weight on the gutter. I decided to remove the ice dams before any serious damage was done.

I positioned a ladder and carefully scaled it. Once at the top, I used a hammer to chip away at the ice. Small chunks flew from the giant ice block. (Fast moving, but small chunks of ice really hurt when they hit your face, by the way.) Then some big chunks fell off. I descended the ladder to reposition it so I could reach more of the ice. As I stepped off the ladder, there was a creaking/ripping sound. Suddenly, the ice came crashing down, bringing our gutters with it.

Here are some photos of the aftermath. That hunk of ice was *heavy*!

With the ice down, inspiration struck. Here’s my own little creation. I call it Ice Henge. I shall pray to it in the hopes that Spring arrives quickly and gets rid of all of this snow and ice.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Has your house ever been damaged by the winter (or other seasonal) weather?

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the McLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #75

Aloha Friday: A Valentine’s Gift

February 11, 2011 TechyDad Aloha Friday, Holidays

On Monday, couples all over will celebrate Valentine’s Day. They will surprise the ones they love with flowers, chocolate, and jewelry. These may be the traditional Valentine’s Day gifts, but they aren’t ones I can rely on.

Flowers are nice, but B doesn’t like them. She has said on multiple occasions that she doesn’t like watching them die. Chocolate’s out too. While I’m chronicling my weight loss attempt, B is also attempting to lose weight. Giving her a large box of chocolates doesn’t seem very supportive of her efforts. In the case of jewelry, there is a money issue. Every time we turn around, it seems like we need to spend more money on something (the house, for instance), so it seems frivolous to toss a few hundred dollars on a piece of jewelry that B may or may not like. (I have a bad track record with jewelry gifts. There’s a good reason why we picked out B’s engagement ring together.)

Then again, we do have a trip to Disney World coming soon. There are plenty of things there that could catch B’s eye. So this year, I’ll likely get B an IOU for one gift at Disney.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: What did you get the one you love for Valentine’s Day?

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the McLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #74

Aloha Friday: A Trip For A Tenth Anniversary

January 28, 2011 TechyDad Aloha Friday, Vacation

This June will be our tenth anniversary. Of course, we would love to celebrate it with a little trip. Just the two of us. B has her eyes set on the Type A Parent Conference. While that conference intrigues me as well, I have to admit that it isn’t what I picture a tenth anniversary trip to be.

In my mind, we would drop the kids off at B’s parents and head somewhere just the two of us. In my mind, it would be somewhere within driving distance and lasting just the weekend, yet somewhere that we wouldn’t go if NHL and JSL were with us. Specifics, though, elude me.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Where would you go on a tenth anniversary weekend retreat?

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the McLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #72

Aloha Friday: Daddy, I’m Scared Of Dying

January 21, 2011 TechyDad Aloha Friday, Fear, Parenting

On Tuesday night, I tucked the boys in as I always do, got my computer and sat down beside JSL’s bed. As I always do. As they always do, my boys decided it wasn’t *quite* time to go to sleep. Instead, they were going to trot out delay tactics. NHL said his stomach hurt and I told him it was probably gas and to go to sleep. Then he said something that made me realize that he wasn’t delaying.

“Daddy? I’m scared. I’m scared of dying.”

Uh oh.

To be honest, I think this fear has been in the back of his mind for some time now. Ever since B’s grandfather passed away nearly four years ago. NHL was very close with B’s grandfather. They loved spending time together eating ice cream or Dunkin’ Donuts munchkins.

What NHL didn’t understand was that his great-grandfather wasn’t well. He had Parkinson’s disease and was slowly but surely succumbing to the illness. When I first met B, her grandfather walked with the aid of a walker with only occasional trouble. Eventually, he couldn’t reliably stand on his own for too long. He would fall over and I would need to rush to B’s grandparents’ apartment to help lift him. (Lifting a 200 pound man who can’t help you lift himself isn’t easy!)

Eventually, B’s grandfather was moved to a nursing home. Of course, Parkinson’s is an unforgiving disease and it kept progressing. Eventually, his mind went as well. He would be perfectly lucid one moment and talking to me as if it were decades in the past another.

When we last saw B’s grandfather, NHL refused to go near him. We think he could sense something was wrong. We were there to say our goodbyes.

In the years since his great-grandfather’s passing, NHL has occasionally displayed an interest in death. He would talk about death in ways that made adults uncomfortable. Completely innocently on his part, of course, but still uncomfortable.

Fast forwarding back to Tuesday night, I hugged NHL and told him that he didn’t have to worry. He mentioned that everyone dies and I agreed but added that he wouldn’t die for a long, long time. He mentioned being scared about being buried and eaten by ants. I told him that his soul, the part of him that makes him him, would go to heaven. This soothed him enough for him to go to sleep. Still, I could sense the impending bad dreams and repeated awakenings the night would bring.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Have you spoken with your child about death? If so, what did you say to them?

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the McLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #71

Aloha Friday: Punctual Post Planning

January 14, 2011 TechyDad Aloha Friday, Blogging, Medical

You may have noticed something amiss with TechyDad.com this week. I tend to post every weekday and yet there were no posts on Tuesday or Thursday. What happened? I tend to write posts, at most, the day before they go live. Many times, I’ll finish up the post and hit Publish right then and there.

On Monday, JSL got sick. He had been coughing for awhile, but the cough was getting worse. B took him to the doctor, afraid he had caught my strep throat. They put him on an antibiotic, but that didn’t seem to help. That night, he developed a fever and threw up. The night was very rough with him waking up multiple times coughing so much that he could hardly breathe. Eventually, he came into our bed. Needless to say, we didn’t get much sleep and writing a blog post was not a high priority. Tuesday was busy at work. By that night, I figured I would just work on my Wednesday blog post and skip Tuesday.

Wednesday night, I should have worked on a blog post, but was too tired. Thursday saw some heater issues. (Heat went out. Pilot light wouldn’t stay lit and a professional eventually had to be called when it proved too much for me.) So, by Thursday night, I decided to write this Friday post instead.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: How far in advance do you write posts for your blog?

Also, make sure you add some spice to your marriage by entering my Eden Fantasys $50 gift card giveaway. Less than a week to go!

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the McLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #70

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