Furnace and Air

 A chipmunk got into our furnace thru the exhaust pipe on the outside of our house, about 5 years ago. Our friend, Vince came over took it all apart and found the bugger wrapped around the blower motor. The furnace has not run the same since. It was loud and wouldn't run right. I hated it and hated complaining about it even more. I'm sure Mike was tired of me too.

I ran into Vince at his son's graduation party this summer (His son is one of Logan's good friends) and asked if he knew anyone who did side jobs. He was slightly insulted and said he would take care of me.

We made a date to get it replaced after his summer rush was over.

Well, I got me a new furnace and air this weekend. Logan has been working with Vince for a few months now and came along to help.

The old furnace was over sized for the house and had a cracked heat exchanger. I'm so glad we "know someone" to take care of this for us. He got me a deluxe filter and a house humidifier too. 

While Vince was doing the inside stuff, Logan worked on the air conditioning unit outside. He's been doing this job a few months now and seemed to me to know that part of the job.

He doesn't get to work with Vince too much on the job, but he gets what he knows how to do done, and asks questions when he's not quiet sure and Vince was very patient and taught him the way. It was interesting to watch.

I went thru ComEd and got a new WiFi thermostat that Logan also installed. 

Now all we need is a cold day to try this sucker out. I can't wait to have a semi dust free house and a night that I won't wake up with the noise of the furnace turning on.

Maybe next summer I will think about using the new air conditioner. Maybe!

PGA Champion

 

I enjoy watching Jon play golf - always have. When I found out that he was going to play in a PGA tournament at his home course I wanted to watch. It's 10 minutes from home.

First match was Wednesday Afternoon. I had to go by myself cause Sharen was up fishing in Wisconsin. I go out to the club just in time for tee off at noon.

Now this was match play. just 2 golfers going up against each other on each hole, beat the other on that hole and earn a point. Both were riding in their own cart. After the first hole It was very clear that I was not going to walk and keep up. Jon was being followed by 8 carts with men from the club who had played that morning and stuck around to watch. He asked one of the members riding alone if I could ride with him. He was very nice and said Yes. Turns out Andy played softball against Mike years ago in South Elgin. We got along very well. 

Jon played good enough to win at hole #15, but it was not his best showing.  He moves on to the next round Thursday Morning. 16 players of 64 left. Shot of the day. Put it on and 1 putted.

Thursday morning 8am. Mike had left me a cart so I could ride by myself. There were signs of the old competitive Jon. A couple birdies an eagle - I was having so much fun watching him win again. He beat Cameron on hole #16. Mike finished work and joined me for the afternoon match where Jon beat Jeff. It took all 18 to get the job done.

Maybe Jeff was a little intimidated with the crowd in the afternoon following Jon. When the men watch they clap on great shots and then move on. That afternoon he had the "Tiger Effect" the ladies league showed up and were not shy on cheering for Jon. He had one mishap. Drove left in the other fairway - Hit a tree - Hit the cart path and ended up in the flower bed around the halfway house. He got a free drop from there (below) and stuck it on the green. 

Mike asked Jon if there was anything that needed fixing on the course (which was in awesome shape). He told Mike (laughing) to cut the left ruff on 5. Mike wasn't sure if that was illegal or not, but you can bet that was the first place he headed at 5 am Friday morning.

Sharen and Dup drove home a day early for the final four match on Friday morning. This time Mike joined me for that round too. It was very clear to see that Jon was in a zone and answered all the holes lost. with one he won. It took all 18 to get the win. 

OMG Jon was in the championship match against the guy who won this tournament the last 2 years. 

I don't think I have ever seen Jon hit the ball so well as he did the last round. He won the first 2 holes and never let up. I knew when he hit the green on the 203 yard par 3 4th hole he was feeling it. He missed the first 4 rounds. He hit fairways and greens and when it counted he made the putt. He was not going to let this guy win - Not in his backyard.

Jon made an eagle on 14 and the fight was fading in Garrett the reigning champ. Jon won on the 16th hole and the tourney. 

The green was surrounded with Jon fans. Men who have played with Jon. Ladies who have taken lessons from him, a kid who was in the Jr. program who begged his Mother to call him in sick from school to watch Jon. The workers came out after mowing and raking and blowing leaves since 5 am. The kitchen staff showed up with champagne. 

 These are the people that Jon works hard and long hours for. It was very apparent they appreciate him and support him. And were proud of him. And Jon acknowledge all of them.

But there wasn't anyone more proud than his Mom and Dad, Who have supported Jon in his golf journey from day 1. OK, I was pretty proud too.

Erica and his kids got there for the trophy presentation. The family that gives his life meaning.

I have seen Jon hoist some trophies during his HS playing days. Individual wins and team wins. I was there when he got the City of Elgin tournament trophy. I even have a first place one from a tournament that I played with him. 

Man, this was the sweetest and largest one!

This was against professional Golfers. Men who's job is GOLF. 

Jon is a Professional Golfer who won a Major Tournament.

That's a big deal!!!!!!!

LitterBug!?

 As I turned down Hopps heading home from the grocery store, Mike and I both noticed trash coming from the passenger car window in front of us. 

I yelled at them because it was a sizable amount. Mike shouts "That looks like Money!"

I pulled over to the side of the road and sure enough it was money. There was a wallet there too. Mike and I gather up all the money and the wallet. As any woman knows - and most men should - you do not go into a women's purse. So, I was really hesitant to go into this guys wallet.

We needed to see where this guy lived so we looked at his license.  His address was just around the corner from us and we head on over to return his stuff. There was a lot of money in there.

Nobody was home... Now what?

We decided to knock on the neighbors house and leave the wallet with them. We went back to the wallet owners house and left him a note where to get it. Hoping he had honest neighbors and didn't take any money out of it. There was a lot of money in there.

You really have no idea what you would do in a circumstance like this. After the fact maybe I should of dropped Mike off and followed the car. We had no idea if they were going home right away or if they were from out of town. 

Do they like their neighbors and get along with them?

Are the neighbors honest- will they take some money and blame it on us?

Were they having a fight and his wife threw the wallet out the window on purpose?

We didn't leave our names, and they have no idea who the good guys were, but that's part of helping someone. We were put there at that time for a reason and I'm sure that guy was glad we were.

Tickets Never Used

 Today is one of those days that everybody old enough will remember where they were when IT happened.

I was working at the paper where there is a TV on in the news room 24/7. An announcement came over the intercom about the first plane hitting the tower. A lot of speculation it was an accident - until we all stood around the newsroom TV and watched the second plane heading for the second tower.

Why is this happening and how do you cover the news on something so enormous?

I headed on down to my desk in Advertising - I didn't want to get in the way upstairs. Reporters had their hands full.

My first thought was to call Bryan. I'm pretty sure he would still be asleep or not know so I wanted to warn him not to get on any public transportation. He was living in Chicago then and who knows if they were targeting other large cities too.   

Then I called Mike - He had already seen the news. "I guess your Birthday Present is no good?" Yes, Today is Mike's birthday. 9/11!

I had gotten him (notice I said gotten and not purchased - they were given to me) tickets to the Cubs game on that Sept. day.

Him and 3 buddies were going to make a day of it. 

Well that didn't happen. Mike and I spent the evening probably like most people glued to the TV and trying hard to figure out what is happening.

New Deck

As I sit on the front deck and watch our neighbors' houses getting painted I'm thinking our front deck could use a coat of paint. I was impressed that they came over and asked what color I thought they should paint. They claimed we were the ones having to look at it. I told them to get away from the cream and go with a darker color - match the darker bricks in the lower half. That's exactly what they did.
I did not want to paint our deck again. I'm thinking it's time to get a maintenance free deck. Mike was up to the task so off to Menards we go. We were lucky to find what we wanted in stock. Turns out there are a lot of people out there doing landscaping.
Dylan was more than happy to help us out. He was a huge help in getting the old decking off.

Dylan hard at work

 It really went pretty smooth. Dylan got the top ripped off and they went right into screwing down the new composite decking.

Dueling Drills

Mike must of planned this deck the right way when he first built it, because the lower deck was exactly 12 feet the size of the boarding so no measuring and cutting.
Just ripping up the old and screwing down the new.

Team work at it's best

I told the boys to throw the old decking under the new deck. Not sure if that's right, but saves us the hassle of getting rid of them.

Lower level is fitted

There was a spot where the frame was rotting and Mike had to take a trip to the store and do some repair work, but nothing he couldn't handle.
The next day he put up the cladding. (I had no idea what it was either) It's the boards going around the sides.

New deck

We now have a safe place to sit and wav at the walkers. For living at a dead end street with no sidewalks, we have a bunch of walkers.

Down Tree

When your only opportunity of getting out is to sit on the front deck and wave at the walkers passing by, you notice things. I see that the crab apple tree along the driveway is past it's prime and needs to be put down.

The neighbors were having their trees trimmed out by our tree guy, Lucio. When they were just finishing up I went over and asked him how much to cut down our tree. He told me $150 if they did it right then and there or $200 if they had to come back. He told me it would only take them 15 minutes. I said go for it, but I was going to time him.

First Branch went down in 3 minutes

Tree fell at the 8 minute mark

Notice there were 6 guys there for a quick clean up

Gone in 17 minutes

I gave him $10 for the overtime. Thing was I only had $20's, but he didn't know that.

He blamed the extra time on the neighbor - They wanted the wood from the trunk for splitting.