Todays temperatures more in the "bearable" range for me.  Must confess my days of loving the heat seem to have fallen by the wayside.  Moderate more accurately describes my relationship with the summer sun these days. Geoff and Lindsey have had a pefect couple of days to accomplish some of the needed yardwork in their fixer up yard.  Today they celebrated the railing up on the new deck and the completion of the sod laying.  It looks 200% better.  Still work to be done but it no longer has that look of OMG where do we start about it!  There's no doubt about it....one should never take on the task of becoming a home owner lightly.  There is so much more to be done when you own your home than if you own a condo.

So todays story....this one I just have to share.  Thanks to my friend Corrine for reminding me about this one because it is an excellent example of Mother's love and her need to rescue offspring from the wrath of the Father.  I have talked about "helicopter parents and or rescue parents" in prevous blogs.  I think at one time or another, most of us have rushed into a situation, trying to spare our child the consequences of their actions.  Big mistake I know and although I wasn't hugely bad about doing this I think both of my kids could tell you stories of where Mother Bear came to the rescue.  This one happened the summer Geoff got his driving license.  We had an old aerostar van that both Kelli and Geoff learned to drive on.  He and his friends had just recently discovered the fun of swimming in the Bow River on the hot days of summer.  This was a novel and frequent activity.  Geoff would load up the buddies and off they would go to hang out at the river for the afternoon.  They had been hiding the keys to the van under the mat in the backseat so that they wouldn't have to worry about losing them while swimming.  Then of course the inevitable happened, they accidentally locked the keys in the van and were stuck as to how to retrieve them after their afternoon on the Bow.  After studying the anatomy of the windows, they decided it probably wouldn't be too difficult to break into the small sliding window on the rear passenger side.  I think they overestimated their mechanical genius and after a little wiggling and juggling they managed to pretty much smash out the back window.  After driving everyone home, Geoff came home and showed me what had happened.  I knew Bill was going to kill him on this as we were going through that period of adolescent growth most families encounter.  Somewhere in between about 16 and ?   This is the era where" I'm an adult now....."For those of you who have grown through this period and have come out the other side, I don't have to describe this in too much detail...you definitely know what I'm talking about....and for those of you not yet there....Oh happy days! The best is yet to come!  Anyways...I told him to get on the phone and find out how much a new window was and what the installation was going to cost.  I think this little bitty back window landed in the range of between $600 and $800.  Yes, Geoff did have a summer job but this was a whole swack of money to one who had not yet even started to put away any of his summer earnings.  Even I paled at this estimate as I had already decided I WAS NOT PAYING FOR THIS!  I did, however have the philosophy that if he had to pay for it he would at least be suffereing the financial consequence of what had happened and did not think he should be subjected to further sanctions from a Dad who was becoming a little frustrated at a series of similar things that had been occuring at that time.  After make a few calls and discovering that yes, it would appear that we were looking at a mimum of $600  My next suggestion was to try the local pick a part junk yards.  I knew Bill had picked up a few things at these places and that you could get them pretty much for free.  The problem was going to be installing them.  Well we called around and found a couple of places that said yes they did have vehicles with those windows in them and we could come by tomorrow and check them out.  So Geoff went outside and parkekd the van on the other side of the road hoping Dad wouldn't notice the broken window when he got home from work.  Believe me...deceiving an observant cop can be a little bit of a daunting task.  I knew I was going to be in deep S$(t and rightly so should Bill catch us in our deception. This is not the stance good parents should ever take and for the most part we have been united on the front.  I don't really know why I was different on this particular occasion.   The next morning, as soon as Bill had left for work, Geoff and I were up early and off to check out two junk yards.  The first one was just off of 4th street.  I don't even think it's there anymore.  We came in the back way.  Signs everywhere "Beware of Watch Dogs"  "Enter at Your Own Risk"  etc.  Now I'm a dog lover, but this scenario was making me nervous as there wasn't a human being to be found.  We drove around the junkyard for a bit.  Finally I told Geoff he was to stay in the van, windows up and I would look inside some of the buildings and see if there were in fact people on this site.  It was a little spooky.  There I am creeping around, amongst the junk, peeking into half cracked doorways, on the alert for the charging watch dog,  when I heard someone snarl...."Whatya want?"  I just about jumped out of my skin.  There was this swarthy looking character working away on  a piece of junk in one of the sheds.  Come in here he said.....I must confess I was feeling more than a little vulnerable and said no I'd just talk to him from the doorway as I had a passenger waiting in my van.  He asked the year of the vehicle and said he thought he did have one of those but he'd have to look around for it as he wasn't quite sure where it was parked.  Honestly, I don't know how you'd find anything in that place.  We talked a little more and it turned out he could take out the window and stall it in the van for around $60.  Steel of a deal after hearing the other estimates, all over $600.  Well, he hunted high and low with me tagging along at a distance looking for the watch dogs.  He finally found the van but as he tried to get the window out he managed to crack and break the window.  Darn!   Well, I had also called a junkyard out near the airport and they also said they had that window but they would not install it.  I managed to negotiate a deal with this guy that if I went over to the other junk yard and got the window he would install it for $40.  Relieved I jumped in the van and off we went to junkyard #2.  Not so lucky here.  Yes, they had a aerostar van, but the window was not tinted.  Hmm....would Bill notice that?  It was a chance we decided to take.  So, we agreed we would take the non tinted window.  Two more catches here.  The gentleman who would be retreiving the "piece" was currently on his lunch break (sitting in a near by wreck)  They weren't really sure how long the meal would take so we would just have to be wait and when he was finished he would help us.  Well...we sat there in our van, eyes rivited on this fellow enjoying a long and leisurely lunch in the comfort of a car wreck, willing him to eat faster....we did not have all day!  Finally he mosied out of the vehicle and my first thought was I'll bet he needs a nap now!  Fortunately this was not the case and he went over to the wrecked aerostar and after a great deal of jockeying and the two of us watching, terrified he would break this treasure and we'd be back to square one, he managed to extricate the treasured window.  I don't exactly remember what we paid for the 'untinted' window but do remember it was substantially more than we were to have paid for the installed, proper tinted version.  I was already shaking my head when I saw how different tinted looked from untinted, pretty much certain this was one we weren't going to get away with but still thinking that the wrath of Dad might at least be somewhat diminished if Geoff had made the effort to do the repair and had paid for it.  We took the window back to junkyard #1 for the install.  This is where the real panic set in.  Naively, I had thought it would just be a matter of popping out the old broken version and "popping" in the new untinted version.  Not so.  The guy pretty much tore all the plastic siding off the inside of the van.  It was in a total state of disrepair and I was having my doubts he would be able to reassemble it.  This was taking way longer than either of us had thought it would.  It did not help that he was continually muttering and swearing.  To put it pure and simply he didn't look like he had the faintest idea what he was doing.  My only thought was that we were in bigger trouble than if I had just made Geoff do what he should have done in the first place.....come clean and take the consequences.  The problem here was that often the consequences of such actions involved sanctions and groundings and these usually punished me as well as the offender!  Well, it was too late now....we forged ahead.  We basically spent the entire day in that junkyard watching this guy do and redo, do and redo.  By the time all was said and done the job cost Geoff about $300 as opposed to the $600 to $800 estimates we had had for a new window but there was going to be no hiding the fact that one window just didn't "match" the others.  It would be like putting a white persian kitten into a litter of black lab puppies and expecting no one would notice who the imposter was.  We drove home in silence knowing that this was one we were definitely getting caught on.  It's funny, as a parent I had always told my kids, actually lectured would be a more accurate description...." always confess.....you will get in less trouble if you tell the truth than if you lie."  Yes, those words had flown out my mouth on many occasions but the truth of the matter was I had totally not only allowed, but encouraged this act of deception.  We got home just before Bill and were both sitting at the kitchen table when he walked in.  One look at us and he knew something was up.  Well, Geoff made his true confession, including the fact that the van with tinted windows now had one that didn't quite match.  I know Bill was most unimpressed with our efforts to hide this from him but I also realized he did appreciate the time, effort, financial contribution Geoff had to make to make this right.  It was not a rescue I am proud of to this day but it was quite the adventure.  The funniest part about this story is the van really was already a piece of junk at this point so tinted window or not did make a bit of difference to the aesthetics of the vehicle.  It also totally fixed any ideas I might have ever had that I could ever be that person who can go to the junkyard to pick a part.  From that point forward I vowed true confessions would always be the best course of action.  Good lessons for everyone!

Boomer a happy boy tonight.  He has been treated a couple of times this week to long walks on Nose Hill.  Thankyou Pat and Amber for making this happen.  I have not walked him in weeks and he is definitely looking a little chubby.  Bill walks him but never the same way I do.  I  really want to get back to my walking routine.....it's so good for both of us!

Boomer and Reiker enjoying some buddy time on Nose Hill.  Boomer came home slobbering, puffing and definitely smiling!!!

We need some shade.  Black coats and fur balls don't do well in the heat!

                                                           SMILES ALL AROUND!