Life in the Bristolwood

We were off to an early start today.  It is Ben’s birthday, but we had lots of running around to accomplish.

While Mark headed off with Michelle  to drop her off, Ben and I headed to Kost Tire where I was to get new tires, an inspection,  an oil change, and an alignment on the Explorer.  I had forgotten to mention that Mark got the window all fixed this past weekend.  He had to replace a part called the regulator.   When I saw the door hanging open and parts sitting all over the garage,  my heart nearly sank, but I have seen Mark take things apart before and I knew all would end well! And so it did!

Before leaving the house, I wanted to get a photo of the little congregation of Goldfinches outside the bedroom window….

That photo is a funky color and that is okay because I took it well before the day had broken this morning and there was a fine snow falling.

After dropping the Explorer off for its work,  Ben and I climbed into the truck and we began making our way to Mark’s mom’s house.  We made a few stops along the way.  An interesting thing happened along the way, though….the blower fan on the truck quit working! Meaning, we spent the rest of the time in the truck freezing!  Although the temperature outside was right at the freezing mark,  it got so cold in the truck!  Time for another repair job!

We made it to “Grandma Cookie’s” house.  Yes, that is what Mark calls his mom and in so doing,  he nearly causes Angus to go ballistic!  Angus adores Grandma Cookie, after all!

While we chatted with Mark’s mom,  Ben tried to teach Murphy how to exercise on the treadmill….

Yup, as long as I held a carrot treat in front of Murphy’s nose, he would stride along on the treadmill for several steps! It was pretty funny!

Now, Scotties are known for their Braveheart disposition.  I would say on a scale of 1-10, my boys rate about 1.5 in the Braveheart category!  Particularly Angus who hightails it whenever he hears any device that makes a vibrating noise! Thus, the treadmill caused him to panic, so he jumped up on Grandma Cookie’s chair and watched a Western on television instead!

And just for Angus’s good name, he did dutifully bark those wild horses when they got out of control and began running!

Here is a natural ice sculpture outside my mother-in-law’s house…

We visited for a few hours, then it was time to go.  Back we went into the cold pickup truck.  We went to Henrietta, where Ben and Mark went into the Guitar Center to look at “stuff”.  Mark ordered Ben a bass guitar for his birthday but it will arrive tomorrow.  Bummer for Ben, but he was okay with it.  Ben has been having so much fun learning guitar and he wanted to learn bass as well so Mark figured we should let him learn as long as he is so willing.

We left and went back to Canandaigua so I could pick up the Explorer.  Mark dropped me off and he and Ben picked Michelle up at school.  I had a few minutes before meeting them at a restaurant for dinner, so I took the Explorer for a spin up the road.  Oh my! I had been driving on “slicks” so long,  I forgot that tires actually “bite” the snow!

We met up for dinner, then came home.  The fire in the woodstove had gone out and I quickly rebuilt a fire!  Now, I am finally warm for the first time today! Ah, it does feel good.  No more freezing toes!

I think Ben enjoyed his birthday and although the day was long, we had fun too!

Happy Birthday, Ben!