I'm back in Gurnee, IL. It's overcast, raining and cold. At least no tornadoes - yet. I drove up this time at the end of April and started work on May 2nd. I had terrible weather coming up through Oklahoma, Kansas and Iowa. Even saw a tornado developing around Des Moines. I was going to stop and come into Gurnee the next day but seeing the tornado, I decided to just keep going.

Bad news today. Chris's sister died last night. Took her own life. I'll miss her. Chris, Mary, all the kids and Matt and Vanessa must feel really bad. I wish there was something I could do. Chris and Mary will really have their hands full. Very, very sad day.

I'm due company in July. Looking forward to see my family. It gets kind of lonely here.

Great America Six Flags

Wow. Mary, Chris, John and Missy and I spent all day at Six Flags. We had a fast pass so we didn't have to wait in lines - straight to the front. Anyway, Iron Horse was incredible. Superman an the Drop were fun too. Mary wouldn't ride the Drop - Wimp. I'm putting some pics on this blog to show the rides.

We also spent some time in Chicago. Went to the Field Museum to see Sue. She was cool too. Mary was lucky she didn't come to Chicago this week. Ike left us with about 9 inches of rain and a lot of flooding. Yesterday ( 6/13 ) Chicago set an all time record for rain in a day - 6.7 inches.

Almost Grown Up

It's Saturday, June 21, 1st day of Summer. Here I sit watching it rain and hail. No fishing today. We are still flooding all around. Gurnee is not flooded but the rivers and lakes are just too high to do anything. I'm bored.

Went up to feed the geese the other day and got some pics of the babies growning up. They're almost as big as their mom now and they sure know where the Cheerios come from. The saw me com'in - couldn't get here fast enough. They now fight with the duck family. The ducks are faster but the geese are just too big and can push them away. One of the babies caught a baby duck and really showed it who's boss. I've added more pics to the web album.

Cool.
Vanessa changed my blog's format. Pretty Cool.

My geese are growing up. The babies are no longer babies. They are big, bad geese not - just can't fly. I'll take some pics maybe this week. The ducks really like Cheerios. The come faster than the geese - but geese rule. When the geese are there the dominate. The big gander tried to grab the Cheerios out of my hand. Swatted his quacker and he quit.

I hate Illinois. The weather sucks (prefer Oregon) and the politics is way too liberal for me - home of Hussein Obama-bin Ladin. You've got to have a license to buy bullets. Anybody that votes for this &%$$##hole is one.

Gotta work this weekend so probably no fishing. The rivers and lakes are to high anyway. If Mary, Matt, Seth and Ryan come out, we'll go salmon fishing.

Thanks again Vanessa. You are making your way to the computer world.

Gurnee June 7 - Fishing

Saturday was a pretty nice day until around 3:00pm. That's when the Tornado alerts started to come in. I'm getting pretty used to them now. It's hot and raining and the winds are terrible. But I did manage to go fishing Saturday. Caught some perch but threw them back. I went out on the Waukegan fishing pier. It was OK but fishing the ocean is much more fun. I'll try some rivers or ponds in the next couple of weeks and see how they work out (mostly bass I think). If Matt and Mary come up, we'll take a charter for salmon.

My geese came back. They took off for a few days after one of the babies got eaten by something. The saw me walking up and all of them came running over. I've got them pretty well spoiled.

We're in another tornado alert again as I write. It's raining and dark. The power hasn't gone off but the TV has. This is not a place I will ever come back to except for work.

Take a look at my web album for more pics.

http://picassaweb.google.com/john.cartwright2000

John

Me and Eryn

Keep it Clean

Ronald
My daughter (the Princess) has asked me to keep this blog clean. I don't know why she would ask something like that but I'll do my best to keep this PG. Pat said it would be impossible. I'll do my best so my grand kids can view it. I still don't know how I could possibly add something that could offend someone. I'll try not to bring up beans or rags or spears.

I found a pic of Ronald so I thought I would post it. I hope it doesn't offend Vanessa.