Adventures of Day 5

Dear Ashley:

I have been very busy and have fallen behind in writing, so I will try to get you caught up with my Adventures.

The week before Thanksgiving was busy and ended with us going to visit the Doctor's office to confirm that we were all in good health. It was exciting to get checked out by the doctor and his staff. Check out the fancy artwork as you enter the office!

The first thing they do with you after you check in is to weigh you. I gained a few pounds during my time in PA.

The next thing they do is check your height. Aunt Edie had to help hold me to measure it. I grew a whole inch.

The nurse took my temperature by running a sensitive device over my forehead and reading the temperature. I was normal.

The next thing they check is your blood pressure. My arms are so small that the cuff wouldn't fit, so they put it around my waist. They pump up the cuff which squeezes you until your blood stops flowing to you arm then they measure your blood pressure. When they pumped up the cuff, it squeezed my belly so hard that I couldn't breathe. Fortunately, it was only for a second, and my blood pressure was normal.

Luckily when they checked my records, they saw that I had had all of my kid shots. I wasn't going to need any shots. Whew, I was lucky! The Doctor came in and he checked me out. The thumped my belly, he checked my ears, he tickled my back, and he listened to my heart and lungs with his stethoscope. If you ever go to the Doctor and he is going to check you with the stethoscope, make sure he warms the end! It was really cold . . . BRRRRRR. I checked out OK.

We went to Hacks Point for Thanksgiving and had a wonderful meal with our friends Mr. Gene, Ms. Jeanette, Mr. Dave, and Ms. Betsy. We had ham, pineapple casserole, salad, green bean casserole, stuffing, cranberry sauce, cole slaw, pumpkin pie, ice cream, and much more. We then stayed up late playing Dominoes.

The next day we were scheduled to go to Mark and Renee Newman's to have a Thanksgiving meal with all of the Howard Newman relatives as well. We got a call from Uncle Howard that Renee was very ill and that all of Carrie and Ryan's family were also sick, and that Rob and Heather's Eyla was sick as well. Aunt Edie and Uncle Dan thought about going (they never miss a good meal), but they decided that with their hectic schedules that they couldn't afford to take a chance that they might get sick. We stayed at the point and enjoyed leftovers instead.

Because we were not able to meet with Uncle Howard, I am staying with Aunt Edie and Uncle Dan a little longer. I am hoping that I can go to Denver, Colorado to visit with Cousin Traci, Ken, Penelope, and Scarlett.

The weather for that weekend was outstanding for Winter. The temperature went up into the 60's and it was delightful to be outside. Uncle Dan decided that he would clean up and repaint the sign that is at the entrance to Hacks Point.

He began working on it using sawhorses to support it. Before he could get everything set up I took a ride on one of those horses. Giddy Up!! What fun!

The last time any maintenance was done to the sign was at least 12 years ago and it was in desperate need of paint and cleaning. Uncle Dan took it down and we looked it over in his garage.

Uncle Dan used his belt sander to clean off all of the old peeling varnish and to refresh the signs surfaces. The paint on the lettering was loose and falling off so it also had to be removed. Uncle Dan started using his Dremel tool to grind out the old paint and Mr. Gene and Ms. Jeanette were taking a walk and stopped by. Mr. Gene volunteered to help and he got his Dremel tool as well and we all worked to clean up the sign. We spent at least four hours just getting the sign to the point that we could start re-staining and re-painting it.

Uncle Dan stained the background wood and he and Mr. Gene and I painted the letters with silver glitter paint. Uncle Dan wanted the sign to show up it the dark and glitter paint was all that was available and it looked as though it would work great. I checked out the paint cans to make sure that everything was OK.

The glitter paint was a good idea, but it didn't cover very completely so we had to paint the letters four or five times before they covered completely. Uncle Dan and Mr. gene and I did all of the painting with little artist brushes and we again spent well over four hours just painting the letters. It was tedious , back breaking work. It was difficult to keep from going outside the letters and keeping the paint off the front of the sign board. We finally called it quits and Uncle Dan and I inspected the finished lettering. We are ready for the final sealing coats, but we will do them next weekend after everything has had some time to fully dry.

The next picture is me looking very closely to see if we missed any areas of the lettering. Nice Job fellows!

After all of this work, it was time for movie night. Every few weeks Aunt Edie and Uncle Dan host movie night. They get recent movies from the library and invite their friends over to watch the movies with them. This week was Source Code which was a really interesting movie, but it might have been a little too graphic for me.

After a day of hard work, movie night might not be such a great idea. It was hard to hear the movie due to all of the snoring in the room. Everyone fell asleep at least for a portion of the movie. Stereo Snoring what an idea.

During intermission, when everyone was eating their snacks, I took a minute to sneak a look at a TV show as well.

It was hard using the remote control, I had to jump on the buttons to make it work.

The next day it was time to go home to Lancaster, PA. On the way we stopped in Nottingham to look at the Christmas light display at Herr's potato chip factory. We drove through the factory campus and saw thousands of lights in the trees and on displays. It was really fun. I even got to take a picture of Santa's sleigh and reindeer.

I can hardly wait till Christmas!

Well, I've got some new adventures to find so I will close for now.

Love you!

Flat Stanley

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