4th of July, 2017

The Burdick-Cline heritage has seen its fair share of fireworks throughout the years.  Dad’s people came over on a boat named the Mayflower…the first Burdick, Robert Burdick, came over from England to what is now Rhode Island in the mid-1600’s.  The first Burdick in California, at least first within my linage, arrived in San Francisco on a boat in 1850…having left the east coast in 1849, perhaps before he even knew gold was found.  He was a farmer, not a prospector, and settled in what was then Newark California.

On mom’s side, the Cline side, her people, on her mother’s side, came to America about the same time Robert Burdick did…but they settled in Delaware, then Maryland, then Pennsylvania, then Ohio, then…well…mom’s folks liked to move a lot.  Take her mom, dad and eleven children…the birth place of the children is as follows:  Selma, Kansas -- Bucyrus, Kansas -- Niangua, Missouri -- Peru, Kansas -- Niangua, Missouri -- Adrian, Missouri -- Kenneth, Kansas -- Williamsville, Missouri -- Kennett, Missouri -- Dinuba, California and Dinuba, California.  That is a bunch of moving around…but grandpa, who died when mom was a teenager, worked for the railroad and moved from station to station…at times, the family even lived in train stations.  Had to wait for trains to cross the tracks in a few places just to be able to use the outhouse.

All this background information just so that YOU KNOW that when I say, “I hope EVERYONE has a wonderful and safe Fourth of July,” that you know where I am coming from…from nearly 400 years of history as a resident of this land which we now call America.  I am proud of this heritage, proud to be an American, proud of those…even family members…who gave all they had to make America what it is. Seeing the turmoil that goes on today, seeing the backbiting, the bickering, the foolishness, the out right hatred with our politicians in Washington DC…it brings tears to my eyes.  Never the less…it is our nation’s birthday…Happy Birthday America, let’s celebrate that which is still good in our wonderful country.

Marcia and I had a bit of early fireworks this past weekend.  On Friday night I went to flush the commode…and it did not flush.  Push down the foot pedal only filled the bowl with more water.  Our commode works differently than most motorhomes.  Most work on gravity, where the contents fall into the black tank when you flush.  Ours is more like a boat or a train or a plane…we hit a “on” button, pressure builds up, when the green light comes on, you flush, and the air pressure that has built up moves the contents to the black tank.  One good thing is, all the contents pump through Macerator to break everything up into tiny little pieces…so no chance of the infamous Toilet Paper Pyramid for us.  However…the pump IS just one more thing which might go wrong.  Knowing this, I have had a plan “just in case” the toilet ever went out on us so that we could still live in it until it was fixed.  I hope any of you who travel extensively in a RV have a plan too…because you never know when a foot pedal might not work, or a back-up might occur.  And our back-up plan, no pun intended, could work for just about anyone.  It has to do with putting a garbage bag liner into the toilet, and empting as needed by sealing the bag, remove from toilet, put in another bag, and dispose of properly.  Lucky for us, I was able to move the “ball”, as they call it, turn on our pump, and let things flow down and through the system.

Saturday I called Camping World, and the guy said, “Well, we carry that type of toilet (Dometic 310 Series Low Profile), but don’t have any in stock.”  “How about surrounding stores?”   “Nope, it is something you have to order…we can put the order in on Monday, and it will be here on Friday..”  “Never mind, Amazon can get it to me by Monday…”, click (he hangs up).  Put the order in with Amazon, and by noon yesterday it was here, by 1 pm I had it installed and working.   Not a “fun” thing to have to face, but it was made easier with a good plan.  That plan also included having lots of 13 gallon garbage bags.

Today’s menu includes….BBQ Tri-Tip, Lemon Shrimp, BBQ Corn on the Cobb, and Mashed Cauliflower, along with a few other things.  Although, because of our diet, we can’t have the corn…nor the Tiramisu Dessert that I bought for the family, the rest of the dinner is part of our diet.  YUM!   Hope you all have a nice 4th of July BBQ too.

Day After Fools Day Birthday Party

Mom and dad were the first to arrive, and mom got a hold of one of Arny’s beers, and just about didn’t give it back to him.  (Her and dad are non-drinkers)

      

By 3:15, everyone had arrived.  Hoovering over pictures will tell you who everyone is (left to right).  Ten adults, no kids, four dogs…

Patti and her two dogs, Parker (on lap) and Charlie.  They were from the same litter, and she has had them for around six years now.  Donna lives in Patti’s house, and helps take care of them.  All four dogs get along real well.

Last year Michael graduated with his Masters from U.C. Berkeley.  When I graduated with my Masters Degree in Library and Information Sciences, my mom and dad gave me dad’s grandfathers Railroad Pocket Watch.  I forgot to bring it out to Michael last year, but this year I remembered, and I gave it to him today.

Read this May 2012 blog post for the history about the watch, and read this May 2015 blog about Michael’s graduation.  Told Michael that he needed to be sure to have someone who he could hand it down to some day too (hint, hint).

We had New York Steaks, Chicken for non red meat eaters, baked potatoes, salad, bread, etc.   It as “so good”, and everyone went away stuffed.  Sandy’s short cake with strawberries and blackberries really topped it off.  Arny did all the cooking on his two barbecues, and he really out did himself, again.  YUMMY!

After dinner, and after Patti and Donna took off, it was time to sit around and let things settle a bit.

   

Well, we thought there would be entertainment…Santa, Elvis…the Duke.  But alas, I guess that was just an April Fools thought.  Dad had a wonderful birthday celebration regardless.  Happy Birthday Dad!!!!