Poisoned

I have to tell you this story because it is "CLASSIC" Clint Carter. For some reason, I really love laughing at myself.

I have a really nice garden right now in my back yard. Every day I go out there to see what is new. I walk around, pull a few weeds and marvel at all of the plants that are growing. The last few weeks I have notice that there are a large amount of bugs eating the leaves on my plants. So, I went down to the local bug spray store and bought some spray that would not harm vegetables. I marched right back to my garden and started spraying. I've killed several earwigs and plenty of ants in my quest to dominate the insect world.

Yesterday I went out again and found a bunch of bugs living underneath my squash leaves so, I ran to the garage to grab my spray. I lifted the leaves, one by one, and gave a quick quirt. One of those times, I miss fired and hit my thumb. Not a big deal, so I kept up my attack. After several minutes my thumb felt a little dry. I then wondered to myself, could this stuff hurt me? I decided to peal back the label and check out the "Warnings". Lets see, the regular statement about squirting in your eyes was there. The normal, "keep away from children". An interesting one that said if it got on my clothing that I needed to remove my clothing immediately and wash them, (which startled me a little). And then, the kicker, "If you spray your skin, wash your hands with soap and water Immediately, then keep running water on exposed skin for 15 to 20 MINUTES! WHAT! 15 minutes? Then, it said to call THE POISON CONTROL HOTLINE! I had definitely underestimated this bug spray. I wiggled my thumb in an attempt to see if my digit was still in good working order. It was, but I could definitely feel that it might be feeling a little bit dry. I then decided to follow the instructions on the label so my thumb would not dry up in to a black shriveled mass and fall off of my hand. I washed my hand with soap and water for what seemed several minutes and then ran my hand under the water as long as I thought was necessary. However, as I looked over at the clock, it was way Way less than 15 minutes. I then went up stairs, casually as to not cause alarm, and removed my contaminated clothing and put them in the wash and proceeded to take a shower that probably could have lasted 10 minutes. That definitely should do the trick, I thought. I stewed and fretted over my thumb for most of the day, watching for signs of poisoning.

At the end of the day, I was pretty sure I wasn't going to die. So, before bed I went in to brush my teeth and noticed a bottle of 409 sitting on the counter. I decided, just for fun, to check the Warning Label to see how it differed from the bug spray. It too began with the normal kids warnings and eye warnings so I skipped down to the skin warning and low and behold, it said, "If you spray your skin, wash your hands with soap and water Immediately, then keep running water on exposed skin for 15 to 20 minutes then call poison control.

I had obviously worried MY THUMB OFF ABOUT NOTHING!!!

Cute Video

Deanna put together a cute video last night from our family reunion.

Reunion

It has been a busy week back here at work so I don't have much time to get into detail but I wanted to at least post a youtube video I put together last night.

Carter Strong Family Reunion 2009

More pics of Yellowstone

Since my last post had hardly any pictures of the family, I decided to put up one more web log with pictures from our Yellowstone trip.

Everyone starts out EXCITED for Yellowstone Park!


One of our first stops of the trip to see a Mother and Baby Elk.



Deanna and Katie with the Mom and baby elk behind them. You can just barely see the elk's heads in the grass behind them.




The kids by a herd of bison.



Me and the kids at Old Faithful.



The whole family at the Canyon at Yellowstone Park.



Everyone is POOPED after visiting Yellowstone Park!

Impromptu trip to Yellowstone Park

Over the 4th of July we made a trip to Yellowstone Park. We have been planning to go to Yellowstone for about 4 years but never got around to making the trip. While Deanna and I were discussing what to do over the 4th, I brought up the idea of going to Yellowstone. She quickly looked up hotels and they were all either full or very expensive, so she looked up camp sites. She found a camp site at the KOA camp just west of West Yellowstone. So, on Wednesday night we decided that Thursday, we would be going to the national park.

I made a video of our travels but when I uploaded it to Youtube, it was too big, so, I made a short vid of our visit to the lower falls at the Canyon in Yellowstone Park. Here is the video.



Coby tried to describe the falls on his blog and kind of challenged me to try and describe it better. Here is my best shot.

"Rushing, stirring, churning, angry water, tears around the corner like a cougar grips the ground gaining speed on its prey. Danger is in the air, the power is overwhelming. You can sense the finality of the falls lurking a few yards ahead. As you see the water dive off of the cliff, you can see the huge volume of water as it shoots out into the empty air. As the sunlight hits the column, you can see all they way though the blue green water.

You can now see the weight of the water as it tumbles like a freight train off its tracks. It feels as if you are watching a never ending accident as box car after box car of water falls to its death. Fear continues to flow through your veigns as you sense the unstoppable and crushing power of the waterfall. The calamity continues every second you watch."

Garage Sale'ing

Last weekend was probably the first warm and dry weekend we have had this summer. Because of this fact, everyone (and their dog) put there "junk" on their front lawn and hammered a sign on the nearest telephone pole announcing a Yard Sale. With this many temptations posted everywhere, my daughter couldn't help but nag me and nag me to go garage sale'ing. So, with a great deal of reservation, I decided to take her and Andy on a short trip around the block.



I had already convinced myself that we really wouldn't find anything useful and I was trying to decide how to tell Savanna that she didn't need any more stuffed animals. After the first couple of yard sales, we had come up empty. It was late in the day and all of the "good stuff" was already gone. I had my eye on a punching bag but I knew that $50.00 was way more than I wanted to spend on something I would never use.

After just a couple more stops I was wondering up a driveway, minding my own business and almost effortlessly browsing over pile after pile of used clothes when I noticed a bread maker. At first glance it looked very clean. I decided right there that if it was $25.00 I would buy it. I drew closer and noticed the sticker that stated, "Brand New $10.00". Oh no. I was now faced with a difficult decision. The price was less than I would have paid for it and, it was Brand NEW! I walked up to the makeshift checkout counter and asked about the bread maker. I knew that I could get myself out of this jam if I asked for the manual and they could not produce it. Upon the request, the salesman dipped into the house for the search. To my surprise, he exited triumphantly from the swinging door with the manual in hand. My final ditch effort to leave the sales floor with my money in my pocket was to offer him half of what was marked on the sticker. "Would you take 5 bucks for it?" I asked timidly. He immediately said "Sure, its yours!". That is when I knew, I paid way too much. I borrowed the 5 dollars from Savanna and walked home with my new Bread Maker.

We have made 3 loaves of bread so far and everyone loves the warm moist bread. I guess garage sale'ing isn't so bad after all.