A tale of a frozen family

We have struggled over the last year with various Van de Graaff generators not really performing to a standard that we are happy with.   For those of you that don’t remember what a Van de Graaff generator is…. It’s that electrical machine with a big dome on top, that you put your hands on and your hair stands up… remember that one??? 

At any rate, after 3 disappointing models, we decided to heck with this and bought the BIGGEST, BADDEST Van de Graaff we could find.  This thing is ENORMOUS!!!!  It stands over 4 foot tall and I almost swear that the lights dim when you fire it up!

We did an experiment with it last night.  I stood on the rubber stool and placed both hands on the dome.  Certain that I was about to be shocked into orbit, I stood there shaking as hubby fired it up.  Now, you may ask why hubby wasn’t the test object for this experiment.  If you recall from the “eating fries and gravy picture”

Hubby has no hair.  Therefore, he was not a viable option for our test object.  This left me or the offspring.  Since the thought of having our offspring shocked into orbit was more frightening (although some days… it would be a welcome break!) I decided to bite the bullet and step up to the plate (or orb on this day).

With in seconds of it being on, I felt the little hairs on my arms standing up, and then my head followed.  Every ounce of my hair stood on end.  The force field on this thing is AMAZING.  Hubby was standing about five feet away from it, holding a florescent light bulb and it LIT!!!!  Can you say HOLY SMOKES????

He turned it off and I stayed with my hands on the orb, still fully charged.  Hubby went and got the camera and took this picture about 2 minutes AFTER it was turned off. 

With the force field being so wide, I was terrified to let him near it with my digital SLR bad boy camera, for fear it would zap it.  Therefore, the pictures were taken after the fact!

After that, we fired it up again.  Only this time, we’d see what would happen if we sprayed my hair with water.  AMAZING!  You would think it would weight it down, but it made it stand up even more.  

The next super cool, amazing, out of this world, TOTALLY FREAKING AWESOME experiment…….  I only put one hand on the orb… he turned it on… and I had LIGTENING BOLTS come out of my fingertip!  DUDE!!!! I HAD LIGHTENING COMING OUT OF MY FINGER!!!!   That was the coolest thing EVAH!

That is the upside of being in a business that teaches science to children….. we get to play with the COOLEST TOYS!

Here is a picture of the hubster, standing with “Frankenstein” as we’ve so lovingly named him.  He’s one cool dude!  Or would that be… “he’s got an electric personality”??  I know.. I know… I won’t quit my day job.  (oh wait, I don’t have a day job anymore!!!)

I had my surgery yesterday.  While my arms look like they went to battle against baseball bats (I have a total of 9 holes in my arms where they tried to get IVs, only the blow the veins out ) I survived.

I have 2 large incisions on my belly, and I hurt a good bit, but I survived

On that note.. I’m stoned on Vicodin and not feeling very inspired to write anything coherent today. 

Peace out

Dad called yesterday, and talked to hubby for a while.  It turns out Dad has a CELL PHONE now.  For those of you that don’t know my dad, this is monumental!  Dad moved to a tiny island in the Caribbean a couple of decades ago and has worked very hard to remain as far behind the technology curve as humanly possible! 

Here’s a couple pictures of Dad’s little technology deprived paradise.

It truly is a little slice of heaven.  

In addition to the cell phone, I was told he also purchased a computer!  It’s a good thing I missed the call, or I likely would have fainted.  He complained about the keys being so hard to find and that he could chisel a message out of stone faster.  Hubby told him we’d be happy to send our 4 year old down to teach him how to type, download, send emails, etc.  Dad makes me chuckle!

As heavenly as the island is, it brings with it, it’s own set of issues and Dad is now investigating leaving the island and moving back to the states.  As his 1940 model needs more maintenance, he’d like to get closer to medical facilities… something the island is desperately missing.   So he’s looking at places like Nevada and Arizona.  He’s waiting till March to look at Vegas because it’s “too cold there” right now!  TOO COLD IN VEGAS?  When hubby asked how cold too cold is, he stated it was only 68, and that is “too damn cold!”   

I find this funny… considering this is the man that drug us to Alaska, the same man who raced in the first ever Iditarod!    Dad was injured mid race, which left his race partner to finish.  John (his partner) still to this day holds the record for the longest time ever taken to finish the race.  A quote from Iditarod.com   “A red lantern is awarded to the last musher to finish. The longest time for a Red Lantern was 32 days, 15 hours, nine minutes and one second by John Schultz in 1973. “   Many folks don’t know that John had a thing for the liquor and for the women (okay maybe a lot of people know those two facts!), and he met that combination in Shaktoolik.   So he basically “shacked up” in Shaktoolik for several days before deciding he should get a move on and let those folks waiting for him in Nome go home

So, Dad is moving into the 00’s, getting some technology and moving much closer, heck… maybe even one day, he’ll figure out how to read this blog! 

Here’s to you Dad! (and your awesome babysitting skills)  Before you know it.. you’ll be “with it”

Today Grandpa Cindi is going in for back surgery… again :(  This is the second time in as many years that they’ve had to do this.  Last time she had a really rough recovery, so we are sending you lots of get well very soon energy!!!!

Much love from all of us! 

Get better soon so we can tear up Montreal!!!!!