Just wanted to post some of my mine adventure pictures.  I love photography but don't have enough money to buy a nice DSLR camera so I have a point and shoot for now.  I try to take the best pics that I can with what I got.  If anyone has any pointers on how to make my picture better I'm open for suggestions.  Anyways this photo was taken deep inside a mine one the middle level.  There is about a foot of water that is in the tunel behind this hand pump.  The wierd thing was that the levels above and below this were not very wet but this one had all this water.  I love exploring abandoned mines and wish that we could get to more throughout the winter.  If I can get some guys that want to hike through the snow we may try to go out but people are babies and don't like to put forth too much effort.  They want to be able to drive to all these locations and some of the best mines are going to be the ones that are hard to reach.

So I haven't been able to post to my blog over the weekend because of drill.  Like I said in previous posts I love the Marine Corps but hate some of the stuff they do.  It has been 6 months since I have turned in my reenlistment paperwork and it is just finally getting to the final phase.  My first reenlistment took less than a week and when I got out of the Marines and needed to get back in it took less than a month.  You can see how this would be frustrating to me.  I need this reenlistment to go through so that they will pay for my wife to go to college.  We did get a lot done at drill but it always seem like when we are doing administrative type stuff that we don't get anything done.
Yesterday my brother and I tried to go explore some mines.  We were planning on taking a snowmobile and go searching for some mine to explore.  It ended up not being such a great idea.  The snow was to wet  and the track on the snowmobile wasn't long enough for some of the hills.  It was a fun day but I wish we could have found some mines to explore.
This morning I was getting ready for the day and my wife was exercising, as usual.  I noticed that my little girl had grabbed some exercise bands and was doing P90X with my wife.  My girl isn't even 3 yet and she can already do P90X.  It was the funniest thing.  She was doing all of the workouts and she even said Tony talks to much.  She wants to be fit like mommy.
Zan-man quote of the day:
"Do you want me to grow big and strong like you then break you stuff?"

So I finally have a day off, kind of.  I don't have to work at the hospital but I do have to go to drill.  See, the Marines always seem to plan drill on my weekends off and when I have stuff planned.  I love the Marine Corps but come on let's have drill on a weekend that I am supposed to work so I can use my military leave and still get the next weekend off.  Anyways, we are going to be putting up Christmas decorations until I need to leave this afternoon.  I haven't ever really been into Christmas stuff but kids totally change that.  They get so excited about putting things up and having Santa come and bring gifts.  My wife and I are trying to teach our kids that the meaning of Christmas is the spirit of giving and not receiving, but they don't understand that yet.  Maybe by the end of the holiday season ans after we do some service for some people they will understand that. 
This weather that we have had is great for the season and really makes it feel like Christmas but it is really putting a hamper on my abandoned mine exploration.  I love going down in mines and need to go but all this snow makes it hard to get to them and to find them.  I am going to go out in the next week or two and try to find some low elevation mines to explore because I can't go all winter without exploring anything.  Here is a pic of how we got around this past summer.  I have no idea what year or model the tote gote is but I do know that they will go anywhere (except through 5 feet of snow).  I can't wait for next summer.

 

In my search to improve my hearing I stumbled upon this.  My wife always tells me I need to do something about my hearing loss and I think the "Dumb Bo" would be great.  Of course this isn't very practical and you look like a retard.

I didn't get to post yesterday because I worked late.  Trust me when I say work was CRAZY.  You know how you have those days at work.  It wasn't a hard day at work (I mean my work is never really hard) but it was long and tedious.  There were a lot of treatments to do and the patients just needed a lot of attention.  Then when I got home I just wanted to have some fun.  My boy told me that he wasn't allowed to watch TV or play with toys the rest of the night.  My wife goes to school at night and I get the kids all to myself for a couple hours before they go to bed.  I asked my boy why Mom said that he couldn't play with toys or watch TV.  He said "Never mind dad I was just kidding.  Mom didn't really say that.  I was just playin' with you."  That made me think that she really did tell him that he couldn't play with toys.  I asked him what he was supposed to do and he said homework.  We ended up playing Nerf guns for about an hour.  I was the bad guy, my boy was the Marine, and my daughter was the person he was saving (that's the way he wanted it).  When I was shooting at my daughter I asked Zan-man why he was blocking the bullets and his response, "I didn't want to get shot."  I tried to tell him that Marines should take bullets for the people that they are protecting and I tried telling him that that is what I would do and again he gives a great response, "Dad, that isn't very smart."  How can you argue with that.
So my Zan-man quote of the day is this:
"Dad, if you shoot me one more time I am going to rip up all the darts and break my gun, then throw it in the trash and you'll have to buy me a new one.  Do you want me to do that?"