Don't you just love headlines like that??
Last month, (Jul 02) we set a new record for rainfall here at Misawa. We got like 11 inches or so, and all of it by the 15th of the month!
Well, this month is not a lot different... So far we've gotten 11.0 inches of rain. 2.25 inches fell on Saturday, 3.25 more inches fell Sunday, and 1.75 inches fell Monday!
That's over 7 inches in three days....
And to make it even better, there was a magnitude 4.7 earthquake Monday morning at 7:am.
Gotta love this place!
Yes, Melanie has broken her arm, again. This is the second broken arm in about 2 months. This was more severe than any previous break. She fell off of her bicycle and broke both bones in her arm. The doctor had her in a short cast like before, but after a re-check they decided the bone was healing crookedly (is that a real word?)... So you know what that means... We went in Friday and they had to reset it. That's a short word for break the bone apart again, move it around so it is in the correct spot and at the correct angle, and then re-cast the arm. She was in a lot of pain following that "short" procedure. But like a kid she's bounced back nicely. That was two days ago and today (HER BIRTHDAY!!!) she has gone to see a movie with some friends.
|
 hmmm.... feeling a little left out, Nicholas? |
Jul 02 we set a record for max rainfall in that month, 11.5 inches. The max for Aug is 17 inches....I hope we don't break that record... :-)
Nicholas is playing baseball this summer, and Scott is on the unit softball team.
All three kids are taking swimming classes, but they're not enjoying them as much as they have before. It's not the best instructor I've seen...
Tira is still active in Girl Scouts even though the official scouting season is over until next school year. She's the Registrar for her council, and a Girl Scout Leader, as well as a leader trainer. She's going to Atsugi (near Tokyo) for a GS trainer class for a week in August. As the registrar she puts on a GS membership drive at least monthly.
Festivals are a big part of life in Japan. Recently Misawa held it's Tanabata festival. As part of a fund raising campaign we baked 75 cakes to be sold during the festival, and Scott and Heather spent 4 hours frosting and selling the cakes.
All three kids, and Tira, went to either Boy Scout or Girl Scout camp.
Finally, since Heather turned 12 a couple of weeks ago she can now legally babysit. She's already had three jobs and is excited about how much money she's going to make. Right now she is charging a buck-fifty per kid. Some of our friends are paying as much as 5 bucks a kid... Heather sure likes the sound of that! Heather bought a new nintendo game for her color-nintendo with the monney from her first two jobs.
Scott went to Vegas for a week for a training class. He got one of the 10 highest scores out of 200 other students, on the final test.
Well, school starts in a month for all of us so we hope to have some more fun before then... We'll let you know!
| When: | 29 July |
| Where: | 40.58N 141.07E |
| Size: | 4.5 magnitude |
| Reference: | Reference?!?! This damn thing was right under my kitchen! It was 115KM deep (about 70 miles or so). That was the only thing that kept my upstairs from crashing down upon my downstairs. No kidding, this was within a mile or so of being exactly under Misawa. |
School is over for this semester/quarter. Scott took a programming class (A of course) and a Japanese language class (a B! can you believe it?) Tira finished her Lit class (A, duh!) Her history class isn't over yet, but she probably (she better!) get an 'A' in that, also.
Today was the last day of cub scouts for the year. At the pack meeting, Nicholas and the other tiger cubs all "bridged" and are now officially wolf cubs!
Nice one, Melanie. No, really!
cause: bicycle accident.
severity: minor.
cuteness factor: still cute.
We hope everyone had a nice Mother's Day. The kids and I took care of Tira all day, made her a lovely breafast and all those special mom day things. Oh, and look what we got her...
Oh, it's for her. No, really!! :-)
Chloe (clö ee) is 100% a pedigree beagle. She is registered with the Japanese kennel club. She is almost 10 months old. She is very small, weighing just 15 pounds or so.
Heather is working on her Bronze Award, the very highest award that can be earned by a Junior Girl Scout. Part of earning the award is conducting a community service project.
For her project, Heather decided to do a book drive. She thought of the idea herself, planned it, organized it, and conducted her book drive over the weekend.
The book drive was a wonderful success! Over 400 books were collected by Heather and the Girls in her troop and were donated to the base hospital. Some people even donated plastic tubs to store the books in at the hospital to keep the waiting rooms neat! Everything was very well thought out and executed. We're incredibly proud of Heather.
Heather being thanked by Col Turner, the hospital commander.
In the background are some of the over 400 books collected.
Date-Time 2002 04 11 12:04:13 UTC
Location 40.14N 142.75E
Depth 80.8 kilometers
Magnitude 4.7
Region Region HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION
Reference 70 miles (110 km) E of Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan
Source USGS NEIC
Deeper than the previous quakes this month (check the stats) and a little less scary. BUT, 4.++ is nothing to snicker at! The house shakes, the curtains wave, the earth literally moves!!!
btw, check out the location. It's almost exactly identical to the previous Earthquake!!!
Getting ReadyTeam Huddle
Date-Time 2002 04 11 12:04:13 UTC
Location 40.14N 142.75E
Depth 33.0 kilometers
Magnitude 4.8
Region NEAR E COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
Reference 70 miles (115 km) ESE of Hachinohe, Honshu, Japan
Source USGS NEIC
And this is a map of this weeks quake. On this map, we're just to the left of the orange star. Notice this was much less shallow than last weeks, and a little closer!
Date-Time 2002 04 03 23:42:12 UTC
Location 41.72N 141.73E
Depth 71.8 kilometers
Magnitude 5.1
Region HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION
Reference 50 miles (85 km) E of Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan
Source USGS NEIC
And this is the map I stole...
We live just South of the bottom left leg (point) of the green star.
This was like the 7th or 8th Earthquake since we got here, and 5.1 was not the biggest. I'll work on a log and try to capture what has hit us in the last 8 months...
It's soccer season, the kids have practice, I have school, Tira has school, all the kids have boy scouts and girl scouts and events and functions, it's spring time here so there are all sorts of base clean up projects, and bazaars and fairs...
So, thanks, really Tira, for breaking your foot!
And thanks Heather, for helping break your mother's foot. I would never have thought an 11 yr old stepping on her mother's heel while she walked could actually break her mothers foot near the toes, but you sure proved me wrong! Yes Siree, you sure proved us all wrong!
It's not a serious break, Tira is up and around on it now (4-14). The worst was the first few days when it hurt so bad. She missed school and pretty much everything. But she's just fine now, thanks. The Dr. didn't even put a cast on it, they wrapped it and put it in a removable brace that keeps it still and protects it, but no cast.
(but only because Donna made me!)
Misawa Cub Scout's Pine Wood Derby 2002
Wow! What a total riot!
Nicholas is in cub scouts this year, he's a Tiger Cub. That's the very first step, and the kids are the youngest of all of the scouts. He likes it alot, as I've mentioned before. His famous quote when I asked him if he liked being in cub scouts was:
"Oh Yeah! I've been waiting my whole life to be in cub scouts!"
So anyway, it was pinewood derby day, and Nicholas and I spent the whole day there. He raced in the morning, and I kept score for a good part of the afternoon, and then he raced again at 3:30.
Two races, you might ask?
And I might respond, "Yes, when you're the #1 finisher in your bracket you get to race twice!"
Nicholas finished FIRST out of the 12 Tiger Cubs. That put him into the Grand Prix, the championship for the entire pack.
Boy it was exciting!
Nicholas was the third racer in the semifinals and... HE LOST!
It was his first loss, ever! He was totally undefeated in the Tiger Cubs.
Poor guy, he was so crushed. You could see it in his face.
But, it's double elimination so Nicholas went into the loser bracket (the "second bracket" if you're a cub scout) and awaited his next race. It didn't take too long for his name to come up, there were only 12 cars in the finals.
In the second bracket Nicholas rocked! He won the next 6 races and beat EVERY OTHER car in that bracket. That pushed him back up into the winner's bracket... but once again he lost.
And I thought he was crushed the first time he lost a race!
The final talley is out of 89 cars, Nicholas not only had the only Pickup Truck, (oh yeah, see the pictures!) but he also came in 5th place overall. We were so proud of him!
Take a look at the pictures, if you haven't already. Nicholas designed the entire truck, top to bottom. See the color and the logo on the side??? A red Z71, just like dad's big red truck. <sniff> He's so cool! Nicholas also did most of the work on the truck. He painted the whole thing, including spray painting the body red. Tira and I touched it up a little, especially around the windows, but that was it. Nicholas even cut out the body using a mitre saw. We carved out the bed of the truck together, using a wood chisel and a hammer (a block of wood). I held the chisel and Nicholas banged on the end of it. And yes, I was scared. And no, he never hit my fingers, not one time. :-)
I cut the rear bumper out of a hunk of metal, but nicholas smoothed the edges and drilled the holes for the screws.