. . . . Ricks Extra Long Summer . . . .: Tyson, dancing and wheres the snow?

Yes, I am going to compare myself to Mike Tyson today.

Did you see the Mike Tyson fight? (It's always the Mike Tyson fight, not the other boxer) Anyway, I sat and watched it and sad as it was to see the boxing legend look old and slow and just tired - it actually made me feel so good! You see Mike Tyson was one of the fittest and strongest boxers of all time and he has the time, the know how, and the support to get himself fit and back in the ring to fight against someone much, much younger.

I on the other hand do not have any of that and was never that fit. Yet, even with all the backup Iron Mike has he still looked 58 years old, his body still looked slow and he was still out of breath after a couple of short 2 minute rounds. Now I am 54 years old and after a full days work every day I still come home to someone much younger than me (No I don't mean Buffy this time!) I come home to find two crazy kids who want to be picked up and swung around, who want to dance jump, run and have piggy back rides, shoulder carries and all sorts of other kid stuff. They still also want their dinner making, and need to pee at 3am at which point we have to come and help them .

If you add my kids heights together you get just under 7 feet, which is actually about a foot taller than Jake Paul, so maybe I have it harder than Iron Mike did last week. I didnt see Jake Paul jumping up and down on Iron Mikes stomach while someone else was standing on his head - that happens regularly to me. Also, my kids have four arms not two, so I get twice as many punches and hits! I look around at the other dads picking their kids up from school and I am the oldest dad there - Yes there are older Grandads, but they can go home and have a lazy lie-in every night if they want. Now, I am not complaining, I aM just stating that Iron Mike did an amazing job to get back in the ring after 20 years and it made me feel a little better about just how much I ache sometimes and how tired I get! Thanks Mike! No go have a nap!

Winter is approaching fast. Its been a chilly cold rainy day today 0 just 4 deg celsius, but for this time of year that's great for me - Usually we are well below zero by now and have had snow on the ground for a couple of weeks at least. So this is bliss! It is coming though - here's the forecast for the next couple of weeks...

We did manage to get through Halloween really nicely this year. We had a trip out to the Red River exhibition area just outside town, with some mates and their kids on a wonderful sunny evening and saw all the scarey stuff that was set up there as well as riding the rides with the kids and their friends.

Halloween itself was a was a lovely evening and the kids stayed up late. They had so much candy this year that they came home we had a fire in the front yard while the kids started giving their own candy back out to other kids who were still out trick and treating - I was so proud of them both for doing that!

One bad thing that happened that last month was the car breaking down! It wouldnt start and had to go to the garage for a week to get the dashboard key antenna replaced as well as the IBU. In simple terms the dashboard antenna recognises the key and turns off the immobiliser. But for some reason, for the 2nd time this year, it failed and the car would not start. It's a right pain in the arse. Luckily we are members of the local Peg City car co-op, so it's easy and relatively cheap to get a small car to use whenever we want, but it still cost us a couple of hundred dollars over the week to get to work and do everything we need to do. I just hope it doesnt fail again!

We also had more visitors in our backyard - Not some dodgy robbing bastard this tine but what looks to me like a Coyote - It could also be a fox, but to me the colours are wrong...what do you think?

There have been loads of other things going in recently too - taking the kids to the remembrance day at the local military armory, gymnastics lessons every Friday evening at which the kids have been excelling, dropping the Halloween pumpkins off a car park roof, play dates with the kids from school - including late night trampoline jumping, which at this time of year s unheard of! Oh, yeah and lots and lots of dancing - Both kids at the moment just love to put on some music and dance around the front room or on the sofa as well as having Buffy playing her guitar and singing their favourite songs for them as they dance along - here are some highlights of all that before I finish...

Even though there is no snow, the kids are starting to get into the festive mood. We started this by taking in the Santa parade last weekend. Again, because of the weather it was much, much nicer than it can be, and the kids really enjoyed it, getting even more free candy and watching the floats and all the people in costumes wander past. They had a great time! But just how much Candy does one kid need - i am surprised when they actually eat proper food nowadays!