Joshua James Aplet
We just got word that Joshua James Aplet came into this world at 9:45 PM. He his healty and doing great! He weighs 7lbs 13oz and is 21 inches long.
It was a long day for Chris and Allison I am sure they are happy to be over this part. Allison went in to the hospital at 8 AM to be induced. At 3 PM there wa little progress. Allison was up walking the halls trying to get things moving.
The last thing I heard was at 8:30 PM when I talked to mom and she said it was still going slow and that not much had changed. The doctor was expecting a midnight birth, but apparantly little Joshua had made up his mind and was coming out. By 9:45 PM he was born.
The photo on the right can be clicked to view a larger image.
I will add more photos to Joshua's photo page as I get them.
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4th Annual Mud & Crawl
I posted the same video and text on our norcaljeeps.com site, but figured some of you may not even know about the jeep site, and are probably expecting it here. So here you go.
My brother Joe, talked me into competing this year at the Surplus City 4th Annual Mud & Crawl event held at the Urban Assault OHV Combat Zone up in Oroville CA.
Joe was my spotter, and I was driving "Wobbly Bob" (that's the name of my Jeep). We have never competed before and have limited experience in the rocks. I had hoped that our first competition would have turned out better than it did, but that would be too easy.
On the first course (C1) I broke my front driver side hub right out of the gate. In the video you can see at about 1:23 while backing up the jeep come to an abrupt halt. Then continues with a slight pop. We were so focused on the course that we failed to notice it. Not knowing the front hub was broken, I tried to climb the concrete obstacle at the third gate and broke my rear passenger side axle shaft (approx. 1:57). Thus ending my first ever event course just four short minutes after it started.
Don't count us out though, we Aplet's are resourceful bastards. We replaced the rear axel shaft with a spare, "jimmy rigged" the front hub into the locked position, reused the old gear oil and went back out in hopes of completing the rest of the courses. Only, we rolled it on gate two. (should have stuck to the plan…)
In our original plan, we were going to winch to the top of the slick rock climb below gate three, but after tapping a bonus cone on gate one, we decided that we wanted to try and keep the 15 points that we would have taken for winching, and instead gun it up the slick rock climb to gate three. Bad idea as you will see in the video. As I start to climb the slick rock the jeep drifts just a bit and my rear tire catches a tree spinning me 90 degrees whirling me into a concrete obstacle at close to full throttle. (approx. 2:54)
What did we learn from this? Pay attention to everything! The spotter can only see so much. Communicate more, and above all. Stick to the plan unless you absolutely must change your strategy!
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What are you thankful for?
I love Thanksgiving. It's that one time of year when our two families join together to share a colossal turkey that can feed an army. We share in the preparation of funny foods that would have no other place except thanksgiving day. We are thankful for our family's help this year, and every year for that matter. Thanks to everyone that pitched in and helped make a dish, chop vegetables, cook, and of course the dreaded cleaning up part. Heather and I are thankful for your help.
Even though we had a wonderful thanksgiving, I couldn't help but to notice that we were missing a few people at the dinner table this year. For those that could not be with us, we would like to think they were with us in spirit.
Thanksgiving is a holiday for sharing a delicious meal, spending time with friends and family, remembering the old memories and making new ones. It's also a time for being thankful. So we would like to ask you. What are you thankful for?
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In Loving Memory
On Tuesday, September 29th my family suffered a tremendous loss. My father passed away at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital surrounded by the loving arms of his family.
Mom and Dad went to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital on September 22nd so that dad could go back on dialysis. His donated kidney had failed due to chronic rejection. Because his fistula had stopped working, he needed to have a dialysis catheter inserted. He had the catheter put in and was resting comfortably when my mom had to leave for Ukiah to go to work. Around 4pm on the 22nd, dad complained to the nurse about having difficulty breathing. He was transferred to the ICU. By the time my sisters and mom arrived in Santa Rosa, they had intubated dad. We thought that he may have developed pneumonia again.
On the 23rd the doctors had to give dad a transfusion because he was anemic. His blood pressure was low and they were giving him medication to regulate his blood pressure. On Thursday, we received the horrible news that the blood work showed that dad had suffered a heart attack within the past three days. After talking to the doctor and nurses, my sisters and I decided to fly Nathan out from Oklahoma. On Friday, they attempted to extubate dad. It was good news. In all of our minds, we thought that as soon as they extubated dad, he would be on the road to recovery – just like last time. For 10 hours dad was able to breathe on his own, then at 3am on Saturday, they had to intubate him again. Dad turned 65 on Monday the 28th. It was also my parent's 35th wedding anniversary. We sang "Happy Birthday" to dad and prayed for a miracle.
I was blessed for every single moment that I had with my dad. There are no words to express how deeply I loved him.
I will miss him always.
Services will be held at 12pm on Friday, October 9th at St. Mary's Church in Ukiah.
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Bon Voyage Nathan
Saturday was Nathan's going away party. He'll be moving to Oklahoma City in a couple of weeks, so we thought we would throw him a party before his schedule got too hectic. It was a beautiful day – thank God it wasn't as hot as it had been a couple of weeks ago. We had family from the Bay Area and Elk Grove come to wish him well. I think the kids had a good time improvising new ways to have fun. Please note the garbage bag sac races and the scrap lumber limbo bar. =)
Thanks for wishing Nathan good luck on the new chapter in his life. Of course, photos of the event can be found on Flickr.
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