One Bite at a Time


That’s how you eat an elephant and that’s how we are doing our year-end clean up of the house after the Christmas explosion. Today we took on the living room and dining room. That’s where all the gifts were unloaded, stored and wrapped so you can imagine the clutter left around. There will be no pictures in this blog.


My other task today was to finish setting up the laptop that we are giving to brother Louie. I also ran it on its battery to see how long it would operate. After loading my old Office 97 on it I set about disabling any wi-fi or blue tooth capability on the machine. It’s a shame I had to do that because the laptop had integrated wi-fi and blue tooth that worked better than my laptop (which uses a PCMCIA card and gives me sporadic performance). Louie does not want internet capability on his laptop. I physically disconnected the blue tooth module and removed all the wi-fi software and drivers. Next I loaded an old version of CD creator software on the laptop so Lou can copy his journals from floppies to CD. Finally I checked that the laptop would play a DVD. I put in Seabiscuit . It played nicely and even sounded good through the stereo speakers. I found myself watching the movie for about 20 minutes. It's a good movie.


I’m really impressed by this laptop. It is perfect for Lou, too. It reads floppy disks, reads and writes CDs, plays DVDs and has a built in SD flash card reader. (We are going to give Lou a couple Megabytes on SD cards). To top things off the computer gets more than 3 hours of use on a battery charge – that should give Lou sufficient time to journal while he is on a bus. The 40 Gigabyte hard drive has lots of room for Lou’s journals.

Since we went to church this evening we have nothing to stop us(translation, to give us an excuse) tomorrow (Sunday) from taking the next bite.

Christmas Week

We're home once again after an enjoyable and surprise-filled extended weekend. Most of you who read this already know the events of the week because we were all together. I’ll still record some of the events here for posterity. All the surprises were not nice ones.

The weekend began for us on Saturday morning with our usual breakfast at Waffle House. The restaurant is usually empty at this time on Saturdays but this morning found it busy with only one booth open for us to sit at. We still got our usual waitress (oops, I mean server). I guess we can count ourselves as regulars there now since the server knows our order when she sees us. The car was all packed and ready for the trip so after breakfast we went back to the house and picked up Brie and set out for Jacksonville.

We experienced clouds, fog and drizzle for the entire trip. The only significant event came at our gas stop. One of the gas stations there was shut down because someone drove over the hose that the tank truck was filling the stations tanks with - splitting the 5-inch hose and spilling gas. Everything was at a standstill over there. Nobody could do anything that might spark including starting cars. A bunch of holiday drivers were temporarily captured until the place was cleaned up. We were glad we weren’t there.

Once we got to K&T’s we didn’t do a lot. We unloaded all the gifts – the CRV was full of them including a bunch from Meme. (Penny and I have scaled back our Christmas giving some since we retired but Meme was quite generous this year. I felt bad that we didn’t give her family more.) We got dinner at KFC that evening and they began feeding Sophia some rice cereal that

evening. I found myself getting a headache. I don’t get many headaches. When I do it is usually a bad sign and this held to be true.

Did I mention there was a lot of sleeping going on?

Sophy was all smiles, especially for her Aunt Christy.

Sunday was mostly uneventful. We did church and Famous Amos for breakfast. The rest of the day was spent preparing for Christmas. Tim and I did a grocery shop in the Publix madhouse. I called Kerry and set up a visit for Monday. I was getting queasy on and off all day. Most of the day was spent relaxing and enjoying Sophia and the rest of the family.


Monday, Tim fixed us all French toast for breakfast. We went over to see Kerry, originally planning to spend an hour or so. We ended up ordering pizza for lunch and staying longer. Kerry’s is always a nice place to visit. Kathy and Joe were there. Annie was as cute as could be. Jack was energetic and this visit we got to see John.

I still had breakfast sitting in my stomach and it didn’t seem to be moving in either direction. I didn’t have any pizza, just some diet coke. My feeling bad was relatively minor compared to Penny. In her normal manner she didn’t tell us she was feeling bad. We didn’t know she was sick until she got sick and needed help to clean up. Whereas my body was undecided as to which way for my system to pass food along Penny’s body decided to use all its options.

Penny cleaned herself up and changed clothes. We stayed a little longer at Kerry’s and then went back to Karen’s. Penny slept, I napped and Karen went off to do some Christmas shopping.

Neither Penny nor I felt well enough to go to midnight mass. The rest of the group did including Sophie.

On Christmas morning Penny felt better. I was still feeling strange but was able to eat breakfast – this morning Tim made pancakes and we had cherry topping with whipped cream. Then it was time to open presents. My primary interest was to see if Christy liked the chicken wall clock I made for her. This was the secret project I was making the week before. We had seen the clock in a shop in High Springs. I copied it and made the colors match Christy’s house. My effort was well rewarded. She looked genuinely thrilled with the clock. At first she thought it was the clock from the shop and was amazed that the colors were so good for her house. When she realized I had made it she got even more excited. I like to see that smile on Christy – it’s priceless.

Everyone seemed well pleased with the gifts.

The day shifted to preparation of Christmas dinner. I didn’t help much with the preparations. I still felt bad. I was able to watch Sophie while the others did the real work. I had the best job and her little smile helped keep me going.


The meal was wonderful. We have incorporated traditions from both families. We didn't lack for food. We had turkey, dressing, sweet potato muggin, mac and cheese, corn casserole, apple salad, cranberry sauce, green beans, biscuits and gravy. I ate some of everything. Near the end of the meal Christy complained that she was getting a headache. I thought to myself that it was the symptom that started my problems.


Christy headed home that evening. We celebrated Tim’s Christmas birthday with presents, cheesecake and pumpkin pie. I was still eating and things seemed to be slowly moving in the correct direction but I still felt dizzy and had a mild upset stomach.


The next morning Christy called to tell us she also got sick and did not go to work. Before that Penny and I woke up at 4:30 AM to say goodbye to Karen when she left for work. I laundered the sheets and towels we had used and also Penny’s clothes that got dirty when she was sick. We said goodbye to Sophie when Tim brought her to daycare. Then we packed up the car, caught Brie, bid Tim adieu and headed down to High Springs to see Christy.


The original purpose of the visit to Christy was to see if we could unplug the drainpipe for their washing machine. It spewed water every time they used it. Now that she was sick we had a more important reason to visit.


The drain didn’t appear to be plugged when I checked it. Instead, the combination of the volume of water going in and the air coming out seems to make it overflow. This is like what happens when you fill your car with gas. The pump always kicks off before the tank is full because escaping air backs up the flow of gasoline. So I wrapped a rag around the washing machine’s drain hose and stuffed the hose into the drainpipe. This way air could escape through the rag but backed up water would wet the rag but not splash out. If the drain were truly plugged it would blow the rag and hose off the end . This fix seemed to work. I did 2 loads of laundry without pouring water all over their laundry room and yard.

We offered to stay with Christy over night and take care of her and the animals. She accepted. Penny went the extra mile and washed all their dishes. We pulled out the sleeper sofa and spent the night in her living room. Penny says Christy’s cat Colby spent some time on my chest kneading my neck. I don’t remember. Evidently Brie got a little upset. Considering Colby’s size and weight I’m amazed that I didn’t feel the cat on me.


Thursday morning a slow-moving Christy headed off to work. We once again packed up to head home. The only problem was we couldn’t find Brie. I guess she was going to get back at me for sleeping with Colby. I finally found her, with the help of a flashlight, tucked into the deepest corner of the guest room. She would not come out voluntarily so we had to slide the sofa out a little and latch onto her and extract he against her will. We put her in the carrier and carefully checked that we had closed up the house properly and headed home.


The drive home was normal. We did get to see the results of someone going off-road driving in one of those big RV’s that everyone curses at on the highway. Those vehicles are probably good protection if you hit a car but this one did not fare well against a stand of long needle pine trees. The front quarter of the vehicle was all torn off and pine trees were sticking up where the driver should have been. It was not pretty.


Back home again all was calm, all was bright? There were no problems with the house. The Mod IV automatic cat feeder worked properly. By the end of the day (after I awoke from a short winter’s nap) all the outside cats were accounted for.


Today, Friday, we did our normal Target run and scooped up some post-Christmas bargains. We ordered 2 pieces of cookware for Penny and were expecting delivery today but the doorbell didn’t ring. About 3:30 a noisy thunderstorm was arriving so I decided to check the front door to see if any boxes were there. Sitting on the doorstep were 2 boxes covered in plastic. Evidently the delivery person doesn’t knock or ring the bell. After I got the packages in I stood inside the storm door and watched the storm approach. Christy’s plant outside our front door has just passed its peak in blooming. It was a little late this year with the warm weather. I noticed some motion around one of the flowers and discovered two Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds working their way around the bush hitting all the fresh blooms. I watched them for a while as the rain picked up. They didn’t seem bothered by it. Finally it started pouring and I didn’t see them any more. It was a nice treat to see the birds. They migrate through our area but don’t stay year-round.

So, now you have a brief rundown of this past week’s activities. Penny and I are over our illness and ready to start this week's Saturday back at Waffle House.

The Night Before The Night Before

This Christmas holiday is shaping up to be a good one. Here it is Christmas eve, eve and our whole immediate family is together and having a good time. Sophie is the star of the affair having “baby’s first Christmas” and being blissfully unaware of what all the attention is about. She just likes it.

I’ve been in Publix twice this weekend and the place is a madhouse. I found myself smiling at all the commotion. There was barely room to maneuver the shopping cart but everyone was in a good mood. It wasn’t frustrating at all. Everyone was in the same boat, knew why it was that way and knew they were part of the cause for all the congestion and just muddled through.

The bagger in the checkout line was a very tall happy-looking kid who was so tall his head kept bumping a small glass Christmas ornament hanging from the ceiling decorating the checkout area. I told him there weren’t many people who would hit that ornament. He smiled at me and said he told a lady that it wasn’t a decoration. He convinced her it was the latest technology in security cameras (it was only a 2-inch diameter ball) and explained to her it coul view 360 degrees. He told me he convinced more than a few people. He was enjoying himself.

It is both enjoyable and comforting to be with family on a holiday and I feel fortunate that we are once again able to get everyone in one place. Karen and Tim are being wonderful hosts and tomorrow we will likely go see the Brophys' and sister Kathy.

A Short History of Nearly Everything

I finished the 2nd book sister Kathy loaned me - A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. It is basically a general science book but it is told using ordinary language and the story of science is told with stories about the people who made scientific discoveries. He covers chemistry, physics, paleontology, astronomy, particle physics, the Big Bang, evolution and geology.

I was already familiar with the chemistry, physics and astronomy stuff but the author makes the information much more interesting by including many insights into the personalities involved. It is interesting that many of the people who actually made a discovery weren’t credited with it. I found it incredible that all these scientists put their ego ahead of the science.

I did learn some things about biology, botany, zoology and geology and got an interesting refresher course on the other topics.

Bryson explained that Yellowstone National Park is a huge volcano that is overdue to blow – with hundreds of times the power of Mt Saint Helen’s.

He tells us that we humans are just a flash in the timeline of earth and we are not the ultimate goal of evolution. He points out that extinction is the norm for all forms of life and that humans will likely be replaced somewhere down the line.

Bryson ends the book by noting how many extinctions humans are responsible for, and how lucky mankind is to be living on planet Earth today.

I enjoyed the book and found it to be good follow up to reading after The World Without Us.

That Was Now This is Then!

Penny and I are back from our weekend with Karen, Tim and Sophie. I feel like I’ve stepped back in time. It has been a while since we’ve been this close to a newborn and caring for Sophie has brought back a rush of memories from when Karen and Christy were this small. Most babies at this age do the same sorts of things. Smile at you, drool, chew on your finger. As the years pass you think you remember how it was- until you again hold one of those little creatures in your arms and feed and change them.

I also dug out the cassette tapes I made of Karen at Sophie’s age so listening to them also brought back many memories.

This is a special time that passes all too quickly. I am savoring it. I know Karen and Tim both realize how fortunate they are to have a healthy happy baby.

It is a bit disorienting. We were doing these same things thirty years ago and it’s easy to forget that you are 30 years older – you feel transported back to those days and for a while you forget the achy back and sore hands and just lose yourself in Sophie’s smile.

Christmas in Riverside

I feel as if I spent the evening on a Hollywood set. We went to the Riverside community in Jacksonville, the neighborhood where Karen and Tim used to live, and enjoyed their luminaries and Christmas decorations. This is a K&T tradition. They put reindeer ears on Truman and this year Sophie was with us in her all-terrain stroller. The stroller has speakers so Tim had his IPOD hooked up and playing Christmas music.

The evening begins at Starbucks for a tall hot drink to take with us on the walk. Then it was off to Riverside. Once out of the car and handling the logistics of setting up the stroller, getting Sophie in it and controlling Truman while juggling cups of coffee we set off on our walk.
The weather got cold just in time for the walk. It is dropping to 31 degrees tonight and it was windy. The warm drinks were a great idea. Many of the houses were decorated and a good number had their owners sitting out front wishing all the passers-by "Merry Christmas". Luminaries lined all the roads. Cars, trucks, horse-drawn carriages and trailers full of people throwing candy and beads slowly passed on the road in the crawling traffic. Many shouts of “Merry Christmas” could be heard. At one church they had a live Nativity complete with farm animals. Members of the church were circulating through the crowd with trays of cookies and cider. Truman was a hit with his antlers. Whenever one trailer full of holiday revelers passed another going the other direction horns tooted an candy was thrown between the two trailers. Some of it looked like it might hurt to get hit by the candy.

Sophie, dressed warmly, took it all in. Karen got 3 strings of beads thrown to her. Even motorcycles were decorated with Christmas lights. It was truly a festive air. I commented to Karen that if I had seen something like this in a movie I wouldn’t have thought it to be realistic.(People just don’t do things like this anymore). But here we were walking with a crowd of people (and dogs) smiling and wishing everyone Merry Christmas.

If walking the streets of riverside doesn’t get you in a Christmas spirit it is hopeless. It was a pleasant evening and for us maybe a once in a lifetime experience.

Merry Christmas!

Don’t Retire in Connecticut

AOL ran a piece today about the worst places to retire. My birth state of Connecticut was included as a bad place and they had this write-up about my birth city:



Bridgeport, Conn. :
Highest Taxes In retirement, income taxes aren't going to matter much. It's the property taxes that are going to kill you. This year Connecticut ranked as having the highest taxes if you consider state, local and federal contributions. In 2003, Bridgeport, a troubled city with some lovely beachfront neighborhoods, ranked as tops in local taxes: 17.7 percent.



They did have a nice picture of Bridgeport.




Also, there was this about the Gate River Run ;





It's Official! The Gate River Run, The Florida Times-Union 5K for Charity and the adidas junior river run will all finish inside Jacksonville Municipal Stadium on the football field. Spectators will be able to set in the East Club Seats and watch live race coverage provided by WJXT TV-4. The runners will be able to see themselves finishing on the two large jumbotrons that are used by the Jaguars.

Gifts on the Way

Our mission today was to box up and send off the Christmas presents to the McClure and Hardin branches of the family. After a quick visit to Dr Bartruff to make sure Penny's jaw was doing OK we went home and embarked on the mission. Penny put each item in its Christmas box and then I boxed them up for shipping. We ended up with one large box that went to Nana’s, a smaller box to DeDe and a small box for Rob. We found out that Rob’s box needed a custom’s declaration to go with it. The form was larger than the box and the lady at the post office had to wrap it around the edges of the box when she taped it on. We succeeded in getting everything we needed to mail out today.

On the drive back I noticed that the bayous were relatively flat and it was sunny and in the 70’s so when I got home I put the kayak on the car and went kayaking.

When I got to the park to launch the boat I noticed a cold breeze had started. When I got out on the water and looked up the bayou there was a fog bank rolling in. I ended up paddling mo more than a quarter mile from where I launched. I explored the shoreline until the fog arrived and then went home. I did get some interesting pictures of some pelicans and a foggy tree.

I left the kayak on the car. Tomorrow’s another day.

Feb 1978

I dug out some old tapes that I made when Karen was 3 – 4 months old.. This was before the days of video tape. Kathy and I were exchanging tapes at this time. She was still in NJ and my parents were still in CT.

I’m going to make a digital recording of parts of the tapes I have. The tapes are 30 years old now but still in good shape. This is a good advertisement for AMPEX tapes. Is Ampex still in buisiness?

Here are some of the things I discussed on the tapes. I made this tape when Karen was just a little younger than Sophie is now and the comparison of our lives at that time and hers now is to me quite interesting.

One of the first issues we had with Karen was a 2 week bout of diarrhea. Being new parents we worried a lot. We were told to keep her hydrated and feed her clear liquids whenever she wanted them. We alternated taking days off work. Karen would drink Gatorade (she really liked the stuff) and sleep an hour, soak a diaper and repeat the cycle throughout the 24 hour days. Needless to say Penny and I were quite worn out. Does this sound familiar Karen?

Our daily schedule was – wake up at 4:45, eat breakfast and feed cats before Karen wakes (hopefully). Wake up Karen, Penny feeds her I pack diaper bag. Penny leaves around 6 and takes Karen to Vikki Bass our first baby sitter.

I also found it interesting that I noted that we were molding our schedule to the kid – probably too much so. I explain that we tend to always carry her because if we put her down she screams – LOUDLY! At 3 months we were just learning to leave her in the crib and let her settle herself. I even make the comment (of a guilty feeling new parent) that I didn’t think leaving her to settle herself was harmful. We were very much like Karen and Tim.

By the last week in Feb 78 Karen couldn’t roll over yet. She could get on her side by March 1, but not roll. When she wakes up she does a fantastic stretch - puts her arms up and tilts her head left and right and then rubs her sleepy eyes with her little fists.

At the beginning of April she could roll over easily. She could get up on all 4’s and rock. She could sit well all by herself and stand up as long as you balanced her. She also could say da-da-da-da-da. Put a mirror in front of her and she was happy. We would also play a game we called ping-pong parents. I would hand her to Penny and she would immediately lean back to me with her arms out and Penny would pass her back. She would then immediately lean to Penny with her arms out and get passed back. We would repeat the process until we got tired.


I found that I can successfully digitally record the tapes on the computer so I will make a CD for Karen of the tape I made for my mother of Karen’s first year.

The World Without Us

My sister Kathy sent me a book last week and I finished the 10th and final CD today. Forget global warming y’all. The problems we actually cause are a whole lot bigger and much, much more difficult to reverse.

In the book the author, Alan Weisman, starts with the question; If, for whatever reason, a virulent virus or the Rapture, every human being disappeared from the earth. With the earth depopulated, how long would it be before all trace of humankind vanished?

Rather than me trying to describe the book I’m borrowing this write up about the book:

Given the burgeoning human population and the phenomenal reach of our technologies, humankind has literally become a force of nature. We are inadvertently changing the climate; altering, polluting, and eradicating ecosystems; and driving evolution as other organisms struggle to adapt to a new human-made world. So what would happen if humankind suddenly vanished? Journalist Weisman, author of Echo in My Blood (1999), traveled the world to consult with experts and visit key sites, and his findings are arresting to say the least. He learned that without constant vigilance, New York's subways would immediately flood, and Houston's complex "petroscape" would spectacularly self-destruct. Weisman visits an abandoned resort on the coast of Cyprus and marvels over nature's ready reclamation. Marine biologists share sobering information about the staggering amount of plastic particles in ocean waters as well as vast floating islands of trash. Weisman is a thoroughly engaging and clarion writer fueled by curiosity and determined to cast light rather than spread despair. His superbly well researched and skillfully crafted stop-you-in-your-tracks report stresses the underappreciated fact that humankind's actions create a ripple effect across the web of life. As for the question of what would endure in our absence, Weisman lists a "redesigned atmosphere," astronomical amounts of plastic and automobile tires, nuclear waste and other inorganic poisons, and, eerily, the radio waves that will carry our television broadcasts through the universe for all time. Donna SeamanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Now we are back to me – Weisman is not preachy or overly judgmental. Instead he has done an excellent job of investigative reporting with a blend of the sciences, history, and plausible speculation.

The Green Movement should grab onto this book to further their cause. It is as eye-opening as Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. The only problem is that to reverse our impact on the earth means changing the way all of mankind lives. It is not just the rich nations causing the problems. We humans don’t fit into the natural cycles of the planet. Instead we have terribly disrupted them.

The author covers all the bases. Included in his discussions are pieces of religious and meditative thinking. I came away from the book wondering why we are the virus that makes Earth sick.

Bottom line is a quote from the book. “No matter what, life will go on and it will be interesting.” The life it is talking about, however, is not human life. Like any other population that overextends the available resources something will happen to control the population.

The good news is that without us the roaches and rats won’t survive for long.

Men Plan….

Today went nothing like what I had planned. It was too cold to run off and take pictures – Penny’s ears don’t like that. Penny then looked at our reminder board and told me “I’m supposed to yell at you to send in the rebates.” We have $120 worth of rebates. That turned into about a 2-hour task filling out the forms, cutting out proof of purchases and UPCs, copying the completed forms and stuffing envelopes.

Since I had some computer software out I decided to do another job that I had been putting off. We have a subscription to Norton Antivirus that we can apply to 3 computers. I have it on my laptop and the desktop. Penny’s laptop came with a trial version of Norton that has expired. I would simply load her laptop as the 3rd machine under our subscription.

That sounds simple enough – until I went up against Windows Vista. When I tried to load my Norton Antivirus 2006 (good for Windows XP and 2000) the computer informed me that it was not compatible with Vista and aborted the process. It did suggest I go to the Symantec Website to see if they had an update. The Symantec web site did have the solution – It downloaded a trial version of Norton 2008. This process took about 25 minutes and I had to do it twice because I found the old Norton firewall would not let me install the new Norton. I uninstalled the old and went through the download process – now I was at about the hour and a half point in this process. I still didn’t know if Symantec would honor my older version subscription on the 2008 version of their product.

I reached the part of the install where they asked for my product key and I punched in the 2006 versions key, hit continue and crossed my fingers. The computer went away for a long time but finally came back and said I had 286 days left on the subscription. Thank you Symantec. At least their computers work properly.

Mid-way through the installation process I made lunch. We are eating soft food because of Penny’s dental work so lunch was chicken and rice. Soft food or not, while I was chewing, one of my gold crowns came off. There is nothing like chomping down on a hunk of metal.

I called Dr Woo and got worked in to get the thing glued back in place. It was now past 1 PM. Penny and I planned an efficient trip into town. First the dentist, then Catholic Social Services to drop off the food we bought for them. We weren’t sure where their offices were so we drove along First Street until we found them. Next we stopped at a NAPA parts store to get a spark plug (remember the spark plug from yesterday?) for the lawn mower. Finally we hit Jo Ann’s for Penny to pick up stuff for the Christmas stockings she is making. We got back home around 3:30.

Penny was twinging so we decided to relax. We watched two shows on the DVR.

So – no progress on the shed, the lawn or the Christmas decorations today. Maybe tomorrow. Then again, we can always run off and take pictures.

Wasps 1 / Paul 1

Today was a day of partial successes. We had a beautiful cool fall day. I decided to once again try to mow the lawn and clear the way to put up the nativity figures on the front lawn. I cranked and cranked the mower to no avail. Yes it is getting gas. Yes it is getting spark. It just won’t catch. I got fresh gas and that didn’t work either. The next step is to get a new spark plug. If that doesn’t work I may have to open the thing up and look inside.

Lacking a freshly mown lawn to place the Nativity on I decided to string lights around the windows and garage doors as I do every year. As I was stringing them over the front door – I saw it! Another wasps nest! This one was small and it only had one wasp on it. I’m glad I saw it before I startled him. I was standing on a ladder. My last encounter with wasps 2 months ago did not turn out good. I’ve still got sore spots on my cheek, my mouth and my hands. As I stood there looking at that wasp I knew he had to go. I couldn’t get the lights up with him there. I got the wasp spray, tested it and walked over to the little nest. This time I gave the process some thought before squirting. I had on good shoes, I had a clear escape route and I knew that getting stung was not as bad as a trip to the emergency room. One squirt and it was curtains for Mr. Wasp.

Now I’ve got lights on the roof and an angel too. They aren’t turned on yet because of gaps due to burned out bulbs. I need to spend some time replacing bulbs. The lights around the windows are up and lighted. The garage lights are up but not turned on.

Tomorrow may see a mowed lawn and a Nativity. Then again with this great weather we may want to run off and take pictures somewhere.

We did do one worthwhile thing today. We ordered a used laptop computer for my brother Lou to use for journaling on his travels around the country doing God’s work. We decided he would be this year’s angel tree. Penny did most of the legwork, finding what appears to be a perfect computer for his needs. Now that we’ve ordered it we both feel it was the right thing to do. I did a lot of hand wringing before deciding to go ahead with this but when I saw Penny get into her angel tree “zone” and locate exactly what we needed at a good price I knew this was what we should do.

My fear now is that the seller will come back and say they are out of stock or back ordered. I don’t think that will happen - usually when things line up this way they continue to go well, especially when brother Lou is involved. He seems to have someone watching him. When I called him and told him we ordered the laptop he got very emotional. He literally cried tears of joy. I actually could sense this weight coming off his shoulders. His journaling is important. It keeps him grounded. He is about to give up everything, go homeless intentionally and let God take care of him as he does volunteer work for the We Care ministries. We’re hoping the laptop will help him in his work.

Let the Shopping Begin!

We started this Saturday as we do most with breakfast at Waffle House. Since this is December, I suggested we bring pen and paper with us and plan our Christmas shopping. We hadn’t done a lot of it yet.

That’s what we did. This got holiday shopping on Penny’s mind and if you know Penny you know what we did for the remainder of the day.

We hit most of the regular stores in Destin and Sandestin and had a very productive day. We have now completed most of our Christmas list. We literally shopped till we dropped.

Then we stopped at home, switched cars (to leave all the booty safely in the garage) and headed out to Saturday night church.
Now I’m watching Mizzou play Oklahoma for the Big 12 championship, rooting for Mizzou. It’s early in the game so no one is winning yet. Go Mizzou.

Seventeen Thousand Two Hundred and Twenty Words.

Here it is the last day of November and I am only 1/3 of the way towards the 50,000-word goal. I’ll continue to write a little most days. I’ll finish when I finish.

I set up some Christmas decorations on the roof today – lights and the angel we got last year. I was going to mow the lawn and put up the Nativity figures we have but I couldn’t start the lawnmower. I’m using gas that is probably a year old. With the cold weather it just isn’t volatile enough to crank the engine. At least that’s my theory. I’ll get some fresh gas tomorrow and try again.

Otherwise it wasn’t a very productive day. I’m still trying to shake this cold.

I missed a beautiful sunset today. I had considered a beach walk but for one reason or another didn’t do it. The sunset was a brilliant scarlet one with nice wispy clouds. That’s another thing to consider for tomorrow. We may be going to church tomorrow at sunset time. We still haven’t decided what we are going to do about the Mass change at Hurlburt.

Tune in to my next blog for the answer to this and other burning questions.

A "B'n"Day

No, not a Birthday, just a lot of B’s in today’s activities. I’ve still got a cold from Thanksgiving. I thought it was almost gone on Monday night But it came Back and has stayed with me.


My Breakfast was raisin Bran. Penny suggested I take it easy today because of the cold, so I took a Break from any real work or chores. We relaxed and watched last weeks Grey’s Anatomy. It was a Beautiful day today so I suggested we go see what Rocky Bayou State Park looked like. We graBBed our cameras an apple and a Bottle of water each and headed out to hike the park’s trails. We haven’t Been to the park since the hurricanes and we knew that it sustained a lot of damage 2 years ago. It was evident when we walked the trails. There were Broken and dead trees everywhere. Fortunately the park is recovering nicely and we enjoyed our hike. In keeping with my take-it-easy day we kept a leisurely pace on the trails. We hiked for aBout 1-½ hours. It’s a small park But the trails were nice and it has a good-sized picnic area right along Rocky Bayou. We also checked out the Boat ramp for potential future kayak launchings. We Both ate our apples at aBout the half way point But we were hungry for lunch when we left the park.

We stopped at Hungry Howie’s and had Baked suBs for lunch. Penny kept the little pizza Boxes for possiBle use as mailing Boxes for some of her handiwork. Since we were in the shopping center we couldn’t not go to Bayou Books, one of Penny’s favorite places to Browse. We also hit the supermarket there to Buy some Butter (well, margarine actually But Butter starts with a “B”). Then we went Back home to Be greeted By Brie when we came in the door.


I relaxed in the Bedroom for aBout a half-hour with Brie napping at my feet. Then I went Back to writing on my Book. I just checked my word count and I am at 16,500. The plot is now Beginning to thicken. I’m inventing the story as I go. I know where I want to go and I’m figuring out how to get there.

At 4:30 all 5 cats were outside so I spent some time petting them and then fed them their ration of canned food for the day.

Now I’m sitting here Blogging as Penny whips up a Batch of her luscious Beef stew.

So that’s my B’n day. Tomorrow is Friday. I hope it’s not an F’n day don’t you?

Recovery Day

I haven’t blogged in a week. It’s not that nothing is happening, which is my normal excuse. It’s just the opposite – lots of things happening. My “novel” which also kept me from blogging is not going to be finished within the November goal. That was known a long time ago. I ended up stalling about half-way through the month with only 12,000 words. Thanksgiving got in the way. We spent Tuesday and Wednesday of Thanksgiving week with Karen and Tim and a sick little Sophia. If you read Karen’s blogs you know that story. From there it was off to Christy and Christians (C&C) to have Thanksgiving dinner and “meet the family” – Christian’s family.

Penny and I had a great time there. C&C put a lot of hard work into making everything enjoyable and their work paid off. I like seeing Christy when she smiles the way she did this weekend.

Christian’s family was fun too. They are all intelligent, technically savvy and Type “A” personalities with a great sense of humor. His Dad was extremely interested in my work with NASA and the Air Force and we both commiserated about the way jobs are accomplished in a big bureaucracy.

C&C had a 20 lb turkey and everybody provided some food. Christy made apple salad and sweet potato muggin that was as good as Penny’s. Penny helped make gravy. Christian’s family brought mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie and a delicious apple pie. Christian carved the bird.

We went to Oleno State Park and hiked with 3 dogs(2 huskies and Finn). I promptly got caught up in taking pictures and went 1 mile down the wrong path. Penny rescued me with a cell phone call. I’m surprised she didn’t take my head off when I finally rejoined the group. Penny was surprisingly relaxed throughout the weekend. I think this retirement thing is good for her. Here it is Monday and I’m still alive, so I guess I’m OK.

We took our usual recovery day when we returned home. We do very little and used the day to rest. I slept in until 8:30. We drove up to Crestview to get Penny’s sewing machine. It was in the shop for preventive maintenance. We took that opportunity to eat lunch at Cracker Barrel. Tomorrow we will worry about unpacking, laundry and all that stuff.

The cat feeder worked properly while we were gone. It has enough food in it for another few days. I’ll let it run out and see how many days it feeds at this setting. All 5 of the cats showed up today. We had 5 inches of rain overnight and into the morning. It’s not unusual for cats to not show up on rainy days. They all showed their little hungry faces, however.

12000 Words

Here it is the 15th of November, halfway through the month and I have only 12000 of the 50000-word goal. I guess I could say the glass is half-full – I have written 12000 words, but that only makes about a quarter-full glass.

Beyond the writing and working in the shed there is not a lot going on - the lull before the holidays. The cat feeder has been working well. There are still 5 cats.

My left hand is still swollen and hurting. I’m going to see my old friend Dr Silberberg on Monday. If she finds a problem I may be in a cast for Thanksgiving. Keep you fingers crossed – ouch – I cant cross mine without them hurting so you cross yours.

By the way my “novel” is titled “Such Stuff as Dreams” and is a sort of science fiction / mystery/thriller. It’s about an astronaut who is the Lance Armstrong of dreamers. It involves him in a study for long endurance space missions, hibernation, mind control and an evil Chinese plot. It will be ready to read in ? At the rate I’m going I should finish the sloppy 1st draft about the end of the year. Then I need to clean it up and edit it. So maybe by groundhog day it will be ready.

Getting Back on Track.

This week was a start at getting back to normal. I’ve begun my training for the Gate River run. The soreness in my ankle, knees and hips that I had after my trip in Texas has gone away. The hands still hurt and are weaker and more painful than they should be after 5 ½ weeks. I was looking at my left hand in church today and it is still swollen on the heel and the thumb and 1st and 2nd fingers. It hurts to type with it right now. The thumb and first finger on the right hand hurt but I can use my right hand for most task with no problem. So I’m back to getting some exercise but not with the hands.

The other item I’m getting on track with is the shed and shop. I went through the storage area and cleaned it up significantly. I actually opened up the storage area to where I can finally move some stuff we currently have in the garage out to the shed. That was the intent all along but you know how things get in the way of what you intend to do. I’m in the process of reorganizing the shop to make it more usable and efficient. I’ve made good progress toward that goal this week. I’m going to try to finish the shop this week – there’s one of those intention things again. We will see how I do.

Today I was working in the shop. I had the door open because it was a beautiful fall day. I looked up and 3 of the cats, Velcro, Meredith, and Bianca (white) were all in the shed cautiously exploring the area around the doorway. I let them look for a while and then shushed them away before they got too comfortable. They spend a lot of time under the shed but when they saw all that new territory to explore inside the shed the really looked excited.

We found out at church today that next Sunday will be the last one with a 7:15 mass. We knew this was coming. Now we have to decide if we still go there to one of the other masses or whether we go to ST Mary’s or St Peter’s.


I’m at a little over 7000 words on my novel. That’s about one third as many as I should have if I’m to finish in November. It’s not going to be easier to write at the end of the month with travel and the holiday so I need to put more time in it. Maybe I don’t need to finish the shop this week.

Laundry, Repairs and Cats

I spent the morning today fixing things. First in line was the cat feeder. It didn’t dispense any food this morning. When I checked it out (I now have to open a panel to look inside – it keeps critters out and me too) everything was working OK. It wouldn’t dispense because a piece of duct tape that acted as a flexible seal between the food bin and the feeding wheel had come unstuck and was preventing food from flowing. The simple fix was to just remove the piece of tape.

Next I had to fix the generator. It has a “low oil” sensor that cuts off the engine after 10 seconds if it senses low oil. This is an unreliable sensor. 2 or 3 years ago it went bad and I replaced it. Now this one has gone bad. I recognized the symptoms. It stops the engine after 10 seconds even when it has sufficient oil. I decided no sensor was better than an unreliable one. I check the oil every month anyway. I disconnected the sensor and jumped the wire connection around it. It runs fine again.

After the generator I did some repairs on the enclosure I have it in. The roof/ door had come loose. Then I re-hung the Kayaks against the house. They had been down on the ground most of the summer.

In between these tasks I finished up the laundry. We are all caught up after the weekend trip – at least laundry-wise.

Penny made a batch of her pasta fagioli today and that made for a nice lunch.


After lunch I did some shed clean up and made a warm place for the kitties outside. It may get into the 30’s tonight. While I was doing that I looked over at the basil plant and saw Buzz living up to his name. I named him Buzz because he was always chasing flies. He was now sitting by the plant stalking a bee that was looking for some basil flowers.

I’m currently reading an old James Bond novel that my dentist loaned me. She said they were pretty good and she was right. The book is Moonraker. It was written in 1955 during the cold war. It is interesting to see how commonplace Bond’s high-tech gadgets are by today’s standards. The book is well written and technically accurate, at least so far.

Finally, tonight Buzz joined the group of cats that will let me pet them. Velcro comes for petting with no hesitation. Meredith hesitates and then relaxes. Buzz stood still for the first time today and let me scratch his ear. That leaves the white cat, who seems to have no interest in being pet and Marmalade who will never trust enough to be pet.

I inadvertently closed Brie in our clothes chest today. I lifted her onto the shelf in the chest when I got out a pair of jeans this morning around 9 AM. She nestled all the way in the back with just her head showing. I got dressed and went outside to do the stuff I wrote about here. I forgot she was in there and closed the door on her. It was 4 or 5 hours later that I opened the door and there was Brie. She didn’t seem the least bit upset. As far as we could tell she wasn’t meowing to get out. I sure felt bad when I realized what I had done.

When I’m 59

I turned 59 last Friday - 2 days before daughter Karen reached that milestone age of 30. If one Googles “59 years old” one finds stories about a 59-year-old playing college football or of a 59-year-old woman giving birth to twins.

I was born in 1948, a leap year, on the election day, Nov 2nd,where Harry Truman defeated Thomas Dewey and Strom Thurmond.

Some famous people also born in 1948 are, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Alice Cooper, Ozzy Ozbourne, James Taylor, Billy Crystal, Steven Tyler, Al Gore, Jerry Mathers, Richard Simmons, Gary Trudeau, Olivia Newton-John, Cat Stevens, Peggy Flemming, Phil Hartman, Howard Dean, John Ritter, Bryant Gumbel, Samuel L. Jackson and Maurizio Gucci. 3 of this group are already dead!

Born on Nov 2nd like me-
James K Polke, Daniel Boone, Marie Antoinette, Warren G Harding, Burt Lancaster, K D Lang and rapper Nelly.

The fact that 2 presidents were born on Nov 2nd is used quite often as an example of the high probability of finding 2 people with the same birthday in a group of 30 random people.

I spent a good portion of my birthday at Jacksonville Beach watching the rehearsal for the air show to be held on the 3rd. It was a terrible day for an air show. Strong constant cold wind, overcast skies and 5-7 ft surf. I had to wear a hooded sweatshirt to keep warm. I had to wipe my glasses every half-hour because they were fogged with salt spray.

Fortunately the overcast was high enough for the small propeller planes to do their complete show. I haven’t watched an air show in quite a while and it was fun to see. The pilots were high-caliber. Knowing something from my formal education about flight mechanics, propulsion, aerodynamics and human factors I could more fully appreciate what I was seeing. It looked so easy but you know it isn’t. The Blue Angels ended the rehearsal with their low-altitude performance which was nice but not as impressive as their full show.

Karen and Tim treated me to a birthday dinner at Hamms. I had fish tacos. Sophi was an angel through the whole experience. Thanks Tim and Karen for the birthday meal.

We spent the weekend in Jacksonville. The air show was one reason, Karen and Christy’s birthdays the other. We offered to watch Sophia so Karen and Tim could have a night out by themselves. It worked out well . Karen wrote about it http://daysleeperkaren.blogspot.com/2007/11/thirty.html in her blog about turning 30.

Sunday Tim surprised Karen with a birthday party at Dave and Buster’s. It was a nice party. There were 3 babies with the group and it was interesting watching the parents try to be part of the conversation or simply eat in between taking care of the babies. It reminded me a little of the plate balancers on the Ed Sullivan show. Just when you think all is well one of those babies gets restless and needs to be tended to like the wobbly suspended plate. Then when that’s taken care of another one would act up. Oh the memories!

We also unloaded a trunk full of stuff that we had accumulated for Christy and Christian. Our original plan for the weekend had us spending Saturday with Karen for her birthday and Sunday with Christy for hers. The surprise party on Sunday threw that plan out so we didn’t celebrate Christy’s birthday properly. We feel bad about that. I know Christy understands but I’m still disappointed.
On Monday we went over to Kerry’s to drop off stuff we had for my sister Kathy to sell at Egmont Key. It is always fun to visit Kerry.

Since November 1st I’ve been spending my writing time working on my 50,000 word novel. So far – Nov 6th – I have written 2,600 words. That’s where I should have been on day #2. I may start using my writing as my blog with some updates about what is happening included.

Kitty Update – The cat feeder did its job. All 5 of our regular customers were eating out there today. I can now pet Velcro, Meredith, and Buzz a little. Tonight it will drop into the 30’s so the kitties may get a little chilly.

A Day When Time Stood Still.


Penny and I did go to P.F. Changs today and it was a fun lunch. I’d like to say that the experience at the restaurant with Penny was so moving that it seemed as if time had stopped and it was just the two of us together. We did enjoy each other’s company but it was not that emotional.


The reason I titled this blog the way I did was because I had 2 timepieces stop on me today. When we left the restaurant I checked my watch and it said 11:44. Penny’s watch said 12:15. I checked mine again and the digital display was frozen at 11:44. Hey, maybe 11 and 44 are good lottery numbers. When we got home I noticed that the cat feeder didn’t dispense on time. I checked its display and it was frozen with every LED turned on.


I opened the cat timer and found that it had 2 identical timing circuits. One for the a/c circuit and one for the DC circuit. Each was connected with identical connectors. So I swapped the connectors making the good timer run the feeder. After I put the unit back together the timer circuit that was broken appeared to be OK.


I then opened up the watch and lifted the battery out and put it back in. That’s all it needed.

So time is no longer at a standstill.

A Surprising Sunday

We had a couple of surprises this Sunday morning. The first came when we arrived at church. They had a survey for us to fill out and we were told that one of the weekend masses would be dropped. So far this is a rumor but we’ve been expecting it. The church has been struggling to provide a priest. Whenever we do get one assigned he gets deployed by the air force. The reason given for dropping one of the 3 masses was that a priest is not supposed to say 3 masses in a weekend. Since the 7:15 mass has the smallest number attending and it is a bother to get priests for this early mass it is the logical mass to drop. If they do drop it then we may go to the early mass at St Mary’s. We could change our ways and start going on Sat eve. Who Knows?


The second surprise came after mass. We got invited to breakfast at Golden Corral by the Kennedys. I used to work with Ken and Penny LEMs with Denise. Penny also had their daughter Dawna for CCD and she is very special to Penny. It was interesting to see Penny lie this morning without giving a tell. Denise led up to the invite by asking us if we had breakfast yet. Anyone who knows us well – especially Penny- knows that we would not leave the house without breakfast. (You gotta eat!) When Denise asked, Penny answered quickly and naturally “No”. I was truly impressed. (and maybe a little worried). Penny saw that they wanted to talk and made it easy for us to get together.


We had a nice breakfast and a lot of conversation. Evidently Ken doesn’t find it easy to talk with most people but has no problem talking with me. After I had eaten my omelet I got myself a piece of apple pie. A guy at a table nearby said that I needed to put some ice cream on that because “That’s the only way to eat that.” So I did. We finished up close to 10:30. Ken jokily suggested we get new plates and have lunch.


The 3rd surprise came at Wallgreens. We went there to get some Egmont Key pictures developed. When we walked in I commented to the girl behind the counter who was dressed as a pirate for Halloween. The surprise came when we found out their photo processing machine couldn’t read our SD card. That slot was broken. Not to worry, we had the USB card reader with us. Sadly the same electronics that were broken also read the USB port. So we headed off to the other Wallgreens. As we left Penny was spouting off, as she usually does when something upsets her. The girl behind the counter said, Don’t yell at me, I’m just the Pirate who works behind the counter.”


We were successful at the 2nd Wallgreens We spent the next couple of hours doing pictures and getting ready for the upcoming trip. We figured we already had lunch.


Our original plan for lunch was to head out to a new Oriental restaurant in Sandestin, P. F. Changs. Going to Golden Coral put the ol’ kibosh on those plans. But hey, we are flexible (and retired). We will try again tomorrow.

I’m still wearing the splint on my left hand. I made a special trip in to Wal-Mart this evening to get a dress for Sophia. I arrived at the cashier about a half step behind a guy who had an armful of personal items. I stopped and said that he beat me and was letting him go ahead. Instead he takes a backward step and says,” No, You go. Nobody’s going to argue with a guy wearing a cast.”

Flu Shot and Feeder.

That about sums up the day. We made a hasty trip through Target this morning and then went to Penny’s doctor’s appointment. Both Penny and I got our flu shots while there.

When I got home I put the finishing touches on the feeder. It is now in place and ready to serve the first feeding tomorrow morning at 5 AM. I put some food in the feed tray and 3 of the cats came right away and ate. I think they approve.

.............................MOD IV -Next generation feeder

Pam cancelled out on our dinner tonight so Penny and I had wine and cheese and watched yesterdays Greys Anatomy.


There was a beautiful full moon this morning. I tried to take a shot of it zoomed all the way in to see if image stabilization would give me a unblurry picture. It did a good job for a hand held shot.

I finished Harry Potter today. Now I have to read the final book.

More Cat Feeder Adventures.


I’ve spent a good portion of this week working on my next-generation cat feeder. I disassembled the feeder we had been using and salvaged some of the parts. The new design has to work reliably if we are to feed the cats when we go out of town. It’s got to be critter proof, too.


I’ve had to assemble and disassemble everything on this new design fixing issues along the way. Yesterday I had the feeder wheel all set up when I quit. Today when I cranked it up the motor was too weak to turn the wheel. I disassembled the motor (this is the rotisserie motor we got for 25 cents) and found it had some corrosion and crud on all the metal gears. I polished the gears and added some lubrication and put everything back together. I had to play around some with the axle to make it turn as easily as possible. Tonight the basic feeder is together (food bin, feeding wheel, motor drive) and works without food in it. Tomorrow, with luck, I will put on the finishing touches, check that it also works loaded with food and set it out to feed the cats.


I’m now through 14 of the 17 CDs in the Harry Potter book. I think this is the best-written one.


My left hand is healing more slowly than I expected. I’m still wearing the splint part-time. By the end of the day my left hand and right thumb feel as if they never are going to get better. It’s been 3 weeks since I fell. Maybe I’m just impatient.

It was a cool 46 degrees this morning. We are supposed to have a beautiful fall weekend. Penny and I are planning on finishing up any “have to do” items tomorrow and just enjoy the good weather on Saturday and Sunday. Our fu actually starts Friday night when we join Pam at Ruth’s Chris Steak House for dinner.

Another Rainy Day


We had 8 – 10 inches of rain last Friday. We got another half-inch today – the old rainy days and Mondays situation.

I spent the day doing housework, watching some shows we recorded and thinking about possible plots for the 50,000-word novel. I’ve got 2 ideas, one serious, one more light hearted.

The lighthearted one would be the hardest to write but probably the most fun. Here is the plot. It involves a guy who has had a remarkable ability to dream all his life. He succeeds in becoming an astronaut and because of his dreaming ability is recruited into a NASA study on hibernation and sleep for long space voyages. A lab accident changes his dreaming. He can’t readily distinguish what is a dream and what is reality. His dreams also can foretell future events. It gets a little complicated from here so that’s all I’ll say for now. I’m planning on him having a nerdy sidekick.


The serious plot would be about a terrorist threat that has the potential to wipe out the human race. The president assembles a special team to either neutralize the threat or guarantee the survival of the race. This story could turn into a new Adam and Eve story determining what parts of civilization to keep and what to let go.

Kitty Update – The count is still at 5 cats. Velcro likes being pet and about once a week Meredith allows me to pet her. The auto cat feeder may be down for the count after 1 year of operation. Whatever critter is hitting it at night has learned how to break the feeding cup and gain access to the entire food supply. I’m designing the next generation feeder. It will use a rotisserie motor to turn the feeding wheel. We got the motor for 25 cents at an estate sale. With the year of experience on the current feeder I should be able to make a reliable critter-proof feeder.

I began reading the last Harry Potter book yesterday. I finished 1 of the 17 discs. If the rest of the story is as interesting as disc 1 I will enjoy it.

Maybe the sun will be out tomorrow.

Mom and Daughter

.............................................Karen

............................Sophia

When the Rain Comes


It RAINED today. It was a good day to stay inside and be lazy. We did some more catch up with the house (a never-ending task) but because of all the lightning using anything electrical was not a good idea. No washing machine, no vacuum, not even the treadmill for exercise. It rumbled and rained all day. Pensacola even had a tornado touch down. Before this storm we were 22 inches below our normal rainfall for this time of year. I guess the sprinkler system paid off after all. October is usually our driest month. Most of the festivals and fairs are held this time of year. Fortunately the rain should be gone for the weekend. We got 2-4 inches of rain today.


The Egmont Key pictures and postcards we had made arrived in the mail today. We spent a little time putting some in frames. We have to paint and decorate most of the frames before we put the pictures in them. That’s a job for later.

I’ve had no formal training for writing other than some for technical writing. (You know this since you’ve read my blogs.) When Christy suggested we write a novel I went on line and learned a little about writing. I definitely don’t have the proper training. Just thinking about it gives me more respect for writers. I’m seriously thinking about my plot and story lines. We will see if I’m ready In Nov.

Spicy Snapper Fingers…..

Cheese grits, coleslaw and hushpuppies-


Yup, we went to Harbordocks today . Penny has had a few bad days so I decided to cheer her up by taking her to my favorite restauraunt. (hmm – does that make sense?).


Penny started her day with a long soaky bath. After that I made her banana pecan pancakes. She had a bad time yesterday trying to embroider a couple of dish towels. Today she successfully did 2 of them. Then she said, “Let’s go somewhere.” So we did.

...................................Destin Bridge panorama

We went to Destin Pass with our cameras and took some pictures. Then it was Harbordocks. Finally we went out to the outlet stores in Sandestin so Penny could participate in her favorite form of recreation.


The outlet experience was a little depressing. Last year they closed the Black and Decker outlet store. This year 2 other stores that we go to are biting the dust. The Mikasa outlet and the Little Me store are both closing. Evidently all the Mikasa and Little Me outlet stores are closing. Little Me will be sold in Belk’s and Macy’s.


Yesterday Christy suggested we participate in this years National Novel Writing Month. It involves writing a 50,000 word novel beginning on Nov 1 and finishing by the end of the month. No prizes, no judging, they just want people to write. Karen threw down the blogging gauntlet. Now Christy is suggesting a new commitment.

http://www.nanowrimo.org/

I’m not sure I can write that much but it is an interesting challenge (1667 words a day and maybe even a plot). Everyone thinks they have a book inside them. This is a way to force the issue. If I try it I will likely blog less or use my writing as my blog.

Now, what would I write a novel about?

Cracked or Crazed –


I went to our dentist to see if I cracked my tooth in my fall in Texas. The first thing she told me is to get my story straight. She said that chased by wasps is no good. I should tell people I was riding one of those mechanical bulls and-----. That’s better than telling people I had a run in with some liquored-up wasps. She took an x-ray and polished (actually sanded with a tiny sanding wheel) the little ridge on my tooth that the crack caused. It turns out that I may not know if I hurt my tooth for years. It all depends upon how much trauma the tooth actually experienced. Everybody in the dentist’s office had a story of how someone whacked his teeth and it took from 1 to 6 years for the tooth to die. So my tooth may be fine but then again---.


We did some successful shopping today. We went to Tuesday Morning (on Monday morning) in search of a red highlighted Mr. Coffee machine that Christy was searching for. They actually had it. So we picked it up. We also went to Sam’s and somehow spent $200. (outside cat food, cheese, apples, sausage, bread, benefiber, splenda, peanut butter, paper plates… ) Sam’s is a dangerous place.


When we got home we got some really good news. You may remember we had a safe-house inspection done a little while back. We found out what effect it had on our insurance premium. Our premium was decreased by $2641! We would much rather have that $220 a month for us then giving it to the insurance company. It just goes to show that unless you prove otherwise the insurance company will make the worst case assumptions and set rates accordingly. This sure helps the retirement budget out.


I’m back to wearing my splint on my left hand full time again. I left it off most of Sunday and the hand swelled up. I’ll have to recover a little more slowly.

We have absolutely no plans made for tomorrow. I guess it’s time to play catch up with the house.

Slow Week

Friday the 12th –

It’s been a tough week to get anything substantial done. I think some of the reason is I’m still recovering from the fall. I tried to take a walk yesterday but after about a mile my right ankle started hurting so badly I couldn’t walk on it. I must have stressed it in the fall and didn’t realize it. After resting for a few minutes I was able to gradually walk again. I headed home and the pain eased as I walked it off. I didn’t try a walk today because the ankle was still sore.


I did get my stitches out of my lip yesterday. Penny says I look much better. I’m wearing the wrist splint part time now. What do you think?


Kitty Update – Izzy is gone now, too. That leaves 5 cats. We went by the pound (PAWS) yesterday to see if any of our missing cats had shown up there. They had one cat that looked like Izzy but it did not have a cropped left ear. No Izzy, No Seal, No Unsub. I did get to pet Meredith today. She is still not confident that petting is OK. Last night a possum showed up at the feeder. Tonight I have a net rigged up at the feeder to try to catch him. The cats, however, seem to think I put the net there for them to sleep in. The 4 youngsters spent most of the night sleeping on it. I’m not catching any possum like that.


By bedtime I was achy all over. All my joints ached. I thought I was catching something that took 7 days to incubate. Last Friday I was in the emergency room – maybe I caught some bug there.


Saturday the 13th-

Surprisingly I slept well. I felt better and my aches were gone. Penny and I made our usual Saturday morning visit to Waffle House. We are regulars at 3 places in town; Target, Waffle House and Lowes. Today’s visit to Waffle House was interesting. We normally get there at shift change. That’s not smart because service is usually poor. Today the new shift had taken over and we got served immediately. We got our coffee and I noticed it looked a little light in color. We creamed and sugared and took a sip. It was tea! I think the previous shift sabotaged the next one by making tea in the coffe maker. What was funny was that a guy sitting at the counter didn’t realize he was drinking tea until we told him.


I haven’t mentioned here that we just got another camera. A canon camera that has 12X zoom and image stabilization went on sale for better than half its original price. Penny noticed it and scooped it up. Today I found out that sister Kathy just bought the new canon camera that replaced ours. Ours is 6 megapixel, hers is 8. She’s going to have lots of fun with that camera – she’s got the eye for good photos.



One neat feature on the camera is called stitch-assist. With it you can take up to 26 pictures - a panorama or a large mountain – and then the software will stitch the pictures together seamlessly. This picture of Fort Walton Beach Landing is made from 4 separate shots.







Speaking of Kathy, Penny and I spent a good part of the day picking out pictures of Egmont Key to put into picture frames we have and to use as picture post cards. Penny just finished making an order on line for them.

We are finally getting some typical Fall (I don’t like that word) weather here. I succeeded with a nice long walk this afternoon with no problems. My body isn’t achy today either. One good thing is that with all the other hurts on me my back has been relatively trouble free this week. It’s my dad’s solution to pain. Make something else hurt worse and you don’t notice the original.

Don't Mess With Texas

Our drive to Texas was normal. I haven't seen any of the "Drive Friendly" signs that used to be here but there was a cute little rest area full of picnic tables that were covered by roofs that looked like oil derricks. The roads are in bad condition and the drivers are worse.

Our visit with DeDe (Penny's sister) has been relaxing. Our activities have been centered around eating and shopping. Last night Penny provided dinner for DeDe's son John's family. I missed most of it because I was in the emergency room with a split lip that needed mending.

I was getting rid of a big hornet's nest that was built right on DeDe' entry way light. She had a full can of wasp spray that sprays 20 ft so I set out to do the task. Everything was fine…at first….The spray accurately hit the wasps and they dropped like flies, er, wasps. All except a couple who somehow were able to fly and were invading my personal space. Now, I know that a wasp sting or 2 is not the end of the world. I know this logically. Somehow, however when 2 or 3 of the critters are buzzing around your head you don't think straight. That was my first mistake. My second was not scoping out my escape route (which I have always done before). The third was wearing sandals. I remember jumping away from the wasps and turning to run. The next thing I knew I was leaning too far forward looking at the concrete driveway coming up at my face. I just couldn't get my legs up under me to stop the fall. My mind said, "This is not good.". A couple more steps and "crack" (that's what I heard) my head hit left cheek first.I got up and did a quick survey of my mouth with my tongue. All the teeth seemed OK but my lip had a hole in it the size of a dime. Surprisingly it was not bleeding badly. I covered it with my hand and went inside.

I told Penny I busted my lip. She looked at me and said that my eye looked pretty bad too. She quickly got me some ice. The lip needed stitches so off to the emergency room we went. I won't go into detail on that process - let's just say I was there 6 hours, most of it spent waiting for things to get done. The doctor did note as he was stiching me up that there were a lot of good exterminators right there in the phone book. I ended up with the split lip, a beauty of a shiner(it really does shine!), scrapes and cuts on the side of my face, the side of my knee and on my shoulder.

.............................................This is day 1

When I called Debbie to make arrangements for our visit with them tomorrow she asked me if I forgot to put my hands out. No, I didn't. I've got a sprained hand, too and I'm wearing a splint for it.The good news is that I didn't break any bones in my face or hands. My teeth are sore but appear to be OK (I may have a crack in one but I cant be sure). My glasses did absorb some of the impact and got badly bent and one lens is severely scratched. They are usable (I bent things back into place and the scratched area is on the side of the lens and doesn't really impair my vision.) but they will have to be fixed or replaced when I get home. Now when I walk around people take one look and step aside. Actually people avert their eyes from me and then sneak peaks when they think I'm not looking.

............................................day 4

Now the phrase "Take a trip in Texas" has taken on new meaning for me.

See You, September.


Tomorrow is the 1st of October already. It marks the beginning of our 3rd year of retirement. Time really seems to be flying by. The good news is that Penny and I have found plenty to do. There is still a long “to do” list to tackle.


The weather turned nice for walking and I took advantage of it. I walked on the beach last evening and through our neighborhood this morning. A cool front pushed through with a sufficient drop in humidity and just enough of a breeze to make walking comfortable. That along with a deep blue sky and a couple of happy mockingbirds made walking enjoyable.


This was my first time walking the beach in a while and a couple of things were different. There is more of the fine powder white sand now and it is very squeaky. The beach is recovering from the hurricanes of ’05. The old curved tree trunk that we took pictures on at Thanksgiving has lost an arm. There was a turtle’s nest marked on the sand. The Eglin Beach Club Pavilion is finished and lots of people were using it. The huge condo at the mouth of Destin Harbor is complete and is visible from everywhere on the beach (and it is not pretty).

.....................The usual friends were out in force.

......................The condos loom.

.............................It wasn't all sunshine.

................................ one lone heron and green water.

We are planning a trip to Texas to see Penny’s sister Dede. She lives in Burleson (Ft Worth). That’s only about an hour away from my niece Debby, so when we are there we are going to drive over to see her one afternoon. For the past 2 years we were headed to Vermont at this time of year. We were due to visit Dede, however, and we have been pushing the date of our visit back all year. Maybe next year we will get back up there. We already have a conflict – my fraternity from college is planning a big reunion in Oct 08. So the foliage and crisp juicy apples will just have to go on without us. We will get our apples at Fresh Market and imagine we were up north.

Some Relief?


We went to see our homeowner’s insurance agent today with the Safe Homes inspection paperwork in hand. The young lady that we talked to (Susan) was all set to tell us to get the free inspection we just had. She was thrilled that we already had it done. She said that was all she needed so our meeting was brief and cordial. The good news, and I am keeping my fingers crossed, is that the results of the inspection may reduce our premium by $800-$1000. I’ll believe it when I see it. Susan promised to get the paperwork submitted by tomorrow. All she needed to do was take pictures of the house to send with the report. She showed up at our house around 1 PM to take pictures so we know she is doing what she promised.


After the meeting (since we were out) we once again went out to Fresh Market for some fruit and bread. Good apples are beginning to show up now. We did stop at Beal’s and get some clothes for Christy to wear to her new job. We found some nice stuff marked down 82%. Those prices are hard to pass up.

We also got some snow peas, cabbage and ginger root at the market. With that and some leftover chicken we had at home Penny treated me to moo goo gai pan (more moo!) for dinner.


I brought Penny’s CRV in for 60,000 mile servicing yesterday. I decided to bring it into a shop close to home rather than the dealer. I listed the work to do and dropped it off. The manager went over the list and made some suggestions. The shop is close enough for me to walk to (about ½ hour walk) so I got my walking in dropping off the car and picking it up. When I picked up the car the guy told me he did some things not on the list. He quickly explained that he included balancing the tires in with the rotation (something I didn’t ask for) because with a special they had it actually cost less for me. The overall bill was about half what it would have cost at the dealer. I hate having to get a car worked on. I’m hoping this place is as good as it seems to be so far. I’ve had oil changes done there before and the manager comes across as honest and knowledgeable. It will be a little easier bringing a car in if I feel the place is being straight with me.


I’m slowly getting my shop in order before my next project. I found that I need more work room than my current set up gives me. I’m going to take out the drawers/work bench arrangement I currently have and put wheels on as much of my equipment and storage as I can. With that set up I can arrange the shop as necessary for a given project.

The cat mystery continues. Now the seal point is gone. So we are down to 6 regulars. I was worried yesterday because Izzy and Velcro didn’t show up at feeding time. Those are the only cats that will let me pet them (and therefore they are my favorites). They showed up later and they were out there all day today.

............................................The six regulars

Recorder Woes


Our Digital Video Recorder (DVR) died over the weekend. Penny was watching it and it went blank – became completely unresponsive with the message “PLEASE WAIT” on its LCD Display. So we waited. When it didn’t change the message for a few hours I figured it was time to start disconnecting things and then power up after a rest and see if it would reboot. I know - you are thinking about the how to occupy a moron joke where you hand someone a note with “please see other side” written on both sides. Penny and I are a little sharper than that – we only waited a few hours when the DVR told us to please wait.


The operator’s manual said that that message appears when the unit starts up and is not a malfunction. So there was hope initially that the problem might clear. I called Panasonic and they said that the unit might have been damaged by a power spike and is hung up trying to reboot. In other words it is broken. Repair costs start at a minimum of $100 with $30 shipping. It was time to start thinking replacement. I called a local repair shop. They charge $30 to make an estimate and oh, by the way, they can’t look at it for 6 to 8 weeks or more (depending on how much warranty work they get).


The real shock came when we looked for a comparable unit. The market is in DVR limbo. We liked our unit because it had free TV Guide (no TiVo subscription.) and could dub from the hard drive to a DVD. There are not many units out there to do that. TiVo and cable providers are dominating the market. There is a market for what we want but it is a seller’s market.


We scoured the Internet and every unit we found that did what we wanted was either out of stock or not available (or too costly).


After many dead ends we finally found a refurbished Samsung unit that had all the features we wanted, was cheap enough and was in stock. So we ordered one.


In the mean time we fall back on our trusty decade-plus old VCRs to record shows we want.

Last time things broke on me it came in 3’s. I hope this is not a new beginning.