We Speak Swahili?

Our trip has been fun so far. The B&B we stayed in was fantastic. The building itself is built into a hill. The owners were quite amiable and the breakfasts we got were both good and enormous. They also served desert each evening with a selection of 7 or 8 choices. One choice was pecan pie made with maple syrup. Penny picked up a copy of the recipe.


We shopped at the Mast General Store and picked up some stuff for us and some stuff for others.

The wedding we went to gets mixed reviews. We got to see all of the McClure clan, which was nice. The wedding was nice but lacked any real emotion. The reception had decent food but was not well organized.

We went to church when we left the B&B and found out that we speak Swahili. There was a priest there from Kenya raising money for his parish. He explained that safari is Swahili for a journey and hakuna matata means “no worries”. The church here was filled to capacity and notably the congregation sang loudly. The crucifix behind the altar was mounted on big clear glass windows with a nice view of the mountains in the background.

The drive to Gatlinburg was fine until we got off the interstate and tried to drive through Pigeon Forge. It was bumper to bumper for 10 miles through a landscape of every kind of tourist trap and facility you can think of. The GPS reliably lead us to our hotel and we are now planning our hiking adventures into Great Smokey National Park.

16 July 2010

Once again we reach the anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11. It’s hard to believe it was 41 years ago. At that time I had intended to work for NASA when I graduated. Seeing the guys that did stay there being laid off now shows that staying there might not have been the best move. All in all I’m happy the way things turned out.


I only got a little done in the garage today. I spent some time with Penny at Joann’s picking out material for many quilts. I started the day with an hour walk. Penny didn’t feel well enough to walk today so I walked alone and listened to an audio book. Speaking of audio books we’ve bought 13 of them in the last 2 days. Most were bargain books but we bought 2 regular priced books. We normally treat ourselves to a book or two when we are planning a long drive. We bought books by our 2 favorite authors, Dean Koontz and James Lee Burke.

We also booked a Caribbean cruise today. We haven’t decided yet whether we are going up to VT and CT this year but we will be going to Key West, Jamaica, Cayman Islands and Cozumel. Penny will finally see some Mayan ruins.

Tomorrow begins at Waffle House.

Us Day to Us Day

Everybody seems to have been too busy to blog this week. My last blog was about our Sunday Us Day and now here we are at Thursday and another Us Day.

We had a FOCCUS couple over on Monday and Tuesday evening. Wednesday was running around, mowing the lawn, researching used cars and the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.

Today we started with Target as usual. Then Penny was supposed to run off with Pam but Pam cancelled. So we decided to make it an us day. We did a fast food lunch and then went to see Toy Story 3 in 3D. The movie is great. I’m always impressed with the clever and amusing and yes, emotional content of Pixar’s animated movies. The movie was funny, scary and extremely entertaining. The ending makes every adult in the theater tear up. It’s a good thing we had on the 3-d glasses.

We stopped at the wine and cheese shop on the way home and picked up dinner and went home for an evening of TV.

Last week I mentioned here that the doctor gave me a sample of the drug Lyrica to see if it helps my thumb pain. It does! For the first time in years (2 ½ think) I can use my thumbs and the pain is acceptable not excruciating. The side effects are interesting. I feel a little drowsy but not sleepy and slightly dizzy. IT's like when you just start to feel the alcohol when you are drinking. I also found it fouls up my thinking a little. I messed up filling out a simple form the other day and I had trouble finding words—but only a little more than my usual state. It’s worth it to get my thumbs back.

After C&C left we had an almost full box of Go Lean Crunch cereal left. We bought it for Christy. So I had a big bowl of it. I found out why they call it GO lean. I should have eased into the 8 grams of fiber per serving cereal.

All 4 cats have been with us day and night this week. I’m feeding them in the AM and PM. It’s made for some interesting sights. Four cats sprawled out on the patio sleeping.

Cousins eyeing one another.

Tomorrow I have no commitments so I’m going to try to finish clearing out the garage. I don’t think I will finish but I should make good progress.

Us Day

This was Penny and my designated “us” day for this week and it was a fun day. Penny started the day with blueberry pancakes. We went for a walk around the neighborhood and discussed the options for today. We settled upon a trip out to Destin and beyond in search of clothes for the upcoming wedding in NC and whatever else we decided to do out there.
We shopped at Beals and then went to lunch at—The Back Porch. You thought it was going to be Harbordocks didn’t you. We haven’t gone to the Back Porch for a while now because it got expensive. We found today that there are some reasonable selections on the menu and the water is closer than ever to the restaurant. I got fish and chips made with a combo of grouper and mahi nuggets. It was good and a lot to eat. Penny got an oyster po boy that had a dozen fried oysters on it. We both had a cup of gumbo and it was as good as we remembered. So The Back Porch is back on our list of places to eat. Here are pictures Penny took.

We went to Belk’s, a candy store, a dog accessory store, Bass Pro Shop, a toy store, Sharper Image and checked out movie times for any good possibilities. No movie today.

I found 3 books for Sophie that I am actually excited about. They are little books about famous artists, Monet, Picasso and Van Gogh. Each page has a famous painting on one side and a simple description of the painting on the other. The description has words highlighted as an educational tool. So it provides an early exposure to the arts and expands the vocabulary at the same time.

We stopped by Fresh Market on the way home and got the usual fare we pick up there.

For dinner we had wine and cheese and fruit.

This evening all 4 cats showed up—the third day straight for that. I’ve had indications of another critter, raccoon or possum, eating the cat food. It’s been reaching up inside the feeder trying to get more food and tearing out some material I have in there guiding the food to the tray. I haven’t seen it yet. I think it is coming late at night. So I’ve set up the trap and now I’ll see if I catch anything.

Saturday FOCCUS

Our Saturday began with Waffle House and Lowe’s.


We had a FOCCUS couple over at 1PM and they were the easiest couple we’ve ever done. Usually our sessions run 3 hours and we’ve had a few couples now that finished with 1 session using the full 3 hours. Today’s couple finished in 1 hour. We barely got to know them and they were gone.

At church tonight Penny gave a baby quilt she made to a couple we did FOCCUS for a year and a half ago. They have a cute 6-week old named Aurora.

We have no commitments tomorrow so we will have an “us” day. We have another FOCCUS couple coming on Monday.  We won't finish this couple in 1 session. They have a lot to discuss.  This will be our 5th couple in 3 weeks!

Friday Blues

I shucked all responsibilities today and went to Pensacola Beach. The reason; the Blue Angels had a practice for their show Sunday. This is the first time in a long time that I went to the beach and just relaxed. I didn’t bring a camera. I did bring PBJs, water, coke and an audio book—and lots of sunscreen.

I went to the beach by the scenic route through Navarre Beach and the National Seashore. As I approached Pensacola beach I for the first time saw BP cleanup crews at work. Well sort of, They were mostly standing around or sitting under tents. A little further up the road was a huge staging area with about 40 earth movers and shovels and piles of plastic bags. Recently we’ve been fortunate because the winds blew the oil to the west. There’s a lot of it out there. At least equipment is in position to help clean it.

I park in a beachside neighborhood about a mile and a half from the pier where the show is centered. When I arrived I was surprised to see all the spaces close to the beach filled up. I ended up parking about a half mile from the beach entrance I used. I brought my recliner folding chair, the same one I used for fireworks last week, for my seating on the beach. Once at the beach I walked about another half mile closer to the pier and found an appropriate open space to plant my seat.

I arrived around 12:30. The first plane flew by about 20 minutes later. The performers today were:

• Grumman Widgeon G-44 flown by Julian MacQueen

• Team RV Precision Formation Flying Team—10 aircraft flying together and in multiple small formations. The sky is full of airplanes doing interesting stunts—very entertaining.

• Prometheus Flown by Skip Stewart—this guy is CRAZY but crazy-good. He did things with this aircraft I couldn’t believe. He started all his maneuvers at about 10ft (if that high) off the water. On one of his maneuvers it looked like he was going to fly under the pier. A woman near me actually screamed thinking he would hit it. He pulled up at the last moment. Like I said this guy is crazy. I actually said “holy sh*t” out loud a number of times while I watched his performance.

• Red Star and the Dragon–Dragon Aviation –Vietnam era planes that usually do mock combat maneuvers but just flew in formation today.

• Fat Albert, a C-130 Hercules

• The Blue Angels F/A-18 Hornets –everybody knows these guys. This show is much more dangerous and entertaining than what the AF Thunderbirds do. Since the Blues fly just off the beach you are up close enough to appreciate the precision of their formations.

I really enjoyed the show. I waited a half-hour after the show to leave. There was little traffic going my way(East) but the cars were still backed up on the western lanes. The skies were clear for the show but now a small storm was bearing down on the area.

It was a fun and relaxing day for me. Seeing and hearing high performance aircraft fly around didn’t used to be so special when I worked on the base. Now, after 5 years of retirement it is a treat.

Lawnmowers, Lyrica, Cats, Pins and Needles and more Food

I took 1 Lyrica pill last night. The doc said it might help with my thumb pain. It didn’t. I may need to increase the dose. What it did do was give me a better nights sleep than I’ve had in a while. My normal sleep pattern is to go to bed at 10:30, waken at 11:30 and check the time(to see how much longer I can sleep), waken at 1AM and check the time, waken at 3:30 and check the time (sometimes go potty), waken at 6 and either get up or lie semi-torpid until 6:30 or so and then get up.
Last night I went to bed at 9:30 and didn’t waken until 4:30. Now if the stuff helps my pain it would be great.

I mowed the lawn yesterday and this morning all 4 cats showed up. The last time the dogs were here the same thing happened. After I mowed they showed.

I went back to the docs today for a nerve conduction test. Part of the test was done with a device that looks like a taser. The final portion was done by actually sticking a needle into my hand, arm and neck and measuring electrical activity.

This evening we had Malcolm over for chimichangas. Penny’s cooking was great and it was a pleasant evening.

Tomorrow I plan to go to Pensacola Beach to watch the Blue Angels practice for their weekend shows. The weather is supposed to be good.

7/7

The glow from C&C’s visit is still with us today.
My day began with a visit to the neurologist. This was a referral from my sore back/arm that I got way back on March 12. It took this long to see him.   I can’t imagine how long things will take when the new health care bill kicks in in its entirety. Except for occasional pain and mild tingling that original issue has faded as a problem. I figured I’d use the visit to talk about my thumbs. You know how it works. You talk to a surgeon the solution is surgery. You talk to a neurologist the problem involves nerves. The bottom line is that my thumbs may be a combination of arthritis and carpel tunnel. The doctor gave me a sample of Lyrica to see if it helps with my thumb pain and I’m going in tomorrow for a nerve transmission test to see if I have nerve involvement with my thumbs. At least it’s another approach to easing my pain.

I set up a plate of dry cat food on top of our patio fence to keep the birds from the peril of landing at the cat feeder to get a piece of food. I didn’t anticipate that without the danger the bigger birds would just sit at the plate and eat, eat, eat. Not only that but many more birds come. A handful of food is gone in 5 minutes. One good side of this is that all the birds have attracted one of the cats back to the yard. Buzz showed up tonight.

The Eating Continues

C&C are still here and we are still eating. We did Waffle House for breakfast, Slick Mick’s for lunch and Penny’s lasagna for dinner.
In between we went swimming at the little beach. That was fun and we did the usual reminiscing that comes with a visit there. Christy obviously enjoyed it because she had this wonderful smile on her face while we were there. The weather was iffy today so we did what we do best—shop. We also wandered through an antiques shop and flea market.

Tomorrow C&C leave but the eating will continue. Penny has invited Malcolm over for dinner on Wednesday, we are going out to dinner with Deacon Dan on Thursday and we have a FOCCUS couple coming on Saturday.

I think I’m going to avoid stepping on the scale for a while.

Happy 4th

Christy and Christian are here and all i can say is we’re eating too much, but we are having fun. They arrived Saturday morning and we promptly forced them to go to lunch at Harbordocks. That’s tradition and we figured that Saturday afternoon was the best time to do it on this holiday weekend.
We went to church Saturday evening and to our delight Father Path presided. There also was a christening and he seemed to delight in bringing the child into the faith. He gave his usual moving homily.

Saturday night Penny made Pasta Cruda using tomatoes and basil from the garden.

This morning I made banana pecan pancakes for breakfast and C&C and I went to the beach for a couple of hours. The beach is beautiful with crystal clear water and only a few small tar balls way up on the beach.

For lunch it was rib-eye steaks, baked potatoes and salad using tomatoes and cucumber from the garden. Then we napped. It’s been a nice relaxing weekend. We finished our feeding frenzy with burgers and fries at 5 Guys followed by angel food cake with peach cobbler that Penny made with peaches C&C brought with them.

Finally C&C and I went to a small park in Shalimar to watch 3 different fireworks shows across Choctawhatchee bay. Now it’s time to sleep some more.

Covered in Rain

That sums up today. We ended up with lots of moisture fro Alex. I was able to do some yard clean up in preparation for Finn and Stella. C&C will be visiting for the holiday and the dogs love the backyard.

The rain began around 9 AM and continued steadily all day. We got over 3 inches of rain.

The last thing I did before the rain was to pick the remaining good tomatoes we have. More than half of the tomatoes went bad on the vine due to the heat and then all the rain. Still we had BLTs for lunch and will have tomatoes for the weekend..

No cats were at the feeder today but every type of cat food eating bird showed up. Several times today I heard a bird making a racket out there. I peeked out to see a little just fledged starling standing near the feeder screeching to be fed with its mouth open. Then I saw his parent quickly jump out from the feeder and stick a piece of food in its mouth and fly off—all in one speedy motion. The little bird shut up and flew off poorly. It hasn’t been fledged long. It is a good thing no cats were out in the rain.

We went through another used car inspection today in Jacksonville. Christy provided the logistics.(Good job Christy!) The car looked and drove like a good deal. It was overpriced, which seems to be normal for an OBO car. The guy claimed it only had 68,000 miles on it.

While the car was being checked out I decided to do a little more research because I thought I would be negotiating a price soon. I went to E-bay to see if any like vehicles were for sale there and what they were asking. I found the seller also had the car we were looking at was also  e-bay. I also found, to my pleasant surprise, that e-bay requires a VIN number and in addition provides a free auto check report (like a car fax). So I got the car check report. Everything looked OK until I checked the title history. The car began its life as part of a rental fleet in Tennessee. That’s not bad, just good info to know. Next at about 37,000 miles they sold it at auction.. The next time a mileage shows in the title history is in 2001 and there it is 68,000 miles, 9 years ago it had the mileage the seller was claiming the car had now. I called the mechanic and gave them this info. It turns out it wasn’t needed. The mechanic called me back and started with “This vehicle has been run hard and put away wet. I wouldn’t believe the mileage claim. The rack and pinion is leaking as is the head gasket. The suspension and steering show a lot of wear. This vehicle is not like the Hondas and Toyotas. It is very hard to work on and you only get about 130,000 miles out of them.” I thanked him, called Christy at the shop and gave her the news. I told her to be polite and just say the repair costs are too much. The mechanic said this car was so easy to evaluate that he only charged me for a half-hours labor. This is K&T’s mechanic and from what I’ve seen I like the guy.

After talking to Christy tonight it appears that the seller wasn't aware of the problems with the car or the mileage issue.

The rain percentage drops to 40% tomorrow so I should have more outside time. C&C show up in the evening.