High School Homecoming & Sports

Our granddaughter Elizabeth will be going to homecoming at her high school in a couple weeks and has already picked up her dress.  She was telling us about it on Sunday night and I bugged her enough so she agreed to model it for us.  She looked great and reluctantly agreed to pose with us for pictures. She sure is a pretty girl and looks so grown up.

Elizabeth

Gerry & Elizabeth

Elizabeth & Me

It's been beautiful around here the last week or so with warm days and cool nights.  The trees are beginning to turn on the mountain and even some down lower in the valley.  This farm house, barns and outbuildings make for a very pretty picture.
 

Sunday was a special day with it being Gerry's birthday and Cassie preparing a great dinner for Gerry.  She couldn't decide whether to prepare spaghetti or stuffed shells, so she prepared both of them.  In addition she baked a carrot cake and it was great.  We brought a Dairy Queen ice cream cake and it hit the spot, also.  We managed to stuff ourselves and had a great visit.

It also helped that the Redskins won and the Giants, Eagles and Cowboys lost.  They are all in the same division and it looks like it is the weakest division in football this year.  What a change from a few years ago when it was the toughest division.  It looks like the winner of the division could possibly have a losing record. It's still early, so all this could change.

I've rooted for the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team since 1952 and there have been some great years and some bad ones.  It's been 19 years since the Pirates finished above .500 and they finally broke this streak.  In addition they are in the playoffs as a wildcard team.  Go Pirates.

Gerry's Aunt Mary is a rabid Cleveland Indians fan and watches all their games at 95 yrs of age.  She must be in seventh heaven now that her beloved Indians have made the playoffs, also.  They won the last 10 games and were one game ahead of two other teams who had a playoff game tonight.  Way to go Aunt Mary.

We are getting closer to getting out of here and are looking at a Wednesday departure.  Of course all this could change in a moment.  Stay tuned for our getaway date.

 

Wedding Anniversaries & Birthdays

Gerry and I celebrated our 112th wedding anniversary yesterday.  No, that isn't a typo, it was the 112th wedding anniversary.  We eloped and married in a civil ceremony the first time and then a month later told our parents about it.  We didn't have much choice about telling them since we had to fill out an application form for jobs at the FBI and knew they would find out sooner or later.

Gerry wanted to be married in the Catholic church and I took instructions for the specified length of time and said all the right things so Father Guido consented to marrying us.  We were married in the church house with a few family members in attendance.  So, we were married twice within a short period of time.  Our 2nd marriage was September 28, 1957.  

Today is Gerry's birthday, but we celebrated it a day early by joining her sister Darlene and bil Tom at Callahan's in Frederick, MD.  Since my birthday was a couple days ago, I was also included in the celebration.  We picked the middle of the day to meet so the restaurant wouldn't be so busy and we could take our time and have a leisurely dinner.   They live in Annapolis, MD about 90 miles from the restaurant and we had a drive of 50 miles.  

There wasn't another patron in the dining room when we got there and it was nice to be able to chat without all the usual noise and chatter.  I think we were there more than an hour before another couple finally arrived.  They sat them right next to us, even though there were open tables far from us.  Just like RVing, park your RV in an open area and someone will park right next to you.

The company was great and we had a very nice time visiting with them.  It may be the last time we see them this year, unless they come down to Concord, NC while we are still there.  It's always sad to say goodbye, but know we will see them again next year.

We stopped by the soft ice cream place on the way home to get an ice cream fix.  They had a sign up saying it was the last weekend of the year for them and they would be closed until next spring.  We got in just under the wire for that ice cream fix.

We did start our day off by making repairs to the screened in porch roof.  Gerry noticed a leak a while back and I found another area where it was leaking.  Upon further inspection, we found about 15 places where there were tears in the roofing fabric.  It was time to sweep off the roof and fill in all these small holes with Dicor.  Then I will put some Eternabond over the repaired places and hope it holds until next summer when we will have the roof replaced.  By this time next year we should have a metal roof on the cabin and that will take care of any future leaks.  Always something that needs to be done up here.  Now I know why we got rid of the house.

Flat roofs are problems

More patches in white.

View from the roof top of the meadow.

Tons of acorns on ground.  Cold winter?

That was our exciting day, how was yours?

The End of this subject

The Endoscopy Surgery Center called me at 7:00am on Monday and asked if I could come in earlier than my 1:45pm appointment for the surgery.  They wanted me there by 12:15pm and I hadn't started on drinking the medicine and fluids as of then.  I thought, what the heck, lets get this over and agreed to the new time.  By the time I got out of bed and started on drinking the 48 ounces of fluid I only had about 30 minutes to down it all.  It's amazing what you can do if you set your mind to it.  I finished at 8:15am and was good to go.

I won't go into any more details, except to say they called me again and wanted me there even earlier.  Since we were on the road and still 25 minutes away, there wasn't much I could do about getting there any earlier.  I made it 15 minutes early and then spent the time filling out more forms.  Thankfully, they had most of my information and it only took 10 minutes.  

I no more sat down when the door opened and they asked me to come back to the prep area.  As I was trying to get in, a woman came walking out and she looked like a zombie.  I thought she'd gone through the procedure and sure didn't look too good, but no, she was there "helping" someone else.  I am glad she wasn't helping me

Once I got settled in, they brought a woman in to the space next to me and since there was only a curtain separating us, I could hear everything going on.  When the bells and whistles starting going off there I was wondering what was going on.  Evidently she was in some sort of heart palpitation problem so they called 911 for her transport to the ER at the hospital next door.  Wow, two events and they hadn't even gotten to me.

I am happy to say that my procedure went off fine and everything is good to go.  Nothing bad was found and I am good to go for the next 5 years.  I did receive more birthday wishes yesterday than ever before since each nurse asked me my name and birthdate.  They were all surprised to see me getting the procedure done on my birthday, but I told them Gerry had arranged everything for me.  Hummm, should I be worried?

After the above, everything was normal and Gerry drove us back to the cabin and we watched a movie that I received for free for my birthday from Redbox.  Just another day on the mountain.

Our friend Dee had her cataract surgery on Monday as well and came through it with flying colors.  Now see will be able to see the big C on the helmets of her beloved Chicago Bears football team.  She should enjoy seeing them that much more now. 

Seems like everyone is getting ready to head out to Tucson by getting parts repaired on these old bodies.

That was our day, how was yours?

Friends on the move

Our friends Linda & Sherwin from Maine are leaving in the next couple days and will be passing about 15 miles from our cabin.  I know Sherwin gets behind the wheel and doesn't like to stop for anything and wants to continue driving.  However, since there is a nice Perkins restaurant in Chambersburg, PA right off of I-81 and US 30 East, hopefully he will take the time to have lunch or dinner on their trek west.

I go in for a colonoscopy on Monday, September 23, 2013 which will also be my 74th birthday.  Gerry said she had something special planned for my birthday this year and she exceeded my expectations.  Wow, what a present.  

My good friend Mann sent me an early birthday card and I thought I'd share it with you all.

This procedure will delay us leaving by a few days and we still hope to be out of here later this week or possibly Monday of next week.  We did have a problem with a camping spot in Charolotte due to the NASCAR race, but the campground manager said he would fit us in at our regular rate, so we don't have to rush down there.  That should make life a little more pleasant for us getting out of here.

In the meantime, Gerry is fighting a cold and seems to be on the mend a little this morning.  Not to be outdone, I pulled a neck muscle and have been in a lot of pain.  I can't take pain medication due to the colonoscopy, so it is a little touchy right now.  These golden years do have little bumps in them at times.

Now I will sit around and think about food all day since I can only have jello until after the procedure.  A nice steak and a baked potato with sour cream vision is dancing around in my mind.  I hope I don't starve in the next couple days.  Luckily I have stored some muscle (fat) and should make it through this ordeal.  

  

Birthday Girl

This is a special day for Cassie Clark McClure since it is her birthday.  In her honor I have changed the type color over to green since it is her favorite color.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

CASSIE

Your mother and I hope this birthday begins a great year for you.  You have brought a lot of joy into our lives and we love you dearly.

  

America's Got Talent TV show

I was thinking of auditioning for the tv show America's Got Talent and two things held me back.  The $1,000,000 first prize is paid out over 40 years and it's highly unlikely I could collect all the yearly amounts.  The 2nd reason is that I don't have any talent to qualify in the first place.  

Gerry and I only get NBC on tv up here at the cabin since we can't get Dish, Directv or any other service.  No cable company is in the area so we only get free over the air tv and NBC is the only station beamed up here.  Talk about being deprived of entertainment.

So, we watched America's Got Talent (AGT) the last couple nights and caught the season finale.  I will be the first to admit I don't care for the show and would rather watch old reruns of I Love Lucy rather than AGT.  I do have a few observations about the show and thought I'd share them with you.

The producer of the show is English, 3 of the 4 judges were born in foreign countries, ( Canada, England & Germany), the MC is an American and the eventual winner of the show was Japanese.  So, two Americans and all the others were foreigners.  What does that say about the talent in the U.S.A?  I guess I am really out of touch with the people who do watch the show and actually vote for the winner.  Of the 6 finalists, I would have voted almost in the reverse order than the final vote.  WOW!

I realize it is just a TV show, but I found it funny the actual Americans were in such minority on the program.  Sure, they had thousands audition for spots and most likely Americans were in the majority there.  Are we so devoid of talent in the U.S.A that something like this happens?  I guess so.

The actual winner was very creative and used computers and holograms to sync with him as he danced and went through his routine.  He was very good at what he did, but I wonder if he can carry a show night after night.  One of the prizes is that the winner gets to perform at Las Vegas and then tour for a year.

The lighting for a number of the performers was blinding with laser beams, rapidly changing lights and action galore.  The Radio City Rockettes performed and it was difficult to actually see the performers due to the lighting.    

I don't have anything against foreign entertainers and lived overseas in two countries for 10 years.  I seriously doubt any other country would produce a show like this and use foreign talent and judges.  What do you think?   Or for that matter, does anyone even care?

After writing the above, Gerry and I went outside and moved one of the piles of wood chips to a different area so they could decompose away from the cabin.  It took over 20 wheelbarrow loade to move the chips from that one stump.  The loads were light, but there were more than I expected.  The chips from one other stump needs to be moved, while the other stumps aren't close to the cabin and we will let them decompose where they are.     

It was 40F this morning and quite nippy.  The acorns have started falling on the motorhome and cabin in earnest today.  It has been a constant barrage of them and sounds like a war out there.  Fall has arrived here on the mountain and the leaves have started to change a little already.  It should be very pretty by the time we head out of here next week if the temps stay low at night.

Here is a photo from 2011 taken the 1st of October showing what we will be leaving behind as we head down the road.

See what happens when it is a slow day around here.  BTW;  I didn't like I Love Lucy that much either.

 

Stump Removals and Yellow Jackets

Now that we have the trees cut down, branches piled up and wood stacked, it was time to remove the old tree stumps.  Normally I would just let the stumps rot out over time and not worry about them.  However, two of the larger stumps were close to the cabin and were infested with carpenter ants and that isn't a good thing with a wooden house.  They had to go.

Three other stumps were next to the lane and caused it to be a narrow path at a critical point for getting the motorhome back on the highway.  It was time to remove them also so we can widen the lane a few feet and make entry easier for big vehicles.

We received a flyer in the mail the other day advertising a discount on stump removal so I gave the company a call on Monday.  The owner/operator said he could be there on Tuesday and do the job, so it was a go from me on the stump removal.

The job went according to plan except for a few glitches. First, he had wheel bearings fail on the stump grinder and had to have them repaired.  No problem, just be there a little later.  Then when he started to cut the stumps with a chain saw he ran into a nest of Yellow Jackets and it was a huge one.  The owner was stung 4-5 times and his helper 7-8 times and they were jumping around flailing their arms trying to get away from the Yellow Jackets.  I gave the helper some Benadryl to help with the stings, but he was still feeling the pain for a while.

All in all we had 7 stumps ground up into piles of wood chips.  It was neat watching the machine do it's work.  The spinning blade was about 18-20 inches of cold steel that was revolving with blurring speed.  The whole machine moved about 4-5 ft and swiveled around so the operator could move the blade as it cut into the wood.  

Holy smoke, this thing really does it's job.

Making short work of a 16 inch stump.

I took some before and after pictures to give you an idea of what this machine can do in a short time period.  

Stump 1 before (3 ft across)

Stump 1 being ground up

Stump 2

Stump 2 after

 The only task left now is to move the wood chips into one pile and let them rot over time.  They will be moved away from the cabin so as to not create a nest for the carpenter ants.  One neighbor up here asked if they could get a truck load of the chips for their cabin and will be here soon to get them.  The more they take, the less work for us.  Win win situation.

Now I have to take care of the Yellow Jacket problem so we can finish widening the lane.  I used a can of wasp spray yesterday and that didn't even phase them.   I raked away the brush cover for the nest and it is quite large, so gasoline will have to be doused on the nest and then set afire.  

Always something to do up here at the cabin, but we've had perfect weather for these jobs and that makes it a little easier.  The firewood has come in handy the last couple mornings since it's been down into the mid 40s and quite cool.  We've been burning the wood in the cabin fireplace to warm it up.  Refreshing to say the least.

That was our day, how was yours?

Unique Dump Truck & Doctor Visit

Short post tonight.  I took Cassie to her doctor appointment in Bethesda, MD today.  She wasn't sure if she would be able to drive after a procedure, but all went well and she was fine.  She came out of the doctor's office with a big smile on her face and a high five for me.  Without going into detail, she was one happy young woman today.

We stopped at Panera Bread for lunch on the way home and had a nice enjoyable time together.  We brought a Bear Claw back for Gerry since she didn't make the trip with us.  It's always interesting to people watch at Panera Bread and today was no exception.  A quick trip to Costco and we were on our way back to her house where she had a 3:30pm appointment.

Last Saturday Jack and I were on our way back to his home when I spied something in a field that caught my eye.  In fact, I turned the car around and drove back to check it out.  There sitting in the field was a dump truck with rubber tracks rather than wheels.  I've never seen one like this and Jack took a picture with his phone camera.  Yes, I know ladies, it isn't that interesting, but to me it was.   The bucket is on a front end loader next to the truck.  Now that is one nice toy to have.  I wonder how fast it goes?

Yes, I do live an interesting life with new things popping up around me all the time.

More tree work & Ice Cream

Hang in there people, I am almost done with the tree cutting portion of our stay at the cabin.  The trees are all cut and today Bob brought out this John Deere tractor once again to help finish up the project.  He took all the wood that was along side of the lane and used his John Deere to pile it up next to his woodshed.  It will have to age for a year and then he will be well on his way to having enough firewood for the winter of 2014.

Gerry and Annette (Bob's better half) were out there with their work gloves on and between they wore me to a frazzle.  They helped load the logs onto Bob's tractor and I know we couldn't have finished the job without them.  

After Bob moved all his wood he decided to push all the old wood and branches on my property into a huge pile.  The plan is for him to burn it this winter once there is snow on the ground.  It is quite a large pile and I would be a little leery of burning it, but Bob says he does it all the time.  This will save me a lot of hard work and time, so I am happy to have him try it.

His John Deere tractor really made short work of moving the logs and then piling up the old logs and branches.  As I mentioned in a previous blog, I sure would like to have a tractor like his, but it would sit idle 99% of the time and rust out.  Bob will use his for plowing snow and a number of other tasks around here.

  

 The larger logs are from a 90ft hemlock tree that was cut down three years ago.  All of our hemlock trees have died due to a blight and it was sad to see them go.  They provided shade to the area and were nesting places for the squirrels and birds.  Now all are dead and we still have 10+ more to cut down.  Nobody wants hemlock for firewood, so it is difficult to get rid of it.

Last night Gerry, Cassie, Jack, Elizabeth, Lexi and I went to the local soft serve ice cream stand.  It is only open on weekends, so it is a sure sign that fall is just around the corner.  They do have the best ice cream around and you know that Gerry always has her eyes open for a good ice cream cone or Dairy Queen Blizzard.  The 2nd blizzard is only 99 cents, so you know where we went this evening.  I am full to the gills as they say and will save the blizzard for another night.

 

 Yes, it was that cold that Lexi needed a blanket to keep warm.  We woofed down the ice cream and got back in the cars to keep warm.  By the time we got back to the cabin the temp had fallen to 46F.  Hey, it's still summer.  We are getting cheated.  We did turn on the motorhome furnace and slept out there so we were fine.

That was our exciting weekend, how was yours?

Logging & Road Construction

The other day I had a number of trees cut down so I could widen the lane in front of the cabin to make it easier to get the motorhome out of here.  The new motorhome is a tight fit on the lane, so it was necessary to cut the trees.

The tree cutter cut most of the trees into fireplace lengths and then placed them along the road or in piles.  My neighbor, Bob, came down with his John Deere tractor with a front loader and we moved a number of the pieces of wood onto a pile near my shed.  Hopefully I can split them into smaller pieces to burn in the cabin fireplace.  Jack, our SIL, has a friend with a log splitter and may be able to borrow it this Sunday.  Oh boy, more hard work.

We don't like to be here when it gets cold, but it seems like something always comes up and we leave later than we would like.  A couple years ago we were caught in a 14" snowstorm that took down electric lines and many trees.  By the time the power came on 5-6 days later and the road was cleared it turned very cold.  We burnt all our wood and then some of our neighbor's supply, with their permission of course.  So, that is why we try and get ready for the cold, even if we aren't here.

There we two small trees that block me from turning the motorhome sharply so I can make a three point turn and they were cut down last week.  I left them with about a 4ft stump so Bob could push them over with his tractor.  That turned out to be a bigger and more difficult job than imagined.  One tree had large roots and they held the stump firmly in place.  We lost power due to a storm rolling through earlier and I had to start the generator in the motorhome to get electricity to my new electric power saw.  Once I cut 4 of the roots, it was easier to remove the stump.

I think I can.

Just push them into the woods.

Goodbye 2nd stump

 It was dinner time by the time we finished up this portion of the work and Bob took his tractor and rushed on home at 3mph.  It's a super tractor and I wish I had one to use up here.  It would keep me busy for a couple weeks pulling up shrubbery and small trees.  Plus I could grade the pad where the motorhome sits and a lot of other small tasks.

The power came on just after we finished up, so it was great timing so we could have dinner.  I grilled a steak outside and Gerry prepared the side dishes and we had a very enjoyable dinner on the screened in porch.  Life is good.

Small Town Newspapers & Blogging

I grew up in a small South Central Illinois town of about 3,800 residents in the 1940s & 1950s.  There were many advantages & disadvantages of living in a small town, but I'm not going into that here.  

The newspapers always had a "Society" column where subscribers could send in articles announcing birthday parties, visiting relatives, shopping trips to St. Louis and other social events.  They would have one like this;  "Mrs Joe Blow entertained her sister and brother-in-law for Sunday dinner.  They enjoyed a cookout in the yard and great conversation."  I've observed this in newspapers back to the early 1900s through present day.  My hometown newspaper included articles such as the above from 3-4 smaller towns in the area.

Now I see blogs that are much like the old newspaper articles.  "Bobby & Mary joined us at Taco Bell for lunch today".  The requisite pictures of the tacos and burritos have a special place in the blog.  I am not criticizing the blog, (I do the same pictures), but it seems that blogging has taken the place of small town newspapers in that regard, only the audience is wider, but probably less read.

It is interesting to read some blogs and see they have the same theme day after day.  Some blogs concentrate on their pets and feature them a lot, while others abhor the thoughts of having pets.  Since I mainly read blogs about RVing and camping, the blogs tend to look alike after a while.  I still find most of them interesting, but quit reading the ones where health issues and pet peeves dominate the blogs from day to day.

Once former RV Fulltimers come off the road they either quit blogging right away or try to write blogs about their daily lives.  Most of these blogs fade away after a while or they are occasionally updated.  I wonder where old blogs go after being abandoned by the owners?  Will people still be reading them a hundred years from now and studying them like we study Shakespeare now and looking for hidden meanings?

It seems to me that RV blogs are started to keep family and friends informed where the blogger is and what they are doing.  By reading the comments it is apparent that non-family members and friends don't leave comments nearly as much as others who follow the blog.  In my case, a few family members follow the blog and more friends do so, but there are many others out there that read the blog and leave comments.  All comments are appreciated.

You may wonder where I am going with this posting.  The simple answer is: Nowhere.  Just posting observations about small town newspapers and blogs.  Thanks for reading this especially if you have gotten this far.



 

Center for Prevention Services

My daughter-in-law is the Director of the Center for Prevention Services and is seeking pledges to help combat substance abuse and related issues.  She has issued a call for help in this important area and if anyone wishes to make a pledge, please follow the Rally below.  It's for a great cause and Gerry and I fully support it.

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Dear Friends,

I am leading the Rally for Center for Prevention Services, and I think you will be inspired by this campaign for healthier families and communities. Please take a moment to check it out and definitely share this e-mail with others who will support this often overlooked cause.

Best,

Jane

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Center for Prevention Services invited you to join a Rally. Center for Prevention Services 29 supporters

Rally for Substance Abuse Awareness Month!

Since its inception in 1971, the Center for Prevention Services (CPS) has continued to respond to its primary mission of preventing substance abuse and related behavioral and medical health issues.

We know that preventing disease before it starts is critical to helping people live longer, healthier lives and keeping health care costs down. Poor diet, physical inactivity, tobacco use, and alcohol misuse are just some of the challenges we face. We also know that many of the strongest predictors of health and well-being fall outside of the health care setting. Our housing, transportation, education, workplaces, and environment are major elements that impact physical and mental health. This is why CPS works to weave prevention into the fabric of our communities and into everyday life.

From 09/01 - 11/01/2013, your donations will be designated for Substance Abuse Awareness month initiatives (unless otherwise noted by donor.)

Thank you for contributing to our often overlooked cause!

Check out the rally

Spider question

Short blog today and I've got a question for you nature lovers, or pest control people.

What kind of spider is the one shown below?  Any guesses would would be greatly appreciated.

Follow up to what the spider is called.  Larry Jr. correctly identified it as a Marbled Orb Weaver (Araneus marmoreus).  His prize for the correct answer is a free week at our cabin west of Gettysburg, PA.  Have fun!

Wedding Anniversary & Firewood, anyone?

Cassie & Jack celebrated their 11th wedding anniversary today and had a quiet time at home.   A bigger celebration is planned for next weekend since it wasn't sure that she would be over the staff infection detected the other night.  As it turned out, they could have celebrated today, but better safe than sorrry

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY 

It's been an interesting last couple days here at the cabin.  Asplundh tree service has been cutting down trees under the electric power lines and trimming branches that interfere with the main lines in the area.  We are not on the main line directly, only on a feeder line, so they didn't cut any trees near our cabin.  That is a shame, since I had a number of trees that I wanted cut down.

A few of the neighbors are complaining about the job they did and one kept them from cutting any of their trees.  The trees are right on the road, but not a danger to the power lines unless we have an ice storm or one of our straight line wind storms.  Just a roll of the dice.

A worker told me that they have been threatened with legal action and all that, however the power company can and does do what they want to under their lines.  It's been 12-14 years since they have been up here, so there was lot of work to be done.  One nice thing about the job is that they cut the logs into fireplace length and removed all the branches and debris.  The logs are left neatly stacked for the customer's use.  Most people up here use a fireplace as a secondary heating source, so they will be set for next winter.

I had contracted with a local tree cutter to remove some trees that were too close to the road and made it difficult to park the motorhome.  The tree cutters are the fastest I have ever seen.  They come in, size up the tree and go right to work.  My kind of workers.  Here are some photos of them cutting down one of the 70 ft high oak trees.

See how close the tree is to the motorhome.

Cable attached to truck and Bob helping out.

They sure do work fast.

Almost done with the 1st tree.

A few of the logs cut to fireplace size

Two supervisors

They loaded all the branches and small stuff onto their trailer and were out of here in a flash.  One of them told me they take the branches to a local place where it is ground up for mulch and ground cover.  They pay the guy a small fee to dump the branches and both benefit by the transaction.  

Now if they would only split the logs into fireplace size pieces and stack it, that would be great.  It looks like we have a lot of work ahead of us splitting the wood in the next few weeks.  Sounds strange, but we won't even get the benefit of the cut wood since we are out of here before it gets that cold.  Gerry does want a fire at least a couple nights before we leave, so there will be a small benefit to us.

The rest of the logs will go to our neighbor Bob for his use.  He watches over our cabin and has been a great neighbor for many years.   

That was our day, how was yours?

ER & Carriage House Inn

We got a call late last night from our daughter saying she had a lot of spots on her neck and chest, plus she had a neck pain that was really bad.  Gerry and Cassie talked a while and checked online what it might be and the symptoms pointed toward a few possible problems.  We finally convinced her to go to the ER and get it looked at by a real doctor.

We drove to the ER to see how she was doing and they had her back checking what the problem was.  They would only let two people see her at a time, so we sat in the car while waiting for our turn in with her.  Jack called and said they diagnosed her rash as a staff infection.  A couple shots of anitbiotics and she sent her on her way home.  We also headed back to the cabin and got home around 1:15am.  Tired, but glad to hear it wasn't something more serious.

A couple weeks ago we arranged to meet some old friends that I worked with for over 20 years.  Cathy lives in Maryland and Jim & Marilyn, a couple, live in Virginia.  They drove over 90 miles to meet us at the Carriage House Inn in Emmitsburg, MD for lunch.  

We opened the place and almost stayed until the dinner hour.  It was a great lunch and non stop conversation went on for about 4 hours.  It was really great seeing them and catching up on what has been going on with their families.  Looking forward to doing it again when we get back in the area. 

There is also a group that meets the first Wednesday of the month in the Virgina area since most of our coworkers lived in Virginia.  We've been to a couple of the luncheons, but since we sold our home in 2006 it has been difficult to attend them.  It looks like we will have to make a special effort to attend one of the luncheons when we get back in the area next summer.

Then it was back to the cabin since I had called a tree cutting service and they were coming out to give me an estimate.  Not only did they give me the estimate, they cut down 4 of the 6 trees that I want removed.  They cut them into fireplace lengths and stacked the logs near our firewood pile.  Saturday they will come back and take care of the remaining two trees.  This will help us get the motorhome out of the parking area up here.  It is a very tight fit to park this motorhome here and I don't want to damage it.  

Now to get the porch roof repaired and then we can get out here.  It seems that we come back to have repairs done and then turn around and leave.  Something is wrong with what is going on.

The weather has been super here on the mountain with low humidity, nice daytime temps and cool nights.  Our neighbor said they are calling for frost tonight or this weekend in northern PA.  Yuk, time to hit the road.

It's hard to believe, but this is my 800th posting in the blog.  It seems like yesterday that I was trying to figure out how to create and publish the first posting.  

That was our day, how was yours?  

Labor Day and family.

We are back  at our cabin after the 300 mile drive from visiting with Gerry's relatives.  It was a really nice visit and we were fortunate to see most of them and to catch up on what had been going on in their lives.

Gerry's Aunt Mary recently celebrated her 95th birthday and has been feeling poorly lately, but her mind is as sharp as ever.  When we came by on Sunday she was watching her beloved Cleveland Indians baseball game with the Detroit Tigers.  She is really into the game and knows all the players and is quite the optimist about them winning.

 

Her son, Joseph was there visiting and started egging her on about the Indians, trying to get her riled up.  She handled it well and finally he said he would bet her $1 that the Indians would lose.  At the time the score was 0-0 in the ninth inning.  They were playing in Detroit.  At first she refused, but after more egging her on, she agreed to the bet.  He still kept up the chatter about winning the dollar until an Indian player hit a grand-slam home run.  The final score was 4-0 in favor of the Indians.  She was one happy mother that she had won the bet.

Mary & Joseph settling the bet.

Gerry's cousin Joanne has a house on a golf course and it was nice sitting on her patio watching the golfers stream by.  For the most part they seemed to be fairly good amateur golfers.  Or, at least on that one hole they seemed to be.  There was a bend in the fairway and then a 175 yard shot to get on the green and most people made it in 2 shots.  Although it was the holiday weekend, the course wasn't overly crowded.

Mark & Barbara (son & dil of Joanne), who live close by, have a beautiful home next to a small river.  We went over there on Saturday to see them.  We got a tour of the home and it is beautiful.  It is quite large and very open and airy with a great view out the back.  I would be a little nervous being so close to the river, but Mark said it was highly unlikely the water would ever reach the house.  It was nice seeing them again and meeting their three children.  We had met the oldest daughter before, but it was a first time for the younger ones.  Super family.

Mark & Barbara

This was family visiting time and Gerry and Joanne carried on a non-stop conversation the whole while we were there.  I did my best to stay out of the way and got caught up on watching some sports on tv.  I also worked on her computer a little but didn't really get much done.

 

All too soon it was time to leave and we bid our fond farewells early on Monday for the drive back to the cabin.  

We took the back roads to the Ohio Turnpike and enjoyed the scenery in the small towns along the way.  We were pleasantly surprised that the traffic on the Ohio and PA turnpikes wasn't that heavy and was moving along at the speed limit.  It was like that all the way back to Breezewood where we got off the turnpike. 

 

We stopped and had an early dinner at a local Mexican restaurant and had a nice meal before heading back to the cabin.  Then it was time to unload the car and collapse.  Nice to be home.

Thanks Joanne for sharing your home with us and the nice time we had visiting with you.  I think we gained 5lbs each trying to eat all the great meals you prepared for us.  Now we really do have to go on a diet.

 That was our weekend,  I hope she had one as nice as ours.