58 Years

     June, 18 1960, 58 years ago, we were married in a little white Congregational Church in our mutual hometown of Athol, MA. It was a simple, traditional affair with nothing to predict the extraordinary assortment of experiences that followed.

     

                        

     How many words would it take to describe the adventures that have occurred between those two dates? They d*** sure wouldn't fit in a blog. We celebrated at the Blossom, a downtown Charleston restaurant specializing in simple Southern fare. They even had Frogmore stew on the menu, although they called it "Low-Country Boil". We thank Cindy who provided transportation, photography and other assistance.

     Durelle sure misses her Maine camping buddies AND the lower heat and humidity. We have rented a cabin up in the hills of Asheville for a few days in early July, but it won't be the same.

     So, we are muddlin' through, wondering what the 59th year will bring.

The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat.

     Last week I described the painful consequences of the loss of a hard drive. This week the offsetting good news is two-fold and glorious. I now have a new HP Terabyte tower with a 23" monitor. AND, in various locations on various partitions of the hard drive, I have been able to find almost all of my missing data. It will be a lot of tedious work to get it reorganized, but at least the data is there...even the missing 6800 words and all my pictures.
     On an even brighter note, the bus was sold. The buyer is an interesting chap. He is a 21 year old evangelist with a pregnant wife who has been full-timing in a one slideout Class C. Apparently evangelism pays pretty well, as he wrote a check for a forty foot Tiffin Allegro Bus. We lost a little money, but a few months without that big mortgage payment should quickly fix that.
     In 54 years we have had two pop ups and four Class A motorhomes. We put 350,000 miles on the motorhomes and pretty well exhausted our bucket list. It has been a great ride, and it has been the RVing community that has made it such a warm and rich experience.

Arrghhh

     We all have had our computer glitches. My recent one was particularly painful. I leave my computer on all the time. One morning last week, moving the mouse did not wake it up, so I powered down and restarted. When I opened a file, I dicovered that there had been no changes made in the past three months! With great trepidation, I checked some other fi!es... same result. I said, "No sweat, I'll just go to the external hard drive and recover them from there." Guess what? There was nothing current on the external hard drive, either. Like everyone, I had a lot of files; some more important than others. What was most painful, personally, was "My Story". I started a year ago, on an rregular basis, to create an autobiographical synopsis of my life. My most recent addition brought the word count to 12,000. Now I find that the most recent 6,800 words cannot be found.
     I worked with my son, Mark, using"WebEx". He could remotely control my computer. We did some cleaning, but no recovery. It is now at the Geek Squad. There is a virus, but I won't know the details until Friday.
     Remember the days of keeping a spare copy of your dissertation in the trunk, just in case? I should have remembered and emailed copies to myself, for example. The blog was not affected as it is trundled off to a Google server somewhere.
     This, too, will pass. The next version of those 6,800 words will be better than the last. Right?

More Eagles

     This morning Durelle alerted me to a photo-op with the pair of eagles. I was frying bacon, so I asked her to take the pictures with my clumsy Leica. She was unable to go to the full telephoto, so she had a lot of pictures of trees. The birds were patient, so I got a chance. The neuropathy precludes the good steady stance and grip needed for long lens work, but the light was good so I tried it. I should really get a tripod. The five shots below are the result.

     We are so fortunate to be able to watch and listen to these birds on a daily basis.

Getting caught up

     Since the last post, there have been a few events...most notably a week long visit from grandson, David, his girlfriend, Jacqui, and our great granddaughter, Brielle. Brielle is newly a teenager but without the usual annoying habits that teenage girls seem to have. They arrived on Sunday afternoon after Cindy and I had left in the morning, so Durelle had to pick them up by herself and bring them to the house. By the time I got home they had moved into their Tuesday-Thursday rental of a beach condo on the Isle of Palms. Here's a couple of shots from their balcony.

     Not too shabby, Dave.

     Meanwhile, back at our house, Dave and his grandmother were convincing themselves that surely not all of those hundreds of brown pods on the magnolia tree could possibly be blossoms. Wrong!!!

     Only a few have opened so far. Here's one of them.

     Is that a perfect magnolia blossom?

     This one almost qualifies as a tradition. Every six months Durelle and I get our teeth cleaned. Since we are done around lunchtime, we are ready to exercise our newly sharpened teeth at a local lunch establishment. Cindy often joins us. Today the favored institution was the "Home Team BBQ" in West Ashley. I had a sliced brisket sandwich with a side of beans that was tasty.

     Durelle had a chopped brisket sandwich with a side of mac 'n cheese which she enjoyed.

     Cindy had some sort of a large burrito which will provide her with several meals.

     For those of you who are interested, the bus is for sale at Atlantic RV Solutions

Yes, we are still alive

     It has been nearly two months since I last posted. I finally have an event around which to build a post and and the same time to update our status. As always, you have my favorite blog-stalker's size XX shoe to thank.
     As much as I now hate to fly, I recently was able to take advantage of a new, nonstop Frontier flight from Charleston to Denver. It wasn't the introductory pricing, but the self-imposed requirement to eulogize a favorite classmate who was being memorialized at the USAFA. Durelle could not go as we were hosting our grandson, his significant other, and our teenage great-granddaughter for a week of Spring vacation. So Cindy accompanied the "old fahrt" through the TSA obstacles and other impediments. It's amazing how helpful a kid can be when you really need her.
     The trip would not really have been possible without the kindness and support of Phil and Laura Catalfamo. Phil was my office-mate in Alaska in the early sixties. They picked us up and delivered us to and from the airport, loaned us a car, and provided room and board for three days. By the way, the word "board" does not do justice to the wonderful Italian meals Laura provided.
     We were stationed there from '69 to '74, so it was nice to see some of the old landmarks again. The long range shots were taken from Phil's porch.

     Brita Glenn did a beautiful job of organizing a memorial service for her husband Warren H. "Buzz" Glenn. There were perhaps 75 classmates, family members, neighbors and friends in attendance. Here is a picture of Brita thanking everyone at a reception which was one of the very first special events held in the new golf course clubhouse.

     Both flights left on time and arrived early, but the seats are uncomfortable and non-adjustable. Snacks and drinks (of any kind) are expensive. It is an efficient way to travel when there are no other options.

Raptors

     We have recently enjoyed a brief but wonderful visit from our youngest grandson, Kevin. He has two real claims to fame that would seem to be impossible to exist in the same person. He had vascular surgery at six weeks and he played on his University's national championship rugby team! Here's a shot of him and Durelle.

It was taken at Poogan's Porch where they had lunch after a Cindy-guided tour of the city.

     During his visit we had a spate of unusual avian activity in the back yard. Here's a shot of our eagle acting like a duck.

     He didn't land in the water. He landed on the shore and waded in. He does not have webbed feet, so this is a very unusual position for him. He stayed around for quite a while, wandering around the bank of the retention pond.

      When he left, I tried to get a shot of him in flight. With a moving eagle, a moving camera and a slight delay in the auto-focus, success is unlikely. I'll show you one, anyway, if only to demonstrate the difficulty.

     As I was putting the camera down and walking away, there was an explosion of feathers and water almost under my feet. I whipped around, aimed the camera in the general direction of an osprey who had just dive-bombed a fish. The shot was quick and reflexive, but the result was almost a good wildlife picture....Just luck.

     A retention pond would not be expected to generate all the wildlife activity that we have. The real attraction and habitat is the hundreds of acres of the Goose Creek reservoir and its surrounding marshes that abuts our lot. We are fortunate to have it.