The wet, the time, and the camper

Wow, that was quite a rain that came through yesterday. And there I was - trying to winterize the camper in 40 mph wind driven rain. I got a little damp. What fun would it be if I did these things ahead of time. This is just one of the two obvious signs that summer is long over and the cold of late autumn is about to dominate our activities. The clocks have been set back an hour and we we've put the camper in storage for the winter. I miss summer already. Summer means not grabbing a coat when I go outdoors, stepping outside and seeing green leaves and a variety of colors, long daylight hours to throw the ball for the dogs. I'll survive another winter, may even enjoy myself occasionally and look forward to the summer of 2007.

Here's the camper, ready to go.

Hooked up and we're off to storage, be sure
I'll mention when it's time to bring it home.

Guest Blogger - Carol

October 24, 2006
Today is Mom and Dad's 60th Wedding Anniversary.

wedding picture


I love you, Mom and Dad

Carol

newsletter daze for November

I'm in the midst of my newsletter daze. I need to finish the town newsletter today for final proofing overnight. The editor didn't get the proofed articles back to me until late afternoon yesterday so I could start the layouts. I usually have them first thing in the morning. I didn't waste the time though, I just did the things I usually do later like setup the events calendar section and prepped the photos. Once I have all the content ready doing the layout takes on a life of it's own. If I look at it as switching time units around then it really doesn't matter about the articles coming late. I just get concerned when someone does something differently that expected, that maybe something happened to them. If I'd known that the articles would come late then I could move on without that on my mind. I started the church newsletter Thursday but didn't get very far so I'll get on that once the town newsletter goes out final.

While I was working Carol was out and abouts, went with Lois to an Avon open house then to the Maine Historical Society to do some records digging. She came home then made a trip to Staples and Wallyworld. While working I had the TV on a couple of football games that were good. First, Texas at Nebraska, then UCLA at Notre Dame. Both weren't decided until the last few seconds, real battles. Latter in the evening the movie Carol and I watched was "Lucky Number Slevin". A clever crime/gangster/hitman/wrong person in the wrong place film with a twist. We liked it, good for a rent, sorry, not for the kiddies. It has all elements of things the young ones don't need to watch.

A fine Fall weekend

This past weekend our Boy Scout Troop hosted the District's Fall Camporee which took place at the Scout camp located in our town. We had about 12 Troops, 200 Scouts and adult leaders registered. Each activity had five or six patrols participating at any given time. The Troop's Scouts and adult leaders put in a lot of planning and work which resulted in an event that went really well. They came up with terrific ideas for ten activities that were challenging and fun. Five in the morning and five in the afternoon. One of our committee persons organized the lunch and dinner for the Troop's Scouts and adults who worked on the event. The meals were dishes prepared and dropped off by the parents. Lots of cookies, half the Troop lives on them. Beans and hotdogs for lunch, a bunch of pasta dishes for dinner. I was asked to take pictures which kept me on the move all day. It was a lot of fun to see how everyone was doing and I think I got some good pictures as well. Our Scouts did a great job at each of the challenges they worked at and it was quite a change of pace from competing against other patrols where we usually managed to take some of the honors. Our Scoutmaster administrated the event very well as we didn't get as much help as we expected to from the district or the council which was probably just as well anyway.

At tonight's Troop meeting the Scouts worked on the plans for the Haunted House Hayride which our town's fire & rescue department sponsors. Our Troop sets up and implements spooky happenings along the roadway to the Haunted House. Lots of fun and the haywagon riders enjoy it. This takes place at the Scout camp where the Camporee was held. This is one busy Troop! The fire & rescue people convert the dining hall into a haunted house full of scary rooms to pass through at the end of which are Halloween snacks and beverages.

Update on Margaret

Elaine and Lois called Carol this morning. Margaret got out of surgery about 10:00, everything went well. It did take a little longer than the surgeon expected, she had a "kink" in one artery he had to straighten before he could continue, but that was all taken care of. Elaine and Lois were going to run some errands, and then to see her, she will be in ICU overnight.

A medical procedure

Carol's mother will be going to the hospital in the morning to have a procedure to clean out the arteries in her neck, so our thoughts and prayers will be with her. I guess it's pretty routine nowadays as this was planned a couple of weeks ago. Lois and Elaine have gone up to be there during the operation. We don't think there's a hospital stay involved and she'll be home at the end of the day. I think one of my uncles had this done recently.

Scouting for time

Lots of scout stuff lately. For the last few weeks Carol has been putting together a Merit Badge College which our Troop sponsors every year. We offer two one-hour sessions, one night a week for four weeks. There are several Merit Badge classes to choose from in each session. This is Carol's second year organizing this event. She reserves classrooms at one of our local schools, calls to find various interested and available Merit Badge counselors, and prepares the flyer to be distributed to the Boy Scout Troops in the region. This year she wanted to try online registrations - so I setup a form on our webpages on the town website and so far it has been working very well. The first night of classes start next week. Our Troop is also hosting this fall's district Camporee at the nearby Scout Camp which takes place this weekend. The Scouts and adult leaders have been working hard the last few weeks at planning this event which could bring together upwards of 200 Scouts and adults to participate. My task will be photographing and video taping as much of the happenings as I can. Ian will be coming home this weekend to take part as well. In addition we had a Troop committee meeting Monday night which I chaired as our regular chair was out of town and on Tuesday we went to the regular Troop meeting to take part in 5 Board of Reviews. By the time Sunday night rolls around I think we'll be all scouted out until the MB College starts.

I'm on the road to somewhere...

...just haven't figure out where that is yet. Well the fun continues, a busy week at home and office. At work we had a "Employee Appreciation Picnic" ("cookout" in my book) Friday at noon. I was involved in doing some of the graphics for banners, etc., there was a baseball theme. Our office administrator, Karen, is very good at "getting it done", no manner what it is so amongst everything else she has to handle she pulls this cookout together like no one's business. Then there was a special angle to the event which helped keep me busy. Our office manager, Joe, reached his 20th anniversary with the company. To commemorate the milestone Karen and Kathy, one of our engineers, wanted to put something special together to present to him at the cookout. What they came up with was a parody of sorts using a display poster I did for a engineering award we won recently. Photos were switched out and replaced by pictures of the staff in our office and two smaller ones that Joe also is responsible for. Also used were his new employee photo compared with a silly one of him from a time much latter on which used a engineering analogy - it makes sense to us in the office but I won't glaze your eyes over with describing it here. I took the picture of our office staff, those who were in at the time. That's me, fifth person from the left in the back...I added myself in afterwards using Photoshop and a picture I had someone else take of me after the crowd broke up.

I kept the photo small here as this is a public blog, I think people from my office should have anonymity. The presentation went over very well as did the cookout, burgers and hotdogs, there was a raffle of gift certificates and company hats, travel mugs, and waterbottles. One of our engineer's received a CEO Award for service to a client above and beyond expectations.

Ian is home this weekend as Taylor's mom picked her up at her college to come home for the long weekend and they picked up Ian as well. Things continue to go well for him, He's very involved in his classes, he has joined the Woodsmen Club which competes with other colleges in axe and wood sawing skills. He has also joined the Wildlife/Forestry Club. He'll be home again next weekend to participate in the Camporee. Taylor was over for supper tonight and we watched a movie, King Arthur starring Clive Owen. Pretty good, much different than what you might expect, 2 hours and 17 minutes.

Howdy neighbor

Stepped out of the office at lunchtime for a walk and to grab a coffee when I bumped into one of my neighbors, Rick. We practically never go visit or have over any of our neighbors even though we all seem to be nice enough people. Just seems to be the way it is here. Its when we are out and abouts that we run into each other and get caught up on what we are all are up to. Which is generally fine with me, be on good terms with the folks that live around us and go about our business. One of the things I like about where we live is that the neighbors are just far enough away that we can see parts of their houses but when we step out the door we are not likely to find ourselves staring at or being stared at, by the folks or pets next door. Good neighbors.


So, back to the neighbor I ran into. Rick was in town because he had jury duty. He and his wife have a daughter who is a sophomore at a college in Pennsylvania so we talked about how our kids are getting along at their schools and what activities they're participating in. Rick is a very "up" guy and I always enjoy talking with him or his wife, real nice people. . . maybe we should invite them over, heck we've only been neighbors for 22 years!

The 31st Anniversary - October 3rd

When I move along life's journey with someone who's companionship I yearn for - when she takes my breath away and she can take it away again before I get it back - when I turn and see she's there when it's unexpected - when love has become something I could not imagined back when we first met - when my life is only complete because of you. Happy Anniversary Carol.

2006 Deerfield Fair

Made our yearly visit to Deerfield Fair. We bring the camper to a campground (Pine Acres) in Raymond, NH each year and meet up with Lois and Jim who are usually returning from a week long camper vacation elsewhere. This year we brought both our vehicles along and picked up Ian at UNH, then he took the car to pick up Taylor then joined us at the campground on Friday night. The dogs had to go to the kennel, they weren't happy about that.

So, we spent Saturday at the fair and here are some pictures from then.

Jim, Lois and Carol

One of the draft horses here for the pulling competiton.

Americana, gotta love it!

The Grand Order of Hiberions Pipe and Drum Band.

The blur of greys in the background are only a small portion
of the sea of cars parked here for the fair.

A giant "Old Glory" on a very tall crane towers
over everything at the fair.

The Flying Wallendas make an appearence. They did two shows this day.

Taylor, Carol and Ian.

A view across the midway as evening moves in.