2014-03-09

It is Sunday, March 3rd, and I haven’t written a blog since February 15th, so I guess that I should tell you what we have been doing.  On February 27th, we went to a one woman play about life in a small town.  At the end of the play, the audience had to try on some hats.   Of course, we have been to concerts in the Busch Gardens Real Music Series.  The last was Lee Greenwood, we skipped the Osmond’s, but did see Frankie Avalon.  I did get a picture of Lee Greenwood, because I learned that I could reduce the exposure from the spotlights.  As we walked by the bird cage, Terri wanted to feed some of them, and they congregated on both Terri & Marilyn.   I could not get a picture of Frankie Avalon because he was dressed in white, and the spotlights turned him to a blob.  All in all, the Real Music Series was another success.  We enjoyed them, and will buy season passes again.

This past weekend, we drove to Atlanta, to attend the wedding of the youngest daughter of one of our best friends during the high school marching band years of our children.  We stayed at the Fairfield Inn in Suwanee, GA, and were invited to attend the rehearsal dinner at Provino’s at the Mall of GA.  It was wonderful to see great friends, and the food was delicious too.  The wedding itself was at Little Gardens on US 29.  The event location was just as nice as it had been for her sister several years ago.  Here are some of the pictures from the wedding of Mr & Mrs Rimpau.    As can be seen from the pictures, it was a very happy occasion.

My last picture is of 5 of the original couples plus Jan McCabe that worked together with others to make sure that the band had its equipment when it was needed, and that the band was where it was supposed to be when it was time to play music.

Type at you later.

2014-02-15

We seen to keep busy, but I have trouble finding something to write about. We have continued our Wednesday trips to Busch Gardens for their Real Music Series concerts. On January 29th we saw The Glenn Miller Orchestra (no originals) and The Four Freshmen  (also no originals).

Then on February 5, we were supposed to see the Bay City Rollers, a group that we had never heard of. But they were unable to get to Tampa, so we had a wonderful substitute. They brought in Fernando Varela from Orlando. He is an operatic tenor that almost won America’s Got Talent a few seasons ago.

Last Wednesday, we saw Paul Revere and The Raiders, a 60s-70s group that played music that I did not listen to at that time.

Continuing with doctors, on Tuesday, the 10th, I had the first of my 3 appointments with the VA clinic in Brooksville, FL. It was an orientation session to let us know what to expect from them.  They described themselves as primarily a doctors office, and that for anything other than primary care, we would have to go to Tamps.

Valentine’s Day was a wonderful day with Marilyn and friends. We began the day with breakfast with Larry & Carolyn Jarvis at Moe’s in Lake Panasoffkee, FL, followed by stops at thrift stores in Inverness. Since we e breakfast so late we did not stop for lunch, but continued on to Crystal River where we had Lupper about 3pm at Crackers on the Bay. At 5pm we gathered with 12 others from Sumter Oaks RV Park to take the Sunset Cruise from Crystal River Preserve State Park. It is a 2 hour cruise on the Crystal River towards the Gulf of Mexico. It was a cold (mid 50s) boat ride in a large pontoon boat.

We were provided with snacks, soda, beer, water, and a Champaign toast. Phil Tobin and Larry Jarvis look all bundled up.  Marilyn is trying to cool here wine. Bev Hosford even wore ear muffs.

We all took many pictures of the beautiful sunset and full moonrise. Here are some of the sunset pictures.

The moonrise was just as spectacular.

Type at you later.

2012-01-25

It has been a while.  Marilyn’s cousin’s wife asked yesterday when I was going to write a blog, and then Jan Mains asked, in an email today, if I was going to just write blogs once a month. Then when I looked to see when I had last written, Jan was right, I had not written since the first of the year.

Most of our time since the first of the year seems to have revolved around going to doctors, but we have been able to go to Busch Gardens twice to see the concerts.

On Friday, the 3rd, I had carpal tunnel surgery, and was stuck with a soft cast for two weeks. The doctor said it the stitches could come out in two weeks, but his office was closed that Friday the 17th.  The stitches came out the following Tuesday (21st), but I had taken the cast off the previous Saturday the 18th. These are pictures of the cast, the incision with the stitches, and finally a picture of the incision as it is healing today.

I have finally been signed up with the Veteran’s Administration, so next month is filling up with doctor’s appointments too. Three (2/10, 18 and 24) appointments are with the VA in Brooksville. The surgeon wants to see the incision again on the 4th, and my sleep doctor wants to see me on the 24th.

The last two Wednesdays, we have enjoyed Busch Gardens.  On the 5th we saw Herman’s Hermits with Peter Noone who is now 66, and on the 12th, we saw Chubby Checker who is now 72. The first three pictures of Herman’s Hermits. Chubby Checker still sounds like he did when we were young.

 

At Busch, there were lots of birds to grab your attention.  

There were also animals in camera range.

 

On Thursday, the 16th, and Saturday the 18th, we drove to Tampa to attend the Tampa RV Super Show.  Always fun to see the old and new items that the vendors have.  Molly & Bob Pinner were manning the Escapees booth. They were doing well, and of course we received extra hugs. We did not buy a lot even though we spent a lot of money.  We bought a grill mat (plastic? mat that sit on grill – you can even fry eggs on it),  Then we bought a new Tire Pressure Management System to replace my non-working PressurePro system – the batteries can even be replaced in the new system instead of buying new $50 sending units. The last item we bought was a Winegard Carryout Satellite dish. When we got home I hooked it up, set on the ground, and it quickly found Direct TV even in the trees of Sumter Oaks.

Lastly, but not least we also had friends an family to visit.  Marianne and Joe Mellon met us for lunch at the Ramshackle Café in Leesburg this past Tuesday. Yesterday we drove to Lakeland, FL to visit Marilyn’s cousin Paul and his wife for an afternoon lunch. Both were great visits.

2014-01-01

i have been informed that I blew it.  Today is Wednesday, not Thursday as I indicated in my blog.  New Year’s Eve really was Tuesday, not Wednesday.  Oh well, such is an old man’smind.

2014-01-01 Happy New Year

We left Doug’s house on Friday after Christmas, drove back to Sumter Oaks, and Beverly drove back to Dayton. We all arrived home safely.  Bev had construction around Cincinnati, and we had heavy traffic from just before Ocala until we got south of the weigh station.

From Friday to Tuesday, we unpacked, Marilyn did wash, and we made more than one trip to Wal-Mart.

Wednesday afternoon, Marilyn and I joined 5 other couples to celebrate New Year’s Eve (Marge & Gordon Dembsey, the organizers of the evening; Don & Sue Paulson; Larry & Carolyn Jarvis; Frank & Maureen Halliday; and Dan & Kathy Smith).

Marge arranged for us to start the festivities in The Villages at TooJays  Restaurant.  I took the pictures as we were getting ready to order dinner.  Next on the agenda was the movie “Saving Mr. Banks”.  We had all wanted to see it, after seeing the commercials for the past weeks, and none of us were disappointed.  Then we all went back to Marge & Gordon’s screen room for coffee, cake, snacks, imbibing, and wishing everyone a wonderful 2014.