8-28-2008

The last WOW was May 28th and a lot has happened in my life since then. My uncle Claude passed away and a good friend, Lois, passed away also. They both will be greatly missed by family & friends. Uncle Claude was an important part of my life during the ages 6-18, so he occupied a special place in my heart. Lois became part of my life when she came to live with her daughter who has been my close friend for 16 years. I seem to be at a point in my life when everytime I turn around somone meaninful in my life passes over to the other side. Of course, I know that sooner or later, my turn rolls around. I need to be prepared for the transition and pray that the end comes quickly. Jerilyn’s mother, Gladys, turns 90 this month. That a goal to shoot for.

My son, Rusty, has made his move from Tennessee to Virginia. I helped him with that move back in mid-June. It is good to have both of my children close.

I recently visited my brother, Jerry, who lives about a hour away. I took my trusty camcorder, and with his permission, I recorded his life on film as told by him. I prepared 32 questions to ask him and it took about 35 minutes to get it all recorded. I have copied it to a DVD, which I will give to him on my next visit. He will leave it to his children when his time comes to leave this earth. His wife, Patty, wants me to do the same for her on my next visit. While back home at Oakwood, VA, to attend Uncle Claude’s funeral, I did the same for Aunt Helen. The only difference was that her son, Harold, interviewed her. He also asked her some questions about her life that he wanted to know about. I will be transferring that to DVD shortly and sending a copy to him. There are so many people in my life that I would like to do that with. My regret is that I did not do this many years ago.

I had four pilings driven into the water down by our pier several weeks ago. I plan on installing two hoist that will allow me to lift my boat out of the water, thus preventing barnacles from accumulating. If I leave it in the water for two weeks then I have a lot of work to do to remove them. Once I have my hoist in place, cleaning the bottom of that boat will be a thing of the past. I’m at the point in my life where I am constantly trying to make things easier.

Our recent vacation included spending a week in California with our good friends John & Phyllis. What a wonderful experience. They spent an entire week giving us a tour of their state, from Palm Springs to San Francisco. Our base was at their home in Thousand Oak. We visited their children, Craig & wife Leslie (& their children), Tim & son Kyle, and my childhood friend, Brenda and her husband Vyron. How many of us are willing to take an entire week and devote it to making someone happy? That, in my opinion, is a true friend. Somehow, it makes my effort to be a good friend seems very inadequate.

After leaving California, we traveled by air to Hawaii, where we visited four of their eight islands (Hawaii, Maui, Oahu & Kauai). The four we did not visit are: Niihau, Lanai, Molokai & Kahoolawe. The weather was the same every day we spent there, and as far as I can tell, never changes very much. I kept forgetting that Hawaii was part of America. Their culture was so different and the mainland was so far away. I enjoyed the visit, but was happy to be back home. Hawaiians only have 12 letters in their alphabet and the struggle to pronounce the names of their cities, street names and shopping centers left me exhausted. I acquired way too much knowledge about volcanoes, lava and Hawaiian’s that died many years ago. Seems like on every bus tour, the driver was required to tell us about Hawaii’s history. By the 5th tour it was beginning to get a tad old. As we boarded the plane to depart our 50th state, I promised myself that I would forget most of what I was told when we landed in Virginia. Guess what? I was able to keep that promise.