August 2000

Summer is here! 

August 29, 2000

Note from David:

John and Denise,
 .
  The blueberries are coming in fast, Jean is having a ball picking and
processing as the attached photo shows.
           David

August 28, 2000

It has been a busy time, here are some pictures of Denise at the Yacht Club:

We had a good time sailing Saturday and working with the Audubon Society Sunday:

August 22, 2000

Darrell sent this along:

21 Reasons Why The English Language Is Hard To Learn:

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to
     present the present.
8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18) After a number of injections my jaw got number.
19) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
20) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
21) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

August 20, 2000

We went out for dinner with the couple we are going sailing with last Saturday night, then went to Longboat Key for the day Sunday. We went to the Mote Marine Center and saw turtles, manatees, fish, and many other sea creatures, then went over to the Bird Sanctuary… boy did the birds there have cushy quarters! Everything from a bald eagle to most any bird you can name!

August 16, 2000

Things have been super hectic – only 4 hours sleep last night!

First…we have been invited by George and Betty to sail with them in the Caribe 1500 sailboat race! http://www.carib1500.com/

We are excited about doing this major offsore race in November!!!! More about that later.

Second….we have been accepted as Guardian-Ad-Litems!! We went in for our final interview yesterday. They gave us a list of children that needed our help and we selected one. It turned out that there was a court hearing today! Denise went and, even though she said she was nervous, she got up in front of the judge and identified herself as the guardian of the child! We had stayed up almost all night last night reading and poring over the 200 plus page report on the case, trying to make sense of all the people involved, who did what to whom, when, and why. It paid off as Denise was well prepared this morning. She then got to speak to each of those involved and is well on her way to doing a great job on this case!

August 14, 2000

Amy wrote:

Dad, your website looks great!  It is so nice to see all the news from the family…     

Darren and I have been doing very well.  This past weekend my girlfriends from graduate school and I got together for our second annual weekend retreat.  We had a blast, just talked for 3 days straight (imagine 4 speech therapists all in the same house for 3 days–talking is our favorite pastime!)!  Darren stayed with a friend his from college who lives in Bethesda (1 hour away).  Thursday night a friend of theirs called and they pressured him into flying down from Boston on Friday, so they had a college guys get-together weekend as well!   

I can’t believe how quickly the pregnancy is going.  I am seven months now and starting to feel it!  Baby is kicking away!  Darren reads bedtime stories, and he/she always kicks when he does!  We have our first childbirth class tonight.    

I am still working 3   10-hour days…but I will be taking time off when the baby comes.  Although there are a couple of families in my local area who want me to see their children privately, so I may still see a couple of kiddos here and there after I quit.   

We love you!   Darren and Amy

Can you believe the Russian sub that went down! Hope that never happens to Joe!

August 12, 2000

Dad Herrick wrote :

I’m having a wonderful time. I’m going to my 60th reunion tomorrow. Will spend a few days in Dover-Foxcroft and then on to Sue’s until the end of the month. Going to Marblehead and then, on the 5th, flying to London England to see Heather for a week. Will stop to see Amy on the way south. Will be back to Zephyrhills Hills late in September.
Love Dad

Christine wrote:

Hey John! I sent you guys some pictures of Nate. There should be enough to give a couple to Memmre and Peppre, too.

Nathan is doing well. He’s so busy with school/work. He leaves here around 5 am, and gets home around 5:30 PM. Only about a month or so until he gets his new orders. We’re still not sure where we’ll be moving (or even if we’re staying). We don’t really like it here. Chicago is kinda dumpy.
Hope all is well with you guys! We miss ya! Take care…
Christine


The new pictures of little Nathan are below and on the baby page!

August 10, 2000

>Has Snuffy Smith always been drawn by Fred Lasswell? 

Yes, Fred created him.snuffy1.JPG (77844 bytes)

> Does he still hand-draw everything or does he use copies of characters from old strips? 
He hand draws every one, plus many more that do not get published!

>Does he come up with the subject or does he have a writer? 
He has two girls that work for him who help out with ideas, as well as keep up his web site…http://www.unclefred.com

August 9, 2000

snuffy.jpg (27258 bytes)

After reading Jean’s note (below), I saw this cartoon in today’s paper. Then I went upstairs and got Fred Lasswell to autograph it for me …to Jean and David…he is quite old and miss-heard me when I said that David is my brother, but that is OK, it was cute when he added the “SWEET” before the Jean! He then proceeded to cut it out of the paper for me! He is a great old guy!!!

Note from Jean in Maine:

John,
The boys and I went blueberry picking today.  The blueberries are in! I
picked enough to make a batch of jam.  The boys picked about a quart each
and ate two quarts in the field!
I remember the good time we had picking last year.
Enjoy the rest of the summer.

Jean

August 8, 2000

News from Darrell:

Hey, still on the earth…just super busy with everything…work/kids etc.

Let’s see…what’s new…

 Justin got engaged to Jody. She is a young lady he has been living with since June. His first love and he popped the question 2 weeks ago. He got over anxious and wanted to do it right away. Jody said yes. She has a 3-year-old girl (Brianna). They seem nice (both times we’ve met her). He is planning an April or May wedding, just before he plans to go into the Air Force…or so his plans are as of the last we spoke.

Adam is doing ok; he crashed a motorcycle he was buying from a friend several months ago. He wasn’t hurt and is repairing the bike.

Tyler is off to summer camp this week. He and Caleb are growing up fast!

Tami just got back from cheerleading camp. She was selected for the all-stars and is co-captain of her squad. She is going into the 8th grade this year

Tina is doing her second year of volleyball. She is a sophomore and will get her regular license on her birthday in September. She has been driving a lot but has found that we are tied down because we have to be with her. Will be glad when she can do the driving around without us there. Freedom will be ours!

We still try to get out on the motorcycles every weekend, maybe more as kids grow up.

Have you heard from Dad and when he will return? Haven’t gotten any e-mails from family in quite awhile. We have an email address at home, wing-shadow@juno.com.

Marilyn has a new job! No longer a teller at Republic bank, she is an assistant to a portrait photographer. She loves it…learning the photography business and girl-Friday.

Hope all is well with you two.

Take care and talk to you later.

Darrell

August 7, 2000

Denise had to work yesterday, we had been invited to go for a sail with a couple who are planning to enter the Caribe 1500 mile race. I went out with them for an afternoon sail. We left about 1:45, sailed out into the Gulf of Mexico. Everything went well until about 4:15PM.
We saw a squall line to the south and heard over the radio repeated requests for all rental boats to return to port. We decided to hurry in ourselves, but we were too far out. We got to within 2 miles of land when we decided to lower the sails and motor straight in.
No sooner than the words were out of my mouth, the storm hit. We tried to turn up into the wind but it pushed us almost over! I winched in the jib, but as hard as the wind was blowing, it wrapped the jib so tight that I reached the end of the line 5 feet before the jib was furled! The captain and I then tried to lower the main, he wanted to keep part of it up, so, like riding a bucking bronco, we stood up on the deck trying to put a double reef in. What a challenge, with wind blowing at 50 miles an hour, the waves, which had been flat, now were 5 to 6 foot high, and rain!
We had quite a ride but made it in, Denise was waiting, worried, and relieved when we made it safe!

From Dan in Bar Harbor, Maine:

Let’s see…

Courtney has her first longer than a month boyfriend, a young lad from Portland Maine who was at College with her.  she has spent almost every weekend either visiting him or him visiting her.  He always brings her flowers…what a romantic.  She’s working at Pirate’s Cove M-F  9 to 5.  She returns to UMO in the fall, her major is now art history (French wasn’t as much fun)

Trevor just got himself a new off/on road motorcycle, a Kawasaki Super Sherpa 250 cc. He took a motorcycle course on Sat and will get his permit to ride the roads on Monday.   After turning 16 last week, he’s sent out for his regular license and hopes to take the road test before September.  He’s also working at Pirate’s Cove, the motorcycle will be his mode of transportation until the weather gets colder.  He’s playing soccer again this fall and is a junior in High School (He got on the honor role last quarter, we were very pleased.)  He has no girl friends, just a bunch of friendly girls. He’s still not girl crazy yet.

Candy is working at Pirate’s Cove, taking care of the flowers and gardening.  She has done a great job and the seems to like the work.  This is the first summer she has put in time working, but she’ll be returning to
third grade (for her 27th year of teaching) at the end of August.  She also done some tutoring some this summer .

We went camping last week (didn’t go far, just to the campground across from Pirate’s Cove).  We celebrated our twentieth year of wedding bliss last week by going out to a movie and a pizza.  Then I had to go to work at Pirate’s Cove because my assistant manager went home sick.

I am on two weeks vacation from Bangor PD, going into my seventh year there.  Still riding the Harley on patrol and really enjoying patrol work..  used the Motorcycle to corral a run away steer from the Bangor State Fair last week…call me “Cowboy Dan”….  I work the PM shift, 3:34 to 1:45, usually getting home at 3:00 AM.   It will be nice to get more than 5-6 hours of sleep a night for a change.   Maybe Candy and I will get away, maybe take a trip on my touring bike to some place exotic, like New Hampshire.  Maybe a camping trip with the fifth wheel, I don’t know…kinda of flying by the seat of my pants.

Anyway, that’s all that news fit to print from this end of the world, (can’t tell you about Candy’s 30th class reunion last night, she’d kill me if you learned about her putting the lamp shade on her head.) The class voted her one of the “most changed” for her outgoing personality conversion.  I married a wild one I guess.

Love to you all,

Dan

August 6, 2000

From Donald:

Hi John,
   Here are some pictures we took today.  Tracey and Michaela visited and we
went hang-gliding and other places.
 

Ed Levin park on a nice summer day
 


Suited up for my flight
 

Michaela & Tracey building my glider for me
 

Set to launch
 


A nice short flight


Stephen and Michaela in downtown San Jose

August 5, 2000

We are not going to Montreal next week after all, we will be here and take a vacation another time.

August 4, 2000

News from California:

Hi all,
   It has been a while since I’ve written.  I’ll highlight a few of the things going on.
   First, we all had fun seeing Dad on his trip out to Seattle.  We spent
days climbing Mt. Rainier, until the melting snow on steep hillsides stopped
us.  It is one of the prettiest wilderness areas anywhere with excellent
hiking trails.  Seeing the lines of “real” mountain climbers heading to the
14,411′ peak was pretty neat too.  We stayed in a variety of places, from a
turn of the century Victorian b&b where we caught our supper in the trout
pond to a Norwegian themed bunkhouse.
   Stephanie has completed her summer school with an ‘A’.  Her teacher’s
comment was ‘outstanding student’ and she has now officially graduated.  She
has already been to orientation and will be starting college in Seattle next month.
   Stephen is staying with me for the summer.  He goes to Adventure Camp
while I work.  He and I have been working on a radio controlled truck
(electric motor).  It is a competition model which can go from 25 to 45 mph
depending on the motor installed.  It’s finished except for the painting and
he has had fun racing it around.  There is a possibility that he may stay
with me for the school year.
   I have been seeing a lady named Jeanne for about 4 months.  We have been
traveling and doing a lot of fun stuff from air hockey to theater.  She is
new to the area, coming from Virginia and South Carolina where she was a
professional historian, though she does PR for the .coms now.  She is a
widow with no kids.  We have a great time together.
   On June 19 I took over the engineering organization I worked in.  I now
have 8 engineers reporting to me.  The stress level is high, but so are the
rewards.  I’m enjoying that as well.
   My hang gliding has been coming along very well.  Two weeks ago I earned
my Hang 3 (Intermediate) rating.  This is the next-to-final skill rating and
allows me to fly at most sites around the country.  I have been flying
frequently, mostly at Dunlap.  This last weekend a fire broke out below us
and we had to be careful about the air tankers flying in to put it out.  The
west has a lot of serious fires right now.
   My most memorable flight happened a couple of months ago.  I launched at
2400′ (over the landing zone) quickly rose 300′ and flew along the ridge
looking for lift. At 900′ over the LZ as I was about to prepare for landing
I found a thermal which I found out later they call Godzilla.  It was a
strong thermal which I followed across the valley floor and up the mountain
side.  I kept circling around and around inside it and I began to feel like
I was in a cocoon.  It took me up 1200′ (my vario keeps track of these
numbers and I dump them into my computer when I land).  I left the thermal
when I got to close to the mountain (sometimes I feel like I’m playing
chicken with the cars driving on the mountain road) and tried to find the
thermal again.  No such luck, but I had a great ride.
   Tracey and Michaela will be visiting us tomorrow.  We all will be going
to Winchester Mystery House, the Tech Museum and see a little hanggliding.
Should be fun.
Later,
  Don Herrick

And from Sue:

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the Earth. 
And the Earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Devil said, “It doesn’t get any better than this.”
> >
And God said, “Let there be light”, and there was light. 
And God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit”,
and God saw that it was good.
And the Devil said “There goes the neighborhood.”
> >
And God said “Let us make Man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over cattle, and over all the Earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the Earth.”  And so God created Man in his own image; male and female did he create. 
And God looked upon Man and Woman and saw that they were lean and fit. 
And the Devil said, “I know how I can get back in this game.”
> >
And God populated the earth with broccoli and cauliflower and spinach, green and yellow vegetables of all kinds, so Man and Woman would live long and healthy lives.
And the Devil created McDonalds.  And McDonalds brought forth the 79 cent cheeseburger. 
And the Devil said to Man:  “You want fries with that?” 
And Man said: “Supersize them.”  And Man gained 5 pounds.
> >
And God created the healthful yogurt, that woman might keep her figure that man found so fair. 
And the Devil brought forth chocolate. 
And Woman gained 5 pounds.
> >
And God said, “Try my crispy fresh salad.” 
And the Devil brought forth Ben and Jerry’s. 
And Woman gained 10 pounds.
> >
And God said, “I have sent thee heart-healthy vegetables and olive oil with which to cook them.” 
And the Devil brought forth chicken-fried steak so big it needed its own platter. 
And Man gained 10 pounds and his bad cholesterol went through the roof.
> >
And God brought forth running shoes and Man resolved to lose those extra pounds. 
And the Devil brought forth cable TV with remote control so Man would not have to toil to change the channels between ESPN and ESPN2.
And Man gained another 20 pounds.
> >
And God said, “You’re running up the score, Devil.”
> >
And God brought forth the potato, a vegetable naturally low in fat and brimming with nutrition. 
And the Devil peeled off the healthful skin and sliced the starchy center into chips and deep-fat fried them. And the Devil created sour cream dip. 
And Man clutched his remote control and ate the potato chips swaddled in cholesterol.
And the Devil saw and said, “It is good.”
> >
And Man went into cardiac arrest.
> >
And God sighed and created quadruple bypass surgery.
And the Devil canceled Man’s health insurance.
> >
Then God showed Woman how to peel the skin off chicken and cook the nourishing whole grain brown rice. 
And the Devil created light beer so Man could poison his body with alcohol while feeling righteous because he had to drink twice as much of the now-insipid brew to get the same buzz.  And Man gained another ten pounds.
> >
And God created the life-giving tofu. 
And Woman ventured forth into the land of Godiva Chocolate and upon returning asked Man:  “Do I look fat?” 
And the Devil said, “Always tell the truth.”
And Man did.
> >
And Woman went out from the presence of man and dwelt in the land of the divorce lawyer, east of the marriage counselor.
> >
And Woman put aside the seeds of the earth and took unto herself comfort food. 
And God brought forth Weight-Watchers. 
It didn’t help.
> >
And God created exercise machines with easy payments. 
And Man brought forth his Visa at 21%.  And the exercise machine went to dwell in the closet of Nod, east of the polyester leisure suit.
> >
And in the fullness of time, Woman received the exercise machine from Man in the property settlement. 
It didn’t help her either.
> >
And the battle rages on.

August 1, 2000

News from Maine!

Hello everyone.  Here is a recent picture of Corbin.  He is growing everyday.  He has 8 teeth now and keeps us on our toes running all around.  We have found a house that we are planning to buy in Berwick, ME.  We have made an offer and have inspections set for this week.  Hopefully it will work out and we may be in a new home for Labor Day.  We also have been given a due date for our next baby, Feb. 14th Valentine’s Day.  Things are good so far.  We will keep you all informed.  Hope everything is well.  Take care   Jim, Michelle and Corbin

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