September 30, 2000
We had a nice visit with Mom and Dad L. today. Denise and her mom went to a violin “thing”, They had a good time while Dad and I played cribbage and cleaned off the pine pitch on his car.
Fall fell yesterday! The weather has turned fine! It still is a little humid but it is very much cooler!
We are anxious to take off on our trip!
September 27, 2000
The month has gone fast!.
Note from Darrell:
Just a quick note to let everyone know that Dad is at home and doing fine. John, Denise, Marilyn and I met him at the airport last Sunday night and got him under way with a rental car. He seemed in good spirits and happy to be headed home.
I called him today (Tuesday) around noon time. He was putting away some groceries and seemed happy to be back. He said that he went to coffee and talked with all his friends in the park. They welcomed him back, I know he was missed. He talked about having driven to Lakeland Monday, had already been to his regular doctor and is podiatrist. The doctor said he was healthy and everything looked fine. The cut on his hand was healing and he didn’t need antibiotics. All in all he was very lucky in the accident and he is settling in at home and back to his same routines. He was talking about going to a 50th anniversary party for some friends from Lakewood Retreat, and all the things he has lined up! He is going to be really busy.
He wants to start looking for a car next week, hope he gets something before the rental runs out
.
All for now, hope you guys get to call or drop him a note.
Love, Darrell & Marilyn
September 25, 2000
Sue sent on this message:
Hi Guys! In case you hadn’t received the info from any other source, Dad’s brother John died night before last. He was in his late 80s, I believe, and had been failing. Dad had stayed with him in Marblehead twice this summer. The service is on Wednesday at 2pm in Marblehead, so Al and I are planning to go to represent the family. Now that I have all of your addresses on my mailing list again, I’ll try to do better keeping in contact! Love to you all!
Susan
September 24, 2000
Sue is in the news:
Congratulations Sue!
We went up to Dad H’s today, but the key only worked in the knob, not the deadbolt so we could not get in. It does not look too bad, it was 95 degrees in the shade and I had to wear long sleeves because of my rash (from working cleaning up the beach last weekend) so I did not do much weeding in Dad’s gardens. Coming in to our home afterward seemed like walking into a refigerator, and we keep it at 80º. We stole one rose from Dad’s bushes. We stopped for about 15 minutes to get groceries; when we came out, the leaves on the rose were dried out and crumbly…just like leaving it in an oven at 300º! Fall will be here soon though.
September 22, 2000
Fun web sites:
| Useless info you don’t need to know 🙂 | http://come.to/phill |
| Positive body image and lifestyle issues | http://go.to/bodyimage |
| The Venga Boys, and girls | http://travel.to/vengaboys |
| Anime! | http://i.am/theartboy |
| Not the fastest or coolest car, but Cute 🙂 | http://drive.to/2cv |
| Big Brother in Portugal! | http://go.to/bigbrada |
| Lets hear it for OZZY! | http://come.to/ozzyosbourne |
| A satire on American workaholism. | http://come.to/vacationing |
| Ok, one more time then, Buffy | http://kiss.to/katiebtvs |
| A new band, Milo Firewater | http://messages.to/milo |
| Track and Trace your money? | http://welcome.to/waarismijngeld.nl |
September 21, 2000
The good news is that Dad H. is flying home next Sunday, the bad news is that I needed to answer 22 questions correctly on my TCP/IP exam but I only answered 21 correctly;… bye bye $100. I had studied very hard, memorized a number of tables, knew the subject so well I got well over passing grades on 17 sample tests….but, the actual test did not ask ANY of the things I had memorized and the sample tests were not a bit of help. Now I am going to go back to living.
September 19, 2000
The good news is that Dad H. is doing fine. The bad news is that his car is totaled! He was driving down a country road and, just over a rise, the road stopped. He hit a patch of gravel, then skidded sideways and the car flipped over onto it’s roof down over a 3 foot wall. Amy said that dad’s seatbelt saved his life. If he had not had it on he would have been thrown out the broken window and been crushed by the rolling car. As it was, he got a scratch on the back of his left hand. He was more upset that he got blood over all a gift he had purchased for Amy’s new baby than anything else. He finally got himself free of the seatbelt, walked a distance to the nearest house and they got him help. What a way to end a 20,000 mile trip!
September 17, 2000
Well, the storm has passed, we got a lot of wind and seas, as well as rain. At noon it let up and we spent 4 hours cleaning up the estuary. It looks great! We had driven to Longboat Key last night to see if everything was OK, then back this morning.
September 16, 2000
Is everyone watching the Olympics? Was that an opening ceremony or what?!
Amy sent a correction; Darren’s work is on CrimsonSkies.org (not CrimsonSky.org–that’s somebody else).
We had a good morning out on Shell Key today. We saw a lot of birds coming down from the north and got a bunch of shells to boot.
Our cruise out on the “Starlite Majesty” was cancelled. We have a hurricane coming! GORDON is churning up the coast toward us! Hopefully it will pass well to the west of us. We are under an evacuation order (the shelters are open) at this time, but we will stay. We are supposed to get 12 inches of rain, but we can get 120 inches of rain and it would not have any effect, we live on the ocean…….the same ocean where a guy jumped in a short while ago and got eaten by a shark! Where he jumped in is in sight of here!
I got some new information from a relative and have updated the Loiselle geneology page: http://www.chitester.com/00/l0000.htm
We will still go out canoeing down the Alafia tomorrow if they will let us.
September 14, 2000
Time is flying fast! I am studying very hard for my TCP/IP exam which is taking 99% of my time!
Note from Amy:
Hi all!
Just wanted to jump in and say how much I enjoy seeing all the news about the family!
Darren and baby and I are doing well. (baby is hiccupping his/her hello as I type!) My doctor this week took me off bedrest (although I still can’t run any marathons or anything) so that is a bit of a relief. He thinks that I should be able to make it to full term now…full term is only 4 weeks away! Darren has been very busy, he painted the baby’s room, pressure cleaned the deck, and has been generally taking care of the house (shopping, cleaning,etc) for the past month. We have our baby classes the next 2 weekends. So much to do to get ready!
Hope all is well with everyone!
Love,
Amy
September 8, 2000
Note from David’s son Jim:
Hello everyone. We have had quite a month. We got a new house, both got raises, and I got a promotion to Engineering Technician. We are really enjoying our new back yard, and the room that we now have in the house. Corbin is doing fabulous, and Michelle is fine. We are changing our e-mail address, and trying out a new company. Our new e-mail address [e-mail address, street address, and phone number are on the Family Data page].
Jim
September 6, 2000
Note from Donald in California:
Hi Everybody,
Even though the weather is a little strange here (rain in CA in August?) everything is going well.
Stephen will be staying with me here in CA this school year while Stephanie starts college and Kathryn is busy doing house remodeling. He is already in his second week of school and is doing well.
Last weekend I flew at Ft. Funston, a beach site in San Francisco. The launch was a 400′ cliff over the ocean and the constant wind provided good lift. I was fun except there were some problems with fog so I couldn’t fly as much as I wanted.
Over the Labor Day weekend Stephen and I went hang-gliding down to Dunlap. We actually both flew, although not together. They have rigged a tethered hang glider to a long wire so beginners can be towed by a winch and practice flying. Stephen had fun and wants to do it again. I had one of my best weekends ever, soaring to almost 6000′ on my best flight. Here are some pictures:
“Hang gliding: The Next Generation”
1) Stephen is being instructed by a legend in the business, Pat Denevan.
Pat has been flying for 30 years and runs the biggest/best hang gliding shop
and operation on the West Coast.
2) Stephen takes off.
3) Stephen in my harness on my rig.
4) Here I am on my way to 6000′
Later,
Don
September 3, 2000
Note from Nathan:
Hey mom and John! Finally got my orders! We are going to San Diego and I will be stationed on the USS Valley Forge! Here is some general info on my ship:
Ship Commissioned 18 January 1986
Homeport: San Diego, California
Inport San Diego – Quarterdeck: (619) 556-4550
Valley Forge Care Line: (619) 687-1966
Crew: 33 Officers, 27 Chief Petty Officers, 324 Enlisted
MISSION OF USS VALLEY FORGE:
USS VALLEY FORGE’s primary mission is to operate with aircraft carrier battle
groups in extreme threat environments well into the 21st century. The purpose
of the ship is to detect, classify and track hundreds of potential targets
simultaneously in the air, on the surface, and under the sea. It can destroy
targets using a variety of weapons: ship and helicopter launched torpedoes,
deck guns, surface-to-air and surface-to-surface missiles, rapid-fire
close-in weapons, and electronic jammers and decoys.
MAILING ADDRESS:
(Name)
USS VALLEY FORGE (CG 50)
FPO AP 96682-1170
E-MAIL ADDRESS:
(First initial, last name)@cg50.n2.net
I.e. John Doe – jdoe@cg50.n2.net
Length – 567 feet
Beam – 55 feet
Speed – 30 + knots
Draft (Keel) – 24 feet
Draft (Navigation) 32 feet
Displacement 9,600 tons
Accommodations:
33 Officers
27 Chief Petty Officers
324 Enlisted
Propulsion:
4 LM2500 Gas Turbine Engines, 80,000 Shaft Horsepower
2 Controllable Reversible Pitch Propellers
2 Rudders
Sensors:
1 AN/SPY-1A Radar (Four Arrays)
1 AN/SPS-49 Air Search Radar
1 AN/SPS-55 Surface Search Radar
1 AN/SPQ-9 Surface Surveillance and Tracking Radar
4 AN/SPG-62 Illuminators
1 AN/SLQ-32 (V) 3 Electronic Warfare Suite
Pretty cool huh?
Love,
Nate
I talked with Amy recently, they are fine, Darren is working on three web sites:
http://www.LooseCannonZone.com
and http://www.CrimsonSkies.org
We went to a neat restaurant last night. A man was playing a guitar on his lap – he calls himself “Laptop Randy”. We met a nice couple there and will be going back tonight for a jam session – Denise will have her violin and will be participating.
The couple turned us onto a web site: http://www.homespuntapes.com .
We went back to the restaurant tonight and met the harmonica player “Earl the Pearl – Blues Harpest”.
He was great —- http://pearlcustomharmonicas.homestead.com/home.html
We also listed our bedroom set on excite—
“Your Bedroom Set ad is now live! To see it, use the link below:
http://classifieds.excite.com/cgi-cls/ad.exe?P1+C55+R323572 “