August 22, 2008
Went to the sweetest place on earth this week; Hershey, PA. If you've never been there, the picture below is an actual street lamp in downtown Hershey. The town smells like chocolate, very nice, and a beautiful location.
I went to Hershey to participate in a customer's annual exposition. There have been dramatic events which have occurred during the APR Supply show; Jackson was hospitalized with salmonella 5 years ago, Cooper was born 2 years ago; this year the Old Paratrooper was hospitalized with a gall bladder attack. He's scheduled for surgery this afternoon.
The people at APR (www.aprsuppply.com) are first class and I plan to be there every year they'll have me.
In the lower deck of the Hershey Lodge there were a few Porsches, 39 to be exact, all of which had the semi-automatic shifters and the attached sticker. PCNA=Porsche Club North America (I think); list prices started at $109K. And, there was a big pile of low profile mounted tires at the end of the lot.
Enjoy the $4,000,000.00 views

In town next week

August 15, 2008
What the heck is this?
For those readers who have been in the boat shed beside Pop's shop; OK, that's stall number one, you know, the one that doesn't have the roof caving in (too badly), this net frame was mounted on the ceiling. It was our grandfather's; Pop said it was at least 80+ years old and thinks it's made of cedar. I can assure you it's got about 50 years of dust on it, that might be what is holding it together.
The kayak paddle is 7'6"; the net frame is 9'2"
They used these in the Tar and Roanoke Rivers and tributaries to literally scoop up shad and herring; many, many years ago they were so plentiful this is all you needed. No angling skills, just a bunch of sore muscles.

I remember having this all of my life and never saw the net which goes inside the frame, so it's pretty old. I contacted the NC Maritime Museum to see if they want it.

Off to my high school reunion tonight and Saturday night; thank goodness for name badges and good wine(stolen line). No don't worry, I won't take any pictures of those old people.

Cooper's birthday week
August 3-10, 2008
We started the celebration week on Saturday in Sanford at the Pattersons. We had great hamburgers and hot dogs, ice cream and a fun birthday party. Cooper (and his Mommy) blew out the homemade birthday cake candles. Cooper entertained us with an impromptu concert at the piano, a video appears later in this blog.
Then Cooper and a very brave Nana set out for Morehead City. They arrived just as Cappy was shutting his eyes for a nice nap, something I learned I wouldn't be doing much during my vacation week; OK, I "remembered" to sneak one in when Cooper was napping. It's hard remembering these tricks after so many years, but those of you who know me also know I'm not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer. Nana bought a pool in which Cooper played

This shot is kinda dark, but shows how much Cooper is growing

A really nice shot of Cooper and Nana

On Thursday we went to the Orient, all right, Oriental. Here Nana tries to keep Cooper from stepping on everyone's toes.................while something glides by on our port side.

After all of this fun we went to Beaufort Friday afternoon for the Pyrate invasion. It wasn't very farrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhto go. Cooper met lots of pyrates, and had a lot of fun talking with a parrot. Sorry no shots, we forgot to bring a cameraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaghhhhhhhhh

OK, enough pyrate jokes, for now anyway.

As promised, here is a video of Cooper singing VeggieTales songs. He looks around as he finishes, and would point to anyone who didn't clap. Sorry I didn't catch that on film, but I was filming and he was pointing at me. I think an Elton John duck suit might be a good Halloween costume for him, wonder where we can find those goofy glasses?

And the last video shows Cooper playing in the pool. I turned the camera off just as he looked at me and said "cheese"

In town one more week and then I'm on the road quite a bit until Christmas