I will spare you the pictures

but another thing that happens this time of year is that I get a case of poison ivy. It usually happens when weed eating the lawn, somewhere there is a small growth of the blasted stuff. Even though I wear long pants, work boots, long socks, wash with yellow soap, somehow, there is always some that make it through the defenses. Got it all over both legs.

Just a right of spring.

History

For my Dad and brother. I was traveling in northern NJ recently and decided to visit some old stomping grounds. Yes, I stopped at 23 Corona Road in East Brunswick. The hills were not as big as my memory indicated, but the house was little different. The neighborhood was as I remembered. The road entering the subdivision on the south was now not allowing left turns as it is a very busy road.

The new owners had sided the house, but were not home when I knocked on their door. The school R and I attended had added multiple classrooms, so much of the playground was now classroom.



The picture reminds me of one with Pop and Grandma in front of the house with checker board windows. If I recall correctly, the boy bedroom was the upper right window, the one I threw a toy sword through. (Great story to be told when little kids are not around so there are no bad ideas placed in their heads).

We moved from this house in 1964 to Jeannette so Mom could have my sister C, living with Aunt P for 3 or so months and then on to Toledo where Dad had been transferred.

[Begin Music] Memories, like the corners of my mind...for the way we were...[/Music]

Speaking of Transition

Beginning this weekend, we start to become a family again. C is home for an extended weekend at home. C then goes back for a couple of weekends, then home for Memorial day and then finals for her. Home for the summer by June 6th.

By attending NCSSM, C needs to have 60 hours of volunteer work for some non-profit agency over the summer. No problem you say, but C has a summer full time job at a camp for challenged kids and adults that lasts 8 weeks, and is doing her GS Gold award project his summer. This summer is going to be busy for C and for K.

A has finals next week, so will be home the following weekend for the summer. There will be a huge transition for her from the hectic life of a college sophomore to that of daughter of D and K.

This should be quite a transition for all 4 of us. We miss them when they are attending school.

In Transition

I must be in a generational transition zone. I use email, a lot. I use AIM, some. I have a MySpace page, but my kids think that I am weird for having it. I do eBay (think Weird Al Yankovic) and Craigslist. And of course there is this blog.

This blog is really a way to keep distant family and friends up to date on what is happening in our lives. Some of my posts are ridiculed by my family, some not seeing the point of blogging. It is a public diary, sharing happenings.

I am trying to figure if I need a MySpace page and how to integrate it into my routine if necessary. We shall see

Also this weekend

After taking pictures of C for her prom, K and I went to Smithfield to see B and K. B was asking for help on how to install some trim on windows in his dining room. The old sills had rotted from condensation from single pane windows that were installed in the house originally, but are now long gone, replaced by vinyl.

Since the window trim is now unpainted, there was nothing great to see. I promised B that I would not post pictures of the work until after the painting had been done. It took us all day to replace 3 sills, put a finish edge on a floor and fix an electrical outlet.

B is generally a good student when it comes to doing work around the house. It was tough for me to let B do the work as I am a hands on kind of guy and like the doing, but like everyone else, B learns best when he does the work and I supervise.

B and K are doing well.

It was Junior Prom Time

For C this past weekend. Being reasonable parents, we took many pictures of C. All of the pictures were taken at the Duke Gardens on the campus of Duke University. There were sooooooo many people there taking pictures for various proms that it was difficult to keep other people from showing up in the pictures.

C was a good sport because I took 17 pictures of her in various locations and backgrounds.













C went with a group of 10 students from her school. They went to dinner at Carrabba's, then off to the prom. They had to be back on campus at 1:30AM unless they had parental permission to stay in a hotel. There was a 2AM breakfast catered in by a local restaurant for all the students. As is typical for proms, C made a full night of it by viewing movies, etc until 5 AM.

All in all, C said it was fun and I am glad she went.

Another one gone

I just learned of the passing of my Aunt N from Minnesota in February. She was 84. While my family and hers were never super close because of them being in MN, she and Uncle D were fun people to be around, as were my cousins. Uncle D passed away a only a year or two ago, and Aunt N suffered from the ravages of Alzheimer's.

God speed Aunt N and my condolences to T, T and D.

Randomness

Sorry for the volume of posts in a single day, but when they come, they come.

K and I are now the parent of a 20YO college student. When did I get so old. I just celebrated the 22nd anniversary of my 29th birthday a few weeks ago, so I cannot be THAAAAAT old.

Pray for A

A is taking Organic II with a new professor. This professor has not taught at the college level before and is causing many of the Organic Chemistry students anguish. So much so that the average on a recent test was 34, with no one scoring higher than a 50.

A has put lots of work in for this class, appears to understand and can apply the materials presented in the text, no all night cramming sessions. Just solid study habits for 2 solid weeks before the exams, along with keeping up on the day to day work for this class.

The Professor gave an in class assignment for the students to work and not a single student had the correct answer (according to the Professors statement in class after reviewing the work).

A is currently managing a "C", but is getting frustrated at the Professor for giving tests worthy of graduate studies. Pray that she can focus for the next 3 weeks and finish the class with the "C".

Oh No, it has started.

The cycle has started. K and I mowed the grass tonight for the first time. Dueling riding lawnmowers to get the job done in a reasonable time. K started about 3 after weeding some of the flower beds, and I came out after dinner was prepared, post work. We worked until about 8PM, slightly after sundown.

Based on normal happenings, this cycle will be repeated every two weeks from now until November.

It was nice while it lasted.

Usually

I am a relatively high energy type of laid back guy. I guess that means (to me anyway) that I am frequently in motion but sometime lack specific direction. That said, I have been doing slightly less travel this year as the Agents that I direct are fewer in number and in a different geography, making organizing effective travel more challenging.

With all the travel that happened late last year and early this year, there is a mental fatigue that has set in, to the point of not really wanting to travel. Maybe I need to take a week off for vacation and not pick up my phone or email.

After coming back

from a trip to Northern Ohio, I got a cold, with sinus drainage and fever that was somewhat nasty. The symptoms did not really start until Friday PM and I spent most of Saturday and Easter Sunday with a fever, coughing and hacking.

Seems the yo-yo weather in NC and Ohio finally caught up with me. C had the cold the couple of weeks before me and is just now really getting better. Traveling with her during her spring break is probably where I got the bug.

New Places, New Faces

Last week, I traveled to Southeastern PA, Delaware and Southern NJ. It was new territory for me and as such it was very interesting. I will be going back in about a month to follow-up what was started on this trip.

We went to some interesting places. In Southern Delaware, we went to a microbrewery called Dogfish Head Brewery with their specialty beers, IPA's. They use several different pieces of my equipment and had some questions. While it is the same processes as in a place like Anheuser Busch or Miller, the scale is much smaller, the place is more artisan, and the people are more interesting. The whole environment at these type places is less of a chemical plant that just happens to make beer to that of a place that seems more free spirited, almost artisan like to the point of having 2 Boccie Ball courts out in front of their front door. They do tours on MWF at 3 PM if you are ever in the area with even some sampling of their products. This was a good, but fun sales call.

Earlier that day in more northern Delaware, we had gone into a manufacturer of the inert ingredients of pills (as one end use example). They take paper pulp, break it down further to the cellulose and use the cellulose as the inert ingredients. This company, prior to us going in, had a bad experience with my type of equipment in the past.

Upon arriving, the Process Engineer was informed by a co-worker of the challenges previously experienced. (Seems as if one of my competitors had been in there, sold them some equipment based on price, not no the application and the equipment was significantly undersized for the process.) This made for an awkward sales experience, but we were able to demonstrate knowledge of my product, coupled with experiences that we had in similar applications to garner a trial to prove the equipment acceptability to this customer. By the end of the sales call, there was significantly less skepticism about the ability for the equipment and an open, honest dialog had been established.

I was slightly west of York on Friday AM at a Paper Mill retrieving demo equipment. Interesting town (very small) but beautiful country side. I will need to take K with me next time to this area as she would enjoy it.

And so it was, all week.

This is truly amazing