It is morning on our first vacation day of the year in NC. Tuesday we were out of the house about 10, stopped at the local coffee bar for breakfast, then hit the road shortly after 11. We took one short break after about 2-1/2 hours, then arrived at our first nights stop in Berkeley Springs, WV at about 3:00 pm. Berkeley Springs, also know as Bath, is the first Spa know to have been used by the European settlers to North America. It was surveyed by George Washington.

Of course we both had a soak in a hot springs bath, Donna also had a message. This was followed by dinner at the "Corner Land and Sea", a local place that has great Crab cakes. Then we went letterboxing. Yesterday morning We had breakfast at a nearby Coffee house "The Fairfax" which has a great private blend, then Donna repeated her Spa experience, while I checked out a few more letterboxes. The terrain around the boxes called for more endurance than I have so I ran to the Post Office then picked Her up. We were on our way here (Roanoke Rapids, NC) by 11:30 and arrived at 4:30. We wanted to eat at Ralph's, a local BBQ which was highly recommended by our son Loren, but found that it was closed this week for vacation. So it was Cracker Barrel for dinner, then back to the Hilton. We have a short drive to New Bern planned for today so we might get in some sightseeing and more boxing today. So far it has been a very good trip despite the small car.

Planting a Box

Ok! I think that I got a bit OCD over this one. I couldn't let go of the idea of planting a new letterbox on Topsail island. I had never put a box together before and just had to try everything. The results - A Plan to put a starter box out this year, and if all goes well to add several more in years to come, it is to be know as the "Topsail Treasures Series".

I have completed the first box - "The Gold Hole" named after a large scale treasure hunting project which took place on the island for several years, and then mysteriously, it suddenly ended leaving behind a gapping hole in the ground, a pile of rubble, and lots of questions. This box consists of:

1) A box with a snap on top which has been covered top and bottom with camouflage duct tape.

2) A hand carved rubber stamp of a treasure chest. It is mounted onto an acrylic block with a foam cushion inbetween.

3) A hand made log book created by folding 4x6 blank index cards in half and stitching them together. The cover is three pieces of artists mounting board with a glued on treasurer map.

It was a lot of fun.

Living with bureaucracy

I had wanted to do some letterboxing early this week, but after looking at my honey do list, I decided it would be prudent to do some other things first. I had just discovered that a Government issued permit which I use regularly had expired the first of this month. So I began trying to renew it. I found that I had to: make an appointment (done - next Monday AM), to download and complete the application, and then to take it along with a passport photo, certificate of training, and a photo ID to the appointment.

It turns out that the application requires a complete detailed listing of every place that I have lived since I was 18 years old. Now I am not a young man, we are being asked for the full address including Zip code of every place I had lived for the last 55 plus years. For those of you who are younger I will point out that Zip codes did not exist 50 years ago. As a result I spent most of the day reconstructing the useless details for over half a century of wanderings. I moved a lot during my 20 years in the Army. Fortunately I have been stuck in one place ever since then.

Yesterday was a chilly day so it might have been uncomfortable out letterboxing anyway. I took a short break in the early afternoon to check out the Garden. I found that something had been chewing on my lettuce and my rosemary. I was not surprised at the lettuce, but have never had a problem with rosemary prior to this. I usually put a low fence around the garden plot, but it is not very pretty so I had not put it back up this year. It's up now!!

Today it was chilly again, I spent most of the day on the computer trying to get more things back in order, doing some work on the church site, and preparing a list of letter boxes that I can get to quickly on cold days.

Tomorrow it will still be colder, but I plan to get out and work some boxes the to go get a haircut.

Wow - It's been a week

Vacation is looming in the near future. I found this shot I took in 2005 and just made it my wallpaper.

It's been a real different week full of ups and downs. A quick summary:

Good - Donna is home for the summer, she needed the R&R, especially to rest her knee.

Bad - The computer got so obstinate that I had to take it into the shop. I suffered withdraw being without it for four days.

Good - It was replaced by a newer, bigger, better, faster one.

Bad - I now have weeks of work to do trying to recover my computers applications and documents.

Good - The wife and kids paid for the new one - "HAPPY FATHERS DAY"!!

Bad - It's been too hot to go outside for more than a few minutes.

Good - I did some work on the Church website, Not all updates and calender reconstruction have been completed, but it is better.

Bad - I found more work to do on the Church site than I had expected.

Good - Donna took me to an Indian's Game Wednesday Night. It was one of the coolest days we have had for awhile.

Bad - The Indian's lost the game.

Good - I think all of the plans and preparation for the beach that can be done now has been completed.

Bad - More will come up in the next two weeks as we get down to the wire and start to pack up.

So what is a man to do?

Memorial Day Weekend

Wow! - It's been awhile since I have offered anything here. The wife is back to work half days. Last week I worked outside a bit getting started on the Gardening season. I bought some plants, turned some dirt and generally wore myself out. Then Wednesday P.M. and Thursday I worked at getting a Turkey Breast Smoked for the weekend. My entire family was here with the exception of one son who was ill and the spouses of my two married kids. Even my brother, who I seldom see came by. The Weekend was devoted mainly to yard work as the eldest son lead in planting a summer flower garden for his mother and helping me with my vegetable/herb plots.

Along the way various of us squeezed in a local Rib Burn off, an Indians Game, Putt-Putt Golf, A parade, back yard cookouts, and some letterboxing.

For me the highlight was Letterboxing with my Daughter and her sons. We located the eight boxes in the "Sound of Music Series" near here (see pic), but my daughter covered that very well so I will refer you to her blog.

Memorial day always leaves me in a bit of a funk, so it was nice to have the group here - But I will cover that in my other Blog.

March Hare Syndrome

I am now suffering from the March Hare syndrome. Do you remember that scene from Disney's Alice and Wonderland when the March Hare races through chanting - -

"I'm late, I'm late,
For a very important date
No time to say Hello, Good Bye,
I'm late, I'm late, I'm late".

That summarizes my existence the last several weeks. But I think the end is in sight. Hopefully we will be done with most of the surgery recovery related choirs very soon (See God's Janitor Blog).

I simply have not had time to get anything "extra" accomplished like, making a stamp, putting in my HAM rig, gardening, reading or abstract thinking.

The up side is that Donna, my wife, and I have been together most of the time for weeks with very little friction. Both of us normally get a bit over sensitive so that is quite an accomplishment.

Today, Mothers Day, the kids all checked in with her and we are planning to have a family gathering over the Memorial Day weekend. Normally the Eldest Son organizes a day for her in the spring during which he plants her flower garden. It serves as his Mother's Day Gift. For dinner she wanted to have a hamburger at a local sports bar after church. I didn't mind that at all.

Many years ago I had given Donna a neat Mothers pin, A silver pea pod holding two white pearls for her and I as parents, along with three blue and a pink one representing our 4 children. She received many complements on it and dearly loved it. Somewhere along life's journey it was misplaced and we hadn't been able to find a replacement. A few months ago I tracked down Ronna Lugosch, the designer/artist who had made the original, at her studio in Maine. I called and found her very gracious. Although the particular design we lost was no longer a regular offering Ronna was willing and able to create a replacement which I gave to Donna today. She was very pleased, I think I picked up a few points on that one. Thanks Ronna!

A busy week looms ahead Physical Therapy, Indians Game, Ham radio installation, Dayton HAMVENTION and Grandson's B-day party. Wish me luck.

Alligators

In the Army we had a saying to the effect of: When you are up to your buns in alligators, it's hard to remember that your initial objective was to drain the swamp.

That pretty well summarizes my activity for the last few weeks. While "boxing" is high on my list of things to do it has not been able to ace out nursing the wife back to normal after her total knee replacement (See My Gods Janitor blog). In that regard I have much running around to do for a week or two yet. Also I need to get a radio (HAM) in my car before the Dayton HAMVENTION in two weeks and to get some vegetable and herb plants into the ground real soon.

Stay tuned we well get it all done yet

Where we are going

I created this blog without much of an idea where I was going with it. I do maintain another one, God's Janitor, where I have been posting philosophical and religious thoughts and musings. My daughter got me interested in blogging while she was visiting last Christmas.

Recently she has been taking her two boys on an adventure know as letterboxing. It sounded like a ton of fun so I did some reading about it. I have a number of physical problems that limit my activity much more than I would like. This sounds like a possible way to get out and have some fun.

So now I need to find a couple of them to get a better feel for them, decide on a design and make a personal stamp, get a logbook, and probably place a few of my own.