Saturday, October 20, 2007
OUR CAMPING TRIP THIS EARLY FALL
Well, it hardly seems like it should be Fall yet. The weather has been so dry this year and so warm yet. It was only a week ago that the temperatures were close to 90 degrees and the last week has been in the 70-80's. I took our motor home over to Keystone State Park near our home in Pittsburgh, for ten days. It is a lovely park along the river and has a beautiful lake and campground. Needless to say this time of the year the park was very empty, closing at the end of October to regular camping. The ten days I was there included warm weather, Rita coming over for four days in between and several of our church friends coming over for picnic times and walks. Fall is late this year and it will be a few more weeks before the full colors are at their peak but the changes are visible and certainly exciting. I had a great time camping as I just finished a 3 month assignment at one of the hospitals and I am in between any new assignments that are available right now. I took the time to wander through the countryside traveling up to Indiana, PA, where Jimmy Stewart was born and a museum exists there for him. There are some great back roads and Amish settlements around that area and just pure country living. I spent time in the small towns of Smicksburg, Latrobe, Kittanning, Derry Township, Ligonier, Greensburg(Where Seaton University is located) and old Civil War towns like Old Hannastown. I especially enjoyed driving through the Laurel Mountains, south of Pittsburgh, where the scenery was so awesome, with the large horse ranches and small creeks and homes like you would find up in the California Sierra's of Grass Valley and such. The apples, pumpkins and like are everywhere and they are so integrated into the land that you find yourself in the middle of their existence everywhere you go. Festivals are just about in every neighborhood and village and it is amazing how everyone celebrates Halloween and Fall here with decorations on their homes like Christmas. Whatever your feelings about Halloween you have to enjoy the excitement and color. We are going to a Fall celebration this weekend at our Pastor's home, an event he has every year and we look forward to the fellowship outside. I have included of course many pictures of what we have been doing and our friends joining us at our campground area. I will insert some more Fall pictures in a few weeks when we get back from another trip during the height of the color. GOD BLESS everyone.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
LABOR DAY TRIP TO MERCER COUNTY
During Labor Day Rita and I took two families with us to Mercer County to visit some of the sites where I grew up. Our first family was Michelle Smith and her daughter Taylor and son Colton and Sherrie Jackson and her daughter Lauren and son Preston. Michelle's husband is a Major in Iraq and they are members of our church family. Sherrie and her children are also members of our church fellowship. We all left around 9am in the morning on Saturday and went to the Victorian town of Volant, near New Wilmington and the kids had fun playing in the creek and visiting the shops. After that outing we traveled to Sharon and had lunch at a great Chinese buffet we had been to before(worked out great with the kids). We spent another hour at Daffin's candies where the kids could spend their candy money. Later we went to Clark,PA where we last lived before moving to California. In Clark we visited the bed and breakfast that was replicated after Tara from the movie "Gone With the Wind" I had played in that home when I lived there and it is always fun to see how they have transformed the house. From Tara we drove to Pymatuning Lake and the Spillway area(just redone this last year). It is mentioned in "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" books because there are so many carp fish in the dam area and the ducks walk on their backs to get all the bread that folks throw to the fish. This was the highlight of the day for the kids and we finished off our time there and drove back to Pittsburgh getting home around 8pm or so. What a day, but we enjoyed it a lot and I know the families had fun. In fact we are talking about our next outing already for the Fall time. Below are some pictures from that trip.
FISHER REUNION/JULY 2007
Rita and I attended the Fisher reunion in late July in Hadley,Pennsylvania, at the same location for last year's reunion. It is good each year that we continue to attend and being with Mom's extended family and see Aunt Eva again. So many cousins and extended relatives that I am slowly getting reacquainted and acquainted with. Rita also enjoys meeting many that we have got to know together. Some of those are Cousins Ed and Rowena Slater(Aunt Hilda's son) and his sisters Alice, Grace, Mary and Joanne(who's first name I found out was Gladys, never mentioned). Aunt Eva of course and her daughters Peggy, Janet and sons, Gene and Jerry Free. There was much food for everyone as always and I did my fair share in putting it away for the trip home to Pittsburgh. I was told we are high on the list for organizing the next reunion after next year, haven't done that for awhile!! My brother Ron has told me that he hoped that he could come next year and perhaps bring some of his children to Pa since some like Patty have not been back to our area before. Anyway below is a picture of Aunt Eva who will be 93 this October. She is pictured with her latest grandchild, great great I believe, the oldest and the youngest at the reunion. A picture of Rita and some of the guests follows below. In all it was fun and a good feeling to be among those that Mom loved and remember her with her family here in PA.
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
WORK WORK WORK!
Things move along in our lives. I am working full time for 2-5 months at Passavant Hospital in the ER. Passavant is a mid-size medical facility in the Cranberry area of Pittsburgh, very nice neighborhood with a lot of retired and working professionals. The ER I am working in takes all trauma but the main flow is residential type of accidents and emergency work(Fx hips, pneumonias, arms and legs type injuries) I like the department because I just stay in the ER doing patients and all their imaging is digital(computerized filming). This is really fast imaging, shooting the images and then transferring them all to the computer for reading across the system. The crew here is very young so they take good care of the "old man" and I get a lot of respect(says Rodney Dangerfield). I will be here probably for some time and then as always I will get another assignment to another facility belonging to the UPMC (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center) group. We had a lot of fractures today and I am always so sympathetic to the geriatric group and the young kids. I had a patient the other day, a three year old that was asleep on the mothers chest, as she laid on the guerney and we did the whole study while the youngster slept on the mothers chest. The mom really appreciated my doing it that way(of course I covered her up with a lead apron). I drop Rita off at her office and then drive on to work(about 20 minutes further) and then reversed the procedure that evening. It works out good for us and we both are enjoying the work we have. I thought I would be done doing this kind of work but like many retired professionals you miss it after a while. I decided as long as they want me to work I will continue to work and as long as Rita is working. It is fun not having to make the management decisions anymore and just do patients. "That, that, that"s all folks" for now.
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