August 28th Pond visitor from yesterday

Not really "just another bird on the pond"- this fellow was actually a bit majestic-  graceful and tall too. 

He hung out for about 3 hours...

August 28th New plates from Mayport trip

Saw these yesterday on the trip up to Mayport-  at the parking lot for the new air craft carrier in port-   

This is for Prevention of Violence

August 27th Day trip to Mayport Naval Station

Andy, Lew and I headed up to Mayport Naval Station today to take a look at the new ships that have just been assigned to homeport here:

USS Iwo Jima, an amphibious attack carrier, that carries lots of helicopters, Harrier Jump Jets and a thousand Marines:

Also the USS New York, made partially of steel from the 9/11 Twin Towers:

And the USS Fort McHenry: a new version of a Landing Vessel:

They are hoping that Mayport will become the base for a few additional ships in the future, including some more carriers...  Be good for the economy anyway.  

August 22nd Slow week here

Not much happening this week, I worked on catching up the National Park blog, re-arranging the office area for the 10th time, rehanging my pin collections, had by 68th birthday, helped a neighbor with his handicapped ramp, when shopping at Wal Mart, started my Lander on line classes, and tonight, in 45 minutes we are off to Bingo.  Such is the life of a Florida retiree.  

The weather has been the hottest of the year, with fell like temps of 105 or more, and actual temps of 99+  Ugh.  

Put the motor home up for sale on Craig's list.  Hope we don't get stalked.  Or killed.  

Buster drug the CD player off the desk, so have to get a new one, plus it seems the kitchen microwave is on its last leg.   

Brandon got the books for his last two classes- another 198.00.   

Next week, the guys are headed up to Naval Station Mayport to see our 2 new ships that just reported in there.  That ought to relieve the boredom some.  

Moving right along.  

August 14th Success in locating the St Augustine Sea Wall Marker!

Took a break to see if they had relocated the formerly missing St Augustine Sea Wall sign, and they had-  It's now about a quarter mile down the seawall from its former location, in a plaza right in the front yard of the Santa Maria Restaurant-  turned in the correction to the data base....

Spent most of the morning uploading one of my MEDA 101 classes on Blackboard, and got it all done...  Yay me!!

August 14th A few new plates from last trip

Saw these on our summer trip, just getting caught up on looking them up:

August 14th Back to Coquina

Let's see, Sunday we went on down to Wildwood and Alliance for coach repairs, got in Monday, no worries, reported the leaking sink, the leaking skylight, the chassis lube, and three other minor things.  They got right on it, said we needed a new faucet, and made the other repairs, but asked that we stay overnight to make sure the seal had properly cured.  That we did.

Made our way to Seffner, 70 miles down the road, and got situated at Lazy Days, with high expectations that they would work with us to sell the Diplomat and purchase a new View-  That didn't happen-  and we also discovered that the sink still leaked, worse than before- so we headed back up to Wildwood for the night, and the next day, to his credit, Will got us right in, and they worked for about 4 hours to make it right, without charge.  

We decided to come on home last night, arriving about 530-= All unloaded and fed by 630.  

Rest of the week, I'll be working on Lander classes to get them ready for release to students on 20 August- then, we'll pretty much be taking it easy.  

August 7 Miss you, bro

Just got the word from Brother Bill in Atlanta that my younger brother Dan died this morning around 1100 or so after a long illness.  Miss you, bro. He is, I know, in a better place- Sadly his body just gave out.   Rest in peace my brother....