Category: travel

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Happy Birthday Cassandra

My girlfriend, Cassandra, who used to live here but moved away to Oklahoma is having a big birthday today – she turns 30! Wow! That is a milestone.I wish she was still living here so we could go out and celebrate with a nice dinner and some fun! We still keep in touch with our blogs. Her’s is called The Twin Diaries – because last year she had twin girls and had to move closer to her family for help with all her kids. At least they promised to help but then after she got out there they didn’t do shit for her and now she is stuck out there.

My dad used to tell me that where you are are in life when you turn 30 is an indicator of how the rest of your life is going to turn out. Such as, if you are married and doing well financially, you will probably be stable and secure for most of the rest of your life. But if your life is a hot mess at 30, then you are probably never going to be happy and successful.

I don’t know why 30 is the magic number, but he pointed out a lot of good examples from friends and relatives who were doing well at 30 and still are, and the few black sheep that were having drama at 30 are still pretty much having drama in their daily lives.

for Cassandra, I think it could go either way. She has been working toward a more stable and secure life, but she has a lot of family issues and too much drama from all the baby daddies. I sure hope that things just keep getting better for her and her kids. Maybe she will find a way to move back out here – I would love that!

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Strange Skies This Week

This week has been all about the weather and the moon and some very strange skies. First of all, we had a huge earthquake just of the coast of Western Canada. It was so big that it triggered a very Tsunami that put all of Hawaii in danger. Since I have some very good friends who live in Hawaii, it worried me quite a bit. Thankfully, the tsunami was not as bad as they feared and there was no damage.

But right after that we started hearing about a major hurricane threat that was forming in the Atlantic. Although large storms are rare this time of year, it is officially hurricane season through November. The weather forecasters warned that not only was this storm very large and powerful, but that it was about to collide with a major cold front coming down from Canada and that the full moon with the highest high tides would make this storm a big threat for flooding all along the East Coast.

The hurricane did turn out to be a perfect storm. It did hit on the New Jersey and New York coastlines and we have terrible flooding throughout 20 states. Plus, the cold front has brought snow to some states and those people have blizzard conditions.

Here the storm has had little effect although we have had some rain and it has gotten colder. But the skies have been eerie. There are some beautifully strange phenomenons occurring, with the clouds and lights from a winter sun and the full moon. I wish I could have taken some photos of the halos I saw a couple of night ago, but the camera would not take a decent photo in the darkness and show the effects that I was seeing with my eyes. I think someone down in Alabama got some good photos of the daylight halos. If I can find a photo to download and share I will post it here. It is beautiful and eerie at the same time.

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On His Way Home – For Real This Time

The Army told my cousin in Afghanistan to pack his gear and report to the air field in 4 hours. Of course, he was already mostly packed – he thought he was leaving for home several days ago. Then they told him he can’t leave that quickly. Then they told him the day AFTER he was supposed to leave that he can leave. The Army works in mysterious ways.

So, he and 8 other men were put on an airplane and delivered to a staging area away from the war zone. This place has real restaurants with real food and ice cold beers. He and a couple of his friends spent the first night there eating and drinking beer for the first time in many months. He posted a photo on Facebook so we knew he was really out of there.

outta there

I’m so glad that they made it out of there safely and can’t wait for them to be back on American soil.

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Come Home Safely, Cuz

My cousin has been in Afghanistan for two years and he is finally about to come home. He has been posting on Facebook that he is counting down the days. I love Facebook for things like this – keeping in touch with loved ones – even when they are halfway across the world you can have instant communication with them.

He posted this morning:

“Packing some more stuff and shipping it out…six days and a wake-up.”

I’m so excited but also worried. I hope they remain vigilante and don’t let their guard down with thoughts of going home more important than paying attention to their surroundings.

Love you, Cuz – come home safely – 6 days and counting!

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Choosing a Charity

I want to donate something that will be helpful to the people of Japan who are suffering from the earthquake and tsunami a couple of days ago. I am so upset to learn of all the devastation. It is not practical to try to mail anything or ship things all the way over there. It costs too much to ship anything and it takes too long to get there. If you know of a good charity that would put a small cash donation to good use, please leave me a comment or send me an email with the information. I am willing to consider any charity except for the Red Cross.

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Fried Catfish

I never tasted fried catfish until we went on a trip to Tennessee and noticed that there were lots of restaurants that call themselves catfish houses. I though that if there are so many of them, they must be on to something good! So we stopped in at one and ordered catfish. It was delicious! I would love to be able to cook that myself at home. Although I don’t usually fry many foods, I think that catfish must be fried to get the best flavor.

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Happy Labor Day weekend

Well it looks like it’s going to be a great Labor Day weekend for us.  Every room is booked and in fact, I had more calls for reservations than I had rooms.  Luckily some of them took dates for next weekend and some went ahead and booked for Halloween weekend and even Thanksgiving.

I hope that each and every one of you has a safe and happy Labor Day.  Unfortunately it’s also the sign of Autumn beginning but that’s okay.  All things must change!!