AT SAIL

AT SEA

 

 

A little fire to keep you warm this winter

 

 

I painted this tree, it actually is in my yard. I don't know if I caught the reality of it, but I do think I captured its happy attitude. I truly enjoyed painting this, was surprised at how relaxing it is just to  daub around with a paint brush..

 

Picture Medusa, that was me, wires snaking from my head, my legs, arms, chest, face and a very efficient lady saying, "now just lay back and go to sleep".  I can hardly sleep in the best of times. "Don't roll around", she said. I roll over and over in my own bed so now I am compelled to be still. Can't do it. She so politely says, "you must sleep". I am as tense as a pilot who just woke up and wonders where his airplane is. Finally I sleep for about forty minutes. I awake in complete confusion, thinking I am in an electric chair paying at last for all my wicked acts. I set up with a start, she comes in and says "we must sleep at least four hours for the test to be successful. I never sleep four hours in a row. It looks like I am going to fail another test. This sets off another bunch of memories about tests failed and passed I am more awake than ever. I hope it is at least five AM as I am told I can quit the test at five. I ask over the intercom "what time is it?' she says so sweetly, it is one AM, Lord have mercy on me for I have sinned. I sat up again on the side of the bed. She comes in talks me in to trying to go to sleep again. I lay back down and feel every wrinkle in the sheet as a range of mountains, gouging my back, so I turn on my side and pull a couple of wires loose. She comes in and patiently re tapes the wire. I could go on and on but this little tale would become as long as last night. Five AM came after an eternity, she let me go with the sad news that I hadn't slept long enough to draw any conclusions other than I don't sleep well, I know that before I went in. Can't finish I am dozing off.

I had a dark and dreary library filled with many dark book cases and enough books that it took 52 boxes to put them in storage. I had an old dark carpet and a very dark table covered with junk. I tore out the carpet got rid of most of the junk threw out the book cases. Put in a wooden floor, painted the room white, put my favorite pictues on the wall, along with the airplane I fly with a radio. Carol got me the cute lamp with the red shade and the clock on the wall which is also red and I now have a light and airy computer room. The books I will be selling on line a box at a time. I share the pictures with you because I told Lesley I would show her what the room looks like that I have spent the past three weeks working so hard on. It was fun doing but I sure made this 62 year old bones ache.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is my son Aaron with the little witch that has put that spell on me, I think she has her Father completely under control. He is the best dad, feeds her, changes her, and watches over her like a hawk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maddie, Julie and Rhonda, the Mother of the little witch.

She is a wonderful Mother, Maddie is one lucky little girl, and I am one lucky Father, Grandfather and Father in law.

I had a visit yesterday, a sinister witch came to my home and cast a spell on me, can you see the power in her eyes. Here is a picture I took of her just before she flew through the door. I think I must do what ever she tells me to do.

 

 

 

Maddie

Yesterday was a big family get together at my son John's home, I took a lot of pictures and just wanted to share. Lots of food was consumed, stories told, and much laughter. I am truly blessed.

 

 

This is great niece Emma

 

 

 

Great niece Hanna

 

 

 

And my sweet grand daughter Maddie

 

Makes me so happy to see all of them together that I get a little teary eyed.

Aren't children wonderfu.

   

This is my son Jeremy, he has lived in Macau China for the last few years and just recently moved back to the USA, he settled in New Mexico but just a couple of months ago, he moved back to Oklahoma, how glad we are to have him home. He is a nice man and the only thing he inherited from me was his pre mature white hair. He is thinking about something in this pic, or reading, he does a lot of both. As a child he had the softest laugh, and is still very soft spoken. He is a computer geek and earns his living that way. Its because of him that I can play fun trivia. He got me started playing with the computer.

 

 

 

This week end Carol and I celebrated our forty second wedding anniversary. It is hard to believe we have been married so long. She is still a delight and a mystery to me. Still lovely and gracious. I wake up every morning and thank the heavens above for granting me such a wonderful woman.

My daughter, Julie went to the zoo last week with her friends and they set the camera on a post and posed for this shot. Don't they look like they are having a ball, oh to be young again. Julie is the one with the the purse over her shoulder. There are some smart young ladies here, all off to college in the fall.

 

 

 

 

What a wild Fourth of July, it was so stormy and so much lightning that the local officials cancelled the fireworks and sent everyone home. I have been around a long time and that has never happened in my memory. But the rain was so nice, oven an inch and it cooled the air down so much that it has been a delightful Sunday morning. Cloudy and cool with a nice breeze you couldn't ask for better. Now the neighbors shot off some fireworks in the rain and that made an interesting display, you could hardly tell the thunder from the fire works but we celebrated never the less, a great good day to all.

Those of you who read my blog know my daughter graduated high school two weeks ago. She was one of about 250 grads. She had many friends but like all teenagers she was especially connected to a smaller group of very close friends most of whom were either in drama or band, her two loves.  A month or so ago she was the costume person for the play beauty and the beast it was a position that required many hours and lots of patience, she enjoyed it immensely. The young man who played the beast was a giant of a boy, well over 200 pounds and strong as an ox. He was also the one who brought joy everyday to the school and the cast. Always smiling always cheerful. He was an accomplished drummer for the band and his Church's choir. Last Monday he was killed in a four wheeler mishap while working as a volunteer at a church camp. His classmates were and still are devastated. The funeral was yesterday. It was held at the high school performing arts theatre as so many people attended that there was no church large enough to contain all who wanted to pay their final respects. It was an unusual funeral as two cadences were played by his high school band drum line which he had been a proud member of, and a song was sang by the genesians, the drama group that he and my daughter belonged .Such a sad day and my heart aches for his parents who of course are crushed with grief. I am sorry to tell such a sad thing but it is laying heavy on my heart and I needed to talk about it.

This morning Carol and I took fluffy for his early morning walk before the heat of the day. I took the camera to shoot pics of wild flowers growing along the route we take, I will not identify due to abject ignorance and if anyone wants to tell me the names of the plants you see it will be appreciated.

 

 

The safari team, Fluffy wanting to go into the underbrush, too much poison ivy

 

 

At attention

 

 

Prior to the above edit

 

 

 

Very small flowers, johnson grass blades in back ground

 

 

This too is very small, see the bug setting on the leaf at 11.00 oclock?

 

 

A very large cousin to the dandelion, about the size of a tennis ball, and each little prong floats so perfectly, what a wonderful flight design.

 

 

A beautiful field of lovely flowers, the morning walk is delightful and the eye is sated.

Carol has worked hard to make our yard very pretty so I am sharing some of it with you.

 

 

Day lilies

 

 

The day lilies are in the middle of this plot

 

 

A closer look at the plot, used to be a light house in here that rotated a beacon at night, but it was stolen while we were on the cruise. It is probably on top of someones house or in a dorm room somewhere. First time I have ever had anything stolen here the 28 years I have lived here.

 

 

On the back patio, the bush is a Rose of Sharon and is beautiful when in bloom, Carol put every plant in the pot, she loves the sweet potato vines.

 

 

This old pot is very large about a yard across, my grandmother used it to make lye soap, by dad used it to water his horses, when he passed away last year I brought it home to put flower

 

 

She told me what these are, but I have already forgotten, oh to have a young brain again.

I enjoyed putting this little tour together and I hope you enjoyed looking at the flowers.

 

A picture of my gardener taken on the cruise, she is as lovely as the flowers.

The birds are singing, the air is cool with a light breeze, the sun is shinning with large puffy white clouds floating lazily by. You could not ask for a more perfect morning. I am thinking about pancakes with blue berries and just may make some. The wife, son and daughter along with the cat and the dog are all still asleep, and quiet rules over the land, other than a mocking bird who is giving it all he has. Sometimes its just nice to sit and listen. Hope all of  you are having a beautiful morning as well.

Its been a while since I've written

But I am still smitten

But the humans on this blog

Sometimes when I fail to write

Its only because I have lost

A tooth on my cog

My gears slip a bit

And there is a whir in my brain

I am simply looking for the sane

Because I am one of those

Who can't came in from the rain

Dripping wet I will be

Because in reality

It is what makes me me

I read all that is here

From the vague to the clear

And I love each word

 

I have started my new contract and I only work one half as much as I used to, so I am having a four day weekend, in addition to the holiday I have tomorrow off. Here I am reading blogs and there sits Fluffy the old faithful dog, hating the fact that I am on the key board and not walking him or taking him for a ride. He pleads with big brown eyes and the softest of looks, please Garry please. What can I do, I am such a push over. The cat is glaring at both of us, basically saying get out. She wishes the dog would go on a one way ride, you can just see it in her eyes. But if the dog is good and sleepy she lays next to him, free body heat. OK OK fluffy, lets go.

the whistle is blowing

the bell is ringing

the clock moves on

i must go to work

i would rather shirk

but there are bills to pay

the cows need hay

and sun shines in my eyes

another day

farewell sweet blog

see you this evening

Moonlight soft upon her face

Lent to her a touch of grace

And set my heart apace

Natures own splendid lace

 

Sweet narcotic of delight

That rules the breezy night

And gives sensuous light

To loves graceful flight

 

A cool warmth

If such thing there be

Was in the midst

Of the white foamed sea

 

And upon this cheerful bark

I flew like playful lark

From pale lit hillock

To sea salted vale

Gathering memories

For to tell a tale

I have looked and looked at the 200 plus pictures I took on the cruise and I have decided to post the ones that still make my heart race. The most lovely thing about the whole cruise is my lady Carol who has spent over forty years with me.

I spent 4 years at sea with the united states navy back in the late 60s and early 70s and have not been back since so this view too brought back lots of memories and made me feel like I was floating on air. I absolutely love the sea.

 

Now for the ship, it was huge so we hardly felt the motion of the sea, and I missed the roll and pitch you experience on a smaller ship, but that may have made the wife sea sick so it was probably best that the trip was smooth and calm. The ships name was Conquest and it had 14 decks, 3 pools, more bars than you could drink at in 7 days. It carried 3200 passengers and 1200 crew, the only way to describe it is a city on the sea.

 

 

We visited Jamaca and Grand Cayman, the Mexican port was cancelled due to the Swine flu. The islands were beatiful as were the beaches. Walking in the warm sand and wading in the warm crystal clear water was delightful. This picture is on the beach in Grand Cayman, all of this just makes me want to go back and do it again.

 

The ship had everything you wanted, great food, entertainment, clubs, dancing, dining, outdoor movies, slides, spas, there is no end to the opulance and decadance.  I am afraid this is starting to sound like an advert, but I don't know how else to write it. The next picture is of the lido deck early in the morning before it was full of folks, Carol loved the slide, the movie screen was showing pictures from the islands.

 

I am going to post all the pictures on a picture site and publish the link in my next blog, but I wanted to go ahead and share this with all of you. I had one of the best adventures of my life and if you get a chance to cruise and havn't done so, my advice is do it.

 

There are more pictures at www.ggarry.keepandshare.com just click on the word  albums and then click on the car.

Hello to all my friends, I just pulled into the drive way, have been gone 8 days on a cruise, went to Jamaca and the Cayman islands with 3000 folks on a huge cruise ship, had the time of my life with sweet Carol. We had such a good time, I have taken pictures and will write about it when I get over the 12 hour drive coming home from Galvaston Texas. When we left Galvaston it was in the 80s when we pulled in just an hour ago it is 58 degrees burrr, send me back to the tropics. Missed you all and have a lot of blog reading to do. Your old ship mate Garry

I'm bursting with smiles

There's a grin on my face

A lady with wiles

Has given me grace

And piles and piles

Of mental lace

 

And all of this looking

And all of this seeing

Is done with reading

The written word

Of a lovely twittering bird

 

Her fingers dance across the keys

And cause great weakness in my knees

This charming woman knows how to please

The ways she can touch the way she can tease

 

Read the wonderful email

Raise the tautened mainsail

All aboard, man the rail

 

Out across the bounding sea

No one happier than smiling me

 

Mystery

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a wonderful recital, so many cute girls from 3 to 18 about 200 of them and exactly 5 boys. As I watched all the girls dance I noticed in their faces that they were the little princesses they were portraying. They danced with such grace, such intensity and such believability that you realize they are dancing from their heart from their inner being. They try any step the teacher had asked them to do, there is no self embarrassment, they just go after it.  They may not be able to kick over their head or hold their leg perfectly straight but they attempt it and give their best. The jumps when they run across the stage were every type, some perfect some not and it just doesn't matter the jump was made. I think their courage is the most impressive part of the show. I know that boys and men enjoy dancing but why so few boys in the show, believe it or not I think it is a lack of courage on the boys part, they aren't going to publicly  try something they are not good at. Those boys that danced are the exception, they bravely gave their best and the audience loved them, last year there weren't any boys so these guys were a hit.

 

I enjoyed watching the very young ones the 3 and 4 year old girls. They did their own thing a couple of them simply walked to the edge of the stage and waved to their parents or  stared at all the people in the audience then they jumped or spun or whatever struck their fancy. Hair done, fancy clothes, sparkles in their hair, they were having the time of their little life and they loved the applause.

 

Julie cried a lot of tears after the last dance but they were happy tears, her boyfriend brought her flowers along with some from an aunt and cousin plus the ones her mom and I gave her so she has bundles of flowers and bundles of memories, she was in my mind the prettiest girl there and the best dancer, but she is my princess and my dancer so my judgement in this matter is a little cloudy.

 

My sister Cynthia Chancellor wrote this poem about Julie when she watched the dance recital.

 

The same day she entered the world, she entered my heart.
I watched her grow from a wriggling bundle of squealing flesh
To a giggling little girl who loved her grandma’s high heels.
She dressed in frilly dresses with ribbons and lace
And laughed and played, dancing all over the place.
She is now an elegant young woman and still she dances.
Graceful and poised gliding across the floor
With a warm smile and bright shining eyes
I am stunned by her beauty and grace.
She still holds that part of my heart

She claimed the day I first saw her face.

Tonight is the big night. Julie is having her last dance recital. She started taking dance when she was 3 years of age a short 14 years ago, and here she is a senior doing her last performance. Tonight is special for the seniors because each one not only dances with their group, but they do a solo bit that they choreographed themselves. I watched the dress rehearsal last night and Julie was truly a princess. All the girls were lovely and all did a wonderful job. As is customary the dance director will give each one of her seniors a bouquet and tell them how much she will miss them and there are tears enough to float my boat. Julie is already teary eyed as she knows a phase of her life is ending. Her mother and I have gotten her a dozen pink roses that we will give to her this evening before the big show starts, I may even get a little teary eyed myself. Here is a picture I took of her last night at the dress rehearsal, I was a long way from the stage so I had to blow it up and it lost some detail but you can see how beautiful she is.

Old dad is very proud of his grown up girl.

Oh that we

Would

Not

Be fearful

For the

Children

Of our

Life

But just

Say

I

Love

You

Try not

So hard

To

Make them,

Try harder

To let

Them

Find

Their own

Way

Kiss the

Scraped

Knee but

Always

Give the

Skates

Back

As you all know who have been reading my ramblings, I have a beautiful daughter, 17 years old named Julie who is a senior and is very busy with the graduation and dance and all the other stuff that seniors deal with the last quarter of their senior year. I also have a son named John who is the crew member on my boat and helps me put it together and does all the hard work on rigging the mast etc. As a matter of fact without him I would not be able to sail the dang thing. He has a twin brother named Aaron who lives in Pa. and is the father to my sweet one year old grand daughter named Madylin and married to a very sweet girl, Rhonda. I have two other sons, Carol and I were a little slow to catch on here. One is named Garrson and he and Kristi have two children, Kennedy who is a lovely 14 year old gymnast and she is the sweetest thing and her brother and my only grandson, Bristol a charming and very smart young man who to is sweet beyond description. His dad my oldest son is 40 which makes me feel quite old. Well there is one more son, his name is Jeremy and he has lived in China for the last five years, but about five months ago he transferred to Albuquerque, he called this morning about 7AM from the emergency room at a hospital and was one very sick man. He had something like strep throat and had become dehydrated. They put him on an IV and started him on medicine and a steroid and he is home now and doing much better, but it has been a tense day. I told him I could be there in eight hours if he needed me to come and make sure he is taking care of himself. He said he was doing much better and would make sure he got more rest and would remember to drink more water. I too have a problem with drinking water, never seem to be thirsty but I have a wife who sees to it that I take care of myself. His fiance is in China right now and will be there a couple of months before she comes home.  I and his mother chided him a little for not taking care of his health. He will be here next month for Julie's graduation. Now for the conclusion of this blog. It doesn't seem to mater how old your children are, my twins are 32 and Jeremy is 34, but when one of them is sick its like when they were young and at home, it makes you sick with worry. They grow up and become successful middle aged adults but to the parents they are still the children of  your heart and you worry yourself to pieces over them. But oh, I love them all so much. Thanks for letting me get this off my chest. Garry

                               

Well at last, there's my boat, I am on it with my son John and his friend Thomas and the three of us are on the boats maiden voyage, it was fun and a little scary, we almost turned it over a couple of time and the water is very cold, but we kept it up and made it back to the pier, and I am overjoyed. It was as much fun as I had hoped and we spent the afternoon in this small city lake.

 

 

Here I am the captain of my boat, with that distant stare of the sailor in my eye and anxious for liberty call. Carol brought us lunch so we had a picnic at the lake and when I feel more competent I will be taking the first mate out with me. She said she is ready when I feel I can go out and not turn the darn thing over.

 

 

 

I must write a poem about the event but I will have to think a little, thanks for all the loyal support from my blog mates, and a happy easter and passover to you all.

Here is the poem I wrote about this adventure, I call it

Sailing

Bolt this, lash that

Tighten, loosen

Raise, lower

Rock right, rock left

Hold on, hold your breath

Nervous a little, a lot

Waters very cold

Freeze

The bold, the careless

The sail tightens

Heart races

Up and up

We

The boat and me

Climb, the crew shifts

We come level

Fast and faster

In or out

Of control

The pier

We miss it

Try again

At last

Solid ground

Back aboard

Try some more

I love it

Thrills and

Chills

 

By pattycake65, Apr 12 09 8:57 PM

 

We are in the middle of a fire storm here in central Oklahoma, over a hundred homes lost already. The fires are mostly west of shawnee were I live but the wind is going to change and move the fire towards us. I must say that it makes one quite nervous. I don't think I will be able to sleep because I have to keep my eye on the movement of the fire. What a strange evening. I have lived here all my life and I don't ever remember a fire of this magnatude. The wind is gusting over 40 mph and the fire departments just can't get the fires under control. Rain is the only thing that can help us and it doesn't look like we are going to get any. The oddest thing is I am worried about my dang boat, I would hate for it to burn before I ever get it in the water. I guess I could hook it to my car if I have to flee the neighbor hood. Think about us we need some good thoughts headed this way.

I have the boat at home, John and I have set it up more than once. It looks odd to have the sail up on a 21 foot mast and the boat parked in my yard and John and I aboard playing like we are on the lake. But that is all we can do as, believe it or not, it is too windy to go to the lake. Saturday the wind gusts were in excess of 30 knots, the same on Sunday. Sail boats turn over with that much wind and the water is far too cold for a swim.

 

When we do get to get in the water we will have practiced enough to be pretty competent at least in the raising of the mast and sail. I don't know how competent we will be in going in any particular direction, but we are more than ready to give it a try.

 

.