The UMMP-PA Man

Derrick is now in the High School Orchestra playing the tuba!  and Esther and I had the opportunity to hear his first concert of this year! We joined Jana and Paul for a wonderful evening of music.
This was a professional event!  They performed at college level.  If you have trouble finding Derrick,  just look for the fuzzy haired kid!  His dream is to be in the Duck's marching band!  Derrick,  your on the way!  Great performance with a resounding Tuba beat!

Jamaica Landing

Lori has become a dental assistant and is now a regular on the dental trip to Jamaica!  And this year, Adam's new job folks in Portland wanted all their new employees to do community service! Guess what,  they agreed to give him time off to do dental work in Jamaica! . . .his first trip outside the USA!   They just completed their mission and these photos are the first signs of their work with the Jamaican people on the backside who never see a dentist!  You can imagine,  long lines of folks greet them daily which means long hours and hard work!  They work as organizers keeping the people flow to 5 dentists without delay along with assisting them as nurses.  I'm sure they will have lots of stories to share!  After the work,  they managed several relaxing days enjoying the Jamaican beaches! (click on photos to enlarge)

Fire on the Freeway

It was 7 years ago this week that a smoker started a fire across the freeway from our house.  The winds blew the embers across the highway into a grove of trees and brush that ignited and rapidly blew towards our house.  Before the many fire departments got it under control,  it had burned 11 houses  adjacent to the freeway!  The fire trucks were parked in front of our house!  Would you believe,  several weeks ago, a semi heated up coming down the mountain and ignited on the freeway across from our place!  It was loaded with wine and proceeded to spue black smoke and ashes all over our area!  Naturally,  this alarmed our neighborhood!  Meanwhile,  we were at the coast and realized when picking up our mail in the mailbox, that someone had a fire in our neighborhood. There were large remnants of ash scattered all around our property. In the news that evening,  we found out what had happened.  In the course of this huge fire,  and in fire season, there were multiple explosions which had all our neighbors on edge!  Thankfully,  the fire departments were much better prepared this time and quickly put out the small fires started from flying embers. The Bible says,  "The rain falls on the just and the unjust."  Thankfully,  this time no one was injured and very little property was lost! (click on photo to enlarge)

Jumpin at Jana's

Dan, Sheila, Jaime and Celeste, Esther and I met at Jana & Paul's place for a brief family gathering.  Even though Roly's and Lori's couldn't make it,  we wanted to catch up with Jaime and Celeste.  It started with outdoor grilling.  Paul hovered over salmon and brats while Jana gave us a wave of grilled veggies, zucchini, eggplant, onions, multi color peppers, broccoli,  tomatoes, mushrooms. . .it seemed to never stop! Topped off with ice cream and Cinnabuns!  The backyard pool did cool down a very hot day for this part of the world!
Besides the kids,  Brian and Allison from our Arizona connection joined the fun and family.  We appreciated all the efforts and the strength we receive when family gets together to join our hearts together. (click on photos to enlarge)

Water Woman

Lori would pitch a tent on the water and live there if she could!  In the meantime, she dreams of ways to get in or on the water.  She is also a certified diver and loves to swim with Dolphins when ever possible.  She and Adam will travel this fall with a local group of dentists to give their services to the locals of Jamaica.  No doubt she will spend all her off
time in the water!

In the meantime,  she decided to join the local sculling club.  They meet twice a week at our local lake and are now practicing on the water as you can see.  Last week they tested her abilities by practicing on a windy evening.  Two teams went out but one coach who travels in a separate motor boat,  lost his power and without Orr's, the strong winds pushed him and the other boat to the other side towards the rocks and trees. Lori's coach had to leave them on their inexperienced own to rescue the other boat.  As he left, he told Lori to switch places,  a maneuver no one knew how to do in a narrow boat without annny wiggle room!  Lori finally ended up in the driver's seat with no experience on how to get the scull turned around and back to the dock, which was half mile away! and dealing with strong winds!  This is a great case of the blind leading the blind!  Her experience in a fishing boat and a speed boat, helped her figure out how to get the 8 rowers to work together, turn the scull around and carefully get them back to the dock!  As you can imagine,  she is now the talk of the club and to hear the exciting story,  you'll have to ask her! (click on photo to enlarge)

Mushroom May

Niece Katie from Arizona, joined us over Mother's Day to reminisce and establish new memories!  Really, she knew it was morel mushroom hunting season!  I'm always apprehensive because anyone coming to our area for hunting, expect me to right spot where you have to watch your step lest you step on one!  As we drive up the mountain to about 4500 ft.  I'm wondering where do we start?????  As usual, it always starts slow and you begin to wonder if any have popped yet?  Our first stop went very slow until I spotted the first!
Then, Katie spotted several and we were off and running!  We toured 6 areas and at the end of a tiring day, we managed over 6 pounds of beautiful and many large morels!  And at our last stop, she doubled my output.  Of course,  I was 50 years older with old eyes. . .what do you expect from an old man???  She even took a nice box full,  worth about $90 in a store, back home by plane!  And,  wouldn't you know,  they stopped her at check in and opened her carry on - took everything out and eventually passed her with morels!  We waited just in case! The mushroom bug has bit her again and no doubt she'll be back for more!

The next day,  cousin Sharon and her son, Brent, drove to our place from California where they were visiting family along with a graduation.  Sharon is one of two first cousins, still living, on my side of the family.  We enjoyed lots of conversations, a live play,  "Shakespeare in Love" in our theater city! along with local dining treats!  They flew back to O'Hare on Friday and Dan's arrived for more hunting up in the woods!  Not sure how we managed,  but we again found  nice a nice bunch of morels,  eat more morels and continued the tradition!  We enjoy all the commotion but find our hospitality skills are fading!  Thank goodness, everyone understands!  (click on photo to enlarge)

PLAY of a LIFETIME

Practice, practice, practice is what you do to make the team and excel!  And when the unexpected happens, all that practice kicks in and you react. . .so quick your almost unaware of what you do.  Derrick loves baseball and has earned  his spot as first baseman.  The other team was at bat and had runners on first and second when the batter hit a line drive down the first base line sure to bring in several runs!  Derrick instinctively responded. . .snagged the line drive fly ball, tagged the runner on first who didn't have time to get back to first,  whipped the ball to the second baseman who tagged the runner off second too far off to get back and Derrick retired the inning in a split second with a TRIPLE PLAY!  WOW!

CONGRATULATIONS, Derrick     You make us all proud!     (click on photos to enlarge)