Happy November 1st, the sugar rush Teachers love

Posted on November 1, 2016 by Jerrie Cate

Yes, it’s November 1st already and I’m betting all the teachers will be glad when it’s over. I say that because Halloween was yesterday, on a school night, and there’s no doubt that most of the kids in their classes consumed way more sugar than normal last night. And, they probably brought some with them so they can taper off throughout the day. What fun, right?

Because of that I’m surprised our government hasn’t taken steps to move Halloween to the last Friday of October so the candy rush might wear off a little by Monday. After all, they changed a number of holidays to Monday so the work force could have more opportunities for three-day weekends, right? If I were president I’d make it a priority. Yes sir. I’d do that.

We didn’t have trick-or-treaters last night for two reasons: 1) We live on a dead-end street that doesn’t have street lights, and; 2) We ate all the candy so left the porch light off to ward off the adventurous tot’s. Does everyone realize that the word “tot” is actually an acronym for trick-or-treaters? It’s true. It’s a term for children that should only be used on Halloween.

You naysayers are no doubt thinking, “OK, why are there ‘tater tots’?” right? I’m with you on that. I think that’s a total misuse of the word and we should ignite a protest insisting that they be changed to ‘tater chunks’, ‘tater slugs’, ‘tater cubes’, or something equally more descriptive. Who’s with me on this?

It’s another lovely day here in River City and I may just have to mosey out to the burn pile and ruin it for anyone down wind by lighting up my burn pile. It won’t take long and it will give me an opportunity to take pictures of all those pretty flames. I’d wait until tomorrow, but Junior wants to go golfing and we don’t pass up those moments. Also, I need to work up an appetite for our late lunch because Diane is boiling eggs to put on our afternoon meal of Dungeness crab salad. My favorite thing in the entire world, right after Diane’s meatloaf and beef stew. Oh, and maybe homemade chicken and noodles. I guess it just depends on the day and what’s available. Food is good.

Now I must go to work.

The end result of an afternoon of burning is that about 1/5 of the pile is ashes and my right should is totally unusable.

But I’m still going golfing tomorrow. That should be fun.

As reported, Diane made me an epic crab louie this afternoon that had at least half a pound of fresh crab in it. Pretty tasty.

Now I’m done for the day, waiting to see if I’m going to have a bout of gout.

Red Light Cameras, Walnuts, Poodledoos, and OTI

Posted on October 29, 2016 by Jerrie Cate

A month or so ago, while Diane was driving around Beaverton, randomly, she had the misfortune of making a right turn on a yellow light that turned red before the turn was completed. This caused what I’m sure is a very expensive camera to snap a photo of both the front and rear of Diane’s pickup. The resultant photo, which we were able to view using a handy URL provided by the Beaverton Red Light Camera People (BRLCP), provided indisputable evidence that the light was indeed red before Diane’s truck completely entered the intersection. The URL also revealed that Diane was to make an appearance at the Beaverton Municipal Court on the 26th.

So, that’s what we did. We went to court. Well, Diane went to court. I just watched. The original fine was $260. Paying the fine is an admission of guilt and the ticket goes on her record. To avoid that she paid $200 to the court and agreed to take an online training course that costs $40 which she agreed to do. Doing this keeps the ticket off her record. So, we saved $20. What a deal.

Fortunately, we had other things to do in the greater Portland area so the pain of a trip to court was attenuated by the prospect of snagging a good deal on a bag of walnuts. We tried to get some before flying East last month, but they weren’t ready. They didn’t become ready until we’d been home from that trip for a couple of weeks when the grower called to say they were ready. We opted for 20 pounds of cracked walnuts. Cracked means that they weighed the nuts before cracking then shoved everything back into the bag. So, the task upon returning home, was for us to separate the shells from the edible parts. We did that yesterday, the three of us, sitting around a cloth laid on the rug in the living room. I made an epic mess while sitting Indian Style, knowing I might never regain my feet without a 911 assist. In the end, I was able to attain a vertical position on my own and managed to stand in place for only a couple of minutes before regaining the ability to move my feet in a manner that would result in forward motion without falling down. It was all good.

Once all the shells were removed from the 20 pounds we purchased (for $52) we were left with 10-12 pounds of useable walnuts. using basic math, at which I’m an expert, because I graduated from Scappoose High School, I determined that our $52 purchase resulted in walnuts that cost between $5.20 and $4.33 a pound. For comparison, Jewel reported that 4 pounds of walnuts from Costco cost $15 which works out to $3.75 per pound. On the surface it looks like Costco was the better deal but that price doesn’t take in to account the family time required to obtain the reported results. It also doesn’t take into account that between the three of us it’s possible that we consumed a pound of product which certainly skews the end results and dollar amounts which I’m not inclined to recompute because I just don’t want to do it. That, and I’ve reached my equasional limit for this weekend. The Costco purchase also doesn’t take freshness into account which our which our walnuts certainly were. They are really good which is the reason approximately one pound went missing during the processing effort. And, we know exactly where our walnuts were raised to maturity. In Oregon.

Last Thursday I took Ozzie to his hair dresser for his monthly poodledoo. He was in dire need because the appointment had been moved out twice. He was a mess, ready for the original appointment, so moving it out a couple of more days gave him ample opportunity to just make things worse. He’s good at doing that. Matter of fact, he has no problem at all of taking his brand new $37 haircut into the lower field where he follows the big dogs around and does his best to pee on them while they’re peeing but only manages to wade through peed on grass which kind of counteracts Kaykay’s efforts with the shampoo and clippers. Kaykay is his hairdresser. She’s the only one Oz will allow to wash him. He’s very picky, but I don’t know why when he really doesn’t care if he gets a haircut or not.

Later Thursday evening Diane and I took Lydia to Wilsonville where she was being courted by Oregon Technical Institute (OTI) for her continued education when she graduates from High School next June. Ahmed, the exchange student who has been assimilated into the Walters’ clan, also went along for the ride. While they were being wined and dined, Diane and I retired to a nearby Shari’s restaurant for a snack. Then we visited the Goodwill store that was also nearby. I only lasted half of that visit before finding a need to return to Diane’s truck where I read my iPad book until Diane returned.

OTI released their guests shortly after 7:30 pm and we drove them home in about an hour with no mishap. It was a good day.

Today Diane and Jewel did a lot of running around town buying stuff while I stayed home with strict instructions to not do anything dangerous. Actually, Diane asked me if I intended to do anything dangerous. The only answer to that was “Yes” because it was true at that moment in time. After they left, I had no idea what I was going to do. But, keeping the “dangerous” aspect in mind, I simply weeded the new little garden out back that was being overrun with unwanted grass. I also perched a very nice bird house on top of a tall 4×4 post. Doing so required my use of a power tool. Battery power, but power none the less. Thankfully, I did not sustain any visible injuries in the process so my secret is safe.

Getting Back In The Routine

Posted on October 20, 2016 by Jerrie Cate

Considering what’s been going on for the last month or so, my tendency here is to start over and title this post Day 1 – … But that won’t work because it really isn’t Day 1. It’s more like Day 26,797, if you want to get right down to it. And right now, I feel every one of them. That’s because the dogs are back to dictating when I get up, not me. So, I’m tired and not thinking clearly.

That’s OK. Dogs gotta do what dogs gotta do and the dogs gotta wake me up so they can properly relieve themselves then get fed.

Today I attended an American Legion e-board meeting at 1100. Someone dubbed it the e-board meeting but it’s really an Executive Board Meeting. Calling it an e-board meeting makes it sound like something you’d do on the internet. Nope. Not the case. This is a meeting of all American Legion Post 42 officers of which I, surprisingly, am one. I’m the Sgt. At Arms.

I ate a BLT during the meeting so wasn’t able to pay much attention to what was going on so can’t really share any details with you. I’m sure you won’t have any problem with that.

It wasn’t a great BLT. I only ordered it because Doug got one and it looked pretty good. I should have ordered biscuits and gravy like Bill had. That actually looked better. But Doug’s choice swayed my thinking process.

Yesterday Diane and I took Jennie & Daniel’s foreign exchange student, Ahmed, who is from Pakistan, to a meeting of other mid-eastern students, so they could watch the presidential debates last night. After viewing a portion of the first debate, Diane and I excused ourselves and went to the Home Town Buffet for some dead chicken and shrimp. We wondered what the kids take away from the debate would be since Donald and Hillary just sling insults at one another, but heard last nights affair wasn’t as bad.

At Home Town Buffet we enjoyed a nice quiet meal, then just sat there for an extra hour snacking until it was time to pick up Ahmed.

On the way home we talked with Ahmed about the evening and what he thought. I wish I would remember what he told us, but that just isn’t coming through. One aspect of his personal interaction with St. Helens students had a more powerful impact, telling us how uninformed our local youth are regarding Ahmed and his part of the world. He said they stereotyped him with the wrong group by asking if he actually rode a camel to school. He found this funny because the person who asked him was sincere. Then, they were surprised that he had his own smart phone, like people from “that part of the world” are aware enough to have, much less use one.

That’s not the general consensus, of course, but having someone ask such questions and make those observations kinda makes you wonder just how aware students, in general, are about the mid-East.

There’s really nothing else to say so I’m going to bed.

G’nite.

Day 28 – NAB Little Creek

Posted on October 17, 2016 by Jerrie Cate

It was a good night in our new home at the Navy Lodge – we each had our own bed room. Mine has two little beds and Diane’s has one big bed. I’m the one who chose my bedroom, by the way. I’m good with the little bed. Oddly, we both woke up early in our own bedrooms. I wonder if that means anything. But, Diane woke up with a stuffy nose this morning which makes me believe that I provide some sort of antibiotic aspect to Diane’s sleeping time. This is the first time she’s been congested on this trip so that has to be true.

Yeah. That’s the ticket! I’m good medicine for her.

She’s good medicine for me, too, but I don’t get congested when we sleep in different rooms. I’m immune to everything. I’m pretty sure that’s true because, much to Diane’s dismay, I eat stuff I’ve dropped on the floor. Any floor. Really. And I’m a beacon of health in all aspects. Except when I’m forced to limp.

This morning Diane made coffee in our little two cup coffee pot. They make those things, the two cup pot, in an effort to control how much coffee people ingest. Well, there are ways to foil that effort. We just make extra pots full. When the little pads of coffee are gone, she improvises by tearing the tops off those little Keurig cups and dumps them in a paper towel because we don’t have filters. It works.

The thing about coffee is that no matter how bad a cup of coffee is it can always be resurrected with some half & half and a bunch of sugar. That isn’t good for me, of course, the sugar, because of my medical condition. But I have cut down from six cubes of sugar to four, and from six cups of coffee to three.

In addition to coffee, Diane made us a wonderful breakfast of oatmeal that’s been stored in little pouches for six or seven years, but it still tasted great. That’s because I poured a bunch of brown sugar on it. You got the pourable part, right? Something new for me. Normally brown sugar, in my world, can be packed very tightly, but Diane bought this little container of pourable brown sugar. The little granules look like tiny little BB’s and, since they don’t stick together, I figure that two tablespoons of pourable sugar equals about half a teaspoon of packable normal brown sugar. I didn’t test that, of course, because I’m neither a cook nor a scientist with a math degree. By not having imperial evidence to the contrary, I went with the assumption that my theory was correct and poured about 4 tablespoons worth on my oatmeal. My taste buds deemed the assumption to be spot on. It was wonderful.

Today is a day of rest. So, we’re resting right now. It’s 1030 and Diane is still in her jammies. I’m semi-dressed because I was forced to walk down to the breakfast area at 0700 to get Diane a sweet roll and to resupply our dwindled stock of little creamers for my coffee. Since our suite of rooms is absolutely as far away from the lobby as possible, it wasn’t a short walk. Half way there I started to chafe and wished I’d worn my underwear. I was in a hurry, however, so didn’t bother. I’ll pay for that later.

We left our room only once today so we could get gas for the rental car. While out we took a trip to the business end of the base and saw a couple of old LSD’s tied to the pier and that brought back some memories.

The ship in the back is the USS Gunston Hall LSD-44, and the one closer, to the right, is the USS Carter Hall LSD-50. They’ve been around for a while and aren’t quite as sleek-looking as their newer sister ships.

Before we go to bed for a few hours sleep – we’re getting up at 0415 – I’ll make another trip out side, maybe two trips, to load our big suitcases into the rental car so we won’t have to deal with them in the morning. The remainder of the day we just lounged around reading, and watching a movie (“Along Came A Spider”). Also, Diane did the laundry so we won’t be carting dirty clothes home.

In 12 hours we’ll be at the airport waiting for our flight home. That means it’s time to stop and start eating the remainder of our food. Should have it gone by midnight.

The weather news is that it’s 70-75 during the day here in Virginia and at home it raining in the valleys and snowing buckets on the mountains. Gonna be fun getting home. The good news weather-wise is that the only thing the wind did at home is knock over a few potted plants on the porch.

See you tomorrow.

Day 26 – Virginia Beach & Day 27 – Little Creek Naval Amphib Base

Posted on October 16, 2016 by Jerrie Cate

Days 26 & 27 are a hodgepodge in my head so I’m just going to lay it out as I remember stuff. Just understand that what you read probably isn’t in the order it occurred. I suspect that’s probably not an issue so I have no idea why I felt it was necessary to clarify. Just ignore this part.

We got up late again this morning, around 0830, just in time to watch the USS George H. Bush sail away to sea – it was a very majestic site.

Then, while standing at the rail of our porch “Pink People” started running by, going north, on the boardwalk. Their numbers grew quickly to thousands, really, as we watched. I couldn’t figure out what was going on until Diane explained that it was The Race For The Cure. It was quite a stupendous sight. I think pretty much every woman and little girl who went by was wearing a pink tutu. I’m sure there were some guys wearing pink tutu’s, too, can’t say so with confidence. There were too many pretty girls for me to consider looking at the guys.

After the runners and walkers dwindled to none, Diane and I took a trip all the way to the north end of Virginia Beach, then followed the road around to the Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek. I visited the area a little when I was here in 1966, but don’t remember anything about it. Just know I was there. While roving around the base we came across a Navy Lodge and decided to see if they had a room we could rent. The logic for that was that we are leaving very early Tuesday morning and NAB Little Creek is essentially at the north border of the Norfolk airport so it’s a quick trip instead of the 45 minutes it took us from Virginia Beach. My concern was about getting the car back to the rental place for turn in on time to avoid additional charges. It was horrendously expensive in the first place so I don’t want to give them any opportunity to tack on more, ya know?

The Navy Lodge had a room for us but the gal at the counter said all they had available was a suite. That was OK with me, so I booked it. A suite to me is a bedroom with a living and kitchen area. Turns out the suite we got, cheaper than our tiny VB room, is really a 2 bedroom condo that sleeps 6. Too bad the family isn’t here.

We returned to Virginia Beach via the I-264 freeway, instead of back streets, to see if it was any quicker getting to Little Creek. It actually didn’t matter because we would only make the trip one time, but it was an exercise “just to see…” What we saw on our east-bound trip was that the west-bound lanes were a parking lot on this Saturday afternoon. That immediately made the case for going north up the beach and around the corner.

At 1600 yesterday we Cleveland crew members held our annual meeting to hear how much money was in the kitty, how much was spent, and to decide where we’re going next year. During the course of the meeting someone asked why mailings cost $1,000 when pretty much everyone has email. It was a good question and the answer because evident when it was revealed that there are at least three lists of people being used by three different people for three different reasons. That’s a sure-fire way to get data screwed up. So, one our members raised his hand and suggested that we form a committee to combine all this data into one useable source of information. What an inspiration! It should have been done years and years ago. Then, since I’m a real sucker for committee’s and data bases, I raised my hand and offered to help. What an incredibly stupid thing to do. Volunteer. It’s going to be a momentous task and being retired takes up most of my time. I’ll give it my best effort but can’t make any promises.

Another aspect of the meeting was to decide where we will hold our reunion next year. The rule, decided long ago, was that we go East Coast, West Coast, Middle. Since we’re on the East Coast, West Coast is next. The first suggestion for the West Coast was Santa Fe, New Mexico.

OK. I couldn’t let that slide, so I raised my hand and pointed out to Jack that New Mexico does not have a coast. It’s two states removed from the coast. Jack, however, was convinced that Santa Fe qualified for West Coast because it was West of the Rockies. I couldn’t sway his thought process at all and I think he quit listening to me when I asked if the USS New Mexico was moored in Santa Fe. Some others, who perceived the concept of “coast”, suggested, Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Portland.

“But wait,” you might say. “Portland isn’t on the coast, either.” Well, that’s true, but it’s close enough because it was the runaway favorite choice. So, we’re going all the way to Portland next year. Go figure. The problem with that, of course, is that I’ll probably get sucked in to helping organize it.

After the meeting we all hung out until it was time for the banquet. A few of us wanted to hang out in the banquet room while they set up but we were summarily kicked out after I knocked a glass over and it broke. I didn’t see the problem. It was just one glass.

The dinner was good but not exceptional and I’ll just leave it at that.

Then we had our raffle which generates a lot of money for the reunion organization. Raffle items are donated by those who attend. Diane and I bought 7 tickets for $20 and won three times. First time ever. We got me a new hat, and two window stickers.

Then we went to bed because it was late and I was scheduled to get up early, like 0430, to take Gary & Cindy to their Amtrak pick up point on Virginia Beach. Since Amtrak doesn’t run trains on the peninsula, the pick up point was actually a bus stop. We got there in plenty of time, like 0450, then Gary checked his ticket and learned the pickup time was 0610. So, we went back to the hotel where he figured it would be good to print out the ticket. That because a frustrating evolution that was eventually resolved by the hotel clerk getting involved. Then, at 0550 I took them back to the bus stop and bid them farewell.

Cindy was mortified but she didn’t need to be. I was glad to help them get to their appointed destination. Even if it was only, like 6 blocks away from the hotel. We had a good time waiting for the time to pass so it was all good. Diane was a little concerned when I didn’t return right away, but that was resolved, too.

After returning from my marathon delivery, I went back to bed and read my book for a bit before falling asleep again. Diane woke me up about nine so we could gather our belongings, check out, and head for the Navy Lodge. Which we did. At 1100.

We stopped by 24th street in VB on the way out so we could visit a set of monuments we noticed during our travels. It was all a tribute to Naval Aviation. Very interesting.

This photo is an excellent example of diplomatic tools available to us.

It had such an impact on us that Diane bought me the t-shirt. I love it.

While visiting it, we took some extra steps to the boardwalk and dipped our feet in the sand, just to say we did it.

Since it was still early, we skipped the Navy Lodge on the way by the base because check in time isn’t until 1500. No guarantee the room would be ready. Instead, we drove to the airport so we’d know where the rental car return was located. Thankfully, it’s just before the departure gates so getting the car returned and to the gate at the proper time isn’t going to be a problem.

On the way back we stopped at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens, because we like botanical gardens, and to kill a little more time to allow Navy Lodge to ensure our room was ready. It was a nice, pleasant stop for us. Very enjoyable. We got to ride a tram around the 600+ acres of flowers and trees while a nice young lady explained everything to us. No walking involved. Doesn’t get much better than that.

This is the only flower I took a photo of because we didn’t know what it is and there was no little sign sticking out of the ground near it to tell us. So, what is it?

This is a photo of one of many, many water-color paintings in the main facility at the garden. I was totally amazed at the realize this artist obtained with water colors. Totally changed my perception of what can be done with this medium.

So, now we will be lounging around in our condo for the remainder of the evening the begin the process of devouring all of the food we’ve accumulated over the past three weeks. That’s going to be a daunting task because we have a lot of it. We’re not going to be hungry for the trip home.

Day 25 – Norfolk Naval Station & Naps

Posted on October 14, 2016 by Jerrie Cate

This morning started off with an alarm clock going off, not something we normally do on vacation. But, we had a bus to catch at 0830 so sleeping in until 9-10 wasn’t going to work. The bus was for a tour of Naval Station Norfolk.

The significant aspect of this trip for our group of former USS Cleveland (LPD-7) crew members is that 50 years ago this month those of us who were in the 1st crew were on the base to board the ship and take it to her home port in San Diego, via the Panama Canal. So many changes have been made to the base over those 50 years that none of us could definitively say, “I remember that!” Nope, it was all new, and very, very different. It’s truly a new Navy.

The tour bus we rode is apparently a frequent visitor to the Naval Station because our tour guide, a Petty Officer 3rd Class, said he did tours with our bus driver about every other day.

Jack, the president of the Cleveland Reunion Association, has been to all of the reunions as you can see by the length of his name tag. Each row has the name of the reunion location for each year. There have been 19 of them. Diane and I have only been to about 5 of them, counting this one.

Our bus tour of the naval station took us by most of the piers but we weren’t allowed to take photos up close. Instead, the bus pulled over a safe distance away from the piers and people were allowed to stand in the open door to take pictures back at the USS George Bush. Can’t see much, but there it is.

Before leaving the vicinity of the Naval Station we stopped by the NEX food court for lunch. Diane, Marsha, and I ate Panda Express. I’ve been craving Chinese food for a while and that just hit the spot for all of us. I ate far more than I should have.

After leaving the naval station the tour bus took us to downtown Norfolk and dropped us at Nauticus where we could tour the USS Wisconsin BB-64. They wanted lots of money to visit the ship so Diane and I chose to skip a trip aboard since we had recently visited the USS New Jersey BB-62. And, in past years we’ve been fortunate to visit the USS Alabama BB-60, and USS Missouri BB-63. That’s enough battleships for us. In our experience, once you’ve seen one battleship, you’ve seen them all. Still, there’s something special about going aboard one of those behemoths and walking those teak decks. This time, however, we chose to save the knees for another day.

Another aspect of Nauticus is a Navy Museum which is free and we found it to be very interesting. Upon entry we were greeted by a gentleman in an authentic civil war naval uniform. He introduced himself as a LCDR whose name I can’t remember but his delivery was current tense as if were there. He was a wealth of knowledge regarding those times and it was a delight to talk with him. It was a new experience for us in a museum and we liked it.

The displays included this torpedo which was interesting just by itself.

Making it more interesting was the placard sitting by it.

This is Gary and Dan who were also aboard the USS Cleveland. I suppose you could tell that by the hats they’re wearing. Dan and I were part of the commissioning crew in 1966 and Gary was aboard some time after that. Notice that I lined this up so you could see the mermaid between them. An intentional photo bomb.

This one adds Cindy to the mix. She’s Gary’s significant other and one of our favorite people.

At the end of the tour we all retired to our rooms. Diane and I promptly fell asleep and didn’t wake up until around 6 pm. By then we felt the need to refill some of the depleted food storage units but didn’t want to go out for another meal. We were told that the flounder in the resident eatery was pretty good, but that didn’t appeal, either. So, we discovered where the nearest Food Lion was and went shopping for simple things to tide us over for the weekend for breakfast and supper needs.

Both Diane and I are tired of traveling and look forward to getting home next week. Even if it’s going to be stormy and wet. We watched the videos on the weather channel of the tornado that hit Manzanita today. Nasty. Still, we will be glad to get home.

Maybe we’re getting too old for these long trips.

Thanks for listening.

Day 24 – Virginia Beach

Posted on October 14, 2016 by Jerrie Cate

Here I sit on the balcony of our room overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. It’s another warm, clear, beautiful day in Virginia. Diane is sitting near me reading about the weather in Oregon. The news is Oregon is going to exceed the normal rainfall for October by 300%. That’s some serious rain. Many, many inches. Then, coming in behind it is some heavy wind that will, without a doubt, push over a bunch of trees because of the saturated ground around them.

We had a major breakfast at the Jumping Shrimp cafe in the hotel that later in the day caused Diane a bit of abdominal distress causing her to miss an opportunity for supper with me in the USS Cleveland conference room. I put in an appearance and visited a little while, ate 3/4 of a sandwich, and had a root beer before going back to our room to be with her. You’d think after all these years I would be able to spend some time away from her visiting with old friends and shipmates, but it doesn’t work. If Diane isn’t there with me, I don’t enjoy it. Just a sentimental old sap, I guess.

Needless to say, this was the extent of our activity for today. Nothing important to share.

We just took a few naps so we could be rested up for bedtime.

Day 23 – Virginia Beach, Virginia

Posted on October 12, 2016 by Jerrie Cate

It was a brutal two-hour drive from Fort Lee to Virginia Beach on freeways and roads with very light traffic. Most of the freeways on this side of the country appear to be carved our of forests so there’s not a lot to see – just stands of trees on either side of you. And the trees are really, really tall. Guess I should have taken a picture, huh? But, here we are in beautiful, sunny, warm, Virginia Beach.

We’re staying at the Four Points by Sheraton because this is where the reunion is being held. This one is better, however, because we’re not far from Naval Air Station Oceana where fighter jets are flying, making lots of noise during the day. Diane loves it, and I don’t mind at all. We feel protected.

As I was checking in our friends Jack and Nancy, from San Antonio, TX, were just on their way out to eat lunch so they waited for us to get parked so we could join them. We took a slow walk up the street to a Mexican restaurant were I ate my usual Camerones ala Diabla and let me tell you, they were over the top diablo. Very hot. Made my eyeballs sweat.

This is Nancy and Diane. Didn’t get a picture of Jack because he walks too slow.

Lunch was very good. When done, we walked slowly back to the hotel, visiting as we went. Jack had quadruple bypass surgery 10 months ago and isn’t in a mood to push things too hard which is fine with me. Slow is perfectly OK.

The temperature here, at 4:21 pm, is 71 and there are people walking the boardwalk along the beach in shorts and flip flops. There are some surfers frolicking in the waves, too. So, we have entertainment without going anywhere. We’re watching them from the 5th floor of the hotel where the temp is probably 65.

Diane enjoying the salt air and wave noise. this was good until someone, I’m not saying it was guy, lit a cigar up wind (north) from us. Ruined her zen moment.

The view straight out from our porch.

View looking south from the porch.

View looking north from the porch.

This is a 9-story facility but the top 4 floors were damaged by hurricane Matthew so we’re technically on the top floor. Our room is very small but comfy, nothing like we had at Fort Lee. That was exceptional.

While sitting on the porch, minding our own business, this ferry showed up just outside the surf line. When he first showed up he was riding very low in the water, almost to the top of the freeboard along the sides. When he let he was riding about 4-5 feet higher in the water.

It only stayed out there for about 10 minutes, then left. We thought it might be some sort of dredge, moving sand from a nearby harbor and dumping it just off the beach. The more I thought about it, however, the more convinced I blame that it’s not a dredge, but a Honduran ferry transporting visitors to the Virginia coast. I can’t confirm this, however, because we never say anyone jump over the side. But, the boat obviously got lighter, so the passengers must have exited undetected somehow and worked their way in amongst the 20-30 people walking on the boardwalk. They’re very tricky, I’m told, and after having not seen it with my own eyes, I believe it. They just sneak right in, unseen. I don’t think they even wet. It’s amazing.

Now I must reminisce a bit, all the way back to yesterday when we visit Cedric for the last time on this trip. We got him a chicken teriyaki Subway sandwich and a Mr. Pibbs for his supper. He was a little sad to see us go, and we were a little sad to be going, but it was time.

As we drove up to the barracks, which really are barracks at all, but small 2-man condos, we were presented with this interesting sight in the sky. It was very brilliant from, I think, the setting sun shining on the clouds in just the perfect way.

We joked, smiled, and laughed. It was a very good parting visit. Cedric is going to do just fine during his Navy career, no matter how long or short it may be.

When we walked away, back to the car, this sunset greeted us. It was like an omen – Red sun at night, Sailor’s delight. Heard that one?

Tomorrow the reunion starts and runs through the weekend. We’ll be here until Tuesday morning. On that day we must get up about 3 am so we can get the car returned to the airport in time to catch a 7-something flight home.

That’s going to be fun.

Day 20 – Part 1 – Sunny Days Are Here Again!

Posted on October 9, 2016 by Jerrie Cate

It’s early. We don’t know what the day will bring, but the sun is shining so it can’t be bad. We had a good soaking of rain from the extreme fringe of hurricane Matthew but nothing beyond the capabilities of professional Oregonians to handle. Just a little rain. I say that not meaning to minimize the impact Matthew has had on its journey up the coast of Florida. That was pretty devastating for thousands of folks. Those where we are were fortunate. It could have been far worse.

This is the view from our window, looking almost due south. There’s a bit of a breeze but no rain in the foreseeable future. That means things are looking up for a nice few days in Virginia Beach later this week.

Our friend Nancy, in Georgia, whom I’ve never talked about, had to evacuate her house because it was in the path of Matthew. I don’t know how far she had to go to reach safety, but she is safe. Yesterday she returned home to find that it was OK. Lots of trees down in her area but none hit her house. Just wind-blown tree debris all over the place. We’re happy for that.

Also, cousin Karen from Clyo, GA had to pack up, too. She went to Atlanta but don’t have any updates yet.

The really sad news from yesterday, from a sports perspective, is that the Oregon Ducks were thoroughly dominated by the Washington Huskies 70-21. It was bound to happen eventually. Now I’ll have to shift my fickle allegiance to the winner and root for Washington to make it to the championship game. That will maintain my PAC-12 affiliation but sever my mental ties to the home state team. Second on my list is the Oregon Beavers who won yesterday against California.

Enough about college sports. Lets move on to the NFL. Cam is out with a concussion for tomorrow nights game which means our very own Derek Anderson, who is from Scappoose, will be the QB. We look forward to watching him play. His grandpa lives just around the corner from Diane’s Mom, Jean, in St. Helens. I actually had lunch with him at the St. Helens Senior Center a few weeks ago. Nice guy.

On the high school football scene, St. Helens High beat Parkrose 42-0 at the St. Helens home-coming game on Friday. The boys in appear to have a handle on how the game is played. We go to all the games when we’re home. Same with soccer, as you may have noticed from previous posts.

Everyone who cares will be happy to know that I’ve decided to quit adding sugar and cream to my coffee because my BS levels have been bouncing around a little. Not terribly high, but higher than normal. So, I’m just going cold turkey, back to the way I drank my coffee during my Navy days – black and bitter. Doing this will also lower my caffeine intake because I’ll only drink 2 cups instead of 7.

We haven’t heard from Cedric yet about how his day will go, or if I’ll be allowed to sign him out again. So, we decided that if nothing is heard by noon we’ll head off base to see what’s out there. The sun is shining bright and almost all the clouds have dissipated so exploring should be fun. If we get Cedric, we may be able to take him with us. That remains to be seen. He has duty tomorrow so that will be a free day to explore for us, too.

I’ll end this segment now since I’m not really sharing anything of significance and leave you breathless, waiting for Part 2 this evening.

Stay safe.

Day 16 – Fort Lee, Virginia

Posted on October 6, 2016 by Jerrie Cate

OK, folks. It really happened. We bailed out of Washington, D.C. and headed south to Richmond even though predictions for hurricane Matthew were not in our favor because it was heading north to meet us.

If you’ve been following this you will already know that our visit to Fort Lee was scheduled to be for one night only so we could visit Cedric. Well, bad weather in the Caribbean required us to cancel our intended visit to Myrtle Beach, SC, and interesting liberty rules on Fort Lee, for brand new military men conspired against us for a quick visit with Cedric.

First, the weather.

If you’ve been watching the news you’ll know that Hurricane Matthew is scheduled to crash right in to Myrtle Beach on Friday and create havoc in that area through the weekend. Because of that, all the lanes on all the freeways on the East Coast from Myrtle Beach south are only going west. All lanes. Because of that we would have found it difficult to buck all that traffic. So, Diane called Hilton and cancelled our visit and was able to wipe the slate clean even though cancellations less than a week before scheduled occupancy result in loss of all money paid, or all points used. The lady Diane spoke with ignored that rule and credited our account for everything we used to secure a spot in the Anderson Ocean Club for the coming week because we weren’t at fault.

Got that?

That was bad news, you’d think, because we only booked one night at Fort Lee and had to cancel our accommodations that would keep us indoors until we head for Virginia Beach on the 12th. After last night we were technically homeless. Where in the heck were we going to stay until the 12th?

We got to the Fort Lee Lodge early, around 2 pm, because it’s really not very far from Washington D.C. We were a bit stunned when we saw the place because it’s quite intimidating due to its enormous size. It so enormous that I could only capture bout 1/4 of it in this photo.

The young lady who greeted me at the reception desk was all bright and cheerful and said our room wouldn’t be ready until 4 pm after checking our name to confirm that we actually belonged there. While I had her attention I asked what the possibility would be for us to extend our stay through the weekend because we’d just been kicked out of Myrtle Beach since the hurricane was going to get real busy there in the next few days. Then I played the “homeless” card.

She looked at her computer, conferred with a co-worker and they shared some conspirational activities, pointing at the screen, nodding, and said they could do that. “When to you want to check out?” she asked.

“Ah, Monday?” I offered, not wanting to push my luck, then pushed it anyway by changing it to, “Tuesday?”

When she kept looking at me, as if waiting for something more in the form of a definitive statement, I became concerned that I’d exceeded the limits of her good will. “Sure,” she said. “We are OK until the 24th when we’ll be fully booked.”

When she said the 24th, I got all giddy and immediately said, “Wednesday! I want to check out Wednesday.” There. A definitive statement.

She still sent me away asking that we return at 4 to check in, so I left. I was happy, smiling, and was excited to share this news with Diane who stayed in the vehicle. She always stays in the vehicle when we check in to a hotel.

During our absence from The Lodge we found the BX, the Commissary, and the Gas Station. Those are places to be familiar with when visiting any military base.

At the BX we discovered the same Philly Cheesesteak sandwich joint we liked on JBAB and decided to give it another try. It was even better. Things were looking brighter all the time.

After eating our sandwiches we drove back to the hotel and parked in the lot where we sat and waited for the clock to slowly tick around toward 4 pm. Finally, at 3:58 we cautiously re-entered the hotel to get the key to our room so we could unload the car.

We made it to the front of the line and a young lady finished with her customer and beckoned me to her station. As I headed toward her the young lady who had helped me two hours earlier said, “No! I’ve got this one!” which kinda surprised me. So, I moved to the left, out of the way, so the Army Captain behind me could move on to the lady who have waved me over.

At the counter, the young lady, whose name I shamefully forgot to get, asked for my Military ID and a credit card. Anticipating this, I had them both in my hand and presented them to her. She got us logged in then stood there looking at her display while conferring with another co-worker who nodded when she referred to something on her screen. The nod was apparently approval for her unspoken query because she hit a key on her keyboard, turned to me and said, “There. I have a room for you on the 7th floor and I upgraded your room. For no charge.” That surprised me because it’s an Army hotel so why would there be upgrades available?

Not having anything clever to say, because I was totally not expecting this, I said, “works for me.”

She smiled and gave me all the stuff people at reservations desks have you sign. I did so, then she handed me the keys for room 7105. It’s a 7 story building so we were on the top floor. Diane’s favorite place to be. No one could dance on our ceilings during the night!

We took the keys and headed for the elevators. They have four of them just off the lobby. We had to dance around some young fellows who were scrubbing the marble floor in the short hall to the elevators. There were six of them. One on a scrubbing buffer, one with a mop, one with a mop bucket, one with a little grout scrubber, and two on either end working folks who were there, I think, to keep any of them from leaving. Kidding, of course. They were all working and very friendly and moved things so we could get to one of the elevator doors without stepping in puddles of soapy water.

An elevator. What a treat. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised because this hotel has 1,138 rooms. That’s true. I asked. I said the place is enormous already but it bears repeating. Just look up 2301 Mahone Ave, Fort Lee, VA on Google Maps then switch it to the satellite view. You’ll see for yourself.

While on the way up in the elevator both of us were wondering just what kind of upgrade we had received, and what kind of room we would have received had we not received the upgrade. It was with bated breath that Diane put her key in the little lock, watched it turn green, looked at me, then cautiously opened the door.

When the door finally opened all the way we were absolutely amazed to discover that our complimentary upgrade was from a regular room, with which we would have been totally happy, to a suite with an actual bedroom and a kitchen area with a large refrigerator, a dishwasher, and an actual garbage disposal in the sink that works. And, it’s got a Keurig coffee maker sitting right there on the counter with a lot of little Keurig cups in a nifty sliding drawer beneath it. How cool is that? It’s just beautiful. We want to live here now, but I don’t think they will let us. I haven’t asked yet.

Anyway, we’re gonna live in style until next Wednesday. Then we have to discover if Virginia Beach is accessible so we can take up residence in an undoubtedly inferior room at some ocean side resort. Whether or not it’s still there after Matthew does it’s work is still up in the air because no one really knows which direction he will turn once he churns up the coast and out to sea when it hits the Carolinas.

OK. That’s it for the room. Now let’s talk about Cedric, the reason we’re here. I texted him, and his Mom, when we saw the sign for Fort Lee.

Then again when we hit the gate.

He finally responded about 5 to say he wouldn’t be able to go on liberty to see us this evening because his Battle Buddy bailed on him. Battle Buddy is an “Army Thing” Cedric said which means no one goes on liberty alone. He was really bummed but got over it when he learned that we were going to be here through the weekend. He can’t see us tomorrow, either, because he has duty. So, we has Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to catch up. It’s going to be OK.

Now it’s time for bed. Diane said.