Warmest Day of the Year!

Yesterday was the warmest day of 2008. It got up to 78 degrees. Having heard on the weather station that it was going to be a nice day, I decided to try to go golfing at my new place of employment. When I arrived, I got a golf cart and went to hit some balls at the driving range. Then I went to the pro shop and they said I could go and play nine holes on the "Orchard Course." I was outside getting ready to go to my first experience at this golf course, and a man who was by himself asked me if I'd like to play golf with him on the "Lakes Course.". (He is a member and I am a lowly ranger employee.) I told him sure, but I didn't know if I was allowed being I was a ranger. He said let's go and find out. He went back in to the pro shop and asked the Director of Golf who said, "yes." Before I knew it, we were at the first tee. He wanted to play at the "blue" tees. (That's a little farther back than the white tees, where I normally play.) Anyway, we had a great two and a half hours playing golf. He'd tell me the lay of each green, various hazards to avoid and stragegy for someo of the holes. AND, as it turns out, he's a deacon in his church. We talked about his church some and enjoyed the morning together. It was truly a "grace filled" morning for me.

While I was there, Dee was doing things at the house in preparation for the Fishers coming over for dinner tonight. When I got home, I walked Bonz around the block and then Dee and I had lunch together, and went shopping for shelves. We found what we wanted at Target and picked up some items at Giant Eagle. At home I built the shelves and the unloaded 8 boxes of books and placed them in an orderly fashion on the shelves in the basement area. (These are the resource books I chose to keep after my years in ministry.)

After dinner, we sat on the porch and enjoyed the nice weather. Dee started reading a new book she had, while I decided to type the words to the various barbershop songs onto my computer so I can memorize them easier. Bonz watched the neighbors on their deck and began getting used to them and their cats being there. While I was typing away on the laptop, every once in a while I'd hear a bird calling across the valley behind out home. So I got my binoculars out and searched for the anonnymous singer. I found him. As it turns out it is a pileated woodpecker. Awesome! As I searched other branches I found a downey woodpecker, my first cardinal of the summer, a bluejay and some gold finches as they loped their way past our deck. (Since our home and deck are elevated, I often look down or straight across at many of the birds. My own birdseye view. LOL) Cool.

It was a beautiful day. A morning of free golf with a new friend; lunch and dinner with my honey; time to finally organize my reference shelves; and time on the deck enjoying the sights and sounds of our new neighborhood. God is good.

Finally, Summer Like Weather!

Yesterday was a nice day. I got to go and hit balls at the driving range at Treesdale while Dee went to her gym to exercise. My experience at Treesdale was cool. I got a cart, rode up to the range and hit away to my heart's content. It was warm and quiet and a beautiful place to be. (I wasn't ready to try the course yet, although I could have if I wanted to.) But it was nice to think that I have those privileges now. Awesome!

We did a little shopping afterward and found some shelving at Target for my books. (We're hoping to empty out a few more boxes with this new shelving.) The rest of the afternoon I took Bonz for a nice walk and we visited with neighbors from the back deck. Later I did some reading and bird watching on the deck. I saw two Pilated woodpeckers in the trees beind out house _used my binoculars - they were having dinner. I'd never seen woodpeckers that big (19 inches tall according to the field guide). See picture from the field guide below.

They were cool to watch as they spiraled down the tree (on opposite sides) looking for ants to eat. When they got near the bottom, they must have struck pay dirt as they stayed there for about 10 minutes. Although they were too far away to photograph, they were neat to watch.

I also practiced learning some of the words to my barbershop music. To do it right you have to memorize the words to each song. That'll take me a while, but I'll get it one by one. I can't quite hear the notes yet, but that'll come with experience and with actually knowing how the song is supposed to go. It would be nice to have a cd of the songs with the bass part on it.

The construction on the housing unit behind our house has progressed. Now much of the work is being done inside. Here's a photo from our deck of the exterior. I've noticed that the "model home" office has been closed (just to the left of the new unit in the photo) and the driveway has been dug and paved. Evidently they've sold all the units in our plan now. That's good.

A Super Day !

Yesterday was a busy one starting with our traveling to Station Square to meet with Paula (from our church in Linwood). She's in town for a conference of college advisors. We got to spend about 4 hours with her, which was great! I found a much more efficient way to get to and from Station Square which was so simple I could hardly believe it. We went to the Strip District for breakfast at Deluca's - fantastic. Then we walked around the various markets and stores like the Pennsylvania Maccaroni Market and Wholey's Fish Market. The weather was awesome -sunny and warm.

Then after seeing the sights, smelling the smells and looking over items from all over the world, we went to PPG Place so she could see the neat architecture of that complex. We ended up in Market Square and as luck would have it we found a parking place right away and noted the many office workers out eating their lunches or just enjoying the nice weather. and then went into the Original Oyster House for a fish sandwich, onion rings and coleslaw. The place is a local icon of history with pictures all over the walls of famous people (most of the local) who've been there from time to time. We sat at stools at the counter with our feet up on the foot rail. Great place. By then it was time to get Paula back to her conference. What a treat to get to spend some time with her again. We were blessed!

On the way home we stopped at a doggy camp and kennel called Misty Pines to check it out as a possible place to board Bonz when we want to go away. It's quite a place with kennels for dogs that have indoor and outdoor runs for each dog. Also they exercise the dogs or train them if you want. You can even just leave them there for half a day or overnights, whatever is convenient for you. Check it out at http://www.mistypinesdogpark.com/ . I'm glad we stopped by because we learned a lot and now know what we need to do in advance if we want to leave Bonz there.

We got back home in time for me to walk with dog around our block (1/2 mile) and then go for my orientation class at the golf course I'll be working. The orientation was led by Chris. There were about 11 rangers there. He explained the process, how the schedule works and that we were allowed to golf Tues - Friday (for free) as long as there were openings on one of their three courses. And that the driving range is free to us anytime along with the putting greens and chipping area and practice sand trap. (Talk about dream jobs!) I learned that the course season doesn't start until May 3rd and that's my actual first day on the job. (I'll get two red shirts and two hats as uniforms and we're to wear kakhi slacks or shorts.

We also watched two videos on sexual harrassment and proper ways to relate to minors. And took a little test to measure what we learned. We saw where we "punch in" at the time clock and met the proshop attendants who explained how our discount works (10% over cost) - how cool! Then one of the other newbie rangers, Bob, who also lives in Adams Ridge where I live, took me out on two of the courses to show me what they look like. The courses are awesome - unbelievably hilly and LONG. Lots of water to hit over. We had a nice chat along the way and got to know each other some. THIS IS GOING TO BE FUN!

A Casual Day

Well, the 3 new throw rugs for the kitchen that Dee has been wanting arrived yesterday. They are all the same colors. (although in this picture they look different.) They go well with the valances Dee made and they pull the kitchen area together and perk up the area.

Dee went to the North Pittsburgh area "newcomers luncheon" with Marsha and Ann from church. It was held at the Fox Chapel Country Club. Dee said there were about 100 women there. They had lunch and saw a fashion show of the new spring "look".

While she was gone, I sorted through my boxes of books, put some of them on shelves in the upstairs bedroom, and reduced the box pile by 4 boxes - PTL! I Still need more shelving. We're hoping to find some like what we already have for the basement area. I also talked on the phone with an old chaplain friend from the PA Air Guard. She invited me to help lead a retreat in Wildwood NJ at the end of May. It would focus on communication issues for couples using the PREP materials. I had received training on PREP http://www.prepinc.com/ when I was in the Guard and used it in my ministry at the church as well. (Seems I was ahead of my time as there is a shortage of chaplains with the training as of now.) Anyway, I agreed to be one of the facilitators. That'll be fun and I'll try to throw in a couple of days in the Linwood area.

We also took Bonz to meet Molly. Molly is a small Jack Russell Terrier owned by Dee's great neice, Ryanne, who lives about 2 miles away from us. We let Molly out every Tuesday because Ryanne has to work late that day. This time we took Bonz to meet her. They walked along side by side pretty well together. Ryanne helps us with Bonz when we want to go away for a couple of days.

I ended the evening trying to learn some of the Barbershop songs using the keyboard functions on my Qchord. They loaned me the Barber Pole Cat Song Book that has 12 songs in it. The idea of the book is to have a dozen songs every barbershopper can sing. It's to encourage quartet singing when you meet up with 3 other guys. (A lot of barbershoppers prefer to sing in choruses rather than quartets because in a chorus your voice doesn't stand out as much.)

All in all it was a casual day but we got a lot done. God is good.

Barbershop Harmony

Here is another picture from the weekend trip to DC. The Newseum has a perfect view of the Capitol.

Well, last night I went to my first Barbershop Harmony practice with the Cranberry BogMeisters. I thought I enjoyed singing, but these guys are truly bitten by the bug! They look for any excuse to "ring a chord" as the call it. The rehearsal lasted about 2 and 1/2 hours. There were no musical instruments, just a pitch pipe and our voices. Fortunately the director has perfect pitch and seems to be able to hear the notes and sing the various parts for the singers. (Tenor, bass, baritone and lead) There were about 13 men there in all. They have an agenda that includes a warm up time, a music lesson (last night was on interpreting the music), tag practice led by one of the singers, and then various adhoc quartets made up of those present. We always stood when we sang, and there was lots of singing. There was a little bit of business and talk about the recent "contest" they attended in Cleveland and other business matters for the group. When the practice was over they adjorned for an "after glow" at a local restaurant for cookies and milk and informal conversation. I joined them for the conversation and milk part and again they rang out in tune a couple of times for the enjoyment of the local patrons. It was a lot of fun. I brought home a songbook with 12 songs that all barbershoppers are supposed to know, so they can "ring out the chords" at the drop of a hat if need be. Cool.

Days in DC

Well, we finally got to go and visit with Kerri and Patrick in their new apartment. We had a great visit and Kerri even cooked a dinner and breakfast for us (a first). The weather was much warmer there than here (mid 70s), pleasant walking weather, with a threat of rain on Saturday. We stayed at the Navy Inn on the Bethesda Medical Center base just one and a half miles from their apartment.

While we were there they took us to the museum that had just opened the day before called the Newseum. First we were greeted by displays of the front pages of the day's newspapers from across the United States. Later we saw more of these inside the Newseum from around the world. This museum has the history of news reporting with hundreds of monitors broadcasting memorable moments from history. There were 14 mini-theaters with 8-15 minute videos on various topics regarding news gathering. Here is a picture of Kerri and Pat standing in front of the Berlin Wall display that had six(6'x 12') panels from the actual wall. The display was accompanied by things to read, videos to watch and hear about the building of the wall, and the tearing down of the wall.

There was also a display of the communications antenna that once stood atop the World Trade Center and of course many videos, and pictures currounding the 9-1-1 tragedy. Here's a picture of the antenna. And you'll notice many of the front pages of the newspapers around the world that day, in the background. There was much much more to see and do there. Really more than can be done in just one visit. It's first class and well worth the visit. Just plan to spend a few hours there soaking it all in.

We discovered that from our home in Mars it takes about 4 hours to get to Kerri's place which is 250 miles away. And though it's a little farther than from Linwood, it's all turnpike or freeway driving and a much easier drive. We were fortunate in that we were always going the opposite direction of most of the traffic. AND, there is an Outlet maill (150 stores) at Hagerstown, MD just a stones-throw from the I-70 exit.

Yep, our visit went very well. It was so nice to see Kerri and Patrick together hosting mom and dad in their newly painted and decorated new place. They're a cute couple and we're really happy for them.