Category Archives: real life

Who Says You Can’t Go Home?

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Pensacola-LighthouseWe took a short trip down to Pensacola, FL. That’s Carol’s hometown, and since there’s a good chance we won’t be back that way for some time, we took a nostalgia/farewell trip. I have a lot of happy memories–and some less so–from Pensacola, mostly due to its association with Carol, but it was home to her for a lot of years. Carol was pleasantly surprised by how much hadn’t changed–her old house was still in use, her grammar school is still there, even some old-school relic tourist motels that have served as landmarks for 50+ years, still in operation. Pensacola-Lighthouse-Keepers QuartersWe took advantage of the chance to visit the Pensacola Lighthouse, located on the Naval Air Station. Which, for the uninitiated, is also the home base for the Blue Angels precision flying team. The guard at the gate warned us about heavy traffic, and we were wondering why that would be the case? Then Carol realized that this was a practice day for the Blue Angels, and that they’d be flying near the lighthouse. We had thought about climbing to the top, but people book a year in advance to be able to watch a Blue Angels practice session from the top of the lighthouse. Must have been a fine sight, as we got a pretty good one just watching from the porch of the Keeper’s quarters. I was able to catch this one on a low pass. 1 Angel-BlueBest I could do with a camera phone. Those guys are fast. Carol grew up with this type of thing as a common occurrence, but for me it was a treat.

We’ve been pretty good vegetarians for a while (Well, Carol better than me), but it was time to eat seafood. Especially mullet. Carol wasn’t going to visit home without a taste of mullet. Sometimes, you just have to eat the fish and be done with it. Until the next time.

Power’s Shadow is still wending its way through the edit process. I’ll post here once I have a release time for the ebook.

Goodbye to Winter Oak

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Tree1

When we first moved into this house, one of the reasons we did was because of a beautiful old oak that stood in the front yard. Then, for a lot of reasons having nothing to do with the house, we decided to uproot and put the house on the market. Apparently the oak decided to uproot too, or rather a wet June followed by a severe thunderstorm decided for it.

We were really fond of that tree. We originally moved into the house in December of ’98 and Carol named the place Winter Oak in its honor. It’ll just be a house once we’re gone. Winter Oak has already left.

Tree2

The More Things Change

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My beautiful picture

Photo by Jeff Parker

The More Things Don’t Remain the Same

Take a look at this picture. That’s me, circa 1983. I was a member of a medievalist group called “The Society for Creative Anachronism®,” and that’s my fighter outfit for an afternoon of best friends beating on each other with rattan swords in a local park. The armor part of the outfit was no joke. The swords may not have had edges, but they were essentially clubs, and the pole arms were really big clubs. Bones got broken and teeth got knocked out in SCA fighter practices and tournaments. Not many, because the armor requirements were stringent and strictly enforced. It was supposed to be fun, and personal injury isn’t fun. Mostly it was fun. And research. Wearing padded gambesons and steel helmets gave one an idea, at least, of what it was like for knights and men-at-arms back in the day. Minus the element of terror and potential loss of life and limb, naturally. I may have been crazy, but I wasn’t stupid. Continue reading →

Taughannock Falls

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Taughannock Falls-2Since most of our direct ties to this area are either gone or in the process of being gone, Carol and I are trying to decide where we want to live. So we took a trip to upstate New York to scout the area.

Here’s a shot of Taughannock Falls at Taughannock State Park. 215 feet high, cutting through cliffs 400 feet high. We’d already seen Ithaca Falls near Cornell University in Ithaca. Lot of waterfalls in upstate New York, we’ve found. We stayed in Syracuse and fanned out in most directions in the time we had: Syracuse, Ithaca, Utica, Alexandria Bay, Oswego, Rome, Herkimer(next time we dig for diamonds), Little Falls. Didn’t get everywhere, but did get a lot of wheres.

No decisions yet, but it’s in the running. And yes, we know it gets cold there. Everyone told us that.