Bear loves to go for a ride, even if it’s around the block. Every other weekend, or whenever we feel like it, we break out the “Bear Stair” and practice getting in and out of the SUV. We decided that she’s going to accompany us on our next vacation, so she needs to be used to the drill. For now, she thinks it’s a great adventure, but when she goes on vacation with us, it might just be routine and not a big deal. I shot this video today just before embarking on a thrilling ride around the block.

The South Coast Botanic Garden had an event today where they had a model railroad show. Inside the main hall, there were several very elaborate model railways set up. Most of them were set up with displays of nostalgic accessories, most around mid 20th century and WW2 eras. Outside, they had an exhibit with live steamer scale models and down at the cactus garden, they set up several little trains and a lot of tracks, right there among the cactii.

Check out this short video of some of the railroadin’ action.

I got a little wanderlust when I saw this photo I took of the two of us on Saturday. We were just on Catalina Island last month and already we want to go back. The overnight windstorm blew most of the marine haze out of the area and left us with this clear view of the island. Click for bigger.

UPDATE:

Apparently, this picture was NOT taken in Lafayette as indicated. In the middle of the picture you can find a small hand on the swing chain just behind my brother; that would be the hand of my sister, also enjoying the swings. I’m guessing that this was taken in Mar Vista, CA in the back yard of the parents’ home on Colonial Avenue. Thanks to Pam for the update.

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My niece, Pam, posted this picture on her website and emailed it to me a week or so ago. I decided to put it on here and tell about what things I remember from those times and where these people are now. Click on the image for the big picture.

Forty-five years ago, my younger brother, Jim, took this in Lafayette, Indiana. In the picture on the swing with my older brother, Bill, is his daughter Pam. Behind them is Pam’s mother, Ruth, talking with (I presume) one of Bill’s NESEP buddies. NESEP is Naval Enlisted Scientific Education Program, an initiative to offer college educations to enlisted men who qualified and would commit to a Naval career. This was at the time that Bill was studying at Purdue University and would later graduate and be commissioned in the USN.

Just prior to this, Bill was an enlisted instructor at the US Naval Air Technical Training Center in Millington (near Memphis) Tennessee. I was there too, but as a student in the Center. I stayed with Bill, Ruth and Pam for a couple of months before returning to the barracks for the rest of my assignment. After Bill’s acceptance to the program, we went our separate ways - Bill went to college and I went to the US Naval Missile Center, Point Mugu, California, to become a real Naval Aviator and airborne crew member.

Forty-five years later . . .

Today, Pam is in Paris with her true love. Pam and has a son, Trevor, who was in Alaska the last I heard.

Bill passed on in 1997 from complications of brain cancer - an untimely death at under sixty years old - we scattered his ashes over the same place in the Pacific Ocean where Bill and I scattered our Dad’s ashes several years before. I can’t be sure of it, but I think the friend barely in the photo may have been one of the several NESEP guys that came to the house for Bill’s memorial.

Ruth lives in California in the Antelope Valley, close to Pam’s brother, Bill and his family.

Brother Jim, who took the photo, hasn’t been heard from for a couple of years according to my Mom, when I spoke with her a couple of weeks ago.

Me? I just filed my retirement paperwork and rollover options from an old employer and plan to do the same with my current one next year.

Tempus Fugit.

My sister emailed this photo of our Grandmother today. I’m not sure where this was taken or when - it’s a new one to me. Ilda was part Cherokee and Creek and loved all things Native American. She’s been gone for over 10 years but we all still miss her.