The saga of the awning!!!!! Well, here goes - about two weeks ago Sandy and I bought an awning for our deck... We purchased it by phone after seeing it on-line. It is coming from company called SunSetter Products in Malden, MA. It, the parts in 6 boxes arrived in the rain last Friday, March 16, 2007....................... It was dropped shipped by UPS Freight... a big 18 wheeler stopped in front of our house and the driver and I carried the parts to the house....

Oh, I forgot to tell you this is a 20 foot awning so the rollers it

came in were about 21 feet long - two of them, one with the roller and one with the fabric.... pictures are in order..

Well okay, it was raining all day Friday so I read the directions. Then Saturday came and for me it started around 4 AM........ couldn't sleep thinking about the awning and the soon to arrive EXCELLENT adventure, putting it up.... also, it was St. Patty's day we were going to Dennis and Marie for Irish for and stuff.... BRILLIANT!!! We had a great time there, but that time came at 5 PM and I still have 13 hours to go

Sooooo, I read the directions... Well as luck would have it, it started snowing (no pictures this time).... so, I watched the installation video, and read the directions again.... and I got out my tools.... You may have noticed the bag of pecans in the upper left hand corner, they are yummy, I buy them from a place in South Georgia.... oh yah, and there are the directions.....

A break in the snow came and I went outside and measured and marked so that when the time came, I, we would be prepared to get with it.......... By the way, the instructions are numbered, and number one is a list of "before starting you will need" and the first item is "an assistant." I had three assistants, Sandy, Dennis, and St. Patrick.... Sandy and St. Patrick helped on Saturday and Dennis helped on Sunday. It stopped snowing around noon and so Sandy and I started working.

We got out the roller and the fabric and laid them across three chairs...........

At this point, we have done several steps and have the fabric on the roller...

Wow, that looks big.......... It also looks a little like a giant mechanical Anaconda getting ready to suck the life source out of me?

Next we, Sandy and I, (St. Patrick was out to lunch) leaned all of this against the wall so that we could attach it to the house... I am making a long story short, believe me. In between ever activity, I went in the house to get warm and read the next direction....

Here is Sandy holding up her end.... which, she did all day long in the cold and wind. Very brave lady... my love!!!!

While you cannot see it here, I did not take a picture, we finished attaching it to the house in time to go to Dennis and Marie's at 5 PM for dinner.......

Sunday, Dennis came over after church and we made a couple of more attachments and fine tuned the awning...... as you can see, it was still cold.... and, St. Patrick had left for another year!!!

But did you notice, the awning is Green...Evergreen... and, Sandy picked the color!!!!

And there it is all rolled up and waiting for a nice day to be opened and used...... another excellent adventure................... thanks for reading...

Remember, take good care of yourself so you can take good care of someone else... God bless you all... john

Leprechaun

spotted at ETSU early this morning!!!!

Well - here goes....

Thanks Dennis for blogging... believe me, I know what you are going through right now.... i pray for you and Marie hourly.

How proud you must be Mark for your son to know he will be playing baseball in college. When I was young, I wanted to be a professional baseball player but I had no where to play except the school yard until it was way to late to get the kind of training that would have been helpful... I have developed other skills that are, at 63, very satisifying - but that dream still lingers......... what is it about baseball.

Ruth, you are a wonderful person, someone who I wish I could have the time to get to know much better.... I got a chuckle about your blog - having wine on the deck with ice on the roof... there has to be some sort of smart ass joke or story about that.

Michael, I envy your musical talent.... but you did help me to believe that my meager skills on bass were welcome... thank you.

David Woody, blog.... we need you to do that.. we need to grow in our faith and understand the holiness of Christian love... we need to learn to be strong in our faith and service..... we need you, and you need us!!!

Janie - where are you?

Roz, where are you...China I guess. When will you be here where you need to be and where you are really needed??????

Chalmer, where do you get all that stuff? I am thankful that you do find it.... keep doing it.. more coffee......

and Matt Fay.................I pray for you hourly too..........get well and get back to school!!

love, john

Important stuff first -

This is a call for help to all that I know. My friend, your friend, Dennis has prostate cancer. We need to give him our thoughts and prayers and then call everyone else we know to do the same thing. The good news is that it appears to be in the early stages and he is going to get it treated. He will be visiting with his urologist and a radioligist over the next few days to gather information about his treatment options...... Pray for his complete recovery and pray too for the decisions that he must make soon.... Thank you

Also important, but not nearly as important as praying for Dennis....

The site below takes 6 minutes to view, but it discloses some amazing facts and predictions concerning business, technology, education, and the international environment.

The Pace of Technology: http://www.scottmcleod.org/didyouknow.wmv

Okay - Remember, take good care of yourself so you can take good care of another - and pray for Dennis - love, john

MADRID, Spain - Spain plans to impose stricter rules on production of a staple of the national diet and increasingly popular export — ham from free-range pigs that feed on acorns and herbs — in order to weed out stable-bound impostors, a newspaper said Sunday

Click on the following link or the picture for the full story...........................

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070225/ap_on_re_eu/spain_elite_pigs

In the meantime, enjoy your day and remember, take good care of yourself so you can take good care of someone else - cheers, john

What's Your Favorite Starbucks Drink?

Click on either picture and make your own!!

Here's Mine

Remember, take good care of yourself, and drink lots of coffee........ and then, take good care of someone else.... cheers, john

Hello bloggers..........

For updates about Matt, check out his blog:

http://www.mattfay.blogspot.com/

Have a great day - it is snowing in East Tennessee....

Take good care of yourself so you can take good care of someone else.. peace, john

Happy..

VD

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Sunset at Buncomb Hill Road

down there at the edge of the ice you can see the love birds!!!

While I was taking the picture of the beautiful sunset I heard a very loud honking sound - make that many honking sounds......... a flock of geese came over our house and approached the lake for a landing - here they are coming in for that landing............

and a closer image.........................

and here they are swimming around............. everybody seemed happy to see everybody else..

Wow, that was exciting........ remember, take good care of yourself so you can take care of your friends - feathered or not - ....... love, john

Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds….

That is the slogan of the United States Postal Service as paraphrased from Herodotus (484?–425? B.C.)

Well a few weeks ago in the middle of the night on a Sunday some numb skull was speeding on our road and lost control of their car and crashed into our mailbox trying to do what the weather cannot do and that is keep the mail from being delivered.......... there are some pieces of the car... by the way, this was a hit-and-run so I was happy to see some car parts laying around. Of course I did not want any one hurt, but if you are going to tear up a persons property you could at least make it right....

As you can see, the mail box is still upright but pushed over...

It was tilted up making hard to get the mail in and out...


So, the first thing I did was wrap a chain around the mail box and

hooked it to my truck and pulled it to the uprigth position. This took several attempts to get it straight without pulling it out of the ground but I was finally able to do it.

Oh, did I say that the sun was shining but the wind was blowing and it was cold. This is the first time since it happened that I was able to work on it.


Here is the 4X4 in an upright position. I had to cut off about 6" of the post - the previous mail box had been installed incorrectly so I had to do the cutting so that the new mail box could be installed correctly.....

And here is the finished product!

Another view!!!

Here I am leaning on it.......pushing it over... not really, the camera was on a post across the street and sitting at an angel...

I am happy and Sandy is happy!!!

Remember, take good care of yourself , so you can take good care of someone else. Dennis I am thinking about you..... seeya, john

Lake Effect Snow in East Tennessee

It is spitting snow this afternoon and Sandy and thought the view from our front porch was particularly pretty...... However, the slick spots on the road in front of our house are not that great to look at....... We are actually under a lake wind advisory from 10pm today to 6am tomorrow.... I have no plans to be in a lake during that time!!! And, before anyone says anything, I really do know what lake effect snow is and what's on that pond is not it!

Cheers, and remember take good care of yourself, john

JDYFJ

We went to Savannah and got stoned.......


Cobblestoned, that is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!







The organ in St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Cathedral.






The bridge over the Savannah River.... it is the
New Strom Thurmond Bridge... Strom Thurmond was also
know and Sperm Thurm.....







My cool friends.............







A pub.................









The Bishop's chair in the cathedral.......








The Girl Scouts first office...









Beautiful stained glass..






Six Pence Pub... Julia Roberts made a movie here....











My pal Dennis......








Savannah architecture.......







What a great city............. What a great time..........

Take good care of yourself so you can take good care of someone else. john

Tennessee State Flower

I was going to be the proud owner of not one, but two, of Tennessee State flowers, plus a weed...........................here they are..........................

well - I was all signed-up and ready to go for Direct TV - all the channels, local channels (requiring the second disk) and an antenna to get High Definition from the local area......

The installer called on Wednesday and said he was sick and he wanted to reschedule for Friday...... OK was my answer............ Friday came, 1 pm came......5 pm went........... no installer?????????? so I called Direct TV and cancelled............ the lady I talked to said that the installer had set it up for next Friday..............not this Friday....... I said that was wrong, that I knew I couldn't do it next week............ I cancelled my order...........

So, now I am watching the playoffs in High Definition from Comcrap............... I still think the product they give us is poor.............for over a year they have been telling me that we will have duel DVRs and SportsSouth........and we have neither.......... they are great liars.... and they just raised their prices for their bad service............ but it is installed and it only requires one wire(cable)................

Oh Well.................... Instead of Direct TV I got to buy a new washing machine today!!!

take good care of yourself, john

It's about time!

Participants in the 'Human Zoo' are watched by a young girl at the Adelaide Zoo January 10, 2007. (Matt Turner/Reuters)

Full story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070109/ts_nm/australia_zoo_dc

John and Sandy and Dennis and Marie

Happy New Year from Amelia Island

We went to Amelia over New Years to vist Marie's brother Larry and his special frient Ellen.. After dealing with all kinds of shit on Friday morning we finally got away at about noon..... Dennis and Marie drove and Sandy and I hung out..................

We got to Larry's home around 8:30.......... Here is a picture of Larry and his dog, Ed....

Here are Dennis and Marie.........

Dennis is in Larry's garage.........it is a football watching haven.....three tvs and an frig for adult the adult beverages that Dennis refered to in his blog...... yummy!!!

We saw a church........Memorial United Methodist Church in downtown Fernandino Beach........... we were actually at an antique mall..............

Also there are three wise men..







Notice that you are not seeing neither Larry nor Dennis nor John.... Uumm, imagine that!!




Okay, here is Sandy............... That is Larry in the background............ Sandy is watching football!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In the Garage!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Besides eating, drinking, and watching football, we saw a most incredible display of lights that you can possible imagen............ an entire street with lighted homes (a couple didn't have 'em).... the display was remarkable..................

Ok, I do not have a picture of Ellen........ and my camera battery is getting low...... so, that is all from Amelia Island.............. Tomorrow, we will do Savannah........

We had a great time......... God bless you all, and remember, take good care of you so that you can take good care of someone else!!!!!!!!!!! love, john