Dec 10 2010

Sitting at my computer with Sugarland blasting, thinking I should do update, so here goes.

Nancy and I have just got back from another road trip to Charleston, South Carolina.About a month ago we received an invitation from an old friend to her retirement from the Navy. At first I didn't much about it, but Nancy said we should go and have a little getaway. Long story short, we went and had a great time. We left on Friday and stopped and visited friends in Palm Coast overnight before heading north. The reception was on the USS Saratoga. The original Saratoga was sunk in the attack on Pearl Harbor and this aircraft carrier was named its honor. It was commissioned in 1943 and saw action in the Pacific and was deactivated in the 70's and was finally brought to Charleston to be part of the Naval display at Patriot's Point. The party was on a desk that was used to store airplanes and was very big and cold. No heat. Didn't get a chance to tour the ship but what we saw was very impressive. Our friend retired as a Navy Captain, she was a nurse and will continue her career as civilian nurse working for the Navy. Was a good time. Sunday we headed back to Palm Coast after looking around the city, some really impressive homes in the old section of Charleston, would like to go back when we have more time to play tourist. Monday I played golf with the "General", a long time friend who retired from the Army about three years ago with the rank of Lt General, but we have called him general for many years. After golf we headed home, stopped in Barbersville at a road side business that sells animals and other goodies from cast aluminum. I have had this idea in my head that I want a big lawn ornament and do they have them. Looking at the prices, I may have to consider something smaller. I got the idea from seeing a huge pink elephant beside the road in Hernando, it must be 15 feet tall, I keep thinking about stopping and see if it is for sale but haven't. At the place we stopped they had some chickens that would work, I will enclose a picture, let me know if you think I should get one.

This week has been to cold for golf, so I filled my days with Dr appointments and just doing nothing. Plan to stay home for awhile now, got to get through Christmas before do much else.

And for the record I still say MERRY CHRISTMAS.....and hope you do too.

21 Nov 10

I've been going to do this post for a week but just haven't found the time. I've got Sugarland blaring on my computer so now is as good a time as any.

A week ago Nancy and I got up early and headed for the Villages, stopped at TJ's for breakfast(second couple through the door), had a great meal, if you've never been there it is the place to go, that is if you are Florida. The reason we got up so early was to beat the crowd for the George Bush speech and book signing. We were there 3 hours before he was to speak and we still couldn't get a up close place to view the speech, but we found a park bench and moved it to an area where we had a good view and a place to sit. About 9:15 John Micheal Montgomery kicked the day off with a great performance and right on time the President started his speech, most of it was readings from his book, but really down to earth, really made you feel like he was just a friend who had come to visit. Of course some of this came across when he was in office but this was so much more. Nancy and I both really enjoyed listening to him, he only spoke about a half hour, I could have sat there all day. After the speech it was time for me to wait in line to get an autographed book and have opportunity to shake hands and have a short visit. I waited for about an hour before it was turn, waiting was fun, lots of people to visit with and before I knew it, it was turn. I had watched those in front of me and realized that he was actually taking time to talk with each of us, and then I wondered what I should say to him. I didn't say anything major, just how glad I was to meet him and wish well going forward. He thanked me and said a couple of nice things and then it was on to the next in line. The one thing I was surprised about was that he isn't much taller than I am .lol..On the way out of the building I saw a friend who is a VP at the Villages and was the one who introduced the President so I stopped to say hi, but it was short lived, the Secret Service boys told me to leave, I guess they don't like people hanging around the President. What a great day...Now I have to find time to read the book....

Veteran's Day 2010

Veterans Day, a day of remembrance, a day to thank all who serve, I wrote about my tour in Viet Nam in a post a long time ago, so will try not to repeat myself. One thing about Viet Nam that is new is that Nancy and I are planning a trip there next spring. Nancy is involved with a group ADK, a teacher's group and they have built a school in VN and have a group going to see it, and we will be part of that group. Even though it is in an area I have not been before, but we are planning a side trip to Nha Trang and a couple other places. I think I am looking forward to the trip. That should make for a few pages of pics and stories.

Ok, back to Veteran day and military service. Today should be one of the most honored holidays we as Americans celebrate. If not for the men and women who have served their country, we would not enjoy the lives we have today. I think today we all take freedom for granted but freedom has come with a huge price. Everyone I'm sure knows someone or has a relative who has served and most know someone who gave their life for us. I had several friends that went to VN with me but did not come home.

For many years after I came home from VN I would not acknowledge the fact that I had been there, it was very unpopular to be a VM Vet in this country, that always bothered me that we (VN Vets) were treated like second class citizens in the country we fought for and many died for. I remember the first time I publicly acknowledged I was a VN Vet, it was of all places at a Wildwood Middle School Guitar concert in which my son Andrew was playing guitar. They were playing a patriotic song and asked veterans by war to stand, when it got to the VN war I looked around to see if anyone stood up and slowly several of us stood to be recognized. This was in about 1984, 15 years after I came home. I am proud that today we do so much for our returning troops, we have come a long way since the post VN era and it is for the good of all.

So today when you hear on TV about Veterans Day, take a moment to really think about what it means and those who serve and have served.

October Update

Been a while and a lot of miles since I have been on the blog but so much has happened I feel the need to update my loyal followers. First Nancy and I went to Denver to spend 10 days with Andrew and family. They had a wedding to attend in Vegas, so we went to babysit the three girls for three days. All went well but glad when Dad and Mom got back. After our stint of babysitting, we became tourist for a couple of days. One day we went to Estes Park and the Rocky Mountain National Park, what a fun day, snow in the mountains, elk everywhere and wonderful scenery. The color seemed to be more brilliant than New England, but not the multi colors, mainly yellow and a bit of orange. On the way home that day, a little ole lady in the info booth told us a nice way to get back, well I guess on a clear day it would have been fine but it was through the mountains and it snowed almost all the way back to Denver. It is not fun on narrow, twisting mountain road in a snowstorm, but we made it and lived to tour another day. Next morning we were back at it, heading for Colorado Springs to visit the Gardens of the Gods, a must see if you are in that area. Wonderful rock formations and its FREE, owed by the city of Colo Springs. Spent most of the day there just looking and taking our time. We did stop at the Air Force Academy on the way home. It is worth the stop to see the Chapel, a very modern building, and wonderful inside with an awesome pipe organ like I have never seen before, Nancy said it looks something like one she had seen in Iceland.

The day before we left I went with Andrew and had my putter fitted, I know a fitted putter, Andrew had got them at a tournament and the manufacture is in Denver( yes Golf) and part of the deal was you could go to the factory and have it fitted, so we did. That afternoon I played golf with a friend of Andrew's, tried the new putter, think I need to go back to the factory and be refitted. I think it was the greens not me. After golf Jay and I went to the hotel to meet Andrew but he was in the middle of a Press Party for his hotel receiving a "5 Diamond" rating from AAA, the only hotel in Denver to receive this honor. So we ate dinner in the Elays Restaurant at the hotel, great steak.

We left on Friday and brought Britt and Anna back with us for a visit, they just got back tonight from three days at Disney with their Grandmother, Hannah and Addie, looked like five tired people when they walked in tonight. No I did not go, I stayed home and babysat the twins for two days, not sure who is really more tired. I guess tomorrow is a get rested day, and Thursday they go home. What a three weeks this has been, sorry no pics, all on the other computer and I'm to lazy to import them. Some of the trip are on Facebook, for those of you who follow me there. Looking forward to a period of quiet. May get back to some more history....

World's Fair Tunbridge Vt 2010

A couple of weeks ago at my Thursday morning coffee time, I said I was going to the World's Fair, my friends started asking about the fair and then thought it a big joke, so I took them the World's Fair book to read, didn't help much, they still don't understand what the Fair is all about.

Well, Nancy and I went to the fair and had a great time. Last year we went for the first time in 30 years and had a great time, this year was even better. One big difference this year was that our family from Denver came for the fair. For the first time we spent time at the fair with three of our grandchildren, that was a new and wonderful experience.

Why do I go to the fair, well you see people you don't see anywhere else, you get to eat all the great fair food that you shouldn't, the animals are great and this year they had a lot of rare breeds, which got a lot of press for the fair and the rare breeds. Also both Nancy and I really enjoy the pulling, Pony, Horse, and Oxen. We sit for hours watching this great event. I have watched Pulling since I was a small child when I would go with my father who was a really big fan. Pulling over the years has not really changed that much, the folks spend a lot more on their horses and threat them better but the characters are still there is their bib overalls and dirty tee shirts( no fashion statements here) doing what they love and putting on a show for the faithful followers.

If you have never been to the "fair", you really should, it is really a slice of Americana that should not be missed, I'm sure that Nancy and I will be back in Tunbridge next September, hope to see you there.

Facebook

We hear a lot on the news about the bad things that happen when people use social newworks, like Facebook, My Space etc. Being a senior citazen I actual like Facebook and spend a lot of time there. I don't use it to post naked pictures, groos jokes, or things that will hurt anyone, I use to stay in touch with many people across this great country. To me, it is like a local newspaper, something like the Herald used to be, where you would read about who went where, who's be sick, who went on a great vacaton. Of course you can't read anything like that in the paper any more, May Cole and Grace are gone and nobody today wants to take the time to check on people.

This may be the last Lunch Post

Two weeks of the new post and I think this will be the last. Why, well it doesn't appear the very many people are reading the new direction I was going, so I guess this wasn't such a good idea. I will still be going to lunch with Nancy on Thursday, just not wasting my time writing about it.

We did go to lunch today in Downtown Wildwood, well sort of, it was on Highway 44 East about a mile out of town. Some of you may know this place, The Speckled Butterbean, a good place to go, it is a "Country Buffet" featuring Fried Chicken, Baked Pork, Mac & Cheese, Mashed Patato, Fried Okra, Beef Stew, and about twenty other sides, plus a complete salad bar.. Desserts to, pie,cake, brownies and more. All this for only $8.95, all you can eat...They also serve dinner, and have different goodies, I think on Friday night it is seafood, although we have not tried dinner...Place is clean, service is good, an interesting place to go. So enjoy what is coming in the future, have fun. Oh, they have a website...Thespeckledbutterbean@yahoo.com

Thursday Outing Week 2

Still no title, will work on that..After solving the world's problems with the boys at Barnes and Nobles it was home to pick up Nancy for our Thursday lunch and adventure. First we had to go to the Weight Loss Center so that Nancy could weight in, this was her first week on the program and she lost a creditable 3 pounds. After this happy news it was off to eat at Starvo's, an Italian/Greek restaurant in Fruitland Park, this was not a new place to us as we have gone there for many years. Nancy of course had a Greek salad, which she said was very good, I think the next few weeks you will see a lot of salads from Nancy. I had a hard time thinking about what I wanted, but in the end settled for baked spaghetti, which was served very hot with a generous helping of melted cheese on top. My meal also came with a small Greek salad and garlic bread. I ate about halp of it and brought the rest home for lunch which I had yesterday and as always with pasta, it's better the second day. So, a good lunch at a reasonable price, with good service. The only bad part of the lunch was that a waitress(not ours) was talking to people at the next table about how she had nursed her grandmother's foot back to health, including details about the open wound, dead skin etc. I thought she would never stop and was at the point of being rude and saying something, but Nancy told to leave it alone, it was hard but I didn't say anything, but don't you think that is not the place or time to give a 15 minutes history of your grandmother open sores, oh well not harm no foul. As I told Nancy, it will give me something to write about, so maybe I should have thanked the waitress, NOT.

After lunch it was off to do errands, stopped at Sam's and then to Wally World to get goodies for Nancy's big meeting today in Brooksville. An ADK meeting she is running, hoping for around 200 people, hope it goes well, I know she has put a lot of time and effort into the event. Guess I will find out this afternoon.

Not much else going on, still playing a little golf, starting to think about packing for our trip to the World's Fair next month. Hope all have a great weekend and I'll see you all next week.

No new title yet

As promised, here the first of the new weekly series about the adventures of Dennis and Nancy. This week was not a big deal lunch, but it was good. We had to go to Belleview to pick up a CD we had made, we took about an hour of 8mm home movies shot in 1971-1976. We had no idea of what was on them other than hopefully our children. We now have an hour of memories that we had not seen in forever. It is not cheap having this done but well worth the investment. We were pleasantly surprised to find footage of both of our fathers who have passed. It is a very emotional hour to view these old tapes. I would recommend to anyone who has old 8mm to get them converted. Darn, this was to be about lunch. We went to a place called Jizzers, great little place, everything homemade, good service and I think I could wear my tye dyed t shirt there and not be out of place. They serve breakfast and lunch, close at 2:00pm. I'm not much of a food critic, but their cheeseburger is awesome, nothing frozen and served with fresh fruit. Of course I had the burger, Nancy had a panini with chicken, salami, cheese,sun dried tomato, and some sort of sauce, this to was served with fresh fruit, and was very good. This was the second time we had been there and both trips were enjoyable.

Normally after lunch we do errands but yesterday Nancy had Doctors appointment so we rushed to get though the traffic. Waited 45 minutes for the Dr, which about did our afternoon in. On the was home we went through the drive thru at Mickey D's for an iced coffee and a mocha frappe. This may not sound real exciting but we have a lot fun looking forward to Thursday lunch. Stay tuned...

I may be back into the Blog thing

Don't pass out, I'm about to start blogging again. On Thursdays Nancy and I go out for lunch and then do errands that need to be done. So today we were driving and Nancy said she thought I should Blog about our Thursday Adventures, be a little bit of a food critic, travel critic, and maybe just some silly things I see or do while on this Adventure. I will try and do them by Friday night, that way all of my loyal followers will not have to keep checking to see if I have posted it yet. So tomorrow before bedtime there will be the first of my new blogs. If anyone has a suggestion for a name, let me know.. Until tomorrow....

It has been a long time since I sat down and thought about my blog. I have been so wrapped up with Facebook, an easier way of getting my message out that I have forgotten this venue. By now all my followers have found other things to do, but if for some reason you check my blog, there is something new.
It has been a busy spring, filled with golf, babysitting, Disney trips, ADK convention. I have been playing golf four days a week most of the winter and spring and will continue until we head north in late June. Having fun but not getting any better.
The babysitting has been more Nancy than me, but I do my share of going to pick up Addie from school, and subbing when Nancy and Hannah are both involved. It's actually fun staying with the twins, what little people they are. They even like me and like to play with me.

Nancy and I took Addie to Disney for a day and stayed over in Orlando, we had to go to a timeshare thing(didn't buy) for three hours, Addie went with us and later that day Wes, Hannah and the twins joined us at downtown Disney for dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe, a great time was had by all. Save your money before you go, RFC is not a cheap date...After dinner they all went home and we stayed one more day and spent time at EPCOT, had a great lunch at the German display. Good food.

Nancy had an ADK convention in Tampa for a long weekend, I went but did not attend any of the functions. I spent my time at the casino(2 miles away) Did I make money? Well, Saturday I play poker for almost 9 hours and won $7.00, sure beats losing a bunch...What fun to sit there with fun folks from many different places. On Sunday we left and went to Safety Harbor to have lunch with Luke&Pat and there daughter Jane and her husband. Again, a good time. Glad to be home and in my own bed after that.

Looks like we will be coming to Vt for an extended stay this summer, leaving around the 20th of june and staying until into August. A lot going on this summer for the Rogers and Howe families. At least we can get out of the heat for awhile.

I think that about catches up on what is happening at the Rogers house. Who knows, maybe I'll get back to blogging again soon.

My Brother Fudd

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It has been awhile since my last post, guess I can blame it on Facebook, so much easier and quicker.

Last week my brother and his wife Ellen were down for the week, they stay with Stew but we all get together and have some fun. On Thursday we took Ted and Ellen out for lunch in one of the worst rain storms I have seen, the Weather people said it was like 5-6 inches in about an hour and a half. Don't think they enjoyed the ride, although the food was good, went to Catfish Johnnys, a kind of local place that serves seafood and Gator, of course that day they were out of Gator, good time had by all. Friday was to be a big golf match between Ted, and Brad Smith, vs Stew and I, however the golf course was flooded and it was still raining, so it was postponed until this summer in Vermont.

Everyone who knows Ted, knows he is a big fisherman, think he would fish seven days a week if he could. Last year when he was here he fished a FLW Tour tournament on the Harris Chain of Lakes. He fishes as a co angler which means the angler owns the boat and you get to fish where he wants to, you have no say. Well last year he didn't catch any fish but had a good time and learned a lot about fishing in Florida.This year he went for round two, Friday night I took him to the pairing meeting where you find out who you fish with. Ted got a good draw and was very excited about the tournament on Saturday. Saturday morning I took him to the marina at 5:00 and wished him luck. Saturday was a very nice day except for one thing, the wind was blowing up to 40 mph. At 4:00 I went back to pick him up and get ready to take pictures of his fish at the weigh in. I waited for quite awhile looking for him, when I saw him driving his boaters truck headed for the ramp to load the boat. This is where he told me his adventure of the day. First, he catch a very nice 6 lb plus largemouth bass, I was very happy for him, then he told me that coming in a big wave had swamped the boat , and very quickly a second wave hit them and it was all over. The boat was completed full of water, equipment was lost and the only reason it didn't sink was the was a "Ranger boat" and they are built so they don't sink. They made it to the shore line, but could not make it back to the dock before the cut off time, so were DQ'd. It took them 40 minutes to pump out the water and get to the dock. Needless to say they had to let the fish go, but Ted had his partner take the picture above. He was soaking wet with nothing to chance into, he even had me run the heater all the way home....The good thing was he catch fish, had a good time and really had a story to tell....We all wish him a better time next year. Fudd, I had to do this....What a day.

12 Feb 2010

Believe it or not I am going to try and update everyone with a some ramblings from the past couple of months.
We got through Christmas with everyone happy and stuffed with all the holiday goodies. In January we have the Twins first birthday, a small party at Hannah's with about 80 of their closest friends. The kids had a great time, two bounce houses and the whole yard to play in. The adults had great food and great conversation. The party was also a Thank You to all the people who had helped with the First Year Twins. Twins are great but they are also a lot of work. Wes and Hannah have done a good job with them, also Addie has been a big help.

Nancy and I also took a trip to Vermont to visit and check on our "Moms", had a good time but was a bit chilly for us. Both Moms where doing well, my Mom was gaining well, but she is back in for more surgery, I spoke with them earlier today and appears to be doing well.

I am doing this today as it is cold and raining and I don't need to go anywhere. Nancy is off on another trip to Denver, leaving yesterday. She has to keep up with the grandchildren, would be easier if they were all closer together. I think she may go skiing while out there, don't think she has been on skis since we left Germany, many years ago, wish her luck.

Well, you are up to date, not much going here.