Texans in the Air

We Have a Hotel (and it looks like this)

and this

and this

Paul's second attempt at a blog post

The first attempt is out in the cloud somewhere, which is frustrating because I love to talk but hate to write. That being said, I hope this makes it to your blog. I don't know that I'm lysdexic, but interesting things happen when I type.

Mary and I have been more or less happily married for over twenty years. We managed to raise children without resorting to shock collars, duct tape, or threats of homicide, and we are reasonably satisfied with the results. They are all grown and gone, and are getting on in world. They have a useful purpose; they give Mary something to worry about. I expect that to continue for a long time.

As for my background, I'm a prime example of what happens when you don't know where you're going, and just start taking roads to see where they might take you. Jay likes to say that I have a degree; I just got my diploma from the school of hard knocks. I have more skills than Carter has little liver pills. I spent nine years in the Navy as a Hospital Corpsman, served as a medic with the Marines, trained as a diver, Became a Special Operations Technician, and a Marine Mammal Technician. I've worked as a logger, a sawmill operator, an oilfield roustabout, a pumper, and a water and wastewater treatment plant operator, to list a few. I have a head stuffed full to overflowing with useless but interesting trivia. I read constantly, anything and everything.

Mary is more modest about her accomplishments, preferring to hide her light under that bushel somewhere. I'll list some of the ones I consider stellar; she can discount them all later. She's an excellent mother, a great cook, and best of all, she can put up with me. Mary has been a high school math teacher (a damn good one), a loan officer, a realtor, and currently, a corporate controller. She's also worked as a Forest Service firefighter, run a marathon (with a bad hip), and several 30K runs (the most recent with her new artificial hip). Mary talked me into running another 30K with her, thus proving once again that I'm a slow learner with a poor memory. She is coming off of surgery for a torn rotator cuff, and was just pronounced as fit to return to her more strenuous activities like Yoga and Pilates. We'll hold off on the mud and jello wrestling until later. Mary also eats Lutefisk and professes to like it.

Jay and I have known each other for almost thirty years. We met on a volleyball court in Glendive, Montana, and have been sharing adventures and projects ever since. Mary and I are looking forward to meeting everyone, and to our first cruise. I don't count the two days I spent on an LST with the Marines in the Molokai Channel (memorable, but not to be repeated).

For the scorekeepers out there, I'm sixty. I'll let Mary divulge her age at the time and place of her choosing.

I had to laugh, Jim, when I saw the photo of you on your recumbent; I have a TerraTrike myself. Mary doesn't say it, but I think she finds it somewhat embarrassing to be seen with an adult on a tricycle.

I'm sure I've left out most of what people really want to know about us; I'll invent the rest of it later.

A Bit About Michelle

First I want to make it clear - I was more popular in high school than Jim. He was a lot more visibile and audible, but that was because he was weird. He definitely married up. Come to think of it, Jay married up too!

I met Jay in my German class. I didn't know him very well, but he and I were both very quiet. So to Jay I say
       "Ich wette, du hast keine Ahnung, was dieser sagt, aber nicht schwitzen Ich weiß es auch nicht."

I am not sure when I met Patti, but it had to be in high school when I was running around with Jim. They had been friends for a long time and I am sure our paths crossed at times. I do know that she is the reason that Jim and I went on our first date to the junior-senior prom.

I met Bruce and Debbie Gilmore as neighbors in 1990. Their son, Brian, and our son, Shane, participated in a lot of sporting events from a very young age. Jim says the first thing he remembers about Bruce is that he threw a no hitter in coach pitch baseball AND he hit my son with a pitch, but even that couldn't get him on base. Every year was baseball and basketball games for us. If you go to both driveways, you can still find remnants of the SBBL (Shane and Brian Basketball League) where each had their own home courts. Shane even bought an old IBM PS2, wrote software to create a scoreboard, and had a boombox playing stadium music during the games, including introductions of the players before the games. Brian played varsity all the way through high school and went on to walk on tryouts at a Division One university. Shane who wasn't good enough to play varsity ball, became the high school scorekeeper and went on to the NBA to be the head of the Boston Celtic's scoring crew and was still writing scoreboard software on a much bigger platform. In 2008 he received his NBA championship ring.

My daughter Mandy didn't have as much connection to the Gilmore's for 20 years, but now they have turned her into my neighbor. When Bruce and Debbie moved out of the old neighborhood 7 years ago, Jim and I bought their house and rented our house to our karate instructor. It turns out that he didn't want to move the pool table, so he married our daughter and stayed in the house. It is a complete joy to have Mandy and Jack as close as the Gilmore's used to be, however, Mandy and Jack might think we are a bit more intrusive than Debbie and Bruce were.

A bit about me:

• I was born in Casper, Wyoming in 1958.
• I played high school and college basketball.
• I played high school volleyball.
• I was a homecoming queen candidate.
• I used to love to ride mini-bikes.
• I used to ride snowmobiles.
• In my 20's I used to go snow skiing almost every weekend.
• In my 30's and 40's I used to go water skiing almost every weekend.
• I have snorkled in Cozumel, Hawaii, Cayman Islands, and I tried to swim to Tahiti once.
• I have travelled thousands of miles on boats.
• I am not now, nor have I ever been, comfortable in water.
• I went to bible college, but ended up with a business degree from a secular school.
• I worked in title insurance for many years, then left that career for my most important career of raising my two children.
• I now work in the accounting department of a securities firm.
• My hobbies include reading, playing disc golf, digital scrapbooking, crocheting, travelling, listening to live music.
• I love to play Kinect games on the X-Box.
• I have particpated in BikeMS for 8 years, riding 6 of them.
• I have been to 9 countries.
• I have been to 49 states with Jim. (He won't take me to North Dakota)
• I have been to Disneyland, DisneyWorld, NBC Studios, Universal Studios.
• I have been to the Grand Canyon, Grand Tetons, Grand Caymans and will soon be a Grand Mother.
• I once flew to London for a four day weekend.
• I once flew to Rio for a four day weekend.
• I have flown first class a number of times, but never bought a first class ticket.
• I almost had to spend the night at the feet of the Statue of Liberty.
• I have flown in two helicopters, once around the new bank in Gillette and once around the Christ the Redeemer Statue in Rio de Janeiro.
• I have ridden in a powered parachute and a hot air balloon.
• I have a black belt in Taekwondo.
• My husband is trying to talk me into going to Antartica with him, but he's psycho and I'm not.
• Jim and I wore jeans to a Broadway play. I was mortified, he was thrilled because he's psycho and I'm not.
• I once rode a zip line 10 stories above the deck of a cruise ship and Jim didn't because I'm psycho and he's not.

A bit about Jim



Hello.  My name is Jim.  Not everyone knows me so here is a bit about me.  As you can see, I still ride bikes at the age of 54 - oh wait, that's not a bike.  It's a trike.  I've ridden the MS-150 for the last 7 or 8 years.

· I met Jay around 40 years ago and became good friends with him 35 years ago when we were the only seniors on the swim team.

· I am sure there was a time when I didn't know Patti but I couldn't tell you when.  I just kind of remember her, well, forever.  I had a bunch of friends from school but 10 or 20 years later I found myself wondering what happened to her (and not so many others).

· I've  known Bruce and Debbie for upwards of 20 years.  When we moved into the neighborhood in 1989 they lived two houses down.  We play disc golf together pretty much every weekend and Saturday is always lunch with Bruce and Debbie.

· I met Paul and Mary in October of 2012 when we went on a cruise together.  That's all I've got right now...more later (I bet).

· I really like trying new things.  I try something new do it for a while and then try something else.  There are a few things that seem to stick with me.

· I have played disc golf for years and years and years.  It's one of the things that sticks with me.

· Photography is another one of the things that stays with me.  I really like the pursuit of that truly excellent picture.  I also love it when I capture it.

· Travel is another constant.  I've literally logged millions of frequent flier miles in my work travel.  Michelle and I have been taking cruises together for over 25 years.   We've been to 49 of the 50 states (I have a life goal to stay out of North Dakota but that's a whole new story).  I've worked on 6 of the 7 continents, vacationed on 4 of them and plan to get to Antarctica (the 7th) before I die.

· I've met (enough to shake hands with) two US Presidents.  I've met (had dinner with) Bill Gates. I once rode in an elevator with Art Linkletter.

· I have jumped out of an airplane (with a parachute).

· I've done over 100 Scuba Dives

· I have a black belt in Taekwondo and once won 2nd at Nationals in Sparring.

· I got mugged in Brazil (sort of - I was already a black belt and I taught the mugger that he needed
a new hobby)

· I climbed Devils Tower

· I have been stung by a sting-ray (in Mexico)

· I've walked on the great wall of China

· I have two children (a boy and a girl) both grown and married

· I've been on the Eiffel Tower in Paris

· I rode a camel to the great pyramids in Giza Egypt

· I've been to the Great Library of Alexandria

· I've been to a Superbowl (and watched Denver beat Green Bay)

· I've been to the Cathedral where Luke (yes, that Luke) is buried

· I've been in the Opera House (from all the pictures) of Sydney Australia

· I've been to an NBA final (and watched Boston win the world championship over Los Angeles)

· I've seen a Penguin in the wild

· I used to have an FAA flight instructor rating (but I'm not current anymore)

· I've visited a WW2 German Concentration Camp (in Michelin Belgium)

· I chartered a helicopter to fly around the Christ the Redeemer statue (Corcovado) in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil with my wife and daughter

· I lived in Saudi Arabia for 5 years.

· I once rode a cruise ship from Rotterdam Holland to New York

· I'm currently restoring a 1954 Chevrolet 3100 Pickup

It Starts With This

Countdown 43 weeks (yup, we've got a while to wait) until  we set sail.   The first reunion vacation will be a 7 day cruise from Ft Lauderdale Florida to Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico and back to Florida.

This trip will be four couples.  All of us know 3 or more of the 8 people who are attending.  None of us know all of those going on the trip - in fact everyone is traveling with a two or more people they have never met and more than half the people coming know less than half the people they are traveling with.  Probably not risky enough to be an adventure but packing potential for a surprise or two.

In the next week or two I will add some posts telling a bit more about me and a bit more about the boat...

They All Want to Then Nobody Does

Living in these United States, are you?  If you can answer "yes" and you are doing it "right" then you are probably too busy.  I think it is a rule. 

"You want to do it right?   Well, find a way to be too busy!  If you have time to do the thing you want to do then obviously you aren't busy enough!"

So a bunch of friends of mine wanted to get together on a cruise ship and spend some time talking about the old days and sharing what happened since.  The list of participants was fairly long and the job of finding a date that would work for everyone became quite daunting.  Once we finally nailed down a date and tried to get commitments, people started dropping out.  One by one they all learned they were too busy or had a conflict.  One by one they all frowned, felt sad, and wrote that message that starts with "I hate to have to do this, but..."

So I thought "Well, what if we just set dates and people could go or not go?"  That approach would kill all the need for planning.  You set it up, you communicate it, and you forget it.  I can set it up.  I certainly can forget it so the only thing missing is the "You communicate it".

Welcome to "You communicate it".