Scattered Thoughts . . .

After we met Adam at the airport yesterday, we came back to our house with the grandkids in tow. Once Liza arrived from work, I grilled dinner for all of us but there were a few hours to kill before dinner though so Lukey, Adam and I pulled out Lukey's new train layout (from this past Christmas) to play with some trains. This was a rare occasion so I allowed Lukey to run some of my newer locomotives which Adam had not seen yet... the ones with locomotive sounds, smoke, operating lights, and crew sounds. This also entails allowing Lukey to use a much more complicated controller with far too many little buttons to erroneously press but he did well and learned quickly. He'll probably forget how to use it before we use it again but he did well and didn't destroy either of my locomotives.  Lukey accidentally found that one of the buttons on this big controller activates a crash sound sequence... the locomotive makes these horrendous crashing sounds as it comes to a sudden st

Adam was scheduled to arrive in Vermont sometime last week but, as luck would have it, his aircraft had a mechanical problem and they diverted to not only a different airfield but to a completely different country.  Adam has had the worst luck in air travel ever since we sent him to a Young Eagles encampment when he was 12 years old... a school run by the Experimental Aircraft Association. No matter when he has flown... no matter where he has flown... whether it was with the airlines or during flight lessons or with the military... he has consistently run into weather cancellations and maintenance cancellations. This three or four leg journey was no different. On the positive side, this time, his aircraft actually diverted to a country which he had intended to visit. His leave schedule never worked out for a trip to this country so his originally planned visit was cancelled. Now, here he was stuck in this country for three or four days!  This diversion actually turned into a luc

Walking toward the waterfront... After visiting the cemetery Saturday morning, we headed to Burlington. Our plan was to visit the waterfront... walk around a bit... shoot some photos... then head up to Church Street for some lunch and a few drinks... then maybe shoot some additional photos down at the waterfront and in downtown Burlington.  We had lunch at Ri Ra's, as usual. We each had a Kilcooley sandwich... some chips... and some roasted brussel sprouts. Needless to say, this meal was delicious, as always.  Unfortunately, while we were in Ri Ra's the weather had changed drastically! Very  dark, ominous clouds rolled in producing heavy rain, lightning and thunder.  There was a brief reprieve in the rain so we made our way for outdoors again. More dark clouds and rain were approaching from the Adirondack Mountains across the lake so we headed into Macy's for shelter...  just in time! Then the skies opened up again. Macy's turned out to be a great place to se

This past weekend, we visited the cemetery to visit Dawn. When we arrived at the cemetery, it was a beautiful Saturday morning (which later turned to some violent thunderstorms)... it was sunny, warm, blue skies with some fluffy cumulus clouds.  Dawn has a fairly new bench at her grave which we had not seen yet, however, Sheila had promised Dawn that she would take a seat on this bench and view the distant mountains surrounding the cemetery. We finally had an opportunity to do this on Saturday morning. Although we see signs of Dawn around us fairly often, Sheila was happy to fulfill this promise and happy to say hello to Dawn at her resting place. A couple of plots away, is the grave of a Chief Master Sergeant I met shortly after arriving at the air defense unit here in Vermont way back in 1995. He instantly reminded me of many of the non-commissioned officers I had worked with through the years. He was, perhaps, the first person I respected at my new unit. When we first visit