We're in Ohio

Today is Monday, July 7 and we're visiting with our good friends, Molly and Bob Dutina who live in Batavia, Ohio (which is East of Cincinnati). When we lived in Ohio, they were our best friends and they still hold a special place in our lives.

Bob is a lab technician at a local hospital and Molly is a nanny. They love the outdoors and enjoy walking and hiking, especially in the Smoky Mountains.

The picture at left was taken when the four of us made a visit to Reelfoot Lake which is in the Northwest part of Tennessee. We went in the winter to go see Bald Eagles that come down from Canada to winter there. We had a grand time.

Tomorrow will be just a Birthday post so if your Birthday falls tomorrow you can see who you share your day with. Our next 'real' post will be Thursday as we go to the next place.

Today is July 7 and if your Birthday is today you share your day with: Michelle Kwan (Gold medalist Olympic ice skater), Shelly Duvall (actress -Olive Oyl in "Popeye"), Ringo Starr (drummer for The Beatles), Doc Severinsen (bandleader for Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show"), Pierre Cardin (fashion designer), and Robert Heinlein (science fiction author - "Stranger in a Strange Land").

Winging Our Way to Cincinnati

As you read this post, Betty and I are winging our way to Cincinnati, Ohio on a big Delta jet. We'll grab our bags, get our rental car and go to our friends, Bob & Molly Dutina, who live in Batavia, Ohio.

As we're far away from home, church and friends, we offer this prayer:

Lord, there is no place we can go
Where your love can't find us.
We also know that your love covers
Our home, our church and our friends.
We put all we hold dear into
Your hands and heart,
Trusting them to you,
Your protection and your grace.

Amen

Today is July 6 and if today is your Birthday then you share your day with: George W. Bush (President of the US), Geoffrey Rush (actor - Pirate in "Pirates of the Carribean"), Sylvester Stallone (Shakesperean actor - "Rocky"), Burt Ward (actor - Robin in TV show "Batman"), Dalai Lama (Tibetan spiritual leader), Della Reese (actress/singer - "Touched by an Angel"), Janet Leigh (actress - "Psycho"), Bill Hailey (singer - "Rock Around the Clock"), Nancy Reagan (actress/wife of President Reagan), and John Paul Johns (Revolutionary war hero).

Eastward Ho!

Betty and I are heading East tomorrow morning. We're flying to Cincinnati, Ohio where we'll spend several days with our good friends, Bob & Molly Dutina. Then we'll drive to Bowling Green, Kentucky to spend several days with my sister and brother-in-law, Jane & Hack McCauley. While there we'll go to a family reunion on my side of the family. Then we'll drive to Franklin, Tennessee, South of Nashville, to visit with Betty's stepmother, Nita Wade, and her sister, Margie Wade. Finally, we'll drive back up to Mount Vernon, Ohio, Northeast of Columbus, Ohio, to visit with our son, Chris, daughter-in-law, Tracy, and new grandson, Javier.

I scheduled some posts each day if you're interested in where we are and to keep the Birthday sharing going if you have a Birthday while we're gone.

Be good while we're gone.

Today is July 5 and if today is your Birthday then you share your day with: Huey Lewis (singer - "Huey Lewis and the News"), Warren Oates (actor - "The Wild Bunch"), Georges Pompidou (former President of France), P. T. Barnum (circus showman), Bill Watterson (cartoonist - "Calvin & Hobbs"), Julie Nixon Eisenhower (daughter of President Richard Nixon), Milburn Stone (actor - Doc on "Gunsmoke"), and Sylvester Graham (inventor of the Graham Cracker).

Small Town 4th of July

Our little village, Corrales, New Mexico, still puts on a great, old-fashioned 4th of July parade. Here are some pictures from today's parade.

First, of course is the presentation of the colors.

There were lots of people just having fun.

Of course, the Boy Scouts were there.

No parade is complete without dogs.

And some more folks just having fun.

Lots and lots of kids, including a little girl sitting next to us who held her ears when the fire truck sirens went off.

No parade is complete without clowns.

There were a ton of antique cars.

There were fire trucks and bicyclists, including this woman who towed a small trailer with a cage holding two of her chickens.

There were llamas.

No agricultural community parade would be complete without tractors.

Most important for us were the horses of Corrales.

Finally, no parade that has horses can do without these incredible volunteers.

Betty and I had a ball. We're glad there are small towns and villages that still find it important to celebrate our country and the freedoms we have. We hope you all have a great Independence Day!

Today is July 4th and if your Birthday is today you share your day with: George Steinbrenner (New York Yankees owner), Gina Lollobridgida (Italian actress), Neil Simon (playwright - "The Odd Couple"), Ann Landers (advice columnist), Mitch Miller (bandleader), and Calvin Coolidge (30th US President).

Cowboy Dreams

Awhile back I wrote about giving up on my dream to become a cowboy and replacing it with the more realistic dream of becoming a better horseman (see "Changing Dreams").

However, the dream sometimes returns in the most unlikely places... such as this cartoon I ran across:


Don't you think that's me? The dream never really dies. Max, I'm ready the next time you need a header or heeler at the ranch.

Today is July 3 and if today is your Birthday then you share your day with: Tom Cruise (actor - "Mission Impossible" - and Oprah couch jumper), Montel Williams (TV talk show host and MS crusader), Tom Stoppard (playwright - "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" - I actually saw this in Boston in 1969), George M. Cohan (stage performer - "Yankee Doodle Dandy"), Jean Claude Duvalier (Haitian dictator), Jan Smithers (actress - Bailey on "WKRP in Cincinnati"), and Achilles Alferaki (composer).

Simone is Back!

Simone, our resident Roadrunner is back. She's not coming back to sleep in the stable like she did all last winter, but she's coming back on a regular basis to get drinks of water from Morgunn and Gletta's water tank.


After drinking, she hops up to the top fence rail and let's the world know she's there.


Simone is one of the many reasons we love to live in New Mexico.

Today is July 2 and if today is your Birthday you share your day with: Lindsay Lohan (actress and troubled young woman), Jose Canseco (baseball player and steroid user), Vincente Fox (President of Mexico), Richard Petty (NASCAR champion driver - "The King"), Dan Rowan (comedian - co-host of "Laugh In"), Thurgood Marshall (first black Supreme Court justice), Jerry Hall (Mrs. Mick Jagger), Dave Thomas (founder of Wendys restaurants), Walter Brennan (actor - Grandpa on "The Real McCoys"), and Valentinian III (Emperor of Rome, 425 AD).

It Happened in 1967

1967 was an interesting year. The Green Bay Packers won Super Bowl I against the Kansas City Chiefs, 35 - 10. The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Boston Red Sox in the World Series. The number 1 song for the year was "Kind of a Drag" by The Buckinghams (no, I don't remember it either). The number one movie was "The Dirty Dozen." The Academy Award for Best Picture was for "In the Heat of the Night." The most popular TV show for the year was "The Andy Griffith Show" followed closely by "The Lucy Show." Congress created the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).

More seriously, Israel won the Six-Day War and China exploded its first hydrogen bomb. Thurgood Marshall was sworn in as the first black Supreme Court justice and astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee were killed in a fire during a test in their capsule. Dr. Christian Barnard conducted the first heart transplant, but the patient died 18 days later.

The price of a first-class stamp was 5 cents and gas was about 35 cents a gallon.

More specifically, on July 1, 1967, The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" went to number one on the charts. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) conducted its first color broadcast and "Funny Girl" closed on Broadway.

Perhaps most importantly, at least for Betty and me, is we were married on July 1, 1967 at St. Bartholomews Episcopal Church in Nashville, Tennessee. We had a simple, but beautiful wedding followed by a reception in the church fellowship hall with a wedding cake, mints, peanuts, and punch. Afterwards we drove to Jekyll Island, Georgia for a week's honeymoon.


We celebrated our 41st anniversary today by going to see "WALL E' which was great and going to The Golden Corral (world's greatest pig-out place) for lunch.


Betty and I went together for six years before we were married. We met in High School when we were both sixteen (Awwwwwww). So, we've been sweethearts for 47 years.

It's been a great 41 years (plus 6)!

Today is July 1 and if today is your Birthday you share your day with: Us and our 41st anniversary, Liv Tyler (actress - "Lord of the Rings"), Pamela Anderson (actress? - "Baywatch"), Princess Diana (one-time future Queen of England), Dan Akroyd (comedian - "Saturday Night Live," "The Blues Brothers"), Jamie Farr (Klinger on M.A.S.H.), Olivia DeHavilland (actress - Melanie in "Gone With The Wind"), Charles Laughton (actor - "Hunchback of Notre Dame," and "Mutiny on tne Bounty"), and Gittfried Leibnez (German composer).