Thanksgiving, Black Friday and SCUBA

We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner with Gail at our house. The Turkey we got from Publix was one of the best ever. The white meat was very moist and the flavor was good. It was a large turkey so we will be having leftovers for a while. Of course after Jim stripped the meat from the rack and made soup. Carol said it was the best ever he made.

On Friday after Thanksgiving we were still going to go to the YMCA for our exercise routines, but Jim got up at 5:45 AM (without setting the alarm) and went to Walmart to see if he could get a small sewing machine for Carol. It was a little wild and crowded there but he was lucky and got the last one. Carol's Bernina machine is so heavy, it is difficult to take it out of the cabinet and go to her quilting meetings with it. So this lighter machine will make it much easier and it will be better for the expensive Bernina.

I thought I would show some of the SCUBA video taken while diving in St Thomas. This was taken with a little cheap underwater camera I got earlier this year and I am still amazed at how good it shows the diving experience.

Yes, that is me in the background chasing along with the turtle. I really appreciated Peter, the dive master, for taking my camera to get this video.

Great Pancakes

Saturday was our first pancake breakfast of the season and we had sold 80 tickets for it. Our very capable crew did their normal fantastic job mixing up scrambled eggs, frying sausage and flipping pancakes and virtually everyone was served before 9 AM. Even though we start serving at 8:30 AM some were lined up at the door well before that.

There was a bake sale going on at the same time and they sold $113.00 of cakes etc. to benefit the Litigation Fund.

That evening Carol and I got together with Marilyn and Gus Lopes, Bob and Terry King and went to dinner at La Rocca (previously My Father's Place) and had a nice dinner. The food was very good ... Carol had the fried calamari appetizer and I had a rack of baby back ribs. Their prices are very reasonable as I spent less than $28.00 including the tip. Of course we did not have any drinks as were going to do that later!!

We danced the remaining of the evening away at Harbor Isles, the park next to ours. Jay Smith was playing and our group really enjoys his music. I guess we are senior groupies because we see him about once per month.

I spent Sunday getting the Hazelwood reunion mailing list cleaned up so I can send out post cards and e-mails about the 2011 reunion. There are about 180 postcards to send and 180 e-mails. The e-mails are the easy ones but printing, addressing and sending out the postcards is the time consuming job. I am hoping for a good return on each.

Happy turkey day .... Ours is thawing and we are going to have Carol's sister Gail over for dinner. I think she is bringing her gentleman friend too.

Our shells arrive

Before we left St Thomas we sent the shells I found while SCUBA diving by Priority Mail because we didn't have the room for them in our luggage. The other reason was because one of the shells still had a part of a dead critter in it and it was beginning to really reek. We did pack it inside a zip-lock bag to keep odor contained.

Yesterday the package finally arrived and the mailman came to the door with it. When I answered the door I said "We finally are getting our shells from St Thomas." He handed me the box and the other mail and said "This box really smells bad!!" And it really did reek but not as bad as when I opened it. I took the stinker shell out and hosed it down in the yard and got all of the dead stuff out of it and then soaked all three shells in a weak mixture of Clorox.


Today I got the biggest one cleaned of the stuff that clings to the shells and then took a couple of pictures of it with Carol holding it. If you want to see the picture larger, just click on it.

Party party

We had a great time at the party last night and it seemed everyone also did. I surprised the crowd by attending in my Navy Officer Whites complete with sword. Since it was a party to recognize veterans, I set up the Hazelwood ship model and hung up the reunion flag folding it so the word reunion did not show. It was located just as guests came in so I "manned the quarterdeck" and greeted all the guests. It was fun for me and a surprise for those attending. Just before dinner I did change out of my dress whites and went into my Tropical Whites (short sleeves like a Top Gun uniform) and that made it much more comfortable. That is Carol with John and Mary Lou Serafin our friends from Trafford who live near us.











The food prepared by Marilyn Lopes was very good and the musical entertainment was also excellent.

We got home about 10 PM and went to bed shortly afterwards. Jim and Donna Henry spent the night with us and in the morning we had coffee, conversation and a good time visiting. When they left for church, we also left and headed up to Anna Maria Island for a SCUBA "Grab the Crabs" picnic.

Those divers who had got a stone crab claw recently, entered it in the contest and the largest claw winner won first choice at a very fine array of SCUBA equipment. After they got their prizes, tickets were drawn out as a raffle for the remaining stuff. One of our tickets got drawn out after a while and I got a retractable reel that I had been looking at. Not a bad prize but I was a little late to get anything better. Our second ticket was not drawn out until the very last draw. That has happened to us so often we are getting used to it. We did get a few other small things that are OK.

The meal was fresh grouper bites and barbecue pork and the trimmings. An OK meal but not the level of Marilyn's!!!

We both were tired driving home and rested the rest of the day.

Home again

Wow, it has been over a week since I posted anything on here!!

Well we got back home on Saturday NOV 7 and got right back into the swing of things here. Sunday was mostly getting unpacked and resting. Monday was YMCA, racquetball for me and aerobics for Carol. I guess I was really rested up because I played some of my best racquetball in a year. Monday was also "get the mail" and go through all of it. Tuesday was bowling as it started a week earlier and we missed the first session. The highlight of bowling for Carol is going to lunch afterwards!!!

Wednesday Carol had a breakfast to attend and I was at the Y in the morning and the still getting caught up on mail stuff and getting ready for a Veterans Day program that our community was having in the afternoon. I took the model of the Hazelwood (the ship I served on) and put it on display at the event. It was a real nice program and it a shame that more folks did not attend.

Thursday I attended a Tin Can Sailors meeting and lunch at the Legion. Naturally there was a lot of sea stories and general "bull" going on. It is a nice bunch of guys and we all have the common experience of serving on a Tin Can (Navy Destroyer). And then on Thursday evening I call bingo at our clubhouse. I enjoy it and the attendees seem to enjoy me calling. Carol won one game so it was not a total lose for the evening.

And here it is Friday evening already. We went to the Y again this morning (8AM - 9 AM)and the went to the clubhouse to help getting set up for a dinner dance this Saturday evening. It is to celebrate Veterans Day as well as to a have a lot of fun, food and dancing. I set up the ship model again and we will have Jim and Donna Henry, friends from Tampa and John and Mary Lou Serafin (Trafford friends who live nearby) join us at the party. I expect I will have some pictures of the party to post on my next entry on this Diary.

Till then, keep smiling!!

Still having fun

Monday and Tuesday Hank and went diving both days. All 4 dives were really good ones.

On Monday we saw a couple of turtles and got some video of them. Also saw several Moray eels and lobster. I found a couple of conch shells that were not great but at least they did not have any “residents” in them. On the second dive we went through several tunnels and on one very small diameter one I had a tight time getting through. I didn’t panic since there were 4 others to help me if I got stuck. I worked my way through without any help!!! Also saw 2 turtles and got some good video of it. I got two smaller conch shells

On Tuesday we did 2 dives also and Peter was not available so we had a different captain on the boat. He was quite good also. On these dives we were around a lot of ledges and overhangs and on the second dive I even went into a small cave. We saw several large lobsters but we are not allowed to take any of them home for dinner!!! I did find a very nice large pink conch that was nearly totally buried in the sand. It did not have a resident and I brought it up. Carol was very pleased with it. It does require a lot of cleaning.

So now we have 3 shells to bring home and naturally they stink yet. We are going to get a Priority Mail box and ship them back to us along with some smaller shells and a rock Carol found.