Leaving On A Jet Plane

I have neglected my blog terribly. But as to make up for past sins, I will try to do better. At the butt crack of dawn tomorrow morning , the KB and I are headed to New England to see the colorful Fall foliage. This is a tip that is twenty years over due. There is nothing as splendid as Autumn in the Northeast. I hope to take many pictures and post upon our return.

Regards,
Vern

Christmas at the Hall's

The dishwasher had barely begun chugging away on Thanksgiving day when the KB began to tackle the Christmas decorations.  It was night fall when she finished.  It is a tradition for the men folk (Steve, Jon, and me) to set up the trees and then stand back, watch the master (KB) work.  Phyl loves to decorate the house for Christmas and as for the rest of us, well, we get to heck out of the way.  We learned a long time ago that "helping" meant being in ear shot only.  

There are three trees in the house.  The kitchen tree, seen here to the left, is decorated with "kitchen" stuff.  I know, who would have thought, right? Kitchen stuff is classified as decorations that you would associated with the kitchen.  Things like little wine bottles, pots, a chef or two, tea cups, tea pot, little wooden spoons, and so on.

The family room tree is for the boys.  For the past christmas' we bought an ornament each year for each boy.  This is where they end up.  (right)  There is the tennis racket for Steve and the football for Jon.  The Texas A&M ornament for Steve and the Spiderman for Jon.

The main tree is in the living room.  When we were first married, we were like many young couple starting out.  We had bills and very little money for "extras" but the KB began a collection of ornaments.  We made a big deal about hanging each new addition to the tree every year.   So the "big" tree reflects our lives, the people in our lives, where we lived and what we found important.   An example is an ornament from the Governor of Maryland given to us by our close friends.  I find myself looking at each ornament and reminiscing.  

The all of our friends and family we want to wish each of you a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

GWRRA Weekend With Santa

The Baytown and Pasadena Texas GWRRA chapters are sponsoring a Christmas for some disadvantaged children. Yesterday, the Kitchen Boss and I jointed a group of fellow "Wingers" on 12/6 to wrap the presents that the group had purchased. It was a wonderful feeling to be able to bring a little Christmas to those less fortunate.

On Saturday 12/13 we decorated the bike for a police escorted motorcycle parade from the La Porte city park to the Methodist church were the children were waiting for the arrival of Santa. Santa, with the help of his elves, handed out the presents to the near 200 anxious children. It was a great time for all.  

Later that evening the GWRRA Zoo Chapter had their Christmas party.  It was a lot of fun.

A Friend for Life

Have you every met someone that you feel as though you have know for an eternity?  Or each time that you see them again, it is as though they have only been away for only a few moments instead of years.  My buddy Bill is one such person.  We met at Romeo 404, a tactical landing site, near the DMZ in Korea way back in 1977.  Our Army units were supporting maneuvers for combat readiness.  He was an Air Traffic Controller stationed at the garden assignment of P'yong Yong Taek.  I was from H-220 tower at Camp Casey, 40 miles north of Seoul.  After Korea, we both were assigned to Cairns Army Airfield, Fort Rucker, Alabama.  I had left the Army by the time that Bill returned from Korea and signed in to Cairns.    Later, we both attended Enterprise Community College in Enterprise Alabama on the GI bill.  He filled my vacancy in the control tower at Martin State Airport, in East Baltimore in the Summer of 1979.  He completed the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City in 1980 and went on to work in the tower in Moline Illinois.  On August 3rd 1981 we both stayed home from work, me in Baltimore and he in Moline, and the rest is history.  PATCO was a positive event for us both.  Today he is retired and travels around the world with his wonderful wife of 26 years, Gail.  They are two perfectly matched soul mates.  On Wednesday (11/19/08) Bill called me to say that he and Gail were passing through and wanted to get together, tomorrow.  It was great.  

Bill and Gail, thanks for being great.

The Zoo Group

Shortly after buying our Goldwing this Spring we discovered the GWRRA.  That's the Goldwing Road Riders of America.  www.GWRRA.org  We had less than 300 miles on the bike when we rode to a neighboring town for a gelato. We met a couple who invited us to attend a meeting of the GWRRA "Zoo" Group in Pasadena, Texas. It was the first of many enjoyable experiences. The KB and I are now GWRRA members and ride with the group every chance that we get. This is a picture of our windshield cover.  The purpose of the cover is to protect the windshield from the Sun.

Friends in From Florida

Riding with Friends

 November 16-18, 2008

It doesn't get better than this.  Our friends flew in from Florida for a visit.  It was a visit that was long over due but our scheduled had postponed their visit for over a year.  In May of 2007, the KB and I flew to Florida for a visit.  We rented a Harley Fatboy, and rode for two and a half days.  The

 Fatboy was a poor choice on my part.  It is suspension challenged and rides rather rough.    When they arrived, they rented a Harley Ultra Classic and we rode for three days.  The riding in Southeast Texas can in no way compare to the scenery of the North central Florida horse country.  But we still managed to ride over 600 miles in three days.  

On Saturday we rode to the huge town of Rye, Texas.  We ate at the local restaurant and drank several cups of hot coffee while visiting with the local folks.  Nothing fancy but very nice, in a country way, and well worth repeating.  

Ride day two saw us on the road with the ladies to Brazos Bend State Park.  It was very cold when we  started out.  Warm clothes was the focus  of the pre-ride preparation.  On the was back we rode through some of the communities that were devastated by hurricane Ike.  My thanks to the ladies

 for riding in such cold weather.  

Day three was a well planned ride to Surf Side, Texas.  The original plan was to ride FM 87 

from Surf Side to Galveston.  But when we stopped by the Oyster Bay PD to inquire about the FM 87 road conditions.The dispatcher informed us that 

  Ike had washed away the road to Galveston.  Plan "B" was quickly formulated in the parking lot of a seaside park.  We rode to Angelton for lunch.  We stopped by the fire station to ask when the local workers eat lunch.  They sent us to Mama's Kitchen which had some comfort food.  Another life lesson relearned...  go native and eat what the locals are eating.  I noticed that there was a Chef's Salad on the menu.  I inquired as to how fresh it was.  The lovely waitress, who reminded me of Flo from Mel's Diner, responded that she "ain't never sold one of those."  Mama's is not really a repeat.  We rode on to Alvin then home.  It was a great day of riding.  

Tuesday morning we returned the rental to the Harley dealer.  It was sad to be putting an end to that part of their visit.  I rode home alone. 

It was a great visit and we are already looking at a plan to ride Florida or the Natchez Trace in the Spring.  

Many thanks to Gary and Carol for a wonderful visit.  And yes there was more to the visit than just riding motorcycles... a lot more.

My First Blog

Do you see anything different about me?  Ah yes, I blog now.

With 2008 drawing to a close, I have many things for which to be thankful.  First, for my health and the health of those around me.  Second, for the love that i receive from my family.  Lastly, is the opportunities that I have been afforded, both personally and professionally.    

This is a picture of my "bride" of 27 years and our oldest son, Steve, at the Texas Rangers baseball game in September.   Yes, Steve arranged for seats in the club house and it was a rather nice way to enjoy the game.  The Kitchen Boss (KB) is not a fan of baseball but if she is forced to go then this is the only way to get her there.  

Travel, domestic and foreign,  seems to be the byword for me in '08.  On the domestic front, I have been to DC, MD, and FL. multiple times.  Travel to Alabama, one of my favorite

places to visit,  has eluded me this year.

We also traveled to San Antonio 3-4 times to visit our youngest son, Jon, a senior at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA).  One of those trips was for our evacuation during hurricane Ike.  Travel to see our oldest son in Dallas is always a great trip.  He always is the consummate entertainer as evidenced by the Ranger's game.   We also traveled to Chicago for a week in August.  It was not enough time to see everything.  

Our foreign travel placed the KB and me in Heidelberg, Germany for 12 days in May.  Wow, what a great trip.  I worked and she was the tourist.

Lufthansa Airlines upgrade us to Business Class.  Here I am in the "pod."  Once in Heidelberg there were river cruises (2), a chamber music concert, a State dinner at the "Palatinate Versailles", and an opportunity to share ideas with the global space operations community.  I Chaired two sessions at the 2008 Space Ops Conference and presented a paper on NASA's work in the operations theater for the Constellation Program.  

October found me on a plane to Toulouse, France.  I have the pleasure of working on the Space Operations Committee-at-Large for 2010.  I saw Paris through the windows of the airport and I saw the countryside around Toulouse while landing and taking off.  France is a repeat and it will be a trip that I take the KB.  

I was fortunate this Spring to replace my Honda VTX 1300  with a new Goldwing GL 1800.  The VTX was an '06 with less than 12,000 miles but the seat was uncomfortable for the KB after about an hour.  We looked at the 

Harley-Davidson Ultra, BMW 1200 LT, Victory and the Honda Goldwing as a replacement.  We rented a Goldwing from the local Eagle Rider store.  It was a very cold day and the KB almost froze but to her credit, she hung in there and we put nearly 200 miles on the bike in one day.   We now have nearly 6000 miles on the new Goldwing.  

About hurricane Ike...  We were blessed.  We have minimal damage to our home and property.  Many others were not as lucky.  This past Saturday (11/9/08) we rode the motorcycle to Galveston for the first time since the storm.  A motorcycle allows you the advantage of being in your surroundings.  Galveston is a long way from where she was pre-Ike.  In fact, it will take years to recover fully.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Galveston.

I hope that you appreciate reading this as much as I did writing it.

Regards,

Vern