Well here we are in 2008, bright eyed, bushy-tailed, and ready to go...NOT!
I find that my contribution to this Blog runs in spurts, sometimes months apart. My son Tim, however, manageses to update his multiple Blogs writing about Florida, Diet and Exercise and his other varied interests...must be nice.
I'm looking for new ideas to write about so, if anyone actually reads this, maybe you can make suggestions.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Oh Yeah...I forgot:
Brazil: Rio de Janeiro, Hortolandia, Campinas.
The Caribbean: Cuba (Guantanamo Bay); the U.S. Virgin Islands (St. Thomas, St. John, St. Croix).
The Caribbean: Cuba (Guantanamo Bay); the U.S. Virgin Islands (St. Thomas, St. John, St. Croix).
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Travel or Places I've visited...
I've been to a lot of places in my life. I was reminded of this when Ellen's sister took a Mediterranean cruise recently and regaled us with the places she visited.
I took a six month Mediterranean cruise once (a long time ago) and it didn't cost me a dime. I visited Gibralter, the French Riviera, Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Livorno, Rome, Pisa, Pompei, Mt. Vesuvius), Sicily, Greece and the Greek Islands in the Aegean Sea. While sailing in the Med. we managed to wander into a NATO naval live fire zone and shells were dropping out of the sky near us. During the Atlantic crossing (which took 21 days) my ship hid from a storm behind the island of Madeira (off the west coast of Africa) ... A friend and I rented a paddle boat at the beach on the Riviera, bought some beer and paddled back out to the ship (one mile) and drank our beer while the sailors still on duty watched us with envy and called us all sorts of disparaging names (they were just jealous)...it was all a great adventure.
Later, during my work career I visited Puerto Rico, Mexico, Canada, Penang Malaysia, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Great Britain (multiple times), France (multiple times) and Germany.
Ellen and I have been to London, Barcelona and the Baleric Islands (off the cost of Spain in the Med.) a couple of times, and we spent time in Rome on our 25th wedding anniversary. Our most recent trip was a week in Paris a couple of years ago to attend the Paris Air Show. We took a side trip to Normandy to visit the cemetery and Omaha Beach. We also managed to have dinner in the Eiffel tower, a sunset cruise on the Seine and a cabaret show at the Moulon Rouge.
Pretty boring stuff huh!
The reality is that I've met many people from different countries and they're, for the most part, just like us. They want to live in peace, feed their families, work at a decent job and be safe.
When Ellen and I lived near Rochester, NY for a couple of years, a couple of years ago, we met and helped a refugee Afgan family. A mother (father died in Afganistan), 14 year old daughter, 12 year old son and two smaller daughters about 7 and 10 if I remember right. The children spoke english but the mother spoke none. The 14 year old handled the financial stuff for the mother as well as the interpreting. They came to this country through the auspices of Catholic Charities but were sponsored by Saints Place, a volunteer group from our church whose mission was to help outfit and support new refugees no matter where they came from. They left all their local familiarity and friends behind because the mother wanted to get her children away from the dangers and have a better life. We found out later that she left a married 16 year old daughter as well as two older sons behind because she thought, if she had too big a family she would not be able to get the younger children out of country. Her sons have now joined her after proving, through DNA analysis, that they are hers. Not so easy is it.
We take a lot for granted living in the US as we do. I can tell you from personal experience that this is the greatest country on this earth. People clammer to come here and join us and leave their misery behind. The current radicals that want to tear us down will not succeed. Sure, they'll disrupt our travel plans from time to time; they'll cause misery and danger in places around the world but they will not overcome us. They're a minority in the larger scheme of things and we should crush them like the bugs they are.
I've got to go now and hang out my flag!!!
I took a six month Mediterranean cruise once (a long time ago) and it didn't cost me a dime. I visited Gibralter, the French Riviera, Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Livorno, Rome, Pisa, Pompei, Mt. Vesuvius), Sicily, Greece and the Greek Islands in the Aegean Sea. While sailing in the Med. we managed to wander into a NATO naval live fire zone and shells were dropping out of the sky near us. During the Atlantic crossing (which took 21 days) my ship hid from a storm behind the island of Madeira (off the west coast of Africa) ... A friend and I rented a paddle boat at the beach on the Riviera, bought some beer and paddled back out to the ship (one mile) and drank our beer while the sailors still on duty watched us with envy and called us all sorts of disparaging names (they were just jealous)...it was all a great adventure.
Later, during my work career I visited Puerto Rico, Mexico, Canada, Penang Malaysia, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Great Britain (multiple times), France (multiple times) and Germany.
Ellen and I have been to London, Barcelona and the Baleric Islands (off the cost of Spain in the Med.) a couple of times, and we spent time in Rome on our 25th wedding anniversary. Our most recent trip was a week in Paris a couple of years ago to attend the Paris Air Show. We took a side trip to Normandy to visit the cemetery and Omaha Beach. We also managed to have dinner in the Eiffel tower, a sunset cruise on the Seine and a cabaret show at the Moulon Rouge.
Pretty boring stuff huh!
The reality is that I've met many people from different countries and they're, for the most part, just like us. They want to live in peace, feed their families, work at a decent job and be safe.
When Ellen and I lived near Rochester, NY for a couple of years, a couple of years ago, we met and helped a refugee Afgan family. A mother (father died in Afganistan), 14 year old daughter, 12 year old son and two smaller daughters about 7 and 10 if I remember right. The children spoke english but the mother spoke none. The 14 year old handled the financial stuff for the mother as well as the interpreting. They came to this country through the auspices of Catholic Charities but were sponsored by Saints Place, a volunteer group from our church whose mission was to help outfit and support new refugees no matter where they came from. They left all their local familiarity and friends behind because the mother wanted to get her children away from the dangers and have a better life. We found out later that she left a married 16 year old daughter as well as two older sons behind because she thought, if she had too big a family she would not be able to get the younger children out of country. Her sons have now joined her after proving, through DNA analysis, that they are hers. Not so easy is it.
We take a lot for granted living in the US as we do. I can tell you from personal experience that this is the greatest country on this earth. People clammer to come here and join us and leave their misery behind. The current radicals that want to tear us down will not succeed. Sure, they'll disrupt our travel plans from time to time; they'll cause misery and danger in places around the world but they will not overcome us. They're a minority in the larger scheme of things and we should crush them like the bugs they are.
I've got to go now and hang out my flag!!!
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Family
I've received suggestions from family that this Blog talk about family, or family history. I've never been one to dwell on the past, even when it comes to family, but I'll give it a try.
I was born in a small log cabin in.....
Wait that's not right.
I was born in a large log cabin in the mountains of.....
Nah! I was born in Jamaica, NY a community within the city limits of NYC but on Long Island. Nothing dramatic here.
My mother was Dorothy Rose Miller, the daughter of a milkman and volunteer firefighter in Rockville Centre, NY. My grandfather Miller was mister 5x5 and always willing to have a beer and a good time in the pub (joking, laughing, fighting, etc.). I don't remember my grandmother Miller.
My father was Joseph Edward Lovelock, the son of Ellen (Nellie) Lovelock and Joseph A. Lovelock of Brooklyn, NY. My father had cousins, on his mother's side (the Cullen's) who lived on Long Island and he spent many summers there where he met my mother. My grandfather Lovelock was an orphan and we don't really have any concrete evidence of his heritage except that Lovelock is a common English name (my brother Joe may have more information).
I have two brothers, Joseph and Robert, one of whom still lives on Long Island (Joe) and one who recently moved to Florida (where I live) after many years in Salt Lake City.
My early years were spent living in the Bayswater section of Far Rockaway, NY. My father was a NYC Fireman and my mother was a homemaker although she developed Multiple Sclerosis in 1948 and later died in 1956. My father remarried to Julia Antonelli, a NYC Policewoman. He retired from the NYFD after 20 years and went to work for the IRS (this is a story in itself as he saw the employment ad while sitting on the pot one day, applied and got the job, much to his surprise). He spent 10 years with the IRS in NYC and in Miami. My mother retired from the NYPD after 20 years, and they moved to Florida. She went back after about five months because she was able to enhance her pension if she spent another year on the job. She did and they endured a year long long distance relationship and commute.
I left NY when I was 18 and joined the US Navy and spent the next 3 1/2 years, out of a four year enlistment, seasick. I was stationed on a wooden minesweeper (wooden ships and iron men) which was 172 feet long with only a 10 foot draft so we bounced around the ocean like a cork. I traveled all through the Mediterranean and Carribean and after four years left the Navy, moved to Chicago, went to work for Motorola and married my sweetheart Ellen (this is another story). We lived in Chicago, outside Chicago, in Sunrise, FL, in Derry, NH, in Brooksville, FL, in Orlando, FL, in Pittsford, NY, in Spring Hill, FL and now back to Brooksville.
I'm retired now but have worked for various electronic companies for 40 years. Ellen owns the Paper Porch in Brooksville, a successful gift shop, and really enjoys what she's doing. We're on our ninth house, including a vacation house in the mountains of North Carolina, and we've been married alomost 42 years. We have four sons, all of whom live in Florida and we have four grandchildren (Donovan, Annie, Kyle and Emily).
OK...that's the "thumbnail" sketch of my life. Any part of this narrative can be expanded if someone wants to know more or, if you're bored by now, suggest another topic and I'll try to oblige.
I was born in a small log cabin in.....
Wait that's not right.
I was born in a large log cabin in the mountains of.....
Nah! I was born in Jamaica, NY a community within the city limits of NYC but on Long Island. Nothing dramatic here.
My mother was Dorothy Rose Miller, the daughter of a milkman and volunteer firefighter in Rockville Centre, NY. My grandfather Miller was mister 5x5 and always willing to have a beer and a good time in the pub (joking, laughing, fighting, etc.). I don't remember my grandmother Miller.
My father was Joseph Edward Lovelock, the son of Ellen (Nellie) Lovelock and Joseph A. Lovelock of Brooklyn, NY. My father had cousins, on his mother's side (the Cullen's) who lived on Long Island and he spent many summers there where he met my mother. My grandfather Lovelock was an orphan and we don't really have any concrete evidence of his heritage except that Lovelock is a common English name (my brother Joe may have more information).
I have two brothers, Joseph and Robert, one of whom still lives on Long Island (Joe) and one who recently moved to Florida (where I live) after many years in Salt Lake City.
My early years were spent living in the Bayswater section of Far Rockaway, NY. My father was a NYC Fireman and my mother was a homemaker although she developed Multiple Sclerosis in 1948 and later died in 1956. My father remarried to Julia Antonelli, a NYC Policewoman. He retired from the NYFD after 20 years and went to work for the IRS (this is a story in itself as he saw the employment ad while sitting on the pot one day, applied and got the job, much to his surprise). He spent 10 years with the IRS in NYC and in Miami. My mother retired from the NYPD after 20 years, and they moved to Florida. She went back after about five months because she was able to enhance her pension if she spent another year on the job. She did and they endured a year long long distance relationship and commute.
I left NY when I was 18 and joined the US Navy and spent the next 3 1/2 years, out of a four year enlistment, seasick. I was stationed on a wooden minesweeper (wooden ships and iron men) which was 172 feet long with only a 10 foot draft so we bounced around the ocean like a cork. I traveled all through the Mediterranean and Carribean and after four years left the Navy, moved to Chicago, went to work for Motorola and married my sweetheart Ellen (this is another story). We lived in Chicago, outside Chicago, in Sunrise, FL, in Derry, NH, in Brooksville, FL, in Orlando, FL, in Pittsford, NY, in Spring Hill, FL and now back to Brooksville.
I'm retired now but have worked for various electronic companies for 40 years. Ellen owns the Paper Porch in Brooksville, a successful gift shop, and really enjoys what she's doing. We're on our ninth house, including a vacation house in the mountains of North Carolina, and we've been married alomost 42 years. We have four sons, all of whom live in Florida and we have four grandchildren (Donovan, Annie, Kyle and Emily).
OK...that's the "thumbnail" sketch of my life. Any part of this narrative can be expanded if someone wants to know more or, if you're bored by now, suggest another topic and I'll try to oblige.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Getting started...
So, now that I've set up this BLOG I need to decide what to write about.
I'm a little older (a lot older) than the typical blogger so I could write about life (boring), my 40+ year career in the electronics industry (maybe), family (they might not want me to write about them but it might be fun), my recent fondness for firearms, or my love of the North Carolina Smoky Mountains.
I'm also an avid reader of technothrillers, mystery novels and historical novels (my favorite authors are W.E.B. Griffen, Greg Iles, Dale Brown, John Jakes and I particularly recommend Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander series ((20 books)).
While I ponder, I'd welcome any suggestions.
Tom
I'm a little older (a lot older) than the typical blogger so I could write about life (boring), my 40+ year career in the electronics industry (maybe), family (they might not want me to write about them but it might be fun), my recent fondness for firearms, or my love of the North Carolina Smoky Mountains.
I'm also an avid reader of technothrillers, mystery novels and historical novels (my favorite authors are W.E.B. Griffen, Greg Iles, Dale Brown, John Jakes and I particularly recommend Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander series ((20 books)).
While I ponder, I'd welcome any suggestions.
Tom
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