The Visitor from the East Continues His Westward Trip

Dad arrived from his visit with my sister's family for Christmas. His flight from Cleveland was only 25 minutes late (which is on time based on travel woes by other travelers this holiday season. Andrew and I were at the nashville Airport to pick him up and whisk him home to see the rest of the family.

Below is Dad and the Puzzle Master (aka great grandson Emerson) working on a puzzle on the kitchen floor. They had it together in no time flat.

Emerson is showing Carly his collection of Christmas DVDs before they leave to visit Santa.


A family photo of the Meadors as they prepare to leave for Adam's company Christmas party. Carly looks beautiful in a lovely red dress with white tights and black shoes with bows. Emerson is handsome in a red sweater. and his new shoes. Mom and Dad are all dressed up too. Rumor had it that Santa would visit the party. I asked Emerson to tell Santa that I wanted a red car for Christmas.

Carly's New Helmet

Carly was fitted for helmet yesterday. She has to wear the helmet 23 hours a day to help reshape her skull. She seems to have adapted to the helmet and doesn't cry while its on. The helmet is about 3/4 inch thick. As she grows they will remove layers inside it. Hopefully she will have to wear the helmet for 3 to 4 months.

More Grandchildren Pictures

Spiderman and Carly!! She loves the bouncy chair.

Emerson and Curious George!!!

What a great smile on Carly!!!!

Emerson and Carly playing together. He take great care of his little sister.

Test Time

Here are pictures of Emerson and Carly about the same age. Which one is which? Please leave your answers in the comments.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has come and gone. We had a great time with family members. Barbara's sister and husband (Patricia and Roy) and their daughter Jennifer and her friend Brian were able to be here for Thanksgiving along with Sara, Adam, Emerson and Carly. Above is the obligatory group picture. We enjoyed the traditional Thanksgiving meal and had plenty of left-overs.

Carly had the best seat in the dining room and the most toys to play with during dinner.

Veterans' Day Poppy Sale

On Saturday VFW Post 9851 mobilized to sell Poppys to support veteran relief efforts. We met at the Post in the morning and then fanned out through the city to sell Poppys in front of various stores and street corners. I had a busy corner with two other Post members. I estimated I was able to collect $200 to $300 during the 3 1/2 hours I worked. Some gave $20 bills and some just the loose change they had available. One of the other members on our corner even collected a $100 bill. The post also sold Poppys on Sunday. It was estimated that we were able to collect about $4600.

Awaiting the Results

Barbara and I went to our polling place today, arriving about 9:45 AM. I took us almost 2 hours to get to the voting booth. As you can see in the above photo, the place was jam-packed and the photo only shows half the crowd. There were several hundred people in line. It took us an hour to get to the the registration point and then about another hour to get to the voting booth. There were only 4 voting stations in the precinct. Way too few for the crowd. We talked to several people while in line and Barbara was smart and brought along a book to read. One person even brought her own lawn chair.

However, the wait was worth to vote in a country where your vote really means something.

Halloween 2008

Halloween was last night and the grand kids had fun getting dressed in the costumes. Emerson was one of his favorite heros, Batman. Carly was a black cat. Afterward getting dressed they had fun as they trick or treated in the neighborhood.

Barbara and I went to the Grand Old Opry on Saturday night to celebrate her birthday which was earlier in the week. We had a wonderful time and saw a fabulous show. The picture above shows the background for the Opry stage. The show was two hours long and composed of three segments.

The opening segment had Jim Ed Brown, Connie Smith, Jimmy C Newman, and The Whites. I am not a great fan of country music and know mostly the current singers. This group of singers was wonderful and sang some songs I was familiar with.

The second segment showcased Riders in the Sky, Jan Howard, and George Hamiliton IV (and V). The Riders in the Sky dress as the old time cowboys with fancy clothes and ten gallon hats. They sang several old time cowboy songs. George Hamiliton IV sang a parody of the song "Abilene" but about "Gasoline" and its high price. The song was very entertaining.

The final segment was absolutely FABULOUS. Trace Adkins was the first performer and sang 4 songs including 2 brand new songs that will be released on his next album. Martina McBride sang several songs including a duet with Connie Smith. Next Wynonna rocked the house with her voice and some very moving songs. The last act was Lee Greenwood who sang his well known hit song "I'm Proud to be an American" and it brought everyone to their feet.

Barbar got her money's worth for her birthday!!!

Hard Time on the Rock Pile

If you look on the left of the house photo, you will see a pile of rocks. Those rocks were removed from the front lawn before the sod was laid. Last summer the front yard was a mass of rocks, a whole bunch of weeds, and a lot of dirt. This week I started moving the rocks to the back yard where they are being used as a border for a future flower garden. I an moving them one or two at a time and walking them to the back. The yard is too steep to load up a wheel barrow and move a bunch at a time, particularly since the new location is up hill from the current pile ( at least I am too weak to push it). Thus I take them one at a time.

Haulin' on Old Hickory Lake

VFW Post 9851 and the Music City Powerboat Association (MCPA) held their 4th annual Haulin' on Old Hickory Poker Run on 2 August. The MCPA donates part of the proceeds from the event to the Relief Fund at the Post. As a member of the VFW Post, I joined several other Post and MCPA members on a lunch run to downtown Nashville on Friday, 1 August. The Post members road on a 31 foot pontoon boat with a 350 HP motor (note my pontoon has 40HP). I road on the upper level and had a great view of the Cumberland River. To get to downtown Nashville we had to go down the Cumberland River and through the lock at Old Hickory Dam. The upper left picture shows some of the MCPA boats getting ready to enter the lock. A large number of these boats are over 30 feet long, have 2 huge engines (454 cubic inches each) and go close to 100 MPH. The upper right picture shows the approach to the lock at the dam. The lower left picture shows the lock doors opening. Once in the lock , the doors were closed, and we were lowered 60 ft. The dock door opened and out we roared. The pontoon boat was doing 30MPH and we were rocked by the wakes from the MCPA boats as they passed us doing 50 to 70 MPH on the river. It was a grand 25 mile trip to Nashville and the lower right picture shows our approach to downtown. We tied up at the end of Broadway Street and about 50 of us went to lunch at Joe's Crab Shack. After lunch we headed back to Old Hickory Lake

When we got back to our host, Anchor High Marina and Grill, I was able to get a ride on a boat owned by Tim Baldwin. Tim is the President of MCPA and also a member of the Post. We roared up and down the lake at over 70 MPH. That is at least twice as fast as I have ever gone on the water.

On Saturday was the Poker Run. About 40 of these high speed powerboats registered for the run. The boats had to stop a 5 locations and pick up a sealed envelope with a card inside. It was 36 miles from the start to the furthermost point and then back, so they probably ran for about 10o miles. I was stationed at Cherokee Marina and was tasked with handing out the cards as each boat passed my station. I had a long pole with a heavy duty clamp on the end. I extended the pole out so some one on the boat could grab the card. I got a close up view of all the boats as they came in for their cards.

A big banquet was held Saturday night at the VFW Post and a great time was had by all. The poker hand was won with 4 kings which was worth $500. All I got was a T-shirt and free meal.

Emerson's 3rd Birthday Party

The first photo shows Emerson and mom arriving at the Kid's Party Jump location. Dad was busy getting Carly out of the car so they could all go in for the BIG party. Emerson had invited about 14 friends to the party.

The second photo shows Emerson coming down the big slide. He managed to come down any way you could think of - feet first, head first, on his belly, and even rolling. He even solved how to climb up the slide. He and all his friends had a great time running and jumping on all the inflatable slides and bounce rooms.

Of course no birthday is complete unless there is a birthday cake. Emerson's showed his favorite Superhero friends Spiderman and Wolverine. Emerson really enjoyed his cake and ice cream



Finally Emerson was in the Birthday King chair and opened some of his presents.

Good Time with Old Friends

On Wednesday evening Pierre and Sandi Granger stopped by for a visit. They were our next door neighbors in Virginia Beach. Pierre had been in Millington TN at the Naval Personnel Command for 5 weeks. He was on the selection board for new Chief Petty Officers in the Navy. Sandi had made a visit to Kentucky to visit family members and then went to be with Pierre for a few days til the selection board completed its work. They stopped here on their way back to Virginia Beach. I had a great time visiting with them and catching up on news about the old neighborhood. Barbara is in Las Vegas at the national bridge tournament so she missed the opportunity to visit. Pierre and Sandi showed up just as I was sitting down for dinner with Pat and Jerry, our neighbors across the street. They were kind enough to invite Pierre and Sandi in for dinner so our old friends got to meet our new friends. Many thanks to Pat and Jerry for their hospitality and kindness. After a tour of the house, I took Pierre and Sandi down to see Emerson and Carly. After a short visit their, Pierre and Sandi continued the trip to Viriginia Beach.

Michigan Wins!!

Its offical!!! The Michigan Solar Car Team has won its 5th North American Solar Car Challenge. The team had almost a 10 hour lead over the second place team, Principia College. There were 15 teams in the race from Plano, TX to Calgary, Alberta, Canada including teams from Germany and Canada.

Golf Status

As all retirees seem to do, I took up golf this year. Above is a scorecard for the Country Hills Golf Course. This card should be filled in with 3's, 4's, and 5's if you are a good golfer. Mine typically gets filled in with 8', 9's, and 10's. I stop counting at 10 because it is uncool to take your shoes off while on the course. Besides my playing partners are getting tired standing around waiting for me to finish. I have been taking golf lessons, my dear wife gave them to me as a Christmas present. The lessons are are improving my game. Some of my drives from the tee actually land in the fairway at a reasonable distance from the tee (<>

University of Michigan Solar Car

The University of Michigan (GO BLUE!!) has entered its solar powered car, Continuum, in the 2008 North American Solar Challenge. I have entered the team's blog in the Blog list to the right. The Challenge is a race from Plano, TX to Calgary, Alberta, Canada, a distance of 2400 miles. The race starts on 13 July and should end on 23 July. Checkout the blog daily to see how the team is doing. The website for the race is www.americansolarchallenge.org/. The website for the Michigan Solar Team is www.engin.umich.edu/solarcar/.

Photos from the 4th

The Moomy family all gathered for the Fourth of July weekend at our house in Hendersonville. It started on the 27th of June with the arrival of Barbara's sister , Patricia and her husband Roy. They were here to attend the Good-Guys car show at LP Field in Nashville. Roy has restored an old car and does upholstery work on cars being restored. The left on the 28th.

On the 30th, my sister Sue and her husband Bill arrived. They attended the Barbershop Harmony convention in Nashville. They went down each day to attend workshops and listen the Barbershop Chorus and Quartet competition singing. They had a great time at the convention. They stayed until the 7th of July. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to get caught up on the latest family news. I took them out on the boat on afternoon and then we ate at Steamboat Bills. Everyone had the delicious catfish dinner.

On 3 July I made 2 trips to the Nashville airport. The first was to pick-up my Dad who flew in from Erie, PA. The second trip was to pick-up our son Andrew and his wife Kim. Everyone stayed until the 8th when again I made 2 trips to the airport so they could catch their return flights.

The 6th was Andrew's birthday ( he is now old enough to run for the Senate). We had a great party and we were joined by Sara, Adam, Emerson, and Carly. They live in Hendersonville. Of course they all stopped in various times during the week to visit and eat.

Just when we thought the house would get back to normal, I got a call from Peggy Totin. Peggy and I lived in the same dorm at Michigan and met again in Virginia Beach (where we lived for 30 years before the move to TN). We were active in the Michigan Alumni club. She was on here way to her daughter, Cathleen, in Clarksville, TN. Cathleen and her husband Tom had just moved to Clarksville area because Tom is being assigned to the 101st Division. Tom deploys in a few weeks and we all wish him good luck and safety on his tour in Afghanistan. They all came by to visit and then we went out for dinner to (you guessed it) Steamboat Bill's and more catfish.

New Home

The picture above is our new home in Hendersonville TN. We bought it last year and have been there since March 2007. It has 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths, living room, dining room, kitchen, etc. We used all the rooms over the 4th of July since because my dad, my sister and her husband, andf my son and wife were all here. Still had room for a few air mattresses if needed.

This is my new 19 foot princecraft pontoon that I will use on Old Hickory Lake. I keep the boat at Drakes Creek Marina. Today I took my Dad (he is 92 years old) and ny son Andrew and his wife Kim for a ride on the lake. We went down to Old Hickory Dam area of the lake and then did a water tour of Anchor High Marina.

Thanks Bill

I started this blog with help from my brother-in-law Bill Halter. he has a great blog and I thought I would try it.