Overdue Update

I know I have not updated this blog in awhile but we have not been going anywhere except to the lake and doctor’s offices.

First a quick update. Back at the end of May (May 24th) I had another heart attack. Called for the ambulance and went to Jersey Shore University Medical Center and got another stint put into my clogged artery. At that time the cardiologist told me that I had another clog that was 70% blocked but he left it alone. After the stint was put in I had to stay in the hospital for 4 days so I was home by Thursday afternoon. I recently had a stress test at the cardiologist’s office and the next day the office called to say the doctor wanted me to come in to discuss the results. We went in to see him last Wednesday and he said that he thinks he should put another stint in where that blockage is, why he did not do that when he was in there in  is beyond me. As of now I am going to get that done early in September, I want to get it done the first Monday after labor day. We have to call to schedule that and seeing as it is a couple of months away it should not be a problem.

A somewhat funny story about the ride to the hospital. The hospital is north of here and you have to get on the Garden State Parkway to get there. I am sitting up on the gurney in the back as we are doing the speed limit on the parkway (55 MPH) and watching ALL the other cars passing us on the right.

We have been going to the lake but only early in the morning when it is not so hot and the place is not crowed. The last time we went was Friday morning and at 8:30 there already was a family there for the day. Then we saw something we had not seen before. Five people actually swimming laps. One older gentleman would swim five or six strokes and then switch to the breast stroke and then do another five or six strokes, but everyone was swimming laps, two of the five were much younger and they swam on the outside of the rope (where all the yucky weeds are) but all were swimming.

That is all for now.

Our 35th Wedding Anniversary Day

I am having problems posting with Windows Live Writer so I am posting this right from blogspot and I am not sure if I can link to the albums or not yet.


Well another year has slipped by and we are still happy. We awoke to a very sunny and very warm day and after breakfast, the best of any hotel we know of, they make you an omelet, at the hotel we headed to our favorite place, Longwood Gardens (http://longwoodgardens.org/). Today because of the heat we both got electric scooters to ride, I wasn’t going to but Barbara talked me into it and it was not so bad. First we headed to the Flower walk were they where watering half of it so we could not go that way to the Italian Water Garden but we found a way around to it. The Italian water garden was not running, there was a gentleman cleaning them, but they still looked good and turned into reflecting pools. We then headed around the far end and back to the flower walk and you would never have known that not that long ago they had sprinklers going, there was not a drop of water on the brick path. Well with both of us on scooters we covered a lot of ground and found ourselves by the chime tower. Next we went around and up the back of the hill to the eye of the water were the water falls by the chime tower starts. By then we wanted lunch so we headed to the cafeteria for lunch. After lunch we went into the conservatory, it was not crowded so we rode around on the scooters, just slowly. Out by the waterlily pond we found a plethora of waterlilies in bloom. Then around to the orchid room, my favorite. We made our way all the way to the cascade garden where the path turns and you head back toward the main conservatory. We went through the rose house were the roses were in full bloom and I found some interesting colored hibiscus. In the tropical terrace I found a plant I had not seen before, on the end of a long stick like stem was a red flower of the most interesting shape, you will see it in the slide show. Then through the silver garden and back into the main conservatory. We then went back to the hotel to rest until dinner. We had dinner in the restaurant that is attached to the hotel. We had one of the best meals we have had in a long time. The Inn at Mendenhall (http://www.mendenhallinn.com/) has it all. Here are the pictures (including one of us on our way to dinner).
Just click on this link to see the pictures: http://cid-b02aeb57ae388e83.photos.live.com/browse.aspx/35th%20Wedding%20Anniversary%20Day

Winterthur and Delaware Art Museum

Barbara and I are on our anniversary trip, yes it has been 35 years today. Yesterday we went to Winterthur (http://www.winterthur.org/). We only took the tram ride around the gardens it was too hot to walk outside. After a short walk over to the Library were there was a display we had not seen we went back to the car and drove over to the Delaware Art Museum (http://www.delart.org/home.html). After eating lunch in the air conditioned car we went into the museum. We took the two tours that were available and after having the second docent keep asking what did we see in the art, we left the tour and just walked around by ourselves. One of the exhibits was of the art collected by Dorothy and Herbert Vogel (http://www.delart.org/exhibitions/20090822_vogel.html). I will not go into it here leave it to say they started collecting art in 1960 and had over 4000 pieces. The very interesting part of the story is that they lived in a small one bedroom apartment in New York City. Enough of my rambling here are some pictures.

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Arts in the Glen 2010

Well it has been awhile since I have updated this so here goes.

I have planted all the flower beds and even put in 3 rows of green beans and with the help of a product called liquid fence I have been able to keep the animals from eating most of the plants so far (foul smelling stuff).

I built a desk in the front room where Barbara and I can sit together and do projects and compute. It has worked out real well. It really is just two shelve pieces joined together and one end is on the top of a metal filing cabinet we had in the garage and the other end is supported by a bracket screwed into one of the big bulky wood filing cabinets and a couple of legs to support it in the middle.

Louise had her ninety second Birthday and we had a small celebration with pizza and cake. Her sister and husband (her brother-in-law) are up visiting from Florida so the five of us shared pizza cake and good talk.

Today was the art groups big art show from 1 to 4 in the afternoon.

I did the program for the day and had about 10 items submitted for display along with 21 other artists from in and around our community. We do a community painting project were one of our group makes a piece were they leave places for the people that come to the show get to add their own color and such. This years project was titled “The Hat Shop”. In the album you will see the start and end along with all the artists who added their talent to the project, next year we will raffle it off to a lucky person. With out further ado here are some of the pictures I took today. I tried to include one piece from each of the artists, if I missed anyone I apologize, if I did not include your favorite piece I apologize also.

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Mother’s Day and Beyond

On Mother’s Day our Son Ray Came down for the day, and he brought dinner. He and I cooked scallops wrapped with duck bacon on skewers with onions and peppers also grilled asparagus and cuscus. Everything was ready on time and was delicious. Barbara loved it.

The rest of the week was uneventful. On Saturday Eileen and Larry came down from Florida, New York for a visit. They also came for the thrift sale put on by our community. They also came for the top part of our trundle bed for their grand daughter. We had a wonderful day with them. On Sunday our roof neighbors Doug and Stephanie invited us and our other neighbors Jack and Louise over for pizza. We shared a lot of stories and had a lot of laughs.

Today Barbara and I went on a short road trip to Montclair, New Jersey. First stop was The Presby Memorial Iris Garden (http://presbyirisgardens.org/wordpress/). I never saw so many irises in so many colors in my life. Along with other photographers there were some ladies drawing and painting, in water color, the irises. The iris beds cover maybe an acre of ground but it is very impressive. Here are about one third of the pictures I took while there.

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Our second stop was Van Vleck House and Garden (http://vanvleck.org/). On our way to Van Vleck we stopped at a park we pasted and ate our picnic lunch Barbara had packed for us. At Van Vleck Gardens we saw a lot of Rhododendrons and Azaleas along with many other plants. We even saw a variety of Rhododendron that we had not seen before, it has smaller flowers but many more of them and they had not fully opened yet. I really liked finding a new variety. Enjoy the pictures.

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Longwood Garden May 7, 2010

Today was our trip back to Longwood Gardens. We first made a stop at Brandywine River Museum (http://www.brandywinemuseum.org/) to renew our membership. While we were there we went upstairs to the see the exhibit on the Caldecott Medal Winners (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caldecott_Medal). Some of my favorite books from my son’s childhood were included in the display. Then we were off to Longwood. Two things we wanted to see, I wanted to see the display on composting and Barbara wanted to see the flower arrangement demonstration. We enjoyed our day and now you can enjoy my pictures.

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