Family Photo



The morning after the Navy Day Ball.  Shrimp and Crab legs, yumm.



Army vs Navy Football

We recently held our own Army vs Navy flag
football game and yours truly settled for
photographer duties. If you recall, last year's
flag football game led to shoulder surgery.

Here are the two teams getting a pre-match
pep talk.


I won't bore you with a lot of photos of folks
you don't know, but here is my favorite of the
day. I love the contrast between the referee
and the sky.

Mom and Dad head South

We recently had a nice visit from my parents. They
came down to GA for my promotion ceremony (not
to worry Mom, I got the promotion ceremony
photos from the Navy photographer the other
week. Now I just need to make a copy and get
it in the mail...Well, you may have to worry
about that part!)

After some time in GA, we headed to the hills.
We took them out and about, here we are at
a local restaurant in downtown Marshall. Mom
also got to meet a fellow from Ohio (an ex-cop),
now living in WNC, when we went to the local
farmer's market. It is a small, small world.


When we were in Georgia, Mom got to meet
up with Fran again, albeit in a different sense
of the word "meet".


Dad seemed to enjoy himself, he was especially
happy spending some quiet time on the front
porch watching for the local birds. Oh yes,
and he happened to celebrate his birthday
down in NC as well.


Happy Birthday, young man. Chris made one
of her delicious Apple pies for the celebration.


A good time was had and many photos were
taken, but we mainly spent time just relaxing
in and around the property, with a smattering
of local trips. An enjoyable trolley ride
in Asheville was one of the highlights.

So for those of you out there that need some
relaxation time, come on down!

Cool Hand Ron

Preparing for life after the Navy or did I "break
the law"?

Regardless, "Shaking the stick boss!"

The sky outside our backdoor

We get some pretty dubious clouds at times....


And after our experience with the tornado, the pucker
factor rises when you see this above your home...


But then we do get to experience this...


And this....


And finally, this...

Yikes!

Sorry, a combination of being a bit busy (and a bit lazy) has slowed up the blog postings. Well, a bit of excitement happened since my last posting on 4 April, and here I am standing out front with the property manager on 11 April, the morning after the tornado hit. Chris happened to be up in North Carolina, but headed down to help her hubby out the day after. This particular picture is her first look at the damage.

And here's a close up of the roof....



And here is the damage on the backside of the house...

The underside shot of the damage....

And a shot of the underside again.
A piece of the roof's rafter came through
the master bedroom ceiling. Fortunately,
it didn't come all the way through as the
trajectory of the 2x4 piece of lumber had
it headed directly to where I was sleeping
that night when the tornado hit.


I found the metal pole that partially went
through the garage door. Luckily, it did not
go all the way through as the BMW was right
behind this hole.


A shot of our back yard the morning after....

And here is the neighbor's roof damage...

All in all, only three neighborhood houses got hit

that night, we were lucky no one got injured or

killed. Scary stuff, it reminded me somewhat of

the earthquake experiences that I went through

when I was living in Japan. Mother Nature is

a strange, unforgiving yet wonderful thing.

The Wild, Wild South

We went out for a Sunday drive one day, ran into a town called "Lincolnton"...come to find out they do things a little different down here....

I don't think anybody will ask us to be Ranch hands and help herd the Bison anytime soon!

And here are some impressive Texas Longhorns...(and a curious on looker to the left)