Still at Christmas

After succeeding in re-loading stuff back into the now clean truck bed I went through the Airstream and got rid of some clothing I hadn't worn in a year.

I took it to the Catholic Thrift Shop in Titusville because I needed to buy a suit. And those of you who know me well know I haven't bought clothes anywhere except thrift shops for over 30 years. The St Teresa shop didn't have a suit for me. I looked at the on line yellow pages and found the SPCA shop about 10 blocks from St T's. When I got there, I found a boarded up building with a "For Lease" sign on it. Not even a "We've moved to" sign. I sat and thought for a minute, looked at the computer for any others close by, tried to decide if I'd bother going further out of my way.

Stick with me here - it's important that you know I spent several minutes sitting in this parking lot before I pulled out. Because when I DID pull out, I saw a step van cross right in front of me. On the side it had "SPCA Thrift Shop - we pick up" and the address of the new shop - which was 4 blocks away. I went in and said, "I'm here to get my suit." The lady looked at me a little funny and said, "Did we set something back for you." I said, "No. I've never been here before. But trust me, you have a suit for me." She said, "Well we've only got 4 or 5 suits back there but I'll show you where they are." And OF COURSE, Tinkerbell - mine was there. Perfect fit.

"In Betweens" really are there all the time.

I just realized that some of you may not know about "In betweens" and "Tinkerbell Jerusalem" but since most of you do, I won't repeat the story here. Suffice to say it's about a book I found in a Thrift Shop (where else) in Laguna Beach, CA four months after Mary Ann died when I was at the depths of my depression. If you'd like to hear the WHOLE story, email me at tomcookpsu@yahoo.com and I'll fill you in.

Yesterday Stuart Boblett, the pilot from Roanoke called to say he was back in Kissimmee for a couple of days, would I like to get together for lunch. I met him about 11:30. We had lunch and then continued talking about old times, old friends, old airplanes, new airplanes, etc etc etc. I left at 7:00pm. It was wonderful catching up and just talking with such a great friend. As I was leaving and looked at the time, I said, "I can't believe we talked for almost 8 hours." He said, "I know. But it was really good to get to do it." When I said, "Yeah, I guess. But you know, I used to make a LOT of money doing just exactly this.", he said, "Well, at least you haven't forgotten how to do it."


Some pictures from the Helicopter Convention just arrived via email.

Here I am with the President, Teen Corey



And this one is of Anne Ballard, the better half of the couple that came in just to help in the booth during the Whirly Girls Hovering (that's what they call their Annual Meeting.) Her husband isn't in the picture because he was off meeting Serge Sikorsky - yes, THAT Sikorsky, the son of Igor, who invented the helicopter. Denny had met him before and came back to the booth with an autographed copy of his DVD.

Anne and Denny have known the Booth Chairperson, Bev Haug-Schaffter since Ft Rucker, 1981.

Folks, these Whirly Girls are friends that really do stay for a long time ! I'm so blessed to have them as my friends.

I had told them I wanted a pink apron, but this was all they had. And, of course, it didn't say "Auxiliary" so I got lots of questions about "How did you get to be a Whirly Girl?" The answers varied from a smart a@@ remark to actually telling them about the great work the Auxiliary does in helping to fund the scholarships, depending on how they struck me.


Today I went to Lake Buena Vista - on the Honda - to Kitty O'Shea's Irish Pub for their St Pat's Day celebration. Bangers and Mash for lunch, lots of Guinness Stout AND Jessy playing fiddle with the Irish band. While I'm worrying that she'll write me off as a stalker she came up to me and said, "Oh, I'm so glad you could make it. Would you take some pictures?" and gave me her camera. She PROMISED to email me the pictures. But since I still don't have the ones from the Iron Horse Saloon I asked her if we could get just one on my cell phone camera. Here it is

My shirt was a gift from the Whirly Girls. You can guess - well some of you can - how old it is by the reference to "Double Green Stamps". But it was as close to green as I had.

Tomorrow I had planned on going to the Bluegrass Festival. But some folks who saw the Valiant Air Command Air Show today told me it's really a great show. So maybe I'll go there instead.



Whatever I do, it'll be 65 degrees under bright blue skies. Kind of like this one. I took this looking up from my lounge at the pool and I did NOT touch up the color.

Quiet Time in Christmas

It's 6:12 pm and I'm having trouble seeing well enough to type. The darned chlorine from the pool is really burning my eyes.

Hey, I earned a break. Yesterday was trailer and truck maintenance. Today's task was to empty the entire back of the truck , take out the carpet, vacuum truck and carpet and then put everything back. I don't know if it'll make a difference in mileage, but I must have vacuumed out 20 pounds of sand.

THEN I went for a swim in the pool. And it was delightful.

Tomorrow I'll take the stuff I've had in the trailer since last April and haven't worn/used to the truck. I'll either sell it a Flea Market that they hold at every Airstream Rally or I'll give it to Goodwill.

Decisions, decisions. A friend said when her sister culls, she looks at the item and thinks, "Is this something I would pay $2.50 for at Goodwill." If it isn't, she chucks it. I said, "Gosh, I'm just the opposite, I guess. If it's something I think I could buy at Goodwill for $2.50, that I haven't used in a year but might need someday, I chuck it and buy it at Goodwill when I need it."

Yesterday I did get to ride the Honda about 40 miles. In two separate round trips to the hardware store. I took a detour on one of the trips and found some wonderful Wildlife Reserves. Even the City of Titusville has a Blue Heron Reclamation Reserve - 300 acres IN the City Limits. See it here .

I didn't see a Heron, but it's a very pretty place, about 5 miles from here. I will go back and I WILL remember to take my camera next time.

I've been traveling with no plans further than a week in advance. I changed that last week when I planned to leave here for another Airstream Park in Melbourne. The "plan" was to stay there for two weeks, then go to St Augustine for two Airstream Rallies, back to back. Easter Week, followed by a large Region Rally. I paid for the Regional but the Easter one was full by the time I applied. You know my attitude - "Please put my name on the list. I KNOW I'll get in." I was a little surprised that I hadn't heard from them yet. Not panicked, just noticing that it was getting close and no word.

Yesterday I learned that a personal commitment requires me to be in Salem on Holy Thursday, April 5th. So I'm flying to Salem on April 2 and returning to FL on April 11. On the 12th I'll go to St Augustine, one day late, for the Region rally.

AND I haven't lost a sizable deposit to the Easter Rally people.

So much for planning. Why did I even wonder about not hearing from the Easter people?

Still learning, I guess.

See all you Salem/Roanoke friends soon !