Classical Mystery Tour- Music of the Beatles

Members of the cast of the Broadway hit show Beatlemania, who are now known as Classical Mystery Tour, performed many hits by The Beatles in a tribute outdoors at Connor Prairie  It was a magical night at this  wonderful outdoor venue.  The weather was perfect!  Our friend, Jean, joined us for a trip down memory lane.  We prepared a great dinner and dessert to enjoy and  sang along with some of our favorites.  

• Imagine
• Yellow Submarine
• Yesterday
• Twist and Shout and much more

 

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They looked and sounded just like the Beatles.  It was a wonderful evening.  Jean, thanks so much for joining us.

Scared Straight

John has a heart arrhythmia called atrial fibrillation that has been well controlled with medication for several years.  This week he went back into this irregular rhythm in the middle of the night.  Yikes!  We just couldn't believe it had happened again.  He called his cardiologist and he said if his heart rate did not straighten out by 7 am on Friday, that they would have to cardiovert him.  This involves putting shock paddles on his cheat and while under anesthesia (thank goodness) they shock and stop his heart briefly.  The hope is when his heart restarts that the rate will go back to normal.  Having all those jolts put through your system is not fun but it sure beats the alternative. 

Friday morning his heart was still beating very irregular.  So, we went to the doctors office. In the elevator I checked  his rate again.  It was still irregular.  The technician came in and asked lots of questions and then did an EKG.  She left and said that the procedure would happen in a few minutes.  John sat up on the exam table after she left and said "you know what...I think I'm back to normal".  And, he was!  Thank goodness!  So, you could say he was scared straight  into a normal rhythm.  That certainly was great news and just in the nick of time.  We left the office with big smiles on our faces. 

My Favorite Guy

Picassa has a new upgraded 3.8 version that you can upload into your computer.  There is the coolest new feature called "face movie".  Picassa has had the ability to find all the faces in your pictures.  You identify each person and they are then automatically sorted by person.  The new addition allows you to take those pictures and make them into a face movie.  It keeps the person's face that you select right in the middle of each picture.  

It takes a little bit of time to identify all the faces.  However, once that is done making the movie is just one click.  You can remove any photos that you do not like and they can be arranged in any order by dragging them back and forth..  I made one today of my most favorite guy.   It was really fun to do! You can also make it into a gift CD to give to a friend or family member.  Check it out! 

T - 99 Days to retirement!!!

Wow, we are in the double digits.  

Ninety-nine days from now John can retire from the Post Office. 

He has set his retirement date to November 26th.  

After much discussion, we also decided that my last day at the hospital would be October 29th.  I wrote my resignation letter today.  I probably looked at the email for about 10 minutes before I could hit the send button.  I have been discussing this with my boss for a long time  He has appreciated it that we have kept him informed. By giving him more than an expected notice, hopefully he can move forward and fill my position before I leave.  I have been a nurse for over 30 years.  I'm excited and at the same time feeling a little bit uneasy.  I'm thinking that this is a normal reaction.  

We have reached a  fork in the road.  We will soon be going down a new path and one certainly not traveled by most.  Sort of like the road less traveled. 

Summer Fun and Canoeing

Last weekend we went on our last camp out with our Good Sam's Club - Freedom Travelers.  We sure had a great time with all our friends. We have been camping with most of these members for many years. At first we had a pop up and then "upgraded"  to our travel trailer and recently  to our motor home.  They have been excited about us going on our full time adventure and have offered lots of advice and encouragement.  

This camp out was held at our favorite local campground-White River (see previous postings for more information). Most of the sites are along the White River and several of our camping friends also love to canoe. John and I love to canoe and have struggled with how to best continue to do this on the road.

Our RV-Dreams friend Howard and Linda offered a great solution.  There is an inflatable kayak called the Sea Eagle that will work out just great.  They demonstrated it @ the Kerrville RV-Dreams Rally.  We purchased one a few weeks ago and wanted to try it out here on it's maiden voyage.  

The kayak, air pump, and paddles conveniently all fit in this bag. This bag could easily fit in one of our bins underneath the coach or in our Jeep.  It sure will be a lot easier to take along than the canoe.  

There is an included  foot pump that will blow it up very quickly.  We used it along with an electric pump that we also owned.

Here it is being  inflated.  It did not take very long to do.  We had practiced this procedure a few days earlier at the campground. 

Ready, set, go!

We were a little nervous at first because this is a kayak and maneuvers differently than  our canoe.  It is much more responsive but also feels more unstable.  It also took us awhile to coordinate the paddling.  I'm not sure we have completely figures all that out yet.  :) But, we managed to stay dry and had a great time. 

Our friends Jerry and Marcia went along with us in our canoe.  They like our canoe so much that they decided to buy it from us.  This is a picture of a trip the next day with Marcia  as my partner. 

Here is a little video that my friend Carol made of us.  We are approaching the boat launch at the campsite.  There was a very good current for this time of year.  If you listen very closely near the end you can hear all the cicadas!. 

I also put together a scrapbook of our camp out.  We will miss camping with them each month but hope our paths will cross often in the future.  Some of the members are talking about coming out to meet us next summer in Colorado.  

Personalize a photo album

Surprise Party for Sam & Carol

Our Good Sam camping club (Freedom Travelers) planned a special surprise dinner for two of our members -Sam and Carol.  Sam was recently diagnosed with lung cancer and has been through chemo therapy and radiation.   We have not seen him this summer.  He is doing well now and had asked to get together with us for dinner.  Little did he know that we would invite a few of our friends. 

We all met at a local Mexican restaurnat called El Nopal in Greenfield and they were so surprised to see everyone there.  Afterwards, we went out to our campsite and had strawberry short cake and enjoyed a nice campfire .  The weather even cooperated and it finally was a little cooler.   

Here is a slide show of some of the fun.  It was a great time and everyone was so happy to see them. 

Free digital slideshow generated with Smilebox

Another step closer

We reached an important milestone last evening.  John was able to set up his retirement appointment with the US Postal Service.  So, what does that mean?  A booklet with all his options has been mailed.   Upon review he can call in and make all the selections (our financial planner will also give us some advice).  This  call can be made 90 days or less before retirement. That date is approaching very quickly.

John set his last day of work
November 26, 2010. 

Celebrate!

We also applied online as a volunteer this winter to several locations in Florida.   One of the National Parks (Fort Pickens) sent us more forms to fill out  The letter stated our application was being considered.  There was a lot of paper work to fill out but we finished up everything and sent it out today.  It would be a wonderful location and we would gladly accept the position, if offered.  We will keep you posted.