.This is a photo of Brian, Danielle, and me, taken at Brian's house this spring. I count myself lucky that both kids live close- by. So many move away because good jobs are scarce.
A picture of Donna standing next to her GGgrandfather's monument someplace in inner Pennsylvania. It was a sweep if old family sites and graveyards in NY, PA,and NJ that we took last summer. Our interest in genealogy took us to the discovery that this partucular GGgrandfather married a first cousin of one of my GGgrandfathers. Donna and I are 5th cousins, the common grandparents lived Northwest of Wilkes- Barre PA. "Grandpa" was a farmer and blacksmith, and died at 80 years of a horse kick.
I couldn't resist. Lindsay, Brian's daughter, said she was having a party but that I couldn't come unless I wore a dress. The closest thing I had was a bath towel, and I dressed it up with the suspenders I have had to wear since my ass fell off. I added her snow hat and slipped my toes into her boots for good measure, and was accepted at her pretend party.Sorry the background is so harsh; it is the "mud room" off the back door. (And, dammit, my tongue is covering the front teeth that had just been capped!)
.Danielle is presently the director of a drug and alcohol clinic in Watkins Glen. Brian is the go- to mechanic at a candy factory. Brian's sideline is large scale model railrosd trains... the size that you can ride on. It is a story best related on btilden.com if you are interested.
In this picture, Brian is situating his "new" milling machine in his garage. I had found it, a first- generation computer- operated machine, in the local scrap yard... at the top of a heap of steel scrap. We looked it over and decided that the mechanical parts of the machine were undamaged, so we bought it. The electric control panels were destroyed, but his plan was to replace the old electronics with updated hardware and software anyway. He should have it operating by Thanksgiving, along with the lathe that he has converted to computer operation. He grew up in my workshop, and yes, I am proud of it.
I am no longer flying... The short story is that the doctor got in the way. Since then I have been doing cabinetry and wood carving, and selling industrial salvage on Ebay as a retirement job. I thought it novel enough that I could be called a writer and publisher, but now I can add "artist" to my resume. One week last summer I sold a fanciful lectern that I made from a birch stump and some figured black walnut, along with a bowl I carved from a chunk of oak root. They retailed for more than a thousand dollars... A "fortune" here in the boondocks. It is still on tinkerandfiddlewith.com under "whimsy"if you are interested Call, write, send pictures!Bob.
January 2017:
As promised in the Meeting House, here is the pocture of me (sort of) wearing the "jacket that I could never throw out" Several of us had these madras jackets, but Jay wore his the best. *sigh*.
