Building a Corvette in Your Driveway

The day started innocent enough - we were invited by Melissa and Josh Gross over for brunch at their place and also a chance to shoot some clay pigeons behind their home. They have a lovely home along the shore of Lake Jackson north of town. Melissa is a fellow library professor of Nancy's and also a fabulous cook. Josh - her husband - is a true renaissance man. He loves guitars - cars - boats - toys - and literature. He is a psychologist by trade.

After the lunch - we shot clay pigeons - I used my stainless steel pirate shot gun. To my surprise I hit the first 3 and shot maybe 20 of 30 total. Not bad for a "sawed off" shotgun shooting 12 gauge with No. 8 shot.

But the highlight of the day - besides Melissa's apricot scones - was meeting Bare and Connie Schenk. Bare is a forensic arborist - he decides which trees live and die in town. But his first love seems to be cars. Bare built many cars - but the most impressive one to me is his daily driver - the Z-53.

Right in the driveway - under a tent - he built this car from scratch. He took the body of a wrecked 1953 Corvette - you recall that Chevrolet only made about 300 of them. Then he mated it with the chassis of a new Corvette to make the world's only Z-53. Words can't describe the quality and detail in this 500 HP daily driver. Here are some pictures - the fit and finish rival a new Mercedes.

Caribbean Volcano Ash Grounds Flights

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) A huge cloud of ash billowing from an island volcano forced the suspension of some international flights over the Caribbean on Sunday, airline and airport officials said.

The airlines took action after a dome atop a volcano on Montserrat, located about 275 miles southwest of Puerto Rico, collapsed over the weekend, sending volcanic debris cascading down the mountain and shooting ashes 10 miles into the sky.

There no injuries reported on the island with a population of about 5,000, although authorities there said residents should remain indoors as ash fell from the sky.

Flights of Venezuelan carrier Aeropostal between Venezuela and Miami were grounded, as well those to and from Aruba, Curacao, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic.

Constitution Says All Florida Classrooms Must Be Below 25 Students by 2008

The new law on class size is going to make things reallying interesting in the next 2 years.

The state Department of Education puts the total cost of implementing the amendment at $25 billion, of which the state has dedicated about $7 billion over the past four years.

By the fall of 2008, when Sansom takes over as House speaker, school districts will have to start calculating their class sizes on an actual classroom basis instead of a school-wide average. By fall 2010, no classroom can have more than 25 students, and prekindergarten through third grade will be capped at 18 students.

"There is not a school district in Florida that's even close to that," Sansom says. "This is going to dominate my two years."

The Restaurant at the Station in Tamaqua

On our last night in Tamaqua - Nancy and I visited the Tamaqua Train Station. There is a beautiful restaurant there now. The station was restored by a group in town led by Ken Smulligan called SOS - Save Our Station. With the help of preservation grants the station was meticulously restored to better than new condition. As we dined there - I recalled my days as a youth hanging out in the dilapidated building and using the 5 cent a minute phone booth. I also remember when Bill Fritz - Gail's husband was a clerk for the Reading Railroad there.

We were there last Sunday night - Mothers Day - at around 8PM. The food was excellent and the service outstanding. It will always be one of our first stops in Tamaqua.

The pictures are dark because it was 8 PM and we did not want to disturb the other patrons with a flash.

All the desserts are homemade.

Pictures -
1 - Train Station outside at dusk.
2 - The Entry Foyer.
3 - Dining Room in our men's waiting room.
4 - The Lunch Counter and Booths.

I am Tracking Web Traffic with Sitemeter

The other day I was trying to get people to let me know when they read my web page. One of my friends - Mona Lisa - told me about a neat program called sitemeter. Sitemeter is a free service found at www.sitemeter.com. Once you set it up - it will track the number of "hits" on your web page. It also gives you a lot of other information like - graphs - charts - and numbers per hour/week/month/year. At the bottom of your web page you can also set up a counter to show the number of hits that you got.

Take a look at the map above. This dynamic map shows you each hit. The red one is the last hit - the green ones are the last 10 - and the white ones are all others. You can have the maps show you 1 hit - 5 hits - 10 hits - 100 hits - all of your hits. You can also see world hits on another map. It is a lot of fun for me. It is fun seeing that other people do read your web page. It also tells you how long the hits are and if they go to other links that you have.

You can check it out at www.sitemeter.com. It is free - and thank you Mona Lisa for showing it to me.

Builder Bill Says Barn Outside Will Be Done in One Week

Pictures -
1 - West side from screen room
2 - Guest apartment looking toward bathroom corner
3 - Guest apartment from bathroom
4 - Workshop with 8 foot pocket doors
5 - south side facing toward lake

Bill Gwynn is the builder of our barn. He lives across the street from us and has been building in Tallahassee for 30 years. Bill said today that he expects the outside to be done in a week. He has a crew of about a dozen fellas that he keeps busy - usually 3 or 4 are here.

Some of the neat features are -

1 - The 8 foot wide pocket doors. When closed - they will have windows just like the rest of the place - when open they will go right into the wall to save floor space. The downstairs is 18 x 24 and would hold a car if you wanted.
2 - The upstairs 6 foot wide French doors - they fold all the way back against the walls.
3 - Two two concrete porches - they are constructed of wood - but the final touch is going to be a pad of concrete poured over a heat sealed membrane.
4 - The diagonal support posts for both of the porches.
5 - The truss construction of the roof and the upper floor - the floor trusses are one foot thick allowing for all plumbing - electrical - and other utilities to be inserted there.

Deja Vu - Lulu and Dana

We just spent a week back in our old hometown of Tamaqua, Pennsylvania.

We stayed at Lulu's old homestead with Lulu's Mom.

Here is one of the first pictures that I took of Lulu - 35 years ago. Lulu's Goddaughter and niece - Dana - reminds me of Lulu a lot.

The house looks the same - the steps are a little different - but the two young ladies have a striking resemblence - or is it just me?

Safe at Home in Tallahassee

It is 9 PM - we just got home.

We left Tamaqua at 9 AM this morning - it was pouring.

We got to the Philadelphia Airport around noon. We checked our luggage - then went to our gate. Our plane was there but they kept delaying the flight - something about flying a part in for it. Then they announced that we might have to stay the night in Philly. 300 people rushed the desk - but not Nancy. She quickly got on the cell phone to Delta - and told them of the problem - and demanded they book us on another flight. They said all flights were full. Then she said she was a medallion customer and insisted they book her on another airline. She checked and Airtran was flying to Atlanta - so they booked us on the Airtran flight free of charge. Then Nancy asked for meal coupons because we were delayed and got them.

So we flew to Atlanta on Airtran and then caught a Delta flight in to Tallahassee - arriving here at 8 PM. Of course our bags are on the other plane - and who knows when we will get them. We do carry our computers onto the plane so we have them.

Keith picked us up at the airport - and we got home in the dark. The house is nice and we checked out the workshop with a flashlight.

We had a great two weeks on the cruise and back in Pennsylvania and New York. It was nice to see George, MaryRuth, and Michael Taylor - Tim and Diann Fudge - Lee Schilling - Marylou and Carl Zimmerman - Jean Freed - Charlie Depuy - Bob and Nancy Henninger - Betty Cox - Lori Ansbach - David Cox - Tyler and Dana Ansbach - Delores and George Boyle - and of course Drew and Robin Everhart in Syracuse.

We enjoyed our brief visits to Mexico - Grand Cayman - Aruba - and Puerto Rico. It was nice seeing Philadelphia even just for a little bit.

Next trip - New Orleans in June. But right now - it is nice to be home.

Florida State Capitol in Tallahassee

This is my favorite picture of the Florida Capitol. As you can see - the Capitol is made up of 2 buildings - the Old Capitol in the center and the new Capitol which is built around it on 3 sides. When they built the new Capitol about 30 years ago - they completely restored the Old Capitol to its 1850's splendor and turned it into a museum.

This picture was taken facing west. Directly behind the Capitol buildings is the Supreme Court where Jeb fixed the 2000 election for his brother George. Beyond that Supreme Court is the State Museum and Library.

About 1/4 mile west of the Capitol is the Florida State University. Nancy cruises by the Capitol on the way to work everyday. Our home is about 1 mile to the south or left of this picture. The street that runs directly in front of the Capitol is Monroe Street.

You Can Take the Girl Out of the Hills But You Can't Take the Hills Out of the Girl

We are spending some time in Nancy's old home near Tamaqua, Pennsylvania.
1 - Here is a picture of Lori (Nancy's Sister) - Betty (Nancy's Mom) - Ethel (Nancy's Aunt) - Ruthann (Nancy's Cousin) - and Nancy
2 - Here is a picture from 35 years ago of Nancy when she was 4 on the same steps
3 - Nancy's grandmother and her coal miner grandfather lived in the little house out back for 20 years
4 - Nancy's Azalea bushes in the backyard of our old home in Tamaqua - note the hole where Steve Simchak remopved a bush as a memorial to Nancy and me and took it to Maryland where he lives
5 - Even though Nancy left the "coal regions" - beautiful flowers still bloom there. Nancy is the coal miner's granddaughter
- The Pennsylvania Coal Cracker

Everhart's Return to Visit Tamaqua

For the first time since we sold our Tamaqua home in August of 2005 - Nancy and I are returning to Pennsylvania. We will arrive in Philadelphia by plane from Puerto Rico and will rent a car for the final 90 mile drive. We will be staying with Nancy's Mom - Betty Cox. We hope to get to see our friends and family while there. We will also get to visit Drew and Robin in Syracuse on this trip.

Puerto Rico Surprises Us How Nice It Is

Our cruise is over - and we are spending two nights in San Juan before flying to Philadelphia. We spent Saturday walking around Old San Juan. San Juan reminds one of Key West except San Juan is much bigger and has many more people. Puerto Rico has almost 4 million people. I doubt if all of Puerto Rico is like Old San Juan - just as all of France is not like Paris - but we like San Juan a lot. It is a little like - New York - Rome - Hawaii - Key West - Bermuda - but probably more like Havana than any other place we visited.

After expecting the people to be right out of West Side Story - we have stumbled into a very sophisticated city. It has plenty of high end shops - nice places to eat - and a very clean appearance. There are lots of very pretty girls and like the rest of the USA - they all carry their cell phones and ipods. The streets in Old San Juan are made of blue glazed cobblerstones. There is decorative tile everywhere. The weather is superb - sunny - tropical - and at noon we experienced our shadow going directly down under us - not north - south - east - or west.

Puerto Rico is a land of extremes - one end has a tropical rain forest - the other end is arid. The mountains go up to 5000 feet - and the Puerto Rican Trench just off shore goes down to 30,000 feet - the second deepest place in the world.

We have been using the local bus system - very inexpensive - and similar to any other major city bus line. We are staying in a Holiday Inn Express maybe a mile from our cruise port. We have two more days to enjoy. We are able to use our Verizon cell phones here with no extra charge.

Pictures - 1 - One of the ramparts of the 500 year old El Murro Castle - 2 - Our cruise ship Grandeur of the Seas leaving us behind as it goes to the Virgin Islands and then to Baltimore - some of our friends stayed on board - 3 - Nancy and me in El Murro Castle - very similar to the fort in St Augustine - 4 - In a church in San Juan we stumbled onto the burial site of Ponce De Leon - Tallahassee and Leon County's "patron saint" - 5 - The tour guide in El Murro Castle practices her English on Nancy.

Guest House / Workshop Update

Thanks to our good friends - George and Joel Dawson - we have been kept up to date on our building project.

The upstairs doors and windows will be the entrance to the guest house. Downstairs - you can see the windows of the workshop facing the pool. Note that the doors have blinds inside the glass. The windows all have glass in them that can withstand 150 mph winds.

After the inspector approves - they can put the hardiboard siding on. The building will be painted gray and have 8 inch vertical planks on the outside - similar to the house. The roof will be dark gray shingles.

Thursday Morning - This Must Be Aruba

At 10 AM - our ship pulled into Orangestad - Aruba. Aruba is a free country protected by the Dutch. It is about 18 miles long and 8 miles wide. It is just 12 degrees north of the equator and 20 miles of the coast of Venezuela - so it is as far south as Nancy and I ever traveled.

It has some volcanic hills about 600 feet tall. they only get 20 inches of rain a year - and with this tropical sun - it is a desert. One can see tons of cactus here. There are also lots of goats and jeeps. We rented a suzuki jeep at the pier.

We are at a Radisson Hotel which has a wide white powdery sand beach. It also has free internet - so I have been using that for a bit while Nancy swims.

This is the lighthouse where they last saw Natalie Holliway. I am convinced she is somewhere in Venezuela.

Swam with the Stingrays in Cayman Islands

On Tuesday we stopped in Georgetown - Grand Cayman. It is a British island famous for its 640 banks. Anyone can hide money there - taxfree from any government.

Our main concernwas to swim with the stingrays. There is a spot near the bay where stingrays have been trained to gather for food. They are very tame and eat out of your hand. They seems playful - and no one gets hurt. Nancy and I both got a chance to toush the stingrays and pose with them.

Cayman is also famous for its rum and rum cake. We went to a factory where they made Tortuga rum - and had all the free rum and cake you wanted.

More from Mexico

Pictures - Nancy loves the towel sculptures in our room every night - Cozumel is repairing after the hurricane wtih bare foot jack hammer guys - we visited a Mexican Walmart-like store with long line but a wonderful bakery note guys makign fresh tortillas - the dock suffered extensive hurricane damage by our ship.

Viva Mexico! See Harry in Labor Union Parade

I am typing this at 10:30 AM on Monday morning. We are having a good trip. The ship is great - the food wonderful - and the entertainment neat. Our room has a view and is very nice.

We pulled in to Mexico this morning at 7 AM. We will be here all day.

There was a May 1st labor union parade and I joined in. The folks were honored and they gave me a colorful shirt and cap. I am not sure - I think I was parading for construction workers - I will probably show up on a Bush enemies list now.

Nancy loves shopping here.

Cozumel was pounded by Hurrican Wilma - but they are doing their best to rebuild. There are tons of scooters on the streets here.

A cab ride from the ship to downtown was $6 for 4 people - we came in with the couple in the picture. They are from Raleigh although they lived in Utah most of their life. They like to travel on their Honda Goldwing Motorcycle.

We will stick around town all day and then we leave for the Cayman Islands at 5 PM. We will have supper on board. The dinner picture is our table of 10 folks - they are from all over the US - and we are the only ones without grandkids.

My cell phone rang when we got into port - someone wanting to buy my scooter. It said roam but we told Verizon to cancel all pay calls - so I am not sure if it was pay or not.

I hope the guest house is going fine back at home without me. :-)