It was an ordinary day. Had just visited my old neighborhood near the railroad station to take some photos, only this time I am in State College on a visit with Jerry and Sue. Here's how this goes. Jerry was my friend since 1st grade, since we lived a few blocks from each other. Jerry's hobby, as written about over a year ago in my blog, is model railroading. His father worked at the Railway Express located at the train station and Jerry spent many summer days at the station with his dad. We played football and went sledding at the train station. I travel past the station every time I drive in and out of Lancaster City. So, I know pretty much what the area is like and has been over the last 60 years. Well, Jerry has been diligently redoing our old stomping ground as it was in the 40s, 50s and 60s. Amazing what he has done. It is like going back in time in miniature through his train yard. The row of houses, both front and back where Jerry lived he has reproduced. The alleyway where his garage was located and where he helped me rebuild my '53 Henry J looks like I remembered it. Lancaster Lincoln Mercury on the corner of McGovern Ave. and Manheim Pike where we waited every year for the new cars to be displayed and where they always had a train yard in the window during Christmas season is pretty much the same. The Gulf station at the corner of Liberty and Manheim Pike, where I still take my car occasionally, is almost the same. But what is most amazing is the depth and detail that Jerry was able to get in reproducing the Lancaster Train Station. Right down to the passengers waiting for the trains on the platforms. Jerry always loved the circus and he even made a circus train that declares on the sides of the cars, "Herr Bros. Circus." As I stand there snapping photos of the train yard, it is like going back in time to my childhood. The realism is uncanny! When I came home and downloaded the photos to my computer and saw them on the screen, I could almost pick out myself sitting on the bench at the station or standing in front of the car dealership. Hey, I bought my last car there and still take it there for service and car washes. I've seen many model railroad yards, but none that are as realistic as Jerry's yard. Maybe because I feel like I'm part of it! It's my childhood all over again. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - following photos shows the realism in Jerry's train yard.
Lancaster Lincoln Mercury at the corner of McGovern Ave. and Manheim Pike.
Manheim Ave. where Jerry lived with his mom, dad, and sister. Jerry is entering his house!
Backyards of houses where Jerry lived.
Gulf station where Jerry worked as a teenager.
My grandson Caden and I visiting the station. See how closely the detail of the folloing photos matches this picture.
View of Lancaster Train Station looking west
Passengers waiting for the Eastbound train
East end of the platforms at PRR Station
Herr Bros. Circus Train
d sat and talked for a short time before Sue asked if we were ready for lunch. Sure was. I asked Jerry to see his new gas heating system that he had installed. Isn't this something that everyone would want to take a look at? While Sue prepared lunch the guys went down to the basement and into the room where they had made the installation. "What is that thing on the bottom?" I asked him. He reached down and touched the small unit a
nd the lights flickered. "Wow, did you do that?" I asked. "I don't think so," he responded. We looked at each other and then the basement went totally dark. "Guess I'll have to see it at another time," I said. Up the stairs to see if Sue and Carol might know what happened. Sue was upset because our lunch was in the oven and that was electric. They called around the neighborhood and found out that everyone was without power. The final call they made was to a neighbor who told them that the electric company said the power would be back on by 8:00 PM. T
ONIGHT!! It was only 11:30 AM. Now how can they know that it will take them to precisely 8:00 PM to get the power back on. Oh, yeah I know. It's a top notch educational town and they are smart enough to know that. Well, Sue found out that our sandwiches were warm enough, so we had our lunch. Then it was time to decide what we could do without heat. Snuggle! Nah, w
e're too old for that stuff. Off to Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center to see the annual "Thon" which they have to raise money for children who have cancer. For weeks around Lancaster and just about every community in Pennsylvania and I suspect a few other bordering states, students of PSU were out with their buckets to raise money for this cause. Stop in a line of traffic at a stop light and they would be there asking for donations. Only when I get to see the multitude of students involved yesterday did I realize where my donations went. Former kids who had cancer and were helped by this 46 hour long dance marathon keep coming back to be part of the activities and celebrate with the students who helped them when they neede
d it the most. One little girl, 7 year old Emma, got to dance with the students on stage. Four years earlier Emma was suffering from cancer and received financial aide from the "Thon". The arena was packed with students and a few adults, like us. Signs, which we didn't see until later, proclaimed no sitting in the stands. They wanted you to be dancing. The young girl next to me saw me sit, tapped me on the head and told me I had to be standing. I looked around and saw the only other people sitting were the three I came with, so I stood, as did they. This year they raised an astounding $9,563,016.09 for the children. UNBELIEVABLE! My few dollars were part of that. Shows you how caring college students really are. From the "Thon" we headed into downtown State College for some shopping and a sticky bun a la mode at The Corner Room, then to neighbori
ng Bellefonte for some more shopping. By now it was only 5:00 PM and we weren't hungry yet (probably was the sticky bun they made me eat) so we headed to the Mount Nittany Mall for some more shopping. So far I've been lucky; no packages! After an hour of walking we agreed it was time to eat. We had to make dinner take two hours so the house would allegedly have electricity when we got back. We ate at restaurant on the south-west side of State College. Ribs for me and pulled pork sandwiches for everyone else. They knew better! 7:45 PM now and time to head home. Hurray, the lights were on in the neighborhood when we got home. Had been on for maybe an hour and the house was warm when we entered. After some conversation we headed to bed. Today we had for lunch the meal Sue had planned for last night. After a game 
of "Warri" and talk about our next trip, we headed for home. Fun, but an unusual weekend with friends. Carol and I will head to the travel company soon to find out prices on some of the locations we talked about for our next trip. It was another e
xtraordinary day in the life of anordinary guy. PS - Pixs from the top are: sign outside the Bryce Jordan Center, items for sale for the "Thon" to raise money, student dance group on stage leading the rest of the arena, including LDub, in a dance, view of the masses of dancers, newspaper photo of Emma as she appeared on stage with a few students to dance, Penn State football stadium, Penn State Old Main on a cold windy day, and center of Bellefont with the fading sun and threatening sky in the background.
distinguish this small animal from a vole or mouse. A mole can dig up to 15 feet per hour, so it doesn't take more than a few to tunnel all over your yard. An adult mole is colored gray to brown, attaining a size of 6 to 8 inches. They do not hibernate, and will tunnel under the frost line in winter. Moles reproduce 
once a year, in the spring, and will only produce 3 or 4 offspring. Spring tunneling is most noticeable. And boy, did I notice it. What a mess. They are beneficial since they eat insects and grubs and aerate the ground with the tunnels, but really make a 
mess of the yard. A few years ago I purchased three devices that are supposed to scare them off, that is if the stray cats don't do it. They are metal tubes about 18" long and house 4 "D" size batteries. The unit makes a noise and also causes a vibration. I dug a hole in the ground and placed most of the tube in the hole. The vibration and sound travel in the ground for quite a distance and scare the moles. They really do work and you can tell when the batteries are bad by the arrival of the tunnels in the lawn. I'm hoping that the replacement batteries will scare the the moles across the street to my neighbors yard. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
erate your fireplace. All you're trying to do is not stir up the air where you place the test units. You can run your heat or air conditioner. Put the units in the lowest livable level in your home. Remove the caps on both the bottles and put them about two feet from the floor and three feet from an outside wall. Put the two bottles 6 inches apart from each other and allow the detectors to remain uncapped for 4 days (96 hours). After the 4 days place the caps back on the bottles, fill out the form provided and place them in the postage paid envelope. It does cost $30 for the lab to process the bottles, but if you have radon and don't know it, the $30 is a bargain price to save your life. If you have adults or children in the house that use the basement frequently, I would do the test. I work constantly in my basement workshop on my stained glass and photos so I'll feel better if I know there is no radon in the basement. Units to remove the radon are not cheap, but not as expensive as you might think. Then again, you'll still be around to pay off the cost of the removal unit! I have known several people who have died of lung cancer and who have never smoked. Made me think that maybe the test is my best choice for prevention of the disease. How about you? It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
SALESMAN!! I often told my wife that the shop would die if he would retire, close or die. And it did. I just returned from the shop with the photos that covered one large area of his store. Really sad standing there, talking with Amber about the closing. Amber and Matt, her husband and Barry and Mary Jo's son, are moving back to Oregon. Mary Jo is going with them. Maybe healing will take place better if she is with family and away from the sad memories of Lancaster. Time will tell! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy
h office and walked over to look at the church and church yard. At the rear of the church is a cemetery that is home to the graves of many famous and historical people in the history of our country. And, Carol and I will be part of it some day. There are two small memorial gardens in the cemetery where there are plaques erected. The names of the people whose ashes are interred in that area are listed on the plaque. My dad and mom have their names listed on the one in the corner of the cemetery. Dad died three years ago and he has his birth and death dates on it. Mom wanted her name to be next to dad, so we had both names inscribed at the same time. Caden and I stopped at the site and I showed Caden how they engrave the names. The churchyard is not only histor
ical, but extremely beautiful. The sun filtering through the winter trees made warm shadows on the graves. I'm not ready yet, but I have a place reserved. Where will you be in the afterlife? It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
Maarten. I always start the scrapbook with our departure from Lancaster. Boarding passes, schedules, plane photos and a photo of Carol and me sitting on the plane. Never miss having one of us on the plane. I try to take one as we land, but I have been warned quite a few times about taking photos as we exit the plane. Have even been told to put the camera away or they would take it. I'm getting pretty good at hiding the camera or shooting from the hip. Pages follow in the order of what we did from the star
t to the end of the trip. I lay out all the material I have on the floor for each day to help me organize everything. Only thing that creates a problem is when Otis, my cat, tries to dive under the pages and mixes all the photos together. My current book has 37 pages in it packed full of photos I have taken, maps I got at tourist locations, business cards from retailers, and even the blue umbrella I got o
n my BBC at Pineapple Pete's which I used for Flat Stanley's photo on the beach. Some photos I cut out part of the background to add some creativity to the book. Some pages I paste photos and info over an entire map or full page picture from a magazine. Quite a few of the books look pretty much the same, especially the books from St. Martin, but each still has a few new ideas as part of the book. Sometime I'd love to share them with you if you're in the neighborhood. I can bore people as well as anyone else can! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - photos from the top are: My collection of scrapbooks from past trips, working on a new page, scrapbook from our trip to St. Johns showing an earring that I found while snorkeling, and pages from my current book to Sint Maarten.
Really worked great, but I left the heavy work on the bathroom to the pros. Had Fred Q. do the tile work, a fellow from "Natural Stoneworks" install the granite counter top and bowl, and Rich from "Joe the Plumber" do the plumbing. I managed to do the painting and electrical work as well as hang the accessories. I was determined to do all the work myself, but my back just wouldn't cooperate. We had Fred do our master bathroom aswell as our kitchen, hall, downstairs bathroom a
nd entryway, and after watching him all that time, I knew I could do it myself. But the weight of the tiles and all the bending made my choice easy. Now the plumbing wasn't such a big deal to outsource, since I probably would have messed that up. Installed new works in a toilet tank a few years ago and the first time I flushed it, with the top of the tank off t
o make sure it worked, the parts flew up to the ceiling with the pressure of the water. I still got to hang the backer board around the tub, put the backer board on the floor, move the light fixture and patch the drywall where the old fixture was, paint the ceiling and walls and va
nity, frame and hang the mirror, put our wooden boat oar on the wall, and put the shower curtain and metal fixtures on the wall. I now can say "I" did the bathroom over. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - photos from the top are LDub painting, finishing the hanging of the light fixture, Rich working on the tub fixtures, our beach towel line-up, and the new countertop with fixtures and mirror hanging behind it.
139 and we talked to someone on the cruise we were on and he told us that he can go to his local library and download any book they have in the library for the cost of his library card. The Barnes and Noble Nook had a color display which would be nice for reading magazines and newspapers. It cost $149. The Kindle had an electronic paper display which reflects light like ordinary paper. Not the backlit flat panel display which is used in some readers as well as laptops, cellular phones and digital cameras. Some e-readers have touch screens while others do not. Was the touch screen a big deal. Not really. I got online and pulled up myfavorite travel forum, TravelTalkOnline.com, and posed the question to the readers of the forum. What reader would be the best for my wife? She will use it athome as well as the beach when we travel. Well, within an hour I had about 25 responses. Over 3/4 of the responses told me to get her the Kindle. Great under sunlight which the Nook and iPad are not. Compact and easy to handle as well as easy to download books from anyplace that has WiFi. Most places we stay in the Caribbean, as well as the Jersey Shore, offer free WiFi with the rental. I was sold on their recommendation. A week before Christmas I ordered the Kindle from Amazon.com. I know I probably waited too long to order, but they promised delivery by Christmas for free. And ..... they came through. No only did I get the e-reader, but I got her a really neat leather case to put it in to try to ke
ep sand out of it in the beach bag. Works really neat. You can search for books by your favorite author or by fiction, non-fiction, religious, research, etc. You can get most daily newspapers by the day or the month. Same with your favorite magazines. One neat feature I like is when you order a book you can get a trial run of two or three chapters to see if youlike it before you pay for the book. One of my favorite authors is Stuart Woods and he had numerous titles that I can't remember if I have read them, so I get the sample to see if I can recognize the book before I buy it. Carol has used it for a few books already, but she has about 40 paperbacks that she needs to read. The e-reader will cut down on the weight of her luggage when we travel, since she usually reads 10-12 paperbacks during a two week stay. The Kindle is extremely light in weight. Using the Kindle will take some time to get used to it, since it's tough getting away from holding a paperback in your hands on the beach Takes away the beach experience. She'll get used to it, I'm sure. For now, she is catching up on her paperbacks while I am reading the latest Stuart Woods thriller on the Kindle. And, I'm really enjoying both my thriller and the e-reader. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
eet Tito who was very informative and was a joy to meet. He had worked at the horse stable next door to the farm for a few years and decided he wanted to work with the butterflies instead. Offered information about the island as well as the Butterfly Farm. Waiters and waitresses at all the places we ate were all friendly, but the Philadelphia sports fan who waited on our table at Pineapple Pete's was my favorite. At Kali's Beach Bar on Friar's Bay we got to meet some real characters. Started with Bob Barker who yelled to everyone passing to "Come on down." And Coco at the beach store gave us a history of not only the beach, but of her life and the problems she had with her back. Gave Barry some hints as to how to cure his MD. She thought he could use the magnets that she broug
ht down to our beach chairs. Gave us a web site to explore, but when I got home and tried the site, it was in a foreign language. She was just a delightful person. Then Kali himself stopped to chat and welcomed us to his place. In Philipsburg we got to talk to Claudine who worked at the Guavaberry Emporium on Front Street. Neat woman who was featured in the show "Three Sheets" which was on the FLN network. In the show comedian Zane Lamprey drinks his way around St. Martin, stopping to visit with her. Check out the video of the episode at 
st-martin. 
es a syringe and squirts it down his throat. He never causes a problem when it is time for his meds, but at times he is hard to find. He also gets a pill for the same condition. That she sticks in the side of his mouth and pushes down his throat. At times we find that pill in different places in the house. He's pretty sneaky! I add Cosequin, which is the same as Glucosamine, to his breakfast everyday. Much the same stuff that I take everyday to make my joints more pliable. Then we noticed that he was having a harder time getting down from his favorite chair and walking. Took him to the vets and Dr. George gave him a shot of cortisone. Really worked! I told the doc that I have some of the same problems as my cat. He replied that he did also. "Did you ever try the shots on yourself that you just gave to the cat?" I asked him. He looked at me, smiled, and after some thought said, "No!" I'm not sure I believe him. He hesitated just enough that I think he may have done that. Well, Otis is doing great. Carol now has to give him a shot once a month along with his other meds. Wow, we pay more for the cat for his meds than for the both of us combined, and we take quite a few pills a day. A few weeks ago, after doing demolition on my bathroom I'm redoing, I had a hard time getting out of my favorite chair. I called the doctor, the person doctor, and went to see him. HE GAVE ME A CORTISONE SHOT! See, I told you it is the same thing that my vet gave the cat, only a bigger dose. And ..... it really worked. The next day I had no pain. Great stuff! It reminded me of the Seinfeld episode when Cramer took his dog to the vet and told the vet he had a cough. He figured he would use the advice and meds for his own cough, since he didn't have the money to go to a regular doctor. Worked! May have to stand in line once a month when Carol gets out the needle for Otis!! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
ned in the original house where the 
nd the barber cut his hair that it looked like he put a bowl on his head and cut around the bottom of it. Something like the Amish boys in Lancaster County wear. Well, that's all the other two needed. "Hey, Bowls," they yelled at him when we got back home. To this day they still call him Bowls, but he doesn't cry anymore like he would back then. Always was a lot of pushing and shoving behind our backs. Our oldest, Derek, naturally was the biggest and could push and shove the hardest, but one day, in our basement TV room, he and our daughter, Brynn, got into a disagreement and she grabbed the metal play cash register and whacked him across the head. Talk about blood! Wow, right on the top front of his head was a big gash. He came running up the stairs, yelling. She was right behind him yelling!! Saw what had happened, didn't even ask how it happened, since I already could guess, and grabbed a towel to stop the blood from flowing. Took a look at it and told Carol that maybe we should take him to the hospital for stitches. She said, "Why don't you just take him down the alley to the guy that moved in a month ago. I heard he was a doctor. He could tell you if it needed stitches." OK, will do. I knew him as "Rick", but didn't know what kind of doctor he was. We were going to find out right now. Turns out Rick was a real medical doctor and said he would be glad to take a look. By now the bleeding had stopped and he said it didn't need any stitches. Just be careful not to hit it again for a few days. Now that would be the hard part. Well, he survived the next few days without a fight with his siblings, but didn't survive the knock on the head after winning a big high school baseball game. That cut needed a plastic surgeon. You can read about that story in my archives; "Ecstasy to Tragedy", 11/o3/09. The fighting has ceased with age and now they are all the best of friends. So, if your kids seems to always be picking on each other and fighting, it will eventually end. Maybe! And ..... Tad's brother and sister still call him "Bowls". It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - photo from 1976.
