Time now to celebrate Jeff's birthday. We've gone thru a lot of them and everyone seems so important.

When Jeff and Donna first started going together, they both volunteered for many years at the Fairfax Hospital.

Later they became involved in Toastmasters for many years.

Now their chief interest appears in taking care of their pets 3 cats and 2 dogs.

It's a very lively house...and I'm sure they're thrilled with all the activity.

Keep up the good works, my grown up children.

Rosh Hashonah always starts with this!

Why I Don’t Read the Binding of Isaac on Rosh Hashanah

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The Travelers

These are people that I treasure...my Paul and Barbara.

They're on vacation at Yellowstone National Park. However, they look like they need a bench break...lots of walking. They took this special vacation and right before our High Holidays...a very good time because this is the Holiday that celebrates the beginning of Creation...and my niece and nephew went to see this great happening... A Work In Progress...because the beauty of nature never fades...it endures through the years...and the great majesty of it all. I know they enjoyed themselves because they sent me tons of pictures. They truly know how to vacation. Me...I'm not much of a traveler..so I do it on the discovery channel...and I still appreciate the grandness of it all.

Cutting back before a hurricane!

There was a big racket outside my bedroom window and I peeked out to see just what was going on.

It was a 'happening' all right. The 'tree clipper people' were right outside my window and they were cutting down a very huge branch of a very large tree in my backyard.

Now this wasn't just any branch. It was part of the tree...but almost as big as the tree trunk itself...and should there be torrential rains and wildly gusting winds, this could find its way right through my window.

It was so interesting to watch. They worked very hard and not a movement was wasted. They were in complete control of the situation.

Then I remembered my camera sitting on top of my desk...so this is what I got through the window. The black bar is part of my window and I captured it.

We pay high maintenance here...but it's well worth it. We're protected! In the meantime, I've stocked up on everything so that I could live a month without leaving.

I've been through one hurricane and I've learned. It's the darkness I despise most of all. When it was pitch black, I'd sing ....
'hello darkness my old friend...I've come to be with you again.

Then I'd go into a troubled sleep...but the very next morning...the sun was brightly shining...and all was right with the world.

Kevin and Cheryl

Once a year our pool is visited by two

really nice people...who come from the

far north...Massachusetts. We look so forward to their visit because they're very interesting and funny people.

Kevin is a teacher and writes books and spends a great deal of time at the library.

Cheryl is such a pleasure...always laughing...what a sense of humor.

This is what makes our pool so exciting.

Our starter-up home but we stayed over 30 years!

This is where our young-married life began...and I loved our little home. I remember carrying Jeff who was 18 months old to his own room...and telling him that this is his very own.

Well, it appears Jeff had a different idea. He wanted his crib in our room, just like it was in our little apartment.

He screamed and screamed ...and then wanted to join us in bed.

Every day I carried him and said this is Jeffy's room...all yours. Your toys are here. We have our room--you have yours.

He still cried for a month. Then Dr. Spock said you just have to let him cry...and don't give in...and finally after 4 days we had peace in the house and the bed to ourselves.

That is, until he learned to crawl out of his crib and he would go to Allen's side to get in and he was never refused.There were many times that I ended up sleeping in the crib because I couldn't sleep 3 in a double bed. Triple beds were rare in those days and it never even entered our minds.

Anyway we had big retaining walls in our driveway and in the back to hold back the 2nd terrace. The street above us was being excavated...and every night after dinner, the 3 of us would go to gather big rocks. To this day the wall is still standing.....a labor of love

.Retirement came and everyone said maybe I could buy Allen an extra couple years down in florida. No more urging...I wanted my husband to live....so we moved....and here I am.

I'm truly glad we made the move...life is so much simpler here..

Ethel dancing down the streets in Orlando!

J