Sunshine Boy is 16 and a sophomore in high school. He played football last fall and his team won state (he didn't play in the game but was suited up). He's on the golf team this spring and doing well. He really enjoys golfing.

Picture is from the state fair last summer (the short one in the middle is my daughter)

Good stuff, my eldest GREAT granddaughter will graduate high school next month........ my eldest grandaughter is here in Gainesville and I enjoy her company at times......others scattered. 2 grandsons living here too.... others scattered.

Two kitties and I are doing OK.....keep busy. Don't do Book sorting anymore, when pandemic hit most of we elders had to stay out too long and they replaced us....with younger folk.
I keep busy, but have problems with my right leg so cuts out on working in the yard much anymore. However, I do go to physical therapy twice a week and walk when the weather is nice....dreading the hot summer though....

Gonna try and pop in more, find out what all of you are up to. Please forgive me for "disappearing"

Then when we got to the discharge port it would be my turn to stay on board to supervise the discharging. So, I got my time off on Kharg Island and had to stay onboard working in Japan, Rotterdam, etc. Real bummer.

It sometimes seems to come down to that doesn't it- doctor's appointments etc. I need a knee replacement and probably spinal fusion. Yuk! I'm holding off as long as I can. Has anyone else had experience with either?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DIANE!

I miss having a horse. I've been to see Wiz once since I retired him and hope to go again next week. He seems happy.

I'm still here. Anyone else?

People used to sit outdoors on the large wooden boat deck and greet people passing by. Now many newer ships no longer have a wooden boat deck and the people sit around the far upper pool decks and with the kiddies or go on the large water tubes etc. Young children have to speak louder to be heard so the times of having a quiet evening meal are sometime interrupter by loud, "MOMMY, MOMMY..." voices. Still, for the most part, we enjoy ourselves. The world is just changing and we go along with it.

5-6 years ago I got shipped four tiny sticks from the Burpee catalog of 100% pure strain Concord grapes (a bonus given free because I bought other seeds). Sort of like those "approvals" they used to send young stamp collectors in the mail circa 1950's. So I planted them, forgot about it....aaaaand there are now beautiful purple bunch filled tendrils, stretching across the low branches of the swamp maples up to THREE yards over. Four plants are now 642+. My direct next door neighbor commented over brats and beers, that he's worried because his young kids keep munching them like candy. I told him to relax. "I can attest that those are a 100% catalog certified pure strain of Concord grapes. He paused for a moment looking at me.... and burst out laughing.

I suspect a similar scenario is responsible for all that kudzu across the deep south.........

As for the tomatoes, I'm stunned too. We ended up with 15 plants as wide as your outstretched arms....and equal in height to me (i'm 6'1"). Roughly 50 tomatoes on each. We don't even possess enough Ball jars for all this! Even Mrs Briguy has run out of tomato based casseroles to try.

The year before I harvested six tomatoes....as in exactly SIX individual tomatoes....LOL!! Everything else in our garden seemed to curl up and died off meekly. Except for the beets and the Zucchini....i ended up with like 150 zucchini. Don't ask me how many times I've eaten tomato stuffed zucchini surprise this summer.

Functional question How is it you're able to post from a cruise ship? Some sort of magical ocean wi-fi? Elon Musk Star Link? Just wondering.

Lynne Oh, such attitude is common around here. Apparently something in our water leads to great tomatoes as well as deep personal entitlement. Earlier this year a flood took out a bridge everyone uses to commute over. The replacement cost was estimated at over eight million dollars. The local paper was soon filled with dozens of letters to the editor demanding that WE shouldn't have to pay for that, because that's why we have a GOVERNMENT. I wanted to hunt down those writers, grab them by the neck, and chant "E Pluribus Unum" three times.

I just read back my own post and realize I've literally plagiarized the Sherwood Anderson short story "The Egg" !

Well, guess what?...I didn't get paid for that missive. Hopefully, I added enough tomato flavoring to it to keep his estate from suing the crap out of me.

Again, have a blessed day.

Brian

The end result is a bumper crop. Case after case of gorgeous heirloom tomatoes. REAL tomatoes mind you, plump red, juicy, and full of FLAVOR. Nearly unrecognizable compared to their grocery store cousins, who are sickly pink, hard as rocks, and contain less flavor then the corrugated boxes they were shipped in.

I was there standing over them, whispering sweet nothings again, as I picked perfect ready ones. "Remember the kitchen 'lil feller?....you're going back there....its BLT night!" It was then I was hailed by a long low whistle. The new neighbor of sorts....his own back yard touches mine kitty corner. He called out "Man.....did you get lucky" My mind raced. Lucky?....did he just say lucky? He kept going. "Those look beautiful! ..."each one of those is like....two bucks plus at the store.....you could buy a new car now!" I walked over to him, three of the best beauties in hand as a gift, to make our first introduction. I'm not going to lie. I was beaming. I had the same sort of contented smile I imagine a father has, as he watches his daughter up on the podium, receiving her new Olympic medal.

Dude ...just....wouldn't....shut ...up. Nice enough fellow, but he kept on with "being lucky". Even suggested I pass out a basket of them to every house up and down the block. ....because, you know, that would be the "right" thing to do. I finally unclenched my teeth and said "I think the 'right thing" word you're looking for is "compulsory". They used to use that word a lot in situations like this....back in 1958 Soviet Russia!!" He was a bit....uuuuhm... taken aback. However, I completed the rest of the conversation politely and headed back in. Silently fuming.

[Enter Mrs Briguy] "I see you've met the new guy back there.....what's he like?" Grrrrrrr, I responded. "He's sadly typical". Then I opined "I bet that entitled dork will be paving over his entire yard soon with asphalt, then breaking some glass over it....so he feels at home like the Chicago he escaped from."

Last I saw of Mrs Briguy she had her head elevated towards the heavens whispering something. I suspect it was that same Lord help me I've married Archie Bunker plea again. I get it. I've blown it. Now the onus is on her yet again. She'll have to bake a pie or cookies or something....in order meet the wife over there and explain I'm actually a nice guy......who simply spent 500 hours of effort under the hot Sun....all for a tomato.

Go ahead. Say what you will. Just bite into one of these tomatoes first...and you'll be on my side :o) BTW --(we're going to can the overflow, NOT pass them out to strangers)

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Anyhoo, I just felt the need to express myself via the written post on the internet. (buying a journal and ball point pens costs money) Plus, I know the BB chat has always enjoyed my musings on stamps, gardening, woefully failed fishing trips, whatever. So enjoy.

I hope everyone is turning this wonderfully warm clear summer day into a blessed one. I love you all.

Brian (Briguy)

My wife and I are on a two week cruise on the Star of the Seas the largest cruise ship afloat. Having a quiet and pleasant voyage.