Today would have been my wife’s 47th birthday. She never got to celebrate any birthday past her 41st. In the past I’ve bought coffee for everyone that entered our favorite coffee shop. That little place closed many years ago, and that ‘tradition’ has ended.

A new tradition started that first birthday she did not get to celebrate. I took my available daughters to a Mexican restaurant. Mexican food was always her favorite, and would be the request if we went out to dinner on her birthday. So what family I can get together, celebrates the day with a little Mexican cuisine.

Today it was my two youngest daughters and newest son-in-law. It saddens me a bit that the two youngest son-in-laws never met their brides’ mother. From what has been said, my first son-in-law liked her. I’m a bit biased, but I thought she was special.

After lunch today we celebrated the first birthday of a very special young man. Check other Tangents blogs for more information on this.

All in all a very relaxing day.

Last night at around 11:00pm, I took my daughter to see the latest “Harry Potter” movie. No this is not a review (I found I don’t get that much out of 12:00am showings), more a reaction to the early morning movie experience.

This is the third late night movie I’ve seen in the past 5 years. I can’t remember going to any before that time. (Ok, I can remember going to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show late at night, but I was much younger then and it started before midnight.)

I find it interesting that so many people will come out in the wee hours to watch movies. This was in the middle of the week, and our small little theater sold out two of their screens. I’m sure if they had another copy of the film, they would have filled all three screens. Some turnout.

There were people in costumes of course. You had your witches and wizards in their ‘normal’ costumes. Wizards and witches trying to dress like ‘muggles’ (if you don’t know what that is, you are one). And even people in pajamas. They were all out to have a good time.

A little over 2.5 hours after midnight, the movie ended. The crowd made their way to the exit. Some half asleep, some excitedly discussing the show. Why did they do it this way? What were they thinking? Not enough. Too much. All differing opinions, but many excited folks. Me, I was tired. I failed to arrange the day off, so I knew I was going to have to be up and on my way in less than 3 hours. Hmmm, not much sleep. I’m sure there were others in the same boat.

Review when I see it again, and I probably will. I promised the youngest she could take a friend or two to the movies. I have a feeling this is what they will see.
I was just wondering, what kind of show would we have to put on to draw crowds like this? A wonderful thing to completely sell out. I’m not sure there is a stage show that would pull in that type of crowd. Fun to imagine.

Yesterday I spent the day with my youngest daughter, her friend, one of my sisters and her husband. We traveled to Michigan and back in time to visit Henry Ford’s Greenfield Village.

The very first thing we did was ride a Model T. Our group had to split into two and we road in two separate vehicles. The one I rode in was one of 6 historic reproductions made by Ford. ( I can’t remember the year these were made — Sorry) The driving tour on the Model T was a history of the car itself. The number of cars made, number of years in production. Location of the gas tank (I was sitting on it in the front seat). And how people differentiated their cars from all the other Model Ts on the road (mainly with special radiator caps and maybe a blanket or throw on the seats (no heat in these cars, so winter travel almost demanded a blanket). Top speed of the car 30-35.

We then road on a 1913 Carousel. I was able to ride on a frog. I’m sure I would have missed out on this if my recently married daughter had been with us.

We saw skits of the Wright Brothers, and a Waterford general Store. As an community theater actor, I was impressed by the way the period actors stayed in their roles. They told a good story and gave an insight into the times and life of the periods.

The afternoon continued with a horse drawn Omnibus ride and and also a ride on a steam locomotive. We had lunch after getting off the locomotive and walked to a 1860’s rules Base Ball game. The home team La Di Dahs were playing the Nationals. The pitching was underhand and they players wore no gloves. Foul balls caught on one bounce were outs. Players were warned if they did not keep their caps on their heads. Very interesting to watch ball played by the old rules.

Of course we walked around the Village. We went into a variety of buildings that exist. There was no way that we would be able to tour the entire village in 1 day, and we didn’t even try. It was a very enjoyable day.

or was that a tube? Or a film container? What was the latitude?

I decided to go on a treasure hunt while my daughter was in play rehearsals. I was thinking it would be a good way to get a little exercise and play with my new GPS.

So I loaded in a bunch of geocache locations on my GPS and went to look for them. I went to the first location that I remembered finding, turned on my GPS to start looking for them. Nope, they were not in the list. I didn’t get those downloaded. That should be ok, I think I wrote down the longitude and latitude on a piece of paper. Too bad I didn’t bring it with me. Hmmm, this isn’t going very well.

So, I decided to let my GPS guide me to one I did have on the machine. I got close, I’m sure I got very close. The GPS said I was within 20 feet as I stepped out of my truck. Ok, so this one wasn’t going to be the exercise I thought it was going to be. I got out to check it out, and I was suddenly (moving physically a mere 2 feet) 50 feet away from my desired location. Step away from the truck and overhead wires, they may be interfering with my GPS signals. Yes, two more feet and I was about 18 feet away. But which way? My GPS said to the right. North, south, east or west would have been good. I looked around and saw two likely locations for someone to hide something. I circled both locations and was constantly told the location was to the right…

Something just wasn’t adding up. So I tried to look at the longitude and latitude recorded for the object and compare that to the longitude and latitude given by my little GPS. Oops, the downloaded file did not print that information on my GPS screen. Maybe I downloaded it incorrectly. It just gave me the identifying number. No descriptions, nothing. So, I guess couldn’t match it by that either.

I changed my ‘car’ to be an arrow and circled around the two locations again. Constantly keeping my ‘arrow’ pointed in the directions of the objects. I think I narrowed it down to one of the objects, and I was able to pace a 15 – 20 foot circle around it. Yes, the GPS kept telling me I was 15 to 20 feet away. I moved closer and repeated the process. There were times I was 100 feet away, when 5 feet farther out I was only 15 feet away. Something was definitely interfering with the GPS. I guess I got my exercise circling one area in searching for something that I didn’t have a clue as to what it looked like. I don’t think I found it.

Oh well, back to the drawing board. I will arm myself with better information and try again someday. I’m also wondering if the GPS units designed for walking would give more information from the downloaded files. I guess I will need to look into that.

I just have to add… Made you look… 😉

I just got back the official pictures from my third daughter’s wedding. I’m going to talk to the photographers to make sure I can put their contact information here. All I have to say is, these have been the best wedding shots I’ve seen in all three of my girls weddings and then a few others besides.

It is going to take quite a bit of time to see which ones will be printed and put in the album. There were some shots that just blew me away. I will recommend them to anyone I know needing a good photographer. They also did my youngest’s senior pictures and I was very pleased with them.

Show and tell later?

I spent some time at my eldest’s house on the 3rd of July. With my two youngest daughters, and the youngest son-in-law we (and a few others) climbed on the roof to get a better view of Maumee’s Fireworks. It was a wonderful location. A bit far to get the full effect of the detonations, but close enough to have a full view of the fireworks. It was a good evening.

It started out with food, drink, conversation, music and friends. I met a few more of my daughter’s friends, and sometimes I wonder and then I wonder some more. A very diverse group met for the evening.

Our early evening fireworks started off with a few brats burning on the grill. Yes, in the things going on during the party the grill was left unattended for a bit too long. There was still plenty to go around, so all was good.

At the end of the evening, when the group started to break up, I bade my own farewells to get some rest for what was going to be a busy 4th. More on that later…

After the wonderful drive back from Florida, I went out an purchased a GPS system. My good friends take theirs with them everywhere they go (just about) and use it to find hotels, restaurants, and other fun places. Further adventures with “Jill” can be found here. I haven’t used mine long enough yet for the voice to be accepted, but right now she is called Samantha. That’s the name the voice came with, but I do find it slightly annoying (the voice, not the name).

My daughter and son-in-law (one of three pairs, take your guess), took me to a place called The Blarney. It was a great little place. I’m not sure how authentic it keeps to real pubs in Ireland, but it was a fun time. I had hoped my talking map would get me there, but we didn’t have the address, and it wasn’t in the restaurant list, we made our best guess. Lucky for us there was no ball game, the Blarney is just a short walk away from the Mudhens stadium. This is going to be on my list of places to go. I’m not a bar scene person but this was a lot of fun. The Bangers and Mash was fantastic. I have to add this place to my talking map.

I’m hoping I can find some downloads for places like this on the GPS site. I’m wondering now if there are other Irish or English pubs in the area. Or maybe a coffee shop or two? Other places I may want to see. Who knows.

The funny thing is, I picked the GPS up because I wanted to make a side trip on my way back from Florida. I didn’t have a map, and I didn’t use Google Maps or Mapquest to plan my trip back. By the time I got an Atlas, I was passed any good way of getting to where I wanted to be. That may have been a blessing, since my truck battery decided to give out, but that was the cause of me getting more tech stuff. Really, it wasn’t because I wanted another toy. I’m a very good map reader, and I like plotting my own course. I’ve tested the GPS already and it mapped the same travel routes that I did. So do I think like a computer? You don’t have to answer that one.

So be on the lookout for more adventures with my talking map. I hope I don’t get sent directions to turn into a lake… 😉

That is a good metaphor for a lot of things, but it is actually something I did not too long ago.

Now I generally prefer a nice swimming pool. A non-public pool is better than any public pool too. I never liked swimming in ponds or lakes. Mud, pond weeds, sharp stones and the non-clarity of the water were the things I didn’t like. My wife’s family had a lake cottage when I first met her, so we did spend some time there. While I did swim, I can’t say I every really enjoyed it. I enjoyed being with family but not the lake swimming part. Of course, there were a few other things I really didn’t enjoy about that cottage, but they had nothing to do with swimming.

I did find out more than a few years ago, that I do enjoy swimming in the ocean. The big waves, the sandy beaches, the smell of the salt water. I wish I could do it more often, just not feasible in the NW Ohio. The first time I remember swimming in an ocean was some 20 years ago in Southern California. The big wide Pacific was a blast. Sitting on the beach with my wife as the tide came in (and almost getting caught with no way out, but that is also another story).

Recently I was with my family in Florida, and I got to swim in the Atlantic. We didn’t stay long enough to get caught by any tides, but we enjoyed the waves, sand and salt water.

Other than people, I didn’t see any wildlife in the ocean. Some no longer used shells, but nothing living. A bit sad really. When we were in California, we saw sea lions and otters. They weren’t where we were swimming, they knew better. 😉 But they were close by.

Some day I should go to Hawaii and see some really big waves. Someday is always just around the corner isn’t it?

Children and young adults (7 to 18?) are invading our theater. It is, of course, time for the annual Children’s Theater.

As long as I remember, we’ve always had a good turnout for this acting forum, but this year it is an absolute invasion. There were at least 40 younger members of society on stage during the first evening. Tonight was the third evening of theater for the youngsters, and there was still at least 35 roaming stage and backstage. It is really good to see this in the theater. This is the future of theater. In the next few years some of these actors will be back on stage as adults. Always good to see.

I am wondering where the child relatives of other Tangents bloggers are. Didn’t see any nieces, nephews or children of the Tangents group. Oh well, since I volunteered to help again, you will all know where I will be…

Sometime back the comic strip Funky Winkerbean had run a series on the death of one of the main characters. It hit me hard at the time, because the character was a wife and mother who died of cancer. The comic strip jumped 10 years into the future and we now see the lives of the characters after this death and the death of another character (presumably in the war). I’ve seen bits and pieces of things I feel written in the comics.

Currently they are dealing with the widower of the first character who died. He is trying to raise his teenage daughter (been there, doing that) and even started on the road to dating (not yet, not quite or maybe, I’m confused). I find it interesting to read the comic and it almost feels like the author has done his research in one way or another. Usually it is very close to some of the things I feel and think.

It is hard to explain what I feel to a person who hasn’t dealt with the same situation. In most cases, I don’t even know where to begin. This comic explains and shows things in a way I never could. But then, I found someone else who reads that comic and they didn’t see the same things. Maybe I just see it because I have been in the same boat. I guess I need to think and ponder that. My life in a comic, who would have guessed.