"Act Naturally"

 The fourth cycle of my life was very busy for multiple reasons. I had split the BLOG posts into the six years before I retired and I expected to write a second post about the next eleven years. But as I started to gather photos, my folder was getting very crowded and I was only up to 2018. The years 2020 and beyond of course are the COVID and post COVID era. I then realized after retirement, I had a lot more time to take pictures and do things. So here are the photos I collected before stopping in early 2018. I also realized that many of the photos have appeared in this BLOG which I started when I retired. If you get a chance, you can hit the "Archive" button on the left side of my BLOG and visit more stories about these photos.

So this is the middle of the fourth 17 year cycle of my life...

Cruises

I went on a few cruises in my fourth cycle. Here I am with my old boss from ENSCO, John Pitkethly, and his two sons David and Scott. We are at a Margaritaville in Falmouth Jamaica

Another Margaritaville in the Cayman Islands
The RCL private island Coco Cay in the Bahamas.

Nancy and I did a cruise and visited our friends Peter & Gail on the island of St John in the USVI.

My friends Roger and Anne, visiting from Vermont, watching a Disney cruise ship leave at Port Canaveral. We were having drinks at the tiki bar.

Trips

Several trips to Vermont including this one where I visited with my cousin Marcia, Aunt Peggy, and brother John. Sadly, both John and Peggy have died.

I went to the Galapagos...for sunsets, Blue footed Boobies and Galapagos tortoises.



I spent sometime on St John in the USVI, where I flew in to St Thomas and took a ferry between the islands. That is Peter and Gail in the pool, me at Trunk Bay, and a sunset from the deck of my friend's home.



Another Vermont trip, visiting most of the Paquettes at Field Days and golfing with brother Tom at the Ralph Myhre golf course in Middlebury,


Sports

I was a season ticket holder for the Marlins, then the Expos who then became the Nationals.

I was a season ticket holder for over twenty years of the Orlando Magic. I stopped that in 2019.


My cousin Jim & his wife Janis were season ticket holders of the Orlando City Soccer Club. A wild parade before the game in their new arena near where the Magic play.

My friend Teresa was a Tamp Bay Rays season ticket holder. I saw a young Aaron Judge play for the Yankees at Tropicana field in May of 2017.

The Florida Tech (FIT) rowing team competes in a canal near Fellsmere.

Drinking

Having a last drink with my great friend Fred Arnold. We were at Doubles, and walked to Mathers Bridge where his brother Steve scattered his ashes.

My buddy Jim Middlebrooks searching for the greatest Bloody Mary in the World.

Me at the bar in a new place called Lou's Blues.

I took brother Tom to Saint Patrick's Day in downtown Melbourne. Our friend Jose was having a beer with Tom behind Meg O'Malley's. Not there is a hotel in this spot, the Melby.
At Hemingway's in Melbourne at a Ernest Hemingway look-alike contest.

Jim and I finding some more Bloody Marys...

At Lou's again watching Doug Flutie on drums and his brother  Darrin on guitar.

Events

Annual speed boat racing, Thunder on the Beach, held in Cocoa Beach Florida.

Thunderbirds flying over my house at a Air Show at Melbourne Airport...

Watching an old ship come into Port Canaveral.

A launch at Jetty Park with the Amoeba shape, which I like to call the Sperm.

A Thunderbird pilot waving at me during practice. I was in my front yard, I think he wanted my beer.

Another launch making an amoeba, taken from my front yard in Melbourne


And So Much More

Meerkats at Brevard Zoo...

Brandon, Morgan and Rowan at the Zoo...

Hurricane damage in south Melbourne Beach

National Cemetery in North Brevard county...

Wild life out in the Wetlands near Fellsmere...

Picking blueberries in Mims...

Alligator out at the Viera Wetlands.

I am going to skip the last part of my fourth cycle in the BLOG, and start focusing on what I am doing in the fifth cycle.

About Title

"Act Naturally" is a song written by Johnny Russell, with a writing credit given to Voni Morrison and publishing rights transferred to Buck Owens. It was originally recorded by Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, whose version reached number one on the Billboard Country Singles chart in 1963, his first chart-topper.


The Beatles recorded the song in 1965 for the United Kingdom version of their album Help!, with drummer Ringo Starr on vocals – his fifth with the band. It was released as the B-side of "Yesterday" in the United States. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Photo Memory - BJ with others

Image
As I continue to scan in all the photos I have collected over the years, I have continually modified the way I am trying to organize the photos. I have created groups by individuals, and of course central to that are photos of me. I have shared some of the single photos of me on Facebook, and I would like to share here a few of photos of me with others. The first photo is me, not even four months old, being held by my Grandmother, Helen Rheaume Shackett. I know the photo was taking at our Weybridge Street house in Middlebury by the banister behind us. The stairs are steep in the Provoncha house, and many a drunk fell down those stairs into the cactus my mom kept at the bottom. Tom moved the bathroom from the second floor to the first when he purchased the house, so now only those spending the night get to go up those stairs. BJ with Grandma Shackett The next photo is when I turned one in the summer of 1958. I lived at the Weybridge St house all my life through high sch...
Read more

"The Long and Winding Road"

Image
 I met John Pitkethly back in February of 1980. Since then, it has been a Long and Winding Road , but John played an integral part in how my life turned out. He hired me as a Data Analyst I and I started ENSCO on March 17, 1980. And I retired 34 years later, as a Data Analyst II . Just kidding, I was allowed to flourish at ENSCO, and worked on many interesting projects with many unique scientists and software engineers. John's life: Work, Drinks, Golf, Drinks, Cruises, Drinks, Drinking, Drinks. (and Family throughout) This is what John looked like when I started work at ENSCO, the DCS Division, in Indian Harbour Beach at Shopper's World. John was 43... This is what I looked like when I started at ENSCO, I was 22. When I started, Norm Bush was our Division Manager. Eventually Norm would become the President of ENSCO and John would become Division Manager of the ARS (Applied Research and Systems) and then VP, moving our office to Suntree. In 1999, John decided to retire and new D...
Read more

"Tell Me What You See" (Digital Hoarding XVI)

Image
 I will admit, that my digital hoarding has become such that I cannot remember any more the details of each photo I have stashed away on my hard drive. At my age, my data storage (aka brain) is deleting things to make room for new things. So let me go through another group of photos, not taken by me but either sent to me, scanned from a hard copy, or just pulled off the internet including from Facebook. Here we go, let us start with a few personal photos I have saved. Personal I actually found this photo in my sister Pat's yearbook and scanned it in. This was the Junior Miss pageant held at Middlebury Union High School. Patsy is sitting second from right, next to neighbor and friend Trudy. Well, I'll be damned, this is a photo I took. My friend Mac Monroe is pulling out some wine. His children rented a house for Thanksgiving and invited me over for the festivities. This would be the last time I see Mac as he passed within a year of this photo. My friend Nancy went to Korea with...
Read more