How to fill time in retirement

When I am scanning in old family photos, I usually play Pandora in a browser. I have lots of different "radio" stations that I listen to including some from my past, some from my present, some from my favorite movie composers, and some are just based on other things I find I like in Pandora. The station I was listening to last night was Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield. Most people remember this composition as the music of the horror movie The Exorcist, one of many great movies released in 1973.  I was still in high school and some friends and I had driven 30 miles to Burlington to see this scary movie. I do remember that Mike Rizner and Beth Dwyer were with me (or I with them). I remember it was very scary and we stopped at McDonald's after the show. Ironically, it was the time of year that McDonald's were serving their green milkshakes. You could re-enact certain scenes from the movie. Gross! We probably did not go to the movie in my hometwon of Middlebury because...

The end of the calendar year is fast approaching and I am getting behind on my new restaurants. I can give excuses but I will not here because I still believe I will make my bucket list goal. This past week I went ot two new places. One was a pizza parlor and the other served typical American Bar food including wings and rings. The first place is called the NY Pizza Spot and is located on 192 in a Publix shopping center just West of the Melbourne Square Mall. Like a lot of places that I visit, this one had an article recently in the Florida Today . It was a nice article so I thought I might give it a try. Entering the place, there is nothing that stands out. The guy behind the counter was friendly and asked if I was getting take out or dining in. I said I would be dining in and he siad I could set anywhere. The counter at The NY Pizza Spot It took a while before a waitress came over but one finally did, I think she was the only one in the place. I received a menu and ordered a...

After my dad had passed away in 1991, I decided to make sure to keep my mom busy so she would not do what a lot spouses do, and that is die not too much later. You see it all the time. I did not want to see it with my parents. Dad had died too young, and I did not want mom to die young too. Keeping her busy with ball games, music shows, car races, and playing cribbage or yahtzee. It worked for ten years. It did not hurt that my sister Pat moved to the area from Hawaii, her daughter Lori following after a stay in New York.  Both of my brothers, John and Tom, made multiple visits to Florida, sometimes with their boys and sometimes not. Mom with my friend Bill at a baseball field dedication In January of 1999, the Florida Institute of Technology was dedicating a baseball field to two people. A MLB pitcher was going to be there to throw out the first pitch and sign some autographs. This particular player had played high school ball locally and also had played first base on the tea...

I have learned through experience that if I am going to attend a launch at Jetty Park, I need to make sure I get there early to beat the crowds. Since this launch was on a Saturday, I decided to get there almost two hours before the scheduled launch, and I still had to wait over 15 minutes to pass through the Jetty Park gate. Located at Port Canaveral, it is one of my favorite places to watch a launch. I also have an annual pass, so there is no extra cost to make use of this great resource. Apparently, since it was such a great day, everybody else thought it would be a great place for watching a launch. I had two hours to kill and the fishing pier was till closed due to damage from Hurricane Matthew. I tokk this picture of the people-less pier from the beach access behind the bathrooms and snack house. Damaged fishing pier empty of people Usually, the pier fills with people to watch a launch. But not today. The fishermen were lining the rocky channel along the parking area. I w...

My last few Photo Memory posts have been about ski trips.  But another great adventure I have been doing a lot through my life is going on a cruise ship. Living in Brevard County, we are lucky to have easy access to Port Canaveral and all its cruise ships. Port Canaveral is ranked as the world’s 2nd busiest cruise port in multi-day embarkations. They want to be number one. They have over 4 million passengers a year. In 1995, we were six of those millions. As I was watching our luggage being loaded, I saw that they had my supply of beer for the three-night cruise to the Bahamas. I took this picture of the BJ pallette. BJ's beer being loaded The weather was typical for early September, rain storms in the afternoons. This one was north of the ship near the VAB at kennedy Space Center. The good news was the ship was going to leave this area. Rain coming down at VAB on KSC This particular cruise was with my brother Tom and my mother Stella. One year earlier we had gone ...