As I said I have close relatives on a cruise ship in the area of Ida. I’ve been watching the bridge cam and so far they have been lucky. It updates every two minutes. Right now there are in Costa Rica and off in the distance there appears to be heavy clouds.

Fort Hood is terrible. Frankly I’m sorry he is still alive.

Morning JD,

I too am greatly grieved by the events of yesterday. We, of course, feel very connected as my bro-in-law who’s currently in Iraq is 1st Cal and trained at Fort Hood. I have no words at the moment…just prayers for all concerned. Military installations are such safe places to be normally. This just happens to be that extraordinary case to the contrary. I have lots of thoughts…but feel that I need to keep some things to myself. God bless them every one!

Gwen

Hey Janice,

I’ve been watching a lot of the coverage of the Fort Hood incident–and now the Orlando incident. It is so very sad. No one ever thought they’d be unsafe on a military base in their own country. There was a picture on the front page of our paper this morning that broke my heart. It showed a woman in tears as she tried to reach her husband by cell phone. I pray she got good news. I will keep all those folks in my prayers.

God bless all the men and woman who protect us. They are a fine bunch.

I hope you, Sean and Matthew enjoy your visit to the USS New York. I’m sure that will be very special for all of you.

Take care, everyone.

Margie

JD,
I hope you and the family have a great weekend and enjoy the USS New York. I look forward to the family pics with you, Matthew and Sean.
Fort Hood is located just about 40 minutes from home here. My wife’s school where she teaches had an early dismissal for the kids yesterday before the shooting, but she and her fellow workers were locked in for the afternoon. My thoughts and prayers go out to all the victims and families. I am going to give blood this weekend to try and do my small part to help.
I wish all the fellow bloggers a happy weekend. JB

The Fort Hood tragedy completely unraveled me.

How could this happen in the United States? A dozen dead, 31 wounded, and so many people now in anguish, despair, sadness, and sorrow.

After 9/11, many people asked, “How could God let this happen?” Many will asked the same question about Fort Hood.

And many people asked, “How could God let this happen?” after Pearl Harbor. I was only 15 months old when that happened, but I remember my dad talking about the anger he said he felt when the announcer interrupted the Chicago Bears game on Dec. 7, 1941. He wasn’t alone. All America was outraged by the Japanese attack!

But God didn’t cause 12/7, 9/11 or the Fort Hood massacre. A deranged Army major was responsible for Fort Hood. Period. I hope his life is short, very short. Tomorrow isn’t soon enough!

We had 32 early this morning, the first freeze since last winter. Right now it’s 60 and will be back in the 70’s for the next three days.

Hey Don,

We got down to 29 this morning. Right now it’s an absolutely beautiful 61 degrees. The deep blue sky is beautiful. Tomorrow they’re calling for a high of 68. I think I’ll empty out my pond and clean that up for the winter tomorrow. This morning I went to the open house at the new hospital. That is one impressive building. There is a baby grand piano in the lobby–how cool is that?! They did a great job on that building. The colors and decor are so calming. We went up to the 6th floor and the views out some of those windows were spectacular. At least if you have to be in a hospital, it’s nice to have a great view out the window.

Hey to anyone else who is lurking out there. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Margie

Except for the fact the Ravens are getting there butt kicked, it’s a beautiful day. Hit 76. Had the sun roof and all windows open to and from dog park.

Janice, do you know Ken Lacorte? I believe he is in LA for Fox. If you ever speak to him tell him I said hello. A few years ago while still in NJ I received a four page letter from an organization in Wash DC about Fox News. I sent an email about this letter to FNC and within minutes got an email back asking for my phone number. Ken called me and had the letter picked up by FedEx to be overnighted to LA. The legal dept got involved. Ken sent me some long sleeve Fox New Channel shirts for making them aware of this letter.

I wore one to the dog park today. Seems like most people around here are against FNC. They made quite a few nasty comments. There loss…. I will wear them again when I can without the need to wear a coat.

Hey Don,

I’m going to burn my Redskins sweatshirt. I decided to work out in my backyard on this beautiful sunny 75 degree day instead of staying inside watching a poor excuse for a football team. It was so warm outside that I wore a t-shirt. I took my pump out of my pond and cleaned it all out. I’m going to let it air dry until tomorrow and then I’ll cover up the waterfall and pond so that it won’t fill up with water over the winter.

It was nice to get outside for a little. This weekend I stopped by both hospitals to clean out all my personal things. I had a lot of pictures hanging on my wall at Memorial. I would have put more up at Braddock but the walls were concrete and I would have had to call maintenance to help me hang all my pictures. I just never got around to doing that. I only have 3 more days to clean everything out and pack up on 2 campuses. No wonder I feel tired today! It makes me tired just thinking about that.

Hey to anyone else who may be lurking on the blog this weekend. It looks like it’s just been the Don and Margie show this weekend. I hope everyone is enjoying the weekend.

Margie

Evening everyone,
Just checking in to see what’s been happening with y’all this weekend. Looks like it’s been kinda quiet.

We had Veterans’ Day Recognition at church today. It’s always done differently each year, but this year they did a particularly good job of recognizing vets. First our pastor had all retired vets to stand. They did (hubby included) and received a round of applause from the congregation. Then he asked that the wives and children of those vets also stand to recognize those who keep the homefires burning when our guys are gone from home. We all stood alongside our vets and also received a round of applause. That was particularly nice! When we all sat down, currently serving military personnel stood and we applauded them. Then family members of currently serving military were asked to stand. We were again able to stand…not only for our son who serves, but also for brother/brother-in-law who’s currently in Iraq. That was a nice honor! We then had a brief video from one of our members who’s in Iraq. This was a nice surprise…particularly for his wife and kids, who didn’t know he had done the video. After this recognition, we sang “Battle Hymn of the Republic” and “God Bless America” and were reminded by Bro. Hal to remember to thank vets when we had the opportunity. This was one of the nicest recognition services I’ve been a part of.

Hope everyone had a good day. Keep praying for Ft. Hood and for all our troops everywhere!
God Bless,
Gwen

Was suppose to start the cancer treatments again this morning for the next six weeks. The first batch didn’t work. They postponed it for a week because I’ve been passing major amounts of blood again.

Thanks for keeping us in the loop Don.

This has got to be beyond nerve racking for you….even down right angering I would bet at times if not a jumble of conflicting emotions….

Warm thoughts and prayers….

Thanks wenchie, yes it is. An emotional roller coaster.

Even though I have six weeks of this chemo again, the doctor this morning suggested I start considering surgery if this batch doesn’t work. They would remove the bladder, prostrate and lymph nodes. “Usually a 10 day hospital stay”

Don….

I dont know what to say to that….

Even “Im sorry” seems kind of empty and hollow considering the circumstances.

Just know I understand when the soul is at a place where all it seems to do is hemmorage in pain, anger, fear, and rage beyond imagination. When its seems it all it knows at the moment

Different paths, but the same feelings.

Dawn

Don,

Thanks for the update. I was praying for you this morning and will continue to pray for you. That must be hard to gear yourself up for more treatments only to find out that they postponed the first one. You keep praying and believe that you will be part of that 70% who are cured after the second round of treatments.

Take care,
Margie

As of now Janice they are on the way back to Port Everglades and per the bridge cam it’s cloudy. Tho boat docks tomorrow.