Valentine's Day

This posting is coming from my cell phone. I am in Daytona Beach at the races. This is a trek I have made 33 times before. I love coming to the Daytona 500. This year is the 50th anniversary of the race and my last one here. You see, the races generally fall around Valentine's Day so I am not with my wife on Valentine's Day. She gets the cards, little gifts, flowers and of course a phone call but each year she is a little more depressed that I am here and she is somewhere else. She doesn't want to be here. She wants me to be where she is. So, I told her that this would be my last year here.

The races have been great. The weather has been interesting
I am staying in a tent in the infield at the track. First time that I've done this. I arrived on Tuesday morning. Tuesday afternoon and evening it rained and there were tornado watches in effect until Wednesday morning. Rain and wind but no tornados. Thank goodness! Wednesday night the lows were to be in the mid 40's. When I woke at 5, the temperature was 35. Brrrrr! Tonight is suppose to be close to 50. We'll see.

Hooters wings and scenery are still part of the journey mandatory events. Sat with some guys who went to Georgia. Good conversation, good wings and a pleasant waitress.

We'll see how the rest of the week goes.

Bark Busters

Back in July, Marilyn and I attended an SPCA event at our friends Bob and Kim's home on the Severn River. Each year we have attended an Adopt a Pet event with them in Annapolis to raise money for the Annapolis SPCA to care for the animals that come to the facility. They do not euthanize any animals. They find good homes for all of their temporaty guests. At the event in July, approximately 100 or so people atended. It was a great day. Plenty of crabs and beer, barbeque ribs, corn on the cob and lots of adoptable young pets. When I took a break from helping with the serving of food, I went up to the Mobile SPCA unit to just look at what puppies and kittens they had brought to the event. That is where I met "Larry." Larry and two of his siblings (he was one of nine) were playing in a pen. They were the remaining three from the litter that had not yet been adopted. When I went into the pen, two of the dogs started jumping all over me. Larry was very calm. He was a beautiful color with a half white paw and other beautiful markings. I picked him up and he began to lick my face. Well, that was it. I took him down to the group and everyone just loved him. I knew that I was going to adopt him so I went and talked with Mar about it. She wasn't as thrilled but ultimately she let me go forward with the adoption. I named him Cooper. When we visited the BVI's earlier in the year, one of our island stops was Cooper Island. Mar commented that Cooper would be a great name for a dog, so now you know how he got his name.

Over the next several months, Cooper got into lots of things and Marilyn was not happy at all. Our other dog, Bailey (a black Lab) and Marilyn's pride and joy and Cooper would play aggressively, mostly started by Cooper. Marilyn didn't care for that behavior and some of the other little things that Cooper was doing. She told our friendss that "Cooper has anger issues."

So, several weeks ago she called Bark Busters to come and help teach and train Cooper on proper behavior. She contracted with them for one year. Anyway, yesterday they came for the first time. They were with us for THREE hours! Here is the bottom line, correcting some behaviors was easy. The play thing was "Normal dog behavior" and most of the time was spent helping Marilyn to learn how to command! It was a good day for Bailey, Cooper AND Marilyn.

Heading South

Next Thursday, Marilyn (my beautiful wife) and I will be driving to Wilmington, NC We will meet with Lindy and Ryan there to review the Church, Reception location and potential locations for the wedding eve dinner that we will host. Neither Marilyn or I have been to Wilmington but we have heard a lot of positive things about it. The hotel that we will be staying in both next weekend and for the wedding is right on the river. I am sure the views are great!
Marilyn will be flying home on Monday afternoon and I will continue south to Daytona Beach to catch the Daytona 500. This will be the 50th anniversay of the 500 and it will be my last trip there. I have attended the Daytona 500 33 times. Going to the Daytona 500 started with a neighbor, then it was with my dad. Over the years the players changed to it becoming a brothers and sons get together. As our boys grew, other priorities in their lifes overshadowed the 500. Life does move forward. This year, my younger brother, Doug, and one of his sons, Joe, will attend with me. We are going to stay in the infield. That is something that we never did in all of the years that we have attended the race. I'm looking forward to 'camping out' and meeting a lot of 'different' race fans. It should be a spetacular event and a great way to end the annual trek to the race. I am really looking forward to it!!!

My First Blog

Well, today I decided to start my own blog. My son has a blog and he posts on it regularly. I have found that it is a good way to find out what's going on with him above and beyond the normal phone call conversations. Today we decided to challenge each other with a weight loss competition with the winner getting $50.00 and a special dinner at a resturant of their choice. One stipulation is that we both have to be at the dinner. The end date for the competition is July 12, 2008, the wedding date of my youngest son, Ryan.