Family Photo Album Travel and Visitors 2003 Smaller Trips: See pictures and Stories Below Link Month Days Place Who Feb 1 Lynn comes to Visit from Utah   Feb all Dave Sick Time - Physical therapy   Mar 3 Terri comes to Visit from London   Apr 1 Time to Sell the House   May all Lyn submits paperwork for Weight Loss Surgery  Lyn   May 1 Dave and Jesse to to Summer Semester Together   June 1 Contract Pending / Find a new Place to Live / Moving Sale     July 1 Move to the New Condo   Aug all Lyn Home from her WLS Surgery Lyn   Aug all Settle in the Condo / Clogged Plumbing and Broken Computers   Sep all Back to School   Oct all Active at Church, Dinners, Karaoke   Nov 1 Crabgrass Cowboys at Festival of Reading      Nov 1 Peter and Theresa stop by   Dec 1 Lyn looking trim and feeling fit   Dec 1 Schools over of Dave and Jesse   Dec 1 Jesse was Paul Bunyan in the Christmas Parade This Trip and Visitor Page  Is Still Under Construction Feb 2003 Lynn Comes to Visit one Saturday All While Dave was home from work and getting his back pain worked out, we got a call from Lynn our old friend from Utah. We had not seen Lynn in 7 years, since we moved from Utah to Florida, and his surprise call was a great boost to our family morale. He was coming to Florida on a job interview, and would pass through our area on the way back to the airport. We were delighted when he stopped by, and Dave limped to his feet for these pictures. Dave cheered up when Lynn visited A memory from Lynn's visit to our house Click to View:  Christmas 1994 San Antonio Trip Lambing Day Moving to Florida Feb 2003 Dave Sick - Physical Therapy All Dave was ill over Christmas, then had a vertigo attack his first day back at work in January. He eventually ended up home for all of February, attending physical therapy at the nearby Health South office. We found everybody there delightful, especially Clara, Michelle, and Dave. Ramps, like this one at the entrance door,  were particularly difficult for Dave. Dave and Dave at the recumbent cycle Michelle gives Dave ultrasound Clara uses few words to keep Dave jumping The torture chamber: these weights added weeks of pain March 2003 Terri Comes to Visit All Dave had been off work for a month, and just able to walk some when Terry called. She would be teaching a class in Orlando and could come to spend the week-end with us. We all perked up and had fun visiting the pier, seeing some Improv, and showing her around our little town. We all told stories and laughed till it hurt, and snacked on home made waffles and Greek Pastries from the bakery. If rained the entire time she was here (she brought the weather with her from London) and Dave crashed in bed from exhaustion when she left. Terri brought the rain from London Homemade waffles for breakfast Networking on our little LAN April 2003 Time to Sell the House All Between Dave being on disability, a balloon mortgage coming due and the Jesse going off to college in a couple years, we have been due to downsize our living arrangements. We've been talking about it for some time, and finally called some realtors to check us out and suggest a couple improvements so we might list it at the end of summer. We were told, of course, all house sales dry up once school starts as families want to be settled by end of July. The time to sell was NOW (Apr-May-Jun) or we might have to wait out a slow period of six to eight months. The rest is history. Our realtor showed a lot of confidence and knowledge The Realtors all said the house was a "little cluttered": Definitely time to start packing boxes Our first load of clutter to the air conditioned storage unit Eric, our new friend The sign goes up, this is official The first moves to storage were crazy, and occurred in the middle of Dave's disability and Lyn's surgery prep. Jesse did all the heavy work for us. We simply put all the "A" items, obvious "keepers", into boxes by type. We had never used a self-storage before, so we took a couple of days and shopped around all the local ones. We stopped looking when we met Eric, who appeared just when we needed a friend. We took a dozen loads to Safeguard during the crazy  week that our first real estate walk throughs started to appear. Then brought half of it back for the garage sale. May 2003 Lyn Started WLS Approval Lyn Lyn's goal for Bariatric Weight Loss surgery took a definite step forward when she completed the ten testing requirements for Dr Barry Haicken to consider her case. We attended several Saturday morning "Bypass Buddies" meetings (one of the ten requirements) and have become very confident that Dr Haicken's careful outlook and measured actions were what we wanted. The "open" (non-arthroscopic) Rouen-Y gastric bypass was our preferred choice for safety and success. The success stories at the meetings were inspirational and the various stories of complications (and Dr Haicken's steady resolution of them) gave us even more confidence in our choice. We spent from February thru April getting blood tests, cardiac evaluation, gastro evaluation, sleep apnea study, pulmonary evaluation, psych evaluation, dietitian programs for protein and vitamin control. With the pack complete, it can be submitted for insurance approval. May 2003 Dave and Jesse go to College All Dave and Jesse start summer semester on Jesse's Birthday Dave was anxious to get up and do something so he signed up for a class at the local community college for the summer semester (May-July). He met the prerequisites for 3rd semester calculus, exactly 25 years previously! But he knew the exercise (both physical and mental) would do him good. Jesse was planning on taking the summer off, but volunteered to take a class that met at the same time so the two guys could drive over and back together. Unfortunately, the first day of class was May 20th, Jesse's 16th birthday. Jesse's Birthday: Back to School The boys head off to school June 2003 Sell the House / Find a New Place to Live / Moving Sale All The real estate agents were right, and spring was definitely the time to sell the house. The foot traffic was incredible, actually crazy, with two or three showings per day (with the ritual of stepping out to let them through) and one or two more agents just walking up to ring the bell. It became very busy when the house across the street was listed, with many more unscheduled drop-ins. We received a good offer in the last week of May, just 3 weeks after listing it, and suddenly our research on a new place to live became rushed. We wanted to rent a condo from a local owner (apartments were too transient at our age) while Dave's job and health problems got worked out, so Lyn got on the phone and setup visits. We expected the pace to slow down after getting an offer, but between finding a new place, having a "Moving Sale" and finally moving, there was not even a moment to catch our breath. The new buyers were flexible with a closing date (it was our Realtors "nephew"), so after we found a couple condos we liked, we picked June 30th to be our closing date (and June 21st as our "Moving Sale"). April 24th - May 21st: We found a Buyer We sign the lease - homeless no more! It took over a week to pull together the moving sale, just as a tropical storm sat in the gulf and rained everyday (a dam broke in the next county!). People showed up at 8am and we got three hours of sunshine as if a miracle. We sold a lot of stuff, and gave a lot to the Goodwill, but we still kept too much. Closing day came, and when we showed up to sign the final papers we were surprised. For the first time ever, neither the buyer nor the agent showed up for the signing. And our agent was the"uncle" of the buyer! Hanky-Panky? You figure it out! June 26th: Closing Papers: No Buyer / No Agent June 27th: Moving sale between downpours We got rid of so much - but should have been more July 2003 Move to the Condo All On June 28th, the movers appeared and took all "the big stuff". We used our little van to shuttle the rest. We completely underestimated how much "little stuff" we had, and we ended up making three and four trips daily, finishing at midnight on the last day. In the middle of all this, the van wouldn't start and needed a jump. Jesse read about Bill Mahr (of "Politically Incorrect" fame) coming to town to give a show and wanted to go see it. We knew there would be some time to rest, so he and Dave got tickets (4th balcony) and they enjoyed an evening break mid-move. One last tangle to resolve was several broken sprinklers at the old house. Dave tried to fix them by himself, but between the daily deluge and his lack of skill, we ended up hiring one last helper (Joe Heber, a  full-time charter boat captain that landscaped during the slow season). Joe was fun and the work was finally completed one day after official closing. Our stuff was finally in the tiny condo, but it was July 15th before we could actually sit on sofas without boxes stacked in front of them. And It turns out that moving locally is just an exercise of writing checks to strangers. The truck pulled up at 8am Lyn cleaned as the house cleared out Mike and Jimmy (JD) worked by the hour and took all the couches, beds, and dressers for us. We knew we were living  in our new home when Lyn's piano went in the front door. We had moved a lot of boxes and bags before the movers, and we had three days when they were done. It was quite a surprise to us, when you start packing cans of tuna, extension cords, and office supplies; just how much "stuff" has to be moved. We moved two full vans each day, and made three trips the last day, and we finished right around midnight. We moved Figment first, so we could vacuum and clean, and it took over two weeks to get all the boxes put away in the new condo. The real muscle behind our move We carried all the small and expensive things (blender, computers) and breakable things (grandfather clock, china). We also shuttled all the bulky, stupid things (bags of shoes, laundry, pots and pans). But it turned out that there were a lot of trips. The van died on our second to last day, and needed a jump to start. The rain caused havoc with the brakes, and we will need to replace it by the time Jesse gets his licence in September. Our realtor turned into a real jerk in the end, as it came to light that he actually had an interest in buying our house. Instead of helping at closing, he raised holy hell about our move out instead. Dave did his best to help carry, but his back pain had flared up (coincidence?) from overexertion during his physical therapy exactly one week before we started hauling. So while he tried to help, he mostly held doors and gave directions. Without Jesse to do most of the lifting, we would still be moving to this very day. Jump Start the Van Fix the Sprinklers The next day Figgy made the move The condo was a wreck for two full weeks We are pretty much settled in our new home, but there is still a lot of adjustment. We use the new pool and Jacuzzi almost every day that it doesn't rain. In the middle of moving, Lyn got "the call" from Dr Haicken's office that the insurance was approved and her WLS surgery was scheduled for August 1st. That was one month away and right on schedule for us, just in time to be settled in our new home for her recovery. Dave started to feel better, but then hurt himself again, and finally had to drop out of his summer class since he couldn't keep up with the homework through all of the distractions of the move. Jesse settled in and did lots of setup and put away work and got an "A" in his summer class. We volunteered to build a web site for our new church (just 3 blocks from our new home), and Lyn volunteered as summer fill-in while the secretary was on vacation. It was a great way to meet everybody at church and learn their names. Also, we were happy to meet a plethora of new woodland neighbors, as our stucco walls were covered with dozens of salamanders and our trees were full of grey squirrels and noisy blue jays. We named our large lizard friend "Thor", and the rest of the crowd Odin, Loki, Frigg, etc. But we ran out of Norse gods long before we ran out of salamanders. Our new home - just steps from the carport Our new neighbor - Thor Aug 2003 Lyn's Surgery & Recovery Lyn Lyn went in for surgery on August 1st and Dr Haicken outdid himself. She is writing her story on her page, but everybody should know that she is home and recovering. After 5 days in the hospital (1 in ICU, 4 to break the fever) she came home to us. For the record, day 3-5 were the most painful, with each day getting easier to bear after that. The eighth day after surgery was the monthly meeting of Dr Haicken's Bypass Buddies.  Lyn's buddy Russ challenged her to get out and go to the meeting. Russ had his surgery five months earlier and is doing great with 100 lb loss so far. Everyone was happy to see Lyn out and about and it did Lyn a world of good to get to see her compatriots. Russ and Lyn - True Bypass Buddies! Chris took out Lyn's staples and tracked her progress Cathy had WLS the same day and met Lyn at Dr Haicken's Carol, our home visit nurse, was delightful.  She was from Castle Combe in the UK and we had actually met her father on our vacation in 1985. Lyn's final visit to Dr Haicken's on Aug 25th. Here is Chris snipping the last suture. It was now OK for Lyn to get in the pool and Jacuzzi. Aug-2003 Settle into the New Condo All With Lyn home recovering for surgery and school set to begin for Dave and Jesse on August 25th, our lives still went on. Dave completed a couple projects at the condo that we wanted done right away, but got lost in the pre-surgery rush. Jesse visited Dennis Apple for his final annual Home School approval test. Jesse boasted that he had finally memorized how to spell "soliloquy" since he knew it was the last word on Florida's annual vocabulary list. Also, Silver's FAT table mysteriously disappeared in the middle of the Sobig virus craze (over 200 dummy e-mails per day). Jesse finished installing our 120 gb drive into Gold, swapped over the corrupted filespace, reformatted Silvers extra partitions, then reinstalled them from backup. And all of this done between the hours of midnight and 4am on three consecutive nights. And then the sink backed up! Jesse and Dennis Apple: One final yearly home school test Jesse at 3am recovering Silver's destroyed FAT table Dave ignored his doctor's orders and paid the price:  he was laid up for days for trying this stunt  to "see if he was OK" (he wasn't) Dave teaches Jesse the joys of home ownership as Jesse installs some uncooperative ceiling tiles  under Dave's experienced guidance Surprise! The kitchen sink backed up (not our fault!) Charlie Brown came after Labor Day week-end Sep-2003 Back to School Dave / Jesse In September, Dave and Jesse both returned to school. Dave tried again with linear algebra after dropping it over the summer. He also took two education classes toward his goal of becoming a public school teacher. While doing that, he sat for two of the Florida teacher certification exams and passed them both. Jesse tackled his most ambitious semester ever with Calculus, Java Programming, Abnormal Psychology and Chemistry (with lab). Even to look at the stack of his books is daunting, and the semester load was just too much. In the end, he maintained his 4.0 average, but consumed all of his attention on exams, quizzes, and papers. We all agreed to scale back his next semester if he survived this one. Oct-2003 Active at Our New Church All We threw ourselves into our little neighborhood church Lyn was the organist and always concentrating Now you know who changes the sign out front With Dave being grounded from travel, we wanted to become active in a local church. To our luck, very near our new condo was a small congregation ideally suited for our talents. Within a month, Dave had reactivated their three year old website and Lyn was playing the organ and piano for the choir. Dave began to implement some standard business disciplines, review their data systems, and create a unified marketing product position. The little church was in desperate need of about 5 to 10 new young families to reach a critical mass. There were not enough hands to cook the meals or tend the nursery. But any more than that would require building an addition or an entire set of logistics for parking, additional services, etc. Like all little churches, there was no consensus. Some had visions of grandeur, others saw only the past and considered each change to be an insult to the long deceased person that last touched that item. Discussions of trim and style clashed between "leave it alone", "just paint it white", ultra modern, and back to basics. In many ways the little church was a microcosm of the conflict across Florida between active peoples trying to accomplish life's daily tasks, of the generations from World War II, the baby boom, and later. Retirees, active seniors, parents with children, young adults, all perceive the same situation quite differently. This conflict appears at tax referendums and school board meetings. Why wouldn't it rise up when a question of how much to charge each type of person for church dinner is asked? Instead of gaining those families, we lost them. They had lost several before our arrival, and a few more while we were there. Of course older members died off or went north for summer with some not to return. In the end, we did not return either. Oh well. We accepted responsibility for "Family Ministries" which ran the social functions and meals that were neither for seniors or kids. The weekly dinners were a chore, once the novelty of using the industrial sized kitchen wore off. After a few months, it was easy to question if these activities were accomplishing higher order goals that could not be met at any of several dozen local restaurants. We got to participate in several Karaoke nights, using a K-J from a local club but in a smoke-free, family-friendly environment. We all had fun trying to build cross generational bonds between the church's seniors and kids. Unfortunately, we met limited success. Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas service afterglow were memorable for the scale of their production. It was fun to take normally intimate and familial acts and scale them up for groups of around 100 (remember, a small congregation). Dave, enjoyed pretending to be an industrial engineer again as he had the 6 turkeys carved or the 12 gallons of punch prepared. Just Bring 'em On Karaoke Night #1 - singing "Margaritaville" "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" sung "acapulco" (no music) Nov 2003 Crabgrass Cowboys All Our church group decided to put together a car-pool visit to the "Festival of Reading". To our surprise, the closing act would be the "Crabgrass Cowboys" our long lost friends that we had not seen since we first became their web publishers. We've been trying to cross paths for over four years now, but each time something came up for us or them to prevent it. But today we saw their one-hour gig and had the time of our life. What a crew! Finally! We meet up again with Hapi McKenzie and Patty Pfister: The Crabgrass Cowboys! Nov-2003 Peter & Theresa Visit All To our surpise, Dave's friends from San Francisco were in Florida visiting relatives, and stopped to visit us. They brought wedding pictures, and told us stories about their four receptions and their trip to Germany. It so cheered Dave up after he was sad to not be able to travel to see their wedding. Dave had worked with Peter several times and last visited them in San Francisco last December. Lyn had to practice with the chior at church, so Dave and Jesse took them to the beach for warm gulf water (not cold San Francisco Bay water) and then to lunch at our favorite beach restaurant. Jesse was able to spend time with them telling stories about himself and getting to see and hear positive happy life stories. Lyn got to visit some, but had chior practice at church Dave, Theresa, and Peter in the gulf Peter and Theresa finally got to meet Jesse Dec-2003 Lyn Looking Trim and Getting Active Lyn By December, Lyn's August Weight Loss Surgery was really showing results. Her scar had healed, and she was adjusted to the diet and vitamin requirements. She was exercising regularly and beginning to feel a new pep and vigor. Dave was continuing his rehab but would constantly overdo and end up in extreme pain the next day. Dec-2003 Schools Out for Dave and Jesse Dave / Jesse With Christmas came end of term for Dave and Jesse. Jesse continued his record of straight A's. Dave had to retake the Linear Algebra class that he withdrew from over the summer. That class would permit him a certificate to teach high school mathematics in Florida under the "alternative certification" program. Dave had volunteered with several teachers, required for his education classes, making very good contacts and receiving good insights into what it takes to be a teacher. Dec-2003 Paul Bunyan in the Holiday Parade Jesse In December, the teen group marched in our local "Christmas Parade". In Florida, the mild weather and highest time of activity are at the holidays so we have come accustomed to our new tradition. This was the first time any of us has actually marched in a parade. The library theme was story book characters, and during the brainstorming session Jesse was chosen to be "Paul Bunyan". His broad shoulders and six inch height advantage earned him instant acclaim. The parade was full of Boy and Girl scouts, ballerinas and karate students, fire engine and even a group of riding lawn mowers. The solders and VFW troops were joined by local bagpipe bands and high school and middle school bands too. And every float singing Christmas carols. Of course all the spectators were bundled up in sweaters and sweatshirts and having to sip hot coffee all day on account of the chilly weather. It had dipped all the way down into the mid 50's.  Welcome to Florida. Jesse was Paul Bunyan, Bryan was Woody from Toy Story. Where's Waldo? At the Library of Course! The Library staff presented a truckload of characters that anyone could recognize from favorite childhood books. Lyn ready for the parade These clowns brought a rip-roaring good time Palm trees at Christmas After the parade, we drove Jesse over to church for an afternoon practice of his role as a shepherd in the church Christmas pageant, another first for our family this Christmas . Click to view a different holiday or year Original Web Upload November, 2002 Last Update: March 20, 2008