Family Photo Album Weekend Trips 2004 Smaller Trips: See pictures and Stories Below Link Month Days Place Who Jan 1 Jesse Gets his Drivers License J   Jan 1 Dave & Lyn Start to Work DL Apr 1 Alton Brown comes to our Mall DJ   Apr 1 Music Concert at the Library   July 4 Lyn's Mom Passes Away / Funeral in Michigan LJ   Aug 1  We Celebrate Silver Wedding Anniversary   Sep Four Hurricanes Hit Florida (Jul-September)   Oct 6 Lyn goes to Michigan to visit her Dad   Dec 1 Lyn Wrecks the Buick This Trip and Visitor Page  Is Still Under Construction Jan 2004 Jesse Gets His Drivers License Jesse After one full year of driving with a learner's permit, Jesse passed another milestone to being an adult. Florida will waive driver's training, but enforces instead a 1-year period of parental accompanyment. But thats ok, as Dave is an instinctive and patient instructor, if somewhat confusing. ("Slow down quick!") Our insurance rose but did not skyrocket thanks to Jesse's straight-A grades and participating in "safety school" training. He was slightly sad to learn that he was restricted from chauferring other kids under 18 and driving after 1am (for 16 months until he turns 18). Jan 2004 Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, Off to Work (Sort Of) Dave/Lyn After a year of being on disability and in rehab and college, it was time to get on with our lives. Lyn had recovered sufficiently from her bypass surgery to begin sending out resumes and going on interviews. Dave worked on his goal to be a full time school teacher by next fall. He became a substitute and worked for one day in January, but had very bad back pain for a week afterword. Oh well, each journey begins with a single step. Lyn's first day of orientation (2/5/04) Dave's day as a sub (1/24/04) Apr-04 Alton Brown Visits our Mall Jesse/Dave Jesse spotted in the paper that Alton Brown, quirky and spontaneous cooking guru from the Food Network was coming to our local mall to hawk a book and give a fun cooking demo. We made the pilgrimage, saw the show, got these pictures, and of course, now have an autographed cookbook to treasure. So I guess we can really believe that you can cook with butane torches and box fans, we've seen it done. Apr-04 Festival with Library Teens  Jesse In April, our local library had a Saturday concert in the small park area on its grounds. Jesse was the VP of the Library Teen group, and they participated in the fun of 1960's dressup. The musicians were authentic period folksingers, (now wearing much gray hair), and their music was delighful in the cool breeze among the shade of the Florida trees. It was strange to see the kids looking at the time of our childhood as just so much campy dress-up. Oh well, getting old is terrible. Jul 2004 Lyn's Mom Passes Away Lyn/Jesse Aug 2004 Our 25th Wedding Anniversary Dave/Lyn We celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary with a simple dinner at a local restaurant and an evening of story telling, so we could remember them and Jesse could learn about all of the things we have been through across these so many years Celebrating 25 Years of Marriage Jesse is just 17 and 4.0 in college We had long given up on Dave's plan (from 5 years ago) of flying to Hawaii, but still wanted to do something special. Since we would spend the evening sharing stories, we wanted a "table with a view" of the beach. When we learned there was still one last "revolving restaurant" in existance locally, a thing that was all the rage when we were dating and first married, we quickly decided that Jesse must have that experience. We arrived in the slowest part of the evening, an hour before sunset, then sat and talked and ate and watched as the beach slowly emptied and the sky turned from bright blue through all its colors. We told stories from how we met (and from years before that), through our first dates and wedding and early married years. We talked about our different homes, early trips and told funny stories about each other that had been long forgotten (and that Jesse had never heard). After dessert, for sunset, we elevatored down and walked along the sidewalks, enjoying the breeze and with the sound of sea birds. It was a perfect evening celebrating our 25 years together.  Jesse had his first dinner in a "revolving restaurant" A beach sunset ended a perfect evening. Sep 2004 Four Hurricanes hit Florida All Central Florida was struck by four hurricanes in the fall of 2004, bringing life to a repeated standstill. Charlie, Aug 13th, was headed right for us, then turned at the last moment and ruined beautiful Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte instead. Frances arrived Sept 5th, halting Jerry Lewis' labor day telethon. Ivan shut down the whole area Sept 16th, but passed harmlessly along the gulf and hit Pensacola. Then Sept 26th brought Jeanne, following a similar path. We lost power for a day or two, but rode out the storms by staying with friends or hosting them when their power failed. Many people had not repaired the damage from one hurricane when a second or third arrived. 2004 Hurricanes:  Aug 13-Charlie, Sept 5-Francis , Sept 16-Ivan , Sept 26-Jeanne Bottled water was all sold out for Charley Carport damaged at our Condo thanks to Jeanne A nearby homeowner nightmare from Francis Our power was out for 3 days after Jeanne Oct 04 Lyn goes home to Michigan Lyn Dec-04 Lyn Totaled the Buick All Oops! Lyn didn't make it home from work The Buick was a "Total" loss, yet 80% undamaged. With Saturday being her day off, Dave had promised Lyn a Friday "date night" dinner out with a movie. After a  long tough day that started at 4am and the excitment to start her week-end she was distracted for just a split-second at the apron of the parking lot exit at her office. The car was barely traveling but 10 mph, and the parking lot empties onto a little used business park feeder road, but at just that moment a "high-riding" SUV was passing and as Lyn hit her brakes, the Buick's nose dipped and crashed UNDER the high side panels of the SUV. The other guy was mostly OK, getting a creased side panel and a flat rear passenger side tire. But you can see that Lyn's braking and the apron slope caused the Buick energy absorbing bumpers to go under the SUV. The SUV was so high that the damage was to the Buick's hood which was both crumpled and shoved directly into the windshied and then into the dashboard. It fired both airbags, and also broke all the front end facia (headlights, grill, radiator, etc). It turns out that your insurance company will fix your car up to 35% of the Blue Book, then it becomes cheaper for them to just write you a check (for the full amount) and sell the car shell to somebody (who will then fix it up or cut it up for pieces). In the end, all insurance is about numbers, and as the bump shop was "running the numbers" with us, it always came down to those very expensive airbags (aprrox $2000) and all that expenseive front end trim. So much of the Buick was intact; engine, transmission, wheels, doors, trunk, roof, interior (except dashboard). Our car will be a scrapyard "goldmine" for somebody. But for us it was totalled, and suddenly we needed to go car shopping. Oh, and Lyn never did get to see her movie, and she ended up eating pancakes for dinner at 10pm at Villiage Inn.  Click to view a different holiday or year Original Web Upload November 2002 Last Update: June 17, 2005