Ocean City Sandy Update

Well, we're recovering from Hurricane Sandy still.  With the help of my sons, we've replaced the insulation and drywall that was damaged in the garage, up to a height of four feet from the foundation.  We've scheduled the painter to do the repairs inside the house.  New carpeting will also be coming soon.  

Still waiting for the replacement air conditioner/heater unit.  

Importantly, the boat lift is repaired and ready for the Edgewater to come home for the summer.  Speaking of the Edgewater, it has had it's spring tune-up along with the installation of new engine management software for the twin Yamaha 300's.  Ready for TUNA!

The deck is progressing but not yet finished.  Still waiting for replacement of the railing and stair lighting systems.

Hopefully, we'll be finished by Memorial Day at the end of May and ready for an active summer.

The family is doing fine.  The grandchildren are a joy and we try to spend a lot of time with them.

My photography hasn't improved much but I'm working at it.  I'm mostly taking pictures of the grandkids.

Meeting somewhat regularly with the "Xers", a group of former GSK employees, for drinks and dinner.

I hope all is well with you.  All the best, Ron.

Happy Birthday, "Gammy"

Celebrating Kathleen's ("Gammy's") birthday.  Given she was a bit under the weather, she didn't want to risk having the grandkids come to our house.  So, in order to open her gifts, we constructed an ad hoc video network to the grandkids via two iPhones and Facetime.

It worked quite well and everyone got to see "Gammy" open her gifts.  Birthday cake on Sunday!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all.  Hope you have a successful, healthy and prosperous new year, loaded with lots of fun.

My fun started off great with a new train under the tree, a reproduction of a classic Lionel tinplate train. Unfortunately, the fun didn't last long as the locomotive in the new set stopped working after about five minutes of running.  I found a loose cable, replaced it but it came loose again quickly.  Three more tries with the same results and I gave up.  This morning, I called the manufacturer's service department and set a return for service. It will be in the mail in the next hour or so.  Here's what it looked like before the failure.  

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas.  For the first time in over forty years, there's an O gauge train running under our Christmas Tree.  I love toy trains.  Maybe this year I will actually build the layout I've been talking about.  Watch for videos.  We'll be spending Christmas Eve and Christmas with family and friends.  Santa will bring lots of presents, I'm certain. 

I've also included a couple videos of a famous (in the Philadelphia area) Christmas display at the Macy's department store in center city.  Those who are old enough will recognize this as the John Wanamaker's display.  That store, a Philadelphia landmark for more than one hundred years, is now a Macy's.  Cudos to Macy's for continuing the tradition.  While not the entire show, these three videos give a flavor of the tradition.  The display is presented in the grand hall of the Wanamaker Building, home of the largest pipe organ in the world.  The music for the show is from that pipe organ.

Here's wishing the very happiest Christmas to you and yours.

Ron

Update on the Lego houses versus Hurricane Sandy.

Well, the Lego's survived Sandy.  At our home n Lansdale, we've been without power for three days.  More on that later.
In Ocean City, target of the storm, my son, Ron, and i have just spent two long days just cleaning up the mess.
Kathleen has spent two days on the phone with insurance agents, FEMA, adjusters, contractors, clean-up companies, Ocean City authorities and friends inquiring about our well-being.   Thanks for the interest. 

We are physically fine.  We've been without power in Lansdale for three days, but fortunate foresight resulted in a whole house propane generator there, so we've been ok.  Ocean City fared a little worse.  Our deck  (new) is probably destroyed (the waves on the bay were the highest ever recorded, carrying increDible power and literally blowing the deck off its foundations), we have a few leaks in the house, heating not working downstairs.  That should be expected with the strong winds we had (81 MPH).  There was about 30" of water in the garage and house.  That left behind tons of ocean muck, ruined carpets, failed heater, destroyed refrigerater, destroyed freezer, ruined most of my tools, ruined some bicycles, power tools, and miscellaneous stuff.  Four trips to the dump--can you say "Spring Cleaning!!".

Having said ALL of that, we were incredibly fortunate.  Many folks lost their entire homes.  Our neighbor lost his boat.  Our boat was high and dry, and inside, at the marina.  All in all, we were very fortunate.  This was a monster storm, nicknamed "Frankenstorm"!

Lots to do still but very thankful that we are ok.   Our hearts go out to those who were not so fortunate.  God be with them.

Hope to see you, all, soon.
With warmest regards,
Ron

 

Summer's Over

Well, summer is over here on the East Coast of the U.S.  Summer homes are being "winterized", boats are taken out of the water and stored, the vacation crowds are gone.  Oddly, it's a wonderful time at the Jersey Shore.  The weather is a little cooler during the day and the nights are great, "leave-the-windows-open" nights with low humidity and a cool breeze.  For many it's a time to ride bikes on the boardwalk (biking on the boardwalk is restricted to just the morning hours during the peak summer times), and, it's time for those season extending activities intended to attract customers to the shore even after the traditional end of summer.  This past weekend in Ocean City was one such activity, the Ocean City Air Festival.  While small when compared to the larger air shows, like Fort Lauderdale or Atlantic City, it provided an interesting blend of air show and ground activities.  The OC airport was open to the public with displays of aircraft, antique cars, fire engines and RC planes.  I've loaded a few pictures that I snapped on the site.  Hope you enjoy them.

The 4th of July

The 4th of July is almost here and our new boat still isn't totally ready.  Oh, it runs ok but the depth sounder (sonar) was not functioning properly and it's been at the marina for a couple weeks now.  It seems that the problem is a limitation of the sounder equpment.  We now have a workaround that should be OK.  We'll be fishing when Kathleen and I get back from Florida.  We're actually leaving on the 4th to go home.

It has been very hot at home and here, in Florida.  Temperatures have been in the high 90's or triple digits!  Last weekend some powerful thunderstorms passed through Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey.  Some power outages remain today.  I can't imagine triple digit temperature without air conditioning!

Have a great 4th for all of my American colleagues.

Emma Rose is here. Henry is TWO!

Well, time flies.  It's been more than a year since I left GSK.  Though I didn't make it to the last Xer's get-together, I really appreciate getting to see many folks on a regular basis.  

In January, we were blessed with our third grandchild, little Emma Rose.  She is a darling, although she is keeping mom and dad from getting much sleep.  Grandmom (Kathleen) is busy spoiling her already.  Since Rebecca and Steve live in Frederick, Maryland, we've spent quite a bit of time on the Pennsylvania Turnpike between Lansdale and Frederick.

Things are going well with Kathleen and I.  We took delivery of our new boat last weekend.  Can't wait for warmer weather so we can give it a workout.  We sold the old boat, a fine one.  Someone got a very, very good boat at a very reasonable price.  

Recently, we celebrated Henry Peter's second birthday.  Lots of friends and family at Kristie and Mike's place.  The celebration was something else, complete with a visit from a real fire engine.  Henry loves fire engines.  Wow, was he excited. (some pics posted)  Joshua is now thirteen and getting very tall.  He built his own gaming PC.  He's a hard core "gamer".  

Got to Florida to visit relatives, Universal Studios and Phillies Spring Training. The Phils didn't win either game we attended.  Heading to Florida again soon to see Kathleen's dad.  

Hope to see some of you when we get back.  Take care.  God Bless.

 

Merry Christmas

Well, it's that time of year again.  Our family is looking forward to the holiday as we always do.  Preparations are well underway.  My dancing Christmas trees are up and operating.  A video from last year is on Youtube under legosvideos.  Thanks to Kathleen, my wife, much of our Christmas shopping is done.  My assignment is to wrap the gifts.  As a result of good training from my mother when I was a child, I'm pretty good at wrapping.

We'll be heading to Ocean City, New Jersey for some of the festivities and a visit to the Christmas displays at the Atlantic City casinos.  

We're expecting another grandchild in late January.  Joshua just turned thirteen.  This summer, he built his own PC (with some help from Pop).  Henry, aged 20 months, is turning into quite a personality, learning faster with each passing day.

No predictions of snow yet, so we might not have a White Christmas but that won't dull the spirit.  

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a healthy and prosperous New Year.

Lego Stuff... Finally here.

Well, it's taken quite a while but I've finally gotten around to creating a web site.  Thanks for being so patient. There's not a lot of content yet, but I'll be adding updates on what is happening with LEGOStuff and, of course, I'll be adding pictures, photos, videos and other items of interest as I progress. 

I'm using SquareSpace because they offer the most simple methods for creating a site, by having a lot of formats, pages and widgets that are already created and ready to go.  As I learn more, I'll try to make this simple start grow with more content and sophistication.  For now, this is what I have.

Welcome!