Featured Posts (usually my latest but not always)

September 16, 2023

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I watched every minute of the Charlie Kirk Memorial, including the praise and worship before the memorial officially started. I was deeply moved and could see God's hand at work in all of it. It has sparked a significant global movement.

The title starts this post out. I think that people have the idea that God will not tolerate, and doesn’t want to hear our complaints, or our frustrations, some of which can be wrapped in anger, about our problems in life.

Windows 10-End of Life, October 2025.

I decided it might be good for folks to know what to do now that Microsoft has officially announced the date they will kill off Windows 10. When that date comes you have two, make those three choices.

Wait on Him

I read this today, “Lord give me patience and give it to me right now!” I know the feeling.

Biking and Kayaking

September 15, 2023

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The Trails We Ride On...Part 3 (Florida)

This is Part 3 of Our Bikes and the Trails We Ride On as if you didn’t know that already. This part covers the two trails we have ridden on located in and near Brooksville, Florida.

Our Bikes and The Trails We Ride On....Part 2

Diane and I have owned our Xspec MTBs ( I like anacronyms) for eight months now. We have ridden 17 miles of the Creeper Trail, and over 150 miles riding the New River Trail.

Warning- this post has lots of pictures!

Our Bikes and The Trails We Ride On.....Part 1

Diane and I talked about it, and once we both decided we wanted a bike and no rack, I started researching folding bikes. We are not electric bike people. We wanted the true bike riding experience with all the fun and the pain that comes with it.

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The Rivers We Paddle On. Part 2.

We now have made nearly 100 trips on a river somewhere in our Sea Eagle, (and it has certainly paid for itself). We are looking forward to our next trip. It will be on the Silver River.

Our Kayak and The Rivers We Paddle On Part 1

I got some nice responses to my mountain bike and trails post that it made me think that one about kayaking would be fun to do. So here goes.

Techy Things Including Computers

August 1, 2023

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Windows 10-End of Life, October 2025.

Around The World In Ten Days!

June 1, 2022

My job took me to Diego Garcia some twenty-three years ago, and it was quite an adventure.

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Around The World In Ten Days! Part One

Diego as it is called is an island in the Indian Ocean, directly south of India and just below the equator. The middle of nowhere on the other side of the world in other words. The Navy Department of Procurement was desperate to get this job done and none of their normal vendors wanted to take this assignment on. Could I do it?

Around The World In Ten Days! Part Two

I didn’t have much unpacking to do. My phone equipment first, just to get things organized. I snapped a couple of pictures also. Then I went to the communications room, more of a closet actually. I scoped out the French intercom system that quit on them.

Around The World In Ten Days! Part Three

My somewhat boring flight from Diego Garcia to Fujairah Air Base ended none too soon. The air base looked brand new, no airplanes were on the tarmac, and I swear they opened the terminal just for me.

Photography, Equipment and Techniques

August 2, 2021

If you want to improve your photography skills or in the market for a camera or lens then check out my lessons.

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My XG1

After scanning 1600 slides (and who knows how many negatives) I can't help but remember my first camera, and my first photo contest.

A Photographic (and musical) Tribute

Tomorrow is Diane’s birthday. I don’t think I need to post how old she is or will be.

My Photography Lessons

“Photography is the story I fail to put into words.”

— Destin Sparks

Some of my favorite photographs

Diane was my favorite subject when I took my first pictures.

Brookie's Tea

Brookie having tea in her secret garden.

My Last Wedding Shoot

My attempt at being a wedding photographer, while using a new to me digital camera, and being the Father of the Bride at the same time.

Eighteen Months

August 2, 2021

A somewhat surprising story about my family.

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Old Christmas Ornaments (Prologue To Eighteen Months)

Christmas has always been the day that my life's memories pivots on........

Eighteen Months, Part 1 Retirement

I was a born Navy brat in Portsmouth Naval Hospital. I spent my first few years in Navy housing, and quite a few living in a Navy community. Most of my friends were Navy brats. I bought my clothes, my favorite music albums, and my Hardy Boys books at the Navy Exchange. I learned to swim in a Navy pool. I went bowling, and to the twenty five cent movies on base. Then one day it all changed.

Eighteen Months, part 2 The Big Chair

I could name this part, this chapter, Fish out of Water (in more ways than one) because that is exactly what it felt like.
It didn't take long to realize that we came from a different world and that we would not fit into this small town.

A Night in May Eighteen Months Part 3

We all have life defining moments, a moment that changes us and helps to make us who we are.. It may be for good, or for bad. We said yes to something when we should have said no. We stopped when we should have gone. We sat when we should have gotten up. Sometimes we run away from them. This is about one of those moments that happened to me. It was a moment in time when I got up.
You may choose not to believe what you read here, that is up to you. I will tell you this. It happened just the way I have written it.

Eighteen Months Part 4...My Dad's Darkest Hour

This part of my family's past is very hard for me to write about. I guess I am afraid I run the risk of having people read this story and think I am crazy. It would not be he first time. Many people in our church, some close friends, and eventually our relatives, thought my whole family was crazy. Many believed we had "gone off the deep end."

Eighteen Months...The Conclusion

Mom was now in the hospital and my question to God was “Where did that leave us?” I was left, full of despair, fear, and without my Mom.

Dad had to deal with his emotional truama as well.

The Four Green Walls

August 2, 2021

From journals written by Diane’s grandmother Acrivi, born in Greece. This is a continuing project written with love by me.

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The Four Green Walls (prologue)

Diane,

I hope you enjoy this small part of your family history. It is a wonderful, happy, sad, and delightful story.

Love Pat

Christmas 1998

The Four Green Walls Part 1 Odessa

I was born in Fragata, on the Island of Cephallonia, the third day of March, 1902. Our home was not far from the Monastery of Saint Gerasimos, the patron saint of Cephallonia. When I was five, I, my parents, and my three sisters went to Russia. It seems like a dream now.

The Four Green Walls Part 2 Between Scylla and Charybdis

How would we live? We were now a family of nine. Seven children, five girls and two boys. My sister Maria had been born in 1914 and my baby brother just a few months before. My father did not loose hope. We had lost everything but he firmly believed that God would provide and help him to prosper again.

The Four Green Walls Part 3 The Offer

If a man marries a girl whose father promised him he would receive the family house, because there was nothing else to give the man as a dowry, and something happens and the father cannot fulfill his promise, the man can send the wife back to her father.

The Four Green Walls Part 4 This Unsettled Life

I was not happy with this kind of life, him in the States, myself and the boys in Greece. But there was nothing I could do about it. I was looking forward to and hoping for a better time when we could all live together.

The Four Green Walls, Part 5, The Light In the Fog

Europe was beginning to fear war. We in America were not. America, did not fear war because it was thought to be highly unlikely to happen. We did not feel threatened at all, we simply didn’t see the dark clouds gathering and so we booked passage to Greece.

It's A Wonderful Life

August 1, 2021

It is a wonderful life isn’t it? Especially at Christmas, I think so anyway.

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The True Meaning of Christmas (are people still looking for it?)

I have heard that many people believe the true meaning of Noel, Christmas has gotten lost in the the hubbub that surround this holiday.

The It's A Wonderful Life Rally

Let me tell you all something. I gave this rally a lot of thought about how we could make it special. I really wanted all our friends who attended to have more than a good time. I wanted them to feel something while there. I wanted them to feel close to their other members. I intended for this rally to use the Christmas season and the It’s a Wonderful Life story to reinforce the need for friends and family.

I'm Not a Praying Man....

The movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” starts with snow falling over Bedford Falls, and the sound of people engaged in fervent prayer. These prayers to God in Heaven are coming from many of George Bailey’s friends and almost all of his family.

The Candle

In late November of 1990 I received my December issue of Reader's Digest. I read all the humorous parts of the magazine, and one cover story and then promptly stuck it on a shelf with all the other issues that I still had in my possession.

It's A Wonderful Life!

I have watched the movie hundreds of times. I own both he black and white and colorized versions of the movie. I know each and every line by heart. I can watch the whole film in my head. It still chokes me up.

Old Christmas Ornaments (Prologue To Eighteen Months)

Christmas has always been the day that my life's memories pivots on........

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