GOING FOR A RIDE

Here's an older photo I had taken of Maria and I before we went flying. A dear friend of mine, Vinny Pipitone, brought his buddy's seaplane down to Ft. Lauderdale for a couple of weeks. He called us up and asked us if we wanted to fly it to Lake Okeechobee and do some water landings. Talk about fun!!! Hopefully he'll bring the plane back down soon so we can do it again. Thanks for the fun Vinny!

TIRED GULL

So, here's a gull just yawning away. A few minutes later he was laying in the sand taking a nap. How peaceful............. Now, if it was just that easy for ME to zonk out. It's kind of funny how so many animals mimic humans............LOL

THE SKIMMERS ARE BACK!

It's been quite some time since I've seen a "skimmer" at the beach. Yesterday I finally saw some flying around. Looks like they're back for the winter. They're a cool looking sea bird. They call them skimmers since their lower beak is skimmed along the surface of the water and that's how they catch their fish. They also make a neat little "honking" noise when they're flying around. Click on the photo for a nice closeup shot. Welcome back to Florida guys!!! ;-)

SHARK!!!!

Today while enjoying my daily beach run, I noticed a lot of beach goers standing near the water and pointing. Usually this means either a dolphin, big fish, or SHARK. It was the latter! I grabbed my camera and took this shot. It's a bit fuzzy, but you can definitely see the shark in the water. It was about 25 yards out, but it still got every one's attention. I was surprised because a few folks even went IN the water to see how close they could get to it. And you wonder why we have shark attacks?

WHO???

I just ran across a couple of shots of a small owl who posed for me a few years ago. This little guy was sitting in some rafters in an open-air picnic area loft. He was only six inches tall, but seemed much larger in the photos. What a graceful and wise looking bird.

GULLS WITH FISH

The other day at the beach seemed to be a smorgasbord for gulls finding and eating fish. Here's two shots of gulls with "dinner" in their beaks. I saw a few others, but couldn't get a good enough photo of them for you to enjoy. The gull flying makes quite a racket (noise) when it has a fish in its beak. Within minutes it had several other gulls chasing it to get a bite. Typical birds, eh?

GRACEFUL SEAGULL

Sometimes seagulls are obnoxious, pesky, sea birds. Other times, they are beautiful while soaring the sky. Here's a picture I took at the beach of a seagull out enjoying his day. If only I could have been born a bird and soared the skies.........nah, on second thought I'd rather be a pilot! :-)

SOUTH BEACH GEEK ALERT!!!!

Sometimes I think people just want to be seen. Nerdy, geeky, goofy, or just plain silly is what I have to classify a lot of beach goers. Here's the "nerdy" look I captured today while enjoying the wind and waves. It's almost a "European" look with the black socks and shoes. (And I've seen better legs on a table....LOL). I'm thinking maybe I should have a recap of some of what I see on the beach. Whaddya think????? :-)

COOL WHEELCHAIR

One of the things I see a lot at the beach is people trying to push wheelchairs through the sand. Folks, it doesn't work...........unless you have one of THESE. What a cool wheelchair, don't you think? This is only the second one I've seen in five years of going to the beach. The other one wasn't powered, so someone had to push it. But both of them had the balloon tires, so they glided over the sand pretty easily. Now....if I could only come up with an invention like this!

ADRIANA"S SCHOOL WORK

Adriana, my girlfriend's daughter, spends a LOT of time doing homework. (And I mean a LOT.........usually from 7 PM til 1AM almost every night of the week). Here's a shot of Adriana and Maria while Maria is playing on the computer (and if you click on the photo, you'll see she's checking out my blog....:-) ), while poor Adriana is sitting on the floor and working on a school project. I have to tell you, I certainly don't miss those days of worrying about getting my schoolwork done. Adriana is in an International Baccalaureate program and it is one tough program. She's doing extremely well. Keep up the great work Adri!!

LOUSY RACERS

As I was enjoying a day at the beach last week, I found out just how uncoordinated some people are. Their was a large group of folks having a "beach day" party. They had all types of games and obstacle courses set up. One of the games they were playing involved getting in a plastic kayak, paddling about 50 yards, and returning to shore. I'm guessing that well over 90% of the teams took more than four minutes to accomplish this seemingly easy task. But alas, most of the teams spent more time trying to get in the kayaks than they did rowing. It was pretty hilarious. I'd think at their age that some sort of coordination/mental skills would have kicked in. I was wrong. These guys were all over the place. One would get in and the other would tip the kayak over causing the other person to fall out. Talk about teamwork, or lack of it....LOL. It was pretty fun to watch though.

THE TREES ARE CHANGING COLORS NOW

For those of you who've been up in the northeastern part of the USA during the beginning of the fall season, you know how beautiful the color changes in the foliage can be. Here's a photo from my 6th floor hotel room in Pittsburgh last week. When I looked out my window, the gloomy overcast sky was indeed depressing, but this gorgeous tree caught my eye. It's one of the prettier color changes I've seen. Too bad the sun wasn't out or this photo would have been incredible. But, all that being said, I'd rather be at the beach enjoying the sound of the waves hitting the beach. :-)

NEW KITCHEN FOR MARGARET

I recently went to Houston (IAH), to visit with my mom, sister, and brother (who is recovering from GBS or Guillian Barre Syndrome). My sister has been in the process of having a new kitchen and flooring installed, so her house has been quite a mess. It was certainly beautiful though when I arrived. Here's two shots of the kitchen. Glad I wasn't there for all the dust and hard work! Nice Margaret!!!

JIMMY RECOVERING........AT THE BEACH

Well, Jimmy had his surgery last week for his torn rotator cuff. He's recovering nicely and should be back to playing tennis in about four months or so. He had the day off today, so we decided to go hang out at the beach. Think it did both of us a lot of good. He was able to get wireless stuff on his new iPod while we sat and listened to the waves hit the beach. Nice and peaceful.

OKAY...WHAT AM I MISSING????

So I'm at the beach relaxing and enjoying the nice soothing sound of the waves and along comes this guy............ Now, I might not be the sharpest tack in town, but why on earth would you buy pants that fit like THIS????? Every other step he took, this guy was hiking his pants up so they wouldn't fall down (and if you look closely, you'll notice he's even cuffed the bottom of the pants legs too!!!!!). If I would have walked around looking like this when I was young, they'd have thrown me in jail for indecent exposure. My how times have changed.

SKIMMING THE CLOUDS

Well, I'm back home for a couple of weeks on vacation, so I'll be able to update my blog and show off a few more pictures!! Here's a shot I call "skimming the clouds". Our view from the cockpit is indeed wonderful. I just wish I could let everyone come up and experience it at least once. Maybe one day our government will think everyone isn't a terrorist and we can get back to living a "normal life".

PRETTY GIRL IS INTO EVERYTHING

I'm visiting my brother Eddie, mom Dorothy, and sister Margaret, in the Woodlands, TX, for a few days. My brother came down with GBS or Guillian Barre Syndrome, and has been bedridden for the past three weeks. My sister had to go out of town for a few days, so I came to Houston to help my mom move Eddie around. He seems to be getting stronger every day, thank God. Hopefully in a few weeks he'll be able to walk with the aid of his walker. Hard to believe three weeks ago he was walking over five miles a day, and now it takes all his strength to move five FEET! Anyways, here's a shot of his cat, Pretty Girl. She literally is into EVERYTHING. Here's a box I opened, and within five minutes she'd already settled down for a nap. Heading back to work for four days of flying, so I'll post some photos starting next Monday. See you then.