May 24, 2003

All –

Well, it has been a while – almost 4 weeks - since I wrote last.

I have been pretty busy. Last night Robin and his friend Tony and I took a real nice ride when I got out of work at 3 o’clock. Tony and Robin know a lot of the back roads and it was a whole lot of fun. Robin has a BMW and Tony has a Moto Guzzi. Part way into the ride Tony ask me if I wanted to ride his new Guzzi and he would ride mine. After thinking for about ½ a second I said “Sure!”. It was a real nice bike and in a lot of ways similar to mine. It didn’t have a windshield but I kind of enjoyed it without one. It has probably been 20 years since I rode a bike without one and with my full-face helmet and very heavy jacket it felt very comfortable in the warm air. After a while, we stopped again and Robin got on my Guzzi and I got on his BMW. The BMW is a nice bike also, having anti-lock brakes (which I didn’t get to use, fortunately) and the seat is a lot taller and I could just barely reach the ground. We stopped in St. Francisville and had a sandwich and beer at a nice place called the Magnolia Café. There should be a few pictures on our web pages.

Thursday night was spent cutting the grass and edging. I also did some exercise at work as they have a lot of equipment for the soldiers. I have been riding the stationary bike a lot and am now up to 40 minutes a day roughly 4 days a week and have started lifting weights. The soldiers and Cheryllynn have been telling me how to use the weights correctly and I enjoy it and feel pretty good doing it. I have been watching what I eat and drink – “Hey, I said ‘light’ beer, Mister!”. Anyways, I have lost a little weight and will loose more before the summer heat kills me.

Tuesday and Wednesday are my days off and it seems every Tuesday I sleep in and just do things like laundry and cleaning and some paperwork and stuff – I am just tired from working all week. Wednesdays I try going to different places. This week it was a bike trip to Lafayette in the center of the Cajun part of Louisiana. Now, Lafayette is not pronounced “La-fee-yet”. It is pronounced “Laugh-E-yet”. I have been trying to teach people to pronounce things right down here but I am afraid it is an uphill battle. By the way, going to Lafayette was the first time I have ever had a motorcycle west of the Mississippi River. I stayed on the interstate all the way there and noticed some interesting things – many miles of the road are on pilings above the swamp or bayou or whatever they call it. I passed a lake with lots of trees in it followed by a swamp, which looked exactly the same. I am convinced that the main reason for Louisiana is to attract all the mosquitoes out of Texas!

After eating lunch at a nice Cajun restaurant, I headed north looking for some back roads. People along the way were very nice and friendly – every time I pulled out the map it seems someone wanted to help me. Was riding along a river that had a big levee along side it (or was it just a big levee I was following?) and started worrying about gas not having seen a station in quite a while and knowing I didn’t have too many miles left in the tank. Stopped in front of a small house with 3 people sitting on the front porch – kind of stereotypical – overalls, chewing on stems of grass (I use the word chew but, since none of them appeared to have teeth, I don’t know if that is the correct word) and they directed me to a station. After filling up I took some more back roads to a ferry that carried me across the Mississippi River and I then headed to the local Wednesday night Bike-Night – hey, a free meal is a free meal!

A week ago Wednesday I went to Petal, MS to the closest Guzzi dealer around (350 miles, round trip). They gave me some coffee (but, alas, no free food) and showed me some of the new bikes. Now all I have to do is convince Maureen that I need one!

We were talking about the drive-thru daiquiri stands at work and someone mentioned they also have some drive-thru funeral parlors – you can now pay your respect without the hassle of getting out of your car! Also, we were talking about taxes and property taxes are low but sales tax is high – 9% and everything is taxed – clothes, food, everything.

Maureen and I are refinancing the house. Without a job that wasn’t possible but now it looks like we will save a few hundred dollars a month by refinancing.

The truck is in the garage now and it is a tight fit. The bike is next to the garage and I will probably get a cover for it soon.

In general, I am settling in – the problems the first few weeks don’t seem so big anymore. Finding a place to live, setting up airline flights, finding a church, getting my dental work done, getting the truck fixed and making a few friends are some of them. Speaking of the dentist, I have a crown coming any day now. A couple weeks ago he took an impression but to do that he had to pull the gums away from the tooth with some cord that gets forced between the tooth and gum and he wanted to give me Novocain for it. I HATE Novocain! He said he would try but I was to tell him if I had any pain – he said I was only the 4^th patient to not want Novocain for this procedure and two of them didn’t make it to the end without it. After the cord went in he said, “Well you did it!” Man, I’ve brushed and flossed and had more pain than that!

The biggest highlight this last four weeks, though, was flying back to Pennsylvania. Forty-three days is a long time and I will never forget how it felt to see and hug Maureen and to hug all the kids the next day. I will be coming home at least every 4 weeks and Maureen is flying down for 4 days in the middle of June and she and the kids are flying down towards the end of July. I am really excited about them coming so they can see where I work and some of the sites in the area (did I tell you I actually did see the Mississippi River?) I am coming home for a little over a week in August – and I expect to see all of you at Musikfest in Bethlehem!

As you probably know, this is all on our web page along with pictures and jokes and stuff. I enjoy using the digital camera (I know, Maureen’s digital camera) and putting them on the web. The pictures are a bit time consuming as I try to get them to the 800x600 size so they fill most of the page but don’t overfill it. I am learning as I do it more – I did have some training years ago for that type of stuff but sort of forgot it, as I never really used it.

It is getting pretty late and I am flying to PA tomorrow night so I am calling it quits. I won’t wait this long again to send some words and pictures.

Till next time,

Paul