the rants of a grumpy, old man

Sunday Drive in the Country!

brian — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 06:45:18 +0000

We took a wonderful Sunday drive and enjoyed the absolutely wonderful 70 degree weather. It was great especially the breeze and wonderful skies. I took quite a few pictures and geotagged them so you can even see exactly where I took them. Just go to the FLICKR site below, enjoy the photos, and check them out on the map.

FLICKR PHOTOS

Fall Creek Falls

brian — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 02:49:42 +0000

It’s almost 10pm and we’re winding down from our trip to Fall Creek Falls. We’re settling into the inn for the night. I actually walked down to the bottom of the falls today! It was unbelievably rocky and steep. This old fart is sore and tired! I have wonderful pictures to upload to flickr for everyone to see but Jo Ann is busy using the laptop to do her “FarmVille” on facebook! Check them later tonight or tomorrow. The Internet available here at the state park is slow and only available in the lobby and conference rooms. Anyway, it’s our 29th wedding anniversary and we’re not here to surf the net if ya know what I mean!!

New Toy for Photography

brian — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 01:40:58 +0000

One of the things I’ve been doing with photography at my flickr.com site is adding the pictures I take to the map at flickr. This lets you know where the pictures were actually taken. However, it is a manual procedure and some pictures are taken on road trips and not a locations you can easily remember especially later that night or days later when you upload the pictures. So I’m going to try this device that you simply attach someone on your person and it constantly writes your GPS location to a log. You can then later (using software) take your pictures with their timestamps and match them to the GPS log and it’s timestamps and know exactly where the picture was taken. I’ll give it a try tomorrow and update here how it goes.

Anna and Thomas Visit from Washington DC

brian — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 01:34:54 +0000

Anna and Thomas visited family for the last 3 days here in Fairview, TN and Franklin, TN. They stayed with us two days and we thoroughly enjoyed it. They leave to go back by plane tomorrow. Enjoy the photos at the flickr link below:

Family Photos

Visit to Washington DC

brian — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 23:09:05 +0000

Well, we’re here and enjoying our stay with Thomas, Anna, Elijah, and our new granddaughter Marilyn Elizabeth. We just got back from a visit to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and Union Station. Enjoy the pictures here.

Marilyn Elizabeth Hendrix!

brian — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:07:07 +0000

God's newest little blessing!

Welcome to the world — Marilyn Elizabeth Hendrix! Marilyn was born at 5:05am this morning and weighed in at 8 pounds and 20 1/4 inches. She is doing great and Anna (mom) is doing fine as well. We will be leaving Friday (yipee) to visit with Thomas and Anna and help out with the baby! They already have an 18 month old named Elijah. It is all Jo Ann is talking about — finally a girl. Thomas is currently stationed at Fort Myer, Virginia where is in the 3rd US Army Infantry Regiment, 4th Battalion, 529th Regimental Support Company of the Old Guard as a Combat Medic. Here’s their website — Old Guard.

Noticings

brian — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 02:34:58 +0000

Found this site while doing some flickr updates and have been having a blast every since. It gets me back doing photography and Jo Ann and Timothy are even helping me look as well.

Noticings

Star Wars in Concert – Nashville, 2009

brian — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:33:17 +0000

Timothy and I had a wonderful time today. We stopped by Loveless Cafe and had lunch before heading out to Nashville and the Somet Center where we attended the “Star Wars in Concert”. It was incredible — great music by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra from London. They use a 3 story screen for the movie clips and lasers for effect. Here is the link to pictures on Flickr:

Loveless Cafe

Star Wars in Concert

Enjoy!

USAFSS Dad Project

brian — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 06:08:31 +0000

Well, it’s taken more than 6 months but I’ve got what has been a labor of love. I ordered the military records from the National Archives, and also got a lot of documents and pictures my Mom had during a vacation visit. I’ve put all this together in two places — first, in a binder over 4 inches thick and second, on the website USAFSS Dad. It was an absolutely neat and incredible journey to follow the documents and pictures. His story was my story because we followed Dad to every location. It stirred up memories I’d forgotten and showed me some I didn’t remember.

With all it’s negatives and downsides, I still wouldn’t trade being a military brat for anything in the world. I also will never forget my Dad’s selfless service in far away places defending our country in the USAF Security Service.

Texas Bound to Visit Family

brian — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 19:48:41 +0000

I am so looking forward to going and visiting Mom, brother Andy, and Uncle Richard. It’s been quite awhile. We leave tomorrow very early and have a 13 hour drive to Mom’s house. Not sure how long we’re staying but it will be a much needed break. We have a few things scheduled — Timothy is so looking forward to flying in Uncle Richard’s plane. He’s going to take his camera up with him for some great shots from above! We might go see Shamu but I got a feeling Shamu is a lot more expensive than when we went over 20 years ago!