I was in Las Vegas, Nevada, last week attending a Navy reunion with the crew of USS Scamp (SSN 588), the first submarine I served on during my Navy career. In addition to sitting around with old shipmates drinking, sharing sea stories, and generally catching up on 35 years of living, I chartered a kayak trip down the Colorado River. And what a trip that was!
Category: <span>Family Stories</span>
Winnie finally returned from China on Saturday evening, just in time for me to leave for Las Vegas on Sunday evening. It seems we can’t seem to get our schedules aligned.
Winnie left this afternoon for a rather short-notice trip back to China. She’ll be returning April Friday April 10, just shy of three weeks visiting half-way around the world from here.
The month of March is said to “roar in like a lion and go out like a lamb.” It’s a bit too early to know how March will be going out, but it certainly roared in loudly enough.
We’re approaching the last day of February with outside temperatures still below freezing. We had another dusting of snow yesterday, the third snow shower this month. Not enough to shut down Washington, but enough to scare drivers off the road during commuting hours. For those of us brave enough, we had a pleasant drive during peak commuting hours which is a newsworthy event indeed for this area.
Today is the New Year’s celebration for about one-quarter of the world’s population, as celebrated by Chinese and other Asian cultures. It’s the most important celebration in the Chinese calendar.
Winnie and I were targeted for a rather slick scam recently but managed to avoid losing money. It was an interesting scam that started with a spam e-mail inviting me to do some “Secret Shopper” work.
For the first post of this brave new year of 2015 CE, I’d like to wish all my readers a year of good heath, happiness, and prosperity.
We had a very different Christmas celebration this year. In the past we’ve normally celebrated Christmas at home, with the exception of a few years in a row when we went up to Mom’s house in New York. Staying at home was the preferred option as the Charest family is currently spread out from Washington, California, Tennessee, Northern Virginia, and on out to Wales. However, this year the stars aligned and we all descended upon Tennessee for a very Charest family reunion Christmas celebration.
It’s Thanksgiving day again; another year passed remembering the good and the bad. Thanksgiving continues to be my favorite holiday, and one thing I’m thankful for is that this holiday has remained relatively commercial-free. This is and should be the one day each each when families and friends come together to celebrate, reflect on the year passed, and give thanks for their many blessings. Then eat a lot of turkey-based foods.