I spoke too soon last month. Summer is still here! Since the pool is kind of chilly, Jim and I headed up to Cleveland for the yearly air show (http://www.Clevelandairshow.com/). I haven't been to an air show in years (excluding the one I watched from a friend's 4th story apartment while Randy and I were living in Cleveland). The jets were fast, loud, furious, and impressive. As 9/11 is moving closer, the air show was a local reminder of the force, might, strength and justice of America. The size and speed of some planes are truly amazing; yet they stay aloft (thank goodness, or I wouldn't have gotten to visit home so many times this past year. ).

Cleveland National Air Show
Click this link to see my version of the air show

While at the air show, Jim took these pictures of me in SPACE!!

We had a bit of excitement in the neighborhood recently. Nope, it wasn't guns or drunks; it was fire! Or at least, it was smoke. One of the houses across the street from me has been empty the whole time I have lived here (nearly 10 yrs.). About 1:30 in the morning, 5 fire trucks, 3 police, and 1 ambulance pulled up to investigate the smoke billowing out of this house. Although I saw no flames, the firemen stayed for nearly three hours to make sure the neighborhood was safe.

With Fall coming on, these are probably the last of the pictures of my yard and the flowers. The cosmos that Carolynn gave me are still growing even without rain; but nearly every other flower in the yard is giving up the ghost. Soon, I'll have to clean up the yard before Winter sets in.

MouseOver the fountain spray to see the effects of camera flash vs. no flash

I was feeling all patriotic around 9/11, so Jim and I went to see the movie "The Sum of All Fears". When the movie came out earlier this year, I had felt compelled to try one more time to "get into" the book. (You know, Clancy writes HUGE books.) Although it's size was daunting, the book itself was excellent. And the movie was pretty good too! It only broke from the book a little bit, without losing the integrity of the novel. Now if I can just finish up the following 2 Clancy novels - which are NO smaller than the first one. LOL

No much else happened this week. My boss was out of town, so I stayed home most of the week - which wasn't too bad of a deal, since not only was my back was hurting; but I also had a couple of days feeling pretty damned sick.

If you haven't seen it yet, you might want to surf over to http://carolinabridge.com/cba/ to see the site my Mom has created for her bridge club. I'm really quite pleased with her site. If you like it too, I'm sure she'd appreciate an email.

My mom got a new digital camera this month. Below are some pictures of her dogs:

Inky

Jack

Sunni MouseOver to see Sunni smile!

Speaking of my mom, I got to really "see" her this month! She and her husband Dennis, had been making plans to visit next month (about Oct. 25th); however, when USAirways sent out an email about an e-saver, they were able to get some cheap seats quickly, and came to visit Ohio a month early!

Before I go any further I must explain how very lucky I have been lately. When I first moved up to Ohio, I was able to visit home (NC) usually twice a year. As time went by though, and Randy got sicker, I wasn't able to get back that often. After Randy's death, my single finances, and my health (2 bouts of pneumonia) prevented me from hardly any trips home and nearly 5 years went by. However, things have definitely turned around. Within the past year and a half, I have been able to visit home 3 times (and a special thanks to my friends at Waikems who gave me a ticket home last Christmas!) and my mom has visited me twice!! (There's even talk of another trip again this Christmas. )

I've also been lucky to have ended up with three moms. My "mom" in Salem (Randy's mom, Carolynn) was gracious enough to put off my visit to her once again, so that my "mom" in Canton (Joyce) could serve up a scrumptious lunch for me and my Mom (the "real" one - Celia). I was very pleased to have gotten my Mom and DO together. I'm sure Mom worries about me; but she's got to be a little more at ease after meeting DO and hearing about how she looks after me. Thanks, DO!

Mom checking out her new webcam	Dennis uses their new digital camera
Two Moms - Joyce and Celia
Celia and Dennis Johnson	This one deserves a caption; but I haven't figured out a good one
My Mom poses with Ritchie and Becca (Animated)

Becca - all smiles for Uncle mIkIE and his mom