Living in Long Beach

This pic goes out to my homey in Cerritos, JW... Fun times in Modesto!! Tru dat.

A cute email "postcard" from my mom...

In a birthday card to me, Ruth included a post card that I sent to Grandma from Savannah in 1975. It appears that Ruth wrote the address for me. Ah, a trip to Savannah with no seating charts to write out! Pure bliss. Even though I was only 5 (almost 6 - as back then it was great to be OLDER!!), I can still remember it as one of my favorite vacations ever. It took me a while to decipher my handwriting on the back of the post card. It says: Dear Grandma I caught many sand dollars Jim got a sunburn on his legs Celine The drawing appears to be me looking through a window in a brick house. It is a little disturbing as it appears that I am trapped in the house with a steel door (no knob or handle to get in) and only one window. But I appear happy. Maybe it is an artistic interpretation of the house/museum on the front of the post card. Thanks Ruth for sending this to me!

Here is the last postcard from my parents' trip from Dildo Newfoundland. My Mother writes that the name of the town may have come from the Basques from Bilbao Spain & was somehow changed by the native Indians. I tired to do some online research and found that the name may have come from: Spain or Portugal, or an algonquin tree, or the shape of the headland that forms the harbour. So, there you go. I have no idea. Nice postcard though and supposedly, Dildo is a great place for whale watching. Here's some more info on Wikipedia:

Okay. I'll admit that before my parents told me about their trip I had no idea where this was. Of course, I do now! View Larger Map Here is the postcard that they sent me from there. It says "ARCHIPEL DE SAINT PIERRE ET MIQUELON - Plongeon sur la rue Abbe Pierre Gervain" My parents wrote on the postcard that it is the Long Beach of the far North! That it is the same in many way except for the people, language, architecture, money & weather. Guess I'll have to check it out soon! Lastly, even though I stopped stamp collecting when I was around nine years old, I couldn't help but notice the great stamp on the postcard so I scanned it too...

As usual I am behind in posts and have a few that I will work on over the next few days. Why am I behind? I have been immersed in all the media coverage of this presidential campaign. Between being unemployed and worrying about my condo going into foreclosure, I am pretty much a national statistic. I have friends who feel strongly on all sides of the issues so I will not use this blog to try and sway anyone to my thoughts about the candidates. (However, I will be happy to let you know my thoughts if you email me!!) What I do want to stress is that no matter which way you end up voting, please take the time to get the true FACTS of the candidates' past records and current platforms. There is a lot of misinformation swirling around out there and some of it is even being propagated by the parties and mainstream media. One site that I recommend is factcheck.org . They are nonpartisan and nonprofit. They list inaccuracies with both campaigns so no matter which side you are on, here you ...

I just got this postcard today from my parents. Looks like they sent it on the 26 of August. They said they didn't see any icebergs this trip but may go back next year in April when there may be some. Although icebergs appear gigantic from shore, 7/8 of them remain below the water. Formed of pure ice, their white appearance is due to many tiny air bubbles reflecting white light.