The girls are enjoying the tree 
in the back yard as all good
Funny... now that we're back here in the states... and the dust from retiring from the Navy is starting to settle... I'm feeling a little more "at ease" and yes... starting to blog again... I have to admit that leading up to the retirement I had so many thoughts on my mind... and mostly from my younger days in the military... days being the Master Helmsman of a U.S. ship pulling out of port or arriving into port... or while refueling while sailing out at sea... or while attempting to get very close to another larger ship so we could throw lines across to the other ship so we could tow them to port... my oh my... so very many memories come to mind when I think of 24 years of service to the U.S. Navy... deployments to so many different countries that I'd love to go back to.... visits to so many different cities ... Bali, Townsville, Darwin, Singapore, Hong Kong, Kure, Okinawa, Hobart (Australia), Nukualofa (Tonga), Noumea (New Caledonia), Yokosuka, Pusan, Phuket, Kwajalein and Majuro (Marshal Islands), and of course the places that we've lived... London, Naples, Manila, and Cairo... what's amazing is how much the Lord was able to use me (or us) despite of myself... I've attached a silhouette pic of the USS Fletcher DD-992 ... I spent 5 years on the "Fighting Jack" and it was there that I matured as a Sailor while gaining a new love for the sea....
Where do the waters that run within you go?? I know for me this is the question of my life... you see.. Trent means "running river"... so rushing water is something that I'm always pulled to... and dealing with... here we went for an evening stroll and captured this pic from our local creek as the evening advanced upon us and I had to use a lower setting on the camera to actually capture the stream... and when all was said and done... I believe it actually came out quite well.... but Wally will have to be the final judge of that :-)
Ok... I'm not really the handy-man type or DYI kind of guy... but in these times... with a very tight budget call for more self action and well ... what can I say... our tenant turned off the downstairs toilet because it was overflowing... so I replaced all the guts in the water tank... and things were running like they were suppose to for more than a week... then came the wet floor... for no apparent reason... the floor was wet... so I asked a neighbor that does DYI stuff to look at the situation and he suggested replacing the "wax ring"... wax ring?? What in the world is that... is that a squall to the "Lord of the Rings??" Well... what you see here is the aftermath of taking the "loo" apart and isolating the leak... and yes... this does seem to have stopped the leaking that was showing itself in the basement... another friend suggested that because the toilet was not being used for an unknown amount of time that the wax ring dried out and then once we started using the toilet ... a leak developed... oh the joys of home-ownership :-) If you've even been to Korea this kind of toilet might look familiar... hahahaha
Then when we looked west we saw this great refraction of light and brilliant colors as the sun disappeared ... that actually did come out pretty well...
It's so hard to believe that my time in the Navy is up and I'm retiring from active duty... this part of the ceremony was the passing of the flag... I'm so thankful to Michelle and Commander Hartzell for asking if I'd like to have a ceremony here and then Michelle was willing to put everything together... it really is great to put closure to a 24 year career that had so many positive points to look back on fondly. Although I won't be working for the Navy anymore it does not mean that I won't be working somewhere :-) We're still looking to see what God wants us to do next.
It's funny... watching stuff come off the moving truck from storage only to ask... what's that? or even worse... I don't remember that... where'd we get that?? But anyways... that's what happens when you stuff is in storage for 3 years... you realize how much stuff you have that you didn't really need like you thought when you packed it way thinking... oh I'll need this "someday"... still loads to do but it's coming along... one box at a time.
It's a funny thing... our first day back in the states and it rained all day... cool to us... we haven't seen rain like that since our vacation in 2007 to the Philippines... our stuff from storage arrived the next day and thankfully it didn't rain - although it was cloudy all day (so not too hot for the movers... see how we care for the movers (smile))... then finally the sun came out. Folks here have seen a wetter and cooler than normal spring. For us... it's so weird to see ALL THE GREEN here! Almost everywhere is green. God's creation simply is amazing!
Adel had us over for one last evening tea and sunset on the Nile... There's really something about the Nile that's for sure... watching the sunset with the Giza pyramids in the background and then to watch the fulucas race back and forth on the river was a great way to spend an evening... but even more enjoyable that the views was the company!
Arie and I have been at each other for the last two years on stage... and there are those times when Mark had wondered if we will actually control ourselves when it comes time to "go live"... but of course we knew our limits... and all the jousting was before it was crowds came under the tent... Arie... I miss our times together already!!
