Jeremy Herndon Blog

As much as I hate the idea of my kid brother taking his new bride, along with their new baby boy, up north to beautiful Calgary Canada there isn’t much I can do about the situation at hand. His new father-in-law has promised him a good job up there and with our economy still in such turmoil, with no end in sight, a good job can make or break a marriage these days.

So they are busy with looking at the current Calgary listings and searching for a good reputable Calgary Realtor so that they will have a place lined up for them upon their arrival, which they are expecting to happen by the end of June. That doesn’t leave them with much time to get all the things that need to be taken care all done. Relocating is one big pain in the rear and with a new baby makes it all the more of a challenge.

It really bothers me that they will be so far away and that non of us will be around to be involved in their new sons life as much as we would like. It will be strange, indeed.

I am going to have to put the car in the shop this week, it is running rough, and I don’t want to be out and about going to or from an errand and have it quit on me. Especially when there are so many “dead spots” in the cell phone service out here. It acts like it is running out of gas, but it has plenty of gas. So I put a can of dry gas in it, thinking that maybe it was just some water in the tank, and it ran fine the next day, but started acting up again the day after. So maybe it’s the fuel filter, or the fuel pump. I don’t know, but it needs to be fixed!

Another aggravation, and another thing sucking the money out of my wallet and my dwindling bank account.

Mother is happy with the new and improved address plaque that we gave her for her birthday last week. We have been trying to convince her to start looking at alternative address plaques to replace the one that almost cost her her life last year. She was home alone one evening and started having chest pains so thankfully she was able to get to the phone and called 911. She was in such bad shape that she was having trouble talking but with all of today’s technology the emergency operator managed to get the information out of her in order to get an ambulance out and on the road to come to her rescue. But since it was dark and raining and the address signs that are out in front of her house were so old and faded that the ambulance couldn’t read the numbers and had to take extra time, when every minute counts, to turn around and try and read the darn address plaques to find the correct house.

Thank god they found her and got her up and out of there and to the E.R. so that the doctors could tend to her condition. She did have a small minor heart attack and is now having to change her lifestyle drastically and is taking several meds that the doctors have ordered. She seems to be doing much better, as long as she keeps doing what the doctors say she should be just fine for a good long time. So for her birthday we gave her a new sign, as I stated earlier, and now we all can feel a bit more comfortable and sleep a little better at night knowing that if she calls for help again that they won’t have a problem finding her in a timely fashion.

This past weekend I had to travel from DC to Philadelphia. I didn’t want to drive, so I decided to take Amtrak. I have to say that the trip was a lot more pleasant than I expected. I bought the ticket in advance on line and printed out the receipt and took it with me in case I needed it. I took the Metro to Union Station. The Metro stop put me right inside Union Station, which was cool. Once inside I found a self-serve kiosk that I could use to print out my own ticket. From there I found a television screen that told me what gate my train was departing from, so I went to that gate.

There was no long waiting at a security screening section; I simply went to the gate. When they opened the doors to board the train, no one stopped me to security check me or look at my ID or ticket, all that was done AFTER I got on the train. The seats were comparable to airplane seats as far as comfort goes. I did not have to stay in my seat; I could walk around and go to the snack car or the restroom if I needed to. The train left on time, and the ride was comfortable and fast. Since travelling by air is becoming more of a hassle, and more expensive, I’ll be looking into taking the train more often in the future!

Guest post written by Sharlene Brooks

For once, I’m not going to have to worry about which pie I’m fixing for our huge  family gathering for Thanksgiving Day. I always wonder about that because my family is all about the pies and I like to make sure that we have no repeats. But instead of doing the normal thing for Thanksgiving this year, I’m going to take my family to see the Thanksgiving Day parade!

It’s something that I’ve thought about doing for a few years now, but I finally decided to just go ahead and do it before the kids get a little older and have other things that they need to do during the Thanksgiving break. I was online a few months ago booking our hotel and everything for it when I ran across some information on getting a hearing aid. That’s also something that I’d been thinking about for a while, so I decided to go ahead and get fitted before the big trip.

I think that we’re going to have so much fun with the parade and I just want to make sure that we’re all ready for the trip and pack everything. It’s going to be a whirlwind of a trip, but I think that it’s going to be amazing!