Anniversary

Missed posting it yesterday but it was the 25th anniversary of my retirement from the FAA. I am now looking at the certificate I was given which states:
Federal Aviation Administration
Certificate of Service
presented to

Frank B. Collier Jr.
on the occasion of retirement after 29 years and 9
months of service to the people of the United States of America.

It did not even state meritorious service or anything like that. So much for being a public servant. Lots of water under the old bridge since that.

It's been a busy 10 days !

Today is Sunday. It really has been a busy 10 days since a week ago last Thursday. We left Thursday and drove to St. Louis. Upon arriving we stopped and visited with Marsha and Jerry Buterin. We had lunch and a really nice visit. Some of you may not know that Jerry was best man at our marriage, We have kept up with each other for the last 30 years or so. While waiting for them to get home (we were early getting there) I decided to drive to Pagedale, the old home place. Several years ago I vowed to never go back as the area had turned very run down with many homes not being kept up and the area just became very depressed. I was quite surprised as there were many homes that had been remodeled or rebuilt with some new one also. I wanted to go back at a later date which we did on Saturday. We took picture of the four houses I had lived in growing up. The kindergarten and first grade school I attended still stands and is for sale.. My grade school, original parish church and school and high school have all been torn down. We visited with the man who owns the garage that Dad used to have. He let us inside and it was very nostalgic.

On Friday afternoon we went with Joan's class to a casino for a little play and lunch. This was the main reason for our trip. The class now gets together once a year for a picnic. This is a very close nit group of people. Even though I was not a member of the class I really feel like one. It is a time of much reminiscing and fun with this group.

On Saturday morning I decided I would try to look up John Guittar. John was the chauffeur for our wedding driving my 1937 Lincoln Zepher. I have not seen John for 54 years. I found his address and drove to his house and parked in front. I then called him and asked if this was the same John Guittar that used to live in Pagedale. He said it was and I told him that this was someone out of his past and before I could finish he said " is this Frank Collier?" I said it was and how did he know. He replied "caller ID". So much for my surprise. Thanks modern day technology ! I then told hom waht he did'nt know was I was parked outside. He and his lovely wife came out to meet us and we had a very nice visit for a few minutes. They both had something else they had to do and we had to get to the casino. We promised to get together at a later date with Marsha and Jerry. Little did we know we would see them on Sunday at Mass. Sunday after Mass we had lunch with Judy, Rich and Sue and then drove back to Indianapolis.

Mon Tue Wed were pretty normal. Thur. I was out in the yard working pulling weeds etc. and I felt like I had exerted myself quite a bit. I thought I would go inside for a rest and take my vitals to see if I had worked hard enough to qualify for cardiac exercise. My pulse was 161. I did not feel bad but called the Dr. office and told the nurse what it was. She said I was having Tachycardia and I should get to the emergency room right away. To make a long story short ( but not tjis missive) I spent the next two days in the hospital while they got my heart back to normal rhythm and now am back home.

It's now 11 am and time for church. Dan is the acolyte at Mass this morning. This is his current office in his study for the Lay Diaconate.

Happy birthday to Mike and Kris coming up this week. Two of the six greatest kids in the world

Peace, Happiness and Joy to all. Live well, Love much and Laugh Often

Little Sisters of the Poor

Took the Karaoke set to the Little Sisters today. This is my third month doing this and everyone seems to enjoy it. Took four ladies from the parish with me. They had a good time also.

I was asked two nights ago to do the drums and percussion at Footlight Musicals for one performance for a friend of mine. She needs someone for one night she cannot be there. I have never done a musical score before. My first inclination was to say no but she was convinced I could do it. She brought the score over to me last night and we went over it. It is 80 or so pages long. My main fear is that I will loose my place and not be able to find out where I should be. It is a lot different than playing from sheet music which may be 3 or 4 pages to a song. Will let you know how this turns out. The show is Children of Eden. It would help if I was familiar with the music but I have never heard it.

One week later

Well it has now been one week since we departed Nags Head to return to theroutine of daily life. I am keeping my picture of me sitting in the hot tub with a cup of coffee at 6:30 a.m. watching the sunrise (a beautiful one I might add) to remind me of what a really good week it was. Being with the family, or parts of it, is always a memorable time.
The past week was pretty normal. It was nice receiving a paycheck on Wed. from the week I left (payday was on Fri and we left on Thur) and then getting another two days later for the two weeks off for vacation. I could dig that getting paid every two days !
I am really amazed at the attitude of some of the people I transport in my job. I had a really plesant lady yesterday who I took to the cancer center for treatment. She has finished chemo and is now on radiation. Her attitude was really uplifting to me. I have a number of people I take to dialysis treatments. These folks go three times a week for three to four hours each time. It gives me an opportunity to both pray for these people and give thanks for my good health.
Looking forward to our trip to St. Louis next weekend. We will leave on Thur. afternoon and spend Fr. afternoon and evening with Joan's clessmates at the Boat trying to get rid of some quarters if you know what I mean. Probably the wrong attitude but isn"t vacation all about spending money.

Til next time peace, joy and happiness to all. Live well, Love much and Laugh often

Dateline Nags Head

We are here at Nags Head NC and have just finished the best fish dinner. The fish was caught by Mike, Earl and Teri and prepared by Renae. This will have to be the highlight of the week.

Hey there this is Renae, the fish cooker. We have been having a great week. Everyone here is relaxing and engaging only in those activities that please us at that particular moment. Today has been a perfect day for me, a little shopping, a nap, a walk on the beach and frolic in the Atlantic, then a swim in the pool. The best part of the week is the fellowship, though.

Hi there! This is Kristin, the oldest daughter of Frank and Joan! I am the one who manages to find and book these houses almost every year. My husband, Earl, has been coming to the Outer Banks for 35 years. I have been coming for 20 years, as long as we have been together. Our daughters, Molly and Brigette, have been along for the great ride also. I think the best part of this particular trip has been the relaxation factor. Lots of naps, lots of sun, lots of water. I would definitely be happy to not have to go shopping again!! The definite draw back is the fact of the missing family members. I remember lots of trips with Steve, in particular, and although I miss EVERYONE, Steve is closest to the memories of times with friends (remember Diane and TC?) and times with the rest of the family around (remember Susan's story of her and Dan and Eagle Creek???) Good times, for sure.... Y2K-Family portrait year, everyone here except Ellie, Trav and Abby... BIGGG house, private pool... when are we going to do that again? Soon, I hope....

Kris has made reference to following in Dad's footsteps working in a bowling alley.
One of my first jobs as a youngster was in a bowling alley. I was a pinsetter, That was when the pins were set manually in the rack and then you pushed the rack down to release the pins. You then had to sit on the back of the pin box with your feet in the air as the ball came back and knocked the pins down. Pin boys were routinely getting hurt by not getting out of the way. I did not do this very long.

My next post, if I don't forget will be to tell you of my first love.

Sweet wife comments

Sweet wife just came in and said she did not know what she was going to find in reading the blog. Said she thought I might say something about selling papers on the corner or something like that.

As a matter of fact I did sell papers on a main corner in Pagedale MO when I was 10 years old . In those days (1945) papers were not delivered to homes. They were sold on street corners by paper boys shouting out the headlines. I remember vivadly standing on the corner shouting out WAR WITH JAPAN ENDS. Cars would stop and the driver would hand out his money and the paper boy would give him his paper. This was probably my first job. I do not remember how much the paper cost or how much I made.

I think my next job was at the corner root beer stand as a car hop. This meant serving customers in their cars. I think I was around 13 when I started this. Only a couple of years let before I entered the real workforce at 40 hr. per week. That was at age 15. I had quit school and lied about my age to get a job at St. Louis Car and Foundry insulating the electrical compartments of street cars.

Bad storm

We had a bad storm Sunday night and Monday morning. Took down a lot of trees just 3-4 blocks from us with damage to houses and cars. The only damage we had was the door was blown off of my vertical smoker. Easily fixed.

Yesterday (Mon.) was clean up day. Pretty routine day. Went to work in the morning. Did not start until 9 o'clock which is somewhat unusual. I usually start driving at 6 am. Had exercise in the afternoon and K of C meeting in the evening

Anxious to leave for Nags Head on vacation. Hope we have good weather.

Restarting the blog

Here it is Aug of 07 and nothing has been published since Sept of 06. How dedicated is that. I have decided that I am going to come out and go public ! Does that scare you ?




Now that you are over the shock what I mean is that I am going to make the blog public. I really doubt that anyone who comes here besides family is not likely to return. Here is how you get to it: www.startingat70.blogspot.com.

As you can see I was 70 when this all started. I did not have any real objective in the beginning. For some time now I have been thinking how neat it would be to read something my grand father was doing on any particular day in his life, or that of my great great grandfather. I never knew either of my grandfathers. One died before I was born and the other when I was 1 year old. I have decided to chronicle some of the days of my life so that in the year 2056 when Ethan is 50 years old ( I will either be gone or 121 years old) , you can stop laughing now, if he wants to he can see what was happening in his grandpas day.

The only problem with this is not knowing what will be the medium of communications then. Will this computer thing have gone the way of the cassette. Will they be asking "what was a vcr tape". I guess it will be up to you Moms and Dads to preserve whatever is written in these pages.

If Ethan is able to read this when he is 50 that would be the same as my being able to read something my great grandfather wrote in 1915. He was John Wesley Collier b:1855 I do not have the date of his death. He would be Ethan's GGGG Grandfather.

Well I guess thats enough for a new beginning. Talk with you all later. Next week NAGS HEAD. Hooray.

Travel Time

Sweet wife and I just returned from a 3 day trip to St. Louis. We attended the 53rd reunion of her high school class. This is always a good time. The people are great to be with. This event was held at one of the class members home which was very nice to say the least and on a beautiful lake. Stayed at brother John's home. He and his SW and excellent hosts.

Took David Deer to CVS today. This is pretty much a weekly trip for David who lives in the apartments next door and is physically challenged (pc).

Did not pay much attention to what I ate in St. Louis. Not looking forward to Wed. (weigh day). We'll see. Baked some fish for supper. Not to bad. Flounder marinated for 45 min in various sauces then wrapped in foil with veggies and baked for 20 min. 5 oz. fish at 150 cal. , 10 oz. baked potato at 160 cal. and some cole slaw at 50 cal. Not a bad supper. So far today 1050 cal. Leaves 150 or so for a nite snack.

Peace

Week in review

It has been awhile since I have been here. I do have a lot of respect for those who blog everyday.
First I should say that my scale last week on Wed. did not make 267. I only got to 268 and tomorrow is weigh day. It has not been a really good week. I can on;y hope for no gain.

It has been a pretty average week. Saw a couple of movies. Beerfest was a total bust. There is material here for a good funny movie but to many F and MF words. The other was Talladega nights. Entertaining and not to bad.

SW and I went to Metamora on Wed. to take some product to Steve's shop and to visit with him and Brenda. Had a good time as always.

We had a call from Molly the other day. She wanted to talk with both of us for some geaneology information. It was a lot of fun talking with her. I have some info from some work I did in the past on family history which I will send her.

Peace

Quiet Sunday today. Went to 10:30 Mass came home and checked email. Read a book.

Currently reading Young Patriots by Charles Cerami. This is a story of James Madison and Alexander Hamilton and the creation of the Constitution at the Federal Convention in 1787. This is a followup to the last book I read which was Miracle at Philadelphia which was also about the Federal Convention but this one zeros in on Madison and Hamilton who were really the organizers of the whole conventiom. When you read about this convention and the difficulties they encountered it really was a miracle that they accomplished anything much less a constitution.

Had 3 eggs with a little refried beans, a little salsa, and a little cheese with toast for breakfast. LW fixed bbq chicken pork & beans and creamed corn for supper. Should not be to bad for today. Sure wish I could get to eating the right things without having to write down.

Will see what tomorrow will bring !

Sat August 26, 2006

Spent yesterday morning with Scott and this morning with Dan. Took Scott downtown to pee in a bottle yesterday. Did not have breakfast as he had to go home to get some rest. Worked late last night.
Had breakfast with Dan this morning. As an enjoyable time. Time to catch up with what is going on in his life with family and deacon training.

Ray Smith was over yesterday and helped me with some bicycle work. We are planning another trip to ride the north leg of the Monon trail on the 13th of Sept. We did the south part from Broad Ripple to 10th St. 2 weeks ago. Had a good time. About 13 miles. That far enough for me.

I am hoping for 267 on the scale this Wed. Good luck to me. Another BD in 5 days . Just hope is quietly passes by.

Breakfast this morning was spinach, bacon and swiss omelet with egg beaters and hash browns and dry whole wheat toast with strawberry jelly and coffee. Probably not the beat I could have had but as you can see there were som consessions made.

Another beautiful day!

We have been blessed with some great weather the last 4 or 5 days. I have just been enjoying them. Diet wise it has not been all that successful. Scale today said 271. Thats up from 266 last Wed. which was down from 273.5 the week before. I am sure that I read it right on the 266 but who knows? I'll just take that as down 2.5 lbs from two weeks ago. I have been lax about writing things down. I get started ok in the morning but slack off as the day goes on. Will try to do better as always.

Had a note from Kris (OWD) wanting to know how to get this blog. Told her it was not ready for prime time viewing yet. She does not know that she is not missing very much.

Stopped takeing a medicine the Dr. gave me several years ago. It was supposed to give me a better nights sleep by stopping me from waking up 4 or 5 times for the trip to the bathroom. It was not working so I stopped it. Wouldn't you know I have only been making one trip a night and been getting a good nights rest. As an added benefit I feel better in the morning and some of my dizzy spells have gone away. I think I will stop my cholestorol (sp) next.

If any of the family ever gets to read this, I love you all ,or yawl as they say down south

Not a good day

Our son Dan called today and told us his wife Susan had a report from the doctor that she has a growth on one lung and an enlarged heart. My loving wife went up to stay with her till Dan get' home.

We are going to claim the healing power of Jesus and know that everything will turn out alright.

I have asked for prayers from the family and the K of C. I will never forget 1980 when my loving wife was almost lost to us with a ruptured appendix. She was in the hospital fro 29 days with 7 days in intensive care. She had prayers from all over the world including a group of doctors in southern Indiana from many nations. These prayers were requested by Frank Schaler a good friend who was with these doctors and asked for their prayers.

As you can see I am a firm believer in prayer.

"Where ever two or more are gathered I am there"
"Whatever you ask of the Father in my name will be granted to you"

truth day

I really have not wanted to do this is the reason for the delay of more than a week. Last week was a bad one for eating. Mike and Renae were here for 5 days and I had to drive for four days for the race.
As a result of not watching the diet my weigh in for last Wed was 273.5. That is an increase of 4 lb. for the week. Not good.

Now Sat and I am getting back to writing things down. Let's see what happems now.

Moment of Truth day

Weight day today. As they say in La Vegas it was a push. 269.5 on the scale. Same as last week.

Menu for Tuesday

2 eggbeaters 60
2/3 cup sausage crumbles 90
2 pc toast 70
parmesan cheese 30
2 pc bread 70
lunch meat 70
1 pc cheese 50
1 Nonni 160
1 banana bar 130
1 turkey rollup 250
1/2 can baked beans 250
fruit 70
1/2 cup ff ice cream 90
total 1390

Two day update

Sunday was probably not my best day. It started our ok with a couple of eggbeaters and toast. Went out in the evening with our son and his wife and family for a birthday party and had bbq ribs. I'm not sure how you count a full slab of ribs. Had slaw and baked potato with ff sour cream and ff butter. Save the calories where possible. Had a dessert (large) which was split 4 ways. Also had an appetizer of boneless bbq chicken wings. Today is one of those days you just write off and go on from there.

Monday I went out with a friend in the morning and rode 13,5 miles on the Monon Trail. Then stopped and had breakfast. I had a mexican dish with chorizo sausage eggs potatoes and cheese. Large tomato juice. I figured this at about 600 calories. It was not a very large dish. For supper my sweetie fixed rollups with some chicken breasts I fried up. We figured they had 250 cal. each and I had two. Also had 1/2 cup cottage cheese at 90 C.
Had a bowl of strawberries and 1/2 cup ff ice cream at 50 and 90 C. Total for the day about 1430 C
Not to bad I guess.
Tomorrow will be the moment of truth with the scale.

Peace!

Saturdays menu

3 eggbeaters 90
potatoes 150
toast 180 (restaurant bread)
jelly 40
boca burger 70
bun 90
mayo 15
cole slaw 50
7 oz salmon 200
1/3 cup orzo 210
mayo again 40
strawberries 50
total 1185

another pretty good day. Going out to dinner with our son and his family tonight to our favorite BBQ rib place. Will try not to do to much damage.