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So yesterday was my last tune-up run before the Free to Breathe -for Lung Cancer Awareness  5k Sunday in Philadelphia. The race is special to our family because my son Peter’s brother-in-law Will Marris was diagnosed in June of 2010 with Stage IV Lung Cancer. Will is 28 years old and was a classmate of my other son, Andrew. Will was diagnosed with the cancer about a month before Peter and Missy’s wedding. When Will was diagnosed with the cancer there were tumors in both lungs but through chemotheropy and radiation treatments the tumors were destroyed and Will since then Will’s cancer has been in remission. Recently though the cancer has returned and Will faces another round of treatments. Throught it all, Will and his wife Nicole have bravely fought the disease and Will has raised money for Lung Cancer research through his organization Willpower. You can read his story here. Read More

ok so today I’ve passed the old greezer line and enter geezerhood at 60! The above is from a t-shirt my wife ordered for my birthday.  Initially, as always on these types of birthdays 40, 50, etc, I was a little depressed so on came Jerry Jeff’s album Navajo Rug. The first three songs “Navajo Rug”, “Just to Celebrate” and “Blue Mood” in some inexplicably way always make sme feel better. So on my trip to the bank I put on a bunch of songs with OLD in the title here’s the soundtrack I got: Read More

So this weekend is Parents Weekend at The College of William and Mary, but daughter Elizabeth decided that it would be a better idea to go to Washington DC. Why you ask, see the Braves are playing the Nationals. So today we are going to the game, arriving early so she can get some autographs on the ball that she got from Eddie Perez at the last Nationals-Braves game we went to! Hopefully, any rain will hold off. Tomorrow if it’s nice we may trek to Mount Vernon. But the best part is that Tom Russell will be at Jammin’ Java Vienna, Virginia tomorrow night! Read More

I  know that posts have been sparse here the last couple of days that’s because both days started at 7 AM and ended late. On Tuesday my daughter Elizabeth, ever the one to figure things out and pull me and her mother out of our stay at home comfort modes, got to tickets to The Colbert Report! Luckily, her brother Peter, who went with her the previous week to The Daily Show, had to work so Dad got to go! Read More

So one of these weeks my life is gong to get back into its normal rut, unfortunately this was not the weekend! The weekend started with a full day of graduation festivities for son Andrew, who graduated from Rowan University!! Congratulations Andrew! These festivities were followed by a surprise birthday party Friday night for the daughter of a friend of my wife. Next came a trip to Williamsburg, VA to pick up daughter Elizabeth’s stuff at William & Mary on Saturday! Fun was added to the trip when I went out to move the car and discovered a nail embedded in the flat tire. Of coarse,  this was AFTER moving her microwave, refrigerator and several boxes down from her room on the third floor (in a building with no elevator),  over three dorms and up to the fourth floor storage area, in a building which had an elevator!  Subsequently, we went to Target to get a can of Fix-a-Flat, because trying to jacking Andrew car on a semi- un-level surface taught me that, that does not work and since there were no even remotely  level surfaces in the immediate vicinity of the car Fix-a-Flat was my best bet!! Anyway I was able to get the tire fixed just before the torrential  downpour and we were able to go eat! After eating, we got to load the car, again carrying her stuff down from the third floor. Oh, did I mention that while going up and down stairs it feels that someone’s sticking a knife in my knee!!!  We did, however,  manage to get everything in the car and get back to the motel. So this morning I took the car to Walmart to get the tire fixed. The nail was too close to the sidewall to patch the tire,  so I had to get a new tire. The clerk said that the tire was $ 67.00. When she rang it up  final she said that the total was $ 147.00 plus! Looking at the bill I could see that there were two charges for the tire. After questioning the clerk about the bill, she said I had to speak with the guy in the shop. He said, that yes there were two charges for the tire and I had to go to Customer Service to get a refund! Read More

So with a night off. I was able to do a little music listening last night. The mix was eclectic. The night started listening to the first studio album from Hot Tuna in twenty some years, Steady as She Goe! For those of you who don;t remember Hot Tuna or simply weren’t around Hot Tuna was a side project of Jefferson Airplane. The main members were Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady. Their first album Hot Tuna was a collection of concerts performed at New Orleans House in Berkeley  in September, 1969, and released in 1970. According to Wikipedia this album is affectionately known by Tunaphiles as the “breaking glass album”, because of the sound of breaking beer glasses during the recording of “Uncle Sam Blues”. Anyway this is the album and the music I most associate with Hot Tuna. In reading some info about the band there were several albums that were new to me recorded in the mid-70’s that took the band in a more hard rock direction from Wikipedia: Read More

One of my early genealogical finds was the marriage of my maternal 4th great-grandparents Eleanor Johnson and Samuel Cliver in Burlington County in 1812. Subsequently, I found Eleanor’s death certificate. Her father’s name was listed as Daniel Johnson of Monmouth County. I have searched and searched unsuccessfully for information on said Daniel Johnson. Well, today after watching an episode of “Who Do You Think You Are?” I logged on to Ancestry.com and typed in Samuel Cliver. One of the records that came up was from the Monmouth County Orphans Court. So I check that out and what I found as they say changed everything! It says that Ellenor Cliver is one of the heirs to the estate of her father “Samuel” Johnson! So I then went to public trees on Ancestry and found a tree that had Samuel and his wife Anney Anaca Brower and their seven children! The tree takes the line back several more generations to Kings New York in the 1600’s. The families were early Dutch settlers. Read More