Summer at beach over

Two more days and then home to Hershey. This summer flew by.

Jack starts school on the 31st. He will have Mrs. Prisbee as his teacher.

Jack and I are going to the Milton Theatre tonight to see a Buddy Holly tribute show.

Since Bill has decreased to a category 2, the waves along the beach have been reduced to 8 to 11 feet from the 11 to 15 feet predicted yesterday. Will probably still go up tomorrow morning to see them. The surfers are happy. Seen a lot of cars with surf boards arriving.

We had to cancel the lighthouse tours for today due to Bill. Hopefully the dock will hold up. The makeup is September 12. We will be running two tours that day with a group on each lighthouse and then switching groups. Another first, but if it works well is a possibility to increase our number of tours in the future.

I'm building a new web page. Yahoo Geocities is going black in October so had to change providers. Have a bare bones page up now. The URL is the same -- http://www.charleykopp.com/

Calling for scattered storms today. Overcast now, but no rain. Radar shows then passing to the north of us.

Guess we'll plan on a low key day inside. Maybe the sun will come out for a while to go to the pool.


Charley

Harbor of Refuge getting new coat!!!

Spent Saturday, Aug 8 at Harbor of Refuge. We finished giving the caisson it's coat of black and put a new coat of white on the tower except for the top four feet. Next trip, we will break out the ladders and the boatswain chair to finish the tower and the exterior of the watch room.

We also got two coats of lead shield on the watch room level and the ceilings prepped on that level and the level below. These two levels are now ready for finish coats which we hope to do next trip which will probably be the first weekend of October.

Jack was along this trip and did some painting, cleaning and was our gopher. He is standing in front of the new door and shown with his special tool and also relaxing waiting for the boat to pick us up.

We had ten volunteers and we exceeded our goals again. It ended up being a beautiful day. The weatherman had predicted temps in the mid 90's and thankfully was off by ten degrees as the high was 84 for the day with a nice breeze.

Rich and Joanne Fanning were camping in OC and he made it for the work trip.

Jack and I went to OC yesterday and met them at the Embers for the early bird dinner and then we went on the boardwalk. Got back to the house after 2100 with a storm from Bethany Beach to Rehoboth. No rain at our house.

Joe and Corrine are in South Carolina until next Monday, so we're keeping an eye on their place for a change.

Had bloodwork again this morning, then we went for breakfast and to the store for milk and bread and some fresh fruit.

Home and in the air conditioning for the day. Went for the mail and decided it's too hot to even go to the pool. It was 96 with a heat index of 104 at noon. It had gone to 90 before 10 AM.

Well, going to make a light lunch and relax in the cool. We might go to the pool late afternoon. It's open to 1900 today.

Charley

August already!

Beautiful day here in Lewes. 81, sunny and a nice breeze. Humidity is a little high but the breeze counteracts it unless your working outside.

Had some storms last night with wind gusts. Three of the five awnings had seams ripped out. Took them down this AM. Will take them back to Hershey to get resewn. I can get all three resewn there for less than one down here.

Jack and I were going to go into Rehoboth to see the sand castles that were built for the contest today. We were outside talking to the neighbors in back of us. They had just pulled in and said they were going to do the same, but traffic was backed up on 24 past the fire hall. They cut thru there and came back home. Took them 15 minutes to go less than a mile. Maybe we'll try after supper.

Sarah and Emily are supposed to be here tonight or tomorrow. Jack's driving me nuts wondering when.

Shell didn't make it down. She had a hell of a week at work and drove to Johnstown on Thursday to do a presentation. Don't blame her for not wanting to drive in the traffic. According to the news there was an eight mile backup on route 1 at Dover last night and of course it was also storming at the same time.

Calling for more storms tomorrow afternoon and evening.

Jack and I were just out on the golf cart for about an hour. More homes up for sale. We saw three that were listed as sold in the last two weeks. Some of them have been for sale since last year.

Going to grill for supper. Beef stew in crock pot for tomorrow.
Have to see if any of the neighbors are up for happy hour tonight.

Charley

Where is summer going?

Last weekend of July already. Where has the summer gone?

We finally had one of the "scattered showers" rain on us yesterday afternoon. Got an inch of rain in about 20 minutes. Storm popped up out of nowhere and disappeared just as quick. Lowered the temperature but made it humid. We are still waiting for a 90 degree day. I love it. Yesterday's 88 to 90 maxed at 81 degrees.

We are able to use the enclosed porch during the day and the air doesn't run very much. It's nice to sit out and not scorching to be at the pool or on the beach.

Heading for Hershey Monday AM. Will come back to Lewes on Thursday AM. Have it lined up for Jack to see his friends Matt V, Matt N, and Cameron. Will be nice to be in Hershey for a few days, but not looking forward to the drive up and back.

They adjusted my coumadin dosage and I have to get blood work again on Monday. Will do it at Hershey.

Going to the pool at eleven for a little while. Will look what is going on around here the rest of the day and try and do something. Will check Jack's scout book and see if we can complete any requirements.

Later.

Gonna be a hot one!

Looks like we are going to have the second hottest day of the summer today. Calling for 88 to 90.

Jack and I went bike riding yesterday around the beach and estates. We drove it last night to see how far. I was surprised --- 2.2 miles.

Went to the boardwalk. Jack played games and rode some rides at Funland. It started sprinkling as we were leaving. Typical Delaware rain. Rained all along the beach and about three blocks inland. The sun was out at our house. Not calling for more rain until Sunday night.

Was online looking for something to do today. Jack wants to vegetate, but I feel like getting out. We will end up doing something ; maybe only the pool.

Just need to be back home before suppertime to avoid the weekend traffic.


Charley

We got some rain!

We finally got some rain, however only 3/16 of an inch. It's been cloudy all day. Maybe some more tonight.

Went to have my blood draw this AM. Will hear from the clinic at Hershey this afternoon on what my dosage should be and when to get next blood test.

Just got back from a bike ride. Jack and I did about two miles. I figured it would bring the rain again once we got away from the house, but we made it back just sweaty.

So, Jack and I will probably slum for the rest of the day.

Till later,

Charley

Sluming at the beach.

Well will try this again. Blogger just blipped and everything I wrote disappeared.

Jack & I just slummed it today. Cinnamon buns for breakfast, jack had a sandwich for lunch and we went to Capriotti's and split a medium sub for supper. They make the best subs.

I tossed and turned most of the night. Saw about 1/2 of too many shows and movies. Felt like crap today. Nothing specific. Just tired, achy--no energy. Spent about 3 hours at the pool mostly sitting and reading or floating in the pool to cool off. Just laying back tonight.

Shell is on her way to Philadelphia taking Donise there. Then She is heading here and spending the day tomorrow. That will be nice.

The coumadin script finally arrived yesterday. Started it last night and will have to get blood work on Thursday. Will go up to outpatient lab at Beebe Hospital. It's about three miles up the road.

Marks got here after lunch, so Jack will meet up with Sarah tomorrow. He's playing with Julianna now. She's been here all week and goes home on Tuesday.

We are planning on going to Hershey next Monday (27th) for a few days. Will probably come back that Wednesday or Thursday morning.

Till later

Charley

the middle of summer vacation

Well, the 15th of July---middle of summer vacation. The weather has been beautiful here in Lewes. Low eighties during the day. Low sixties at night, sunny with a refreshing breeze. Pool temp is 80 and ocean temp is 84.

Jack spent the day at the beach yesterday with Papa Joe, Corrine, Lisa and Julianna. He took them to Roosevelt Inlet at Lewes where we go. Lisa said he and Julianna had a blast and made some new friends there. They left at ten and came home around 4.

Then they btook him along to the boardwalk last night and they bhad pizza and the he and Julianna rode the rides at Funland. They got home around 9:30. JAck was into his PJ's and aslleep in a few minutes.

It felt good to have a Jack break. I ran some errands and went to the pool for about an hour and a half. Then came home and cooked. Made chicken pot pie and lemon lush.

Looked for ham hocks and had to go to third store to find them. Stopped at Louise's and got a quart of green beans and she gave me a second quart for free. So am cooking the ham hocks and we will have ham and green beans for supper. I love when the fresh veggies are in season. Louise said my lima beans should be in next week.

Dr. S called and he is sending me a scrip for coumidin and for lab work. Then the coumidin clinic called and we got set up to send the results to them. Will probably have to go in the hospital around the end of August to get monitored while I get started on medicine for the A-fib. He also said we will have to repeat the stress echo because they tried to pace me when on the treadmill and skewed the results so the reading were probably not accurate. The results of the echo do not correspond with my symptoms.

Jack and i are probably going to pick blueberries one day this week and maybe some peaches. They are a $1.00 a pound if you pick your own. Seems OK for the blueberries but high for the peaches.

Well making breakfast. Later Pool day today. Calling for chance of rain tomorrow. Haven't had any for two weeks.

Charley

Lighthouse Work Party

Worked on Harbor of Refuge yesterday. Had a 12 person crew and six were first timers. It was nice to have some new people. I hope we didn't scare them off with what we did. They all said they will be back. It was a paint day. We were working both ends. We were removing old paint and putting on new paint. A crew covered the watch room with paint remover. A second crew started on the next level down with scraping loose paint off the walls and windows. The third crew started outside on the caisson.
After getting the paint stripper on, the first crew helped on the next level with the scraping. The stripper had to sit for 4 hours before removal.
The caisson crew hand ground the rust off the bad areas and got a coat of black paint on about 85% of the caisson by lunch time. We were a gallon short of paint, but will get it finished in August.
The other crew got the the living quarters level scraped and a coat of primer on the walls. We also got the windows covered with a coat of white enamel.

After lunch everybody pitched in on the watch room. What a mess getting the paint stripper off and everything cleaned up. We managed to get finished about 15 minutes before the work boat arrived to take us to shore.

Next trip we will coat the walls on the two levels with Lead Shield to seal in any lead from the paint that remains, then will apply the final paint on the walls. We are getting closer to having two levels finished.

We also will complete the black caisson painting, the railing on the first level, and start painting the white portion of the lighthouse. What a difference a coat of paint does to the exterior and interior surfaces.

The summer weather is supposed to arrive this week. They are calling for the nineties on Wednesday and Thursday. Will be the first of the summer. Don't know if I'm looking forward to it or not. The low eighties have been nice.

Also, finally got the boat ready for the water. Plan on getting it in this week sometime.


Charley

Good news, Bad news

Good news, bad news.
Heard from the cardiologist about the stress echo. Will not be a school bus driver. However it was good I tried because we found out about the A-fib.

I will probably have to wear a monitor for four weeks. Then will have to go in hospital for a few days while they try a medicine to see if will help with the A-fib. They will want me monitored while they try the medicine to see if it works.

So anyhow, bad I can't drive the bus, bad about the A-fib, good we found the A-fib and that we can probably control it with medication.

So it's sunny and cooler today at the beach. Working on cleaning the boat. It's ready for the water.

Working on the lighthouse on Saturday. We are actually making some headway and should have the watch room finished by the next work party.

Oh well, back to the boat.

Charley

Thurs

Well, broke out of the AFib yesterday. Pulse rate back in the sixties. Shell went out with the over 70's for dinner and a movie last night. Jack & I cooked; steak, new potatoes, and new peas.

Jack took me for a golf cart ride. We had a quiet evening in. Had storms overnight; about 1/2 inch of rain.

Went into Lewes to the bake shoppe for cinnamon buns and coffee, dropped books off at the library and came back home.. Another golf cart ride from Jack. Probably go to the pool later.

We have a babysitter for tonight so Shell and I can go out. Should be fun. Until later.

Charley

July

Well, drove back to Hershey on Monday afternoon for my stress test on Tuesday.

Mowed the lawn there on Monday night. They were calling for rain on Tuesday.

I was told my appointment was for 11 AM. Had a message from Monday morning saying 10 AM.

Wasn't allowed alcohol or caffeine after midnight Sunday night and no food after midnight Monday.

Got there about 9:40 and they took me about 9:50 and started the IV and gave me the first dose of radioactive dye. Then had to wait for 45 minutes before the first set of pictures of my heart. That took about 20 minutes.

Then the treadmill part. They hooked me up to the monitor and had a surprise. I was in atrial fibrillation. had to wait until they got the OK from Dr. Silber to proceed with the test. He said go ahead and we did the treadmill part. They stopped me before I was ready to quit because my pulse rate was too high. My target was 133 and I was up to 180. They injected the second dose of dye a minute before I was done on the treadmill.

Then had to wait for 45 minutes and then 20 minutes of pictures.

Am waiting to hear from Dr. Silber but the bus driving doesn't look good. Will wait and see.

But at least there was a reason for me to have the test. Otherwise, we wouldn't of found the A-fib.

Oh well, back at the beach for now and waiting.

Charley

At the beach

Finished my classroom hours for my school bus driver's license. Had hoped to hear from Dr. Silber before we left for the beach. Guess when he called. Within fifteen minutes of us getting to the beach house. They are setting up my appointment for the stress test and will call me back shortly. Will have to drive back to Hershey for the day. All my clearances are done and all my paperwork is back to the personnel office. All I need is my stress test; then my permit; six hours of road instruction; then my driving test and written test. Sounds simple but will take about six or seven different days to complete. So Jack and I will be at the beach less this summer.

Was 90 when we got here yesterday. Calling for 92 today. We are now having lunch and will then head for the pool for a while.

Need to go to Lowe's later to get some fix it parts. Either things are breaking or batteries are going dead.

Time for the pool.


Charley

Home from camp!

Jack and I got home from Webelos resident camp last night---one night early.


The rains came were going to keep coming through today. We made the decision before supper to pack up the boys and head out. We were walking in the mud and rain for most of the day yesterday. Two of the boys were leaving early today anyway and three of the other boys were out of dry clothes and footwear----plus even the "dry" clothing was damp. Two of the tents were leaking water around the doors from the rain blowing against them. So we packed 8 boys, 4 adults and all the gear into our three vehicles and drove the hour home. The other 4 parents were called and they picked up their boys at our houses. It was probably good since they had almost another inch of rain overnight.


We left all the tents pitched at our campsite and Dr. V went back this morning to tear them down and pack them into plastic bags to bring home. Hopefully we will get dry weather for a few days so we can pitch them here at home and dry them out.


The boys did a lot of achievements at camp and are well underway towards earning their Webelos badge.


I started washing the clothes from camp. All of them dirty and clean. The clean ones were damp anyway. Load 2 is in the washer.

Need to hand the sleeping bags out to air when the sun finally appears.

Pack meeting Tuesday night -- Bottle rockets, then the beach.

And I interviewed to drive school bus for the school district and they called yesterday and offered me a position. Going in tomorrow to fill out paper work so they can submit me to the school board on Monday for final approval. Then will need physical, clearances, and getting my CDL to drive bus.

Charley

Going to camp!

A busy week. Had FIOS TV installed on Monday. Tim was there from nine until 2:30 until he had all the sets working properly. Mediacom upped their rates again, dropped some channels, and eliminated the off season discount. Plus Fios TV is free for six months and $20 month less after that. 240 channels versus 61 with Mediacom.
Planned on working on the boat on Tuesday, however it was cloudy and supposed to rain all day. Rain finally came after dark. Ended up going to see UP! instead Movie was pretty good but the price. $10.50 per person for the matinees. $14.00 per person for evenings. These are the new prices. $5 for matinees and $7 for evenings last year. And they wonder why the theaters aren't full. Just kind of goofed off on Wednesday. Sprayed weed killer talked with the neighbors.
Checked the messages in Hershey Wednesday night and had one from Derry Township School District about coming in for an interview on Thursday morning at 9:20. We were leaving to come home Thursday morning, Left a message that we would have to reschedule.

Got home around 10:45 Thursday morning. They had called on the way home and my interview was changed to Friday at 9 AM. Had a dentist appointment at 2 on Thursday to fix a chipped tooth. Took all of 11 minutes and $120. Thank goodness for dental insurance. Only had to pay $30.

Church festival Thursday night. Jack spent two 15 minutes segments in the dunk tank. We stayed until almost nine and talked and Jack played some of the games.

Interview went good. Talked with one of the other drivers that I had used for a reference and he said I'll get offered a position. Spend another three hours at the church festival, mostly eating and talking.

Mowed on Saturday AM and packed for camp. Had Jack working on a list since Monday and he was funny crossing items off. Have the back of the Durango full.

Saturday night when to Hershey Lodge with two other scouts and did a flag ceremony for Miracle Ear's dinner. They were having their annual training meetings. They gave each scout $50 and bought the scouts and the adults dinner in the Bear's Den. It was a fun evening and good for the boys.

So the car is packed and we are heading for HiddenValley Scout Reservation at 1300.

Shell was teaching in York this weekend and won't make it home before we leave. Too many retests this morning.

Off the air until Friday. We should be getting home sometime late Thursday night. Thursday evening the parents are invited for dinner and campfire, so it will probably be close to nine before we leave camp.

Charley

At the beach

Jack & I have been here since Friday. Left right after he got home from his 1 1/2 hours of school. Shell came down Friday night and had to go home yesterday. Jack and I will be here until Wednesday or early Thursday morning.

Verizon is here installing Fios TV. Murphy's law: All the cables checked out except for the last one he checked for signal strength. Ended up running a new cable for it. Installing a ground and then will hook up the boxes. Jack can't wait to get TV back on.

We are going to the pool when he's finished with the installation.

Will play this evening by ear. They are calling for scattered thunderstorms.

I was going to work on the boat today, but got up too late to bring it to the house before Verizon came. Maybe tomorrow. Too hot and humid out anyway. But perfect for the pool.

Just finished lunch. Strawberry shortcake with local strawberries. Also have new local peas to make for supper. Will need to go get some meat to make. A steak sure sounds good.

Later

Charley

Another partly rainy day.

Had 1/2 inch in a storm yesterday afternoon and 3/10 in a storm last night. Calling for more rain after lunch. Then showers off and on thru Friday. Hope Mother nature gets it out of her system and it's dry from the 14th thru the18th for Scout camp.

Jack's on his 3rd grade coundown. Full day tomorrow and 2 hours on Friday.

He and I are leaving for the beach after school on Friday and will stay until Wed or Thurs next week. Then home for two weeks for Cub Scout activities.

Had breakfast with a friend from the ER yesterday morning. Dale had left the ER for the baby buggy with LifeLion and is still there. He said he has thoughts about going back to the ER.

Getting Fios TV in at the beach house. Had cable with Mediacom, but they upped the rates $6 per month and are eliminating their seasonal program which gave you half off from October thru March. So I can add the Fios TV free for six months and then $ 29.99 per month there after. Plus we'll get over 200 channels instead of 64. Also we'll get HBO and Showtime free for 3 months. And they will double the speed of the Internet for no additional cost. Jack is happy cause it gives him 15 kids channels versus three on mediacom.

Well off to finish the wash and pack some items for the beach. Also have to get the tent out and figure out how to put it together.

Charley

Welcome the weekend!

Been a different week for the end of May. From the eighties on Monday to the fifties on Tuesday and Wednesday and now back to the high seventies. Lots of rain and fog. Had 1.4 inches with the storms overnight and a quarter of an inch in this afternoon's storm. I did manage to get the grass cut yesterday morning. It's supposed to be a nice weekend.

Shell is in Chambersburg for the weekend teaching. Jack and I are staying in Hershey. NASCAR races at Dover this weekend and I didn't feel like fighting the traffic tonight. Coming home Sunday isn't bad. WE would always leave the beach house when the race started and buzz on by Dover with hardly any traffic.

Jack and I are either going to Hershey Park tonight or tomorrow morning. Will probably go over to the Children's Miracle Network festivities tomorrow during the day that kick off the telethon.

Jack's at his back yard buddies now playing. He'll soon be home. Matt has baseball practice.

Will probably go somewhere Sunday afternoon when Shell gets home; then evening Mass at 1730. She has to go into work to finish evaluations at 2000.

Had my 6 month dental checkup today. Go back the 11th of June to get a broken filling repaired.

Had a special Mass for our RCIA class on Wednesday evening and then we had dinner. Typically, we had enough food to feed twice as many people. It was a fun evening. Will miss seeing the people every week. Hard to believe nine months went by so fast. We were hoping to hear from The Tribunal before Wednesday evening,, but I guess we will just have to be patient. We were the only ones in the class that could not participate in the Eucharist. Everybody wants to know when we can and want to come and celebrate with us. It will be special with Jack also waiting to do so with us.

Last drum lesson for the summer on Monday after school. Five more days and Jack is out for the summer.

Until later.

Charley

sunday

Well, sitting by the pool soaking up the rays (from between the clouds). Water is in the sixties. Polar bears would love it. Went into Rehoboth last night. It's the fullest I've seen the boardwalk in the last couple of years. Of course the traffic Friday night was heavy. Between broken down vehicles (we saw 20+) and the accidents (5), I ended up not using rt 1 very much. Travelled some of the back road I Hadn't been on in over 40 years when they were the main roads. Some of the small towns still looked the same. Anyhow it only took us about 30 minutes longer than normal. Shell came down yesterday morning. Was in the low eighties and sunny yesterday. Caught some sun at the pool. Got the awnings up in the morning. Looks like the rain is staying to the south of us for today. Ate out last night, cooking in tonight. Did some house cleaning this morning and opened the house up to air it out. Well back to the rays.

Charley

To the beach!

Heading to the beach until Monday when Jack gets home from school. Shell has to do evaluations on some of her weekend night shift staff and will come down in the morning. Supposed to be sunny and in the high 70's. Pool opens tomorrow, so will probably catch some rays. Only thing I want to do is put up the awnings. Picked up the porch awning from Tulli's--cost $6.00. Last time I had the same seam sewn (tongue twister) in Delaware and it cost me $20. Looking to relax and have a fun weekend. Cooking out with Papa Joe and Corrine. Hope everybody has a good weekend and remember the troops past and present on Monday.

Charley