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As we celebrate Christmas this year, my wish is that we take some time away from our new iPods, cellphones, video games, toys, ties, sweaters, doodads, and fruitcakes and remember exactly what it is that we are celebrating.

Also, I hope that we all remember that not everyone is as “well off” as we are and that we should be thankful for what we have.

Finally, take some time to donate some money or time (or both!) to your favorite charity, like Heifer International, The American Red Cross, The Salvation Army, or Habitat For Humanity.

Merry Christmas!

— Rich, Karen, Ashley, Amber, and Alyssa

Just a quick note to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

We’ve got a lot to be thankful for this year, including things like the fun time with the extended family in South Carolina in June, and Dad’s recovery after his surgery (and with everyone’s help and support during that time).

— Rich

As you can see, Amber and I decided this year to go as Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia. This worked pretty easily, because of Amber’s long hair that made good sized buns and my short hair that was able to be pulled back to give me a Jedi look. We took our costumes to the annual youth group costume party on the Monday before Halloween and ended up tying with each other for first place. The other winners were a girl who made her own tootsie roll costume, someone who dressed up as the youth director, complete with his actual shirt and name tag, and a girl who had a piece of cardboard covered with cobwebs and other halloween decorations along with holes for her head and hands. She claims she was a picture frame…? The adult leaders went as super heros, including The Germinator, Wonder Woman, Superman, and Super Computer Man.

We also went as Luke and Leia to Light Night at our local Chick-fil-a where there are carnival games that win you candy, bounce-houses, and other forms of random fun, in addition to a contest for kids elementery school age and younger. I added glo-sticks to my lightsaber when we went then because we would be outside and it would be dark. Alyssa went as a pirate, with a short sword and her birthday spyglass. She ended up winning second place out of the second and third graders there.

Halloween is always fun for us because we enjoy coming up with the costumes, and I always have fun acting silly for a day. Now all we have to do is figure out what to be next year…

Every year, three Saturdays in a row, Orange County Parks and Recreation hosts Fish For The Fun Of It. Fish For The Fun Of It is held at three different parks with lakes. The tournament is only for kids (12 and under). Poles and bait are provided. The kids fish for 2 hours, and then trophies are given to the kids in each age group (4 and under, 5 and 6, 7 and 8, 9 and 10, and 11 and 12) for largest and most fish, first, second and third places. The fish that are caught are returned to the lake and are wiser fish (or not and they get caught again). They also give out raffle prizes, like fishing poles, bait boxes, and more. When the kids sign in they get a free Fish For The Fun Of It t-shirt. Going three times every year for four years we now have a lot of those shirts.

For the last few years, I was the only one of the three of us that caught any fish, and I did not win any trophies. Ashley is now too old to be in it. This year, at the first park we decided to walk across a bridge to cut a corner and get to where the birds were. The only thing was the bridge went to an island. We decided to stay there though because it was shady. Two men from the Fishers of Men group that was helping out came over and helped us. It was a good thing too, because we caught a lot of fish and wouldn’t have known how to get the hooks out by ourselves.
That day I caught 6 fish (4 catfish, and 2 others) and Alyssa caught 5 (4 catfish, and 1 other). I got the first place trophy for most fish and the second place for largest. Alyssa got a second place trophy for most fish. Alyssa also got a bait bag in the raffle.

A cool part of the day for me was that I got to learn how to correctly hold a catfish. I carried one to the weighing table myself. I also learned that you can carry the other fish I caught by their mouths.

There is one girl who is one year younger than me and in the 9 and 10 age group this year that always gets first for most fish and somtimes first and second for largest. That time she caught 19 fish.

The next Saturday it was at a park with a big, big lake with a spillway. That day Alyssa caught 3 fish and I caught 2. One of the weighing people fed one of my fish to a bird that was standing there, looking at my fish. I would have gotten third place for most fish and Alyssa would have gotten second place for most fish, but my fish got counted as her fish (or something like that) and so we got first place for most fish in Alyssa’s age group. In the raffle, Alyssa got a fishing t-shirt. That time, the other girl got 28 fish.

The last Saturday was at our home park, Bear Creek. That time Dad came. Though we didn’t catch anything or win anything in the raffle, it was still fun. That time the other girl caught 86 fish. Dad saw how she did it, (in my mind cheating) with four poles (not borrowed from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Organization).

Even though next time the other girl will be in my group, and we might not catch anything, I think we will still have fun at Fish For The Fun Of It.

Five Star, the imprint that published Don’s first novel, Forced Conversion, several years ago, has agreed to publish his second novel, GREENSWORD, in January 2009.

In the book, Zeke, Milo, and Brandon are struggling to keep their environmental protest group, GreensWord, alive.  It impresses chicks and sure beats getting jobs as corporate serfs in the real world.  But their chief benefactor, movie star Matthew Barrington, threatens to cut off funding unless they stop global warming before his Malibu beach house slides into the storm-tossed ocean.  In their desperate effort to save the beach house and their organization, the GreensWord trio is willing to try almost anything:  drop sugar cubes into the gas tanks of thousands of cars, embark on a high-speed chase to advertise the reflective properties of white car roofs, even engage in a dangerous game of blackmail.  But nothing is fast enough to stop global warming in time. . .until they think of the unthinkable solution …

Now they’re about to save the world; they just don’t want to get caught doing it.

GREENSWORD is a dark comedy about the environment, extremism, stupid criminals, and the lengths to which people will go to avoid getting a real job.

Says Hugo and Nebula Award Winner Robert J. Sawyer:  “Science fiction has always been a great vehicle for biting satire and social commentary — from H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine right on up to Donald Bingle’s engrossing GREENSWORD.   Bingle is a terrific writer.”

For more information on Don’s writing, go to www.orphyte.com/donaldjbingle.

He’s home!

That’s right, we brought Dad home from the rehab hospital today! And boy, was he ready to leave. When we arrived at the rehab hospital today, he had his cpap machine packed up, his blanket folded, his papers stacked, and was waiting in a wheelchair at the door to his room peaking down the hall every few seconds.

We thought that the cat, Velvet, would be happy to see him, but she was very “cat like” and just acted aloof. We did catch her later sleeping with her head somewhat in one of his shoes, though. So I guess she was happy to have him home after all.

He’s currently on oxygen and a bunch of prescriptions, but hopefully neither situation is long term, but we’ll have to see.

— Rich

Apparently some guys out in California decided to make a 21 foot long model of an X-wing fighter and strap 4 rocket engines to it. See the video of its maiden flight here.

After spending most of last week back in Wuesthoff Hospital, Dad was released back to rehab on Friday. Chris arranged midweek to have Dad reviewed by Sea Pines Rehab Hospital down in Palm Bay (about 30 minutes away) and they agreed to place him there on Friday instead of going back to the Wuesthoff Rehab Center (Spyglass).

Mom and I visited him on Saturday. He was a bit tired after having physical therapy in the morning, so after eating his lunch he took a nap. Later in the day, Dad and I played a game of Blokus, which I only won by 4 squares. We then arranged to have one of his chess buddies come in on Sunday afternoon to play chess and left shortly after he had dinner.

The hope is that this rehab center will provide more attentive care and will work him harder so that he can eventually come home sooner.

Chris has arranged to extend her stay until the end of this week to help Mom with some more stuff at the house and transport her down to Sea Pines.

— Rich

Well, I fully intended to send out a positive update last night, but never got around to it…

Dad was transferred on Friday from the CSU at the hospital to a rehab center a couple of miles from their house (same one he was at two years ago). He seemed pretty happy to be out of the CSU when we went to see him on Saturday. Don and I even got to take him outside in the courtyard for about 20 minutes so that he could enjoy the fresh air. He had three therapists assigned to him – speech/swallowing, occupational, and physical. All that therapy seemed to wear him out, but he seemed in good spirits and was looking forward to having his chess buddies start visiting him at the rehab center.

Then, this morning I got a call from Mom that Dad had a bad nose-bleed this morning that they couldn’t stop and that they had transferred him by ambulance back to the ER at the hospital. I just got off the phone with Mom, and it sounds like they are re-admitting him to Wuesthoff hospital. Unfortunately, I don’t have any details yet (she was going to call me back in a while since she wasn’t supposed to be using her phone where she was).

— Rich

Well, according to Mom and Don, they may be transferring Dad from CSU to the rehab center as early as tomorrow!

Apparently he has been doing better with his breathing and swallowing (although there is still progress to be made). Don reports that he is much more alert today than he was early in the week. I’m sure he’d love to get out of the CSU and be able to have visitors and such. However, I’m not sure he realizes just how hard they are going to make him work in rehab…

— Rich