Tag Archives: Birthday Celebration

Christmas and Beyond

2 Jan

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

Where did December go? Wasn’t it Thanksgiving just a week or so ago? Surely I am not the only one feeling this way.

December was a busy month at our house. Our daughter invited us to join her on a week long Caribbean cruise during the first week of December and of course we said yes.

The weather was perfect, sunny with highs in the mid 70s. We had a very pleasant time. I did a lot of reading and sleeping. And of course eating. I think my husband had four desserts before we left the port.

Speaking of the port, we cruised out of Port Canaveral which is not only a cruise terminal but Space X launches from there.

The large vessel attached to the tug boat is the barge rocket boosters land on after launching. Three boosters are behind the barge. Space X reuses the boosters. As a side note, Space X launches Starlink satellites from here. After Hurricane Helene, Elon’s Starlink provided communication in the mountain disaster areas. He also provided reduced pricing on the equipment and gave service for free to hard hit areas.

A few of pictures from the cruise.

Made from a decorative throw at the botton of the bed. Cute
Private island Christmas decoration.
I liked the ornaments
I’m surprised they weren’t Mickey and Minnie snowmen.

After the cruise we took a day to rest then drove back to our place in the mountains to get ready for Christmas. Of course we had to throw in some out of town doctor visits just to keep life interesting.

And then it was Christmas and then it was our daughter’s birthday. It was a milestone birthday so we wanted to do something special. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate with any plans we made. Finally after checking and rechecking the weather projections we decided to celebrate on the day before her big day. Rain was supposed to hold off until evening. Except it didn’t. A cold, drizzle began shortly after leaving home and followed us all the way to Dahlonega, Georgia.

One of her friends had recommended a family style restaurant there. It did not disappoint. Beside being a restaurant it is also an Inn.

Love that Santa is the picture above the mantle.

We had not visited this cute town but we plan to go back in the spring. Want to know more about Dahlonega, here’s a recent article from The Detailed Traveler. An interesting tidbit, the town was the home of the first Gold Rush.

And then time spun away and our daughter returned to Florida and now it is 2025. The weather has been sunny, windy and cold. There is a possibility of snow over the weekend. One would think that living in the mountains we would get a lot of snow, but we don’t. I plan to drink coffee and hot chocolate, watch the snow (if it comes) and have a pajama weekend. And read, of course.

After thought, when visiting with a friend after Christmas, she asked what i got for Christmas. My mind went blank. That’s embarrassing. The first thing that came to my mind was this.

My friend was a little envious.

My husband had asked what I would like for Christmas and I told him Sharpies. After 52 years of marriage he realized I was serious.

I hope each of you had a lovely Christmas and I wish you blessings in this new year of 2025.

If we get snow, I will post the pictures.

I'm a winner

After my retirement, I decided to re-learn the canning and preserving skills I learned from my mother but hadn’t practiced for twenty years. I titled the blog Old Things R New to chronicle my experience.  Since then I have been blessed to have six other bloggers join me, DiVoran Lites, Bill Lites,  Judy Wills, Louise Gibson, Janet Perez Eckles and Melody Hendrix

In addition to blogging, I’m a general  “mom Friday” for my author daughter, Rebekah Lyn. I also manage her website, Rebekah Lyn Books  

My 2024 goal is continue to use my love of photographs and words to be an encourager on social media.

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A Balloon Ride for Ivan

2 Jun

A Slice of Life

Bill LItes

For those of you who have followed my most recent blogs, you will be familiar with the major players in my wife, DiVoran’s family.  For those of you who are just joining me, her father is Ivan and her mother is Dora.  Her younger brother, David, rounds out the family members.  I became a member of this wonderful family when I married their daughter, DiVoran, and have enjoyed the pleasure of their company for over 60 years now.  I would like to share with you one of the more delightful times we had with this family. 

Sometime in early June of 1985 DiVoran and I flew to California to take part in this family’s celebration of Ivan’s 70th birthday.  DiVoran’s father, Ivan, her mother, Dora, as well as her brother, David, and his wife, Susan, all lived in Vista, CA at the time, so that turned out to be the gathering place for the major celebration activities.  As part of the celebration, on one of the days, David had made arrangements for us all to take a balloon ride.  None of us had ever been up in a balloon, and the southern California area is one of the many locations where the weather is favorable for flying balloons; cool clear mornings with little or no wind.  

Photo by Susan Bowers  (No, we didn’t dress like this to go ballooning)

We were all up early that day, rushing around in order to have our breakfast and still have time to drive north some 50 miles to the launch site in Paris, CA.  We met our pilot, Steve, and he asked us to help him unload his balloon from its trailer.  It was a beautiful clear crisp morning and the unfolding of the balloon was very interesting.  Steve was very particular about how we handled every part of the balloon and its hardware.  He had us position each part of the balloon, basket, guy ropes and burner in a systematic way so he could assemble everything quickly and correctly.  Once everything was ready to begin the inflation process, he had us hold the bottom to the balloon open and he used a large fan to start filling the balloon with air.  In the photo below, you can see Ivan supervising the initial inflation operation.

Photo by Dora Bowers

At some point Steve fired up the burner, pointed it toward the partially inflated balloon and blasted hot air into the balloon, and it began to rotate off the ground and rise to an upright positon.  Once the balloon was vertical, we each had to hold onto a rope, attached to the basket, to keep it from ascending before Steve was ready.  He climbed into the basket and asked us who was going to be first.  We all pointed at Ivan and said, “The Birthday Boy!”

Photo Credit: https://www.maraballooning.com/

We helped Ivan climb into the basket.  Steve went over the operation and safety rules for Ivan, loud enough for all of us on the ground to hear.  I was amazed how Steve was able to keep applying the burner just enough to keep the balloon upright and still keep the basket sitting there on the ground.  When Steve was ready, he told Ivan to hold on, and he applied a long blast from the burner; they slowly lifted off the ground, and they began their ascent.

Note:  I forgot to mention this was one of the smaller balloons and the basket was only large enough to carry Steve, the pilot, and one other person.  And because there were several of us that wanted to take a ride, the duration of the flights were a little shorter than usual.

Photo by Dora Bowers

Steve had instructed us that they wouldn’t be flying more than 1000 feet high, and for us to follow their flight path, so we would be there when they landed, to hold the ropes.  This would allow the passenger to exit the basket and the next passenger to climb aboard (a quick and easy transfer).  If it looked like the wind wasn’t going to carry the balloon far, we would all run to the next landing spot.  DiVoran said, “There goes my 70 year-old white haired mother running after a balloon!”  Dora told DiVoran later that the running was fun, as she hadn’t done that in years.  When the wind picked up, we would all jump into Ivan’s pickup truck and follow the balloon to the next landing spot for the next passenger exchange.  When it was my turn, I couldn’t believe how quiet it was when the burner was off.  I love to fly, but I had never had the opportunity to fly that low in all my flying experiences.  I could just imagine how thrilled the two French brothers, Joseph Michel & Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier, known as the aviation pioneers who launched the first confirmed piloted ascent by man with their hot air balloon, Annonay, in France on June 4, 1783 must have felt.  It was a really wonderful experience!

Photo Credit: https://www.viator.com/en-HK/tours/Phoenix/Phoenix-Hot-Air-Balloon-Ride/d639-5095HOT

DiVoran remembers, “During my ride we flew over a junk yard, and when Steve applied a blast from the burner, to keep us high enough to clear an obstacle, I saw hundreds of rabbits running from their hiding places in all directions!”  When everyone had a turn, we helped Steve deflate, disassemble, fold and load his balloon onto his trailer.  We thanked him for an exciting morning of sight-seeing and headed back to Vista, where we each had something to share that was special to us that morning.  That was a wonderful ‘Birthday Gift’ that we were all able to enjoy.  It didn’t dawn on me until years later; that I had scratched off another item from my Bucket List and hadn’t even realized it at the time!

—–The End—–

Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 63 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing.  He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville.  Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.

One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is:  John 10:10

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Gone With the Wind

10 Nov

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Wednesday was my birthday, so Bill took me to the Orange County History Center in Orlando to see an exhibit from the 1939 movie, “Gone With the Wind,” on its seventy-fifth year anniversary. I asked if I could take pictures and they said I could as long as I didn’t use a flash. Years ago that would have defeated me, but technology has now made great cameras possible.

I was a year old when the movie came out. I didn’t see it, then of course, nor even when I grew up. I’ve now watched it twice. It’s sad that its author, Margaret Mitchell only wrote that one book before she was hit by a car on the street in Atlanta and died. I did read that. I borrowed it from the Custer County, Colorado library when I was twelve and in eighth grade. It was the first book, and one of the few books that made me cry.

Sydney Howard wrote the script. other writers were called in to whittle on it some more, but Sidney Howard got the Oscar for it and there was no mention of the other writers during the Academy Awards.

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 It’s a Remington Noiseless Portable in its own case. There’s a pencil on the side and something in a small box that could have been a typewriter eraser.

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The one on your left was Vivian Leigh’s. Sydney Howard’s would have looked like the one on your right, that might even be the very one that was given to him.

The main actors got a bound copy of the script. One belonged to Hattie McDaniel who was the first African American person ever to win an Oscar. Hers was for best supporting actress.

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Clothes and costumes are of a hobby of mine, so I was mostly interested in those. Here’s Hattie McDaniel’s. Small mannequins wear many of the costumes in the exhibit.

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We’ve all seen movies where someone is cinching up a corset, and aren’t we glad and thankful that we don’t have to dress like that anymore.

“Shaped corsets, 16 layers of fabric, and a myriad of accessories made dressing in Belle Epoche fashion a time-consuming affair.” Debbie Sessions,

http://www.vintagedancer.com/1920s/1920s-style-guide-womens-fashion/

 

Many actors and actresses made screen tests.

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I saw some of the screen tests and thought it must have been difficult to choose and cast the best actors for the rolls. Bette Davis desperately wanted the role of Scarlett, and she would have been good in it because Scarlett was the kind of unhappy woman Bette often played, but to her dismay Bette was never in the running.

Where are they all now?

1 Peter 1:24-25 Amplified Bible (AMP)

24 For all flesh (mankind) is like grass, and all its glory (honor) like [the] flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower drops off,

25 But the Word of the Lord ([a]divine instruction, the Gospel) endures forever. And this Word is the good news which was preached to you.

They have gone with the wind, as we all will someday, so let us enjoy every moment of this one life we have and live with Christ in our hearts until He decides it’s time for us to move on.

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