Away for awhile

 Went to visit my wife's family in Toms River last week.  It was quite pleasant and I ate way too much, gaining 2 pounds as a consequence.  We did not do much besides visiting due to Laura's back injury and her in the recovery mode.  She is still hurting and hoping for some relief on June 9th with a procedure on one of her discs.  We had a visit from her cousins that were part of the Cape May travel group all meeting annually at Peter Shields Inn. a lovely bed and breakfast in this town.  Sadly, both of them are doing poorly do to various medical issues,  to me, kind of bearly getting by.  Brother Brian's wife Debbie is amidst issues as well and in a recovery mode.  Saw my old buddy Carmine and we talked music which we had not done before.  It turns out that he and I have similar tastes and had seen the same groups perform.  Sent him a message with new things I have discovered on YouTube with some of my musical heroes. 

This is a photo of oak leaves I took closeup on one of my walks in the neighborhood.  In Ocean county the city of Lakewood has a large Orthodox Jewish community.  They have outgrown this environment and are now settling in Pine Lake Park buying up many properties.  Their garb is different and the folks keep to themselves but are polite and somewhat friendly to outsiders.  Some of the old time residents are not happy with their arrival.  We will see how this shakes out.  In fact there is now a Yeshiva school around the block from the house of Mike and Laura.  Lots of cars are parked near.

Once and awhile you have an interesting seat mate on the plane.  Mr. Michael Fineman was next to me. A big guy with stubbily beard and ball cap who, without much prompting, was quite engaging.  We had the usual "what do you do?" openers.  I told him about my career and retirement.  Michael said he was a motivational speaker and marketed some health supplements.  It seems that his subject of motivation is fatherhood.  He started something called "The Fatherhood Code".  As we all. know, there is no manual for teaching fatherhood.  We learn from the examples of our. father's actions and advice.  Without going further into the story,  suffice to say this was an interesting guy with an interesting perspective.  This guy was raised Jewish and converted to Christianity which is really a big deal with potentially big consequences in that faith.  His parents accepted his choice and he moved ahead.  I could have spoke to him at even greater length if there were more time available.

I really don't travel great distances by plane any more.  It was amazing to me that most of the travelers spoke languages I did not understand.  Whether it be Spanish or Arabic, I felt like I was in the middle of something I did not comprehend. I guess thats okay.  America is transforming into something different than I remember.  Parts of me want to cling to the past, comfortably living life in the rear view mirror.  

thats it