Happy 100th

Today my dad if he was still living would have been 100 years old.  

At their 50th anniversary celebration in 1990 he expressed the wish to live to 100.

This was likely an engagement photo since they were married in September of that year.

He died 11 years shy of that target.

Mom made it almost to 95 before she joined him.

In searching for photos for this post I discovered that most of my photos of my dad are hard copies in albums or framed like one of him with me at a lakeside that sits here at my desk. 

I think I'll keep them saved that way.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Sharing Grandchildren Photos Plus

Sorry, no frontal views of my three granddaughters, but they are so cute even from the back or in shadow.

We had a wonderful family vacation in WV in August.

Here's Dan helping 4 year old A to get a drink of spring water.

A loves insects.  She's trying to get a huge beetle to crawl up on her stick.

L is almost 2.

In the water her teeth chattered.

A took swimming lessons this summer.

A & L are sisters.

The youngest, I, at 1 year loved the water.

As a plus here are my siblings in order from right to left.  I'm #4.

We gathered at the end of our week vacation at my older sister's retirement community in PA. There is 19 years difference between the oldest and youngest of us. We reside in PA, MD, VA and the brother next to me in AZ.

More from Goddard

The Visitor Center at the Goddard Space Flight Center is filled with displays.

While we waited for our bus to be searched for bombs by the four legged bomb sniffer we could wander around the exhibits.

No bombs were found so we boarded the bus to go visit a very, very large clean room.

But not clean as in someone had taken a mop and bucket or vacuum cleaner to it, but clean as in no outside particles.  It's official name is much longer.

It was in this clean room that the mirrors for the James Webb Space Telescope were assembled.

The mirrors have left and of course kept clean but multiple wrappings we were told.  They are now in California where they are joined with the rest of the telescope in preparation for launch by the French Space Agency sometime in the future.

The clean room is being used for other preparations now. You can see how well wrapped staff working there have to be.

The panels below are the filters - several stories high.

Our docent with a model of the telescope.  Unlike the Hubble Telescope which orbits the Earth and was reachable so it could be fixed,  this telescope will orbit the sun.  It will be sending back pictures from very deep space, in a sense looking back in time 13 billion years.  Fascinating stuff.  Go to the website above to learn more.

Labor Day Parade

Who doesn't love a parade?

Each Labor Day Greenbelt, MD where daughter and family live there is the largest Labor Day parade  in Maryland.  (Source: daughter). Being an election year it brought out some of the candidates. Though a very hot and muggy day it didn't deter the participants. We found a shady hillside viewing spot near the end of the route and just before the reviewing stand.

Color guard leads it off.  The Maryland flag caught the little bit of wind there was.

Fife and drums in very hot looking uniforms.

Senator Ben Cardin was somewhere on this old fire truck.  He's up for reelection in November.

Bagpipers

Lots of police ...

on bikes,

motorcycles,

and then cars representing Greenbelt's police force, plus surrounding jurisdictions including US Park police on horseback.

Teachers union members were out in force making a statement about gun violence.

The current Republican governor didn't show up but his Democratic challenger did,

and he pressed the flesh as he walked.

An old Studebaker.

Not sure what the crowns signify.  Misses Greenbelt?

Not very many labor unions, but the Sheet Metal Workers were out in force.

The only real float in the parade was for Greenbelt Park.

No rain on this parade! A real slice of Americana.