In Search of the Perfect Plane

So today found me flying over to Ft. Lauderdale to look at yet another Cessna 172 SP 180 HP single engine aircraft.  Why, you ask?   Well, I guess it's because I can and choose to do so.

Now, wife is not so shot on the idea, claiming this type even used is three or four times the cost of our first house.  I remind her that that was forty damn years ago, and a 1971 Piper Cherokee still costs 26,900 (this week's Controller ad as a source).  So, sure - 42 years of marriage later and I doubt she'd want to live in a $27,000 home - and figuring that she would live in a 300,000 thousand dollar home in St Louis, a 120,000 aircraft is relative.   So, maybe I found a suitable aircraft for my son (and ultimately me) to build hours in, as he next pursues his instrument rating, later his single engine instructor and a multi engine rating.  He wants to pursue a career as an Air Transport Pilot, but when a single engine aircraft costs 150 an hour to rent, and he needs a good 1,500 hours to get there, one can actually see the value of owning a plane.

I figure we can both build hours and then sell the plane when he gets a job flying jets.  He intends to keep his night job, pursue his CFI (certified flight instructor) and once he has that he can use it to teach his own students.

When you consider it costs $150 a hour to rent a same type aircraft and he needs a good 1,000 hours, by buying your own aircraft, you're saving $150,000 dollars, and can later turn around and sell it for probably 90% of what you paid for it.  That's a damn fine return on investment.

No need for Google Earth

This is where I live, Bay Isles Assn, Harbourside

Today, I had the opportunity to fly over Longboat Key, on the way across the state of Florida to Ft. Lauderdale Executive Airport.  While aloft, I snapped a few pictures.

Sometimes you get lucky and find a shot that gets everything you wanted, and this was it.  At the bottom, you note the Marina, and around the square "island" in the middle, you shall see Ripley Wild's favorite golf course ponds where he enjoys a cool dip on a warm day.

Within the island, you'll see two very distinct housing types - 2 and 3 bedroom condos on the right, and single family homes on the left (to the west).  That's the gulf far left, the Intercoastal Waterway and Sarasota Bay to the right.

See the small body of water inside the condo neighborhood - that's ours, that is Winding Oaks, and adjacent to that is the Winding Oaks Pool.  Leave that pool, and head roughly 265 degrees (assuming top of photo is 360 North) and you'll find my unit on the corner of Winding Oaks and Harbourside.

Or I suppose you could just strap on a chute and drop in..........or then again you could be conventional, call ahead so we can clear you and your vehicle beyond the security post where you must get a pass to clear the second set of gates.  This might explain why visitors just don't drop in, unless of course the door is ajar and the pilot pulls a bank greater than fifty degrees.  See ya!

Oh, and if the chute fails, I'd try for the golf course ponds - our pool has a no diving restriction.

Behind the Green (?) Door

 Super Shed?  I don't think so, especially when it can be viewed from our deck, and worse yet from the street.   Today, a Sunday when no work is allowed to be conducted within Bay Isles, I shot some additional photos, including a picture taken through the rear window of the shed - you can see all the valuable stuff stored behind that locked door.  You'll note that there is a box to the side of the door,

where a light switch will be going.   Yes, we'll have lights in this shed so if some member of the Board wishes to fetch a bucket of paint at midnight, well there you are.  And, since that square space above the back window is actually cut in for an Air Conditioner (absolutely needed to keep mold from growing on that valuable pool furniture should a hurricane show up).  Rumor has it that the Super Shed will also be painted on the outside.  I'm hopeful that they'll paint it green, so it'll blend with the landscape.  Maybe even a mural.

While they're at it, I also hope they'll follow through and put up some sort of a stockade fence around those ugly Florida Power meters and various other freestanding items of related utility accoutrement.  That's French for ugly crapola, or stuff that should have hit the 40 cubic foot dumpster that lived in our park for too long, before departing.

And I'm sure they will......eventually.  All we'll have to do is endure another assessment no doubt.  The best news is that it's keeping Brian Welsh of Integrity Builders busy in the neighborhood.  He's a good man with tools, and the Trustees are five good men with checkbooks.........Ours.

The Little Shack Out Back

This is the preserve, a nature area outside my back door.  My home sits on a corner of Winding Oaks Drive and Harbourside Lane.   We bought here in 2010, when the preserve was far more wild and far less gravel - that was under the old Homeowners Association board, governed by a tightwad who never spent any money on common elements.  If you've read my blog, you recall the story of the pool that was promised with 60 days, but didn't open until 360 days later.

Well, once we had the new pool, then we had to have a place to store the pool furniture.  Mind you, at Cedars Tennis Resort we dealt with the issue of any pending "named storms" that threatened to turn pool furniture into aluminum missiles, by simply THROWING THE DAMN FURNITURE INTO THE POOL.   Of course, this is Winding Oaks where we have an image to protect.  Now, mind you at Cedars (where I lived before) the furniture only took one person to "store" and two to "retrieve", and the last hurricane to hit the Tampa Bay area happened in 1938.

So, without so much as a never mind, the Trustees (none of which can see this travesty from their homes) pour a concrete slab six inches thick, topped by the aforementioned shack measuring 10 foot wide by 20 foot deep, and a pitched roof reaching another 1.5 feet at the peak.  All this for pool furniture (half a dozen stackable chaises, 20 stackable chairs and five tables) and some paint?

 So, having promised that this "super shed" would be screened with appropriate plantings, we'll see how quickly that happens.  Probably be like to pool - we were told it would be done in October when we purchased our new home in July of 2010 .........they just didn't tell us what year.

Sunday morning coming down

Turning onto final, runway 14, at KSRQ

Always fun to give a blog entry a clever name, and while the title references a Country & Western song, sung by Johnny Cash, this is a story about another Johnny and his cash......paying for a great cause.

That picture is of the final approach back to Sarasota, Florida.  It was taken from the back seat of a Cessna 172, being flown by my John B, as PIC (pilot in command) with his flight instructor sitting right seat and observing.  I went along for the ride, having sat in on the "cross country navigation" class taught by Universal Flight Training's John Andrews.  Sunday morning, I should have been in church, but I had scheduled a flight lesson of my own.  In the end, my son took my time slot, and I was happy to be the guy in back, taking pictures and enjoying the ride over to Sebring, Florida and return.  It was the highest that JB or I had flown prior to this date, as we went over at 5,500 feet, and came back at 4,500.  If you are a FaceBook friend, go there and you'll see about two dozen pictures.  Since I'm moving very slowly in my own training, perhaps my future will be aerial photography.

Now, with all this beauty on a Sunday morning,
I think this would be a good place to reprint a
favorite poem, written by a Canadian pilot in the Battle of Britain.  It's called High Flight:

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds, - and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung. High in the sunlit silence.
Hovering there, I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung my eager craft through footless halls of air........

Up, up the long, delirious blue, I've topped the wind swept heights with easy grace.  Where never lark, or even eagle flew - And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod the high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

About the author:  John Gillespie Magee, Jr., born in China in 1922 to an American father, a British mother, both missionaries.  In school, he wrote poetry and sonnets. In 1940, rather than go to college he chose to join the Royal Canadian Air Force, and subsequently was sent to Britain.  His most famous work, High Flight, was inspired by a training flight in a Spitfire during August 1941, where orbiting at 33,000 feet, he was struck with the inspiration of a poem - to Touch the Face of God.  He wrote the poem upon landing that day.

Now, we were a long way from 33,000 feet, and the 172SP was nowhere near a Spitfire Mk 1, but the feeling was easy to understand that Sunday morning.  Someday, hopefully, my son will be at the controls of a jet flying at 33,000 feet, and look back to that first cross country where he was above the clouds and experiencing that same sense of wonder I had, a proud papa sitting in back, wearing the JAFO hat.

Cole explores Jungle Gardens in Sarasota

This blog entry has a few pictures, but if you're wanting to see more, go to my FaceBook page.

This past several days, we were graced with the presence of Caitlin, our daughter, and 22 month old Cole Robert Kreienkamp, our only grandchild.  He will turn two full years on November 11, 2013, but this visit is just a "tune up" for my wife, who'll go north following the Rock & Roll cruise - which will be followed by the Hawaii cruise.

So, we organized our events around the local weather, and since 19 of the last 21 days featured rain, we had to work quickly.  Yesterday we get to the point where Dad put on his jungle "boonie" cap and and lead the family patrol deep into the Sarasota Jungle Gardens, where fierce alligators and crocodiles (yes, they have both) and snakes share space with parrots and flamingos.

Elizabeth had been there, MANY, many, years ago, but it was a first for me, Caitlin and of course Cole.  I found the place surprisingly nice, tucked away in a very small (in terms of acreage) property between US 41 and the Sarasota Bay.  The place was one property, with the fellow who developed it living there for a number of years.  The house he resided within is not a small restaurant/snack bar.  No lions or tigers, but plenty of birds to view.  The place is classic Old Florida, where these type of facilities used to be along all the major highways, BEFORE the Interstates came along.  It may be nostalgic, but I did enjoy it immensely.

Today, the ladies are headed out to St Armands Circle, the local shopping mecca, while I hold down the fort with Ripley who has been one of Cole's newest playmates.  After all, I have leftovers in the refrigerator from our visit to Outback Steakhouse that second night of the visit - somethings are new each time Cole visits, including the visit to the airport to see his Uncle's flight school and look at the small private planes, but somethings remain the same (the perfunctory Outback visit).  Tomorrow, depending on how tired they are, Caitlin and Cole may accompany us to church.  I'd blow it off, except that I volunteered to be the lay reader, and Elizabeth and our friend Mark will be singing a duet during the offertory.  Fortunately, we have two cars here.

That's it from Longboat Key and Jungle Gardens, Sarasota.  Go view my Facebook page for more.

2013 Scholarship Breakfast

This is the day the Kiwanis Club of Longboat Key awaits every year, when the selectees for our Scholarship Program come in to receive their awards.

I took a bunch of pictures, of some of the students, some of the parents, and of course at least one with me along with the club President and the Scholarship Chairman.

We had 25 awardees, fifteen of which were to begin or continue Associate or Bachelor's degrees from Florida schools.  All came from our two counties, Sarasota and Manatee.  There were also ten students who attend Manatee Technical Institute, where they were learning life skills and trades - of these students, only six were there (the others were at work).  Our college bound students were headed off to move into dorms or apartments, a few couldn't even stay till the traditional group picture was taken.

This is the group to the left, and the program leaders are pictured right below.  Weldon Frost chaired the committee and emceed the breakfast, after President Richard Crawford opened our meeting with a song, a pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence from those present to reflect on the promise of those youth we recognized this day.  

I've posted many more pictures on my Facebook page.  Most of the readers of my blog are FB friends, so please go there.  Ultimately, the students ranged from the traditional to those re-entering the workforce with dependents to care for.  We had two single fathers (both tech school and both unable to attend), three or four moms with children of their own.  Ultimately, Kiwanis is about the kids and our motto is "serving the children of the world, one child and one community at a time.  We work hard at projects to earn those dollars we invest in our young people, and on days like today, we see the fruits of our labor in the grateful smiles of awardees.

  

Stays in Vegas

 Obviously, I had a good time in Lost Wages, Nevada, where I had gone to participate in a Retiree Reunion, held during the annual meeting of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

NASFAA is made up of all sorts of educational professionals, mostly college financial aid officials. but also those who supported the financing of students - which would be guys like me.

I was the chartering CEO of a student  loan secondary market, which purchased student loans from lenders, and subsequently collected from the borrowers after they graduated and started repayment.  I was there from 1982 to 2003, before retirement.  At the time, we were a secondary market.  We'd buy loans, with borrowed funds from selling bonds on Wall Street, and then pay off the bondholders with the money we recovered from the students.  We were not taxed, so we had less expensive sources of funds, and our investors also paid no taxes on our bonds.

Ten years later, the world of student lending is much different, without banks.

The federal Treasury Department makes loans now and the organization I created has evolved to servicing Direct Loans, and the margins are tight.  The "legacy portfolio" of loans purchased during my tenure are said to have helped the organization have the wherewithal to survive some lean years as the current administration and the Congress changed the rules of the game.

Fortunately, the management team I left behind has persevered and now is the fifth largest holder of loans in the country.  They invited me to attend with their staff, and I had a chance to see a lot of old friends while also seeing some sights, including Hoover Dam along with other retirees.  All in all, I had a good time and the days went quickly by.  The Fremont Street Experience was my last night in Las Vegas, with a buddy from Florida who came into town for another meeting.  There is this huge mall along the street where it all started, and it has a sort of "JumboTron" where images are displayed several times an hour for about ten minutes.  It was really cool, almost better than "the Strip" where the convention hotel was found, and I spent most of my time.   Thanks for my friend Will for suggesting I attend and to Ray, who graciously picked up some major costs.  My buddy Rick proved to be a good photograhper with my iPhone too.

What happens in Vegas.....

Boy, that tower is a real eye full.

My hotel, Aria is only four years old, get lost there daily!

 OK - here I am in Vegas, by myself, and coming up on 24 hours in town.  I stayed in last night, after arriving around 1900 hours - my body thought it was 2200, so grabbed three slices of pizza and two diet cokes, took it to the room, and crashed. My friends got in after me, and stayed out in Vegas, and had some real stories to tell about the night time here.  Looking at the trash on the pavement at 0600 today when I went out foraging for food, I believe it.

This is a town where short skirts seem to be the uniform of the day, as well as the night.  Lots of homeless vets (or alleged vets) on the walkways above the streets.  You'd take your life in your hands by waling at street level to cross the main drag (main drag also has it's own meaning here).  I noticed what  I thought were playing cards left on the sidewalks, but on closer inspection there were not any Jacks, but a whole lot of topless Jills on the cards, advertising various nightlife locations.  Clearly these were handed to men, by other men, then snatched up by wives and immediately thrown down to form a carpet of licentious litter.

New York, New York has a roller coaster too

First cousin to one-armed bandit

Now, the casinos are full of gambling machines, but the only machine that has a guaranteed
payout, and it is
shown here.  I suspect the letters stand for Absolute Tourist Madness.

 Maybe I'll venture out tonight, so stay tuned to this blog locations for the dirt. Damn, I'd hate to be a street cleaner in this city.

Taken early morning before the sun went absolutely crazy......but it was a dry heat.

A Longboat Fourth

On Longboat Key, the Fourth of July is celebrated by the "world's shortest parade" followed by what amounts to an "old fashioned social" at Bicentennial Park.  The parade this year featured one station wagon (with tailgate open and patriotic music blaring from loudspeakers), three convertibles, a fire truck, an ambulance, a police car and then perhaps 150 individuals walking, on bicycles, skateboards, and various other wheeled conveyances.  The parade starts at Sun Trust, goes perhaps 100 yards to the Post Office turn, and then reverses course as it proceeds westward along this divided parkway, ending at the Town Hall entrance. Like I said, the world's shortest Fourth of July parade, darn tootin'.

 Now, after the parade, in which I was convertible number three, all participants and spectators proceed to the nearby park, where they have face painting for the children (yes, we actually do have a few), a hula hoop contest, water squirt guns, and various other games.

There were also waffles topped by strawberries and whipped cream, and the main event, the traditional butterfly release.   This was my first time to witness this up close, as individually wrapped (in paper triangles) butterflies were passed out to children and parents to all release on cue.  Of course, this being sponsored by the Longboat Observer, the Chamber of Commerce, and several smaller donors (including Kiwanis' $100 donation), we also featured the singing of the Star Spangled Banner (ballpark edition) and the Pledge of Allegiance.

We have seven elected politicians, nine appointed Planning Board members (often referred to as the Farm Team to the Town Council).  Convertible number one, driven by past President of Kiwanis Bob Gault and his wife, carried Mayor Jim Brown (and Shannon Gault's dog).  This may have been a tacit endorsement of dogs on the beach, eh Mayor?  Convertible number two was Commissioner Zunz, driven by her son.  Commissioner Gans chose to walk, being a man of the people.   So, three of seven showed up, and for P&Z there were two, one being myself.  My Corvette was number three, with the Chairperson and the Secretary of the Planning Board as featured political aspirants.  Aspirants hell, we're both ex Mayors, but we got elected by the people, not the other six Commissioners.

Oh, here's the funny part - Kurt Schultheis of The Observer did a great job of making up magnetic signs that read "B.J. Webb, Chairperson P&Z" and my name, as "Secretary P&Z".  Nice try Kurt, but magnets don't stick to fiberglass doors on Corvettes........never have, never will.  Happy Fourth of July, anyway.

The 5 Euro Painting........such a deal.

So, I'm walking through the town of Florence, Italy, which is where we were spending day four, and town three of the infamous 10 destinations in 12 days "Speed Tour of the Mediterranean".   And it's beautiful, and fortunately Simon & Ann, our English friends are with us as unofficial tour guides.  Ann and I are walking along, and this guy comes up to us trying to sell me this painting.  Well, actually it is a poster... but it has texture, sort of like an oil painting.

The view is of the river Arno, and the town of Florence with all it's signature sights and/or sites.  The Ponte Vecchio bridge is perhaps the most significant, seen in the upper left of the poster/painting.  This bridge was not destroyed as the German's retreated in August or 1944.  Hitler instead ordered buildings on both shores demolished to deny the approaches (since rebuilt).  The bridge itself dates to Roman times, first mentioned in a document circa 996.  Stone piers anchored a wooden deck.  A flood in 1117 swept away the wooden superstructure, but it was then reconstructed all in stone.  In 1333, it was again swept away by a flood, which left only two central piers of this closed-spandrel segmental arch bridge.  Twelve years later (1345) it was rebuilt as you would see it today, with the center span being 98 feet, the two side spans at 88 feet, making it a total of 274 feet across the Arno.  Shops continue to do business on the bridge, but the butcher shops (once common) have been replaced by jewelers, art dealers, and souvenir merchants.

Which brings me back to my story - this souvenir merchant, one of the many who were legion on the ground, sees me and Ann walking and says "buy this lovely painting, only 25 Euro".  I never even hear him, however Ann relates to me later that this was the initial "ask".   As his persistence increases exponentially, he gains my attention and says "sir, for you, only 20 Euro".  Now, that's roughly $26 dollars U.S. currency (a buck thirty buys one Euro).  I walk on...........

He now says "I make a deal, 15 Euro"  I politely tell him "grazie, no".  He mutters something in Italian, probably along the lines of "mister, you're killing me here", so I reach into my pocket to show him I don't even have ten Euro, but I do produce a five Euro piece of bluish gray paper showing a Roman aqueduct on one side, some columns (probably ionic, perhaps doric, certainly not corinthian) on the reverse.  It's my BAFO, my best and final offer.  "Sir, the poster is lovely, but all I have is this - do you want it?   Quickly he snatches it as I firmly grab hold of the painting, and the deal is done.

So, I feel pretty good about it - got this nifty souvenir for only five Euros, which look to me like oversized Monopoly money.  As we walk on, I note others of his trade are selling the same poster, but starting at 20 Euros - the word is out, these cruise ship passengers won't pay retail.

So, for six dollars and fifty cents American, I bring home the poster, which my wife takes to Hobby Lobby and has framed..........for $184.25 (frame, glass, spacers, labor and tax).  I suspect that poster merchant followed me home from Italy, and got a job at Hobby Lobby to wreak his revenge.  But it is what it is, and as a memory of Tuscany and Florence, well worth it.

The town of Quarto D'Altino, near Venice

Local Elementary School

War Dead Monument

the town Plaza, facing St. Michael's church.

The last day in Venice was spent not in Venice, but chilling out at the small town of Quarto D'Altino, which was within walking distance of our Crown Plaza hotel.  The hotel, next to the train tracks into Venice, was perhaps half a mile into town,  so we walked there, and enjoyed lunch near the school. After lunch, window shopped.  Like many other places, between one P.M. and four-thirty P.M. (1300-1430 hrs), businesses shut down, with the exception of some eating places.  Later that evening, I went out and brought back a  pizza and a 1.5 liter Coke, spending all of ten Euros.  Lunch was 15.5 Euros.  The train into Venice would have cost more, without eating, and frankly we were beat after all those 10 places in 12 days where we saw enough ruins to last a lifetime.  That of course, doesn't count the ruins left of my checkbook.  Ratings:  Best big city: Barcelona.  Best place whole trip: Mykonos, Greece.  Worst: Rome, where crowds were horrible, following two hour bus trip from port.

Take aways:  Venice was lovely, as was Barcelona.   Tuscany, where we tasted wine in a 900 year old castle, was a place I'd return.  Had fun with our friends Ann and Simon, and Simon and I toured Toulon, France where the French Fleet is based and we visited the Naval Museum.  The Corinth Canal was spectacular, and I am glad I passed up Athens to journey, by boat, between the Ionian Sea and the Aegean Sea through that impressive (finished in the 1800's) cut that must have towered 150 feet.

The museums, palaces, Vatican, etc. were impressive, but next time more time shall be leisure, less time paying to ride buses and listen to tour guides accents.   Best comment from Simon about a tour guide was priceless......"she moved faster than a rat up a drainpipe".  You gotta love the English!

Corvettes on the Circle

The magic moment - 1st in class award

My 2010 at the beach Corvette won 1st place in class, at the recent

Corvettes on the Circle, Saturday, May 5, 2013

It was the first win for this car.  I had seen my prior 2011 win in an Illinois car show, where it captured the Chief's Choice - an obscenely tall trophy with a cop pointing a gun on it.  That was my immediate past Corvette, a 2011 Cyber Gray Coupe.

We had traded that car for this one year earlier model convertible, as I clearly missed having a rag top.  My history of Corvettes runs from a 2001 convertible, to a 2004 Lemans Blue coupe, to a 2008 Metallic Silver coupe, to the aforementioned 2011 Cyber Gray coupe, and now this car.  This was my fourth year participating in this event, where in addition to a "goodie bag" the registration fee includes a nice sports shirt with logo.  It was a long day, starting with our 20 club members lining up downtown and driving in convoy to the St Armands Key at 7:30 AM, and ending mid afternoon at 3:30 PM...but it was worth it.  Elizabeth tells me I must keep this car for at least two more years, so I should enjoy this trophy while I can.  This sixth generation Corvette (C-6) is likely to not be replaced with a yet to be released for sale seventh generation Stingray.  Who cares, I'm finally back to having a convertible, and it's RED.

Honors College versus College of Art and Design square off on the flag football field of battle

This is the Liberal Arts version of combat - flag football

Pre-game coin toss, NCF in blue, Ringling College in black

 This Sunday, I was invited to witness the "tie-breaker" in a series of five athletic challenges between the "Fighting Armadillos" of Ringling College of Art and Design and the New College of Florida team (who apparently failed to agree on a name).  Perhaps a fund raiser to "Name That Team" for the Relay For Life/American Cancer Society will follow this afternoon's event.

Ringling College failed to tie the game as time ran out in their own red zone, failing to score the point which would have sent the game into overtime.  So, the record now stands at 3-2, based on today's nineteen points scored by New College, and a valiant eighteen points by the Fighting Armadillos.

Now, the concept of a red zone in flag football, played by seven on a side, all wearing belts of "flags" to be substituted for a real man's tackle.  The game becomes more of an evade and escape exercise, and most scores came from running, although a fair amount of passing was attempted but to little success.   I thougt that Michael Long of New College was the better passer, but the QB from Ringling seemed more agile in the running game.  
That's Long in the blue uniform, number 0, and Hunter Thomposon of Ringling in the black, number 1.
Hunter ultimately sacrificed his dark head of hair as the loser, but his father (who is President of Ringling College) had a worse fate.
The Presidents of each university agreed that the losing educator had  to sit in the dunk tank while people threw softballs and tried to soak them for fifteen minutes following the game.

It was a fun day, and I've posted quite a few additional pictures to my FaceBook page.  I think the best comment was "New College was best at playing the game, while Ringling excelled at filming it.        

Seven Critical Thinkers from New College

Michael Long, winning QB

Beautiful daughter, beautiful grandson

The picture on the left just arrived today, where Cole Robert was enjoying the afternoon with his mom and other neighborhood women.  The subdivision is a very sociable place, where after work "winding down" is the order of the day.

The photo on the right is perhaps a week old (circa April 1, 2013) and shows Cole sitting on his dad's lap.  Caitlin of course is flashing that winning smile.  People say she cannot deny being my child (nor can her brother JB) although I just keep getting older and she looks better each year.  She will reach the dreaded (by some) 30th birthday this year, and will reach that wonderful time in her life when a woman truly comes of age - knowing where she's been, where she's going, and having developed a plan to get there.  Cole turns 18 months later this month, and each time I see him through the wonders of iPhone technology, he continues to amaze.  Grandchildren truly are a blessing, and you only wish they lived closer.