On this rather gloomy day in the Philadelphia area, I had an unexpected chance to take a short tour of the Philadelphia Navy Yard with a client who has an office down there. 

 Located on South Broad Street in South Philadelphia, it is kind of shocking to me that I had never been there until today, even though I spent my first 25 years of life not more than a few miles from there.  Not that city people count distances in miles.  Back then I could have easily ridden my bike, which I used to do all of the time to "the lakes", which is what the locals call the large park across from the Sport's complex on South Broad Street, officially named FDR Park. 

But, when I was growing up, the Navy Yard was gated and you had to be there on business to get in, or at least I am assuming that was the reason I never ventured down there.  The entrance is rather lovely.  Grand old stone houses on the left, large old battle ships on the right. 

I knew my dad worked there for a while but I recently found out that my grandfather and my uncle all worked down there years ago, my uncle having something to do with the union.  In fact, my dad was hurt on the job there when I was a child, hit in the face with the hook from a crane.   Never one to miss an opportunity to embarrass his family, he used to stand in the window of our South Philadelphia row home at night and shine a flashlight up at his stitched-up & now toothless face to scare the neighbor's children.  I guess you gotta love a man with a sick sense of humor!  Thank goodness the man was a fast healer!

My mom used to work there too before she met my dad as a reporter.  She has many fond memories of being down there as a young woman.   My mom has always had a soft spot for a man in a Navel uniform! 

The ships are still there and they are awesome to see up close.  Urban Outfitters Inc. has a Corporate Campus at the Navy Yard in 5 turn of the century warehouses.  We had lunch in one of them and they did a beautiful job down there.  There is still lots of open space and many opportunities for business to get office space there.  Tasty Baking Company is building their corporate headquarters here.  Gosh I wish I had my camera, because the ships, aircraft carrier, and the old residences are really very beautiful.

To find out the history of the Navy Yard, or to see what is going on down there now, go to http://www.navyyard.org/MainMenu.html

What a lovely day to be alive in West Chester, Pennsylvania!  The weather was sunny and in the mid 70's most of the day.   Max had a soccer game and he played his heart out.  They lost, but hey, you can't win them all.  Why?  I'm' not sure!

I get a big kick out of watching Max play sports.  He's a really decent player and a very good sport on the field.  He's very quick to praise those that do well and I think that's a wonderful quality to have.

After the game, I took a ride over to West Chester Borough to walk around a little at the Restaurant Festival!  It was mobbed.  There was food galore and it all smelled wonderful.  I popped in on my friends from ACAC Fitness Club and stayed to do a Zumba demo on the corner of High and Gay Street.  Zumba is a Latin American Dance Aerobic phenomenon and I love it.  I try to do it 2 to 3 times a week.  It's a 55 minute workout that really kicks your butt.  Doing 3 songs today in the blazing sun put an entirely new spin on it!

Two of my favorite instructors are pictured here.  Sara Juric is to my right and Jimmy Jackson is in front to the right.  My other favorite instructor and lovely friend is Jeanette Mills, pictured below.  Jeanette can move and she's one of the nicest people I know.  Donna Jackson is to the left behind Jeanette and is married to Jim.  What a great couple.

Interested in learning more about ACAC Fitness and Wellness Center?  Call Jeanette Mills at 610-431-7000.  Not only is she one of the best instructors at the club, she is also in the membership department.  Ask for Jeanette and tell her I sent you over!

Don't miss the 29th Annual Chester County Restaurant Festival on
Sunday Sept. 21st!

Noon - 5:30pm

There will be 40 or more restaurants and food vendors to choose from on Gay Street between Matlack and New Streets.  There will be over 120 craft vendors and information booths on High Street between Chestnut and Market Streets.  There will also be crafters and info booths on Walnut Street between Market and Gay. 

Great bands will be playing all day at the following locations:

Matlack and Gay

At noon, The Chester county Lawmen (Rock and Roll).

2:00, Jeffrey Washington Bank (Funk/Jazz)

4:00 Franco (Latin)

Darlington St. and Gay St.

1:00 Blue Sinatra (Original Funk)

3:30, The Philly Horn Band (R&B/Motown)

Church Street Café (corner of Market and Church)

Noon, Three Legged Fox (Reggae)

2:00, One Step Closer (Alternative)

4:00, Rob Dickinson Band (Americana)

And saving the absolute best for last, ACAC will be there too!

Their booth will be on the corner of High and Gay Streets.  At 1:00 and 3:00 PM you can go to the festival's Red Carpet area to cheer on your favorite Zumba instructors as they are interviewed by WCDish/WCOJ Radio.  They'll be giving live demos of Zumba so come on out and support your friends.

I just found out today, although I'm thinking the clues were there and I just was too self-involved to notice, that Gary Wotal is participating in a race for the American Heart Association. tomorrow morning for some donations. Yep, you heard it here.  Even though Ike is bearing down on his lovely home state, Gary is running, not walking like everyone else! 

Here is a link to his site at the American Heart Association. 

https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=256369&lis=1&kntae256369=616FCF11B823449A81D8FC393072F25D&supId=231390948

Gary is a great friend.  He continually uplifts us all here at Active Rain, he has a wonderful sense of fun and he is just one of the nicest people I have the pleasure to know.

The American Heart Association is a favorite charity of mine.  My mom's dad died in his forties from a heart attack.  My Uncle Mike, my mom's brother and one of the funniest men I've ever met, died during open heart surgery, I believe in his forties (he died the very week I met my husband Jack and we named my son Michael after him).  My mom has had triple bypass surgery and several angioplasties.  Her other brother Bob has had multiple heart attacks. 

Be safe and have fun.  Thank you for supporting the American Heart Association.

This has been copied from an email sent to me by Suburban West Realtor's Association.  Since this is so important for all of us, I wanted to send a timely reminder to all, to be careful out there.

Sponsored by the National Association of REALTORS (NAR). REALTOR Safety Week (September 14 through 20) is a time for us to remember those who have been threatened or harmed while on-the-job, but also to take precautions for our own safety, now and in the future.

"Every day REALTORS put themselves at risk by welcoming complete strangers into a home or getting into a car alone with someone they just met. These everyday occurrences have the potential to turn into a personal nightmare, if our members don't understand and follow the basic tenets of personal, professional and client safety," says Dick Gaylord, President of NAR. Locally, there have been incidents or near- misses and fortunately there has been a more concerted effort by agents and offices to take more extensive safety measures.

To enhance knowledge of REALTOR Safety, NAR is now offering an online safety course through REALTOR University. To learn more or to register for this course, please click here. Suburban West REALTORS Association is also offering a REALTOR Safety seminar that can be conducted at your offices. To sign up for this seminar, please contact Steve Farace by clicking here or calling 610-560-4800.

Though some precautions may seem inconvenient, there is nothing more important than your life. To learn more about REALTOR Safety, visit NAR's website by clicking here.

When someone says the word hero to me, I automatically think of someone who gives his all to make right something that is wrong.  The first person that enters my mind is Abraham Lincoln.  In his "The House Divided" speech, President Lincoln said:  "I believe this Government  can not endure permanently half slave and half free".  The speech starts out as follows:  "If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it".  Wow!  This speech would be just as valid today if he was discussing the current state of our union.  If a candidate could just let us know where we are, what we are tending, and then let us know how he judges what we need to do and how to do it, we could certainly have a very clear idea of who we would vote for.  President Lincoln was talking about the abolition of slavery.  What we face today is not as heinous, but no less important to the continuation of the freedoms we enjoy here in this beautiful country we all call home.

Followed very closely behind President Lincoln, in my heroes book is Martin Luther King, Jr.  Dr. King had a dream.  His dream was that one day, his four children would one day live in a nation where they would not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.  His dream, while a reality in many places, is still not 100 percent realized everywhere in this great country.  "I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers."  He ended this speech with the following:  "When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"  I believe, with all of my heart, that if Dr. King was alive today, he would include all religions, every race and creed in the world today, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, you name it. 

I have a huge soft spot for the Kennedys as well.  In his eulogy to Dr. King, Robert Kennedy said, "  "What we need in the United States is not division, what we need in the United States is not hatred, what we need in the United States in not violence or lawlessness, but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice towards those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black."  I know in my heart that if this hero was still alive he would have included Asians, Turks, Iraqis, Latinos or any of the other nationalities that make up this wonderful melting pot we call America!  What we need is not prejudice.  What we need is tolerance and understanding of our differences.

 John F. Kennedy had the entire country's hearts.  In his inaugural address where he famously suggested that we "Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country", he also said: "My Fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you. but what together we can do for the freedom of man."

What can we do together?  It's my belief that if we truly worked together as brothers and sisters, that the sky would be the limit.  If we could all put aside our differences in race, religion, national origins?  Can you imagine?  Can you imagine what the world would have been like without the untimely deaths of these heroes?  Can you imagine?  John Lennon could.... Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

Just a reminder.  If you would like to participate in Puppy Mill Awareness Day, here is the information:

Time: September 20, 2008 from 11am to 5pm
Location: Lancaster Community Park, Lancaster, PA.
Website or Map: http://www.awarenessday.org
Event Type: Awareness, Event

24-hour new hot-line (1-877-DOG-TIP1) for the public to report problems in kennels.

Let's work together to stop this horrifying abuse of animals.

I came out today  to walk J.J., my new puppy around the yard today to try to explain to him why it is so much better for everyone involved if he does his potty business outside.  For some reason, even though I give him ample opportunities to go potty outside, he likes to go inside better.  Go figure!  I guess that's why we humans no longer use outhouses!

When we came outside, I noticed Scat, our gender conflicted, bi-polar disordered cat sitting under our ornamental plum tree looking up.  Straight up.

Hi baby... what are you looking at?  Scat...?

Is it a bird?  Is it a nest?  Oh my... you can't see it but it's an invader. 

A very cute black and white cat that my psycho cat chased up to the very top of my tree.

I happened to be on the phone with my best friend Leann, and just as my brain was formulating a plan to climb up to save the kitty, Leann was in my ear saying..."please promise me you are not going to climb that tree"!!

In the meantime, J.J. was trying to get his two cents in.

Much like the police and the FBI, J.J. and Scat had differing opinions on what to do.

I tried to talk Scat into abandoning the vigil, but she was not having any of it.

Oh come on Scat, look at this cute little face!  I love black and white cats!  If you look really closely below, you can just make out his face.

The standoff lasted two full hours until the little cat finally got down.  The little guy took off like a bat out of h#ll with Scat in hot pursuit.  J.J., attached to my wrist took off after Scat, nearly pulling me off my feet.

I tried to figure out which way they went, but they were in the woods.  Scat came back a little while later, looking very pleased with herself for defending her turf. 

Another hostage situation ended peacefully in this sleepy little hamlet.

A very good friend gave me a funny book of quotes about growing older called Old Age Ain't no Place for Sissies.  Just this morning, on my 49th birthday, I read this quote:  The great comfort of turning 49 is the realization that you are now too old to die young.  - Paul Dickson

As someone who was never sure which was scarier, growing old or dieing young, it's sort of a comfort to know that the "dieing young" ship has actually sailed.   

Being middle aged is no place for sissies either, I can assure you.  Being a middle aged woman is no picnic.  Last summer I was walking down the street with my beautiful niece Lizzie.  I was invisible.  Every man looked right past me to smile at her.  At one point, I actually yelled, Hey... I'm still here!!  My poor niece, used to me making a spectacle of myself, just laughed!

Well, guess what?

I'm Still Here!!  49!!  Wow!

Not to blow my own horn, but....

Happy Birthday to me!!

I've always loved my birthday and today is no exception.

I just finished a really great book.  I know I must sound like a broken record because I think all of the books I read are great books, but this was particularly good.  I just finished James Lee Burke's latest book, Swan Peak.   

James Lee Burke is one of my all time favorites.  His books are hardly light, though.  They do make me smile occasionally, but they show a darker side of life and a much rougher existence.  This books starts out with this paragraph:  Clete Purcel had heard of people who sleep without dreaming, but either because of the era and neighborhood in which he had grown up, or the later experiences that had come to define his life, he could not think of sleep as anything other than an uncontrolled descent into a basement where the gargoyles turned somersaults like circus midgets. 

It gets better from here.  Clete is a tortured man, with big appetites and an affinity for attracting trouble.  His partner and best friend, the narrator of the story is Dave Robicheaux, a decent man, a recovered alcoholic and good guy fight evil in every book, sometimes winning, sometimes not.  And the evil in these books is breathtaking in it's evilness. 

  The characters in these books are so compelling.  The good guys are so human and damaged.  The bad guys so inherently evil.  The descriptiveness of the narrative is wonderful.  I highly recommend it.