Our Christmas Wishes to Family and Friends, Christmas 2010

Christmas, 2010             The Payette Family of Preston CT

Merry Christmas to our friends and relatives from Alice, Bob, David, and Joanna!  Having family and good friends is the best blessing, and we are grateful for ours. If we didn’t see or talk to you during the past year, we’re sorry we didn’t connect.  Please call, e-mail, or Skype when you can so we can stay in touch.

We’ve been going to Florida earlier and earlier every year, and this one is no exception.  The plan is to leave for Titusville (Manatee Hammock) on December 28^th, and be home in Preston by mid-April or Easter.  If some time in Florida is on your calendar, we’d love to have you stop by and visit!

Bob and Alice Payette

r.payette2@gmail.com

alicepayette@gmail.com

Best phone or text contact: 860 373-0834

Skype: Robert.r.payette

Visit our web log at http://bobpayette.blogspot.com/ for links to our blogs, photo's and websites.

Seaport Sams Christmas Party, December 5th, 2010

Our Seaport Sams camping club held its annual Christmas party on December 5th at the Port'N'Starboard Restaurant in New London.  The company was wonderful, the food was excellent and it was a nice event to close out our 2010 camping year.  Click the title link on this post to view a YouTube clip from this event (11 minutes total length).

Countdown mode......

 It’s November 28th, and a month from now we leave for our winter haunts in Titusville Florida.  The Committee’s/Commissions I’m on (Preston Library Board of Trustee’s, Picnic/Navy Band Summer Event, Ethics Commission – are looked at with the knowledge that I’ll be away for well over 90 days.  Hopefully I’ll be able to participate meaningfully by E-mail and Skype conversations…we’ll see.  I’ve given up (in the past) jobs such as the Town’s Webmaster knowing I couldn’t do it justice from 1000 + miles away…
Little things are now coming up…..invitations to events, local notices (concerts, plays, charitable requests) that fall in the “hole” of our absence…
I’m starting to panic on Library books. Even though I’m (we’re) dedicated E-book readers, I utilize our wonderful Library for inter-Library loans on newer items  that appeal to me, but not Alice or Joanna with whom I share my Kindle account.  Why would I buy the newest Stephen King book if both Alice and Jo would not want it on their Kindle’s?  I have three books out and I’m running out of time to get them read.  In the same breath I’m worried about our Florida Library status.  We’re “Motorhomers” and have used our Manatee Hammock address there for our Titusville (Brevard County) library card…but one wag there has intimated that we’re really Floridian transients and are therefore not eligible for the Library card.  We’re thinking of reversing our positions….selling our place here in Preston, and purchasing a home in the Titusville Fl area….and staying THERE 9 months and the rest of the time (3 months) here in CT and New England.  This is the first year we’re going to be seriously looking at a lifestyle change, and It’s scary…but exciting!
Every morning at 6 a.m. when I’m walking Kincaid down to the road to get the paper (Joanna and Alice like a hard copy…I read several on-line) I’m reminded of how much I’ve grown to dislike the cold. I’m not good with it anymore, and when I’m walking down those long driveway memories of my youth leaving the house in bitter cold and snow delivering the Hartford Courant comes back.  I dressed for it, but I don’t remember being uncomfortable regardless of how cold it got. Florida has its advantages, the main one (from my personal perspective) is we spend more time outside.  We find ourselves walking more, going to outdoor events, walking on the beach, down to the river – even just around the campground. Every year we’ve been staying down longer, or leaving here earlier…and this year is no exception.  By leaving in December we’re now down to one month (November) where there is NO motorhome activity.  As soon as we get back from Titusville we begin our Seaport Sams monthly camp-outs, and they go right through the middle of October.  We’re now past Thanksgiving, Christmas is around the corner, and then we’re on the road….

"Victory At Sea" performance by the USCG Band, Sunday November 21, 2010

Click the title link to watch a clip (posted from YouTube) from "Victory At Sea", written by Richard Rodgers/Robert Russell Bennett and performed by the USCG Band on Sunday, November 21st, 2010 the Garde Arts Center in New London.

United States Coast Guard Band Concert (WWII) June 21st, 2010 - Garde Arts Center, New London CT 06320. Visit our Picasa Web Albums linked to this blog to view clips from the concert (Click TITLE for fastest link). .Enjoy!!

Randy Travis - Forever And Ever, Amen (Video)

New Acer up and running ....:)

The new Acer came in from Amazon yesterday via Fed X right on time and I've been busy setting her up.  I'd forgotten how much of a pain it can be, especially getting programs transported over that were purchased (in some cases) years ago.  An interesting note is that when you purchase software on-line, many times they use your e-mail address as the User ID....so if you've lost or misplaced the password for that account to re-download, they'll reset it but send the information to the Email on record.  If you've changed email address's and NOT kept the old one active where you have access to it I can see where they'd be major problems. Another issue is programs that were OEM on the replaced PC.  In my case, Microsoft Works had come OEM on the Toshiba.  There's no way to transfer that program over to the new Acer :(.  Luckily M.S. Office will open the spreadsheets and data base's I'd set up on Works...just a matter of getting used to it.
I can feel the technology improvement from the new machine over the old....everything is faster, with better loading.  Personally I didn't have too many issues with Vista but, that having been said, Windows 7 is much slicker for sure.