I came across a few photos from our 2008  sister vacation in Colorado.

This is us, ready to begin our whitewater rafting adventure. From left to right, front row are Jason, me and Linda. On the back row are Gary, Bonnie and Pam. Our guide for this trip was Kemper. He is Pam and Gary's friend and always ready to go rafting!

Since it was nearing the end of the season, most of the rapids were considered Class 3s, somewhat tame compared to the wild waters in the spring!

That's me and Jason jumping in! The water temp was about 45 degrees!

Oh, yeah, I had fun!

And, I should probably also tell you that I’m not crazy, either, (at least not any crazier than the average Joe).

But, right now, I’m thinking in threes.

To tell you why, I need to go back a few years. Shortly after my brother, Dennis, died in 2004, I tried my hand at communicating with him in the “afterlife.” It happened quite by accident. One day, while driving to Charleston to run a few errands, I was thinking about him and called out his name several times while driving down Highway 176. I was wondering if he could hear me, and so I asked him out loud if he could. “Do you know I’m thinking about you and miss you, today,” I asked? “Give me a sign, brother, to let me know you can hear me, please.” I wondered how he would indeed give me a signal if he could and started thinking that maybe he would come to me in the form of a deer in the field along the side of the road or a hawk overhead or something. I thought it would be cool to get a message, but really didn’t think that I would. I got the whole way into town and got a little teary eyed a few times, but I never received a sign.  On my way home, long after I had given up on seeing a sign, a big old ugly turkey buzzard flew right in front of the car! Oh, yes, that would be Dennis: not a graceful hawk or a beautiful deer, but the lowly turkey buzzard! When I got home, I relayed the story to Brian and we agreed that it would do no harm and actually be a lovely thought to believe it was a sign from Dennis.

The second time I received a message from Dennis was not too long after that first incident. I was working part-time as a newspaper reporter and was working late one night with my boss doing page layout for the upcoming issue. My boss called me into her office as she was instant messaging her friend in Utah to ask me what my recently deceased brother looked like. Her friend had just gotten a vision while messaging my boss of a guy in jeans, boots, denim jacket, ball cap and she didn’t recognize him. He was holding three yellow roses, did either of us know who he might be? Well, the outfit sounded like my brother and, yes, the yellow roses were significant, too as they were my mothers favorite.

A third incident occurred several years ago when my sisters were visiting. We had spent the day in Charleston and Folly Beach, acting like tourists, but also visiting a few of my brother’s hangouts. We even stepped in to the Sand Dollar, the bar on Folly Island, where he died. As we were on our way home and talking about him and I was relaying my two paranormal incidents to them, a buzzard flew right in front of the car. Yep, it was almost in exactly the same place where I had seen the other buzzard months earlier.

So, the other day I went to Charleston to do some shopping at the Pet Smart. And, as I usually do, when I got to “that place” on Highway 176, I yelled out to my brother. I said, “Hey, Dennis, How are you doing? Can you hear me? Can you do something to give me a sign? How’s Mom and Dad? Can they hear me? Why don’t you all get together and summon up all your energies and give me a sign? One sign from each of you? Something in threes? Yes, like three hawks or three deer or even a set of triplets at the pet store, I know you can do it.”

And, I concentrated hard the rest of the trip there and back. I’ve been concentrating on it for days, but so far, nothing. 

So, I’ve been thinking about why I am even doing this thing. It seems silly in a way. But, I wonder, if maybe, when a person first dies, his spirit hangs around for a little while.  I mean, if the spirit is a living thing, it just lost its house! So, maybe it takes a little while – a few days, or weeks, or months, or even longer, to leave the in-between place of this world and move on to the next.  

Maybe that is a crazy notion and the only reason a person sees signs is because he looks until he finds them. Purely coincidental. Or, maybe, it’s not so crazy, but my brother’s spirit is finally too far away now to hear me. Or maybe, I just need to concentrate a little harder.

What do you think?

Well, we did a lot more than just that on our yearly vacation together, but those sisters of mine wore me out and I’ve been just too pooped to write!

I tried to upload our Dance Heads DVD on You Tube, but it will not convert  to MPEG, so the world may not ever see our amazing performance!  But, embarrasing as many of them are, here are some of the pictures:

We rode the Rollo Coaster at least three times. I could scratch that off my bucket list, but have decided that I want to ride it again when I am 80!

I  enjoyed seeing Linda’s new house. (Well, it’s not new to her, but it was the first time I had ever been there.) She sent her hubby away or maybe he volunteered to vacate the house for our visit! (Our husbands don’t care to hang around for the four sister act, although I can’t imagine why.) It’s a nice house and now I can visualize Linda in her kitchen or at her computer. She made a Pepper Steak dinner our first night there and she has promised to send it to me so I can post it on this website. (Super easy and super good.)

We spent one afternoon at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. This is a beautiful steel and glass Victorian-style greenhouse located in Pittsburgh (at Schenley Park in the Oakland section of town).

What a wonderful place! It was built in 1893 by Henry Phipps as a gift to the city of Pittsburgh.

A sustainable perennial garden, requiring minimal water and fertilizers surrounds the front entryway.

Once inside, the structure is divided up into different botanically themed “rooms.” The best way to tour it, according to our docent, is to start at the Palm Court and only make right turns. So, that is what we did. And, it was a rather smart idea, since we would have surely gotten lost a number of times had we strolled through it willy nilly.

There are something like 17 rooms and additional outdoor garden areas – Palm Court, Serpentine Room, Fern Room, Orchid Room, Outdoor Garden, Stove Room, South Conservatory, Tropical Fruit and Spice Room, Discovery Garden, Tropical Forest Conservatory, Sunken Garden, Desert Room, Japanese Courtyard, Victoria Room, Broderie Room, East Room, Aquatic Garden, Botany Hall…

An exhibition of  artwork by Hans Godo Frabel is currently on display throughout the conservatory. His glasswork is extraordinary and is so artfully interwoven into the gardens.

I believe this photo was taken in Palm Court. You can see several beautiful glass masks near the base of the palm.

We ended our tour with a trip into the gift shop where Pam, bought each of us a glass teardrop shaped necklace followed by a visit to the cafe for a late lunch.

Of course, there is so much more to write about the sister vacation. Those stories are coming! But please view these remarkable pics of Phipps Conservatory and please visit there if you are ever near Pittsburgh, PA.

I was going through my documents on the computer recently and found a collection of Father’s Day stories, poems and quotes. I must have been saving them for a newspaper article, but I don’t think I ever wrote it. I think it very appropriate with Father’s Day on Sunday to make a blog post out of it.

How it began:

Did you know that we have Sonora Dodd, of Washington, to credit for Father’s Day? She thought of the idea for Father’s Day while listening to a Mother’s Day sermon in 1909.

Sonora wanted a special day to honor her father, William Smart. Smart, who was a Civil War veteran and was widowed when his wife died while giving birth to their sixth child. Mr. Smart was left to raise the newborn and his other five children by himself on a rural farm in eastern Washington state.

After Sonora became an adult she realized the selflessness her father had shown in raising his children as a single parent. It was her father that made all the parental sacrifices and was, in the eyes of his daughter, a courageous, selfless, and loving man. Sonora’s father was born in June, so she chose to hold the first Father’s Day celebration in Spokane, Washington on the 19th of June, 1910.

President Calvin Coolidge, in 1924, supported the idea of a national Father’s Day. Then in 1966 President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the 3rd Sunday of June as Father’s Day. President Richard Nixon signed the law which finally made it permanent in 1972.

Here’s one by the late, great Erma Bombeck:

 When God Created Fathers

When the good Lord was creating fathers, He started with a tall frame. And a female angel nearby said, “What kind of father is that? If you’re going to make children so close to the ground, why have you put fathers up so high? He won’t be able to shoot marbles without kneeling, tuck a child in bed without bending, or even kiss a child without a lot of stooping.”

And God smiled and said, “Yes, but if I make him child size, who would children have to look up to?”

And when God made a father’s hands, they were large and sinewy.

And the angel shook her head sadly and said, “Do You know what You’re doing? Large hands are clumsy. They can’t manage diaper pins, small buttons, rubber bands on pony tails or even remove splinters caused by baseball bats.”

God smiled and said, “I know, but they’re large enough to hold everything a small boy empties from his pockets at the end of a day…yet small enough to cup a child’s face.”

Then God molded long, slim legs and broad shoulders.

The angel nearly had a heart attack. “Boy, this is the end of the week, all right,” she clucked. “Do You realize You just made a father without a lap? How is he going to pull a child close to him without the kid falling between his legs?”

God smiled and said, “A mother needs a lap. A father needs strong shoulders to pull a sled, balance a boy on a bicycle or hold a sleepy head on the way home from the circus.”

God was in the middle of creating two of the largest feet anyone had ever seen when the angel could contain herself no longer. “That’s not fair. Do You honestly think those large boats are going to dig out of bed early in the morning when the baby cries? Or walk through a small birthday party without crushing at least three of the guests?”

And God smiled and said, “They’ll work. You’ll see. They’ll support a small child who wants to “ride a horse to Banbury Cross” or scare off mice at the summer cabin, or display shoes that will be a challenge to fill.”

God worked throughout the night, giving the father few words, but a firm authoritative voice; eyes that see everything, but remain calm and tolerant.

Finally, almost as an afterthought, He added tears. Then He turned to the angel and said, “Now are you satisfied that he can love as much as a mother?”

And the angel shutteth up!

And a poem by Helen Steiner Rice:

Fathers are Wonderful People

Fathers are wonderful people
Too little understood,
And we do not sing their praises
As often as we should…

For, somehow, Father seems to be
The man who pays the bills,
While Mother binds up little hurts
And nurses all our ills…

And Father struggles daily
To live up to “HIS IMAGE”
As protector and provider
And “hero or the scrimmage”…

And perhaps that is the reason
We sometimes get the notion,
That Fathers are not subject
To the thing we call emotion,

But if you look inside Dad’s heart,
Where no one else can see
You’ll find he’s sentimental
And as “soft” as he can be…

But he’s so busy every day
In the grueling race of life,
He leaves the sentimental stuff
To his partner and his wife…

But Fathers are just WONDERFUL
In a million different ways,
And they merit loving compliments
And accolade of praise,

For the only reason Dad aspires
To fortune and success
Is to make the family proud of him
And to bring them happiness…

And like OUR HEAVENLY FATHER,
He’s a guardian and a guide,
Someone that we can count on
To be ALWAYS ON OUR SIDE.

And, finally, because this is my blog, I’d like to put my message to my dad out in cyberspace. You never know, it may help him hear it!

“Happy Father’s Day, Dad! I miss you and think of you everyday! When I see you again, and after we are through with all our greetings, please make me some of your homemade peanut butter fudge. It’s the best in the world!”