Tuesday, March 18, 2014

The Mystery Bouquet

I had a long day at work today!  I was exhausted and wasn't feeling very well to boot.  I suffered from a sore throat and coughing for most of the day, which I'm sure can be attributed to the Laryngophyaryngeal Reflux (LPR) Disease that has crept up on me this past year or so.  Not a fun day at all!  I was supposed to work out with my trainer at the Gym, but called to cancel since I felt so terrible. You can rest assured that when I cancel a training session that I'm feeling really lousy!

When we got home and walked up to the door, there was a package from Pro Flowers waiting on the porch for me. I have a birthday coming up at the end of the week and figured that a family member was sending me some flowers for that.  I opened the package to find a lovely bouquet of Japanese orchids! There was a card accompanying the flowers, but there was no note or name on it!  I called Pro Flowers and told them that the card was empty and asked if they could tell me who sent the flowers, but they couldn't tell me a thing.

So now I have a lovely mystery bouquet sitting on the buffet.  Here's what it looks like:


The Mystery Bouquet

The package was addressed to "Mae", which means that whoever sent the flowers isn't an immediate family member as most of them use my formal name "Mary" when they send me something.

I don't know if I'll ever find out who sent me these lovely flowers, but thank you very much to whoever did send them!  It was a very lovely surprise that helped leave my day on a much better note!

March 22, 2014 Update

Well, the bouquet mystery has been solved!  My daughter-in-law, Anne Amaya and her sweet daughter Cassandra sent me the flowers for my birthday!  Thank you for the beautiful flowers, Anne and Cassie!
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Monday, March 17, 2014

We Got Our Kicks (and some soda) on Route 66

We hit the road back to Dallas at 12 Noon today from a trip to Atchinson, Kansas and Rushville, Missouri to attend a funeral for Tegan Marie's mother, Dorothy Lee.. Here's what I saw when I peeked out of the hotel window this morning:


Yep, that's snow all right!  We were not looking forward to driving 500+ miles back to Dallas on snow covered roads!  Fortunately, the storm was heading East instead of West. We ran into a lady at Breakfast who was heading to Baltimore. I felt pretty sorry for her having to drive in bad weather!

We drove steadily and without incident through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and then home to Texas.  We stopped a couple of times to use the bathroom and get some drinks and snacks. Tegan Marie drove most of the way and would not accept any offers of relief from me.  Here she is in the driver's seat:

Tegan Marie at the Helm

Once we got to Oklahoma, we stopped at a really cool shop called "Pops Route 66", which has sodas every shade of the rainbow stacked on shelves in color order!  This store is located along the famous "Route 66" as mentioned in the song written by Bobby Troup and sang by Nat King Cole in 1946.  The song goes like this:
 
If you ever plan to motor west
Travel my way, the highway that's the best.
Get your kicks on Route 66!


The National Parks Service website says that U.S. Highway 66 -- popularly known as Route 66 or the Mother Road -- holds a special place in American consciousness and evokes images of simpler times, mom and pop businesses, and the icons of a mobile nation on the road. Their travel itinerary aids the public to visit the historic places that recall those images and experiences that are reminders of our past and evidence of the influence of the automobile.

Here's the Route 66 Symbol from the Route 66 Museum in Clinton, Oklahoma:

The Route 66 Symbol

The shop has a huge soda bottle monument outside with a straw sticking out of it:  Here's a picture of Tegan Marie standing by it:

Soda Bottle and Tegs

Here's what we saw when we walked in the door:

Old Route 66 Sign and Soda Bottles

 There were shelves and shelves of different colors and flavors of soda:

Red, Blue and Orange Sodas on Shelves

Blue Sodas

Red Sodas

When visiting the Ladies Room there, we noted that there was a trap door on the floor in one of the stalls:

Trap Door in the Ladies Room

This must be a portal for non-paying customers, LOL!

We selected two six-packs of various flavored sodas and headed out to the car.  Here's a picture of Tegan Marie holding the six-packs of sodas:

Tegan Marie with the psychedelic sodas

There was a cool crossroads sign at the corner:

Route 66 Crossroads Sign

We packed ourselves and the soda into the car and headed towards Will and Stefanie's house near Oklahoma City.  Once we got there we went inside for a few minutes.  Their cute little dachshund Bruce was so excited to see us!  He gave Stefanie (mommy) big hugs on the couch.  It was so cute!

Stefanie and Bruce

Here's a nice shot of Will, Stefanie and her brother Jake:

Will, Stefanie and Jake

We said our goodbyes and got back on the road to Dallas.  We were very tired and it seemed to take a long time!  We stopped at one of the casinos along the way to get gas and use the bathroom. They had some really pretty purses and wallets there.  Tegan Marie fell in love with one of the purses, especially since it had a side pocket for a firearm.  She just had to have it!  Here's a picture of her new purse:


Tegan Marie's new purse

We got in after midnight and stopped at McDonald's to get something light to eat.  Then we went straight to bed as I had to be at work at 6:00 AM that morning. 

It was a good trip home, but an exhausting one!.  One this is for sure though . . .

We got our kicks on Route 66!!!













Sunday, March 2, 2014

In Memory of Denise Bonaventura

Over the past year, I've been able to get reacquainted via Facebook with many of the people who I served with in the U.S.Air Force at my first assignment at RAF Chicksands in Shefford, England.  We were all so young while serving over there, many of us still in our teen years. I was still sowing my wild oats at that time, especially since my parents were so strict and I never got to do any partying while I lived at home.  I can honestly say that I drank enough alcohol over there to put most grown men into a coma!

One of the first people that I met there and one that I worked side-by-side with the entire time I was there was a lady named Denise Bonaventura. Denise was a very nice person!  Although we had the wonderful opportunity to serve in England, the fact that we were young, single women on a small base overseas made us the constant conquest of a lot of horny men.  Most of these guys were solely after a roll in the hay and nothing further. I was quite disinterested in these pursuits, but poor Denise ended up getting hurt and went through two marriages

We each served our time at Chicksands and then moved on to other assignments.  I lost touch with Denise and many others after leaving there in 1981 and going to my new assignment at Fort Meade, MD. The years went by and I left active duty and entered the Air Force Reserve in 1989.  I ended up getting recalled to active duty during the Kosovo Crises in 1999.  During that time, I ran into several of the people who I served with over in England.  It was at that time that I found out that Denise had died in a car accident in 1991 while driving across country to a bowling match.  Apparently she had a little girl in tow to deliver to her grandparents along the way.  Unfortunately, both of them died in the accident.  I've prayed for Denise every day since I heard of her death.

Fast forward to the present, a guy named Bob Cavinder, who I also served with over in England recently posted a bunch of pictures of all of us partying on our off time over there. We were all on Able Flight. When I looked today I saw that he had a picture of Denise posted. It's the first that I've seen her face in over 33 years!  Here's the picture:

Denise Bonaventura circa 1980

I ended up finding out more about her death today. She was born on January 11, 1957 and was from Norwalk, Connecticut. On August 09, 1991, she died in a car accident in Van Horn, Culbertson, TX 79855 at the age of 35.  She was an active duty Technical Sergeant in the Air Force at that time.  I want to try to find out where she's buried so that I can create a virtual memorial for her at findagrave.com.

Rest in Peace, Denise!  Your memory lives on in the hearts of everybody who served on Able Flight at RAF Chicksands!

9 August 2015 Update

Today is the 24th anniversary of Denise's death.  I was not able to find her obituary anywhere up until today, but I figured that I'd take another try this afternoon and I ended up finding it on Page 6 of the 13 August 1991 edition of the Daily Advocate newspaper out of Stamford, Connecticut:


I was glad to find out her final resting place and have created a virtual memorial for her at findagrave.com:

Link to Denise's virtual memorial at findagrave.com