Bill’s World

Well, no… not really.  I was born at the end of June in 1959 so my REAL First Christmas was in 1959.  But geeze I was only six months old.  I doubt I had much fun.  Christmas 1960 - on the other hand - apparently rocked!

 Check out this awesome rocking chair I got.  And what about those stylin’ PJs?

 Uh.. mom?  No socks?  I’m sure we had moved from Miami Beach back to Philly by now.  In fact I know we had.  Babe was born in November 1960 so she’s around here somewhere… only a month old.  Boy I bet she doesn’t know WHAT is going on.

I was probably sick as a dog the week after this picture was taken. LOL.

On the other hand check me out with this new Jack-In-The-Box.

Growing up, everytime I saw this picture it I thought my mom’s finger was inside a hole in the side of the Jack-In-The-Box.  Funny how you think stupid stuff like that.

Oh well.

Merry “First” Christmas Billy!

I remember when I was a kid my mom was always a talented artist.  She could always draw cool pictures and stuff. 

After she retired she decided to take some painting classes.  Then she got one of those easels and some paint brushes and some canvas’ and went to work.

Boy she really paints good.  She has a lot of her paintings around the house.  She painted for quite awhile but I think the fumes from the oil really bothered her and she doesn’t paint much anymore.

I think she still plays around with water colors and pastels once in awhile but I haven’t seen her work on a painting in a long time.

Here are some of the paintings she did.  She did a MESS of them and a ton of water colors and pastels… but I am not going to display them all.  I just want to document the fact that she did this and show some of the paintings I really like.

This is one of my favorites.  I’ll try to get a better picture of it sometime because it looks a million times better in person than it does in this picture.  It’s a tree frog.

This is an Egret.  There are a lot of these hanging around the pond behind my parents house.

I don’t know whose baby this is.  But I think mom took a photo of one of her friends babies and painted a picture from it.

This is a picture of my sister that my mom painted from a photo.

Here are some pastel chalk pictures of a bird, a cheetah & a cat.

I may have displayed this before… It is a little girl on the beach.  I really like this one too.

Stream in the Forest.

I like this one of a lighthouse on the beach with a big ‘ol moon behind it.

Here’s the cat again.

A Cheery street.

One time Mom found this print of an Indian maiden in a magazine and painted it.  I think it’s one of the best ones she ever did.

Indian Maiden Finished:

I’m really proud of how well my mom paints and I love to show my friends her paintings. That is the reason for this blog entry. 

I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I do.

Way to go Mom!

My mom had this thing about dressing me up in a suit and tie.  Musta been like every holiday or family function.

I’m not sure if she tied these neckties on me or if I was just a natural tie tie-er.

I went to Catholic school from the 2nd grade til 7th grade and we had to wear a maroon necktie everyday.  Clipons.

I bet I have a lot more photos than this with me wearing a suit but I only have a few right now.  I’ll find some more for “What’s Up With The Suits 2″.

Happy Easter everybody.

Me & Babe - Easter 1962

This is labeled Me & Babe - Easter 1962 too… but since we’re wearing different clothes (suit) I guess it was probably 1961 or something.

This says I was 4.  I doubt it.  This looks like a school picture. I was probably 6.

Me & Babe again under the apple tree.

I guess she could only find a bowtie this year.

I sure looked sharp though didn’t I?

Well I guess it’s time to write something here again.  In my last post you’ll recall that after doing all of the work to implement our new aircraft maintenance system a decision was made by the powers that be to postpone for a month. 

Well, the month is now over.  It’s in as far as I know.  They’re supposed to flip the switch at 8AM tomorrow.  All I know is that my part is done.  This is really just the first part.  It is putting all of the inventory and part of the financing (another system) up.  The actual aircraft themselves (we have 138 50 seat CRJ200’s we fly for NorthWest Airlink and 5 - soon to be 16 - 84 seat CRJ900’s we fly for Delta Connection) still have yet to be put into the system.

I came in at 8:30 Thursday and went home at 2AM Friday morning; came back in at 8:30 Friday morning and went home at 1:30AM Saturday morning; came back in at 9 on Sunday morning and left at 5PM to go to BW-3 to watch the Superbowl.  Woo Hoo! 

Since Thursday I think I’ve worked over 40 EXTRA hours.  I’ll be sure to try and snag a comp day or two when I go to the lake.

This weekend or next I need to get down to see my sister.  She’s VERY ill.  We found out she had lung cancer in August of 2006.  They did some really agressive chemo and radiation.  It took its toll on her.  2007 was a good year for her though.  She came through the illness pretty good.  Unfortunately she took a bad turn around Christmas of 2007 when we found out that the cancer is now in her brain and in her hip.

I have be flying back and forth to Florida to spend as much time with my sister as I can.  I don’t know how much longer she’ll be here for me to do that so I am trying to do it as much as possible.  Even though the airline doesn’t pay me as much as I would make working somewhere else, it is really a blessing that I can literally just hop in the car and drive to the airport and jump on a plane to Tampa anytime I want to.  For an unbelieveable price.  As long as there is an empty seat of course.

Thank God my sister is down in Florida and not in Utah or California where she used to live.  That would really suck.  Especially for my parents.

I don’t know how my mom does it.  She’s like a rock.  She’s always been there for us.  When I was 19 I was in the hospital with a brain tumor.  She was right there for me.  It was a long, hard 9 months in that hospital with many illnesses.  Many times they thought I’d die while in there.  But she was always there for me.  Now… years and years later… we’re all grown up… and it’s my sister.  Unfortunately her prognosis is nowhere near as positive as mine was.  My mom is still right there.  She will be til the end.  Just like a rock.  She’s an amazing woman.

I find it weird when I think about… what are the chances that you marry and have two children… and that BOTH of them end up with brain tumors?  Archie Manning ended up with two kids who each won the Superbowl as the quarterback of their respective NFL teams.  My mom and dad end up with two kids with brain tumors.  Life is funny sometimes :( 

Say a prayer for my sister please.  Say one for my mom & dad while you’re at it too.