Author: Susie

Good morning gentle readers! Today we begin our big adventure in Miami. We will go to copy my Christmas letter and mail it. Then to Glen’s on the lake and to Italian dinner tonight at Osteria Piedmonte. Yum. Tomorrow I get the CT scan and we will have pizza dinner with Glen and friends and former neighbors Kathie and George!!! The next day Saturday to the USSVI meeting in a park in Miami that has about 11 submarine sails in it. The sail is the top part of a submarine. When the boats are scrapped, parts are purchased and used as memorials. Then we will go to lunch with the submariners. That night we will be with Chuck’s buddy Rick Hartman who will drive us to the ship on Sunday morning for a 2 week cruise!!! Since I don’t plan to do tours or even go ashore at most Caribbean island as we have been there so many times, I might not blog. You don’t really want to hear about me in the pool and drinking champagne! Just know that we are doing a fun thing and I’ll be back in two weeks. When we arrive in Miami I go for a visit to cardiologist to get results of CT scan then home to Lake Placid to meet friends Jane and Steve from England who will be visiting for 2 weeks. I’ll blog then because I plan to do some stuff here in Lake Placid I haven’t had time to do!!! Like visit the art places in Lake Placid. God bless you. Angles with us!

I find it a laughing matter that I wrote to my friend Karla and probably have written to many of you, "I’m cleaning up piles." I’m writing the Christmas letter and I always consult the calendar when I review the year, but there’s nothing written on the calendar for January 2019 (we might have changed calendars???) So I’m looking back at emails and I found a note to Karla written Jan 2, 2019……. I wrote that I was cleaning piles in January 2019 with no thought to moving. In preparation for and since the move, it’s amazing how much stuff I’ve put in the donate box and or thrown away!!!! It’s as many of you have said, "Throw it away. Start a new life today." And you know what? I go outside to turn on the hose to water our new avocado tree and I look at the caladiums and other plants someone planted in my yard, and I love all of them. I have pentas, plumbago (the blue flowered bush), lots of caladiums… nice grass mowed by a small family run group of gardeners. I walk out the front door, down my front walk to my car, and when I look back I have to laugh at all the decorations we have put out there! Frogs, rocks, shells and pots. It’s been fun. This week I have put away a lot of art work as the walls are full. You might walk in here and go "Whew! the walls are covered!" well we have a lot of great photos and art. I’ve tried to keep order.

My friend at church Elsie, a very prayerful lady! wrote that her sister in law went to the doctor for not being able to breathe…. He said he can’t do anything… she’s 86, organs are failing. Gave her lasix. so 86 is old…? My mom had congestive heart failure at about 90…. but she didn’t die until 97. I’m thinking of suggesting a visit to a specialist, but maybe this is what the end of life is all about…When do we stop going for help and going to specialists? I’m not asking for me… I’m only 72 with plenty of years left. But when? I pray every day for all of you that we remain healthy to play together for many more years. This Friday I go for a CT scan to measure the aneurism. I won’t get the result until Dec 2 when we get back from a 2 week cruise! Live life! Enjoy beauty! Thank God. Love you! God bless us! Angels with us.

I took a 5pm bicycle ride and encountered…. No traffic. No cars. 2 small dogs in their owners’ arms, and kids doing cart wheels in the front yard with mom and dad on the porch. How middle America is this??? Our streets are funny. My house is about in the middle of the block so if I turn left out of the driveway I go "down" to the cul de sac… turn around and suddenly realize it’s uphill! huffing and puffing, I turned left at the top of my street and turned left again onto Anderson. (in Coral Gables, Anderson was our next street too!). Swoosh! I was off like the wind. Downhill all the way to the cul de sac. UH OH.. Crawling up hill I looked like an old lady pumping those fat wheeled pedals!!!! breathing hard and sweating! and finally I walked my bike the last 12 feet to the corner! I drove over to friend Glenda’s street (Loquat) and it is pretty normal all the way to the cul de sac. All of these streets are on canals. At the cul de sac they join the one big canal into Lake June. We have not been on Lake June yet…. boat is in harbor in Miami patiently awaiting some repairs… But we know the lake is there! I can see it from the car. It’s especially exhilarating to go up a hill in the car and at the crest (top) see the lake!!!!

This week is going by fast. I was home here alone Sunday through Wednesday and I’ve been on the attack in the art room and other places. I’m trying to find places for papers and things or putting them in a box for the church who by the way wants the books from my library!!! I am so happy. I’m going to scout around town at the thrift stores and see if I can find a book shelf. The church has a social hall with about 5 classrooms attached. We have all our meetings there and Chuck and I went to October fest there. There isn’t really space for books in the hall itself, but one of the rooms has a sofa and soft chairs. I figure a small bookshelf won’t overwhelm. I have some enthusiastic folks and some who tell me there’s no space for books. I walk very softly here!!!! 5 boxes of books by Catholic writers need a home!

I’m painting my first mural at this house! On the sliding door that goes out to the porch. If we close the door… it’s too easy to run into because we keep it open most of the time. But during the summer we keep the door closed. Too hot … OK so Be Creative today!!! Paint, draw, write! There’s something fun going on that you can help others to see! God bless you. Angels with us!

I did not make that up! It is the sign on the small Baptist church I pass on the way to Church. We all have been with people who "comment" when we see a friend slip up, make a mistake, be rude etc etc. I actually said, "Woah, that’s not right… " and the lady next to me said, "Oh you don’t know the half of it and was off to the races with all the things wrong the third party does." I am still in the throes of trying to figure out how to do my Sacristan and Lector jobs…. But even I can spot what isn’t right. That’s all I wanted to confirm. We are not in charge…. We are not to comment on the personality defects of our peers, rather ask the one in charge how something should be done. Do it and shut up.

Yesterday 8 women sat outside the library in Lake Placid with the 3 schools (elementary, middle, and high school) within sight. It’s a very small town. The library and schools all surround a big traffic circle. We women were from 2 churches in town and we were praying for the children. We prayed for bullies, for traffic offenders, for parents who neglect to teach respect, for children who are tempted by other children to take drugs and alcohol, for children who feel great anxiety…). It makes our heart heavy that children are so in need, but one of us, a very wise woman said, "We are so blessed, because we know the end of the story." Know the end of the story… have faith that God never did and never will break his covenant. He made us; he loves us; he won’t leave us alone. Keep praying in faith and love. Pray for faith and love.

I’m home alone, drinking smoothies and trying to take off 10 pounds of anxiety fat! (I have been spreading ice cream and wine all over myself since we started packing to move!!!!). Giving those 2 up for the 10 days Chuck is away hunting, I might start fitting into my pants again! Fortunately I love salads and soup! I’m working very hard to put everything away in the art room… Getting close. I hope to paint soon. Clean something up. Enjoy giving things away to people who could use them! God bless you. Angels with you!

What if life were full of WOW! moments? Wouldn’t life be fun? Wouldn’t we all be going around with silly grins on our faces. Not silly like we are stupid, rather, silly like we love small beautiful things! Or big awesome things… Some examples of what makes me grin and say WOW!:
Chuck and I have been watching for birds at the bird feeder… I’m waiting for song birds, but any bird is good. Then: there were black birds, 3 doves and a great gray heron…. The doves were waiting for the black birds to "back off" and the heron was "just hanging out"… The heron leaned way out over the water, very still, watching the water. Then we realized the birds at the feeder were shaking it up and seed was falling onto the dock and into the water. Suddenly the heron dived in and came up with a fish horizontally in his mouth. Horizontally is important because he then has to go through some maneuverings to get that fish head down in the vertical position so it can slide down his gullet smoothly, so its scales don’t hurt the bird. Since it was a small fish, a simple throw and catch was all the heron needed. We whooped as he gobbled and swallowed. Poor fish. Like Jonah, swallowed alive. Ick…. The birds continued. This happened again the following night. Probably the same heron, but now he is across the canal on neighbor Connie and John’s dock. Watching, hanging way over the edge. "Hurry up," I whispered, "it’s getting dark!!!" Swoop! His great wings pulled tight he dived and came up with a fish that looked to be 10 inches long; big enough to filet…. He stood in the water near the seawall. (We have discovered it is pretty shallow near the seawall that the long legged birds can stand there.) He was now looking up at the grass. Chuck said, "He has to get up into the grass because he doesn’t want to drop the fish." Pretty smart Chuck…. a few minutes of looking at the grass in Connie and John’s back yard, and then, leap with a great flap of wings and a little shaking to dry out his wings. Ah! now the fun begins. He juggled and juggled, dropped the fish a few times. "Hurry!, I said. Now it was dark and we could hardly see him. There it goes, he finally got that fish to stop wiggling, and gulp, that fish is history. In the heron’s belly. Chuck thinks he had to wait for that one to die because it was so big. (like in the Country and Western song by the Dixie Chucks… "and Earl had to die"…). Oh that’s awful. Now the next WOW moment!
I volunteered to "help" the Sacristan at church…. HELP the Sacristan. Well I think you know how that goes. Last night I unlocked the church, turned on the lights and air conditioning and set up for vigil Mass. Vigil Mass is the Mass of the next day, but at night so people who work can attend. We are celebrating the Feast of All Saints. I set up according to a rather thorough and good list. Always give me written instructions… I enjoy lists! 5 chalices for the wine, 4 dishes for the Sacred bread. This will become the Body and Blood of Jesus when the Priest consecrates it. Altar cloths, towels and dishes of water for those giving out Communion all set up. Pray with the lectors and ministers who will process in, then go sit down. In they walked and Mass began. At Communion, the altar server (Nell) looked over at me with a question mark on her face? There weren’t enough servers for the number of chalices and dishes I put out. I didn’t know… So I let it unfold, which is usually seamless in our Church as we have a lovely priest with a forgiving nature! In the end, the priest had to put away 2 dishes of consecrated hosts and drank a full cup of consecrated wine. What happened? Well…. Despite the list, whoever schedules people only scheduled 4 wine servers and 2 Communion servers. It’s always something! How about let me know? Every time I serve I learn a new lesson (take the stoppers off the little cruets of wine and water before handing them to the Priest, put the challices on the altar for the priest to fill, look at how many are serving and only put out that many bowls and chalices.) What else???? Wash up, turn off the lights. It was now 8:30pm and pitch dark. OH! The alarm. Of course there are 3 choices… What button to push? I chose "Exit and Leave" Sounds good to me… I pushed the button and it began to click. Run to the other side of the room, turn off the entry room lights, open and close the big wooden door (why do churches always have big wooden doors???). Lock the door. Then I peeked in at the alarm. No red lights (I think…. ) Oh brother. Half way home (it’s a 5 minute drive), I thought, "Did I check the lock?" Turned around and tested the door. It didn’t open and there were no police sirens. I think my exit was safe. WHEW! … WOW! Heaved a sigh. I think the cops will not be coming this time. I hope. What an awesome, big responsibility serving the Lord!!! Go serve. Gird your loins, say a prayer, and leap!!! God bless you!

As I write about a meeting we just finished, as we head home on interstate expressways to a placid little town of about 10,000 people where I’m surrounded by lakes and orange trees, I think a person who didn’t see what we saw yesterday might wonder .. what’s everybody pounding their chests for? I’ve felt that while listening attentively to Admirals, commanders and unqualified young teenagers studying systems in order to "pass quals". What’s all this about.? Yesterday a group of us who had been prescreened, assembled at the "Goat Locker" the Chiefs Club. I asked why Is it called the goat locker? The answer left me puzzled, "because chiefs are called goats". Ok. So then a US Navy bus came with 2 Navy police and 1 sailor from the SS Maryland. We got on the bus with no cell phones and no exercise wrist bands.. and we were escorted by a security car to the dock. Where is it? We got over to the water and there she was .. a big dark grey half submerged war ship. That was my first WOW! She is huge! The Maryland is a Boomer. I never understood what that meant until we climbed down 3 levels and our guide, in for 18 years and sharp and handsome, said here they are. I reached out and touched, "is this concrete?" Yes. There are 24 of them. Concrete tubes, missile silos full of nuclear missiles capable of traveling thousands of miles steered by sophisticated GPS tracking. I kept touching it. Our young man "Thompson" took us on to two rooms where constant measurements are underway even in Port… Where we are and where "they" are. Thompson said, "we are constantly hiding. If we pick up any sounds other than whales, we run. We are strictly defensive." In another room full of computers 2 young men told how they are constantly checking the missiles and one of them is making calculations. If they get an order it has to be verified and authorized 3 times before a missile can be shot. By now I’m petrified and terrified. We have young men (ok they are in their late 30s and early 40s) plotting courses on nuclear boomers. One of our sailors said, "we should bring Puten to see this." Needless to say, I had a nightmare last night. We thanked our guide "Thompson" and everybody else we passed (oh by the way, at one point, stepping over beds that protruded into the passageways! )… Thanked and thanked! And blessed them too. We are headed home now. And the news on TV is that some brave young men tracked an ISIS leader into cave and killed him. Pray for peace. Maybe if we ALL pray. God bless us. Angels with us.

At 8am we drove over to the host hotel and got on a van to go to the Trident Training Center and join in the Memorial Ceremony that I documented as it happened. I wrote my last post as Admiral Holland spoke… I remembered our talk from the previous day and I put in some of my reactions. It is really unedited. One thing I straightened out is the name of the class of submarine to come out in 2028 is Columbia. A class of boat defines its length, width, height, weight and a lot of other capabilities and attributes. Chuck was on a diesel/Guppy sub. That actually was a class back then. Today there are fast attacks, boomers, trident missiles and tomahawk missile submarines and it goes on. Today’s heavy hitter is the Virginia class, and "tomorrow’s heavy hitter" due out in 2028 is the "Columbia class."

After the ceremony today we went into the Trident Training center and were shown the fire training and water training facilities. Rather than train on a sub there are simulators. There is a giant vat of water and lots of pipes that spring leaks and floods. Those in training have to fix the leaks under leak conditions. Big torrents of water might flood the compartment and they have to fix the leaks. Same with the fire fighters. We saw a torpedo and its loading tube and a diesel engine (for auxiliary power, and to be used in case of a reactor failure). WOW! That was exhausting! We were then driven back to Pirates Galley for lunch. Hamburgers, chili, and all kinds of other good stuff including ice cream. Then we went to the Base Exchange which is like a Target or Walmart except we sailors get discounts. I didn’t buy anything as…. I can still see all that stuff we unpacked at home. Then we went back to Trident Training Center and actually sat for an hour and waited for the crowds (there are 400 people attending this memorial weekend) to come for dinner. We headed upstairs in the training center where tables were set up end to end to serve 400 people. I was amazed at how seamless everything was. Everytime we all got together this week there were ceremonies. We watched sailors receive their Dolphins (that means they qualified) and sailors reenlists. And we clapped a lot in congratulations. Dinner was a huge steak with veggies, and a lot of other stuff. I ate 1/2 and put my steak aside. Chuck said, "get a salad bowl and we’ll take it with us." I had a plastic bag from Chuck’s purchase in the Navy Exchange so I put his steak and mine in a bowl with onions and mushrooms and put a bowl on top and put the whole delicious mess into a plastic bag. It is now in our refrigerator and will be our sandwich for the trip home on Sunday.

Am I done yet? Nope. We have been with our sub group most of the time (the base Chuck leads called Pelican Harbor) so there was a lot of sharing with people we knew including our own WWII veteran and his daughter who drove him up to Georgia. We sat and talked with them and with one of our van drivers who joined us and had a beer as he was "off duty." Throughout the week, we have had conversations with young sailors, men and females alike, and the Commander of the Trident Training Center. We listen to them tell of the way things are in 2019, and then our guys tell them "how it was" in the 40s, 50s and 60s. There is a lot of exchange and respect on both side young for old and old for young. Finally it was time to go, but wait!!!! Chuck and a guy started talking about the base at Cape Canaveral and the weapons facility there… I said finally, why don’t we go in and have a beer. So in we went to the hospitality room and I bought 1/2 and 1/2 tickets. I won nothing all weekend… Finally, after a wonderful conversation with the Commander of the Training Center and his wife… finally it was bedtime. And so… we are back in the hotel. Chuck is having hot chocolate and I am closing this memoir!!! God bless America. Angels with us!

Yesterday I made a mistake about Commander Perez. He is Commander of a sub group. He was commanding officer of the USS Georgia and USS New Mexico. Today our speaker at the Submarine Veterans of WWII Memorial was Admiral Holland. Both gentlemen started by saying they could go on all day until called off into their next meeting! They are enthused and excited to serve and command our military Navy and Marines. Yesterday Commander Perez went on for 2 hours, speaking of WWII War patrols, WWII departed, current activities, and future growth while we continue to build our Navy to protect America.
It’s important to take stock of how we are doing, keeping count, petitioning for budget, making plans to protect America. Speakers ranged in subject from WWII to 2028 when our newest submarine, now in construction, will be released for sea duty to go to impossible places and to keep turning the tide for peace and freedom. In 2028 the sailors will be brothers and sisters "of the phin" as today we talk of WWII veterans as "brothers of the phin".
We have a lot of work to do to keep ahead of Chinese and Russian competition in what we can call this 2nd Cold War. Words repeated these 2 days and probably tonight at the steak dinner and tomorrow as we tour a submarine… Perseverance, endurance, prevail, giving all, Columbia class (the newest), challenge, budget.
We called the roll of lost boats and tolled the bell for 65 lost subs and lost British subs. God bless America. Angels with us.

Today our speaker is Chief of Staff Submarine Group 10. The underwater defence of our country is impressive… We are "Combat Ready to Preserve the Peace"… The young men I see here at the base are averaging 20 years old to 40 years old. They are so proud and respectful of our old guys. They are in great shape! A COB sat with us at breakfast and I couldn’t believe how much he ate! He told us he has 2 children, one Air Force and one Navy. He is an empty nester at age 40. I thought to myself, "He’s 40, looks great and is in great shape." At age 40 he is chief of a "boat" a nuclear submarine! Something I learned today: Men introduce themselves as Alaska gold or Alaska blue. The submarines are under the water about 11 months a year but with 2 separate teams. So when they dock for refitting or maintenance a whole new team gets on in a "crew exchange" and "qualifies on all systems." A month later, they are "off again." It’s an interesting life … Definition of a submariner… "A person who operates sh** you can’t" … Submariners have attitude!

CO of Georgia and CO of New Mexico, Captain George Perez has served for 34 years and has been CO of Kings Bay for a year. Iraqui Freedom and Afganistan are under his belt and he wants to talk about "our submarines at Kings Bay!" Our strategic concerns are Russia, China, North Korea and Iran. No kidding. He said "you who finished WWII, and served during the Cold War, we are right back where we started." We are pushing development to stay ahead of Putin who is testing ballistic missiles during exercises and breaking treaties, in a global power competition… "This is the world our submarine force is operating in, but it is still is ours!" I’d say, sleep well tonight and know "America’s best have your 6"… God bless you. Angels with you.

Breakfast at the Pirates Cove Base Galley (not the mess)… With many uniformed men and women… About 10 Chiefs of Boat (COBs) and higher talked to us about their departments. This Navy is training women on submarines and refitting nuclear submarines to carry female enlisted and officers. This Navy is training constantly, refitting boats, and watching very carefully the waters all over the world. There is a submarine in for refitting that we might be able to visit. It all depends on "conditions". Chuck and I are are scheduled for Saturday afternoon to tour the submarine that is in dock. They always say, "Will let you know" based on conditions…. This afternoon we will attend a presentation by the Chief of Staff of Sub Group 10 and then we go back to the base for a Barbeque. All is well and we are in good hands from the Kings Bay Submarine Base! God bless us! Angels with us!