The Wedemeyer Family

This photo was taken May 15 2005, shortly after Blossom’s sister, Lucinda, died in a motor vehicle accident. Blossom is the redhead in the center. Sharon Bell, who was also Lucinda’s teacher gave a very moving eulogy at the funeral.

This is a magazine photo of a Suzuki X-5 Invader motorcycle like I have in the Garage (1967). I also have a 1975 Honda Goldwing basket case and a 1985 Suzuki GN250 which I ride to work when the weather is nice.

Sarah and I cooked a tofurkey this year for Christmas dinner. We’ve gotten quite good at cooking these little faux-birds. It takes about 24 hours of defrosting, 20 minutes of prep, and 90 minutes of cooking. After that, you just need to eat it as fast as possible. Tofurkey does not have yummy leftovers the way regular turkey does. Just imagine eating a cold sponge the next day and you get the idea.

Sarah and I recent took out our ghetto mailbox from the previous owners. It was held in the ground by about 3″ of soil plus some chunks of rock to prop it up. It was pretty unsightly and left a lot to be desired. So…we got to work installing a new mailbox and post of our own.

We dug the hole about 3 feet down using an old shovel. Along the way we found the remnants (chunks of concrete) of previous mailboxes, we assume. We managed to dig around most of them and get a hole that the post would go into. Using 2 garden stakes and some twine, we managed to brace the post. Then we poured in no-mix quick-crete. Add water, wait, and you’ve got a solidly mounted mailbox.

Anyways, take a look at the pictures. They should explain it all.

Note: This is a super-jumbo mailbox with almost enough room to hold Dotty. As our neighbor Rai put it, “Are you guys expecting midgets in the mail or something?”

The Civil Air Patrol promises the cadets that they can each have 5 glider flights, but we have been unable to fulfil that promise because we had no pilots and no gliders. This past year the WV Wing got a surplus glider from the Air Force Academy, but it got assembled improperly and on its first flight the left wing folded up before it got off the ground. It has since been replaced and the glider is ready to fly, but still no pilots. I went to Julien PA (just outside of State College) last August and took training. I soloed twice, but the week was just not enough time to get my glider license. I have since joined the Cumberland (MD) Soaring Group to complete my training, but I can go there only when I am not on call which is alternate weekends, but if the weather is not good I am out of luck. I am making slow progress toward my rating because there is not much lift in the winter, but my landings are getting better. At first, following the tow plane was scary. My reactions were slow and soon I was swinging from side to side like a horizontal pendulum trying my best to track the tail of the plane ahead. The instructor in the back said to match his bank angle, but in a glider, because there is no motor up front, the pilot is seated in the nose of the airplane, well ahead of the wings. I was concentrating so much on the tow plane that I could not look back and see the wings. It has since gotten much better; I am able to relax and follow the tow plane, making small but quick corrections, and can even stay coordinated most of the time. I also am learning to fly the tow plane, so as soon as my friend, Dennis gets his glider rating and I have my tow plane rating the WV Wing will have a glider program.

In this photo I am in a DuoDiscus high-performance glider looking west toward the Appalachian Plateau in central Pennsylvania.