August 28, 2004 "LOST AT SEA" Cruise

[sandygirl]

Originally posted by Buddy Bear
No, that is not right. Talk all you want and have lots of fun, I am sorry it got this out of hand.

Welcome back!

Jeff

P.S You are the right person for the job so please go back to "leading the charge".

Atta boy, Jeff! Thank you.

Darlene

 

[sandygirl]

Originally posted by O'BWV
Joanna - mini DIS meet in AC - wanna start a new thread called Calling All 12/18/04 ACers (aka "lost @ sea reunion) LOL - KIDDING, JUST KIDDING!

Tsk, tsk, tsk, Mary Rose. LOL

Darlene

 

[O'BWV]

Jeff - I'm glad you wrote! I'm feeling terrible about the whole thing. Sometimes things don't come across in the spirit in which it was intended when we're writing. I have a feeling this is just a misunderstanding that got out of hand and now I'm crying and I think your feelings have also been hurt. If I have said anything that you personally found insulting then I'm truly sorry! So, can we start from scratch? Yes you say, good. So, will you join us on the Fury Catamaran or if you can't because you baby's too small, then would you like to link dining reservations with all of us? How about a magnet from Bobby, or a Tee Shirt from Dori. Do you own a smoothie maker - no you say - well run (don't walk) and buy one, this group likes to drink (both alcoholic & non-alcoholic of course). Okay, we'll talk about all of this over on 8/19...... Please, let's consider this hatchet buried!


-Mary Rose

 

[MoranClan]

Jeff Beware.....

I guess you dont know about our cruise curse..Muahahahahaha


But seriously...Welcome to the board...

Please Please...Dont forget Cindy's Love for Creamsickle smoothies..

I hope we have enough ice...Someone on these boards doesn't share...

For Myself..I like Beer...

And yes Ginny......Your right about the smoothies....

Bobby

 

[Mjasp]

OK now I'm crying. No I really am. You two, now you BOTH have to buy me a drink for pain and suffering.

OK Subject dropped.

Lets start planning Atlantic City, Jeff wanna join us.

Joanna

 

[DARWIN91]

Hey Cindy, What the heck is puppet food? Would love to come but I don't think my budget can handle an overnighter in Atlantic City, though it would be fun. I can't justify the gambling right now. Have to stick to Lotto and pray for 6 numbers!

 

[O'BWV]

Carol - I can't really gamble that close to the holidays either! So, do we have any high rollers with Comp among us? LOL!

Ginny - not my booze backpack! What would I do without that!

Joanna - I'll buy you that drink I owe you in AC. Did I mention that I'm bringing the booze backpack with me there too! LOL




-Mary Rose

 

[Buddy Bear]

Originally posted by O'BWV
Jeff - I'm glad you wrote! I'm feeling terrible about the whole thing. Sometimes things don't come across in the spirit in which it was intended when we're writing. I have a feeling this is just a misunderstanding that got out of hand and now I'm crying and I think your feelings have also been hurt. If I have said anything that you personally found insulting then I'm truly sorry! So, can we start from scratch? Yes you say, good. So, will you join us on the Fury Catamaran or if you can't because you baby's too small, then would you like to link dining reservations with all of us? How about a magnet from Bobby, or a Tee Shirt from Dori. Do you own a smoothie maker - no you say - well run (don't walk) and buy one, this group likes to drink (both alcoholic & non-alcoholic of course). Okay, we'll talk about all of this over on 8/19...... Please, let's consider this hatchet buried!


-Mary Rose

When you look at the bigger picture maybe your group's karma could bring about another 10 day cruise. My wife and I watched the boards and the Weather channel during all the hurricanes and we were quite aware of your 7 day....uh....10 day cruise.

Since we didn't have to worry about Catherine (DD Catherine 11) going to school until 9/8 we were kind of hoping we could have been on your cruise. I mean if you can do that again were in!!

I am up for a Tee Shirt, one for each member of the family. Who do I write the check out to?

Oh, and don't let me forget the most important thing...alcoholic smoothies! Mudslides are great, but I'll try anything with rum.

MJasp: Perhaps a round of drinks at Diversions on me.

Jeff

 

[O'BWV]

Jeff - You know, with all the mishaps our cruisers suffered leading up to the cruise (8/28 curse), it's no wonder we hit a hurricane that kept us at sea for 10 days! That's why we figure we have a good shot of it happening again and we planned to go one week earlier! Lots of our kids missed the first few days of school and we really didn't want a repeat of that! I think your 8/21 cruise may have been the only cruise in Aug. that didn't suffer any hurricane trouble and a right about that? Did you see a friend Jweiss (Jennifer) from your 8/21 posted on the 8/19 thread? Also, in addition to the shirts (which Dori is looking into), Bobby makes the best magnets! Look back a few pages to a link to Bobby's trip report and you'll see his magnets.


-Mary Rose

 

[SeaSpray]

Originally posted by winnyis
Thanks guys for your thoughts... even though its been almost 5 months it is still so hard... We had a memorial dedication for Tommy on Sunday in Baltimore at the church 1 block from where his plane crashed. It was so sad.. especially to see my mom have to do a memorial to her only son. But the congregation of this church was so wonderful to us.. They had never met my brother yet they cried with us as if they had known him all his life.

The baltimore sun wrote a really nice article if any of you are interested in reading it...here is the link

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.pilot04oct04,1,121920.story?coll=bal-pe-maryland

Ginny

Ginny, I was crying as I read that beautiful article about your brother. Again, I am so sorry for your loss. He sounds like a truly wonderful person. Those benches are a great memorial of him. I saw the picture too....you, your mother, the kids...

Thank you for sharing that article with us.

 

[O'BWV]

Ginny - I didn't know you lost your brother in May. I'm so sorry, sounds like he was a great guy. The article was beautiful!
I read your quote in the article and was wondering if your husband has any relatives name Barry that use to live in Ft. Lee. His wife's name is Carol. He a good friend of John's.


-Mary Rose

 

[winnyis]

Thanks Terry & Mary Rose.. you are both right.. Tommy was a GREAT guy...

Mary Rose... my husbands whole family is from Pennsylvania... I think his grandfather has one brother Carl Kurtz that lives somewhere in North Jersey but thats all I know.. Bob isnt too close with cousins.etc...

 

[SeaSpray]

Ginny, you cracked me up with the reference to Seinfeld "No smoothies for you!" Do you like that show? That's my all-time favorite show. In fact, I just pre-ordered the first 3 seasons of that show on DVD. It's going to include deleted scenes and outtakes. That alone is worth the cost.

 

[winnyis]

Terry - I dont watch it much but Bob and the kids love it.. he watches it every night before he goes to bed...

Im more of a reality TV junkie.. you know Survivor. Apprentice, The bachelor, Trading Spaces and The Sopranos.

 

[Buddy Bear]

Originally posted by O'BWV
Jeff - You know, with all the mishaps our cruisers suffered leading up to the cruise (8/28 curse), it's no wonder we hit a hurricane that kept us at sea for 10 days! That's why we figure we have a good shot of it happening again and we planned to go one week earlier! Lots of our kids missed the first few days of school and we really didn't want a repeat of that! I think your 8/21 cruise may have been the only cruise in Aug. that didn't suffer any hurricane trouble and a right about that? Did you see a friend Jweiss (Jennifer) from your 8/21 posted on the 8/19 thread? Also, in addition to the shirts (which Dori is looking into), Bobby makes the best magnets! Look back a few pages to a link to Bobby's trip report and you'll see his magnets.


-Mary Rose

I wasn't aware of the mishaps. Sorry to hear about that.

You are correct about the 8/21 cruise. We didn't realize how good we had it until many weeks later. The 8/14 cruise had big problems since the airport was closed and a lot of folks had to board the next day at Key West.

I don't think the average person (non-DISers) realize what it is like to plan two years in advance, count every day only to have you vacation ruined by a hurricane. We didn't have to go through that, but we really felt bad for the folks affected by Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne.

Tell Bobby a magnet sounds great.

I can't wait to meet you and have our first smoothie together.

Jeff

 

[O'BWV]

Jeff - I'm glad your cruise was unaffected. I know it seems great to be a sea 3 extra days (and it was and I'm not complaining) but at times it was unsettling too! Some of us didn't know if we had houses to go back to or cars at PC or flights to get back home. Not to mention the $1950 shipboard account bill. Here's to sharing a mudslide! I'll drink to that!


Terry & Ginny - I love Seinfeld too Terry. But I also love all reality shows like you Ginny - I'll add Big Brother & Amazing Race to your list which includes the others I love. I watch too much TV. What'd ya expect, I'm a bum remember!


-Mary Rose

 

[SeaSpray]

Originally posted by O'BWV


Terry & Ginny - I love Seinfeld too Terry. But I also love all reality shows like you Ginny - I'll add Big Brother & Amazing Race to your list which includes the others I love. I watch too much TV. What'd ya expect, I'm a bum remember!


-Mary Rose

We watch Survivor too. We watched the very first 2 Survivors, then didn't watch it for a year or so, then we started watching the All Stars episodes, and now we're watching the newest one. Mary Rose, I'm a "bum" too. lol (Although I do work 1 day a week (4 hours) for our accountant). But I don't like most of what's on tv. I love Seinfeld reruns, and channels like Discovery, Travel Channel, HGTV, History Channel, etc.

 

[invaderzim]

Originally posted by winnyis
Im more of a reality TV junkie.. you know Survivor. Apprentice, The bachelor, Trading Spaces and The Sopranos.

LOL -- I love the fact that you listed the Sopranos with the reality shows! I personally think it's drawn from my mother's relatives!

We, too, are "hooked" on reality TV. But not everything -- Fear Factor, the Bachelor are a little too much for me. We love Amazing Race, Survivor, The Apprentice and Big Brother. We have never missed a Survivor or Big Brother, but only started watching Amazing Race and The Apprentice. Wish I had seen the first five Amazing Races now. I love all the places they go to. Does anyone remember "The Mole"? That was great too -- a little like Race, but not as grueling.

 

[Mjasp]

Reality TV YES it's for me. But Seinfeld is watched very night at 7:30 PM. "NO SMOOTHIE FOR YOU"

Ginny...I can't access the article on your brother, can you paste it here.

A round of drinks at diversions. HMMM I'M IN

Yeah that shipboard account and the stress of changing flights with no cell service. I wish now I would have just relaxed and enjoyed the extra 3 days. Live and learn.

Joanna

 

[winnyis]

Joanna.. here is the story

Congregation honors a pilot it never knew
Crash: A Ferndale church pays tribute to a man killed as he maneuvered his plane away from its community's homes.

By Kelly Brewington
Sun Staff
Originally published October 4, 2004

The wreckage was shown repeatedly on television news programs the day Thomas F. Lennon's small cargo plane crashed into a driveway in Ferndale, narrowly missing homes and people setting out for their morning commute.

Amid the news accounts of the crash May 14, one comment on CNN weighed on the mind of the Rev. Susan Duchesneau, whose church is about a block from the crash site. "Thankfully, just one person was killed," she remembered hearing.


"They said it as if, 'Well, it could have been worse,' and just seemed to shrug off his death," she said yesterday at a memorial dedication to Lennon at her church, the United Methodist Church of Ferndale. "But that life was very important. You can't just shrug it off. This community owes a lot to him."

Yesterday, about 100 congregation members joined to honor a man they never knew, but one they believe maneuvered his plane to cause the least amount of harm. Lennon's family members from New Jersey sat in three reserved pews during the service and afterward dedicated two wooden benches in his name as a token of their thanks.

The benches, affixed with plaques that read in loving memory of Lennon, "a gentle giant," dubbed so for his imposing 6-foot-7-inch frame and mild manner, symbolize the connection between the congregation and the pilot.

"To tell you the truth, when Tommy died, the pastor was the only one who seemed to recognize his life," said Barbara Ward, Lennon's mother, who attended service at the church the Sunday after the crash, where prayers were said for her son. "To others, he was just this person."

Moved by the outpouring of support, Ward said she wanted to offer something in return.

"We knew we wanted a memorial somewhere, and we just knew this is the fitting place," Ward said.

After an hourlong service, parishioners filed into the garden for the dedication of the benches, taking time to shake hands with Lennon's widow, parents and siblings. Some even joined the family for lunch.

"One woman just came up to us to say, 'I didn't know him, but I'll never forget him,'" said Tom Ward, Lennon's stepfather. "That means a lot."

Duchesneau said the church is known for adopting others into its small community.

"This church is really like a great big family," she said. "We really believe if anything happens in our community, it happens to us."

On the day of the crash, Lennon, 34, was flying a twin-engine turboprop plane descending toward Baltimore-Washington International Airport, just a few miles from Ferndale.

After the plane crashed, onlookers immediately hailed Lennon as a hero, saying he deftly avoided a disaster by steering clear of homes and an elementary school.

The crash site was covered in wreckage from the Mitsubishi MU-2B plane operated by Epps Air Service Inc. of Atlanta.

The cause of the crash is being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Lennon was making night flights carrying loads such as the canceled checks and financial documents he was delivering that morning from Philadelphia to the Baltimore branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Va.

It was not his dream job, but it kept him in the skies; flying was his passion. After graduating from college, Lennon served in the Navy and later began working for Epps in Lansing, Mich., training to become a pilot.

The youngest of four children and the only boy, Lennon was "spoiled rotten" by his siblings and parents, who helped support him through school, the siblings said.

"He was always the baby. During school he was working so hard, but he really had nothing," said his eldest sister Ginny Kurtz of Burlington, N.J. "So we'd always buy him jackets and coats for Christmas and stick a little money in the pockets."

One of Lennon's sisters, Barbara Marshall of Chatham, N.J., summed it up this way: "He always had, like, five mothers."

Once Lennon was licensed, he fulfilled his ambitions by becoming a pilot for U.S. Airways. But in the company's post-Sept. 11, 2001, layoffs, Lennon returned to work for Epps.

Although he didn't have children, he was the favorite uncle of his six nieces and nephews, said family members. Awed by his height, the kids would "climb" Uncle Tommy.

"He was a wonderful guy, every day of his life," Marshall said. "We know that the kind of person he is, he probably worked so hard not to hurt anyone."




Ginny