NELSON'S NOTES #79

Fun N Sun, San Benito, Texas, June 28, 2009

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NEW CAMERA

I haven't sent Nelson's Notes in a long time mainly because my new camera has no optical view-finder, just the LCD screen which reflects sunlight so well that it acts like a mirror. (My face is not what I need to see when taking pictures.) Even when the screen is on the brightest setting, it's difficult to see what you're taking a picture of.

Solution (hopefully): last week I ordered a kit of NuShield day-use transparent film which I'll cut to size. If it works, I should be able to see what I'm doing and take more, and hopefully better, pictures. Tips like the Nushield web site abound during Fun N Sun Computer Club discussions led by Jim and Sharon Cook on Monday mornings.

KEN AND TERI'S VISIT, MAY 9-16

When Teri and Ken were here on Mother's Day, she treated us to a delicious stir fry made with chicken, cashews, and red peppers. The recipe came from CookingLight.com. She said it was easy to make, but I thought it looked like a lot of work.

Ken and Teri have devised a resistance exercise to stretch his right leg which was affected by a major stroke 5 years ago. This is the way Teri said it came to be. "One day Ken asked me to push against his foot with mine so he could stretch out his leg. You can't do that with furniture, because the furniture moves and you don't have any resistance. And, he really can't do it himself because he doesn't have enough strength to keep his leg up and out there. But my leg props his up and gives resistance at the same time."

While they were doing the exercise, Bruce took a video which you can view (and hear Ken's explanation) by clicking on the triangle.

Saying good-bye at the Valley International Airport in Harlingen.

SANDY, CRAIG, AND SARAH'S FIRST VISIT TO FUN N SUN, JUNE 8-14

While Gene (Bruce's brother) and his wife Janet are home in Connecticut for the summer, they offered their place to both sets of our visiting kids. They all loved staying there, and Sandy enjoyed talking to the friendly Fun N Sun people she met on walks and at the pool. Craig was impressed with Fun N Sun and commented often on its well-cared-for look. One of my most enjoyable times was when Sarah joined me for walk aerobics. The video she liked the best was "Walk Your Way Slim." It has the most difficult choreography of all my videos and is equivalent to three miles of aerobic walking.

Sarah, Sandy, and Craig with me at a World Birding Center site under construction on South Padre Island.

ALLISON THE SEA TURTLE

Allison, a 5-year-old Atlantic Green turtle, lost three fins in a shark attack four years ago. After being rescued and treated by the Sea Turtle Rescue Center staff on South Padre Island, she could only swim in circles in a shallow tank. To help her swim straight and to dive, a prosthesis was made but it kept slipping off her stump.

After studying the way Allison moved, intern Tom Wilson began to design a jacket with a stabilizing fin. Wearing the jacket 2-3 hours a day now enables her to swim straight and to exercise in a deep-water pool with other turtles.

The jacket went through several adjustments plus many remakes and broken sewing machine needles as a volunteer labored to sew the thick neoprene. In April, Allison made the national news, and one day when just by chance the four of us we were at the center, a videographer from the Discovery Channel was videoing Allison in her jacket for a future program on inventions.

Problems: 1) even though Allison doesn't swim in circles while wearing the jacket and she can dive and come up for air, a staff member has to watch her all the time she's in deep water. If for some reason the jacket should come off, she would flip over upside down, be unable to  come up to the surface to breathe, and eventually drown.

2) Although the suit has a zipper, it's difficult to get Allison in and out of it. She was already in the water when we got there, but the way it was described to us the person suiting her up has to struggle to get it on and off and be prepared for a good soaking in the process. A partial solution they're working on is to make a two level tank so the suit can be put on and taken off in shallow water.

To see Allison swimming in her stabilizing fin jacket, click on the triangle. Watch closely to see how hard her left front stump works along with her right front flipper. Turtles like to rub on the PVC pipes that are placed at the bottom of the tank. The wet suit is improving Allison's quality of life but she will continually need larger suits. Her projected weight is 600 pounds and her life span is 150 years.

CORPUS CHRISTI

In mid-June, Bruce and I drove our car 150 miles to Corpus Christi. Our first stop was the HalfPrice store, my favorite place to browse for low-price, hard-to-find books. Part of a chain, the Corpus Christi store is the closest one to us. The wide assortment of books and videos mostly comes from customers like us who sell their books and videos back to the store. Bruce and I always seem to make purchases that cost twice as much as our refund, but I guess that's how the company stays in business.

The USS Lexington

The USS Lexington taken from the Pier 99 restaurant where we ate the day before.

The next morning when we toured the aircraft carrier we went up and down at least 10 flights of steep stairs. It was like climbing up and down ladders and after a while our leg muscles felt every step. On the flight deck, my tour guide (Bruce) explained how the planes were quickly catapulted up into the air and just as quickly retrieved with a "hook" when they returned. Often these maneuvers were done in darkness or fog.

Click on the triangle to see a video of the Lexington's huge flight deck.

After the flight deck tour, we watched the exciting IMAX movie, Operation Red Flag, which showed the training Navy fighter pilots receive before they go into combat.

The Texas State Aquarium

In the afternoon almost every school-age child in the area seemed to be at the Aquarium with us.

Click on the triangle and you'll see them watching three dolphins as they "tossed" orange and blue rubber balls up and down the pool. Mind you, this was just a warm up that lasted a whole hour before the dolphins put on a show of flips and tricks with their trainers. They never seemed to tire.

The excitement of  the show above was matched by the beauty and grace of the dolphins as seen from the underwater viewing area below.

dolphin from studio221 on Vimeo.

UPDATE: DON SCOTT'S GOLF CART PROJECT

Compare the way Don's cart looks now (photo 2) with the way it looked last fall when it was featured in the December Nelson's Notes (photo 1). The main things left to do are to install the rumble seat (it's now in pieces in the Scott's bedroom) and paint and attach the rumble seat lid. The photo below shows a mock-up of the rear.

After all this work, and to house and protect his cart, Don had a shed built onto his park model.

TORNADO IN WETHERSFIELD

On June 26, the town we lived in for 34 years, and the one where Bruce did most of his growing up, was in the path of a destructive tornado. Some of the damage is shown in the three photos below that were found on the Hartford Courant web site (photos 1 & 2 are of the same house). The tornado hit Old Wethersfield, the section of town on the Connecticut River that was first settled in 1633. Not shown is the damage caused by straight line winds in other parts of Connecticut.

ALL ABOARD!

On July 30, Bruce and I will board the Sunset Limited in San Antonio and ride it for 30 hours to Los Angeles. We have reserved a roomette, which will give us a sleeping compartment 6 feet wide with 2 1/2 feet from the door to the window. While in LA, we'll be taking day trips with our son Brian and his wife Lydia. We'll return to San Antonio by train on Aug. 7 and then by car to San Benito on Aug. 9.

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Marianna Nelson