J M Wetherington Sr

Happy 18th Wedding Anniversary To Us!

Posted on March 30, 2015 by J.M. Wetherington Sr.

Man, I have gone downhill in a hurry these past 18 years, but Cindy is still as beautiful as she was the day we married.

As I mentioned a few days ago on Throwback Thursday, it was 18 years ago today that Cindy and I were married in the presence of a few friends and family members in the backyard garden of her parents’ home. It was Easter Sunday and though we don’t observe that religious holiday, our wedding did definitely signify the new beginnings that Spring represents, for both of us.

I look back and marvel that it has been that long because it seems in so many ways like it was only a short time ago.

We have two songs which came out during the 6 months before we were married that we claimed as “our songs” and had played throughout our wedding ceremony.

The video below, “When You Love A Woman”, by Journey is one of the songs we had played at our wedding. It had just come out shortly after we met 6 months earlier in 1996 and we slow-danced to it SO many times in the old JD Penguins’ lounge where we met on Halloween night, 1996.

“When you love a woman, you see your world inside her eyes.”

The song “I Finally Found Someone” by Bryan Adams and Barbra Streisand was part of the soundtrack for the movie “The Mirror Has Two Faces” which hit theaters on November 15, 1996, 2 weeks after we met. This was also a song we danced to more times than I can count and had played on the day of our nuptials as we said our vows.

Today we’re driving over to Daytona for a couple of days and nights at a hotel on the seashore so Cindy can awaken to some sunrises on the beach, something she just loves to do and experience.

Throwback Thursday – Jeff & Cindy’s Wedding 1997

Posted on March 26, 2015 by J.M. Wetherington Sr.

Four days from now, Monday, March 30th, will mark our 18th wedding anniversary. Today’s Throwback Thursday takes us back to 1997 to remember that special day that Cindy and I took our vows in her parents’ garden surrounded by our family and friends.

The quality of the photos taken that day were not as high as I would have liked, so I have left them at their original resolution and combined them into the collage below.

Posted in Family, Throwback Thursday | Tagged Family, Throwback Thursday, Wedding | 5 Comments

“Easy Lover”

Posted on March 24, 2015 by J.M. Wetherington Sr.

It’s difficult to believe it has been 30 years since “Easy Lover” was released. That’s half my lifetime ago! But it’s still one of the songs on my “Favorites” playlist to this day.

Back when it was first released I was already a fan of Genesis, the band Phil Collins was a member of, and Earth, Wind and Fire, the group that Philip Bailey was a member of (though as I recall I did NOT know Mr. Bailey was a member of that group until my younger brother told me one time when we were listening to the song on the car radio).

Unlike most music videos of the day (remember MTV and VH1, when they actually played music videos?), which typically tried to tell the story of the song in their video, “Easy Lover” was essentially, as Phil Collins points out in the short intro, a video of them making a video.

“Easy Lover” reached the number 2 spot on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and won an MTV Video Music Award for Best Overall Performance in a Video in 1985.

<In my radio DJ voice> Here’s your blast from the past, “Easy Lover” by Phil Collins and Philip Bailey.

Posted in Music | Tagged Easy Lover, music, music video, Phil Collins, Philip Bailey | 2 Comments

More Photos From The Moving Day Parkinson’s Walk

Posted on March 23, 2015 by J.M. Wetherington Sr.

In addition to the photos highlighting my mother-in-law in the Moving Day Parkinson’s Walk post last week, I had also taken many other photos of family members and the surroundings at Crane’s Roost Park. Here are some of the best of those photos.

My beautiful daughter with my oldest grandchildren, Heather and Mikey.

Heather at the Starting Arch of Balloons.

Heather at the Arch of Balloons that marked the starting point of the walk.

My mother-in-law with one of her granddaughters, Casey, posing for a picture.

My middle granddaughter, Abby, enjoying the walk…for now.

Left to right; Heather (listening to her iPod), Cindy, Ann and Abby (doing some kind of impression…maybe of Granddad).

Abby sitting in Granny's lap in wheelchair.

Grampy (my father-in-law) pushing Granny (my mother-in-law) with Abby in Granny’s lap as Cindy (Grandma) looks on. I decided to make this one Black & White to emphasize the light and darkness.

Heather decided to take a break and lie on the steps after the first lap.

A Black & White version of the same photo.

Mikey and his mom relaxing after the first lap.

A Black & White version of the same photo. I like the effect here much better than the color shot.

Abby and her mom Amber walk through the Balloon Arch to start the second lap.

From right to left; Cindy, her mother, her oldest brother Ed pushing the wheelchair, her older brother Paul, and in the background you can see Mikey, Ed’s son Dusty and Dusty’s wife Leslie as they start the second lap.

A shot of the walkway that takes you over Crane’s Roost Lake at the Park.

At the end of the walk, Granny smiles while Abby enjoys a bottle of water.

Posted in Family, Photography | Tagged Family, Moving Day®, Moving Day® Orlando, Parkinson's Disease, photography | 5 Comments

Throwback Thursday – Cindy’s Disney Retirement Party 2010

Posted on March 19, 2015 by J.M. Wetherington Sr.

This week’s Thursday Throwback recalls Cindy’s retirement from Disney party this week in 2010. Her mom and dad, to her right in the photo, were able to attend as a special surprise for her, and she is surrounded by many friends and co-workers.

Posted in Throwback Thursday | Comments Off

Photos & Video From Moving Day Parkinson’s Walk

Posted on March 15, 2015 by J.M. Wetherington Sr.

A couple of weeks ago I posted about the Moving Day National Parkinson’s Foundation Walking Benefit. That walk took place yesterday at Crane’s Roost Park in Altamonte Springs and my mother-in-law, Kay Perkins, who has Parkinson’s (as did her late father, Charles William Kinney in whose honor we walked) was well represented by her family, the Perkins’ Pack.

Below are photos and a video of the morning’s event.

Moving Day National Parkinson's Foundation Benefit Walk at Crane's Roost Park, Altamonte Springs, FL on March 14, 2015.

Part of the crowd getting ready to walk around Crane’s Roost Park Saturday morning, March 14, 2015.

My mother-in-law, Kay Perkins, getting her official t-shirt, with my father-in-law and their daughter (my wife) Cindy.

The Perkins’ Pack team gathered together before the walk to surround my mother-in-law with love and support.

No, they’re not being rude. They just want to show off their official “Perkins’ Pack” logo T-shirts.

The first participant bursts through the banner to kick-off the event.

Kay Perkins and her family approach the balloon arch to begin their walk.

Annnnndddddd, we’re off!

My father-in-law, who is a young man of 80, pushed his lovely bride around the first mile lap. Other members of the “Perkins’ Pack” team follow in their wake.

My granddaughter Abby, 5, hitches a ride with her great-granny.

My brother-in-law, Ed, takes his turn pushing his mother’s wheelchair with his wife at his side.

Team “Perkins’ Pack” gather for a post-walk photo.

Below is a short video of the walk. It was great for all of us to get together for this worthy cause in support of our much-loved matriarch and in honor of her late father.

Posted in Family | Tagged Altamonte Springs, Crane's Roost Park, Family, Grandchildren, Moving Day®, Moving Day® Orlando, Parkinson's Disease | 3 Comments

Albert Einstein Would Have Been 136 Today

Posted on March 14, 2015 by J.M. Wetherington Sr.

On this date in 1879 Albert Einstein was born. I don’t have much more to say about it beyond what I wrote last year, except to note that when I was in high school and struggling to understand his Theory of Relativity, his plain English explanation helped me immensely.

“When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That’s relativity.”

Posted in Science | Tagged Albert Einstein, Birthday, science | Comments Off

Happy Pi Day 2015

Posted on March 14, 2015 by J.M. Wetherington Sr.

March 14th, 3.14, is celebrated around the world as Pi Day every year. But this year’s Pi Day is even more significant because this year it is 2015 and the first 5 numbers of pi correspond to the format we sometimes give dates; in this case March 14, 2015 is 3.1415.

Pi is a mathematical constant, defined as the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, commonly approximated as 3.14159, though the actual number is infinitesimal. Here’s how the Dr. Math site describes pi:

Pi is an infinite decimal. Unlike numbers such as 3, 9.876, and 4.5, which have finitely many nonzero numbers to the right of the decimal place, pi has infinitely many numbers to the right of the decimal point.

If you write pi down in decimal form, the numbers to the right of the 0 never repeat in a pattern. Some infinite decimals do have patterns – for instance, the infinite decimal .3333333… has all 3’s to the right of the decimal point, and in the number .123456789123456789123456789… the sequence 123456789 is repeated. However, although many mathematicians have tried to find it, no repeating pattern for pi has been discovered – in fact, in 1768 Johann Lambert proved that there cannot be any such repeating pattern.

As a number that cannot be written as a repeating decimal or a finite decimal (you can never get to the end of it) pi is irrational: it cannot be written as a fraction (the ratio of two integers).

An even more detailed Pi Day T-shirt which includes the next 5 numbers, narrowing it down to the hour, minutes and seconds of the day.

And now my brain is mush because math is NOT my strong suit.

But most of us at least know the basics of pi and that the first three numbers correspond to March 14 (and the first 5 numbers correspond to March 14th THIS year) and even we non-mathematicians can enjoy the fun of this particular mathematical expression.

So, Happy Pi Day! May your day be roundly and irrationally enjoyed.

Posted in Special Days | Tagged Pi Day | Comments Off

Throwback Thursday – Kentucky Horse Park 2009

Posted on March 12, 2015 by J.M. Wetherington Sr.

Six years ago this week I was in Lexington, Kentucky doing recovery work following one of the worst ice storms that the state had ever experienced. I had a day off and decided to visit the nearby Kentucky Horse Park and take some photos. It was cold and wet, even in the middle of March, but the visit was so enjoyable and I was wishing my mom, who was still alive at the time, could have been with me because she loved thoroughbred horses.

This is just one of several good shots I got that day during the show which highlighted the skills of both the horse and their trainer/rider. This young lady was demonstrating how her beautiful equine creature could, from a fairly fast gallop, stop on a dime without throwing the rider or injuring itself.

Posted in Throwback Thursday | Tagged Kentucky Horse Park, Lexington Kentucky | Comments Off

House of Cards – Season 3

Posted on March 8, 2015 by J.M. Wetherington Sr.

I spent the past 3 weeks watching the first 2 seasons of House of Cards on Netflix so that I could be ready to watch the 3rd season, which dropped on Friday, February 27th. I watched episodes of the 3rd season late at night for the most part during that week and finished the season at lunch on Friday the 6th.

The first 2 seasons were absolutely awesome! The 3rd season…well not so much.

First, it got off to a slow start. Things don’t really pick up until the 5th episode, which is a bit late when you only have 13 episodes to air in a season.

Second, can I say I almost didn’t recognize Frank and Claire? I don’t mean physically (though at one point Claire does change her hair color and so does Frank, however his change is not by choice but rather the graying that seems inevitable to all sitting presidents), I mean in their behavior. They are almost unrecognizable because they just seem like all politicians we’ve come to observe and not the totally off the wall cretins that we came to know in the first 2 seasons. What happened?

Remy seemed like a watered down version of his old self as well. Are we to believe that the veneer of the White House just made all these people more…human?

Doug. Oh Doug, I didn’t really think you were going to go through with it.

The last episodes of Season 3 did pick up a bit and the last episode, though predictable as far as Frank and Claire were concerned, was pretty good. And when I say predictable, I mean in the sense of predictable when you’re dealing with normal people, which Frank and Claire weren’t in the first two seasons and then became in this third season.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still eagerly await season 4, and beyond if it works out that way, if only to see all these warped and twisted people, especially Frank and Claire, hopefully get the comeuppance they so richly deserve.

And for the record, I hated the bomber jacket on the campaign trail look.

Posted in Television | Tagged Frank Underwood, House of Cards | Comments Off