J M Wetherington Sr

Our British Cousins

Posted on February 12, 2014 by J.M. Wetherington Sr.

My father-in-law’s cousin and her husband flew out of OIA this morning at 7am to spend the last 12 days of their vacation in Antigua before flying home to London.

Cindy and I last saw Frank and Jenny 8 years ago when we spent 3 days in London at the end of our 2 week trip to Scotland. They were kind enough to show us around in the short amount of time we had there, though there are still plenty of places we want to return and visit. One of the highlights was their getting us into a rarely visited portion of the royal estate to view the gravesites of my father-in-law’s ancestors, one of whom was the Royal Gardener (I’m sure the title was something more regal sounding, but I can’t recall it) to Queen Victoria and one who was the Head Housekeeper.

With a name like Wetherington, I should have looked around for some of my ancestors, but that stuff really holds no interest to me. However, Cindy and Jenny love looking into their family’s past and spent a lot of their time together doing just that on this visit. Here’s photographic proof.

Jenny (left) and Cindy already on the computer exploring family genealogy within minutes of our arrival Saturday afternoon.

They arrived this past Friday night and we did some visiting on Saturday afternoon/evening. We finally got them away from the computer so we could have dinner. We were joined by Amber and Abby.

From the bottom left; Dad, Cindy, Amber, Abby, Mom, jenny and Frank.

They also came out with Cindy’s parents to the Eola Market on Sunday to see Cindy’s Mountain Creek Candles business in action and walk around Lake Eola.

This past Monday Cindy and I, her parents and Frank and Jenny had afternoon tea at the Dickens Tea Room in Lake Mary and they said it made them feel a bit at home.

From the left: Frank, Me and Dad, plus unidentified ladies in the background.

From left: Mom, Jenny and Cindy, plus unidentified ladies in the background.

My cup and plate; I have never felt so refined in my life.

After the tea Cindy and I returned to the hotel while her parents and Frank and Jenny took a stroll around Leu Gardens.

Tuesday, Cindy’s parents took Frank and Jenny on the Scenic Boat Tour of Winter Park’s Chain of Lakes and by all accounts they had a great time. Tuesday evening we joined them for a few last hours at Cindy’s parent’s home for dinner, some genealogy tracking and enjoyable conversation.

Frank, Jenny, Dad, Mom and Cindy looking at family photos on the laptop.

Far too soon it was time to say “Goodnight” so that they could finish packing and get some sleep before arising this morning at 4am to get to the airport in time for their flight to Antigua.

Jenny, Dad, Mom and Frank in front of the fireplace with Mom holding the gift from Frank and Jenny.

Frank and Jenny, it was such a pleasure getting to see you both again. Hopefully we can make a return trip to London in the near future to visit further with you and finish our sightseeing. 🙂

Posted in Family | Tagged British, Family, Genealogy, London, Orlando | Comments Off

Happy Darwin Day!

Posted on February 12, 2014 by J.M. Wetherington Sr.

Today is the 205th birthday of British naturalist and the father of evolutionary biology, Charles Darwin, and is celebrated as Darwin Day across the globe.

In 1993, Dr. Robert Stephens proposed the creation of Darwin Day and co-founded the Darwin Day Program with Amanda Chesworth. Here is what Darwin Day is all about, from the organization’s website:

Darwin Day is an international celebration of science and humanity held on or around February 12, the day that Charles Darwin was born on in 1809. Specifically, it celebrates the discoveries and life of Charles Darwin — the man who first described biological evolution via natural selection with scientific rigor. More generally, Darwin Day expresses gratitude for the enormous benefits that scientific knowledge, acquired through human curiosity and ingenuity, has contributed to the advancement of humanity.

And for our friends who walk by faith rather than science, I thought this was a humorous cartoon that poked some harmless fun at those of us who are humanists and believers in science.

Posted in General | Tagged Charles Darwin, Darwin Day, science | Comments Off

The Day We Fight Back

Posted on February 11, 2014 by J.M. Wetherington Sr.

Today has been set aside on the Internet as the day for websites, blogs, podcasts and others across the web in America and around the world to let it be known that we are against the mass surveillance practiced by the NSA, in particular, and the intelligence agencies of other nations. Peaceful protests are also planned in the streets of cities around the globe like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Copenhagen, Stockholm and others.

If you go to The Day We Fight Back website, you can see how many organizations have joined hands in this effort. The usual groups against privacy infringement such as EFF and ACLU are joined by Mozilla, Reddit, BoingBoing, Greenpeace and many others, along with (as of this writing) 5,923 websites which have added the banner you see at the bottom of this page, urging U.S. citizens to contact their elected officials and world citizens will be asked to contact the appropriate officials in their area of residence to urge privacy protection.

I am a patriotic American citizen who believes in a strong America, but not at the cost of our ethical integrity. To me, the NSA practice of “Hoovering” every American’s phone calls, emails, website visits, chat room messages, video calls and text messages is analogous to the police department deciding that, in order to prevent future crimes, they will sneak into their citizenry’s homes, inventory all of their possessions, catalog all their bank accounts, record all their home alarm system passcodes and note all occupants of the home and their family and friends. Then they will hold that information and cross check it with all the other homes they have sneaked into and surreptitiously watch all those homes, adding other homes to the connection as more information becomes available.

If you too believe that the mass surveillance of your fellow citizens is wrong, I hope you’ll use the banner at the bottom of this page to contact your appropriate elected official and let them know you do not support the questionable and unlawful actions of the NSA or whatever intelligence agency is applicable to your home country.

Posted in Technology | Tagged NSA | Comments Off

A Dog’s View Of Barking

Posted on February 10, 2014 by J.M. Wetherington Sr.

Posted in Humor | Tagged family dog | 1 Comment

The Beatles On The Ed Sullivan Show February 9, 1964

Posted on February 9, 2014 by J.M. Wetherington Sr.

It was 50 years ago tonight. I was 8 ½ years old and my mom, dad and I gathered in the living room (my little brother was asleep in his room, as most 2 year olds should have been at that hour) to sit in front of our black and white TV to watch the American television debut of the British rock and roll group, The Beatles, on The Ed Sullivan Show.

My parents usually watched Ed Sullivan on Sunday nights. Most of the time I didn’t join them because there weren’t usually that many guests that were of interest to me. But the British Invasion was about to begin and I had already heard a couple of their songs on my little transistor radio and wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

I remember my dad complaining about their “hippie hair” during the songs (he was a country/western music fan). I remember me asking why all these girls were screaming and crying and sobbing and fainting. My mother said that when she was a girl the same thing had happened when Frank Sinatra (I don’t think I even knew who Sinatra was at that time) sang and I just could not imagine my strict, disciplinarian, by the book mom EVER screaming for some singer (though she DID like Elvis and used to tease my dad by telling him that Elvis could leave his shoes under her bed anytime…and I didn’t get THAT either at 8 years of age, though I would later on).

The music of The Beatles was a large part of my life from that night through my mid-teens. My generation of kids listened to it, danced to it, played it in our own bands and loved it as it became a part of the musical landscape of the 60’s and 70’s across this country.

Publicity photograph taken on stage when The Beatles made their debut on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Posted in Music, Television | Tagged Beatles, music, TV | Comments Off

Just Chillin’

Posted on February 6, 2014 by J.M. Wetherington Sr.

It’s almost 10pm, I’m watching/half watching “Oblivion” though I keep wondering why. Just to see what the hell has been going on and how it will end, I guess.

Cindy is spending the night with Amber and Abby tonight and Cindy’s parents are out watching Nicholas Nickleby out at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater so it’s just Bella, Annie, Fanny and I here at the house until about 11pm, but I’ll probably be in bed by the time they return home. I’ve had a slight stomach bug since this afternoon and am feeling pretty tired.

Tonight is our last night here for a little more than a week. We have relatives arriving from London tomorrow and they will be using the guest room here during their stay. Thanks to the wonder of hotel points, Cindy and I will be staying at a nearby hotel until next Thursday and then a couple of nights at a hotel on the beach for Valentine’s Day and so Cindy can watch the sunrise from our hotel bedroom, something she loves to do. We’ll return here next Saturday.

We’ve been working on it for the past 2 ½ weeks, but I finally got our income tax return finished and e-filed this morning. It was nice to have that off my plate for another year. But I’m behind on some of my photography work, some writing, website work and the two online courses I’m taking on jazz appreciation and principles of written english. That last course I may drop as it has turned out, so far, to be so basic as to almost be useless to me.

Have you seen that Amazon is considering raising the cost of Amazon Prime, which offers free two-day shipping as well as streaming movies and TV shows, from the current $79 per year to $99 or $119? A recent survey shows that approximately 65% of those polled would not be willing to pay $40 more per year while would not be averse to the $20 hike.

I like Amazon Prime. We’ve had it for a while and we do a lot of ordering from Amazon so the free shipping saves us quite a bit. We don’t use the streaming service much, mostly due to bandwidth limitations at the cabin and limited selection. I’m one of those who would retain the service for a $20 hike, but anything above that would most likely find me cancelling my Amazon Prime account.

OK, it’s 10:45 now. I finished the movie (blah), let the dogs out one last time (it’s a little chilly outside), and locked up the house. I’ll wrap this up and hit the sack; got another busy day tomorrow.

Posted in General | Tagged Amazon Prime, photography, writing | Comments Off

Upworthy Satire

Posted on February 6, 2014 by J.M. Wetherington Sr.

Posted in Comics, Humor | Tagged Batman, Humor | Comments Off

This ‘n That

Posted on February 5, 2014 by J.M. Wetherington Sr.

A collection of thoughts and information from me to you on this Wednesday.

There used to be someone called The Masked Blogger here in Orlando a few years back. Here are some photos he took while he was here.

I wonder how many people are aware that the Leonard Hofstadter character on The Big Bang Theory is an homage to Nobel Prize winning physicist Robert Hofstadter. In addition to the name similarities, the real Dr. Hofstadter taught at Princeton University before moving to California to teach at Stanford, while the fictional character graduated from Princeton and moved to California to work in the Physics department of Caltech.

It’s a shame that a soldier would even have to do something like this at such a sacred memorial, but I appreciate that he put these rude, obnoxious, unthinking people in their place with a few well-chosen words and tone of authority. The video is below, but please click the link for a full explanation/description.

I applaud the decision by CVS to no longer sell tobacco products and agree with the logic of CVS’s president when she says, “Selling tobacco is very inconsistent with being in that business,” said Helena Foulkes. “We really thought about this decision as it relates to the future as a health company — it’s good for customers and our company, in the long run.” But I also think that if you extend that logic to its natural conclusion they are going to have to remove any fatty, salty and sweet products such as chips and candy from their shelves as well.

Posted in General | Tagged Health, photography, The Masked Blogger, TV | Comments Off

Heather Receives The Principal’s Honor Roll Award

Posted on February 4, 2014 by J.M. Wetherington Sr.

This morning Cindy and I attended a ceremony at our oldest granddaughter Heather’s school where she and other classmates received honors for various accomplishments. Heather received the highest award, the Principal’s Honor Roll Award, for making all “A’s” on her report card this past quarter.

Heather walking up to get her award.

Heather receiving her award certificate from the assistant principal.

Heather holding up her Honor Roll award certificate.

Heather with her teacher and other classmates holding their awards.

We are so proud of Heather and all the hard work she did to achieve the Principal’s Honor Roll Award! Congratulations Panda!

Posted in Family | Tagged Grandchildren | Comments Off