The Mustang

Can you have a mid-life crisis when you are on the edge of being a senior citizen? Seems as though that happened to us. In 2002, we were in the middle of operating our own business, which was a very new experience for us. Hubby had lost his job at age 55 after working at the same company for 36 years and The Little Woman was recovering from total hip replacement and preparing to retire having worked for the government for 35 years. We got the wild idea to buy us a Mustang. At the time we both were driving mini vans. Hubby had his '95 Voyager for work and I had my '91 Caravan. In fact, I still have my '91 van, we refer to her as "Old Faithful". That's a another story for another day. We knew we wanted a GT and it had to be a five-speed. No automatic for us, that's a sissy car!

After looking and searching we found what we wanted. So in November 2002, we purchased our mid-life crisis car. It has been almost as much fun as our Yamaha Waverunners. However, with the Mustang we can enjoy it all year, not just in the summer, as was the case with the Waverunners. We only drive this vehicle 34 miles per week--17 miles to and from church. This drives our niece crazy!!!! If we exceed the 37 miles per week, then we have to park the GT for a week or two.

The Mustang was needing new tires. We can't just go buy new tires, Hubby has to do all the research as to what brand tires, size, width, etc. In the process he mentioned this to a friend at church that is a Mustang enthusiast. This guy owns seven Mustangs--yes, seven (7, VII) Mustangs. They range from early models (60's type) being restored to a new beautiful 2006. Wouldn't you know it, he had a set of new rims and tires he wanted to sell. I thought we needed new tires! Why do we need rims?! For reasons, known only to God, Hubby decides those rims are a must as well.

So, Saturday morning we are off to get the new rims. I have to admit, they look cool. The new rims also require new lug nuts, after all, you can't have those old ugly, rusted, lug nuts from the old rims, so we were off to The Summit (I don't even know how to describe the Summit, other than they sell all kind of car parts for restoration of any type of vehicle). The new lug nuts are nice and shinny and they also have locks for each wheel. Why do you have to lock your wheels? I guess that's a discussion for another time.

Titanic Exhibit

Yesterday we went down to the Atlanta Civic Center to see the Titanic exhibit. A bit pricey, but well worth it. We spent almost three hours in there looking at the articles recovered from the Titanic.

The White Star Line's R.M.S. Titanic sailed from England and France on it's maiden voyage to the United States on April 10, 1912. However, late on April 14, the ship struck an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic. Over 1500 people lost their lives. There were 700 that survived, but most of the life boats were only half full, because most of the passengers thought the Titanic was unsinkable.

Items recovered ranged from dishes, bottles, leather bag, shoe, jars (toothpaste jar), razor, shaving brush, pieces of the ship, jewelery, money, both paper and metal, documents, leather case with cigarettes, silverware, bell off the ship, a large piece of coal and other parts of the ship. There was also a recreated 1st Class room, which was quite nice, and a 3rd Class room, accompanied with the sound they would have experienced. It was very noisy from the roar of the ship's engines.

As we entered the exhibit we were handed a Board Pass. Each one was a duplicate of the boarding pass issued to one of the passengers on the ship. It reflected where the passenger was sailing from, their name, age, where they were from and who was accompanying them, the class they were traveling, where they were traveling to, the reason and a passenger fact about that individual. At the end of the exhibit there was a huge list of names on the wall, separated by class--1st Class, 2nd Class or 3rd Class, further separated by survived or lost.

Both our passengers were lost. It was very interesting to note that the largest number of passengers that survived were 1st Class passengers and the larges number of passenger lost were in 3rd Class. Just an observation.

The Little Woman's passenger was sailing form Southhampton (England). Her name was Mrs. Wilhelm Strom (Elna Matilda Persson). She was 29 years old, from Indiana Harbor, IN, accompanied by Selma (daughter, 2 years old) and Ernst Ulrik Persson (brother). They were traveling in 3rd Class to Indiana Harbor, Indiana. They had been visiting relatives at Julita farm, Sodermanland, Sweden. A few days before Elna planned to leave Sweden, her daughter Selma badly scalded her hand. This forced them to cancel their originally scheduled trip and book passage on Titanic. While on board, Selma had to visit the Ship's doctor every day.

Hubby's passenger was sailing from Cherbourg (France). His name was Mr. Engelhart Cornelius Ostby, age 65, from Providence, Rhode Island, accompanied by Helene Ragnhild Ostgy (daughter). They were traveling 1st Class to Providence, Rhode Island. Every year since 1906, Engelhart and Helene traveled to Europe together. A very successful jeweler, Engelhart made an annual trip to Europe to see what other jewelers were doing. In 1912, he and Helene also took a vacation through Southern Europe and Egypt. Engelhart's jewelry shop, Ostby & Barton, was the largest producer of gold rings in the world.

This was a very sobering exhibit. Well worth the money and time.


These are the two boarding passes given to us as we entered the exhibit.

Happy New Year

Busy New Year!

The New Year has started off rather busy! We always have the routine things like hair cuts, grocery shopping and duties around the house, but we have added a couple of activities. We attended the orientation in order to use the Senior Citizens Center, just down the road about one and one-half mile. It is a beautiful facility, with an indoor swimming pool, weight room, computer room, game room (pool), and a cafeteria. We want to use the swimming pool and weight room (maybe). However, this week has been so busy we haven't made it down ther yet, but next week looks like we might make it.

The Australians Are Taking Over

We have hosted the Job Family all the way from Australia. They are close friends the Fox family, our friends from church. (See the Fox Family blog link.)

The Jobs arrived Tuesday evening and departed this morning on their way to Disney World. We don't understand the attraction to that mouse! They spent most of their waking hours with the Fox family. We had a wonderful time hosting them, the fellowship was a treasure.

Thursday evening they all were here for supper (southern and Australian for dinner). We had homemade chilli and cornbread and Steph Fox brought sticky date pudding. It is wonderful. Strickly an Australian dessert. It's cake like with a caramel sauce over the top with a scoop of ice cream on the side. Yum yum!

Here are a few photos from the week.

The Job Family--left to right

Candice, Sue (Mom), Mark, Rod (Dad), Peter.

We decided if we can beat them, we'll join them.