Photos by MJ Klein

For years I’ve been reading about this mysterious place in northern Taiwan, where there are abandoned homes that resemble UFOs.  I’ve always wanted to go there and check it out, and thanks to our good friend Andres, we were able to do so recently.

This Google Earth image shows an overview of the complex.

This is the first view of the pods from the road.  Yes, those are chickens that some people are keeping inside the fence.

The story of the Pod Village is fairly well known.  Begun by a petroleum company in 1980 , the project was halted when the company ran out of money.  Taken over by a bank and eventually by another group of investors, the project was started up again, but (as things go sometimes) the investors had a disagreement and the project was abandoned for good in 1989.

This complex has some interesting features.  This depression apparently was part of an underground lobby complex that originated from another set of buildings.  Now it’s full of rain and sea water.  I think it looks like it would have made a very nice Roman style pool.

As you can see, there are 2 pools in the complex.  This place had everything!

There is even a “cave” for kids to play in.  As I was walking around I kept thinking what a cool place this was and how much fun it would have been to live here.

Being close to the ocean, it does get hammered pretty good by wind and spray.

This has contributed to the decline of the complex.  The pods are fiberglas (FRP) shells hung on a concrete frame.

Many of the pods are literally falling apart.

Looking inside, you can see how open the interior must have been.

This is some kind of water processing plant behind the cave.  It looks like it was the pool filtering system.

I recommend that you click on any of these photos and go to the Flickr Pod Village Photo Album to view the rest of the photos of this amazing place.  To help views find other photos taken of this amazing place, I’ve created a group on Flickr.  Please feel free to add your photos to this group.

Thanks for reading about the Pod Village of Sanzhih.  Please be sure to give us a rating so we know what you think of this article.

• TW Bents in Taichung
  Posted on Monday, November 3rd, 2008 in leisure - Comments: (6)
  Photo by MJ KleinI love to ride bicycles.  The problem is that I am too big for conventional type bikes.  I own a Giant mountain bike, and while where is nothing wrong with the design of the bicycle, I am in quite a bit of pain and discomfort after about 15 minutes on it.  Therefore, I cant ride it for very long.
• Daily Travel in Thailand
  Posted on Saturday, November 8th, 2008 in Thailand - Comments: (8)
  Photos by MJ KleinOur October 2008 trip to Thailand was business motivated.  We hired a car for the day and went to see our friend Mr. Somhkit at his factory in Muang Phon.  I’ll show you what it’s like to go south on highway 2 from Khonkaen down to Muang Phon, and some of the interesting sights of daily Thai life you can expect to see along the way.
• Our 2008 US Trip, Part Six: Nancy Arrives
  Posted on Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 in cooking - Comments: (8)
  Photos by MJ Klein, Hui-chen & Nancy, including FOOD PHOTOSBefore we continue with our series, I would like to talk about the series and how I’ve written it.  First of all, I updated the Wordpress In-series plug-in and it blew out all the previous series data.  I am unable to re-enter that information and get the updated plug-in to work and actually display series.
• Caption This Photo! #11
  Posted on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 in Humor - Comments: (5)
  Photo by my sister NancyYou know what to do!
• Back To Taiwan
  Posted on Friday, November 21st, 2008 in Photography - Comments: (6)
  Photos by MJ KleinOn our last day in Thailand, we got up very early in the morning to catch the first flight out of Khonkaen to Bangkok.  We had to take a cab from the old airport, which is now the domestic airport, to the new airport - the one with the unpronouncable name.This is the departure level at Bangkok’s international airport.
• Pod Village
  Posted on Thursday, November 27th, 2008 in moblog - Comments: (6)
  Pod Village, originally uploaded by TheNHBushman.com.We visited the famous Pod Village and took lots of photos for you. Look for a article on this amazing site in the very near future.Originally began in 1980, the company that started the project ran into financial difficulty. Investors restarted the project in 1989 but subsequently had a disagreement and the project was abandoned in the same year.
• Bushman Gets Bent
  Posted on Thursday, November 27th, 2008 in riding - Comments: (8)
  Photos by MJ Klein & Hui-chenYeah, I got bent, but not in the typical sense where I go drinking with my friends.  This time my getting “bent” refers to my purchase of a recumbent tricycle.MJ with Walter, the designer of the recumbent tricycle model shown here - The ArtificeGetting fat comes with getting older and not exercising.  I love to exercise but I dislike pain.

Photos by MJ Klein & Hui-chen

Yeah, I got bent, but not in the typical sense where I go drinking with my friends.  This time my getting “bent” refers to my purchase of a recumbent tricycle.

MJ with Walter, the designer of the recumbent tricycle model shown here - The Artifice

Getting fat comes with getting older and not exercising.  I love to exercise but I dislike pain.  I’ve had enough of that already.  I’d like to be doing fun things for exercise and this is one of the most fun experiences you can have while getting quality exercise.

Not your typical “adult tricycle”

The wide seat is unbelievably comfortable.  The leg position is like sitting on the sofa with your feet on the coffee table.  This takes pressure off one’s heart and actually makes fitness goals easier to achieve.

Here, Kevin Kao, the owner of TW Bents adjusts the length of the boom for my “x-seam” size.  Just looking at this photo of how fat I look in the trike makes me want to ride until I drop.  That’s ok.  I’m not the first person who bought one of these trikes to get into shape.  The goal is to ride something and keep riding it. The angle of the seat and the headrest perfectly supports my spine and neck.  This is the most comfortable thing I’ve ever ridden.  The first ride I took when I got it home was over 7km long, with speeds topping 30KPH.  When I’m finally in shape the possibilities are endless.  Many recumbent riders have toured the entire island of Taiwan.  I’ve met a few of those riders.

In addition to the speed, since this design (called a tadpole trike) doesn’t lean in turns, you feel G-forces similar to a sports car.

One cool feature about the Artifice is that it is a folding trike. You have to disassemble some parts to get it to fold up small enough to fit in your car, but it only takes about 10 minutes to do the disassembly and the parts are designed to come off and go back on easily.  You could pack it up and ship it somewhere for an adventure ride.  I haven’t tried to take it on a bus or the THSR, but I imagine if you had a couple of bags you could manage it.  In this photo, the rear rack is preventing it from folding up small and we took the rack off to put it in our car for the ride home.  Daily transportation would be better served with an automotive roof rack to get to ride sites, rather than folding.  But still the folding feature is great when you need it.

Look for more articles about trike riding as I put on the miles!

Pod Village, originally uploaded by TheNHBushman.com.

We visited the famous Pod Village and took lots of photos for you. Look for a article on this amazing site in the very near future.

Originally began in 1980, the company that started the project ran into financial difficulty. Investors restarted the project in 1989 but subsequently had a disagreement and the project was abandoned in the same year.

The story in Chinese

Photos by MJ Klein & Hui-chen (with just a few FOOD PHOTOS)

We were rapidly approaching our last 2 days in the US.  We had seen and done just about everything we wanted to do, so we were determined to take it easy on the last 2 days of our trip and enjoy time with the family.

Growing tired of the food in the US, we wanted to try some of the local Asian cuisine.  Having been very dissapointed with what passes off as “Chinese food” we decided to try a place suggested by Adam and his wife.  So, we went to called P.F. Chang’s.

Here is a shot of the outside of the restaurant, showing the Chinese style horse sculptures.  That’s Adam and Kristen who drove us there.

The restaurant is in a rather upscale strip mall in Greensboro.

A very quickly framed shot of the bar inside.  We choose the dining room instead.

I didn’t take many photos of the food, so here is a single shot of the wonton soup.

A couple of things cracked us up.  One was the Chinese word they used on the menu to denote “spicy” food - the word was fire! The second thing was the “special sauce” that the waiter concocted for the fried dumplings.  It was comprised of “Chinese mustard” (which every US Chinese restaurant has, but is extremely rare in Asia), soy sauce, and la jiao or hot chili peppers.  The waiter made a big deal about that sauce being something special from China and it used the only 3 ingredients available on the table.  Duh!  The dumplings were good, nevertheless, and although expensive compared to dishes back home, we have to give P.F. credit for preparing flavorful dishes that at least resemble the originals.  The decor is nice, and we were never pressured into hurrying up.  We took our sweet time and had a nice relaxing meal with plenty of great conversation.

This is a photograph of the only other person in the restaurant who can read the Chinese on the menu.

The next day, we went looking for Thai food.  As readers of our blog know, Hui-chen and I live in a Thai neighborhood in Taiwan, and we have Thai food all the time.  We wanted to see what the Thai food was like local to our family’s home, and I must say it was pretty good.  We took my Mother for lunch and she particularly liked the Thai milk tea.  We met the owners’ son, who is studying business law at a local university.  He had a good laugh when I mentioned that I sing Thai songs at our local karaoke, by reading the Romanized English phonetics at the bottom.  Some of the customers who overheard that also got a good laugh, especially when I mentioned that it often takes 2 or 3 songs for the drunken patrons to realize that I’m not reading Thai!  The boss lady apprecited our broken Thai that we’ve picked up in our neighborhood, too!  After we left, we visited a couple of the local Asian markets, where I showed Mother a few items to buy so she could enjoy some home cooked SE Asian food.  This included the Thai milk tea, of course!

The next day was our last full day in the US, so we decided to do some shopping, and then relax all afternoon and evening by the pool.

I get relaxed just looking at photos of Janet’s patio.  Notice the electric mosquito swatters on the table.  We brought 3 of them with us from Taiwan, and they proved to be a huge hit with everyone!

In the early evening, Dad and Wanda arrived.

Dad had a big smile on his face as he sat at the table with his 4 children and his extended family.

Everyone noticed that Dad seemed more animated than he was before.  Ever since he went swimming the other day, there had been a noticeable increase in his awareness and interactions with people.  Here we see Hui-chen laughing at some joke Dad just cut.  One of the most difficult things we’ve had to deal with is watching our father’s sense of humor dwindle away because of his affliction.   Seeing Dad “come back” a bit, so to speak, has been very rewarding.  Janet and I had been discussing this and one of the things we wanted to do again, was get Dad in the pool and get him exercising some more.

After watching Dad in the pool the other night, I got the idea to get him a life jacket so he wouldn’t have to support himself in the pool.  Dad was excited by the idea, although we’re not exactly sure that he understood what we meant at the time.

I talked with John and Janet (in the pool) and they assured me that if I were to stay out of the pool and take photographs, there were enough people around to safely get Dad in an out of the pool.  I decided to stay out of the pool and handle the photography, considering that this may be the last time we are in the US with Dad, I wanted to get as many photographs as possible.

Dad is holding onto Adam’s hand for dear life, of course not realizing that it’s Adam specifically.  He’s just holding onto someone’s hand.  Security is a huge issue with the elderly, and Dad takes things very slowly when he’s in unfamiliar territory.  This is one of the reasons why I got him the life jacket.

Nancy jumped in, and finally we see a smile forming on Dad’s face as he’s getting in the comfort zone.  Janet and John are trying to get him to get down into the water.

Finally, Dad decides to get in the water, and now we realize that he does understand that the life jacket will hold him up.

Look at those smiles.  This scene is very much like old times with our Dad in the pool where we used to go swimming as children.  Dad is having the time of his life now that he feels secure with the vest on.

Dad taught all of his children how to swim at an early age, and he also taught us how to float on our backs!  John is demonstrating this technique, which is quite difficult to do in the lower-buoyancy fresh water of a pool, rather than the ocean.  Thanks to Dad’s training as a child, I’ve spent as much as 8 to 10 hours at a time in the ocean as an adult, with no flotation aids.  I know how to rest in the water, and so do my siblings.  Janet’s 3 sons are also avid swimmers so Dad’s legacy and love of water will live on through his family.

Janet is asking Dad “Can you do this?”

Dad makes a wisecrack to the effect that of course he can’t do that.

But then he tries it!

No one was expecting that!  “Faking” things is a part of humor that requires higher thought processes.  It sure seemed like Dad was “coming back” a little bit more.

You’ll notice how no one is hovering over Dad because he is fully supported by the life jacket.  Normally dependent upon others, his time in the pool was rather independent because he could swim around on his own and go where he wanted to go without help.  Very important indeed.

Dad took off into an overhand stroke a few times.  Here we see him coming back from a swim down to the deep end of the pool.  The first time he did this, we couldn’t believe it!

The 4 children pose for a quick shot with Dad (taken by Hui-chen).  I wish I could have been in the pool but I really wanted to take photographs.

I had another idea in mind when we went shopping for the life jacket.  Clearly this exercise was doing wonders for him, and we also wanted more interaction with him.

So we got some of those balls designed for throwing around in the pool.  They soak up water and become heavier.  We got a package of 2 and tossed them into the pool.  This shot shows the ball in the air on it’s way towards Dad.

Dad throws back to Janet who is going to try to hit it with a “noodle.”

This shot is very interesting I think.  Dad is fully “on” here.  Both of his hands are below the water line so you can’t tell which hand has the ball.  He’s going to do a “fake” throw just as Janet went to reach for the other ball.  When she realized what Dad was doing, she was astonished.  Dad hasn’t done anything like that in quite some time.  This exercise and interation was making him use his brain to a higher degree than he normally does and it was doing him a world of good.

Now, this is our Dad for sure.  He’s making some kind of a joke with Janet.  It was very heartwarming to see this happening as we were all afraid that we had lost our father for good.  Not yet!

Night fell and the pool lights were turned on.  This didn’t faze Dad one bit.

This is one of the few flash photos that I took.  Flash tends to distract Dad so I took nearly all ambient light photos.

After a very rewarding evening with Dad in the pool, Hui-chen and I retired for the evening.  The next day we would be heading back to Taiwan.

Before we left, the siblings took a “Taiwan style” photo together in Mom’s living room.

We had one more place to go to before the airport:

That’s right!  Fuddruckers!

Hui-chen and I tried the buffalo meat burger and they were great!  We enjoyed some conversation with Mother for the short time we had before we had to leave.  I hate to say this, but quite a bit of our time was spent with Dad and not with Mother, because of Dad’s condition.  Mother was very patient while we spend time at the pool and out on the lake without her.  Being a retired nurse, Mother was very understanding of the situation and we thank her.

The next installment of this series will be the last one, and it is about our return home to Taiwan.  We hope that you didn’t find this rather personal series too boring as it did focus mainly on our family.  Sooner or later almost everyone faces the same eventuality so I would expect that most people can relate to these experiences.

Thanks for reading!  Be sure to let us know how you liked this article by giving it a rating below.

Photos by MJ Klein

On our last day in Thailand, we got up very early in the morning to catch the first flight out of Khonkaen to Bangkok.  We had to take a cab from the old airport, which is now the domestic airport, to the new airport - the one with the unpronouncable name.

This is the departure level at Bangkok’s international airport.  We were getting ready to check in when we ran across this interesting service:

This is a luggage wrapping service that is available right in the departure lobby.  For 120b, you can get your luggage wrapped up nicely.

The guy cuts out the wheels and handles so you can maneuver the bag around easily.

If you’ve ever retrieved your bags at the baggage claim, only to find that they’ve popped opened due to mishandling (like we have) then you’ll love this service!  Our bags arrived in Taiwan in pristine condition.  The wrapping made them a lot easier to identify too.

The new airport has some interesting things on display.  This is the famous Naga that we’ve mentioned a few times in other installments of this series.

This plaque explains the scene, which is important in Thai mythology.

This sculpture is quite large and impressive!

The nearby gift shop has a decorative plate with this scene on it.

There is a display honoring the King’s late sister, Princess, Galyani Vadhana.  I recommend that you read Brunty’s article about a recent ceremony he attended to honor the late princess.

This is a sushi restaurant we’ve eaten at before.  Believe it or not, Hui-chen and I enjoy hanging out in airports checking out the restaurants, but….

We always check the boarding times and then….

Go shopping!  By the way, on this trip, like many others, we took advantage of duty free shopping on board the aircraft and purchased a few items.  I got a beautiful watch that I enjoy very much.

We bought quite a few gifts for the family on this trip.  It’s one of the nice benefits of owning our own business and being able to travel in connection with the business.

Finally it was time to head to our gate.

It’s a long way to the gate and quite tiring.  Good exercise though.

Whenever I’m walking through this airport, I feel like I’m passing through a giant caterpillar!

Due to our status as elite fliers we were upgraded to First Class and placed on the upper deck of the 747.  This is one happy passenger!  Hui-chen got a glass of champagne right away.

A flight attendant took this photo of us.

This is the upper deck, in case you’ve never see what it looks like.

The view out the window that day was impressive.  These next shots are the new airport from the air.

The big highway leading to the airport.

Surrounding areas of Bangkok.  It was a great day for shooting photos out the window of an aircraft, but the severe angle of the window on the upper deck made it a bit difficult at times.

Not sure where this is, but our flight takes us over Cambodia and Vietnam on the way to Taiwan.

Normally I don’t eat airline food, but Hui-chen enjoys sampling the airline cuisine.

Notice the glass of Bailey’s Irish Cream.

This is a shot of the personal video system in First Class.  In addition to uncensored “R” rated movies, there are video games, television shows and of course, the flight monitoring system shown here.

You can see our flight path in red.

We are approaching Taiwan.  On this trip I did not see Pratas Island because of the heavy cloud cover.

This is the first glimpse of Taiwan - our beautiful mountains peeking above the clouds.

Click on this (or any other) photo and view the large size to appreciate how the clouds are spilling over from East to West.

Industrial complex?  Yup, we’re approaching Taiwan alright!

Kaohsiung area.

Check out the beautiful scenery in the following photos:

The setting sun cast a reddish glow on the clouds - just lovely.

As much as we enjoyed this trip back to Thailand, it was good to get back home!

Thanks for reading this series.  Please tell us what you think about this article by giving it a rating below.

Photo by my sister Nancy

You know what to do!

Photos by Hui-chen, Nancy & MJ Klein

As you know from reading this series, all of us siblings get together very rarely.  So now that we’re all together we want to do things that Dad likes in celebration of being with him, perhaps for the last time.  We decided to rent a boat and take him out for the day on Belews Lake.

We rented a pontoon boat, which is perhaps the best design for a family outing.  Stable, roomy and yet fast enough to give you a bit a thrill, this kind of boat was just perfect for us.

I was busy shooting video that day, so Hui-chen handled our D80.  My sister Nancy also was shooting with her D40.  Nancy shot this photo of my brother John (left) and nephew Casey making sure that Dad was stable on the dock.  Dad is pretty good with doing almost anything - you just have to go slow.

The morning of our outing was clear and calm.  It was a perfect day to be on the lake!

Mike (my sister’s husband) goes aboard and gets driving instructions from The Boat Guy.

Everyone starts to board.

Everyone finds a spot they like and settles in.

Mike gets some final instructions from The Boat Guy and then we can shove off.

Mike backs the boat way from the dock….

I begin shooting with the Glidecam….

…. and pretty soon, we’re on our way!

This was the only thing that we weren’t going to do with our boat that day!

Dad looks like he’s enjoying himself.

Since I wear a hat, and normally long sleeved shirts, I didn’t need to sit under the canopy.  I preferred to sit up front.

This is a shot of the coal-fired power station at Belews Lake.

Wanda & Dad.

John with my nephew Adam.

Mike was our boat captain for the day and nobody had to concern themselves with driving.  He didn’t make anyone walk the plank either.

Hui-chen and my sister Nancy.

Basically, we just went around the lake at a leisurely pace.  Although it might not sound like so much fun, remember that the main point is that everyone was together in one place at the same time - something that hadn’t occurred for several years.  The weather was beautiful and just being out on the lake was so relaxing and peaceful.

Adam gets a sweet kiss from his wife, Kristen.  They have a secret to tell….

We took a break for awhile, and pulled up to the dock so Dad could visit the facilities.

This is a shot of the drivers cockpit.

Here are 2 photos for you, both taken with Nikon cameras.

More riding around, enjoying the perfect weather.  Suddenly, we saw something ahead in the water:

I mentioned this before but we saw a snake rapidly swimming across the lake surface.  Click on the link to read more about it.

We were riding around, enjoying the nice time together when Adam’s wife Kristen asked her father-in-law to stop the boat for a few minutes.

Kristen is holding something behind her back.  It’s an infant cap that her husband wore after he was born.  My sister Janet gave it to Kristen on their wedding day.  The reason that she is now holding this family treasure, is that she is about to ask her mother-in-law to make another one….  Janet of course asked “why?” and then suddenly it dawned on her….

This is Janet’s initial reaction to the news that her daughter-in-law is expecting!  Notice Dad in the background.  He was right there and in on the news, which I thought was just fantastic.

Hugs all around!

It came out that several of us - in fact most of us on board already knew and had been keeping the secret from Janet and Mike!  Janet found this out and is here asking “Who knew?”  hahaha!  Adam had come to me a few days previously, seeking advice on a good way to break the news to his parents.  I suggested that he have his wife ask Mom to make a new cap and he agreed that would be a fun way to do it.  Kristen agreed and when she arrived at the in-laws home, she had it with her.

That was fun, and a good way to break such wonderful news.

I like this photo of Mike, taken just after he got the news.  That’s one happy grandfather!

So, after that happy event, the rest of the day was filled with rejoicing, especially for my sister, who kept pointing to her daughter-in-law, saying “There’s my grandbaby” all afternoon!

One of the things we wanted to do was to park the boat and give Dad a little fishing pole time while some of the group went for a swim.  We weren’t going to put Dad in the lake, given the fact that Janet has a pool.  But Dad was always an avid fisherman and we wanted him to enjoy some fishing at his own leisurely pace.

The truth is, Dad is a little beyond fishing anymore, and he was having a hard time working the reel.  But actually catching something was beside the point.   Mike gave the line a good cast and Dad held the rod, just like old times.  In his condition just doing something familiar and enjoyable from past times is good therapy.

After resuming from our break, we saw this bird’s nest up on a tower.  This is an environmental station where the condition of the nest is being monitored.

As if on cue, the mother bird flew down to get food for her babies.

She caught a small fish and flew back up to the nest.

All these shots were taken rapid fire on the D80, panned along the flight of the bird as she went about her business.  We’re lucky to have been in a position to get anything at all.

This is one of the warning signs at the nesting site.

All in all, it was a beautiful day with time well spent with the family all together.  In some respects it was sad because we all realized that this may well be the last time that we are all together as a family with Dad in our midst.  I’ll leave you with this final shot of Dad, fishing pole in hand, on a boat in the water, surrounded by his family.  For him, it just doesn’t get any better than this!

Don’t worry, there’s more in this series!  In our next installment, Dad is going swimming again, and this time, well, you’ll have to see for yourself.

Thanks for reading!

Hanging With Joe and Oath, originally uploaded by TheNHBushman.com.

Nice Friday afternoon hang with Thai food and beer.

Photos by MJ Klein, Hui-chen & Nancy, including FOOD PHOTOS

Before we continue with our series, I would like to talk about the series and how I’ve written it.  First of all, I updated the Wordpress In-series plug-in and it blew out all the previous series data.  I am unable to re-enter that information and get the updated plug-in to work and actually display series.  This means that all those series I wrote in the past are unconnected.  The articles are still there, but as in this series, there is no longer a list of them at the bottom so you can find all of them.  Sorry but you’ll have to use the search box at the upper right.  I didn’t do it!  UPDATE: I fixed it by creating a new series and editing the previous articles.  I do not want to have to do that for each series I’ve written!

Also, on these series that are not time-sensitive, I’ve been taking my sweet time writing about them.  That certainly is the case with this series, which I have written over many months time.  Also, in some cases I had to think about what I wanted to write about (even though I do outlines) and I also have other things to do.  So that explains why I often write about things that happened some time ago.  Honestly, it just doesn’t matter.

Now, onto the current article: We have some interesting things for you, so sit back and enjoy!

This is our father’s reaction to seeing Nancy coming in the front door.  He didn’t have his glasses on but he knew who it was right away!

It might seem strange to say that, but Dad is suffering from dementia (as I mentioned before) and he is having trouble with names.  Currently he is able to recognize people though.  I’ve spoken to him on the phone recently and after I told him who I was he knew me right away.

Dad tells some kind of a story to Nancy who has just arrived at his home

It was heartwarming to see them interact like this.

Let’s just say that my sister Nancy is “animated” and leave it at that.

She had the rest of us cracking up!

We left Dad to rest.  He wasn’t able to spend all of his time with us naturally, so we had to pace things.

I had an idea about something that we knew he would enjoy doing.  Dad took the family to Florida in 1959 and bought a home there.  Nancy and my brother John were born in Florida, and our family has a lot of history in that State.  Dad loves fishing and seafood in general.  One of his favorites is shrimp, boiled in beer, and his own homemade cocktail sauce.  After talking it over with Janet and John, we decided that we would have a big shrimp boil for Dad, just like old times.

Hui-chen and I went to the local store that is know for having seafood, and we bought all of the shelled medium sized shrimp that they had on display.  Then I went to the alcohol section and bought a case of the cheapest beer I could find.  Cheap beer makes for a good shrimp boil because the cheaper and stinkier it is, the better.  Don’t waste your time on good imported beer for cooking!

Checking the shrimp.  Almost!

Now it’s ready to come off.  The worst mistake people make is to overcook seafood.  If it looks done, it is.

Here I am taking the shrimp out of the boiling pot (can you tell it’s me?)

Brother John had brought some smoked fish with him (as I mentioned in a previous article in this series)

For those you who who want to suffer more, just take a look at this closeup!  Of course you can always click on this link and view it really close up! The smoked fish tasted incredible.  This is just what I had in mind - some Florida cracker style food that Dad would enjoy.

My sister and her husband have a fantastic home that’s just great for entertaining!  This shot was taken in the early evening and the weather was just perfect.

Dad really enjoyed himself.

Our father was known for his shrimp cocktail sauce but he can’t make it anymore.  Fortunately I know how to make it so I whipped up a huge batch that was faithful to the original recipie.  Notice in this shot that Dad has a rather large bowl of it.  I’m telling you that there are few times I can remember being so happy that plans I had made turned out so well.

My sister Janet commented that it was “just like old times” and I can’t think of a better way to describe that evening.

This was a day for reliving old times indeed.  A few days previous I had asked Janet if Dad had been in her pool in recent times.  She answered that he hadn’t been able to enjoy her pool in quite some time due to his mental condition.  I suggested that we talk with his wife Wanda about the situation and see what she thought about the idea of us putting Dad in the pool with us.  Wanda readily agreed that with the addition of myself and John, both very strong and capable swimmers, there were enough men around to handle the situation safely, so, Wanda helped Dad put on his swim trunks and prepare him to enjoy one of the things he loves - swimming!

I hopped in the pool with my sister’s husband Mike, while my brother John and my sister’s son Adam helped Dad make it safely into the water.  Dad was laughing the entire time!  He thought it was great!

Once we got him into the pool, we needed to give him a sense of security.  You can see him grabbing for one of those foam “noodles” we placed in front of him.  Dad knows what those are as he used to spend quite a bit of time in Janet’s pool, so this experience certainly wasn’t anything new to him.

Once Dad got his footing he became totally relaxed.  Remember, at one time my father used to go on solo swims in the ocean at least one mile distant from the shore.  He taught me to respect, not fear water, and that teaching saved my life once when I had a series of diving equipment malfunctions that could have become fatal if I had panicked.  In this photo Mike and I are simply asking Dad what he wants to do.  He decided to get wet and go for a swim!

Janet grabbed a “noodle” and took Dad for a ride.

To be honest, I was the one who was nervous.  Here you see Mike and I keeping a watchful eye on things.  Although Dad is enjoying himself and we certainly didn’t want to interfere with that, we understand that Dad isn’t as strong as he used to be.  One of our concerns was that he might not be able to maintain his grip on the flotation aids.  We kept him in the shallow end of the pool.

Look at the look on my sister’s face.  Dad grabbed the ends of the noodle and made like he was rowing around the pool.  Janet’s second son Casey joined us and sat by the pool with a watchful eye.

He really seemed to enjoy himself and actually made something of a “comeback” while in the pool.  Janet says that he was joking around more than usual and that is a good sign.

At one point Dad became completely relaxed and let Janet push him all around the shallow end.  We all remember Dad doing these kinds of things for us when we were little, and now it was our turn to do the same for him.

Eventually, it got a bit chilly and it was time for Dad to get out of the pool.  We had to pick him up and set him down on the side before trying to stand him up.

I’m very glad that we were on-hand to assist Dad because it wouldn’t be secure enough with only 2 or 3 people.  This job requires 2 in the pool and 2 standing at the edge, minimum.

After swimming, Dad seemed a lot more talkative and active.  He kept saying how nice it was in the pool, and it became clear that this had been a wonderful therapeutic experience for him.  At one point during his time in the pool, he broke out into an overhand stoke and went into the deep end on his own!  I shot after him like a bullet and I regret to say that I got a bit too close to him, as I was worried he might run of of gas in the deep end.  His hand contacted my body and it distracted him and he stopped swimming.  I quickly grabbed him and took him to the end of the pool in the deep end.  He rested a bit and then easily made his way back to the shallow end.  If I hadn’t distracted him, I have no doubt that he would have easily made it to the far end of the pool.

This pool experience gave me an idea that I was able to explore a few days later.  I will present that to you in another article a few days from now, so you won’t want to miss that!

To end this article I wanted to show a few cute photos of the bunnies that live on my sister’s property.

Clicking on any one of these photos will take you to it’s Flickr page where you may view the large size.  This last one looks especially good in the large size because these are baby bunnies.

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See you next time!