Category: Blog Entries

We headed out for Maryland to see Sharon’s family. But on the way we made a stop over in Charleston to see Kevin and Jason. It was only for a day but we did have fun. During the day Sharon and I headed downtown for lunch and just by pure happenstance, or luck depending how you look at it, we ended up in T-Bonz brewpub!

The beer I had of course was a Nut Brown Ale, pretty good. 3 out of 5 I would rate it. Fairly light, almost a little watered down perhaps. The same goes for the Winter Wheat Ale. The food was good and the atmosphere and location were excellent. And we found a really cool birthday gift for Alice next door, it was…nope Alice, you are just going to have wait until it arrives in the mail, if it fits in your mailbox 😉

That night we all went out to Gene’s Hofbrau for beer and food, again 🙂 I indulged with a Holzar Bier Dunkel and a Flensburger Dunkel. They both were awesome, but the Holzar was a 4.5, where the Flens was a 4.0 on my scale of 1 to 5. Sharon and I ended up losing to Jason and Kevin four straight games of shuffle puck which was not particularly fun, but it was fun just to hang out with them.

Overall the best beer I have had I a while was from Kevin’s home brewing kit. He made a Nut Brown ale that was the bomb, a 4 out of 5 in my book, but it gets the nod over the Dunkels since it was brewed in Kevin’s kitchen! Can’t wait to try his “Big Jack Stout”!

During the drive up to Maryland I started to think about Noah and all that has happened. I thought back to when we hung out with some people, who are friends of us, but one in particular we never really talked with, she never seemed to give us the time of day. But it seemed when she found out what happened she became very sweet to us, which was nice but why did it take a tragedy to have her be nice to us? Its like when a stranger would do something mean to us, and then if they found out we just lost our son they would suddenly be nice to us because of what we went through. Just makes you think that the next time you want to get upset at someone for doing something you deem as inconsiderate or stupid, step back from it, what if they are going through something awful, maybe you should be nice to them. And then why not just be nice to everyone because yo never know what is going on in their life, there is so much hardship in the world that most likely they are dealing with something tough and just need a break or an act of kindness to maybe help them out. So how hard is it, to just swallow anger and be nice, treat everyone as though they were a friend possibly going through a rough time and need someone to be a friend, even if you are a stranger to them. I hope that all made sense, because it really did in my head when I was thinking about it 🙂 🙂 🙂

This past weekend we went and visited with our friends Alice and Wayne. As usual it was a nice time hanging out, and going to dinner for Thai food, and just enjoying each other’s company, like going to see family. Sometimes I think though jack and jinjer may have the most fun, they love their aunt Alice and uncle Wayne and cousin Keith. They always get so happy when they see where we are and so sad on the ride home. But they do always come away with new toys We are humbled once again by their generosity, and the neighbor’s as well. Thank you guys!

And be on the lookout for the new blog site “Alice’s Ailments“, coming soon 🙂

So now to get to the title of this blog. I have been seeing so many images of Ike’s fury. Complete communities scoured from the earth from the storm surge. After seeing these images and listening to the victims the feelings from the days after ivan come flooding back. Anxiety, anger, sadness and most of all fear, fear of where life will go next. Watching the aerial footage of Galveston reminds me of searching through hundreds of aerial photos of Pensacola area trying to see if our house survived and what did not. Then analyzing the tiny ima.
ge, which windows are broken, what is that all piled up on the side? Is the roof gone? Where’s the house across the street gone? And was there a house in the middle of the road before?

It will be a while before the residents can even get back to their properties to assess what is left. By then alot of mold and mildew sets in ruining almost anything fabric. The same will never come out of the clothes, ewwww, that smell was horrific. Made your stomach hurt and gave you nausea instantly.
I remember listening to any bits of info on what it was like on the island, the rumors that were not true, the rumors where the truth was actually worse 🙁

Those poor lost souls of Ike, now wondering, trying to figure out how to go on, and for a few, dealing with the loss of a loved one as well. How will they find the strength to put the pieces back together of their lives. I suspect many will leave, never to return. But the as we hear and learn very early in life, time heals all wounds. There will be a tomorrow and every tomorrow represents a step closer to being healed.

The first lesson we learned was just a week ago…
Never drive the van through deep saltwater 🙂

We applied this lesson just a day ago when we went out to the beach to watch yet another storm, Hurricane Ike, throw huge swells our way. The waves were bigger than Gustav and so was the storm surge. The waves were around 20 feet! And as you could tell from the photos, they were awesome! We watched them for a while and then walked the dogs and got back home with no incidence 🙂

The next lesson is one we all learn from when we are very young. Never take loved ones for granted.

While eating lunch Sharon and I began a conversation with an older gentlemen about the state of the world. And it got to other more pleasant topics, eventually about what I do for a living. And he too is an avid photographer, and his wife was an artist and he has so many of her works around the house. And he shared with us that she passed away 2 years ago. Sharon then said this to maybe comfort him “Well it must be nice to have so many nice things to remember her by” and he answered in a sad tone “Yeah, but I would much rather have her still around” 🙁

That statement hit me pretty hard. Sharon and I had been bickering a little earlier about stupid little stuff, we both have been dealing with a lot for a long time so it is natural to get snippy sometimes. But hearing that man say that about his wife, I realized again that none of the stupid petty stuff matters. I would not know what to do without her, I don’t know how I could go on, and I know she feels the same about me.

So if you are reading this, and I know you have heard this since you were a kid, but do not take your loved ones for granted, it is too late to let them know how you feel once they are gone. Sometimes if we all could just swallow our pride and let the little things run off us, we would have a happeier life for sure. Sometimes life gets in the way and we forget these things, but we are sometimes blessed with angels to tell us this lesson again. Just be open to them, they sometimes appear as old sweet men sitting next to you at lunch 🙂

This past weekend was a lot of fun. It started out friday night with BeerFest at Seville Quarters. Over 53 breweries and vendors were set up to share their wonderful brews for everyone. Cost was only $20. And we more than drank our $20 worth. We hustled very quickly from booth to booth sampling (a.k.a. chugging 🙂 the beers. Very quickly we realized we were forgetting what we had just tasted and that we needed food! There was no much food, but the beer selection was fantastic. I was a kid in a candy shop. One of my favorite beers was something I would not have thought twice about from the style. It was Orange Blossom Pilsner. Such a smooth easy drinking, refreshing beer. I could drink a 6 pack of it so quickly. Other favorites were…well I can’t remember, but I know there were some great beers we tasted. We got to see a few friends and chat a bit, but it was about the beer that night. Eventually we stopped chugging and just tasted and poured out the rest since we had a big volleyball tournament the next day.

The Ball Bangers Memorial Volleyball Tournament was to honor a fellow player who passed away at the age of 29 last year on Christmas Eve. Danny Sealey was not only a player with us but a great friend, he organized tournaments for us on the beach, and he called them “Ball Bangers”. In addition to being in memory of Dan everyone also wanted to do it in memory of our Noah. It was very nice. We donated all proceeds from the entry fees to the Humane Society, I would say probably $400-$500 total. It was a great day. I may have gotten too much sun in the searing heat. I played with Adam and we tied for 3rd, we had a good day. It was a little bittersweet as my normal partner, The Angry Catfish, Jeff Penton, was injured and not 100% so we did not play together as Noah would have liked to have seen I am sure. Sharon also played for the first time in a long time. She was rusty but played pretty well.

We miss you Noah and Danny. I would say rest in peace, but I want Noah to come back to us somehow. My heart still aches for my son…

On another note, the Van is slowly recovering, I have almost nursed her back to health and will be ready for a road trip here in a week or so depending on what Hurricane Ike is going to do…stay tuned.

Well we got lucky again with avoiding Hurricane Gustav. Just afraid how long our luck will last with Hannah, Ike and Josephine out there, and more to come since this looks to be a crazy season.

There was almost a tragedy however for us from Gustav, we almost killed the van. After I had gotten up at 4:00 am to go and help a friend move his furniture upstairs in case the storm surge got too high Sharon and I went to the beach. We wanted to see the large waves, which were recorded up to 18 feet that day! They were amazing, we took the puggles so they could play, but we never let them off the lease so they would not end up getting swept out to sea by the dangerous surf.

On the way home we drove on the road we lived on before Ivan. There is now a dip in the road that was filled with water, which we thought would not be too deep, we were wrong. The van stalled halfway through, I had to get out to push and when I did water flowed into the van as the water was over the bottom of the doors. Sharon helped me push it out of the dip. It would not start back up. I tried everything. I then pushed it a few blocks so I was away from the dip so people would not drive by thinking “Lokk at the dumbass that tried to drive through the water and got stalled out”. We decided to leave it to dry out, perhaps then it would be alright.

The next day we went back to the beach, this time with some ideas of things to try, but to no use. Still no start 🙁 It just would not fire up. Later that evening I went back out with Bryan. We changed the oil, dried some sensors, pulled spark plugs, changed the distributor, replaced a few blown fuses, and then when finally nothing worked we flooded the intake with starter fluid. Then there was life, it started up!!! It sounded bad, the belts were squealing like a scalded cat for a bit, but it was running just fine. I drove it home. The relief I felt was great. I had been so stressed. If we lost the van we were so screwed, I did not know what we would do. But the van did not want to die I guess, she still has some life and purpose in her yet. Someone up there was looking over us.

Thanks Noah for watching out for mom and dad. We love you.

Well we made it back without any troubles, we now have over 188,888 miles on our van! And still running strong, great MPG.

On the drive back Sharon and I talked a lot about Noah and the possibility that we may get blessed with another baby. We are pretty excited at the thought, but it is still hard as we do not want to have it seem like we are just going to replace Noah like you do a car or matress. We will always love him, he will be forever in our minds and hearts, we know this. While thinking about him, we remembered his service and all the wonderful people that showed up on such very short notice, and they all gave us such great support in a very hard time. I also realized I never posted the poem we read at his service (there were others that read some also but I do have them in writing to post). This was sent to me by my ex-wife’s Aunt Nancy, whom I will always think of as my aunt as well 🙂 We just thought it was so appropriate and really expressed what we feel happened perfectly.

God looked around his garden
and found an empty space
He then looked down upon the earth
and saw your little face
He put his arms around you
and lifted you to rest
God’s garden must be beautiful
He only takes the best
It broke our hearts to lose you
but you did not go alone
for part of us went with you
the day God called you home.

Feeling like we needed a break from real life for a day or so because of all that has happened to us, we planned a quick getaway from Rachie’s place in Port Charlotte to Key West.

Our getaway to Key West got off to a rough start, literally. First getting up at 5:30 to drive to Fort Myers was tough but it was the Key West High Speed Express boat ride that was rough. We know refer to it as the “barf barge.” The Gulf was still angry from Tropical Storm Fay that went through two days ago. I started out in the cabin of the boat but spent most of the time up top on the outside deck (aka the Vomit Veranda)because the winds and spray seemed to help keep me from throwing up. But many around me had a different fate. I have never been around so many sick people. The ride was a nightmare, and due to heavy waves the trip took an extra hour to get down there.

Sharon and I somehow weathered the ride without losing our breakfast. I actually felt quite good by the time we docked and was ready to explore and get lunch.

We walk several blocks down to Duval and over, finally settling on Jack’s Flats to eat. Which after spending some time on the island we realized could not have been a better choice as the price was cheap ($7.50 for grouper sandwich and fries) and the food was excellent. We highly recommend it. We then continued our trek down to our B&B. Which had we just gone straight there from the docks it would have been half the distance, instead I treked several extra blocks out our way, lugging two heavy bags in heat that was “Africa Hot.”

Upon arriving at the Alligator & the Mermaid B&B we were met with a gorgeous restored mansion with rainforest-like gardens. It was more than we imagined. The host was great, and the room (The Audubon Room) was great! We then went down to the Southernmost Point and took the obligatory photo for our scrapbook and proceeded to have a coupe of frozen drinks at a bar on the water. The drinks were great, just hate to spend $8 each on Pina Coladas served in plastic picnic cups without even so much as a garnish to spruce them up. We learned pretty quick that you have to look around to find the good deals on drinks, and they are out there, just gotta be savvy, and carry your bar guide 🙂

The rest of the day was spent at the B&B just relaxing by the pool and taking a nap. It was a wonderful afternoon.

We woke up and slowly got ready to head out for dinner. We decided that instead of eating at just one place we would do appetizers and drinks up and down Duval St. We hit several places, with Kelly’s Brewery and Grill being a highlight because it had been a while since we had visited a new brewpub. Although I do not have rave reviews for it, it was an average brewery. The Red Ale was not a typical red ale, but more like a stout or porter. So if you like those types of ales, you should try it. The other beer we tried was the wheat and again, an average brew, nothing special, but we were having it in Key West so it tasted a lot better than if we were in Des Moines. It came time to head back. But on the way back we got stopped by a “Vacation-Ownership” representative who offered us $150 in gift certificates for food, shopping or ativities. How could we pass it up? 🙂 🙂

The following morning after a great night’s sleep, we awoke to a fresh breakfast served out in the garden. Belgian Waffles with strawberry sauce, mmmmmmmm….

We would have hung out and soaked up the morning longer but we had to go to work, so to speak. Because if you have been following our blog, you know we are pros at this. The timeshare shuttle picked us up and took us to a Hyatt Resort for the presentation. We had a female representative with an English accent that was on a mission to size us up. We went for the usual tour of the property, ooohhh, ahhhhh, pretty 🙂 Then finally to where she walks us through the walk of fame I call it. As usual, it was a hallway with big beautiful posters of all the properties in the system, yadda, yadda, yadda. Then comes the pitch. She tells us why their system is superior, and all the options to travel the world. She followed the standard checklist of questions along with pros and cons.

I played a different role this time. I was not going to be in awe and amazement. Normally I act so interested and naive until it comes to the money. This time it was all business. I let her know I was interviewing and evaluating them. I got us off the hook because we want a pet-friendly system and they had ZERO resorts that are. So deal-breaker, no way around it. It worked like a charm, we were out of there and on our way in less than 2 hours. A new record. Thinking back i wish we would have timed all of them and made a game out of it. We did get a bonus, instead of $150 in certificates, we got $200!!

As we drove back in the shuttle, I spotted a lone shoe! I asked our driver, Rick, if he would mind turning around and let me get a photo of it? He was cool. “Anything for Art” he replied. It was perfect shoe. And get this, it was a little boys croc! AGAIN! I tried to play it off as coincidence.

We got back to the B&B and packed our stuff and got heading to lunch. We went to a restaurant that the B&B staff recommended and it was perfect (and it was on the list that accepts our gift certificates 🙂 The food was heavenly and the view on the water was so soothing. We got a couch table. Such a nice lunch in paradise.

One thing did happen out of the ordinary I guess you could say. My friend Priya, who does Angel work, has a website RoosterCroaks.com where she sells her artwork. She is guided by her angel who just so happens to be a dead rooster. Not sure how all this other world stuff works so bear with me. Either way, if you think that is nuts or entirely believable, stay with me. As I grabbed the local newspaper at the restaurant, shortly after getting the croc photo which I blew off as coincidence, I saw the lead story on the cover. It was accompanied by a large photo of a proud rooster with the Headline “Red Rover Dies”. Red Rover being the rooster pictured. How odd to see something about a rooster dying right after doubting a shoe sighting. Just more things that make you go …. hmmmmmm. Has it been the rooster spirit that has been contacting us???? I digress.

After lunch we went on a mission to spend our remaining $150 shopping since the seas were still a little too rough to snorkel. We thought about a plane ride, but the winds were too high as well. So shopping it was. I wanted sunglasses and Sharon was wanting jewelry. It was actually harder than it sounds. The store on the list were all higher end stores where we would have to spend all the certificates on one object. I found sunglasses for $16 which were cheapos, and nice ones at the stores all were over $100! Eventually time was running out, we HAD to spend them somewhere!

We remembered seeing a winery on the list, we found the location and off we went. 2 bottles of wine later and a nice bamboo cutting board, we still had $100! Finally at our last shop we hit something Sharon had been talking about the day before. She mentioned that she wanted a more casual purse, like a backpack purse for when we were traveling and such. This store had the perfect ones, ones she read about before but were too expensive. But within our $100 range 🙂

We bought the purse and boarded the “Barf Barge.” We popped two dramamine and hoped for the best. This boat was bigger and much more comfortable, we got a nice leather booth on the window. The ride was just about as rough, but not as many people seemed sick, we got a little green, but weathered it just fine. It was a quicker ride this time as well.

Overall as usual we packed a lot of stuff into a short span of time. We were exhausted and looking forward to getting some sleep to rest up from our vacation. Thanks to the many people who helped us be able to afford a night’s getaway to paradise where we could somewhat be happy again. We still miss our Noah so deeply, but are getting through each day thanks to the help of each other and our friends and family.

I have a client/friend named Priya who is very sensitive to angelic communication and the like. She has been speaking with us, telling us an angel has been trying to communicate with us about Noah. To keep things true, and authentic for me I am not going to reveal the angel’s name. She told us to visit a trance medium who channels his spirit so we can talk to him. But if anyone knows us, we cannot possibly afford something like that 🙂

This stuff is pretty out there for me. But I have had a lot of unexplained things happen to me to make large dents, even gaping holes in my disbelief. Hell, no one really knows anything, so anything is possible right?

Remember my phone’s clock stopping at 5:50? And waking up to see 5:50 on our TV at 11:34 at night? Well after reading about those incidences in this blog, Priya educated us on how angels are believed to communicate through numbers and 550 is a very significant number sequence throughout history with Angels.

5’s and 0’s, such as 500 or 550 – An important message that lets you know that your life changes are in Divine and perfect order. They are a gift from God and in alignment with God’s will for your higher self.

So I thought that was very interesting to read. And comforting. The other sequence we had been seeing is 808. Such as when Noah’s cremation was delayed until 8-08-08. $ days past when is was to be cremated.

8’s and 0’s, such as 800 or 808 – A message from your Divine Creator, signifying that the impending endings are part of your overall Diving plan. They are answers to your prayers, and in alignment with God’s ill for you. Ask God to help allay any fears or worries you may have about these upcoming changes.

I just wanted to point all of the coincidences out. You can make decisions for yourselves, but I am beginning to really believe. Well, I have to believe Noah’s death was not in vain, that he is watching us and trying to communicating to let us know he is alright. Or maybe someone else is trying to tell us that. Either way, In order to remain sane and stay away from anger and bitterness I am believing and remaining open to all things I do not understand.

We decided we wanted a break from Pensacola and got in the van and headed down south to Port Charlotte to visit Sharon’s sis Rachie and my best friend Scooter.

We could not have picked a worse time perhaps. Tropical Storm, soon to become Hurricane Fay, is barreling down on the Port Charlotte area as I type. Thankfully it is not supposed to turn into a major hurricane, like Charley. But still, we are planning to go to Key West this week for a night retreat from the real world. Something Sharon and I need so badly right now. Hopefully that will be postponed for only a day and then we will be able to head down.

I plan on broadcasting some of the storm live via webcam through my Yahoo IM ID of randalllhamilton (3 l’s) so if you get a chance check it out and say hey to us.

One of the things I plan on doing as well is catch up on some writing, some more things have developed in relation to Noah and his ongoing presence around us. I also will hopefully write more on my One Shoe Diaries Vol 2, now titled, “The Story of Noah” to honor him. I still cannot believe he will never be around. I looked so forward to sharing my One Shoe Diaries with him, and play the shoe game while traveling with during our adventures. Maybe, just maybe he will come back to us 🙂

**Update** Fay went to the South of us, while we did get some heavy rains from her, it was nothing of concern. We dodged another bullet.

Well the day came that we had to meet with the Funeral director to make arrangement s for little Noah. Since neither Sharon nor I ever want an open casket or want to be buried in a coffin we made the decision to have Noah cremated.

As we discussed all the details with the Director we came to a point where he asked if we wanted a duplicate death certificate, we replied that we did. He told us it would be $8 to get it done so I began to reach into my wallet for some cash i grabbed out of my backpack. The same cash that Glenda left in there the day before. As i began pulling the dollars out I felt as if i were hit with a brick. One of the dollars had something written on it. “Baby” in big blue letters. What the ****!

Sharon then saw it and immediately asked did I do that? “No”, I replied. “Where did it come from?”, quickly came next from her. I then explained where it came from as we both just stared at it. The director even seemed a bit taken back. We then just wanted to get things done and get out of there. No one likes to be in a funeral home.

When we got into the van to go home we were both stunned and perplexed. She called Glenda to ask her if she saw the writing on it and where she got it. She had not seen the writing and had gotten the dollars as change the day before out at the beach.

I just could not wrap my mind around it. Was this a message of some sort? What did it mean? Who was it from? SO many things had been happening my mind was spinning. Eventually Sharon had an idea of what it could be.

The night before she had prayed and asked God or Noah or someone to help us figure out what to do. Should we try again? Would it be alright to have another baby? Would it work out this time? Well she was pretty certain we just got our answer, and so am I.

I am going to have the dollar bill framed as a physical manifestation of how small we are in this world and that are so many things that we do not know or even come close to understanding. It will be a symbol of hope for us forever.

I hate to do this but I have more to this ongoing story thanks to a good friend of ours who has been enlightening us to the work of angels. So please bear with me and I will read another very soon

I want to take this opportunity to thank Faith Chapel Funeral Home as they offer a free service to help take care of babies who do not make it into this world. We did not have to pay a dime for the cremation, or any of the services that came along with it. They figure that if they cannot take care of the babies in the community, they shouldn’t be in business. We are forever grateful to them for their generosity.