The Gabe Post

Last week Gabe came to spend the day with Mom and Dad (alias Great-Grandpa and Great-Granny). His mom, Abby, dropped him off for a visit while she was visiting the hospital for the day . . . which is not much fun for a 19-month-old guy.

Gabe really liked all of Grandpa's toys! I guess he has a little bit of that McHenry fascination with things that have wheels and engines. This was just fine for Grandpa, who is always willing to take you a ride on his tractors big and small. This photo is obviously the small tractor. The picture on the Oliver is not as good because Gabe is looking at the controls instead of the camera. This picture will have to do.

Granny was the entertainment inside the house finding endless bowls and spoons and other items that instantly turn into toys in the hands of a small boy.

It sounded like EVERYBODY had a good time . . . and maybe everybody enjoyed a little nap in the afternoon. :-)


I am always glad to be able to report on all the little people in our family. Isn't he a cutie?

The Sandbox Trip


Opa and Oma made a trip to Columbus this weekend to see the family. Of course, David is now one month old and needed to be visited Oma style to make sure he doesn't forget me after too long of an absence. BUT . . . Oma had another mission!


Katy's birthday is coming up on May 19, and being two is just very important. Since Katy loves to play outside in her yard, it seemed like the perfect time to add a sandbox to the growing collection of fun stuff inside the fence! After discussing this with Mom to make sure she and Dad had no objections, Oma and Opa went to Columbus with the express purpose of taking Katy shopping for a birthday sandbox. (You don't want to waste any warm days waiting for your birthday. Besides, there is no time to shop on the day of your party!)



On Saturday morning, Oma and Opa and Katy and Aunt Mel borrowed Katy's van keys from Dad and headed out for Toys 'R Us. We got good directions from Mom; but somehow all three of the grown-ups in the van completely missed seeing the Toys 'R Us on Morse Road. Before you know it, we were at Easton! Rather than go back looking for the Toys 'R Us store in the rain, we decided to check out the Walmart for sandboxes. Sure enough, the garden center had turtle sandboxes and four different COLORS of play sand. There was BLUE, PURPLE, PINK, and GREEN. Katy picked the pink sand, and we loaded up our cart and headed in to pay the nice lady for our stuff . . . which included a basket with some shovels and sand toys, too.



Opa loaded things into the van while Oma buckled Katy into the car seat. Off we went to Katy's house; and the rain stopped as we were driving . . . and the SUN came out! Great sandbox setup weather was ours! When we arrived at home, there was a lot of work to do to figure out where we could put the new sandbox. Everyone helped out with this part.

Once the location was decided and the sandbox was in place, we set to work to open up the bags of pink sand.

And then you have to pour all the sand into the sandbox.

After this Katy played.

And Katy and Oma and David and Aunt Mel played . . .

And even Opa took off his shoes and played!

We did lots of sand shoveling in the last two days. Of course, in between we found time to go out for lunch and to watch a couple "bideos" and to admire Dad's newly remodelled bathroom. We also talked to David. And Oma went shopping with Mommy and Aunt Mel (baby David came along, too). Shopping is a standard on most of Oma's trips to Columbus. I bought some awesome red patent leather shoes to jazz up all my black business attire. :-) But that is a story for another post.

I have a new CD from Great-Grandpa with more pictures from the Honor Flight. I also have some new pictures of cousin Gabe and his parents to blog with. Oma is in blogger heaven for the next few days.

Stay tuned for more excitement at Oma's Place! And have a great week!

Honor Flight Post #3 - Afternoon and Evening

Saturday afternoon, the Honor Flight tour bus transported the vets to Arlington and the Iwo Jima Memorial. There was time here to take photos and soak in this familiar monument. Dad is the sixth guy standing counting from the left side. He has on a black hat. (The photographer missed the right side of the group. Good thing Dad was on the left.)

After the Iwo Jima Memorial, the group travelled back down to the Korean, Lincoln, and Vietnam Memorials and spent a couple of hours taking tours and looking around. Bob Dole showed up to shake a few hands while they were there.

Around 5 p.m., the group took the bus to an Old Country Buffet restaurant for a great dinner together. Then they went back to the airport to board their flight home at 8:50 p.m.

When the Honor Flight left BWI, the fire trucks lined the runway and gave them a water cannon salute. This great honor is usually reserved for pilots making their final flight; and it was a great honor to be recognized in this way. And so they winged their way home with a great feeling! But it wasn't over yet!

Upon arrival at the Dayton airport, the rest of the passengers deplaned first and the flag and honor guard were presented in the corridor of the airport for a final time. About 100 or more people lined the flag-lined corridor to welcome the veterans home for the last time that day. Decorated military soldiers saluted as the veterans walked by. Civilians waved and clapped and shook their hands for a final show of appreciation. There was a reception and farewell before the Honor Flight veterans made their way home.

What a great day! Thank you, Honor Flight; and thanks to all the people who made this day possible for my Dad and the other deserving veterans who fought in World War II . . . and all the wars . . . for our freedom.

Dad also got a certificate from Honor Flight and has been invited to a reception at the Air Force Museum in the near future. In the past, he has done a video documentary of sorts with a group of students at Stivers High School; and he was invited to visit with the students and share some of his war experiences as a result of that project. With all this notoriety, who knows where he might show up next. He might be like Kilroy . . . he's everywhere.

Most of all, everyone in the family including me is really proud of Dad for defending our freedom and for being willing to come back home and work really hard to make the lives we have today possible. This Honor Flight is only a drop in the bucket of what he deserves.

We love you, Dad!

Honor Flight Post #2 - Saturday Morning

The day started at 5:30 a.m. Saturday at the Dayton Airport as the veterans chosen for the Honor Flight assembled for instructions and boarding preparation for the 7:00 a.m. departure of their Airtran Flight to Baltimore-Washington International Airport. When they arrived at BWI, they had a few minutes for a break and then boarded a tour bus to take them into Washington, D.C., to the World War II Memorial.

The group reached the WWII Memorial about 10 a.m., and there was a flag ceremony and group photo and tours of the Memorial. Although I've not visited the Memorial, the pictures show pillars with the names of each state as part of the structure. Dad sent me this picture of Kilroy, the lovable and popular master of doodles and graffiti during the war. If you follow the link here to Wikipedia, you will see a picture that looks just like the one here in the blog that Dad sent to me. However, the part you WON'T see on the wiki is the exact location of the doodle. It is . . . around the Pennsylvania and the Ohio pillars! Nor will you note that Kilroy often appeared on bombs that were dropped on targets all across Europe. You have to remember that the planes didn't fly very fast in the 40's; and the crew was often on oxygen at high altitudes for several hours just to REACH the target depending on where the mission directed them. I guess it was pretty boring until you got over enemy territory, and these barely 20-something guys needed SOMETHING to occupy their time. The part that is tough to figure is how they drew anything with those flight gloves on their hands. Have you ever seen those things? They were not made of Thinsulate! Anyway, here is your personal picture of Kilroy.

After Dad's tour of the World War II Memorial, he found Freddie waiting at the chow line. They got their lunches and found a place out on the grass to eat because the tent or shelter was already full. Since Vivianne knows my mom, she sent along a really lovely beaded bag that is pictured here. I looks like she hand decorated this . . . and the design is called "Tuskan Confetti." I like the bag AND the design name.

I will end this post with a Freddie story that Dad shared with me (he said it was okay to post.)

"Freddie is about 6 months older than Garl and they were the youngest on the B-24 Bomber crew during WWII. Freddie was sort of the crew activity organizer & clown because he had the crew laughing all the time. On 2 occasions during our first few missions, Freddie flew in the nose gunnery turret on the airplane. When he went to get out of the turret to drop the bombs, the turret door jammed and let minus 70 degree air into the turret until someone rescued him from the nose wheel compartment. In trying to get out with the door jammed, Freddie exposed the skin on his face to the cold air between his oxygen mask, helmet and goggles. This caused about a 1 inch triangle on his upper right cheek to frost bite. Freddie applied for the Purple Heart causing all of us to get a good laugh because he was probably the only one in the 8th Air Force to apply for the purple heart from getting frost bite. Needless to say he did not get the purple heart.

The Becchetti’s are retired now but they have led an interesting life. Freddie has been a teacher, Mayor/Manager of several housing projects and spent time in the Peace Corp with high ranking political assignments in South America."

I'm sure there is a special bond with somebody that you risk your life with 31 times in a prop plane flying on oxygen over Germany. I'm sure this time was really great for Dad and Freddie and made the trip even more special. Around 1:00 p.m., the Honor Flight vets boarded their bus for the next part of the day. I'll write some more about the Honor Flight and tell you some more Freddie stories in a few days. Hope you enjoyed today's post. (Did I get it right this time, Dad?)

EMERGENCY NEWS FLASH UPDATE!

I blew it on the news broadcast times. Here is an update directly from Dad!

There is quite an error in the broadcast times. The mention of the tour on Tuesday may be on WHIO-TV by the Dayton Daily News at 5:30 depending on the amount of news they have that day. The broadcast by NBC will be on the national news and will be on the Brian Williams show at 6:30 on Friday. The latter is more certain as it came directly from the camera crew.

Honor Flight - First of Several Posts

Honor Flight started in 2005 in the Springfield area. This non-profit is bringing incredible respect and tribute to a group of very deserving people. I may just have to send a few bucks their way!

On a previous post about Dad's invention, I mentioned that he had been chosen to go to Washington, D.C., for an Honor Flight trip in April and that I would be writing about it here. That trip was Saturday, April 19. Dad went with a group of 61 World War II veterans to take part in this visit to the war memorials. He said it was one of the best, most memorable days of his life. While he was overwhelmed with the generosity of the organization in paying all the expenses including soft drinks and snacks and transportation, the part that seems to ring through all his conversation is the amazing outpouring of thanks and gratitude of perfect strangers who walked up to shake their hands and tell them "thanks for serving." The honor guards went with them everywhere to make sure the day went perfectly. Active duty military people saluted them at the airport and on the streets. People on the airplane had flags and cheered them when they got on and off the airplane. Everywhere they went, there was a heroes welcome. I sit here with tears in my eyes thinking about how much this expression of love and respect meant to Dad and all the vets on this trip. Thank God for America; and thank God for Americans who still recognize somebody for sacrificing for them.

I'm hoping to post several times about Dad's trip as the pictures roll in. To start the ball rolling, however, I think you have to know about Freddie. When Dad (Garl McHenry) was notified that he was selected for the 4/19 Honor Flight, he e-mailed his former crew mate and best Army buddy, Freddie Becchetti. Freddie and his wife, Vivianne, live in Virginia not far from D.C. Freddie and Dad have kept in touch over the years and in recent years have collaborated on web sites about their war experiences and some war stories as well. One of the highlights of the trip on Saturday was the fact that Freddie came to the mall on Saturday and met Dad. They hadn't see each other in person for about 10 years; and it sounds like they had a great chance to eat their box lunches and sit on the grass and catch up.

One of the best parts of the meeting with Freddie was that Dad and Freddie talked about how to find each other in the crowd at the mall on Saturday. They decided that they would wear baseball caps . . . Freddie's orange and Dad's black with an ensignia. Well, it so happened that another group of tourists showed up at the same time as the Honor Flight wearing orange t-shirts. So the orange hat wasn't as easy to spot as they thought. They eventually found each other at the chow line. But I think Freddie gets extra points for the red hot chili pepper shirt. I've got to GET one of those.

I need to sort out some of the information that I got on this trip to give you a reasonable idea what went on. But before I leave this post, I have to say that there is supposed to be a brief segment on the evening news tomorrow (Tuesday) evening at 6:30 p.m. about this group of Honor Flight vets. And NBC is also supposed to air a two-minute segment on Brian Williams' portion of the broadcast. Dad was not on camera, but you might want to catch the clip just the same.

New Digs; Downtown

I recently made a job change within Federated Investors. I'm still within the Information Systems Division, but now I am working with both the business AND the technology folks. Since my previous role was working with the Dilbert crowd only, I was working in the "North Hills" part of the city (out closer to Cranberry where we live). As with many of the IT groups, the dress code in Dilbertville is business casual. The parking is free, and you have to driver (rather than walk) anywhere you want to go for lunch or to pick up a stray item that you needed.

With the shift in my responsibilities, I need to work more closely with the business people downtown. A couple of weeks ago, my base of operations moved from the IT building out in the 'burb's to the downtown office tower overlooking the Convention Center. The parking is NOT free; and the dress code is bankers/lawyers business suits. However, you can walk to dozens of stores and restaurants in under 10 minutes; and the view from my new office overlooks the convention center and the Allegheny River. Just beyond the third bridge in the photo above, you can see PNC Park---home of the Pittsburgh Pirates. I can see the players on the field from my spot on the 22nd floor. Just beyond PNC park is Heinz Field---home of the Pittsburgh Steelers. But the best part is the river and the endless stream of boats and barges and crew teams that are up and down there all the time. Even on cloudy days (we have many), it cheers me up to watch the river and know that just beyond PNC Park is the very tip of the mighty Ohio River that has flowed from here for centuries.

There is a lot of work to do, and I can't spend much time looking out the window. It doesn't matter, though. Important things are happening down there. Besides the view, things are always happening at the Convention Center, too. Just this morning, Obama held a rally there; and there were news crews and tons of people and motorcades all over the place. So if I have to get dressed up and drive into town; I might as well enjoy the view and the excitement of being a part of life in the city.

I think I'm going to like it here . . . . Someday soon the man will float by on his bungy cord and wash my dirty windows. Then I might take another picture that is clearer and doesn't have the reflection of the camera on the glass. :-)

Back from the land of the Babies!

Oma has returned to Pittsburgh after a whirlwind week with Brian, Emily, Katy and David. It was fast and fun. I wanted to post a few pictures and a story or two since it has been a week since my last post.

Katy and I were morning buddies most of the week because Mommy and Daddy were staying upstairs a little later while "Baby Damin" caught a little morning nap. Katy and I worked hard to make the coffee and even to stir up some waffle batter one morning so we could have a yummy breakfast. After breakfast, Katy eventually wanted to "Watch a bideo?" I got really familiar with Dora and the "Super Babies." By Thursday I was begging for Elmo's World or even the Wiggles. I think I've picked up a little Spanish from Dora; and I am definitely aware that "'C' is for cookie." Cookie Monster is still near and dear to my heart. :-)

On Thursday, we all went to Chipotle for lunch and took Baby David on his first outing. Those of you who know Emily will not be surprised at this nor will you have any question who picked the restaurant. Emily loves Chipotle and has passed this passion on to Katy who can dissect a soft taco and make short work of it.

After lunch we drove a few blocks to a small park where Katy got to play outside in a tunnel with a bunch of slides and other cool stuff. The pictures here are from the park. We even got a quick family picture.

All in all, Oma had a wonderful time helping out and spending time with the Mowery's and Aunt Mel (who is a very proud aunt for the second time, I might add). Yesterday I returned to Cranberry and was VERY glad to see Opa. It is really great to be home.