“The Blue Angels are the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aerial flight demonstration team. Contrary to popular belief, the team mission is not to "wow" everybody at airshows and allow pilots to walk around with large "heads and egos". The actual mission is to enhance Navy and Marine Corp recruiting, and represent naval service. The team members also serve as positive role models, and goodwill ambassadors. The "best of the best", so to speak.”

                                            – Steve Taylor

It was months ago that I introduced you to our neighbor, Dave. I don’t think you can access the piece in the archives due to the technical problem that caused me to start this blog anew, but he lives on the corner and has a front yard full of artfully arranged  mining equipment.

He’s a man consumed by wanderlust, thinking little of taking off for the Yukon while his wife, Shirley, remains happily on the home front pursuing her own interests. It appears to be a highly satisfactory arrangement.

He’s an Honorary Blue Angel and on Friday Dave is taking off on an 11,000 mile journey around the United States, planning to tou

ch base with nearly 100 U.S. Navy Blue Angels. The itinerary sounds daunting, with barely a minute to spare. We can only hope that the weather stays fair and his trusty vehicle continu

es to give good performance.

In addition to the Blue Angels, there are relatives to meet.......ones he’s never seen before, but has contacted through careful research. Everyone is so excited about his visit.

Last evening we invited several of the neighbors to gather in our backyard for a sort of ice cream social and to say goodbye to Dave before he departs on his

grand tour. Mr. Bob went to the Auto Club where he acquired a map of the United States and Dave explained where he was headed as we sat in rapt attention. (Did you know that Triple A plans to discontinue their map department now that so many

folks have a GPS among their gadgets? Or so I heard. Mr. Bob used to print Auto Club maps and I haven’t gotten around to telling him that news item yet, but he’s one of the most

ardent readers of our blog, so he’ll find out in a little bit.)

Our youngest neighbors had a new baby last October and Mama Karen came to hear the first half of Dave’s presentati

on, then I called an intermission so she could run home to the sleeping baby and send her husband, Jeff, to hear the rest. He should have a blog entry devoted to just him, but having mentioned him,  I’ll digress long enough to send you to his link:

http://www.deflocked.com/guy.html

Now back to the evening’s activity. As we were schlepping things out to the patio for what in theory was really a very simple presentation........after all, it consisted merely of ice cream, a variety of toppings, a mo

unted map and some lanterns hung in trees here and there,........oh, and the arrangement of several chairs,  Mr. Bob panted, “Jane, I’m sorry to tell you this, but I think it’s the last time we’re going to entertain.” I knew better than to offer a rebuttal.

But when the evening turned chill and our guests had gone home, we brought the trays of dishes and leftover food into the kitchen from the patio and Mr. Bob opened his arms to give me a hug. He said he’d do it all over again since everyone had had such a good time.  Sigh........ he’s a good man, he is.

Latcho drom (Romany for “safe journey”), Dave.