Flight: Photo a Week Challenge

A Photo a Week Challenge: Flight

Ocean City, NJ 5-6-2014 Gull over newly planted beach grass

 Thanks to Nancy Merrill for organizing this Photo A Week Challenge.

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Janice Hall Heck, retired educator, blogger, wannabe photographer, and nitpicky editor of On the Horizon, a bi-monthly community newsletter for Horizons at Woods Landing, Mays Landing, NJ, is quite possibly a grammar geek.

Oh Heck! Another Writing Quirk, a regular feature on this blog, suggests ways to improve our writing by avoiding and/or eliminating troublesome bug-a-boos that cramp our writing style.

=<^;^>=

AA: #AbandonedArchitecture Photo Challenge: Scullville, NJ

While my brain was resting up from the 2014 #AtoZ Blog Challenge, I stumbled across this new (to me) photo challenge from Lingering Visions:    Look at Abandoned Architecture (May). You can find several of these abandoned buildings along the backwoods roads of South Jersey.

I love the look of old buildings with cracked and peeling paint, broken windows, rusted hinges, weedy yards. I can imagine the lives of the families who lived there.

The house in this photo is found in Scullville, New Jersey, a place along the road on the way to somewhere else, down along Cranberry Creek and Mays Landing-Somers Point Rd in the marshlands of the Egg Harbor River.  We often use this back road to go to Ocean City, NJ.

Scullville, originally settled in the early 1700s, now earns its fame from the annual Terror in the Junkyard, the Halloween hayride sponsored by the Scullville Fire Company at Flemings Junkyard on Zion Road.

Don’t blink as your drive through the village, you just might miss it.

Grave markers in the front yard? Someone beckoning for help from the attic window?

 

 

 ***
Janice Hall Heck, retired educator, blogger, wannabe photographer, and nitpicky editor of On the Horizon, a bi-monthly community newsletter for Horizons at Woods Landing, Mays Landing, NJ, is quite possibly a grammar geek.

Oh Heck! Another Writing Quirk,  theme for the amazing 2014 A to Z Challenge, suggests ways to improve our writing by avoiding and/or eliminating troublesome bug-a-boos that cramp our writing style.

Look for a list of posts for the #AtoZ, 2014 Challenge (Writing Quirks) here:  #AtoZ: Q is for Quirky Index and a Q Post Round-Up

Meow for now.  =<^!^>=

 

 

 

#AtoZ, 2014: V and Cee’s Very Small Things

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Very Small Things

While walking with my daughters around the Fred Lake at Stockton College, we saw this little critter. Amazing. He’s smaller than a fingernail.

NaBloPoMo 14. Cee’s Fotos: Let’s Eat! Two of Everything, Please

Another Double Day Challenge:

NaBloPoMo 14 and Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge:  Two items or the number two

Cee’s challenges make me giggle. I go through my picture folders and find some goodies. Here are a few of my favorite twosomes.

Breakfast: Peach Pancakes at Main Street Café, Mays Landing, NJ

Lunch: South Jersey steak sandwiches, cheese and no-cheese, at Gina’s Ristorante, in Vineland, NJ

Or…pizza at the Ocean City Boardwalk. Big Slice: A Taste of Philly. Manco and Manco’s makes good pizza, too.

You might as well have some French fries while you are at the Ocean City Boardwalk. Ask these two Fry Guys how good they are.

Two bunches of choco-bacon for a snack at the Amish Market in Vineland, NJ. Well…maybe.

How about a cappuchino instead of the choco-bacon? Photo credit: worldofwonderdotnet

Ah, dessert. Finally. Here’s the proper way to eat TASTYKAKE pies! (Only 90 calories each. Promise!) Pie-eating contest, Mays Landing Days Celebration, NJ

The Last Meow.

There ya go again, Missy Jan. You always wait ’til the last thing to give us our turn to speak. And then we are too tired. We know that’s your secret strategy! Just you wait. Furday and CatFurDay are coming and we are going to take over your blog!

Well anyway, here are two of us taking a little nap. Please have our snacks ready when we wake up…and none of that choco-bacon stuff for us, thank you.

Photo credit: Roflcatdotcome

Meow for now. =<^;^>=

Bike MS: City to Shore, September 29, 2012

How many miles can you ride your bike? 25? 45? 76? 100? 150?

Participants in the 2012 Bike MS City to Shore had their choice of routes and miles, but whichever route they chose, they rode with enthusiasm. After pedaling on local back roads through the beautiful countryside of Southern New Jersey with its charming small towns, woodsy areas, Pine Barrens, blueberry fields, bird-filled marshes, the riders finally reached the last two daunting, muscle-challenging hills: the Delores Cooper Bridge and the Ocean City-Longport Bridge. After that, it was an easy ride to the finish line at Fifth Street in Ocean City, NJ.

The final hill, the Ocean City-Longport Bridge

Over 7000 riders (hearsay says 7,700), took on the MS challenge and raised a whopping $4,632,383.29 towards the event goal of $5,200,000.00. Funds will continue to come in over the next few weeks.

Many corporations (Merck, Pfizer, Teva, Novacare, Bank of America, Johnson and Johnson, Campbells V-8, UPHS/PENN, and others), places of worship, organizations, cycling clubs, schools, and individuals participated in this bike-a-thon.

An enthusiastic crowd gathered at the Fifth Street finish line to welcome the tired bikers and make noise with their bam-bams.

Campbell’s V-8 bikers walked their bikes to the staging area after completing the race.

I must admit that I did not ride 75 miles or even 10 miles, but I did volunteer in the VIP Chicken Tent all day along with other Krewe du Kroey family members. A team of volunteers prepped 1300 bbq chicken dinners for VIP riders (riders who have raised over $1000 each). The highest individual fundraiser, rider Phillip Cooper, reportedly raised $23,041, with Andrea Rosenthal following close behind with $20.003.  Virtual participants joined in, too.  Jack Beiter raised $14,760 and Beth Malikowski raised $3,490.

The Krewe du Kroey volunteers for this event every year. Some family members have volunteered for this event for more than ten years. Younger members of the family join right in and work along side the adults.

Maddie (10), MiMi (7), and friend separated and repackaged dinner rolls in preparation for the food line. Mom supervised. Maddie was our most enthusiastic supporter of the bikers. Later, as she placed cups of cole slaw on the chicken platters, she offered continuous encouragement to riders. “Great job riders.” “Thanks for riding.” “Congratulations, riders, you finished a great race.” What a treat to work with her.

The King of Chicken BBQ and his faithful friend, Wallace the Chicken    www.javelincaterers.com

The chef’s assistants cut chickens.

Volunteers plated up the chicken dinners for the hungry VIP riders.

Riders enjoyed their chicken dinners in the VIP dining room under threatening skies. (The rain held off!)

Our friend and neighbor, Roy, rested a few minutes before eating his dinner. Roy rides every year in this even for his wife, Sue, who has MS. Most riders have a very personal attachment to a person with MS and ride in their honor.

The youngest members of the Kroey Krewe (Maddie, MiMi, and Brianna) blew their horns to support the fight for a cure for MS. They worked hard for many hours but took a little time for fun. They loved the MS Bam-Bams! (Of course, the Bams-Bams caused a few headaches for adults. Oh, well.)

Brianna enthusiastically marched around the VIP dining area carrying a sign with the positive news that a cure for MS is in sight. Children can learn the value and positive benefits of volunteering at an early age.

Brianna’s sign says it all, “A cure for MS is in sight.”

Thanks to the 7,700 riders, 1000+ volunteers, vendors, and donors who supported this worthy cause. With such commitment and promise, MS doesn’t have a chance.

Check this out: Eiko, an 85-year-old Asian woman wearing a dress and heels and carrying a purse, rides in the MS Bike City to Shore!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZYG97k1B8c

Volunteers and riders all have fun in this event.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=ZurXvgon79k&NR=1

YOUR TURN

What’s been your greatest physical challenge?

Do you know anyone who has MS? What’s their story?