General Blog

Captain James A. Raymond (1934 – 2013) James Arthur Raymond passed away June 2nd, 2013 at Halifax Health Port Orange. Born in Columbus, Ohio in 1934, he resided in Bexley throughout his childhood. 1956 was a busy year for him, when he both joined the Navy and married Nancy, his childhood sweetheart.  He pursued his naval career with success and promotions across twelve duty stations and thirty years, rising to the rank of Captain. Along the way, he fathered three loving children; Robert, Patricia and Michael. He was a man of varied interests including reading (producing numerous online reviews for […]

I‘m driving home in that easy-smiley way I am once club ops are done and we (as a group) hammered it out of the park. Running west on the 408 in the right lane, just passing Dean Road. To might right, there is an on/off ramp, a short little interchange with two cars coming into merge onto the expressway. I should move over but a glance in the rearview shows a guy overtaking on the left lane. I frown – he’s just in the wrong place for me. Touch of the brake to give the two mergers room in front […]

I‘ve read all sorts of books about piracy, and the one part of it that really makes me NOT want to be a pirate (outside of dangling in a cage at the end of Execution Dock, slowly rotting until the gulls are picking the eyeballs out of my sun bleached corpse) is careening. See, while you yo-ho your way around the Caribbean, your bottom gets foul (we’re talking your ship’s hull) with long strands of weed. This could prove very disadvantageous if the Spanish Navy (not the English – can we put THAT movie misconception to rest now?) attempt pursuit. […]

Under a tent, wearing a purple running shirt, with skyscrapers against the setting sun and everyone chatting and helicopters beating about and like, what the hell am I doing here? And how did I get myself into running a 5K? That’s a long story (thought I still hate Sam for talking me into this). It’s the corporate 5K run in downtown Orlando, a massive event. FedEx had a tent and I’m on the people committee, so here I am. You may have seen, in prior weeks, my miserable attempts to train up for this (and how I kept pulling muscles […]

Introductions have that double-edged feel to them. Is this person worth taking the time to get to know? Are they like a well-decorated cake that you cut into and find that beautiful icing was lovingly laid atop a well-formed pile of spam? Perhaps they’re a rusty old chest filled with gems? You could always get a rusty chest filled with an iced-spam cake. I suppose it’s the mystery that makes introductions fun. So, let me introduce myself. I’m Alan Kierstead, a not-always-well-oiled writing, chess-playing, racquetball-slamming, basketball-shooting, kid-raising machine. Sometimes I’m the iced-spam cake. I’d like to think there are a […]

Was walking home with JB  after a hipster lunch over at the local diner, Frankenstein over a cheeseburger, yum! Came to the corner of Virginia and Utah where this massive clump of unchecked foliage has pressed out a full lane, a hazzard for drivers trying to get around it. And there we found the two ladies who live down the street from us cutting it back with sheers and sweat-equity. See, it wasn’t even their house. And they said while they were cutting it, the owners drove out and gave them a look. But there have been many near-misses because […]

It’s been an eventful couple of weeks here at RobertRaymond.com. I’ve never been comfortable with the site’s lack of backup. After initiating it a few years back, I never found a backup system that seemed to work (you know the drill – you install something, follow the instructions, and suddenly you are at a screen that doesn’t match the instructions; Monopoly on a Ouija board. So I’ve been meaning to do that. It was my intention. Blah blah. Then a few weeks ago, I started getting a lot of registration activity on my board. Yay, me! Every hour, another registrant. […]

    The site will be undergoing maintenance and background work, and I’ll be occupied with other hobby efforts. This means I won’t really have any updates for the next week or so. See you when I get back!