Melanie Swan Photo

Well happy Valentine’s Day….a bit late! To be extremely truthful, I really don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day. It isn’t that I don’t like it, and obviously I have no problem with love!! It has just never been a big day in my book. No real reason. But, as it turns out, I DID kind of do something for Valentine’s Day this year in a round about way. Rich had a four day weekend thanks to President’s Day today, so on Thursday night we struck out for the beach. Ft. Rucker is only about an hour and a half from the Florida coast, so we wanted to take advantage of it while we could. We rented a condo on the 7th floor of a building right on the beach! It had a great balcony that stretched from the bedroom to the living room, and it provided a fabulous view! We slept with the door to the balcony open at night and listened to the waves (and we could even watch the waves while lying in bed!). As a matter of fact, I’m not sure that the balcony doors were ever shut while we were there!

Rich had some studying to do, so while he sat on the balcony with his books, I explored the beach below and caught a couple of chick flicks on HBO. Of course, we did spend some time together too! We planned to go out for dinner on Saturday night, but as it happens, we both woke up sick that morning!! Neither of us felt like doing a darn thing, so we didn’t. I took a hot bath, Rich did some reading, we watched another movie, and we went through a couple boxes of Puffs Plus! We did still need to eat, and the idea of someone bringing us dinner was pleasant, so we ordered pizza. When we went to Papajohns.com we discovered that they were making heart-shaped pizzas! So corney as it was, we ordered one!!! Pair that with the bottle of Martini & Rossi Asti we brought with us, and we had quite the Valentine’s Day feast (okay, not really, but we didn’t care)!

All in all, the weekend was a good one. A bit rainy…..yes, and filled with a little too much Kleenex…..yes. But, it was sweet time spent with my honey! He dropped me off in Birmingham today and I was really sad to watch him drive away. I’ll spend a few days here with a friend before I wing my way back home to Texas. And then, in another month, I plan to welcome Rich home with another bottle of Asti…. minus the Kleenex!

I have been at Ft. Rucker in southern Alabama for the past couple of weeks. My hubby has been on TDY (temporary duty) here since January 5th and, well, what can I say? I missed him!! As the winter months tend to be a slower season, I decided to pack up and come down here for a little while.

Ft. Rucker is an interesting place. It is the home of Army aviation and where all of the Army’s pilots are trained. I’m not yet to the point where I can distinguish between an Apache, Blackhawk, Chinook, Huey, and TH-67  just by sound, but I can by sight! I consider that pretty good! There is a cool museum here on post that I ran through the other day, but I plan to go back and actually spend some time there. I wonder if they allow cameras…?

Last night Rich decided that it would be fun to go to Rucker Lanes (the bolwing alley here on post) for Saturday night “Glow Bowl.” Have I ever mentioned that I can NOT bowl?? Really. Buuuuutttt, being the good, agreeable wife that I am (snort!) I agreed to go glow bowling with him. The “glow” part comes from the black lights they turn on as they dim all of the other lights. I just thought, “Great! Make-up not necessary.”

We got there, I donned the stylish shoes, and then I went in search of the perfect ball. After looking through all of the 16, 15, 14, and 12 pound balls, I finally spied an 8 pounder. That one looked like MY ball. I snatched it up before the 8 year old next to me could get it and carried it back to our lane. I was ready to go. I started, and was pleased to knock down a couple of pins on my first try. However, as I watched those around me, I was reminded that I have no technique. The guy in the lane next to us had his routine down pat. First, he stood right next to the thing-a-ma-bob that holds all of the balls. Then he took a wide step out and away from it to his left. Then he did a little dance as he approached the lane and released his ball at about waist height. He did this EVERY SINGLE TIME. And it worked!!!

True to my past record, I would knock a few pins down every now and then, but I would also put my ball in the gutter quite often. I made use of the gutter on the right the most. After a little while I suddenly noticed that a gate (bumper) was up on the right side of the lane when I bowled. I turned to my husband in surprise and said, “Honey! Look at that. I think the bumper is up. It must be malfunctioning or something.” Then I noticed that he and the people in the lane next to us were trying not to laugh….. Apparently Rich had programmed the bumper to come up when I bowled, and I was just now noticing it. Bah!!!  I had no idea you could do that. Needless to say, after a quick survey of the other lanes, and noting that the only people using bumpers was the 6 yr. and under crowd, I sweetly requested that Rich re-program the bumper for me.

In the end, Glow Bowl or no Glow Bowl, I sucked, just as usual. I don’t think I’ve ever broken a score of 100 while bowling. Five games later, as we left the bowling alley, Rich put his arm around me and said in a sweet voice, “Honey, at least you’re a very consistent bowler.” Gee, thanks!