Prayer Meeting Dec 31,2021

Happy New Year!

Ted and I sure did miss you guy's for some Poor Mans Cake and cold ones ! Hope you all all have a Great Year.... Spending this past year with you Bastard's has been GREAT!!

River Day 12/20/2021 (Christmas Edition)

 

This post may be a little boring to some readers, but I think it's important to preserve history, in the hopes it gives a little insight to our offspring, family, friends, or any other readers as to how we feel about tradition.  So I'm going to recount here how the Rivertarian Christmas celebration came to be.

Twenty-some years ago there was a group of us getting together at the river every week: fishing, burning stuff, having a few cold ones, smoking stogies and generally enjoying each other's company.  The group then was Jay, Ted, David and me.

I don't remember if it was the 1st winter or not, but definitely early on, each of us had brought a small gift for the others in the group.  Just a little "Merry Christmas" present.  It wasn't planned, or even talked about prior to the evening in question.  Everyone in the group just grabbed a bag, or whatever out of their vehicle and said "hey, I got a little something for you guys".  The following couple of years went similarly.

Eventually we started planning which evening the Christmas exchange/celebration would take place.  We brought or prepared food, we played music (traditional Christmas songs), exchanged gifts, and we had a great time.

The group has changed a little since then; David wasn't able to come, and Tim became a welcome regular (now a full-fledged Rivertarian).   What started out as a happy accident has now become a tradition with us, and is probably one of the most anticipated get togethers of the year, probably second only the the Annual Fall Camping Trip.

I'm pretty sure that each of us put more thought into these gifts than we do for anyone else's, ranging from homemade, to personalized, to functional.  Part of that tradition is also a print from the fall trip, that now includes our fallen brother.

Personally, I can't imagine a year without celebrating Christmas without these guys.

So that's the story of how Rivertarian Christmas came to be.  Hope it wasn't too boring.

From each of us, to each of you, Merry Christmas, and long live the Rivertarians!!

Jay Harper

Tim Harper

Ted Hemelgarn

Mark Morgan

Prayer Meeting 12/17/2021 (Jay's Birthday Celebration)

 

Of all the Prayer Meetings we've conducted, this one was definitely one of the best.  So, the usual suspects were present: Jay, Tim, Ted and me.  The day was also Jay's birthday and he got a very nice surprise: both of his sons, Damon and William, showed up unexpectedly.  Or at least early.  

As far as the weather was concerned, we had mild temps (60ish) but with some rain.  Not bad for the week before Christmas.

There were many conversations going on during the short gathering, pretty much all at the same time.  Lots of laughs as you might imagine.

Really happy to have been part of the evening.

Enjoy the pics everyone!

River Day 12/13/2021

Jay, Tim, Ted and I got together this week for our River Day celebration at Jay's.  Not that it matters much when you're indoors, but the weather was pretty mild: clear skies, temps in the mid to upper 50's.  I've gotten into such a habit of reporting the weather for Mondays, that I just automatically add it.  One of these days maybe someone will look back and ask "wonder what the weather was like that day?".  There ya go.

Ted brought a little item over for show and tell this week, part of a follow up on our chats about Geo Caching during the past meetings.  Pretty cool little device for a micro-cache.  We've talked for years about starting and hiding one, but haven't gotten around to it yet (in true Rivertarian fashion).

Hard to believe that we're rapidly approaching the end of 2021.  I believe it makes our frequent get togethers that much more important.  Time is going to keep on speeding along, so these sessions are well appreciated.

Happy River Day to all! 

River Day 12/6/21

Hello all!! No pictures this time. Tim,Ted, & Jay did a short rainy afternoon get together, having a few laughs and some cold ones. So sorry the rest of you followers could not attend. Have a good week Guys!

Prayer Meeting 12/03/2021

 Everyone was able to get together this Friday for our end-of-week celebration (except Pat): Jay, Ted, Tim and I all met at Jay's shop.  The weather wasn't too bad for the afternoon - a little windy but mild for this time of year.

I have become convinced that Jay's Bar and Hardware Store has every type of lightbulb ever created: from the miniature crystalizing grenade shown in the picture, to the skin searing, surface of the sun bright photo bulb as shown in the short video.  Helps to be prepared.

As we're all interested in it, the conversation turned to Geo Caching.  The talk ranged from finds (caches), to our place on the planet, to elevation, to up and down, north and south, and all other things map or location related. 

At some point I'm sure there were four different conversations going on between four different Rivertarians.   This would have been a great time for a recording crew to capture the live action.  Or not.

If I remember correctly, the talk was halted by a statement that went something like this:  "Listen to me @$$holes"

Always great sharing these times!

River Day 08/17/2015

 That's right folks, two River Day posts on the same day, but this one happened more than 6 years ago!  Other than Jay, I have no idea who all was there.

I came across the old point-and-shoot camera I used to use for River Day pics and checked the card for any photos.  Low and behold I found a handful of shots from 8/17/15, and confirmed that I never made a post from that day.

Sorry I don't have any story to go with the pics but thought I'd post them anyway.  Why keep 'em to myself, right?

From the pics, it looks like we were at the beach at Mill Creek, along the river, but if anyone has any memory of it, please comment.

Enjoy and Happy River Day (again)!

River Day 11/29/2021

 

Just Jay, Ted and I for River Day this week for a relaxing afternoon in the shop.  No snow yet but it sure was a cold walk over.  Thankfully, my walk is about a 10th of what Ted's was.  Temp was supposed to be around 40 but it didn't feel like it.

Most of the talk was about the past week and everyone's Thanksgiving holiday.  No projects, just a great time catching up.  

Short post this week, but hope that everyone had a great River Day!

Prayer Meeting 11/19/2021

 Jay, Ted and I spent a mostly quiet afternoon meeting at Jay's - always a great way to wind up a work week.  I actually finished my work week up with a Zoom meeting that I attended right there in the shop.  Jay and Ted were forced to sit in on it as well, but they seemed okay with it.  The weather outside was a bit blustery - windy and somewhere around 35 degrees.  

No projects this week, other than on my paper I was using for notes for the meeting.  After Ted saw what all I had put down,  he embellished the sheet a bit.

In case you're wondering what the final image represents (as I was) I was informed by the artist that it was simply "suck a$$", apparently what I was being during the meeting.

Had a great time as always hanging around with my fellow Rivertarians.

Not sure what everyone's plans are for the upcoming Holiday week, but it looks like there won't be a River Day celebration this coming Monday.  I'd like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, and safe travels to Jay and Tim.  

(And since Tim couldn't make it this week, I wanted to include him with a special picture)

River Day 11/15/2021

 

Another great River Day celebrated by Jay, Ted and I this week.  Again, we hung out in the shop since the weather is definitely leaning toward the cold side - sunny, but still a bit chilly.

Somehow or another the conversation got on the number "7" being the number of completion, biblically anyway.  So we decided to make our own monument to commemorate this (please forgive us).  The seven cans pictured above were completed anyway.

Logan came down to visit for a while to wow us with his Rubik's Cube skills.  He had two cubes that were "solved", so I asked him if I could scramble one of them for a test.  Although I was doubtful, he kept at it until he had it back to being completed.  Way to go!

We also got onto the topic of the upcoming winter, and hopefully, some snow.  Logan revealed that he has never ridden on or operated a Flexible Flyer steel runner sled (?!?!).  We've really got to change this and I think it's up to the senior Rivertarians to make it right.

This led to my attempt to visually depict a sledding route I used to take when I was quite a bit younger - okay, about 40 years younger, but I'm still game to give it a shot.

Happy River Day everyone!

Prayer Meeting 11/12/2021

Cooler temps kept us inside Jay's shop this week for Prayer Meeting, but at least we were able to get together.  Jay, Ted, Tim and I met for our end of week Rivertarian gathering.  

As Friday's are usually reserved for projects, Jay worked on his bench vise.  I wasn't there for the most of it, but Ted sent me some photos to record the event (Thanks Ted!).  I'm not really sure what the issue was, but all seems well now.  You can always tell it's serious when the flashlights come out.

After that it was the usual laughs, discussion of world issues, trying to decide what famous people are dead (or alive), and a few cold ones.

Gotta love our meetings!

All pics this week compliments of Ted.

River Day 11/08/2021

Warmer than usual temps for this time of year allowed us to spend at least part of River Day outside - heck, we even had a fire!  Maybe not the best fire on the river, but certainly the best fire on Franklin Ave.

Only 3 of us this Monday - Ted, Jay and me.  And no, we didn't do any trash talking about the guys that weren't there.  Another missed opportunity.  Oh well.

In true Rivertarian style, we did attempt something a little unusual: balancing beer cans (Yuengling, of course) on top of a metal ball, floating in a backyard fish pond.  Too much time on our hands maybe?  We also tried to pull the last of the beans off Jay and Lori's plants.  Some of them were hiding pretty well.

Not much else to add.  Just a nice relaxing afternoon gathering.

Thanks also to Jay for finding and hanging on to Hayden's long lost water bottle for school!

Happy River Day!