Working in West Virginia

I'm at a Paneras in Charleston, West Virginia today (this is Skip). My grandfathers in the hospital and I came up with my mom to visit him and my grandmother. I took one day off work to travel here, and today and tomorrow I'm working (well, sort of-I'm playing with this blog right now)

My grandfather is doing better than I expected, he smiled and was glad to see me when I walked in. He had a heart attack a couple of weeks ago (his 6th). He talked to me for about 2 hours. He is a very quite guy so I think thats the most he's ever talked to me!

I found out something really interesting...his grandmother immigrated here from Germany (from a town near Hamburg), her name was Sabrina, and the first placed she lived in America was Hoboken!!!! Wow, we may have lived really close to where she lived back in the 1800's (for those of you who don't know Hoboken is only 1 mile square). After living in Hoboken for a while she moved with my great-great grandfather (who immigrated here from England) to West Virginia.

My grandfather has lead an interesting life so far, he and his dad were bear hunters in West Virginia (yes, bear hunter-his grandson turns out to be an animal rights vegetarian-go figure!), he fought in the Battle of the Bulge in WWII as a ground solider, he was a coal miner for years, and a preacher. Now one of his favorite things to do is go feed the wild ducks at the creek that runs along his property.

I really miss Nikki and Zoe and look forward to coming back Saturday.

I took the picture on this posting with my phone this morning. Its of myself in front of a bridge in Charleston by the Kanawha River.