Commander Joshua Pennington
(now retired)

August 5, 2019 - Monday morning
61 degrees/partly cloudy/calm winds
Pentoga Road

Did this past weekend happen? Seems we were just boarding a plane to head to the East Coast and now we're back on Pentoga Road. I've never seen three days fly by so fast.

Josh had a small, but beautiful and meaningful retirement ceremony. The head of his division flew up from Washington DC  to tell many stories of Josh's career and his accomplishments.

 I hadn't realized some of the accomplishments of Josh's career. Being a humble person, he's not one to blow his own horn, so we had to find out about them via Washington DC. 

Seems one of his biggest achievements was creating a way to disseminate the gases that were preventing clean up on the Deep Horizon Well in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. I remember Josh being there at the time, but didn't realize he was such an integral part of the environmental solution. 

For that and his other accomplishments, he received the Meritorious Service Medal, the highest noncombat recognition one can receive. 

Josh's daddy might have had a difficult time keeping his eyes dry during the ceremony as he listened to one story after another of Josh's career. I've never been more proud in my life.





I also found out that my oldest son is a comedian. One senior officer after another told humorous stories of how Josh injected humor with their very serious work. Evidently, he kept them laughing much of the time. All said they were very sad to see him leave and his senior officer told me that if Josh wanted a civilian position in the Coast Guard, there's one waiting for him in Washington D.C.

Josh is reflecting on his career

Josh spent the last several years of his service teaching engineering courses at the Coast Guard Academy. He was recognized by his peers and superiors as being an outstanding educator.

Special recognition was given by the Coast Guard to Josh's parents and children. I was especially gratified when Sargie was recognized. 

Allie and Sargie

 

Andy made a flying trip up from his oil job in Louisiana to attend his brother's ceremony. My baby boy will be leaving to drill for oil off the western coast of Africa in a few weeks. He takes after his daddy when it comes to adventurous vocations.

Dad, Luke, Pam, Josh, Andy, Matt
Grandchildren - Ellie, Cody, Wyatt

With the ceremony finished, the family celebrated at one of the local restaurants. It was also Josh's birthday, so it was a double celebration.



The rest of the day was spent around the hotel pool, but first, we had to stop by the store for sun block, pop, and chips. Naturally, Andy and Matt helped Luke, Sargie, and me, find what was needed. We laughed all the way through the store at their antics. 

It was off to the pool!

Cody had some quality air time with his uncles

With his patriotic swim trunks, we changed Captain Luke's name to Captain 'Merica

A heavy duty competition formed for Olympic type diving. There were three categories: cannonball, belly flop, and "pencil diving," who could make the smallest splash.

Tension mounting in the bullpen

Captain 'Merica won the cannonball diving competition for causing the largest splash and creating the biggest waves.

Poor Matt tried, but ended up cannonballing right onto his face. It was fun to watch and share his pain, but the poor boy didn't make a very big splash.

The Commander? Despite his best efforts, Josh was simply too skinny to make much of splash.

Grandson Wyatt won the Junior Division

Cody captured the Pee Wee title

Ellie won the Most Beautiful Jumper Award

A hearty congratulations from Matt to Luke

No hard feelings,  just a tender belly.

Their uncles kept Wyatt, Cody, and Ellie, entertained all day.

Matt's preparing for his mount in the belly flop competition

 ...which he lost.
The world class competitor bent his knees at the last second.

We enjoyed pizza Friday evening before calling it a day. There were a whole bunch of tired Pennington kids, big and little alike.

We gathered at Josh's Saturday morning which is next to an old cemetery. Sargie and I took the opportunity to walk around and look at some of the grave stones, all very old and interesting.

The final resting place of Captain Rich Sill who died in the late 1700's.

A picnic and reception was held at a local outdoor brewery Saturday afternoon for Josh.

Josh actually spent 26 years in the Coast Guard, but the four years attending the Academy didn't count towards retirement.

Josh is very active in Connecticut with family mountain biking. His local biking club, along with friends in the Coast Guard, sponsored the reception.

Note the chicken under the table

There were lots of hugs, kisses, and I love you's, as we prepared to leave. Luke had to drive back to Maine. He and my oldest grandson, Coleman, were departing for a few days of father/son time while camping in the woods of northern Maine this coming week. Matt, Sargie, Andy, and I, had to go to Matt and Jessica's in New Hampshire and prepare for Sunday's early flights from Boston.

The rest of the pictures are random Grandma Sargie/Grandpa snapshots of Saturday evening's activities in the yard and at the beach.

Em and Ben

Emerson took this photo of Grandma Sargie all by herself!

...and some of Bennet!

... as well as this one of Mommy!

It was nice to relax outside after a hectic two days of nonstop action. 

Wes enjoys munching on apples that fell from one of the trees in the back yard. Drop it in the sand? No problem. The grit didn't phase him a bit.

We spent the evening at the beach eating ice cream cones, playing in the sand, and wading in the very cold Atlantic Ocean. 

That's a one dip children's cup that Sargie has.

Jess, Andy, Matt, Wes, Emerson

... oh, and Ben, who didn't want his picture taken

Uncle Andy

The sun was getting low in the sky and it was time to return home, finish packing, and get ready for a very early morning departure from Boston.

We were up at 2:30 Sunday morning and had flawless flights to Iron Mountain by way of Detroit. Our plane touched down at exactly 10:30, right on time.

I was delighted to find that over 1.7 inches of rain had fallen in our absence. The month-long drought we'd experienced earlier is over. Almost five inches of rain has fallen in the past three-and-a-half weeks. 

Sargie and I had a lazy day yesterday, unpacked, and even went fishing later in the afternoon. We wanted and needed some quiet "us" time.

We caught a nice mess of bluegills and crappies and I'll post those pictures on the next entry.

Bedtime came very early last night. Poor Sargie has to close the Vision Center tonight and tomorrow. It's going to be a busy week for her with little let up in sight.

I'm heading to town first thing this morning to get gas for the mower. With all this rain that has fallen, the yard is looking more like a hay field.

So, the weekend has come and gone. Josh is now officially retired and looking forward to a bit of a slowdown before he continues on with his next venture in life. Luke is on vacation, but will soon be back to fighting fires. Matt is entertaining several people from Japan this week in work related matters and is planning his next business trip to Vietnam, S. Korea, Japan, and China, next month. Andy has a week or two before he flies off to Molobo, Equitorial Africa. 

And me? I'm off to the kitchen in search of another cup of coffee.



After all, a man's work is never done.



So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

My Sargie and me