Corrections Officer Academy Graduate and More

 Friday December 20, 2024.

Grandson JJ with his kids at academy graduation where he became an NY State Corrections Officer.

Grandson JJ Walts graduated from the NY State Corrections Officer Academy in Albany, NY.  I got up at 4:00am to drive his mother (my daughter) from Watertown to his place in Adams so she could be there by 5:00. She went with his girlfriend and their 2 kids to the graduation ceremony, a 3 hour drive. 

A great buy at the Runnings store in Watertown. 

The Runnings store on Arsenal had a great sale on 1/2 inch Dewalt battery powered impact wrench. It was $199.00 including case, battery. These tools normally go for $350.00  I've been wanting one for quite some time and at this price I jumped on it. Merry Christmas to me. 

A chicken chimichanga for dinner at Jeb's in Lowville, NY. Absolutely delicious 

At 5:00 pm I drove my son T to Lowville where he needed to pickup his car that had been in the garage for repairs. Celebrity Brother Al went along. There was wet snow roads most of the way. We stopped at Jeb's restaurant in Lowville and had a great dinner. T & I each had chicken chimichangas with side of beans and rice, lettuce. It was most excellent. Al had a fish dinner.  Got back home to Chaumont about 9:00

Snowman Christmas decoration outside Jeb's restaurant in Lowville, NY

Busker street musician playing for tips

I do not reveal names of family members on this blog, nor friends names much either, unless they are somewhat of a celebrity, such as the artist Tom Bintz. Anyway, there is a young violin student in the family. This morning he had his mother drop him off at Musicology in Watertown. His mission was to play outside the store for tips. He is 12 years old. (or is he 13?) No matter. Anyway, he played the few melodies he knows off and on for about three hours and collected well over $10.00. I was teaching guitar inside the store today and when he hit the $10.00 mark he interrupted my lesson with the exclamation, "I hit $10.00. I am going to Burger King!" and he throws his arms out wide as he says it. Then he points a finger at me and asks,"Do you want anything?" I say no and he turns to my student (a woman that has teen age kids) and asks her the same thing. She smiles and says no. One of the guys that works at the store said to me, "That kid's got balls!"

My guitar student told me upon entering the store she gave him a dollar and said, "You can really tell he is into it." When I arrived at the store for my first lesson he had all ready been out there for 40 minutes. A woman with two little kids was passing by., stopped to talk to him. I gave a listen while pretending to be occupied with my cell phone as if ignoring them. She says, "You sound a little rusty but I knew what you are playing." The little girls asks what was he playing. The mom replied, "Amazing Grace." Then the violinist told her he hopes to teach violin at the store some time in the future. What a riot!

Young Violinist Violin Music

We did quite a bit of yard work yesterday.In the afternoon we visited my mother and met daughter S & JJ there. JJ's birthday was a few days ago, S's is today. So we took over a carrot cake and gave them their gifts. We got J a violin which he appeared to like greatly. I snapped a photo of him in front of the picture window, deliberately silhouetting him.  J is 13, S is 40. We had a nice time and watched The Great Race on tv at 8:00 after which I started editing the wedding photos from Saturday.

JJ tries out his violin at his great grandmother's house.  Phto by Gary Walts (of course!)

Today I have to photograph a social event at the Land Mark Theater in Syracuse, and then a Syracuse Chiefs baseball game.