Today is Thursday, January 10, 2019...
...and I'm just going to write a brief message in here at this time with that message being that the date, time, and location of Larry's birthday party has officially been set up. I'm hoping that the weather will be as wonderful as it has been the last two times.
This birthday party will be the third one since he was treated to his first one in 2017 in celebration of his 70th birthday, and the location has always been the same (and I doubt if that will be changing anytime soon). It seems to be scheduled around the same time, which is the Saturday afternoon that falls closest to his February 17th birthday.
Anyway, here are the details:
Where
McDonald's
at
111 W. 14th Street
(southwest corner of 14th & Jackson)
Anderson. Indiana
When
Saturday, February 16 from 1 PM to 4 PM
Type Of Party
Open House (Come & go as you please)
Cake, any fountain drink, whatever else is served as part of the party is free.
You can (if you want to) order extra eats from the main menu,
but no purchase is necessary.
No cards or gifts are necessary, either, but won't be refused -- in fact,
cards and/or gifts will, likely, make Larry's eyes light up
(along with the rest of his cute face)
in a way that can best be compared with how a little kid looks on
Christmas Morning upon seeing what all Santa has left during the night.
Some of his favorite gifts are:
tabs (of course)
Boxtops for Education
Labels from Campbell's products aimed at ending child hunger
When I have more time, I'll go into more detail about other ideas for gifts.
But the most important gift you can bring to this party is you.
A big turn-out where Larry gets to meet you, talk to you, pose for pictures with you, etc.
will make him very happy. If you have any kids, grandkids, nieces/nephews, godchildren, and/or
other kids you know who would like to be part of his big celebration, be sure to bring them, as
Larry loves having kids at his parties.
I need to sign off for now but will add more to this later...
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Saturday, January 12...
Yesterday, Larry was going to be driven around to run some errands by a friend named Wayne, but he ended up getting sick and calling Larry to let him know that he wouldn't be able to. Here is what happened next (that is, here's my "Thank You!" note in response to what happened next):
Long-story-short: Larry was as happy as a cute, little clam!!!
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If you are mailing tabs; letters/cards/postcards; and/or anything else to Larry
(I'm sharing the address to use right after this message)...
lease
lease
make sure that you've used enough postage so that it doesn't arrive with POSTAGE DUE.
Larry has a big heart, but he doesn't have a bottomless bank account.
He's a senior citizen with his only regular/guaranteed income being a fixed one from a small monthly check.
If, perhaps, a dozen packages arrived with POSTAGE DUE and he did extra well when recycling cans (all tabs always removed to be donated to the Ronald McDonald House in Indianapolis, Indiana, of course) and other aluminum/metal items, it might not be all that difficult for him to take care of the POSTAGE DUE.
However, there are at least two flies in the ointment going on here:
(1) Larry can only be sure of getting his fixed monthly income, so he can't begin taking care of paying POSTAGE DUE.
(2) And this is the address for a bank that his correspondence is sent in care of, and they can't be responsible for taking care of POSTAGE DUE issues.
Therefore, if anything arrives with POSTAGE DUE, it will have to be refused and returned.
If you want what you send to Larry to get to Larry, make sure that the cost of mailing it has been covered at your end.
Now, as promised, here's where to send things:
Larry Van Ness
c/o Old National Bank
1501 North Broadway
Anderson
Indiana
46012
USA
Tuesday, January 22...
Last night, Larry told me that he was now 323,445 tabs away from counting his 19,000,000th tab (since he began doing this in 2003) to be donated to
Ronald McDonald House's
Indianapolis location that is right next to
Riley Children's Hospital with a part of it even being in the hospital, itself.
Today, he and his friend,
Rachel, ...
Monday, February 4...
Somehow, I got derailed before I finished what I'd begun writing almost two weeks ago.
Anyway, look at how far he's come between now and then!!!
I'm going to give you another heads-up at this time before getting back to my busy, little life:
Larry wants you to know that he'll be staying in Indianapolis from July 20 until July 31 and that the tab and coin-drop on Monument Circle will be taking place on Friday, July 26, starting at 11 AM. If you get there after 2 PM, you will have likely gotten in on the tail-end or will have missed it altogether.
I'll be going into more detail later, but just wanted you to know at least that much -- as well as how Larry will be staying at
his favorite Indianapolis hotel as usual where he loves to visit with both old and new friends when he's sitting in the lobby.
One thing Larry would love to do is to throw out the first pitch at one of the home games this summer.
He would also love to meet/re-meet any athletes who happen to be in town.
If one or more people reading this are both willing and able to make these dreams come true for him, thanks, in advance, for making it happen!!!
You'll find his little kid on Christmas Morning expression will simply melt your heart!!!
It's very likely that he'll be receiving plaques for both counting 19,000,000 and 20,000,000 tabs since 2003 on the Circle this year.
And I wouldn't be surprised if he has counted his 21,000,000th tab before the year is over!!!
Larry is definitely one-of-a-kind!!!
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I actually have several updates to make, but my computer mouse is having issues at this time, so, I'll be adding them later. But the short story is that today's the day of Larry's open-house, and he's less than 198,000 away from counting his 19,000,000th tab!!!
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Here's a picture Raina took of me at Larry's open-house which was 4 wonderful hours that went by way too quickly.
Larry is now only a little over 103,000 tabs away from #19,000,000 here on Wednesday, February 20, 2019!!!
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Today is Monday, February 25, and Larry realized that he had given incorrect stats the last time he made a report but has since corrected his notes and is back-on-track again. As he's very thorough, this has never happened in all of the years that he's been counting, but he's had a lot on his mind lately.
He has all kinds of tabs to count in containers of all sizes and shapes, and it won't be much longer before he's counted his 19,000,000th tab and will be heading towards his 20,000,000th tab.
He hopes to have that counted before he goes to Indianapolis in July. When he reaches that milestone, there are going to be all kinds of celebrations going on!!!
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Today's Date:
Sunday, April 7, 2019
Hello, Everybody!!!
The last update I made here was on March 1, 2019, and a lot has been happening since then to where I didn't keep up with this blog-entry.
For one thing, Larry counted his 19,000,000th tab on Saturday, March 2, at 5:26 PM.
For another thing, he's continuing his count towards tab #20,000,000 that he hopes to have done by the early part of July -- and it's an understatement to say that he'll DEFINITELY have this done by then!!!
Today's Date:
Thursday, April 11, 2019
I'm finishing the note that I began writing four days ago -- which basically says that I'm working on several things at once at this time.
Already busy in the first place I got even busier when I was trying to play catch-up on a computer that was having issues -- especially where the mouse was concerned. The mouse now seems to be behaving slightly better at this time 2019
Have A Blessed Day!!!
Ainsley Jo "The PenLady" Phillips ☺
...
Today is Thursday, June 20, 2019, and I'm going to give you a LINK to an entry that I'll be building until sometime before the midnight that bids Goodbye to the first full day of Summer 2019 and welcomes the first Sunday of the same.
The purpose of this progressive entry is to focus on seeing how caught up with the things I need/want to do I can get within the time period I've just mentioned.
You will find quite a bit of Larry info there -- including (but not limited to) links to entries I made about Larry in this blog but not in the blog-entry you're reading now -- by the time it's the first Sunday in Summer 2019.
One thing I'm going to be adding (both here and there) will be a link to an opinion piece I plan to write re: why I've decided not to run for the position of POTUS #46.
On this note, I'll close for now... 
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Stay Tuned For More...
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