Wreaths Across America time again ...

One thing I always look forward to just before Christmas is the Wreaths Across America ceremony that is held on December 18th (or so) at 12:00 -- all around the world.  I had fun getting it going in Sidney, Ohio and worked with a lot of really super people. We usually hit it for around 600 wreaths, and got a lot of support there in Shelby County.  But, then we moved to North Carolina and I didn't know what would happen and how I might be able to help.

In Sidney, it was a relatively small project in a small cemetery.  There was usually a much bigger ceremony at the Dayton VA hospital, but we didn't get involved there.  So when we moved to NC, we did our research and found out that the project pretty much centered around the Raleigh National Cemetery. It is a little smaller than the Dayton VA (which is still an active cemetery and placed a little over 7,000 wreaths this year), and a whole lot smaller than Arlington National Cemetery (150,000 wreaths), but it is still a good ceremony and pretty well supported. The Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France placed 9,300 wreaths and all 14 American cemeteries in in other countries participated.  In America, 2.4 million wreaths were placed in over 3,100 cities.

There are 5,200 white granite or flat marble veteran grave markers, meticulously lined up across a neatly manicured field.  Also, it is worth noting that this cemetery is now pretty much inactive as all the burial sites are occupied. 

This year's ceremony was very well attended.  The sky was overcast and    rain was only about 30 miles away, but the people who were there were    determined to get the wreaths all placed.  Scouts, Veterans of all   ages, JROTC students, young kids with their parents and grandparents --            everyone pitching in, got the wreaths down and all the boxes cleaned up    just as the rain sprinkles arrived . HOOAH!!

One thing that made this time more special was having Keith and Jeanie Putnam with us.  They are both old Ohio friends who were spending the weekend with us.  Keith and Jeanie were both veterans of our Vets to DC trips back in Ohio.  Keith was a teacher at Anna when I was principal there, but more importantly  -- Keith is a retired US Navy Commander.  He was a navigator-Electronic Recon guy in in EA-3Bs in Vietnam.  

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 What a great time...honoring Veterans with another Veteran.  Doesn't get much better than this.

The mission of the Wreaths Across America project is to Remember our Veterans, Honor them, and Teach our young people about them. 

 

“We sleep peaceably in our beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on our behalf.”  (George Orwell)

 

  Hooah

My goodness, what a change ...

Veteran's Day was earlier this week, and a lot of the Veterans I know had a photo or two posted on Facebook showing the Soldier in their younger days.  

This brought a couple of things to my attention -- most of us looked much better (you know, the lean, mean, fighting machine picture) back then, and most of the pictures were taken many, many moons ago (most of us had hair and it wasn't gray).

Well, I came across these two pictures of 1SG Dave and 2LT me.  The first one was taken shortly after I got my commission to 2LT and we were deployed to do the Cubans at Ft. Chaffee.  This would have been the second time we were assigned to that mission.  Notice how slim and trim both of us are.  Those were the days.

The second picture is many years later, and was taken at a Battalion Dining Out.  Not sure of the year, but it was somewhere between 1994-98 as those were the years I was the battalion commander (all four years as a major). One other thing worth noting -- look at all of those service stripes on the CSM's sleeve.  He used to say he was a senior bus driver with all of those things.  Dave was pretty close to the end of his career; I still served for at least 10 to 14 more years.  I sure owe a lot to Dave's guidance and leadership over all those years and assignments.  I think most of the lost hair in the second picture was the result of raising a fresh 2LT and mentoring him all those years ... no easy task.

So those are my Veteran's Day remembrances for this year.  Sure had lots more pictures to look at and LOTS more memories, but these two just happened to be first ones in the folder I was looking through at the time.  Maybe more some other post.

A true friend accepts who you are, but also helps you to become who you should be. (Anon.)

Hooah

Funny what you can see on a road trip ...

Well, it wasn't a real road trip.  I was just going up town, maybe to get gas or go to Wal-Mart for something.  

Anyway, one of the big house-building companies was clearing all the timber out of a few acres just a little ways from here.  They have been going absolutely crazy around here clearing land and throwing up housing areas.  Thing is, people are buying them as fast or faster than they can build them (which, by the way doesn't take very long). Once the concrete dries they have a house framed up in a day!! 

So, back to the road trip.  As I came around a turn, I saw a tree that had been left -- a single tree in the middle of huge farm field. At first it looked like a mistake of nature.  But as I went past it to the other side, I looked in the rear view mirror and it looked like something out of a Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings or some other science fiction movie.  Check it out:

Pretty cool, huh.  Maybe those land clearing guys actually had an eye for a far-out piece of modern art. Nice wings.  Nice beak. Deep-seated eyes. Looks like its walking across the field.

The more I look at it, the more I wonder what history that tree has lived through, how many times it might have been struck by lightning, what droughts or tornadoes or fires it might have survived. Who was it who said "that tree is outstanding in its field."  I know -- bad, huh!

Every crag and gnarled tree and lonely valley has its own strange and graceful legend attached to it. Share this Quote Douglas Hyde
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/strange-quotes

Every crag and gnarled tree and lonely valley has its own strange and graceful legend attached to it. Share this Quote Douglas Hyde
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/strange-quotes

Every crag and gnarled tree and lonely valley has its own strange and graceful legend attached to it. (Douglas Hyde)

Hooah

Beautiful music ... what a break ...

My friend Dave sent me this link. 

According to the description on the link, over 600 military musicians from 11 nations came together to perform this rendition of the song, Unchained Melody.  This performance took place at the Musicshow of the Nations in Bremen, Germany.

Unchained Melody was written in 1955 and served as the theme for a little-known prison film that year titled "Unchained." Todd Duncan sang the song for the movie, but most people know it as the song made famous by the Righteous Brothers. 

Click on this link from the Musicshow of the Nations and enjoy.  Unchained Melody 

This link takes you to the Righteous Brothers version of the song. Righteous Brothers version

Another version that was really popular was done in the film, Ghost. Ghost

All of these links are listed on the YouTube site and you can go there to see many other fine renditions of these and other great, memorable songs ... especially for those of you who grew up in the 50s, 60s and 70s. 

And speaking of the 50s and 60s, I came across the picture below as I was looking through some of my notes and quotes.   And I thought as long as we are looking back, most of you who were pre-teens in the 50s would remember what time they had to be in at night when they were growing up back then and would get a kick out of this.  Kinda goes with the mood of the song.

“The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes.” (Frank Lloyd Wright)

Hooah

Good golly, Miss Dolly... (Part 1 of 2)

About a month ago, I took a big ole dip into the bucket list bucket and came up with an interesting thing -- "Go to Dollywood."  Never been there before, so I thought, "what the heck," let's do this.  I spent a day running down motel reservations and tickets for the park and the dinner show and putting together an agenda.  Since our visit was after Labor Day, the park was closed on Tuesdays.  I kinda screwed up and got the motel reservations before looking at the dates for the park.  Oh well, that part of the country is beautiful so there had to be things to do. We were in it for four days, so let's go see what we can get into.

With that in mind, Pam and I packed our bags and off we went.  The drive wasn't too bad -- I-40 all the way.  There was one section in the mountains, however, that would be really dicey in fog or the winter, but it was a pretty easy 4-hour drive in September.  On the way, we came across the factory where they make Bush's Baked Beans.  Might have to stop there next time.

Our first day was pretty much devoted to sight seeing in the area.  The pictures below were views from our hotel.  Big mountains -- Smokey Mountains.

We had heard that Sevierville, TN, which was Dolly's birth place, was worth a look so we drove up there and looked around.  Didn't see much -- probably not looking in the right places.  We did, however, see this statue of Dolly in the downtown area.

We also spent some time driving up in the Smoky Mountains.  We stopped at the visitor's center/ranger's offices and checked it out.  I found a couple of interesting books there -- Bear in the Back Seat I and II,  Adventures of a Wildlife Ranger,  written by Kim DeLozier and Carolyn Jourdan.  Good books, funny stories and amazing look into the life of a wildlife ranger in the Smoky Mountains. We then drove up the parkway a bit and came across a trail that looked inviting.  I wish I had read the books and DeLozier's advice about bears before going off on a hike.  Fortunately we only saw birds and falling leaves.

We spent our evening at a place called "The Island." It is a really "island" located in the downtown area, just off the main drag.  It has really neat shops, great restaurants (including a Paula Deen's restaurant, which was a super dining place), and a spectacular water fountain that shoots up water choreographed to music.  At night, it is also a water/light display and lots of people sit around in rocking chairs.

(This picture will be replaced by a video as soon as I remember how to do that 😀)

So, that was the first part of this particular road trip.  So far, so good.

 

When I'm inspired, I get excited because I can't wait to see what I'll come up with next. (Dolly Parton)

 

Hooah

BULLS win, BULLS win ...

Back in 1988, the movie, Bull Durham, hit the screen and became an instant cult classic.  If you had seen it, back then, and could quote a few lines from Crash, you might have been one of the "cool" guys, and girls (and maybe other jocks, too) thought you had the "it" factor that was portrayed by Kevin Costner in the movie.

 

 

I used to play baseball in little league and high school, and I was a catcher. Hmmm.  But as it turned out, the movie was several years after I graduated -- in fact, I had been in the Army for almost 20 years by that time.  Amazing how things get caught up in the blur of time.

Anyway, the reason I am writing this entry is since moving to North Carolina, we have been to several Bulls games.  It is really fun and the Bulls play a high level game for a minor league team.  Attending one of these games is pretty much like attending a major league game -- parking is expensive, team attire is expensive, and food is really expensive!!  But it is fun.  We have taken our grandkids to a few of the games.  They really liked seeing the eyes on the BULL out in left field light up and smoke come out of its nose when one of the Bulls players hits a home run.  They also really liked the "bat dog" (a Lab that would go out and retrieve the Bulls batter's bat after he got finished hitting).  

 

So, anyhow, the Bulls won the Triple-A East division with an 86-44 record. They also won the "Final Stretch" (kinda like their end-of-the-season championship).  Our last game was the last Friday Night fireworks game.  They really know how to do fireworks.  Below is a short sample.

So, how did all of this measure up with the kids?  Well check this out...

 

Already looking forward to going to one or two of the Carolina Hurricanes hockey games with Doug and the boys. Also looking forward to another baseball season.

“Your shower shoes have fungus on them. You’ll never make it to the bigs with fungus on your shower shoes. Think classy and you’ll be classy. If you win 20 in the show, you can let the fungus grow back on your shower shoes and the press will think you’re colorful. Until you win 20 in the show, however, it means you’re a slob.” (Crash Davis / Kevin Costner)

 

Or, if you have the "it" factor, how 'bout this ... 

"The rose goes in the front, big guy.’ (Crash)

 

Hooah

Trip #14, can you believe that ...

Well, I am now rested up from our most recent "Man Trip."  This is the 14th trip we have done; not all with the same guys -- some have died, some are too old, some have abandoned their golf game, COVID has put some on the bench -- but 14 years none the less.

Team Picture from 2021 (Trip #14)

 

We did a marathon this year, playing 27 holes three days in a row and then 18 on the last day!! Pros don't even do that much, or at least at our age.  Most of the players are now in their late 60s or early-to-mid-70s, and that's not their score.  As has been the case for the past few years, we played a nice course at Mt. Pilot, NC (not too far from Pilot Mountain and Mt. Airy) called Pilot Knob.  As is also a tradition, we finished the trip with a team picture.  Check out this group of par busters above.

Don't know how many more years these trips will continue -- might try for 20!  Group is already committed to next year's trip.  Pretty hard core.

Now that this year is over, I think of all the guys who have been on one of these.  My thoughts always go back to the first groups, especially Dave, Chuck, and Dave.  Yep -- that was a good group.

FYI -- here are two of the earliest pictures from the very beginning.  

The very first trip, 2007, checking in at front desk (l-r) Chuck, me, Dave.

Getting ready to tee off on first hole, 2008 (l-r) me, Dave M., Dave B., Chuck.

 

Just a side note -- the two Daves are both left-handers, so Chuck and I had to go get some mental counseling after playing with them.  They were never on the same side of the fairway as we were, and sometimes not even in the same fairway.  Challenging, but great fun and lots of laughs.

These golf trips are kinda like class reunions.  Nobody quite looks the same as they did when we started them, or even like they did on the last trip, but the fact that we are there is all that matters.  We swap new and old stories, probably eat and drink too much, but nobody cares. Our golf isn't that great, but nobody cares about that either. It all boils down to having 12 friends getting together to play a game.  You don't hear of that very often anymore, especially doing it for a whole week.  

I look forward to this every year.  We used to play in March, but the weather and the courses were not very hospitable then, especially as we got up in age. So, we switched to the fall and really enjoy the NC climate then. I guess now you could call us "The boys of Fall."

Looking forward to next year.  Hope everyone stays healthy.

From exercise keen, from strength active and bold,
We traverse the green, and forget to grow old...
("The Golfer's Garland" of the Blackheath Golf Club, 1700s)

Hooah

Doing our thing ...(again)...

You know, being centrally located in the state of North Carolina gives us so many options to take fun, exciting and informative day trips.  The trip last week (Hillsborough) was one example, and this week we took two trips, one to Blowing Rock, NC and one to Durham to take in a Bulls baseball game.

First, was Blowing Rock.  The temperatures had been so hot here this week (3 days in a row with temps. of 93-96 w/heat index of 106 - yikes!!), we decided we would get out of Dodge for the day.  The beaches were going to be pretty hot (and probably crowded) so we looked to the mountains where the temps were a bit better. There was a 40% chance of rain all day there, but weathermen are wrong so often that we decided to take a chance and go anyway.  Glad we did.  

There was a little drizzle as we got closer and the Blue Ridge Parkway was really socked in with fog, but once we got to the town itself, it was nice the whole 6 hours we were there and it was a sunny drive all the way home. It's funny -- we've been there three times now and still haven't made it all the way down Main Street, let alone any of the side streets.  We got half way this time -- making progress. We also told ourselves that on the next visit we would stay over night.  Found a pretty nice place (Mountainaire Inn and Log Cabins) located on the edge of the main drag.  It has parking and secluded cabins.  It's only a short walk to Main Street, but the way it is built and laid out, it appears to be out in the mountains. 

Having lunch at the Mellow Mushroom.

 

So the very next day, June 30th, we took in a Durham Bulls baseball game.  Probably could have picked a better day, but we had great seats.  The ball park is very nice, easy to get to and has a nice area around it. We'll be taking in more games as the season progresses.  The Bulls are leading their division and playing some pretty good ball. 

One thing we found out about the stadium is that cash is not accepted anywhere.  You swipe a card to park and all concessions are cards only. I guess it's OK, but can you spell "hack." Maybe I'm just too old!!

Well, now we're making plans for a trip to the beach -- maybe a longer stay.  Beach is so relaxing.  Also, making plans for our next man trip for golfing.  That's coming up in September.

"Travel and change of place (pace) impart new vigor to the mind." (Seneca)

Hooah

Short trip to Carolina Beach ...

One of the big pluses to making this move to North Carolina, aside from being close to Doug, Danika and the kids, is the proximity to the ocean and the numerous beaches.  They are pretty much within a 3-4 hour drive, with some as close as 2 hours.  Not a bad drive at all.  Just hope the coastal storms and the hurricanes don't have too much of an impact over here.

So, now that the Covid crap is over, we feel unencumbered in making day trips and maybe even longer ones.  So, with a pretty good weather forecast for the next week, we thought we would check out the Carolina Beach, an area we had heard so much about from our neighbors and relatives.  Since it was still early season (school still in session) and other people were still not quite ready to venture out, we were able to get hotel reservations at the Hampton Inn on the beach.  Our bags are packed -- lets head out.  Just have to remember that most shops and eating places are closed on Tuesdays.  Don't know if it is because they can't get help or what (lots of them are also closed on Mondays.)

This is a really nice beach.  Just a short walk down the boardwalk and there it is.   (Click on this link for a short video of the beach).  Beach picture 

We took several pictures from our balcony overlooking the hotel decking area, and several shots down the boardwalks.  I wasn't all that impressed with the boardwalk area, but the beach and the hotel facilities more than made up for it.

 

We found some really good places to eat -- one on the boardwalk and one pretty nice place called Freddies.  It was a really small place, no outdoor dining like lots of the beach places, but the food was really good and servings were very large.  No excuse to go away feeling hungry. 

So, what else did we do there -- well, they were actually shooting a movie on the island, just down from the hotel.  It was a teenagers movie (some beach thing -- not like the Beach Boys or Annette F.).  We drove down past it but they weren't shooting at that time.  It was a night beach scene -- hmmmm.

We also drove down the beach to visit the aquarium that was there and then visited a place called Fort Fisher, which was a Confederate fort keeping the port of Wilmington open for blockade-runners supplying necessary goods to the Confederate armies that were inland. It was overcome by Federal troops in January 1865.  

This picture shows the mounds where the gun emplacements were.  They really had a commanding view of the river and the ocean from there.  One other nice thing about Fort Fisher is that there is an Air Force campgrounds there which has camping spaces and cabins which can be rented out by service members. 

So that's pretty much our three day trip to Carolina Beach.  Great time and looking forward to doing this again some time.  We have 3 or 4 more beaches that are on our list to visit so we hope the summer weather holds up for us.

Click on this link to see more pictures of this area.  Additional pictures of the visit to Carolina Beach.

 On these trips, the only worry you should have is if the tide is going to reach your chair.  

Hooah

Daytrip to Hillsborough, NC ...

 I have mentioned in previous entries that Pam and I plan to take bunches of day trips around our new home state.  We "kinda, sorta" started doing this last year, but COVID really put a damper on things.  Shops, restaurants, and even pretty much entire towns were shut down.  We quickly discovered that a general rule around here is that most places are closed on Tuesdays .  Hmmm. 

Anything that was open required a mask or two over your face.  We really weren't up for that, so it kinda shut down the vast majority of our planned outings.  Even then we wondered how many smaller shops and places to eat in small towns would survive.  

Well, we got our first taste of daytripping without COVID restrictions. We decided to go back to Hillsborough, NC and see if it was opened back up.  This was a risk, as that town is pretty widely known as a liberal hangout, so we really didn't know what was in store for us. We'd pack a mask just in case!

Got there and it was a mixed bag of what was open and what wasn't.  As we walked up and down the streets of the "downtown" area, we noticed lots of political statements on the store fronts and in the flags flying from light poles.  Oh well, didn't plan on spending a lot of time or money there anyway.  One place that really got my attention though was the old cemetery behind the Methodist church.  

Pam and I walked among the tombstones, looking at the born/died dates and the epitaphs -- I am always fascinated by those things.  We had been there for a little while when we came across the grave site of William Hooper. We probably wouldn't have paid any special attention to him or his stone if we hadn't noticed the sign at the head of the rather large slab.  William Hooper was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Now this isn't something you run into every day.

Hooper's signature is to the immediate left of John Hancock's at the top of the second column.

I have read that the original group of signers to the Declaration of Independence faced multiple death threats for many years from British loyalists.  Their businesses were ruined and their lives were very hard from that point on.  Hooper was a lawyer, so I wonder what happened to his practice and what he went through.  Well, anyway, before we left, I thanked Mr. Hooper and told him, "Well done."

OK.  So following that part of the visit, we walked by a very nice section of old, historical homes and came across a very nice looking Inn and B&B.  It featured several rooms in the main house and an attached section of guest suites (see second picture).  There was also a very nice dining room on the first floor of the main house.  Unfortunately they did not begin serving until 4:00.  Knowing traffic would be the pits on the way home at that time of day, we decided to pass.  Maybe another day.

Pam was really looking forward to having the salmon they featured on their menu.  Again, they weren't serving yet -- but no worry.  My sweetie wants fish for dinner, I'll make sure she gets some.  We stopped at McDonalds on the way home and each had fish sandwiches !!! I really know how to take care of her, right!

Oh, one more thing.  We checked the GPS for food places on the way home and came across an interesting diner, so we thought we would try it out and maybe get lucky.  After all, Charles Kuralt used to do this on the back roads of the country all the time.  Guess what --  it was closed!  Oh well, Mickey-D has always been a good fallback.  (Not this time -- the fish sandwiches were many hours old and the fries were cold!) Oh well ..........

Overall, it was a great day.  Out in the sunshine, no doggone masks, a couple of really interesting "finds" and a day together with my sweetie!! Doesn't get any better than this.

For more pictures of this day trip, click on this link: Day trip to Hillsborough, NC pictures

“Live with no excuses and travel with no regrets”  (Oscar Wilde)

Hooah

Great father & son evening out ...

Last week, Doug and I had two tickets to the Durham Bulls baseball game -- great seats -- first row behind home plate!  We were both excited about going to the game.  The only trouble was it had been raining all day with a 90% prediction of continued showers throughout the evening.  What a bummer.  It was a 6:30 game but the radar was showing lots of holes in the storm front.  Well maybe those highly-paid weather guys don't know what their are talking about.  

We sat around at home trying to figure out how to turn our tickets in for a future game should this game get cancelled.  Strangely enough, though, the longer we sat around, the more the percentage of rain kept going down until finally around 6:00 it was down to 30% and we said "what the heck."  So I told him I would be down to pick him up and we'd take our chances.  Glad we did.

We got to the ball park about 6:40 and it was only the 3rd inning...no score, so didn't miss anything.  FRONT ROW, here we come!!  

Of course, I had to make a short stop at the hat store ... had to have a Bulls hat for the game, just in case it did rain at some point.

So here are some pictures of a couple of guys enjoying a night out.

Probably wondering about the game, huh?  It was tied going into the bottom of the 9th.  Bulls had one out and the next batter was supposed to be the designated hitter.  Well, the Bulls manager decided to pinch hit for him..The batter came up to the plate and with one strike on him, promptly hit the next pitch out of the park for a walk-off homer to win the game. The crowd went wild...what a way to end the game! What an exciting night at the old ballpark. 

So glad I got to share this with Doug. Something special about a father and his son going to a game together, regardless of their ages.  Next game we'll take the grand kids.

could be, it might be… It is, A home run! (Harry Caray)
"All the way around if you know what I mean" (me)

Hooah

What a trip ...

Well, it was Memorial Day weekend 2021 and we have not been back to visit friends in Ohio for over a year and a half, so we decided it was time for a road trip :-).  

This would be a very busy trip, so we decided we had better do some careful planning.  We also decided that we had better put this down on some sort of agenda so we would be sure to get all of the things we wanted to do done and not leave anyone or anything out. I brushed up my Excel skills and created a spreadsheet of days, times, places and people we would visit on the trip, and it really came in handy and enabled us to make this a very stress-free excursion. We even managed to squeeze in a bonus visit with my old buddy, Dave M. and his wife ;-).

So rather than making this an extremely long entry, I am going to put in some links to some of the places we visited so you can look them up if you wish.

To begin with, we established certain "must do/see" things and then built in everything else around those items.  The trip was planned for five days "on site" and two days of traveling. We got everything on the spreadsheet and checked our reservations and decided this was doable. Charles Kuralt didn't have anything on us (I suspect lots of you will have to look up Charles Kuralt to understand this reference)!

The complete list of "must do/see" items included a visit with our sister-in-law (Mary), some of our old neighbors and friends, Dylan S's graduation party, lunches with family members, church and breakfast with Warren T. (old WWII friend who just turned 95-years-old), me playing golf with my old golfing gang at the Shelby Oaks Golf Course, playing cards one evening with some old Veteran/VFW friends at the Sidney Veterans Center, driving around our original home town (Zanesville, home of the Y-bridge , Zane Grey and Tom's Ice Cream Bowl ), and dinner with my old Sergeant-Major (Dave B.) and his wife.

The trip consisted of 1,228 "travel" miles and another 200 or so miles of "in and around" miles.  So I figured we drove just around 1,500 miles +/- with gas being generally $2.89 per gallon, and stayed in hotels for 4 nights (gotta build up those loyalty points and cash-back bucks for later trips!).  BUT IT WAS CERTAINLY WORTH IT!!!

I have included a link to a few pictures (forgot to take more pictures than we could have -- getting old and forgetful apparantly). Roadtrip to Ohio 2021 !!

This COVID year has certainly been a trying time for all of us.  Things you used to do, people you used to see, places you used to go  -- all of that was pretty much taken away from us, even more so being seperated by 500+ miles.  Zoom and Facetime only go so far, so this trip really hit the spot.  Sometimes, visiting people (live) is all the therapy we need.

They say travel can leave you speechless but then turns you into a storyteller.  This certainly was the case here with us -- we had great stories to tell, old stories to retell, and notes for future stories not yet told.  

Hooah

Enough is enough, revisited ...

I have never reposted an entry before, but something has come across the media waves in the last couple of days that forced me to go back in the archives.  With the cancel culturists running amuck these days, I went looking for an entry that I wrote in 2012 which was intended to be an April Fools Day article.  Our local newspaper, The Sidney Daily News used to do such an article each year and it was fully to read it and see if anyone fell for it.

 

Well, little did I know how prophetic that article would be some nine years later. Little did I know that we would become a nation that found everything so offensive.  Little did I know that contempt, anger, hatred would rule as it does now.  In the Old West movies, when the bad guy said something someone else didn't like, the cowboy would say, "Them's fighting words." Now everyone's a bad guy if he (or she) isn't on your side, and whatever that person says is "fightin' words." Phrases like "get over it" are confrontational at best and maybe boardering on hate speech. I find myself saying a little prayer each night that God will bring our country back to its senses, back to love, respect for life, respect for individual's talents, patriotism, and the tenants this country was founded on.  That is my prayer. 

 

Read the article below.  Have a laugh -- it was intended to be funny, but I'm sure someone will be offended.  "Get over it."

 HOOAH

 ******************************************************************************

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Enough is enough...

I usually refrain from writing about things political in this blog because it just elevates my blood pressure.  I've already lost my heart doctor to politics -- he closed his office and went to work for the hospital.  Seems he couldn't maintain his practice under all the new government insurance regulations.  I now have a new doctor and he is just fine, so I guess I'm good for now.  Anyway, back to the purpose of this entry.

A couple of years ago, Pam and I, along with the whole northern half of Shelby County, found ourselves at the center of a conflict between the Department of the Interior and an unnamed Indian tribe.  It seems the Indian tribe wanted to build a casino in this part of Ohio and filed suit with the Justice Department to have all residents of this county evicted from their properties.  The tribe claimed that we were all living on this property illegally per the terms of the Treaty of Greenville (August 3, 1795).  The terms of the suit stipulated that all such residents would have 6 months to vacate.  Obviously this caused quite a stir and countersuits filled the Shelby County Court's agenda.  Resolution to this took several months, the residents did not have to leave their properties, and the casino issue was overcome by the whole issue being put on the ballot.  We now have four casinos being built around the state. 

Life was good once again, or at least until some time about mid-March when I got a registered letter from Chrysler Motors  informing me that my 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee was being recalled.  I have heard of recalls before, but this one was different.  The letter was co-signed by Eric Holdem, the Attorney General of the United States.  In the letter, Mr. Holdem said that all Jeep Grand Cherokees were being recalled in order to resolve a dispute between the Cherokee Indian nation and Chrysler Motors.  It seems the Indians didn't like the unauthorized use of their tribal name on this vehicle.  Holdem said that since the U.S. Government owned controlling interest in the company (thanks to the auto bailouts -- remember them?), they would assist the Tribe as a "friend of the court and ensure all vehicles bearing that name were properly recalled and destroyed."  Fortunately, calmer heads at Chrysler were able to come up with an acceptable counter proposal -- thus the recall.

Now what I have to do is take my Jeep back to the dealer and have a retrofit done.  What this entails is taking all pieces of chrome and trim that have the name Grand Cherokee off the vehicle and replacing them with new "Jeep Grand Native American"  emblems and side panels.  This includes all the manuals, instruction messages, warranties, hats and shirts (sold optionally thru Jeep), etc.  The new replacement panels really do look dorky, but since I really like the vehicle I guess I can put up with it.

I did see where the Attorney General praised the actions of his staff for quick action on this matter, but hinted that "further action could still be in the pipeline" (maybe this is a poor choice of words).  Holdem said that "if Chrysler had been more cooperative in this matter, this could have been a giant step toward eliminating the gasoline, internal-combustion engine and America's reliance on gasoline itself." 

"sloof lirpA"

Hooah

 

Our thoughts are with you ...

Yep, our thoughts are with you, but kinda glad I'm not shoveling snow again!

My sister from northern Ohio sent me a text that they have 13" of snow right now and will probably be getting more today or tonight.  DeWine has his lockdown, and God has His own version.  

My neighbors from Anna sent some pictures of the snow and their roads and drives.  I can really recall doing this.  The only saving grace was that they had a big snow blower with a cap and heated handles. It was kinda like the neighborhood snow blower.  We could use it to do our drive and walks, and everyone helped doing each other's drives.

This may not look like much snow, but I'm guessing that the banks of their drive are at least 18"-20" and pretty solidly packed.  The wind blows so hard that the snow develops a very hard crust on the top and makes it hard for the snow blower to get through.  It tries to climb the snow.  Also, anyone who has lived in the country knows that somehow, immediately after you get the end of the drive cleared out, the county snow plow comes down the road and deposits another foot of slush, ice and gravelly snow right where you just cleaned !!!!

This picture looks out their back door toward the back yard of our former house and the cemetery back there.  I remember this area when the wind would blow (which was always) there would be areas in the back yard that were clean down to the grass, and other areas where the snow  was 2'-3' deep from drifting. Part of the bad memories was how I would just get the driveway and sidewalk cleaned and it would already have started to drift back over.  Sometimes by evening you couldn't even tell we had cleaned it in the first place.

These are the medals that go to my friends and family back in Ohio for all your hard work today and last week.  You are champs. 

 

 And I know I always say that nobody likes a smarta_ _, but just wanted you to see what our reward is today for having just gone through 5 straight days of heavy rain here in Youngsville. My weather station says we have had 4.40" of rain just this month.  We had over 6" of rain last month.

Normally I wouldn't do this to my friends, but all that rain has pretty much drowned out a couple of trees we planted in our back yard and we'll be doing a lot of yard work back there this spring.  The saving grace is that all of the water is outside, and we don't have to worry about the sump pumps any more.  Supposed to be 60 degrees today ------- but Thursday's weather shows 100% chance of sleet and ice, and Friday calls for a return to rain..Oh well, I see some upper 50s pretty much all of next week.  Pollen clouds are on the way!!

"O, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?" (Percy Byssche Shelley)

Hooah  

P.s.  Funny. While I was outside taking this picture of our house, a guy and his son from California drove down our street and stopped right next to me.  He said he noticed that I was taking a picture of our house and wanted to know if it was for sale! He was moving here from California and was looking for a house to buy.  Housing around here is booming!! Can't build them fast enough.

What have you been up to? ....

Winter in NC ... cold enough that I can only hit a bucket of balls about once a week, but warm enough that if I decide to do something aroung the house I am able to work in the garage.  So, when one of my friends from Ohio might call and ask what I've been up to lately, I can tell them that my son, Doug, and I have redone our laundry room.  It was so blah, and I figured as much time as Pam spends in there, she should have something nice.  So, check this out....

This is a shot of the room as it was before we began our project.  Nice enough but very boring.

We had seen a picture of a nice room in a magazine and Doug and I said that we could do that.  He has really become quite the project guy since he moved here. He has lots of room to work on his things.Be sure to check out the "fort" we built at his house for the kids.

Here we go.  One of the best things we got for this project was an air compressor and a couple of nail guns.  Boy those really made this project go lots smoother and quicker, and no hammer marks on the boards.

One of the things that slowed us down a bit was having to work around the washer and dryer.

I have no ego problems ... I was a good carpenter's apprentice and "go-fetch" boy.

Pam did a lot of the touch-up painting and did a good job.  good steady hand.

Another thing that held us up a bit was lugging that big step ladder in and out. Solved that by going to the hardware store and buying the middle sized ladder so we could finish the painting without marking it all up as fast as we painted it.

OK, so now we were fitting out the upper cabinet and getting ready to brace it.  This went pretty well.

Pam was painting the cabinet front.  We took the doors off and painted it out in the garage.  Doug built the "front" at his house. Cabinet doors are painted and drying on the right of the picture.  Each day the paint brushes and rollers had to be cleaned up -- good job for Pam, right! 

Finished product.  Pam is going to do a little more decorating and maybe we'll put in a couple of small under cabinet lights to highlight the items on the shelf. 

The little pictures don't do it justice.  I think it looks really nice and a lot more pleasant for Pam  on laundry days.  It wasn't too expensive if you don't count the tools that we bought that we'll use all the time anyway for the next projects.  Also, it actually only took a couple of weeks of off- and -on working.  Probably could have done it in a week or less if we had all the materials  on site at the same time. Oh well, not bad for our first project here.

So, bottom line -- nobody got a finger or hand power nailed to the wall, nobody fell off the ladder or got knocked through the door from plugging in the dryer while standing in a puddle of water, and there were no divorce decrees issued.  They tell me that happens a lot when newbies undertake these kinds of projects. 

“Man Pain Is When You Do Something Stupid” ... (a line from "Tool Time" featuring Tim Allen.)