Do these look familiar...?

I was actually cleaning out my Army room the last couple of weeks, much to the delight and surprise of my wife who will tell you that I have not even scratched the surface.  In the process, I came across some of these old things.  Some of you will remember them.  They were coins used in Iraq and Afghanistan in the PX stores.  Made out of cardboard, they are light and easy to carry in your uniform pockets. 

Contrary to popular opinion that they were introduced into the system because they could easily be thrown away, lost or not taken seriously (a.k.a. Monopoly money), their actual value to the logistics guys was they didn't weigh much in bulk -- at least not as much as the equivalent value of real metal coins.  Remember how much a roll of pennies or quarters actually weighed?  Do you actually remember what a roll of coins was?  So imagine rolls and rolls of coins going back and forth to the theaters, stores and banks.  That cut down weight loads on planes that would be traveling to those countries, and would allow the more valuable cargo quantities like "bullets and butter" (remember that old saying?) to be increased.

Check these out:

 I suppose they are still good at the PX.  Might have to check that out some day.  Regardless, the idea must have worked -- I still have a few dollars wroth of them.  I gave some of these to my grand kids, and still have some left over.

Probably won't throw these out.  I can find a place to hide them that won't take up too much room.

Used to be that a penny saved was a penny earned.  Today, it's all about the Benjamins.
Hooah

"Man Trip" 2017 -- what can I say ? What a trip!

Yes, Man Trip 2017 was quite an outing.  All the things that make for a good trip were there -- 12 good guys who all get along with each other, great weather (despite the predictions the week before the trip), very nice courses (more about that later), good food (more about that later), nice hotel facilities (they throw in a hospitality room for us for free), and some pretty good scores (yep -- more about that later too).  Can't really ask for much more than that.

First of all, let me present to you the guys who went on the trip:

Pretty good looking group of old golfers.  Each of them adds a unique flavor to the mix.  They are funny, they all enjoy the game and play pretty well, and when they don't they are not dip sticks about it.Nobody gets excited about their score.  It's just fun to get out and be with the guys.

I have found over the years that the measure of how well the golf is being played relates directly to how many pictures were taken of the players on the course. 

Believe it or not, these were the only ones I took during the whole trip.  I guess I was having too much fun playing and talking.  When my game is going "OK to Well", I get in a zone and pretty soon the holes just zip by.  I also find myself really enjoying the scenery, especially on new courses. Although I like my home courses, I really like to travel and play different courses with unknown-to-know challenges.   And I am not talking about only playing wimpy courses when we are on the road.  The scores might be good, but there was no challenge, and those rounds do not improve your overall game.

Oh, yeah, speaking of improving one's game -- my brother-in-law, Chuck must have really been out practicing prior to the trip.  On the second day out, he hit a hole-in-one on a par-3.  Fortunately, Dave had his phone with him so he could take a picture of the event.  Way to go Chuck! 

 That is his first ace.  He is in his 70s.  Not bad.  I Googled the odds of an average golfer having a hole in one:  "Actuaries at such companies have calculated the chance of an average golfer making a hole in one at  approximately 12,500 to 1, and the odds of a tour professional at 2,500 to 1."

Following each of the day's golf, we focused on having a pretty nice dinner and a relaxing evening.  No trip to the Winston-Salem area would be complete without chow at Little Richard's Bar-B-Q.  The food is really good and they treat you right, even if we are Yankees and we don't all drink sweet tea with our hush puppies.  Dave tried to bail us out by ordering half sweet and half unsweetened tea which they had obviously heard of before.  And some of us ordered our beers two at a time (saved on the waitress running back and forth so many times). They had heard of that too and it was highly encouraged!  On the second day, we went to a nice dinner club, just down from the motel.  They were having three specials that night:  a shrimp dish, a blackened salmon dish, and an oyster entree.  Some had the shrimp, I had the blackened salmon (very good), but nobody wanted to try the oysters.  One of our guys ordered up some Ouzo after dinner and passed it around.  Oompah!

And then, came the dinner on the third night...our steak cook-out.  The menu consisted of char-coaled steaks, baked potatoes with all the fixings, salads, french bread, wine, beer, and cherry and apple poes for dessert..  Sounds good, right.  Well, that doesn't tell all the story.

I go shopping that afternoon and buy all the fixings.  I managed to get the motel to do the baked potatoes for us (they included the sour cream and butter too) (That place is very accommodating and really is a great place for golf groups like ours.).  We also bought a small charcoal grill and cooked the steaks out back of the motel near the pool.

What this picture doesn't show is how windy it was that day.  It seems that one of the guys was standing by one of the doors to the motel, holding it open and a big gust of wind came along and blew a bunch of smoke into the motel which, in turn, set off all the smoke alarms.  All the fire alarms went off, the doors all shut and the fire department was alerted.  Fortunately, the front desk was able to get the big trucks stopped before they got to the motel, but one of the little ones was already there.

This falls into the category of "No harm, no foul."  the fireman just asked us to move the grill out farther away from the motel which we gladly did.  It was all pretty exciting and gave us a lot to talk about for a couple of days.  The motel manager said that this happens several times a year when people cook out.  Maybe they should have a designated area where patrons can do this.

This was the final outcome for the evening.  They look like they are having a good time don't they.  Again, thanks to the motel for the room and taking such good care of us.

So ---- that one is under our belts.  Looking forward to the next one, hoping everyone is still around and able to go.

Every one of hundreds of thousands of cities has a special course, unique tourist attractions, some claim to fame, and generally it is worth going there, if only once, to see these things.  But it is so much better when you have friends with you, and you might only be there to watch the sun go down.

Hooah 

Better late than never...

How many articles have I written over the years with that lead-in?  Hmmmmmmm.

Well, this one will just have to be another one in the series.  Today, tonight, and tomorrow the talking heads of local and national TV stations are predicting the end of the earth.  It seems that a snow storm, not unlike the ones of our youth, is poised to hit the east coast.  Some of the extreme prognosticators are calling it the storm of the century.  Don't know that it is much different from the one by the same name last year, but that's how they make their money and ratings so let's drive on.

Daylight savings time just took place this past Sunday, and now Spring is only 7 days away. Don't know why it waited till now to come, but maybe this late season snow is something we really need.  Seems any time I get around my farmer friends, they say we really need some snow to build the ground water table a bit. OK.  I know the ski lodge guy at Mad River is really diggin' on another blast, especially since his business has been up and down (get it) the last few years. So, given all that and more, I guess a late snow should have been anticipated.  All I know is it really was fun being around here today.

Snow started around 3 p.m.  My wife told me that most of the stores had sold out of everything on the shelves by then (we're only expecting less than 3 inches).  As it proceeded to snow a bit harder, I sat in the pentagon room and watched it.  The bird feeders were full, so we had quite a bunch of hungry flappers out there.  The whiter it got, the brighter the birds showed up against the background.  We had a large assortment of wrens, brilliant cardinals and their mates, scores of morning doves, woodpeckers, red-winged blackbirds, fat robins, and some that were passing through that I didn't get a chanced to look up in the bird book.  The last couple of weeks, we have been having a couple of mallard ducks stopping by for a morning swim.  We also have rabbits who live between the underside of our deck and the woodpile by the "waterfront cottage (a.k.a.the shed by the pond).  They run around, chasing each other -- wonder what they are up to?  Today, we had two of our owls flying on hunt over the field just behind our house.  Those are majestic birds when they are soaring on the winds.  And, of course, there is always the red tail hawks that swing in occasionally for the possibility of a meal, which could be fish or fowl.

So, even though it was/is snowing, and it is getting too close to golf season for this stuff to hang around, I don't mind it that much.  I have the luxury of staying in the house if I want.  So a day or two won't hurt.  I'll just keep reading, talking on the ham radio every once in a while, and maybe, just maybe, taking a nap if the spirit moves me.

Man trip in two weeks.  Can hardly wait.  Knee is about 95% now.

 Snow and a bad day on the golf course are the only things that "go away" if you ignore them long enough.

Hooah

Boy does this bring back memories...

The annual Pinewood Derby was held in Brooklyn last week.  Thought you might want to see my grandson, Quinn, winning one of his races.  I bet a lot of you have done this in the past.  Great memories.

The coolest thing is that the other guys all cheer for each other, and the memories often last into adulthood.

"When I was in Cub Scouts, I got stuck on Webelos for three years because I kept losing the Pinewood Derby."  (George Costanza)

Hooah

March comes in like a lion...

For the last two days, we have had some pretty cold weather.  Add to that, we have also had tornado watches, 12-15 m.p.h. steady winds all throughout the last three days with gusts up to 40 m.p.h.  And yesterday, we had snow squalls throughout the day and night -- of course, it is sunny and all melted now.  Sounds pretty much  like typical weather for the first of March here in McCartyville.  I tell my friends from Troy, where we used to live, that this is the land of 100 m.p.h. winds everyday of the year.

So I was up early this morning, getting ready to go to Columbus for a meeting for committee work I do, and happened to look out one of our windows overlooking the pond.  There were lots of birds out there, all huddled up, down on the ground, trying to stay out of the wind.  Might have also been waiting for the wind to blow the snow cover off the seed on the ground.  After all, it was breakfast time.  I think birds eat breakfast -- it seems they eat all the time.

Anyway, I thought I could hear one of the robins up in the tree saying, "I can't believe I left Florida for this."  Guess they're paying the price for the trick Mother Nature played on all of us the last couple of weeks.  Can't wait for my brother-in-law and his wife to get back from Southern Florida where they have been hanging out for the last week or so.  Boy are they going to be in for a shock!!

Oh well, the man-trip is only 3 weeks away and we'll be playing golf in the sunny, warm North Carolina countryside.  I hope.  We've had some pretty bad trips down there too.

So, since all my golfing buddies except Dave, have been playing already for at least 15 rounds this year, and I have not because I had my knee scoped and had to plan it out so I would be able to go on this trip, I thought I had better come up with some good one-liners to use on the course just in case this doesn't go as planned.  So here goes:

1.  I didn't miss the putt.  I made the putt.  The ball just missed the hole.

2.  (This is a take-off of the XX beer guy).  I don't always one-putt.  But when I do, it is usually for a double bogey.

3.  I was one under today.  One under a tree, one under a bush, and one under the water.

4.  May the fade be with you.

5.  Should I look where I think it is, or where I hope it is?

6.  (Pre-round prayer): God, grant me the serenity to accept the shots I miss; the courage to try, try, try again; and the wisdom not to throw my clubs in the dag-gone lake.

7.  (If, by chance, I lose a ball):  Just remember -- golf balls are like eggs -- they are white, they are sold by the dozen, and you usually have to buy more next week.

8.  Life is short.  Go for it in two!!

9.  (For all the environmentalists I might happen to play with): Save the earth.  It's the only planet with golf courses.

And, last but not least...

10.  (Back to the XX Beer guy):  I don't always make birdies.  But when I do, the next hole is always a double bogey.

Any of you golfers out there can certainly feel free to use these as the need arises.  Our plan on this trip is to play 4 solid days of golf.  However, if that doesn't work out, well, there is always Crosby's Lounge and the free drink coupons.  I figure these sayings might get worn out by the end of the week.  More to come in April in this matter.

Hooah

Getting one of my wheels repaired...

For about the past year or so, my right knee has been giving me a hard time, so I decided to bite the bullet and get it fixed.  Figured it couldn't be too big of a deal -- a little cut here, a little snip there and good as new.

RIGHT!!!

I went through all the hoops with the doctors and finally got an appointment with the surgeon.  He seemed like a good enough guy -- he is a duck hunter and we talked a short time about hunting and his recent luck on a trip.  OK.  We're off to a good start.  He told me that this would be a 15 min. deal at most and I would walk out of the surgery recovery room after about an hour of shaking off the sedation.  OK.  That sounds good.  I kinda laid out my tentative timeline of when our golfing man-trip would begin and then backward planned this deal so that we could get this done, rehabbed, and ready to go.  He said that he does pro football players who are back to playing within 4 weeks.  OK.  That sounds good.  He said he also does young high school athletes who are up and around sooner than that.  OK.  I figure I'm tougher than most high school football players, so sounds like this is a "GO."  If it went as well as he said, I figured I might still be able to try out for the QB position for the Browns -- after all, they need help.  The Doc said I might want to set my sights a little higher!!  He must not be a Browns fan.

So, everything went pretty well and I did, indeed, walk out of the place shortly after the procedure.  Oh, did I tell you how well that pain killer they gave me worked.  Well, when it wore off later that evening, I had a pretty different outlook on the whole thing.  It actually hurt like heck.  He did a repair of a meniscus on the outside of the knee, and scraped off some arthritis on the inside part.  Here is the contraption I had around my knee for several days.  It circulated ice water and really worked pretty well.

The bruises shown in the picture on the left are from the tourniquet they put on at the beginning of the procedure.  I'm taking their word for it because I was somewhere else at that time, sleeping very comfortably.  Anyhow, that was really a deep bruise in the muscle and it took several days to work its way out and feel somewhat better.  Notice the two little marks on the kneecap -- that is where all the work was done.

So now, it has been 4 weeks since the procedure.  He said that I would be 100% in 5 weeks.  So that means I will be able to hit my drives 300 yards straight down the fairway  and make every putt on the first try.  That's my definition of 100%.  Anybody know a good malpractice attorney who plays golf!!

So, I've had a better time with this than I expected.  The Doc was great, and the procedure went right according to his plan.  How will the golfing go?  We'll see in a couple of weeks.

Golf is a hard game to figure. One day you will go out and slice it and shank it, hit into all the traps and miss every green. The next day you go out and, for no reason at all, you really stink.  (Bob Hope)

Hooah

One thing I forgot...

When I was doing the Civil War articles, I mentioned the hardtack that the event organizers prepared and passed out to all who attended.  To the best of my knowledge, I did not see anyone try to eat one of these "biscuits," but I did mention that there was a Confederate surgeon on site just in case someone tried and broke off a tooth or worse.  Of course, I'm not sure the treatment would have been better than the actual injury.

 Most generally, the hardtack biscuit was a 3"x3" concoction that was intended to feed soldiers or sailors.  They would last for long periods of time, and generally traveled well.  You can Google the word "hardtack" and get a whole page of articles on how to make these things, how to attempt to eat them, and some of the ways they have been "improved." 

Below is a short excerpt from one of the articles, courtesy of Wikipedia (note the underlined section -- yum, yum!):  

During the American Civil War (1861–65), three-inch by three-inch (7.5 cm by 7.5 cm) hardtack was shipped from Union and Confederate storehouses. Some of this hardtack had been stored from the 1846–48 Mexican–American War. With insect infestation common in improperly stored provisions, soldiers would break up the hardtack and drop it into their morning coffee. This would not only soften the hardtack but the insects, mostly weevil larvae, would float to the top, and the soldiers could skim off the insects and resume consumption. Some men also turned hardtack into a mush by breaking it up with blows from their rifle butts, then adding water. If the men had a frying pan, they could cook the mush into a lumpy pancake; otherwise they dropped the mush directly on the coals of their campfire. They also mixed hardtack with brown sugar, hot water, and sometimes whiskey to create what they called a pudding, to serve as dessert.

 

Given the size of these things, a foot soldier in the Civil War could have carried a whole week's supply of food in a shirt pocket.  I pounded this one (shown above) on the desk here by the computer.  Hit it pretty hard for about a half dozen tries and didn't make a mark on it -- the desk has some scrapings though.  I wonder if these were ever tried for resoling shoes or playing Frisbee.  These even made the old "John Wayne" bars of our C-rats look good.

I know -- if this was all you had to eat, you would make do and would have gotten creative.  The old saying, "Adapt and overcome" takes on a whole new meaning in light of this.  And I had to laugh to myself when I had a flash back to my story of the "hard boiled eggs and bananas" we had one morning in the field.  I guess that was gourmet dining compared to these.

I think I am going to take this up to the bank and put it in our safe deposit box.  Can't imagine the comments and surprise when they open that box some years from now.  I'm sure it will be in the same condition as it is now, and just as tasty!

"You are fools to make yourselves slaves to a piece of fat bacon, some hard-tack, and a little sugar and coffee." (Attributed to Chief Sitting Bull)

 Hooah