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

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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.)

A promise made is a promise kept ...

The weather here in the Tar Heel state recently has been almost as bad as it is back in Ohio  -- cold, LOTS of rain (as opposed to snow, sorry Dave) and not a lot of sunny, warm days. Hey .......... Mr. Chamber of Commerce --------------what's going on here? I can only take so many days of sitting in the house reading WWII books. 

So, I told myself on Monday that I needed to break out of this funk and promised myself that without fail, some time this week, I would at least hit a "bucket of balls" (I like throwing throw around those cool golf terms.). I figured between that and watching the PGA players on their California swing, I could make it through the next month and be ready to go in the spring. 

Well, around noon today, it was 55 degrees and sunny; but it was quickly starting to fade and the forecast for the rest of the week was calling for VERY cold and SNOW!  I know -- this is North Carolina.  What's up with that? 

So I made the promise and I intended to keep it -- even if the end result is, well, kind of different from what one would expect. Here I am hitting a bucket of balls!  Great form, huh?

You know, I have been playing some form of golf since I was 15 years old.  That's 57 years ago and it's amazing to me that I have played any game that long and am still scoring almost the same today as I did back then.  Either I was good at 15 or I haven't improved a lick.

“Golf is a puzzle without an answer. I’ve played the game for 50 years and I still haven’t the slightest idea of how to play.”  (Gary Player)

Hooah

(P.S.  OK.  The swing isn't that good -- rolled my wrist, hips way out in front, bad weight shift .... But at least I hit a "bucket of balls.")

How about a wee sidestep into some musings, Hmmm ...

I have a little note pad sitting beside my computer with a bunch of blog entry topics listed and I've been on a roll lately with getting caught up and checking off some of those items. So as I write this entry, I know some of you will note the deviation from my usual fare and see that I have wandered into the land of musings.  Sorry, my muse is making me do this.

My wife and I took a walk at a local park today and we sat on a swing about 15 feet off the walking path.It was a beautiful afternoon and there were lots of people out walking their dogs, riding their bikes and skateboards, and just waking, enjoying the day.  So as these people would walk by us, we would usually say "hello" or offer some other sort of greeting. You know what -- I actually started to count how many people walked by and in a little over an hour, there were about 137 people passing in front of us. Only about 12 of those people responded to our greeting !! We didn't invade their space, we didn't even get off the swing. Most just walked past, not even looking up or at us.  Strangely, of the 12 who did respond in some fashion, they were all our age (old in case you were wondering). 

So I have a suggestion for our politicians (just in case they need an idea about future government spending which has to be better than the junk they came up with recently -- really).  How about a Covid recovery program that reintroduces people to civility and pleasantness.  It could be a correspondence course if people don't want to gather in order to learn or re-learn these characteristics, but  there is plenty of room in the park we were in today -- great place to start.  If not, I really fear for my grandchildren and the world they live in. I'm afraid there are a whole lot of people in this world who will never take off their masks and smile again.

And then there is this little thing my friend Al sent me today (thanks for the chuckle, Al)...

Here are 12 things to consider as we get closer to closing the door on one of the most horrible years of our lifetime:

1. The dumbest thing I ever bought was a 2020 planner.

2. I was so bored I called Jake from State Farm just to talk to someone. He asked me what I was wearing.

3. 2019: Stay away from negative people. 2020: Stay away from positive people.

4. The world has turned upside down. Old folks are sneaking out of the house & their kids are yelling at them to stay indoors!

5. This morning I saw a neighbor talking to her cat. It was obvious she thought her cat understood her. I came into my house & told my dog. We laughed a lot.

6. Every few days try your jeans on just to make sure they fit. Pajamas will have you believe all is well in the kingdom.

7. Does anyone know if we can take showers yet or should we just keep washing our hands?

8. This virus has done what no woman has been able to do. Cancel sports, shut down all bars & keep men at home!

9. I never thought the comment, “I wouldn’t touch him/her with a 6-foot pole” would become a national policy, but here we are!

10. I need to practice social-distancing from the refrigerator.

11. I hope the weather is good tomorrow for my trip to the Backyard. I’m getting tired of the Living Room.

12. Never in a million years could I have imagined I would go up to a bank teller wearing a mask & ask for money. 

 

And finally, for my son --

You're not really talking to yourself, you're having a parent-teacher conference. 

Hooah 

"Band of Brothers Adventure" Day 9 -- (The Eagle's Nest) ...

Have you heard the song that has this line, "I'm sittin' on top of the world"?  Well, that is how we were to finish our tour -- visiting the Eagle's Nest, located on top of the Bavarian Alps.  This was Hitler's birthday present from Hermann Göring.  Built high in the Bavarian Alps, it was not one of Hitler's favorite places.

After Adolf Hitler took his own life on April 30, 1945, and Soviet forces captured Berlin on May 2, only one prize remained for the Allies: Berchtesgaden, the town near Adolf Hitler's mountaintop retreat, the Obersalzberg (Eagle's Nest), where many of the highest-ranking Nazi leaders had homes.

It was visited on 14 documented instances by Adolf Hitler, who disliked the location due to his fear of heights, the risk of bad weather, and the thin mountain air. Today it is open seasonally as a restaurant, beer garden, and tourist site.

In the HBO series, Band of Brothers, viewers get a good look at the site.  But, until one visits it personally, the actual height in the alps, the road and path up to it, the tunnels, all the underground support systems, the anti-aircraft guns built into the side of the mountain go unseen.  What a place.  I have included links to my pictures, and links to other sources of information, but again, these don't fully give you a full  appreciation for this place.

 

This little path led from the building to a cross shown below.  In order to get up to it, one had to walk up a pretty steep path that dropped off on both sides.  Get too careless and you might not stop until you got to the bottom of the mountain. The view from here was spectacular.

The flower on this cross is the edelweiss.  It was a sign of manhood, the soldier had to climb up to where the edelweiss grows and pick his flower to prove he had made the accent. Also it was the badge of the Alpine troops.

This is the meeting room.  Now it is used as a dining room for larger groups.  All of the windows overlook the mountains.  Very little of this room has changed from the time it was built.

This fireplace was a gift from Benito Mussolini to Hitler for his birthday. If you click on the picture and enlarge it, you can see inside a cast firebox with pictures sculpted into it.

One of the highlights was having lunch on the terrace which overlooked the mountains and valleys.

What a way to end our trip.  The next morning at 0300 hours, I would fly out of Germany and back to the US.  What a long flight.  But I finally arrived in Columbus, via a lay-over in Boston and met my wife at the airport.  I was really hungry that morning (0230 the next morning) after meeting them, and we stopped at a Wendy's (only thing in Columbus that was open). Imagine, eating at the Eagle's Nest overlooking the Bavarian Alps on one day, and at a Wendy's the next. Hmmmmm.

My pictures of the Eagle's Nest

Other pictures of the Eagle's Nest (Shutterstock) 

Background to Hitler's Eagle's Nest by Rick Steves

Easy Company Soldiers sitting on the patio at the Eagle's Nest.

"In thinking back on the days of Easy Company, I'm treasuring my remark to a grandson who asked, 'Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?'
No,'" I answered, 'but I served in a company of heroes.” (Dick Winters)

Hooah

Wreaths Across America at Raleigh

Back in Ohio I participated in the Wreaths Across America program in Sidney for about 5 years.  We placed about 700 wreaths or so each year after the first one, and we involved the whole community.  This year, after moving to North Carolina, I still wanted to participate but had to find out how it was going to be done.  

The local American Legion which I joined planned to assist the group that was in charge of the Raleigh National Cemetery.  There are 5,000 +/- Veterans' markers at this cemetery, and they had two large semis packed full of boxes of wreaths.  I estimated there were about 250-260 people there to help, including a whole bunch of scouts and their leaders.  This being the covid year and all, there was no ceremony (although they could have had one since the cemetery was really wide open).  But, all in all, it was a great day -- sunny and cool.  With approximately 5,000 graves, I didn't know how long this would take, but it was completed in about an hour once we got started placing wreaths.It's different because all of the grave markers are in straight rows and everyone there pretty much is a Veteran, so it went smoothly and quickly. It was almost like doing the placements at Arlington.

I will certainly participate again next year.

Some people dream the dream, Some people live the dream, Some people defend the dream, God bless the defenders. (Anon.)

Hooah