The Count Down Begins . . .

Christmas is upon us. It nears. And as it does so so does our moods change. Some of us become morose, some no change. We don't exchange gifts anymore, we can get those when we want at any time. We do not even wrap gifts anymore, we "bag" them. Or we just write checks. Some get cash. Ho, ho, ho!

The "Charlie Brown" tree is out and lit up. So much for interior decoration. A wreath is on the front door, so much for exterior decoration. Done.

The dreaded shopping at the grocery stores is almost done. The constant carping that you have to go to more than one grocery store to get things you need is just about over. Not!

Now for the stock market to recover. We were widely diversified, ergo we were widely ripped too. So much for diversification, we all go down, the boat goes down to. So we are hoping for a rise. There are some bright spots, GNMA funds did well, on average a 7% yield. And now that the FOMC - "the Federal Reserve Bank" - has lowered the interbank loan rate to 0 to 0.25%, the bond funds have all gone up. But that is an inverse ratio, as the interest rate goes down the price (eh cost?) of bonds goes up. Fortunately for us, we do not have to live on our savings - yet.

Equities on the other hand seem to ride along the bottom. The market does not seem to approve of the auto companies bailout. Sort of delays the inevitable. Ford did not get any bail out money but gets tarred right along with GM and Chrysler. Not have the merger talks between GM and Chrysler broken down or stopped, it now sounds like the government is going to force Ford into taking over Chrysler. Can you imagine that - Ford divisions of Mazda, Volvo and Chrysler? Not.

We have giant auto dealers around the corner from us in Hudson Oaks. Things are bad in the auto business, right. Well they are building a new Hundya dealership. That's added to the remodeling of the General Motors place and a new Suzuki dealership just finished. All the GM line, Toyota, Nissan and Hyundai dealerships belong to one guy, Jerry Durant (nice person by-the-way - met him and his wife). The Ford guy owns the Suzuki dealership. The local bigwig Republican, Roger Williams, owns the Chrysler dealership. And the Lincoln Mercury dealership is owned by Hooks. Hudson Oaks has no ad volarium taxes, it basically has three business groups: liquor stores, car dealers and Wal-Mart. They get enough off sales taxes not to have property taxes. I think they may be hurting this year with the decline in auto sales - ya think!

As the end of the year nears, the Cost of Living Allowances (COLA) will kick in for next year. All the social security retirees will get a 5.8% increase. Us military retirees also get the same 5.8% increase. And since I am disabled, I get a stipend from the Veterans Administration and that goes up 5.8% too. Ergo we get a 5.8% raise next year. This does not happen often and most certainly will not happen next year with the decline of the price of oil and cost of buying a house. All other areas are up - like food.

That amount is not exactly correct as I am subject to "concurrent receipt" adjustments. In the past, I had to pay for my VA stipend - that is it was deducted from my taxable military retirement and paid back to me in tax exempt VA benefits. The US Congress saw the inequity in that process but was reluctant to making a 100% adjustment. In fact, only those with a disability rating of over 50% can get any relief at all. Since I qualify for that, they have steadily adjusted down the amount deducted out of my military retirement. It means we get about another $100 or so per year increase in the military retirement. It is taxable, but I am steadily reaching the point where I no longer have pay for my own disability. No one, not civilians, not civil servants ever have to pay for their own disability stipend - only the retired military people do.

Those whose disability is below 50% have to just suck it up. Some day in the future, they will get theirs too but many will have died not ever collecting a penny. And of course, nothing from the government is retroactive, except maybe taxes.

So the year rolls over.

New York, New York, Not

Back from flying trip to New York to see Jake, Anne and Wil before they moved to Madison, WI. We arrived at LaGuardia International (surprise, it had not changed from the last time I was there, except then I was heading from Long Island, not Manhattan).

Jake met us right out side the secure area, we got the one suit case and piled into a taxi for a daring ride to midtown Manhattan. Not bad, quick given the usual amount of traffic, narrow streets and, well you know, New Yorkers. The ride was pretty quick and we dumped off on 2nd Avenue right on the corner closest to the hotel. The hotel was quite nice, not shabby as I expected but not cheap either. I would expect a bit more posh for the prices we paid, but I guess I was expecting more for my money than one can buy in Manhattan.

After registering, plunking down the suit case we headed up the hill to Jake and Anne's "Studio" appartment at 5 Tudor Place. It was maybe three or four blocks from the hotel. It was a nice place, quaint. Across from the United Nations building but you can not see the UN from their appartment. They do look out on the East River. Nice view of Queens. Though in a few years the vacant lot in between them and the East River will have yet another building blocking the view. But they are moving out so . . .

The studio appartment is tiny but they seem to have it under control. One would not consider a cocktail party there but a couple of guests would be okay - for a while. It really is an efficiency type set up and one must remain efficient to live there. But it comes with door men, a small kiosk for necessities and location above all. It has a small park out front of 10 Tudor and 15 Tudor. Across the street from Jake and Anne is 2 Tudor. All these buildings date from 1927 or so. And Jake and Anne's place is on the 19th floor, only two above them. Did I mention it is 225 or so square feet in size!

And they are cramed in there with Wil, the baby that yet demands more efficient use of what little space they have. And a cat named Elsie. But they seem happy and satisfied and well adjusted.

Oh yes, there is also Elise, the cat. Elsie stayed camped out in a small spot in a closet as far away as she can get. The night Judie and I baby sat Wil so that Jake and Anne could have a night out together, she came out couple of times. Its not that she dislikes Wil, she seems to tolerate him just fine, she is very shy and nocturnal in nature. Perhaps she will be more out going in Madison with more space to gad about in.

Jake walked us all over the place, he is really a good tour guide of Manhattan. We took a Gray line bus at Times Square and did the Manhattan. It was bitterly cold and the bus had an open canopy in the back. Naturally, the only seats available were right next to the open area. As the tour went, people got off and we moved foward to more comfortable area.

The next day we rode the subway up to City Park and walked through the area. Really enjoyed see the park, nice in the middle of a massive city. And yes, we walked and walked and walked. Judie did not get to see the Macy windows, there was a mass gaggle of people gawking at them.

Having been in Paris, Tokyo, Soeul, Los Angeles and yes, even New Orleans, we found the New Yorkers quite nice and not pushy. No, we did not seen any crime, no bums on the streets like we did in Phoenix and surprisingly clean streets. There were no panhandlers and we did see lots of dogs on leashes, etc.

Yes, it was expensive but it was also good food with large servings. We ate at the Capitol Grille, excellent steak, and great service. Yes, it was pricy but given the circumstances, okay.

They will soon be moving, heading out for Madison. They hope to lease their appartment, that should not be to much of a problem as it is really fixed up well. It has been updated and they are getting ready to install a new airconditioning/heating unit to make it even better.

Yes, we enjoyed ourselves. But I glad I do not have to ever go back there again. Not my kind of living, to much walking and very pricy.

Chick-Fil-A Bowl. . .

Does that mean the game can not be played on Sunday?

I do not believe LSU merits a bowl this year, and yet they get picked up by the Chick-Fil-A Bowl in Atlanta. They are to play Georgia Tech. As I recall Georgia Tech was once in the SEC like Tulane but bowed out for the ACC. Georgia Tech has to cross town to play while LSU has to cross Mississippi and Alabama.

Unless Coach Miles has done something about his Offensive Coordinator and his Defensive Coordinator(s), it will be all Georgia Tech game. I understand, that Miles was on his way to the west (left) coast to recruit when the selection was made known. I guess it was not so impressive a selection, eh?

At least the team will get to play together once more. A little more experience for the quarterbacks and some NFL exposure for the seniors. Maybe it will be a good game after all.

Tuberville bowed out of Auburn. Think Lou Holtz' son will take over? I do not know who is in the offing. I know that Tennennesse opted for the ex-coach of the Raiders. He was not to good at the Raiders and so, should be just as bad at the Vols. It is the time of the Commodores! May they rise and defeat the Volunteers soundly. Any rate there is a vacancy. Could be Jimbo Fisher? A lot of new head coaches did their time at LSU. Pelini, the coach at LA Tech and maybe it will be Jimbo's shot at the big job. He is slated to replace Bobby Bowden but looks like Bobby is gonna die in place.

Sabin met his match playing Florida. Bama put up a good fight. Coach Sabin has done wonders with his team but the wonders ran out against Tebow and Company. Florida should do a number on Oklahoma. Oklahoma likes to run up the score. Don't guess they care much about the future, some of those teams are gonna rise up and do a big number on them one day, and then they will cry foul.

Will TCU appear on the LSU schedule next year? Rumor has it that they will either in 09 or 10. That would be a good game.

Saw where LA Tech is going to a bowl, the Independence Bowl. Correct me if I am wrong, but that's closer than the Sugar Bowl is to LSU to LA Tech. Oh, I guess it is about the same, say 90 miles. I mean how far is Ruston from Shreveport? LSU as been there, last time played Notre Dame and won (again, too). Good on Tech.

Understand ULL (to me it is SLI) was also bowl elligible but no selection. Would have been nice for their program.

Well, off to New York next weekend to see Will and company.

The Tigers Blew It

Yep, the LSU Tigers really blew it Friday. They lost of Arkansas in the last minute of the game. Poor defense and an offensive that sputtered -- again. True, they have quarterback problems but the young quarterback seemed to do well - for a while.

I blame the poor offense on the Offensive Coordinator, Coach Crowton. He was a failure a BYU and now he is a failure at LSU as an assistant coach. His designed offense is no good and his play calling ability really stinks. He can not get off doing something. He will try to run through the middle and the back gets stuffed. He keeps on trying that.

Arkansas forgoes the run and takes to the pass and it works for them. Why can't LSU do the same? Crowton is the reason. He can not seem to figure out when something is not working. And Les Miles lets him keep on doing it.

The defensive coach and coordinator is not doing so well either. The defense steadily declined over the season. They did pretty well against Bama but after that it all went hell in a hand basket. They got run over by Troy and everybody after saw the films and exploited the LSU defense.

Well there is next year. Time to reassess and maybe move a few coaches on to somewhere else.

Geaux Tigers

Turkey Day . . .

Turkey Day was nice. Judie worked her buns off, I did a few errands and the family gathered around once again. We were missing Jake, Anne and Will, but they were cozy in their tiny little co-op in Manhattan. All the rest of our family were here to enjoy not turkey but prime rib.

Judie has this recipe that is allegedly from Heddy Lemarr for cooking prime rib roast. One heats the oven to 500 degrees, inserts the prime rib, cook it for so many minutes per pound, turn off the heat and let it sit for an hour and half. One must absolutely not open the oven door until all the time has expired. It is always cooked with bones in. It comes out perfect every time - on the rare side but great.

Then I slice it up and we dine in rare fashion. Yes, the meat is rare and we have almost all the eaters chowing down on that rare prime rib slice. There is mushroom sauce, a jus gravy, smashed potatoes and gravy, green beans fixed ala Ernestine Scott, salad ala Joan and even some cranberry jell for those that want it. There were plenty of snackos prior to dinner, steamed shrimp, blue cheese, raw cauliflower, tiny carrots and dipping sauces for all of them.

We ate well. Jake and Anne called in and the family played games as I watch Texas demolish the Aggies.

We are thankful, had a long and significant grace prior to our meal. We even remembered the dogs next door with some scraps.

It was a good day.

A Short Term Congressman . . .

Young Don Cazayoux, son of Ann and Don Cazayoux, a relatively long term state representative from New Roads, was ousted from office. He was elected six months ago against a black Democrat and a slimy Republican. So Don was in office for six months.

He maintained that he was a "Conservative Democrat." Nice try, that went out with Barry Goldwater back in the mid sixties. All those so call conservative Democrats have died off or retired from the political scene. They were driven out by the likes of Lydon B. Johnson and Jimmie Carter. They are dead and gone.

And then he solicited and received a boost from Barrack Obama. That sort of sealed his fate.

To be fair, he was running against the same black fellow as an independent and strong republican candidate. Don maintains that the independent black candidate drew off enough votes to sign his defeat. He lost by about 15,000 votes. True his black opponent also garnered about 15,000 votes. Maybe enough to elect him but not enough as the Republican candidate got enough votes to seal the election. When you beat your opponent by 15,000 or so votes, it means you won handily.

So what went wrong. Well there was the black independent splitting the black vote but they are the majority voters, so . . . Don worked hard to help the people of Pointe Coupee and New Roads and got a lot of local votes but just not enough out of South Baton Rouge and Iberville and West Baton Rouge Parishes to make it. He got beat up pretty bad over the Obama endorsement. Did not help him and indeed may have hurt him. Obama did not carry Louisiana.

Word is that he will be appointed Central Louisiana Federal Prosecutor. Of course, that means Obama will have to fire the existing prosecutor (he's probably a Republican). Seems like there was a lot flak for George W. Bush for firing federal attorneys. So I wonder. He would make a good prosecutor but . . .

It is ironic that we share a common cousin though we are not related to each other in Lindy Boggs. Don's great grandmother, Auntie LeBlanc, Mae Hess' mother was the sister of Lindy's grandmother. Further irony is that Mae Hess was my God Mother.

I learned just a few days ago my God Father was Uncle Ham. Did not know that while he was alive but always greatly admired him. He died to young. He rose to the rank of Colonel in the Louisiana National Guard and was even a contender for Brigadier General but that was not to happen. He gave me his desk name plate, beat up but functional. I used during my days as USAF Colonel on active duty. Lots of folks could not understand why I had that beat up desk plate but I was singularly proud of it.

Any way, I am a Republican. My father went from being a "conservative Democrat" to being a Republican before his death. I am not a Republican because he was one, it is something that happened to me in the service of my country. I saw first hand what the likes of Jimmie Carter did to our defense establishment. I was a Ford supporter before Carter and yes, I did vote of Dick Nixon. Nixon was a crook of sorts but he was the finest foreign policy President of our times. Reagan was even better but that era is past.

"Now we wait" - a line from Harry Potter. Barack Obama, the change man, is putting Clinton Democrat after Clinton Democrat into the cabinet. So where's the change? The American public has been fooled and fooled badly. There is no change, except that Democrats are replacing Republicans.

I wish him luck. He's gonna need it, because the Clintonistas are gonna wreck harvoc in his administration.

Fall is closing in on us. . .

Yes, it is. Fall is closing in on us, we have already had one frost. Soon the Lantanas will be brown, they can not take the cold. And some plants like the Begonias are showing extreme stress. The pepper plants have lost their leaves and some odd peppers are scattered around. The Cananas are burned back too. Roses are holding on but soon they to will shut down.

The curiosity is that we have a couple of Iris' blooming. They are rebloomers but to do so this late, well that is something. And the Daffodils will start to punch up. I am sure the Home Depots and Lowes has abundant bulbs for sale. It is time to plant them more or less.

The two Shumark Oaks out front are showing some color now. The one in front of the den has a few reddish brown leaves while the one in front of the bed rooms is much farther along it its fall colors. Genetics makes them change or drop their leaves at a slightly different time. The curiosity this that the put on leaves the same way, its like they are three weeks apart. And I note the little one next to the big Hackberry on the side of the house is well on its way to changing colors but then it is only about five high and maybe an inch in girth at this time. We know that it will eventually replace the Hackberry. Had a Post Oak in there too but we have cut back so many times I think it has quit.

We have even shut down the sprinklers. Give the well time to recharge for next year, at least we hope so. We had a nice storm the other night, about two plus inches, some places got as much as four inches of rain.

The Christmas turkey has been ordered. We get a smoke turkey from Tyler, Texas every year for Christmas. We have been doing that for years now. We order the turkey by relative size, they smoke it and ship it out in time to arrive at its destination. Then they send us the bill. They still do business the old fashioned way, once you are an established customer, well they treat you right. And all of our family now expects to eat smoked turkey at Christmas dinner.

So fall is here - again.

What a Game . . .

Wow, what a game. Troy State appeared in Baton Rouge for the "big check game." It happened to be LSU's homecoming game too. So everybody thought this would be turkey shoot - what a surprise they had in store for themselves.

LSU received the opening kick off and did a three and out. Troy took over on their 8 yard line and preceded to pass their way down the field into the end zone for touchdown. And they kept it up for the whole half. Went into the locker room with a insurmountable 24 to three lead. Man, it really looked bad, LSU at that time had a total of two first downs earned to Troy's dozen or so first downs earned.

LSU was sloppy. LSU could not run the ball and the LSU offensive coordinator who is dumber than a rock continued to try to run. Troy recognized this and stuffed the line every time. It was so obvious it was painful. It was stupid. It was just disgusting.

And then the freshman quarterback, Lee, threw his usual pick six and Troy scored again. It was 31 to 3 midway through the third quarter. It looked grim. The fans were booing LSU (and the coaching staff). They stadium had almost emptied, folks were going home or out to eat - whatever. They were leaving in droves.

With 16 minutes and 26 seconds to go in the game things began to happen. The freshman quarterback caught fire. And LSU scored 37 unanswered points in that 16 minutes and 26 seconds. Troy State was in shock. They thought they had it locked up and won. They were going to say to Auburn and Bama, "Look what we did that you could not do." Recruting would have been terrific.

In stead they go home with the big check and perhaps some awe. They thought they were going to add a victory to their belt that made them really look good. They were cherishing the great victory. At least they were until the middle of the third quarter of the game.

I guess the moral of the story is do not piss off LSU. Ohio State did it last year and got their skins handed to them in the BCS Bowl. Alabama almost go theirs handed to themselves this year, in fact, won the game in overtime.

Well maybe LSU will redeem itself after two whopping big losses to Florida and Georgia. They still have to face Ole Miss and Arkansas. Ole Miss is beginning to come alive under Houston Nutt (the great Arkansas mistake letting him go). So Ole Miss is going to be a tough game and you can bet they will watch the films of the Troy State game and use that intelligence to their benefit.

As an aside, congratulations to Vandy, they beat one of their rivals, Kentucky. That qualifies them for a bowl and I am sure they will get picked up for one. I hope it is a good one.

Would it be interesting if LSU played Vandy; you can bet it would be a good game. There is talk that LSU, if they win out, will go to the Cotton Bowl. But I think that is just talk.

A New Family Member . . .

Welcome William "Will" Neujahr Morrison, born November 14, 2008 in Manhattan, NYC. He weighed in at 7 pounds 7.2 ounces and arrived a 0021 hours. Mother and son doing well (so is Dad).

The Sun is Flooding in . .

Yes, the sun is flooding in the back door that opens on to the patio. The door faces directly Southeast, so old sol has moved into the fall/winter quardant. So when there are no clouds we get a very brightly lit kitchen early in the AM.

Had a tremendous thunderstorm last night at about three AM. The thunder woke me up and then I even heard a little hail rattle the windows. When I got the newspaper this morning, I noted Judie's long down spouts had gushed out a lot leaves alll over the sidewalk. So there was a lot of water.

We need the rain, the lake, Lake Weatherford, is down about four feet or so. That is kind of normal for this time of year, but with fall comes the rainy season and so the lake is being recharged. Last year, the lake got down about nine feet, a huge amount. This year it has only receded about four feet, we had a few recharging rains during the year. And I guess they have cut off all the well drillers from soaking up water to fracture the gas wells.

As I look out the front window I note the Red Oaks leaves are begining to turn, soom they will fall off. We have two of them out front, same age, put in by the builder. They are about 8 inches at the base right now. I know it is genitics but one looses it leaves about three weeks before the other one. And puts on leaves in the spring ahead of the other one too. Same genusis but a little different DNA.

The Post Oaks out back are showing signs of turning to fall too. The Hackberry's, trash trees but are mature thus provide shade where there would otherwise be none, have been shedding their leaves for some time now. Judie mowed the yard and spent an inordinate amount of time running over the leaves turning them to mulch. Pretty soon the lawn tractor will be winterized and parked until spring.

It is November and we do usually get a snow about Thanksgiving Day. Then the next snow is well into January or February. And that is about the extent of our snows. We get more rains than snows. And about every four or five years we get a good ice storm, we are due for one this year.

Tomorrow is the Day. . .

Yes, tomorrow is the day, election day. While I hope for the best it is probable that living in a Democracy we will get some kind of compromise. It seems our great nation must go through a session of agony of a righteous but misguided leadership. We as a populace seem always to have our hand out for something that is promised but never happens. And we endure the term of that leader with stoism. The populace does remember the past and results in a change of regime.

If the election turns out the way the polls and the media wishes then we have to expect changes, changes that may not agree with us very well. The good news is that the economy rarely, if ever, does what the politicians want it to do. I mean you can not give away the house and expect the house to continue to prosper. So amid the hoopla, there lies disaster. The stock market goes its way and is rarely ever wrong.

It is trickle down versus trickle up. Ever see anything trickle up? That is not in the nature of things. But we must not mix the reality of gravity with economic theory. We do know that vast experiments in "share the wealth" have not worked case in point is the now defunct USSR. We have seen what dumbing down has done to our educational system, is the economy next? If left to Barney Frank the economy will be next.

There may be yet one check in balance that the Democrats have not counted on, that is the Congress rarely does what the Executive Branch of government wishes it to do. And so compromise still reigns. May be less compromise but none-the-less some of it will remain. After all there are maverick Congressman and women from both parties and that may serve to control some of the rash exuberance.

It is certain that the black population will support Obama because he is black. That is not racism, that is black pride. I do not think there is anything wrong with black pride but one should listen to what he espouses, and that is not good. There is a possibility that he will suffer because he is black and that is bad. He should win (or lose) because of his positions and philosophies but no one is listening to to what is being said.

Jimmie Carter was and is a disaster. He was so inept that the Iranians made of fool of him. Ronald Reagan spoke out and the Iranians caved in immediately upon learning that Reagan was elected. Carter, a typical Democrat, slashed the Defense Department budget and we suffered through that period. Reagan restored the budget and increased it to the point that the USSR collapsed. Reagan brought down the Berlin Wall, the symbol of tyranny. Carter nourished it.

Well, we as a nation must go though these cycles. Presidents rarely can influence the economy, though Reagan, Kennedy and George Bush did. We will look back and compare the George Bush years with the Bill Clinton years and note that things were indeed much better under Bush than we thought. We will see that employment was greater under Bush than it ever was under Clinton. But we will rely on history for that information, and listen to the current demagoguery of the sound bytes. And we will suffer.

Now we enter the age of hard times. Harder than that of the Carter years but hard none-the-less.

I'm Tired of it . . .

Yes, I am tired of it. What is it? Being sick. My sinuses have been running for two plus weeks. I have had a cold gotten over it and yet its effects linger on. Now Judie has it. Steady drainage down the back of my throat. This after getting my Flu shot. I know that the Flu virus is not the cause but sure seems so.

Nothing taste good any more, in fact it all tastes the same. Bland, bland, bland. Tried burning it out with alcohol, no joy. Tried buring it out with hot salsa, but that didn't taste so good and did not do the job either. Tried going to bed early for a good long rest, just resulted in an early wake up.

It all started at Aunt Bobbe's funeral, it has continued through Tattie's funeral. It is time for this to quit. Yes, I go on my medicinal walks, got to keep the heart rate up and a little conditioning going. But my butt is still dragging around, with a blocked ear this AM. Good thing I have the Sierra Hotel nose spray, it works but I must use it limitedly as it is an antihistamine and that stuff raises one blood pressure.

Only thing still tasting correctly is coffee and Diet Coke. The coffee is doctored up with Cremora and synthetic sweetners. The Diet Coke is the same, synthetic sweetners plus no caffeine (though that does not seem to matter, the coffee is full of it).

Maybe this is adverse stock market mental problem? The stock market is through the floor and not gonna go up anytime soon. Sold some losers and bought some interest type stuff but just riding it out. Most advisers seem to say, ride it out. I am selling only to balance losers with winners that I got rid of so I do not have to pay excess capital gains taxes. Good thing we had a lot of stuff in GNMAs and munis, so we have not been hit as hard as others. But we been hit. No to worry, we do not have to rely on income from investments, our retirements are adequate. And we have lots of cash reserves, so . . . May that is not it after all.

Saw where the Saints won in Wimbley. Beat the San Diego Chargers which is a good team. And Dallas won by the skin of their teeth - they did play good defense. LSU did not play good defense, in fact they played "no fense" at all. To top that off the crappy offensive coordinator set up the same score for the opposing team that he had done before for other teams. Some game plan - written by stupid and executed by the naive. Well may be next year. LSU gave away two scores, had they not done that and I blame the offensive coordinator, they could have tied the game. But no, stupid prevailed.

Until next week . . . .

Crawling Back . . .

Yeah, just that crawling back to life. The lingering cold, sinus infection, or allergy reaction turned into a full scale attack by Friday and Saturday was the worst. Saturday I got up, put on a long sleeve turtle neck, long jeans and crawled into a recliner for the day.

I listened to the TV - that's right I did not watch, dosed on and off, finally took a couple of aspirins and that broke my fever. Skipped breakfast and finally ate some chicken soup (well, a cup of soup out of a packet) for lunch at about 3 PM. Judie prepared her delicious chicken soup with rice for dinner. Another couple of aspirins and . . .

I forced myself to watch the LSU - South Carolina game. It did not look well at the end of the first half. Then LSU's stamina and poise came out in the second half. In the third quarter SC had only 42 yards of offense and by the third quarter had amassed a wopping minus seven yards of offense. They had a good quarterback, good arm and good runner ala Teebow but he was not Teebow. While he had poise in the second quarter, he lost it in the third quarter and got pounded in the fourth quarter.

LSU boxed the quarterback in so he could not run and then preceeded to strip him of the ball on his one run. And then they blitzed him and took him dowm for several sacks and big losses. Since SC could not run the ball, then LSU went into zone defense, and sure enough, the SC quarterback threw the interception with four minutes to play. An LSU safety jumped the route and beat the SC guy to the football. For all practical pupposes the game was over and LSU has won again.

And yes, the SC coach threw his headset on the ground and kicked it. That was worth it. He is frustrated but give him time and he will have a powerful team. But then Lou Holtz could not do it either in four years. Me thinks SC needs to return to the AAC where they belong. Even Vandy can beat them.

And yes, after the game I felt better and had a good night's sleep. I even had a aspirin on my bedside just in case I woke and up and needed it. Did not wake up until the alarm went off. And I turned that off, turned over and went back to sleep.

Now I just feel drained. But no fever and I think what ever it was has run its course. Throat is still a little tender but no more drainage. Ate my usual everyday breakfast of Cheerio's and milk. Fixed the coffee and so far am back on course again.

The Road Back . . .

Ah, the road back. We chose to drive up LA 1 through Marksville with intentions of visiting the casino. But we got there far to early to eat and neither one of us wished to play the slots, so we pressed on.

As we turned the corner by the Exxon/McDonald's in New Roads, we saw that the price of gas was $3.49 and 9/10s per gallon. That is expensive compared to other local prices. Further back near the little casino in New Roads, the price of the same brand of fuel was $3.19 and 9/10s per gallon. We did not buy gas in New Roads but pressed on the Marksville.

Since we decided to press on from Marksville, I bought four gallons of gas with the intention of refueling in Natchotoches. As we progressed on up LA 1 we noted gasoline was well under three dollars a gallon. In Fifth Ward, the price was 2.89 and 9/10s per gallon. But since we had already bought gas sufficient to get to Natchotoches, we did not stop.

An hour later we approached Natchotoches, I saw that we had sufficient fuel to make it to Shreveport and it was too early to eat. So again, we pressed on to Shreveport. And we ate at Windy's and drove over to the Raceway station and bought gas. Raceway gives us a 3% discount, so while the gas price was 2.92 and 9/10s our discount would make the price about $2.84 a gallon. We tanked up. And charged out of there for home.

We hit a hard down pour just east of Canton and plowed through that at record speed. There really was no way to slow down or you would have been plowed under by a semi. The semi's were holding steady at just under 75 MPH. I had to turn on the defrost system to keep the windshield clear to keep the visibility up. So we alternated turning on the defroster and the air conditioning. We successfully got through the down pour. We traversed several showers driving under Dallas on I-20.

We elected to jump off at Hulen Mall area and ate at Lubby's in Fort Worth. It was early about four PM but there were a few of us in the geriactic crowd eating away. As we were leaving it was picking up with more customers who chose to eat at normal hours.

We pulled into Weatherford, visited a bit with our neighbor who had picked up the mail for us. It seems with no surprise to us that nothing had happened in the neighborhood since we were gone.

Another week is well underway. . .

Another has Passed On. . .

Judie's Aunt Tattie died at the age of 87 years. She had been living with her daughter, Pattie, over near Corpus Cristie, Texas. She resided by herself in a small cabin surrounded by her flowers and garden. It sounds as though she was happy.

Like Aunt Bobbe, she to had a bad fall, broke a hip and did not recover from the operation. Yes, like Bobbe, she made it through the ordeal of surgery, but recovery was not to be.

He husband, Ford Gremillion, was the youngest of the four brothers. There was an older brother but he died as youth. That was Fred. The remaining brothers were Wilmark (Bill - Judie's father), Roland, Elson (Snub) and Ford. Ford and Bill, the nickname for Wilmark, moved to New Roads after WW-II to open a branch of Gremillion Brothers Tractor business. Snub stayed on the farm and Roland ran the Gremillion Brothers tractor business in Cotton Port, Louisiana.

Bill and Ford worked hard and well together and built up a business in New Roads. That eventually became just plain "Gremillion's." They had become independent of the Cotton Port operation. The business lasted a bit over 50 years and was sold out. It was either sell out or go broke and no one wanted to go broke.

It is ironic that when my exsister-in-law died, Ford too died. So we were in New Roads to attend two funerals. Betty's funeral was in the morning and Ford's was in the afternoon. Betty's visitation was at the church and we were there to see all the family.

Now, Betty, had remarried - remarried my exbrother-in-law, Nickie Neck. So while at the visitation all Betty's children - who are nieces and nephews of mine and all of Nickie's children - who are all nieces and nephews of mine were in attendance. Father Shaztle, the Catholic Priest came out to see us before the rituals. He approached me and asked, "Which side of the family are you with?" A nice question but loaded me up with great ammunition.

I replied, "Father, see all these young people." And of course, he nodded that he did. "They are all my nieces and nephews."

I got a strange look. So I explained the relationships. He was taken aback a bit but understood.

Later that day at the funeral home, Nilands, we met again. He gave me a strange look clearly recognizing me. I said to him, "Ford Gremillion is my wife's uncle." I am sure at that moment, he must have thought I was related to everybody in New Roads.

I chided him saying his homily must be different, I knew as a Catholic, it could not be all new. He replied, "I got to use some of the words over again." We chuckled together. The Padre in my mind was an outstanding priest, pity the Bishop moved him on to another parish.

So we return Monday to New Roads again to say good bye to Tattie. We drive in Monday, the funeral is Tuesday. And we will shuffle off to Weatherford on Wednesday. Being retired it is only a matter getting the energy up to make the trip.

Judie will get to see her high school buddy, best friend and almost cousin, Cherry. Cherry and Milly are daughters of Tattie from a former marriage so are not blood relatives but treat each other as they are indeed cousins. Does it matter, no. It is still family. Two other children of the marriage, Charlie and Pattie are indeed her cousins as they were Ford's children.

We now we close the book on that generation from Avoyelles, from Cotton Port, from that era of expansion after the great war. Little did Bill and Ford realize but that their family roots were from Pointe Coupee and go back to the 1700s. Their family were early settlers of Avoyelles Parish. And they, the Gremillions, have a rich history in Pointe Coupee Parish. So Bill and Ford were really returning to their roots and did not know it until my mother did all the research to get my wife, Judie, into the DAR. Then it all came out.

What's that someone said, we are all separated by six degrees of freedom. When I re-typed my mothers book on early marriages of Pointe Coupee, I realized that due to sparse populations, many families are indeed interrelated by marriage. So most of all the old families of Pointe Coupee are related to each other. I guess the six degrees is correct.

Perhaps, that's how that greeting endearment found in Louisiana got started. That greeting is "Hello, Cus." Maybe we are truly all cousins.

End of an Era. . . .

Aunt Bobbe's passing is an end of an era in my family. She was the last of her generation and so it now falls to my generation to be the matriarchs and patriarchs. The corner stone today of our family remains Angeles Plantation, or Morrison Farm, Inc.

We, the family, the heirs, are the owners of the corporation, run by a board of relatives. Our inheritance for the most part are shares. There is the infamous Usufructs Agreement regarding the areas on the front of the farm to be used by the various family branches. It all seems for naught now, as we are all settled in here and there across the nation. But then, maybe one our children will wish to make use of the agreement. Perhaps they will even keep it going, who knows.

Some years ago, in the early 1980s when all the original heirs were still living, they had a corporation named the W. C. Morrison Farm, Inc. But they disbanded the corporation to escape double taxation. It returned to a partnership owned by the original four heirs of Walter Christian Morrison, Sr. Those heirs were John, Edna, Walter and Farnham, bothers and sister. They sold I believe one sixth of one eighth of their royalties. The Wilbert well, now abandoned, was in production and thus they could not release the land but they could sell part or all of their royalties. And that's what they did and all of them got a nice chunk of money.

Then nothing happened. Gas exploration stopped. The Morrison's were left high and dry. There were wells to east, to the west and to the south but none on the Morrison holdings. It was released later but for only a short while.

So time past and members of that original group began dieing off. Then in the late 1980s only Aunt Bobbe and Daddy (John) remained alive out of all of the heirs. I became concerned that the place would be left in fractions of ownership like 13/16s etcetera. We needed to reincorporate the plantation but Daddy was loathe to bring up the subject with Aunt Bobbe.

Aunt Bobbe, right or wrong, always wanted to live out on the plantation. That was not to happen, Walter who diligently farmed the place raised his family there while Aunt Bobbe and Uncle Ham resided in Baton Rouge. So Daddy decided incorporation was too tough an issue to raise with Aunt Bobbe. I said I would do it.

So I went to see Aunt Bobbe in Baton Rouge on Clematis Drive. Into the infamous den I went as we all did when visiting with Aunt Bobbe. We chatted about for awhile and I raised the topic of what we should do with the plantation. Aunt Bobbe said, "I don't see why we have not reincorporated the place." I did not press the subject as to why or why not but did say I would talk to Daddy and we could get the place back under an umbrella of a family corporation.

Daddy was both relieved and pleased. We approached Catherine Morrison Townsend to get her husband to draw up the articles of incorporation. Townsend consulted with both Daddy and Aunt Bobbe and in a fairly short time we had a new corporation, now known as Morrison Farm, Inc. There was a hundred shares and each family branch got 25shares.

When Daddy died I inherited 8.33 shares. Herrise did the same but John Jr's children had proportionately different but equal amounts. Some years later, at a family meeting I offered that we should split the stock to 10,000 shares so that we would not end up dealing with an heir that had 2/3's of a share or some outrageous fractional holding. At first it was of concern that it would cost a lot of money to do a split but consultation with "Bubba," Walter's son who was a lawyer too, it was determined that it cost perhaps $50.00 to make the change. So we did so and reissued stock certificates accordingly. Now, I know that my children will split up 833 shares of stock instead of 8.33 shares of stock. It is just easier to do the math.

There remains an ownership problem or potential problem. When the farm was re-incorporated, the minerals were left out. We did not know how much they were worth if anything. The could be worth millions of dollars or nothing of great value at all. History tells us that there probably are significant minerals rights, so those are inherited and owned directly. That will indeed lead to fractional ownership but until developed, the shares of mineral ownership remain a great unknown.

Little things come along, like most recently the cell phone tower was erected on the back of the place. It generates about $600.00 per month rent. That goes into the corporations coffers for later family distribution. A number of years ago, the pipeline paid the family for a 99 year lease for an acre of so of land to construct a pipeline clean out point. And the rail road built a passing track and wished to get a right of way to a few more feet of land across the back of the plantation. This is land that can not be farmed as it is to close to the existing railroad, so it was of no great consequence to the family or farm. We granted the right of way and collected a little bit of money for it. Our neighbors, the Thibauts did not and consequently got nothing out of the deal as the rail road determined it has sufficient right of way to construct the passing track anyway. And they bought borrow pit dirt from us too. That is how the Morrison family has always approached it civic duties.

We said goodbye to Aunt Bobbe last Friday, October 3, 2008, with interment in the St. Mary's Cemetery Mausoleum. The funeral Mass was held in Baton Rouge at St. Aloysius Church, she being a charter member of that congregation. Nice church, nice service and nice final grave side prayers.

As I said, it is the passing of the torch, it is ours now to do with. May be do as well as our ancestors.

Ike is here. . .

We are beginning to feel the effects of Ike. Been windy since I got up at 7:00 AM and we got out first shower about 12:30 PM. The effects will be rather lite on us as we are on the back side of the storm - winds are out of the North.

Reports from Joan Tregre in Pearland, a suburb of Dallas and I might mention on the South side of Houston about half way down to Galveston, was that they are all okay, roof is still on but all the fences are down. So they rode it out and did not suffer very much. For that, we thank God.

Tyler, Texas is right in the middle of it. The storm will pass right over them and I am sure the North East quadrant will extend over to Shreveport, Louisiana. They will get tropical storm like winds and lots and lots of rain. We may get a few more showers here and a bit more wind but nothing to worry about. We will get cooled off by the front coming and from the unseasonal rains. And we can always use the rain though it interferes with my Radio Control flying.

Reports from New Roads is that they got some moderate winds and not much rain at all. This time they were sort of out of it. I am sure that all the crews that were restoring power in Baton Rouge and Pointe Coupee will now head to Galveston/Houston area to pick up the pieces there. So I guess things will slow down there due to Ike.

Aunt Bobbie came out of surgery okay. She is on the road to recovery. Pity, the storm will hit Austin with a hard blow. They will be on the good side but very close to the center of the storm so can expect a go of it.

Now on to LSU football. Poor University of North Texas, in for a beating and then return though the night with the storm all around them. I hope they stay overnight at LSU and go back Sunday morning. Travelling through the night in midst of a storm is no fun.

I will be at the Fox & Hound watching the game with the rest of the LSU alumni and friends. We will also get to see some of the USC OSU game on a side TV. We can only hope that OSU will anillate USC but that probably will not happen. PAC 10 does not look so good, Washington lost to Baylor. While Baylor has shown marked improvement th is year, they are not really in the upper classes of the conference.

Until next time . . .

Geaux Tigers

Politics . . .

Politics, you can not avoid it at the moment, campaigns have reached new highs (or lows) after the conventions. It is pretty apparent that the Democratic convention failed to juice up the Democrats but boy oh boy, the Republicans have really juiced up everybody.

Frankly, I think Senator Obama made a very bad mistake in not taking Senator Hillary R. Clinton on as a Vice Presidential candidate. I mean she got almost as many delegates as he did, roughly half of the Democratic delegates and gets snubbed. It made the women angry and it surely made a lot of Democrats angry too. Bad judgement. Yeah, I know, he was trying to avoid the Clinton's mystic but I think he has screwed up badly. And he got almost no bounce, maybe one percent bounce out of his grand speech.

Senator McCain, on the other hand, has played it up very correctly. He has embraced the conservatives with his selection of Sara Palin as a running mate. He has chosen a women which has got to please a lot of female voters. And the polls now show an awesome bounce coming out of the convention. Bad news for the Democrats.

The press has taken a beating, too much support for Obama and NBC's ratings plunged. NBC has more or less rebuked two of their talking heads - both obviously slanted toward Obama. They are at the bottom of pile now vis-a-vis ratings and that's big bucks not matter how they feel. Money comes first in business, then you can rant and rave about your candidates. But until then, you can reverse the role. Others are watching too.

The Sara Palin comes out the line about "soccer mom and a pit bull" that goes over big. That "lip stick" comment that has been repeated again and again. Senator Obama, in his poor extemporaneously speaking ability to speak, made a bad reference to "lipstick on a pig." Boy that has really backfired. So the Senator from Illinois has really stepped into again, inadvertently comparing Sara Palin to a pig. He may not have meant that but he said it and is stuck with it.

Are the Democrats self destructing - - again? Looks bad for them. But fortunately for Democrats there is a long time to go, so they may well recover. But they are not going to do that with unscripted comments from Senator Obama. The conservative talk show hosts are beating up on him but then that is expected since there does not seem to be any successful liberal talk show hosts around. Those two avowed liberals on NBC TV just got whacked by their bosses, so . . .

Mrs Obama seems to be a detriment too. Their charitable contributions are next to nil. And she has put her foot in her mouth too. On the other hand, Cindy McCain stands out as a mother, business woman and one who does give a lot of time and money to charity. But then she does not have a social ladder to climb, she is already at the top.

I don't really like John McCain, but he seems to be the lessor to two evils. McCain voted incorrectly on tax cuts and got on the wrong side of the immigration issue. He seems to have learned his lesson in both cases. But McCain Fiengold Act stinks and his close ties with Joe Lieberman begs questions. Perhaps he is right to waver here and there but I don't like it. Sara Palin selection is certainly a step in the right direction. He is certainly right on the energy picture, the Democrats don't seem to get it.

Even the new Congressman from New Roads, Don Cazayoux, an alleged "Conservative Democrat" is for drilling off shore. Of course, young Don does not have a problem because Louisiana, his home turf, is the leading off shore state around. So the Democrats have their hands full, they just don't know when to quit and join the crowd.

Don's grandmother, whom he never knew, was my God mother. His mother and I are about two weeks apart in age, she being the elder. And we share some common ancestors and cousins but are not related to each other.

He has selected the term "Conservative Democrat" to disassociate himself from the liberals but if it walks like a horse, well it must be a horse, right? There is no such thing as a Conservative Democrat. My father was one way back when, but before he died he became an avowed Republican. When I was but a young boy in Pointe Coupee Parish, there were enough Republicans to counted on one's hands - maybe nine or ten of them. Today, there are many Republicans in Pointe Coupee Parish, yet there remains more Democrats. As a friend said, "You can not get elected in Pointe Coupee unless you are a Democrat." Ergo, the alleged "Conservative Democrat" title.

Young Don can not buck Nancy Pelosi, she is far to powerful. The Democrats are enthralled that he was elected in a Republican district but he faces another race this fall. Part of me wants to see him successful and part of me wants to see a Republican Congressional Majority again. Young Don may be one of the shortest lived US Representations in a long time.

What ever you do folks, vote. Vote your heart, head and loyalties but vote please. I spent a life time devoted to the rights of Americans to be free. Voting is exercising your freedom!

Its Been Flown . . .

I have gotten a number of sorties on the Big Stik 60 now, enough to rip the main landing gear off. That was a conversion error, my eror. I had installed a quarter inch thick plywood block to mount the landdnig gearinside the fueslage. When I glued it in place, I failed to tie it into the plywood longerons, so it was just supported by the balsa skin. The balsa did not last too long. So it broke out on landing. Not pretty.

But I put it back into place, and fiber glass the patch from the out side. I then added a couple of gussets on the inside using epoxy cement to glue it together. It is well tied into the structure now and should hold up for a long time. I had to add a bit of lead in the back end to compensate for the added weight up front, the fiber glass, extra epoxy and gussets. It is nice and balanced and flies quiet well. I also pushed the tank up a little further, so there was a shift of weight forward and thus the lead is necessary to compensate.

The new 2.4 GigaHertz equipment is glitch free, not hits now. And a new battery insures a lot of power and reserve. I had some trouble getting the battery to perform, but after several cycles, it came up and is doing just well. So new battery, super switch, new receiver set and transmitter module and I was ready to go.

The new receiver has really two separate receivers, you locate one on the floor of the model with its two antennas facing the sides of the model and the secondary receiver on the side of the model and its two antennas facing fore and aft. That covers the spectrum for reception. The 2.4 stuff can be highly directional and thats why the orientation must be different. The two receivers are tied together and that ensures a positive signal catch under all the potential directions.

I had a bit of trouble getting everything working. The Spektrum instructions were a little lacking. One has to "bind" the receiver set to the transmitter. When that is done, the receiver only recognizes the tranmitter to which it is "bound." That means no one else can send a signal to your airplane except only except your transmitter. So frequency control is a thing of the past.

Spektrum failed to be explicit about turn on and off procedures. One has to turn on the transmitter first, then the receiver. The binding process requires that one press a button on the RF module down, turn on the transmitter, then the receiver set. The receivers each have a light emitting diode, and the diode begins flashing. That indicates it is receiving the signal. After a few seconds, the diodes stop flashing and go solid in color (in this case red). The solid color indicates the receiver set is bound to the transmitter. You can release the button and things are all locked up to your transmitter.

After that, general use, preparation to fly one must always turn on the tranmitter first, then the receiver set. Do it backwards, and the receiver set forgets and loses its binding to the transmitter. Spektrun fails to point out this to the user - pretty bad in my mind.

But once you get all that down, it is super duper. I get all the neat bells and whistles that comes with the 8UAP transmitter. At one time the 8 channel 8UAP was the top of the line. No so anymore but it is still one powerful device. 8 channels is more than enough for me at any time and its powerful, albeit dated, programming process allows all kinds of things to be done. Besides I know how to program it now so it is okay by me.

So I have the best of the best and works. No more hits, no more interference from microwave signals over running my 72 MegaHertz systems. I dont' know if that was the real problem, but I am not having any problems any more. Hummm.

Cheers. Keep your heads down, Ike is coming.

New Plane . . .

After the crash, I resorted to flying an old trainer. It alas succumbed to many fixes and lost part of its elevator on take off. It circled around and flew into a tree. It was spectacular crash but a pile of trash at the end. I had foresaw this event and had ordered another Great Plaines (GP) Big Stik - 60 sized air plane. That means .60 cubic inch sized engine in the two cycle configuration.

So along with reconstruction of the Ultra Stik I had this humugus box in my way - the new GP Stik. I had finished the fuselage and was doing wing repair. At first the wing looked very superficial damage but as I got into it more, there was more damage. So I elected to build the GP 60 Stik for something decent to fly.

That led to a flurry of buying activity. I purchased a transmitter off RCUniverse (much better and reliable than eBay), it was similar but not exactly the same as my present version of the same transmitter. It is a 8UAP and my other similar one is an 8UAPs - the last in that series. They are eight channel transmitters but more importantly in their heyday, they were the top of the line transmitters. That meant they had many features and included an internal chip that could be programmed. This allows a lot of configuration changes and all kinds of whizz bang things that a cheapo transmitter can not do. In their heyday, they were a $500 machine, I acquired this one for $115.00 that included shipping and buddy cord (buddy cord worth about $10.00 or so). In my mind it was a good deal.

This transmitter also includes a Radio Frequency module in the rear that can be changed from channel to channel or even have one special module that allows all the 72 megahertz channels to be dialed in one at a time. This allows one to use whatever frequency that is open provide one has a matching receiver. It has a extended memory chip called a Compaq. The normal transmitter can store up to 8 different models, the Compaq allows an additional 8 configurations models to be stored.

I removed the channel 31 module that came with the 8UAP, and it is sort of a paper weight on my computer station now, and installed a Spektrum 2.4 Gigahertz module in the slot. This allows me to step up to the latest and greatest Radio Frequency operation. Now I can operate without restraint of worrying about getting on someone else's frequency (or then on mine). There are so many channels at 2.4 Gigahertz it is mathematically impossible to end up on some one else's exact frequency. And the new receivers have tiny little antenna that remain inside the airplane eliminating unsightly long wire 72 Megahertz antennas hanging out the airplane. So for about $300.00 I have stepped up to the latest and greatest operational systems for the new Stik.

The new receiver is strange little device. It is about half the size of a usually Futaba 72 Megahertz receiver. And it has a little slave receiver too. The slave has to be oriented in a different plane, normally 90 degrees off and facing a different direction. So the primary sits on the floor of the model with its antennas facing the sides of the model. The slave is affixed to one side and its antenna are facing the front/aft of the airplane. This assures that the highly directional 2.4 signal to be acquired at all times.

I elected to use Spektrum technology rather than Futaba technology because Futaba has experienced a few problems with theirs. They use a high speed step system the essentially does frequency hopping in the 2.4 Gigahertz range. That is okay but a bit more complex. Futaba also makes a 2.4 Gigahertz module that will retrofit in the 8UAP series transmitters. They loudly say it is illegal to use somebody else's module but that is really hog wash. There is no compromise of FCC regulations, or other manufacturers could not make anything compatible like they are indeed doing.

The new stuff is bit more expensive but coupled with the technology of the 8UAP, makes the set up awesome. There are at least one book written on the 8UAP by the same man that wrote their basic manual. The book is an additional 90 pages on how to program the transmitter.

I installed my Magnum .91 cubic inch four stroke engine in the Big Stik. I named it the "Redstik" in the menu. After doing the assembly, getting to know the Spektrum and programming the model, I took her up Tuesday at the Onion. No more hits from errant signals. The engine did not run to well at first but loosened up and ran better as time went on. It had a lot of after run oil in it and I had liberally added oil up on top on the rocker arms and down the push rod tubes to the cam area. On the second flight it expelled a lot of blackoil and began running a lot better. I am sure next trip out it will hum along without missing.

I converted the Big Stik to "tail dragger" from the typical nose wheel tricycle configuration. That meant I had to add lead to the back end to balance the airplane because of the forward center of gravity. I also customized things a bit by painting the landing gear red and I took the valve cover off the engine and painted it red. I baked the valve cover in the oven for 20 minutes at 250 degrees to harden the paint on the valve cover. I also installed the plastic red spinner on the engine. I don't expect the spinner to last to long.

I also added a surface patch on the bottom of the wing - about 3 square inches of fiber glass reinforcement. The bottom of the wing is in tension during normal flight, so that is a minor weight gain for a lot of improved strength for doing high G maneuvers. The top of the wing is in compression during normal flight so does not need any additional strength. Of course, when one is up side down, then things reverse but one does normal flight 90% of the time.

I set it up with two servos in the wings, one for left side and one for the right side ailerons. And I selected "flaperons" configuration. This allows me to dial in flaps for landing. I have not as yet set flaps up but using two channels for normal flight. I visually trimmed up the airplane it flew perfectly. I may never set up the flaps, it is only a marginal improvement for landing when there is no wind at all.

The throttle is a little off and I will adjust that for the next series flights. Not a big deal to fix and fine tune with "end point adjustment" or as Futaba calls it "ATV."

Any rate I will continue to work on the Ultra Stik wing and get her going again.

Mean time keep'em flying.

The Crash

It was inevitable, that an Radio Control airplane crashed. It was mine and I was not pleased. I could see it go down, it apparently lost the signal and spiraled into the ground. My buddy, Buddy, helped me police it up - a jillion pieces.

One tries to collect all the little pieces with the intent to rebuild the plane. This one hit nose first and the first four or so inches got compressed, distorted and smashed to bits. But I got as much of it as I could and it looks like I may have enough to rebuild it.

One can always rebuild a crash once, well almost once. I have had some pretty serious destructive ones in the past. At any rate, I have started rebuilding it. Sort of like putting a jig saw puzzle together, this little piece here and that big piece there. Lots of glue and patience. It will mostly come looking like the original but it may be a tad off here and there. It will be heavier - more new glue and stronger - better glue than the Chinese used to build it.

The airplane was originally a ARF, that means "Almost Ready to Fly." One has to glue on the tail feathers, join the wing together and install the servos, fuel tank, engine, battery and receiver. After all that one has to balance the airplane. The balance has to be over the center of the lift or the airplane will not fly right and will probably go out of control very easily. But then, I know how to do this. I have had a lot of experience doing this, maybe to much experience.

At any rate I have the fueslage back together up to where the wing mounts. The wing "saddles" on top were not damaged very much and the landing gear came out with a big chunk lower skin. That went together pretty quick. You see, I have lots of experience doing that work.

Now piecing together the nose is a different matter. I have the fire wall (with the engine mounted on it) mostly intact and one piece so it will go in pretty good. Had to do a little cosmetic repair and glue new side reinforcement rails on (thereby straightening out the slightly distorted fire wall). I have the piece of the lower nose skin, it was plywood and survived the crash intact. So it is matter of fitting it in and getting the side walls to conform. Being off a little bit is of no great consequence, as there are trim capabilities to take care of the small things. But to much and it will look cock-eyed.

I will place the fuselage flat on my construction table and slip in the lower nose skin. That will allow me to align things correctly. Great having that one piece survive so well. Any rate I hope that does the trick.

I will then reinforce the structure to make it stronger. Yes, it will be a little heavier, but the strength is a big thing. The Saito four stroke engine generates a large power stroke that is transmitted through the structure and can cause it to disintegrate with time.

I will have to investigate why the plane lost signal. I know when the signal goes away the servos tend to align in a spiral condition. So that was the clue to me. A lot of things can cause this, first and foremost is a lost of power connection. That could be a power switch. That could be a loose connection at the receiver. The plane had not been flown in a long time and the connectors can corrode oh so slightly as to cause a momentary loss of power. I try to use the best but . . .

I did check the battery with a loaded volt meter after the crash and it was well up to speed. So it was not the battery. I have had other battery problems but this is not one of those conditions. So I will pay close attention to the switch but don't think that was it either. I am really sure it is the connector at the receiver. Out range could be another but the receiver has worked well in the past.

Any way back to gluing, piecing together, aligning and so on. I do enjoy the rebuild process.

About False River. . . .

Since I grew up on the banks of False River I never gave it a thought as to why a lake was named False River. It was there and I was there. It just seemed natural. Not until I was much older and worldly did it ever occur to me that it sounds kind of funny - false river - like a substitute for the word lake. I knew other wise, for False River was once part of the main channel of the mighty Mississippi River. It is a classic geological oxbow lake, a kind of lake found up and down the Mississippi valley, mostly in Louisiana but also other places.

The most other notable lakes in Louisiana are Lake St John and Lake Providence. It seems only in Pointe Coupee Parish do we have fondness for naming them "rivers" from which they originated. There is of course, False River but there is also Old River another similar lake in the upper part of the parish.

But False River is different, it is different because history has made it so. It is said that when Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville explored the lower Mississippi River he came upon the beginnings of False River. It s alleged that local indian guides showed him a short cut where the river was cutting through a new channel that would eventually isolate False River into an oxbow lake. Bienville was supposedly informed he could save time by using the cut off. It was not portage as well known in French Canada, there was a small channel blocked by debris. He made his passage though the channel and appropriately named the area "Pointe Coupee." The name stuck - it literally means "cut point." Bienville passed that way in 1699.

There stands out close to the Mississippi River an live oak tree called the Stonicker Oak. It is a huge thing with limbs stretched out so far as to bend down and touch the ground. The core of the tree is rotted away and has been filled with concrete and yet the tree lives on. The tree trunk must be 18 or 20 feet across. The agronomist tell us that that tree was there when Bienville went up the Mississippi - which makes the tree well over 300 hundred years old. And yet it lives on. Texans think their Charter Oak is old, they need to see the Stonicker Oak.

My father bought our house in New Roads on the banks of False River before WW-II. He worked in New Orleans for the US Army Corps of Engineers as a civil engineer. When the war broke out, both of his younger brothers ended up on active duty in the Army. One was in the Pacific Theater and one was in the European Theater for the duration of the war. One of the brothers, Walter had married and was living on the family farm, the plantation, with my elderly and sickly grandparents. With the war, Walter had to move on, his family resided in Alexandria where his wife was from originally.

So my father moved out to the plantation with his family, continued to work in New Orleans during the week and come home and run the plantation on the weekends. He kept the house that I was born. He rented the house out to A. A. Robinson - Mr. Bubba Robinson - who was the father of the Pointe Coupee Rural Etectricfication Association (the Ponte Coupee REA). Mamma and Daddy took care of us and his parents too.

After the war, Walter returned to the plantation. By then both of my grandparents had died. And my father was probably tired of holding down two jobs. So it was decided that Walter would take over the management of the family farm. We returned to the house in New Roads on the banks of False River. Walter and his family settled in at the plantation.

Our house in New Roads was a pretty old house, the center two rooms have hand hewed cypress beams and the beams are held together by wooden pegs to this day. The walls were the classic mud and moss walls. The house had been added on to, changed, remodeled etc over time. When my father died in the early 1990s we regretfully sold the place. It is still there and has yet been expanded and remodelled again. I doubt serioulsy if the present occupants have clue that it is one of the oldest houses in New Roads. No matter it is still there and perhaps I will write about it some day.

As a young boy, I often swam in False River. Every summer we trotted down to the court house to get typhoid shots from the local health unit. It meant a sore arm for awhile but it was the ticket to swimming in the lake. It was an annual rite we children all went through. No one ever caught Typhoid during my day.

Our neighbor, a couple houses over, Louis Morgan, had pier and boat house that extended into the lake. It was an attractive nuisance. I caught my first fish there, it was a whopping big catfish. Daddy skinned and we ate it! It was dinner for one of our Catholic meatless Fridays.

As I got older, I became a little more conscious to taking care of the swimming locale. For years, perhaps centuries, people had been tossing their trash into False River. I am sure the bottom is littered with all kinds of stuff. People have discovered cannon balls and other objects. So I was picking up trash and tossing it further out into the deep water. I picked up what I thought was lid from an old tin can and started to toss it out into the deep water.

I stopped, it was thicker than usual and had a bit of weight to it. So I kept it, put it aside on the walk way of the boat house. After swimming I came up hill to our house. I gave it to my mother saying it did not seem to be a normal top of a can. And I moved on.

Well my mother was curious too. She took it over to the sink and began cleaning it. I was a silver piece of eight, dated 1803. We cleaned it up and kept around for awhile. I later gave it to my cousin, George Kimball, for his coin collection. I had always admired the collection and George, a couple of years older than I, for his hobby. Not until many years later did I learn George's entire collection had been burgled and it was gone forever.

The point is that it is also alleged that pirate of fame of the Battle of New Orleans, Jean Lafitte, had buried many pieces of silver somewhere around False River. That is of course, a legend. But it may be true. I at least can attest to the fact that I found a piece of eight in the grand oxbow. And it was dated from the era of Jean Lafitte.

My wife's ancestors were stationed at Fort du Pointe Coupee. They came from France to Louisiana. The fort led to the early settlement of Pointe Coupee. It is the land of St. Francis Chapel, one of the oldest Catholic churches in the Mississippi Valley. The written records of marriages and commerce extent back to 1771 in Pointe Coupee. The community around False River rivals that of Natchotoches at Cane River. Places like Baton Rouge are relatively new compared to the age of the fledgling community of New Roads. It is true that New Roads is modern compared the early settlement of Pointe Coupee but it contains the present day history.

False River lives on. Today it is considered a resort lake, a trophy lake for fish. Many record Bass have be caught in False River. It is surrounded by "camps" of which we are part owners of one. The Forth of July not known as a major holiday in the deep south, is now a resounding holiday with a fireworks show that rivals all that I have ever seen. It is not so massive as found on the mall in Washington DC or in the harbor of New York City, but it is unique in that is all put on by the individual residents along the lake. So the show goes on for hours and stretches for miles up and down the lake. There is no Lions Club or Kiwanas - the only fees are those of the locals that buy the fire works. The show went on from dusk to the wee hours in the AM.

False River boasts of a boat parade on the Fourth of July. It is unfettered by organization, it just is. A theme is published but not everyone adheres to theme. It is fun and irreverent. There are rafts and boats decorated as the owner desires. There is a judge and prizes are given but the prizes are just as irreverent.

In the spring there is the blessing of the boats at the New Roads end of the lake. That is out in front of St. Mary's of False River, the local Catholic Church. St. Mary's is a descendant of the St Francis Chapel out on Pointe Coupee. Indeed, St Francis, still an active church, is maintained and staffed by St Mary's.

False River is host to countless fishing rodeos. In the old days fishing rodeos were a money raising event for the Knights of Columbus and Sportsman;s Leagues. Today it is professional fishing rodeos with large commercial sponsors. Big money changes hands.

False River has been a host to countless boat races. All kinds of them, all power boat races. In board and out board powered races. Today they are infrequent but False River remains one of the premier locations for such events.

So yes, False River, is just another name for a lake. But it is unique lake with a grand history. It is a resort for sportsmen. It has summer homes, bar-b-ques and fish fry's - and to me it is home.

The 4th of July

We journeyed over to New Roads and False River for the 4th of July weekend. There was strong motivation to go, son Jake and lovely wife Anne were coming along with Anne's parents. That was an occasion not to be missed especially since Anne is expecting their first child.

Son James and his brood left early on Thursday for New Roads. They elected to stay at the camp. We, on the other hand, had reservations at Morel's along with Tom and Hildy (Anne's parents) and Jake and Anne too. We got our reservations early to ensure we had a place to stay. We drove out on the 4th itself.

Even Katie came with her boyfriend, Billy, came. He had a four year old boy with him - Mathew.

We had already known we were going to come over for the holiday so had invested with Paul as our advisor in fire works for the night of the 4th. Paul did us well with his purchases of fire works. All of False Rive was awash in fire works. Since some of the kids had gone to Baton Rouge to see the fire works on the Mississippi River, we saved our fire works for when they got back. We sat on the pier and watched and the show, a show that stretched from New Roads on the North end of the lake to around the bend and on to the south end of the lake. It was quite a show. It may not have been professional as the show in Baton Rouge, but it was just as spectacular and much more far ranging. The shots were random and it stretched out for miles along both the north and south sides of the huge oxbow lake.

We only began shooting the fire works at 10 PM and our little extravaganza lasted until midnight. We had shells and sprays, and yes, debris raining down on us. And true to form, a few folks on the other side of the lake responded. So the show continued until early hours of the 5th of July.

Saturday, we gather again at the camp along with Joan Tregre and her family (Dale - Ian - Catherine - Jonathan). They had stopped off at Dale's father's place in Destraham, LA. And they along with Dale's dad had gone crabbing. So we feasted on dozens of fresh boiled to perfection crabs.

As the day progressed along came Jeramie Major along with his boy, Jeramie and his wife Anna. Jeramie is the son of Janice who died many years ago. She was the older sister of Mark, Joan, Karen and Paul Gremillion. The two boys, Josuha and Jeramie Major seemed all but lost to the family, but the connection is now reestablished. It was not so much a grand reunion as it was a reunion, a welcoming of sorts. Mark and young Jeramie played a great deal. Joan did the same, giveing a lot of attention to young Jeramie. One could tell they, Mark and Joan, were exceedingly pleased to see that young family at the camp.

We had all tell 25 folks at the camp. Cousins, and kin of all kinds. The show on the lake was unbelievable. The gathering of the family has not to be matched before. Elsie and Bill Gremillion looked down on their heritage and smiled.

Sunday, we gathered once more to collect our stuff and say sad good byes - until next year. Jake and Anne off to Manhattan, NY, Tom and Hildy off to Madison, WI and Chip and Judie back to Texas. James and family to follow the next day to Flower-Mound, Texas. Joan and Dale with family back to Pearland, Texas. This will leave Mark and Paul to clean up after us all.

What a grand weekend!

My Father . . .

To know so much and yet know so little about him.

John Landry Morrison was born on a plantation, his father was a sugar planter and his mother a homemaker. He was not the oldest but he was the oldest to reach maturity, his older brother died of diptheria. He had a sister and two younger brothers.

as the olderst, he was the first to leave home. He went to Morganza High School but when he finished it only went to the 11th grade. But he was done. So he looked about for a college to go to. He applied at Northwestern in Natchodoches but was rejected. He also applied at the flag ship university of Louisiana, LSU and was simarly rejected. He even applied at Tulane in New Orleans and they too said no. The reason was that he did not finish the 12th grade!

He along with is cousin, Harris, applied at Mississippi State College and were accepted on probation. To get to College Station, Mississippi was an ordeal. He had to catch the train on the back of the plantation to take him to Addis, a small town on the west bank of the Mississippi River across from Baton Rouge. He spent the night in Addis waiting for the train ferry to cross the river. There he caught the Mississippi and Yazoo Valley Rail Road train to Vicksburg, MS. That was an all day ride and again he spent the night in Vicksburg.

Next he took the train out of Vicksburg for Jackson, MS - not to far this time. There in Jackson he switched to a local going to College Station. So it took him three complete days to get to school. Naturally, he did not come home until the beginning of the next summer.

Harris did not make it. He could not keep up or really did not care to. Does not matter, Harris did not graduate from Mississippi State. Daddy did finish. He graduated in May, 1925 in Civil Engineering. The oddity is that his birthday was June 1905 thus he finished college before his 20th birthday. That is an unheard of feat today. Harris who did not finish ended up being the richest of Morrison's for awhile, so don't feel sorry for him.

After graduation hDaddy went to work for the State of Louisiana, I believe in the Highway Department as a draftsman in Baton Rouge. I am sure that is where he met my mother who was from Monroe, LA and was attending Louisiana State University at that time.

A story was told that one day, a Friday just before the weekend, he was cleaning up his draftsman's desk, sharpening his pencils, sweep off the erasure dust, etc. He boss came up to him and asked him what he was doing.

"Cleaning up," he said, "He was finished with his project."

His boss said, "You are not finished with the project until a Civil Engineer has signed off the drawing."

My father replied, "He was finished and he had signed off the drawing." He continued, "I am a Civil Engineer!"

I understand later on he was a project engineer on the building of the road from Monroe, LA to Vicksburg. Today there is an Interstate Highway that parallels that route. He was laid off by the state, they had run out of money to construct the highway. So he packed up and went home to New Roads.

He later worked for the state in the Department of Public Works. That is when he ran afoul of Huey Long, etal. Huey wanted all state employees to pay 10% of their salary into his war chest. Daddy refused to do so and was fired.

I suppose he returned to New Roads again. Must have been a hard thing to do. Any rate not long after that he got a job laying banana plantations in Latin America. He went to work for the United Fruit Company out of New Orleans. I have an old passport of his that he obtained in Nicaragua. His photo shows a grand handle bar moustache. He worked in Columbia too. That is where he developed his taste for Scotch Whiskey.

It was prohibition in the states and the ships came in from Europe with plenty of booze on board. He told me that they would buy four cases of Johnny Walker Red Scotch and one case of Johnny Walker Black Scotch. If you don't know, Johnny Walker Red is not aged as long as Johnny Walker Black and thus cost less. He said it was like three dollars a case for the Red and six dollars a case for the Black. You must remember $3.00 was a lot of money in those days. And there was not tax on the stuff either.

He later returned to the states, Huey Long was dead by then. He went to work for Atlas Construction Company, the fore runner of T. L. James of Ruston, LA. They built levees all over the state. I recall stories of Franklin, LA (where my sister Herrise was born) and Cotton Port, LA where he and Mama lived their early married days. When those days were done, he got a job with the US Army Corps of Engineers in New Orleans.

Another story told about him was during the early days of the WW-II, the Mississippi River was on the rise, bad times for Louisiana. At that time he was assigned to Galveston District in Texas but was stationed in New Orleans. In those days, he was working the A. Hayes Towns laying out airports among them are the Harding Field (Baton Rouge Airport) and Moinsant (today known as Louis Armstrong International Airport) Kenner, LA.

At any rate, the river was on the rise, the Corps was very concerned. The US Army Colonel in charge of the New Orleans District was in dire need of an levee expert. His assistant said, "The foremost authority on the levee system is right down the hall but he works in the Galveston District. You have to get them to approve your use of him." So my father was summarily transferred back to the New Orleans District and put in charge of making sure there was no flood. Apparently by the grace of God and lady luck, he was successful.

At the end of WW-II he took a leave of absence from the US Corps of Engineers and went into his own business. That is another story unto itself. But the Corps was not finished with him. I think about 1954 or so, he was doing drainage work for Horace Wilkerson not very far from the foot of the Mississippi River bridge at Baton Rouge. They were on the west side of the river. If you cross that bridge going west, and look off to the north, you will see the river is flowing east and makes a turn south, a fairly sharp bend in the river.

Well his drag line operator woke up one morning, staying in a small motel cabin, fixed his coffee and got ready to go to work. It was still dark. Without much consideration, he opened the door to his cabin and stepped off into two feet of water. The levee had broken at that sharp bend in the river. The Corps commandeered the Morrison Engineering and Contracting Company's equipment and directed by father to begin reconstruction of the levee. The drag line was the only thing sticking out of the rush of water.

The rebuilding process is to make a small ring levee some distance away from the river to contain the flood waters. Then one starts "walking the levee" back to its original position, each time raising the height to contain the waters. The Corp empowered him to use any tractor, grader, drag line that was available in Baton Rouge and surrounding area. The Corps later paid for rental of that equipment but the owner's could not refuse the Corps use of the equipment.

Daddy stopped that flood and built that levee back. There is no evidence the levee break today. The little cabins used by the employee are long gone. The whole area is built up with businesses. It is an industrial complex now days. And old man river keeps on flowing.

He was called back to the Corps one more time, he was charged with "raising the levees" along the fore bay in the Morganza Spillway. They raised the levees some three or so feet, that is several miles - maybe 8 or 9 miles of work. Again, the local equipment owners provided the equipment and were later paid for its usage. Daddy was once again the engineer in charge of the operation.

When Daddy reached 65 or so years, he wrote a letter to the Corps saying he thought it was time to retire. They wrote back that they had retroactively retired him some years before that and sent him a check. He started drawing about $75 or so dollars per month. By the time he died, his retirement was up to some $300.00 per month. He lived on that and his social security until he died. He also had other income from the family plantation, some of it substantial. So he died a man of money, not a pauper.

Next, how he became known as "Honest John" by his construction industry peers. How he also was named Pap Paw by his great grandchildren.

Until then. . . .

Old Man River . . .

Old Man River - the mighty Mississippi River of course. I learned all I know about the river from my father, a civil engineer and a levee builder par excellence. My father, affectionately known in his retirement years as Paw Paw constantly watched the river. No, he did not go to the levee and look out on the river, he kept up with the river gauge readings at the key locations.

The key locations as far as he was concerned were at Cario, IL; Memphis, TN, Vicksburg, MS; Natchez, MS; Old River Landing in Pointe Coupee Parish, LA; Baton Rouge, LA and New Orleans, LA. Why are those key, well Cairo is where the Ohio meets or joins the Mississippi. It is the beginning of the lower Mississippi valley.

Memphis is the first point below Cairo where the river is constrained. All along the Mississippi are bulges, are wide spots that flood when the river rises. These spots act as sponges soaking up the ever increasing amounts of water flowing south down the river. They are "accumulators" and take the pressure off the levee system. But there is no wide spot at Memphis, all the water passes through a narrow gap with Memphis on a bluff on one side and Arkansas protected by a levee on the other side. So the gauge at Memphis indicates how bad things can get.

The next spot on the river is Vicksburg. It too is on a bluff and the other side is protected by a levee in Louisiana. Once again all the waters of the mighty Mississippi must flow through that gap. The US Army Corps of Engineers has been given the authority to deal with the river and its levees by US Congress. The Corps as it is widely known, divides the upper and lower Mississippi at Vicksburg.

The river is also constrained at Natchez. Again all the water has to pass through that gap on its way to the Gulf of Mexico.

Old River Landing is a spot on the lower Mississippi River Valley where Old Man River was trying to divert itself to the Atchafalaya River. At that point, as the river flows, it is well over 200 miles to the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi River and a little less than a 100 miles on the Atchafalaya River. That means the Atchafalaya is a mean swift river that flows down the west side of the Great Atchafalaya swamp past towns like Simmsport, Kortz Springs, Morgan City and so on. All the towns along the Atchafalaya boast of a "ring levee" built after the great 1927 flood. All of those towns have out grown their ring levees and all of those towns fear the great Atchafalaya River.

The Corps has spent billions of dollars at Old River designing and constructing flood control structures to allow some flow off the Mississippi River into the Atchafalaya River. In fact, there is even a hydro electric facility that generates electricity with the drop of some 8 or 10 feet head pressure from the Mississippi River to the Atchafalaya River. There is also a lock to allow barge traffic to go between the rivers and provisions to allow extreme high water from the Mississippi into the Atchafalaya at flood time. This opening would only occur if the Morganza and Bonne Carrie Spillways could not handle the river excesses.

Baton Rouge and south. Baton Rouge is the last bluff on the Mississippi River. The river has never been further east in all geological time, it has been further west often. But the bluff runs out at Baton Rouge, really north Baton Rouge and the old city area. South Baton Rouge, now Louisiana's largest city/parish - 800,000 plus souls, is in the flood plain. Louisiana State University is about where the bluff ends and even part of that is in the flood plain.

New Orleans. Well everybody knows about New Orleans since Katrina. But the gauge watched at New Orleans is the Carrolton Street gauge. The danger points is 18 feet. That's 18 feet above sea level! Yes, New Orleans is protected by levees along the river but they are more or less fixed. When the gauge nears 17 feet or so, the Bonnie Carrie Spillway above New Orleans is opened and water flows in to Lake Pontchartrain and out to the Gulf of Mexico. Lake Pontchartrain is the sixth largest lake in the US and since it is connected to the Gulf of Mexico it is salty. The fishermen and environmentalists have complained for years about the diversion of dirty fresh water out to the Mississippi into the salt lake. Well, it occurs quite often and there has not been any serious damage to the ecology. In fact, geologically, Lake Pontchartrain was created that very way by the Mississippi over times past.

Morganza Spillway starts at Morganza, LA in Poinnte Coupee Parish and flows through the Great Atchafalaya Swamp to the Gulf of Mexico. The spillway parallels the Atchafalaya River to the gulf. It was built in the early 1950s and has guide levees on both sides down into the great swamp area. In its existence it has had two gates opened only a couple of times. I think it has as many 60 or 80 gates. The structure is set back from the river several miles. That area is known as the "forebay" and often fills as the river rises. When the forebay has water in it the Mississippi River at that point is probably six or eight miles wide! That is one of those great accumulators along the river.

The river rises twice a year. It rises in April when the thaw of the Ohio Valley reaches the lower Mississippi River. This year it was a pretty good rise. The Bonnie Carrie Spillway opened when the river reached 17.5 feet on the Carrolton Street gauge. The Morganza Spillway did not open. The forebay did in fact fill up and a couple of high risk farmers lost their soy bean crops.

The second rise is in June. That's when the waters of the Missouri River reach the lower Mississippi Valley. Neither the waters of the Missouri or Ohio by themselves are a threat to the lower Mississippi Valley. That's why a couple of years back St Louis and environs flooded from the Missouri and parts of the upper Mississippi but it was a ho hum thing in the south. That's why today's floods on the upper Mississippi River in Iowa and Missouri and Illinois are going to be ho hum in the south again.

The danger comes when the Ohio thaw is late (and the April rise is late well into May) and the Missouri thaw is early (early like May), them whamo - the lower Mississippi River has too much water in it from end to end.

There are no navigation locks below St. Louis on the Mississippi River and none below probably Louisville, KY on the Ohio (I am not sure about lock locations on the Ohio but there are many). The tow boats require a draft of 9 feet. And even in the years of drought, there is still enough water for most tows to ascend and descend the Mississippi River to St Louis.

The head waters of the Atchafalaya is the Red River flowing out of Texas and Colorado. In recent years, the Corps has made the Red River navigable by installing locks along it in Louisiana. Barge traffic can get to Oklahoma and Texas today at all times. So the Red River is tamed too. Only the Mississippi River is controlled, not tamed through the south. Most of its tributaries along the way are tamed.

It is the lower Mississippi Valley that things can get out of control. The river constantly seeks to change and the levees must be carefully watched at both high and low water. During low water is when repair has to be made. Levees are moved but not in recent times. In my grandfather's day the levee was moved back from its initial location. Our farm faces the river, and we know that some of our land now resides on the bottom of the river. But because we have detailed surveys, we can claim that land for mineral rights - it is still ours.

The levee is granted a right of way. The levee board has absolute control of the levee. But we own the land under it, and on both sides of it. This is why we can graze cattle on the levee. While anybody can drive along the top of the levee, they do not have the right to tresspass on the sides and the bottom areas.

If one looks back at the history of floods one will see that the major problems occurred in Pointe Coupee Parish. It started there and spread all over the place. And that is why my father, a civil engineer, became one of the foremost levee builders along the mighty Mississippi. He grew up there and was a young man that lived through it all. And, yes, he did retire from the US Army Corps of Engineers.

But that is another story at another time. . .