Finally Got It To Work . . .

I finally got my "A" drive to work. I kept noting that it was showing up as "working properly" but not working at all. I did determine the X1DE USB drive was not compatible and Iomega had no intentions of making it work at all. So that was a lost cause.

So I removed that item from the computer. That is I physically removed it and then deleted all reference to it.

Then I cast about reading other peoples problems in the forums and finally ran across one that kinda answered my question. Basically, getting the ribbon cable on correctly (I did that) and going in to the CMOS set up and turning on the "A" drive. How simple.

Did that and I'll be damned if it did not fix everything. So now I have access to lots of old files kept on floppies. Of course, the one file I was desperately interested had to be converted from WordPerfect to Word and then I saved it to my hard disk. So now access is not a problem anymore. I still have the old Word Perfect software but it was on floppies too and I am sure I have forgotten how to really use it. Microsoft has become dominant.

Took a year of that kind battering around to get this Dell to work like I wanted it to work. I guess now it is obsolete.

Finally Got It t

Finally Got It t

Ahhhh! I found a bunch of Unpublished Blogs

Well checking back through the work I found that a bunch of blogs had not been posted. I discovered I could not "click" on the "Publish Post" icon and get it to work. I did find I could click on it and then press "enter" on the keyboard and that did the trick. How odd but I got it to work after much delay.

So there are a bunch of Blogs to read.

Enjoy.

Getting Up Steam . . .

Trying to get up some steam, not much interest in going out into the cold garage to fiddle with models. I do have a nice new propane heater that gets with it but it takes a few minutes to do that.

I have a ton of repairs to do on models, some rebuilds and some new construction. But when it is cold it just is not a whole lot of fun. Need to get with it.

I started feeding the birds again. Judie does not seem to have the energy or desire to do it. So I went out yesterday and filled up the feeder in front and one in the back. And boom, the birds are here. They know where the food is.

This AM I noticed that Blue Jays were even feeding here. Plumped up for the cold, colors are darker too, like mountain Jays. They spot the peanuts from a mile away. Don't know how they do that but it sure brings them in.

I noticed a couple of Crows trying to break the ice in the bird baths. So I took a pot of hot water out to help melt the ice. They were frozen solid -p it was 26 this AM. Those old Crows were pecking at it to break it and I can tell you there was no water underneath the ice. So I dump a pot of hot water in each bird bath and that will speed up the thaw.

Water brings the birds, food makes them happy and they stick around for a while. But water is hard to find in the winter. So if you can get your bird baths to thaw they will really come in to visit. Even saw a couple of Blue Birds out by the bird house. Checking out the arrangements maybe.

I've Been Chided, Nay Scolded . . .

Yup, scolded for not writing in my Blog. I kind of quit because I never get any feed back. So it is sort of like posting into never never land, all out go and no return.

We had a good Christmas. Limited for us, we are getting too old now days, little patience to shop and so we lapse into the check writing mode. That's okay, it works. Cash for the youngsters and a couple of special gifts for the grandchildren, the get the last of the attention getters.

Judie has been on a medical onslaught since her return from Madison. She arrived back feeling so bad, we stopped at the emergency clinic on the way home. They confirmed she had Pneumonia. I called it airplane Pneumonia - the germs get spread into the aircraft's cooling system (really a recirculating heating system) and spreads about to all passengers. The passengers are trapped and remain in the contaminated atmosphere for the duration of the flight. Nothing they can do about it.

The PA that saw her wanted the doctor to look her over the next day. We returned and among other things she had an X-ray. The doctor confirmed it was indeed Pneumonia. Later another physician reviewed the X-ray and did not like what he saw and recommended she see a Pulmonary Specialist. She also had a blood test that next day and it show anemia. So they recommended a Hematologist too. All this was sent over to her (and mine too) GP, Dr. Reeve. The blood test also showed some kind of Thyroid problem and Dr. Reeve recommended she see an Endocrinologist.

She also had a Cat Scan done for the lung thing, then later a Iodine test for the Thyroid. Well it appears the Thyroid is putting out too much of what ever it does but she has yet to see the Endocrinologist (lousy staff at Dr. Reeves office is the cause of that).

Mean while she is still being treated by the Ophthalmologist for Cataracts. She sees him every two weeks, slow progress. Last visit they said her eyes were too dry and were going to put plugs in the tear ducts to improve that condition. Judie said, "You did that three years ago." Oh, they said, hummmm. "Well come back in two weeks." It has been over a year since the first surgery. They may soon get around to doing the Lasik tune up and BTW, the Thyroid problems may be part of the problem.

The beat goes on. This AM we were at the local hospital emergency room because she has developed a Unitary Track Infection. That is about the fourth time this year for that.

Me, I get a Email from the Disabled American Veterans (DAV). I had sent them a missive to enquire about my last visit/evaluation to the Dallas VA hospital seeking a ruling on non employability. I am a life member of DAV so they respond to me and are my agents on the scene so to speak. The message was short and to me disturbing. The Officer reported that it was being "evaluated" by the committee and that there was a new finding, or disability - Ischemic Heart Disease (IHS), it is yet another Agent Orange thing.

As best as I can tell the Dallas VA GP that evaluated me decided that all the drugs I was taking were in response of potential heart problems - Cholesterol drugs (2 each), Blood Pressure drug, a heart rate drug (my heart rate goes up under stress like running as one would normally expect but it does not come down like my blood pressure does), and a baby aspirin (to ward off heart attacks). So I think he concluded that the aggregate of those drugs indicated IHD. And IHD with Agent Orange implications is considered a Combat related disability - no Purple Hearts but a result of activities in Viet Nam and an indisputable rating.

So one of two things and maybe both of them are in the offing. I will be rated non employable (and that gets all my property taxes removed) and I may get to the magic 100% disability rating. 100% disability rating is the "big" rating in VA compensation. It results in almost a $1,000 per month increase in my current compensation. VA compensation is among other things totally tax free; it can not be taxed by either Federal or State/City entities. Sort of like manna from heaven.

I would, if I could, trade it all back for better health but that ain't gonna happen.

So, we are getting older, and older, and older. And try as we might our bodies are just not as good as they used to be.

Could it be that we are wearing out?

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

The Game of the Year!!!!

I attended the game of the year at Tiger Stadium - the LSU/Alabama game. And I have the ticket to prove it.

The Tiger is Coming . . .

Yes, the Tiger is coming. The LSU Tigers are coming to the fore light. Bama has one defeat and now both Auburn and LSU are undefeated. Auburn meets with Arkansas this weekend, a good and dangerous team but then so are the Auburn War Eagles (note I do not often refer to them as the Auburn Tigers, they do not have a real tiger mascot like LSU).

People have been bad mouthing Les Miles as head coach but he has shown them he is very capable. Urban, the man, Meyer found out - again last weekend. Florida got trounced by Bama and were expecting to just run over the LSU Tigers. Well LSU push Florida all over the field and in the end beat them at their own game. The LSU Tigers seem to be more mature, maybe error prone but more than make up for it.

Everybody says LSU has no offense. That's odd since LSU had more than 100 more that both Tennessee and Florida. So that non offense offense beat them.

And now LSU has a two quarterback system. Both quarterbacks do some things well. Right Jarret Lee is really throwing the ball well. And Jordan Jefferson is running the ball well. But each can run and each can pass. Makes it a bit hard for the opposing teams defense.

Geaux Tigers!

Coach Miles Escapes . . . Again!

We have a very unusual football coach at LSU, Les Miles. Les gets it done in some weird ways, maybe he is just lucky. Don't know but do know his offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach, Gary Crowton is pulling him down. Will he wake up.

Perhaps he is beginning to realize this great short fall. At least I hope so or he is surely gonna get fired and take Crowton with him. We have a great defensive coach in Coach Chavis. Why can he not recognize the deficit in Crowton.?

Note, I refer to Miles as a Coach and to Chavis as a Coach but to Crowton as well less than respectful. He coaches alright but it does not seem to be good coaching.

Crowton is a failed head coach at both Utah and LA Tech. Hired for his "Pistol" offense and it has yet to produce much. In fact, if you look at the production recored, his coached offensives have gotten steadily worse. That ought to be a big red flag for Coach Miles, yet he seems unable to see it.

I hope it does not take him, the Athletic Director, Joe Alleva and Crowton out. For surely, if there is a further hiccup in the Florida game, they are all toast for not doing something about it earlier.

What a waste of talent.

Fritz is Back

Fritz the lizard is back. At least it is a Fritz, maybe a new fellow. He has grown a bit since we have noticed him. I saw him on the wood pile the other day. Judie says he lives under the big green wooden storage box on the patio.

And he has an avowed enemy, the neighbors cat. Judie ran the cat off this morning, it was trying to get at something under the Green Box (Fritz maybe). At least Fritz knows a safe spot.

But the damned cat prowls all night so I am sure it will return to haunt Fritz. Maybe the toad (yes, we have a toad too that lives in and around the patio) will distract the cat. I do not mind missing the toad but do mind losing a Fritz. We prize them, they are superior cricket eaters.

We know we had a clutch of them in the back yard. We found the eggs in edge of the compost pile in a neat hole. I counted 8 eggs, so maybe we had a flock of them. I saw the eggs and hole, Judie discovered them and distracted mama (Fritzina) for a while. I cam out and looked at the "nest." She, Fritzina, later came back and covered over the hole. And a new Fritz showed up about a month later, think it was one of hers?

Who knows, but we seem to have the wildlife in our yard. And that's a good thing, right?

What A Show . . . .

Yesterday, I had to go to the VA Hospital in Dallas for a couple of review appointments. I knew it would be a different thing for Judie to see and she decided to come because I was having an eye examination in one of the appointments. That meant I would get my eyes dilated and make driving home a hassle (The dilation was about 11:00 o'clock and we did not get out of there until past 3:00 o'clock, so much of that had worn off and I had ample sun glasses to take care of the glare).

I knew things would be sporting when we arrived at 9:00 o'clock and we had to park out in the South 40 lot. All the parking lots were over following. I opined it might be "appointment day." Somebody said that the Dallas VA hospital services 500,000 patients. That number does not include the everpresent person to accompany the patient, i.e Judie.

As we walked down the hall to the information desk, she commented the following, "It looks like an ant hill erupting with people all over the place." There were long lines at the pharmacy, lines at the waiting areas at the various clinics (mine was Clinic 16 but I was quickly shunted to Clinic 1 - the Eye Clinic). We waited in the lobby, then my name was called along with two dozen other names and we were led into the eye clinic and sat in yet another waiting room. They gradually processed us through the clinic.

After the eye clinic, it was back to Clinic 16. My next appointment was at 12:30, so we went down in the basement and ate lunch. That was zoo number 2. Crowded, lines everywhere, all tables taken, so we shared a table with guy. Naturally, we got his story too. All the food was fast food, I mean they shoved out the hash in record time. Judie had a hamburger and that was assembled before our eyes in less than 20 seconds; I chose a hot dog. We got our drinks and sat down and ate - like everybody else we ate as fast as we could to get out of there.

The next two doctors were an Orthopedic Surgeon (neck and knees) and GP at 2:00 PM. Those two appointments came off okay.

But it was fun to watch the people in action. One came and said he was late, the woman at the desk checked and said, "Yes, you are two weeks late." Another just came up and said, "I need more money in my compensation." Those patients got short shift real quick, there were just to many bodies to handle to take care of the idiots. Yes, there were plenty of disabled people, some missing parts and so on.

But it was fun watch some guy in his electric scooter zip down the hall way, shop at the VA store (it is much like a Base Exchange - a lot of the same kinds of things and no taxes!), drink Starbucks coffee, etc..

And of course they pay you mileage for coming in so the last step was to pull a ticket for your number and wait to get your travel voucher filled out. Sure enough, we got that done in about 20 minutes. Then you had to go to the cashier. A short line, they were very efficient. We were done at 3:30 or so, out the door and wait for the shuttle bus.

The shuttle bus gave us the same tour back to the "Back 40." The driver had a continuing conversation via his cellphone to "central." He reported a vacant wheel chair, and his general progress around the area (perhaps 10 - 12 acres) of child care, rehab, overnight facilities, etc.. We finally made it to the back lot; some other guy in the bus forgot where his truck was - he was in trouble - perhaps two or three thousand vehicles parked in that place. And yes, the ever present construction is going on too.

I noted that since this was my second time to this facility that there seemed to be twice as many people there. One person said he was there last Wednesday and the rain was so bad that the lobby was leaking like a sieve. He opined that a lot of appointments were rescheduled or missed and rescheduled, ergo a double load of "patients" there.

Guns are strictly forbidden - to many possible "Postal Patients" around that place. There were shell shocked guys, cripples, disgruntled people in general and so on. Since I had been though it once before, I knew that one had to be patient and have a good attitude, or go nuts. So it does not matter that if you have a conceal carry permit or not, no one is gonna take a chance in that place. The potential for harm is unbelieveable.

Also there was the ever present funeral home adjacent to the hospital. I guess they can just transship the bodies over to them for final processing.

To boot, the hospital is located in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas. So you don't want to be there after dark. Oak Cliff is the Scottlandville of Dallas.

We got the hell out of Dodge as fast as we could. Stopped at a McDonalds, got a coke and hit I-20 for home. Traffic both ways was not bad. We stopped at Lubby's for dinner and were home by 6:00 PM.

And Judie had the adventure of a life time!

Football Season is Underway . . .

Son James, wife Joan and Grandson Jammie motored over to Nashville to visit with Alf, Joan's father. And they went to the Vandy - LSU ball game. Alf got the tickets on the Vandy side of the field. Oh, I forgot to mention that Joan has a Master Degree from Vanderbilt University.

Of course, there was large contingent from New Roads present at the game. James was saying that they had premier parking place to do their tail gating. He mentioned some DA from New Roads knew the LSU Chief of Police (we called that in our day, the Campus Security) who got the Chief of Police for Vanderbilt to carve out a parking spot for them. I said you mean Don Cazayoux who is the US District Attorney, just recently appointed by the Obama Administration. Don's mother, Ann (Hess) Cazayoux is a childhood friend of mine, class mate etc.

Another guest was some old guy name John Wayne Jewell. Of course, we know John Wayne, his older brother Kenneth and his wife, Martha, who is Ann Cazayoux's little sister. Ann's mother was my God Mother. Ann's grandmother, affectionately known as Auntie was a sister to "Retts" or Florette (LeBlanc) Morrison, a legendary member of my family. So we share cousins but are not related to each other, other than being "kissing cousins" meaning close but no cigar. John Wayne and Martha live not very far from where I grew up.

Of couse, nephews Charlie and Byron are prime mothers in the LSU contingent and were there in full force. James said that they were really rocking and rolling in their private tailgating location. Pays to have connections, doesn't it? Especially since there was special columm in the Nashville Tennesean saying tail gating would not be allowed around the stadium. Hmmm.

And LSU won, woke up late in the third quarter. QB Jefferson was not doing so well. Second stringer, Jarret Lee, came in and threw one pass (completion) and running back ripped off a 65 yard touch down. That woke everybody up. Methinks, Jarret Lee ought to get more snaps.

Next week is upon us, and with it is Mississippi State, a team that has shown a lot of improvement. They are dangerous. Going to be interesting.

Geaux Tigers!

Football . . .

Football season is upon us and all kinds of rumors and predictions going. The popular one is that this Les Miles last season at LSU. Give me a break. He is the best coach we have had so far. His record is better than Saban's was at LSU.

Did he have a bad year, you bet he did and still won 9 games. Show me a coach who has made it through the last couple of seasons as well as he has with the set backs he has had. He had to let go a top notch quarterback that lacked personal discipline. He had to use an inexperienced quarter back and made his way through all the damage to the end of the season. Now he has a fairly good quarter back, one at least seasoned and ready to go.

The Tigers are picked to finish fourth in its division, yet the polls rank LSU well above all those opponents it is going to lose to. Something does not compute.

Do I think he should have fired his offensive coach, yes. Gary Crowton has been a head coach at Louisiana Tech and BYU and is now an offensive coach at LSU. He needs to be fired. He is terrible. He stinks.

On the other hand, the defensive coach is truly superior. So there is hope that the talent will not be wasted in that venue.

Just heard that LSU is one of the top five universities that produce income from sports. LSU is ranked #5, but it is one of the five that produces over a $100,000,000.00 per year. That is over a hundred million dollars a year. Football is the majority but baseball is in there along with basketball. It is a premier jock school.

What a school. What a staff. Geaux Tigers!

Rediscovering . . .

In the last couple of years I have gone about rediscovering previous friends from the long past ago.

Leon. Leon Harris was a childhood buddy in New Roads, that moved away when he was 12 or 13 years old. He moved back to New Iberia and we lost contact. His older brother married a girl from New Roads, Leah Ray Mougeot. Leah Ray was my high school coach's daughter. She was a couple of years old than me. Saw her at my ex-brother-in-law's funeral and asked about Leon. Today, Leon and I exchange Emails almost daily, mostly jokes.

Bubba. Lawrence "Bubba" Pourcaiu and I went to school together at Saint Josephs Academy in New Roads. We reunited at a 50th Class Reunion in New Roads a couple of years ago. I did not recall but do after Bubba reminded me that he did not finish with us, he spent his last year at Poydras, the public school. It had to do with a tiff over his mother's operation of St Joe's lunch room. No matter, Bubbba identifies with St Joe and not Poydras. Today he is a pharmacist. And we trade Emails often, a bit of New Roads and a lot of dirty jokes, etc. Bubba keeps up with all the old buddies that will communicate with him. So I know what I send to Bubba will get out to the old boy network of New Roads.

Bernie. Bernard LaFaso was my fraternity brother at LSU. He graduated and moved on, I tracked him down in south Louisiana in the city of Thibadeaux. Bernie had worked for the State of Louisiana, Highway Department for a while and then moved on. He started his on company and got into the oil well logging business. I think he sold out to Schlumberger or one of those companies and walked away with several million dollars. I hear from Bernie every month or so.

Paul. Paul Smith was my next door neighbor in San Bernardino, circa 1975. We both were Majors at the Air Force Inspection and Safty Center at Norton Air Force Base, CA. They had a couple of boys and we had three boys - so lots of Boy Scouts and school things together. While at AFISC, I ended up traveling a lot and befriended a General Officer. So the General dragged me all over the place. I loved it, not so sure Judie loved it. But it was what got me promoted to Full Colonel. Both Paul and I retired as Full Colonels out of AFISC. We were the enigmas, it was said one could not get promoted having served at AFISC. We both got promoted to the highest levels.

Don Kaiser. Don is a retired LtC and we worked together at Rockwell International on the Peacekeeper Rail Garrison program. He was a project engineer. In the latter stages of my employment with Rockwell I was made a "Rail Car Manager." I was selected to oversee and assemble a command and control rail car. Before I got to do any of this, President George H. W. Bush cancelled the program. But Don and I became close friends and remain so today. He now works as a contractor for the Defense Nuclear Agency in Albuquerque, NM and lives in Colorado Springs, CO - commutes back and forth.

Leo Stockham. Leo was my program manager when I worked for Lockheed-Martin at White Sands Missile Range. Leo was a retired LtC from the USAF. He had gone to the Naval Academy, got into the USAF to fly and washed out of flying school. The USAF sent him off to graduate school, he had finished very high in class at the USNA. He was a PHD in engineering and ended up teaching at the USAF Academy before ending up in Albuquerque, NM. Today, I hear from him once in a while.

Mike. Mike Barry was an engineer at Rockwell, Int on the Peackeeper Rail Garrison program. Smart man, along the way earned a Jurist Doctorate - a law degree but never took the bar exam. Had a couple of failed marriages and was now a confirmed bachelor. He's probably 8 or 9 years older than I am. I keep up with him and he with me. Just old friends.

There are others, I could go on for awhile but these are just some of my friends. They are from all walks of life.

Amazing Event . . .

I got a telephone call from Dr. Randy Gurie, the person assigned by the LSU Chancellor's office to be the faculty advisor to the Cadets of the Ole War Skule. LSU until 1956 was a military school much like its rival Texas A & M University. In fact both schools rival each in the number of officers produced in WW-II. Even in my day we had a Corps of Cadets that exceeded 5,000 strong.

At any rate the Cadets of the Ole War Skule has a Hall of Honor for its distinguished former LSU cadets. One has to be nominated and then selected for this honor. I took it upon myself to nominate Farhnam Libby Morrison, my Uncle Ham. He was not selected.

As a result I withdrew as member of the Cadets of the Ole War Skule. I have seen the other members of the Hall of Honor, read their Biographical notes and while certanly good and deserving people they certainly no more heroic nor valorous than Uncle Ham.

He had landed at Normandy on DDay, June 6, 1945 and fought his way across France, Belgium (the Battle of the Bulge), Luxembourg, and into Germany itself. He was one of Patton's troops.

He landed as a 2nd Lt and finished on VE day as Company Commander and the rank of Captain. Along the way he picked up two Purple Hearts, two Bronze Stars and a Silver Star. He was highly decorated officer. He was also awarded the Combat Infantryman's Badge.

Later in the early 1950s he help reorganize the Louisiana National Guard. He was activated during the Berlin Crisis and was stationed at Fort Polk.

In time he grew in grade and statue in the LA National Guard. He retired as the Adjutant General's Chief of Staff at Jackson Barracks in New Orleans. He moved on the be the State of Louisiana Civilian Defense Director. Interestingly, in that position he was the Louisiana's number two State Policeman. He was the chief Deputy, carried a badge but I don't think he ever participated in any police things.

Ham retired as a full Colonel. Unfortunately, he died under going dialysis. He went into shock on the dialysis table and never recovered. He is interred in St Mary's of False River Mausoleum along with his beloved wife, Bobbe.

The long over due call I got was from LSU saying that Uncle Ham had been re-evaluated and selected for the Hall of Honor. He will be inducted November 6, 2010 at Parade Grounds, the same parade grounds I marched over many times. Later he will be honored along with this fellow inductees at the half time at the football game.

I owe a debt of thanks to Levy Dabadie, Brigadier General (RET) and member of the Cadets of the Ole War Skule and the advisor, Dr. Randy Gurie.

An Old Friend . . .

In the twight light of life, one goes about recalling old friends. One of those is Dick Mickley.

I first met Dick at Officer Training School (OTS) at Lackland Air Force Base, TX. Lackland is located in San Antonio, and it has no runways; it is strictly a training facility. It rests up on a hill across from and adjacent to Kelly Air Force Base, no longer an active duty facility. The Texas Air National Guard still operates from Kelly but the San Antonio Air Material Center, a one time employer of thousands is long closed as a budgetary action. It was closed by BRET, Base Realignment taskforce that closed a number of facilities for all services across our great nation. I am sad to say, it is closed forever now, much of the facility is disbanded, abandoned or otherwise in disrepair and well on its way to total rot. Lackland remains a going thing where new officers and enlisted go through basic training of sorts.

The fateful day was August 10, 1963 when I entered OTS with a host of others and one of which was Dick and another was Bob Cooke. We were in the same initial flight together. Dick, a prior service man, was quickly scarfed up and sent to the OT Staff. He was after all a sharp cadet, knew his way around and had been to Lackland before (as a basic trainee). Bob and I, on the other hand were the great unwashed and were remanded to be fodder for the Training Officer.

We have long forgotten many of those who were with us. Names like Poteet come back, a pimply faced lean tall Cajun was one. He was cashiered out in short order. There were others. We started with 16 fellows and I think only eight of us got commissioned. I recall one cadet that self initiated elimination and they made him do two years of enlisted service. It was so bad, that our flight was disbanded when the next class appeared.

We were then considered upper classmen. We were absorbed by another flight and learned that the Training Officer was much more amenable. Our Captain was bucking for promotion (and I don't think he made it either, he was too stiff and to hard on his minions). At least, I think he was canned as a TO.

Bob and I were destine to be OTS 2nd LTs, that is the bottom of the barrel thanks to that TO. Dick, our buddy, on the other hand, was out of the clutches of the dreaded Captain and flourished as a member of the OT staff. He was, I believe, an OT Lt Colonel, way above Bob and I.

Dick and Bob were both from Ohio. Bob from Cleveland and I think Dick from central Ohio. He went to a small college, Wooster or the like. And he was a couple of years older than we were.

Bob and I have long been corresponding. He and his family actually visited my mother and father in Louisiana. I never had the honor of doing the same as I only made to Cleveland area well after retiring from the USAF and his parents were long gone by then. I visited with Bob while he was stationed at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida once.

After I retired, I looked up Bob. He had run afoul of a Brigadier General in Iran and that ensured he would never get promoted beyond Major. He was a Distinguished Graduate of Squadron Officers School, I barely made it through the place. He was and is a brilliant man, graduating from Case Western Institute in Cleveland in the College of Business. His degree was in computers, today, he would be considered a computer engineer.

Unfortunately, Bob and his wife divorced, but he remains quite close to his children. I found him living close to Eglin Air Force Base and visited with him once. Bought him a steak dinner. He began working for H & R Block, and has been there for more than 12 years now. He is a retired Major, his wife has remarried to a Lt Col retiree. He likes his job in that he has three months of intense work and then nine months of relaxed work. He is the senior guy and takes care of the software and does tax audits on their prepared returns.

We reminisced about Dick and I chased him down. We have reopened a dialogue with Dick, now a lay Presbyterian preacher and semi-retired lawyer that lives in Marysville, OH but a stone's throw from Wright Patterson Air Force Base and Dayton, OH. Had I but known, and we could have gotten together back when we were stationed there.

We were all commissioned 2nd Lieutenants in the USAF on 5 November 1963. Dick got out after six years, Bob did 20 years and I stayed around for 26 years. Dick was surprised to learn that I was a Colonel. A long way for a OTS 2nd Lt to rise.

Mississippi Kites ...

We have two families of the Kites that reside in our neighborhood. I have seen up to six of them, five in one grouping. They are a dove grey bird, smaller of the predator hawk group. They are primary insect eaters, insects like Cicadas but also prey on birds, small animals and lizards (Fritz better watch out).

They are very graceful fliers, while they do soar a bit it is more common to have them flying between trees and over the vacant lots. They like to nest in our Post Oaks; we had one nest across the street from us a couple of years ago.

They are migratory birds and do winter in South America. I am not sure all of them leave us in winter. They have taken to living close to urban areas and seem to enjoy or tolerate us humans (like Fritz does). And like Purple Martins eat their weight in insects - that's a good thing.

In my morning walk there are two locales for them along my route. They like to roost in the tops of trees with bare limbs or even dead trees. You will often see a youngster by himself. The parents come by and stay close but the youngster has to do his own hunting and thus is forced to grow up. I am sure he is building up stamina for that long flight to Uruguay or Paraguay, even Argentina.

They are smaller in size than Red Tailed Hawks grow to be. But they have pointed wing tips and a distinct V shaped tail. So they look very graceful in flight.

Apparently they return to their initial territories every year. Since they are getting more common they have been found as far North as New Hampshire but generally range around the lower Mississippi Valley and West as far as New Mexico.

Since they are migratory birds they are protected. So one can not disturbe their nests or hunt them for instance. They are not rare, but like Ducks are protected so that they will not become extinct. There seems to be no danger of that.

So every morning, I look for them. I seem always to find the two youngsters. Though one day saw a family of five. When the sun gets up a bit and the insects start coming alive, they are off hunting for food. So they do not tarry for long after sun rise.

Nature is always around us . . .

The Nest . . .

Judie was back at the compost pile, heard a noise of something scrambling around. She look about and discovered a hole about two and half inches around and about the same depth. And in the hole were about 7 or so white eggs about three eights of an inch long, and a bit narrow length wise.

We speculated it was either a snake or a lizard that had laid the eggs. A while later, Judie was again in the area and say Frizinna at the nest. So we now know there were lizard eggs.

Judie went back later, and the hole had been filled in. We do not know how long the incubation period is, but perhaps two weeks or so.

We are gonna have a lizard explosion. I do not think we have enough bugs to support that kind of population, but who knows, it may be just right.

I have seen lizards at other locations in the yard. One in the front yard, another resides in the hose roll up cabinet by the mound flower bed in back. Still, again saw one on a wood pile in Curtiss and Terry's back yard area adjacent to us. That could have been Fritzinna but I did not get a good look, heard a noise and look over to see a tail disappearing in the wood pile.

We know the Walker's have not done to much in their back yard and the "girls" directly behind us are notorious for not cutting their grass. So those are good areas for bug hunting and thus lizard population.

I have even seen Fritzinna in the garage. And yes, there are a few crickets in there. Or should I say, there were a few crickets in there. She probably cleaned them out.

We have not seen a lizard on the back patio for a while. Our little wood stack is no longer a lizard residence. I believe she cleaned out all the crickets and moved on. Gotta eat, you know.

She tolerated us and was not near as friendly as last year's Fritz was. He was brazen, sunned himself on the chaise lounge, and on wood pile, and hunted all over the place. Saw him on the sofa looking down for bugs. He was a character but I suspect he moved on too.

General McChrystal . . .

Did he step over the line? Take it from an old warrior, yes General McChrystal did so indeed. But was he right, I think so. It cost him dearly to point out that Barry does not give a damn about the military in general (no pun intended) or any foreign involvement at all. He does not really have a foreign policy except to bash the Israeli's. To Barry, the military is just a nuisance and a toy. He is too regal to admit his limitations. That all begs the responses and side comments in staff meetings. Believe me, I have seen some lulus in my time, but then the boss said, enough, let us get on with what we are about. Criticism does not go out of the room!

Barry's gonna talk some sense into the Iranian's, yeah, right? He has made no such progress and probably never will. Even the Saudi Arabians, who have no love lost on the Iranians, fellow Muslims, are not opposed to the Israelis from flying over them to get at the Iranians. The reason we sold the most modern F-16s ever made to the United Arab Emirants was because they wanted a capability to strike at the heart of the Iranian Empire. Remember, Saudis, UAE, Bahran, Qatar are all Arabs as are Jordanians and Iraqis, but Iranians are not Arabs. They share a common belief in Allah but even there have severe disagreements within their common religion.

We are sitting back and letting Iran develop nuclear weapons. We are luke warm on taking care of business in Afghanistan. Pakistan is about to blow up. And we really do need India on our side; a great market that China will take if we do not do something about it.

Yes, under Barry we have become a paper tiger (note lower case), and have little respect around the world today. Couple that with his socialist agenda, and we have a colossal loser in the White House. He meant well, he thought his was the righteous path. He has turned into a wastrel squandering our wealth on suspect schemes. And he is going to raise our taxes, he promised he wouldn't. But his Democratic Congress said they don't care what he said and are going to raise them anyway.

Hold on to your pocket book. The tax man cometh . . . And his name is Barry.

Hot and . . .

Hot and getting hotter. Over a 100 degrees Fahrenheit and the heat index makes it even more uncomfortable. Judie talks about renting an apartment in Madison for the summer. That does not thrill me. What would I do in Madison?

Yes, I adore Anne, Will and Jake but that's about it. Nothing for me to do there. Hope she gets over it.

Fritzinna . . .

Fritzinna is back. She showed up on the patio a couple of days ago. Probably ensconced in her wood pile. Judie saw her under the chaise lounge by the wood pile.

I guess this is her home. She just roams around getting enough to eat. Lot of competition out there. The Blue Birds and Mocking Birds are scarfing up all the insects in the yard to feed their youngsters. And dear old Fritz is still out back by the hill also eating his share of the insects.

Since Amy has not been to swift cutting her lot, I am sure Fritzinna and Fritz for that matter, make sojourns over to her lot. Tall grass provides a haven for insects.

Jude saw the deer late yesterday night. They just come in an lay down on the lawn. Nice comfortable grass, green too which makes it edible, and seed from the bird feeders attract them. The compost pile seems to attract the deer, especially the goat and the foxes. We know the foxes also eat the peaches. They work hard for their food. We know some animal is eating up all the old watermelon rinds tossed out to compost.

The foxes are very non-chalant. Any small noise seems to send the deer away, but the foxes simply look back at you and go about their business. Judie thinks the foxes rather like the deer being scared away. Lets them forage like the want we no interference from larger animals.

At any rate animal life goes on.

Baird

Baird, Texas bills itself as the antiques capital of West Texas. The small town, and county seat, is about 15 East of Abeline a bustling metropolis. Baird is about 1,600 or so souls and it looks it. It is a dying town.

Well it ain't an antiques capital at all. Main Street was mostly closed, that is not open for business because we were there to early (about 9:45 or so) or the businesses had failed. We found one place open but the folks were stacking stuff up for auction come Saturday. We looked around but not much. We found three places and a real old time hardware store open, a bank, and eating establishment. We wandered around for about an hour then elected to drive to Abeline and Dyess Air Force Base.

On the way out of Weatherford we at at Cracker Barrel and Judie bought Will a T shirt with a Farmall Tractor on it. But she had to buy a larger size, it was a discontinued line and there were no others to be had close to his size. On the way into Abeline we saw a Cracker Barrel so we doubled back and Judie managed to swap a size down at that outlet.

We pressed on to Dyess, it has an excellent display of aircraft including a B-1 (it is the home of one of the two B-1 wings in the US). There is a new commissary and BX. The BX has a very modern set up, with clothing sales store (where Judie bought me some socks), a large food court and of course a new BX. We found the BX to be well stocked, spacious and obviously new. I ate a piece of pizza and Judie had a sandwich. Saw lots of young people enlisted as well as officers in the food court. It was a very vibrant place.

We then drove off base and through Abeline. Nice size town, maybe 100,000 to 120,000thousand folks. Home to Abeline Chrisian and Hardin Simmons Universities. The big ecomonic engine is petrolium industry and the Air Force base.

On the way home we decided to stop in Eastland and look for antiques. We found one place on the square. Eastland is also a county seat. Nice old homes and appears to be in pretty good shape. Judie got a couple of things there; an LSU placard and an old fashioned hand held fan as found in churches before air conditioning.

Not being much else we got back on the Interstate and headed toward Weatherford. Next stop was Ranger. Ranger is about 15 or so miles East of Eastland and is reputed to be about the size of New Roads. The local attraction is Lake DeLeon. Ranger had one large antique place, probably had as much stuff in that business as all of Baird put together. But Ranger is dying. The oil has played out and the gas drilling as not reached there yet (and may not do so). Several large buildings, like five stories are empty. Bank looks lonely by itself on the main drag. We stopped at the Dairy Queen on the way out to use the restrooms and grab a coke. The restrooms were marginal, the price of the cokes was reasonable - happy hour for them. The place reflected Ranger, while relatively new, it to was dying. I would say in a few years, maybe ten or so years, Ranger will be a ghost town. Mineral Wells will not be far behind. People in Ranger either go to Abeline or Fort Worth for serious services. Even Graham is more vibrant than Ranger.

From there we returned to civilization and a vibrant city - Weatherford. The change was dramatic. The people are moving from towns like Eastland and Ranger to Abeline and Fort Worth (and surrounding communities).

Next tour will be Stephenville and Doublin. Tour Dr Pepper and see if there are any antiques in Stephenville. Stephenville has Tarlton State University to keep it going. We may drive through Lipan to get there. Or we may go West on I-20 to Santo and turn south. Better see those towns before they are gone.

Blue Birds

The Blue birds are hanging tough. The Sparrows have come by and try to out stare the Blue birds but it is a no go. The Blue birds are feeding their new young and fly in and out irregardless of the Sparrows.

We quit using bird feed that had millet in it. Millet is the favorite food of Sparrows and encourages them to stick around the area. But with the absence of the millet, the Sparrows are few and far between. Good ridance.

Judie hung a Wren house in one of the Hackberry trees. We have had them poking around the patio like they did out in Arizona. We watched a Cactus Wren wall up a House Finch house. The House Finches like open nesting facilities, Cactus Wrens like closed houses. This little Wren worked her butt off closing off the extra entrances leaving but one to go in and out on. Having done all that work, she moved off, I guess she was not satisfied with her new abode. Instinct working full bore, gotta build that nest.

I watched the Blue birds fly in, sit a few minutes in the Oak tree or Hackberry tree observing the nesting box. One female did not do that, she flew right to the box and fed the youngsters. They operate as a family, all take care of the young.

We have lots of Blue Jays (peanuts bring them in), Morning Doves, Woodpeckers, Nut Hatches feeding off the peanut feeder (different from whole peanuts that Blue Jays and Squirrels like). They all like the water in the bird baths. If you have water it will bring in the birds.

Ah, Nature . . .

We were quite pleased to note the Blue birds have moved back into their house this spring. We learned that if you quit providing Millet seed in the bird seed mix, the Sparrows will not come to the feeder and thus leave the Blue bird house empty for the Blue birds. Well, we tried it and sure enough, no Sparrows around us anymore and the Blue birds no longer have to defend the home. We rarely see Sparrows anymore, good riddance!

We are pretty sure that the Blue birds are on their second brood. We can see them going in and out of the house providing food for the youngsters. They are very family oriented birds, the fledglings stick around and help with the new brood. They stay together as a family, often seen taking turns in the birdbath, each taking his or her own baths while others watch.

We were surprised yesterday to observe something we had not ever seen before. There was a Blue Jay on the ground, not far from the Blue bird abode. Mr. Blue bird did not like that at all. He began dive bombing the Blue Jay. Now the Jay Bird is about twice the size of a mature Blue bird, but no matter, Mr. Blue bird was on a mission. He must have made about three passes at the Blue Jay. And I must admit the Blue Jay seemed to care less, he did not even look up. I think he was fooling around with a peanut and the Blue bird thought he was hunting in his turf.

The Blue Jay flew up to the bird feeder and got another peanut and took off for parts unknown. They never stay around and can detect peanuts in the feeder within 10minutes of their installation. Don't fathom how they know this but they do. And it does not matter what time of day, the Blue Jays are on those peanuts.

The Blue birds are secure, the Blue Jays are no threat to them. And they seem fully capable of defending their abode if they want to or have to.

Nature at its best!

Fritz . . .

Fritz or Fritzinna has booked it. He/she ate all the desirable bugs, that being principally crickets, has moved on. I have not seen him/her for a week. Last time I saw him/her was when it was skedaddling across the patio North to South. My thinking was that was the last trip before moving on.

Now, there is a Fritz out back at the hose winder box. He lives around the "mound" and I have seen him several times head under the hose pipe storage area. So I figure that is his turf and he roams about the mound so to speak.

Saw the fox while Judie was in Madison, he was checking things out. I think he eats the dropped peaches. Always a few falling off and the next day they are gone. So something is doing the clean up and it is not me.

With the fox around, we do not see the raccoons anymore, nor the possum. My thinking is the fox is a threat to them, though I doubt the fox will take them on full grown. But you never know, the fox is a very clever and sly animal. And they are ferocious hunters.

Got Blue birds nesting in the bird house. Ever since we stopped using bird seed that had Millet in it the Sparrows have moved on. No food source close enough to satisfy them. So the Blue birds moved back in and raising family after family of young ones.

Turning hot, things ought to slow down except for the grass growing. Pepper season is a upon us. We have pepper plants all over the yard now. I'm thinking we are gonna have a bumper crop this year. Watermelons are progressing too.

Time to move on . . .

Judie Is Gone . . . To Madison

We went to the airport Friday, long lines to get into the terminal. Had to use the automated ticket machine. American does not or will not do ticketing, just boarding passes now at most locations. Only one location for face to face operations. Cheap and getting cheaper or is it less for more and even less than that. Plenty of agents around to collect for checked baggage.

The through the TSA mish mash. Took forever, there was a line for the great unwashed and a line for the priority check in. It appeared every other check in was a priority check in, so it took about 20 minutes for Judie just to get to the guard that allows you to pass on the gate inspection zone. What a zoo!

She called after arriving. The overcast was up there too. Except the stuff had burned off here by the time she called.

Now she will have a good time with Will and family. Glad she can go. Too much trouble for me - a ton of pills to sort out, etc.. Easier for me to drive up and we will do that later this summer.

She will be back Tuesday. Until then things will be quite around here. I miss her!

Fritzinna . . .

Well, we think it is Fritzinna, she is bigger than previous lizards that have lived in the wood pile in the past years. And she seemed to have a mate for a while but he moved on. I think I saw him out back in the hose winder house. I saw him run and hide underneath that box. And she is lacking the small coloration on the throat, it is usually a small blue patch. That indicates she is a female; she is larger, more drab coloration, etc. that normally indicates a female in birds and other animal species.

We are amazed at Fritzinna's range. She typically lives in the wood pile next to the chase lounge on the patio. The wood pile is distinct in that her colors match the old oak limbs exactly, so she can sun and it takes a sharp eye to distinguish her from the wood. We often see here on top of the wood pile looking for insects white she sun baths.

We saw her the other day climbing up the Hackberry tree located by the main bathroom window. Slow going but up she went. Must be some food source up there for her to climb it. We wondered if she stayed up there or what.

Then I came around from the back of the house the next day and there she was in front of the big garage door. She would hiding under the flap of the store bought mulch bags that were parked between the garage doors. She would come out and did not seem to be afraid of me. But if Judie showed up in her red blouse, well she ran into the garage or under the mulch quick like a fox. So apparently she can tell her colors and my white T shirt is not a threat but Judies red coloring is a threat. Or at least she does not like Judie.

So we know that she roams quite a distance. I have seen her "deposits" as far away as the air conditioner compressor. And we have seen her up the tree and in front of the garage. She must foray quite a distance for such a small animal. Food reigns king; so she goes where she has to find what she needs.

Pity, she does not like June bugs. But spiders and especially crickets are her delite. Suffice to say, we no longer are plagued by singing crickets at night. She done et them all!

Two More Gone . . .

Two more childhood friends have died. One, a classmate, Deanna Patin Roy. Deanna was always a stately looking lady. She was at our class reunion and looked the very picture of health and beauty.

She died of Pancreatic and Liver cancer. The class reunion was only two years ago.

Deanna married a Roy from Marksville. He was in the banking business and ended up being the big owner of the Cotton Port Bank. And that is the reason Cotton Port Bank has a branch in New Roads. She was a Vice President of the bank. Her husband predeceased her by a number of years.

The second was Michael Janis. He grew up across the street from where we lived on Main Street in New Roads. The house is still there. It was always neat and very reserved. I recall when the built it. The street along side is Janis Street, named for his family and his father.

Michael was a year older than me. So there was little contact after we started getting older. I do not recall him in high school, yet I know he was there.

He apparently died of heart failure. I seem to recall that is also what did his father in. Our hereditary diseases seem to catch up with us all.

My fellow class, Alvin "Al" Fabre, let me know. I did not have to wait on the Banner to learn of their untimely deaths.

And the beat goes on . . .

The Foxes . . .

The other night as I usually do, just before going to bed, I turn off the lights in the living room so I can see out in the back yard. We often have deer visit our compost pile, they like the veggies or what's left of the veggies.

So I flipped on the backyard light and there were two foxes in the yard. One moved on pretty quickly, the other one fooled around quite a bit. I called Judie and we watched as the fox marked all around underneath the bird feeders.

The squirrels often feed at the feeders and underneath the feeders. I am pretty sure that is what attracted the one fox, the scent of the squirrels. Perhaps the birds to leave a trail but I rather think they think of squirrels as dinner or sorts.

That fox messed around for about five minutes, sniffing, marking and sniffing some more. It was really interested in what scent there was underneath those bird feeders.

They were not red foxes but rather brown foxes. They did have magnificent tails, big bushy tails for display. You knew there were foxes and not dogs or coyotes. Smart little animals, good neighbors to us.

We watched until they moved on. They were unperturbed by us. I am sure they could not see us inside as we could see them outside.

What a pleasure.

Billy Hayden . . .

My cousin DR. William DeGraffenried "Billy" Hayden died over the weekend. Billy was the youngest son of Uncle Mule and Aunt Claire. He was a graduate of Tulane medical school, a surgeon and general practitioner in Paris, Texas. Billy was 83, in poor health and had recently suffered a stroke.

I recall attending his wedding in Carencro, LA back in 1957. I don't remember much, I was but 17 years old at the time.

Billy also took care of his mother in her elder years. She had cancer and he did all that was possible to cure her. I am pretty sure she died of old age, not cancer; she was well into her 90s when she passed on. My last conversation with her was in 1983 when my mother, her little sister, died. Even then it was too arduous for her to travel to the funeral, but she did call and I took that call.

Burr (Lovell) was the oldest, next was Billy and then St. Claire (Little Sister or just Sister). Burr lives in Monroe where he practiced law with Uncle George (Aunt T's husband) and Sister lives in Delaware married to James D'Wolf - I believe he is or was a chemist for DuPont.

They all grew up in Shreveport, LA. The war interrupted Billy's studies, Burr was too old and Sister was to young for service. Stange, they all departed Shreveport. I can remember spending a short vacation in Shreveport but not much else. Uncle Mule and Aunt Claire's house was a simple affair.

We will go to Paris, TX for the funeral. His wife, Betty, is recovering from surgery. Tough to lose your loved one even though he may have been in pain or suffering. Surely, he, the doctor that he was, knew he was dying.

Our time is coming . . .

Iris

Took a long time for this one on the left to bloom. The deer kept eating it and the squirrels (yes, ground rats) kept uprooting the rhizone. But I nursed back and man-o-man look at that beauty. No going back now, it is established.

This one next to it is also a beauty.

Pity one has to wait for spring to see them bloom.

Crawfish . . .

We attended the first crawfish boil of the year and were pleasantly surprised at the size of the crawfish. They were really big and dark colored. Usually, the dark preboiled color indicates what I call "spillway" crawfish, meaning they came of of the spillway and not off the farms and rice fields or from the river. Of course, there is no way to tell for sure unless you are there pulling in the traps.

We had heard on our way down into Louisiana for the annual Morrison Farm, Inc meeting that the cold weather had driven the crawfish back down into their holes. At that time, early March, crawfish were scarce. So maybe they had a little longer time to get bigger.

They were tougher, the shells were harder than usual, but no matter, they ate about the same - very good. Perhaps another indicator that they were in their abodes longer. Just a little harder to peel.

River crawfish are usually lighter in color and have thinner shells - softer shells. Ergo, the reason to call the older dark ones as spillway or swamp crawfish. Yes, the river crawfish are easier to eat, easier to peel but they are also not as common.

Personally, them old black crawfish taste just the same - superb. My kinda food!

Thanks Becky and Dave.

A Quandry . .

Fritz is back - along with Fritzina. Yes,there are two of them and they seem to be a pair. Not sure they will hang around for very long as there is not yet much to eat - bugs. Lacking a food source, I am sure they will move on but should return when hunting gets better.

They like the little wood pile, their coloring fits right in. So it makes a good place to hide from their enemies. They can dart into the pile and you can not see them as they blend so well with the colors.

Grass cutting today, maybe I will spot them out somewhere.

Fritz is back . . .

Or is it Fritzina? Any way our small wood pile lizard is back residing in his wood pile. We first saw him/her about a week ago. This lizard is very timid, so if it is out and we pass by, it darts into the wood pile post haste.

But that is okay. It means the patio will be insect free. I am sure Fritz is enjoying the May Flys. They seem abundant and everywhere at this time of year. Next will be June Bugs. Then the chirping Crickets.

When Fritz has eaten them all, he seems to move on. But for now he is somewhat protected - no Road Runner will get near the Patio and the Crows will stay away too. I doubt any hawks will come that close either. So, yes, he/she is protected.

Yes, Spring has sprung!

Yard Work . . .

We have begun to do things outside. Judie has been weeding the flower beds and around the trees. Not necessary to weed around the trees, does look good though.

The water well is back on and the leaks fixed. Had a pretty bad one at the faucet across the yard from the well. When we had the well drilled I had an extension on the line to connect the sprinklers over to the south side of the back yard. That way we could use well water instead of city water in the back yard. I had intentions of adding a faucet up front but never got around to it.

We have found the glue we used for the additional sprinklers out back was no good, it gives up the ghost to easily. So come spring, I have to find the leaks and repair them, usually replacing the bad joints. I have become a master at installing slip joints, this takes the load of the glue joins and allows expansion and contraction. It is the contraction that is causing the glue joints to fail.

The last failure was a the faucet, the vertical iron pipe was attached to a post and held in place by the concrete that held the post in place. So during our cold winter, the joint backed off. I had to dig a hole along the pipe finally finding the leak up next to the post. Using a steel rod and hammer, I chipped off the retaining concrete around the pipe and freed it up. Used a hack saw and cut the pipe, took the iron pipe off and took the joint inside and washed off the dirt.

I cleaned up the connecting PVC pipe and joint, used some acetone to clean it, a little 600 grit emery paper to get rid of the bumps and old glue. Then coated it up with new glue and stuck together again. The reassembled the whole thing with a slip joint (no more pressure on the glue joint). Done.

One thing I learned in California with the first house we had that had an irrigation system - every spring one had to tune up the system. An irrigation system is a constant work in progress. I am now used to it, just wait for the outside temperature to get to pleasant enough levels to do the work.

Happy Easter all!

Spring Is Here . . .

Spring is here. Our Iris' are bursting out every where. Alas they will soon be gone. We do have some ever blooming ones but not these.

We have to split the Iris'. I did that last year and they just multiplied more. The are everywhere. I suppose we will string them out along the fence; that seems to be a good place for them. They get sun all day long there.

The peach trees are all setting fruit. Now if we can make it through the spring storms - hail - then we will enjoy a few native grown peaches. I hope we are successful this year.

More on VA . . .

Well, I Googled around and found out how the calculations are done. First the VA awarded me a disability rating of 90% with Special Monthly Compensation. Don't laugh, the SMC as it is called is worth an extra $96 a month (Tax Free!!!). That is all VA disability compensation is tax free from both the Feds and State authorities. I do not have a clue why I was awarded SMC but it is acceptable to me.

But as I previously said, the VA disability compensation was deducted from my retirement pay and then given back to me by the VA (as Tax Free income). So essentially, I was paying my own disability compensation, the sole benefit was that I got it tax free. Congress in its wisdom acknowledged that that was not fair and set about righting a wrong. But they did it over 10 or more years unless one was 100%disabled and unable to work, then that individual did not have to pay his own disability at all. That means he/she collected all the VA compensation in addition to the retirement pay.

The correction is known to us VA disabled folks as Concurrent Receipt Disability Pay (or CRDP). It turns out that it is a percentage calculation over a 10 year period with certian adjustments. So the numbers can be calculated. It is not a simple table but a table of percentages couple with other exceptions (sounds like the IRS, doesn't it?). Well it is a government agency that deals with money.

Some of my disabilities are also known as Combat Related Special Compensation or CRSC. In my case specifically, my Diabetes Mellitus, Type II is a CRSC. However, you can not collect twice. So one elects to either accept CRSC or CRDP whichever pays the greater amount. In my case, it is CRDP.

It will take the DFAS - that's the people who pay me the military retirement - awhile to get it all correct. That drives Judie wild as it makes all the numbers change. More money one month, less the next until it all settles out. That's just life and deals with the changes as they come. In the end it will settle out to her satisfaction but until then I have take the brunt of the changes. Not a big deal but can be irritable at worst.

Done With The VA . . .

Yes, done with the Veterans Administration. That is a red tape zoo, understandable as there are many veterans and a lot of them need help. Some need more care than others. Today we call it PSTD, during WW-II and WW-I it was called it shell shock. No matter there are many levels and degrees, those that suffer the worst usually end up in the VA alcoholic ward. I don't have disease fortunately.

But I do have lingering effects of Viet Nam, Agent Orange. Years ago, when other veterans were having problems I never thought it would effect me. After all they were awash in the stuff - Dioxin. Dioxin is the primary agent that attack us humans in any number of ways. In my case, it is the liver. I have had problems for years with high chlorestorol - that's probably primarily caused by hereditary liver problems. That is my liver was generating the stuff - much more than eating eggs, oysters or fatty meats. I was happy when the physicians put me on statins, primarily Lipitor. Over time I take more and more of the stuff. I am pretty tolerant of using it but it is supposed to effect one's memory a bit. I thought it was just getting old (maybe both???).

My Viet Nam disease is Diabetes Mellitus, Type II. VA has done several studies and had positively correlated the disease to Agent Orange exposure. I was on the flight line at both DaNang and Bien Hoa Air Base which staged the "Ranch Hands." That was the code name for C-123s that sprayed the stuff on the jungle. It kill the trees and deprived the Viet Cong from a place to hide. I can even remember rooming with a Ranch Hand pilot at DaNang. He carried a different gun each day he flew: he had 38s, 45s, AR-15s, even a Thompson submachine gun. The guy was a walking arsenal!

Back to the VA. My doctor, a good man, recently put me on Metformin, a drug that helps the liver deal with insulin rejection. He also had me on Januvia, another Type II drug that works on the liver. (Poor liver - Lipitor, Metformin and Januvia). So that restricts my alcohol intake - an occasional glass of Red Wine is okay. Maybe have two a month, no more Martinis at night.

So I filed a form, the VA is full of forms to use, for reevaluation of my circumstances. That was 1 September 2009. Nothing happened. Finally, in December 2009, I called the VA, got a nice person by the name of Sande Jones. Things began to happen. I was given an appointment to be examined by a VA contractor - a doctor. He did a good exam but did not even seem concerned about Diabetes for which I had filed a request for evaluation. I later learned he did detect a loss of sensitivity -known as nueropathy. This was in both feet and left hand. I did not think much of it but I guess it was significant.

Later, I had an examination by an Ophthalmologist. He said my cataracts were chemically caused but because there is no rating for that, he had to associate it with Diabetes Mellitus, Type II. That was significant in that he said, "Good that he saw the cataracts before I had any corrective surgery." Otherwise, the VA would have disallowed it. That was in February 2010. Slow progress.

Things were perking along slowly, so I contacted the Disabled American Veterans (DAV). I am a life member of the DAV. I contacted them via the Internet and got an instant response the next day. And within four days the DAV provided me with data that my new rating would be 90%. That was preliminary, and "Did I agree with it." Now I was expecting a change from 70% to say 80% and that the rating percentage to pay the compensation would move from 60% to 80%. So yes, 90% was acceptable. But I also said there was yet one more physical exam to be conducted by a VA contractor.

I received a letter from the VA with in a week saying actually I was now rated 110% disabled but because the VA combine certain ratings, it was only 90%. And that I was to get a compensation slightly greater than 90% (I did not know they had shades of gray). So I get a bit more than the normal 90%er. This was adjusted here and there to get to the number and oh, by the way, there was still the examination to be conducted on my other existing disabilities.

So there is potential that it could go higher but somehow, I don't think that will happen. The good news other than I confirmed I am getting older and sicker, that the compensation is 100% tax free (from both state and federal taxes). I am yet to figure out what effect it will have on my retirement income.

The military pays its own disability, it is deducted from my retirement and given back to me by the VA - tax free. A number of years ago, congress agreed that it was unfair, so they adjusted that at rate of 10% or per year. That is known to us retirees as "concurrent receipt." So I had just about worked off the old "60%" and now will have to deal with the "90%." I don't think it will start all over but some of it will get so treated.

We will see. Already, have had some impact on retirement but not paper work yet to tell us what is what. That took eight months but the good news is they adjust rates based on the date I originally filed - 2 September 2009 was when they received the request.

Oh My God . . .

Oh, my God, will Bill Gremillion roll over in his grave? I wonder? His daughter, my beloved wife, just bought a John Deere lawn tractor. The old Yard Machine gave up the ghost, valve problems. So I gave it away to a buddy who has a good one for parts. His needed a steering arm and now he is in heaven. So we got rid of the old heap cheap. It lasted 7 years.

Of course, the new machine has a few more bells and whistles and cost less than the old Yard Machine did. Yard Machines are made by MTD. They make a whole range of machines, top of the line is Cub Cadet. Good machines and when we went to look at them they cost the same as the John Deere. It even had a better turn radius. But the wife wanted a mulching block or plug (not that Cub Cadet did not have one) and she liked the John Deere better.

So we have a John Deere. It is a LA105 model and has a constant gear transmission. That is you do not have to hold your foot down on a pedal all the time to get it to move. This has a combined brake clutch system. You press in to the brake and that also disengages the transmission. She has five speeds forward, one in reverse. And it has a back up button so that the engine will not kill when backing up. But you do not have to "ride the pedal" all the time. More comfortable.

I filled the fuel tank, installed the mulching plug and she went to cutting. All those leaves she wanted to mulch up had already blown away. So she attacked the winter/spring weeds/grasses with abandon. Did the job wonderfully.

But alas, she learned that she was not yet proficient in its operation. She ran into the brick mail box. Nice dent in her new lawn mower. Blamed it on me, of course. The dent is more of a wound of her soul rather than a severe problem with the lawn mower. A bit cosmetic, not a big deal, just hurt her pride.

Or was Bill getting even? Hummmm.

What A Disappointment . . .

This Obamacare is going to consume the Congress for years now. Back door deals, Louisiana Purchases, yada, yada, yada.

I wonder what my son Chris will do. He cannot afford health insurance and now must buy it. And the taxes that abound with the bill. Our children will suffer for generations until this mess is cleaned up. Remember the Volstead Act - prohibition spawned the Mafia, and put the country on a pace of illegality not seen before. Will we see the same? I can bet there will be much gnashing of the teeth. There will be unheard of cheating. This is surely the path of destruction for our great nation.

Perhaps the only thing that will probably come out of it all is the destruction of the Democratic party. The Liberals, the Progressives, are destroying their party. What a shame. As Abraham Lincoln said, "You can fool the people some of the time, all the people one time but not all the people all the time." And yes, Lincoln was a Republican!

Cap and Trade will be next, a giant tax, for what? Because Obama and his ilk do not like coal, an abundant US resource. I bet they will find something wrong with natural gas next.

Swap Meet . . .

The annual Weatherford AeroModelers Society (aka WAMS) is over. It is held at Shirley Hall Junior High school in Weatherford, the third week of March for one night and one day. We open the doors at 5 PM Friday and close at the end of the auction, about 5 PM Saturday. We have vendors for as far away as California and Minnesota, they travel from swap meet to swap meet, but only attend to the "big ones." And yes, we are now considered big time.

We do pull in folks from across Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. I even sat by a guy at the auction that was from central California. He had gone to the swap meet in Perry, GA, a very famous swap meet and did ours on his return. He said to me that Perry and Weatherford ranked up there with the best. He bought four brand new Magnum 52 four stroke engines for $320, cash, no tax one box to the another box. That's $80 apiece and they sell for about $115 each plus shipping and maybe tax too. He said he was buying the engines for his buddies back at home.

I watched as the old adage about one man's junk is another man's treasure was being conducted in a mad fashion. Cash was following. Things were changing hands. We only provided the location, reputation and good natured help. The food court sold our of food. All tables were rented and some were rented again the next day. The auction starts at noon Saturday and was finished at 4:30 PM. I would estimate about $15,000, in cash, had exchanged hand during that free-for-all.

We gave away a couple of transmitters, nice new Futaba FASST stuff - pricey stuff. That was raffled, some tickets were issued as part of the entrance fee and the rest sold on the floor. A couple of merchants, local hobby shops, gave prises too. They have always supported us. And I guess we are their best customers.

I did not run the food court this year, I did help setting up and sort acted as a floor marshall; we all did that. We wore club furnished bright orange tee shirts and black hats, so we could not be missed.

The weather was balmy spring weather and by midnight Friday, a blue norther blew in, it was brutal outside but toasty warm inside. That help sell everything we had at the food court. No one wanted to go out, even the smokers did not want to go outside. It went from 65 to 32 and snow!

So it is done for a year again. And oh yeah, I was able to get some stuff too. And I had some stuff acutioned off. Did I break even, no, but I did walk away with some green stuff in my back pocket. The auction was good to me!

Old Friend . . .

Made Internet contact with an old military friend today. His name is Stu McElwain. We were at England Air Force Base together - that would be back in 1964. Then later as we move en mass from England to Bien Hoa Air Base, RVN again. He, like me, was a maintenance officer. I was about year junior to him in those days.

After Viet Nam, I went to Germany and lost track of all those guys. Another fellows name was Voss - I think he got out of the Air Force. Ran across Stu's name when I went to Korea. I was a couple of years behind him. He unfortunately ran afoul of the Wing Commmander at Kunan Air Base and was moved up to Osan Air Base to finish his tour of duty. That was the kiss of death, he never got promoted after that and was later caught up in a Reduction in Force (known as a RIF). He finished his USAF career as an enlisted man but retired in his highest grade, Major. My friend Pete Hammerton ran into the same Wing Commander and his Air Force career was foreshortened too.

Stu, like me, came out of Viet Nam with some stringers - I have Diabetes Mellitus, Type II as a result of Agent Orange; he has cancer - it is in remission presently. But he is rated at 100% disabled - that helps his bottom line from the Veterans Affairs.

The ophthalmologist that looked at my eyes the other day for the VA said that there were going to be a lot of us because of Agent Orange. It is getting worse, more and more veterans showing up with effects due to Agent Orange. As it is considered a Combat Related Disability and in Stu's case, means he collects all of his disability now. Unlike me, I have to go through concurrent receipt, meaning that I had to pay a lot of my own disability; he did not have to do that.

The VA compensation was deducted from my retirement and paid to me by the VA. So in effect, that money came out of my retire check to be give back to me by the VA. The only boon was all VA monies are absolutely tax free. But starting in the Bush administration, the government started winnowing down the deduction from my retirement at 10% per year. As of this year, it is down to about $75 a month. By next year it ought to be zero and I will stop having to pay my own disability. That means Concurrent Receipt will go away for me.

But because of Concurrent Receipt I did get a pay raise when others did not. Since Concurrent Receipt is an accounting subterfuge, it is not a cost of living thing. So while the rank and file did not get a Cost of Living increase, I did get a small Concurrent Receipt increase of about a $100 per month. Such things make my bride happy.

Stu has to fight Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, he says he has a great VA doctor that keeps it in remission. I hope it stays that way.

Oh oh . . .

Some of the things you don't want to be remind of - age comes to mind first. But then that's life. Here is a before and after, well later not after shot. The after is posted in the side bar of the Blog, here is the before.

Sometimes you just don't want to find that old stuff.

Oh, well . . .

Bridge Towers . . .

While at New Roads last weekend I noted while driving into to town from the camp one could easily see the three smoke stacks at Big Cajun #2 power plant and one could also see the four bridge towers/piers sticking up in sky line. Four big structures poking up into the sky. They are huge. It must be four or five miles to the bridge from Bergeron's Pecan Shelling plant, that is a good view point.

That means the towers which top out a 520 feet will mean the bridge can be easily seen from False River Drive. It means parts of Pointe Coupee will have a skyline like Manhattan or Chicago, or even Baton Rouge for that matter. It will be a sight to be seen! Who would ever thought it would occur?

520 feet is like a forty story office building. They are adding the first cross structure on the New Roads side, which seems to be a little advanced over the St Francisville side. They are behind on the approaches on the St Francisville side, more elevated construction there. And if they don't get a move on, they will be even further behind schedule. High water is coming and there is sure to be lots of it this year with all the snow/rain fail for El Nino. The high water has already slowed down things on the St Francisville side but the little river crest is nothing compared to the April and June rises which will be flood levels. I would expect the bases of the bridge piers to be underwater and that will stop delivery of concrete, reduce access and put all services underwater.

That will be quite a picture, water ripping around the base of those piers.

The Big Seven Oh . . .

Today is my birthday. I am 70 years old. Getting up there.

Had a nice trip to New Roads, family farm meeting went well, no controversy at all. All of Ann Gonzales family came, very nice. We miss Al and Camille - I guess no more travelling for them.

Good trip, fast, rain on the way back starting at Shreveport and on into Dallas/Fort Worth. As we got to Weatherford it tappered off. Got quite a bit of rain, the country side is soaked.

Off to New Roads . . .

We are off to New Roads for the annual Morrison Farm, Inc business meeting, a family affair. Morrison Farm, Inc is Angeles Plantation with roots back to 1856. Old Jacob Haight goes back even farther to the early 1820's in New Orleans.

Today it is rental business, we rent the farm and maintain the old family home. And we collect a few dollars too. But most importantly, we enjoy a family gathering and a great meal by the host. Never can tell what it is going to be but it is always outstanding. Often cooked by Jeannie and Walter Morrison, sometimes by Chris Morrison and sometimes by an outsider who semi-caters the meal. No matter it is always good.

Some times there is hogs head cheese, others with cracklings to munch on. The business meeting is not long, always a pleasure.

It is good to see the family again. We never know who will show up, cousins from South America, or wherever. All are welcome.

The Finches are here. . .

The Gold or Yellow Finches have returned. And they are in a feeding frenzy, we have two finch feeders loaded up with Thistle seed - their favorite food.

The feeders are tubes about 2 - 3 inches in diameter and 10 or 12 inches long suspended from tree limbs. Each has four feeding positions, very small slits that the finch can fish out a long thin thistle seed. And yes, they spill a lot of it, but no matter, the remaining finches gather round underneath the feeders and go at it. Nothing is wasted. We get up to 50 or more finches!

A couple of White Wing Doves came in to see what's going on. Where there are other birds, the White Wings come by to lord over them. White Wings are exceedingly greedy. But since they can not fit on the short pegs at the feeding positions, they are then regulated to the ground to feed. I have seen Yellow Finches all summer in Tucson; many think Tucson, in the desert like it is, as a hotter place. It is not, the elevation at Tucson is around 2,000 feet, some areas much higher others slightly lower. But the average temperature in Tucson is less than the average temperature in Dallas/Fort Worth.

Phoenix on the other hand has an elevation around 700 feet similar to Dallas/Fort Worth. And Phoenix is much hotter than Tucson and Dallas/Fort Worth. Phoenix and Tuscon are much drier than Dallas/Forth Worth but then neither one of them is too far from the mountains. Tucson sits right under Mount Lemon which believe it or not has a ski slope.

And the squirrels don't like the feeders either, they are real pigs. I call them "tree rats." They will eventually eat through the plastic to get at the seed. Doesn't matter to them whether it is most desirable, it matters that they can not get to it.

So the little guys win out. The big guys eat off the ground.

The finches will feed for a couple of weeks, maybe a month, then fly off. We know not where, but when they return they are golden - bright yellow. They then stay a while, until it gets hot, then they are off to cool climes.

Oh, that our lives could be so simple.

Rats . . .Snow Again

As predicted, woke up this AM to snow falling and snow on the ground. The stuff keeps coming back. Damn this Global Warming, I am getting tired of being warmed up, not. I read where one Senator is calling Al Gore back to Congress to explain all the skewed data and false reporting on climate change. It is beginning to get nasty. Cap and Trade does not have a chance to pass.

Fortunately, the snow is melting as fast as it is falling. That means it is warming up, not down. But it is damp and thus a penetrating cold surrounds us. Unpleasant at best, wet at worst. Maybe a slick freeze this PM. Went to the Dentist and came straight home to hunker down.

At any rate, it is no good for RC flying and cools the garage below my comfort zone, to cold to work on models. Double drat!

Birthday Food . . .

Okay, its a few days before James' birthday but you know it is an opportunity with both LSU Amandas here to help celebrate. So it was not to be missed and was enjoyed by all of us.


Here is the entree - home cooked prime rib roast(bone in).

Judie uses this special receipe from a famous Texas actress(whose name shall remain secret or otherwise, it will not be a secret recipe). It was 9 pounds to start and delicious at the end. Brookshires provided the meat, we provided the oven and they provided the appetites.


We had fresh asparagus, mashed potatoes with gravy (if you wanted it), mushrooms, horse radish and salad. (with anchovies too). It was tremendous. Look at those mushrooms! Huge pot of them to grace the fresh carved prime rib.

It was superb!


Oh, by the way, Happy Birthday, James . . .

Its Official . . .

Its official, the recorded official snow measurement is 12.5 inches of snow here in Weatherford. A record for this area and this time of year. I guess the name fits, Weatherford.

Doesn't that ensemble look very comfortable? Nice cool seats and even cooler Chimera. Really tempting isn't it?

Listening to the TV in the back ground, lots of downed power lines, the trees are over loaded and are crashing down on the power lines. So quite a few folks do not have any juice. I knew there was a reason to buy in an area with underground utilities. No downed lines for us. The major lines got cleared around here a while back. Yep, the power companies butchered the trees but now we are all happy with it.

This is truly an unusual event, its not getting snow, its the amount of the snow. Good that it is beginning to melt. I am sure it will be gone soon enough.

I wonder how many roofs caved in? I do know the car deals had those awnings covering their wares, some of which are not collapsed on the vehicles. I guess they can not win for losing. Bad year, topped by this crappy weather and top it off with collapsed awnings.

I sense the sun is about to come out. That will really make things change.

SNOW . . .

The snow is coming down so hard here the satellite TV is off the air. The mass of the snow falling blocks the signal. Add the lack of TV sounds to the already deadened atmosphere caused by the snow fall, makes things pleasantly quite.

The stuff is stacking up though. Pretty sure we are gonna be snowed in for a day or two. Saw some school kids out making a snow man down the street. They are enjoying their snow day off.

I could fly in it, but not for long. Collect to much on the wings and she just will not go. So while there is little or no wind, the same signal blocking for TV will do in any Radio Control too. Thus this becomes what we call a "build" day - you get to fix and repair things. You get to work on you kit or whatever turns you on. But for sure you are not gonna fly. Only the birds can do any flying and even then they are kinda hunkered down too.

So its suck up and enjoy time!

Super Bowl Sunday . . .

Who Dat Nation is on the prowl. Saints and the Colts are gonna go at it at 5:25 PM. And sure enough, it is too cold to do anything else. We ate out last night, at Pappadeaux's - place was packed, the end of the stock show crowd.

Eating in this evening, early dinner getting ready to watch the game on the big TV. Judie is preparing a culinary delight - baked chicken with baked vegetables. I know there is a sweet potato and a squash involved along with a chicken. Me thinks it is going to be delectable.

And the damn cold persists. So there is no reason to venture outside. Overcast day and the weather gurus say rain later today, maybe tonight. We have had quite a bit of water lately, notice standing water in the pastures and low spots. Lake Weatherford is pretty full, maybe 6 or 8 inches from the tippy top level. Any more rain will lead to a run off, flooding in places, and maybe Lake Benbrook will get pumped up too. We will need the water come summer time in this semi arid area.

Hunker down and fire up the TV . . .

Refreshing Walk . . .

Yep, just made it around the neighborhood. A little breezy but warm enough for a jaunt. Had to put my hood up on my LSU hoodie, it was enough. Ran into at least two neighbors doing the same. We were enjoying the sunshine.

Listened to Rush as I walked. Open line Friday, a few interesting callers. Lot of talk about today's unemployment numbers, many saying they are unbelievable. They will be adjusted later such as the November and December numbers that went further down. We are in the tail end of the cycle and employment will come in last. Seems like all the billions spent went down the drain, costing like $50,000 per job created/saved. Unemployment insurance extension would have been cheaper and perhaps more effective.

It is almost comic but certainly sad at the present administrations incompetence. And their answer is blame it all on Bush. Geeze Louise, Bush came into office with a recession, albeit this one is the worst since the great depression but all the present administration has done is make it deeper and longer. They can not seem to get over blame the current conditions on Bush. They have been in office for over a year, the honeymoon is over, time to be effective, don't you think?

Fortunately both Cap and Trade and the Healthcare Bills are all but dead. President Obama said he did not do enough about explaining Healthcare bill, huh - he made 29 speeches on the subject. I guess his golden tongue abandoned him, ya think? I guess reality has not taken hold yet.

I just pray no one assassinates the President, Vice President Biden is worse than incompetent. He is just a good ole boy from Delaware. Seems his son can not even get the guts to run for his upcoming vacancy.

Pray for the President . . .

YS-63s . . .

A YS 63s is a very high performance four cycle model airplane engine. I got one perhaps two years ago. Installed in cheap plane and about six months ago started to try to fly the plane. YS engines are made by Yamada in Japan. They are the most powerful per cubic inch alcohol fired engines available.

I could not get the engine to run at max RPM - about 12,000 RPM. All it would do was about 8,700. Not satisfactory at all. At about 8,700 RPM I would get detonation, that is pre-ignition of the fuel and stop the engine. What that means is the fuel mixture would ignite when the piston was on the way up, and that results in a sudden stoppage.

This engine has a fuel pump, it is part of the cam shaft. The cam acts as a pump when it turns. So it has a fuel regulator on it. The excess fuel is returned to the tank and the remainder goes to the carburettor. The engine also uses the down stroke of the piston to compress the fuel/air mixture and send it to the intake manifold. So it is a poor man's super charger, force feeding the fuel air/mixture to the engine.

I determined the regulator was not working correctly. It has a tiny diaphragm in it. All the YS engine gurus said that the diaphragm was not working correctly, replace it. I got the part (actually a couple of them), and went about trying to figure out how to get into the regulator to change it. It took several emails and a couple Radio Control forums to learn that the "s" model regulator simply pries apart and snaps back together again. That took about six weeks of research.

Got the diaphragm replaced and went to the field. No joy, finally I figured out I had the check valve in backwards. The check valve is in the return line to the fuel tank and keeps the pressure up in the tank and keeps the fuel from flowing backwards. With the check valve in backwards, no fuel was getting to the pump!

Got that straightened out, and fire that sucker up. Man it ran rich but fast and powerful. I did not TACH the engine, since it was new rich was good thing for the engine to break in on. But it sure and hell was turning a lot faster than 8,700 RPM, no detonation, no sudden stoppage.

So I flew it. The cheapo airplane could not settle down, it was sensitive as hell. After about 6 minutes I ended up auguring the bird. Destroyed the fuselage, buried the engine two inches in the ground and damaged the wing. But now I know the engine is good to go. Man-o-man, that engine is some powerhouse!

I washed off the dirt, cleaned out the fins (had some balsa stuck in there) and checked over the engine. It is fine. No damage except to my ego.

Now I need another plane!

Wow - What a Difference an Election Makes . . .

Wow - what a difference an election makes. Rush Limbaugh just announced that Madam Pelosi has announced that she does not have the votes to pass the Healthcare Bill in the House of Representatives. At last the Democrats are listening to the American people.

Senator elect Brown has upset the apple cart and that is a good thing. Does it mean we will not see a Healthcare bill, I think not. But it does mean we may see a more reasonable bill, at less expense and with more tort reform, something we need. It also probably means "Cap and Trade" is dead too.

Also the Supreme Court has struck down portions of the McCain - Finegold act limiting campaign contributions. It allows that corporations and non profits can contribute as much money as they want to candidates. Next will be a suit about limits imposed on individual citizens, it is a matter of free speech. That is we can give to who we want when want, and that includes political parties and candidates.

It seems rationality is returning to Washington. The absolute majority of the Democrats is broken and than means more reasonable legislation in Congress. All this backroom stuff: the "Louisiana Purchase," "Nebraska rake off" and the "Union Healthcare deal" are dead, as it should be. Perhaps openness will indeed return.

We need balance and we are about getting it. Socialism is being restrained, perhaps even stopped. Maybe the Whitehouse will listen and become more centriest. There is hope. Like it is said, "What a difference an election can make."

It Seems Strange . . .

Yes, it does seem strange, Judie with no glasses. The ones she has are useless now as her eyes have changed with the surgery. She can see without them, not as well as desired yet. But she does not need glasses to drive.

She can work her puzzles and watch TV. No glasses! I am jealous! I am envious!

True, she had to go through some rough times but it is beginning to pay off.

And she looks good without glasses. She does wear sun glasses a lot, her vision is much brighter now.