The Plunge. . .

I took the plunge into the smart phone world.  The old flip phone could not be traded in or any credit for same obtained.  It is just a relic now sitting in its box slowly discharging into oblivion.  The new phone, well it is the same as Judie'sphone, a Samsung Galaxy 5.

It is a heavy little device, I guess it is packed with all kinds of goodies inside including a hefty battery to run all of its innards.  My phone number remained the same as did the contact list and that is about it.  All the rest is learning curve of new stuff.  It is not here on purpose, but I do know it.  Unlike Judie, it is not taped on the back of the phone case.

I have reached the level of frustration already that leads to the trash can.  The small but adequate starter hand book is irksome.  I know the authors have done a great job of telling you how to do things but alas it is in their parlance.  Sometimes a password is a user name, sometimes a user name is a password.  They mean well, it is just a matter of how they communicate.  And they do not always get it right - at least in my parlance. 

Whatever happened to the old adage, "the customer is always right."  It seems in their way is the customer is always stupid or dumb.  No expansion of what they want or mean in their guidance.  It is their way or no way.  But I am the guy putting up the money, so I should have some say so in the deal.  Uhuh, no way, Jose!  They ain't got time to do this so it may work for everybody.  I think sometimes it is written for a teenager only. 

Oh, well, I did manage to make a phone call.  That seemed to work okay.  We did get the WiFi connected, so I can read email now.  The clock works but then it worked on the flip phone too.  Nothing new there.  Tiny Querty key board crops up when you need it, got to be careful when tapping in letters.  Typing or as it is known now days, key boarding is faster in my opinion.  But I will get used to it, I am sure of that.

More frustration ahead, but a great leap into the future.  Pissing and moaning all the way.

Where Is Keith Irwin . . .

Where is Keith Irwin? 

Keith was a fraternity brother and a room mate for most of my college life.  We lived off campus along with Dwight Paulsen.  I can not find Keith Irwin anywhere in these United States.

But I have done more than one search of Keith Irwin to turn up empty.  He graduated from LSU in 1962 and went off to USAF flying school.  He did not make it.  He was washed out primarily because he could not keep his stomach under control.  There may have been other reasons too but he let us know about the stomach stuff.

I lost track of him like we all do as we go off to do our careers.  I too went into the USAF along with Yvie Poret and Woody Bergeron.  Unlike Keith, we all had successful careers.  Yvie retired as a Lt Col, I ran into him at HQ Systems Command a few weeks before he retired.  Did a whole career with only being away from home or his wife and family for some 20 or so days.  Me I spent years away from my family.  Yvie lives in Baton Rouge and enjoys hunting and fishing now days.

Woody also retired as a Lt Col, a war hero and POW survivor.  He was actually on the ground in North Viet Nam for few days and was recovered.  His techniques for escape and evasion were adopted by the USAF.  He had been a Navigator in the back seat of an F-4 when shot down by a missile.  He was able to get a slot in pilot training.  I ran into to him at Davis Monthan AFB on his way to be upgraded to an A-10 pilot.  Pretty sure Woody retired from Delta and lives around Atlanta should he still be alive.

So three of us, non-rated, had a successful career in the USAF.  None of us had gone through advance ROTC, we went in during the Viet Nam war for various reasons and came out career men.  The general population of Air Force troops call us "lifers."  Pretty sure Keith is or was not a lifer.

But no Keith.  I found several of the brothers, knew of a couple that have died.   Dwight is probably the most successful of us all now living on the North shore of Lake Ponchartrian in a family compound.  Dwight was a Mechanical Engineer with a Masters Degree in Business.   He ended up involved with off shore oil drilling and was a principle in the company.

Others have been successful too.  I shall not name them.  Lawyers and engineers for the most part.

But I can not find Keith.  I thought I found him in Colorado but got no answer back to my letters. Then I found a Keith Irwin in Louisiana but it turns out not to be the Keith Irwin.  So the search ends up cold.  I have no way to access Social Security Numbers (SSN), indeed I do not know Keith's SSN at all.

I hope he is safe somewhere.  I hope he was not a casualty of war and that he has a family and lives on.  We are getting old now, pressing 75 years so he may not be with us anymore.

Geaux Tigers!

Brrrrr! Its Cold . . .

When I got up the thermometer out side on the front read 31 degrees, it is a remote repeater to a station inside the house.  The other thermometer on the back patio is analog and read about freezing.  The weather station on the hill a couple of miles from us said it got down to 27 degrees.

I do not care, it is just cold.  Cold in the garage where my model work station is, so I can not build comfortably.  Build or repair more likely.  I have to bring the epoxy glue inside and immerse it in a cup of hot water to get it to do what I want it to do.

Read in the paper we may have snow this weekend.  No let up for a while.  We will just sit it out.

Keep warm.  See where there is a freeze warning for New Orleans.  Bundle up and stay comfortable.

Republican Sweep . . .

Well all those pronouncements of Obama are now catching up.  The big one is "elections results have consequences."  The consequences is that the Democrats have lost control in the US Senate and the US House Republicans have increased their members too.

It is mentioned here and there that maybe Obama's leadership has done immeasurable damage to the Democrats for some time to come.  Of course, the Democrats are trying to spin that back and say the fleeting event means future troubles for the Republicans.  Get real!

Not on did the Republicans can control, they took overwhelming control with a nice margin.  Harry Reid's shenanigans will now come back to haunt him  He changed the Senate rules regarding number of votes for judges and appointments from 60 to 50, that means all upcoming judge appointments are now in the hands of the Republicans, not the Democrats.  So no more liberal progressive judiciary for the remainder of Obama's term.  It makes him a lame duck for sure in that regard.

President Obama says he will use executive orders to correct what he perceives as an immigration problem.  The Speaker of the House has said that will poison the waters. The Congress controls the money and that means they will curtail any funds to execute those orders.  Our fore fathers crafted a wonderful document, the Constitution of the United States of America.  It contains checks and balances to offset the power of the President.

I do not normally like Senator Mitch McConnell but he said some clear and cogent comments.  He said there is now "Only one Democrat to worry about, President Obama."  He also said the Senate will return to a place of "debate and the offering of amendments."  In the past , Senator Harry Reid refused to entertain debate, votes or amendments.  There less than a dozen votes in the Senate in the last year.  That will change, a return to what the Senate is supposed to do, debate and resolve issues.  Harry Reid's way was just to forestall any action what so ever.  That is not the American way.  No more no from the Democrats.

The President will have to do his own heavy lifting, if he does not like it, he will have to be the man of "No."  He will have to veto the bills.  Some bills like the pipeline bill has both Republican and Democratic support and thus an override of his veto is likely. That bill will provide a lot of jobs and make the tree huggers turn blue.   Well I guess they are blue anyway as Democrats.  Frankly that was a sensible pipe line to build and there are literally thousands of miles of pipe lines in the US.  Nothing new in building another one.

I think the EPA will be throttled by budget actions to prevent the President's unofficial "Cap and Trade" program.  Carbon taxes are like Global Warming, a hoax.  I guess Global Warming has morphed into Climate Change, no matter it is now proven to be a hoax, little change in the climate in the last 15 years and the Artic Ice cap is growing both in Anartica and the North Pole.

So now we enter a new era.  The President is trying to spin it in his favor.  That ain't gonna work with the Congress.  He is gonna get hammered.

Salsa . . .

About the time we were leaving Arizona for Ohio, we visited friends en route in Tucson, AZ.  We happened to go to a local swap meet held in an area near the Pantano Wash.  A wash is sort of a dry wadi as found in North Africa.  When, and that was a rare thing, there was a good healthy rain storm, the wash turns in to a raging torrent of flood waters.  So this area was located in good residential area but some what uninhabitable because of the close proximity to the wash.

As we perused though the junk so to speak, we found a family selling Desert Rose salsa, their brand name, out of the trunk of an old dilapidated car.  So we bought a couple of quart jars of the stuff and found it to be absolutely superior.  It had great taste and flavor.

A year or two later while visiting Tucson again we tracked it down to high end department stores.  It had grown in reputation and moved beyond the trunks of cars the shelves of fancy places.  They had even come out with a new issue called "Commeertavio."  Generally meaning commemorative and it was commemorative.  By then we had progressed to the "hot" version of the salsa and the Commeratavio was a step a beyond that but very tasty.

We started at that point of tracking down the maker and found we could mail order the stuff.  And so in our travels we would around Christmas time get a whole case of the stuff sent to us.  This went on for years.

Later, in California while working for Rockwell International in San Bernardino, on Fridays we would bring snacks in and that gravitated to salsa and chips.  Finally we reached the point where we brought in our favorite commercial salsas and rated them.  Desert Rose was the champ.  And was in great demand.

By then we could get the salsa at high end specialty grocery stores in California.  It was now an off the shelf product.  We no longer had to order from Tucson, we could get it in Redlands.

Years later we ended up in Tucson working for Raytheon and the local high end food stores had it on the shelf.  That was really pleasing to us.  In fact, that was about the only time we ever went to that grocery store was to get salsa and we bought all they had in stock.

Then it disappeared.  It was not to be had.  It seems the company sold out to a bigger operation and then was discontinued.

So we looked of a suitable substitute and did not find one anywhere.  Later while now living in Ruidoso, New Mexico, I found a salsa put up by an elderly lady in a small town of LaLuz.  LaLuz is between Terazozo and Alamagordo, NM.  There was a Pistachio company that sold it at their store on the high way between those to towns.  It was close to Desert Rose so we began ordering salsa from the Pistachio people.

Just a few months ago we passed through that area and stopped at the store to pick some pistaschios and salsa.  Well we got the pistachios alright, but the elderly lady had retired.  There was no more LaLuz Salsa to be had.  It seems she could not get her family to help her make the salsa and it had become to much of a burden to her.

None of the local salsas like Joe T. Garcias comes close to Desert Rose or LaLuz.  I guess our tastes are not compatible with the local desires.  We keep looking and trying but it just is not the same.

An era has past.  We enjoyed it but it is no more.  Times have changed.

Ebola . . .

Ebola.  We are learning more and more about it day by day.  It seems we are as up to speed as the Center for Disease Control.

The two secondary cases from Dallas have been moved by the government to higher isolation facilities, one in Atlanta, GA and one in and around Washington D. C.  That unloads the local hospital from the terrible load of treating and isolating the patients.  And the local hospital has turned into a empty palace for the sick.  Patients are cancelling even cancer operations in dire fear of Ebola infection.

It is clear the President has failed to recognize the dangers, or at underestimated the danger.  The CDC has clearly muffed it in all directions.  We learn to day the Frontier Jet, allegedly cleaned three times, has never been taken out of service.  Could thousands now be suspect?  Who approved this nurse's travel plans?

Now a lab person is self quarantined on a cruise ship down in the Gulf of Mexico.  The Mexican government will not let the passengers to embark into Mexico.  The ship is on its way back to Galveston.  I foresee that it will be quarantined and cleaned to (meaning disinfected from stem to stern).  Who let this nut to go on a cruise!

 People are acting stupid including our government. People on volunteer quarantine go out to get their favorite soup.  Now the President as appointed a Czar to manage things - a lawyer.  Give me a break.  We don't need some dam Democratic lacky, we need a competent doctor to be the Ebola Czar.  There are certainly many more experience physicians with disease and disease control that some dam lawyer.  Just another stupid thing by the current administration.

Fox News just had an expert on disease incubation periods say that the 21 day incubation time is a 30 year old number.  He has studied the numbers and infection can occur 30 to 35 days after exposure.  Another study out of Minneapolis says Ebola may have mutated into an airborne virus (I hope not or else we are doomed by the inept central government enamored with being politically correct.)

Will they wake up?  God save us!

The Oaks . . .

We have two red oak trees in the front yard.  They are Shumard Oaks, relatively fast growing trees.

The one in front of the window I look out everyday is the larger of the two oaks.  I think it has to do with the soil.  The top soil on the left side of the front was scraped off to level the lot for the house.  So naturally  the soil is not as nutritional as the soil on the right side.  So the tree on the right is bigger, and grows faster than the one on the left side.  Both have been treated for "Oak Wilt" and that treatment seemed to perk them up a bit.  Both have been fertilized a couple of times and of course the grass has been treated three or four times a year.

Any way the tree on the right is a little more than a foot in diameter now, rising up well above the roof line of our house.  It is quite stately.   I reminds me of the Pen Oak we had in the front yard in New Roads when I was growing up.  That tree was about 75 years old, when lightening struck it, and started an internal fire.  It must have smolder for a year, all remnants are gone from the tree.

I discover yesterday the Shumard has dropped its acorns.  That is a sign of maturity, I understand it takes usually 12 years of age before they produce any fruit.  Since we have volunteer growing in the flower bed (which the deer keep eating the top off) I am sure it produced acorns last year.  But this year there is a bumper crop of rather large sized acorns.  The Burr Oak produces the largest acorns I have ever seen, almost an inch in diameter.  These are about an half inch in diameter.

So I policed up a few of them and will see if I can get them to grow.  We have a ton of Post Oak acorns floating around.  They are smaller in size.  The Post Oak is a notoriously slow growing oak tree, takes maybe 50 years to be a 10 inch in diameter tree.  And they never get very big, die off before for any number of reasons.  They do not tolerate much of anything around them, animals, yards, fertilizers and so on.  I have seen them just die in the middle of the summer for no apparent reason, healthy one day and dead the next.

We do have a Barkley Oak on the side yard that is a volunteer.  There are a few of them scattered around the neighborhood.   They too are members of the "red" oak family, have a similar leaf as the Shumard but have the distinction of not dropping their leaves in the fall.  Their old leaves are pushed off in the spring by new growth.  But it is also a relatively fast growing tree.  I even tried to cut it down once when it was just a two or three footer.  But later we cut down the Hackberry tree that was next to it.  We managed to save it and it is now up about 20 feet and trunk is about four inches in diameter.  A Post Oak the same age is near by and is all of three feet high and about an half inch in diameter.

I had to pull up an Shumard in the back yard that had died.  It was pot bound when planted and when I pulled it up (it was quite dead at the time) the tap root was all coiled up and it had literally chocked itself to death.  I will try to get one of the volunteer oaks to grow there or maybe if successful with by planted acorns will put one of them there.

We have about 30 Post Oaks in the back.  There is one Elm, three large Hackberries (trash trees but produce shade), a smaller Hackberry.  We have two Peach trees off to the left in the back but they have maybe five or six more years before they will die off.  None of those threes are close enough to the house except for one Hackberry to produce an shade for the house.

There are lots of oaks in our neighborhood and most have been well taken care of.   Makes the place look good.

Back from the Big Easy . . .

Every year near our wedding anniversary we travel to New Orleans and stay in the French Quarter.  We try to stay at the Monteleon Hotel but could not get a room there this year.  We stay around the corner in the Hyatt French Quarter.  That was a mistake not of our choosing, the Hyatt is not a bad hotel, but the Monteleon is a great hotel.

We had learned not to arrive there on a Monday, all the good restaurants are closed Monday.  So we arrived on a Tuesday, we stay over night en route at the camp on False River.  WE ate at Not Your Mama's in Livonia as all the good restaurants in New Roads are also closed on Monday.

We noted the lake is down at least two feet, maybe a bit more.  This is a biologist pipe dream of rejuvenating the lake.  I think it is a large waste of time.  However the dredging to be conducted in the flats at each end sounds like a great idea.  I understand they will just the dredge materials to build two islands, one at each end of the lake.  The spoil from the dredging is to be used to create the islands.  The dredging is to deepen the ends of the lake that have filled in from farm field run off over the many years.  All this is said to bring life back into the lake.

We trolled around in Baton Rouge a bit, visited LSU, stopped at the book store and bought a few things.  We also ate lunch at the Piccadilly Cafeteria out on Essen Lane.  That was yum, but we did not over do it as New Orleans was calling us.

The first night we ate at our traditional place, Galitore's.  As usual, it was outstanding and great service.  The second night we ate at Antoine's, we had been trying to get there for some time.  Unfortunately, while the food was adequate, it was not as good as Galitore's.  We were disappointed.  In fact we ranked the place behind the Red Fish Grill and ranked Galitore's as the best of the best in the French Quarter.

He ate breakfast every day at Café DuMonde - benguies and coffee for me, coke for Judie.  As usual the coffee and benguies are unchanged but I recall the pouring of coffee and mill from two pots into your cup, a practice long gone.  We also trolled through French Market and had our blacked catfish po boy for lunch.  And then we visited Aunt Sallies and bought pralines.  Naturally we partook of the samples.

It was sad driving out of New Orleans, in the rain, heading home again.  But we made it back in one piece and racked up another visit to the Big Easy.

LSU Football . . .

Football season has begun.  LSU started with Wisconsin, fairly even match on neutral grounds in Houston, TX.  First half of the game went to Wisconsin, the second half went to LSU.  And LSU won by coming from behind.  Coming from behind is not a trait of LSU, usually when they get a couple touch downs behind, it is all over but the shouting.  Perhaps this come from behind win shows some character in the team.

The next two games gave the Tigers a warm up, a fine tuning of the defense, an exercise for the offense.  Since the second half of the Wisconsin game, the whole team's character has changed from an also ran to a winner.  Both teams were not of the caliber that the SEC teams are but they were good teams in their classification, very capable and had good stats before running into LSU.  Things changed when those two teams played in Tiger Stadium.  The two teams had moved into the big leagues when the played in Baton Rouge.  Over a hundred thousand fans looked down upon them, a hundred thousand roaring LSU fans.  There is meaning to "Tiger Bait."

Tune time is over, LSU faces Mississippi State this weekend.  The first SEC game for the Tigers.  South Carolina has already faced Texas A&M (and lost).  South Carolina comes out the box and faced Georgia and won.  That was a great game and come back for the Game Cocks.  And once again the opening premier game for Georgia resulted in a loss.

So now it is not time for LSU to stumble.  They have what is referred to by Coach Miles as a "quality opponent" Saturday in Baton Rouge.  Both teams are unbeaten so far but only LSU has faced a tough Big Ten team while Miss State has been chewing up lower class teams.  So both of them are in for the tough ride of facing their first SEC team.

It is ironic but all the top rated SEC teams this week are from the SEC West division.  A division some say is a conference to itself.  Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss, LSU and yes, even Miss State are contenders, not so in the SEC East.  Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Tennessee are all weak sisters in their division.  Florida is so so, Georgia and South Carolina already have been discussed.  Missouri has not been discussed and is a dark horse in the SEC East, over shadowed by Georgia and South Carolina but they are coming on strong.  Auburn and Ole Miss are power houses in West division.

Its gonna be a good week for football.  Beginning to cool off a little bit.  A lot of attention will be drawn to Baton Rouge to see who moves up and who moves down.  Miss State has not beaten LSU since 1999 - that is a long stretch.  And their coach now knows LSU well and will be really prepared even though he has to face the Tigers before 102,321 screaming spectators.  Some will be from Mississippi but the vast overwhelming majority will be Tigers and the noise will reflect it.

Geaux Tigers!

American Legion . . .

I am a current member of the American Legion but do not belong to a local post.  So the American Legion assigned me to the state chapter in Austin, TX.  That is okay with me.  It means I am a member in good standing with the American Legion.

I was a member in Redlands, CA in the early 1990s and they had a very active chapter and chapter operation.  It was sort of a private club, membership only kind of place and could serve alcohol beverages when it want to.  They also put on a nice lunch every day.  Having said that, I never attended anything there, I was just a member so to speak.

The American Legion was after me to renew my membership, I had let it lapse when I left California and moved to New Mexico.  Every year they would send me an application.  I decided we were not going to move ever again, so I signed up again.  I have been an active member, that is a dues paying member, for a couple of years now.

The local post called me and asked if I would move my membership to their chapter.  More members meant a good thing to them.  So I said, "Okay, sign me up."  But that was not enough, I had to come down and sign up.  Okay, I figured they needed a signature to make the membership transfer to work.  No big deal.

I went down to the post and it was locked up tighter than drum.  Strictly after 5 PM operation.  That's okay.  I let them know I had come around and they were closed.

Today I got a telephone call saying my membership had been submitted to the local chapter poo-bahs and approved pending I prove I am eligible to join.  Whoa, I said to myself, :"Hey, self if I am already a member of the American Legion and have been a member in good standing, why do I have to prove I am eligible to join?  I mean I am already a member."

So, no I am not going to go down and prove I am eligible.  I will just stay with the state wide general membership and let the locals stew.  I was given the line that they had to approve my eligibility by law.  That is a crock.  I mean, if I have been a member in another state, and I am now a member in this state, why would the law require me to prove anything about eligibility - again?  That smells to me.  Something is just not right.

So I will not be joining the local chapter or post.  They pressed the issue a little to far for me.  Such explanations that it is the law does not make sense to me as a long standing member.  Just a bit fishy.  So I am not transferring to the local chapter.  Perhaps a membership in the local Veterans of Foreign Wars is more appropriate.

Perhaps I am testy.  But as I get older, I sense more and more that there is no free lunch and that someone is always after what you have especially in the way of money.  So it is not a mandatory thing for me to do in joining the local American Legion post, just sort of a civic thing to do.  I am already a life member of Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) and a life member of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV). 

The Heat Is On. . . .

The local temperature hit a 100 degrees Fahrenheit yesterday.  Local weather people say more of the same today and no rain in the forecast.  Indeed we don't even seem to have the puffy white clouds that are so common in Texas.  Though the weathermen say the humidity is rising.

It is just hot.  My outdoor temperature transmitter for my indoor temperature read out broke.  I guess it got to hot or something.  I opened it up and did not find any spiders or such, it was nice and clean inside.  I changed the batteries and the little red LED came on, then off as to indicate "I am okay."  But the indoor receiver does not change from a reading on minus 40 degrees (C or F, does not matter as that is the cross point for both temperature measurements).

I guess I just got fried.

Oh well, that is North Texas for you.

Yearlings . . .

Judie called me to light the bar-b-q grill for our supper.  It was about 5 PM our time.  As I went to open the back patio door I looked out and saw two yearling deer, both sitting on the ground.  They still have their fawn spots but are pretty big now and Mama Doe is no where to be found, which means they are on their own now.

We had one doe deliver twins and I figure they were the twins.  They seemed to be very close to each other.

I went on out and started the grill and walked back in.  They did not move just looked at me. 
They know me as I saw them often in the morning during my neighborhood walks.  I sort of ignore them and they ignore me.  That way they are not startled by me.

I cooked the flank steak, takes about 10 minutes, and sat outside during that time.  They were not disturbed by me watching them.  Took the steak off the grill, turned off the gas and went inside with the steak.

We ate dinner and after dinner I looked out and yes, they were still there.  I checked and hour later and thought they were gone, and then spied them in a different part of the yard.  They stayed until it got dark.

I saw them again the morning across the street, they watched me walk by and just stayed there.  Later I saw one of them in the lot next to the house.  I know they would not go into my backyard as the sprinklers were going at that time.  And during my walk I spied others in the neighborhood, they simply watched me walk by as if I were another car going by.

I leave them be to themselves and that seems to satisfy them.  I just wish they would not eat all our plants but then that is their food.  They do not eat Rosemary and Garlic Chives, so we have a ton of that planted around.  They will come right up to the house and eat plants.  We have one Day Lilly protected in a wire cage and they eat anything sticking out. 

There have been complaints to the City of Weatherford, but since the forage over county and city it takes a coordinated effort to do something about the deer population.  Naturally, nothing gets done and the herd continues to grow.  Only natural selection thins them out.  Thus we see a occasional Lynx (Bob Cat) and others say the have seen Mountain Lions.  That seems to be sort of controversial, as the wild life authorities say absolutely no mountain lions around here.  Then I have read where sittings are getting more and more common.  So my guess is they are moving back in to feed on the deer.

Constant Maintenance . . .

Grandson Jamie was over the other day for a couple days.  That means his grandmother gets up early to feed him a sumptuous breakfast before going out.

So she and I were discoursing on the back patio, it was yet to early for the grandson to stir and I noted another sprinkler malfunction.  Our water well produces a very fine sand that eventually wears out the turbo function of the rotating sprinkler heads.  They pop up as usual, that is function of water pressure and they spray, same deal, water pressure.  But it does not move or rotate.  We had a nice green row that indicates some grass is getting a lot of water in one area and lot of grass is not any water, brown out.

So I had to go out and dig up the sprinkler head.  Now knowing about the "constant maintenance" for an irrigation system, I had a spare sprinkler in the garage all ready to go.  Just had to open it up and install it.  I even had a riser that goes from  3/4" to one inch too.  Since I was in the  ground so to speak, it was also time to raise the sprinkler a bit.  So I raised it an inch.  The sod grows around the sprinkler heads and builds up in time.  So if you do not raise the heads, soon you will be spraying the grass close by as the tall grass will inhibit the range of the sprinkler water.

So all went well, I set the sprinkler to full rotation (yeah, I know how to do that now), screwed the new riser into place and installed the sprinkler.  It works just as advertised.

One must observe one's different circuits to make sure things are going like they are supposed to go.  Tiny snails get into spray heads for normal pops.  And normal pop ups also need to be raised too.  In one case I had a large tree root pressing on the sprinkler and the pop feature was not working.  I had to go in a saw off the 2 inch root.  It was a Willow tree root and so was nice and soft and easy to cut.  Put all the sprinkler back in place and it now works just fine.  The tree did not even notice its root being truncated.

So I keep on hand valves, pipes, glue and of course I already have the tools.  I have hack saws to cut pipe, even a hobby knife to trim risers to size, so I am equipped.  I have elbows, unions, and even slip joints in stock.  The irrigation system moves ever so slightly with the soil, so slip joints are good to have around.  It allows for some ever so slight movement.  They keep the soil from pulling the joints apart.

We live on the edge of the desert, semi-arid country.  Most of our city water supply is from man made lakes and some from wells.  So our drinking water is very expensive.  To drill your own irrigation well is pricey at first, but it is amortized in two years.  Thereafter you have to spend a bit to have the pump system tuned up but you are mucho dollars ahead by then.  And your plants and grass loves it (so do the deer).

More on the President. . .

Read today in one newspaper article that one of President Obama's problem is that he does not make decisions.  That he stands aside and lets things slide rather than make a decision.  And that is why his popularity is down.  Well it certainly is one cause, but there are many causes.  The real one is incompetence.

The US position in the world is declining because the President has let it decline not because we, as a nation, are declining.  It is his choice.  And now we learn that he summoned members of both parties to the White House to discuss foreign policy and got slammed by both parties.  Yes, the Democrats have opined that he does not have a grasp of the problems and further does not act either.  The result are things like IS or Islamic State, a ruthless barbaric group that is running around and chopping peoples heads off when he, the President, is espousing that one should set down and talk it all out.

What have we become?  We have to tolerate this incompetence another two years.  Already many are calling for impeachment.  What makes anyone thing that will be successful?  And it successful, do we want Joe Biden to be President?  I think not.  Many say the Republican House's law suit against the President to make him comply with the enacted legislation will not work either.  The remedy, they say, is in the Constitution - impeachment!

I am all for a Republican majority.  Get rid of some of those Democratic Senators like Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.  Put some sane people in place.  Put a kibosh to this out of control administrative law generation by entities like EPA.  Secure our borders again.  Do a little "shoot to kill" along the border and the rabid inflow of illegals will stop.  Ship out the illegals to their home countries and make for more jobs for our people.  Harry Truman did it, Franklin Roosevelt did it and Ike did it.  Kick the buns out.

In the cases of IS, kill them.  They want to kill us.  Just kill them.  The British learned that in Malaya and on the East Coast of Persian Gulf,  They did not tolerate any of that kind of crap.  Liberalism does not work in those case, first you must be civilized then you can apply liberalism.

Mid Air . . .

After 14 years of flying model airplanes in close proximity to other flying model airplanes, I experienced my first mid air.  My  buddy flying a "Dirty Stik", a model I once owned, flew into the bottom of my "Big Stik 60."  His propeller chewed up my right wing, it looked like I might recover, then the plane went out of control and spiraled in.  His prop also destroyed the receiver.  So I had not control, just watched things transpire.

There were bits and pieces fluttering to the ground.  My airplane was confined to one location except for the wing debris.  My buddy's airplane was off in a distance but equally destroyed.  The working pieces are okay, like engines, fuel tanks, batteries and most of the servos. 

Servo gears for the most part are made of nylon and shear teeth easily.  The one that usually takes the brunt is the throttle servo which gets jarred severely in such a melee.  And my throttle servo does indeed need new gears.  I will get around to fixing that later.

I cleaned up the engine.  The engine mount was intact even though the airplane remains went in nose first.  The engine was okay, I found one breather nipple broken off, but that does not mean it occurred in that crash.  I suspect it is an "old injury" and manifested itself with the nose first jarring.  Simple to fix, just replace it with another nipple and the job is done.  Had to send off the part, but I could have cannibalized another engine, just  chose to get a new part and spare at the same time.

Now I am trying to resurrect another plane.  I am having problems setting up the configuration.  Not sure what is the cause. but have contacted Hitec, the manufacturer.  And they gave me a phone number and said call, it was too difficult to describe the fix by phone.  Interesting.

And the beat goes on.  And yes, this time the bird was not fixable, or at least I did not wish to spend the effort to fix it.  I have another in box, just have to assemble it.

Salsas . . .

My two favorite Salsas are no more.  We first bought Desert Rose Salsa out of the back of car at the Pantago Swap meet in Tucson.  Later it became more commercialized and we acquired it at upscale places in Tucson.  Then we could also get it on the Internet.  Later the brand and recipe were sold and we continued to be able to get it.  Its quality had remained excellent.

Desert Rose won all kinds of awards and was widely acclaimed.  But alas it fell by the way side.  It went out of business.  Now it is but history.

The next great salsa was from LaLuz, New Mexico.  A small town close by Alamogordo, New Mexico and was sold in the local specialty shops.  I was  able to get a few bottles via the Internet there too.  LaLuz was truly off the beaten track.  I even was able to find the place where it was put up in LaLuz, a town of maybe 20 or 25 houses. 

On our way back from Tucson, we stopped at the Pistachio shop and found out the elderly woman who put up the LaLuz Salsa had retired.  She could not get any of her family to help and she just could no longer do all the work.  So she retired and the salsa retired with her.

So yet another outstanding salsa has disappeared from the economy.  Times have changed.

We Are Back . . .

Got back yesterday about 6 PM or so.  Dumped of the Interstate to eat at Panda on Main Street in Weatherford, chugged over to the Walmart so Judie could get her some bananas for the next couple of days.  Got home about 7 PM, got the mail and newspapers from the neighbors and we settled in to wash the clothes.  That was Monday.

We had been to Tucson for a wedding of a dear old friend.  The wedding was marvelous and we stayed at the Westin LaPolma, a five star hotel and golf course with many homes located around it.  Nice place.  The wedding was in the golf club house, it is set up for that sort of thing.  So all we had to do was walk over to that affair.  It came with a catered lunch.

Later about 6:30 or so, we trucked over to one of the sons of the groom.  He has a beautiful million dollar plus home in the foothills not far from the LaPolma.  Short drive, valet parking and another nice meal and party. 

It was good to see J.P. and Jermy again.  Grown young men and their wives and families.  Nice knowing they are both doing well and life is treating them well.

We left the LaPolma about 9 AM, and started our trek back to Weatherford via Ruidoso.  We stop there for the night, visited our old neighbors and stayed at their house in our old neighborhood.  Our place now sports a metal roof, a nice paint scheme but is otherwise about the same.

We brought the rain.  That was very welcome as Ruidoso was very dry.  While not a lot, it is still something to help the situation.  Driving out we saw the scares of the big fire that ranged from  Ruidoso to Alto.  Alto was a nice housing area North of the city but got burned to the ground.  So the forest lands are on the way to recovery and needed the water badly along with the general mountain community.

As we cross the state line, the car clock changed automatically.  We had lost an hour when we left Arizona (Mountain Time), entered another time zone in New Mexico and  yet another when we crossed into Texas.  The car figured out the time for New Mexico and Texas but was stumped by Arizona time (never goes on Day Light Savings).

It was good to see all the folks. It was impressive to see all the changes to Tucson and Ruidoso.  It seems like everybody is moving to the Southwest of the US of A.  True here too.  Getting away from the high taxes and cold weather.  It was a good but fast trip out West.

Good to be home again.

Bad Day . . .

Bad day for the world.  The crap has hit fan in Gaza and Ukraine.  The Israeli's are fed up and are currently invading Northern Gaza.   They are after the "tunnels" that house the missiles.  I suppose they are going to destroy the tunnels and anybody within along with any missiles lying around.

At least the Israeli's have warned the people of Gaza to get out of the way, to evacuate.  So they are being as human as possible but they are no longer taking much patience with the Hamas regime. 

Ukraine is another disaster shooting down an airliner.  Quite possibly US citizens are on that flight.  All are dead.  At first the rebels claimed they did it and now they are denying it or just shut up.  Looks like NSA has intercepted their telephone calls.  A colossal screw up and a giant leap in a hot war. 

We had rain, and that is a good thing.  But it has delayed Judie's departure for Madison.  She has reported she is on an airplane and they are getting ready to depart.

The Heat Is On . . .

After complaining for days on end that the wind was driving us crazy, the wind has slowed and now the heat is on.  It is oppressive some what dry heat with a gentle breeze.  Gentle breeze means little or no cooling effect.

I guess if it is not one thing it is another that irks us.  Of course, the wonderful invention of air conditioning does make life more comfortable.  But almost like winter, we are trapped inside where it is reasonably pleasant.

No pool to dive into, no backyard on a lake, kind of down in a hole and so air sort of stagnates. 
The breeze sort of moves it around a bit and that is all.

Good for flying but the model engine is down at the moment.  I got the part today and replaced the part, now got to install the engine.  That is a bit more work.  Then I have to set up the throttle and nose wheel steering control rods.  Most of the reconstruction from the nose first crash is done.  The final step is reapplication of the MonoKote covering.  Not hard, just tedious job.

Once all is in place a quick check of balance and things are a go.

It was a great 4th of July.

All Quiet . . .

Closing in on the 4th of July and Obama has been quiet.  Too many disasters I guess.  Normally the gigantic ego and his towering arrogance require something of issue.  But all is quiet.

Maybe he is reading his polls.  Maybe he is off in the corner smoking a cigarette and eating potato chips, I suppose he can not do that in the Oval Office.  More and more is beginning to come out in the open.  He will not talk to people, he seems to make decisions in a vacuum.  He has few cabinet meetings.

Immigration issues are now overriding everything.  Iraq is in a turmoil. Putin is making him look like an idiot.  The IRS scandal continues to boil.  Thank God, the Federal Bank is run by sane people and the nation is having a mild recovery, the stock market hit 17,000 plus today without Obama's help.  Though I am sure he will claim all credit for it.

I note more and more negative cartoons are showing up.  A lot of them from overseas.  The world has turned on him.  I wonder if the Nobel people are trying to figure out how to get their Peace Prize back.

What a dufus.  Such great promise, such poor performance.  His policy self aggrandizement is being to haunt him.

Smack Down #2 . . .

Recently the President lost his case on recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board.  The Supreme Court held that the President can not determine the recess of the Congress as the Constitution puts that decision in the hands of the Congress or in other words separation of powers.  That meant all of those decisions rendered by the NLRB  since the placement of his members in valid.  Of course, with his majority in the Senate, these same people can be reinstated but they will have to visit all of their decisions again.

In making that decision the court further defined a recession appoint must occur while Congress is in recess.  That means the President can hold off his appointments until a valid recess, the position must occur during recess too.  Thus the President can not simply hold appointments in his pocket until Congress recesses.  That means all such appointments must go through the Senate.  It may be a farcical thing now, but times change and majorities change.  The President in doing what he did caused the Supreme Court to clarify what the Constitution says, thus he has caused the Presidential powers of appointment to be restricted.  Now a recess is a period of time defined as at least 10 days.

Today the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hobby-Lobby and Conestoga (spelling) Wood Company where a closely held for profit corporation under the Religions Freedom Act as well as the Constitution do not have to fund female contraception.  It is limited to a small number of corporations but once again opens the door for corporations to be treated as "people" under the law.  I predict now there will be additional suits from churches, and other corporations to also limit their exposure to the Affordable Care Act not just for female contraception for other issues.  It is now being dismantled, step by agonizing step.

The BLAG suit will soon move forward and reach the Supreme Court.  That suit simply says the President can not willy-nilly change the law as he has done with a number acts.  He has chosen what to administer and what not to administer and in some case changed the dates of applications of the laws.  A president of the United States should not have such powers.  He can veto acts and require the process to undergo by Congress to override his veto.  But should be able to selectively apply the enacted law, law in which he personally has signed into law.  I think this will be another smack down for the current administration.

Old Fritz . . .

I should say "Old Fritzina" is no longer with us.  We have watched and waited for quite a while and lots of her children are around but she is not.  She did not appear this spring.  She looked a little worse for wear last seen in the fall and has lived out her life span.

But there are plenty of progeny around.  We even saw one on the back patio extension like she used to locate herself.  It was medium sized lizard so is probably on its second year of life having survived the winter.  Alas there are no crickets back there, they have all been consumed, so with a lack of food source, junior did not stick around.

We see them out front a lot, along the side walk and even on the sun reflecting screens on the windows out front on occasion.  I scared one away from the garage door a few days ago.  They like to hunt in the garage as there are a lot of critters that creep in during the winter.  With the fence lizards around there is no safe heaven in the garage for the insects.

We do not have any cats around now days either.  The neighbor inadvertently killed their last cat.  So we do not have any roaming carnivores to eat our lizards up.  That is a good thing, though I did not want to see the little cat get killed.  She got caught in the garage door and I had to dispose of her.  The neighbor was in tears but someone had to clean up.

So far now we have birds and squirrels to tend with along with lizards.  We also have our usual night visitors; possums, raccoons, maybe an armadillo and of course the ever present super intelligent foxes.  I have seen a fox carry off a peach in his/her mouth.  Granted it was not a giant peach but it was bigger than a golf ball. They, the foxes, will eat almost anything.

We have all kinds of critters pass though.  Wild cats (Bob Cats) or better known as Lynxes,  Coyotes are every where, even an occasional turkey passes by.   Some claim recently to have seen small mountain lions though they could be large bob cats.  Bob cats, or wild cats, do grow tails just not as long or as prominent as other cats do.

Such is living on the edge of suburbia.  The lake attracts the animals, it is there consistent water source.  We see deer all the time.  They are a nuisance.  Eat all the flowers, color is their favorite food.

Iraq Crubles and Obama Fiddles . . .

Like Nero fiddling while Rome burned.  We watch as he stands by making statements and doing nothing.  He is trying to open a dialog with Iran for help.  Give me a break, what sorry assed foreign policy operation.  Is he going to send good wooden John Kerry in or just throw him under the bus.

All of it sounds of desperate strategies to avoid direct confrontation.  The whole world now knows just how weak President Obama is.  He has the power but he does not know what to do with, or how to do something with it except spout platitudes like lines drawn in the sand crap. 

His in action, ineptitude has lead to this debacle.  There is no other possible conclusion.  We do not know why he can not or will not act.  But we can see his inaction.

What a sad day.  He is presiding over the dismantling of the US's power.  It is embarrassing.

And we have two more years of this to come.  Who knows what will pop up next.  Right his signature medical program has taken another hit in that some alleged two million enrollees have lied on their applications.  So his super 7,000,000 signs ups is turning out to be maybe 5,000,000.  And that number is no sufficient to sustain the program.  That means you and me are gonna get stuck with increases in taxes to make it work.

The acts name of Affordable Care Act is a joke.  Except it is not funny.

More Obama Cratering . . .

Looks like Iraq has gone tits up.  Everything this President has done is back firing in his face. 

The VA debacle is a fore runner to Obamacare.  Think we can fix it or the coming Obamacare, don't bet on it.  We are screwing our nation.

The Bowe Bergdahl trade is still smoldering.  The President threw his Sec of Defense under the bus.  Congress chewed up the Sec Def too.

Now we find the FBI has been feeding the IRS re conservative groups.  Does Eric Holder, a person who is in Contempt of Congress, behind this?

Ukraine is on the verge of collapse.  Russia is on the ascendancy again.  We sit and watch and Obama tours the Baltic States and visits Omaha Beach for D-Day ceremonies along with Russia's Putin.

Obamacare sign ups are faulty, seems 20 to 25% of the sign ups are faulty - they lied!  Now we are on tap to pay for this idiocy.

The Iranians have negotiated a deal for their Nuclear Supremacy.  We gave in!

I predict that Iraq will fall.  I predict Afghanistan will fall.  I think Pakistan is on the verge of collapse.

As the Speaker of the House said, "And he takes a nap."

The Sec of State remains "wooden."  He has successfully piss off everybody.  What a dufus!

The borders are porous and being invaded by children.  Obama sleeps.

A decorated Marine rots in a Mexican jail for a simple mistake.  He does nothing to help him yet gives up five hardened killers for a deserter.  He single handedly defied a national standard and now endangers all US citizens overseas. 

It is time to  impeach him for shear incompetence.

There Is No End . . .

I once vowed I would stay away from politics in this blog but alas the stupidity of the present administration drives me into it.  The President in a vane attempt to quiten the VA noises made a colossal mistake in trading five Gitmo prisoners for one traitor. 

It is not over yet.  After a week of traipsing around Europe the President has been dogged by  reporters regarding Army Sergeant Bergdahl.  His erstwhile Chief of the Nation Security Council and former Ambassador to the UN, Ms Rice, stuck her foot in her mouth - again.  They do not seem to think things through, they only see what they think is going to be a great coup in providing good news. 

They had to know that Bergdahl was a potential deserter.  He walked away from his post, he even wrote things that are not easily retractable.  So I think the young man is luck to be retrieved, that is a good thing, but will certainly face a Courts Martial.

Too many other facts are rolling out.  No, it turns out his health was not a danger.  No, his captors were tired of him but probably would not have killed him.  Make him a slave, well that is possible.

And his hometown has cancelled celebrations of his release.  Too much bad press and many veiled threats.  The town realized they had a hot potato on their hands and back away.

So our President stepped out of the VA frying pan into the Bergdahl fire.  You think a President would have all the resources he wanted and would get the advice not to make such mistakes.  No, it seems his personal ego over stretches such good thinking.

And this is the man with his hand on the trigger.  He does seem to have any visionary capability.  He is dragging his party through the mud.  To the Republicans that is a good thing but to the US that is a bad thing.  Our prestige has evaporated under this President.  Do you think the Nobel Peace prize people might want their award back?

VA now, Obamacare Next . . .

We have now seen what the bureaucrats have done to the Veterans Administration (VA).  Perhaps we can fix it, maybe not.  It simply reflects government run health care, and the limited resources allocated to that system.  It is reasonable to expect not all the money the VA wants it does it get.  That means things have to be managed.

But the model for management is run not by doctors for the most part but professional bureaucrats, civil servants.  And those managers have learned from Washington D.C. how to game the system.  Manipulation of numbers to make themselves look good and justify bonuses for themselves.

That needs to go.  We need personnel outside the VA to determine bonuses.  We need over site.  I can recall in the military we had wholesale overhauls of the evaluation system because of the abuse of the system.  The USAF maintained all the officers were not superior, that there is a bell curve of personnel.  And the promotion boards were having increasing problems rank ordering personnel for promotion.  The reporting system was radically changed.  And that worked for a few years, the creep started to flow into the system and gradually it to became unmanageable again.

So something has to be done with the overall management of the VA.  I am the first to say I do not know just what has to be done but there must be changes or it will simply morf on into the same problems.

Now comes Obamacare.  What makes you think it will be different.  The VA was held up as to the way to go.  Now the VA is besmirched in scandal.  Thus Obamacare will come next.  And it is much bigger than the VA has ever been.  Much more unwieldy. 

Disaster is coming.  Standby for ram!

Is He Still There ?????

Curtis Lemay, the crusty four star general that commanded the Strategic Air Command, now both deceased, was a tough leader.  He would often arrive at one of the SAC Air Force Bases to fire the wing commander on the spot.

He used to say, "He could not tell the difference between bad luck and bad management or leadership, the results were the same, unacceptable."  So if the results show poor performance the wing commander, the leader what's in charge, got the ax.  No if, ands or buts.  All the wing commanders knew what the standards were and understood the ground rules.

We had a basic rule, no surprises.  That mean no suppression of bad news.  We told all in our staff meetings daily.  That way the boss, the wing commander, could take action to prevent being blindsided by a Curtis Lemay type leader.   He would be armed and ready to defend his leadership and management skills.  Thus we too could expect to get the ax for poor performance or bad luck, which ever occurred.

The Veterans Administration (VA)Secretary, a retired four star g\General Eric Shinseki needs to go.  More and more crap is uncovered every day about the VA health system, region by region, state by state.  It is nothing more than a fore look at the coming Obamacare and what is going to happen to us as a nation.  What fools we are to let this charlatan lead us into this dismal situation.  It is much worse than Volstead Act (prohibition) and is a law, not a change to the Constitution like Prohibition was, so it is much easier to get rid of.  All the bad news falls into the no surprises category.  If the General he did not know about it before hand, then he is truly incompetent and needs to go.

What is even worse, is the use of regulatory law on the fly to change at a whim the meaning and words of the actual 2000 plus pages of the Affordable Care Act by the present administration.  That is unconscionable abuse of Presidential power.  Does he not know that the next Republican will do the same as he has?   And now we are off on a slippery slope of destruction of our Constitution.

Apparently in the Obama Administration there are no ground rules.  President Obama is no Curtis Lemay and is loath to fire anyone for any reason.  Lord knows he has had enough disasters that he should have taken action but rather he went golfing or campaigning, his forte.  The smart ones have already bailed out of the administration long ago.  The remaining team seems like they have tenure and can not be fired.  What a wimp the President turns out to be! No guts.  No vision.  No leadership.

No wonder the world thinks we are no longer a super power and are just wimps.

Texas VA Expose' . . .

 The Drudge Report had an expose' on the Texas VA system.  It did not surprise me that there were similar VA issues in Texas.

I had had a round with the Fort Worth VA Clinic, a new fine facility here in our area.  I live about 14 or so interstate miles from the Clinic.  So it is convenient to me.

But let me back first and say I am military retiree and have TRICARE for Life and since I am over 65 years of age we are covered by our primary medical care, Medicare.  TRICARE is our automatic secondary.  So we use a private physician and I only deal with the VA on issues only VA can or will deal with.  I might add that I get 10% medical care from the VA for all my service connected disabilities should I choose to use the VA.  I only selectively use the VA for obvious reasons, I get prompt on the spot care from my private physicians.

I did have around with the Fort Worth VA clinic over them regarding my hearing and an Auditory exam.  After refusal and a bunch of bureaucratic nonsense, I finally got the examination and now wear a fine pair of hearing aids.  But I had to do battle with them and won.

Most probably because I can write letters, know whom to write letters to and I am a Category I veteran, meaning I have a disability rating of 90%.  All veterans with 60% and greater ratings fall into that category.  That means we are suppose to be literally first in line for services.  It took prodding on my part but I got past the bureaucracy. 

En route to the hearing aids I got a further disability for Tinnitus (the new service connected disability did not change my overall 90% rating).  That does mean because I now have a hearing Service Connected disability, I get free service from the Audiology clinic.  I will still have to beg an appointment but everybody needs to schedule their work both inside and outside the VA.  I can not just barge in and get care, I must go through the line first.  That is fair, nothing wrong with that kind of service.

But I do not have to deal with the VA like non-military retirees do.  While we pay for Medicare, we do not have to pay for TRICARE for Life, nor do I have to pay for service connected disability care if I so choose to use the VA.  Indigent veterans must deal with the VA for their medical care.  Believe me I am not going to ever use the VA with any regularity, only when I have to like getting hearing aids..

Secretary Eric Shinseki Must Go . . .

General Shinseki, titular head of the Veterans Administration, decorated war hero, disabled American Veteran, yada, yada, yada.  That's the man.  It sounds great, good man for the job, right?

He sounds incompetent.  He got Iraq wrong but was in agreement with President Obama.  So he has sat on his you know what for six years, knew about the problems and did little about it.  That is admitted incompetence.   He is not stupid, he has worked hard in the past.  He might be a good if not great military expert.  But as an administrator is a bumbling incompetent.

Either he did not know what to do,  was lazy, or did not want to upset the apple cart. 
Well the apple cart is upset and it makes the coming Obamacare look really bad.  Government medicine is not efficient and leads to all the bureaucratic problems of institutionalized processes. 

General or Secretary Shinseki is a glaring failure.  Failure to lead, failure to recognize seriousness of problems or just plain old failure to act, it does not matter.  He is a failed bureaucrat!

Time to go Secretary Shinseki.

Is Obama Cratering?

He used the same words when the IRS scandal broke as he did yesterday on the VA scandal.  Nothing new, same old crap, promises unkept are coming.  Does he think the American public are stupid?

Now that the people have seen what government run medical care has done to the veterans, do they believe Obamacare is going to be better.  Do not bet on it.  You now have a bit of insight into what is coming.

And there is yet great problems with the vaunted sign up.  People go to use their new insurance to find that they are not covered.  People who are covered find they can not find a doctor to see them within a 50 mile radius.  And we learn that the administration has reserved funds to bail out the insurance companies.  That bespeaks that the administration is aware of the problems and guarantees the insurance companies income to cover their losses.

What a mess.  Still pending is the Supreme Court case regarding forcing religious objections to birth control.  That is a toss up but I suspect the Supreme Court is going to come down on the side of suitors.  If that happens then there will be more people claiming the same issue.

I think the incompetence of the administration is on the rise.  They can not deal with foreign policy and Russia in particular.  The have big problems yet with held care.  Now the VA issues are rising.  And the IRS mess is not yet solved.  The Attorney General has proven not to be the peoples man but the man of the President.  Even the off shore oil mess has not be completely resolved.  The XL Pipeline is still in the wings. 

I am guessing I am going on a NSA list, ya think?

I believe it will get worse not better.  I sense the people are beginning to get it.  The poor blacks had such great expectations and got nothing if only to have conditions worsen for them.

The Veterans Administration Under Fire . . .

I admit it, I am a disabled American Veteran.  And yes, I have had my battles with the Veterans Administration (VA) or more correctly the Department of Veteran Affairs.  The hoopla surrounding the VA is at once understandable and dismaying at the same time.

When you overwhelm a system or program, underfund it or in general bad mouth its constituents, then you are going to have some severe lapses.  Is this right, no.  Is it preventable, I am not sure it is in this case.

There are really two groups of Veterans.  Those that are destitute and totally dependent on the VA for care and the rest of us.  So the VA has a vast group to contend with.  They do a pretty good job of containing the drunks, the down and outs and those that do not have any other resources.  They even pay then a pension, paltry that it is.

The group I fall into is a bit different.  I am a military retiree and have TRICARE for Life coverage, basically an 80/20 insurance plan.  I can use any physician I want (and that will accept me).  Now that I am on Medicare, TRICARE is my automatic second payer.  Works pretty good and I do have a private physician (he is now a member of an association but they take Medicare patients).  I had this doctor when I had medical coverage with Lockheed-Martin and we just continue on with our doctor/patient relationship.

But I am disabled, I have bum knees from jogging them away while on active duty.  I have
Gout that showed up about the time I retired from the military.  Those two issues resulted in a 30% disability rating and earned me a compensation from the VA.  It is not a pension, it is compensation for Service Connected disabilities.  The VA is my military disability insurance!

I have also Agent Orange issues.  Agent Orange was a defoliant sprayed on the jungles in Viet Nam.  The airplanes and bases that did the spraying were the same ones I was stationed at.  I was literally awash in the stuff.  The bad ingredient was Dioxin which collects and stays in your liver.  It took years for this to effect me but it did and the result is that I am a Diabetic, Type II.  Along with Diabetes comes additional issues, like Peripheral Neuropathy (in both feet and left hand), Cataracts and Radii Colopathy (basically a collapsed disc in my neck) which effects my right hand and sometimes causes shooting pains in my right arm and across my chest (that is nerve damage from the collapsed disc).

This all adds up to a total man disability rating of 90%.  And I receive monthly compensation for these Service Connected disabilities at the 90% rate.  That compensation is tax free, no state or federal taxes can be assessed against that compensation.  On the other hand, I would rather not be so compensed if I did not have the Service Connected disabilities.  I now know my life span will be foreshortened by these disabilities.  It is a fact and I live with it.

Recently I had a run if with the local VA administrator over a hearing examination.  He had dictated that no one receive a hearing examination unless there were referred by one of his doctors.  I had my Medicare/TRICARE physician refer me to an ENT physician for a hearing examination.  And yes, I had hearing losses.

The VA will provide a veteran with a hearing aid and hearing aid supplies but first you must have a
VA examination.  That to me is reasonable requirement. 

So I set about getting an appointment for the hearing examination.  I was informed I had to get a VA physician referral to get the appointment.  So I said, "Okay, I'll do that."  When I went to sign up for an appointment I was told I must have a blood test first and the results have to be sent to the physician.  I balked.  A blood test was totally unnecessary, what does a blood test have to do with my hearing?  No one could answer that.  In fact, no one on the staff wanted to answer that question and I was referred the Fort Worth VA Clinic "Executive."  That would be the guy in charge, not a doctor but a civil servant, a paper pusher.

So I went to see the chap in his office area.  I did not get into his office, he came over to the spot where I was waiting.  I said my piece and he said his.  His was, "No referral to audio clinic with out a physicians referral.  Period."  I responded I was sorry to hear that and that it would lead to me complaining by letter to the various offices in the VA and Congress as to what is going on.

So I went home and wrote the letters to my Congress person, the VA Inspector General and the Chielf VA Administrator for Texas down in Waco, TX.  About six weeks later, I receive a phone call asking if I was available next Friday for an Audiology appointment with the Fort Worth VA Clinic.  I said yes.  The rest is history, I have my hearing aids, and I did not have a VA Physician referral.

It seems a Veteran with a 90% disability rating does not need such a referral.  I did not make the executive eat crow face to face.   But why did I have to go through the gauntlet of letter writing to get the action taken care of?

I believe it is built into the  bureaucracy of the institution.  The executive clearly was trying to build up his medical business ~ force the veterans to use his doctors, ergo more production (at least more statistics on paper).  Is he evil, no.  He is trying to get more for his population of patients, maybe.  To show utilization in the new clinic he has to show more through put.  Perhaps, he was challenged to do so.  I do not know but I take it as typical of the VA everywhere.

The institution is under funded with the vast influx of the Desert Storm and Afghanistan veterans demanding needed attention.  The military services shove their beat up troops off on the VA.  And the VA has no choice but accept them.  Go to a VA hospital and it is a bee hive of activity. 
There is maybe 10 acres of parking outside the Dallas VA hospital and it is all full every week day.

It will take extraordinary management skills to clear the back logs the VA faces.  It will take more money, money the present administration wishes to use to buy votes.  And everybody knows those military types do not vote for Democrats.  So the VA reclines in a benign neglect position.

I think General Shinskie must go.  But the President has yet to fire an incompetent, so why start now.

The beat goes on...

Curb Appeal . . .

At Judie's suggestion we added new metal edging to the south front flower bed.  She said all the mulch washed out into the yard and we needed to raise the height of the edging.  So we simply installed new edging along the old metal edging and that raised it about three inches or so.  Just what she wanted.

And it did make the yard look a little better.  She has since mulched that side of the yard.  She also planted some special Zinnia's that are said to be deer resistant.  I am not to worried about the deer, they have plenty to eat right now and have stayed away from us.  But along with the deer is a Barbados Goat. 

The goat was introduced in south Texas as a game animal.  It is about the size of deer, same coloring etc.  The difference being that the goat has floppy ears and deer have ears to stand up.  Goat's ears never stand up.  The other difference is a damn goat will eat anything, and does so.  I fear Judie's special Zinnia's are just gonna be salad for the goat.

Peaches are developing well this year.  And that means we will get a lot of deer visiting looking for the peaches.  I will have to spray the peaches again to prevent insect infestation and worms.  But that is no deterrent for deer or goats.  I have even seen Foxes carrying off peaches to take to their dens.  So it is popular food.

The oaks have greened up.  The two Shumarc oaks (a red oak variety) in the front yard are now rather large trees.  Roots are beginning to show around the trunks, a typical oak characteristic.  Soon they will be on top of the ground.  But they do provide great late afternoon shade for the house.  We also have a volunteer Barkley in the side yard and it is developing quite well.  We did have one spring where the bucks rubbed up against them but now it is big enough that they will not fool with it.

And we will add metal edging to the north side of the front flower bed.  There is no edging now, so it will be new.  It will follow the sidewalk around towards the back.

That is the next yard task and transplanting Irises.

My Lucky DAy . . .

Monday, had my appointment with the Cardiologist.  He gave me a clean bill of health heart wise.  I have CT scan, for calcium, and they found a lot of it in my heart and the vascular areas around the heart.  Turns out it was a number but the Nuclear Stress Test confirmed I did not have any occlusions or blockages.  All was normal.

Then we had a spring yesterday fail in the garage door system.  The torsion spring counterbalances the door which is pretty heavy by itself.  So it assists in open and closing the garage door.  With a spring broken, it is hard to open.  Made a call to the garage door people, said the earliest appointment was Thursday.

Nope got a call from their man and he said he could do it this AM.  I said, "Come on down."  It seems he had a cancellation and was in the area.  So got the spring replaced, actually replaced the broken spring and the other spring at the same time.  He also replaced all the rollers and generally tuned up the door.  Runs like a champ now.

Then called USAA about a rock chip in the windshield.  They turned me over to SafeLite.  That was at 11:30.  I received a call from a SafeLite person about 12:00 and she was here about 1:00 PM.  Did the repair in 30 or so minutes and left. 

So today was my lucky day!

Old Fritz is Gone . . .

It is warm enough, and the lizards are out.  We have seen a couple on the front stoop, one  is large one and others are medium sized.

But in the back, on Old Fritz's turf, we have not seen any lizards.  So we must lament Old Fritz's passing.  She reigned Queen of the patio for several years.  She had her private stack of wood to look out from.  Judie's yard shoes were available as a safe place to spend the night and even stay warm.  The shoes were black shinny rubber, so they held heat a long time.  The  baker's rack was here domain, she often overnighted in the flower pots that rested there.

But no Fritz to be seen.  The other large Fritz has been seen out front and on the side yard but not on the patio.  And I must admit the patio is devoid of their favorite food, crickets.  I am guessing they have hunted the out of existence in the back.  That is not a bad thing, just means there is no attraction to return to the patio to spend the summer.

We are pretty sure those Fritzs out front are the progeny of Old Fritz.    So in a manner of speaking she lives on in her brood that wander the front flower beds looking for insect prey.

So her passing is yet another milestone in the life at 1106 Willow Wood Drive.  She provided us with a lot of entertainment over the last couple of years.

Scottish Festival . . .

I received a letter out of the blue from a Clan Morrison fellow.  His name is Jim Morrison and he is the local whizz for clan doings in this region.  He lives way the hell out in Hobbs, New Mexico.  So he really claims New Mexico and Western Texas (which is a lot of territory).  Any way he sent the letter.  Jim has the clan title of "Convener" meaning local big wig in the clan.

Basically, it said that there was a Scottish Festival in North Texas at the University of Texas, Arlington.  It was held at their football stadium.  UTA as it is locally known, no longer plays intercollegiate football.  So there are not training conflicts and it is a place that is ringed by a high chain link fence, has ticket booths and a place to let folk (with tickets) to go in and out.

One area of the facility had all the tents for the different clans, I counted about 30 or so tents.  Ironically, the Morrison tent by design I guess, was the largest one of them all.  So it was a little off to the side nestled back in a corner with plenty of room.  Other clan tents adjoined each other in long lines but the Morrison tent was all by itself in the corner.

It was interesting to chat with Jim Morrison, a retired cop from the City of Hobbs.  He was complete with kilt on.  He gave me a pin representing the Scotch, a shot glass with Clan Morrison on it (appropriate, eh). 

They knew little or nothing about the Pointe Coupee Morrisons.  I guess I will write a piece and give it to the Clan Morrison folks.  To much family history to be ignored.

I ate lunch there.  I walked over to the food court, located behind the east side of the stadium.  I do not go for Haggis and such, so I selected Fish and Chips, close enough I figured.  And I had a draft beer, that set me back $14 for both.  For a good cause I figured.

There were large tents with bagpipe playing, folk songs, speaker, etc.  There were also Scottish games, throwing a humongous weight.  Naturally, all the contestants work kilts.  There was even a Scottie Dog tent.  Lots of merchants peddling plaids, and all kinds of do dads ala Scotch.  No repeat no Scotch Whiskey.

I also met Dr. Morrison from Scotland, he is the titular head of the clan.  He met and married a lass from Connecticut and now eschews Scotland for his brides home state.  Seems it is a bit more climatically acceptable and I do not think she was receptive to living in Scotland.  He had to go off and give a talk (about the Morrison Clan no less).

Crawfish Boil . . .

Tis the season of the Crawfish.  It is a little late, this time of year is near the middle to the end of the season.  But early cold weather drove the Crawfish down in their holes to come out later this year.  So our annual boil falls right in there at the right time to get the best of the Crawfish.

The cook, catered from a local owned Crawfish supplier and cater for the boils, said that the season would be extended this year due to the lateness of the crop.  We noted that the average Crawfish was bigger than usual with some real giants in bunch.  That's a good thing.

I noted one supermarket chain was touting the little beasties at a reduced price per bag.  The price per pound was a bit higher for smaller amounts.  The omen is that they are readily available here in North Texas.  There are many Cajuns or Louisianans relocated here for jobs and past hurricanes.  So there is a great market for the Louisiana delicacy.

Our boil was sponsored by the LSU Tarrant Tigers Alumni Association.  It is a money make of sorts for us, some years we make a lot some not so much.  The money all goes for scholarships to LSU.  We, the Tarrant Tigers, have sufficient funds to endow one scholarship and extra funds to fund yet another scholarship.  To top it off we have one member that graciously gives one scholarship annually.  So we have three scholarships annually.  Our brethren in Dallas has more scholarships but have been at it a long time.

We had to split off from the Dallas club to form our own local club.  And we have been moderate successful.  The boil is both a social thing and fund raising thing.  Regardless, we enjoy eating the native freshwater crustaceans.  They are highly seasoned, just like we like them.

Geaux Tigers!

Irises Are Out . . .

Our Iris group is in bloom.  Some are prettier than others but all are nice.  They are the "bearded Iris" or Dutch Irises.  You will notice none are plain old blue.  Alas I have long forgotten their names but they are as pretty as ever.

Tomorrow I will take more photographs and perhaps get a lot of good pictures to post.  I think the hard winter we had has done much to make the blooms look good.

I will split some of them and place them in other spots in the yard.  That way we will have more color next Spring.

 
 

The Market is Concerned about War . . .

I have tried to stay away from politics, especially US national politics.  But it appears that it is inevitable that I must comment. 

Our weak and hapless Chief Executive is letting us drift into war.  Maybe not our war but yet a war in the Ukraine Republic.  Sounds almost Hitleristic in his grab of the Sudeten Lands of Czechoslovakia during the on set of WW-II.  Putin is slowly carving up the Ukraine in much the same manner with much the same excuse.  He does so because he senses the weakness in out President in his indecision and lack of world leadership.

Today we learned a US warship was deliberately buzzed by a Russian fighter.  That is a serious indiscretion and totally unresponsive by our government.  It further reinforces Putin's resolve.  Are we seeing yet another Anthony Eden type diplomatic failure?

Europe seems to recognize what is going on and we have our heads stuck in the ground.  The Russians saw Obama cave into the Iranians.  He, Putin, is far more stronger than the Iranians.  So if the punny Iranians can get away with what they have done, then it should be no problem for him to take the Ukraine back with little or no effort.

Obama has done little for the economy, he is destroying the medical system and now the world is beginning to burn and he goes off to campaign.  Geez what loser.  I hope our nation can survive.

Gold Finches . . .

We are now seeing the little Finches in their summer color, bright yellow for the males. 
The females do not change color.

The behavior is different now.  Instead of flocks of birds of a feather attacking the feeders, we see territorial behavior.  Only one or two birds on the feeders at one time.  Usually a female and a male together.  If they are not matched even though it may only be one bird or either sex, if it is not a mate it gets chased off the feeder by the dominant bird.  So we see a lot of that kind of activity now.

The males are definitely in their best of summer breeding colors.  They are very bright yellow hence the name Gold Finches.  Alas the female remains in her normal colors, much more drab in color.

But even as I look out at the feeders now, each one has but one bird on it.  Before the color changing occurred there would be up to five birds per feeder.  Now it is usually just  two max, and it is a male female combination.

The wind is ripping today, up to 20 mph.  That does not seem to bother them, they hang on and pick away at the seed in the sacks.  The sacks have very course weave and it allows the Nyjer seed to poke out.  The birds pull the seed and eat it.  They may do that straight up or inverted.   Makes not difference to them.

I will soon have to reload the feeders.  We have plenty of Nyjer seed yet to feed them.  Nyjer is sometimes spelled Niger.  The seed is also referred to as thistle seed but is not related to the normal thistle we see around here or in the states for that matter.  The seed has been treated, heated up, and thus will not sprout here, or if it does it is stunted and does nor reproduce.

So the Gold Finches have not left us, but rather have begun to pair up.  Once they are mated, they become very very territorial.  And as usual some of them have not migrated.  The experts say they are around us year round, we just do not see them as there are plenty of food for them besides the Nyjer seed.

Firing Up the Lawnmower . . .

The grass is sporadically growing in the yard.  The St Augustine got hit hard by the multiple freezes but is showing life.  Bermuda is doing okay.  Weeds are abounding in spite of treatments.  So it is time to get the old John Deere rolling again.

Got to check tire pressure, change oil and get some fresh gasoline.  And as a precaution charge up the battery.  I'll not attack the mowing blades just yet.  I will have to grease up the front axle and other points that require it.  It is the annual Kabuki Dance of the lawnmower.

The machine is still relatively new.  It has maybe 700 hours on it, probably a little less.  It gets used generally once a week in the summer, sometimes twice a week but not that often.  And it takes about a half a tank of gasoline and perhaps a little over an hour to cut the entire yard.

I get to do the edging and weed eating.   Not hard to do but somewhat labor intensive as I have to bend over under the peach tree and chase the spots the lawn mower can not reach.

Spring is here.  It hit 88 degrees yesterday.  That is the beginning of hot.

Spring Is Here . . .

We had the first of our spring storms yesterday evening.  Hail up to the size of quarter, but not to many that size.  But it went on for at least 20 minutes, with showers of hail intermixed with heavy rain.  We needed the rain but not the hail.

We get this weather phenomenon called a "dry line."  It shows up clearly on the weather plots and it is where hot dry air collides with cool moist air.  The result is humongous thunder storms and Tornados.  The storms take most of the day to brew up and around sundown they start with the lightening and thundering, rain and sometimes hail.  Often small Tornados form up and do damage to trees and power lines.  Lightening strikes the power substations and cause power outages.  The expression often used by the weather people on TV is that the "thunderstorms are firing off."

Occasionally, we get monster Tornados that tear up whole communities.  The big Tornados are classed as F-5s, the little ones are F-1s.  An F-5 hit a little community to the south of us maybe 10 or 15 years ago.  It wiped out houses on concrete slabs to the ground, it tore out all the trees and shrubs.  It literally cleaned off the grass.  Fortunately, it was a very sparsely populated area and so only a few folks lost their homes.  To my knowledge they never rebuilt, rather they moved off to some new location.

Last year Tornados tore up a part of Granbury, a town just south of us.  It was a killer and even now Granbury is just beginning to recover.  It had a lot of retirement tracts with mobile homes.  The good old "double wide" turned into death traps.  To top things off the drought has lowered Lake Granbury so far down that lake front property is referred it as desert front property.  The lake has receded so far that the boats in their lifts are hung above dry ground.  It is a strange sight to see. 

Weather here is fickle.  It gets hotter than Tucson, Arizona.  It is almost as dry as Arizona, but not quite - yet.  Lakes around here are way down.  Lake Weatherford is down 7 or 8 feet.  Some lakes like the one near Austin, TX is down 45 or more feet.  So the spring rains are welcome, just not the other stuff.

We have about a month of exposure to the dry line effect.  It occasionally shows up in mid summer.  That can really generate big thunder bumpers and bad Tornados.  It is worse in Oklahoma than here but we have had our lulus too.

No matter where you live there is some phenomena that affects the local area.  Earthquakes in California, hurricanes along the Gulf coast and in Arizona.  Spring storms all across the middle us into Ohio (Xenia, OH got wiped out by an F-5 Tornado some years ago).  The Atlantic coast gets its hurricanes too. 

There is no safe haven.  Spring brings the  severe storms and new life in the trees and soil.  There is always a price to pay.

Its Raining . . .

Spring has arrived.  And with it the spring rains are here.  Today has been shower after shower, some of it with large rain drops.  Lord knows, we need it, the lakes are way down.  The summer drought has caused a concern about lake levels and the use of water for lawns, etc.

Conservation measures are in place almost everywhere to save water.  We all carefully use it.  We are personally fortunate in that we have our own irrigation well.  Some say we too much obey the conservation rules about watering.  I do not think so, that is why we had a well installed, to avoid such things and not to use city water for the lawns.  There is a water district now but we are all grandfathered into the district, so do not have to go backwards to their present day standards.

For instance, they require you to have two acres to drill a well.  We have slightly less than an acre lot so under the new rules would not be able to have a well.  Since we do have one, if we run into trouble with our well, we can redrill our well if necessary.  That is part of the grandfather clause.

Any, the aquifer is getting recharged along with the lakes.  The rain is quite wide spread and is coming up to us from the Southwest Texas area, probably from Mexico and the Pacific vice anything from the  Gulf of Mexico to the South of us.

There are two aquifers under us, the Paluxey and another one.  The Paluxey is about 200 feet down, have to drill through two layers of chalk (same stuff as the Austin Chalk that is thousands of feet below Pointe Coupee Parish).  Parts of the Paluxey to the East of us, under the Western edge of Fort Worth around Carswell AFB and the Lockheed plant is contaminated.  We here do not have that problem.

The water is potable but has grit in it.  The grit is microscopic in nature but will mess up some of the irrigation water valves.  I had to replace all of ours with so called "dirty water" valves.  The internal guts of the dirty water valves back flush themselves and do not have the grit build up in them.  The clean water valves begin to seep and leak through and one sees water sprinklers dribbling water when they should be cut off.  Our neighbor suffers from this all the time and has not figured out the problem.

Any rate the rains are welcome.  I just cannot go fly Radio Control in the stuff.