I have been retyping our Grandfather's letters that he wrote in 1901 prior to his marriage to Marie Camille Seghers. Camille or Cammie, was his second cousin and he had to get permission from the Archbishop in New Orleans to marry. He got that dispensation. For some reason our Grandmother, Cammie, kept those letters and a few others written to her by friends. My mother read them and typed them up. There were many typos, etc. through out the process. I have endeavored to correct those slight oversights. Now it will be digitally recorded on my computer and I will copy it to CD's.
One must remember in those days there were no electric lights, no railroad through New Roads, Steam boats were the primary long distant transportation for the most part. There were no telephones and no roads either, no cars at all. None of those had yet been invented. So the written word, either in newspapers or by letter were the primary mode of communication. And families depended on each other and their neighbors, so the community in general were much closer than we are today.
I found expressions used then are just as common today. There are some things a bit different but not by much. Life was tougher then.
Cammie lived in the Lettsworth area of what is now probably closer to Innis, LA. She was not far from the river and thus, catching a steam packet was more normal, like getting a bus. The boats stopped all up and down the Mississippi River and traveled the tributaries like Ouachita and Black Rivers. New Orleans was a big city and a center of commerce. That is where one obtained furniture, hardware, fine clothes and even education. And the Morrison family had already established itself in New Orleans too.
Our Grandfather lived out on Pointe Coupee, and area known in Pointe Coupee Parish as the "Coast of Pointe Coupee." It was along the river and North and West of the city of New Roads. Our ancestor Jacob Haight Morrison bought Brunswick Plantation in 1956. Walter, our Grandfather, was one of the heirs of Jacob Haight and managed to get his share and his half sister's (Sister Matt) share of Brunswick when Jacob died. He then added additional lands adjacent to his holdings and today that is know as Angeles Plantation (Morrison Farm Inc.). The Morrison's lost Brunswick in the great depression while Walter successfully held on to Angeles. We can say we are the only named landholders along the Coast of Pointe Coupee that were there before the Civil War, all the other names have changed or families have moved on. Rest assured we will be there for at least another 20 years if not a hundred years.
I have not finished the transcription yet. When I do, I will copyright it and put it on CDs for the family. Copyrighting will hold title to the intellectual property that belongs to the family. In time it will the copy write will expire but it will hold up for a number of years. These letters are heirlooms and of course I will give a copy to the Pointe Coupee Parish Library. It is also part of the history of Pointe Coupee.
Thursday, December 24, 2015
Monday, December 21, 2015
Gearing Up for Christmas . . .
We are gearing up for Christmas, as usual are sending out checks as gifts. It is too hard for us to shop for gifts anymore. Besides we are not ever sure what we are giving is the right thing, does it match or will it work with the other stuff the recipient already has. So it is checks.
The weather has turned unseasonably warmer. And wetter. Neither is common to this area in Texas this time of year. So we expect a warm and wet Christmas Day here.
Son Jake and his brood and dear wife Anne show up on December 27 which means Christmas number two. We will have celebrated Christmas once already at James" dwelling. Christmas Number Two will be at our house as that is the final destination of the Wisconsin contingent.
I wonder if they will drag cold dry weather down here with them? Hummm. Just a thought.
For those that do not know, we have had a record year of moisture here in Texas. The lakes are full to the top again. Some of us Texans have suffered flooding and that is not a good thing. Any, and I really mean it, any rain just moves the record up another notch. So much for Global Warming ala Climate Change, we are in the middle of a colossal El Nino'. Some say this semi arid region could turn into a rain forest.
The price of crude oil is nearing rock bottom. The Saudi's have effectively killed OPEC and everybody who can is pumping crude oil like mad. Unfortunately, some like Venezuela is already at the max out and are gonna get left behind. Others like the Iranian's now coming back on line due to our over zealous but terribly naïve President and administration have turned loose. Some say that the Iranian equipment is so old and out of date and in need of repair/replacement Iran can not do much anyway. But we have such lovely contingents like ISIL pumping away that that it may not make much difference. Russia needs all the cash it can get but reduced oil prices is not helping them at all. Non OPEC nations like Mexico do not like the lack of regulation either. Small producers like Columbia and Ecuador will suffer terribly. And now the US can once again export crude oil, so that will kind make it even worse. India and China will rejoice, Japan may recover perhaps all due to low prices for Crude.
For some reason the New York Stock Exchange does not like the low crude prices and reacted with a sharp down turn. It seems some price reduction is good, a lot is bad. Huh? I don't really get that.
Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to you all!
The weather has turned unseasonably warmer. And wetter. Neither is common to this area in Texas this time of year. So we expect a warm and wet Christmas Day here.
Son Jake and his brood and dear wife Anne show up on December 27 which means Christmas number two. We will have celebrated Christmas once already at James" dwelling. Christmas Number Two will be at our house as that is the final destination of the Wisconsin contingent.
I wonder if they will drag cold dry weather down here with them? Hummm. Just a thought.
For those that do not know, we have had a record year of moisture here in Texas. The lakes are full to the top again. Some of us Texans have suffered flooding and that is not a good thing. Any, and I really mean it, any rain just moves the record up another notch. So much for Global Warming ala Climate Change, we are in the middle of a colossal El Nino'. Some say this semi arid region could turn into a rain forest.
The price of crude oil is nearing rock bottom. The Saudi's have effectively killed OPEC and everybody who can is pumping crude oil like mad. Unfortunately, some like Venezuela is already at the max out and are gonna get left behind. Others like the Iranian's now coming back on line due to our over zealous but terribly naïve President and administration have turned loose. Some say that the Iranian equipment is so old and out of date and in need of repair/replacement Iran can not do much anyway. But we have such lovely contingents like ISIL pumping away that that it may not make much difference. Russia needs all the cash it can get but reduced oil prices is not helping them at all. Non OPEC nations like Mexico do not like the lack of regulation either. Small producers like Columbia and Ecuador will suffer terribly. And now the US can once again export crude oil, so that will kind make it even worse. India and China will rejoice, Japan may recover perhaps all due to low prices for Crude.
For some reason the New York Stock Exchange does not like the low crude prices and reacted with a sharp down turn. It seems some price reduction is good, a lot is bad. Huh? I don't really get that.
Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to you all!
Sunday, December 13, 2015
What An Idiot . . .
The President says the Paris deal on climate change is the best opportunity to save the earth. What an idiot. Talking about theory, a debated theory based on a flawed model that people skewed the earth temperature numbers to make it look bad. Too much conjecture, too much malarkey, no solid science, only consensus to back it all up. It is nothing by Cap and Trade again.
And while this is going on Islamic Radicals are planning to destroy modern civilization. They are warring, they are shooting, they are actually killing people. There is no consensus there, it is fact. There is no hooking science, it is documented facts. Yet, there is no world convention at Paris to stop the crazies that are trying to kill us. How many more Redounds or Paris events do we need? When is this idiot going to wake up? He is showing signs of doing something about ISIS in Syria and Iraq but is stilled all tied up with his control to not hurt any innocent bystanders. Well we all do not want to hurt innocent bystanders either, but what about the world's innocent bystanders? No consideration for them. What about American citizens? No comment there at all. Play dumb and it will pass kind of tactic.
The same idiot wants to resettle hundreds if not thousands of Syrian refugees in the US. We already know they can not be vetted, there is little or no coherent data base anywhere, let along in Syria to provide vetting. And what makes anyone think the Syrians give a good damn about it. And the ISIS folks have openly said they are going to insert their people in and amongst those very refugees. They seemed to have done it already in Europe and shot up Paris proving it.
This is the President of the US? This is the world leader. Give me a break, this person is just going to set up more deaths in the US and elsewhere. He is essentially arming the Iranians with Nuclear Weapons. And they are fast developing missiles to attack their enemies.
Ask yourselves why no nearby Arab nation is accepting any refugees for resettlement. Yes, Jordan has refugees but they are not being integrated into their society. The refugees are located in camps isolated from the local population. The Turks are not taking any refugees. The Iranians are not taking any refugees. The UAE is not taking any refugees. The Kuwaitis are not taking any refugees. The Omanis are not taking any refugees. The Egyptians are not taking any refuges. The Libyans are not taking any refugees. It goes on and on. So why are we taking any refugees?
Here in Texas we have already had an "Honor killing." A distraught Islamic father shot both of his daughters to death because they were becoming Americanized. Unfortunately, he has disappeared and it is thought he has return to his homeland. Do we want this kind of thing to occur here? Do we want Sharai Law to occur as it has in parts of Paris and other European cities?
This President and the Democratic Party needs to get its head screwed on right. There is nothing in our constitution saying we have to accept these people in our country. Indeed past Presidents have rounded up illegals and deported them. It is time we do the same!
And while this is going on Islamic Radicals are planning to destroy modern civilization. They are warring, they are shooting, they are actually killing people. There is no consensus there, it is fact. There is no hooking science, it is documented facts. Yet, there is no world convention at Paris to stop the crazies that are trying to kill us. How many more Redounds or Paris events do we need? When is this idiot going to wake up? He is showing signs of doing something about ISIS in Syria and Iraq but is stilled all tied up with his control to not hurt any innocent bystanders. Well we all do not want to hurt innocent bystanders either, but what about the world's innocent bystanders? No consideration for them. What about American citizens? No comment there at all. Play dumb and it will pass kind of tactic.
The same idiot wants to resettle hundreds if not thousands of Syrian refugees in the US. We already know they can not be vetted, there is little or no coherent data base anywhere, let along in Syria to provide vetting. And what makes anyone think the Syrians give a good damn about it. And the ISIS folks have openly said they are going to insert their people in and amongst those very refugees. They seemed to have done it already in Europe and shot up Paris proving it.
This is the President of the US? This is the world leader. Give me a break, this person is just going to set up more deaths in the US and elsewhere. He is essentially arming the Iranians with Nuclear Weapons. And they are fast developing missiles to attack their enemies.
Ask yourselves why no nearby Arab nation is accepting any refugees for resettlement. Yes, Jordan has refugees but they are not being integrated into their society. The refugees are located in camps isolated from the local population. The Turks are not taking any refugees. The Iranians are not taking any refugees. The UAE is not taking any refugees. The Kuwaitis are not taking any refugees. The Omanis are not taking any refugees. The Egyptians are not taking any refuges. The Libyans are not taking any refugees. It goes on and on. So why are we taking any refugees?
Here in Texas we have already had an "Honor killing." A distraught Islamic father shot both of his daughters to death because they were becoming Americanized. Unfortunately, he has disappeared and it is thought he has return to his homeland. Do we want this kind of thing to occur here? Do we want Sharai Law to occur as it has in parts of Paris and other European cities?
This President and the Democratic Party needs to get its head screwed on right. There is nothing in our constitution saying we have to accept these people in our country. Indeed past Presidents have rounded up illegals and deported them. It is time we do the same!
Thursday, December 10, 2015
Papa's Letters to Camille . . .
My sister, Herrise, sent me selected copies of the letters my grand father wrote to my grand mother just prior to their marriage. She did not send all of them, just the ones she need for a application to get Angeles House in to the National Historical Registry. I then transcribed the letters into Microsoft Word, made some minor corrections is spelling and punctuation as well as formatting so that each letter did not run on into the next, a pagination effort.
It was interesting reading. My grandfather married is second cousin and had to get permission from the Archbishop in New Orleans. He had to get a dispensation regarding the marriage of his cousin. He got the dispensation and the rest is history, family history now.
My mother transcribed the letters on her old portable Underwood Type Writer. A laborious job at best and just plain toil at worst for her to do. But those letters are a treasure. There are about 30 of them, written on steam boats, at his "cabin" or house really, a mailed on a steam boat. She lived in the upper end of Pointe Coupee Parish and he lived about in the middle as the Mississippi River flows. So they both lived close to the artery of the nation, the mighty Mississippi.
There was no railroad in the upper end of the parish at that time. Indeed such a thing as highway did not exist yet. There were no telephones, cars or trucks, no roads only horses or horse drawn vehicles like wagons or buggies. And those days there were on tracts here and there that connected communities. Mostly folks followed the river and if the could afford it, rode on steamboats.
So the letters present a picture of life at the turn of the century as this all occurred in the year 1901. Everything had to be hauled in by boat, or in wagon from the town of New Roads or up the river from New Orleans. New Roads is about three miles as the crow flies from Angeles Plantation, my grandfathers farm. Today that is a hop, skip and jump to travel, about 5 or 6 minutes, back then it probably was a 5 or 6 mile horse ride on mostly non existent byways, across other peoples land, etc. So everybody knew everybody and of course, there were not a lot of everybodies back then either.
And families were a big thing back then, cousins closer and often visited each other. There was no other way besides writing a letter to communicate. And there was no TV or even radio in those days, they were not yet invented. So you went to see people and stayed awhile to learn all the news, who got married, who was sick, etc. We do not visit as much nowdays, we use the cell phone and talk to them, or we go to the movie or shopping. How society has changed.
It was a fascinating task to retranscribe the letters again and now they are in the computer's memory and have been shared to relatives in California and Colorado with the push of a button. Soon they will be on a CD-ROM. And when I get the rest of the letters, I will transcribe them too and put in a foreword and perhaps have them copyrighted for it is intellectual family property. They could make a fascinating book, another Gone with the Wind perhaps.
It was interesting reading. My grandfather married is second cousin and had to get permission from the Archbishop in New Orleans. He had to get a dispensation regarding the marriage of his cousin. He got the dispensation and the rest is history, family history now.
My mother transcribed the letters on her old portable Underwood Type Writer. A laborious job at best and just plain toil at worst for her to do. But those letters are a treasure. There are about 30 of them, written on steam boats, at his "cabin" or house really, a mailed on a steam boat. She lived in the upper end of Pointe Coupee Parish and he lived about in the middle as the Mississippi River flows. So they both lived close to the artery of the nation, the mighty Mississippi.
There was no railroad in the upper end of the parish at that time. Indeed such a thing as highway did not exist yet. There were no telephones, cars or trucks, no roads only horses or horse drawn vehicles like wagons or buggies. And those days there were on tracts here and there that connected communities. Mostly folks followed the river and if the could afford it, rode on steamboats.
So the letters present a picture of life at the turn of the century as this all occurred in the year 1901. Everything had to be hauled in by boat, or in wagon from the town of New Roads or up the river from New Orleans. New Roads is about three miles as the crow flies from Angeles Plantation, my grandfathers farm. Today that is a hop, skip and jump to travel, about 5 or 6 minutes, back then it probably was a 5 or 6 mile horse ride on mostly non existent byways, across other peoples land, etc. So everybody knew everybody and of course, there were not a lot of everybodies back then either.
And families were a big thing back then, cousins closer and often visited each other. There was no other way besides writing a letter to communicate. And there was no TV or even radio in those days, they were not yet invented. So you went to see people and stayed awhile to learn all the news, who got married, who was sick, etc. We do not visit as much nowdays, we use the cell phone and talk to them, or we go to the movie or shopping. How society has changed.
It was a fascinating task to retranscribe the letters again and now they are in the computer's memory and have been shared to relatives in California and Colorado with the push of a button. Soon they will be on a CD-ROM. And when I get the rest of the letters, I will transcribe them too and put in a foreword and perhaps have them copyrighted for it is intellectual family property. They could make a fascinating book, another Gone with the Wind perhaps.
Thursday, December 3, 2015
San Bernardino Shootings . . .
Whew, we used to live in both San Bernardino and Redlands, California. So the shootings are sort of irony to us. We have lots of friends that still reside there. We lived in that area for about nine years.
The Lambe's are old friends that just visited us over the Thanksgiving holiday. They were here to see their daughter that lives in Dallas and came out to see us. We had a grand visit together. He works at the golf course across the street from the Inland Center. Fortunately, he was not there yesterday, he had other things to take care off.
The Smith's, long old friends that lived next to us in the late 70's in San Bernardino, still live in the relative near area (they move on up, so to speak) called North Highlandsm, a suburb of San Bernardion. She regularly visits a counselor that lives a block from the shooters residence in Redlands. They are on vacation in Hawaii. So they are out of the range of any shooters.
There are others that live in Redlands that we have not heard from but are safe and sound.
I know that this is a tragic event and is yet unfolding as to who, what and where is going on or went on. Right now it sounds like home grown Islamic terrorism but you never know. California has always been known for its crazies, lunatics gone wild.
But I recall the night of the riots in Los Angeles, I went out to play cards at home in San Bernardino. Later heard where a local cop on part time employment shot a potential looter in San Bernardino. That stopped all riot activity in San Bernardino on the spot. Word was out, the cops in San Bernardino shoot first and ask questions later. There was no rioting or looting in San Bernardino that night.
San Bernardino has always been a violent city. Back in the old wild west days, the gold rush times, it was town where there shoot outs in the streets. Even in the 1070's through the 1990, it was a tough town with over a hundred murders per year. There are a lot of indigent people living there, Chicanos, blacks and whites all mixed in together. Some of the high schools were literal war zones. Street gangs abound, drugs run amok. Near by Mentone was the home of the Hells Angels, a famous biker gang. Near by Colton was a tough town too, adjacent to San Bernardino. Colton's history includes Wyatt Earp as one time City Marshal in that town, his last place as he died there of old age.
We are long gone from that town and community. We often speak of going back to visit but never seem to get around to doing it. I think we will wait a little longer now before making a return visit.
The Lambe's are old friends that just visited us over the Thanksgiving holiday. They were here to see their daughter that lives in Dallas and came out to see us. We had a grand visit together. He works at the golf course across the street from the Inland Center. Fortunately, he was not there yesterday, he had other things to take care off.
The Smith's, long old friends that lived next to us in the late 70's in San Bernardino, still live in the relative near area (they move on up, so to speak) called North Highlandsm, a suburb of San Bernardion. She regularly visits a counselor that lives a block from the shooters residence in Redlands. They are on vacation in Hawaii. So they are out of the range of any shooters.
There are others that live in Redlands that we have not heard from but are safe and sound.
I know that this is a tragic event and is yet unfolding as to who, what and where is going on or went on. Right now it sounds like home grown Islamic terrorism but you never know. California has always been known for its crazies, lunatics gone wild.
But I recall the night of the riots in Los Angeles, I went out to play cards at home in San Bernardino. Later heard where a local cop on part time employment shot a potential looter in San Bernardino. That stopped all riot activity in San Bernardino on the spot. Word was out, the cops in San Bernardino shoot first and ask questions later. There was no rioting or looting in San Bernardino that night.
San Bernardino has always been a violent city. Back in the old wild west days, the gold rush times, it was town where there shoot outs in the streets. Even in the 1070's through the 1990, it was a tough town with over a hundred murders per year. There are a lot of indigent people living there, Chicanos, blacks and whites all mixed in together. Some of the high schools were literal war zones. Street gangs abound, drugs run amok. Near by Mentone was the home of the Hells Angels, a famous biker gang. Near by Colton was a tough town too, adjacent to San Bernardino. Colton's history includes Wyatt Earp as one time City Marshal in that town, his last place as he died there of old age.
We are long gone from that town and community. We often speak of going back to visit but never seem to get around to doing it. I think we will wait a little longer now before making a return visit.
Sunday, November 29, 2015
Tachycardia . .
Judie got this day with a case of Tachycardia. Tachycardia is said to happen when your pulse rate is over a 100 beats per minute. Hers was 160 with low blood pressure. About 10 minutes later it was 150 with low blood pressure.
After about a half hour her heart rate returned to 85 beats per minute and her blood pressure increased. The attack so to speak has pasted. She is up and around but I am watching closely.
My reading of Tachycardia on the Internet is that the heart beats so fast, that the chambers do not have time to fill up with blood. That results in a lower blood pressure. It can said to be in mechanical terms to be cavitation as what a propeller in water does when it spins to fast initially,
A prolonged period of Tachycardia can result in heart damage. This short spurt probably does no damage but it is an indicator of problems. There is a drug for it called Pradaxa.
She will get an appointment with her Cardiologist Monday. I am not sure when she will get an actual visit with the doctor but I am sure it will be pretty quick. He will be the final arbiter as there are several kinds of Tachycardia to deal with.
It is a very scary thing. I guess I will just have to watch her more closely to make sure things do not get out of hand.
Good thing I have be reading up on my heart problems. I know now where to go look for symptoms and what they may mean. At least I can articulate them and get a answer. That answer may be scary and out of proportion, thus the need for a doctor's opinion.
After about a half hour her heart rate returned to 85 beats per minute and her blood pressure increased. The attack so to speak has pasted. She is up and around but I am watching closely.
My reading of Tachycardia on the Internet is that the heart beats so fast, that the chambers do not have time to fill up with blood. That results in a lower blood pressure. It can said to be in mechanical terms to be cavitation as what a propeller in water does when it spins to fast initially,
A prolonged period of Tachycardia can result in heart damage. This short spurt probably does no damage but it is an indicator of problems. There is a drug for it called Pradaxa.
She will get an appointment with her Cardiologist Monday. I am not sure when she will get an actual visit with the doctor but I am sure it will be pretty quick. He will be the final arbiter as there are several kinds of Tachycardia to deal with.
It is a very scary thing. I guess I will just have to watch her more closely to make sure things do not get out of hand.
Good thing I have be reading up on my heart problems. I know now where to go look for symptoms and what they may mean. At least I can articulate them and get a answer. That answer may be scary and out of proportion, thus the need for a doctor's opinion.
Friday, November 27, 2015
Outdoor Light Fixtures . . .
The front of our house has a series of lights that point/face upward, so called accent lights. They were nice fixtures but not designed to be used as they are. They are all point upward and they capture water from rains and sprinklers. They have corroded, paint peeled off and for the most part are located behind foliage.
Our neighbors have simple ones that the flood light screws into, the bulb is exposed so it does not have lens, covers, etc. They are just basic and work quite well. They are not finished in bronze, black or silver, they are what they were when they were made, metallic in color, could be painted if one wished to do that.
I thought I could get some on line. I found literally hundreds of so called accent fixtures and basically all have the same faults as the present ones. And they all cost about $70 each. I am looking for the basic $10 special. I do not care what color they come in. I can get a $3 can of spray paint and paint them myself. I see these things all over the place. But I can not find one in Home Depot or Lowes, they all have the super duper $70 specials. I do not need the elaborate fixture, just a basic one.
There is a light fixture place around the corner from us and I will pay them a visit. I am sure the kind of fixture I am looking for is readily available but not pushed as it is basic in color and price.
I find them, just got to keep looking. I know there are at least five or six supply houses in Fort Worth that supply that kind of stuff. I will just have to keep looking for it.
Our neighbors have simple ones that the flood light screws into, the bulb is exposed so it does not have lens, covers, etc. They are just basic and work quite well. They are not finished in bronze, black or silver, they are what they were when they were made, metallic in color, could be painted if one wished to do that.
I thought I could get some on line. I found literally hundreds of so called accent fixtures and basically all have the same faults as the present ones. And they all cost about $70 each. I am looking for the basic $10 special. I do not care what color they come in. I can get a $3 can of spray paint and paint them myself. I see these things all over the place. But I can not find one in Home Depot or Lowes, they all have the super duper $70 specials. I do not need the elaborate fixture, just a basic one.
There is a light fixture place around the corner from us and I will pay them a visit. I am sure the kind of fixture I am looking for is readily available but not pushed as it is basic in color and price.
I find them, just got to keep looking. I know there are at least five or six supply houses in Fort Worth that supply that kind of stuff. I will just have to keep looking for it.
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
Windows 10
I have concluded Windows 10 is a piece of crap. First I noted that they deleted solitaire and the entire games suit. That I suppose is now on X box or some other place where one has to pay for it.
So I finally decide to pay for the solitaire and it is another hurtle to get through. No help. No instructions, no nothing, Nada!
When I do get some to show up, if flashes on the screen, the flash takes about five or six times to figure out what it says. That leads you to another piece of crap, a Windows Password. What password?
Finally figure that out. Got a password and it does not work. With that I gave up. Just a piece of crap, no help unless you pay a fee. All it is is a system to collect more money. It down loads free and one must do it because old Windows 7 is no longer supported. Windows 8/8.1 probably is in the trash can too. So one must down load the allegedly "free" Windows 10. Well nothing is free, got to pay either a monthly fee or an annual fee for solitaire. No idea how that works because I can not get there because of a lack of function understandable instructions.
I guess I have to just give up on solitaire. I am stuck with Windows 10.
Not a happy camper, like I said it is a piece of crap.
So I finally decide to pay for the solitaire and it is another hurtle to get through. No help. No instructions, no nothing, Nada!
When I do get some to show up, if flashes on the screen, the flash takes about five or six times to figure out what it says. That leads you to another piece of crap, a Windows Password. What password?
Finally figure that out. Got a password and it does not work. With that I gave up. Just a piece of crap, no help unless you pay a fee. All it is is a system to collect more money. It down loads free and one must do it because old Windows 7 is no longer supported. Windows 8/8.1 probably is in the trash can too. So one must down load the allegedly "free" Windows 10. Well nothing is free, got to pay either a monthly fee or an annual fee for solitaire. No idea how that works because I can not get there because of a lack of function understandable instructions.
I guess I have to just give up on solitaire. I am stuck with Windows 10.
Not a happy camper, like I said it is a piece of crap.
Monday, November 23, 2015
Thanksgiving . . .
What do we have to be thankful for, much. A bride and her husband (Amanda Louise and Mike), healthy grandchildren and great grandchildren, three sons alive and well. So far it has been a good year, Judie has survived a heart attack, seems like ages ago but not really that long back in time. So we have much to be thankful about. Yes, we have had little set backs, material things, some health issues but nothing compared to what others are suffering.
I just learned our former neighbor, Carl, who has been suffering from Alzheimer's is now in hospice care and is not expected to live more than a week. His Kidneys are shutting down, his brain is turning off his body. Perhaps that is a blessing in disguise but not to his family, his children and perhaps his yet unborn grand children. A real tragedy. We shall miss him.
We have seen some massive hate filled crimes in the world (Paris, Syria and Iraq) and our President in his misguided beliefs wants to unabashedly release the same on our citizens. He apparently personally accepts the risk as being overly stated, and he presses madly on into his arrogant way. Even those of his own party counsel a slow down and he ignores them. He is not a President of the people, he is not a visionary, he is too short sighted. We have an expression from the USAF days, "Heads up and locked." It means literally damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead. It means we are ignoring the risk in making our judgements, we are not looking, checking, or assessing the danger. I pray we shall not suffer some great miscarriage of justice due to his ego.
Yet Thanksgiving is upon us and we should thank the Good Lord for our gifts, our beneficiaries, our good luck for our Nation as well as our family. Maybe it is just good Karma, or maybe disaster is just around the corner. We must be positive and look ahead, and hope and pray for the best yet to come.
Amen!
I just learned our former neighbor, Carl, who has been suffering from Alzheimer's is now in hospice care and is not expected to live more than a week. His Kidneys are shutting down, his brain is turning off his body. Perhaps that is a blessing in disguise but not to his family, his children and perhaps his yet unborn grand children. A real tragedy. We shall miss him.
We have seen some massive hate filled crimes in the world (Paris, Syria and Iraq) and our President in his misguided beliefs wants to unabashedly release the same on our citizens. He apparently personally accepts the risk as being overly stated, and he presses madly on into his arrogant way. Even those of his own party counsel a slow down and he ignores them. He is not a President of the people, he is not a visionary, he is too short sighted. We have an expression from the USAF days, "Heads up and locked." It means literally damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead. It means we are ignoring the risk in making our judgements, we are not looking, checking, or assessing the danger. I pray we shall not suffer some great miscarriage of justice due to his ego.
Yet Thanksgiving is upon us and we should thank the Good Lord for our gifts, our beneficiaries, our good luck for our Nation as well as our family. Maybe it is just good Karma, or maybe disaster is just around the corner. We must be positive and look ahead, and hope and pray for the best yet to come.
Amen!
Thursday, November 19, 2015
I Was Right . . .
I was right, the French moved swiftly and thoroughly to track down and rid themselves of a major terrorist. The news papers and TV news shows are full of it.
And where was Obama, crying in his milk? What an embarrassment. The world is looking down their noses at us. What a wimp. What incompetence. What lack of leadership. He will go down in history as a worse President than Jimmie Carter. Hard to believe the Democrats can do it twice within a lifetime.
And where was Obama, crying in his milk? What an embarrassment. The world is looking down their noses at us. What a wimp. What incompetence. What lack of leadership. He will go down in history as a worse President than Jimmie Carter. Hard to believe the Democrats can do it twice within a lifetime.
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
What a Dabacle . . .
I am ashamed of our President. We knew he was a wimp but we did not know big of a wimp he is. And what is worse our Democratic contenders are all following suit one way of the other. Bernie blames it on climate change and Hillary is just like Obama, in fact she help create this debacle.
We need strong but stable leadership. We must again take the lead. Yet one party is being truly out in left field. Are we returning to a land of disregard for the rest of the world? Or we becoming isolationists, that is certainly what it sounds like. A real head in the sand philosophy.
And the current administration is ignoring the majority of the state Governors on resettlement of Syrian refugees. Vetting they say will go on, but we now know there is little to vet on. Yes, the CIA and FBI have some but not all of a data base regarding potential saboteurs. All we have to do is look at what is going on in France today. My God, where is our intelligence, where is our smarts, why are we allowing potential threats into the United States?
We need strong but stable leadership. We must again take the lead. Yet one party is being truly out in left field. Are we returning to a land of disregard for the rest of the world? Or we becoming isolationists, that is certainly what it sounds like. A real head in the sand philosophy.
And the current administration is ignoring the majority of the state Governors on resettlement of Syrian refugees. Vetting they say will go on, but we now know there is little to vet on. Yes, the CIA and FBI have some but not all of a data base regarding potential saboteurs. All we have to do is look at what is going on in France today. My God, where is our intelligence, where is our smarts, why are we allowing potential threats into the United States?
Saturday, November 14, 2015
The Horror of Paris . . .
I am reeling from the horror of what happened in Paris, France. We visited the City of Lights and while I was not impressed with the Parisians in general, no city, town or country should suffer what they have had happen to them.
The problem is liberalism and Muslims. The Muslims have taken over whole sections of Paris. Non-Islamic people are not welcomed in those areas. The Muslims have even imposed Shari Law on the locals in those areas and the Parisians, the French have liberally let them do it. The Muslims are not assimilating into the French society, they remain separate.
All of that spells trouble and boy do they have trouble now. It is not going to be peaceful in Paris anymore. I predict the French government will crack down. But those same troubles are on the horizon for both Great Britain and Germany that both have large unassimilated populations of Muslims. Remember "Jihadi John" is a Brit (or perhaps was a Brit). Already, the Dutch have begun to reverse their liberal polices dealing with the Muslims.
And for all the anti gun folks let me remind you that there are severe laws in France, indeed in all of Western Europe, regarding possession of fire arms. You can not own a gun like you can in the US of A. Yet, these fanatics pop up with automatic weapons and randomly slaughter people. The real experts will tell you that the reason we do not see this kind of thing in the US is because they know the general populace here is armed and will react. The Japanese knew it in WW II and that inhibited their ideas of invading the US.
So remember just because you disarm the populace, you still have these unbridled onslaughts. Some use knives and knife like weapons too. So it is not the gun that causes it, it is the nut cases that have guns that cause it. And in this case, extremist Islamic people are doing it.
Automatic weapons have been banned in the US for years. No more "Tommy Guns." Do not confuse semi automatic weapons with automatic ones. Automatic weapons, machine guns, are rare and are heavily regulated and licensed in the US.
You have to ask yourself how, in a country that has severe penalties for fire arm possession, do these extremisst get submachine guns like AK-47s? They are smuggled in you say, well of course they are. So why doesn't the authorities find these weapons. I guess Charlie Hebdo was not sufficient warning for the Parisians and the French in general.
Time to start profiling the radicals. Time to prevent resettlement of additional Muslims from Syria or anywhere in the Mideast into the US. Time to observe and learn from the Israelis. Time to change from Liberal to Conservative immigration policies. Time to go into the survivable mode. Time to change!
We do not want such horror in our borders.
The problem is liberalism and Muslims. The Muslims have taken over whole sections of Paris. Non-Islamic people are not welcomed in those areas. The Muslims have even imposed Shari Law on the locals in those areas and the Parisians, the French have liberally let them do it. The Muslims are not assimilating into the French society, they remain separate.
All of that spells trouble and boy do they have trouble now. It is not going to be peaceful in Paris anymore. I predict the French government will crack down. But those same troubles are on the horizon for both Great Britain and Germany that both have large unassimilated populations of Muslims. Remember "Jihadi John" is a Brit (or perhaps was a Brit). Already, the Dutch have begun to reverse their liberal polices dealing with the Muslims.
And for all the anti gun folks let me remind you that there are severe laws in France, indeed in all of Western Europe, regarding possession of fire arms. You can not own a gun like you can in the US of A. Yet, these fanatics pop up with automatic weapons and randomly slaughter people. The real experts will tell you that the reason we do not see this kind of thing in the US is because they know the general populace here is armed and will react. The Japanese knew it in WW II and that inhibited their ideas of invading the US.
So remember just because you disarm the populace, you still have these unbridled onslaughts. Some use knives and knife like weapons too. So it is not the gun that causes it, it is the nut cases that have guns that cause it. And in this case, extremist Islamic people are doing it.
Automatic weapons have been banned in the US for years. No more "Tommy Guns." Do not confuse semi automatic weapons with automatic ones. Automatic weapons, machine guns, are rare and are heavily regulated and licensed in the US.
You have to ask yourself how, in a country that has severe penalties for fire arm possession, do these extremisst get submachine guns like AK-47s? They are smuggled in you say, well of course they are. So why doesn't the authorities find these weapons. I guess Charlie Hebdo was not sufficient warning for the Parisians and the French in general.
Time to start profiling the radicals. Time to prevent resettlement of additional Muslims from Syria or anywhere in the Mideast into the US. Time to observe and learn from the Israelis. Time to change from Liberal to Conservative immigration policies. Time to go into the survivable mode. Time to change!
We do not want such horror in our borders.
Saturday, November 7, 2015
Watching The Squirrels . . .
We have two Red Oak trees in front of our house. They were planted by the house builder in his efforts to landscape the house. These trees are maturing now and are producing acorns. I am told they start at 12 years of age to produce acorns. Well they have been planted now for a little over 13 years.
The produce rather big acorns. They are not as big as a Burr Oak but much larger than the locally common Post Oaks. Thus they are desirable by the squirrels.
We have two young squirrels beginning to feast on the acorns. Both of our trees are quite healthy and have both been treated for Oak Wilt. Oak Wilt is a common disease and much worse, is common for our locality. So we paid a handsome sum for their treatment. I can say that after the treatment they looked very healthy. I am not so sure what the treatment is, but it appears to be a solution and the trees readily suck it up.
I have over the years also fertilized the trees. At first I just used a balance fertilizer, poking holes in the ground at the drip line and pouring a handful of the fertilizer. Later I used tree spikes, more solid, and probably take longer to dissolve, thus provide for a longer period of time that the trees are fed. And of course, the lawn people also fertilize two or three times a year. All of that makes for two pretty healthy and now quite large trees.
By large I mean they are probably about 14 or so inches in diameter. And they stand well above our roof line providing a great deal of shade to the west facing front of the house. They are big enough so that the grass will not grow under them, too much shade for the grass.
Any way I watched this little squirrel dash about looking for a place to bury his acorn. It perturbed him and he chased about looking for just the right spot. As he was doing that his competitor, another small squirrel scamper up the tree to get his acorn. That seemed to bother him too. His turf was being invaded by an enemy, or at least a competitor.
Of course, there are dozens of acorns on the ground as the tree is dropping them all over the place. He does not really have to climb to get any acorns but he does. Last year there was a first and a bumper crop of acorns. So much so that we have a bunch of little trees sprouting all over the place. That is not a bad thing, just a fact.
Soon the trees will drop their leaves. The one on the left front does it first and then the second one on the right does it. It is just genetics. While they are the same species, they have different parents so to speak and one tree is always ahead of the other tree. Their cycles are just a tiny bit different.
No matter the squirrels love them.
The produce rather big acorns. They are not as big as a Burr Oak but much larger than the locally common Post Oaks. Thus they are desirable by the squirrels.
We have two young squirrels beginning to feast on the acorns. Both of our trees are quite healthy and have both been treated for Oak Wilt. Oak Wilt is a common disease and much worse, is common for our locality. So we paid a handsome sum for their treatment. I can say that after the treatment they looked very healthy. I am not so sure what the treatment is, but it appears to be a solution and the trees readily suck it up.
I have over the years also fertilized the trees. At first I just used a balance fertilizer, poking holes in the ground at the drip line and pouring a handful of the fertilizer. Later I used tree spikes, more solid, and probably take longer to dissolve, thus provide for a longer period of time that the trees are fed. And of course, the lawn people also fertilize two or three times a year. All of that makes for two pretty healthy and now quite large trees.
By large I mean they are probably about 14 or so inches in diameter. And they stand well above our roof line providing a great deal of shade to the west facing front of the house. They are big enough so that the grass will not grow under them, too much shade for the grass.
Any way I watched this little squirrel dash about looking for a place to bury his acorn. It perturbed him and he chased about looking for just the right spot. As he was doing that his competitor, another small squirrel scamper up the tree to get his acorn. That seemed to bother him too. His turf was being invaded by an enemy, or at least a competitor.
Of course, there are dozens of acorns on the ground as the tree is dropping them all over the place. He does not really have to climb to get any acorns but he does. Last year there was a first and a bumper crop of acorns. So much so that we have a bunch of little trees sprouting all over the place. That is not a bad thing, just a fact.
Soon the trees will drop their leaves. The one on the left front does it first and then the second one on the right does it. It is just genetics. While they are the same species, they have different parents so to speak and one tree is always ahead of the other tree. Their cycles are just a tiny bit different.
No matter the squirrels love them.
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Is Hillary Listening . . .
Is Hillary Clinton listening to the latest election results across the more liberal regions of the US? Well maybe some are not so liberal after all. Houston revoked the local ordinance regarding freakish use of public bathrooms by cross gender folks. Kentucky elected a Tea Party Governor in a state where the locals are usually all Democrats. Virginia rejected the Hillary support Governor's bid to get the state Senate to go Democrat, instead it remained the Virginia stayed solidly Republican.
These are local wins, not national politics at all. But it tends to indicate the country is beginning to swing back to conservative values. Make no mistake these are dire losses to the Democrats. Even in liberal Oregon, a county by votes gave a local sheriff the authority to defy progress gun legislation should he determine the new gun laws are unconstitutional. Of course, local progressives say it is blatantly illegal. No matter, it is a sign of the times.
Here in Texas all seven changes to the state Constitution were adopted. Changes in financing of highways, reduction in property taxes and rules dictating that state elected officials should reside in the state capitol area. Texas legislature meets regularly only once in two years. It depends on the legislature committee chairman to make decisions at the state level when the legislature is not in session. So the state government needs those people close at hand to run the government. The change to the state Constitution now forces those folks to remain in Austin to do their elected jobs.
There is a continuity to the US voters. They swing one way and then back again toward the center. Centrist politicians have the best opportunity for election. Right now there is no centrist movement on either the left or the right in national politics. It seems to be more of throw the bums out kind of thing going on.
I trust Americans. I think change is in the wind. We shall see in time.
These are local wins, not national politics at all. But it tends to indicate the country is beginning to swing back to conservative values. Make no mistake these are dire losses to the Democrats. Even in liberal Oregon, a county by votes gave a local sheriff the authority to defy progress gun legislation should he determine the new gun laws are unconstitutional. Of course, local progressives say it is blatantly illegal. No matter, it is a sign of the times.
Here in Texas all seven changes to the state Constitution were adopted. Changes in financing of highways, reduction in property taxes and rules dictating that state elected officials should reside in the state capitol area. Texas legislature meets regularly only once in two years. It depends on the legislature committee chairman to make decisions at the state level when the legislature is not in session. So the state government needs those people close at hand to run the government. The change to the state Constitution now forces those folks to remain in Austin to do their elected jobs.
There is a continuity to the US voters. They swing one way and then back again toward the center. Centrist politicians have the best opportunity for election. Right now there is no centrist movement on either the left or the right in national politics. It seems to be more of throw the bums out kind of thing going on.
I trust Americans. I think change is in the wind. We shall see in time.
Monday, November 2, 2015
Back From Nashville . . .
Last weekend we charged over to Nashville, TN for Amanda Louise's wedding. The wedding was conducted in Franklin, a town a few miles south of Nashville. It is an old town with tons of new development.
We stayed in the Garden Hilton in Franklin, a nice hotel nestled in the suburbs surrounding by all kinds of new development. New stores, shops and restaurants abounded. Lots of twisty roads but all located along Interstate 65 which runs north and south through the area.
We ran up and down I-65 to Nashville, to Alf Lester's home. He is Amanda's grandfather and was a great host. While he spent the greater part of his life in New York City, he is a true southern gentleman. And he has a grand family and beautiful old home that was first his grandfather's house, then his father's house and it is now his house.
Amanda and her husband, Mike, planned out the wedding and it was held in a nice old civic building in Franklin. Actually it is a restored place that was a jail complete with a gallows inside. Much of that is gone except a few artifacts like barred windows and an old cell door bolted on the wall. It is a cater's place now, with many floors, nooks and crannies and a couple of large dining areas complete with a bar.
The affair was first a wedding, then a sit down brunch. We had Bloody Marys, champagne, and prime rib with eggs for brunch. It was all nicely done, serve hot or cold as maybe required and quite delicious, Amanda planned it all out and did a lot of the decorating etc. It was her day and she truly enjoyed it. James gave Amanda away at the wedding. He was in his element at that time. All of his and Joan's children were there too.
It was cool weather but we may one trip down town and saw the music city in operation. It was booming town. New construction all over the place. It is also an insurance industry town along with publishing. Of course, music, country music, reigns supreme. But the city has a lot going for it and is clearly on the ascendancy. Lots of folks rolling around down town. Even a pedal bar, that is a vehicle that the patrons sit around a bar and must move the vehicle by pedaling it. There is a driver/bar keep and so the participants are all happy as can be pumping that machine around down town.
At Alf's we watched local down town university, Vanderbilt, beat Missouri. Alf is big fan and has a huge TV set, so we enjoyed the game. Later, we were at Amanda and Mike's apartment house, and attended a pre-marriage party. Mike and Amanda did the cooking and we had a few beers. Unfortunately we could not get the LSU game on local TV but did end up watching the first half on a telephone. We left early enough so that I saw the last quarter in the hotel.
Then Monday we had a long trip back to Weatherford. We drove all the way. It rained on us from Franklin to Littlerock, AR. We broke out somewhere after Littlerock but before Texarkana. It was over cast until we got into the eastern outskirts of Dallas. We hit Dallas about 6:30 and into a traffic jam getting through the downtown octopus where I-30 (our route), I-35 and I-45, US 75 North and South and the toll road all interchange along with major reconstruction going on. It was a mess but we eased through and on to Fort Worth then Weatherford.
We were tired but happy to be home again. It was a long trip, about 900 miles one way give or take a few miles here and there. The fall foliage in Tennessee was very pretty, traffic was not to bad though I found trucks in Tennessee traveled at or above the speed limit of 75. That made some of the driving a bit harry along with the constant rain.
We stayed in the Garden Hilton in Franklin, a nice hotel nestled in the suburbs surrounding by all kinds of new development. New stores, shops and restaurants abounded. Lots of twisty roads but all located along Interstate 65 which runs north and south through the area.
We ran up and down I-65 to Nashville, to Alf Lester's home. He is Amanda's grandfather and was a great host. While he spent the greater part of his life in New York City, he is a true southern gentleman. And he has a grand family and beautiful old home that was first his grandfather's house, then his father's house and it is now his house.
Amanda and her husband, Mike, planned out the wedding and it was held in a nice old civic building in Franklin. Actually it is a restored place that was a jail complete with a gallows inside. Much of that is gone except a few artifacts like barred windows and an old cell door bolted on the wall. It is a cater's place now, with many floors, nooks and crannies and a couple of large dining areas complete with a bar.
The affair was first a wedding, then a sit down brunch. We had Bloody Marys, champagne, and prime rib with eggs for brunch. It was all nicely done, serve hot or cold as maybe required and quite delicious, Amanda planned it all out and did a lot of the decorating etc. It was her day and she truly enjoyed it. James gave Amanda away at the wedding. He was in his element at that time. All of his and Joan's children were there too.
It was cool weather but we may one trip down town and saw the music city in operation. It was booming town. New construction all over the place. It is also an insurance industry town along with publishing. Of course, music, country music, reigns supreme. But the city has a lot going for it and is clearly on the ascendancy. Lots of folks rolling around down town. Even a pedal bar, that is a vehicle that the patrons sit around a bar and must move the vehicle by pedaling it. There is a driver/bar keep and so the participants are all happy as can be pumping that machine around down town.
At Alf's we watched local down town university, Vanderbilt, beat Missouri. Alf is big fan and has a huge TV set, so we enjoyed the game. Later, we were at Amanda and Mike's apartment house, and attended a pre-marriage party. Mike and Amanda did the cooking and we had a few beers. Unfortunately we could not get the LSU game on local TV but did end up watching the first half on a telephone. We left early enough so that I saw the last quarter in the hotel.
Then Monday we had a long trip back to Weatherford. We drove all the way. It rained on us from Franklin to Littlerock, AR. We broke out somewhere after Littlerock but before Texarkana. It was over cast until we got into the eastern outskirts of Dallas. We hit Dallas about 6:30 and into a traffic jam getting through the downtown octopus where I-30 (our route), I-35 and I-45, US 75 North and South and the toll road all interchange along with major reconstruction going on. It was a mess but we eased through and on to Fort Worth then Weatherford.
We were tired but happy to be home again. It was a long trip, about 900 miles one way give or take a few miles here and there. The fall foliage in Tennessee was very pretty, traffic was not to bad though I found trucks in Tennessee traveled at or above the speed limit of 75. That made some of the driving a bit harry along with the constant rain.
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Success!
The Disabled American Veterans notified me that my claim with the VA regarding Coronary Heart Disease is successful. They have awarded a rating of 30% for the Viet Nam era Agent Orange caused disease.
It will take a while for the paper work from the VA to catch up with me. But it does not matter as the award is retroactive to the date it was filed.
I filed for this once before and it was summarily refused including a later appeal. This time the evidence was overwhelming and undeniable. So at least for now we are on the same playing ground and we will see what else will happen.
Odd thing was the DAV sent me a form for applying for life insurance. Unfortunately, while it is a good deal for some it is not for me. I have plenty of life insurance accrued over time. I have plenty of insurance coverage now to bury me with a lot left over for the survivors to use as they wish. I can see where some VA claimants do not have any coverage and such coverage maybe to their advantage. In my case, it is way to expensive and the current insurance is quite adequate.
Once in a while you win one!
It will take a while for the paper work from the VA to catch up with me. But it does not matter as the award is retroactive to the date it was filed.
I filed for this once before and it was summarily refused including a later appeal. This time the evidence was overwhelming and undeniable. So at least for now we are on the same playing ground and we will see what else will happen.
Odd thing was the DAV sent me a form for applying for life insurance. Unfortunately, while it is a good deal for some it is not for me. I have plenty of life insurance accrued over time. I have plenty of insurance coverage now to bury me with a lot left over for the survivors to use as they wish. I can see where some VA claimants do not have any coverage and such coverage maybe to their advantage. In my case, it is way to expensive and the current insurance is quite adequate.
Once in a while you win one!
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
My Most Recent VA Claim . . .
Like most of us that have to deal with the Veterans Administration (VA) and its processes, I have had a claims status change.
My claim for Coronary Artery Disease, an Agent Orange issue, has moved from "Gathering of Evidence" to "To rater for medical Opinion" with a top line note of "Pending Decision Approval."
A first glance that sounds very encouraging but in reality it is not, it is progress and a status change but that is all it is. I am frequently on Veterans Benefit Network forum and have learned much about how the VA works. It does mean that the VA is dealing with my claim and that is a good thing in and of itself. But it is by far no final conclusion and is yet months away from finality.
I take a positive view of this news, positive in that the VA has finally recognized my claim for the condition. I filed once before and they wrote it all off. And I can understand that because my evidence was shaky at best. But this time the evidence is pretty damning.
My heart attack risk has gone up. And all the information I can find says should I have a heart attack I have about a 30% chance of survival. It is a sneaky condition and other than the drugs I take is to exercise to keep my self in shape. The exercise is at once both good for my Diabetes but also for my cardio-vascular system. So I keep on walking five or six days a week. That keeps the blood flowing to the right areas.
Any way the VA has my reports from the testing recently. I had a Nuclear Stress test, and it seems as though my Cardiologist puts me through one of those every year, and Computing Tomography Angiogram. The first pointed towards the disease and the second one confirmed the prescience of artery blockages due to Calcium. In simple terms that means "Hardening of the arties around my heart". Either term of Arteriosclerosis or Atherosclerosis applies. It means in time as the calcification continues the blood flow will decline leading to oxygen starvation or Ischemia. That's what leads to heart attacks.
The VA is often slow but it always seems to get it right. So I patiently wait for the results.
My claim for Coronary Artery Disease, an Agent Orange issue, has moved from "Gathering of Evidence" to "To rater for medical Opinion" with a top line note of "Pending Decision Approval."
A first glance that sounds very encouraging but in reality it is not, it is progress and a status change but that is all it is. I am frequently on Veterans Benefit Network forum and have learned much about how the VA works. It does mean that the VA is dealing with my claim and that is a good thing in and of itself. But it is by far no final conclusion and is yet months away from finality.
I take a positive view of this news, positive in that the VA has finally recognized my claim for the condition. I filed once before and they wrote it all off. And I can understand that because my evidence was shaky at best. But this time the evidence is pretty damning.
My heart attack risk has gone up. And all the information I can find says should I have a heart attack I have about a 30% chance of survival. It is a sneaky condition and other than the drugs I take is to exercise to keep my self in shape. The exercise is at once both good for my Diabetes but also for my cardio-vascular system. So I keep on walking five or six days a week. That keeps the blood flowing to the right areas.
Any way the VA has my reports from the testing recently. I had a Nuclear Stress test, and it seems as though my Cardiologist puts me through one of those every year, and Computing Tomography Angiogram. The first pointed towards the disease and the second one confirmed the prescience of artery blockages due to Calcium. In simple terms that means "Hardening of the arties around my heart". Either term of Arteriosclerosis or Atherosclerosis applies. It means in time as the calcification continues the blood flow will decline leading to oxygen starvation or Ischemia. That's what leads to heart attacks.
The VA is often slow but it always seems to get it right. So I patiently wait for the results.
Monday, October 12, 2015
Veterans Benefit Network . . .
Almost everyday, I go to the Veterans Benefit Network forum. It is for and by US veterans and as you would opine deals with issues of veteran health, compensation and the Department of Veteran Affairs. There are various topics but the more common ones are Diabetes Type II, Agent Orange and of course the awards for service connected disabilities.
You learn a great deal on the forum. For instance the VA health clinics and hospitals have nothing to do with the award of Service Connected (SC) disability awards and the compensation for those disabilities. And Congress has as usual stepped in and muck up things here and there. We all call that generally red tape. And the VA which has been around since the Civil War so is mired knee deep in it. It is much like the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing.
That means the VA moves agonizingly slow. One fills out the appropriate VA form for a claim for SC disability. Now days there are required two forms, one is general in nature and the other is specific the SC claim, like Diabetes and so on.
And the VA is very fragmented. Each state has a Regional Office (RO). Some states like Texas has two of them. There is usually a giant humongus hospital associated with the RO. In my case, I deal with the Waco, TX RO. So I must send my claims to that office. And Waco is the home of Baylor University and the VA. I am not sure which is bigger, the school or the VA complex.
Each RO has service organizations associated with it. These are American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and Disabled American Veterans just to name a few of them. And sometimes you can find at the county level, a Service Organization representative. That person receives a small stipend and is usually a disable veteran him or herself. You can get the VA forms at his office. Or you can download them from the VA web site.
Every large community in the US has a VA facility. Example is at Dallas, TX there is a huge hospital dedicated exclusively to serving the disable veterans. Fort Worth has a VA clinic, serious stuff is sent over to Dallas or down to Waco as needed.
And when you submit an SC claim, it may be shuffled out to Buffalo. By that I mean, there are ROs that specialize in that particular disability. So your paper work may start at your RO and end up in Kansas City, or some where else in the US. That spreads out the work from the busiest location to that location with the specialist.
An SC claim usually takes from a minimum of six months to years to finalize. I had an SC for Tinnitus and that was done in a six month period. That was really quite fast. I got a SC of 10% for Tinnitus but alas, it made not different to my total disability. It just added to the stack of paper and is now a matter of record.
The forum though is riddled with folks looking for help with their SC. Some of the SCs are in appeal, that is the VA evaluated the condition and said, no. There is an appeal process one can go through. Those are the SCs that can last years. Not to worry, if one is successful in his or her appeal, then the VA has go back and compensate you from the date you initially put in you paper work. That is sometimes a rather large piece of money. And usually, those people are in dire straits from a need perspective.
The VA does have an expedited process for those in truly bad financial situation. Even then, it takes several months, maybe up to six months to get it finalize. If anything, the VA is thorough in its reviews and process.
Oh yes, at any given time the VA is processing 90,000 claims a month. So it is a vast bureaucracy one is dealing with, and has its bad actors as well as its stars. So the forum is often a place to vent. And they vent about the claims side of the place as well as the health service side of things. Remember there are 50 states and fifty or more ROs to deal with some 339,000,000 people. Not just the Veterans are effected, so are their families and care takers. It is a vast operation.
So the forum is divided up into general subjects attuned to the veterans needs. Diabetes is one, Agent Orange is another, just for Women is still another and of awards of SCs.
It seems like every day a veteran discovers the VNB. Some topics occur over and over again, yet others appear new. We fight all over the world, so there are the obvious wounded we deal with, and the not so obvious like the effects of the defoliant Agent Orange which results I a whole host of disease like Diabetes Type II (I am one of those Agent Orange people). Most times the forum can help because of some many of us with those experiences dealing with the VA, sometimes it is just someone venting, others are obvious goldbrickers trying to play the system to their advantage.
So when you read about a veteran getting mistreated, it is usually the slow bureaucratic processes and individuals causing the problem. It is some times a self fulfilling giant mindful of its self first rather than the customer, the veteran. The VA is the largest of its kind in the world and services US veterans all over the world. Oh yes, one final piece of the puzzle, VA compensation is 100% tax free and one usually gets free medical care for that disability (from the VA of course).
You learn a great deal on the forum. For instance the VA health clinics and hospitals have nothing to do with the award of Service Connected (SC) disability awards and the compensation for those disabilities. And Congress has as usual stepped in and muck up things here and there. We all call that generally red tape. And the VA which has been around since the Civil War so is mired knee deep in it. It is much like the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing.
That means the VA moves agonizingly slow. One fills out the appropriate VA form for a claim for SC disability. Now days there are required two forms, one is general in nature and the other is specific the SC claim, like Diabetes and so on.
And the VA is very fragmented. Each state has a Regional Office (RO). Some states like Texas has two of them. There is usually a giant humongus hospital associated with the RO. In my case, I deal with the Waco, TX RO. So I must send my claims to that office. And Waco is the home of Baylor University and the VA. I am not sure which is bigger, the school or the VA complex.
Each RO has service organizations associated with it. These are American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and Disabled American Veterans just to name a few of them. And sometimes you can find at the county level, a Service Organization representative. That person receives a small stipend and is usually a disable veteran him or herself. You can get the VA forms at his office. Or you can download them from the VA web site.
Every large community in the US has a VA facility. Example is at Dallas, TX there is a huge hospital dedicated exclusively to serving the disable veterans. Fort Worth has a VA clinic, serious stuff is sent over to Dallas or down to Waco as needed.
And when you submit an SC claim, it may be shuffled out to Buffalo. By that I mean, there are ROs that specialize in that particular disability. So your paper work may start at your RO and end up in Kansas City, or some where else in the US. That spreads out the work from the busiest location to that location with the specialist.
An SC claim usually takes from a minimum of six months to years to finalize. I had an SC for Tinnitus and that was done in a six month period. That was really quite fast. I got a SC of 10% for Tinnitus but alas, it made not different to my total disability. It just added to the stack of paper and is now a matter of record.
The forum though is riddled with folks looking for help with their SC. Some of the SCs are in appeal, that is the VA evaluated the condition and said, no. There is an appeal process one can go through. Those are the SCs that can last years. Not to worry, if one is successful in his or her appeal, then the VA has go back and compensate you from the date you initially put in you paper work. That is sometimes a rather large piece of money. And usually, those people are in dire straits from a need perspective.
The VA does have an expedited process for those in truly bad financial situation. Even then, it takes several months, maybe up to six months to get it finalize. If anything, the VA is thorough in its reviews and process.
Oh yes, at any given time the VA is processing 90,000 claims a month. So it is a vast bureaucracy one is dealing with, and has its bad actors as well as its stars. So the forum is often a place to vent. And they vent about the claims side of the place as well as the health service side of things. Remember there are 50 states and fifty or more ROs to deal with some 339,000,000 people. Not just the Veterans are effected, so are their families and care takers. It is a vast operation.
So the forum is divided up into general subjects attuned to the veterans needs. Diabetes is one, Agent Orange is another, just for Women is still another and of awards of SCs.
It seems like every day a veteran discovers the VNB. Some topics occur over and over again, yet others appear new. We fight all over the world, so there are the obvious wounded we deal with, and the not so obvious like the effects of the defoliant Agent Orange which results I a whole host of disease like Diabetes Type II (I am one of those Agent Orange people). Most times the forum can help because of some many of us with those experiences dealing with the VA, sometimes it is just someone venting, others are obvious goldbrickers trying to play the system to their advantage.
So when you read about a veteran getting mistreated, it is usually the slow bureaucratic processes and individuals causing the problem. It is some times a self fulfilling giant mindful of its self first rather than the customer, the veteran. The VA is the largest of its kind in the world and services US veterans all over the world. Oh yes, one final piece of the puzzle, VA compensation is 100% tax free and one usually gets free medical care for that disability (from the VA of course).
Sunday, October 11, 2015
The Beat Goes On . . .
In the presidential race things are settling down a bit. Trump is losing ground, real candidates like Marco Rubio are moving up and Hillary Clinton is feeling the pressure of her past and the competition in her party.
There is much ado about nothing at the moment. Trump has released his proposed tax plan with some good and some bad in it. I really don't think it does much and may not be sustainable. The idea that everybody should pay some tax is a good one. But he seems to load up on the rich. And since he does not personally depend on anyone to contribute to his campaign that is okay.
Hillary is against everything. Against the pipeline, against Obama's trade agreement (in fact most Democrats seem to be against it and most Republicans for it) and still can not get by Benghazi and her personal computer issues. As an old military type she clearly violated the law and subjugate the State Department to potential leaks to the outside world. But then, maybe the outside world was as ignorant as we, the people, were. There is hope in that regard but since she did little but travel in her tenure as Secretary of State, well ho home about it all. At least she wants us to think that way. Her technical expert will not testify unless given immunity, well that makes you wonder what was really in those allegedly personal eMails.
I read since she will not have to debate her Democratic opponents she has slipped more in the polls. I am sure she has sufficient strength in the polls to outlast her Democratic opposition but the general public is well on record of not trusting her. She has been caught to many times in to may lies.
And the biggest brouhaha is gun control again. Control how? Well President Obama fails to say that. He is up against the US Constitution and already well decided case law by the Supreme Court regarding gun ownership. He can control ammo and seems to have put a real constraint on the availability of the ammunition supplies. But all of that is by fiat and thus the next president will or can wipe it out with the stroke of pin.
EPA took it in the shorts again over the Clean Water Act. EPA has tried to link all water sources together and the courts have summarily rejected that. So far the states have won in court. It will probably go like the Presidents Immigration actions, stopped dead in their tracks. The appeal cours have up held the lower courts and that bodes ill for him in that regard.
His deal with Iran has stunk up the place. Playing tricks to avoid treaty status. And using the United Nations to try to control guns blew up in his face too.
With Boehner bailing out, he is losing his grip on Republican Congress. The Republicans are moving toward more conservative position. Government close down now rest with him not Congress. His opposition will be paramount and it will be used against all Democrats shortly. I predict a big backfire for them.
And yes, the beat goes on.
There is much ado about nothing at the moment. Trump has released his proposed tax plan with some good and some bad in it. I really don't think it does much and may not be sustainable. The idea that everybody should pay some tax is a good one. But he seems to load up on the rich. And since he does not personally depend on anyone to contribute to his campaign that is okay.
Hillary is against everything. Against the pipeline, against Obama's trade agreement (in fact most Democrats seem to be against it and most Republicans for it) and still can not get by Benghazi and her personal computer issues. As an old military type she clearly violated the law and subjugate the State Department to potential leaks to the outside world. But then, maybe the outside world was as ignorant as we, the people, were. There is hope in that regard but since she did little but travel in her tenure as Secretary of State, well ho home about it all. At least she wants us to think that way. Her technical expert will not testify unless given immunity, well that makes you wonder what was really in those allegedly personal eMails.
I read since she will not have to debate her Democratic opponents she has slipped more in the polls. I am sure she has sufficient strength in the polls to outlast her Democratic opposition but the general public is well on record of not trusting her. She has been caught to many times in to may lies.
And the biggest brouhaha is gun control again. Control how? Well President Obama fails to say that. He is up against the US Constitution and already well decided case law by the Supreme Court regarding gun ownership. He can control ammo and seems to have put a real constraint on the availability of the ammunition supplies. But all of that is by fiat and thus the next president will or can wipe it out with the stroke of pin.
EPA took it in the shorts again over the Clean Water Act. EPA has tried to link all water sources together and the courts have summarily rejected that. So far the states have won in court. It will probably go like the Presidents Immigration actions, stopped dead in their tracks. The appeal cours have up held the lower courts and that bodes ill for him in that regard.
His deal with Iran has stunk up the place. Playing tricks to avoid treaty status. And using the United Nations to try to control guns blew up in his face too.
With Boehner bailing out, he is losing his grip on Republican Congress. The Republicans are moving toward more conservative position. Government close down now rest with him not Congress. His opposition will be paramount and it will be used against all Democrats shortly. I predict a big backfire for them.
And yes, the beat goes on.
Sunday, October 4, 2015
Angeles House . . .
Mark Morrison has withdrawn his offer to buy the house. I had objected to the sale of the land but others in the family saw it differently. I had sort of withdrawn after 70% of the stockholders wanted to sell the house.
I had resigned my position on the board of directors in preparation for a law suit. But my sister prevailed upon me not to sue my family. So I stopped any actions in that regard. I was resigned to the fact that a piece of the plantation was going to be sold and there was no convincing anyone not to do it. They had their reasons and motivations, certainly they were separate from mine.
However, that is over for now. But it was indeed getting close to splitting the family. There was a lot of furor over the selling of the house, most I am sure on my part.
I had almost come to the conclusion I should withdraw altogether from it dealings with the plantation. It seemed the others and they were in a majority, wanted to go a different direction. So my presence was not needed nor wanted and probably not warranted.
I do not think the rest of the family will want to see me there anyway. Things will be tense for a while.
Families are like that and issues arise. This one is over for the moment. I am sure another will arise down the road. Maybe I will be dead by then. There is hope!
I had resigned my position on the board of directors in preparation for a law suit. But my sister prevailed upon me not to sue my family. So I stopped any actions in that regard. I was resigned to the fact that a piece of the plantation was going to be sold and there was no convincing anyone not to do it. They had their reasons and motivations, certainly they were separate from mine.
However, that is over for now. But it was indeed getting close to splitting the family. There was a lot of furor over the selling of the house, most I am sure on my part.
I had almost come to the conclusion I should withdraw altogether from it dealings with the plantation. It seemed the others and they were in a majority, wanted to go a different direction. So my presence was not needed nor wanted and probably not warranted.
I do not think the rest of the family will want to see me there anyway. Things will be tense for a while.
Families are like that and issues arise. This one is over for the moment. I am sure another will arise down the road. Maybe I will be dead by then. There is hope!
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
My New Stik is mort!
The airplane was built so flimsy that the crash did it in. Besides I do not have any covering to use. The covering used in the original is sort of like shelf paper. Very cheap stuff. Dare not get it to hot or you have an instant hole in the stuff.
So it was fling. A cheap fling. Now I know why I pay more for a Great Plaines kit or Almost Ready to Fly (ARF) kit. It is substantially stronger and better built.
I have a Stik in the box and probably will put it together when I get the old New Horizons Ultra-Stik back in the air. I will have to use a servo out of the cheap Stik to finish off the old bird.
Just not in the mood to go out and build at the moment. Got to get my juices up and running again.
Damn, it is hard getting old.
So it was fling. A cheap fling. Now I know why I pay more for a Great Plaines kit or Almost Ready to Fly (ARF) kit. It is substantially stronger and better built.
I have a Stik in the box and probably will put it together when I get the old New Horizons Ultra-Stik back in the air. I will have to use a servo out of the cheap Stik to finish off the old bird.
Just not in the mood to go out and build at the moment. Got to get my juices up and running again.
Damn, it is hard getting old.
Friday, September 25, 2015
My Old Stik . . .
A while back I crashed my old Ultra Stik by Horizon Hobbies. The engine just was not developing power and it ran into the field electric fence wire. The wire did a number on the wing, easily repaired and broke the fuselage in half. At first I was going to trash can the old Stik but then I saw it was easy to repair.
So I have been fixing it back. Quite a bit of fibre glass patches putting the fuselage back together. I had to epoxy in the wing mount again in the fuselage. I had to reinstall the firewall where the engine mounts up front. And I had to add a new cover over the top front of the fuselage. The fact that that piece was off allowed me to make special repairs to the forward wing mount and strengthen the forward fuselage. I got that all fixed and then added the new top.
I had to recover the forward fuselage, the colors no longer match. I used a lot of MonoKote solid red and it went over spots that were formally covered by a clear yellow cover. So it is more red now than before.
I had to fix the wing center regluing some decking and had to make a few new reinforcement plywood patches. Those were epoxied on, wing mount holes redrilled, etc. I still have to cover some of that area. But the wing is back being very flyable.
I found a bad spot in the tail feathers, the horizontal surface a separated from the fuselage part way. So I had to reglue that back. I used TiteBond wood glue for that. I also had to put a cover patch on and it too is red. Not to noticeable but considerable stronger aft section now.
I have to reinstall some wing servos and finish up the wing. But not much more to do. I installed the engine again. I am going to have to work on the throttle hook up. I have one but it is not working as it should and I will need to rework all that. Not hard to do but just more work to be done. I think I am going to have to result in using a cable hook up vice a solid wire. The solid wire does not give me the flexibility I need, so gotta be done.
It will fly again! The Phoenix rises from the ashes!
So I have been fixing it back. Quite a bit of fibre glass patches putting the fuselage back together. I had to epoxy in the wing mount again in the fuselage. I had to reinstall the firewall where the engine mounts up front. And I had to add a new cover over the top front of the fuselage. The fact that that piece was off allowed me to make special repairs to the forward wing mount and strengthen the forward fuselage. I got that all fixed and then added the new top.
I had to recover the forward fuselage, the colors no longer match. I used a lot of MonoKote solid red and it went over spots that were formally covered by a clear yellow cover. So it is more red now than before.
I had to fix the wing center regluing some decking and had to make a few new reinforcement plywood patches. Those were epoxied on, wing mount holes redrilled, etc. I still have to cover some of that area. But the wing is back being very flyable.
I found a bad spot in the tail feathers, the horizontal surface a separated from the fuselage part way. So I had to reglue that back. I used TiteBond wood glue for that. I also had to put a cover patch on and it too is red. Not to noticeable but considerable stronger aft section now.
I have to reinstall some wing servos and finish up the wing. But not much more to do. I installed the engine again. I am going to have to work on the throttle hook up. I have one but it is not working as it should and I will need to rework all that. Not hard to do but just more work to be done. I think I am going to have to result in using a cable hook up vice a solid wire. The solid wire does not give me the flexibility I need, so gotta be done.
It will fly again! The Phoenix rises from the ashes!
Thursday, September 24, 2015
My New Stik . . .
I purchased the cheap new 60 sized Stik that I read about in an RC forum. It was cheap. Not only in price but everything else. I had to make a lot of modifications to suit my taste but it is there and I have flown in four times. I have a Magnum .90 four stroke engine on it.
But I had fuel tank problems. At first I thought it was the clunk getting trapped in the front of the fuel tank. That happens when you have an abrupt stop while landing. And I had one. The landing gear had come loose and of course there was no roll out. That was easily fixed, I installed new screws on the landing gear and this time used Lock-Tite on the mounting screws and they are not vibrating out anymore.
But the flights were limited, short duration which usually means a problem in the fuel tank. The usual fix is to very violently shake of the aircraft with an aft motion with a quick stop. The inertia usually makes the clunk come loose and all is well. That did not work.
So I took fuel tank out. In this airplane that is easy to do, it is held in place by some old Styrofoam blocks. So I just had to remove the blocks for access to the tank. Got it out and took the bung off. The bung has two holes in it with metal tubes, one tube is the fuel feed line and the other is the pressure line that comes off the muffler. Well when I got the bung out, I found the feed line loose in the tank, it had come off the metal through tube. I fished it out and threw it away. I got some new fuel line and a heavier clunk and mounted it all up again. Then I replace the tank and the Styrofoam blocks. All done now.
I also had a trim problem with the wings, so I brought the wind inside to see what the problem was. I have these neat servo checkers and little battery pack to power the checker and the servo. And I found the left servo kind of skipping. So I opened up the servo box and preceded to check things out. I found the servo arm to loose. I tightened up and noticed it was dragging on the exit slot a bit. so I have trimmed some material off the slot and now the arm moves unimpeded. Since I had messed with the control rods I had to reset them up again. Easy to do, just takes a bit of patience to do it. All is okay now with the wings.
So with a nice slow charge I will go fly again to check things out. The Stik looks good but has its problems. I do not think it will last very long and the covering is exceptionally poor. It is not MonoKote, it really looks like cheap shelf paper that shrinks. So I know there is no replacement of the covering if the bird gets damaged. I have saved scraps here and there but those are small, good enough to take care of hangar rash but not much else.
The bird flies good enough. We will see how long it lasts. I am sure something will cause it to go down. Time will tell.
But I had fuel tank problems. At first I thought it was the clunk getting trapped in the front of the fuel tank. That happens when you have an abrupt stop while landing. And I had one. The landing gear had come loose and of course there was no roll out. That was easily fixed, I installed new screws on the landing gear and this time used Lock-Tite on the mounting screws and they are not vibrating out anymore.
But the flights were limited, short duration which usually means a problem in the fuel tank. The usual fix is to very violently shake of the aircraft with an aft motion with a quick stop. The inertia usually makes the clunk come loose and all is well. That did not work.
So I took fuel tank out. In this airplane that is easy to do, it is held in place by some old Styrofoam blocks. So I just had to remove the blocks for access to the tank. Got it out and took the bung off. The bung has two holes in it with metal tubes, one tube is the fuel feed line and the other is the pressure line that comes off the muffler. Well when I got the bung out, I found the feed line loose in the tank, it had come off the metal through tube. I fished it out and threw it away. I got some new fuel line and a heavier clunk and mounted it all up again. Then I replace the tank and the Styrofoam blocks. All done now.
I also had a trim problem with the wings, so I brought the wind inside to see what the problem was. I have these neat servo checkers and little battery pack to power the checker and the servo. And I found the left servo kind of skipping. So I opened up the servo box and preceded to check things out. I found the servo arm to loose. I tightened up and noticed it was dragging on the exit slot a bit. so I have trimmed some material off the slot and now the arm moves unimpeded. Since I had messed with the control rods I had to reset them up again. Easy to do, just takes a bit of patience to do it. All is okay now with the wings.
So with a nice slow charge I will go fly again to check things out. The Stik looks good but has its problems. I do not think it will last very long and the covering is exceptionally poor. It is not MonoKote, it really looks like cheap shelf paper that shrinks. So I know there is no replacement of the covering if the bird gets damaged. I have saved scraps here and there but those are small, good enough to take care of hangar rash but not much else.
The bird flies good enough. We will see how long it lasts. I am sure something will cause it to go down. Time will tell.
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Karen Galloway . . .
A while back I received a comment on a blog regarding Angeles Plantation from Karen Galloway. I am paraphrasing but she said her family did business with J H Morrison which is my great great grandfather, Walter Christian Morrison's father. She said she had never heard the names Brunswick or Angeles only names alike Morrison or Beaud. She further said she had a sales receipt for or with JH Morrison.
I answered Karen and but got no reply. I tried several times to trace her down. I did eventually find a Karen Galloway but she had recently died. So we missed each other. Hopefully she is in heaven and now knows the whole story now.
I suspect Karen's family were slaves owned by J. H. Morrison before the Civil War. That is a pity. Many of the blacks on the plantations moved off after the Civil War, who would blame them. Some stayed on until the end of WW-II when virtually all of them moved off to towns like New Roads where some still reside today. The plantation society died off for good reason, but I suspect the introduction of fuel powered machines greatly accelerated their departure. Fewer workers were now needed on the farms with the mules and mule drivers being replaced by tractors.
There was nothing good about that plantation society except the land owners did indeed respect the blacks. In many ways they were extended family. They lived with us, they worked in the houses as well as out on the land. So they knew us as we knew them. Some of us grew up with them.
There are no family quarters for servants and employees any more. The cabins were salvaged for the cypress wood. They gradually disappeared and there is nothing left to remind us of the people or where they lived. The old plantation commissary disappeared, as did the old mule lot went away. Chicken coops are gone, hog lots are gone, no more milk cows either. Nothing left of that era at all, just the old Morrison family house and some modern day structures remain.
We do have one remnant, a black church on land given to them by the Morrison family years ago. The church is still there. I do not know if it is still active. The last person I knew associated with the plantation and the church was Pete Carter. Pete used to do yard work for my mother and at times asked and was given permission to use the yard equipment to clean up the church grounds. Pete was an elderly man when I knew him. I must have been ten or twelve years old when Pete came around to our house in New Roads on the banks of False River.
Pete was always a welcomed visitor. Our cook and house cleaner was Ernestine Scott and she was born on Brunswick. Ernestine worked for my mother until she died. And truth be told my mother died not to many years after Ernestine. Ernestine's nick name from Brunswick Plantation was Boll Weevil. Never did we ever use that name as we all knew it was a sign of disrespect to her. She may have been a servant but she was just as human as anyone else and deserved to be properly addressed.
So it remains to us to be a bastion of responsibility to those that were born or otherwise lived on the farms. I fear that with passing time, relationships have disappeared. A few selected ones may know or have been told their history but generally none of that is recorded. So their family trees are clouded; they often refer to where they were born or grew up as their family history. Some may have a vestige here or there and that perhaps is what Karen Galloway had. Some regard those times as "Jin Crow" and want nothing to do with it. I can not blame them.
Times are still hard on the blacks in New Roads. Part is poor education, part is no jobs and part is crime. It is a hard fight for them but some have risen to high stature in our society today. General Honree, the hero of New Orleans after Katrina, is from our area. Pointe Coupe. There are Catholic Bishops that are black and are from our local black society. We have seen other children become doctors and nurses, graduates of Louisiana State University and other prominent schools. Yet extreme poverty continues and that brings with it distrust and civil unrest. And it sows seeds of crime.
I wish I could say things are better now than in the old plantation society era but I am not so sure about that.
I answered Karen and but got no reply. I tried several times to trace her down. I did eventually find a Karen Galloway but she had recently died. So we missed each other. Hopefully she is in heaven and now knows the whole story now.
I suspect Karen's family were slaves owned by J. H. Morrison before the Civil War. That is a pity. Many of the blacks on the plantations moved off after the Civil War, who would blame them. Some stayed on until the end of WW-II when virtually all of them moved off to towns like New Roads where some still reside today. The plantation society died off for good reason, but I suspect the introduction of fuel powered machines greatly accelerated their departure. Fewer workers were now needed on the farms with the mules and mule drivers being replaced by tractors.
There was nothing good about that plantation society except the land owners did indeed respect the blacks. In many ways they were extended family. They lived with us, they worked in the houses as well as out on the land. So they knew us as we knew them. Some of us grew up with them.
There are no family quarters for servants and employees any more. The cabins were salvaged for the cypress wood. They gradually disappeared and there is nothing left to remind us of the people or where they lived. The old plantation commissary disappeared, as did the old mule lot went away. Chicken coops are gone, hog lots are gone, no more milk cows either. Nothing left of that era at all, just the old Morrison family house and some modern day structures remain.
We do have one remnant, a black church on land given to them by the Morrison family years ago. The church is still there. I do not know if it is still active. The last person I knew associated with the plantation and the church was Pete Carter. Pete used to do yard work for my mother and at times asked and was given permission to use the yard equipment to clean up the church grounds. Pete was an elderly man when I knew him. I must have been ten or twelve years old when Pete came around to our house in New Roads on the banks of False River.
Pete was always a welcomed visitor. Our cook and house cleaner was Ernestine Scott and she was born on Brunswick. Ernestine worked for my mother until she died. And truth be told my mother died not to many years after Ernestine. Ernestine's nick name from Brunswick Plantation was Boll Weevil. Never did we ever use that name as we all knew it was a sign of disrespect to her. She may have been a servant but she was just as human as anyone else and deserved to be properly addressed.
So it remains to us to be a bastion of responsibility to those that were born or otherwise lived on the farms. I fear that with passing time, relationships have disappeared. A few selected ones may know or have been told their history but generally none of that is recorded. So their family trees are clouded; they often refer to where they were born or grew up as their family history. Some may have a vestige here or there and that perhaps is what Karen Galloway had. Some regard those times as "Jin Crow" and want nothing to do with it. I can not blame them.
Times are still hard on the blacks in New Roads. Part is poor education, part is no jobs and part is crime. It is a hard fight for them but some have risen to high stature in our society today. General Honree, the hero of New Orleans after Katrina, is from our area. Pointe Coupe. There are Catholic Bishops that are black and are from our local black society. We have seen other children become doctors and nurses, graduates of Louisiana State University and other prominent schools. Yet extreme poverty continues and that brings with it distrust and civil unrest. And it sows seeds of crime.
I wish I could say things are better now than in the old plantation society era but I am not so sure about that.
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Cool Today . . .
It rained most of the night. We were supposed to get an inch of rain, probably did so. It started about 10:00 PM and dripped in to the morning at 5:30 AM. Very humid outside too. But the moisture is needed and it is holding down the temperature. At least that is a relief.
We have gotten all the messages answered since we got back. Good to be home again. Never thought I would miss the place but I did. I am getting to be a homebody.
Certainly disappointed LSU did not play Saturday night. We were all set to watch on SEC TV which is a free thing for us DirecTV users. It is an odd number channel but it works. In this case it was split so it was on channel 611-1, sort of automatic after 611. But alas the game was cancelled because of lightening and lateness. Pity. I see where the athletic department at LSU is refunding the tickets for the people attending the game. It will cost them a ton of money but that's the way it is.
On to Mississippi State. I think Mississippi State will have a slight advantage because of the cancelled game. Others think it is no advantage at all. We will see.
Geaux Tigers!
We have gotten all the messages answered since we got back. Good to be home again. Never thought I would miss the place but I did. I am getting to be a homebody.
Certainly disappointed LSU did not play Saturday night. We were all set to watch on SEC TV which is a free thing for us DirecTV users. It is an odd number channel but it works. In this case it was split so it was on channel 611-1, sort of automatic after 611. But alas the game was cancelled because of lightening and lateness. Pity. I see where the athletic department at LSU is refunding the tickets for the people attending the game. It will cost them a ton of money but that's the way it is.
On to Mississippi State. I think Mississippi State will have a slight advantage because of the cancelled game. Others think it is no advantage at all. We will see.
Geaux Tigers!
Sunday, September 6, 2015
Wow - Had to Reset Password . . .
I use a program, SlimCleaner, to clean out the cookies etc. and it wiped out my password to get into the application.
So I had to resort to regenerating a password. It was not hard to do, just irritating thing to have to do. But sometimes with a clean up you must do those kinds of things. Done now.
Finished up my Central Hobbies Stik and am ready to go flying again. It was not a hard task but I had to do a lot of little things I do not normally have to do. I had to drill and fit an engine mount for my Magnum 0.91 cubic inch four stroke engine. Not a big problem but some out of the ordinary I had to do. Got it done but not after first putting a couple of coats on the fire wall to seal it up. I supposedly had a coat but I ran a bit of sand paper over it, did the typical surface treatment with a mixture of alcohol and epoxy glue. Not completely satisfied, I then put a coat of polyurethane varnish over it all. Now it is sealed up.
I had to route the throttle servo push rod through the fire wall back to the servo. Again, not hard to do, just something I had to do. It is all set up now.
When I installed the fuel tank, I had to sort of back it up with some Styrofoam. I have plenty of that from various packing sources like from the new Vacuum cleaner, or an new TV satellite receiver. I save that stuff, cuts easy with a hobby knife and can be sanded smooth. That is all in place with a pop cycle stick holding it in place.
I had to mount the elevator and rudder servo in the aft fuselage to off set the weight of the engine. In this case the model had provisions for that but as usual had to be reinforced. I glued pop cycle sticks on the back side of the basic fuselage material. A doubler of sorts but more to grip for the servo mount screws.
The fuselage was in to parts, the aft part had to be glued to the forward part. It had four little braces to install, a bit difficult but got that job done. I removed the installed tubes for the control rods as I was installing the servos in the aft part of the fuselage.
The provides control material was the hardest material I have ever dealt with on a model. I have these "Z" bend pliers to make the bends necessary for the servo connections and had to use a table vice to close the pliers bending the rods. As it was I broke one of them and had to result in soldering on clevis connectors on the ends of the rods. But that too is done now.
I stuck the battery that is used to power the receiver and the servos as far back in the open area of the fuselage as I could get it. And I had to add a piece of balsa to mount an on off switch. Got that all done.
Then the wing mount screws were just that metal screws. I changed that to 1/4 inch nylon bolts as I am used to using in other planes. I have lots of such bolts. That required drilling out the holes through the wing and removing the blind nuts inside the fuselage. I had replace the blind nuts with 1/4 inch ones for the nylon bolts.
On the wings I had to fiber glass a patch on the bottom of the wing over the joint. The wings come in two pieces with a connect wooden board about 3/8ths thick. One must epoxy the about 10 inch long piece into one side, the later into the other side joining the two pieces together. As a normal practice, I put a fiber glass patch over that area with reinforces the structure considerable.
Last but not least I had to balance the airplane. I found it came into balance almost perfectly, close enough that I did not have to add any weight to the front or the back. One does that with no fuel in the tank, so when one takes off the airplane is nose heavy but the fuel burns down and the balance is maintained for landing. During the flight normal control trim can accommodate the imbalance so that it is not a problem.
I put larger wheels than normal as I fly off a grass field. Sometimes the grass is a little bit tall, the extra diameter wheels take care of that. The landing gear is aluminum, pretty standard for this kind of airplane. It is held on by two screws and that somewhat concerns me, all the others I have dealt with either had three or four such screws. We shall see how it hold up.
I use Hitec radio equipment and found it to be quite adequate. I have never had a problem with it. I had all kinds of fits with Spectrum gear and got rid of it. I use Hitec servos too but they are standard and work with anybody's equipment.
So tomorrow, I will go fly - again. And I will continue to restore the UltraStik that ran into the electric fence will. I was old and had a lot of problems to fix. But surprisingly it came back together pretty goo, all though a bit heavier with fiber glass patches but stronger now.
So I had to resort to regenerating a password. It was not hard to do, just irritating thing to have to do. But sometimes with a clean up you must do those kinds of things. Done now.
Finished up my Central Hobbies Stik and am ready to go flying again. It was not a hard task but I had to do a lot of little things I do not normally have to do. I had to drill and fit an engine mount for my Magnum 0.91 cubic inch four stroke engine. Not a big problem but some out of the ordinary I had to do. Got it done but not after first putting a couple of coats on the fire wall to seal it up. I supposedly had a coat but I ran a bit of sand paper over it, did the typical surface treatment with a mixture of alcohol and epoxy glue. Not completely satisfied, I then put a coat of polyurethane varnish over it all. Now it is sealed up.
I had to route the throttle servo push rod through the fire wall back to the servo. Again, not hard to do, just something I had to do. It is all set up now.
When I installed the fuel tank, I had to sort of back it up with some Styrofoam. I have plenty of that from various packing sources like from the new Vacuum cleaner, or an new TV satellite receiver. I save that stuff, cuts easy with a hobby knife and can be sanded smooth. That is all in place with a pop cycle stick holding it in place.
I had to mount the elevator and rudder servo in the aft fuselage to off set the weight of the engine. In this case the model had provisions for that but as usual had to be reinforced. I glued pop cycle sticks on the back side of the basic fuselage material. A doubler of sorts but more to grip for the servo mount screws.
The fuselage was in to parts, the aft part had to be glued to the forward part. It had four little braces to install, a bit difficult but got that job done. I removed the installed tubes for the control rods as I was installing the servos in the aft part of the fuselage.
The provides control material was the hardest material I have ever dealt with on a model. I have these "Z" bend pliers to make the bends necessary for the servo connections and had to use a table vice to close the pliers bending the rods. As it was I broke one of them and had to result in soldering on clevis connectors on the ends of the rods. But that too is done now.
I stuck the battery that is used to power the receiver and the servos as far back in the open area of the fuselage as I could get it. And I had to add a piece of balsa to mount an on off switch. Got that all done.
Then the wing mount screws were just that metal screws. I changed that to 1/4 inch nylon bolts as I am used to using in other planes. I have lots of such bolts. That required drilling out the holes through the wing and removing the blind nuts inside the fuselage. I had replace the blind nuts with 1/4 inch ones for the nylon bolts.
On the wings I had to fiber glass a patch on the bottom of the wing over the joint. The wings come in two pieces with a connect wooden board about 3/8ths thick. One must epoxy the about 10 inch long piece into one side, the later into the other side joining the two pieces together. As a normal practice, I put a fiber glass patch over that area with reinforces the structure considerable.
Last but not least I had to balance the airplane. I found it came into balance almost perfectly, close enough that I did not have to add any weight to the front or the back. One does that with no fuel in the tank, so when one takes off the airplane is nose heavy but the fuel burns down and the balance is maintained for landing. During the flight normal control trim can accommodate the imbalance so that it is not a problem.
I put larger wheels than normal as I fly off a grass field. Sometimes the grass is a little bit tall, the extra diameter wheels take care of that. The landing gear is aluminum, pretty standard for this kind of airplane. It is held on by two screws and that somewhat concerns me, all the others I have dealt with either had three or four such screws. We shall see how it hold up.
I use Hitec radio equipment and found it to be quite adequate. I have never had a problem with it. I had all kinds of fits with Spectrum gear and got rid of it. I use Hitec servos too but they are standard and work with anybody's equipment.
So tomorrow, I will go fly - again. And I will continue to restore the UltraStik that ran into the electric fence will. I was old and had a lot of problems to fix. But surprisingly it came back together pretty goo, all though a bit heavier with fiber glass patches but stronger now.
Friday, September 4, 2015
Sad Day For Me . . .
Today, I resigned as Vice President of Walter Morrison Farm, Inc. I had to do that onerous task. I am in the midst of family fight. It is a sad day for me.
My family which owns Angeles Plantation (Walter Morrison Farm, Inc.). On the plantation is located the old family house, or as I refer to it as Angeles House. It was built in 1910 or there abouts, cypress, sits on raised piers and located on the front of the farm across the road from the Mississippi River levee. My cousin, Chris lived there with the provisio that he would take care of the place. Unfortunately the house had fallen into disrepair and we had to oust Chris for failing to do what was necessary to maintain the house.
So most of the family wants to sell the house and bit of land with it to relative, a descendant but not as yet a stockholder in the farm. That really has little bearing on the issue, it is the selling of the land. Selling the land is but the first step in eventual break up of the place. Some other stockholder will want some more money and request something else to be sold and in time, it will break up. Many of the old plantations along the Coast of Pointe Coupee have been broken up, and sold off. Some do not even have remnants of the old family home. Our family has had possession of this place since 1856, or at least part of it.
It is prime land for farming. It is also prime land for industrial development. It fronts directly on to the Mississippi River; it has major gas pipe lines through it, it has a major railroad through it, and it has a major state highway through it. So it has unlimited water, gas, and transportation access from water, rail and trucking. It is a jewel in the rough.
Yet the sale of just a little bit of our land to satisfy the sale of the family house is troubling. One can not make deed restrictions to ensure the house to sold back. Thus a hole is developed in the plantation where the house is owned by someone else. I want to sell the house and give an 50 year lease to the family member buyer. That was apparently not acceptable. The powers to be are going ahead with the sale.
The family has a Usufructs Agreement regarding the use of the land fronting the Mississippi River. The sale will abrogate the Usufructs Agreement. That agreement is set to expire noon, May 28, 2020. There is no written provision to prematurely end the agreement. Yet the corporation ownership, deems if a 70% majority of the stockholders want to sell the house and land, it can do so.
Well we shall see what the courts have to say about that. And that is why I am no longer on the board of directors and saddened.
My family which owns Angeles Plantation (Walter Morrison Farm, Inc.). On the plantation is located the old family house, or as I refer to it as Angeles House. It was built in 1910 or there abouts, cypress, sits on raised piers and located on the front of the farm across the road from the Mississippi River levee. My cousin, Chris lived there with the provisio that he would take care of the place. Unfortunately the house had fallen into disrepair and we had to oust Chris for failing to do what was necessary to maintain the house.
So most of the family wants to sell the house and bit of land with it to relative, a descendant but not as yet a stockholder in the farm. That really has little bearing on the issue, it is the selling of the land. Selling the land is but the first step in eventual break up of the place. Some other stockholder will want some more money and request something else to be sold and in time, it will break up. Many of the old plantations along the Coast of Pointe Coupee have been broken up, and sold off. Some do not even have remnants of the old family home. Our family has had possession of this place since 1856, or at least part of it.
It is prime land for farming. It is also prime land for industrial development. It fronts directly on to the Mississippi River; it has major gas pipe lines through it, it has a major railroad through it, and it has a major state highway through it. So it has unlimited water, gas, and transportation access from water, rail and trucking. It is a jewel in the rough.
Yet the sale of just a little bit of our land to satisfy the sale of the family house is troubling. One can not make deed restrictions to ensure the house to sold back. Thus a hole is developed in the plantation where the house is owned by someone else. I want to sell the house and give an 50 year lease to the family member buyer. That was apparently not acceptable. The powers to be are going ahead with the sale.
The family has a Usufructs Agreement regarding the use of the land fronting the Mississippi River. The sale will abrogate the Usufructs Agreement. That agreement is set to expire noon, May 28, 2020. There is no written provision to prematurely end the agreement. Yet the corporation ownership, deems if a 70% majority of the stockholders want to sell the house and land, it can do so.
Well we shall see what the courts have to say about that. And that is why I am no longer on the board of directors and saddened.
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Off to Wisconsin . . .
We are driving to Wisconsin to visit our grand children (and their parents). It is not too far, about 900 miles or so up through Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois and then into Wisconsin. Madison, the destination, is not to far into Wisconsin, and a very pleasant place to visit. It is moderately cosmopolitan city being both a state capital and home of the University of Wisconsin. It has two grand lakes, one huge and one not so big. Quite a beautiful place.
On the way back we will detour and go into Iowa to visit our friends who moved there from Ruidoso, NM. What a change in climate and location for them, from the desert and mountains to the plains and corn fields. It will be good to see them, they have stopped by to see us many times, so it is our turn to visit.
Then we will dash down I-35 back to Weatherford and the heat. But the new route back will be a change and thus a bit more fun to see the country side from a different direction. We will be traveling literally down the middle of the great USA.
We will be driving in relative comfort in the "whale." The whale is a big silver Lincoln Navigator. It is big and floats down the road, hence its name - the whale. Nice and cool in side, plenty of room and even has air conditioned seats. With satellite radio we can listen to uninterrupted talk radio, or music of our choice. While the whale consumes more gasoline it has a bigger gas tank, so we will stop in our usual spots to lunch and refuel on the way up. The way down will be for the most part an all new route for us.
We are looking forward to a cool respite but not sure what we will get up there in the frozen Narth. It can get really warm at times but that big lake tends to keep Madison comfortable. Hard to believe that in winter both lakes freeze over. Sailing in the summer and ice fishing in the winter.
On the way back we will detour and go into Iowa to visit our friends who moved there from Ruidoso, NM. What a change in climate and location for them, from the desert and mountains to the plains and corn fields. It will be good to see them, they have stopped by to see us many times, so it is our turn to visit.
Then we will dash down I-35 back to Weatherford and the heat. But the new route back will be a change and thus a bit more fun to see the country side from a different direction. We will be traveling literally down the middle of the great USA.
We will be driving in relative comfort in the "whale." The whale is a big silver Lincoln Navigator. It is big and floats down the road, hence its name - the whale. Nice and cool in side, plenty of room and even has air conditioned seats. With satellite radio we can listen to uninterrupted talk radio, or music of our choice. While the whale consumes more gasoline it has a bigger gas tank, so we will stop in our usual spots to lunch and refuel on the way up. The way down will be for the most part an all new route for us.
We are looking forward to a cool respite but not sure what we will get up there in the frozen Narth. It can get really warm at times but that big lake tends to keep Madison comfortable. Hard to believe that in winter both lakes freeze over. Sailing in the summer and ice fishing in the winter.
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Windows 10
I signed up for Windows 10 and it is in their terms "reserved" and will down load in the background. That they have to know what kind of computer I have. I suppose that is test to see if my computer can handle it.
I am pretty sure it can as it is relatively fast. It has a Intel dual core processor and speed of 2.5 GHz. I have four Gigs of RAM and perhaps 250 megabytes of space on my hard drive. So there ought to be plenty of room for the new system. I liked Windows 95, I had a battle loading Windows 98 but finally overcame that hurtle. I have Windows Millennium on this machine and my lap top. I have since converted them to Windows 7 Ultimate. Windows 7 was and is a pretty good operating system but I am sure it will get dropped in the next six or nine months. And the new system is free, so , , ,
I cringe at having to learn yet another system. I liked each one in the past and I guess I will convert soon enough. I used be a Word Perfect person but got overrun by Microsoft Word. I have literally lost all memory of Word Perfect. And I do not know if old applications like Quicken 6 or Word for Windows XP (I have downloaded various patches to get that to work).
So we move on ahead - again.
I am pretty sure it can as it is relatively fast. It has a Intel dual core processor and speed of 2.5 GHz. I have four Gigs of RAM and perhaps 250 megabytes of space on my hard drive. So there ought to be plenty of room for the new system. I liked Windows 95, I had a battle loading Windows 98 but finally overcame that hurtle. I have Windows Millennium on this machine and my lap top. I have since converted them to Windows 7 Ultimate. Windows 7 was and is a pretty good operating system but I am sure it will get dropped in the next six or nine months. And the new system is free, so , , ,
I cringe at having to learn yet another system. I liked each one in the past and I guess I will convert soon enough. I used be a Word Perfect person but got overrun by Microsoft Word. I have literally lost all memory of Word Perfect. And I do not know if old applications like Quicken 6 or Word for Windows XP (I have downloaded various patches to get that to work).
So we move on ahead - again.
Thursday, August 6, 2015
I Have Learned . . .
I have learned that when I get some kind of crazy response on the computer to go to Bing or Google and ask a question. The answer is usually there somewhere.
Most recent is I kept getting a message that said the Internet Explorer was not working yet it was. And the message of course popped up in the middle of the window being very obnoxious and persistent. Again and again it was occurring.
So I Googled it and sure enough I found five or six others had similar experiences. That tells me it is not unusual and that there has to be a fix. Sure enough there was a fix. One had to "reset" Internet Explorer. And there was step by step instructions from a real person from Windows. The first procedure did not work but the second one given did indeed work and I got Internet Explorer 11 reset and the irritant disappeared.
I recently got a medical report from my Cardiologist. And I took it apart literally phrase by phrase. I found the most innocuous phrase was the key one and what I thought was the bad one was not bad at all. The amazing thing was all of those phrases popped up when they were typed into Google or Bing. There was even a phrase about the shape of the pulse shown on the EKG that indicated an issue, precursor of heart disease. The report was from a Nuclear Stress test.
Those two search engines worked like a charm. And yes, there was some cause for concern in the Cardiologist's report. I now understand why he sent me off to do Computed Tomography Angiogram or CTA. That is a non-invasive close examination of my heart and its arteries.
A CTA is a fancy name for a modern computer run X-ray machine that is coupled into a EKG. The EKG tells the X-ray machine when the heart is resting and the X-ray machine takes pictures of the heart and the surrounding arteries that feed the heart muscle. And the CTA takes very narrow pictures, like one 256th of an inch width. This is very precise and non-invasive look at your (and in my case my) heart arteries. It can detect both hard and soft plaque in your arteries. Neither one is good. In my case it turns out that I have Arteriosclerosis or Atherosclerosis - hardening of the arteries. There is some blockage that ranges from 30% to 50% blockage in several locations. At this point nothing is done except taking drugs such as Metoprolol (Beta Blocker), baby sized Aspirin (blood thinner and known preventer of heart attacks), Analapril (Ace Inhibitor for blood pressure reduction) and exercise. Nothing will remove the Calcium and in time I may end up with a Stent installed but not yet.
The material of great concern is Calcium build up that keeps the arteries from being flexible. I have so far good blood flow but definite hardening of arteries. Since our blood carries at all times 1% or more Calcium, it will continue be it ever so slow (I hope). There also seems to be an ever so slight build up of Calcium on the left ventricle heart valve (not unexpected with all the other Calcium build up). The blood flow numbers are in the satisfactory range but not that great.
So I read the reports in detail, and checked all the details. I would not have had such access without a computer and being linked to the Internet. And I have acquired more words for my vocabulary like "Stenosis" which means narrowing. So if one hears he or she has stenosis, then you know you are getting plaque build up around the heart (not good).
My risk for a heart attack increases. Of course something will eventually kill us all. Perhaps a fatal heart attack is better than a prolonged cancer event. No matter, we do not get out of this world alive, some ways of departing are better than others.
And perhaps my curiosity and the Internet are not such good things for me to explore. Hmmmm.
Most recent is I kept getting a message that said the Internet Explorer was not working yet it was. And the message of course popped up in the middle of the window being very obnoxious and persistent. Again and again it was occurring.
So I Googled it and sure enough I found five or six others had similar experiences. That tells me it is not unusual and that there has to be a fix. Sure enough there was a fix. One had to "reset" Internet Explorer. And there was step by step instructions from a real person from Windows. The first procedure did not work but the second one given did indeed work and I got Internet Explorer 11 reset and the irritant disappeared.
I recently got a medical report from my Cardiologist. And I took it apart literally phrase by phrase. I found the most innocuous phrase was the key one and what I thought was the bad one was not bad at all. The amazing thing was all of those phrases popped up when they were typed into Google or Bing. There was even a phrase about the shape of the pulse shown on the EKG that indicated an issue, precursor of heart disease. The report was from a Nuclear Stress test.
Those two search engines worked like a charm. And yes, there was some cause for concern in the Cardiologist's report. I now understand why he sent me off to do Computed Tomography Angiogram or CTA. That is a non-invasive close examination of my heart and its arteries.
A CTA is a fancy name for a modern computer run X-ray machine that is coupled into a EKG. The EKG tells the X-ray machine when the heart is resting and the X-ray machine takes pictures of the heart and the surrounding arteries that feed the heart muscle. And the CTA takes very narrow pictures, like one 256th of an inch width. This is very precise and non-invasive look at your (and in my case my) heart arteries. It can detect both hard and soft plaque in your arteries. Neither one is good. In my case it turns out that I have Arteriosclerosis or Atherosclerosis - hardening of the arteries. There is some blockage that ranges from 30% to 50% blockage in several locations. At this point nothing is done except taking drugs such as Metoprolol (Beta Blocker), baby sized Aspirin (blood thinner and known preventer of heart attacks), Analapril (Ace Inhibitor for blood pressure reduction) and exercise. Nothing will remove the Calcium and in time I may end up with a Stent installed but not yet.
The material of great concern is Calcium build up that keeps the arteries from being flexible. I have so far good blood flow but definite hardening of arteries. Since our blood carries at all times 1% or more Calcium, it will continue be it ever so slow (I hope). There also seems to be an ever so slight build up of Calcium on the left ventricle heart valve (not unexpected with all the other Calcium build up). The blood flow numbers are in the satisfactory range but not that great.
So I read the reports in detail, and checked all the details. I would not have had such access without a computer and being linked to the Internet. And I have acquired more words for my vocabulary like "Stenosis" which means narrowing. So if one hears he or she has stenosis, then you know you are getting plaque build up around the heart (not good).
My risk for a heart attack increases. Of course something will eventually kill us all. Perhaps a fatal heart attack is better than a prolonged cancer event. No matter, we do not get out of this world alive, some ways of departing are better than others.
And perhaps my curiosity and the Internet are not such good things for me to explore. Hmmmm.
Monday, August 3, 2015
August is Here . . .
Aside from the Texas unbearable heat, August is here. School kids gearing up for school start, tax sale coming up soon for them to reequip themselves.
Grass is growing at a respectable rate, and watering must be done or the grass will burn up. We are after all in a semi-desert climate here. We get spring rains (sometimes) but summer is dry and parched. The farmers made a huge hay crop this year with the early and frequent rains. Lakes are full but are starting down again. Part of that is evaporation and part is due to no rain to refill them and of course the people are using the water. That is what most of the lakes are for, giant water reservoirs for our ever growing population.
I notice a lot of house starts this year, so part of the economy is back, Texas has done well with gas wells attracting out of state-ers to do the work. That makes the population go up and keeps the economy going strong. The rest of the country is not doing as well as we are here. All of that drives up the price of houses and the local tax assessors delight in the increased value and up our property taxes. My taxes are frozen and yet they raised them. Not sure about all of that but you can not fight city hall.
And near the end of the month we make our annual trek to Madison, WI to see the grandkids and their parents. Short visit. Supposed to have a crawfish boil p there, their crawfish come in later than ours with their cooler climate. Until recently, they did not have clue as to what to do with crawfish but enough of them spent some time in Louisiana and learned to enjoy them. So they are gradually catching on to the freshwater delicacy.
I can see the at boil now, where a young couple from Wisconsin will take three or four of the crawfish and eat them. And they will declare them wonderful and be done with it. Too messy to fool with and really it is fish bait. While the true aficionados will gobble down four or five pounds of them. They will look on with awe and wonder.
Then September is upon us and football season fires up for real. It will still be hot but we will find a cool place to watch the games.
Geaux Tigers!
Grass is growing at a respectable rate, and watering must be done or the grass will burn up. We are after all in a semi-desert climate here. We get spring rains (sometimes) but summer is dry and parched. The farmers made a huge hay crop this year with the early and frequent rains. Lakes are full but are starting down again. Part of that is evaporation and part is due to no rain to refill them and of course the people are using the water. That is what most of the lakes are for, giant water reservoirs for our ever growing population.
I notice a lot of house starts this year, so part of the economy is back, Texas has done well with gas wells attracting out of state-ers to do the work. That makes the population go up and keeps the economy going strong. The rest of the country is not doing as well as we are here. All of that drives up the price of houses and the local tax assessors delight in the increased value and up our property taxes. My taxes are frozen and yet they raised them. Not sure about all of that but you can not fight city hall.
And near the end of the month we make our annual trek to Madison, WI to see the grandkids and their parents. Short visit. Supposed to have a crawfish boil p there, their crawfish come in later than ours with their cooler climate. Until recently, they did not have clue as to what to do with crawfish but enough of them spent some time in Louisiana and learned to enjoy them. So they are gradually catching on to the freshwater delicacy.
I can see the at boil now, where a young couple from Wisconsin will take three or four of the crawfish and eat them. And they will declare them wonderful and be done with it. Too messy to fool with and really it is fish bait. While the true aficionados will gobble down four or five pounds of them. They will look on with awe and wonder.
Then September is upon us and football season fires up for real. It will still be hot but we will find a cool place to watch the games.
Geaux Tigers!
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
At Last . . .
At last I was able to get Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate to run games again. No not any special games, uploads and that sort, just the games that comes with the software.
I do not know how I got it to come back. I tried all the tricks, downloading KB files form Microsoft that had fixes in them, turning the games on and off several times. Rebooting again and again and installing more fixes to the software.
I had had a virus attack and had to resort to reload of the Windows 7 Ultimate software. I lost a lot of stuff but had a lot of stuff backed up. So I have all my old files, just got to reload them here and there. Back ups work!
But in the process somewhere along the way Microsoft decided I did not need the games. I found that they had issued a KB file, a fix if you will that they later had to unfix. It literally turned off the games and other stuff. So I saw all the discussion on that here and there. I was unable to find the errant KB file and that seemed to indicate the fix had found it and eradicated it. The discussion said that would happen, that the errant file would just disappear (of course I never found it in the updates, and there are about 90 to 100 updates, fixes, etc. to get the system back where it was before).
All the pundits said the games were there, And they were. They have appeared and I have used Solitaire again. I play Klondike exclusively, not the other games at all.
What is irritating is that the formats have changed a bit here and there. I have a copy of XP Office, and the package reloads even though it is XP software. Microsoft sends out a host of changes and makes it compatible with current software. I suspect the same basic stuff is used, just some compatibility updates are changed. Then you go through a bunch of updates. But when you open the software to use it the format or appearance has changed somewhat. I am sure some of that is in self configuration that I can change but that is a ton of work.
I use a Logitech mouse and key board. Logitcch software conflicts with Windows but the key board and the mouse work just fine. So I had to get rid of those files. That conflict is gone.
Since I have updated, reloaded my virus checker, I have captured no less than two Trojan Horse applications. And some how another virus checker appeared, 360 and it has caught a couple of problems too.
So be aware crap is floating around everywhere all the time. I now delete all address for forwarding mail. It seems that is a favorite spot for viruses to hide. Anyway, back to operating and still fixing.
I do not know how I got it to come back. I tried all the tricks, downloading KB files form Microsoft that had fixes in them, turning the games on and off several times. Rebooting again and again and installing more fixes to the software.
I had had a virus attack and had to resort to reload of the Windows 7 Ultimate software. I lost a lot of stuff but had a lot of stuff backed up. So I have all my old files, just got to reload them here and there. Back ups work!
But in the process somewhere along the way Microsoft decided I did not need the games. I found that they had issued a KB file, a fix if you will that they later had to unfix. It literally turned off the games and other stuff. So I saw all the discussion on that here and there. I was unable to find the errant KB file and that seemed to indicate the fix had found it and eradicated it. The discussion said that would happen, that the errant file would just disappear (of course I never found it in the updates, and there are about 90 to 100 updates, fixes, etc. to get the system back where it was before).
All the pundits said the games were there, And they were. They have appeared and I have used Solitaire again. I play Klondike exclusively, not the other games at all.
What is irritating is that the formats have changed a bit here and there. I have a copy of XP Office, and the package reloads even though it is XP software. Microsoft sends out a host of changes and makes it compatible with current software. I suspect the same basic stuff is used, just some compatibility updates are changed. Then you go through a bunch of updates. But when you open the software to use it the format or appearance has changed somewhat. I am sure some of that is in self configuration that I can change but that is a ton of work.
I use a Logitech mouse and key board. Logitcch software conflicts with Windows but the key board and the mouse work just fine. So I had to get rid of those files. That conflict is gone.
Since I have updated, reloaded my virus checker, I have captured no less than two Trojan Horse applications. And some how another virus checker appeared, 360 and it has caught a couple of problems too.
So be aware crap is floating around everywhere all the time. I now delete all address for forwarding mail. It seems that is a favorite spot for viruses to hide. Anyway, back to operating and still fixing.
Monday, July 20, 2015
More on Annuity . . .
Our little annuity is a joint annuity, not common, indeed rare is a problem in and of itself. So we had to do the paper work all over again because Judie is the primary and I am the secondary on the annuity. It has got to be in the right order or the insurance company does not accept it.
Then the original annuity insurance company wanted a certain form filled out. But they would not give it to us. T. Rowe Price, the overlay for the variable annuity said no such form is needed. Security Benefits, the annuity primary insurance company, said you have the form filed out, but we will not talk to you, you can only talk to T. Rowe Price. I call that a "Catch 22."
The new annuity insurance company helped us out, they had the secretive form. They sent it to me and I printed it out. But not before the computer decided it could not talk to the printer any more. I had to reload the printer to the computer (and in fact it is now loaded twice).
The form sent us was an *,xps form. I had to save it to the computer, pull it up in Microsoft Word to print it out. That was a task in an of itself. But we got it done.
Boy, annuity insurance companies are worse than banks. They just do not want to give you your money. The are PITA.
Then the original annuity insurance company wanted a certain form filled out. But they would not give it to us. T. Rowe Price, the overlay for the variable annuity said no such form is needed. Security Benefits, the annuity primary insurance company, said you have the form filed out, but we will not talk to you, you can only talk to T. Rowe Price. I call that a "Catch 22."
The new annuity insurance company helped us out, they had the secretive form. They sent it to me and I printed it out. But not before the computer decided it could not talk to the printer any more. I had to reload the printer to the computer (and in fact it is now loaded twice).
The form sent us was an *,xps form. I had to save it to the computer, pull it up in Microsoft Word to print it out. That was a task in an of itself. But we got it done.
Boy, annuity insurance companies are worse than banks. They just do not want to give you your money. The are PITA.
Sunday, July 19, 2015
Anatomy of a VA Claim . . .
The Veterans Department has changed again. I suppose change is a good thing but I am not so sure.
Before current procedure, one using one's SSN and Military serial number (which is your SSN), you filed your claim with the help of a Service Volunteer Organization (SVO) with the VA. SVO's maintain offices in the VA facility and do face to face time with the VA staff. There are a number of them, the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Disabled American Veterans (DAV), and so on. I am a life member of DAV and thus use their services. And it is all free.
Well the VA has changed again. Now one must file a VA form 21-526EZ. It is a ten page form, six pages of how to fill it out and even that is not enough. Then there is four pages to filled in. The nice thing is that most of it can be filled in on line and printed out. That makes it neat.
But you must sign it and have two witnesses to your signature. So that is a burden finding someone to witness your signature. Simple yes, finding someone is another matter. You can not use your own family as a witness. So you have to hunt up a neighbor willing to do the chore. That adds a day or two delay in getting that form up to speed.
Then you have to fill out the particular form for which you are making a claim. In my case that is VA form 21-0960A-1 and get your doctor to sign it. That usually entails a doctors appointment (not an uncostly event) but the good news is the doctors are cooperative. The doctors have all been beaten to death by Obamacare and VA to comply. There are laws you know.
Then you have to collect up the supporting documents, test reports, medical reports etc. Even though you do that and place all the cogent documents together and ship everything off to the VA, you will get a follow up letter from the VA asking for more information. Standard procedure.
Presuming you send enough data to the VA they may or may not chose to do a Compensation and Pension examination. Most of the time the VA uses an independent contractor to do the examination. Sometimes it is specialized like audio examination. And sometimes the VA elects to do the exam themselves, you never know which will occur. And sometimes your data is in and of its self sufficient to preclude further examination.
I do not know what will happen in my case. I have a Cardiologist that has diagnosed me with Atherosclerosis (hardening of the heart arteries). The VA can not deny such a diagnosis. And since I have included the Computing Tomography Angiogram report and the Cardiologist's own Nuclear Stress test, the VA may request I go off and do a further examination. But they can not deny the facts of the present data and diagnosis. Thank goodness I have Medicare and Tricare for Life or I would have been out of pocket a ton of money for the examinations and doctors visits.
So I will get the VA form 21-526EZ witnessed, place it and the other forms and documents in an envelop and ship it off to the DAV at Waco VA Regional Office. I am sure the DAV will look it over and them move it on to the VA for action.
Then we begin the count down of getting adjudication of the claim. My hearing claim was relatively simple and took about three months. I was given a rating of 10% for my Tinnitus but when that was added into the existing group of Service Connected Disabilities, it did not make a change to my over all rating of 90%. I do not know the out come of the potential rating, if it is 10%, probably no change in my overall rating. However, if the VA determines my new Service Connected Disability is 30%, them the ball game changes, I will probably be elevated to the rating of 100%.
We shall see what happens.
Before current procedure, one using one's SSN and Military serial number (which is your SSN), you filed your claim with the help of a Service Volunteer Organization (SVO) with the VA. SVO's maintain offices in the VA facility and do face to face time with the VA staff. There are a number of them, the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Disabled American Veterans (DAV), and so on. I am a life member of DAV and thus use their services. And it is all free.
Well the VA has changed again. Now one must file a VA form 21-526EZ. It is a ten page form, six pages of how to fill it out and even that is not enough. Then there is four pages to filled in. The nice thing is that most of it can be filled in on line and printed out. That makes it neat.
But you must sign it and have two witnesses to your signature. So that is a burden finding someone to witness your signature. Simple yes, finding someone is another matter. You can not use your own family as a witness. So you have to hunt up a neighbor willing to do the chore. That adds a day or two delay in getting that form up to speed.
Then you have to fill out the particular form for which you are making a claim. In my case that is VA form 21-0960A-1 and get your doctor to sign it. That usually entails a doctors appointment (not an uncostly event) but the good news is the doctors are cooperative. The doctors have all been beaten to death by Obamacare and VA to comply. There are laws you know.
Then you have to collect up the supporting documents, test reports, medical reports etc. Even though you do that and place all the cogent documents together and ship everything off to the VA, you will get a follow up letter from the VA asking for more information. Standard procedure.
Presuming you send enough data to the VA they may or may not chose to do a Compensation and Pension examination. Most of the time the VA uses an independent contractor to do the examination. Sometimes it is specialized like audio examination. And sometimes the VA elects to do the exam themselves, you never know which will occur. And sometimes your data is in and of its self sufficient to preclude further examination.
I do not know what will happen in my case. I have a Cardiologist that has diagnosed me with Atherosclerosis (hardening of the heart arteries). The VA can not deny such a diagnosis. And since I have included the Computing Tomography Angiogram report and the Cardiologist's own Nuclear Stress test, the VA may request I go off and do a further examination. But they can not deny the facts of the present data and diagnosis. Thank goodness I have Medicare and Tricare for Life or I would have been out of pocket a ton of money for the examinations and doctors visits.
So I will get the VA form 21-526EZ witnessed, place it and the other forms and documents in an envelop and ship it off to the DAV at Waco VA Regional Office. I am sure the DAV will look it over and them move it on to the VA for action.
Then we begin the count down of getting adjudication of the claim. My hearing claim was relatively simple and took about three months. I was given a rating of 10% for my Tinnitus but when that was added into the existing group of Service Connected Disabilities, it did not make a change to my over all rating of 90%. I do not know the out come of the potential rating, if it is 10%, probably no change in my overall rating. However, if the VA determines my new Service Connected Disability is 30%, them the ball game changes, I will probably be elevated to the rating of 100%.
We shall see what happens.
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Gonna Get Hot . . .
It hit 101 degrees yesterday and is gonna do it again today. We picked today to cut the grass. That includes cutting with a riding mower, not to bad in and of itself, edging and blowing with some hand sweeping. Those are the sweat makers. Gotta be done.
We had a nice visit from Judie's niece, Joan and her husband Dale from Pearland, TX. They were on there way to pick son Jonathan from Boy Scout camp in the local area. We had a nice four day stay and visit. Really enjoyed them and later Jonathan too.
They headed out yesterday in all that heat for Houston and home. They were looking for a Burger King, apparently Jonathan had a bad hankering for their food. Burger King for some reason has gone broke in the Fort Worth area. All their places are closed and morfed into something different now. Lots of Jack-in-the-Boxes, McDonalds and others but no Burger Kings here. One Burger King I know of is now an Emergency Clinic. Even Chic-fe-let is going strong but no Burger Kings.
Getting ready for the next cutting stage. That would be weed eating around trees and spots the lawn mower can not get to.
Drip, drip, wipe, drip.
We had a nice visit from Judie's niece, Joan and her husband Dale from Pearland, TX. They were on there way to pick son Jonathan from Boy Scout camp in the local area. We had a nice four day stay and visit. Really enjoyed them and later Jonathan too.
They headed out yesterday in all that heat for Houston and home. They were looking for a Burger King, apparently Jonathan had a bad hankering for their food. Burger King for some reason has gone broke in the Fort Worth area. All their places are closed and morfed into something different now. Lots of Jack-in-the-Boxes, McDonalds and others but no Burger Kings here. One Burger King I know of is now an Emergency Clinic. Even Chic-fe-let is going strong but no Burger Kings.
Getting ready for the next cutting stage. That would be weed eating around trees and spots the lawn mower can not get to.
Drip, drip, wipe, drip.
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
CTA . . .
CTA means Computed Tomography Angiography. A fancy term or name for a very fancy X-ray machine that looks at your heart or other parts of your body like lungs. In my case it was looking at the heart and the arteries that service the heart.
The out come of the test is a Calcium Score. A Radiologist must examine the X-rays and do their thing. It is not a single picture, it may be several thousand shots of the heart and computer joins them up. This makes a precise picture so the Radiologist can assess the situation. And the machine circles your torso, so they can see the backsides, the sides and the front of the heart.
I had one of these done about a year ago here in Fort Worth. The precision in this case was 1/64th of an inch. That is how small the slices are that go into the picture. While I do not know the Calcium Score from that test it prompted my Cardiologist to do a Nuclear Stress test. But I blew through the Nuclear Stress test with no apparent restrictions to my heart or its servicing arteries.
He said, "Well maybe that is just one of those things. See me next year." And I did, and he immediately he had me do another Nuclear Stress test.
Again I blew through the test peaking at a METs of 7. I was asked by the nurse conducting the test if I wanted to go higher and I replied, "No, if 7 METs was good enough."
So now they sent me off to another CTA except this time the Siemens X-ray machine can achieve a precision of 1/256th of an inch. This allows the Cardiologist and Radiologist to see down into the Lumen of the artery and into the inner artery. They can then somewhat measure the stenosis. That means the amount of restriction, if there is one.
I did a bit of research and the Calcium build up increases with age and I am of age. All the reading material was talking about men that were between 50 and 60 years of age and I am well beyond that age.
But if one has a Calcium Score of less than a 100 that seems to be okay. The maximum score is 400. Those persons that have a score between 100 and 300 are the target group. It is said that if you have plaque build up from Calcium (the CTA can not measure plaque formed from Lipids only Calcium) then they treat you.
The treatment is a Statin, a Beta Blocker, an ACE Inhibitor and a baby or full sized Aspirin. I have been taking the treatment for years.
If the Calcium build up is on your heart valves the valves can be removed and replaced taking care of that problem.
Of interest I am of high risk because I am Diabetic, family has a history of heart problems and I am treated for high blood pressure. Couple that with age things can get worse.
The out come of the CTA is a non-invasive Angiogram. The next step may be a regular Angiography and Angioplasty where they can install a stent if necessary. That is an invasive procedure. The procedure is more risky.
Finally, I exercise regularly with walking and I am asymptomatic, meaning I do not have an symptoms like Angina. I do not have heart burn or other chest pains or pains across my shoulders. Blood pressure is treated and under control
So now we wait the results. Could be that I do indeed have Coronary Artery Disease (the VA calls that Ischemic Heart Disease or IHD). So if things are positive for the disease, then I will file with the VA for another Service Connected disability related to Agent Orange. I would rather not have the disease but . . .
The out come of the test is a Calcium Score. A Radiologist must examine the X-rays and do their thing. It is not a single picture, it may be several thousand shots of the heart and computer joins them up. This makes a precise picture so the Radiologist can assess the situation. And the machine circles your torso, so they can see the backsides, the sides and the front of the heart.
I had one of these done about a year ago here in Fort Worth. The precision in this case was 1/64th of an inch. That is how small the slices are that go into the picture. While I do not know the Calcium Score from that test it prompted my Cardiologist to do a Nuclear Stress test. But I blew through the Nuclear Stress test with no apparent restrictions to my heart or its servicing arteries.
He said, "Well maybe that is just one of those things. See me next year." And I did, and he immediately he had me do another Nuclear Stress test.
Again I blew through the test peaking at a METs of 7. I was asked by the nurse conducting the test if I wanted to go higher and I replied, "No, if 7 METs was good enough."
So now they sent me off to another CTA except this time the Siemens X-ray machine can achieve a precision of 1/256th of an inch. This allows the Cardiologist and Radiologist to see down into the Lumen of the artery and into the inner artery. They can then somewhat measure the stenosis. That means the amount of restriction, if there is one.
I did a bit of research and the Calcium build up increases with age and I am of age. All the reading material was talking about men that were between 50 and 60 years of age and I am well beyond that age.
But if one has a Calcium Score of less than a 100 that seems to be okay. The maximum score is 400. Those persons that have a score between 100 and 300 are the target group. It is said that if you have plaque build up from Calcium (the CTA can not measure plaque formed from Lipids only Calcium) then they treat you.
The treatment is a Statin, a Beta Blocker, an ACE Inhibitor and a baby or full sized Aspirin. I have been taking the treatment for years.
If the Calcium build up is on your heart valves the valves can be removed and replaced taking care of that problem.
Of interest I am of high risk because I am Diabetic, family has a history of heart problems and I am treated for high blood pressure. Couple that with age things can get worse.
The out come of the CTA is a non-invasive Angiogram. The next step may be a regular Angiography and Angioplasty where they can install a stent if necessary. That is an invasive procedure. The procedure is more risky.
Finally, I exercise regularly with walking and I am asymptomatic, meaning I do not have an symptoms like Angina. I do not have heart burn or other chest pains or pains across my shoulders. Blood pressure is treated and under control
So now we wait the results. Could be that I do indeed have Coronary Artery Disease (the VA calls that Ischemic Heart Disease or IHD). So if things are positive for the disease, then I will file with the VA for another Service Connected disability related to Agent Orange. I would rather not have the disease but . . .
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Bill . . .
Tropical Storm Bill, that is. Bill is here dumping on us. Not much wind but lots of rain. And guess what, we have painters and they can not do much.
But we are collecting a lot of water and there will be flash floods and lots of water damage around us. The lakes are already full, and the rivers had just started to reside and get back to normal and now this. So TV will be full of weathermen, an occasional twister will touch down, and roads will be flooded.
That means yet another gush of water down the Red River towards Louisiana. Those folks around Shreveport may just get flooded again. I know when the water reaches the Atchafalaya River it will not be a problem, the big river can easily handle the flow. And it will have no effect on the Mississippi River at all. So South Louisiana is at no risk, but from Shreveport to Simsport, it ain't gonna be so nice.
Around here it will be yet another disaster. The ranchers are happy, the grass is tall and green and the cattle are fat. So for some it is blessing, for others it will be a wet hell.
We personally are high above the local flood plain. No danger of us getting flooded, but those close to us may indeed suffer. I am sure the Brazos will be out of its banks again and Possum Kingdom Lake will be releasing water down stream. Lake Grandbury will also be releasing water further down the Brazos. Both of those man made lakes are on the Brazos River. There are other similar lakes to the south of us.
Just a few months ago we were facing severe drought, now it is floods. We will have plenty of water for next year, or really the remainder of this year. Next year may or may not be a drought depending on winter rains. At least we do not have use our irrigation well for a while. The St. Augustine grass is loving it. It is spreading like wild fire through out the yard.
Just remember you may get what you wish for. The Texans have wished, nay prayed, for rain. Now they have it and it is literally more than they can handle.
But we are collecting a lot of water and there will be flash floods and lots of water damage around us. The lakes are already full, and the rivers had just started to reside and get back to normal and now this. So TV will be full of weathermen, an occasional twister will touch down, and roads will be flooded.
That means yet another gush of water down the Red River towards Louisiana. Those folks around Shreveport may just get flooded again. I know when the water reaches the Atchafalaya River it will not be a problem, the big river can easily handle the flow. And it will have no effect on the Mississippi River at all. So South Louisiana is at no risk, but from Shreveport to Simsport, it ain't gonna be so nice.
Around here it will be yet another disaster. The ranchers are happy, the grass is tall and green and the cattle are fat. So for some it is blessing, for others it will be a wet hell.
We personally are high above the local flood plain. No danger of us getting flooded, but those close to us may indeed suffer. I am sure the Brazos will be out of its banks again and Possum Kingdom Lake will be releasing water down stream. Lake Grandbury will also be releasing water further down the Brazos. Both of those man made lakes are on the Brazos River. There are other similar lakes to the south of us.
Just a few months ago we were facing severe drought, now it is floods. We will have plenty of water for next year, or really the remainder of this year. Next year may or may not be a drought depending on winter rains. At least we do not have use our irrigation well for a while. The St. Augustine grass is loving it. It is spreading like wild fire through out the yard.
Just remember you may get what you wish for. The Texans have wished, nay prayed, for rain. Now they have it and it is literally more than they can handle.
Thursday, April 16, 2015
The Iris' Are Blooming . . .
It is spring and the Iris blooming season is upon us. Here are a few from my yard here in Weatherford, TX
More . . .
And more . . .
I still have a couple yet to bloom. They will be in the blog.
More . . .
And more . . .
I still have a couple yet to bloom. They will be in the blog.
Monday, April 6, 2015
Just Words . . .
Well plastered all over the news outlets are entries about the Iran nuclear deal. There are Obama's glowing comments and then there are the Iranian glowing comments about hour great the deal is. They do not seem to coalesce, they do not fit together, something dire is missing.
And no specifics have been released. The Iranians hint at that they got everything they wanted. No facts.
Obama says it is an unbelievable good deal. No facts.
Sounds like classic BS to me. And the USA is getting screwed. I hope Congress wakes up. I hope the Senate takes a good look at what is going on. None of it is any good. I do not hear one general officer saying how great it is. Something is missing.
And both sides say the details have to be worked out. That means there is no deal. It means the American people are being misled. Sounds to me like "If you like your insurance, you can keep your insurance." And "Your new insurance will cost less ." We all know what happened. None of that was true at the git go.
This President is hell bent on giving something to the Muslim world. Nobody knows why and does not understand it. He is a true lame duck and he is trying like hell to get away with a fast one.
Beware America, beware. The Israelis are right!
And no specifics have been released. The Iranians hint at that they got everything they wanted. No facts.
Obama says it is an unbelievable good deal. No facts.
Sounds like classic BS to me. And the USA is getting screwed. I hope Congress wakes up. I hope the Senate takes a good look at what is going on. None of it is any good. I do not hear one general officer saying how great it is. Something is missing.
And both sides say the details have to be worked out. That means there is no deal. It means the American people are being misled. Sounds to me like "If you like your insurance, you can keep your insurance." And "Your new insurance will cost less ." We all know what happened. None of that was true at the git go.
This President is hell bent on giving something to the Muslim world. Nobody knows why and does not understand it. He is a true lame duck and he is trying like hell to get away with a fast one.
Beware America, beware. The Israelis are right!
Monday, March 30, 2015
Angeles Plantation . . .
Old Angeles Plantation is heating up. We think the old place was built in 1910 or so and still stands patiently on its spot along the Mississippi River in Pointe Coupee Parish. The plantation, the land, is the holdings of my Grandfather, Walter Christian Morrison. The original land holdings of the Morrison's lies to the west of Angeles, Angeles was inherited by my grandfather from Brunswick Plantation, the pre-civil war holdings of Jacob Haight Morrison and his wife, Corrine Landry. Walter Christian was but one of many children. Today both Jacob Haight and Corrine's portraits hang in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C.
My grandfather insisted on his share being given to him. The others left theirs to be handled by his brother, Edward. Edward eventually lost Brunswick and the Thibaut family owned and farmed Brunswick for years. Today, Brunswick belongs to Jobie Beaud and he will be the new leaser of Angeles.
Walter also acquired his half sisters share, Matilda. Sister Mat's share and his share comprise one half of Angeles, the remainder were acquired by Walter Christian over time roughly doubling the size of the present day land holdings. Angeles, I believe is 18 Arpents wide and 80 Arpents more or less deep. Generally the place faces the Mississippi as Mississippi flows from west to east, so Angeles is oriented north to south.
The Mississippi River levee fronting the plantation was moved back but since the house was located close to the river, the levee kind of goes around it. The levee for years had an off set in front of the east side of the place. The Atchafalaya Levee Board in the early 60s adjusted the levee at that knee. So it is not so apparent now days and the new levee orientation makes Angeles off square with the levee. And it is perilously close to the levee forcing the paved road in front of it to be sited right next to the levee.
In the 1980's my father, a registered Civil Engineer, surveyed the plantation, tying the property markings in with the existing markers on the back of the place. The rear property line fell into the middle of the "portage canal" with runs east to west providing drainage for the local region. So he installed an offset line well within our present day holdings and the canal. That allow a future spoil bank for cleaning out the canal. In surveying the property line he detect a 20 second error and accommodated that into the modern day survey. He then filed the survey at the Clerk of Courts office and now it is an official and legal description of the plantation. Since it coincides with other properties it is locked in.
No one of the family lives full time at Angeles anymore. It is now a family corporation with the original ownership converted to shares. We no longer farm it, but we do rent it to farmers. We just recently changed tenants and are letting it return to sugar cane My grandfather was a sugar cane planter, so it is appropriate.
I was named for both of my grandfathers, William deGraffenreid and Walter Christian Morrison, so I am one of the many WC Morrison around except it is William Christian not Walter Christian. They, for the most part, are Walter Christians but not me. I do carry Walter Christian Morrison's nick name, Chippy. He was known to pack a pistol and only his close friends ever called him by his nick name. No other Morrison carries the name Chippy. But there are a host of William C's and Walter C's floating around the states.
So Angeles house is over a hundred years old. It is showing its age.
w
My grandfather insisted on his share being given to him. The others left theirs to be handled by his brother, Edward. Edward eventually lost Brunswick and the Thibaut family owned and farmed Brunswick for years. Today, Brunswick belongs to Jobie Beaud and he will be the new leaser of Angeles.
Walter also acquired his half sisters share, Matilda. Sister Mat's share and his share comprise one half of Angeles, the remainder were acquired by Walter Christian over time roughly doubling the size of the present day land holdings. Angeles, I believe is 18 Arpents wide and 80 Arpents more or less deep. Generally the place faces the Mississippi as Mississippi flows from west to east, so Angeles is oriented north to south.
The Mississippi River levee fronting the plantation was moved back but since the house was located close to the river, the levee kind of goes around it. The levee for years had an off set in front of the east side of the place. The Atchafalaya Levee Board in the early 60s adjusted the levee at that knee. So it is not so apparent now days and the new levee orientation makes Angeles off square with the levee. And it is perilously close to the levee forcing the paved road in front of it to be sited right next to the levee.
In the 1980's my father, a registered Civil Engineer, surveyed the plantation, tying the property markings in with the existing markers on the back of the place. The rear property line fell into the middle of the "portage canal" with runs east to west providing drainage for the local region. So he installed an offset line well within our present day holdings and the canal. That allow a future spoil bank for cleaning out the canal. In surveying the property line he detect a 20 second error and accommodated that into the modern day survey. He then filed the survey at the Clerk of Courts office and now it is an official and legal description of the plantation. Since it coincides with other properties it is locked in.
No one of the family lives full time at Angeles anymore. It is now a family corporation with the original ownership converted to shares. We no longer farm it, but we do rent it to farmers. We just recently changed tenants and are letting it return to sugar cane My grandfather was a sugar cane planter, so it is appropriate.
I was named for both of my grandfathers, William deGraffenreid and Walter Christian Morrison, so I am one of the many WC Morrison around except it is William Christian not Walter Christian. They, for the most part, are Walter Christians but not me. I do carry Walter Christian Morrison's nick name, Chippy. He was known to pack a pistol and only his close friends ever called him by his nick name. No other Morrison carries the name Chippy. But there are a host of William C's and Walter C's floating around the states.
So Angeles house is over a hundred years old. It is showing its age.
w
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