The Eyes Have It . . . Revisited

After many years of using our Ophthalmologist I have ceased our relationship.  The reason is that the Ophthalmologist himself no longer sees patients unless they are coming to him for surgery, he hands off his normal patients to his staff Optometrist for service.

And for a number of years this was okay, then he got a certain Optometrist who upon examining my eyes decided I had severe Ocular Hypertension.  All previous staff Optometrist had concluded my eye pressures were high but were normal for me.  I had seen at their request a Retina Ophthalmologist and he did not find any problems either.

Time passed and the staff changed, and I was left with the same Optometrist.  He immediately, had more tests done and set me up for another appointment in 30 days.  When I came in for the appointment, a technician greeted me as normal and then took me into a room I had be through before.  She was going to give a Goldman test. 

I stopped her, and said, "Why were we doing this test, I thought I had a special appointment with the Optometrist."

She said, "No, this was a normal annual test to determine if I had Glaucoma."

I replied. "I am not taking this test, it is a waste of time.  If this is what is going to happen, cancel the appointment."

She tried to convince me to see another different staff Optometrist.  By then I had become convinced the staff was just generating work that was unnecessary.  I had concluded that all the past history I had with the doctor was never looked at or just disregarded.   Each appointment was just a new appointment without any past consultation or review of history.  I was wasting my time and government resources to continue to use this doctor or this facility.

I contacted my normal personal physician and requested a referral to a local Ophthalmologist.  The old one was over 50 miles away and perhaps a local one would be better.  He gave me two references and I used one of them.

I had to wait about three months to see him, but just completed my initial visit with him.  His technician was excellent, thorough and fast.  We did a one additional test.

I saw the doctor, explained my concerns and why I was seeing him.  He examined me, looked at the test results and gave me a technical explanation regarding his examination.  He concluded my eye pressures were normal and my other special test said I was in the acceptable range.   His examination of my retinas was normal and I did not have any vision problems.  In fact, he said, "See me next year."

I feel vindicated and relieved.  I now know I was indeed being "worked" to keep the level of attendance up at my old eye doctors office.  They had a staff that they had to support and thus kept things going so to speak.  All unnecessary and at cost to my insurance carrier, the US Government.

As usual the adage comes to mine, Buyer Beware!

Thanksgiving Closing In On US . . .

In just a few days will be Thanksgiving celebration with big eats for all.  This year Jacob and his family are coming, Chris will be here and James and Joan will do the cooking at our house.  There will be grand kids and great grand kids running all over the place.  Sleep accommodations are stretched to the point we have to rent hotel rooms for some of the guests.  We will have between 18 or 19 guests.

Right now the only doubtful guest is Grandson James Dunn who is a student at University of Oklahoma and it is an iffy if he will attend.  I am pretty sure he will attend but you never know what a young adult may opt to do with his precious time off for the school grind.  Who can blame him for running off to South Padre Island or even Florida.

But there are issues more than hotel rooms.  About 10 days ago the main inside refrigerator died.  Well no problem, there are stores like Lowe's and Home Depot that sell refrigerators of all kinds.  We did a bit of shopping and did purchase a super duper refrigerator from Lowe's.  Now here's the rub.  They do not have it in stock so it must be shipped in.

Okay the shipped in deal takes three to five days.  And we got a call from Lowe's that the machine was indeed here.  But getting from "here" to the house is another matter.  It appears to me that here is a central location in the Dallas/Fort Worth complex that all the local Lowe's stores use and access.  So getting the refrigerator from "here" to the house is yet another scheduled event.  And it only occurs in our neighborhood twice a month even though the local Lowe's is only five miles away.

So now we have to wait for the refrigerator to be delivered.  The delivery is scheduled, and say scheduled because we have no idea what will really happen, for Tuesday, November 21 or just three days before Thanksgiving.

We take supposedly delivery of a smoked turkey on the 21st, deliver by lord who knows and must pick up a spiral sliced ham on the same day.  Got to put those suckers somewhere for a couple of days.  They are bulky and require cooled space.

We do have a spare refrigerator in the garage, an old Sears machine that just keeps on going.  It is maxed out already with cold drinks and its freezer is fully stocked.  In other words, space is limited and no turkey or ham will fit in the remaining space.  It is a fine old side by side machine we bought in Arizona back in 1997, we removed the ice maker for more space in the freezer portion but it is filled up with stuff, some of which came out of the inside dead refrigerator.  So current cooled space is at a premium for existing food stuffs and no room for a smoked turkey or a spiral sliced ham.

So that new super duper doozy of a refrigerator, ala LG brand, had damn well better show up or we are up the proverbial creek.  I am sure it will arrive.

It is black stainless steel finish (we could not find a just black refrigerator), has "French Doors," a pull out storage area that can be a crisper or a freezer by selection, a see-through right door, LCD lighting and a freezer on the bottom.  It is a counter depth unit as that is what our kitchen space allows. The ice maker/cold water dispenser is in the left door (and so is the filter).  The filter was a big deal to me as I had a lot of trouble with filter in the dead refrigerator located in the refrigerator section up in the top right corner.  Not a very convenient place nor easy to deal with.

The lighted door thing is a "tap on, tap off" rig.  A double tap on the right door of the new machine allows you to see what is on the door shelves inside the refrigerator.  On the left door is displayed the controls and the temperatures.  Kinda swanky-funky thing but meets our needs.

We saw the same machine at Home Depot as at Lowe's but Lowe's gave us an additional military discount.  Home Depot said that all their units were already deeply discounted.  We the same unit at Lowe's was 10% cheaper to us than at the Home Depot.  We also looked at Best Buy, and they had basically all the same units at slightly higher prices and no discounts.

Mean while we are keeping our fingers cross and hope it all works out.  Now I have to locate a heater for the back patio.  I'm hoping Harbor Freight is going to doing the trick for us.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Stimulator . . .

Judie had a back stimulator emplaced Friday (the 13th, I hope not a bad omen).  This device has two electrodes that run parallel to the spine in the lower back.  The stimulator also has a battery emplanted with the stimulating device and its electrodes.

The battery is charged through the skin by a remote device worn as a patch or on a belt.  It also comes with a control that changes the intensity of the charges emitted by the stimulator.  The charges mask or depress the pain signals to the brain.

She has a remote control that regulates the intensity of the charges that are emitted.  Right now it is set between 10 and 15%.  She sets the intensity by how she senses pain or feels the charges.  Over stimulation seems to be indicated by making the legs jitter.  No pun intended but she is feeling her way into how to set the device.

Her control is also recharged and goes with her every where.  She can even turn the stimulator off and must do so to drive a car.  But otherwise it will be own all the time.  She can ride in a car with it on, just not drive the car with it on.

We hope that with the stimulator she can get of Tramadol, an opiate, and perhaps Lyrica also.  We know at least the Tramadol can be stopped or used in frequently with the stimulator in operation.

The procedure is arduous as both its battery and the device with its electrodes are inside the body, not unlike a pace maker for some heart patients.  The life of the device is as much as 12 years but must be charged weekly.  So the operation while simple takes a lot of time and a lot stitches to deal with.  So there is local pain for a while.  So there is a healing time with it all.

But already she stands taller.  So I can see it is a positive step forward.  Unfortunately, the stimulator only takes care of about 60% of the pain from the spine.  But that may be enough to grant significant relief for her.

This particular type of stimulator permits the MRI process to be done.  We know that some time in the future she will yet have more MRI's done on her back.  The other brand limited the area of the MRI examinations.  We did not want that for obvious reasons.

And as usual whether we like it or not, life goes on.

Samsung Galaxy 8 plus . . .

Judie got a new cellphone today.  It has been a struggle.  Passwords that don't agree, new passwords, use of secondary EMail, setting up Primary EMail, lost apps, failure of transfer of specific data.  In a word, frustrating.

The clerking helping us reset passwords to get into Kindle.  Kindle is an Amazon product, so that password was reset.  Well it was not reset, a new Amazon account was set up and Judie lost all her previous books, references, etc. from the old Kindle account.  Good news is the new Kindle account results in 30 days of free stuff (books?).  Is that good or bad.

We finally got AOL back as an EMail service.  Except it is buried under a G Mail account.
Got to open G Mail, and then scroll down to AOL and open the EMail account.  Sort of circle around and get issue.  Disliked, why can't it just pull up AOL with  out a ton of going around in circles.  It simply means Samsung wants you to go to their preferred mail service and makes it harder to get to the mail service you want.

Good news is the new phone is taller and is all screen format.  No buttons on the surface, just on/off on the side like always.

Sneaky way to pay for the phone now.  One must lease the phone for 18 months and then buy the phone.  Yes, you can buy it outright but it costs more that way.  Means more cash flow for the leaser,
Sprint.  Also means they got you for 18 months for sure.  And probably at the end of 18 months there will be a Galaxy XX.

The memory chip for the old cellphone was moved over to the new phone.  No charge for that.  Oh, yeah, there was a charge for the screen cover and case.  That is a must requirement as the Galaxy 8 has glass on the front and back.  No dropping this phone.

Well, Judie does not like change but she will gradually adapt the new cellphone and then will not be able to live without it.  But there will be some frustration until she gets it all down.

Life goes on . . .

The Eyes Have it . . .

We drove 50 some odd miles to Grapevine, TX for my eye appointment.  We waited in the waiting room for about 45 minutes and then I was called by the eye technician.   Nice young lady and was ushered into the room with the Goldman test apparatus.  I asked what that was for and she said it was an annual test for me.

I said, "Excuse me, I am here only 30 days from my last appointment and this was not an annual requirement that I know of."

She said, "My records showed it was due.  That as a candidate for Glaucoma you get this test annually."

I said, "I was here for a 30 day follow up not any testing for Glaucoma."

We then had a long discussion and it seems the Optometrist is off on a wild goose chase because I have high pressures in my eyes.  That is referred to as "Ocular Hypertension"  and can lead to Glaucoma.  However, my mother had the same problem for years as I do and died at 78 without any Glaucoma developing.

I said I have previously been diagnosed by this office as having high eye pressure as a normal occurrence.  The staff had rolled over and the relatively new Optometrist wanted me to have all this rigormaroll all over again.  I requested that I see the primary, Dr. Labor, an Ophthalmologist, and MD.  She said the doctor only dealt with surgery cases now days.  She could get me another Optometrist and I said no, that was the issue.

I had even been to a Retina Specialist, another Ophthalmologist some five years back.  He proclaimed at the end of the examination I had 20% chance of having a detached Retina in five years.  Five years have passed and no detached Retina, indeed not Retina problems.

So we stopped all activity and I walked out of the office.  She later chased me down in the parking lot and gave me the name of the records person so that my charts could be transferred.  I thanked her.  Like I said, she was a nice technician.

We will seek out an Ophthalmologist locally as recommended by our local physician.  And I will write a letter to our former Ophthalmologist, Dr. Kirk Labor explaining why I am leaving his service.

The problem being I went through all this testing and the former Optometrist on Dr. Labor's staff concluded that my Ocular Hypertension was normal for me.  It was readily apparent the current Optometrist had not read my past charts and if he did, he did not agree with them.  We have a term in the  USAF called "Heads up and locked."  It means a fighter pilot is not watching behind him, around him in all directions.   That is he is locked in on something and is not doing due diligence.  That gets you killed in the USAF.  It gets you more appointments from this person and I was not having it.

The thing is it has become readily apparent that as patients with solid insurance (Medicare and TRICARE for Life) we are golden in paying for services.  So they find more and more reasons to see us often when it is not really needed or required.  Judie has 14 different doctors now, I have three and the third one, the eye doctor,  has shuffled us off to his minions.

I think the young lady, the technician, got the drift of what was going on.  She was nice too.  She offered to get another Optometrist but that is the issue.  I wanted to see an Ophthalmologist, not another eye mechanic who is trained to sell glasses.

We drove home, a hundred mile round trip that was a total waste.

Annual Trip . . . .

Our annual trip to New Orleans is over.  Well, it is not always annual, sometimes other things get in the way but not this year.  Harvey sounded like it was going to interrupt us but no, it pushed on through Louisiana with out much trouble to anyone.

As we left the Dallas area I say gasoline price posted as $2.99 a gallon.  By the time we reached Tyler, TX is was down to $2.52  a gallon.  We finally tanked up in Natchitoches at $2,34 per gallon.
Surprise, surprise, gas was $2.28 in New Roads.  It was down to $2.25 in Baton Rouge.

We spent the night at the camp.  It was all quite, all things were functional and a quite stay.  That was Labor Day night.  We got up and packed the car and departed for New Orleans.  We went via the Audubon  bridge as we filled up with gas at Walmart in New Roads.  Drove very leisurely down to New Orleans and the Monteleone Hotel.  The navigation system got screwed up since the streets it wanted us to travel were being blocked and worked on.  So we trolled around and the system picked up again and took us to the front of the hotel.

We were a bit early but checked in and they gave us a room on the 14th floor.  As usual it was small but very nicely appointed and spotlessly clean,  The bathrooms at the hotel are tremendous and well appointed.

We got cleaned up and took off for Galitoire's.   Bourbon Street was torn up, no car traffic at all.  The middle of the street was all dug up and we could see that they were putting down new and better pavement.  But no problem, we skirted around and got into Galitoire's.  Our waitress of choice, Amber was there and took care of us.

In spite of Judie's poor mobility we still got around, Café DuMonde for Beignets the next morning.  On down to the French Market and poked around a bit.  Then back to the hotel.  We had lunch on the way back and joint called the Chartres House.   Just a bar with food on the corner of Chartres behind the Royal Orleans Hotel.  But the oyster po-boy was outstanding.

That night we ate at a restaurant located just off from the hotel, in an alley.  The food was excellent though pricey.  I enjoyed duck and Judie dined on various appetizers.  Then a short walk back to the hotel and in for the night.

Next day we left, drove up to Opelousas and ate at Kelly's Diner.  I had gumbo and Judie had the plate lunch of beef and on a bed of rice.  I suppose it was roast beef but she said some pieces were tender and others were not.  Not quite what I would call hash but close. '

From there we drove up to Washington to see the antiques place located in the old school house.  It was, alas, closed.  But it was a recent high school, looked like it had been closed 10 or 15 years, complete with a gym.  Totally abandoned to become a building of antique vendors.  Heavily advertised but it too was in decline, and not open except on week ends.

We press on back to New Roads.  We late in the new restaurant that is ocated in the old Popeyes place.  We both had salads, I enjoyed mine a, a Ceasar with grilled shrimp on top.

And odd day, breakfast at Café DuMonde in New Orleans, lunch in Opelousas and dinner in New Roads.  A culinary trip.

We rose Friday and charged back to Weatherford.  It felt good to be home again.  We had a good time and enjoyed ourselves.

Harvey Strikes Us. . .

Yes, we who got about an inch of rain out of Harvey up here in the D/FW area and now under the hammer.  The strike is no repeat no gasoline.  All the stations are closed, bags on the pumps, no gas to pump.  Just around the corner from us is a Magellan Pipeline terminal.  No gas is flow up from the south.  I guess we will be getting gas trucked in from Tyler, there is a refinery there.  There is yet another one a Long View and still another at Mansfield all of them between Dallas and Shreveport.  I am sure there is a refinery at Shreveport too.  There are bunch of refineries in Louisiana but that is once again up stream from us.  And I am sure there is one at Oklahoma City.  But all these facilities are set up to flow one way - up the east coast.

The President has released oil out of the strategic oil reserve to Lake Charles refineries.  And I am sure the problem will not be so bad in Louisiana as in Texas.  Got to get those refineries back on line now, if not tomorrow.  The whole D/FW area will slowly collapse and come to a stand still.

It happened over night.  And I am sure by tomorrow we will see cars on the side of the road that have run out of gas.  These people will not know what to do.  They will panic.

Gouging has already started.  Gas stations still open are only taking cash.  That means no audit trail to deal with and thus the prices will be hiked way beyond the real number.  I hope they get caught and in Texas there is big time fines like up to $250,000 per incident.  It is designed to teach a hard lesson.  There is always some dope who thinks he can get away with it and will get caught.  People will cheer and boycott his business in the future.  A really stupid mistake.

I got 10.62 gallons for $33 dollars.  The idiot let me use a credit card so there will be an audit trail and believe me I will file a complaint.  And I hope the jerk gets fined big time.  Put him out of business.

Harvey has struck us too.

Radio Control Flying . . .

Well things are settling out.  My wife is finally moving around quite easily and is in perhaps the last step regarding her back surgery.  She is going to have a pain stimulator installed in her lower back to help with the residual pain she suffers.  She is able to drive and get around now but will be better after the stimulator installation.  She will not need as much attention as I now spend with her and I can get out a bit more.

That kind of frees me up to get back to Radio Control (R/C) flying again.  Our club lost our lease and had to move out and so we are looking for a new place to fly.  There are a couple of other areas I can fly and I will start up again.   I fly during the week so I would not disturb the other club members that can only get out on the week ends.

I recently completed my Stik plane and it just needs a final control check out.  That is not hard to do and just takes a bit of time to do it.  Once I get that done then I am ready to go again.

I have other planes but they are not interesting to me at the moment.  I will get back to them soon enough.  Still a bit warm here in North Texas so it is not so pleasant to work in the garage.  There have been some rainy days and those are acceptable for work conditions but otherwise the temps get up to a 100 or more degrees.  So I have been keeping my head down inside in the air conditioning.

And then football is coming soon and that will divert my attention too.  I love the fall, cooler and better flying conditions.

The Box . . .

Aletha Moore, my niece and God Child, graciously gave me a box of materials from her mother's house.  The family had gone through Herrise's possessions and these were family things, writings, letters, newspaper clippings and family history items. Herrise was my sister.

The box was a treasure trove to me because it had a lot of material on the Morrison, Seghers and deGraffenried families.  It had numerous writings and typed sheets of family history, dates of birth, marriages and deaths from the family bible.  Stuff my mother, Polly Morrison, tediously copied out of the family bible.  It had reference books on Louisiana portraits of which both Jacob Haight Morrison, his wife and the Seghers family portraits are shown.  Jacob Haight Morrison's portrait hangs in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D. C.  It had a bit of Swayze material from my mother's mother, who was a Swayze.

I have the Jacob Haight Morrison bible as well as the bible of my father and mother.  I have only casually gone through the bible, not thoroughly like my mother did.  For instance, I found pictures of Mike Morrison taken at the time of his death.  A tragic death.  I sent those to Walter, his older brother for keeping for his family siblings.  Mike was their brother.  And it was a hard and sad time for all of them.

In the box for some unknown reason were such documents as copy of Uncle Walter and Aunt Flea's marriage certificate from St. Ann's Catholic Church in Morganza, Louisiana.   I have letters from Chep Morrison on State of Louisiana Legislature writing materials to my grandmother, his aunt, regarding my grandfathers death.  Even some references to the Libby family which happen to be part and parcel of the Seghers family.  Lots of pictures some of which are hard to identify. but some like a photograph of my father and mother together late in their lives.  Photos of Aunt Edna, a beautiful young lady. that went to Sophia Newcomb College in New Orleans in 1927.

In the box were three receipts signed by President Boyd at LSU circa 1878 and 1879 were my grandfather, William Hyppolite deGraffenried, attended school in Baton Rouge.  The William in his name is whence my name William comes from.  The Christian in my name comes from my other grandfather, Walter Christian Morrison.  Thus I became one of the many "W. C." Morrison but not a Walter Christian Morrison.  To this day I must write out my name on legal documents to differentiate me from all my cousins that are all Walter Christian Morrisons.  That is a lot of name to cram into the bottom of a personal check.

I have but gone through the box but once, so must do it again and again to learn more about our family.  There is very little about the Campbell's up in Clarksdale, Mississippi.  I learned from Herrise that Uncle Sharky Campbell married my grandmother's twin sister.  So they are a distinct branch of the Seghers family and I know there are but a few of them left today.

So I owe a great shout out to Aletha and her brothers and sisters for giving me the "box."  I will treasure it and try to move some of it on to the Pointe Coupee Library for historical purposes.

The Camp - Cypress Myrtle . . .

The camp carries on.  It is fast becoming the last vestige of the Bill Gremillion family in Pointe Coupee.  It is there in a nice prominent place lake side out on False River in the community of Mix.  Mix no longer has a post office and is fast losing its identity but us old timers know about it.

The Cypress trees are slowly become giants and perhaps a nuisance with there knees coming up all over the place.  But they are distinct and well mark the spot.  The old fish market has been torn down and turned into a deluxe camp next to us.  The new owners made us a ridiculous offer for the camp that was summarily refused.

Soon Paul's domain, the George Gremillion house on Gretchen street, will be on the market and maybe one of the heirs will buy it.  There is always that kind of talk.  But for sure the house will be cleaned up and sold moved on to some one who will also love and live in it.  Nice house, big trees and on a nice street in New Roads.

We have had many a good time at the camp.  Fish fries, crawfish boils and just time away from it all.  It survived the recent floods, and is perhaps in better shape structure wise than ever before.  Yes, we have to pay a bit of taxes and some up keep but it is well worth it as a family enclave.  From time to time some one is using the place to fish, to relax and even to stay for awhile in a semi-vacation.  So it has great value to us.

We are planning to stay overnight Labor Day.  We will be on our way to New Orleans for our annual respite from it all.  We had our honey moon in New Orleans and so return every so often to celebrate our marriage.  We stroll around, shop, dine and rest.  We go no where in particular and soak up memories of sorts.  We do something different, sometimes minor like a ride down St Charles Avenue in a street car or walk around the French Market.

We, Judie and I, will hold on to the undivided portion of camp.  I still retain stock in the plantation our on Pointe Coupee.  We shall ever be from New Roads.  We will return to see the changes and visit with our family.

The Battle . . .

My desk top computer automatically down loaded an update to Windows 10.  The new upload signed me out of my Blog, I had to go through convoluted process to get back in.  I'll go through that later.  It also removed some Adobe software in favor of its software, the new download contained that software.

I had to go Google and resign in.  Google did not want to recognize any old stuff, passwords, etc.  So I was in a "Catch 22" situation where nothing worked.  So I gave in started all over again, loading my phone number into the request box.  That was a no go.  So I tried my cell phone number just for the hell of it, that worked.  I do not know why as I have never used that telephone number on this computer.  How did it get there?  Yes, I do know I have a Google account on my cellphone but I have never ever used it.  So in the magic world of communications, they Google system seemed to do what it wanted to do.  Could Microsoft helped with the new down load.  I do not know.

I do know when working a crossword puzzle, it asked me if  I would allow the Adobe product could be used once or all the time.  Naturally, I checked all the time as I visit the crossword puzzles daily.  So far I have had no trouble accessing and working the crossword puzzles.

It makes me angry I have to go through these loops to get what I had before the update.  I am a victim of software wars between major ISPs.  That should not happen but of course they do not care a wit about me and my wants.  Just trying to edge the other guy out of their world.  Not funny and not requested.

Paul Gremillion . . .

Tragedy.  Paul had recently gone through a life threatening episode fighting a infection that got out control.  He was in the Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge fighting for his life.  He spent 11 days in the ICU but they finally got the infection under control.

From there he went to a rehab hospital and made unbelievable progress.  He was back walking albeit short distances but it was apparent as time went on he would do better and better.  He was released around the middle of June and returned to New Roads.  He was living in his house again with his beloved pet cat.

The cat at first was not to happy that he had been left behind but soon warmed to Paul again.

We visited with him and could tell he was independent again and happy to be at home.  Yes, progress would be slow and he health issues yet to deal with.  He had lost sixty pounds while in the hospital and needed to lose much more weight.

That will not happen now.  He died in his house July 8th by himself.  No one there to help.  His friends had called to check on him and go no answer.  So they went by to see if he was okay.  They found him face down by his walker in the living room.  He died probably from a blood clot and coronary thrombosis.  We may learn later but it really does not matter of how, it matters that it happened so suddenly.

We shall miss his wry humor, his sharp intellect and his capricious antics regarding his card playing, his gambling, his stock market investments, his taking care of Wood ducks and Purple Martins and his beloved school students.

It was a shock to us all.  Goodbye, Paul.

We Must Move On . . .

One of the good things about Gamie's passing is the family coming together.  It takes a death, a birth or a wedding to do that.  Two are joyous occasions one is sad. We had to experience the sad event but once again the family coalesced.  We met, we cried and we laughed.  And we all lamented Gamie's passing.

I have heard from a lot of the family and seen even more at the funeral.  Some were friends, some were kissing cousins and some were total strangers to me.  Herrise had a lot of friends in Baton Rouge, a lot of them associated with the church.  That is a normal family following, we all have different elements, some a blood relatives and some are extended family.  Many came to pay their respects to Gamie.

I have heard from both coasts of the US, from California in the West and Delaware from the East.  Many could not attend the funeral, age and infirmity abound amongst us older members of the family.  Others had things intervene to prevent attendance, that is normal for our fluid society.  We are spread out now and one my laments is that we are gradually losing touch with elements of our family.

One element that keeps us in touch is the family farm, the plantation, Angeles Plantation.  Our annual business meeting is as much a meeting as it is a social gathering.  We get to see on occasion our cousins who all free to attend our social gathering.  You never know who is going to show up and who is not going to show up and that is reflective of our society also.  Some can and do come, some can not attend for a variety of reasons.  It does not matter, it makes it interesting.

I am in hopes the plantation keeps on going for another 100 years.  Its value has grown with time and it is debt free.  It is a corporation now, former partners have stock in proportion to their inheritance.   Now with time, we have more and more stockholders.  It is only natural, some give shares to their children, some inherit their shares from their parents.  It is a measure of how our relative family has grown since 1856 when Brunswick was purchased by Jacob Haight Morrison.  True, Angeles is only a slice of Brunswick, but it can trace its roots back to Brunswick.  Some time before the year 1900 Walter Christian Morrison took his inheritance from Brunswick to start Angeles Plantation.

So that is where we are today.  Still going, still planting, still farming and the family is ever growing.

A Sad Day For Me . . . Gammie Is Gone

I learned several months ago that my older sister, Herrise, had a cancer operation.  She had a kidney removed and the cancer had attached itself to her colon.  That all went well and the cancer was not the dreaded Kidney cancer, but a more benign one, a Spindle cancer.

But during her prep she had a full body MRI done and they found something in her lungs.  A biopsy conducted showed Lung cancer.  She circled the wagons and told her children that she was beyond surgery and she did not want to undergo Chemotherapy.  They made a bucket list together and she started checking off items.

About three weeks ago she fell and broke her hip and shoulder.  Painful but she was fixed up and was being taken care of by a hospice.  She moved in with her oldest daughter and started her recovery.

I managed to visit her about 10 or 12 days ago.  Nice visit.  She was in great spirits but terribly weak.  She was all skin and bones and was eating very little.  She managed to cheer on the LSU baseball team on to victory as SEC Champions.  She was a fierce fan of the baseball team.

She was fulfilling a bucket list item to visit her daughter and son-in-law's camp in Avoyelles Parish.  It is a fine home disguised as a camp.  Her children would be with her for a great weekend.  She fell quite and took a turn for the worse.  The brought her back to New Roads to Aletha's home on the lake.  She stopped eating, did not open her eyes Monday, was awake Tuesday but was unable to talk.

She died this morning.  She was 83 years old, had a full life, a family of fine children and a passel of grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Gammie is gone.

Rocky, The Squirrel . . .

After barely befriending Rocky, well it all came to an end.  Rocky tried to be friends with a car on the street, Rocky lost the challenge.  He got squashed.

We mourn Rocky but perhaps it was for the best.  He was a pest in his own way.  Cute beggar but pee'd all over everything.  So instead of how to figure out how to handle Rocky, he solved the problem for us.  Pity, we liked him, he was at once bold and yet trusting.  Maybe his trust did him in.  We shall never know.

Rocky is gone.

Sammy, the Squirrel . . .

The other night, really late afternoon but before sun down Judie had quite an animal experience.  We have noticed recently that an animal, probably a squirrel had been on top of the storage cabinet on the back patio. 

So Judie was sitting there on the porch sofa looking out on the backyard, sun beginning to set, quite time of the day when all of a sudden she saw a squirrel hop up on small galvanized storage container and then on to the top of the storage cabinet.  It fussed around the plant on to of the cabinet and knocked off some Zinnia blooms drying on paper towel.  Judie watched him explore around.

So she shooed him away, opened the cabinet and got some peanuts we have to feed the birds (Blue Jays love the in shell peanuts).    She took the peanuts and put them at the edge of the lower patio in the grass.  Well the squirrel came up and proceeded to eat the peanuts. 

She thought nothing of it.  Watching the squirrel eventually take a couple of the peanuts out into the yard a bury them.  She picked up her book and was reading when all of sudden the squirrel was on the sofa with her.  He was right there almost next to her.  She watched him and eventually he got down and scooted off.

Judie decided to name the friendly squirrel Sammy.  I had named the fence lizard Fritz and now we call all the lizards Fritz and they roam all over the yard, in the garage, on the screens on the front windows and on the walls of the house.  Fritz is always on patrol for a cricket or two.  Some Fritz's in the past had been very tolerant of us and others skedaddled away at out appearance. So now we have a friendly squirrel.

We were telling our neighbor about it and he related that he had trained a squirrel to come and feed out of his hand.  It all started when he saw a squirrel up close so he tossed it an unshelled pecan.  The squirrel grabbed and took off with it.  Over a period of some weeks the squirrel has become even closer to him to the point he will feed out of his hand.

We concluded immediately his squirrel, called Rocky, was indeed Sammy.  So we will now address him by his correct name.  Rocky clearly has adopted both our neighbor and us.  He has even come up to the back door and looked in like, "Come out and feed me."  We understand his behavior now.

So we will treat Rocky like a pet and feed him when he comes by.  We can now understand his un-squirrel behavior.  But we know of other histories of such animals, especially flying squirrels.  So it all makes sense to us now. 

And we have a new friend.  Next we have to work on the deer.
















z

Desert Rose

Desert Rose was the name of a Salsa that started in Tucson, Arizona about 1978.  The owner sold salsa in non descript glass containers out of the trunk of his car at the Tanque Verdi swap meet. The swap meet was held in area of northeast Tucson located in vacant land by the Tanque Verdi wash and Tucson river (both dry most of the time except after a down pour from a thunderstorm.  The swap is long gone, moved to a location in south central Tucson not far off the Interstate 10 highway.

I was not a salsa user until I tried Desert Rose salsa and I became a real fan.  I could not get enough of that stuff. 

We had long and old friends located in Tucson and still have them to this day.  They are the ones that introduced me to the product.

Later I would have them get me supplies of the salsa which in time had risen from be sold in the back of car to being marketed in high end department stores in Tucson.  We even went so far as to make telephone contact with the folks that made the salsa and had it shipped to us at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.

From Dayton I was reassigned to Germany and it became prohibitive to ship it to Germany.  So we suffered through the tour without having it available to us.  There was Mexican restaurant in Bitburg, not far from us at Spangdahlem Air Base.  But we found the food had hybridized to sort of German influenced product and not so good to our liking.

We returned to the states and were assigned to Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino, California.  That was striking distance to Tucson.  By then we had a son living in Tucson and so we were able to pick some Desert Rose locally.  We also found some later in local grocery stores.  And we reestablished our telephone contact with the purveyors of the product.  So we were again being supplied with the salsa we liked.

I had retired from the Air Force and was working for Rockwell in San Bernardino and we had salsa and chips every Friday.  I introduced the group to Desert Rose and it became the number one product at our Friday shindigs.  This simply attested that Desert Rose was the very best commercial product of its sort.

We moved on the Ruidoso, New Mexico where I worked out on White Sands Missile range.  We kept getting the stuff via mail from their home offices.  By now it had moved to southern California. 
That did not matter we still could get the product.

That job petered out and I ended up in the Dallas/Fort Worth area working for Texas Instruments.  We resided in small community of Argyle, Texas.  And sure enough we continued to get supplied via parcel post.

Texas Instruments Defense Segment was sold to Raytheon and we were transferred to Tucson, Arizona.  No longer the home town of Desert Rose but you could get it off the shelf in the Whole Foods chain  of grocery stores.  No more parcel post for the time being, just drop by the store and pick it up.  Mind you it was not always available but reliable enough for us.

Then all of a sudden it disappeared.  I searched the Internet to no avail.  Yes, I found reference to Desert Rose Salsa but it was no longer be prepared.  The business had folded, the product line was gone.

To bad, we miss the product.  We constantly check local stores for their salsa shelf and find many brands and types of salsa but nothing to approach Desert Rose.

Leather Sofa's

We have had a pair of sofas in our large living area, both made by Lazyboy and they have served their time.  I liked them but Judie wanted to change the décor and so, why not.

So we saw a sale in Macy's and went and checked out their sofas.  We strolled around and found a dark brown sofa that met the need.  It is all leather, well at lease mostly leather.  It sits a bit higher than the old Lazyboy.  In truth the old Lazyboy had broken down a bit and was getting a bit long in tooth.  So it was time to let go.

We ended up buying two identical sofas from Macy's.  And since it has some electric motors in them we bought an insurance policy.  Said policy also provided some $300 off the next purchase at the end of five years.  The coverage is for five years.  It by itself cost about $500.

Macy's located in the Hulen Mall in Fort Worth only delivers out to our area on two different days per month.  That posed a problem, neither day was acceptable in March.  We bought the sofas in mid February.  Thus delivery was now put off until April.  That was disliked but not much choice in the matter.   We accepted the delivery dates.

Well, we then got a call the day before the delivery.  We expected them to provide us with at time window for delivery but no, the warehouse said both of the sofas had been damaged in the warehouse and they had to get a couple of new ones for us.

We doubted that, we suspect they sold them and were now stuck with coming up with two sofas.  So we had no choice to wait while a couple of new sofas were acquired.

They were finally delivered day before yesterday, May 17.  That's a long time since we bought them.  I used a camp chair to watch TV in the living area.  Not so comfortable but functional.  Of course, I was ready for those sofas.

The delivery was set up between 5 PM and 7 PM, not desirable but doable.  We no longer cared, we want the sofas.  They called us about 6:30 PM.  We said come on out.

A two man crew got the sofas in, removed the packing and set the sofas up for us.  Two nice fellows obviously used to doing that kind of work.

We told them the tail and they said, no, there had not been any damaged furniture that they knew about.  Sort of confirmed out thoughts that they sold our sofas out from under us.  Not provable but really suspicious in our minds.  We also learned that the sofas came from Dallas warehouse, no warehouse in Fort Worth.  So we understand why the delivery schedule was the way it was set up.  Its at least 60 miles out here from Dallas.

Any way we got leather now and they sit pretty good.  The camp chair is back in the garage again.

Crawfishing . . .

When I was a youngster I recall people crawfishing along what was then US 90 now US 190 along the sides of the road.  There was plenty of room in those days as big trucks were a very rare thing and there was not a great deal of traffic.  Also the land were not as well drained and thus the ditches along the sides of the road held water for a long time.  The ultimate habitat for crawfish.

I also did some crawfishing.  Tie a chicken neck on a piece of string and set in to almost any body of water and one could catch crawfish.  More sophisticated crawfishers used a square net about twelve or thirteen inches on the side with stiff wire that came to an apex above the net.  One tied the chicken neck in the center of that net and put the whole thing the turbid water in a canal or ditch.  You waited about ten minutes and then using a long cane pole lifted the net and swung it toward land.  You then quickly got to the net and dumped your catch into a wash tub.  Soon you have a good quantity of crawfish sufficient to take home in the tub.

Once at home, we flushed the water a couple times until it was clear running.  This got rid of most of the trash and of course the dirty water.  You dumped the crawfish into a boiling pot of water.  In about 10 minutes you had you cooked crawfish and could grab then and eat them.

Later as teenager, my neighbor had a bid sugar kettle and we built a big fire around it.  We then poured in four or five thirty pound sacks of crawfish.  We had added big round onions and dozens of lemons and a ton of seasoning.  Took a while but after a few visiting beers to encourage appetites, we had well season tasty crawfish to eat.  We youngsters acted as the labor and the adults drank the beer.

Now things are very sophisticated.  We have caterers that have a specially built trailer with a hundred gallon tank that is fired by propane gas.  He can boil several hundred pounds of crawfish at once.  He tosses corn ears and small potatoes.  Some even add sausage others toss in pineapple chunks, mushrooms and artichokes but that is mostly neighborhood boils where one cooks fifteen or so pounds at a time over a single propane burner.  The water is heavily salted and a great deal of cayenne pepper is add.

So we do our crawfishing today at the grocery store or a known supplier who imports to our region, Dallas/Fort Worth.  Those same caterers will sell you fresh crawfish too.  They are all imported to Texas from Louisiana, mostly from the rice fields in and around Ville Platte, LA.  Crawfish are the second cash crop off those rice fields today.

You no longer see people crawfishing along the sides the highways.  It is all a big commercial operation, an industry.  No matter they are just as tasty and if well season are spring treat.  We have been to three such boils already this year and probably will have one more, this one back in Louisiana at the camp on False River. 

Yummy!

Just Fix'en . . .

Spring has sprung and tis the season to repair.  Today I was deep into it.  Little stuff but it has to be done.

First I dug up a pop up sprinkler located in the side flower bed.  Parts of the bed is cover by five or six inches of Jasmine Ivy.  And the Jasmine vines get quite entangled and one has to cut his way through them and hand dig the sprinkler with a hand garden tool.  I hesitate to call it a shovel because it has a very short handle, perhaps a blade two and half inches wide and five or so inches long.  Just gotta sit down and do it.

Anyway I get down to the basic irrigation plumbing and screw in a 12 inch extension and them replace the sprinkler on top of that.  Now the Jasmine will not block it up.  I have done three so far, got several more to do.  But I have run out of materials for that job and moved on to other things that need some minor albeit time consuming action.

I have a weed eater with a shaft that accepts other attachments.  I can run a small tiller, a weed whacker, an edger and a blower off one 2cycle power head.  There are a few more attachments but I do not have them.  Well, the edger needed a new blade, got that done.  I have not one but two weed whacker heads both need work.  One had to be restrung.  I have perhaps 100 yards of weed whacker line, so I uncoil some of it, cut it and rewound the head.  The second weed whacker head simply needed to have the line fed out of the reel again, plenty of line still wound on the head.  That done too.

Then I tackled a big sprinkler in the back yard.  I had noted on one side of the unit, a hole had developed.  That usually indicates a leak of some kind.  This one had a broken case and water was spraying out of the side where the head screws on to the case.  I replace the whole thing.  It probably got broken by the lawn  tractor rolling over it.  These sprinklers are the more complex kind that rotate back and forth, a little water turbine is inside and provides the energy to turn the sprinkler head.  These often also wear out as the well water has very fine sand it in and that tends to erode the innards of the sprinkler over time.  As you can imagine I keep a couple of spares around all the time.

Irrigation systems are indeed constant maintenance.  A leak here, broken sprinkler there, pump problems, and so on.  But it has saved us thousands upon thousands of dollars in avoiding city water expenses.  City water is quite expensive and can cost you upwards of four or five hundred dollars per month if you irrigate.  The well is a fixed cost and after that it is a maintenance cost and some electricity and is amortized in a couple of years.  Probably costs us about $15 dollars a month in parts and power.  Cheap at that price and keeps the yard green.  The well has been with us for 12 or more years.

Finally I had to change a Delta shower control valve in the main bathroom.  It was a learning experience.  I finally broke down and bought a tool to turn the water on and off at the water meter.  A long T handled affair but gets the job done.  Yes, there is a water shut off but I think we have covered it over and so it is not accessible.   Thus you turn off the water at the street meter.

All the sinks and toilets have shut off valves but there is no where to install one on a shower control valve.  It is a mixing valve and has a single handle, range from full cold to full hot.  Well almost.  The old one had developed a drip and had to be replaced.  Had I known what I now know, I probably could have replaced the valve poppets but I did not know that.   I had to get a new Delta valve and I watched a video on the Internet on how to replace it.  Not hard but . . .

The newer valves come with a temperature control and are shipped in the literally cold "on" mode.  One has to adjust the control to get the hot water flowing.  And then water temperature is modulated by where the valve handle is set and can be varied.  But first one has to adjust the control valve to allow the hot water to flow.  Simple enough once you see it but unless some shows it to you or tells you how, well you get cold water.  Got that job done too.

I am getting good at replacing leaking Delta faucets valve seats, and toilet tank units.  Recently, the control valve washer broke up and infected the toilet tank unit.  I did know you could remove the top of the unit and clean it out, so I ended up replacing.  But I had to fix the control faucet before.  That is when I learned about shutting off water at the street.  I am pretty good at now.

Well next task is to lube and change oil in the lawn tractor.  But not his Saturday for two reasons.  First a cold front is on its way and it will be chilly and second we have the annual LSU crawfish boil.  I elect for the boil and will wear warm clothes.  There is plenty of time to deal with the tractor later.

Labor of Love, Well Maybe . . . .

Judie complained yesterday that the shower in our bathroom was "dripping."  Like I was to immediately cause the shower not to leak.  That is her logic sometimes, not irritating just expecting me to make it stop - now.  Of course I can not do that.

I turned to the computer and asked a question, "How do I fix a leak in shower valve?"  And I got about four or five answers.  Of course it depends on the brand, but I knew what that was as I had replaced the shower head a couple of years ago.  It is a Delta shower control valve.  I was surprised to learn it had a life time warranty.  But of course, we did not have the original purchase receipt so that free replacement stuff went out of the window.

I went to Lowe's and found a replacement.  There were a couple of models but I chose the one with the lowest series model number figuring it was the oldest design.  I was right.

The job is not hard to do but it is wise to listen to the fellow on the computer give his expert advice.  I learned for instance to be sure an use plumbers grease, a product I had never heard of before.  Luckily I heard him say it was silicone based grease.  And I found a little container of such silicone grease on the shelf in the plumbing department.  Expensive grease, I am guessing about an ounce of the stuff cost over three dollars.

The control unit was not cheap either.  If I got the Delta brand valve, it was $39 plus change, but the substitute brand, Danco, was ten bucks cheaper.  We now have a Danco control valve.  It does exactly the same job, looks the same, etc. for ten dollars less.

It seems technology has changed a bit since the original Delta control valve was installed.  It mixes the hot and cold water and positioning of the valve handle controls the water temperature.  However the new control unit, one can change the mix manually on the control valve to sway the water temperature.  I learned that watching the video.  And sure enough the new control did indeed have such an capability to make that kind of change.

At first I left it set as it was and found the water all the way on the hot side was rather cool.  It was not at all like the mixture of the leaking valve.  So I had to disassemble again and make the adjustment toward warmer water bias.  Now it runs like the old control valve, all the way counter clockwise is full hot and all the way clockwise is full cold.  There is a balance sorta in the middle.  Works for me!

Unlike faucets on the sinks, there is no accessible turn off valves down below somewhere.  So to do the job I had to turn off the water outside coming into the house.  That takes a special tool but our two "Old Handymen" were next door working on our neighbors bathroom.  I had seen them use the tool.  And they showed up about 9:00 AM to work and I walked over there and asked to borrow the tool.  "Sure, they said," and pulled lt out of the back of there old jalopy."  I was now in business to get the job done.

It all worked just as the video said except, the old valve did not come out as easy as theirs did.  But I got it out.  And sure enough, when I turned on the water again, no leaks. 

Wonder of wonders, Chip had done his magic once again.  I am sure the two old handymen could have done it, or a big time professional plumber but at a tremendous cost.  I would have expected a plumber charging a couple of hundred dollars to do the job and the two old handymen probably a hundred bucks plus parts.  I did it for plus parts or about $34 which included my 10% discount from Lowes.

Iris' Again . . .

The weather broke for warmer times so I took it upon myself to weed around a couple of Iris patches we have.  I did other Iris patches last year and these two patches got the treatment this year.  Both were literally over run by the St. Augustine grass and need to be weeded.

I had my eye on the first patch for awhile now, the remnants of St. Augustine grass had totally over run the patch.  I was a ball of dried grass and of course old Iris stems.  New Iris shots had popped up in the last week so I new I had to do something about it. 

I dug in sitting on an old chair pad and starting pulling out the grass.  I am here to tell you St. Augustine can be tough as nails.  At least my finger nails were packed with dirt when I finished.  Some of the basic backbone of the St. Augustine runners were an inch under the soil and tough to pull out.  But I got it all out in a hour or two.  Filled a bucket full of grass and some old oak leaves and Iris stems.  All of that went into the compost pile out back.

Yesterday I attacked another patch of the Iris.  This was a bigger patch, longer in length and took longer to weed.  But this time I used a couple of tools, one being a pair of pruning shears and the other a screw driver like device.  I cut around the edge and used the pry bar to get under the runners and pull up.  This sped up the process and was easier on the finger nails but they got plenty of dirt under them anyway.

After I finish each patch I grabbed a hand full of 13-13-13 fertilize and scattered it about the patch.  The Iris seem to like that fertilizer.  I bought a sack of it long years ago and have steadily used it here and there in the yard.  The gardening experts say I do not need that combination, just spread some Nitrogen fertilizer around.  I have some of that too but I am trying to get rid of the other stuff first.

Did a bit of grass cutting.  The weedy side of the yard next to the vacant lot was a bit high.  The remainder of the yard did not at this need a trim.  But I had to go get gas and I put in some treatment to make it last longer and fueled up the lawn tractor.  It fired right up and I went about doing the side yard.  Actually most of  the grass cut is really in the vacant lot territory but makes our yard look better, so I cut it.

Next I need to spread some manure compost or just manure in the front flower beds.  The house builder scrapped off all the top soil when he built the house and everything on the South side needs a soil boost.  So I spread some out every spring, some day I will have good soil there but not now.  The North side of the yard has no problems like that as that top soil remains.

Early Spring so some early work done.

A Time To Reflect . . .

Today is a time to reflect, it is my 77th birthday.  I am getting old.  But that is not the issue.  Passing of time is the issue of the moment.

I never thought I would get this old.  I just did not consider that factor at all.  But I am and now I have to consider it all the time.  Did prepare, not really.  I just lived this long although I do have health issues.  Heart disease is prevalent in my family, my brother died years ago due to heart attacks.  Today's medicine probably would have prevented that altogether but modernization of Cardiology had yet to arrive in his day.  He did live well.  I have minor heart issues.

My mother probably died of heart failure.  Her sisters died of it.  My grandfather literally dropped dead on the street.  His physician simply said his heart was worn out.  He died in 1942 on a side walk in New Roads on his way to the local movie.  He loved moving pictures.  He was in his late sixties.

My father, on the other hand, died of cancer.  He had survived three previous cancers, but the fourth one got him.  He died of breast cancer as did his mother before him.  He was in his mid eighties when he past on having lived a full life so to speak.

I have no cancer and I believe that is because I spent my adult life away from Louisiana.  I do not know if it is bad water, bad air or some kind of combination of the two.  I certainly lived in bad air in California smog.  Air pollution was horrible out there. But so far no cancer.

I quit smoking on January 1, 1980.  I had made a deal with myself to quit and stay quit of tobacco smoke by my 40th birthday.  Now that is 37 years ago plus a few months.  I took a year to break all the habits surrounding smoking tobacco.  They are all gone now.  No regrets, don't miss it at all but I am not bothered by other smokers at all.  So I am not a rabid anti smoker kind of person.

Agent Orange exposure in Viet Nam led to my current health issues.  I am Type II Diabetic because of the exposure.  The chemical of detriment is Dioxin, it gets into your liver and stays there.  It took almost 40 years for it to catch up to me and it has play havoc with other parts of the body.  That is what diabetes does to you.  I get nice compensation from the Department of Veteran Affairs for my afflictions but would rather not collect and be healthy.  Not gonna happen.

I have slowed down.  I have lost weight. I am more moderate in alcohol consumption.  I adhere to the old adage of "all things in moderation" now days.  And I view everyday as a new day in my life to enjoy.  So a positive attitude helps me through the day.  Yes, I do have some small aches and pains but you learn to live with that.

So upon reflection I have been a lucky person. I had a great career in the USAF, I enjoyed working most of the time in Aerospace Industry as a System Safety Engineer.  I have the right personality for all of this after life and enjoy it.  So thank you, Lord, for all that you have done for me and my family.

Squirrels . . .

We are in a neighborhood of oak trees.  For the most part they are Post Oaks, followed by some Live Oaks, the Barkleys and finally Shumar Oaks.  The are a few scattered Burr Oaks.  This means a healthy population of squirrels.  Alas but one type of squirrels is around, Fox Squirrels,

A Fox squirrel has a tan belly and is probably the most common squirrel in the US today.  There are many other varieties but it seems to be the hardiest one and thus gradually taken over the entire region.  The primary food of squirrels is acorns but they can be picky about it.

My little squirrel, Skinny Tail, lives across the street and visits the Shumars in my front yard daily.  The Shumar makes an acorn about the size of the end of your thumb.  The Post Oak makes a small acorn about the size of the end of your pinky finger and thus is not so desirable as the Shumar acorn.  The Shumars are red oaks, that is the internal wood has a red hue to it.  And they grow a bit faster than most oak trees.  They get to be moderate in size and ours are about a foot in diameter now.  Skinny Tail has staked out our Shumars as his.

The Live Oaks are evergreen and retain their leaves all year pushing them of in the spring for new leaves to grow.  They are by far the longest lived oak trees and I know of one in Pointe Coupee, the Stoniker Oak, that is said to have been growing when LaSalle came down the Mississippi in 1700.  The have modest acorns and are generally elongated compare to the other acorns.  I am not sure of the squirrel desirability of that acorn.

The Barkley is more localized native oak and tends to not be very big.  They grow about as fast as the Shumar but never reach the same span, height, or girth of a Shumar.  Their unique characteristic is they retain their leaves after they die until next spring when they push them off.  So from a raking point of view they are more desirable for upkeep but always tend to grow at some grotesque angle, neve see to grow straight up and vertical.  I have not seen a Barkley acorn but they are fairly common in the neighborhood, we have one volunteer in the side yard.  The trunk is about five inches and the height is probably about 35 feet or so.

The Burr Oak is the granddaddy of acorn makers.  My neighbor has one he planted and the acorn is astounding in size.  The acorn is as big as a baby's fist balled up.  The squirrels have a hard time with them but because they are so big are the most desirable of acorns to them  Curtiss, my neighbor, says he watched a squirrel tugging one acorn across his yard.  It too the squirrel about 20 minutes to get it across the yard.

Skinny Tail has a girl friend, she comes over to feast too.  But he is very protective of his tree.   I have seen him take acorns across the street and bury them in my neighbor Enright's yard.  He also taunts the Enright's three dogs.  He drives them crazy.

Skinny Tail lives in the Doren's yard which is behind Enright's yard.  So the squirrel knows his territory well.

Skinny Tail will go up a limb to the bitter end and pluck off an acorn.  There are probably several hundred acorns left on the tree, more of them up high.  The lower limbs are bigger and so he attacked those first and now he must go after the others up in the crown of the tree.  That is a bit more risky.  He is slow to do that and scours the grown for any acorns that have fallen.  So how he misses a great deal of them as we have tiny oak trees coming up all over the place.

So we shall be entertained by Skinny Tail antics until the Gold Finches return.  That will be early spring.  I do not know if squirrels cache any acorns but they must as they are around us all the time.  Of course they raid the bird feeders for peanuts, and rival the Blue Jays for this morsels.  And they will eat any and all seeds, so the bird seed is sort of a desert for them.

Ironically, no squirrels have built nests in our yard.  They are in the Doren's or in the Walker's yard which is next to us.  But they are always in our yard eating.  The Doren's shoot an air rifle at them but we only fire off a cap pistol to scare the crows and the squirrels off.

Life in the Oaks goes on all year long.  Deer feed on the leaves on the lower branches, the squirrels on the acorns and of course, the Finches off the thistle seed feeders.  We have also seen the deer eat the acorns too.

Inauguration Approaches . . .

The United States of America Presidential inauguration is approaching.  A change in power, in roles and in attitude of the nation is approaching.  Many will argue it is not but in truth it is so.  We see changes already in how the new President approaches the economy.  Indeed the stock market has racked 1.4 trillion dollar run up and he is yet to be in power.

Trade is showing signs of change already, companies are indeed retaining jobs in the US.  And if he can successfully reduce the income tax on the corporations countless millions, even billions, of dollars will return to the US economy.  And a change in the tax process itself may cause a boom.

Certainly changing and getting rid of the onerous Affordable Care Act will make great changes.   The Supreme Court ruled it a tax, so let us change the tax.  There are countless small taxes embedded in the legislation and that will release more money into the economy.  The present President lied again and again is supporting the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare).  Demagogues like Senator Bernie Sanders are saying we are condemning people to death.  Well the same people lived pretty good before Obamacare and will do so after it.  We went through Prohibition and now we are suffering through Obamacare.  It too will go away, something better will appear in its place.

Did it have some good rules, yes, of course it did.  But it had a host of ill-advised actions hoping the young and healthy would pay for the sick and indigent.  It is not working and it is sinking into bankruptcy as I write.  It can not carry the load and the radial idea that the healthy would pay for the poor just did not work.  Many are electing to pay the fine and do without coverage as they do not need it.  It stagnated the economy, and in eight years it failed to really recover.  Unemployment was redefined to hide the awful truth, with countless millions of people out of work.

What Obamacare did not do was break down the barrier of across state line health insurance coverage.  That led to higher and higher premiums with less and less coverage.

As the former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, said, "The trouble with liberals (and liberalism) is that when they run out of other peoples money to pay for it, then it collapses on itself."  That is paraphrase of what she said but it is true.  One can not tax his or her way out of the situation.  The people paying will revolt and that is what has apparently happened with the Democratic Party.  As the bun said in Central Station years ago, "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch."  Huey Long used to say, "A chicken in every pot."  The Democratic Party was unable to continue the liberal bent and will be forced to change, move toward the center instead of to the left.

As we near the end of the Obama Era, the Democratic supporters are increasingly becoming distraught.  Calling for riots, calling for changing Electoral College votes, protesting at Golden Globes and other venues is rude and inappropriate.  It is short sighted.

The American people rejected the Democratic candidate state by state.  Yes, some of the more populous states did support her but she did not get enough electoral votes to win.  Congress has validated the election.  She was a horrible candidate, rigging the Democratic Nomination, lying again and again, doing illogical actions such as a private server allowing herself to be hacked by all kinds of foreign Delete repeated word.  Selling favoritism to line her pockets was criminal.  The American populous did not buy her rhetoric, she lost the race and is still trying to skate on the real issues.

Obama at times realizes he is done yet at others does not.  I would not be surprised to see him drag his feet in leaving the physical White House.  He is done, finished and over with.  Hillary Clinton is also done and finished with.  They will continue to carry on but would be digging an ever deeper hole.  At the moment they have done severe damage to the Democratic Party and it will be a while before it recovers.  Indeed the present leadership has not changed course yet either.