A very interesting theory or thought process I came across. (301)

I could not verify if this was written by a certain author so I have
removed his name...but am sending it along because it is an interesting
thought process about the consequenses of something that happened about 65
years ago and the possible effects it has on us today...never really
thought about it this way but it is something to think about....jack

Auschwitz if your not familiar is one of the German camps where they
exterminated Jews during the war...


ALL EUROPEAN LIFE DIED IN AUSCHWITZ Interesting perspective..A must
read... The following is a copy of an article written by Spanish writer
and published in a Spanish newspaper on Jan. 15, 2008. It doesn't take
much imagination to extrapolate the message to the rest of Europe - and
possibly to the rest of the world.

REMEMBER AS YOU READ -- IT WAS IN A SPANISH PAPER!
Date: Tue. 15 January
2008 14:30

ALL EUROPEAN LIFE DIED IN AUSCHWITZ By

I walked down the street in Barcelona , and suddenly discovered a terrible
truth - Europe died in Auschwitz ... We killed six million Jews and
replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a culture,
thought, creativity, talent. We destroyed the chosen people, truly chosen,
because they produced great and wonderful people who changed the world.

The contribution of this people is felt in all areas of life: science,
art, International trade, and above all, as the conscience of the world.
These are the people we burned.

And under the pretense of tolerance, and because we wanted to prove to
ourselves that we were cured of the disease of racism, we opened our gates
to 20
million Muslims, who brought us stupidity and ignorance, religious
extremism and lack of tolerance, crime and poverty, due to an
unwillingness to work and support their families with pride.

They have blown up our trains and turned our beautiful Spanish cities into
the third world, drowning in filth and crime.

Shut up in the apartments they receive free from the government, they plan
the murder and destruction of their naive hosts.

And thus, in our misery, we have exchanged culture for fanatical hatred,
creative skill for destructive skill, intelligence for backwardness and
superstition.

We have exchanged the pursuit of peace of the Jews of Europe and their
talent for a better future for their children, their determined clinging
to life because life is holy,
for those who pursue death, for people consumed by the desire for death
for themselves and others, for our children and theirs.

What a terrible mistake was made by Europe ...

The Global Islamic population is approximately 1,200,000,000; that is ONE
BILLION TWO HUNDRED MILLION or 20% of the world's population. They have
received the following Nobel Prizes:

Literature:
1988 - Najib Mahfooz

Peace:
1978 - Mohamed Anwar El-Sadat
1990 - Elias James Corey
1994 - Yaser Arafat (inventor of modern day terrorism-started killing
innocent civilians) 1999 - Ahmed Zewai

Economics:
(zero)

Physics:
(zero)

Medicine:
1960 - Peter Brian Medawar
1998 - Ferid Mourad

TOTAL: 7 SEVEN

The Global Jewish population is approximately 14,000,000; that is FOURTEEN
MILLION or about 0.02% of the world's population. They have received the
following Nobel Prizes:

Literature:
1910 - Paul Heyse
1927 - Henri Bergson
1958 - Boris Pasternak
1966 - Shmuel Yosef Agnon
1966 - Nelly Sachs
1976 - Saul Bellow
1978 - Isaac Bashevis Singer
1981 - Elias Canetti
1987 - Joseph Brodsky
1991 - Nadine Gordimer World

Peace:
1911 - Alfred Fried
1911 - Tobias Michael Carel Asser
1968 - Rene Cassin
1973 - Henry Kissinger
1978 - Menachem Begin
1986 - Elie Wiesel
1994 - Shimon
Peres
1994 - Yitzhak Rabin

Physics:
1905 - Adolph Von Baeyer
1906 - Henri Moissan
1907 - Albert Abraham Michelson
1908 - Gabriel Lippmann
1910 - Otto Wallach
1915 - Richard Willstaetter
1918 - Fritz Haber
1921 - Albert Einstein
1922 - Niels Bohr
1925 - James Franck
1925 - Gustav Hertz
1943 - Gustav Stern
1943 - George Charles de Hevesy
1944 - Isidor Issac Rabl
1952 - Felix Bloch
1954 - Max Born
1958 - Igor Tamm
1959 - Emilio Segre
1960 - Donald A. Glaser
1961 - Robert Hofstadter
1961 - Melvin Calvin
1962 - Lev Davidovich Landau
1962 - Max Ferdinand Perutz
1965 - Richard Phillips Feynman
1965 - Julian Schwinger
1969 - Murray Gell-Mann
1971 - Dennis Gabor
1972 - William Howard Stein
1973 - Brian David Josephson
1975 - Benjamin Mottleson
1976 - Burton Richter
1977 - Ilya Prigogine
1978 - Arno Allan Pe nz ias
1978 - Peter L Kapitza
1979 -
Stephen Weinberg
1979 - Sheldon Glashow
1979 - Herbert Charles Brown
1980 - Paul Berg
1980 - Walter Gilbert
1981 - Roald Hoffmann
1982 - Aaron Klug
1985 - Albert A. Hauptman
1985 - Jerome Karle
1986 - Dudley R. Herschbach
1988 - Robert Huber
1988 - Leon Lederman
1988 - Melvin Schwartz
1988 - Jack Steinberger
1989 - Sidney Altman
1990 - Jerome Friedman
1992 - Rudolph Marcus
1995 - Martin Perl
2000 - Alan J. Heeger

Economics:
1970 - Paul Anthony Samuelson
1971 - Simon Kuznets
1972 - Kenneth Joseph Arrow
1975 - Leonid Kantorovich
1976 - Milton Friedman
1978 - Herbert A. Simon
1980 - Lawrence Robert Klein
1985 - Franco Modigliani
1987 - Robert M. Solow
1990 - Harry Markowitz
1990 - Merton Miller
1992 - Gary Becker
1993 - Robert Fogel

Medicine:
1908 - Elie Metchnikoff
1908 - Paul Erlich
1914 - Robert Barany
1922 - Otto Meyerhof
1930 -
Karl Landsteiner
1931 - Otto Warburg
1936 - Otto Loewi
1944 - Joseph Erlanger
1944 - Herbert Spencer Gasser
1945 - Ernst Boris Chain
1946 - Hermann Joseph Muller
1950 - Tadeus Reichstein
1952 - Selman Abraham Waksman
1953 - Hans Krebs
1953 - Fritz Albert Lipmann
1958 - Joshua Lederberg
1959 - Arthur Kornberg
1964 - Konrad Bloch
1965 - Francois Jacob
1965 - Andre Lwoff
1967 - George Wald
1968 - Marshall W. Nirenberg
1969 - Salvador Luria
1970 - Julius Axelrod
1970 - Sir Bernard Katz
1972 - Gerald Maurice Edelman
1975 - Howard Martin Temin
1976 - Baruch S. Blumberg
1977 - Roselyn Sussman Yalow
1978 - Daniel Nathans
1980 - Baruj Benacerraf
1984 - Cesar Milstein
1985 - Michael Stuart Brown
1985 - Joseph L. Goldstein
1986 - Stanley Cohen [& Rita Levi-Montalcini]
1988 - Gertrude Elion
1989 - Harold Varmus
1991 - Erwin Neher
1991 - Bert Sakmann
1993 -
Richard J. Robert s
1993 - Phillip Sharp
1994 - Alfred Gilman
1995 - Edward B. Lewis
1996- Lu RoseIacovino

TOTAL: 129

The Jews are NOT promoting brain washing children in military training
camps, teaching them how to blow themselves up and cause maximum deaths of
Jews and other non Muslims. The Jews don't hijack planes, nor kill
athletes at the Olympics, or blow themselves up in German restaurants.
There is NOT one single Jew who has destroyed a church. There is NOT a
single Jew who protests by killing people.

The Jews don't traffic slaves, or have leaders calling for Jihad and death
to all the Infidels.

Perhaps the world's Muslims should consider investing more in standard
education and less in blaming the Jews for all their problems.

Muslims must ask 'what can they do for humankind' before they demand that
humankind respects them.

Regardless of your feelings about the crisis between Israel and the
Palestinians and Arab neighbors, even if you believe there is more
culpability on Israel 's part, the following two sentences really say it
all:

"If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more
violence. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more
Israel ." - Benjamin Netanyahu


General Eisenhower warned us. It is a matter of history that when the
Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Dwight Eisenhower, found
the victims of the death camps he ordered all possible photographs to be
taken, and for the German people from surrounding villages to be ushered
through the camps and even made to bury the dead.

He did this because he said in words to this effect:

'Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses - because
somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that
this never happened'

Recently, the UK debated whether to remove The
Holocaust from its school curriculum because it 'offends' the Muslim
population, which claims it never occurred. It is not removed as yet.
However, this is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the
world and how easily each country is giving into it.

It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended.
This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the 6 million
Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians, and 1,900 Catholic
priests who were 'murdered, raped, burned, starved, beaten, experimented
on and humiliated' while the German people looked the other way.

Now, more than ever, with Iran , among others, claiming the Holocaust to
be 'a myth,' it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets. This
e-mail is intended to reach 400 million people. Be a link in the memorial
chain and help distribute this around the world.

How many years will it be before the attack on the World Trade Center
'NEVER HAPPENED' because it offends some Muslim in the United States ?

Social Security headed for trouble (300)

Someone sent me this picture to the right side here of a Social Security Office somewhere. The troubling thing about it is their is few older Social Security aged people in the waiting room. I know for a fact this is the case all over the country and it is kind of a shame that it has evolved to this. I have visited both the office here in Lafayette In. and in Naples Florida..Maybe a couple times each and each and every time I have to look pretty hard to find someone in there that is of my age. It is full of people trying to declare themselves worthy to collect social security for the rest of their lives. So there we are we are indeed "in trouble" on this for sure.

It has nothing to do with the pretty heavy rains passing through the midwest today and tomorrow, but I purchased a couple Kayak's today. One from Sam's Club and one from Dick's Sporting goods....we think they could be a lot of fun this summer both on the pond and maybe floating the wildcat creek when time allows. We enjoyed the Kayak event we did in Naples a couple months ago so anxious to get out there and try those things out. Well it is bedtime and short post are better than none at all so maybe the next post will see us trying out the new toys....

Obama "slapped silly today"....(299)

Not often does watching the 5 o'clock news make "my day" to the tune of pouring myself another glass of wine...Today was one of those.

Just watched the Israel Prime minister stand before our congress and state in his speech that Isreal would surely not be returning to the boundries that were there before the 1967 war....Benjamin Netanyahu I think is the spelling is one of my favorite people...He is a very intelligent no nonsense type of guy and he today, "slapped our President Obama, "the empty suit" silly....How did he slap him silly, well let me tell you..He made his declaration not really caring how congress would react...But our congress got on its feet and gave the guy a standing ovation...that my friends is equivilant to the Prime Minister of Isreal and the Congress all rejecting this nonsense statement from Obama and slapping him "silly"...it made my day...

Maybe, just maybe there is hope for our nation yet after all....

The Triplets Plaspohl Graduate from College (298)

The three ladies pictured here are my Granddaughters Abby, Elizabeth and Lilly. Saturday they all three graduated from College, Lilly and Elizabeth from Purdue University and Abby from Butler University. There parents seen in below picture have to be mighty proud to have put 3 through college for 5 years each in today's economy. A job well done I must say. Look out world here they come....ha Off to the right here I have added a picasa of shots I have taken lately and back a few years maybe.
Lilly is no longer a Plaspohl she is a Capecci now marrying Ryan almost two years back. Ryan graduated from Purdue and is now a practicing nurse here in Lafayette. Abby is engaged and will be married in June I think to Bryan Livingston seen in a pic here in front of Hickle Fieldhouse taken last Saturday. Bryan graduated last year from Butler and is now a med student at Indiana University. Elizabeth is still in the running you might say so I added a picture of her from her running days in high school...My daughter Sharla, her hubby Jeff and Susan and I attended Abby ceremony saturday at Butler. Elizabeth and Lilly choose not to attend the walk on graduations at Purdue. We were all kind of glad of that as for one thing it would have been a logistics problem but also, "man those things are kind of drawn out and one gets really sleepy trying to keep up with it all. I nodded off quite a few times myself and I think I may have caught the dad Jeffrey doing the same a time or two...
Pictured above is the grandpa about the end of the graduation ceremony, getting a little bored, but still enjoying and glad he came, and ready to move onto "Champs" for lunch.....
Sunday they had a great reception party in my pole barn. They had it all fixed up real nice as they had worked on it Friday. Great food for everyone who attended..We all had a good time and now they are off to a great start and looking ahead to the rest of their lives...I know they will do good, all three of them...and the parents also, after recouping from this endeavor....Congrats to all of you....

Corn in the Ground....(297)

May 11, 2011
The corn is in the ground as of about an hour ago....90 acres is all I do and I am glad that it is done...according to Purdue the yield should be "normal" getting it done by May 10...that is close enough for me ....

It went in a little on the "wet" side but what is one to do with the weather man calling for more rain in the forecast....I think it will be OK, I hope so for sure...

Now onto spraying the ground to plant soybeans in the morning and then wait for that ground to get 'right for planting'....maybe tomorrow maybe next week we will see...

Spraying consist of round up and other chemicals to keep weeds out of the beans all year long...including trees even that seem to like to pop up on "no till" ground from time to time...Cottinwood is the tree that I see a lot on a ground that was not farmed last year...about two acres where a house was going to be built and then was not...

Ok got to run hamburgers on the grill tonight and a nice manhatten to celebrate.....

The Royal Wedding (296)

I can not believe I am doing a blog story on the Royal Wedding last Saturday...But I am and I am because I did indeed wake up at 4 am to watch it. And the reason I am doing a story about it is this. It was a very Christian wedding...I loved it and was truly impressed with the mention several times during the ceremony of "Jesus Christ"...

Now I have watched many of the reruns or recaps of the wedding...All of those mentions have been "cut out" like they never ever happened...is that strange or what??

The part that made it so Christian, so special in the eyes of Christians is cut completely out during the recaps...Yes that is very very strange...I think anyway...

Why is that I wonder? Well the world does not feel it important I guess...

I did love the precision in which it all went off from the different arrival times of the participants to the precise arrival of the bride at exactly 11 am....they had it down for sure...

I loved the wedding watched every bit of it...I think I like the Britts and the way they do things...long life the Queen... but in case she does not there is Charles and then there is William....and so there will be little William I predict....

See ya

Osama Bin Ladin is out of here.....(295)

The mighty arm of Uncle Sam delivered justice yesterday to Osama Bin Ladin in Pakistan.
It is a great day of celebration for our nation. My son in law, Todd Stair called last night at 11 and told me I may want to watch the news..I was so asleep I was confused and thought he meant we had killed Omar Kadafi in Libya and told him I did not think I would get woke up just for that...Then as I lay there trying to go back to sleep it dawned on me what he had said the we had killed Osama, the Hitler of our time, so I turned it on for a bit to make sure it was true and then went back to sleep...I slept well, knowing this man that had really started this wave of terror wars had been delivered the justice that he deserved. These Navy Seals are so good at what they do, am so proud of them and also their commanders decision to take his body back with them so they could not make a memorial out of his burial site. And to bury the guy at sea and wipe him off the face of the earth was also very smart...

This morning I watched some reporting of the event on Fox and they interviewed Mr. Beamer who was the father of the guy who is credited of stopping the flight that was headed to DC and crashed the plane in Pennsyvania. He was great, I loved what he had to say about the event and what lies ahead for us...I agree that we did good, but by doing so more attacks may come from these nut jobs who embrace terror. But that we must be vigilant and be prepared to serve them justice as well when it happens. We do live in a great county in spite of ourselves....

I switched over to CNN as I like to do when major events like this happens just to see how they assess the situation and how they report it to the public...Currently they just had a guest who wondered if burial at sea was proper for Osama since Islam prefers to buried in the ground? And the reporter joined in questioning whether proper Islamic prayers and rituals were offered for him before he was buried? I shook my head, but continue to watch as they work their way through how great a deed this nation has just pulled off...They can not help themselves it seems, they are committed to always looking at the dark underneath side of things. It blows my mind that anyone would watch such a network...I think soon I will switch back to Fox and other networks that report things from the positive side of the street....

It is a great day for America....

Thank GOD, I made it home. (294) all the way...

After much Prayer, Stress and Money, I finally this day made it all the way home. The final act of this drama started today with a phone call from Louisville Caterpillar service center that my motor home was done and the bill being prepaired...I took off for Louisville about 11 a.m. and arrived there about 2 P.M. The coach was done and the bill was prepaired to the tune of over 2,000 dollars...I gulped and simply asked that they at least consider that I had paid 500 to the same owner of the service center in Lexington and for the same problem more or less. They finally agreed to remove 4 hours labor at 90 dollars per hour or 360 dollars bringing my bill down to the 1600 dollar range. Never thought I would appreciate a 1600 dollar repair bill for a fuel pump, but after first being told over 2000 you bet your sweet bippy, I was very appreciative.
Picture above calls for a celebration of sorts. I made it home and here I am parked in front of my home in Indiana...and it ran good all the way and surely hope it continues to do so for years to come. I had a case of my finest wine in my wine cellar of the motor home. Emmediately upon shutting it off for the first time since Louisville I proceeded to that compartment and removed the several bottles of my Brown County Old Barrel Port Wine and skipped my way into the house. Pulled the cork on one of them and poured my self a "liberal" pour of it and did all the right stuff...First smelling it then taking a small sip...Ahhh yes it was good, very good and after a couple sips I ventured out to remove my truck from the motor home..tucking it away into the garage for the night I did indeed finish my liberal glass of the wonderful grape product....

I was home man did it feel good, I have to admit this trip has caused a fair amount of stress on this fella...Total bills for 3 tows and 3 service repairs all for the same problem, 3500 plus dollars....makes you ill to think of it but what is one to do?

Troy Wooten the service manager in Louisville assured me that he was confident that they had found the source of my problem...My confidence was not so sure but it grew as I passed through Indianapolis and then Lebanon and onto US 52 and headed north toward home and still running OK...It truly really felt good to turn off 52 onto Wyandotte Road and into my drive way and on up the lane still running good...Tomorrow I will drive it to Bible study and back home, thinking that maybe short trips around home here will be the smart move until time has passed and I am also confident that the problem is indeed solved...Thank you Lord for riding with me all the way home....

The Trip Home...Still in Progress (293)

Some might call the events of the past 10 days a trip from Hell, not me, it's not that bad but maybe one could say at least a trip from Purgatory. Susan and I started home with the motor home on April 8th I think it was and everything went smooth until Knoxville Tenn. and then as we started up a long slope of a hill the motor just lost power totally like someone had just pinched the fuel line with a large pair of vise grips maybe. I immediately started moving to the right side and onto the berm of the road along I 75...When we came to a stop we were off the road by maybe 3 feet with motor home and tow vehicle and about a foot from the guard rail along the edge as seen in the pictures. We were about 100 yards from exit 17 that would have offered us more safety, but we were done, it would not restart.

It was Saturday night about 9 PM. I called a friend kind of like they do on the Millionaire show where you win a lot of money...Except this was kind of a reverse thing, I called trying to gain info that would maybe save money and also bring in some expertise that I maybe was lacking being in a strange town and mechanically challenged as I am. Terry lives just a few miles north in LaFollette Tenn. Maybe three rings and he answered just like on TV. He said Hello, and I said, Hey Terry, Jack here I am broke down on I-75 told him how the coach quit on me and do you know of a tow truck service and where should I take it? He suggested the Cat dealer but did not know of any towing companies...I thought Terry might as he had owned a large trucking company there a few years back. So next thing called my Progressive Insurance company and found out I did have some coverage and they would call one for me. Finally contact the wrecker company and talked to the manager..Just for fun I said hey do you know Terry Claiborne?....He said yeal, matter of fact my mom is Shirley Claiborne's sister...Terry is my Uncle...Small world has not much to do with the story but anyway they sent out a wrecker..He arrived at midnight and left at 4 am after deciding they did not know how to hook it up or did not have the right wrecker who knows..They called Progressive and they told me they had no other wreckers and to call 911 and let the police handle it...Tow Pro the towing company did say they would contact the Cat dealer for me to call me later and see if he could help. We laid down on the couch's and immediately fell into much needed sleep but dreaming all kinds of stuff every time a semi passed and tossed us too and fro....

7 O'clock a.m. phone rings its the Cat dealer...He knows a tow company that knows how to do it..they arrived at 10 am. By 12.30 we got hooked up as seen in other picture and arrived at the Cat dealer in Knoxville, Sowers I think is the name. They brought in a mechanic who did nothing but remove my fuel filter which was dry he said fill it with fuel, had me crank it and shot in a little either and it took off. We took it for a test drive after he also put hooked it up to his computer...He said I was good to go charging me 600 plus dollars added to the 650 tow bill I know the insurance company will probably be pretty upset about..So we were off driving to Lexington Kentucky that night. We parked on a street close to Jill and Matt's place, stayed with them leaving before 8 am for home. Got 5 blocks and it went down right in front of the ST Joe Hospital, our hearts sank as we knew the problem was still very much with us.

Another tow truck this one very quick in an hours time we were at the Whayne Supply Cat dealer in Lexington. They worked on it until 3 testing for leaks in the fuel lines. We finally left at 3 heading home in the tow vehicle leaving the motor home for them to solve the problem...

We went down and picked it up Monday, they had found a pin hole leak in a fuel line. I hoped the problem was solved.

Hooked up the tow vehicle and we were off again. Running good all the way to north to exit 16 on I65 north of Louisville pulled into a truck stop for a sandwich circling the semi's finding a spot and 10 feet away from where I planned to stop down it went again..I took off the fuel filter which had been sucked dry the previous two breakdowns and checked it..it was still half full...filled it with fuel, Susan cranked the engine and I injected a little ether...it would not go..Called Cat they said my nearest dealer is Whayne Supply in Louisville. Another wrecker yesterday, arrived after a two hour wait.... motor home is at Cat, I am back home, hoping and praying that this problem can be solved as it is very very stressful and Expensive...Bothers me that the service manager in Lexington as I was decribing my problem stated that the Hewy pump was probably the problem and I don't think they every checked it...hope they will now among alot of other possible things..Somewhere between my fuel tank and my Engine there is a problem....I need to be semi retired and thinking about future travel and not this....
But I still love the motor home and its way of travel...Still love Caterpillar, they make quality stuff and employ my son in law at the large engine plant in Lafayette. Some how it will all work out....I hope.
This has been the longest spell I think between blog stories since I started this 3 years ago...Stress has a way of messing up schedules...

Packing boxes for the troops and Homer Helters Museum (292)

One Saturday while I was in Florida, I had the pleasure of packing boxes up with goodies for the troops in Afganistan. We did boxes for females and male troops, different stuff for different folk...it was so much fun, can not wait to do it again next year. It just feels good....But this story is about a driving force behind this effort to keep the troops supplied with a piece of "home"....and that guy is a Marine I have come to respect and admire, that being Homer Helter, who owns the Antique Military Museum in Naples on Shirley Street just off Pine Ridge Road...I love going to his place, you can spend hours in their talking to veterans from many era's of this countries good efforts of keeping this world free for the most part. A job that continues today with little help from our allies as we are witnessing today in all three of our areas of confrontation. And then additional hours and I mean hours looking through a portion of what he has on display and forsale. And by the way Homer, you need a web site...I searched the internet and could not find a link that I could promote for you...get on it Sir...

Anyway the day of the box packing Homer has some guys in and cooks a big picnic for the help and his customers and friends that are in his Museum...that saturday as usual was barbeque Chicken, maybe the best I ever had, hamburgers, Brats, and baked beans all real good...see my plate in the slideshow to the right...Couple bites out of the cheeseburger all so good I had to take a picture.


I can tell he has put his heart and soul into this place and into service to his town and his nation...He is an honest to goodness veteran that I am proud to say that I know...Semper Fi Homer.......the bottom pic here is me on Homers German Side car BMW motorcycle from WW TWO...he loaned it to me to "patrol the perimeter" of my residence till we catch the no good crook that broke into my house...

Naples Florida 2011 (291)

Needless to say I love Naples and Marco and especially Silver Lakes RV Park located on the "road to Marco" off US 41.....
Love it so much that I am going back again next year...I love the fishing in the back waters in and around the 10,000 islands off the lower west coast of Florida.
Writing in past tense as I went home early as I was broken into the first week I was in Florida at my home in Indiana...They still have not caught the dude even though they know who is, he has been on the loose for a week now...He had a lot of fun dumping every drawer in my house looking for money...he found a little and he found a check book... and he was not too smart..he wrote himself a check and drove to my bank and sent the check and his drivers license into the teller via the drive up window...

The called me immediately and asked if I knew him and informed me the check was 25 out of sequense....What a Bank......and I said no way so they asked him to come in and he left right away in his white truck...Hard to belive this dude is still 'at large' so to speak..they have his drivers license and his finger prints on the check and from inside my house...go figure.....

So I am home early from Florida cleaning up the mess....practicing close range target practice with my two pistols a Colt 1911 45 caliber and 9MM. Keltec P11...next time he may not be so lucky....I may have one in each hand...

But Florida was wonderful...it still is wonderful. Gosh I love fishing the back water looking for spots that fish will likely to be...and sometimes finding them...80 degree temps, sunshine,great neighbors, great RV park, what more could a farmer from Indiana want that what I got...

Can not miss adding my enjoyment from the Donald Trump appearance on the View the other day...Donald want to see the Birth Certificate of Mr. Obama and you know what I would too....

What the hell is going on....if he ain't wanting to share it I think we have on our hand an "illegal President"...they are to be born in this nation you know...I don't think he was or he would be sharing that document....

So Donald I salute you Amigo.....it's time to ask the empty suite to produce the document that the nation should have insisted upon before this guy was ever nominated...unbelievable that we could have a seated President that is not qualified to be so....unbelievable....

And all you folks that voted for him, you got to wondering too......

ST. Pat's Parade and lots of Fishin (290)

I may be having "borderline" too much fun here in Southwest Florida, Naples/Marco Island area to be more specific. First off my buddy Ernie Maier has been keeping me almost fully employed as "first mate" on his pontoon boat. I think we went out the day after I got here and we did real well catching 5 nice Sheep Head plus on top of that George and Gladis Thompson were out there and gave us 2 additional fish that they did not want to clean...Which by the way is my other boat I am sometimes employed on as "first mate"...Looking forward to that trip out with them soon also...You see for years down here I just fished off the banks or off the fishing pier down at the Marco Island bridge..Well they closed the pier after the hurricane for political reasons is my guess, but anyway My fishing boat owner buddies came along here just in the last 3 years maybe....It is much much better going to the fish instead of hoping the fish come to you..I have learned to "read the roots" on the mangrove islands...when they have the right amount of crustations of shells hanging on them, it is a good bet that sheephead and other species will be in the area, working these nibling on these shells or oysters whatever they are.

Well sandwiched between my fishing trips I marched again with the Marine Corps League in the St. Patrick's day Parade. Gosh I love doing that, and was especially anxious to this year with my new stainless steel knee that was installed in June, to see how it would perform under the two mile march leading the parade. I was a little worried about it and spent some days prior walking 2 miles and hurting just a bit now and then...But you add bagpipes behind you and a recording of a Marching songs and the Marine Hymn and there a no stopping you...Your chest kind of swells a bit to be with your comrades again and listening to the cadance caller to keep in step...I guess you have to be there but let me tell you, things went well and we never missed a beat...Well truthfully I did have to "skip" a couple times to get back into step but that was mostly caused by the real Marine recruiters leading us not listening to the drill master's words...We had about a dozen marching League members maybe including our own Randy Kington in his motorized wheel chair...I am proud to be a member of this Naples League, as they do a lot of civil service things around town from picking up trash along the highways to mentoring disadvantaged kids in the school system here...A program they call "new horizons". That I have to admit I am not involved in because of my short stays here, but they surely are and I am proud of them for it and allowing me to be a small part and at least set my left foot down on the 1's and the 3's on St. Patricks day when the Marines lead the parade here as they have for over 30 years....It is truly exhilerating....The top picture is me and a nice sheep head fish...my favorite catch here..but the lower picture is a weird fish I caught yesterday on my second trip out in Ernie's boat...This dude had 3 legs on each side and two wings that it could spread out...and then all the regular stuff a fish has for swiming...I don't know what it was...I guess if you were a evolutionist you could make a "weak" case for this thing being a forerunner of life crawling up from the ocean and even becoming a bird maybe...But I don't buy any of that nonsence even for a new york minute...My eyes and the brain God gave me tells me without a doubt that life on this planet is way to complicated to have started with algae, it had to be the handy work of a creator...I will thump my Bible and know this is how it all came about....

Rainy Nignt in Georgia (289)

I am setting in my motor home at a Cracker Barrel in Dalton Georgia....My favorite campground...I love parking at Cracker Barrel cause it "free"...and in the morning I will enjoy a nice breakfast and I will thank them for allowing me to park my motor home in their parking lot...I always do and they always say, "glad you stayed with us last night"....We have this thing going on me and cracker barrel I guess...I provide "security" for them, by parking by the back door in my motor home...burglars just don't pry open back doors when there is a motor home outside with a guy in side with a cell phone and a 9MM Pistol inside...So me and cracker barrel, yes, we have it "going on", I guess you could say...

On my way south to Naples Florida for some R and R...Rest and Recuperation....

It is pouring down rain here..and maybe back in Indiana too...left there this morning early....had a nice nap about noon for an hour and then recharge I moved on through Nashville Tn. on to Chattannoga and now Dalton Georgia...I like Dalton, it is the carpet capital of the world you know...the place to buy carpet if you are buying very much...

Looking forward to spending a month in Naples close to Marco Island...doing as much fishing as time will allow...it will be great...And then back home to plant corn and beans....that is my rotation you know corn beans and then Naples...

Thursday update on my excellent adventure...
Drove 640 miles yesterday to Ft. Myers, only lacked 50 miles to Naples but had to stop at yes you guessed it another Cracker Barrel...with my tow vehicle I had to utilize 5 Bus/RV parking slots to contain me...but I am special so I knew they would not mind...I was exhasted for sure...Susan woke me at 7.30 on her way to work...Went into breakfast and thanked my host and while in there a monsoon type rain came through the area...glad I was inside...now setting up my home site in Naples has rained all day...

Girandoni air rifle as used by Lewis and Clark. (288)

My friend Mike Emmert sent this my way today...and for lack of a better subject it ends up on my blog this week....But if you take the time to click on the link to the right or the title above, and take the time to listen, you too will be amazed by this "air rifle"....

The thing that amazes me is why they are still not making and selling this rifle...wow a air rifle that shoots a 46 calibur ball...what a deer gun it would be and not much noise when it goes off. And credited for making the whole expedition a success...wow

Sure would look good hanging over my fireplace as my homeland security weapon don't you think...But it does just amaze me as to why a similar rifle is not being made and sold even to this day...

That all being said, I went to my brother Joe's 80th birthday party today...A nice "stag" only fish fry held in the pole barn...He got several bottles of whiskey, Baylees, Wine and Rum...He is loaded with booze and a few cards to boot...I made note of the ones that brought the most expensive gifts hoping to invite them to my 70th birthday party, someday if I ever decide to have one. I may not, but if I do these two or three guys will be invited for sure...

Went to watch my grandson Caulin wrestle last night for the first time...not his first but my first. Wow he pinned his equal weight 210 pound opponet in a very short time...He is good at that and playing center on the football team...and only in the 8th grade a Wainwright middle school...but I found out that soon there will be a match where the wrestlers go head to head with their dad's...wow I do not want to miss that one, may take the camera...

Well OK it is a slow newsweek here on the prairie mainly just watching the people of the middle east over throw their leadership of the past decades...find it all amazing and will be interesting to see how it all turns out...I would guess some will turn out OK and some not so good and would not even attempt to guess which ones..but those happenings and the Fox News and CNN News coverage just make it all kind of interesting...One being the Republican conservative slant and the other being the Democrat liberal slant...sometimes I just have to laugh how CNN can try and paint a picture that is just totally different than Fox....My view is I find the Fox view points pretty much right on in reality....CNN is where I get my biggest laughs when they like today showed how 58% favored restricting of the union powers in our country and 42% sided with the unions...but then announced that it was pretty much a trade off...even steven.....I had to laugh but I understand truth does not sometimes come easily for them...

Why you gotta love Indiana Weather (287)

Well you just gotta love how Indiana weather and probably all the midwest can change in a blink of an eye. Good heavens only last Monday, 4 days ago we were skiing in inches of snow, and here it is Friday and now flowers...I was totally blown away walking outside this morning, maybe they were even here yesterday and I did not notice but is this a sign of spring or just some flowers that are a little impatient? I hope it is a sign of spring but mid February, I know it's probably flowers that got their signals mixed up. But we will take it..The last couple days in the 50's even 60 yesterday. Hey at least the warmer air has melted most of the snow. The tile are running and filling the pond a little deeper. No surface water coming into the pond but the tile are running full force from the back of the 50 acres. It has a way to go to fill up, maybe another 30 inches so keep it coming...at 30,000 gallons of water per inch in my pond I only need another million gallons of water..It will come sooner or later hopefully not all in one day...
Sandwiched in between winter skiing and spring flowers we had Valentines Day. And Sweet Pea made me this special treat.. They were very good, but doggoneit, it will mean extra time on the ABCOASTER, my new exercise machine in the bedroom...at least 100 reps for each one of these babies for sure...Its the only bad thing about going to Sam's Club is the portions that they sell you...I guess I did not have to eat them, but I did.....

What is an Ab Coaster machine you are probably asking? Well click on the title above and it will come up...Sure hope it works...my jeans are becoming a challenge to button up...Oh before strawberries there were smores....better not ever try to eat just one of those babies....fireplaces = smores......
Tip for today...you can purchase the AB COASTER from walmart on line...ship it to your store and save shipping...then if you don't like it take it back to Walmart and not have to ship it back...and Walmart sells it for one dollar less on top of the free shipping...Probably should just lock the refrigerator and the pantry and we would not need these things.....

Cross Country Skiing for dummies (286)

For the last couple years I have been admiring some cross country ski's hanging on sweet peas garage wall, with shoes and ski poles, all there together...I asked her about them and she said yes that she and her husband used to do that quite a bit and that it was fun and good exercise...So a couple weeks ago while I was working on her home laying the new tile floor, I suggested maybe we should take those out to the farm and try them out, if the shoes would happen to fit me..I brought them home and a few days ago got around to trying on the shoes...they fit like a glove, and no mice hiding in the toes.
Only had one problem though, and that was there was only 3 ski poles. Those of course are used to push you along and help you maintain balance while gliding though the snow. Well Susan decided that since I was the beginner that I should use the two good poles even though they were actually for her height and not mine. In the meantime early last week I went on line and ordered two new poles for a person of my height...Back to the story, she used the one pole with out a basket and I came up with the idea of using a mop that no longer was needed for that chore anymore. She did well with the mop and the not so good pole...We shoved off, she gave me lessons on turning and stopping if I get going to fast down a grade...She said I had the fear of terror on my face, I guess it could be mistaken for that, but actually it was just the same fear that has bugged me all this winter, and that is the fear of falling and doing some type damage to my new knee that I had replaced last June.
Anyway I finally got my shoes snapped into the ski's properly and trying to put on my best "I'm Cool" face, I ventured out into the lawn ready for action. No doubt that this type skiing on mostly flat ground is a whole lot safer than the real down hill type skiing that I completely missed out on in this life time and actually have no desire at this juncture in life to "catch up too"......
I will be very content if I can just master this flat land, farm boy skiing right here on the "slopes" of my 50 acres...I don't need to fly anywhere and risk wrapping myself around a birch tree that should not have been there...And maybe seeing my awesome new stainless steel knee unhooked in some way from my leg bone after all that good work by Dr. Daluga and Dr. Doug his understudy...those guys are craftmen of the highest degree and I don't want a closer look at what they did.

I did fall one time, taking the advice of Gary Strup who I had quizzed at breakfast this A.M. about that very topic "Falling"...He said just go with it and lay over on your side don't fight it....I did just that, but as I layed there I realized that, "I had fallen and getting up was going to be somewhat a chore...I got one ski off and then getting up on my favored replacement knee and with Susan's help, we got me up...I put the ski back on and then we decided that maybe we had enough for the first time out and worked our way back to the house.

Well today the new poles came from LL Bean company...actually made in Austria and not China...can you believe those Chinese allowed that one to get away from them??
Well I am glad they did...anymore I do love to buy things that are made here in the US where we all live and so many jobs are needed...But things made in China do bother me a bit anymore as I realize that anything that I buy not made here in the USA is just confirming that I agree with our businesses being closed and the machinery being crated up and shipped to some foreign land for others to have jobs...It just should not have happened but the fact that it did, does not have to be forever...we can reverse this, and put our people back to work...May have to say no to selfish self centered labor unions, but eventually we need to work through this...Usually at this point I would apologize for the editorial but truthfully I am not sorry...it needs to be said over and over again until we the people, "get it".

Clicking on title above may be worthwhile....

Our Space Sation and its construction (285)

Well I must admit, I don't really know "jack shit" about any of this..but I sure am in awe of all of it. Our space station will pass over Lafayette tomorrow morning about at 6.57 and will be seen for 3 minutes...Will be coming from the northwest and will exit to the South east...I am going to try and be up and out side looking as it goes over...it is the brightest star in the sky these days...

I must relay a story of I guess my link to the interest in the space station and the shuttle that got it all up there....

All happened in Naples Florida several years ago. My wife Linda and I were living on our lot there in Silver Lakes RV park...We had been there maybe 10 years already...not sure does not matter...one day I met a new guy who arrived an purchased a lot next a couple lots down from us...His name was Clive Beasley, his wife was Norma Beasley.
I stopped by and noticed that he owned an America Eagle motor home...they are very expensive....I said what did you do Clive...he said he had worked for many years building the silo's in the western states that housed the intercontinental nuclear missles....he said it was tough work as no one really wanted an missle in their town as it made them an instant target for a Russian missle strike....he said they were not popular in the western towns as they built these silo's...

But for his last year his company Martin Marietta had made him the launch director for that company at the Kennedy Space Center...he was one of 9 people who said go or no go for the launch of each shuttle lift off...His company built the large orange fuel cell that the shuttle sets on and is the fuel source for each launch.
I said gee it's great to meet you Clive and went on home for dinner...

That very night there was a huge double sonic boom over Naples...it shook our fifth wheel RV a lot...we turned on the TV and they acknowledged the large booms and then in about 10 minutes it showed the shuttle landing at the Cape....it told about how the shuttle had come right over Naples at 20,000 feet elevation at over 2000 MPH and in the slowing process had caused these huge sonic booms...

Well my wife Linda and I both were pretty impressed by such an event...I mean it shook our RV real good....The next day I was in the front of the RV doing some work. I heard Linda talking to some man out in the front of the coach...It was Clive Beasley, and she was asking him if he heard the big booms last night? He said yeal, wonder what that was?...Well Linda for the next 5 minutes told old Clive all about it, almost a word or word report we had heard on the news the night before....Clive finally said well that is really interesting and went on home....Linda came around to me later and said hey that new guy is kind of a nice guy, he was really interested in those sonic booms of the shuttle landing...

I laughed and said yeal I bet he was, I met him last night, I think he was putting you on as he was the launch director for Martin Marietta at the Space Center before retiring last month and moving here...

She said no kidding and went immediately over to his coach and knocked on the door...Clive answered and she said Clive why did you let me go on and on about that shuttle landing? He said Linda, I could not help it, I have not seen anyone as excited about the space program as you were, for quite some time, and I just could not shut you down....

It started a friendship that lasted to this day...Clive arranged for us to attend a shuttle launch and set in the VIP seating with the relatives of the astronauts and other VIP's...it was great it was a late evening launch, I have forgotten the date or what mission it was I know I do remember it was the shuttle Discovery, I think but not for sure, will check with Mr. Beasley on that...it was a beautiful launch...Linda took some good pictures....maybe I can find one probably not. I don't think I have them in my pictures...take my word for it it was great...
We went to a second launch a year later on our own via our congressman Steve Buyer...we got the good seats again...as can any one if you plan ahead...however they are about over maybe one or two more then its done....

When Linda died she ask me to hold a memorial service for her at the RV park for the many people she had come to love in Naples...I agreed but was very nervous about it all...about 75 plus people showed up that night including the Beasley's...Clive got up in front when I asked if anyone had anything they would like to say about her...he told the story and they all appreciated it...

Had to share the story with you....
PS...off to the right here is two things that may interest you...One is the times the space station passes over Lafayette Indiana...below that is a link showing how the space station was constructed with each shuttle launch...all good stuff....

Also clicking on the title above will take you to a video of launch day....

My Last of the really great Oldsmobiles (284)

Yes the 50's were indeed the golden era for the automobile industry. Almost every year or at least every other year a complete remake of the cars. Only 1958 was sort of a regression I would say..those 58 cars were just butt ugly compared to the years previous..But they recovered well in 1959 and made them low and long and sleek and again in 1960 as you see here with my Oldsmobile convertible...But in 1961 Detroit went backward again in my opinion with the 61 Oldsmobiles...But the 62 through 64 were all beautiful cars as well...
Seen to the left here is me and my most favorite Oldsmobile I guess...I bought it new at the dealership in Monticello Indiana...the red leather interior was a nice contrast to the white paint of the car itself. It drove and rode like a dream. I had it two years, should have never parted with it but when the kids started coming I knew I needed to get something maybe a little safer for a family to ride in...traded it for a 62 Chevy probably the dumest trade I ever made...I knew a week later, well lets just say a week later I missed the car.
My Buddy Bob Roberts purchased one the same color a couple months later...we were twins with our white olds convertible...I miss Bob he died maybe 3 or 4 years back...My gal friend at the time Susan Stair purchased a blue one also...they were a very popular car in 1960...Oldsmobiles must have rusted out badly as you don't see many of them at the antique car shows each year...once in a while but mostly you see the Fords and Chevy's of the era...I miss all three of my Oldsmobiles I have written about here and it has been fun sharing them with you all...Next blog story in a few days is about the US space station and shuttle we built to haul all that stuff up there...over to the right is a preview of the shuttle being constructed..click on and take a peak...

1955 Holiday Couple Olds (283)

I arrived home from the Marines on or about mid April of 1958 having gotten discharged about 6 weeks early of my two years of active duty thanks to President Eisenhower decision to reduce the size of the Marine Corps. Actually old Ike even wanted to disband the Marine Corps altogether but Congress was wise enough to avoid such a move. I guess Ike being an old Army man and having spent his war years in Europe and not the South Pacific did not realize the versatility that the Naval Soldiers had to offer. Anyway he did not get his wish, we still have a Marine Corps and one hell of a lot of Marines. Recently the Commandant of the Marines issued a proclamation declaring that there was no such thing as "former marines"...that once you are a Marine you are a Marine for life...So I guess that settles that for the time being...probably a good thing, who knows...sorry for the editorial here lets get back to Oldsmobiles......

I had sent home a pretty good some of money to my mom to keep for me and along with the money they had gotten for my beloved 53 Olds, I pretty much went shopping for wheels as soon as I had gotten settled into my parents guest bedroom on Charles Street in Lafayette...They had moved to town and retired the summer that I had left for the Marines...Built a new small 2 bedroom home with a one car garage. It was good to be home and I guess I still had Oldsmobiles in my blood as it was not long and I owned yet another one. My second Olds was a 1955 88 Olds 2 door Hardtop. Blue and White it was a very sporty looking car...I soon loved it as much as I had the 53 model.

But now for another little side bar detour here with the picture to the right. You see I could not find in my computer a picture of me with my 55 Olds. Sure I have one some place but instead will bore you with this picture of the same era...One from the fall of 1958 when I was given the opportunity to go deer hunting in Upper Michigan with my brother in law Ralph Hengst who I have written about previously on this blogsite. I so much admired the sportsman in my brother in law Ralph...Anyway here is Ralph and I in the center of this pic outside the bar in which we stayed in a little town of Mass Michigan about 20 miles inland from Ontanogon Michigan on the Lake. Has absolutely nothing to do with this blog story of the 55 Olds except that when this picture was taken I did in deed own the said 55 Olds the subject of this blog story...OK back to the Oldsmobile.
Well the 55 Olds got me back and forth to my jobs that I had when first getting discharged. Work was hard to find as there was somewhat of a recession going on...The Marine Corps had told us we needed to re-enlist so as not to go home and not be able to find work. But work can always be found if one looks and wants it hard enough. I started out within about a week of getting home working for 90 cents an hour setting up new John Deere Corn planters for the John Deere dealership. Soon I moved up to selling things at the Tractor Supply Company which lasted about a year maybe and then luck good or bad landed me at the new REA Magnet Wire company for a good paying job. One that soon led to my making more money than I needed at the time and that led to thoughts of getting my first "brand new" automobile which will be the subject of the next story here...Yep you guessed it it was yet another Oldsmobile....

Car #2 the first "OLDSMOBILE" (282)

Even though a 4 door sedan I did love this car..After a year in the Plymouth, for a kid 17 it was like well really moving up in the world of automobiles. I had always liked Oldsmobile's and Mercury's. Would have loved to owned both of them and it was a tough call as I thought they were both just great. Probably finding this Old's at Tippecanoe Motors on the levy and not having to pay too much difference did the trick. Oldsmobile for me it was and ended up never owning a Mercury ever, but I sure owned a lot of Oldsmobile's. 53 4 door, 55 2dr. Hardtop, 60 Convertible and then others all the way to my last Old's a 2004 Alero that I traded off a couple years back on my present Chevy, which I enjoy and like a lot also.

But back to my first dream car, even though the 4 doors man I loved this car. I mean look at the beautiful dash board to the right side here they had. I would just set in it and admire it...And the V-8 "rocket" engine and the automatic tranny vs the old 6 cyl Plymouth manual, I was in heaven....In this picture of the 53 Old's and I, in the back ground is the same garage as the first pic of my Plymouth and also in the back ground is my Dad's 55 Plymouth he owned for many years. I think I was ready to go to the Senior Prom at Monticello Indiana at the Sportsman Club...Not real keen on these social events as to what they entailed I look a bit nervous here I think...Actually I have inside info here, I was a bit nervous, not sure why I guess you can take the boy off the farm but not the farm out of the boy maybe....I don't know, it all turned out well, as vice president of the class I read the class will they called it and not a public speaking whiz, I guess I was nervous about that job...It all went well and I enjoyed it all...and the great Oldsmobile seen here was turquoise and white and drove like a dream all the way to Monticello and back home again...kids did not stay out all night back then, maybe till 2 am not sure...Anyway this car as is the wish of all of my first 3 Oldsmobile's, I still dream about and wish somehow I could still own all three of them. Amazing how a young person can become so attached to a thing like a car....

This car was in the garage when I joined the Marines in May of 1956. I did not know what I wanted to do with it. I wished now I had drove it back to California but I figured I really did not need it and it would then "drain" all of my meager Marine pay and I would not save anything for the future...So I finally asked my parents to try and sell it for me. They had a part time car dealer pick it up to try and sell. I think his name was Brauts near Monitor. It went on for months with no sale and they finally went over there and picked it up. He had been using it to haul chickens to town to sell in the truck and it was a mess...Mom cleaned it up and they did finally sell it...


Have no recall as to what it brought, just wish I still owned it. I do still have many a dream about owning this car....it was my first dream car....I had worked very hard for two different farmers named "Blair" for three summers but spent every last cent on cars....

Picture to the right here is close to my color or turquoise with a white top...Not doubt about the 50's being a golden era for automobiles in the USA.

Next post, Getting discharged from the Marines and buying, yeal you guessed it, another Old's......

My First Car....51 Plymouth...(281)

The first car one owns is usually not the dream car but the opportunity car but still it is a car. Yep back about 1955 my dad got a new 55 Plymouth and he allowed me to purchase from him from my saving account his dark blue 51 Plymouth 4 door sedan. It was exciting as it had 4 wheels and ran down the road pretty good. Gosh I washed and waxed it at least once a week. Added turn signals from Sears that it did not have...added some other stuff too not sure what all, some fender skirts and mud flaps I remember with reflectors on them no less...I think new shock absorbers even though it probably did not need them at all it was fun sticking them on there anyway. Oh and "lowering blocks", with these babies mounted just under your rear leaf springs you could lower the rear of the car maybe 4 inches...wow what an improvement that was I was sure...almost laughable now the stuff we used to do...I remember one kid took a blow torch to his leaf springs in the front and heated them up and then we all jumped on it and lowered the front of the car....road like a log wagon after that...I did not do that, I knew my dad would be real mad if I ever did anything really stupid to my car...lowering blocks were pushing the envelope about far enough...he just shook his head and said looks goofy to me...

It had but a 6 cylinder engine with a manual transmission...not a real hot car but it got me to ball practice and even my first date or two was in this "blue goose" I called it then...I remember some of the others had chevy's and fords with V-8 engines and would leave me in the dust..why they could even make their tires burn a little rubber on take off...Mine would not do that, just not enough engine for the squealing the tires sound....I did finally figure out a way to make the tire squeal though...


If I would put it in reverse and get it going maybe 10 MPH backward and then slip it into low and "drop" the clutch quick I could get a little squeal out of it....but not too long after learning how to do that I did develope a clutch that slipped just a bit....After a bit my backward then forward routine did not work anymore....After a year maybe or so can not remember for sure but I needed an Oldsmobile I was sure...next post moving from the opportunity car to the first dream car...

The rest of yesterdays story...(280)

Love is in the Air Chapter 3 The Salvadorian Gringo Harvest

The bill comes to the table, it reads $160.00 US dollars for 8 drinks. One of Bill's new acquaintances say's "there ain't no way we are paying this bill". The bar tender is summoned and the bill is challenged. He looks at Bill and the other four men, and then glances over his shoulder at the couple bare machetes and now about 10 more Salvadorians between them and the door and says "you pay this". Bill, the oldest of this group, gets their attention and reasons that yes this is going to be an experience to learn from and remember, and then thinks to himself that it would be an experience to tell the grandkids about someday, not too proudly, but at least would be best for them not to read in the papers about. Bill reasons that they were maybe 5 miles inside lawless territory and that they could be skinned and quartered here in the next 5 minutes and never heard from again. The money is paid with no gratuity. They move toward the door. The bartender tells the Salvadorians something in Spanish and they allow the gringo's to pass through their ranks and out the door. The cab is there and away go the freshly harvested seed men back to town.

The next day the owner of the cattle ranch and processing plant tells Bill and a few other of the group, things are not looking good in his country these days. He say's civil rights lawyers from the US have messed things up pretty good for him and his family who migrated here a hundred years before. He said he now spends his time at the plant, always carrying a sidearm. And his home is now guarded by 4 towers of guards with shotguns. That afternoon as they return to town much gunfire is heard in a couple parts of the town. By the next day the revolutionaries have taken over the Red Cross building and a couple other government buildings. The guide tells the group that the police he has talked to say it will be OK and that they feel it safe to stay the full 5 days. The following day the city is more quiet and the group loads onto an old narrow gauge open air wooden passenger train with a steam engine for a trip about 30 miles into the mountains. It is 90 plus degrees and all aboard would love a cold drink. And lots of coke is on board, but it is 90 plus degrees also! The train stops to pick up some Salvadorians and someone throws a huge block of ice on the train floor. Oh boy! Bill say's, "get those cups and cokes open, we have ice", and the ice is chipped into small pieces enough for all to enjoy a really cold drink. Bill notices as he enjoys his coke that most carts are pulled by oxen and light loads are on the tops of the women's heads. He also notices and remarks how happy these people seem to be having nothing. "I bet they don't know what a migraine headache is down here", he laughs.

That night another great banquet with lots of drinks is enjoyed and goes down easily it seems and helps to at least ease the tensions of the guest. A few guest notice some diahria setting in. One guest becomes a wild man and throws a couple women into the pool. His name was Bill, but not our Bill, this was Wild Bill. The wives move away from the pools edge, but this does not stop Wild Bill, he simplly scoops them up and runs to the pool and goes in with them! Bill is glad that Jane is back in Chicago fighting snow not wild Bill.. The next morning at the breakfast buffet one could look up at the 10 stories of balconies behind the crescent shaped hotel, and see the five evening dresses and wild Bill's suit drying out on the railings. After breakfast, plans were to visit a coffee plantation, but before the buses could be loaded more people started making very often and very quick visits to the restrooms. Those 90% that had enjoyed the cold drink on the train had seen the "Revenge of Montezuma", that had been hidden in that nice cold ice, including our Bill. It was not a pretty sight. The fifth day finally rolled around and the "gastorically wounded", moved onto the buses for the ride to the airport. After a long debate between the tour guide and the military, the passports were exchanged for some of the items they had purchased for souvenirs that was declared contraband and possibly even some corporate money Bill suspects. Three of the group were carried on and then off the plane again on stretchers. As the plane lifted off a huge cheer that would have eclipsed the one in Chicago went up, probably heard back at the airport. Arrival back at O'Hare found the airport only open for a day and at least an hour of about 3 or 4 levels of circular holding patterns before landing. A year later Bill was reading Newsweek and saw a familiar face. The cattle ranch owner had been charged for walking into a bar and shooting two US civil rights lawyers to death.


Love was in the Air........#4 Recountance, Recovery and Romance

On the flight north from El Salvador Bill recounts his experiences and thinks to himself what a 'gold mine' the Salvadorian people are setting on as a great prospective tourism industry. Who could beat dry 90 degree warmth in January days and 60 degree nights for great sleeping, and not bar hopping. This unrest in the country would surely kill the tourism that had been started, but the friendliness of the commoners on the "day time" streets and workers around the hotel, would surely some day again make San Salvador a good winter haven he thinks. He has a couple of the "machetes" he slipped out of the country that will surely be "memorable" to him for quite sometime to come.

Bill's arrival home is good, the kids are glad to have him home, and get rid of the older couple sitting them and get back to normal as normal goes with this household. And Bill having thanked the Lord, is very glad to be home. Bill tells the family of the really nice gal he met at the local airport, the real nice weather, the nice people and all of the excitement, except the "big lesson" trip he and 4 others took into the country side. He figures maybe in 25 years from now he could put a better spin on that story. He calls his local doctor and tells him he needs big time help getting rid of the severe case of "Montezuma’s" that has stayed with him and shows no sign of giving up. A strong prescription and maybe another week of staying not far from the house, and Bill finally kicks the bug that joined him on the train ride into the mountains. He comes across that phone number he had gotten in Chicago and calls the blonde in the black coat named Jane. He leaves a message on her answer machine and a few days later Jane returns his call. She has been on the road with her job of promoting window glass for auto's for her employer. She had been traveling the state that week calling on insurance agents and auto body shops, dropping off golf balls and info and keeping the company name fresh in their memories. Unbeknown to Bill she had visited his little town and inquired of him at a local insurance agency. She had found that he really was "not married," as she had suspected that he was probably married . Had found out he was a "working farmer" as declared; and as far as was known, a decent guy. She shared with Bill that she had as it turned out gotten a five day stay in Chicago instead of 2 because of the closure of the airport and storm. A date was made for the next weekend as she was pretty tired and needed to rest up and do her housework, but would maybe not be as tired then. The Friday night arrived and Bill showed up in his "family" car a Chevy wagon, as the '79 T-Bird he had told Jane about had not arrived yet. Jane said, "no problem, you probably need this thing anyway with your five kids". Jane looked pretty attractive to Bill as he helped her into his passenger seat and drove her south on the River Road to a favorite restaurant. He asked for a corner table overlooking the river, and with good food and conversation he and Jane recounted their meeting by chance and life as it had been for them, to that point. The night ended with a walk to the door and agreement to probably do this again sometime soon and a kiss good night.

Bill was attracted to this lady, good looking, no children to wonder about how the blending would go if blending ever needed done, and she was street smart it seemed. Her ideas and ideals seemed very compatible with his. Who knows but at least for now he was content to get to know her better. Saturday evening was approaching and Bill was thinking why didn't I ask, but then he knows it is not best to have two dates in a row, not sure why, but that is probably the law of the dating jungle, so he relaxes at home. The kids retire for the night and Bill gets an idea. He loads up his blender, 7-Up and some Kool-aid and heads the wagon to town. He knocks on Jane's door hoping she is home with blender in hand, the door opens. Bill say's, "Hi Jane, I was just in the area and thought I would stop by and see if you cared for a new treat I have learned of. It is orange Kool-aid, 7-Up and ice, if you have the ice and the time". Jane seemed a little cautious, but finally kind of laughed and said something like "what an approach", and let Bill in. Bill fired up his blender and they enjoyed the drink and another couple hours of conversation and another couple good night kisses and Bill was headed back to the farm. Bill felt good, he liked this lady even more than the night before. Time would tell, but he had a couple months here to "cultivate" this relationship before the spring farming begins.

Cultivate he did, and and after a few more dates, the words "Love" were used now and then. Time moved on, it was a good summer for Bill and Jane. An engagement took place after about 6 months of dating. When would they marry was a topic for a few days and then the two agreed that what would be better than getting married on January 12, 1980? And what would be a better time for this wedding but 3:45 in the afternoon exactly one year to the minute that they had met with Bill's winning retrieval of the knitting stopper at that local airport. Thank God he had moved fast. It had been quit a year.

A day to remember Jan 12, 1979 (279)

Today is Jan 12, 2011 on another Jan 12 1979 at 3.45PM I met my deceased wife Linda...Taking a break today but did want to honor her with a reprint of how we met and then a year later married. We try and not dwell on sadness of loosing a wonderful mate, and I am getting better at it...but then all of a sudden the date hits you right between the eyes, which is just in front of the grey matter that holds all those memories....I wrote this story in 3rd person, like I was an observer but sure you will figure out that "Bill" is actually me and "Jane" is Linda...


Bill had been divorced a year or so. He had been out there visiting a few night spots when time allowed from his duties as a father. Blind dates had not yielded much more to fill the emptiness than the night spots. Oh,family life and work is the main thing anyway he thought and besides maybe he just needed a short vacation that was being offered to him by his employer. A short 5 day trip to El Salvador would be fun he thought. He signed up, never been there before, why not. Nice break from farming and seed sales and this hidden quest for a new companion, he thought. His employer Northrup King Seeds would be flying an entire plane load of seed salesman there. What could be any safer or more fun than a peaceful little country like that?.

January 12, 1979 came and the day to fly off for Bill's vacation. His brother Bob took him to the annual Purdue Ag Alumni Fish Fry before dropping him off at the Purdue University airport for a short flight to Chicago late afternoon, and then the next morning he will be on his way to sunny San Salvador, El Salvador. He sat waiting after checking his bags for the flight, maybe 15 minutes to go till the 4 o’clock flight time. A blonde "looker" comes through the door and hits the check-in counter. Bill scans her but thinks not a lot about her, but did notice that only a couple empty chairs remaining were near him. He would get a good look at the "looker" as soon as she needs a seat. The gal checks in and turns to look for a seat and then sits down only two chairs from Bill. Not bad he thinks, too bad this chick is not going to El Salvador his mind dreams. He notices her nervousness as she sets down and whips out some knitting work. A rubber stopper flies off the needle and Bill thinks quick. Retrieve this you idiot before some other bozo does, why not, no one knows him, take a chance, go for it. Three men go for the stopper but Bill has the quickness and drive needed to recover the fumble. He brings it back and hands it to the lady who smiles and say's, "thank you". "Your welcome", Bill say's, and settles back into his seat.

Only flight leaving that afternoon is to Chicago but Bill finally musters the courage to get the lady's attention and asks, "are you flying to Chicago"? The reply is "Yes", as Bill knew it would be. Silence sets in, as Bill assumes others in ear range have assumed him an idiot. The flight is called and all in the room walk out to the small prop plane. Bill just happens to get himself in line behind the "blonde looker" in the black leather coat. The plane is small, so small in fact that one must bend over at almost 90 degrees to walk down the aisle to the single seats on each side of the plane. All Bill sees now is the rear of that leather coat. Oh, heavens, he thinks as he follows the coat that rides up quite a bit with the bending over, this gal also has legs, and they are running from her shoes all the way to, well to where the coat stops the peep show.

The gal sits on the port side of the plane and luck seems to be liking Bill as he molds himself into the empty seat on the starboard side. The roar of the engines require more volume as Bill ask her, "Are you staying in Chicago"? "Well yes" she says. Silence finally breaks again when Bill says, "well I am flying to El Salvador in the morning". "Wow, that's sounds like a warmer place to be going", she says. "Yeal, they say its 90 during the day there", "Are you married", Bill asked. "No are you", she reply's?

The noisy flight finds them exchanging where they live in their home town, what they do, what kind of cars they have. And of course her name, he finds is Jane and lets her know he is Bill. She figures he is really married but not sure. Bill is figuring with his luck so far this gal will be staying in the same hotel, why not? The plane lands, Bill gets up the nerve to bring up the possibility that they could maybe have dinner together, "Where are you staying he ask?" She tells him, and Bill has not a clue where that is or where his hotel is either. He thinks fast and says, "do you maybe have a phone number at your hotel that after I find out where I am etc., that maybe I could check and see what your plans are"? Jane tells him that she may have here meals included in her package. But Bill gets the phone number and bids her goodbye and promises to call in an hour or so if things work out OK after his hotel check in. He thinks, hey, the main thing here is getting checked in for my little vacation but after that, well who knows love may just be "in the air".

Bill checks into his hotel and asks the hotel clerk about where Jane's hotel would be. How much would it cost to take a cab over there Bill asks? Twenty Five dollars plus, say's the clerk, as Bill look's into the bar and see's that some of his fellow seed sales people are starting to arrive there and get a little noisy. It looks like maybe fun to save all that money and hang there and plan the attack on El Salvador that evening. Bill calls Jane's hotel and finally hears her voice on the line. "Hi Jane, how are you doing?", he asks. "Real good", Jane say's, and then proceeds to tell Bill that she has found out that since she is traveling alone, that she has been able to change her package deal from a Romantic Dinner for two for one night to a Romantic Dinner for one for both nights she will be there. Bill wanting to stay out of the brewing snow storm, impress her with his practicality, and not risk missing his flight in the morning just for a long shot on love, say's, "Oh, Jane that is great, because I found out that a cab fare is 25 bucks over to your hotel and for 50 dollars round trip, why Jane I could take you out twice after we return home". Jane seems not overwhelmed with that prospect, or his practicality, and makes no promises about even a future date. Bill tells her it was great to have met her and hopes when he gets back to be able to at least meet for a cup of coffee and is able to pry a local home town phone number from Jane.

Bill meets that evening about 4 other men who are also traveling alone, single or otherwise. The rest of the plane load were couples who are going to enjoy the trip together.
Everyone turns in at a decent time to rise early for a 8 am charter flight direct from O’Hare 5 hours due south across the Gulf of Mexico to sunny El Salvador. The next morning all are on board at 8 am, but the storm has intensified and the plane is deiced for the second time about 9:30 am, and finally is allowed to leave in a heavy snow storm and is the next to the last plane to leave O’Hare for a couple days. Cheers when up as Bill's plane lifted up out of the storm and into the sunlight and the mood stayed high for all the next 5 hours. The plane slowed for landing and all that could be seen were some pretty green mountains below, everywhere one looked, nothing but mountains. How could this plane land in all these mountains?, Bill wonders. Finally the plane dropped down on what looked like a mountain with the top half missing on the edge of this rather large city. They deplaned and walked through the 90 degree heat which was 100 degrees warmer than they had left just 5 hours before. It was nice, as they approached the customs everyone was told to surrender their passports to the military authorities who seemed to be almost everywhere with rifles and the officers with side arms. Surrendering the passports was strange, but they had no choice. They just hoped they would get them back in 5 days. The corporate officers and travel guides put a good light on things and they boarded buses to the hotel. The driver thrilled Bill all least once per block as they worked their way at high speed through town on whichever side of the street seemed to be less crowded.

That night a gala banquet with drinks got everyone off to a festive mood. The travel guide warned to never drink the water or even eat the salad washed in water. Coke and beer was the name of the game they said. After the dinner they were told to stick in the hotel and rise early for a visit to a cattle ranch the next morning. Bill was about to do that when his 4 single or otherwise acquaintances suggested that they were going to sample the night life a little and if he wanted to tag along. They hailed a cab driver who spoke only Spanish and said to him, "Bar, drinks, women music". He understood and said something like, "good spot" and with two in front with driver Pedro and three in the back, they were off. Bill and the others had been told that night that the city of San Salvador was almost as modern and large, as say Indianapolis, but 5 miles out of town you would progress backwards two hundred years as quickly as batting your eyes. Soon they were in the countryside, no more city and Bill started to feel a little uneasy, but the rest of the crew in this flying missile just figured it was going to be worth the trip. The cab stopped before a rather dim lit bar with Hollywood style swinging doors going in, and in they went, but not before pleading with the driver to not even think about leaving them there.

The bar had four large tables with about 30 Salvadorian men and maybe a half dozen very attractive women occupying three of them. Most of the men had the machetes with about a 24 inch blade attached to their belts. They all 5 sat at the spare table close to the bar and ordered a drink and before they even came, about 3 of the women left the tables with the Salvadorians and moved in amongst the five Gringo's. They brought their empty glasses with them and of course were offered drinks since being so nice as to come over to get acquainted with the seed corn Five. Bill was not really alarmed at all of this, as a couple of his younger companions looked like they had worked with weights forever and who would mess with guys like that. Twenty minutes later Bill noticed that about a half dozen of the less friendly looking Salvadorians had gotten up from a table and positioned themselves in front of the door. They were facing the table of the Americans and a couple had removed their machetes from the belts. Bill suggested that the situation had deteriorated, and after looking around the room, all Five were in agreement that maybe it was time to at least try and say good night. They called for the check!

Story to be continued in a day or two....

Me and Smitty (278)

Well as we all know, Smith is the maybe most common used or better put there are more Smiths than there are other last names. I guess Smith and Jones maybe last I heard were neck and neck but for now I go with Smith's. Sooner or later there is gonna be a Smith in your life maybe as you get older and grandchildren get married and start to have children. It's surely happened to me and there he is in the picture to the left here with his one year birthday cake. Sunday was the event in Greenfield Indiana. Grant Michael Smith in picture to the left with his cake..The kid hit the jackpot, lots of people showed up, more grandparents and great grandparents than one can imagine. And gifts wow he had them, but he took it all in stride, unwrapping with mom's help each and every one. Looking at them, smiling and then playing with them a bit, as if to say "thank you". He did good and I am sure this week back in Georgia he is enjoying all those balls, workbench, animal pillows and I have forgotten most of them, but I know he is having fun.

Now to the right here is another probably one year old kid taken maybe 69 years and 24 months ago. You know he does look a little like.....ha, I think he probably looks a little like his Mom and Dad mostly and then a little like his grandparents and then well sure a little like his great grandparents. Which I would be one of eight handing him genes down through the linage. So 1/8th may have come from me, not much so I am just comfortable that most babies just look kind of like babies maybe.

His mom, Mandy sure is proud of him and she should be..As is his grandma Sherry Stair. He is a dandy kid for sure and will some day grow to be a fine young man like his Dad. By the way his dad is deployed with the Navy in Spain but he was at the party in Greenfield via the internet with a computer picture that we could see him and he could see and talk to us. That was great he was able to watch his son Grant unwrap each gift and throw balls and look at a picture and say "duck"...he has duck down real good let me tell you. Eric is a naval officer and does some type of secret surveilance work from high speed aircraft. I don't ask too many questions, don't want to be on the list of, "sorry you know too much we may have to kill you". But I have heard mention of flying at mach 3 and mach 5, where they are going that fast and what they are doing I don't think we need to know. But anyway grateful for his service and admire his opportunity to serve the nation in such a way. Semper Fi to Eric Smith in Spain.... Happy Birthday to Grant Smith enjoy your gifts and your genes.......