Be sure and Vote it is your duty Citizens (267)

Just a reminder here that next tuesday is our day as voters in this nation. It is the day we can actually take part in doing something about our government. We have the power to elect who will represent us at local, State and National levels of our government. We can make it what we want it to be, but we must do our duty as citizens of this land and make sure we make our votes count.

LET US HAVE FAITH THAT RIGHT MAKES MIGHT, AND IN THAT FAITH, LET US, TO THE END, DARE TO DO OUR DUTY AS WE UNDERSTAND IT.

These words were from the speech in New York that propelled Abe Lincoln into the Presidency in 1860. That was 150 years ago but his words are good for us today also.
Our country was not built on handout programs, our country was built on hard work and a will to be free and out from under the heavy hand of too much government. We must remain vigilant and true to that cause of staying free and not allowing government to spend us into debt that we will not be able to emerge from. We are close to that I fear, and so I for one will watch what our elected officials do after they get into office. If they vote for things that we as a nation can not afford, I will work hard to vote them out....Right now we have a lot of them that need to go as comprehensive government of everything for everybody is about all they know. We need representation that gets us back to basics of smaller government, that provides for a strong national defense but starts to wean us off of the many programs that we can not afford....I hope you will also vote your wishes for the nation on election day....

But in simpler terms, let me say that free ice cream for everyone as is the goal it seems of our current government, is just not practical. You see to have free ice cream you have to have a cow and to have a cow giving milk you need hay and then you need someone behind the cow cleaning up the mess...you get the drift, freedom is not free and free stuff is never free, it all cost money, big money that we do not have and can no longer afford to borrow....Let us be about getting it right on Nov. 2nd.

Voting early, Another Wedding and The Kentucky Bourbon Trail...(266)

Picture at left is the reception behind the Tutt home, huge tent first class all the way...loved it....











Picture above taken at the rehearsal dinner at the Hunt Club in Lexington. What a great setting an old corn mill probably 200 years old, no doubt used to grind corn for white lighting, now a great spot for special events like this. The wedding of Stuart Mercer and Rebecca Tutt seen here. I do love these big weddings in Lexington.. Lots of fun.....

Me and sweet pea voted early today at the Pay Less Grocery Store. It was fun to get it done and get it over with...Knowing our conservative votes are in the hopper waiting to be counted is a good feeling. Ronald Reagan would be proud, well I think he would, but I did vote for one democrat. Our county assessor had been doing a pretty good job of late and just to keep them honest at the court house I voted to keep her in office. But, now I have to wait till Nov. 2nd and the rest of you to cast your votes before I can pop a big batch of corn and relax in my easy chair and watch the returns come in...I saw a good sign today though. The line was long to vote and they were all older generation people. This could bode well for the conservatives I am guessing. Young people bought into the all the wonderful free shit that Obama was promising last time. I think they helped the Democrats put their miracle worker into office. Now that we all realize the free shit is none existant and we actually have to pay for all that non-sense the dreamer promised, maybe they will all just stay home. I hope so, there has never been a free lunch and never will, but people do swallow hallow promises hook line and sinker as we saw in 08....Let us hope we have learned a lesson that reason has to be assessed with golden promises. That golden miracles, promises of wonderment, are just that, pure bullshit to get one elected...every good politician knows that you can fool a lot of the people some of the time...Lincoln said that once remember, you can fool some of the people some of the time but you can not fool all of the people all of the time, something like that, but anyway you get the drift...some people can be fooled, now and then...

Attended another great Lexington Ky. wedding...sure was fun, Lexington is a great town, no doubt the most upscale of all cities in Kentucky for sure....And then Yesterday we visited the Woodford Distillery and seen how they make that great Kentucky Bourbon whiskey...Clicking on the title above will take you to their website and get you a look at the old limestone building...The operation was started in 1812 by a guy named Pepper....forgot his first name so we will just call him Mr. Pepper...anyway interesting process of taking fermented corn and putting it into charcoaled white oak barrels for 7 to 9 years and out comes Kentucky Bourbon....Loved the taste of the stuff, even bought a 1 liter bottle and someday will become a maker of Manhattans....Hey maybe that is part of that new idea at Purdue...you know the "makers all thing"...Yeal I can be a Makers All of Manhattans....gee and I was just starting to finally feel a little bit like a boilermaker....now I am a Makers All.....wow, that is just so funny and maybe a whole lot lame....see ya later....

I will be voting again on Nov 2nd (265)

I have never understood people who sometimes do not exercise their right to vote. To me it is a civic duty that we support our governing system by making good choices in those that serve us in public office. I guess I will always think that way, that to do otherwise is showing disrespect for the nation in which we live. I felt that way about military service when I was young also, it just seemed like I owed that to the great nation I was fortunate enough to be born into. I guess I still feel that way, but especially so for voting in every election, primary's and general elections. They are all equally important to the health of our nation.

And I fully understand that one voter staying home refusing to vote probably changes nothing. Their voting that day will not get someone elected that would not have been nor would it not elect someone that could have been elected. That is fully understood but to me it does not lessen the obligation to vote for who you think is the best possible candidate that will improve the government that we all live under. Just as a worker staying home from work does not change to production of our nation very much if any. But what if 100 workers stay home or 1000 workers stay home and not go to work. Then corporately things do start to change. And voting I believe works the same way, if a million people or even 100,000 people say my vote will not change anything, they are wrong, their lack of votes corporately do change things and the will of the people is not carried out. I really believe this and I guess is the reason I have never missed a vote in my life since becoming old enough to vote.

And even though I realize my single vote changes really nothing, I enthusiastically embrace the opportunity each time it presents itself. I feel good having made my choices and supported people who I feel are the best choices to serve us all.

I will try and chose candidates who will be somewhat conservative on spending of the peoples tax money. I like candidates who look at the governments business as they would their own business they could run or would run if they had a business.

I hope congress does come under a major change and I hope if this happens that they will be true to the task and turn government to be responsible. If it happens I will feel good about where we are headed. If it does not I will look to the next election for it to happen. Somehow soon it has to happen as we are headed for a cliff. How high the cliff or how far we could fall, I don't even like to think about nor do I know. I hope all of you are equally concerned and equally excited about doing your duty as citizen of this nation that was great and could be again.

Medical Alert and my new cell phone (264)

This breaking news of this new, but finally identified decease comes just in the nick of time and I felt it my duty to get the info out there...You may be afflicted and don't even know it. So read it and follow instructions and we will do our best to bring you back and stamp out this terrible infliction...Early voting has started so you can take your first treatment anytime you want now....Click on the annoucement to make it larger to read

And on a lighter note check out my new cell phone to the right here....man I love this thing..no more punching buttons for me...back to dialing and I have a really really loud ringer on it too...almost sounds like a fire drill, but by golly I don't miss any calls...it don't have missed calls and voice mail and all that nonsense on it but who needs it anyway....

On the farming front, everything is pretty well wrapping up around here...a few farmers still have a field or two that needs to be harvested but for the most part its done. My corn planter got new disc openers this week, and is field ready now, awaiting April in Indiana...currently I am repotting "rain lillies". I had 3 pots of them...they bloom you know about 24 to 48 hours before it rains..I do like them and I look at them as a revelations of God's sense of humor...he had to have chuckled when he came up with these things...knowing it would absolutely drive the atheist and evolution folk up the wall trying to explain it...seldom do they miss it...if it don't rain for a month you don't see a bloom...all of sudden one day there they are and you better keep the umbrella handy...anyway I think they may have went 5 years without being seperated and re-potted. I now have about a dozen or so pots of these guys...I will give them to friends next spring after they spring to life.....

If you want to read about Zephyrathes grandiflora (rain Lillies), just click on the title of this post...it will take you there...it will also tell you that they bloom after a rain....oh really, not at this house...Ok, maybe God has a bigger imagination than I thought...maybe he makes them bloom before the rain, for believers and after for non believers...I don't know but I got my guesses....

Pittsburgh's Rick and Linda (263)

Old friends are the best kind and that is what we have here...Met these folks in Hawaii in 1980 so we have 30 years under our belts....We are still friends and when ever I pass through the Burg of Pitts I try and see what they are up too...On our recent trip to DC for the Marine reunion we had the chance to meet at Cracker Barrel on I 70 near Washington Pennsylvania on our way back to Indiana....close to Pittsburgh a place we usually meet up when we have these opportunities.

My wife Linda and I were on our Honeymoon when we met them. They like us had booked into a two week tour of the islands, but can not remember the name of the tour, its on the tip of my fingers here but not popping up just yet...Carlton maybe that was it, Carlton Tours maybe....anyway both of us were the youngest on the tour...all the rest had white hair like we almost do now, but we were in the younger years and so we kind of gravitated to spending time together on this two week tour of I think four of the islands maybe....

Anyway we stayed in touch and began to visit back and forth when time and circumstance presented itself. I remember once while in Pittsburgh helping Rick who had a repo business at the time repossess two semi tractors....it was somewhat scairy as the drivers had hid them behind a flea bag motel and knowing these guys carry guns sometimes it was a little scairy to be opening these trucks up and getting them while these guys slept in the motel...not something I would want to do on a regular basis...And then on one of their visits to Indiana, I enlisted Rick into the farming trade...Had him working ground for me ahead of my corn planter...lots of dust, you should have seen him...Both Linda's could not believe I got Rick to do this...I can not believe I got Rick to do it either, but he did...I remember I later sent him a "citation", declaring him a "farmer extrodinaire" with a bunch of fancy words to accompany such non sense....sure he kept it for a few hours at least...actually have never seen it hanging in his office so I think it may have not had the affect I had inteneded....
Rick was very good at the repo business...I remember many a time maybe on our way to eat at a restaurant in the evening maybe and Rick would suddenly do a U turn in the street no matter where we were and follow a car he had recognized...a couple times it was a car he wanted and he would follow and find out where it was being "hid" at night... the next night he probably had it...
He had other businesses now and doing well I believe...
Anyway this trip I had the opportunity to introduce them to Susan as you can see in the photo...They liked her and she liked them so we will see if things continue....

OK on another subject, I am looking forward to the elections coming up next month...As Mrs. Palin said in a recent speech, "we can see November from here"....I hope an pray the people of the nation will respond to the dire need we have to get responsible good government...I look forward to voting my choices and then watching with interest that evening to see if we are serious to move our nation into a path of responsibility....Both parties have failed us miserably...now it is a time to shitcan the ones from both parties that have not taken this work seriously...and to instill good Americans who will move us in the right path...I hope we can make a major move in that direction...and away from nutsville we have had the last few years.

Great weather but we need rain....

The Corn Shucking Champion (262)

In 1930 my father Lawrence C. Lahrman at the mature age of 40 won the Tippecanoe County Corn Shucking contest. Done in those days all by hand, not as a sport but a way of life, the way corn was harvested in those days, the old fashioned way one ear at a time, by hand. Well saturday afternoon I relived that era for a short time. I walked along side the wagon pulled by horses at the State Park with the Historical Farm here in Lafayette, and I tossed long large ears of open pollinated corn into the wagon. I kidded the driver of the wagon to let me know if the ears were coming too fast and bouncing from the bang boards and falling into the wagon that I would "slow up". I made sure he knew that the son of the 1930 corn shucking contest was on site tossing this corn, along with a couple high school age girls who by the way were staying right with me. I tell you right now I am no Lawrence Lahrman, when it comes to shucking corn. I break them over my hand which in a days time would probably just about do ones hand "in", for sure. My dad used a metal hook rivited to a piece of leather that straped around the base of his hand. It could rip the shank off the ear of corn and at the same time the shucks that were attached also. He showed me a couple times how to use it but to be honest I really did not want to know how to use it. Mechanical corn pickers had been invented and were become numerous and I knew it was a era, a trade that was to be short lived, so I just know this for sure, it was interesting to watch him use the hook and to see the ease and the confidence he had as he grabbed an ear of corn made one pass across it with the hand with the hook attached and then tossed the ear into the air toward the wagon and immediately grabbing the next ear. Maybe even ripping it with his hook and sending it airborne toward the wagon before the first one had completely hit the bank boards and fallen into the wagon. I got to see all of that and I am glad I did and glad I was asked to help out and to see how talented and hard working a man I had for a father.

It was about 57 years ago that my dad purchased a used one row corn picker. And I was honored and elated to hear him say you know I really don't like running these things would you want to stay home from school and do that for me...like asking a 15 year old if he wanted to skip school for 10 days? Man I jumped at that opportunity for sure. I loved it and did it for about 3 years I think before graduating from school and joining the Marines. But back to hand shucking, before we could start harvesting the corn in a field with that picker we had to shuck 3 rows of corn around the field, and make a few 3 row cuts through the field also. Reason being was that the tractor and picker straddled or knocked down three rows of corn and then picked the 4th row.
So Dad and I would need to shuck out by hand the first three rows...The operation went like this....Dad would take two rows and I would take the third row. His abilities with his hook being what it was and I breaking the corn over my hand to dislocate the ear he would start to pull away from me and I would fall behind. Then I would be surprised when all of a sudden maybe 15 of my stalks had no ears to harvest. Dad had reached over and was harvesting all 3 rows to allow me to "catch up" so I would again be up and abreast of where he was shucking....I would fall behind again and the same would happen. He was totally amazing in his ability to harvest corn by hand. And to top it off he "loved it", he told me many times that his favorite time of year was 'corn shucking time'....Can you imagine getting up in the dark doing the chores feeding your livestock, eating breakfast and then taking a team of horses and going into the corn field to harvest and try and get a wagon load by noon...going in scooping it off into the crib eating lunch and going back into the field all afternoon to get the second load, scooping it off, doing chores, eating dinner and falling into bed?????? and loving it????????

Well I believe it, he did love it, and the corn shucking contest did become huge events in each county, farmers would come with their teams of horses and wagons and they would compete for a specified period of time and then the corn was weighed and a winner was declared. In 1930 at the age of 40 my dad was that winner in this county. And he proceeded in a week or so to Elwood Indiana for the Indiana State Corn shucking contest....In that contest he did place 10th....His name appears so in that ranking in a book titled "The battle of the Bangboards" I have a copy, it is a good history of these contest from the 20''s and 30's and then it all ended about 1941 with the world war and then mechanical pickers...But these state winners also went on to compete in National contest usually held in Iowa or Illinois. These event pulled thousands of spectators..they were huge all day events and the forerunner of todays "farm progress shows".....with crowds almost as large as today's yearly events.

Ok the picture to the right was taken at Elwood the day my dad competed there and placed 10th in the State contest. He was standing by a new mechanical picker of that day, wishing I suppose....the large picture above is of my Dad's family...Dad is the handsome dude sitting staddle the chair on the left...His dad on the right holding the book and his brother Albert standing in back...his sisters and mother also...As I look at the picture I kind of see a little of Danny Moore in my Dad...just a fleeting glimpse but I see it....The youngest sister beside him I see my granddaughter Monica Cole....again just a fleeting glimpse but it is there...it is just amazing how genes stay around through the generations...Maybe others will see similarities from their own families...Maybe my face book friend Thomas Lahrman will see something from his great grandfather Albert Lahrman seen in this pic....

OK I have probably bored you long enough here, but just in case you want to read a story I submitted and had printed to Reminise Magazine a few years back about my Dad and Shucking corn here is how to get to it on this blog....in the upper left corner you will see a search box by the orange B....just type in Bang Boards and it will come up below this story....try it...I just know a couple of you will....
Oh one more thing if you click on the title above will take you to a great site about old time corn shucking contest and other stuff.

Lovin the Harvest (261)

The harvest is going well and the harvest is good. Without a doubt the finest year in farming I have seen in my farming years. The yields in corn and beans are among the top I have produced...Bean yields are equal to the best ever about 15 years or so back. That is a nice change, and corn maybe is not the best but it is close. I had a National Corn Growers Contest entry, that checked in at 191 bushels per acre. Naturally you put that on your best ground but I think my overall average was around 170 bpa, not bad at all. The moisture on the corn is the lowest I have ever seen, especially for early harvest in September. It has run between 14 and 15% for the most part. If corn is over 15% the processor or grain terminal charges the farmer a fee for drying the corn to 15% moisture. So with this phenomenal drying of the corn in the field there was not drying charges. The other extreme was last year when corn just did not dry down good in the field and my harvest moisture was 20 to 24%...lots of drying charges last year.

Of course the reason farmers love the harvest is it is "pay day" for them...the rest of the year we spend money on seed, fertilizer, equipment, chemicals and the like, but harvest hopefully and prayerfully, there is enough to cover all these expenses and some left over for profit, to provide for ones living....this year that looks good as grain prices are above average also, I guess caused by concern for lower yields in many parts of the corn and soybean belt of the nation...

GOD kind of blessed North central Indiana where I live with a very early planting season, timely rains all year long...But as close as 60 miles to the south the farmers experience the driest August on record...not good, we were a little dry but we did squeak out a couple one inch rains that month and helped a lot...maybe two more inches would have been even better but lets not go there, a lot of farmers experienced a less favorable year...I feel for them as I have been there many times..

I am broke down right now in the middle of soybean harvest, parts are ordered and all will be good again someday soon but for now, I have time to make this post, about the harvest in general...One thing, you will see at the right here is the first pie of my season..Chestnuts are ripe and falling from my tree, down the road Mrs. Schrock has apples falling from her tree...Pillsbury pie crust were in my freezer and I love Apple/Chestnut pie...It is about gone already, it is as good as it looks...Just take a Apple pie recipe and take out 1/3rd of the apple and replace with fresh sliced chestnuts...Chestnuts/free...Apples/free, pie crust maybe 3 bucks, taste of the pie/PRICELESS

Oh, click on the title above to see all you need to know about chestnuts maybe.

Cheerleader Watchin (260)

I got better things to watch than the "anointed one" Obama, yep I got Cheerleaders to tell you about, a lot more exciting to watch than the current occupant of the white house...

Yep seen here is granddaughter Tabby Russell who is a member of the 7th grade cheerleaders at Wainwright Middle School...and also seen here to the right is another granddaughter Paige Russell who is a member of the 8th grade cheerleaders...Got these pictures at a recent Football game last week...And low and behold I spot a grandson out on the field playing center and blocking out would be terrorist trying to get to his quarterback...His name is Caulin Post old number 77 seen in the picture...Not pictured here is another granddaughter Ashley Russell who is multitasking as the cheerleader coach at Wainwright and my hair dresser also....
The girls are great cheerleaders as was Ashley when she also was in school...must get in their blood as here is Ashley now back teaching others to RAH RAH RAH as best they can...
Paige and Tabby have both had a lot of classes on tumbling doing all those flip flop things that cheer leaders are so good at...I suspect these two girls will advance into cheerleaders at the high school level as well...Caulin Post takes his football equally serious and works hard at the game...understands it far better than the writer here who just last night watched a whole 5 minutes of Monday Night Football before moving on to a boring but more interesting movie....
And lastly I want to talk a bit about a new car a friend bought recently...A Volkswagen EOS Retractable Hardtop Convertible...It is, I feel a kind of a "classic" as the German Engineers held nothing back in designing the workings of this top, it is a marvel to watch as it goes down and folds away or comes out and goes into place when the top is needed...Also a Sunroof makes this vehicle actually as advertised "three cars in one"....A Coupe, A Sunroof and a Convertible...when painted red with a beige leather interior like the one Susan purchased last week, it makes a good choice. I think this car will be not only a lot of fun to ride in but will have also a high resale value in years ahead...So Click on the title above about the cheerleaders and you will go immediately to another picture of a EOS automobile...
And lastly, good news, my remodel job on the house is FINALLY complete. I have moved back into the master bed room and the master bath...absolutely love living in the whole house again, it feels so good and soon I hope my crops will be ready to harvest and I can bore you with crop reports or huge problems that I was able to solve, with either cash, or brains, or brawn....

Oh gosh, I almost forgot, the mother of all those cheerleading gals above, my daughter Shirley, well she was a great Wainwright Cheerleader in her day also....

Obama Watchin (259)

Ever feel like your in an airplane and maybe the pilot is very inexperienced? Maybe not even have a license, maybe just learned enough to get us in the air? You take quick turns from side to side, up and down...I get this feeling watching this President. Now for a little fun click on the title above Obama Watchin and give a listen.

Probably a wrong feeling, but never the less one I have these days. Like yesterdays coverage of him offering over generous tax breaks to small business owners to expand their plants...100% tax write offs for a couple years...Maybe even a good idea here but such an about face on his part and the timing tells me, he is really not inexperienced at all, but a master at politics. It is interesting to watch as politicians on both sides scramble with elections coming up to stay in power.

At times I wish we could change all of them in the house all at one time, but I know there are a few like Mike Pence for instance and many others that are worth keeping in office. I guess the choices in each congressional district across our land will just be comparing who is running and listening to what the stand for. And then picking the best one...I hope the majority that win in this election has the country's well being foremost in mind and politics way down the list...

I do like Obama's offer yesterday of making tax cuts permanent for the lower 97% of the taxing base and only allowing taxes to raise back to Clinton era levels on the top 2 to 3%...I could live with that for sure and I think the wealthy of the nation have been protected and have not paid taxes in proportion to the way they have been blessed being in this nation...

So even though I know that this President is a con artist to the inth degree, I do like some of his ideas...Hillary Clinton yesterday stated the debt load of our nation is a national security threat...she is correct and I am glad she said it..Her boss is probably not glad she said it, but that is OK it is the truth and a little truth now and then from a politician is refreshing...

OK I have a front door to paint today, and one of these days I need to think about getting started on harvesting this years crops...Hearing reports of corn in this area planted early like mine as low as 17% moisture..Hard to believe, but it has been a near perfect year and now near perfect drying conditions. So my fellow Americans, let the farmers go forth, keeping one eye on the crops and the other on the President. What will he pull out of the hat today?

8-28 Rally in DC (258)

While in DC a week ago, luck, fate, whatever, but we had Saturday off from our reunion commitment and were thrilled to be able to take part in the Rally that happened on the DC Mall in front of the Lincoln Memorial. The picture here of the subway and of the happy couple at the Rally kind of portray the excitement of the day. First off the Metro ride in from Franconia/Springfield station was fun..normally a jam packed subway would not be fun, and too allow it to get over crowed to the point ours was would normally tax ones patience and hospitality for sure. I think it was the big story of the day in that long lines were at all the metro stations and when our train made the 5 stops before we got to the Lincoln memorial it just got more crowed and more fun as the trip progressed.

We were accompanied by our friends Jon and Courtney Dermott from Joplin Missouri who also attended the Marine reunion. They had told me a month before that they would be attending this on Saturday, but I did not realize just what it was all about...When Susan found out about it she said she for sure wanted to attend, and I love the idea of restoring our nation to what it used to be as much as the next person so we were on...

So back to the subway ride in, after the second station the train was full with every standing room taken. But three stops to go before the Lincoln memorial..doors open maybe 15-20 people were standing there...the crowd willingly just tightened it up, without anyone saying a word and in they came...Doors shut were off, total full for sure now I thought...next station, same situation, doors open 10 to 15 people in front of each door..The crowd shifted tighter and in they came...and the last stop the same thing...Absolutely no one complained one time, everyone on these trains were going to the rally and we all knew the more that showed up the better chance we had of accomplishing what this rally was all about...

We got off the metro at the Foggy Bottoms station which is 3/4 mile from the memorial mall..Not to mention in all the excitement we lost Courtney for 15 minutes...she had walked a little ahead of us without knowing it and then all of sudden Jon missed her and the hunt was on...we figured we had walked ahead of her so Jon went back looking and Susan and I waited...Just as he came back empty handed and maybe quite worried here she came back in the other direction...all that kind of stuff just makes good memories after it is said and done, but we were glad to see her and proceed to the excitement ahead. We were an hour late because of the huge subway crowds but quickly caught up with the excitement of the day...Susan remarked at one point how there was no litter anywhere to be seen at all. She asked a few people where they were from and they were from a lot of different states all around. I read a guest editorial today in the Journal Courier, from a Karen Hatke about this rally...it was well written, and dead on with content..If you have not read it click on the title above, and it will take you to her editorial .It was an exciting event, not neccesarily by who was there to speak, or by what was said, but I think the key thing is who was there to support this rally, like Us. the Dermott's, Karen Hatke, Tom and Susie Null from Dayton In. and all the rest of the 500,000 people who came to show their concern for our nation, and where it is headed. That want to pay more attention to future elections and how we vote. And pay more attention to the way congress spends money in the future, and what they spend it on for sure. I think we truly have reached a turning point for our nation...I think enough people have "gotten it" so to speak, I think that day, WE DID INDEED GET OUR COUNTRY BACK......

I guess we will know that for sure in the next two or three elections that lie ahead...

Reunion of Platoon 3002 (257)

Our Marine Reunion went well in Washington DC. Picture here has our platoon posing in front of the high water mark of the Marine Corps, the statues that were created from the most reproduced picture of World War Two. The flag being raised above Mt Sarabachi on Iwo Jima. It happened early in the 35 day non stop battle and some say maybe caused the 20,000 japs on the island to fight to the death, which most of them did. The Marines lost dearly in this battle also with 7,000 Marines also killed in action here. It was sometimes called a battle of human flesh against reinforced concrete...the marines were the flesh the japs were behind the concrete in bunkers...actually the Marines had more casualties than the Japs did totaling 21,000...that would be 7,000 dead and 14000 wounded...The japs 20,000 were all dead. I think less than 200 surrendered.

Sorry about that, supposed to be talking about our reunion here, but the price paid by those Marines on Iwo Jima was such that it is hard to not get engrossed in what happened there on that island...if you click on the title here it will take you to a site showing the Marines who were awarded the medal of Honor during that battle...it was enormous....

Ok the war was over long ago, we were never in a war, except for maybe boot camp, where it was us against the Marine Corps and guess what?, they won, but we still feel a connection to these battles as we were trained during our time to be ready for the same. Lucky for us the call never came during our time in at least for most of us...We did have a couple who stayed in and were part of the Viet Nam war but for the most part we were serving between two wars, Korea and Nam our training was good but not needed...
Our Senior drill instructor had served in World War two our junior drill instructor had served in Korea, and both of these men stayed in to serve in Nam and both died prematurely of agent orange related deaths...I wish they had not it would have been so good to talk to both of them again...The Pentagon helped me find them but it was too late, but I did talk to both families.

Back to the reunion...Memories are made sometimes when you least expect. For instance we stayed on base last week at Quantico and decided the first night to waltz across the parking lot to the "officers club" for dinner...none of us had ever had that opportunity to eat with officers...Well guess what, the service was horrible our food after an hour and half came cold and dried out...some help had not showed up, it was a disaster but one that memories are made of and they apologized and gave us 50% off our meals...That was how our reunion started, with a memory to remember..But when we returned to the hotel, my sweet pea had let the cat out of the bag that it was my birthday and a cake had been purchased and they sang to me, it was a total surprise and very nice.
Then Thursday we loaded onto a Marine Bus with a Marine Gunny to guide us and had some fun. We visited the helicopter squadron that supports the President and his staff...we got to walk onto one of the copters all painted up with Marine Green..It is the same units Marines use in combat operations to ferry Marines from place to place...Got my butt chewed on a tad bit when I photographed a combat unit chopper...always good to find out where the boundries are when opportunity is knocking...Sure our enemies have seen these choppers many times just before our marines landed and gave them a butt kicking...and I will keep that picture to my self as requested....
From there we were taken to an area where they train K-9 dogs for combat duty..it was interesting about how they are trained...after that we visited the Marine Archives building which was a little boring for most of us...they did ask us to donate things about the Marines when we are done with them...Maybe I will give them my tray from the 8th and I mess hall someday, that I did not steal but was given to me...maybe not, sure my kids will fight hard for that...ha We also visited the Museum of the Marine Corps near the Quantico base...it lies along I-95 and is a eye grabber as you drive by with its huge beam rising into the sky ahead as you approach from the south...Most never see it but it is a worthwhile stop for all...it is free to the public and truly shows the history of the Marines from 1775 to present days...
It is built and still being built by money from Marines like me, no government money went into this building...Proud to say I helped, was not called upon to give life or limb so I figured the least I could do was to help support this history and appreciation shown to the many who have served all these years and still do...
Friday we got on the Marine bus again and went to Arlington Cemetery, touring the Kennedy graves, the changing of the guard at he tomb of the unknown's and then something I had not seen the mansion overlooking Arlington that was the home of Robert E Lee the confederate commander during the civil war...His plantation was across the river from DC and the union took it away from him during the war...burying their dead in his front yard so to speak..after the war his family won a settlement from the government for the value of the plantation and it remains our national cemetery...We saw a funeral in progress as they said they are doing about 35 a week now...Then we went to the Memorials like Lincoln, Nam, Korea and the new World War two memorial...After that we attended the Evening Parade at the Marine Corps base in DC called "8th and I"...the oldest base in the Corps being formed in 1801...it was as it always is a great parade of troops and the two elite Marine bands that are there, The Presidents band and the Commandants Band...
We had a banquet Saturday evening at the Globe and Laurel restaurant near Quantico..A time honored tradition was upheld when Wayne Hart again led us in singing "Courtin in the Rain".....Gunny and I received 4 tumblers with Marine Emblems on them in appreciation for our work on this reunion...and guess what? The majority of them want to continue this drill again in two more years...Plans are to change the format from visiting Marine installations and just have fun and get together every couple years...Next stop is Branson Mo....should be fun, our member Jon Dermott who lives near there and a veteran of all three reunions, stepped up to the plate to organize this one...I look forward to it, maybe couple it with some trout fishing nearby...I think it could spark more interest from our platoon members as it will be a nice drive from the midwest and who does not like Branson.....

Note..you can click on the pictures to the rights side and enlarge them...

The Last Marine Reunion (256)

Next week I head to DC for the last reunion of my old platoon from Marine Boot Camp.
75 of us were thrown together in June of 1956 to become Platoon 3002. All we knew for sure those first few days is that we had made the very biggest mistake of our lives. It seemed so romantic, daring, I don't know maybe we saw too many of those old John Wayne WW Two movies of Iwo Jima, Tarawa, Guadalcanal, but man we (about 6) of my High School class, we just thought we needed to do that....and we did it...well the recruiter told us if would be tough but we really did not know just how much till we got there and experienced it first hand...And we put on good faces during the day but when the lights went out at night finally after 10 and we lay there exhasted and in almost semi shock at times until the 5:30 reveile, we knew for sure we had made a big mistake, but one that we most likely would survive and someday maybe we could hopefully look back and say well it was not so bad afterall...

Well we did our 50th in San Diego the scene of the crime in 2006 and between 20-22 of the 75 showed up...In Omaha in 2008 we had about 14 maybe of the 75 and now in DC we will have only 9 so I think it will be time to quit while we are ahead and make this the last one. It will be about 54 years next month since we graduated from that training, we were proud to have made it and now called Marines instead of "beady eyed recruits", or "shit birds", or, well I better not go further...looking back it is comical to think of some of those exchanges between the D.I. and us, was not then, but it sure is now...Purpose of it all was to eliminate any pride, self esteem that you may have, completely, and if it did not disappear willingly they would just knock it out of you...some needed that, mine went willingly, for the most part...and then the plan of action was to slowly build you back the way the Marine Corps wanted you....All in all, for the most part it went well, we had maybe two or three who went over the fence in the first couple weeks never to be seen again, one kid in a neighboring hut in Plt. 3003 hung himself on a Sunday afternoon which was sad...We all had to walk by and observe him, I guess so we would not repeat the event maybe.
I think all in all it set us on the road to manhood rather quickly. I think the Marines did have a plan, and for what they needed us to be, it was a good one....I do, having observed how they make Marines since then a few times, I will say they get better at it every year. The end product just keeps getting better and more professional than we were. I do love to go as we will do next week and observe Marine training...it will be fun and it will be our last meeting....

No doubt I will be led to do a story or two of what we see, and maybe what it is like to look men in the eye that shared the experience, shake their hand and say "I remember you as if it was yesterday"

A great growing year in the Garden (255)

About 22 post back (232) I did a story about a raised garden that Susan and I built this spring. As you can see by the pic taken yesterday it has been a great growing year in Indiana this year. And it is amazing just how much food one can get from a small garden like this one. It is a circle maybe 16 feet in diameter is all. But I think putting it close to the house is key, where it will not be forgotten about and where it will be noticed. Noticed by you and your friends, I think keeps one on their toes both keeping it weeded and watered if need be. Has not taken a lot of water this year, maybe a half dozen times I watered it a bit, but the rains have come all summer pretty much an average of maybe an inch a week. That produces crops for sure, both gardens and corn and beans in the large fields across the midwest.

But as you can see, the "busy" garden is producing lots of red potatoes, tomatoes, squash, green beans, cantalope, onions, peppers, okra, strawberries and it not only looks good it even taste good too....Right now the okra is really coming on strong as well as the potatoes and tomatoes...The okra is one of my favorites and I have been successful in getting others to try it and most like it or at least say they do. I grill a lot this time of year and I just put whole okra maybe 2 to 3 inches long right on top of the meat or what ever I have on the grill and kind of steam them. Add salt before eating and they are delicious. The tall plants to the right side picture here is the okra. It just keeps growing kind of like and Oak tree sending out branches and blooming its head off every day...Nice yellow blooms that soon turn into these elongated vegetable, that can be cooked many ways or even eaten raw right in the garden which I have done on occasion. Another favorite way of getting this okra down the hatch into the tum tum is to slice it cross section about a quarter inch thick and then fry it in a skillet...Probably with olive oil or with bacon grease if you want to mix a little bacon in it...or with fried potatoes also goes well..It is a kind of southern veggie but one that grows on you if you get exposed to it....

So that's about it for today, just wanted to show off my good looking veggies, by the way we had some friends over last evening and actually ate most of this stuff and then afterward ask ourselves why we had tummy aches? It's summer time, that's why and besides people may be starving in China...

But maybe not anymore since most of what we buy comes from there, they probably are eating a lot better. We have all the low cost "stuff" we need and our unemployment numbers continue to rise each year...someday we will figure this all out I hope.

Scan down the right side pictures here to (232) and take a look at what it was just a few weeks ago....God has been good to Indiana again....

Great Weekend and Hillarious Asian Carp in Indiana (254)

Just finished a great weekend. We went to a wedding in North Carolina and it was great. Setting was a really nice Winery and then the reception was there also...very nice had a good time. Was one of Susan's very best friend's daughter and since the bride's parents rode the Motor cycle to the wedding, our vehicle transported the clothes to be worn by them, so our presents was greatly appreciated. To get there and back we visited 5 states but also added another one of our favorites and that was Tennessee. We visited for two days our friends Randy and Patty Kington. Randy, I have written about a couple times at least on this site, one of my most favored Marine Corps hero's. Author of probably the best Veit Nam Book you could read "What a Life", about how Nam affected one Marine's life...Great Book packed with action about Marine's for most of the book but then the last 2 or 3 chapters one of the best love stories you ever will read...Going to attach Randy's web site under the title here so if you are inclined to order his book, here it is. Just click the title and your there...Well they showed us around their town of Morristown, and had a great cook out including another couple that had recently lost their mates in death, and then gotten together, kind of like me and sweet pea...also included was a couple who used to live just down the road from me but was asked to pull up roots and start a TRW factory in Randy's town...Max and Marsha Biery, I went to school with Max's sister Jo matter of fact my 6th grade girlfriend. But awfully nice of the Kingtons to include them so we could get reacquainted. And after looking over the beauty of the mountainous area around Morristown, I can understand why Max and Marsha stayed right there after retiring, it is a very scenic wonderful place to live.

Back to our visit with Randy and Patty, gosh they were great host, have a gorgeous home there, Randy cooks a mean hamburger for sure, and Patty and Susan made it too the mall while Randy and I took naps one afternoon. All in all a great visit. Randy and Patty visited Lafayette two years ago and spoke at two churches here about how Nam had changed their lives. Some of you heard him I know, and I learned that Pastor John has booked him to speak at Kokomo's St. Luke's Methodist Church in Sept of 2011.
If you click on the title to look at Randy's site you will see he is booked every Sunday way out there....quite a popular guy...Last time I heard him was the Greenwood Mayor's breakfast in Greenwood this spring....

OK the other half of the title here you need to go the right side under the picture of the Kington's house and click on the Asian Carp in Indiana...It is quite a coincidence but while visiting Randy he asked me if the Asian Carp had gotten to Indiana yet? I said yes I think they are in the Wabash River as I heard about one jumping out of the water and hitting a guy and almost knocking him out of the boat about a year ago...Well, watch this video sent to me by Bob Cornell, it is hilarious, would love to see it some time in person as it must have been very funny. Actually the more I watch this the harder I laugh, hope you enjoy it also.
For some reason the noise from boat motors make these unwanted, worthless carp from Asia jump out of the water and as in this video right into the boat...

Then as a grand finale on the return trip we dropped in on the returning honeymooners Matt and Jill who were the subject material for this blog just a few days ago...they had returned from the Greek Isles and organizing and getting used to their newly remodeled home...I know sweet pea is most glad to have them safely home and now starting their lives together...and some days ahead will hopefully provide her with more grand children...but Jill, Matt, don't tell her I said this but, take your time, lot of time ahead for all life has to offer...

New Knee Good to Go (253)

I went to see my Doc pictured here yesterday. He looked me over and said I did not need to return to see him anymore, that my knee was functioning well and with some additional daily, on my own therapy, and bike riding and chasing SP that I was "good to go". I thanked Dr. Daluga for doing an extra special good job for me. He being modest said that he just made the cuts and installed the stuff and that my good therapy was the most of the success. I know it is important but I still think that having a really good surgeon is very very important... While I was there I picked up the mock up of my Stryker Knee he installed for me and took some picture of it and they are here to the right for you to look over. I think they are interesting, especially the precise cuts they have to make on the thigh bone and the leg bone to receive these new knee parts. But those cuts make it fit so tight that it should never budge from where he put it and hey I think that is important. Now I also added a picture I took today of my Indiana Hibiscus flower I purchased at Sams club last spring...it is totally blooming its head off of late...I gave it a good shot of miracle grow a couple weeks back and it sure is showing its appreciation of that.

I will share one therapy exercise he told me about yesterday..He told me to do it every day 10 times on each leg for the rest of my life...I think I just may do it as it is simple and no doubt beneficial. You stand on one leg balancing yourself and do 10 small squats then do the other leg the same. Try it out maybe it will be good for you too...He said it is a great balance exercise as we age and start to loose some of that...

So I have enjoyed sharing my experience of knee replacement here on this site, hope you enjoyed it. Probably will be the wrap up on this endeavor today. Now on with the rest of my life I guess...Looking forward to it all and wishing you all the same, good health to us all....

One Fancy Kentucky Wedding (252)

Went to a fabulous wedding in Lexington Ky last week end. This fine couple Matt and Jill Tutt. Matt is a Surgeon and Jill is a Nurse and no doubt about it this one was made in heaven, maybe prompted by prayer but no doubt made in heaven. More about the wedding but first I had to share this picture my quick camera caught in this impromptu moment when we took some things to the house late that night and Matt said, "Jill come up here so I can carry you in the door"...She did and he did...it was cool...


Jill, as I have stated on some other pages, is the daughter of my gal Susan, author no doubt of the prayer spoken of above here. Susan gave her away walking down a long isle in a huge downtown Lexington church. She did marvelous holding back any tears she feared would flow on this emotional moment. Some of us did tear up a bit but she and Jill held it together, they pulled it off in fine style.

It was the very largest and well planned wedding I guess I have ever attended. Many was heard to say those same words that night. The wedding planner Arni was all over this event making sure everything went like clock work...He did earn his fee relieving a lot of stress for all concerned. Will post a picasa of pictures of the event to the right side here. Oh, the wedding cake, pistachio, man was it good and lucky me still has one large piece in my fridge.... The happy couple are winging there way to a great vacation spot in Greece, they will have a memorable honeymoon for sure. Best of everything to them both...Click on Picasa to the right to enlarge pictures......

Let's raise taxes, yes indeed.(251)

Been thinking about the Bush tax cuts that the Democrats want to let expire...I think it probably is the best thing to do...I think for too long we have had way to much services and benefits that we kid ourselves, wink, look the other way and pass the bill onto our grandchildren...I think it best we bring that to an end as soon as possible. Getting kind of tired of the argument about lower taxes means jobs, I think that reteric is getting a bit tired. I say lets let Reagan rest in peace and proceed from here all by ourselves.

I am convinced that the best way to get this excessive spending to stop is to "pay for it". Pay for it as we go instead of cutting taxes, winking and keep on spending and saying we are shifting the debt to our children. I really believe that to 'pay as we spend', will be the best way to control spending. I guess the best example of that is to look at our own personal experiences about spending. When we whip out the credit card it is so easy to just go ahead and get maybe a few more things we may like. But when we have to produce the cash, we start to weigh things a bit more and conserve as to what we want and what we actually really need. I really believe it could work the same for us as a nation. When we know our taxes are going up we will maybe watch what our leaders are doing, what they are spending money on a lot more than we have in the past.

Because for years now, we cut taxes, go further into debt, wink, smile at each other and say life is good...well it is not good so let us wake up here and face the music.

County Fair Week in Indiana (250)

Probably the biggest funnest week of the summer except for maybe the family vacation, Fair week is happening in many counties across the land. Tippecanoe County is no exception this week and I spent a portion of two days hanging there watching grand kids show goats and pigs. Now comes the hard part and that is parting with the animals on Friday night at the auction..Pay day for the grandkids but some take this pretty hard giving up these pets and knowing what lies ahead for them...In the old days of my farm kid life we never gave it much thought..Because we seen hundreds of chickens pigs cattle all go to market that is how our parents got paid for the hard work...it was smiles when the truck rolled out the gate, but for these small suburbanite country kids it's understandable a little different, they get attached to these critters...



Goats have gotten really popular in our county...when I was in 4-H there may have been a half dozen goats if there was any...now they showed goats all morning long. I know there are more goats in Tippecanoe county than current Obama supporters, without a doubt...Especially with the white house currently caught up in trying to decide who is and what is racial these day and trying to lay it at the door of the T-party movement. So goats prevail here for sure...they are cute, my son's two daughter each had one this year...they followed them around the yard when they would go into their play house the goats would just jump through the windows to join them. They are very cute and they do kind of grow on you...as a kid I was under the impression goats were dirty and stinky and who in their right mind would ever even want one...Now they are everywhere and as mentioned even more prolific than Obama democrats for sure.

So good luck to Caulin Post and Brook and Haylee Lahrman hope you get lots of money for your animals and the so long's are manageable...Next year will roll around and you can do it all again...

For me my therapy went well today..My knee is just getting sexier every day that goes buy...The swelling is almost gone...completely gone when I wake up in the morning...why they look almost alike but then as the day wears on the wounded knee starts to get a little fatter and looses the nice looks it had when I rolled out of bed...ice helps but I am usually too busy or too lazy to apply it...I am headed for a 7 mile bike ride as soon as I hit he Publish Post button here, maybe when I get back I will have the wisdom to ice it down...

Tomorrow we roll for Lexington and the Social Event of the season...well maybe not come to think of it my grand son Clinton had a great wedding just a couple months back...maybe that was the social event of my season...I will decide later I guess...well one thing for sure this will be the social event of my new knee's season.....Where's my bike its time to "Saddle Up"......

Jill's big Wedding and Starfruit (249)

Jill Sims seen to the right here reminded us today on facebook that there is only 8 more days till her big wedding date July 24th...Seen in this picture at a recent shower in her honor in Lexington where the wedding will be held....Jill will be beautiful bride...Marrying Mathew Tutt a handsome practicing Doctor in Lexington as well...Or at least will be when they return from a great honeymoon east of the Atlantic Ocean. It should be at least for me the "social event of the season", no doubt the largest wedding I may ever attend...
Off to the left of the picture is her mother otherwise known in these pages as 'sweet pea', now you know where Miss Sims gets here gorgeous good looks, and what keeps this old horsey at least 'trotting'....oh by the way the wedding reception is being held at the race track there in Lexington...should be quite a day...They are a very attractive couple and I know Susan is planning on them being fabulous parents some day ahead. Click on the title so go to their personal website.....

Off to the far right you will see a picture of the starfruit I grew this past year on my little 35 foot wide piece of Florida sand...Now today I received this picture from George Main my neighbor across the street...George also has a even larger Carambola tree which is the real name for starfruit...Anyway I am not going to spend a lot of ink on this as I see not too long ago I did a story about it and maybe used the same picture...this is what happens as people age, so get used to it...


And as an update for those of you following my rehab about my new knee...
Yesterday I road my bike on a 7 mile loop and did real well...should have iced it when I got home but I forgot....next time I will, again this is what happens as we age...but went to rehab today, my man John told me I was doing well...I did have to beg off on some of the one leg lifts he tried to get me to do...I should never have told him I was 65, sometimes lying can come back to haunt you...

Visiting Yesterday (248)

I am involved in organizing a Marine Reunion in our nations capitol next month and today sending out a final letter about it to the surviving Marines of my old platoon seen to the right. It all happened 54 years ago this summer in San Diego California.

Of the 75 in our platoon about 15 have died, about 10 could not be found but about 50 are still kicking and some of us will gather and visit the sites of DC, Two Marine Corps bases, one at Quantico Virgina just south of DC and the oldest Marine Base of all located very close to the Capitol building called "8th and I"...it is a small base just blocks from the main part of DC...The Marine Corps Commandant lives on the base in the oldest government residence in DC. It was built in 1801 at the request of our 3rd President Thomas Jefferson who helped lay it all out, and remains and is the home of the Presidents own Marine Band and two crack rifle companies of 400 US Marines that handle all kinds of stuff from service at the White House to burial details at Arlington Cemetery to possible riot control in DC should it ever be necessary and let us hope it does not. They also do a great parade on Friday nights during the summer at the base and we will be in attendance on the last parade of the summer of 2010. It is held after Sunset and rightfully called the "The Evening Parade". Click on my title here for link to the Parade.


We will stay in the Hotel on the base at Quantico and be witness to all kinds of training happening on that base, probably be the last gathering of our platoon. It will be fun to once again touch the roots of our past, see Marines do what Marines do so well and what bonds us together..Oh single picture of me here is the very best "john wayne" imitation I could muster....Gee I may even get motivated to do a blog story about this reunion some day, ya think?

Semper Fi.!

P.S. I see here below an add for Stryker Knee Replacement, the kind I have and find it funny that when I visit a friend this afternoon at Clarian Hospital that he was lying in a Stryker Hospital bed....guess you had to be there...

Lafayette Rehab Services (247)

If you click on the title it will take you too Lafayette Rehab's website. The place where this patient is getting what I feel is good guidance to get me back healthy again as far as my new knee is concerned.

More later will have a picasso of pictures to the right but right now I have a happy hour I need to be enroute too....

Happy Hour was at the Nursing home I resided in a couple weeks back after the surgery, so not totally exciting but it is unique in that a nursing home would have a happy hour every Friday and actually offer beer and wine to the residents...Anyway the day they had it my doctor said he would prefer I not partake being on heavy pain pills...So I did not but did promise them, I shall return when I am walking good and able to drink a beer with you all...By the way I was impressed as after 3 weeks most of the help called me by name...

OK back to the topic of the day my rehab center I am currently attending twice a week. And my therapy guy who I feel is one of Lafayette's best, John Edwards....In the photo here you will see us both...Interesting as I had this same Mr. Edwards when I did therapy two years ago at the same location after my orthoscopic surgery on the same knee...Doc told me then that the next step when I decided would be replacement, he was right, bone on bone can only be tolerated for a while....
But anyway I like their therapy I am receiving there and I like the fully equipped with lots of devices to challenge one in many ways...The weight machine where I lie on my back and push out is one I like the least well actually it is not so back until he tells me to put my good leg down and only now use my recently operated on leg to do it all...That does hurt and I think causes some swelling each time afterward...especially yesterday...we may have to negotiate the amount of weight next week maybe...But unlike the nursing homes rehab center which essentially had practically no equipment this one has it all and thus I feel like maybe I am getting better therapy...

All in all with a little over a month now behind me I am getting along pretty well. As you can see in the picasso of pictures to the right if the one of my knee that it is looking a lot better...less swollen and scar not nearly as noticable. I see my Doctor again on the 27th and I hope by then I am nearing the end of the therapy...Probably will always be needed in a small amounts but sure will be good to get back to close to normal...it is getting a tad boring and I see how some could get into trouble thinking you were maybe "good enough" and just slack off a lot and not do it...

About three days ago I started to want to nap a lot and seemed to have lost my energy level...I told sweet pea about it and right away she asked me about my Hemoglobin levels...I had a blood test a couple weeks ago so I had that and it was somewhat low..I guess being married to a Doctor and working for him in the office has made her aware of symptoms and she advised me to call my Doctor and relay to him that I was pretty tired and lost my pep...I did and he told me to pick up overcounter some Ferrous Sulfate 325mg tablets...I did that and I think after taking the second one today that I am less tired and a little more peppy....Its I guess an iron supplement and seems to have put a little spark back into me....

Well that's it for another week the patient is progressing and progressing well...thank you....

Scar High Beans and Recouping well (246)

Three weeks ago today I got my new knee, time does fly and I am getting along well with the recovery rehab process I have going. And now walking well enough without the walker or cane to moasy across my soybean fields today to check for weed presence....And I noticed that my beans are now taller than the scar on my knee...so I guess I got "Scar High Beans before the forth of July", and off to the right here you see my corn is also pretty darn tall for it still being June 29th. But the corn is ready for Sex in the Corn Field here next week...the tassels are coming out, that the males and the silks or the ear is emerging from the stalk, that is the female...and next week the two of them will do their little mating muster and corn will be the result of all that oohing and aahing out there...

Am doing my exercises for the knee 3 to 4 times a day as my therapist tells me at Unity I need to do...Yesterday I went in for my bi weekly appointment with him..he put me on a bike and told me not to worry that I could not make a full revolution but to stop and go the other way until it hurt again...He left for a bit and by the time he returned I had gone over the top and was making the full rev's on the bike and it felt good...I tried my real bike today but am not quite ready for that..it hurt a little and just did not want to make it all the way around...am content to wait until it is easy, then I will resume my bike riding maybe as soon as next week I hope. I mowed with my riding mower today and that went real well probably mowing about 2 acres getting ready for the 4th of July celebration here at the pond...

Cooler temps have hit the midwest today and the AC is off and windows open again...I think it will last a day or two or more we will see..
I may wrap this up here and slip on my swim gear and try a swim in the pond, probably good for the old knee and the new one also...

Shopper Chopper and Great Grandson Grant (245)

Well there I am to the right side here, my Shopper Chopper idling in the Express Lane, as I wait to check out with my grub. I sure hope it was my first and last ride on one of those. Lots of places in my store where they are not 'chopper friendly'. you get manuering between end displays and some times you find you can not continue on and have to back out. I have seen people on these backing up with disgusted looks on their faces, now I know why...But all in all it was good to have as I had several items to pick up. But I hope next trip I am back to the pushing cart.

Had a good fathers day, my kids all stopped by with food in hand and we ate some of it and now I have "must goes" to enjoy the rest of the week. Grandaughter Mandy showed up from Georgia with husband Naval Officer Eric and my new Great Grandson Grant in tow....was good to see them, especially Grant as it was our first meeting....We hit it right off, and things we like to do in common...Like setting and grinning at each other, we were big on that, my bad dream the other night about him taking all the doors in my house off the hinges, were slightly premature I guess...he ain't even crawling yet so until he shows up some day wearing a 'tool belt', I am just going to relax.

Babies kind of look a little bit like everyone it seems, so just for fun the picasso of pictures off to the right will include one of myself taken a long long time ago...I think maybe a gene or so may have showed up in this guy, but you never know for sure till they get grown up I guess. Looking ahead to the day he catches a bluegill in the pond and swings off the rope into the water but not wanting it to happen real soon, time flies fast enough all by itself. Don't be afraid to click on the pictures of Great Grandson Grant and Great Grandpa to enlarge them for a better look at this handsome pair...

GOING HOME (244)

Yep tomorrow noon this "ressy", is out of here....It has been a good stay at the Creasy Springs 'brand new' Nursing Home. My brother and my sister in law and sweet pea, and her dog 'buddy', and Jeff all visited tonight and as they were leaving my bro Larry said why was it that years ago something was 'brand new', like a car for instance...I suggested well sometimes people would buy a demo maybe with 5000 miles on it, still to them a current year new car, no one knew if they did not look at the odometer...but if like my dad it was not a demo then it could be labeled 'brand new'..or in some cases you could even add that it was 'brand spankin new', now that my friends was 'NEW'and I mean new...

Ok back to my happy day tomorrow, I do think I am ready...tonight I graduated my self from my walker to a cane, kind of like the one Grandpa Lahrman had back in the 40's, I bet he had a bad left knee too but they did not fix them back then you just hobbled around and glad you still had your leg. Anyway I took a lap down the hallway past a few rooms turned around and made my way back with the cane. Yep I test drove it and things went well so I do think I am ready...I could stay 6 more days on Medicare and help with the stimulus but the helping would cost the tax payers an equal amount, so what would we have gained...Oh my gosh it just dawned on me that our Presidents genius stimulus idea does the same dam thing...spends it but then we tax payers pay for it...gosh don't make a whole lot of sense does it now?

Well anyway on the way home I need a prescription filled and some TV dinners so for the first time I will get to ride in one of those electric shopping carts...wow I am looking forward to that...hopefully my first and last time I will need those things. I see a lot of people using them, that I sometimes mumble to myself that they probably don't really need it and may actually need some exercise to boot...but I know I am sometimes wrong in that judgment call...Then Susan will drive me past a couple of my fields of corn and beans and I will marvel at how they have grown the last 11 days I have been 'away'......

My leg is still swollen and bruised but I think I am 'as expected', and will continue to do better each day. I will be able to shower as I have done here by myself, dress myself, the main challenge will be to not over do it and not allow myself the proper 'healing time'.........Also I will miss the pampering that the staff here has offered me and I will even miss seeing some of the residents I have come to know.....But, all in all we all know there is "just no place like home"...

Obama says Gulf Coast needs Tourism? (243) and landing on the Hudson

Doing better today in my role as a "Ressy" (Nursing home Resident)...I learned a lot the last couple days. Enough that I think I will leave here soon and recoup at home. But what I learned the last couple days are 'my boundries', that I have them and what they are. Two days ago I got to feeling pretty good, and I dropped the ball, I kind of forgot of what I had done to get me there...I quit elevating, putting on ice, even took relatives on tours of the Premo Nursing Home here...that night and yesterday I paid for that mistake. Yesterday was a day of starting over from square one and again today, I am trying real hard to stay alert as to what I should and should not do...So learning these important lessons I think I will move myself to the graduation phase and save Medicare a little money and check out of here soon. Sorry to say I am still bound to the "slow learner" label...Once I get it, I am good to go, but it seems I always have to "get it" first, I always have to learn the 'hard way'....It's just me and I am satisfied with that, better than never getting it.....ha

So I have been lying here thinking now that of the Mr. Obama repeatedly saying that the best thing Americans can do is get on down there to the gulf states and enjoy a vacation...And I lie here and wonder, if that is so why are we not seeing 'very special' offers on vacations there...and why is not the media telling us of such offers???? It seems as though the Hotel, the Airlines, all of those who benefit would be all over this...Do I have to think of everything???? Double Ha....

And lastly today is kind of some excitement for you...off to the right or just clicking on today's title will also take you there...It will take you to a birds eye view of the excitement that must have been felt the day that plane hit those birds and then landed in the Hudson river....Go ahead I promise it all comes out OK, click on the link and take a ride with the good pilot that saved the day and many lives...

Being Cautious and slower and my therapist "Darshan Patel" (242)

Did not realize it till last night after Sharla and Jeff had dinner with me that I may have done a couple things wrong yesterday. 1. I may have overdone the mobility yesterday. 2. I for sure under done the care yesterday. I did not elevate at all yesterday and today the cooling machine and elevation is going to be my game plan. By doing so I expect to feel a lot better this evening and tomorrow perhaps. I obtained this advice from my trainer in therapy and from a couple phone calls I made to friends...and it just feels good doing it, so why not? I just got a little careless yesterday, hopefully with advice I am today on top of the situation. Just finished a half hour on my 43 degree water machine and keeping it elevated I am just resting and may be tempted to take a little nappy poo here just anytime...so if you see something here like ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// well its not code blue here at Creasy Springs its just little boy blue slipping away to some zzzzz time....

I like my therapist Darshan Patel, he is a native from India. He is pretty good, his English is pretty good also. When I stopped to snoop this place before coming here I asked to see the therapy room since that is why I am here basically...He was there and our first couple exchanges were not great, my lazy ears did not quite pick up what he was saying. I worried about that mentioning it to sweet pea that, "maybe I would luck out and not get him for therapy".

Well as you see, and actually I "did" still luck out, and I got Darshan for my therapy work. Good pic of him here and since he is today's topic that is all that needs to be. Darshan tries really hard in his work, his English is actually very good, he has it pretty well mastered, once I got my lazy ears paying attentions and then used to the accent that he does have. So we can communicate and his abilities in this field of therapy I believe are pretty good. Now I realize I don't have a lot of comparison to base my assessments on, but I do know this his heart is in the right place, he tries really hard to assess each day what I have going on and need for improvement...So one at this point maybe a novice, but I think he will do just fine....He is busy too I have seen him handle 2, 3 or even 4 of us at the same time and stay focused on what we were up too...I think Creasy Springs here made a 'good hire', the day he came on board....

Putting and recoverying at Creasy Links (241)

Well that may be a bit of stretch but there is a putting green here and believe it or not I did sink this 12 foot putt that you see happening. Warren my therapy manager's ball followed mine into the same cup...Life goes on....

Matter of fact I told Warren just today, "if you want this place to really rock you need a beach"...he thought my idea may even have merit or at least he humored me and listened...Yep I can see it right now take a commons area out there outside that is just boring rock and shrubs and add a couple tri axle loads of beach sand..Maybe a sign saying "no diving", room for a couple beach lounge chairs in the sand...Maybe add a little pond with water lillies, couple frogs, hey maybe get USDA over here and declare it a "wetland"...Although that, probably not a good idea, you get government involved and then flexibility free thinking is out the window...Yeal better to keep it private and just let your imagination run, but can you not appreciate the marketability of saying, "come to Creasy Springs Health Campus, where on a good day you can not only sink a few golf putts, but even go to the beach"....and all that on top of premium dining and care....

The Rehabing of the new knee (240)

I have now landed in a upscale nursing home here in Lafayette. Creasy Springs if you click on the title above it will take you directly to the website for them. It is just across the road from the hospital where I had my knee work done. The food is good we had prime rib for lunch, topping that off with a small dish of chocolate ice cream. But actually the hospital spoiled me...it was nicer than this in that you ordered from a menu also but a wider range of entrees....but its pretty good at least there is choices and some nursing homes are more like Marine Corps chow halls in days of old where everyone got the same thing..

Needed a nap right now so will finish this later on maybe...
OK Dinner over, Jack is Back...........I think they got me on something called Percocet and it is a great pain pill...When I pop one of those my pain is pretty well gone and I can just really get into a good sleep...The kind of rest one dreams of when one is run down and loaded up with things going on. And the best part of it for me is there is nothing here to do so no reason not to just really get into this rest and recouperation...Nice generous thundershower moving through the area right now. I see all next week in the mid to high 80's so we are going to have yet another "happy corn week" coming up...No doubt about it corn will be tassled out by the 4th of July, should be a good corn year and a great sweet corn year to boot.

I had two therapy sessions here today one on the knee area and one upper body weight work...it felt good and allowed my two therapist to dip into the Medicare till. I get the day off tomorrow so will work on some exercises on my own and then Mon through Friday I will be doing two sessions at least each day.....by end of the week I should hopefully be showing some signs of recovery....

Lastly today notice the putting green here that sold me on coming here...not that I am a big golfer, not even a little golfer but telling people my nursing home has a putting green area is just pretty cool...look at the pictures to the right, there I am trying it out right after "check in".............

Half Effort and half attitude.....I like that (239)

Some good soul left a comment on yesterdays blog to me about rehabilitation...I like it saying that recovery is half physical and half attitude.....Gosh I think it is so true, you can not get around it, no pain, no gain...I know it will be painful and get old doing all the stuff they want you to do but I also have been tipped off by my GP Doctor Watson that a successful joint replacement surgery is 10% surgery and 90% therapy...so I am ready and welcome what ever they want me to do for however long I need to do it...I want a new knee not a mess and I think I got my moneys worth on the 10% part with great doctors. Now it is up to me to attain success with my effort and I think my friend is right on the money about that 90% maybe being 45% effort and 45% attitude....

So today off to the right is a scar to be proud of don't you think? No wimpy scar here, he said I had a 'big' knee to remove so I guess it took some manuvering room to cut that baby out of there and install the replacement. The scar needs to be big enough to do the job right...and notice those black lines drawn perpendicular to the scar...is that not smart or what...he drew those on there before the cut was made so when it was time to staple it together that it all lined up....I liked that too, otherwise you could end up with extra stuff on one end maybe....

Today therapy had me walk all the way to the end of the hall...it went well they even complimented me by calling me an over achiever, at least I took it that way.
The cooling machine on my knee is great for holding down swelling circulates 43 degree water around the scar most of the day...I take it off now and then for maybe a half hour or so...sleep with it all night....

The new hospital here is plush, love ordering my meals from the menu anytime I want...sticking to healthy stuff though, although tempting I do know what is good for me...I like the menu as it has carb scores by each thing you can order..helps a dummy like me.. I get to stay two more nights here and then they kick me out, but wait till you see where I am going next...it will make an interesting blog story...
Well got to hit the bathroom and then order my delicious dinner...so far me and knee are getting along just great, getting to know each other one step at a time....

An eventfull Marvelous Day (238)

I slept like a baby last night, cool outside windows open, slight breeze, AC OFF, you know you go to sleep counting nickels being saved and looking forward to a "new knee" tomorrow.....

Well tomorrow came and it was instant stress when I realized I had not taken my two coumadin tablets that are needed before surgery...I took one Sunday night but just plain forgot about the two for Monday night...I called the hospital they said with 5 hours to go before surgery take them now with a little water...down the hatch they went, stress was gone. Reported to St. Elizabeth hospital at 10 with all my gear, and by maybe 10.30 they had me relaxed in surgery prep room...at 11 they were done with 2 hours to wait before the old knee goes bye bye and the new one says, "here I am Jack, lets roll"....

Dr. Daluga, Lafayette's very best joint replacement surgeon came in the room to talk to Susan, Sharla and I at about 12. Probably had done maybe 3 already and headed for lunch..He said see ya soon...Well what he meant was he would see me, as I kind of went out fairly soon after they gave me something to relax me, yeal right...
Oh almost forgot Dr. Fisher Lafayettes very best anesthesiologist, came in maybe a half hour later...wanted to know if I wanted to go to sleep or stay awake with a spinal block? I thought about it for bit and then said, "would I be able to watch TV"?, he said "probably not,but you will hear all the sawing noise", so I chose to get knocked out...Daughter Sharla remembered that I was a half lung short of two lungs which I had kind of forgotten, he then fished out of me that I may have a little gas reflux and gave me something for that...Then he had the prep room nurse slip me the mickey and I never saw either one of them again....

But these guys are artist as I woke up in recovery about 3 not the least bit droggy or sick....moved to my nice room on 3rd floor at about 4, had a great dinner and conversations with my sweet pea and Sharla and Jeff...Got a great nurse Jacob whom I forget and call Jason at which he calls me John instead of Jack....Took a walk with my walker down the hall and into the bathroom twice so far...I tell you this day has just been up hill all the way since I got permission to down the coumadin tabs....

Tomorrow may bring some pain but not today it's near 10 PM so maybe I better post this and get some shut eye....But so far, things have went marvelous, prayers I think were answered and Healthcare has been delivered to me on a Silver Platter......