Ollie's Place

"My God, there's more of us!!"

2011-12-16T23:24:00.002-05:00

my sister exclaimed when I forwarded to her an email from a third cousin we had never heard of. It has been a very eventful week. For years we have been trying to figure out our family tree only to get almost nowhere. Out of the blue, I get an email from distant cousin Irene. It immediately started a flurry of emails back and forth between Irene, my sister and me. Irene has done a phenominal job. My great grandmother's maiden name was Kiley. Irene is descended from my great grandmother's mother's sister.....What a mouthful.

Our exhanges have been cordial and helpful. She sent us 14 pages of our lineage. Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of things in writing, but we do have a lot of family lore handed down orally. Some of it a bit off color. :-) Wonder what Cousin Irene will think of us when we tell her some of the stories?? We hope to meet up in the spring after the snows recede from upstate New York.

One of the biggest stumbling blocks was in the spelling of our last name. Fore some unknown reason, my Grandfather changed the spelling of his last name, which is what completely threw me off when I tried researching anyone prior to his generation. I'll be busy again on the weekends updating my tree on Ancestry.com for sure.

Black Friday

2011-11-25T23:10:00.003-05:00

Avoided it like the plague. Just did two things, one successful, one not. I went to the local Big and Tall shop and bought two polo shirts for the price of one. No crowds, must not be too many fat people in Rockland. Tried to find a copy of Deathly Hallows 2 for Regina. Now They're all sold out. Will go to my favorite standby in times like these and order it from Amazon. I have become an internet shopping junkie in order to avoid the crowds

Must admit though that things were made a bit easier because I finally gave in and applied for and received a handicapped tag for my car. I have resisted it for years, hobbling around on a cane sometimes hiking what seemed like miles to get to a store. Now its a short hobble and a quick trip. Just need to remember to keep removing then putting the permit back from my mirror. Having severe bouts of gouty arthritis has lessened my willingness and ability to go out and about. This makes it so much more easier.

Shopping used to kind of fun for Christmas. Now its practically suicidal. Don't need it, don't want it. Just pick it up at the door when it arrives in the mail.

Pleasant Columbus Day Getaway

2011-10-11T22:40:00.004-04:00

ROADSIDE Waterfall on the way to Tannersville

We took advantage of a beautiful stretch of weather and went back to the Bavarian Manor Inn in Purling, NY for Columbus Day weekend, slightly extended. Weather was gorgeous only this time we didn't hang out on the porch as much as we did in the past. Wanderlust hit and we roamed the junk shops and antique shops of the area as well as an Iroquois museum near Howe's Caverns.

Also went to Tannersville to have lunch at our favorite quirky restaurant called the Last Chance Cheese and Antiques Café. You really have to love a place with a name like that. They have the best iced tea and a great Bison Burger. That whole area had been hit hard by the overflowing rivers and rains caused by Hurricane Irene. The Inn food was great as usual. Funny thing was I got a little tired of the really good stuff day after day. I finally asked for a plain Cheeseburger and fries. I couldn't take any more snazzy food. The fresh air wiped out my poor wife. She slept late every morning. Between the naps and the antique jaunts she didn't get much needle point done which she usually loves to do while on vacation.

We had hoped to see the forests in a full array of fall colors but the timing was off. The leaves have started to turn and there was the occasional splash of red and yellow, but not what we were hoping for.

Between meals and the antique jaunts we caught a few shows of Law and Order and NCIS which were running marathons this past weekend. All in all a nice get away.

Grandkids Are Funny!!!!

2011-09-25T10:41:00.010-04:00

The last time my Son and Daughter in law were visiting from the west coast, we baby-sat for them, Liam and Piper were quite a pair. Cars was a Disney movie I had never seen before; but, apparently the kids loved it, so we put it on the DVD player. I was surprised to see that one of the cars was named "The King" and it was modeled after a NASCAR driver I had followed in the past, Richard Petty.

I got a kick out of it so I bought the King version from Cars for my desk at work. But I took it a step further as well. I sent an email to Liam attaching a photo of the real Super Bird that Richard Petty drove.

Sean replied that Liam really liked it except that he kept asking where were the eyes?That struck me as pretty funny, I guess reality hasn't sunk in on him yet. Above are two photos one of the "King" and one of the real Super Bird actually driven by "King" Richard, my favorite NASCAR driver of all time.

What Seems like Crazy is an Ordinary FRIDAY

2011-09-23T21:52:00.010-04:00

This was me around 2:30 PM today!

is a spin off the title of a blog run by a friend of my wife's. I'm stealing it and changing it from day to FRIDAY. I don't know what it is about this place; but I dread Fridays. It’s the end of the week and more often than not, all heck breaks loose.

There is an old adage about battle plans. Basically once the first shot is fired, the plan goes up in smoke and you have to start anew. Every morning I lay out what I want to do for the day. Often, the first phone call, completely rearranges my priorities. Today was that kind of day. It started off with another hair raising commute to the city because of the UN General assembly in session and creating havoc. So I get to work already hot, exhausted and sweating like crazy because I had to hoof it through 93% humidity for several blocks since traffic was detoured. I sat down, dried out and had to go to an owner's meeting at 9 AM, followed by an ISO audit prep meeting.

Walking out of that meeting, I am handed two messages; one that the FDNY is waiting downstairs to inspect the 24th floor and that there is an elevator entrapment. I toss the coin and give my assistant the FDNY and I take the elevator entrapment. So now I'm a prisoner trapped at my desk waiting for return phone calls about the entrapment, who were they, were they upset, how long was the entrapment? What was the cause, etc. etc.

Not much later, I feel pains in my stomach and realize that its past lunch time. How time flies when your having fun. :-) I sent out my admin to get me lunch cause I'm stuck on the phone. No matter how many times I've said it the last few days, people still don't listen. My building is in the zone that always gets shut down when the UN General Assembly is in session. In order to facilitate use of the loading dock (cause the authorities are always shutting down our street,) deliveries must be cleared at a check point down the block. Once approved they can come to the dock. I finally got a call from one furniture delivery guy that he was there. "See", I told him, "It's not so bad when you listen!!"

Now maybe I can get back to signing invoices to get vendors paid……………….. Except as I picked up my trusty Roadster fountain pen to sign away many dollars, I just got another call that somebody was smoking on a floor and the smoke drifted up to the floor above. I Called Security, now its their problem. Back to signing invoices. Finally just before quitting time, I got to spend a few minutes of sanity before going home talking to my friend Joe about the Redskins-Giants rivalry.

In between all this I was attempting to get a ton of paperwork done prepping for the audit.

What a day! Usually, I am not the kind of person who lets the door hit them in the butt at 5 PM, But today, well lets just say I think I broke the land speed record for launching from my desk chair to the bus stop way over on 5th Avenue. I was very happy to have gotten home and relaxing in my favorite rocker by 8:30 PM.

Memory Jogging...........

2011-09-11T07:39:00.007-04:00

A couple of weeks ago while going through an old Junk box, I ran across a piece of jewelry I haven't seen for years. It was an old sterling silver Indian ring, I purchased at an Indian Pow-wow near here, had to be at least 22 years ago. It was once a beautiful ring with the sun over a valley on one side and on the obverse was the moon. The top has an eagle flanked by two pieces of onyx.

It was really dirty and the shank had somehow cracked. But I remembered having a good time then, the whole family went. The Pow-wow stood out because My wife objected, not til we got there of course, to the jackets Sean and I were wearing. We were Washington Redskins's fans you see, so it was fall and as second nature we wore our Redskin jackets. As we get out of the car walking to the Pow Wow, she mentions off hand how demeaning it would be to the Indians present.

Well if it was, we received no evil eye or sideways glances of which I was aware. Our cash was as good as anyone else's. We watched them perform dances, ate Buffalo Burgers with sweet potato fries, just generally had a good time. I saw the ring in a booth and immediately liked it so I purchased it on the spot. When the ring popped up from oblivion, I took it to the jewelers and had them repair and resize it. They polished it up real nice. I picked it up yesterday. Looks nice on the hand again, not just for the ring but for the memories as well.

Dejunking The House and Going Down Memory Lane

2011-09-02T23:18:00.007-04:00

In our continuing effort to improve our home, we have spent the last few weekends cleaning out two junk rooms, formerly the kid's bedrooms. There is 30 years worth of debris in these rooms and the trash bags placed out on Monday seem to be a never ending stream.

Clearing up unwanted or unneeded debris does have its benefits, however. So far I've discovered 5 pens that I thought I'd lost. Its also a trip down memory lane. I've found so many things that I hadn't even realized I still owned. One item really brought home how much I've aged. I found a Confederate Flag money clip that I recall purchasing in 1961 when we were down in Virginia witnessing the re-enactment of the First Battle of Manassas kicking off the Civil War Centennial. Now 50 years later we are celebrating the Sesquicentennial. It feels Like it was yesterday when we were there.

But I have to steel myself to dump unnecessary things, sentimental or not. This weekend we'll probably concentrate on old cassette tapes and VCR tapes. I'm not even going to look at them in order to avoid second thoughts. The kids were put on notice so anything left behind by them will also end up in the trash.

Eventually, the plan is to turn one room into a sewing room for the wife and the other a study for me. It looks like Sean will finally get those Redskin football cards too..............

Hurricane Irene

2011-08-27T20:09:00.005-04:00

Well the first Hurricane to hit New York in decades is almost upon us. I can hear the rain's tinny crescendo hitting the A/C unit mounted through our upstairs window. I'm a bit nervous about it though I don't think its going to be as bad as the news outlets are hyping it up to be. On the other hand, the ground is pretty soggy and the water has no where to run to. Since we are a slab on grade townhouse, the water will have no place to go but in the house if the ground does not absorb it.

I'm nervous for two reasons, first I'm awaiting calls from work to report any floods or damage to my building on 49th street and secondly I'm concerned about our Salvage tug the Zuni-Tamaroa which is moored in Norfolk. She's in a cove so hopefully she's safe.

The storm forced me to cancel a dinner we were going to have on Sunday to celebrate my sister Judi's birthday.

Saga continues........

Heard from work, we have about 14 leaks coming through various windows, mostly on the east side. We lost power for about 6 hours on Sunday at the house. But we also had another close call around here. The Garnerville Industrial Complex was inundated by the swollen Minisceongo Creek and about 125 feet of the building was knocked down. That was right across the creek from us.

In 1999 when Hurricane Floyd came through the Minisceongo cut away the banks and undercut three properties just south of us. The homes were abandoned while repairs to the river bank were made. So far we've been lucky. We're high enough so we don't have to worry about floods and just far enough away from the bend in the creek to avoid eroded banks.

Accidental Bling..........

2011-08-20T18:45:00.008-04:00

For many years now, we have donated a wood burning stove annually to the Southwest Indian Foundation located in Gallup, New Mexico. In addition, we sometimes purchase an item or two from their catalog. Generally, I try to keep it simple. a T shirt or a key ring, maybe a bolo. I always look for a ring since I'm partial to them. But they never carried my size.

Finally, I saw one. I looked at the photo and thought,"what a great ring" and its 65% tax deductable as well. So I ordered it. It arrived today and I almost choked. It's a beautiful ring, but it is no where near as understated as it appears in the above photo. It's a hand wrought sterling silver ring with a turquoise nugget as the stone. In real life the stone is huge compared to the photo. But the ring fits and it is good looking if a bit on the blingy side.Just wait til my co-workers see it since I'm known for wearing very understated jewelry. I'm sure I'll be razzed a lot. We'll have to wait and see. I suppose, I can say it's a badge of honor for supporting the SWIF.

I'll have to be careful though, the stone has a pretty high profile and as my dear wife of 40 plus years is fond of pointing out, I don't know my own boundaries. She's right, I've scraped a number of watch crystals over the years. I don't know how strong a turquoise stone is; but, I don't want to bang it against a door jamb to find out.

Makr Carry Goods

2011-08-19T22:23:00.010-04:00

Not that I'm a perfectionist, because believe me, I'm not. On the other hand, I tend to search too long for the perfect pen, perfect wallet, perfect slacks, perfect shirt, etc. Satisfaction is rarely reached with almost anything to the point where I don't look for a better version. Recently, growing weary of stuffing things in my wallet, a new approach was taken. What takes precedence? What do I really, really need. Stuffing my wallet a la George Costanza was making for quite a lump under my left hip (yea, I'm a lefty). So listing to starboard occurred when sitting down. I've tried various schemes to determine what is needed or what I want in my wallet. None of them ever worked.

My wife has grown weary of me trying wallets then throwing them in the dresser drawer when they don't quite pass muster. One more shot using reverse psychology was necessary. I bought a really small (for me) one pocket wallet from a brand called Makr. I'd never heard of them before. But it is a nice quality wallet, about the size of a small cell phone holster. It is hand stitched, the leather is well tanned and supple. It has a flap over the pocket held in place by a strap under which the flap is tucked. See photo above.

So now, what to eliminate?? First to go were photos, then went all business and appointment cards, then went all membership cards to the various historical societies to which I belong. Cast aside were a couple of credit cards no longer used as well as my AARP card. A couple of membership rewards cards and a Staples Discount card also were sequestered for the duration. In the end, I was able to insert 10 plastic cards i.e. drivers license, credit, debit, medical plan, prescription cards, Shop & Stop, Dunkin Donuts gift card (that needs to stay no matter what!) and my Metro card for the city bus when needed. I almost forgot, you can fit in at least 8 bills folded in half and a book of Homer Simpson stamps as well. Obviously, the less cards, the more cash can fit and vice versa.

So everything fits, the soft leather conformed to the new load. It has a very low profile and fits easily in my pocket. So much so that I keep checking to see if its still there. It's not a cheap wallet, but it appears to be good quality. Time will tell if the stitching and tanning jobs hold up. Also, an attempt will be made to unload a bunch of lesser wallets on my unsuspecting kids so to gain more room in my dresser. If they don't want them, well there's always charity............

HAIL TO THE REDSKINS

2011-08-08T16:44:00.006-04:00

Any one who knows me that I have been a crazed Redskins fan all my life. I even got the kids going for them for a while. Sean is still a fan. So I had to share this story with you all.

Yesterday the Brood was at my mother-in-law's for a visit. I was wearing my Redskins script "R" burgundy cap. Sean pointed my cap out to Liam. When he saw it, my grandson broke out in a rendition of "Hail to the Redskins." He was in tune and knew all the words and verses.

I never laughed so hard in my life. Seeing him (a 4 year old) sing that song with such gusto, well it made my day. Maybe another Doherty generation is destined to be Redskins fans! I asked Sean to have Liam do it on video.That reminds me, I need to send my Redskins card Album to Sean.

I only hope my beloved Washington Redskins play as hard as Liam sung their song. They need a lot of improvement this year. Time will tell, but I'm worried about their offensive line and their quarterbacking.

Family Picnic Today.....

2011-08-06T21:58:00.010-04:00

We had a good time today down on the Husdon River picnic Tables under pavilions and all. The west coast branch of the family came over to visit. The weather cooperated, the food was good and the grand kids, entertained until they got tired. Top photo is a view of the Hudson from the park. Second one was an attempt to get a shot of my gransdson.

This is my grand daughter scarfing down cheez-it crackers.She comes by it honestly, because her Grandfather is a Cheez-It addict. So its gotta be from me. We made it through the day and finished up before the thunderstorms rolled on through. I would have had better shots. However, we forgot to bring our camera so I had to use my Blackberry which has no flash.

Blackberry Withdrawl.................

2011-08-02T23:03:00.004-04:00

For the last week and a half, I have suffered a serious case of Blackberry Withdrawl. My World Edition Blackberry from work went on the fritz and was unrepairable. Aside from the cracked case, the trackball was frozen in place. So I ordered a new one. Now, I'm not by any means a technocrat or versed in this kind of stuff, so I just ordered the first one I stumbled across, the Blackberry Bold. Nice machine, great graphics, etc. only the key board was miniaturized; my hands could not handle it. Try as I might I came close to wiping the Blackberry several times. I literally reached 9 attempts a couple of times at home and had to bring it in to work the next day to have somebody with small hands give it a final shot and get me back on.

Suffice it to say, I drove our IT Department nuts. One of the other guys had a Black Berry Curve which I tried. I became ecstatic. I could actually type the password and get it on the first try…….I demanded a trade and just received the new Curve. For the life of me I cannot understand the design of the Blackberry Bold's keyboard. The keys are very close together and way to wobbly at least in comparison to the Curve.

Between Blackberrys, I was going nuts. I was used to sitting down after dinner and watching a movie with my wife. While watching the movie, I could check email, check the weather, check the votes in Congress for the Debt ceiling, etc. etc. search on Google, you name it. Without it, I felt naked for the last week. I even texted on my own puny cell phone to find out about work during the weekend.

I got the new Cuve in the mail yesterday and was happy with the phone, though I must say that I am a bit miffed at how cheap Verizon is getting. With the Bold, I got an at home charger and a case. With the Curve, no at home charger and no case. Their poor excuse for a charger was a teeny black plug that you would plug into a the wall using an IT cable and the other end into micro port on the phone. On the way home from work, I bought a car charger and a NORMAL home charger.

I already had a nice Blackberry case at home, so that was no issue. I'm back on line and I'm happy, my bosses are happy, everyone's happy!!!!!!! Until this one breaks. This is my 4th Blackberry in 10 years……..Hope this one lasts. I'll need a magnifying glass and a stylus to use a keyboard if they keep getting smaller.

Bavarian Manor Vacation

2011-07-24T15:19:00.009-04:00

Just returned from our summer vacation at the Bavarian Manor in Purling, NY. in the Catskills. Above is the front porch; really enjoyed it. A nice place to decompress. They had a German restaurant open Thursday through Sunday and the food was delicious. My doctor will probably kill me. I feel like a gained a couple of pounds. It is an old inn first opened in 1865. The present owner has had it in her family for the last three generations.

Below are a few more photos to savor..........
The view from our room-above.

the lake on the property

Potato Pancake appetizer.........Excellent

The inn itself.......

Warriors and Quiet Waters.........

2011-06-12T09:07:00.007-04:00

I just stumbled across a not for profit to which I think I'll make regular donations. As a veteran, its the least I can do to help our warriors returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Its called Warriors and Quiet Waters. It involves taking soldiers recently returned from the Middle East and taking them to Montana in groups of 5 or 6 to do some fly fishing for a week.

This is a quote from their website.

"In our program, volunteer guides and companions meld together with recently wounded warriors for six days of therapeutic fly fishing instruction, fishing, and recreation on the rivers and streams of southwest Montana. The wounded warriors receive a break from their medical treatment and are given instruction in the lifetime sport of fly fishing. At no charge, each wounded warrior is provided with transportation, accommodations, meals, and a complete fly fishing outfit, theirs to keep, valued at approximately $3,000 per wounded warrior! Result – wounded warriors experience a relaxing, rehabilitative, enjoyable, activity and a lifetime sport skill they can enjoy the rest of their lives. "

what a great idea. I love to fish myself so I can attest to its therapeutic value. So in addition to my other causes, now goes this one. Being so close to retirement, I won't be able to give them a lot but every little bit will help.

Finally, I OWN my Ford 500........!!!!!!

2011-06-04T09:11:00.006-04:00

After 5 long years, I just made the final payment on my beloved 2006 Ford 500. Free at Last!! We'll wait and see how long it lasts now. I really love the car. Its roomy and comfortable. Great for long trips. It gets about 28.5 mpg on the highway. I've attended to it religiously over the years. She has 91,500 miles on her now. I will attempt to bring her into 200,000. I'm not thrilled with the 500's replacement, the new Taurus is the same car with a few more refinements and a lot more bucks. So when this one finally dies, I'll be hard pressed for a choice.

True to form, Ford sent me a brochure on the new 2012 Taurus when they sent me the letter releasing the lien. Not anytime soon folks!! As long as she rolls, she's going to stay in the driveway and carry me faithfully back and forth to work :-)

Preparing for Retirement............

2011-05-21T08:23:00.008-04:00

will be retiring in a couple of years and am cutting back on disposable income. I have very few subscriptions left, I don't donate as freely as I used to. Its funny but when I stand back an take stock of what's left, my love of all things maritime certainly stands out. Gone are ALL my Civil War subscriptions and newsletters. Those that remain are: The U.S. Naval Institute, Zuni Maritime Foundation, U.S. Coast Guard Tug Association, Friends of the Hunley and the National Maritime Historical Society as well as the Nomadic Preservation Society (The ship built to tender the Titanic). I will keep up the annual donation of a wood burning stove to an Indian Reservation out west and monthly donations to my Sister's/Daughter's NFP Four Legs Good to help with Trap Neuter and Release program....Oh and then there's Netflicks:-)

I've cut up a couple of credit cards along the way as well and debating on dropping a third. No telling what the economy is going to be like in a couple of years. The car is now paid off. Hope to make it last a while longer. If we go on holiday, I'll go away closer to home to save gas and wear and tear on me and the car...

Such is life.......

Trying out a new place for a vacation

2011-04-24T22:21:00.002-04:00

What with gas prices going up and things in general costing more, we looked around for an alternative. We spent the last 4 years at Herrington Harbor just south of Annapolis on the Chesapeake Bay. It was a beautiful place and reasonably priced, but quite honestly the last two years there have been unbearably hot.

This time around we found an inn in the Catskills. A place called the Bavarian Manor. It sits on a hundred acres of woods, walking trails and a lake. Its about the same price as Herrington Harbour but its only a 2 hour drive as opposed to 5 hours so less time in the car and less gas. Just hope it lives up to expectations. I'll be taking a lot of photos there for sure.

I've been Skyped!!!

2010-12-30T18:26:00.002-05:00

For Christmas my son gave us a webcam. We set it up on Skype today and its really great. We can now talk to our grandchildren who are on the left coast and see them at the same time.

We tried it out today but the grand kids were out at day care. Will try it again tonight when theu come home.

Max Cries For Attention

2010-11-21T22:20:00.005-05:00

This is Max, a somewhat worse for the wear Feral Cat that my sister & daughter rescued as part of their work with Four Legs Good (click link in my favorite links column on the right). He has really had a rough time of it and right now is quarantined to make sure he's going to be alright. I wish I could adopt him once he is eligible, but Regina is allergic to cats. So someone else will get him. I hope they do right by the little guy. He needs some TLC for sure.

Why Do Doctors Take So Long to Make Decisions?

2010-11-21T10:49:00.005-05:00

I've been back and forth to hemotologists, pulomanary specialists, hospitals, etc. for the last several months. I have a high red blood cell count according to them. After genetic tests, sleep tests and drawing what seems like a gallon of blood from me they finally arrived at a decision. They say, I have Sleep Apnea which will produce excess red blood cells. I need to have a C-PAP machine prescribed to me to keep positive pressure in my airways so they won't collapse. But its not a simple matter of you have it, here is the machine, have at it! Nope, I have to attend yet another consult, even though I already know I have it. I have to have a seminar of sorts with a specialist who will tell me how to use it, hook it up, etc. then it will be prescribed to me and I can begin using it.

This has been going on forever now........and our dear government wants to know why medical costs are so high. Gawd!, its because of duplication due to fear of malpractice I suppose. I've never seen so much waste. Not only that, but they waste your money and inconvenience you like never before. Try to find a doctor that will deal with you after hours or on weekends! Yet take a gander at them if you so much as intone that they are wasting your time. I told one Doctor once he was going to have to pay for my sick time if this nonsense kept up. He laughed! They have no sense on how they intrude in our lives.

"THERE IS NO TIME FOR THAT! THERE IS NO TIME!"

2010-11-20T08:56:00.008-05:00

So says Martin Sheen as he portrays Robert E. Lee chastizing Jeb Stuart during the movie Gettysburg. Well I've been thinking a lot about what time I have and to tell you the truth, there is not much. I work and commute 15 hours a day, do errands on Saturday and collapse on Sunday.

So one of the things I've decided to do is spend less better quality time on the computer. To that end, I've decided to quit Face Book after I received some counsel from my internet buddies Mike and Janie. There is very little quality time on that site. Its more annoying than anything else. I figure if I want to keep in touch with anyone, I can email them or they me.

Another thing I've decided to do is to resign from the Zuni Maritime Foundation as Historian. This took some soul searching since I was the knucklehead who started the effort a decade ago; but I simply don't have the time nor energy required to do the Zuni Tam justice. I'll stay on as an ordinary dues paying member; But the fact remains that the boat is hundreds of miles away from here. I doubt if I'll ever see it again. When you don't see her ( the ZUNI) on a periodic basis your emotional investment dwindles. I have spent way too much time on other sites espousing the virtues and merits of the USS Zuni at least as far as return goes.

That's one of the reasons why I haven't devoted much time to this blog lately. Too darn tired and busy everywhere else. I'd like to get this blog up and running again. Another thing I'd like to do is to be able to help out my Sister's and daughter's not for profit more. Four Legs Good. We see results immediately with the Trap, Neuter and Spay program for cats.They are local and more easily accessible then a ship based in Portsmouth, Virginia.

So with some luck you'll see more entries here......

Some Excitement From Across The Pond

2010-10-31T09:38:00.006-04:00

I received an email from the son of the first skipper of the Zuni the other day. He lives in England now. Had some great stories to tell about his Dad. I hope to get him more involved. Here is Zuni's latest photo all dolled up in World War 2 Dark Gray paint. We hope to be home soon,

I friggin hate contractors........

2010-07-08T08:30:00.002-04:00

Well we had a bunch of work done on the exterior yesterday and while I'm pleased with the aesthetics, I've pretty much had it with contractors. The back yard looks great, and so does the front for that matter but therein lies the problem. The front was supposed to be an option, not part of the contract. They brought all the material anyway and after consultation with the wife, we decided to go ahead with it.

And they did a beautiful job.........However, they built the walls up too high by the gas meter. I had them remove the dirt around it. Yep, the actually filled it up around the meter. There is room to pull it out if you need to but some alterations need to be made.

One thing is certain. No more improvements on this house. I'll pay a contractor to fix structural damage and return to existing, but this is it.

4th of July Holiday...........

2010-07-05T12:54:00.004-04:00

Had a great weekend. Ange and Danny kicked in and bought me tickets to a Mary Chapin Carpenter Concert in Peekskill. Ange came with me. It was fun because 20 years ago, I took Ange to see MCC. It was her first concert and it was in the same place, the Paramount Theater in Peekskill. Now that's great kind of payback.

Rest of the weekend, its too hot to do anything else. We watched the Mentalist on DVD. First time we ever saw the series. Quirky and good.

I wish I had the Time to Blog More..............

2010-05-16T19:22:00.002-04:00

I've never been so busy in my life and as much as I'd love to Blog more about pens, the American Civil War, nautical history, preserving my old ship the Tamaroa, family, etc. I'm just way to busy. We cannot catch a break at work. Between last minute requests, ISO 14001 audits, the annual budget (that's just around the corner) I have little time for blogging or Face Book. Add the 4 hour round trip commute to work and I barely have time for a decent night's sleep. The whole thing annoys me greatly because I want to get to know some people I've crossed paths with a lot better; including some long lost relatives who reside in what used to be East Germany.

We're a small family on both sides of the Atlantic so we need to stick together. Its not like my wife's family where there's a hundred of them behind every tree, or so it seems.

A Pen Mood Lately.............

2010-04-25T21:20:00.002-04:00

I haven't been on a fountain pen buying spree for a while. The other day, I received a very nice Parker 21 w/ Navy blue barrel from David Nishimura's Vintage Pen shop. I inked it up and it writes beautifully. Also I went down to my favorite pen haunt Engravably Yours in Spring Valley and picked out a couple of pens for family to purchase for me for upcoming father's day and birthday. So I should be satisfied for awhile. :-)

Small World Stuff Keeps Happening to me!!

2010-03-21T21:05:00.007-04:00

Until about 1987, I never gave much thought about how I fit into this world. But in that year things started happening to me that indicated how small (or connected) this world really was. The event that triggered these "small world" incidents was innocuous enough. I was the Chief Engineer of a midtown office building and one day walked into the Building Office to over hear the Portfolio Manager mention to someone that he had been in the Coast Guard. As a Coast Guard veteran myself, my ears naturally pricked up; I went over to him and remarked that I too had been in the Coast Guard. What followed was insane. It went like this:

Boss: What cutter were you on?

Me: Tamaroa, which cutter were you on?

Boss: (Big Grin) Mackinac, we helped you put out a stack fire.

Me: I remember, we towed you down to be decommissioned.

Boss: I was on the decommissioning crew.

Me: If you were on the decom crew, I have a photo of you because I was on the towing watch.

With that said, I went home and found the photo. I made a copy of it and sent it to him. To think that 19 years earlier we were only a couple hundred yards apart from each other.

Then a little while later, I was walking my dog, wearing my ships cap when a neighbor around 4 houses down saw the cap, stopped me and told me he had served on the Red Beech, A Cutter also out of Staten Island docked perpendicular to my ship.

I'm also a Civil War buff and had a couple of similar experiences in that field. I was doing some research on Caspar Tyler of the 141st Pennsylvania Infantry. One weekend I had to drop my son off at the Naval Academy for some training. On the way back, I decided to detour through Gettysburg and checkout the Peach Orchard Where Tyler had done some fighting.

As I was wandering the field, I came across an older gentlemen and we struck up a conversation. Turns out, he was also interested in the 141st Pennsylvania. Not only that, but he had a relative in the unit and he had copies of the soldier's letters with him. The Gentleman, gave me copies of his relatives letters for my research. If I had decided to take the quick way home, I would never have seen those letters.

During another research project, I kept bumping into two names John Haring and John Coleman of the 6th New York Heavies and the 95th New York respectively. Time after time it happened, to the point where I said to myself that this was ridiculous. what were they trying to tell me? Then it happened! I received a copy of John Coleman's pension records! I ripped them open and my heart nearly stopped! The first document visible was an affadavit that stated " I Catherine Coleman (nee Haring)..........I went back and double checked the 1860 census and indeed, Catherine Haring married John Coleman.

Then there was the saga of William G. Stephenson. In Roanoke back in the 70's, I used to frequent a used book seller named Nelson Bond. He sold me a book entitled "13 Months in the Rebel Army" by an impressed New Yorker. The long and short of it was that WGS was visiting the south when war broke out. He was told to join the Confederate army or get hung. He did the prudent thing and joined up. He served his full enlistment then escaped and went home. Fast foward about 26 years later and here I was a bored history major in a non history job. So I decided to do some research with a twist. I decided to do a paper about Confederate soldiers who moved to Rockland County after the war. In the course of my research, I found our friend Stephenson. I was stunned to say the least. I couldn't believe it as the same guy. But it was. I found his grave at Oak Hill in Nyack and found some interesting articles about him in the Nyack Journal. The one thing I thought was really interesting is that there is no record of him ever joining the Union army.

Then about two years ago, I published an article in SEA HISTORY about the efforts to save my old ship the USCGC TAMAROA. When I got a copy of the magazine, there was also an article in the magazine by Henry Helgesen, who had beem the Executive Officer on the Tam when I was on her...........We began a correspondence and he sent me a couple of good stories for our newsletter.

This month, it happened again which is what inspired me to write about it here. I received my issue of Sea History to read another article by Captain Helgesen ( not the small world piece) but there was a second article about the Coast Guard Cutter ARGO. It didn't connect until near the end of the article when the author noted that the skipper of the Argo went back home to Southport Maine (Where I have vacationed more than once); but that he had started his own excursion boat lines, first ship was named the ARGO. As a youngster, I used to take excursions on the Argo regularly. By the way the real ARGO is still afloat as one of the Circle Line boats that circle Manhattan regularly.

I'm sure this kind of stuff happens to people all the time, I'm not arrogant enough to assume history revolves around me. But I must admit, I do take delight in these little coincidences. They make for interesting anecdotes.

Winter Blahs are in Full Swing

2010-03-07T14:31:00.002-05:00

I haven't paid attention to blog in quite awhile. There have been health issues which made me want to do nothing but laze around while I'm home. By the same token, it has been very busy here at work. So my time on the internet has suffered, I've hardly visited my favorite sites and haven't bothered with Facebook too much either.

One thing I've wanted to do, but I really dread is cleaning up the two front rooms on the second floor. We have grandiose schemes to turn them into a sewing room for Reg and a office for me. I dread it because we never agree on anything. I want to junk stuff she has stored for 20 years and she wants to junk half my stuff. So. I know that if we ever get this project off the ground, there will be rumblings from both sides, sigh!

Football Winding Down

2010-01-16T07:50:00.003-05:00

Well...........my primary reason for paying attention to football is gone for the year. My Washington Redskins have flopped again. 4 and 12, good grief what a lousy record. Jim Zorn is fired (not regrettable) Joe Bugel is retired (Regrettable). The team is in shambles. I'm not that confident with Jason Campbell. He has shown flashes of brilliance and his numbers seem to have improved; but I would not call him a franchise quarterback by any means......yet! Of course the fact that he had a lousy offensive line didn't help any. He got sacked a lot this year.

Thank God, I am not a crazed fan like I once was. I'd purchase the Washington Post on Monday's to read all I could about the team's win or loss from the previous Sunday. I had a subscription to a fan newsletter. If they lost on a Monday night game, I would toss and turn all night. Then one day, really after Joe Gibbs retired (first time), I said to myself that it wasn't worth it and pulled back.

I still root for them because they are the last connection I have with my beloved Commonwealth of Virginia; where I became a diehard Redskins fan. We'll see what Mike Shanahan can do with them. I'd love to see a return of the "Hogs" that terrific offensive line that Joe Bugel was the architect of back in the 80's. That was really great football.

My secondary reason for paying attenttion to football will most likely end tomorrow afternoon. The New York Jets will play San Diego for the AFC Championship. I'd love to see them win, but I doubt it. Years ago, I had Jets season tickets and took the kids to the games. They seemed to enjoy it until the December games :-) They manage to find ways to lose every year. Superbowl, 1969 was their last championship.

It's a cliche I know, but there's always next year.

Christmas.........

2009-12-28T14:55:00.006-05:00

We had a great Christmas with the family together except Angela was not able to make it. Liam has grown quite a bit and we saw our first granddaughter Piper for the first time. She is a very placid child. Liam proceeded to play train wreck with a set of Brio Trains we have passed down to him from our kids. We gave our customary annual wood stove donation to an Indian reservation out west and I received a nice Pilot 823 Fountain Pen from Regina.

Above is a family shot of the clan during Christmas and below is a shot of some Christmas decorations. The stars were made by my 2nd Cousin Renata Clausenitzer. Thle last shot is of me and my granddaughter Piper. Its the first time we saw her in person.

HELLO WORLD!!

2009-12-03T08:33:00.003-05:00

As you can see by the date, its been a long time since I have posted. Aside from being very busy, I haven't felt all that well. Had a bad Gout attack followed by a hospital stay followed by yet another Gout attack. Needless to say I haven't been in the greatest frame of mind recently. However, I have been to see a Rheumatology specialist and if he is right. my troubles may be subsiding ( pun intended for you fellow gout sufferers) a bit down the road.One thing that has bouyed my spirits recently (though dimmed my wife's) is the latest cap I received in the mail. She hates my cap collection but take a gander at this baby:

It is the cap of the USS NEW YORK, recently commissioned right here in NYC. She was docked on the west side up a couple of slips from the Intrepid. Since I was one of those deemed essential I had to stay throughout the week after the attack and do whatever was necessary to keep my building up and running. The USS NEW YORK has about 7.5 tons of steel in her from the Trade Center so every time I wear the hat it is a tribute to the victims, first responders, Navy and my fellow building managers, engineers and service employees who stayed behind to do what must be done.

This old Coastie now has three Navy caps. One from the USS LOUISIANA my oldest son's boat, USS EARLE my Dad's ship and now USS NEW YORK.

It's been a rough couple of weeks, I can't wait to get back to work and get the year overwith to start the new one off on a different foot :-).

The law of Averages is..............

2009-10-10T19:15:00.002-04:00

catching up with me.

I am a fountain pen freak and for years I have been one of the lucky ones. I never spilt any ink nor did I get any on my clothes. I seemed to be able to do everything perfect relative to filling up fountain pens. All I got was the occasional ink stain on my hands or fingers. THEN it happened. Within the last week, I have managed to ruin two T shirts, two dress shirts and a bed spread as well as get some ink one a wooden floor. I'm sure my poor wife is ready to kill me. I can't understand it. Although I suspect I'm just not as careful as I usually am. Its been an exhausting couple of weeks span, between long hours at work and doing not for profit stuff on the weekends 4 hour RT commutes, I can hardly see straight. Plus I've been hit with gout and arthritis attacks of late so my concentration is a little off. In fact, I have one of those Fisher Mars Space Pens. I've started using it for the last couple of days to stay away from Fountain pens. Tomorrow I have to take the car to the shop, after that the rest of the weekend I will relax and nap and start getting some semblance of normalcy back to my life.......I hope! :-)

No longer ink free, I am...........

Four Legs Good Tag Sale

2009-10-03T07:50:00.004-04:00

A Not For profit started by my sister and daughter, Four Legs Good, is having a tag sale today at Immaculate Conception Church on South Main Street in Stony Point, NY. The NFP's purpose is to do a TNR program (Trap, Neuter, Release) to help control the population of Feral cats in Rockland County in a humane way. So if you want to help, stop by from 10AM to 3 PM today and help contribute. Their website is listed under my favorites.

Thanks,

PS We did really well. We took in over 1,000.00 which means we can TNR 22 cats. :-)

Everything's Happening at once!!!!!

2009-08-10T12:06:00.000-04:00

A lot of things are happening all at once. We’re very busy on the job getting ready for an ISO audit, I resigned my position as newsletter editor for the NFP I’m on because I do not have the time to do it justice, though I intend to stay peripherally involved. Its my grandson Liam’s 2 year old birthday tomorrow and I started donating to my sister’s and daughters NFP called four Legs Good in which they raise money to trap, neuter and return feral cats to the wild.

Also we’re taking my sister out on the 22nd for her birthday, let’s see what else is going on? I signed over my Mom’s old Toyota to Daniel. Now he’s paying the insurance, yippee……….

I am already looking forward to next years vacation in Maryland; Judi and Janet will be coming down with us. We have a two bedroom suite this time in the same place; Herrington Harbour Inn.

No wonder I’m exhausted on the weekends, in between all this other stuff I work 55 hours a week and commute 4 hours a day. Such is life!!!!

Simple Pleasures - - Observing a Pigeon

2009-07-17T08:01:00.002-04:00

The other day, I had a really bad work day. I work in the facilities department of a New York midtown office tower. My assistant is on vacation and my boss spent most of her time across town so I was essentially alone. Oh, and also the Chief Engineer was on vacation so suffice it to say, I was wearing a lot of hats. People were hot or cold, or water fountains were leaking, the Fire Department shows up for a surprise inspection, leasing agents wanted to tour vacant floors………..on top of all that I had around three meetings that day.

When quitting time came, I was out of the building like a shot. I caught the cross town bus then the ferry to Weehawken. Here is where simple pleasures come in. The seats on the ferry are aligned fore and aft not athwart ships. I was sitting on the port side looking aft when I see a pigeon strutting down the aisle purposefully heading for the bow. As he came toward me, I pulled my feet back and he continued his trek only to come across people who had legs crossed and extended in the aisles. The pigeon tried numerous paths to get around them but was not successful.

Finally, he turned around and walked back toward the stern. He looked up at me; whereupon I responded, “Don’t look at me like that, I moved my feet” People around me looked up and started smiling at the absurdness of it all. Then the bird headed to the stern. Not satisfied, he now took flight toward the bow (within the passenger compartment.) He had to beat those wings a little harder to get there since the Ferry was already moving at 8 or 10 knots.

Then, when he reached the bow, our gray pigeon, suddenly turned, landed near me and walked to the stern again where he took flight out of the rear door. The whole episode was pretty entertaining. It was good to see complete strangers laughing over the antics of the bird.

He came back the next day. But I think his comic days are over. He did a strut down one side of the boat then flew out the stern door again.

Walmart wants to Pave over the Wilderness Battlefield

2009-07-10T17:52:00.005-04:00

I wrote a letter to Walmart today. Short and sweet. It goes like this: " It has been brought to my attention that Walmart intends to build a super store on the Wilderness Battlefield in Orange County, Virginia. As a former National Park Ranger, as a Veteran and as a student of history, I find this action to be absolutely incredible. Please move elsewhere, you are utterly destroying American history with such a sensless act. I urge you to reconsider and move your plans to build to another location. Those battlefields have already suffered way too much, their presence destroyed by America's corporate greed."

I am stunned that something like this could happen. I once had a lot of respect for Virginians and their love of their state. I lived there for seven years. In fact for some of those years I worked as an Interpretive Specialist for the National Park Service at Fredricksburg.The Wilderness was the first time that Grant met Lee in May of 1864. He soon would discover what a fighter Lee was. The battle pretty much represents the beginning of the sweep known as the Overland campaign to Petersburg where 60,000 soldiers fell in about 6 weeks of horrific fighting. And Walmart wants you to trod concrete aisles on this sacred ground.

This much I know, if they win the fight to build there, #1 I will not visit Virginia anymore and #2 I will not purchase any more items at Walmart.

Press Release Zuni Tam found a home

2009-07-04T04:21:00.003-04:00

N E W S F L A S H !
PORTSMOUTH, VIRGINIA – TUESDAY 23 JUNE 2009
The City Council of Portsmouth, VA authorized a Memorandum of Understanding with the Zuni Maritime Foundation, Inc., concerning a Berthing Agreement for the former United States Navy-United States Coast Guard Vessel "ZUNI-TAMAROA" at the City’s North Landing. The City will provide berthing space to the ZUNI-TAMAROA at no cost and has welcomed her to become a part of their historic waterfront on the Elizabeth River.
This is the news and the situation that we have been working toward for these past seven years! Having this official, permanent, physical location to call our own will finally give us the ability to apply for the gifts and grants that we are eligible to apply for from federal and state governments. We will also be sending out letters to possible corporate sponsors requesting their support.
It is anticipated that the ship will arrive at her new home port within the next 12 months, after improvements are made to the North Landing seawall and the ship completes her ship yard period.
The location of the ship’s berth will be 0 Water Street, Portsmouth, VA 23705.
The ZUNI-TAMAROA is currently berthed at Pier 12N, Naval Amphibious Base, Little, Creek, VA. Please have a look at the photos showing some of the great work that has been going on!
NOW MORE THAN EVER, things are rolling very well in the right direction and we need your financial and volunteer support!!
Please contact us at 804-273-0247 or snafu.manor@verizon.net if you are able to volunteer your time and talent.
Please send your tax exempt gift to: The Zuni Maritime Foundation, P. O. Box 28042, Richmond, VA 23228, OR you can now donate directly via the ZMF website at www.zunitamaroa.org
Thank you!

Point Lookout Maryland

2009-06-25T22:03:00.008-04:00

While on vacation, I went to Point Lookout in Maryland. It was the location of a Confederate POW camp. Took a very sobering walk around the prison. It is hard to picture 50,000 souls living in a tent city. There were over 3,000 deaths at the prison. The top photo is of monument commerating all those who died at Point Lookout. Next is the cooking pot that fed the prisoners. The third one is of the monument showing all those who died by state. The one immediately below is of memorial bricks placed at the monument and the last one is of the dead line. If a prisoner walked past that white stake, he was shot, no questions asked.

Some day, If it is possible, I would also like to visit Andersonville in Georgia, where Union Civil War soldiers were kept. I've already visited the graves of those in the prison at Elmira, NY.

ZUNI TAMAROA has a new home!!!!

2009-06-24T21:58:00.002-04:00

At a meeting last night in Portsmouth, Virginia, a vote was taken and a memorandum of understanding was accepted between the Zuni Maritime Foundation and the City of Portsmouth. In other words, we have our own home port now. Restoring her can begin in earnest. More to follow.

Piper Ann Doherty

2009-06-21T16:27:00.003-04:00

What a crew?

Piper Ann looks adorable here. Just wait 17 years. :-)

Welcome to the world. My first granddaughter, second grandchild. Born on June 20, 2009 - 19.75 inches long and 7 lbs.11 oz. Hope to have photos soon to post for everyone to see.

North Beach, Maryland

2009-06-14T08:40:00.002-04:00

A view of the bay (up)

The breakwater leading into the Marina (up)

We are thoroughly enjoying our stay at Herrington harbour. Reading on the beach and watching the sailboats glide by. Thankfully the weather is much better than predicted. Food is good, they have a great coffee bar down here. It serves healthy meals except for the desert coffees.

Our rooms (up)

We went antiquing and I found a nice @arker 61 capillary fountain pen. Regina found some nice silverware. We're still searching for the one of a kind odd ball piece of furniture she is always on the prowl for. I like it here.

NEW PC>>>>>>>>>>>YAY!!!!!

2009-06-08T10:06:00.003-04:00

We bought a new PC. Its a custom built job and is terrific. I have a couple of issues with it; but I suppose I'll get used to it. First it takes a little longer to boot up then I would like. Second it was loaded with a new version of windows 2007 I believe. It is a real pain to navigate around in. The name of the place that built it for me is EagleTech. Nice people good price. Its smart looking all black tower with a flat screen monitor 250 gig hard drive.

When you check the property tab its hilarious, we imported our 20 gigs worth of data onto the new computer. The pie chart shows a very thin sliver of space being used. We'll probably have this one for 10 years too!!

I just have to check the boot up issue, otherwise all is right with the world again.

Quick Note About the Zuni Tam

2009-05-29T09:06:00.003-04:00

Received a call from my old shipmate Rich Cunningham yesterday. We're all on pins and needles waiting to see if a certain city in Virginia is interested in negotiating with us for docking space. A group of city employees visited the ship yesterday and so far we haven't heard anything. Right now I'm full of angst!!! Arrrggghhh!!

My home PC committed suicide so I can't keep up with what's going on from home. We'll purchase a new one this weekend.

MEMORIAL DAY, John Haring and the 6th New York Heavy Artillery

2009-05-25T07:13:00.007-04:00

Around Memorial Day each year, I think of a few people, veterans all who have had an impact on my life. They are my father William Doherty a Navy Vet, Vin Accardi my father- in- law an Army vet and a close friend Roger Carey, also an Army vet. But there is one other who is in my thoughts. A young soldier named John Haring who died as a result of wounds sustained in the Spotsylvania campaign during our Civil War.

Like most people, certain things define one’s attitudes; for me, I am both a Veteran and a Civil War freak. On Memorial Day, 1996, an event occurred which motivated both of those elements within me. My oldest son and I will be setting it right. Sean was at the time a member of the North Rockland Naval Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps. The week before Memorial Day, he and his fellow cadets set about placing American flags on the graves of all Veterans at Mount Repose in Haverstraw, N.Y.

On Memorial day, we arrived at the Cemetery a little early for the ceremony so I meandered among the graves, my curiosity aroused. After a couple of minutes, I noticed a well-worn marker, around the top of which read “He died for his Country." Beneath that was a worn carving of an American Flag under which was the name John H. Haring. The date of death was June 19, 1864. I looked for but did not see a G.A.R. marker. Moreover, there was no American flag placed on the grave. A transgression that Sean will not soon forget. I was upset that his grave was overlooked.

Immediately, we searched for an additional flag. With none to be found, we came upon a grave with two flags on it. I hope the veteran didn’t mind, but the spare flag made its way to Haring’s grave. After all, it was to the memory of Union soldiers killed in the Civil War that we owe the existence of Memorial Day.

My depth of feeling for the Civil War soldier (North and South) is well known by my family and friends. As the saying goes, I “Still hear the guns." Forgetting John Haring, while insignificant on the surface, started me on a quest to learn all I could about the man. It was not just overlooking Haring that bothered me, but what about the thousands of soldiers like him.?

Sean and I set out for the library on June 8, 1996 and started scanning the 1860 Census for Rockland County. We went through about sixty pages with no results. Later on that day, I continued the quest by reading through four years worth of the Rockland County Messenger. I found a few references to Harings, including one of a John Haring being assigned to Grand Jury duty in May of 1861. Was this our man? I thought so, except for the fact that this Haring was listed from Orangetown. If he was my Haring at Mount Repose, why was he buried in Haverstraw?

June 15th ---- the search continues. I went to the Historical Society of Rockland County to see if they could help. Deep in my heart, I knew he was a Union soldier, but I had no definite proof. Within minutes of my arrival, I found it. John Haring was listed as a member of the 6th Heavy Artillery in Cole’s 1884 History of Rockland County. He enlisted in August of 1862 and is listed as having died from wounds June 22, 1864 (his grave says June 19, 1864).

Persistence has its rewards. We went back to the New City Library and continued looking through the 1860 census records. About 160 pages later, we found the Haring family. John H. Haring was the second eldest of seven children. Son of Luke and Mary Haring, he is listed at the age of 17 with the occupation of mason.

We wrote the National Archives to get a copy of John Haring’s Army record’s. In the meantime we will pour through all the local resources including the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion. It should be fascinating to learn about some of the engagements the 6th Heavies and our John Haring (yes, I adopted him, whether he likes it or not) participated in.

It is a shame that the epitaph on his grave is worn off. It may have given me some clues to go by. His headstone is made of marble ( a soft stone and is on a hill facing westerly winds). Even the top inscription “He died for his country” is difficult to read. There is only one other tombstone in the cemetery like it. The Civil War gravestone of John Doyle was identical (he died on June 15, 1864). Doyle’s headstone is sheltered so the flag and top inscription are easily discernable on his. I suppose restoring or replacing it is out of the question ( are any of Haring’s ancestors reading this?) Perhaps we can at least see to it that a G.A.R. marker be placed there. Coincidentally, in my most recent issue of the North-South Civil War Trader there was a letter from a Jim Leavenworth who has one and would like to see it properly used. I immediately placed a phone call to him but he was on vacation. I started lobbying with my local Rockland County Civil War Round Table to help as well.

Below are the facts I have as of June 15, 1996, 1860 Census:
Haring, John H.
Age: 17
Occupation: Mason
Family of 9: 6 brothers and sisters:
Father Luke, age 45
Mother Mary, age 40
Sister Emallie?( hard to read), age 19
Sister Caroline, age 15
Sister Catherine, age 12
Brother James, age 11
Brother William, age 7
Brother Charles, age 6

Buried at Mount Repose Cemetery:
Headstone inscribed “He died for his country”
“Son of Luke and Mary Haring”
“Aged 21 Years”
Can’t read epitaph
“Died June 19, 1864”

There is no mention on the stone of the 6th Heavies, which to me is curious, considering that he died while a member of the unit.

During my search for John Haring’s past, a series of eerie events began to unfold. While searching the census for information on Haring, I ran across the household of John Coleman, a future Sergeant in the 95th New York Infantry. I wrote an article about the 95th in our local Historical Society’s Journal and I recalled the name. How quaint, I thought, as Coleman’s and Haring’s pasts brushed together ever so slightly.

June 17, 1996, We called the National Archives for the procedure to obtain Haring’s army record. They will send us forms to fill out and for ten dollars we will have Haring’s record. We received the form NATF 80 on June 24th.

While we were awaiting the results from the National Archives, it was decided to start looking into the history of the 6th New York Heavy Artillery, John Haring’s unit. I called the Assistant Director of Special Collections at West Point, Mr. Alan Aimone and made an appointment with him.

Approximately seven hours was spent pouring through the O.R. gleaning every little known fact about the 6th Heavies. Initially they were mustered in as the 135th New York Volunteers of Infantry and were stationed at Baltimore then Harper’s Ferry as garrison troops. Eventually they were redesignated the 6th New York Heavy Artillery. The Heavies had a relatively easy time of it until July, 1863 when they were ordered to Gettysburg to help bury the dead. The 6th Heavies joined the army of the Potomac in time for the Bristoe and Mine Run campaigns in the fall, 1863. In May, 1864 when the slumbering armies awoke to begin another spring campaign, the 6th Heavies were designated as foot artillery (a fancy name for conversion to infantryman). They engaged into some horrific fighting, losing over 400 members of the regiment, including my John Haring,(he was wounded in the thigh on May 19, 1864 and died over a month later in late June of complications) by the war’s end.

Waiting for the records made me crazy. I had to keep looking for something but I didn’t know what to do. Finally, I went back to the Mount Repose Cemetery for another look. You see I thought I’d just sit down by Haring’s plot, meditate and...... Within a few minutes, I found the graves of Luke and Mary Haring, John’s parents.

What happened next? My mind and my gaze began to wander. Suddenly, shivers ran down my spine and the hair on the back of my neck stood straight up; for two plots to the right was the grave of John Coleman, my friend from the 95th. It scared the hell out of me! Not only because of my previous encounters with Coleman while searching for Haring’s past, but because I only have one item from the 95th Regiment in my collection. It happens to be John Coleman’s Certificate of Promotion to First Sergeant before Petersburg on August 12, 1864.

Finally on August 10, 1996 I received his records. But that was not enough! I had to find out what if any relationship there was between Coleman and Haring. Again, I wrote to the Archives, this time for Coleman’s pension records. September 16, 1996, John Coleman’s pension file arrives! And, good grief, it’s not a coincidence! His wife is Catherine Haring, John’s sister. I have a connection! John Coleman is an in-law to the Harings. I wonder if Haring knew John Coleman before he was killed? All this time, I knew somehow, there was a connection between those two “soldiers of the Union.” Who would have ever thought that the head stone of a soldier in the 6th New York Heavy Artillery could be linked with a certificate of promotion for a soldier in the 95th Infantry?

We are close to the end. Today the G.A.R. marker is now by Haring’s headstone forever identifying him as a Civil War Veteran. Sean’s NJROTC instructor, Commander Ross gave a nice presentation and a local re-enactor group, the 40th New York attended firing a volley over John’s grave.. I suppose their souls are at rest now, John Haring has his marker and with any luck, John Coleman will continue to turn up in my life. This bit of research has whetted the appetite. I have already started a paper on Rockland County in the Civil War. With some luck it may amount to something in the future.

Thanks to the North South Civil War Trader and fellow NSCWT subscriber Jim Leavenworth, Haring’s grave will be decorated as it deserves. I had no idea who John Haring was. This was not a grandiose scheme of any kind. It was simply one veteran making sure that the deeds of a soldier who was not even fortunate enough to become a veteran, ( in other words, stay alive) would be remembered by future generations.

Closing this brief chapter on Haring is an encapsulation of his army career:

Haring, John H. Age 21; Enrolled at Haverstraw, August 25, 1862; Mustered in at Fort McHenry, December 11, 1862 for three years. Listed as present for duty from January, 1863 to June, 1864. In Sept./Oct., 1863 he was charged 20 cents for a cartridge box belt and plate. In December, 1863 he was charged 44 cents for a canteen. January/February, 1864 on detached service then recalled to the regiment; wounded in the thigh near Spotsylvania on May 19, 1864. Died June 22, 1864 at Carver U.S. General Hospital in Washington, D.C.. Personal effects listed were: 1 cap, 1 Uniform coat, 1 pair flannel drawers, 1 flannel shirt, 1 pair socks, 1 portfolio and a handkerchief. His personal effects were signed for by his father Luke Haring and his body transported home for burial at Mt. Repose.

Engravably Yours........

2009-05-23T07:42:00.006-04:00

Yestersay I had some extra cash burning a hole in my pockets so I decided to browse my favorite pen store, Engravably Yours, in Spring Valley, NY. I saw and tried out as new Cross Fountain Pen which was really nice. Its called the C series and has a 14K gold rhodium plated nib on it. The section is rubberized so its easy to hold on to and the cap can be posted easily because it snaps on the rear of the barrel.

If you're a fountain pen nut and live in the area, I would strongly suggest that you visit these guys. They have a terrific selection of pens in all price ranges and they're just darn nice folks too. Norman and Marilyn Stillman own the shop. They are ably assisted by a gang they simply call the "Girls". They're not just pens either. They carry several lines of jewelry (Norman has an uncanny knack of picking out pins and pendants that my daughter adores) and watches as well. You might even get a discount if you mention my name, or you might get hit too :-).

At any rate, if you're stuck trying to give a gift for someone, they should be on your list. Engravably Yours is the corner store in the Spring Valley Market Place in Spring Valley, NY. They are right off of exit 14, New York State Thruway. Bear right and you're there. They have a website:

www.engravably.com/About.htm

Every once in a while......................

2009-05-20T08:09:00.003-04:00

Along comes a photo that knocks your socks off. Such is the case with this one. I love photography and I take pictures wherever we go on vacation. I have photographed Maine vacation spots, Pennsylvania, Maryland, upstate New York, Cape Cod, Civil War battlefields, Islands in Vermont and the western shore of Maryland. I've got a photo record of my 4 years in the Coast Guard and we have numerous volumes of photos of the kids as they grew up. There are some great photos in that collection, but this one out does them all.

Initially I resisted the digital camera but have come to really appreciate it. This photo is priceless. It shows the obvious love and affection between my grandson Liam, and his father Sean. Many thanks to Christina for catching this moment on film. It is also our desktop on our computer at home.

Moh's Surgery Done!

2009-05-17T07:59:00.003-04:00

I had an interesting procedure done to me the other day. A few weeks ago, I noticed a red spot on my skin that would not go away or diminish with the usual assortment of oils & creams. I went to the dermatologist who diagnosed it as Squamous Cell Carcinoma. It was not a surprise considering that my Mom had various bouts with skin cancer during her life. But hearing the Big "C" associated with you is nonetheless startling.

At any rate, the biopsy confirmed it and they froze it which got the top layer off. The surgeon said that they still needed to cut it out and that the Moh's procedure was the best. It was kind of interesting to say the least. They first numbed the area then took a layer off and put it under the microscope. It took about an hour to confirm yea or nay if they got all the cancer. If they did find. If not you went in for another slice taken, and so on. I was lucky, the got all mine on the first try. I have to go back to remove the stitches and do a six month check up. If everything is fine, I have to do an annual check up. She (the surgeon) said it was caused by exposure to the sun. That's odd to me since I hate the sun and stay away from it as often as possible, not to mention the fact that I've had an office job for the last 33 years. The most sun exposure I ever had was during my time in the Coast Guard when I worked outdoors all the time. But that was almost 50 years ago.

Well now I will look devilishly hansome with a 2 inch scar on my left cheek. Will just need an eye patch to complete the look. :-)

Mother's Day

2009-05-14T08:27:00.005-04:00

We celebrated Mother's Day a day early this year. My oldest and youngest kids chipped in to purchase tickets to watch an acrobatic/dance/comedy team called Galumpha up at SUNY New Paltz where my daughter lives. It was really a lot of fun and the campus at New Paltz looked very nice. Galumpha reminded me a lot of the old show on Broadway, Mummenchantz. If you ever see them slated for an area near you, I highly recommend them.

Before the show, we went to a restaurant in New Paltz called La Stazion. It was an Italian restaurant that was housed in an old rail road station depot. Nice decor and great food. Definitely a repeat adventure when we need to celebrate something else. Especially because due to time restraints we couldn't hold one of our 3 hour marathon gabby feasts which we have been known to do on many occasions.

Mom is anxiously awaiting her Mother's Day present from the West Coast Doherty's. Its going to be a drawing for her from Liam our grandchild. She'll probably have a 300.00 frame constructed for a crayon drawing :-)

On a side note, I like the area enough to consider retiring there.

Washington Redskins

2009-05-07T12:46:00.006-04:00

My favorite sports team of all time is the Washington Redskins. My affection for the team was a gradual affair. As a college student in Virginia, they were the only local pro team so if you watched football, they were “THE” team. The more I watched them compete, the more I liked them. This was the “future is now era” with George Allen. He traded away a ton of first round draft choices to get some veterans who knew how to win and play hard on the field. The names that I recall are now legendary there was Ron McDole, Chris Hanberger, Sonny Jurgenson, Bill Brundige, Billy Kilmer, Kenny Houston Charlie Taylor, Larry Brown and on and on. What a team. Even if they lost, they fought like furies til the bitter end. You couldn’t help but love these guys.

Then of course there was the rivalries that grew out of the NFC Eastern Division. All the team seemed to play harder when they played amongst their own division and great rivalries developed. There pretty much was the Redskins vs. everyone else. But within that, you had the Redskins vs. the Giants, Giants vs. Philly, Giants Vs. Dallas, Dallas vs. the Redskins. The Cardinals never had a smash mouth rival in the NFC East which may explain why they are now on the west coast.

As the years went by, the rivalries stayed much the same, but the ‘Skins got a new coach in 81 by the name of Joe Gibbs who made the Redskins a house hold word. He won the Super Bowl three times with three separate quarterbacks; Joe Theisman, Doug Williams and Mark Rypien. Those were great years; then Joe Gibbs retired and the team tanked for quite a while. They continued to try hard, but they had issues with several head coaching changes then a new owner who is not exactly Mr. Popularity.

I particularly didn’t like the way he handled the quarterback situation this off season. Jason Campbell has been the starter for 4 years. Last year the new coach installed the West Coast offense and Jason was getting used to it and did well the first half of the season. Trouble is that the offensive line did not protect him very well and the long and short of it was that they lost 4 out of their last 5 games. In the off season the owner decided to pursue The Denver quarterback and when that didn’t pan out he went after the number one draft pick in this year’s draft. That didn’t work either so Campbell is still the starter. Personally, if I was Campbell, I’d be really p.o.ed but he has shown composure. He’s working harder so maybe this year things will get better?? Maybe because the ‘Skins didn’t do anything this off season to improve their offensive line.

Over the years, my kids also became Redskin's fans and occasionally when I was able to scarf up some tickets to Giants Stadium years ago, I would bring one of them to the game. Usually, it was a night game and cold as heck, but they were the Redskins and we got to see them play in person so it was worth it to me.

But one of the big reasons why, I will never ever stop being a Redskin’s fan is because rooting for them is quite literally the last tenuous connection I have with the Commonwealth of Virginia. I really loved it there and miss it a lot. Still rooting for the Redskins keeps a little bit of that Virginia soul within me.

IT'S THE ECONOMY STUPID!!!

2009-05-06T17:12:00.002-04:00

.......or so I'd like to think. I have my own opinion but let's just say things are getting very depressing around work. We are losing dozens of employees every day being laid off by the vagaries of the Economy or Bush or Obama, choose your Devil! I ride the cross town bus every morning with a half dozen or so fellow employees. Every day we do a quick survey to see if anyone got let go the previous day. So far our little bunch is intact.

I'll bet none of the idiots that caused this crisis in the first place feel this kind of angst. They probably all got golden parachutes and are lazing about. The rest of us wonder each day what's coming around the bend.

I wanted to retire early. Now it looks like I'll have to wait a couple more years and hope I make some money back that I lost. One day at a time...

In the Electric Mist Film based on a book by James Lee Burke

2009-04-26T22:18:00.009-04:00

Well finally at long last the movie was released and I caught it at Blockbusters. I don't know how it will do. But what I'm thinking is that he is such a great writer that the average JLB fan would be seriously miffed if they cut out too much of the book for a film. Therefore his work would translate better to a miniseries. James Lee Burke fans are a fierce lot and don't like their characters messed with. On the other hand the way the movie was edited, there were a couple of gaps that if you hadn't read the book would have been hard to follow.

Tommy Lee Jones did a great job as Dave Robicheaux. The bait shop, Alafair, Tripod, Batiste everybody was there except Clete who wasn't in the book anyway.

For my part I loved the movie. My favorite scenes were when Dave spoke to the ghost of John Bell Hood. They did use some of JLB's prose as an overlay, but they should have used more in my opinion. That would have really set the mood.

P.S. One thing I find amusing is that I purchased a Dave Robicheaux Bait Shop baseball cap which I wear fairly regularly. You can get one at http://www.jamesleeburke.com/ I can tell that there are a fair number of James Lee Burke readers out there by the chuckles and smiles I get as people approach me and read what is embroidered on the cap.

I HATE COMPUTERS @$%^^&*^#%^

2009-04-11T00:12:00.004-04:00

Of course it it doesn't help that mine is almost 10 years old. I can't wait til we scrounge up enough money for a new one. A simple normal act this weekend turned my wife into not a nice person. Everything I did was wrong because, god forbid, I got a note that my firewall protection expired. I use CA products. They've been good to me for the last couple of versions. So I downloaded it again. Almost immediately I had problems. I went nuts trouble shooting both our Optimum on line account and connection. Did the pings and the pings were returned. I called them up to make sure I did everything right. They assured me I did.

They also told me to hang on and they would connect me to CA. Good service here I will add. I spoke to CA, we went through a bunch of scenarios. We finally decided to uninstall it. The wife in the mean time was frothing at the mouth because she couldn't get her blogging fix satiated. She didn't even think that I was also inconvenienced mightily because I couldn't get my Zuni Newsletter out with no internet service.

At any rate the CA folks were very helpful. They told me to go back to Optimum because they have a free downloadable version of CA virus scanning firewall etc. I did get it downloaded and finally got everything up and running with CA's help. Now the youngest son won't have to come over and try his magic. He told me he probably couldn't help but would see what he could do and bring the PC to a computer nerd friend of his. Long story short, everything is back to normal until the next time we have connectivity problems..... then of course it will be my fault again!!! sheesh!!

Chugging right along...............

2009-02-24T11:51:00.006-05:00

It appears that our project to restore the USS Zuni is picking up steam. We've had several inquiries since we had a presentation in Virginia and 4 more people have joined the message board. Right now, she's docked at Little Creek. We picked up a webmaster which we sorely needed to freshen up the site.

Within the last several days, we have received 4 more memberships at the Yahoo Message Board and one fellow will be sending me photos from the 80's to scan to our Photobucket site.

Perhaps the best news is that we finally arrived at a decision about selling adoption certificates for the old girl. That should help bring some money in for maintenance.

I've collected over 200 photos of the ship for our photobucket site spanning 6 decades. A lot of interesting photos are there. check out http:/photobucket.com/zunitam.

Bill

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANGELA & Other Stuff

2009-01-27T07:39:00.003-05:00

We had a nice weekend, Ange celebrated her birthday with Friends on Friday and Saturday, we got to babysit Angela's dog - everyone's favorite Beagle, Shenny. She's great to babysit for because mostly she sleeps interrupted by an occasional ROOOOO!!! I also rented the last half of the 6th season of 24, a TV show to which I am hopelessly addicted. That's not a good thing when your TV's not hooked up. I have to wait until season 7 comes out now on DVD.

Then to complete the weekend we celebrated Angela's birthday by going out to dinner at the Lemongrass Thai Restaurant. The usual suspects were there Regina, me, Danny, Sasha, Angela.

We're still looking for a car for Regina. She want's a Sonata. I like them but I'd also like her to try out a Ford Fusion before we commit.

Zuni-Tam, Turning the Corner, maybe???

2009-01-15T13:48:00.005-05:00

Recently, things have started to fall into place regarding the Zuni-Tam. The photo of her is at Little Creek, Virginia, the Marines have started to voice an interest in her, civic groups in the area are taking note of us. We still need to figure out ways to generate more money. But at least publicity is beginning to spread around about her. She is the last surviving ship that fought at Iwo Jima so that in itself deserves some mention.

Anyone interested in our progress please visit http://www.zunimaritime.org/.

Thanks,

Holiday Blahs..................

2009-01-02T13:36:00.002-05:00

Except for two days, Christmas Day and New Years Day, when I spent time with the family, the rest has been pretty much a bore and a bummer. Normally, I have the week between Christmas and New Years off. However, this year I switched with my assistant so he could do the reunion thing in Chicago with his family.

Jorge told me he likes this time off usually. Well he can have it. The phones rang off the off the first three days before Christmas Day, then everything fell silent. I aggravated a lot of people, because even though it was dead, I still needed to staff the place, just in case people came in and asked for the normal services. So as quiet as it has been, I've still had a nearly full crew. People were begging for things to do it was so dead.

I want to get home and finish watching the 4th season of 24. I got hooked on that show something fierce. It's not the greatest Television in the world but as Regina says, it sure is "addictive". I went to bed at 12:30 last night and woke up for work at 4:30. Got through the first 8 hours of the day. Poor Jack, that guy has the worst luck.

Excitement is also building regarding our USS Zuni project. Now that we are docked at a great pier and have access to the ship, we can start working on it again. In the worst way, I want to sail her back to New York and dock next to the Intrepid during a Fleet Week not to distant in the future.

Merry Christmas & Zuni Tamaroa towed again.............

2008-12-28T10:43:00.005-05:00

The family got together for a nice Christmas. Dan, Ange, Sasha, Regina, Judi and Lyra a friend of Ange's showed up. Good food and company made it a nice holiday. Plus we took it easy on the decorating front too, which I like.

Regarding the Tam:

We have been towed to the Navy amphibious base in Little Creek, Virginia. Hopefully we'll now have more access to the public. No one could reasch us where we were moored before. Right now we are easy access, phyically speaking; however we have to make arrangements with the Navy to allow people in and out of the base when we do maintenance on her. This girl has more lives than a cat.

I've been so busy, I forgot to do to do the newsletter. Have to bust my butt to get it out.

Moving.....................

2008-12-16T16:49:00.002-05:00

The last week and going on to this week has been pretty busy. We are doing a lot of consolidating and moving people around and out of the building to vacate 4 floors and sublet them. People are going to other spots in Manhattan, Weehawken, etc. We are on 11 and will be moving to 37 on Friday. God how I hate moving. I've sat in the same location for almost 8 years. Now I am to be uprooted and moved to a more cramped space. The one nice thing is that from 37, you can see both the East River and the North River from the building...so its a decent view. Some of the folks don't like going to 37 because they are still thinking about 9/11 and the long haul down the steps.

I'm throwing out half of what I've accumulated over the years to make it a little easier to move upstairs.

End of the year is pandemonium as usual

2008-12-01T08:45:00.004-05:00

Its been a heck of a year. At work we are closing the books and preparing for the 2009 budget, we're working on targets and success stories for ISO14001 to which we are signatory and trying to come in under budget all at the same time.

On other fronts, the Zuni Maritime Foundation, the organization dedicated to restoring the USS Zuni to her 1944 days is continuing, though at a slower pace than we would like. The economy is really putting a crimp in our ability to raise funds.

and last but not least we had a great Thanksgiving, my Daughter Angela, son Danny and Sister Judy showed up to a feast that as usual Regina outdid herself. Everything was delicious and the company was great.

Ange has recently moved back to the east coast from Oregon. Its good to have her back home again.

Chauffeur For Rent?

2008-10-24T07:58:00.004-04:00

Before I begin this blog entry, I must post this recent photo of my grandson Liam. He seems to be searching for the Great Pumpkin on Linus' behalf.

OK, now that Liam has been praised and oohed and aahed over, the point of this blog entry is thus: For nearly 4 decades, me and the wife have been married. We virtually have nothing in common except for the fact that we both love the state of Maine and our kids. In the early years of our marriage we lived in Virginia and I was a Confederate soldier reenactor. I'd drive off to a battle and sometimes drag her along, Regina was usually an unwilling spectator to these events.

Well the tables have turned the last few years, I wind up driving her to all kinds of stitching classes and seminars because she doesn't do turnpikes or bridges. Usually, I don't mind since I stay in the hotel room and relax watching the History Channel or Discovery Channel. Its nice because we don't have TV at home.

However, this past weekend, I think I should be awarded the Husband's version of the Medal of Honor. We drove to Rhinebeck, NY and attended a Sheep and Wool Festival. Yep, you read it correctly. Sheep, Alpaca, LLama's wool of all types, wine, cheese, apple cider, brownies tons of vendors and a very sore pair of legs.

Regina was all over the place. I parked on a bench for at least half the time. I did take the time to wander and witnessed a sheep judging event and visited several vendor tents, although nothing of interest (to me) was there. The wife bought me an interesting key ring (one of my goofier habits is to collect key rings of places I've been to). Then on the way back, our travel time was doubled by traffic heading back to the city.

At any rate, I woke up Monday morning with very tender legs since I did much more walking than I am used to of late. In November, I'm taking her to a Stitching retreat in Mystic, Connecticut. I need not tell you the ribbing I get from the guys at work; but hey, I guess that's a piece of a lifetime partnership.

Maybe I should start reenacting again and drive her nuts getting shot at and dying in every battle. The only thing is my girth would indicate I'm a rather well fed Confederate, so it wouldn't exactly be accurate.

2008-10-12T11:17:00.002-04:00

Proud Grandpa is posting the most recent photo we have of Liam our first grandchild. He's about 14 months old, but looks at least like two years to me. He's a big guy!! I was just on the phone talking to my son Sean and listening to Liam in the background. He's in to animals now in a big way. Notice the cow patterned car seat above. He likes to make animal sounds and everytime he gets into his car seat comments with a "mooo" :-)

Regina and I can't wait til we see him again over the Christmas holidays.

One Heck of A Week!!

2008-09-26T17:06:00.003-04:00

Thank God its Friday. Every day this week I was up at 4:15 AM to catch an earlier ferry to try and catch up on paper work. I am one tired person. I feel like the guy above. There's a cat who knows how to relax. Everytime I managed to get ahead, they gave me another project to do. I received some good news today. One of the cities that we have been soliciting as a home port for the Zuni-Tamaroa has asked us to write a letter of invitation. Hopefully, we will have a place to hang our hat and call home in the not too distant future.

In addition to just all hard work during the week, We have been severely hampered by the UN being in session. I wouldn't mind it so much if they actually accomplished something but it is the biggest waste of time and money on this planet. They haven't accomplished anything of note since its founding.

Time to go home and crash on my rack!!

Remembering September 11, 2001

2008-09-13T09:31:00.011-04:00

These are my recorded observations of September 11, 2001 as a participant on the fringe. They were daily entries posted in a now closed forum entitled Coast Guard Discussions. I chose to update the board members daily as the events unfolded because they posted notes to me concerned about my welfare. Please forgive me if the numbers are wrong or facts are not as they turned out to be. That week was chaos and I wrote down what I observed at the time. It was written at the heat of the moment. Every so often, I think about makng a lot of corrections to this mini diary. But in the end, let it stand.
==========================

==========================

Day 1 - Tuesday, well I made it. What a day! I will never ever forget it. Just 6 weeks ago, I worked on liberty street 5 blocks from the Trade Center. I was transferred up town to 299 Park Avenue. The entire episode is completely surreal. In the morning, I had crossed the Hudson on a ferry, Looked down river at the twin towers not giving them a second thought. On the way home 14 hours later, there were no twin towers and a huge plume of black smoke.

I called my colleagues in my old building. It was evacuated because they could not run any systems due to the dust and dirt in the air. They said visibility was only 3 feet and that several bodies were lying in the plaza. Uptown, my building is 4 miles away. We went into our highest alert stage and basically shut the building down; only allowing those who are regarded as essential into the building. Bottom line casualties (news reports) are 200 fire fighters, 35 cops, about 8 to 10,000 people in the trade center. Population was estimated to be 20,000 at the time of the attack. We should strike quick and hard, teach those b@stard$ that they can't take us down. I had to rally the staff and keep them going. They wanted to go home but I reminded them our tenants were looking to us as an example. Show those terrorists that your routine will go on inspite of their attacks. The Coast Guard did a great job. They commandeered all boats, tugs, barges and fireboats. Turned them into ferries to get people out of Manhattan. It was like Dunkirk all over again. I finally got across the river late in the evening. As I drove home, I passed a lit sign on the New Jersey Turnpike. It said "All bridges and tunnels into NYC closed until further notice due to terrorist attack. I was speechless, it felt like I was in the middle of a grade B horror movie.

Day 2 This morning on the way in smoke was still billowing from the site but now its white smoke. Last night, a third building 7 World Trade collapsed. A fourth is on the verge though the FDNY thinks it is under control. The last piece of the twin towers collapsed about 5:30 today. Earlier in the day, about 1 o'clock the wind shifted. It had been blowing out to sea. Smoke is now coming out of the south covering Manhattan with a brownish haze and an awful stench. whether it was electric insulation or remains, it was hard to tell, but it was awful, just the same. We were 4 miles up river from the Trade Center and had to close our outside air dampers, the smell was so bad. The city is deathly quiet, bridges and tunnels will reopen tomorrow. Last night it was so still, we heard a cricket on Park Avenue. Now that was probably a first! I am in because I am considered essential to run the business. If you are not essential they don't want you here. I Parked the car in Weehawken and took the ferry across. The city is like a ghost town; a lot of people are traumatized by what happened. I continue to push the staff. I don't want them to think about it. Cut back on the radios and TV. Dwelling on the matter won't help them. The city is closed down on the East side from 34th street to the battery and on the west side from 42nd Street to the battery. 7th avenue is reserved for ambulances. I see NYC police cars, State Troopers, the Army National Guard and even Coasties all around me. We have left over free sandwiches and juice from lunch. The cafeteria gave meals to those of us who are staying in the city, seeing it through these terrible hours. We called the police and asked them if they wanted the food. They came with a van, thanked us and headed back down town with a load of sandwiches for the rescuers/searchers. I still don't believe this happened. It feels like a dream. Maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and see the Twin Towers standing tall by Chase Plaza and 40 Wall Street? Then again....

This is Day 3 after the attack of the Twin Towers. As I crossed the Hudson this morning, I looked at where they once were, smoke still billowing upwards from fires still burning. It was a very odd feeling but as the smoke rose and was penetrated by the sunlight, it turned into a beautiful rose-colored layer underneath a sky blue as can be with no clouds.

The GW Bridge and the Lincoln tunnel are now open. The NY Waterway Ferries are running, but the Staten Island Ferry is still being used to carry supplies and rescuers to the site and taking bodies away. People are coming back into the city in an attempt to show the terrorists that life will go on. Walking down the street toward my building I was struck by the silence and watched people for a moment. Everyone had a grim look on their face, no smiles, and no chatter, just set jaws. I queued up at the steps to get in the building (even though I was the property manager) showing my ID card and presenting my brief case for a search. After that the day went all to hell. A colleague came to me and told me that a mutual friend of ours had just been promoted to Chief Engineer in the Twin towers. His office was on the 86th floor. The first plane hit one tower. He called his wife to assure her that the plane had hit the other tower and that he was OK. In mid sentence, the phone call was cut short and my friend perished as the second one hit the tower he was in. I went to my office feeling very numb. Shortly thereafter, I received a call that the 29th floor was evacuating. A strobe light from the Class E (Fire Alarm) had turned on. They all panicked and self evacuated. We got them back in the building. A short time later, I received another call that the entire building was evacuating. We had made no announcements, we received no bomb threats but everyone was so on edge that a rumor was started in a building south of us had had a bomb in it. Before you knew it there were thousands of people in the streets from 4 buildings all evacuated by rumor and fear. We called up corporate headquarters and asked what did they want us to do. The reply was let everybody go home. Then we found out that we have to have a vacant floor ready by Monday for a firm that lost all of its office space in the Trade Center. One thing that I am grateful for is the generosity of the people in this country. There were fire engines here from Chicago and Flint Michigan; these guys were here on their own time to help with the rescue efforts. There are over 300 police, firemen and EMS techs missing. People are already donating to widows and orphan's funds for each group. So many people are donating blood that they are being turned away. They have enough for now. It is going to be this kind of spirit and teamwork that will eventually bring those murdering cowards down on their knees. I understand the value of up yours to the terrorists, but if you are a civilian and never went through harrowing experiences as a veteran would have, you can be fragile. The tenants broke and ran at any given opportunity. I think the mayor should close the city down until Monday to give everyone a chance to get it together. Right now authorities think that 2 more buildings may be weak and may come down. Tomorrow the closed down zone is supposed to shrink back to Canal Street. All day I was too busy to think about my dead friend. I went home, walked up the stairs and just hugged my wife. It was the first time I had a chance to display any emotion since Tuesday morning.

Day 4 - Once more I cross the Hudson River entering this bloodied city. Today is different, It is raining and raining hard, the sky line has been erased by low lying fog, but you can still see that unmistakable plume of white smoke rising from the ashes of the World Trade Center. The sky is gray the river choppy. Somehow I feel like I'm crossing the River Styx into a land of death and destruction, not knowing what will happen today. Last night approximately 10 would-be terrorists were caught at JFK Airport, one had a fake pilot ID, most of the others had knives. Looks like we may have averted another wave of attacks. At this moment all three area airports are locked down. I never would have thought it before. Now I welcome the idea of posting armed guards in the airports.In the midst of this turmoil, people are attempting to return to a degree of normalcy. The Building Painters wanted to finish a job tonight. I canceled it. We will need all our resources to get the 29th floor ready for occupancy for two of the companies made homeless by the suicide attack on Tuesday. We will be working all weekend to have a new space ready for these folks. Havoc reigns supreme because we don't let any vendor in the building unless previously approved by the tenant. We canceled some preventive maintenance on electrical switches over the weekend, again because all resources are directed toward providing a new home for these homeless firms.

Baseball and Football will not be played this weekend. I have mixed feelings about that. Not playing the games is a signal to the terrorists that they made a dent into the fabric of this country. FDR continued baseball and football as an attempt to continue daily life in the states during the Second World War to help keep morale up. As of today, the official count of missing is 4,717. The city has ordered 30,000 body bags for anticipated 10,000 deaths, the remaining bags being for body parts. The search is being hampered by the wet weather. Incredibly two of the searchers are building engineers that survived the collapse and have now gone back to search for their colleagues. People in this city just will not give up. New Yorkers are a resilient group of people as are the hundreds of rescuers that have come from out of state. We will not surrender to terrorist activity, that much is certain.

Waiting for the Ferry, I noted three Coast Guard Cutters in the river. They were stopping all traffic because the President was at Jacob Javits Center a couple of blocks away. No ferries for the next three hours. The dispatcher finally made an announcement “There will be no ferries, buses or traffic until further notice, what else can I say.” I had already waited two hours. As aggravated as everyone was, we all had a good laugh. My back was to the water. Suddenly, there was a hush in the crowd. I turned around to see a huge white ship in front of me. The biggest hospital ship I ever saw slowly glided by, the USNS Comfort was a majestic sight, pure white with three red crosses painted on her immense hull. Of course everyone knew what she was here for and we all fell silent, puncuated by a few sobs and sharp intakes of breath; watching her glide past us to her berth further up river. Every so often a group of rescue workers would show up to take the Ferry home. As we were stuck there so were they. It gave us a chance to show our appreciation and whenever a group of them passed through, we stood up and just clapped. What else could you do? Then finally the President left and we caught the ferry to Lincoln Harbor to be on our way home.

Day 5 - We are all set to move in one of the survivor companies tomorrow and the other two on Tuesday. We have to keep pushing on but it’s hard. The Fire Department gave battlefield promotions to 168 men to insure that things keep going. Con Edison has had 1900 men going around the clock to make sure everyone's work place is habitable tomorrow. They tested the stock market systems and they all worked. Relief funds are being set up all over the place. I live in Rockland County, North of New York. The towns of Pearl River and Suffern were especially hard hit by the blast. They had a lot of firemen and policemen in those towns. Right now the missing total keeps rising. At last count it was 5,097. They have identified about 200 bodies and no one has been found alive since Wednesday. I had to turn off the radio after awhile. How many memorial services, funerals and updates do you have to absorb before you go nuts. I thought about revenge a lot over the last several days. But what will that accomplish. Bush scares me with his "If you are in uniform, get ready," talk. We need to do this calmly and rationally. Everybody from our generation knows one thing. We cannot count on our politicians, they are too fickle. We can't count on the American public because they scream revenge but if they get called up or drafted their tune will change mighty quick. No we have to this in a way that will keep most of America's hands clean. We have to get special ops to go in and assassinate every leader of every cell around the world. That way, innocent civilians will not be targets. A friend of mine said the other day, let's bomb Afghanistan back to the Stone Age. What will that accomplish? They are not far from the Stone Age now. Less casualties on our side + less casualties of their civilians = Black ops, pure and simple.

It’s been a couple of days since I had a chance to jot down anything. We have been very busy setting up a couple of floors for former tenants of the trade center. I have made frequent trips to the floors handing out my business cards telling them to call facilities if they need the slightest thing etc. They are supposed to finish moving in next week after which we will conduct fire safety drills, bomb scare lectures, evacuation drills, etc. The mood of the city I would say is somber but determined. People are very subdued. Not much honking of horns or cursing at wayward cabdrivers is happening. People seem to be extraordinarily polite to one another.

I went to my refrigerant reclamation class last Tuesday at the Union hall. The week prior to the tragedy, jocularity abounded. Everyone came in this past Tuesday, not a word was spoken. Local 94 set up a widows and orphans fund for the 4 engineers killed; one was my friend that I told you about earlier. Our instructor had to go to a memorial service for his brother in law killed on the 104th floor. As of now 6,333 are missing, the total is still climbing. The President of France was here today and was stunned by what he saw. The other day, rescuers opened up a void and found several people arms linked in a circle, all dead. They say they are removing 4,000 body parts daily. They have two refrigerated tractor-trailers hauling them from the sites to morgues for ID purposes. A smoky haze hanging over lower Manhattan has replaced the once vigorous billowing smoke plume. But every day, we manage trudge back and forth to work. The stock exchange is up and running. Kudos to Con Edison for that. That in it was a victory, forget market performance. Heroics of all kinds happen daily here just to keep the city going. Those terrorists think they are tough? They have not felt the wrath of a pissed off New Yorker yet!!

USS NEW YORK LPH-21 Portions of this vessel were made from the beams of the Destroyed World Trade Center.

Sarah Palin the Next Vice President????

2008-09-02T10:06:00.009-04:00

Hoo-boy, here we go again; yet another choice that polarizes the country. Democrats make fun of her for having no experience and she's attractive. Republicans idolize her because she's a family values person who loves to hunt and fish and because she believes in the "drill now" philosophy.

Personally, after I looked into her rise to the governorship of Alaska, I like what I see. Amongst the 4 candidates for Prez and Veep, she is the only one with executive experience. She also has demonstrated that she is a reform politician and will mow down a corrupt Republican as easily as a Democrat.

Those who decry her lack of international experience forget that her state lies within just a few miles of the waking Russian Bear. She lives with them over her shoulder every day.I'm glad to see she's on the ticket because we need someone with fiscal restraint and budget cutting experience. Something that Democrats and the current Republican administration seem to have forgotten about.

The one thing that bothers me is the emphasis on the hunting and the guns. I am not a believer in the second ammendment as the supreme court recently intrepreted it. I have problems with people having ready access to guns.

ADDENDUM 9/6/09

WELL, its been an interesting couple of days to say the least. The Dimocratic attack dogs are out there in full force. Her life is now under a microscope, the Dims have found and released her phone number addresses and Social Security number. A real class bunch, right! First she was accused of "pretending" that Trig was hers to protect her daughter, then her daughter was pilloried for getting pregnant. Lets see her husband was DUI once BEFORE they were married. So far everything they've "uncovered" is totally irrelevant to her abilities on the job.

And then of course you have Joe "PLUGS" Biden the Dim Veep candidate, a 5 time deferred draft dodger and alleged Asthmatic who never saw a day in military service. If he was asthmatic, how did he become a High School foot ball star. Methinks I smell a cover-up here.

What really is happening is that the Democrats are in an absolute panic. They have no idea what to do about Palin, so they are attacking everything about her. Of course why should we be surprised when Obama is good buddies with the home grown head of the Weather Underground, Bill Ayers. They are unraveling every day more and more.

General Political Musings

2008-08-21T07:41:00.006-04:00

I for one have been worried about this country's direction for a long time. I didn't like any of the presidential candidates before the vetting process started, I really don't like the two that are left. When I was in the service, one of our self applied monikers was Uncle Sam's Confused Group; i.e. U.S. Coast Guard. I think that same moniker can be applied to the entire country today. Democrats and Republicans are not who they once were, we have no choice in our candidates because they both believe in illegal immigration. The Supreme Court no longer interprets law, they make it!

The constitution in my opinion was meant to be a concrete document against which the Supreme Court would apply their knowledge of the constitution to render a decision in a case. Yet most people seem to think it should be a "living" document and it should be changed at the whim of congress. That action would destroy the greatest democracy (constitutional republic) the world has ever seen.

I marvel at the terrible educational system in this country. I went to prep school in the 60's and college in the 70's. I loved the learning process. I talk to younger people today and I am horrified about how little they know about our government. It is difficult to hold a meaningful conversation with the younger crowd who think of the Viet Nam war as history when I lived through it. They don't know a unicameral body of legislators as opposed to a bicameral legislature. Separation of powers, three branches of the government. Very few young people get it these days.

Here's another one for you! Much is made over the concept of "A wall of separation between Church and state" in the constitution. But if you do your research, you'll discover that the phrase was first used by Thomas Jefferson in a letter to a Danbury congregation. The next reference is by Justice Hugo Black in 1947 when he wrote the dissenting opinion in a court case (Everson vs. Board of Education) in which he referred to Jefferesons letter.

It is this case that everyone refers to when they wax poetic about the Constitution being the source of the "wall of separation. In reality, all the constiution guarantees you is the right to worship whichever religion you choose, nothing else. The Ten Commandments are one of the oldest codes of law aside from Hammurabi's Code. They used to be in a lot of court rooms. Now, extremists say it is a violation of church and state when in reality it is simply showing respect for one of the earliest forms of codified law.

I'm also concerned about the recent Supreme Court decision in which they interpret the 2nd ammendment as each individual having the right to keep and bear arms irrespective of a "well regulated militia." I personally think that's wrong. Just what we need, more guns on the street; think Columbine, Virginia Tech, etc.

I don't know really where I'm going with this except that I am upset at the direction the USA is going. We need to turn it around. The nation is polarized, no one cares about anything but themselves, we keep reducing the size of our Armed Forces but don't shrink our obligations in response, etc.

I wish I could be an absolute dictator over the USA for 6 months, I'd straighten it out in a heart's beat. Let's see, the prez would get one 6 year term, Senators 2 and Reps no more than 6. I'd abolish capital punishment and substitute life without parole. I'd abolish all forms of lobbying with severe penalties for engaging in lobbying activities. I'd end all subsidies, I'd get rid of earmarks and introduce the line item veto.

We need to drill for oil AND look for alternatives simultaneously. I can't stand the fact that certain elements of the society are holding us hostage and actually want us to be in debt to the OPEC nations. What kind of idiots are they?? Especially when ANWR has an area already set aside for drilling. All it is is congressional enmity and angst. They are playing stupid childish games with their country's future and it really bothers me.

OK rant turned off!!

Getting into Horatio Hornblower All Over Again !!

2008-08-18T15:40:00.007-04:00

Note: Obtained from Wikipedia. See below for fair use clause.

Decades ago, as a kid I read a Horatio Hornblower novel and really liked it. Then about 20 years ago, I stumbled across a motion picture starring Gregory Peck and Virginia Mayo which combined three Hornblower novels. Hornblower's saga starts out with him as a midshipman in the Royal Navy.

About two years ago, I discovered that HH was on Public Television and bought the series. It made me realize that there were a lot more books about him out there than I originally thought. So I went on a quest and bought all 11 novels by C.S. Forester and the Horatio Hornblower compendium also by the original author as well. I was doing very well reading the novels in their proper order until I recently went on Vacation to Rosehaven, Maryland. I had three novels to go and somehow picked the wrong one so I'm reading three Hornblowers simultaneously because they are scattered hither and yon. So right now, I'm reading Commodore Hornblower, Lord Hornblower and Admiral Hornblower depending on what section of the house I'm in at the time.

They really are great books. C.S. Forester is terrific at describing life at sea. He really knows his stuff. The nomenclature, navigational and sailing terms are right on. The photograph above is Gregory Peck as Horatio Hornblower in a 1951 Movie of the same name which I am using under the fair use doctrine as an aide in describing the film. It is primarily from the book "Beat To Quarters" but there are elements of two other books in the movie as well. I highly recommend it for a good yarn. This film most certainly can be credited with increasing my interest in this really great fictional character.

By the way, C.S. Forester wrote a book entitled "The Captain From Connecticut" which is also very good. Its from the American perspective during the same time period. The story revolves around a fictional 44 gun fast frigate; hint, hint....just like the USS Constitution that evades a Britsh Blockade squadron off the coast of Long Island. I found it very entertaining. Too bad, he only wrote one from the U.S. perspective.

Maryland Western Shore

2008-08-11T13:09:00.016-04:00

Just came back from a mini-vacation in Maryland on the Western Shore. Stayed at the Herrington Harbour Inn in Herrington Marina at Rose Haven. Had a great relaxing time. Visited the Calvert County Maritime Museum, soaked in the sun on the beach, did some antiquing in two small towns Chesapeake and North Beach.

I have a friend, Rich C. from the area and he took us to some of the eateries that the locals frequent. Great food is to be had. The pulled pork sandwiches at a place called the "Cafe" in Deale were delicious. Another place called Petes had the best New York Strip steak, I've had in ages.

One of the best parts of the vacation was watching all the kids play on the beach and when they got cranky, they're parents had to deal with them. So we could enjoy their frivolity and let the parents deal with the aftermath.

A Nice Vacation Kicked Off................

2008-08-05T09:43:00.004-04:00

by seeing my grandson Liam baptized this Sunday then afterwards we went to his birthday party. It was a blast, I held him for quite a while and he found all sorts of things on Grandpa interesting, he grabbed for my pen, fiddled with my shirt-buttons, pulled the hair on my chest, tried to poke out my eyes and last but not least tried to pick my nose. :-) very active little kid, I would say.

On Monday his parents wanted some time to themselves so we did our first babysitting stint for Liam. Boy can he talk........or at least verbalize might be a better world. He's a funny kid but he can wear you out. We took a bunch of photos of him with my new camera..

Tonight we'll be hosting a dinner for the close relatives because Liam and parents are flying back to Washington state tomorrow and our vacation will continue with a long weekend in Maryland on the western shore.

Should be fun.

Hell Week is finally over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-07-25T17:49:00.005-04:00

This has been a very bad week for me. I spent the last couple of months preparing for an ISO 14001 audit. The audit occurred o7/21-7/22. While the end results weren't too bad, the week was agony. To begin with I got practically no sleep from Sunday night through Wednesday. Tense was I is an understatement. Finally Wednesday night there was a heck of a thunderstorm and I slept like a baby through it. Thunder and lightning have a calming effect on me.

We were grilled for two days about our energy policies, recycling, maintenance procedures, etc. I literally felt that I was being interrogated in a POW camp. The auditor wanted to put us in separate rooms and interview us over our garbage policies for goodness sake. I remarked to him that he forgot to bring his hi-intensity spot light.

I really really hate these things. Even after the audit is over, we have to wait a month to get the results then spend additional time correcting nonconformances or observations. I agree with the concept of 14001 about saving energy, making the world greener and safer and all that stuff. But doing it through the ISO 14001 organization is a terrific waste of time and money. We have real jobs too, and the auditors fail to understand that. At one point one of my coworkers actually said"You know these are really great ideas, are you going to supply us with the three extra people we need to perform these tasks?

I know it won't happen, but I really wish we could dump ISO 14001 and do it independently our own way. I'm confident we could make it work much better without those knuckleheads from Europe interfering with us. I don't know what they do there. They either have extra bodies to do ISO or they only have 40 hour work weeks. My work week usually averages about 55 plus 20 hours a week commuting on top of that.

I've vented enough, sheesh!!

Pens, pens everywhere..............

2008-07-12T22:28:00.005-04:00

I decided to reorganize my pen collection today and purchased a leather pen display case. In the process of doing so, I came to the realization that I have entirely too many pens; Fountain pens, roller balls and ball points. I have a few that I'm setting aside for my children, but I think I have to start divesting myself of the collection either by trading up or selling. I have some beauties but I also have some that I haven't used for years.

That plus the fact that the ridiculously high price of oil has serious eroded my disposable income has prompted me shift priorities. I tried taking the bus in for the last several months, but just cannot deal with it. I am much more comfortable in my own car and commuting with the ferry. If I sell any pens, I can use the proceeds to help fund the gas needed.

I will look for a local pen club where maybe I can pare down the collection.

I just completed one trade where I swapped a Delta Y2k Roller Ball and a Parker Sonnet Roller ball for a Mark Twain Conklin roller ball. My partner and I were equally happy with the exchange.

New Digital Camera

2008-07-08T16:45:00.004-04:00

I've been taking digital photos of Regina's needlework lately. I wasn't happy with the outcome. Of course it doesn't help if you have a crappy camera. I mentioned this to her and before you could say "Shazam" she gave me money and told me to buy a better one. I wound up with a Sony Dsc-W150. The thing is amazing. It even detects smiles and automatically photographs them.

She has a blog in which she wants to display her needlework so I'll be snapping some photos for her. I also had an after thought that I could use it to photograph some of my fountain pens. I hadn't thought of it before but when I post on one of my favorite boards, Pentrace.com.,some of the folks ask to see pictures of my pens. The older digital wasn't up to the task. This thing has a zoom lens on it. so now I can get some close-up shots of the nibs, clips, etc.

...........and to think a few years ago, I hated the thought of digital cameras.

Zuni Tamaroa Photo Album

2008-07-02T13:05:00.003-04:00

I just added another 50 photos to the Zuni Tamaroa photograph album I created to try and heighten awareness of our project to restore the former Coast Guard Cutter Tamaroa to her predecessor name the USS ZUNI. If any of you who read this have an intereast in nautical history, especially tugs, please go to www.photobucket.com/ZuniTam. There are a lot of interesting photos in the album. I have collected about 160 to this point.

LINCOLN'S DREAMS by Connie Willis

2008-07-01T06:44:00.008-04:00

The family was at dinner this past Sunday night at one of our favorite restaurants in New City, a Thai place called The Lemon Grass. My son gave me a nice birthday present, year 3 of Northern Exposure. He also lent me a book to read interested on my take of it. It's called Lincoln's Dreams by Connie Willis (photo above).

It was a great book that hooked me immediately because the two main characters (Jeff and Annie) dealt with Annie's ability to dream about the American Civil War. The book focused on the dreams of Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee. I thought that in itself was interesting. Because 90% of the time (it seems) any Civil War related literature dealing with both sides deals with either Lee and Lincoln. We rarely see Lee and Grant or Lincoln and Davis. At any rate the book was one of those - can't put down types - for me at least. Connie Willis definitely did her homework. As a Civil War buff, I looked for errors and only found one glaring mistake.

She had the characters discussing the deaths of Generals during the war. In one conversation, the character Jeff was discussing the Dead Confederate Generals at Gettysburg. The author made the all to common mistake of stating that Kemper was mortally wounded. This I know for a fact to be wrong because as a young man in Virginia, I was a reenactor in the 11th Virginia which was part of Kemper's Brigade at Gettysburg. It was well drilled into us what happened to the General. He was seriously wounded while exhorting his men onward by flanking fire from the Union Vermont Troops and briefly captured. He was rescued by his own troops and spoke to Lee telling "Uncle Robert" that he was informed his wound was mortal.

Long story short, he survived the war and became the Governor of Virginia in the 1870's. Aside from that one mistake, the author really did a nice job on her research and she did a good job building up the tension in the book, it was a real page turner. To the point where I was up til 2 AM this morning reading it.

I recommend it highly.

Samuel Eliot Morison

2008-06-29T12:40:00.005-04:00

The other day, a blogger from Virginia linked to me because of our mutual interest in Samuel Eliot Morison. A Historian in which I am very interested. He has written a number of terrific works, many of which are in my library. Amongst my favorites are Admiral of The Ocean Sea, a great biography of Columbus. Other works of his I like include The European discovery of America, the Northern Voyages and its companion volume the Southern Voyages. Morison also made quite a name for himself in writing a 15 volume history of the U.S. Navy in World War Two.

I compare Morison to U.S. Nautical History as Bruce Catton is to U.S. Civil War History. They both wrote with an easy going style that made reading about history a pleasure instead of boring. I highly recommend his European discovery of America series to readers who may be curious about the age of discovery but are put off by their traditional concept of history as a boring series of dates to memorize. Morison will change your mind.

2008-06-28T06:27:00.002-04:00

This is the "Peach Orchard," at Gettysburg, Pa. It was here that the 141st Pennsylvania fought valiantly for a good part of the afternoon on July 2, 1863. A Civil War personality that I have connected with was badly wounded in the left leg here. The gentleman's name was Caspar Tyler. I first became interested in Tyler when I was researching local Civil War regiments at the Historical Society. They asked me to read a diary and see if I could identify the writer. After a few weeks I did using several clues found in the diary.

Tyler's diary entries so intrigued me that I decided to pursue a history of his life which eventually was published in the Journal South of the Mountains. It was such a rewarding experience that I used Tyler as a basis for a presentation I did on tracing one's CivIl War ancestor. The lecture has been very well received over the years and is one of the highlights of my attempt to stay connected to the history of this country.

WAITING, waiting.......................

2008-06-26T13:06:00.003-04:00

Oh, I am so tired of waiting. Its to the point now where I almost don't care, well almost..... Since 1996 I've had this desire to restore the ship I once served on while in the Coast Guard back to active use. It is now 2008, some 12 years later and we are still struggling to find a home port for her, the former USCGC Tamaroa aka USS ZUNI. Part of me wants to save it because I became of age on her. But part of me wants to save her because I am so tired of all these nautical war memorials that are carriers or cruisers or battleships. Doesn't anyone realize that wars need to be fought on the sea by the likes of sea plane tenders and oilers and salvage tugs like the Zuni as well? Without these auxilary ships that supply parts and fuel and even towing services, where would the big boys be??

We are close I'm told to getting a home port in NewPort News, Virginia. I've been disappointed too many times in the past though to get excited again. I'll wait and see. If it happens, no one will be happier than me; but, regarding the Z-T and a home port, I'm a real pessimist.

60th Birthday today

2008-06-23T22:21:00.002-04:00

Well another milestone come and gone. I'm 60 today. Had a really nice celebration yesterday. Went to a snazzy restaurant called Civiles on the Hudson River with the family. Judi, Regina, Ange, Dan and Sasha all came. Food was good and as usual we gabbed the night away. My body feels 60 but my mind sure doesn't :-)

Herrington Harbour Inn

2008-06-19T17:43:00.001-04:00

Due to fortuitous circumstances, I received a nice bonus from my company. We thought we would not be able to go away anywhere this summer. However, we will be spending a long weekend at the Herrington Harbour Inn near Deale Maryland in August. The bungalows are right on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay and our room has a hot tub.

Oh the lap of luxury.

Zuni-Tamaroa Newsletter

2008-06-19T17:37:00.002-04:00

This quarter's edition of the Mighty Z Tribune is out. Here is the link

http://www.zuninews.4t.com/

Its a little shorter than usual because the ship is in an inaccessible place at the moment. We hope to be sharing good news with you all in a couple of weeks.

Liam and Kermit the Frog

2008-06-16T10:45:00.002-04:00

The latest Liam gem!! A cute little twerp, looks just like me, chubby and bald :-)

Laughing Liam

2008-06-02T10:08:00.002-04:00

Here's a great shot of my grandson Liam. Just received it from my daughter-in-law Christina. Looks like a happy kid. We'll be seeing them in August. Looking forward to it.

No Vacation This Year ):

2008-06-01T09:13:00.002-04:00

We won't be going on vacation this year. No Boothbay or Sagamore. Its not the gas thing. That doesn't phase me. We need to spend a few more bucks in the kitchen and on the upstairs to complete the house's renovations. Its a shame because I really love Maine and would go back up there, preferably Southport Island in a heart beat. Of course there's always Red's Eats in Wiscasset too.

We try to split our summers between Boothbay and Lake George. I want to try a new shore resort I discovered by accident in Deale Maryland. Herrington Harbor. Beautiful place right on the Chesapeake Bay.

New Car: To Be or not To Be!

2008-06-01T08:54:00.003-04:00

This is not meant to be chauvinistic or sexist; however, a humrous incident occurred in our 37 year marriage the other day. Back in 1999, Regina and I bought a new Hyundai Elantra for her. She has loved the car for the last 10 years. Trouble is after she shared it with two of our three kids, the car is pretty beat up. Appearance wise it looks like hell. Mechanically, it still runs like a dream.

Those Koreans really know how to make good engines.Doesn't suprise me since they also make steamships. At any rate we had our first problem in 75K miles with it. The head gasket blew. They had to keep the car over night. The dealer was good enough to give me a loaner while the 99 Elantra was being repaired. I brought it home and gave it to Regina for use.

We had the car for an extra day. When we swapped cars ( it was a 2008 Elantra) she tells me, "I'm going to miss that car, it was really nice."Last year I put 25K in a special fund to purchase for her either an electric car or a hybrid, whichever car is more viable when the fund matures. We discussed it at length. I told her I can't liquidate the funds without taking a penalty. Now she's annoyed because she has to drive her once loved chariot for another three years before she can get a new car. (sigh).

Indy 500

2008-05-24T22:52:00.005-04:00

Tomorrow will be the 92nd running of the Indy 500. I'll be routing for Danica Patrick. That kid has spunk. She's got the #5 pole position. Her time trials had her slightly over 223 mph. I can't even going that fast in a 1500 pound car made from carbon.

This year she's finished in the top 10 three times, won at Japan and in Kansas she had mechanical problems with her wheels. Hope her luck holds out tomorrow.

Top Ten Coast Guard Rescues

2008-05-24T22:49:00.001-04:00

TOP TEN COAST GUARD RESCUES
• Hurricane Katrina Search and rescue operations alone saved 24,135 lives from imminent danger, usually off the roofs of the victims’ homes as flood waters lapped at their feet. Coast Guardsmen “evacuated to safety” 9,409 patients from local hospitals. In total, 33,545 souls were saved. Seventy-six Coast Guard and Coast Guard Auxiliary aircraft took part in the rescues. They flew 1,817 sorties with a total flight time of 4,291.3 hours in the air. The air crews saved 12,535. A total of 42 cutters and 131 small boats also participated, with their crews rescuing 21,200. Over 5,000 Coast Guardsmen served in Katrina operations.
• Prinsendam Rescue A fire broke out on the Dutch cruise vessel Prinsendam off Ketchikan, Alaska on 4 October 1980. The Prinsendam was 130 miles from the nearest airstrip. The cruise ship’s captain ordered the ship abandoned and the passengers, many elderly, left the ship in the lifeboats. Coast Guard and Canadian helicopters and the cutters Boutwell, Mellon, and Woodrush responded in concert with other vessels in the area. The passenger vessel later capsized and sank. The rescue is particularly important because of the distance traveled by the rescuers, the coordination of independent organizations and the fact that all 520 passengers and crew and crew were rescued without loss of life or serious injury.
• Pendleton Rescue On 18 February 1952 during a severe "nor’easter" off the New England coast, the T-2 tankers SS Fort Mercer and SS Pendleton broke in half. BM1 Bernard C. Webber, coxswain of motor lifeboat CG-36500, from Station Chatham, Massachusetts, and his crew of three rescued the crew of the stricken tanker Pendleton, which had broken in half. Webber maneuvered the 36-footer under the Pendleton's stern with expert skill as the tanker's crew, trapped in the stern section, abandoned the remains of their ship on a Jacobs’s ladder. One by one, the men jumped into the water and then were pulled into the lifeboat. Webber and his crew saved 33 of the 34 Pendleton crewmen. Webber and entire crew were awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal for their heroic actions. In all, U .S. Coast Guard vessels, aircraft, and lifeboat stations, working under severe winter conditions, rescued and removed 62 persons from the foundering ships or from the water with a loss of only five lives. Five Coast Guardsmen earned the Gold Lifesaving Medal, four earned the Silver Lifesaving Medal, and 15 earned the Coast Guard Commendation Medal.
• Dorchester Rescue On 3 February 1943 the torpedoing of the transport Dorchester off the coast of Greenland saw cutters Comanche and Escanaba respond. The frigid water gave the survivors only minutes to live in the cold North Atlantic. With this in mind, the crew of Escanaba used a new rescue technique when pulling survivors from the water. This "retriever" technique used swimmers clad in wet suits to swim to victims in the water and secure a line to them so they could be hauled onto the ship. Escanaba saved 133 men (one died later) and Comanche saved 97.
• Joshua James and the Hull (MA) Life Saving Station (25-26 November 1888) Over the two day period Keeper Joshua James and his crew by their zealous and unswerving work rescued some twenty-eight people from five different vessels during a great storm. In addition to the number of individuals rescued, the number of vessels involved, the weather conditions, and the duration of their efforts, James and his crew conducted differing types of rescues which included the employment of the beach apparatus and rescue by boat. For their versatility, endurance, skill, and dedication, James and his crew were awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal.
• The Priscilla Rescue On 18 August 1899, Surfman Rasmus S. Midgett, from the Gull Shoal Life-Saving Station (NC), was conducting a beach patrol on horseback and came upon the barkentine, Priscilla, which had run aground. Given his distance from the station, he determined to do what he could alone. Immediately, he ran as close to the wreck as he could and shouted instructions for the men to jump overboard one at a time as the waves receded. Obeying his instructions, the sailors leapt overboard. Midgett, seized each man and dragged him from the pursuing waves safely to the beach. In this manner, he rescued seven men. There were still three men on board who were too weak to get off the vessel. Midgett went into the water and carried each of them to the beach. For the ten lives he saved, Midgett was subsequently awarded a Gold Lifesaving Medal.
• Keeper George N. Gray and the Charlotte (NY) Life Saving Station (14-15 December 1902) The crew received the Gold Lifesaving Medal in recognition of their rescue of 4 men and 1 woman from the wreck of the schooner John R. Noyes. They were engaged for more than a day and a night with little sleep, having been under oars from 11:30 PM of the 14th to 4:30 PM. of the 15th with the exception of about two hours. They pulled in a heavy seaway for nearly 60 miles and all were covered in ice and were frostbitten. In addition to the conditions and distances rowed, the keeper commandeered a train and sleds to move the beach cart and equipment through the deep snow drifts for the launching of the surfboat.
• Overland Rescue In 1897, eight whaling ships were trapped in the Arctic ice near Point Barrow, Alaska. Concerned that the 265 crewmen would starve during the winter, the whaling companies appealed to President William McKinley to send a relief expedition. USRC Bear sailed northward from Port Townsend, Washington in late November 1897. With no chance of the cutter pushing through the ice to Point Barrow, it was decided to put a party ashore and have them drive reindeer to Point Barrow. Lieutenant David H. Jarvis was placed in charge. He was joined by fellow officers Lieutenant Ellsworth P. Bertholf and Surgeon Samuel J. Call along with three other men. Using sleds pulled by dogs and reindeer, snowshoes, and skis, the men began the expedition on 16 December. They arrived at Point Barrow, 1,500 miles later, on 29 March 1898. The expedition managed to bring 382 reindeer to the whalers, having lost only 66. For their work, Bertholf, Call, and Jarvis received a gold medal from the United States Congress.
• Bermuda Sky Queen Rescue (14 October 1947) The American-owned flying boat Bermuda Sky Queen, carrying sixty-nine passengers was flying from Foynes, Ireland to Gander, Newfoundland. Gale force winds had slowed her progress and she was running low on fuel. Too far from Newfoundland and unable to make it back to Ireland, the captain decided to fly toward the cutter Bibb which was on Ocean Station Charlie in the North Atlantic. The plane’s captain decided to ditch and have his passengers and crew picked up by Bibb. In 30-foot seas, the transfer was both difficult and dangerous. Initially the Bibb’s captain tried to pass a line to the plane which taxied to the lee side of the cutter. A collision with the cutter ended this attempt to save the passengers. With worsening weather, a fifteen man rubber raft and a small boat were deployed from the ship. The raft was guided to the escape door of the aircraft. Passengers jumped into the raft which was then pulled to the boat. After rescuing 47 of the crew, worsening conditions and the approach of darkness forced the rescue’s suspension. By dawn, improved weather allowed the rescue to resume and the remaining passengers and crew were transferred to the Bibb. The rescue made headlines throughout the country and upon their arrival in Boston, Bibb and her crew received a hero’s welcome for having saved all those aboard the ditched Bermuda Sky Queen.
• 1937 Mississippi River Flood During the disastrous 1937 Mississippi River flood, the Coast Guard rescued a total of 43,853 persons who they “removed from perilous positions to places of safety". Additionally, they saved 11,313 head of livestock and furnished transportation for 72 persons in need of hospitalization. In all 674 Coast Guardsmen and 128 Coast Guard vessels and boats served in the relief operations. The immense scope of the operations actually eclipsed the number of persons that the Coast Guard rescued during the Hurricane Katrina operations.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
• Chicamacomico (NC) Lifeboat Station (16 August 1918) On 16 August 1918 the British steamship SS Mirlo, proceeding northward along the Atlantic coast, struck a mine laid by U-117 about 1 mile off the Wimble Shoal buoy, abreast of the Chicamacomico Coast Guard Station. Her cargo of gasoline and refined oil spread over the sea and ignited. This converted the surface into a mass of flame and smoke. The matter of rescuing the crew was rendered extremely difficult owing to the heavy sea, quantities of wreckage everywhere, and the intense heat from the burning vessel and fuel. Despite these difficulties, Boatswain (L) John A. Midgett and the Chicamacomico Station crewmen forced their boat into this mass of fire and wreckage. After heroic efforts they rescued six men found clinging to a capsized boat. Midgett and his men then picked up two more boatloads (36 men) of the Mirlo’s crew and landed them through the heavy surf. The total count of those rescued was 42 persons. For their efforts, Midgett and his crew were each awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal.
• Carl von Paulsen Rescue LCDR Carl von Paulsen set the seaplane Arcturus in a heavy sea in January 1933 off Cape Canaveral and rescued a boy adrift in a skiff. The aircraft sustained so much damage during the open water landing that it could not take off. Ultimately, Arcturus washed onto the beach and all including the boy were saved. He was awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal for this rescue. The rescue made him famous and he appeared in the "Unsung Heroes" comic book in the mid-1930s.

Source:www.piersystem.com/go/doc/786/166402/

HillBama and Lincoln Douglas Debates???

2008-04-27T11:50:00.002-04:00

You've got to be kidding me! Today Hillary issued a challenge to Obama asking for a Lincoln Douglas style of debate (no moderator). What a joke! This entire campaign on all sides has been nothing but a farce to date. What are they going to do about energy, the dollar, immigration, Iraq??? So far none of the candidates has really taken a position on any of these issues. Its all been a popularity contest to drive polls one way or another. There is no meat to any of these knuckleheads, Democratic or Republican.

Can you imagine a HILLBAMA debate with no moderator. Hillary's shrill voice will drown out Obama in a second!!

Teddy Roosevelt Where are you?

Appomattox Court House

2008-04-13T13:53:00.004-04:00

Reading has always been a passion for me. It started early with books about the American Civil War. The earliest book I can recall reading was the book Jeb Stuart, The Last Cavalier by Burke Davis. It started me on a hobby that continues unabated through today. I am fascinated by the stories told by the soldiers themselves. Its better than any fiction out there. 143 years ago yesterday, Lee formally surrender his Army of Northern Virginia to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia ending a 4 year struggle that nearly tore this nation apart.

What saddens me today is the fact that all the political idiots out there cannot or will not learn from the example set by those two extraordinary men. Picture this if you will, 4 years of bloody hand to hand combat between soldiers born in the same country. The fighting was so ferocious that only a week before at Sailor's Creek, the men were locked in combat so fierce that guns were not good enough to assuage their anger within. They fought so hard that the soldier bit each others throats, ears, noses. Rocks and stones were used in close quarter combat. By the end of the battle, 6,000 Confederate soldiers were captured along with 6 Confederate Generals.

Now go to April 9th, after a few days of notes passing between the lines, Lee sees the futility of continuing the struggle. His men though want to fight on. They think they found a way out to North Carolina where the Army of Northern Virginia can link up with Joe Johnston's Army of the South to continue the struggle. Realizing the end is at hand, Lee tells his men no, it is time to surrender and tell their sons to go home and become Americans. He stops an effort that would send Confederate soldiers in the hills to fight a guerilla war that would last for years to come.

When Lee meets Grant, they make small talk of the old days when they served in Mexico together. Grants terms are magnanimous. the men can go home they must remain until exchanged. They must lay down their arms and flags. Initally, Grant required the surrendered soldiers to turn in their horses with the rest of the equipment. However, Lee informed him that in the Confederate cavalry all mounts were personally supplied by the soldiers and the horses would be needed for farm work. Grant graciously allowed the horses to stay with their riders.

What I find so remarkable is that after this 4 year long titanic struggle and 620,000 deaths, we could end it all virtually in a few days with a handshake. Yet today, we have Democrats and Republicans at each others throats not willing to give an inch on anything, polarizing the entire country. What the heck is wrong with these idiots. Everyone of them should be thrown out of office with a "do-over" and we should start over again.

2008-04-13T11:56:00.005-04:00

Several years ago, when I started the quest to save the Tamaroa, I crossed paths with another group of maritime nuts. These folks were from the Fireboat John J. Harvey. The Harvey is based in New York City. Together we broadcast the plight of the Tamaroa. They were an early part of the effort to save the Tamaroa and consequently have earned a permant place in my heart for helping to save her.

Three folks in particular have helped us over the years. Huntley Gill, Tim Ivory and Jessica Dulong. The photo is of Jessica at the throttles of the Harvey in the bowels of the engine room. When we get the Zuni-Tamaroa in sailing condition, I want to invite these folks on board and help us sail the Zuni-Tam into New York harbor for fleet week some time in the future.

At any rate, the Harvey's website is http://www.fireboat.org/. Please visit it. Its a boat with a great history and a great crew. Try to get on board for one of their cruises on the Hudson (North) River. The display of their water cannon can only be described as awesome.

Looking Forward to August

2008-04-12T12:31:00.004-04:00

The first week of August should be a fun one. My grandson Liam (and his parents) is coming back east to visit. He was born on Agust 11th so it will be fun to celebrate his first birthday. Here he is happily negotiating an attempt at eating Pea Soup. Cute kid!!

Craziest Thing you ever ate was.............?

2008-04-08T07:48:00.007-04:00

I thought about this when the other day, I was eating lunch with a friend in Manhattan. I had ordered a Tuna steak figuring I'd eat healthy. There was this green gunk on the top that I couldn't identify so I just took it to be a garnish of some sort. I put a spoonful of it in my mouth and immediately ceased to breathe. The Pain was instant and horrible, my breathing passages all swelled up, sweat literally popped out of the top of my head. I downed a nearby glass of wine in one swallow.

After I recovered, I asked the waiter what the heck it was. He had a good laugh and told me it was Wasabe Mustard.....and people actually like this stuff? You've got to be kidding. But then again you're talking to a guy who thinks Nick Tahou's garbage plate is an epicurean delight :-)

When my son, Sean, went to Rochester Institute of Technology, he invited me to try one. And yes it was quite a dish. A Garbage plate consists of a large bed of macaroni salad and homefries upon which is laid either hamburgers, cheeseburgers or hotdogs. On top of that there resides onions, ketchup, hot sauce or A-1 sauce. You can also have refried beans as a side. I know, I know...It does sound awful, but it actually did taste pretty good. The one I had was topped with two cheese burgers. So if you are in the Rochester area starve yourself for the day and go there in the evening. You will have a meal you'll never forget. They even have a website http://www.garbageplate.com/ I've attached a photo for you curious folk.

Another Project For Me To Do!!

2008-04-06T18:30:00.006-04:00

I've been in the building management industry for 30 years. 10 of those years was as an operating engineer in local 94 before I became a manager. During my time in Local 94, I kept diaries of what happened on my shifts. For years I didn't read them. then a few weeks ago, I started to page through them and found a lot of material. Some was funny, some was down right scary and yes..........some was pretty boring too.

Reading them, I thought there were some pretty good stories in there. I've served in old buildings, and newer buildings. One building I helped take up out of the ground from scratch. I learned an awful lot in that building known locally as "The Green Granite Monster." At any rate, I've decided to put yet another project on my plate. I think I'll assemble all the interesting stories that have happened to me or around me over the years and put them in a collection. It might not be of interest to a lot of people. Maybe I'll do the vanity press thing and then sell it to fellow operating engineers.

It always bothered me that people as a general rule have no idea what it takes to make one of those big sky scrapers they work in, run. This narrative will give them a few hints.

Retirement, when should I do it?

2008-04-05T11:54:00.004-04:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about retirement. I will be 60 in June. I'm toying with the idea of retiring at 62. I'm not interested in whether or not I get full benefits. I'm more interested in getting out of the rat race and and enjoying my last few years, how ever long that is.

Regina says, she's not worried about me retiring because I always keep myself busy. I do a lot of research for a variety of reasons. I'm always researching items since I am the Historian for the Zuni Maritime Foundation. We always need new material from former crew members. I'm also still interested in the American Civil War and have written and published some items related to that conflict as well.

I just need a break, I've commuted to NYC every work day for 30 years. Round trip commute is 4 hours a day, 3 and a half, if I make the connections right. I'm tired of it and need a break. I have a good job and a great boss which makes things easier to take for sure. But all my life, I've just wanted to concentrate on the study of U.S. History and never really had the chance to do it for an extended period of time. Sure I've done weekend conferences at libraries and hotels. I've presented on subjects such as the Confederate Battle Flag, Restoring local cemeteries, local Civil War units and even a Confederate unit or two. I've done presentations on tracing your Civil War ancestor using Casper Tyler of the 141st Pennsylvania Infantry as an example.

Lately, I've had to put my interest in the Civil War aside because the cause du jour, restoring the USS ZUNI is taking up a lot of my time. I don't mind because when the Zuni was the TAMAROA, I served on her in 1967-68. But truth to tell, if I was retired, I could get a lot more involved.

Retiring in New York presents a problem. It is extremely expensive to live in this state plus the fact that we have high taxes in our section of the country which will make the home hard to sell, I'm sure. Selling the house is part one of the problem. Part two is I don't know where to go. I love Maine and I love Virginia, very different places for sure. Maybe I'll split the difference and live in New Jersey or Delaware. At any rate, I need to start thinking about it more seriously. I want to enjoy whatever time is left.

Spring 08 Zuni Newsletter is out and away!!!

2008-04-03T13:42:00.009-04:00

One of my illustrious duties with the Zuni Maritime Foundation is publishing the quarterly newsletter detailing the history and restoration of the Zuni-Tamaroa formerly the USS ZUNI and USCGC TAMAROA. The spring issue is out and has a couple of nice stories in it. Unfortunately, we were unable to report much done in the restoration part of the job because the ship is berthed about 6 boats out from a pier and is dangerous for old coots like us to get to. So this issue has no project news in it. Its all historical based on stories that the crew told me based on their personal experiences.

Its neat little newsletter and is called the "MIGHTY Z" Tribune. Mighty Z was her Navy nickname and it stuck through her Coast Guard career as well. If you would like to see them you can check the archives at http://www.zuninews.4t.com/.

Internet Surely Does Shrink the world..........

2008-03-29T19:49:00.003-04:00

A while back I posted a note about a project I worked on as a youngster, restoring the fishing smack Emma C. Berry. Recently, I received an email from Pete Smith who was a Cadet at Admiral Farragut Academy in the 50's. I attended in the 60's. Pete found me by doing a search for the Emma C. Berry ,and he stumbled across my short blog about her.

We both have an interest in the Emma C. Berry because she was berthed at Admiral Farragut Academy in Pine Beach New Jersey for several years. Our Band master was a Great teacher by the name of Dayton Newton who was a skipper of a Maine charter boat called the Adventurer off the coast of Maine during the summer. Pete had a much closer relationship with him because Pete was actually in the school's band. I was in 2nd Company.

We are both irked at the fact that no matter what literature you read about the Emma C. Berry launched in 1866, there is never any mention of the Cadets who honed their nautical skills under Mr. Newton's Tutelage. I think its grossly unfair because who knows without our care under Mr. Newton she may have sunk to the bottom right there in New Jersey.

A few years after I was graduated from AFA, I was on vacation in Maine. I went into a Marine Antiques store and almost suffered cardiac arrest. There on a wall was the stern name plate of the Emma C. Berry. I wanted to purchase it in the worst way. As I was haggling with the guy behind the desk, I stopped for a moment and looked at him very carefully. He looked like a younger version of Mr. Newton. When I said that, a wide grin appeared and he said that he was Mr. Newton's son and was glad to make my acquaintance. Still wouldn't sell me the stern name plate though.

I have a small model of the ECB which I will build one of these days when I have the time. She means a lot to me because it was my first foray into ship preservation. I have since gone on and become the Historian for the Zuni Maritime Foundation. We are restoring the former USS ZUNI/USCGC TAMAROA to sailing condition so we can educate today's kids about America's role at sea and what may be available for them in the future.

At any rate, I hope more Farragut alumni see this and get aggravated enough to not be shy about the role the cadets played in helping the ECB survive into this century.

Fishing.........

2008-03-28T08:15:00.002-04:00

I love to go on fishing trips, but I do not necessarily think its a waste of time nor do I get upset if I catch nothing. I view fishing as a chance to get outdoors on the water for a few hours of respite. Its a great way to relax and just talk with your partner. I never go fishing alone. When Dad was alive, we would take out our licenses and fish every summer at Round Lake in Orange County. We rarely caught anything except maybe a Brown Trout or Sunnys and maybe a Perch or two. It was great just to sit back and relax and catch up with him.

One summer we were fishing at Rockland Lake and Dad caught a Sunny ( a tiny one) He pulled it out of the water holding the line and gave the poor fish a "Oh Good Grief", kind of look. As he was getting ready to toss him back, a fellow from another boat asked us how the fishing was. Dad, held up the Sunny no bigger than the palm of his hand and said not a word. The guy just started laughing and said "Well, fish is fish!" I've never forgotten that. Another time, we went fishing with my daughter Angela. Her fishing outfit consisted of coveralls, sandals and a NY Yankees baseball cap. She caught a Sunny. I wanted to take a photo of her with the Sunny. She held the line with the poor fish dangling like a Christmas tree ornament. As I snapped the photo, the Sunny wiggled and Angela screamed, nearly jumping over the side. It really startled Dad whom I thought was going to have a heart attack.

Another fishing excursion I particularly remember was on a party boat with a bunch of guys from work at the IBM Building. We brought tons of food and cases upon cases of beer. I don't think we caught a thing but we sure had a blast.

The last time I went fishing was the summer my oldest son got married. He and I went on a party boat out of Captree. Now, I never win anything. I am usually very unlucky that way. When we shoved off, if you wanted to be elible to win a prize for the biggest fish, you contributed to a piece of the pot. I did for the heck of it thinking, "that's money I'll never see again." Some time later we cut engines and drifted. Everyone threw their lines overboard and within minutes I caught a huge, huge Fluke. It turned out to be the biggest fish of the day and I won the pot and a hat from the Fishing boat. That was another beautiful day; out with my son in the sun....And we were fishing pretty close to Fire Island Light House which was my last duty station in the Coast Guard.

So I love fshing but really I love the cammaradery that accompanies it and the outdoors, sea sir, sun ,etc. better.

HILLARY NOSE DIVES IN THE POLLS

2008-03-27T16:55:00.003-04:00

Here we go again. More BS from the journalists. Its amazing, another poll has come out giving Obama the edge on likeability. Hillary is sliding down into oblivion. I don't have a horse in this race since I don't like anyone who is left but just the same I'm getting sick of all the mudslinging. I think the Democrats are going to be in a heap of trouble. Too much acrimony there. I was sure the Republicans were going to lose. Now I think they have a chance. But I don't like McCain either.

Politicians are crazy, power mad individuals. My son had a great idea. He thinks we should all draw straws, Guy with the shortest straw is the next president for a year. That way you can do stuff and not care if people like you or not.

LOUSY HOME IMPROVEMENT CONTRACTORS

2008-03-27T09:11:00.003-04:00

We've done a lot of work on the house lately. One thing we have discovered is that the quality of the home improvement industry out there is pretty bad. The last project involved putting down a carpet in the living room and dining room and a floating laminate floor in the kitchen, bathroom and vestibule-hallway.

We held back 1,200.00 due them because the joints were terrible in some locations. Plus they scraped the daylights out of a new paint job that we had just done. Baseboard was loose, laminate joints in the bathroom weren't butted up together and on and on!! The other thing that really bothered me is that they had no idea how to miter a joint. So long story short they had to come back twice before I was satisfied and released the check.

The really odd thing about doing a home improvement project is the amount of trash it seems to generate. I don't mean the project itself, but the aftermath. We have no basement, nor do we have an attic. We have a lot of closet space and with all the kids gone, we have two extra rooms just crammed with stuff. We are throwing out bags and bags of trash every weekend. It seems to regenerate. Of course we have lived here for 30 years so we have accumulated a lot of items. Nevertheless, it is disturbing. The house seems to have taken on a mind of its own and continues to produce unwanted or unneeded trash at an alarming rate. I'm surprised the garbage men aren't getting hernias from lifting and dumping everything we throw out.

SEARCHING FOR ANOTHER DOG

2008-03-27T08:40:00.004-04:00

Though we are not ready for another dog, curiosity got me to looking on the Internet for choices down the road. We need a dog good with kids, cheerful disposition, easily trained, small (12 to 18 pounds) and doesn't shed. I looked at a variety of sites and pretty much concluded that I would want another Minature Rat Terrier.

I looked up Wire Haired Terriers, Fox Terriers, Schnauzers, Pinschers,etc. No other dog could meet the quals that I want. The only bad part is that Rat Terriers easily shed. You can see the hair fly off when you just pet them. But that is just a minor annoyance.

We would try to find one at a shelter first. That's how we got Jack. He was due to be executed the day after we got him. Even though he passed on early, he still lived 6 years longer than he would have had we not found out about him.....

Our Dog Jack

2008-03-07T12:23:00.003-05:00

We have a 7 year old Rat Terrier named Jack. He's a very good natured dog, tail always wagging, a little goofy, but he loved people and would cuddle you at the drop of a hat, etc. Lately we noticed he hasn't been very hungry, so we brought him to the vet. Turns out that he is in the beginning stages of Renal failure. Jack spent overnight at the Vet's and was given some nutrients through an IV. This morning the vet told us that prognosis was guarded, that the renal failure was caused by Lyme Disease. I hope he pulls through. As much as a pain that he is, he is a very lovable dog and is always doing something to make us smile.

We should find out more today. The Doctor hasn't gone into details about treatment yet.