I am trying to find an old friend of mine George Ellis. I started looking for him and so have had no success. However, in the process have linked up with a few people I knew 55 to 60 years ago. It is wild. But if I keep this up, I may just run into George. I linked up with J.S.D today and it has been a blast reconnecting with her.
Waiting to hear from a couple more old friends. It's good to catch up.
For several days The east coast has been invaded by smoke from Canadian Forest fires. My eyes stung for several days from the irritants.
I read that 600 plus fire fighters from America have gone north to assist as well as several other countries. I have my fingers crossed that the winds do not flow in our direction again.
A little bit of everything in this post. First, I went down to the Hudson River early in the morning and enjoyed a stroll around the Park. A little windy, but pleasant enough.
Then I went to the Derma tologist. A few years back I was diagnosed with Squamous Cell Carcinoma then Adenocarcinoma on my eye lid . At any rate they were cancerous and the doctor said wear ball caps and see him for annual check ups.
So I went today for a check up and the Doc found two moles that worried him. He lasered them off. I should get the lab results in two weeks.
Sooo...after that I went home and did a little shopping. I am a sucker for old cars and saw a mint condition 1958 Pontiac Chieftain in the parking lot. I asked the owner if I could photograph it. He was happy to oblige. So here it is:
Ain't she pretty?
I checked my blog and realized I haven't made any entries for a few days. I've been busy with Doctors appts, yard work and prepping the house for my son's visit next week. We are going to my youngest nieces wedding.
Had a call from Sean on Sunday about Regina. Days like this always sadden me a little bit. I will never get over losing her to a heart attack: taken in Virginia 1974 after our third anniversary.
Well, I guess spring is around the corner, but winter is stubborn. We had a freeze warning two days ago, today the temp. hit 50°
Last few days have been rainy, cool or overcast, plus my daffodils in the back yard are not blooming anymore.
Still making daily trips to the three local parks around here: Peck's Pond, Haverstraw Bay Park or Grassy Point. I enjoy the breeze coming off the Hudson.
Next couple of days should be interesting. I haven't worn a suit in 20 years. I have to go to my neice Meaghan's wedding on May 20th. I will be trying on old suits in my closet to see if they still fit.....such is life.
Met with the Historical Society the other day. Discussed my donation of Civil War records to them and a possible article.
I ran some errands yesterday. In the course of which I used Routes 59, 202, 304 and 9W. Speed limits were posted between 30 and 40 mph. But the roads were so crowded, I barely went over 20 mph. And rode my brakes most of the time.
The Traffic in Rockland County is ridiculous. Where the heck are all these people coming from or going to? At least I accomplished my main goal which was to get A new library card. My old one literally cracked in half. The county has historically had a very bad transportation system. Except for my time in the military and my 7 years of heaven in Virginia, I lived in Rockland all my life. I have never seen it this bad.
Below is me relaxing on solid ground followed by a photo of the wheel house where I spent many hours steering the TAMROA through some sporty weather. Next is a photo I took of us towing the Mackinac down to be decommissioned.
Then a side view of the old girl in moderate seas. The last photo was when she was sunk as a reef off Cape May. There were a lot of heavy hearts that day.
She was an old cutter but she served her nation from 1943 to 1994. We crew members would bitch and moan about rotten weather, rescuing crazy fishermen, tailing the Russians and going after drug smugglers (we had 10 marijuana leaves painted on the bridge representing our drug busts).
We had no air conditioning in 67-68. We squished 70 odd people in two tiny berthing areas, but when we left her or the CG, we always managed to remember the good times. Believe me serving your country on an Ocean Going Tug like this made you grow up fast!
The old chariot is in for it's annual physical today. It is 14 years old and so far is treating me OK.
It's in for a oil and filter change with a check up on fluid levels, leaks, cracked hoses, belts etc. Hope to keep it many more years. Can't afford one of those EV monstrosities that Biden is trying to ram down our throats.
P.S. just got back from the repair shop. It was cheap this time. Just an oil and filter change. Then said the rear brakes were a little low but didn't need replacement yet.
My sister and I had a treat today. She came over for a visit and brought me my customary coffee and two donuts holes.
We watched something different. There is a French TV series called Magellan. It is about a divorced police inspector who has custody of his two daughters.
Also in the mix is Magellan's journalist girl friend, a nephew and his partner. We enjoyed the first episode very much. It's in French with English subtitles. There are seven seasons, I think.
I know that many people are not crazy about subtitles, but I think this series is worth it. If you are a fan of Midsommer Murders, odds are that you will like this show as well.
I have been tossing and turning since 4:30 this morning. It's driving me nuts. Over the years as an Operating Engineer I have worked all shifts around the clock. I even worked the dreaded swing shift for two years. That pretty much meant I worked everyone else's day off.
After several years in the field I finally landed on days. But in order to commute to the City and get to work on time I was up at 4:30 a.m. every morning.
After a couple of decades of that, my body just won't sleep longer than 6 hours. Even though I have been retired for 11 years now, no matter what time I go to bed, I awaken 6 hours later.
Last night I was tired. I go to bed at 10:30. Sure enough, I'm awake at 4:30. And mind you this is using a CPAP machine because I have sleep apnea.
I wonder how much sleep people with regular 9 to 5 jobs get? Oh and even before this job, I was in the military. On board a cutter, we stood watches 4 on, 8 off plus turned to ships work.
So pretty much all my life, I have been subject to weird sleep patterns. A couple of times, I slept until 9 a.m. but guess what, I went to bed at 3 a.m.!
Can't win😴
My oldest son and I converse on a number of subjects other than my grandchildren. One subject we discuss is green energy.
Once upon a time, I was the Environmental Manager for one of our accounts in the city. I didn't want the job and said so. But no matter, they made me do it anyway. I learned a lot of things in the process. Mainly, the wrong way to do it. I was told for the first year, go green, but spend no money! Being a former Chief Engineer, I had already implemented a number of cost saving measures that reduced our carbon foot print since it is beaten into us engineers to save money.
Eventually I got them to loosen their purse strings a little bit. We bought VFD's for our large package units, etc.
Well I have been retired, out of the field for a tad over a decade now so I decided to ask my son who is knowledgeable in this area what he felt had the most promise in the future.
His opinion is that solar energy is the way to go for the future. I think he is right, but we are not there yet. Our government is not very smart. They are trying to do too much too fast. As a result we are suffering 6% inflation. Fuel costs are starting to rise again. We have supply chain issues and food is expensive.
I agree that we should demonstrate a better stewardship of the world. However states like California and probably New York are not thinking right. If they go all electric in California regarding cars, do they realize that they will have to spend millions to upgrade the power grid? We need to produce more electricity for additional charging stations.
It varies by state, but those states who don't have an abundance of hydroelectric power will need to produce electricity by using nuclear reactors, oil, natural gas or coal. so how is that going to help reduce our carbon foot print? Then with an increase in EV's we will see an increase in battery reclamation and an accompanying increase in cost. We should not rush the process. We will just make it worse.
A message to government bureaucrats. We want to help, but we don't want to be driven into poverty and food shortages just so you can look good.🙂
One of the places I like to visit regularly is Peck's Pond. A nice relaxing park close to the river. It has water fountains, gazebos and plenty of ducks and geese. There is a path circling the pond that people use for walking and exercising their dogs.
A very nice place. We used to come here as a family a lot when the kids were young.
Right now I have the windows down and am grooving to Taylor Dayne, one of my favorite female singers. Nice breeze blowing through the car. I'm enjoying the antics of several dogs.
Beautiful day. 58° slightly hazy to the south. Enjoying the water, the breeze, the geese and the people. Not as crowded as yesterday. The river is glassy, you can barely see a current.
Makes me forget all the B.S. going on in the world today.
73° now. Heading back for another round of nature.
I inwardly groan when I hear people ponder "What if". Everyone always yearns for something different, sometimes without regard to consequences if the " what if " wish came true.
I don't like "what ifs". If I look back at my 75 years, there is not one thing I would do differently. I sat down once and thought about the choices I made. The first "what if" I stumbled across was when I was 19. In CG Basic Training when we were graduated, we were asked our top three requests for duty.
I put down Ice Breakers as my first choice. I don't remember the other two. But I wanted to be on an ice breaker to have an adventure, see the world, etc. Well I got an ocean going tug out of the third district. We ran search and rescue patrols in the Atlantic.
Because of that choice, (or rather the Coast Guard made for me), I made friends with my future ship mate and Best Man for my wedding. Ed introduced me to Cardinal Spellman's Service mans club. While going there one Thursday night, I met Regina, with whom I immediately fell in love. Three months later we were engaged.
In the meantime (here is a what if again) I had an opportunity to go to Damage Control School. The curriculum was firefighting, welding, plumbing, masonry, fiberglass repair, etc.
Well Regina and I were married in January of 71. I went to college only to find out that majoring in history was a bad choice. Wound up working as an Operating Engineer (my DC training came in handy), A career in which I spent 35 years.
It all started with me not getting that Ice Breaker. If I had been assigned to one, I wouldn't have met the love of my life. I woulnt have spent seven great years in Virginia. I wouldn't have had my three kids or three grandkids I have now. So I missed out on excitement and adventure, but I don't regret it one bit. My family is what I care about.
Below is a photo of the first what if that started me on my life's journey. Me and Walter Jones on the stern of the Cutter Tamaroa.
That TV series Yellowstone has been around for awhile. My sister Judi came over for a visit. She said it got good reviews so we bought salads for dinner and watched the first two episodes.
The verdict: Judi thought it was Grim and that Kevin Costner was mean. I thought it was boring. However we agreed to watch season 1 episode 3, the next time she comes over because the second episode was better. I generally like Kevin Costner, but in my opinion this so far is not a very good series.
POST SCRIPT 4/29: so far we have watched 5 episodes. This is a very strange show. There are almost no redeeming characters. They are all flawed, yet we keep tuning in to see what happens next.
One thing I know for sure is the character of Beth Dutton, to me at least is the least redeeming character of the bunch. That said, I will bet the actress has a lot of fun doing the character. We keep watching the show to see what happens next.
We were married for almost five decades. But if I had to pick a time I remembered most fondly, it would be our first seven years together when we lived in Virginia. There were a number of reasons. First of all, it was Virginia and I am a Civil War buff. So we wandered all over the state visiting and photographing battlefields.
Secondly, I had dream summer jobs. I worked as what was known as a Seasonal Park Ranger Interpreter portraying a Confederate soldier at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Battlefield. Then I transferred to Booker T. Washington National Monument since it was way closer to home. Soaking up the atmosphere at every stop.
Next I joined the Fincastle Rifles a reenactment group dedicated to keeping history alive. Became really close friends with them. They accepted this transplanted Yankee and even made me an honorary member of Fincaste Rifles camp #1326 SCV.
But the most memorable time we had was when I was a student at Roanoke College. Since I was a Veteran, I was 4 years older than every other student plus we lived off campus. I really enjoyed school and Regina and I associated with a slightly older crowd. I have to give her credit, Regina was not the best cook in the world when we first married, but she loved looking up recipes and started experimenting. In fact we would invite some of the friends we made over for dinner and a night of that dice game Yahtze. She really got good. To the point where my student - friends would ask me, "what is she making this week?" So we hosted weekend dinners and tried out recipes on my unsuspecting friends.
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The Blue Ridge Mountains, The Washington Redskins, me at Fredericksburg and the Sunken Road at Fredricksburg.
It's time to brag. Rocky on the left has his own book called Roccoisms. My son records it whenever Rocco says something weird or profound.
The middle guy is Liam. He is a percussonist in a band that won the regionals and they go to the state finals at the end of the month. And Piper on the right got everybody's attention when she wrote an impressive short story.
So Grandpa is very proud of them all.
Or so my son Sean tells me is going to be my Granddaughter Piper. She wrote a short story for English class. The teacher wrote "very good but dark" on the paper. I asked her to send me a copy. For a 13 year old its very good, but it is dark 😃 It has elements of Les Miserable and Sweeny Todd in it. I told her I wanted an autographed copy of her first novel.
And by the way she got an A, proud Grandpa here!
I haven't used this site for so long, I forgot how to do most anything with it. So I spent a good part of the afternoon relearning how to use it. Fortunately, I haven't deleted anything.
After some trial and error, I have figured out how to load photos again, how to format the pages, etc. I'm not going to mess with it too much. The original design I concocted is still to my liking, so that is staying.
My relearning curve is amazing, a lot is coming back just tinkering with the site. My main goal is not to mess up any of the posts written since 2007.
