Tuesday 11-11 … bad friend? ..Also tough trip start, but made it.

 

Picture of the day

Many years ago, a sailor home for a visit.  Sweet Sherry and Son Mark , on the right with Jack jr. taking the picture. This is on the porch of the first house we ever owned,  cost $3,000  in 1966 or there about.

SO for now:

I saw another of those crazy headlines:

Bad friends and how to lose them.

I sat and thought for a good while, Bad friends?  I personally cannot remember having a ‘bad’ friend, how can that be? I have had acquaintances, even shipmates, I preferred not to be around, so I intentionally avoided contact.

I can try hard and imagine how someone might have a ‘bad’ friend, but fortunately, I cannot remember one.

I am putting this blog entry together as we prepare to leave Florida heading for our home base in NC.  In this slack time we are thinking of finding a home between here (mid Florida) and the Georgia line.  I am looking in the Polatka and Live Oak areas.  Maybe even Jasper, FL do you like the town name Jasper?

Now we are in NC, one of the worst RV park ‘check-outs’  of our over 20 years of RV’ing.

A little back ground, we checked into the park in Eustis. The lady smiled ‘less’ than any park I can remember checking into. Evidently they have had problems with folks not leaving their sites in time. i.e. 11AM on check out day. She took much time to explain on checkout day if you are 15 minutes late, you are fined $30, and each 15 minutes until 4 are reached, then you owe for a full day.

Sherry laughed about that, since in nearly 25 years of full time that has never happened to us. Even he day before our departure a rep came by to remind us tomorrow is check out day.

To keep from stretching this out. WE did our preps the night before. The danged living room slide refused to come in. after much finagling, guessing, and tries we got it in. Ahhh we can rest.

Checkout morning, the coach refuses to start. YES! Wasting an hour, trying our car’s little battery with a jumper, along with my battery charger, we got it started!! Of course we were out long before ‘fine’ time. WE had a good trip and drove straight thru.

Upon arriving here, one more of the bad icing on the cake, our tow vehicle, our Honda CRV  would not start.

Son Jack Jr. has a jump kit and started the Honda and we got set up, HOWEVER that living room slide we had trouble with, refused to work.

BUT we did get in, and are behind our home, set up and glad to be on familiar ground.

This is just a check in and a chance to vent.  LOL

Nite Shipslog

 

PS.  Pretty tired, driving straight thru a little over 500 miles, after a tough start, we are beat...  Griping is an easy thing to do.  It is nice to be able to gripe with a smile after the fact.

LOL   ;-)

Love from NC

Saturday 11-8 … Just Out, not sure where.

 

 Saturday 11-8 …  Just Out, not sure where.

Picture of the day

                    

Something has an eye on me. If I don't return, us this as evidence to start the hunt...

SO for now:

I will miss a day or two.  Will read and comment when I can.  Thanks you guys, and Comments off

Nite Shipslog

PS. 

I really do not know how to make comments off. But I tried. LOL   ;-)

from FL  soon to be NC in a couple days

Friday 11-7… The birthday, it was special..

  Picture of the day

         Birthday Girl shows she is not afraid of a Gator

SO for now:

I just saw a headline, and OLD couple 109 and 107 they have been married 83 years,  WE would like to break that record. (for a bunch of reasons….)

No “S” I did not try the gator tail.  I tried that once traveling thru Louisiana and it fell a little short.  I think it was cooked in old grease, but it had a not so great taste. L. WE all had shrimp and flounder with different sides.

WE made it to Corky Bells and even mid day had to wait for a table.  Food was good as always.

Some pictures from the Birthday trip:

Sherry, son Mark and Me Outside Corky Bells

                                        The proud hubby and his sweetheart

                            Yeah, I know he is back there...

Corky Bells has a lot of gators thru out ... We said good by to this one after we ate.

Nite Shipslog

PS. 

Sherry had a great day….   ;-)

Love from FL

 

Thursday 11-6 The most wonderful Girl in the World!

 Picture of the day

SO for now:

Wiley and Susie Harris had 2 girls and 3 boys. 88 years ago THEY welcomed their third Girl into the world.  They did not know She was made for me. She lived and grew up in Belmont, NC. 

 

It was 16-17 years before I was able to find her, BUT I knew I would find her.  And I did.

I almost blew it when I thought I was betting on a sure thing. When a fellow Marine and I made a bet we were getting married that weekend, the bet was $50 (nearly a month’s pay) to the one who did not get married.  Since it was a sure thing, Sherry had already agreed to marry me.

And then the other shoe dropped. I ignorantly told her about the bet. The sweetest, most beautiful girl in the world turned my world upside down when she said, “I will not marry you on a bet Jack Darnell, FORGET IT!”

AND SHE DIDN’T (that weekend) I did not lose $50 because the other guy didn’t get married either.

But she did marry me a few weeks later making me the luckiest Marine in the Corps.

Actually, the luckiest guy in the world.  That was nearly 70 years ago.  She is still the most beautiful girl in the world.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY LOVE, SHERRY LUCILLE HARRIS DARNELL.

                        

Her smile sets my fields on fire. ;-)  I have NOT been the best husband, but I have always loved this girl, and appreciated her vast qualities.  WE have been a team.

For the past few years, I have created her BD card.  This year I found a card that said exactly how I feel. She will be surprised to get a commercial card. WE will go to Corky Bell’s Fish House (her choice) up in Palatka. We will go early so we will not travel in the dark.

I hope your day is good…..

Nite Shipslog

PS. 

Enjoy this life, I have and hope to continue.  My girl and I do realize how blessed we are to still have each other.  Oh I am sure she loves me too, I am a good dish washer you do not find that every day. ;-)

Love from FL

Wednesday 11-5 … A little More on ADVICE.

 Today’s picture:

 

BUT for today:

Advice from my childhood. In my youth one thing my dad kept reminding me, “Do not play the other guy’s game unless you KNOW the rules and are good at it.”

What I Know about investing in stocks:

1.       You can get filthy rich!

2.       You can go dead broke!

Someone I know lost thousands in a few days! Another acquaintance said he had lost 14 million in a day.

I know some about real estate investment. If you have $150,000 that you can invest you can buy a CD and make 3%. OR you can buy a house for $150,000 and rent it out for $1000 a month. That will give you 8%. The house is better than a CD but more involved.

Debt free living is our practice.  Of course we have not always been able to do that.  WE financed one car and had a mortgage on one home. We DO NOT pay interest on Credit Cards; we use two and make money on them. Theys are paid off monthly, and the bank gives us rewards.  We are being paid to use their money. I smile at that ;-)

There is NOTHING wrong with living in debt if you don’t mind paying the interest, can keep up the payments and it doesn’t stress you out.

ME?  I cannot do that, I would be stressed, and it would not be good for my health.

Things have made me roll my eyes. A friend who was earning 6 figures a year, when $12 and hour was good money. He was driving a new truck I said, “Man that is a great truck, I bet you like it.”

“Yeah Jack, I do, and the payments are just $50 more a month than my old one.”  (shocked, I had assumed he had paid for it) He had financed a 20k truck and earned over $100,000 a yr. That amazed me.

Anyway, family finances and how they are handled are personal business. Our attitudes here are set, don’t get it if you cannot pay for it.

When I decided to go into business my girl had something to say about that. (I have probably said it before) Sherry said, “I am all for it, but PROMISE ME you will not go into debt more than we can pay off and NEVER BUILD A HOUSE that we would not live in, because if the bottom falls out, we just might have to do that.

I promised and followed her guidelines, and we did well.

NOW, Not sure if I showed you our latest GGranddaughter Dillon.  If not here is Jack Wiley and Maverick with their new                     sister Dillon (a day old).

Nite Shipslog

PS: 

WE are on the downhill run here in FL. We head back to NC next Monday, where we will start our move, this will be our 26^th move I think. LOL  Since we sold our place in Leesburg to son Mark, our long thought plan is finding a fixer-upper north, maybe the Palatka area (since we love Corky Bell's Sea food) that sounds like a good idea. LOL

.

Tuesday 11-4 Do you give advice (or just wish you could?)

 

Picture of the day

 

BUT for now:

Since I am so old and smart, I tend to want to give a lot of advice.  Sometimes I do give advice, to my own shame.  It is not that we humans are so smart, but we have our ways and it is so logical; we wonder why everyone would not do as we do, or act as we do.

To clarify, I TRY to NEVER give medical advice, except to ME! I remember well a very wise Doctor, Dr. Coutts. He looked me in the eye and said very firmly, “YOU ARE NO DOCTA”. He was just about right.  LOL

There are wise people who can give advice from experience and we should listen.  I tried being a preacher (minister, pastor) for a few years and found out too late I had made a mistake.

My dad was a successful minister and a very good pastor and shepherd of his flock. He also had learned a lot. When asked for advice, or when he felt it was needed, he gave it. Dad never pushed me nor suggested I become a preacher, but once I decided, he gave me two bits of advice that if I knew how I would pass it on to ALL pastors.

#1..Son, do not go in debt, your family will not go hungry, if you are in HIS WILL, God’s people will feed you.

#2.. When you say in your SERMON, “In closing” or “I am closing”, CLOSE the Sermon.  As soon as you say ‘IN CLOSING’...... but do not, you lose part of the congregation, they have things planned after church and their minds will automatically go to their plans. 

He let me know that #2 was the most ignored and misused of any advice given.  I just endured one of those non closing closings  AGAIN last Sunday; our good pastor, closed his sermon 3 times, and still kept on. (BTW... IT WAS A VERY GOOD SERMON)

A wise minister or any public speaker should know when he has lost many of his listeners.

Nite Shipslog

PS. 

One of these days I may be able to post my odd life in a Christian world.  BTW if you want to read some great pastoral advice, find some sermons of Father Ignatius.  Old Victor includes some of them in his books. Amazon.com : books written by Victor Moubarak

I hope you are not a ‘Bored again Christian'!”

Love from FL

 

Monday 11-3 Time changes, international date lines and collateral duties

 Picture of the day:

The ship I spent a couple of years on, USS Independence CVA-62

 

( Fire aboard is very dangerous. The Seaman is assigned many collateral duties, one is 'Fire Watch'.  A ship will have many sailors walking passageways during 'quiet time'. These troops walk 4 hour shifts from 2200 (10PM) thru 0800 (6AM) ready to report any apparent danger such as fire)

So for now:

Unless your job or lifestyle requires you to ‘work’ or be awake in the EARLY morning hours you may not truly understand this post.

First of all did you realize that Hotel clerks, policemen, night guards, and 3^rd shift factory workers worked an hour longer on 'time change' night and may or may not have gotten paid for it.

The reason this is prominent in my life is because I have crossed the Atlantic Ocean at least 3 times, both ways. When aboard ship evening and nights are broken into 4 hour shifts one of those jobs is called ‘fire-watch’.  The fire watches are collateral, above your regular job. 

Sailors stand these watches by assignment. The ‘Watch’ walks through-0ut the ship looking for dangers to his ship. That is so everyone aboard can rest easy that they will be alerted of fires, collisions or any other dangers. That meant me, and thousands of sailors work many 12 hour days when their time for fire watch comes.

Just as we all lost an hour with this change, someone stood a 5 hour mid-watch vs a 4-hour watch. Crossing the Atlantic Eastward this will happen 5 or six times, because of crossing International timelines. Therefore, the sailor walking ‘fire watch’ walks an extra hour each night that happens, it is just like the time change, except it happens much more often.

Now vice versa, crossing the ocean Westward those ‘Fire watches’ will walk only a 3-hour MID WATCH tour, because they gain an hour.

There was a fire during my fire-watch once on the USS Independence CVA 62.  The fire was not on my post, but it was my duty to wake AND CLEAR.

 Enlisted areas were easy to manage. WE enlisted, slept in large compartments. I only had to yell FIRE, FIRE, REPORT TO THE FLIGHT DECK!  Then head to another compartment.  A funny but weird thing did happen. In one compartment Sailors were watching ‘Desert Fox’ on TV and they were actually fanning smoke from the front of the screen so they could watch more before they ran out. I yelled, stay here you idiots, this fire is real, this is not a drill.

Nite Shipslog

PS.  The fire mentioned turned out to cause minor damage and was extinguished fast by our fire crews. But fires cannot be ignored... The best to you readers,  from FL

Sunday 11-2 I have no idea what I am!

 Picture of the day

 

BUT for now:

Lately my computer is going crazy trying to let me know if I qualify for Professor status or a room in the loony farm.

… 10 things that are common to low IQ humans:

… 15 things that intelligent people think are stupid that others do.

….12 reasons you cannot get out of debt.

….8 things in common with those who are successful.

…10 things that people with a high IQ dislike, that the average person loves.

…10 things that low IQ people love that normal people cannot stand!

….9 telltale things that prove a person is really intelligent or pretending.

Imma tell you I am confused, I fit every category.

I am beautifully ugly, so intelligent I am stupid, and I have so much common sense I forgot most of it. I have forgotten more than an imbecilic has ever known.

Now where am I?   ..... Oh yes!

In North Carolina the state mental hospital is in Morganton, NC. It is said when someone does something odd, “You keep acting like that they are gonna send you to Morganton.”

My Uncle Ralph spent a few weeks there for treatment. WE were visiting him and he took me aside and whispered, “Jackie, there are crazy people in here!”

Once when I was a kid, mama took Shirley and me with her to visit a friend that had been sent to Morganton. That was before A/C buildings. AS we walked by one of the dormitories an old lady was standing at a window and called out to mama, “You think them little devils are pretty, but they ain’t!”

*************    ******************    ***********

I wrote some about horses yesterday.  

Today Sherry let me go horseback riding.  I was having a great time, until she ran out of quarters!

Y’all have a good day.   Today, Remember Him! 

 

Nite Shipslog

PS. 

Time continues to move on, The horseback riding line was from a friend of Sherry’s. ;-)

Love from FL