Can you see it?

 Pic of the day:

 

I wanted to delete the top one, but as I have said, If I delete it I will lose it.  the top is our home actually a duplex titled as a condo  The other side is it in reverse.  You can see our RV behind.

Above is where we live in NC

  The lower is a single home exactly to the plan of the one above.  without a basement. They liked our home and wanted the same.  This was for Sherry's sister Lennie and her hubby Elmer.

For today:

Many years ago I read a quote of Michelangelo as he stood before a huge chunk of marble. As he stared at the marble a friend asks, “Michelangelo why are you looking at that marble so intently?”

“Oh, I’m sorry I did not notice I was staring, but I see an angel in there, I MUST assist his release!”

Some people cannot see a finished product until it is ‘out of the marble!’ I found the same in homes, as I built. Some buyers could see the finished product, before the painting, floor coverings etc.  Others could not see it until it was finished.

I mentioned Luke Vegas and smiled at Myra’s comment.  She remembered when Luke was in college and needed a place to live. Sherry & I converted a storage building to a one room efficiency for him.  He called it the ‘Dog House.’ Truthfully, he could not see the finished product, but loved it once it was finished.  I think he learned something. He worked and went to school but the boy actually saved $16000 dollars by his early 20s.

The Charlotte chapter of the Hell’s Angels was selling their Headquarters, a dump. I mean a real DUMP. But Luke saw a house, a home. He borrowed a little money and put that with his savings and bought it (abt $20k). I helped a little with the plumbing, but mostly with the help of his dad Mark, it is now a nice home on a big lot. It would sell in the 260k$ to $350k range.

Most of the time in the building business, I have been blessed with the knack of seeing what really fits on a particular lot. Or how a run down house would look with some small changes and a lot of work.

I always liked the big ‘A’ frame houses, but never saw the lot where it looked like it would fit, so I never built one.

Below is the type homes I built. I seldom went over 2,000 sq ft except for our own. I like the 1200sqft 3 BR 2BA houses, with a simple roof line.  They are not built anymore.

Below is the show off house during construction, I built for my brother and his wife for retirement:

WE are heading to that home at the top in a few days.  Not sure how long we will be there, Thanks for coming to our 'mobile' home here in FL for a visit.  Please come back. ;-)

Nite Shipslog

PS:

Thank you all for being here… and being YOU.

Changes in life, you cannot avoid them, try to enjoy them

  A picture from the Past.

 2nd row from the top 2nd sweetie from the right.  Yeah she has always been cute!  I think she had a crush on the teacher..

Sherry's first man teacher, Mr. Bolick, 7th grade.

For Today:

You TYPISTS remember typing documents with multiple carbon copies.  REMEMBER fixing a mistake or adding a change someone thought of AFTER you typed.  Man oh Man word processing is an answer to prayer.. LOL

Once at a Real Estate closing, the contract had a small error in it. The attorney had her secretary change it and printed a corrected one and 6 copies. It took less than 3 minutes.  There was a time the entire contract had to be retyped because corrections were not allowed on contracts.

I mentioned diapers and washing in a previous entry. I was born/raised when mama washed with a washboard and heated water in the black pot in the back yard..

She was so relieved when daddy got her a ‘wringer washing machine.’ I was about 4 yrs old the first time I got my fingers caught in the wringer rollers, OUCH! I never did again. Now how wonderful it is to have a washer and dryer, no clothes to ‘hang on the line!

Most folks my age remember a pot belly stove in the living room and a wood stove ‘range’ in the kitchen. Two heated rooms in a home. Lots of those heavy quilts to cover you in the cold Bedrooms.  Everyone hated to use the cold chamber pot after you were warm under those quilts. Central heat was a dream come true.

When A/C’s first came out, only the well-off folks had them. NO Schools I attended were blessed with cool air, we had big fans on a stand to circulate the air.

Down South especially, I watched school busses pass our school taking the black kids to their school. I was never fortunate enough to be in an integrated school. Before school my best friends were ‘colored’.  I am glad I did not see them have to go to separate schools. We moved to the city at my first grade. Like it or not, integration was a very good thing.

I remember the phone when we had party lines and the operator asked, “Number Please?”

The dial & push button phones were a good change. 

  BUT this old man does not like learning the GREAT changes I must LEARN when we get a NEW phone.  LOL I am sure my grandkids like those upgrades, but the changes have out-distanced my mental abilities, mostly!

Y’all take care and remember (some) change is good, whether we like it or not.  What change makes you smile or puts you on the wrong side?

NiteShipslog

PS:  Once again ‘Thanks’ AGAIN to y’all for stopping by the Shipslog..  Life is getting better here. Except the new phone!!

Your thoughts and comments

 A picture from the past:

Hanging diapers made me miss a special Boxing Match!

Now for today:

You will never know the many things that run thru my mind reading your comments, mainly now, about names and Treasures.  Everyone likes it when someone uses words that express what you have been trying to say.  We all appreciate someone agreeing or siding with our opinions or ideas, BUT, when someone is 180 degrees out of my thinking; I have thought, hey, they do have a point.

I believe it was Susie who said, “We spend years accumulating and years getting rid of it.” True dat!

Luke Vegas, yes Myra it does sound like a movie star’s name. He is now 29 and has OWNED his own home for at least 6 or 7 years. He knows how to handle money. He is still single, but I think he is in a serious relationship now.

There are many things’ you guys have written but be sure each comment and idea are appreciated. Victor gave me good info and cleared up questions concerning my lost photos...

And on treasures, MA is now about to end the process of complete downsizing, SOME of us know pretty well how she feels. And Chatty! Yeah I can imagine moving from a big 5 BR house to an apartment.

What is hard for me to understand, we have moved so many times and still have lots of STUFF, I cannot imagine how it would be to have lived in the same place for 30-50 years. I could have collected tons and tons of stuff! LOL

Myra has resettled several times and most likely Susan K has too, since she moved from Preacher’s Creek to the BIG California coast. She knows about hanging diapers and getting into trouble for sure.

I am rambling, I just wanted you to know what knowing you guys mean.  Friends that you have never seen is odd for someone as old as I, but you are friends.

Diapers? In the early 1964 I was going to listen to the Sonny Liston and Cassius Clay fight. I went out to hang diapers and planned to come back in to see Liston shut the loudmouth's mouth! However, coming back into the house, the fight was over, I did not get to hear it. Clay knocked out my man Sonny in the first round. There were no RERUNS or REPLAYS on the radio. If it had been TV today, I could have heard replays.  LOL

I know ALL of you remember Cassius Clay! Take care out there. I hope it is not raining when you hang our diapers!!  

Nite Shipslog

PS:

God has allowed us to meet some of the best folk on the planet. In person and here on the net.  Thank you all for being here… and being YOU!  And YES. Cassius Clay is Mohamid Allie.  

Food, meals...

Pic of the day:

The Corn Palace in Mitchel South Dakota.  The year 2004 the featured Lewis and Clark.  Every year they pick something special to feature.
 

For today:

One of my favorite meals is Chicken and dumplings.  Sherry is not a fan, so she never prepares it. Once while mama was at our house and bedfast Sherry was at work. I thought it was a great time to fix dumplings. 

I went to mama’s bed and ask how to start then I was back and forth after each step, The final step was stirring and moving them around as she said, ‘It must be slow and easy to keep some off the bottom.’

After a sorry looking pot, I went in to mama and said, “Mama, I have a thick soup!”

‘You stirred them too much son,’ she laughing said. I never tried again.  When we were in GITMO my workday ended before Sherry’s so we took times with supper. My meal was mostly meat loaf and canned veggies.

Now I share cooking with Sherry and I try to be the dishwasher at least 9 out of 10 times. Today she is doing pinto beans, salmon patties, cabbage and cornbread. I will get the cabbage core. I enjoy it with salt. Does anyone out there eat the cabbage core?

She does a great fish stew. I prefer oyster stew, she doesn’t; however, her stew comes so close to oyster stew I love it too.

Most of my cooking is in a slow cooker. I graduated from the pressure cooker, now the slow cooker is great. I do a good Beef Stew and chicken with rice. She isn’t crazy about rice from the Microwave, but tolerates it. Most of our meals for two last at least two days; at times 3. I like leftovers.  Neither of us likes to waste food.

Ma lists a lot of recipes with her blog they all sound good. AND I KNOW Myra likes HOT stuff. What is your go-to meal?  Is there one you use the most?

Nite Shipslog

PS:

God has allowed us to meet some of the best folk on the planet. In person and here on the net.  Thank you all for being here… and being YOU.

This and That and names

Pic from the past:

 

 Sherry's dad & mom and their first group of grand kids. The year 1954 Before Sherry and I were married.

Note:  Thanks Victor for the help and advice about my photo deletions.

For today:

WE say time flies, but we all know that is said after the time has flown.  Looking back, most of the times, the wait wasn’t as bad as I thought. Like Christmas to a boy awaiting his favorite toy under the tree.

Did you notice that we had an Earth quake awhile back that slowed the Earth's rotation by ten Micro seconds. If that happens a thousand or so more times, we will slow down a second. And it will seem like Spring will never get here....LOL

Being honest, these 85+ years of mine don’t seem so long, maybe they haven’t flown by, but it didn’t take 85 years methinks. LOL.

OH YEAH, I enjoy having a grand named Sherece Marie for one. She had a combined name of Sherry and Mary, her grandmothers. And there is Luke Vegas a combo of a Bible Character and Las Vegas. Come to think of it we have several Bible Characters. Matthew, Luke, Stephen (Steven), Joshua.

Our first Grandson was 4 or 5 when we met him. He came into our home when JJ married his mother. He was a cute kid with red hair, Corey.  I had ever heard the name, but I liked it..

 Then GGrands with neat names also. Of course Maverick is Unique, Kennedy too. Rosie and Elsie and the ones named Jack are super good. LOL  I also like Stella, I like to think Stella Bella. Then we have a Jude, biblical and of course there is ‘Hey Jude!’---- Wiley and Oliver are also used plus Joshua and Andrew.

Benjamin Aaron has the names of his two ggrandpas, while also being from the Bible.

Bible names are good, just glad none were named Jehosaphat, Amittai or Gathhepher!  IF one had been named Gathhepher, I would have been forced to call him Grasshopper!.......... Ah shucks, that wouldn’t be too bad.

Our troop taken by a lake in Utah. Only had two great grands at the time, both girls in arms, Elsie Mae and Stella Bella.

Just thinking with my fingers. Is there a unique name you like!

Nite Shipslog

PS:

God has allowed us to meet some of the best folk on the planet. In person and here on the net.  Thank you all for being here… and being YOU(No matter what your name is!)

 

What happens to our treasures?

 Pic of the day:

 

Jim Arp Pics from the Rock a Billy Hall of Fame.

 For today:

Everyone has heard the saying, “You Can’t take it with you!”  Said many times at the death of the wealthy.  I read about a man ( probably you have too), at death he ordered in his will that his money be placed in the casket with him.  The mortuary did as he said. The Funeral director noticed the deceased wife had the money under her arm as she was leaving the mortuary, he approached her about it. She asked him if her check had been good that she used to pay for his services?  He said ‘Of course madam.’  She said ‘I just left my husband a check for this box, is that okay?’  He stammered, yes mam!

True or false it makes a statement; YOU CANNOT TAKE IT WITH YOU!

That said and thinking of all the things and photos (prints, developed and in frames) my wife and I love and hoard. Pictures for as far back as 1900. What happens to it? Just the photos will take up many large boxes.  What good are they?  Most of the folks to which they would mean something, are GONE.

It is so sad about my neighbor, about my age,  Jim Arp. He is staying with a nephew now. Jim probably can still remember thousands of fans screaming and yelling at performances of his bands. They never introduced Elvis, but introduced some big names like Jerry Lee Lewis.  I looked in the window of his old house. It is falling in. 

(This is next door to our house!)

Scavengers have ravished the house. There are still thousands of cds, hundreds of those old long play albums but what hurt me was seeing on the floor a painting of a beautiful lady he was near finishing on the floor; broken and stepped on. He was a very good artist with at least one canvas he painted of Elvis and Hank Williams valued in the thousands. He donated it to one of those historical groups.

(Jim from  a movie with Barbara Wills)

I asked his nephew “How is old Jim doing?”

“He just won’t die!” He answered disgustingly. Jim was a friend, that sickened me. Jim never married and all left is some nephews and a niece.

 I keep wondering did Jim take time to make a will, I sure hope so…

On an ending note.  We all hope our 'stuff' will be used or help someone, if not we still want it respected and I hope the ones who must throw my stuff away will think of me with a smile and have some good memories, at the time, not a laugh!

 Nite Shipslog

PS:

Jim is in the Rock a Billy Hall of Fame along with the greats like Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, and Johnny Cash. Some of his stuff is on YOu Tube.

I learned about some technology. TOO LATE

 Pic of the day:

 Sherece and one of the twins on the tire swing

 For today:

I have learned SOMETHING THAT HURTS!!  I have lost many pictures over the years and wondered what happened??? You may have noticed three very tiny pictures on this blog, there were 4 OF THEM. I did not need them so I started deleting them. I deleted one and the system said: This pic will be deleted from ALL files on this computer!  WHAT? So I did not continue, just reduced them in size since EDGE did not give me a ‘Cut’ option as Chrome did.

  Sadly I had at least 22 pictures on file with the same name because when I transfer to the computer here from the camera the camera had assigned them a name.  Once I get them off the camera, the names are used again for the next pictures to be downloaded, therefore many same names. So when i delete one pic I delete all pictures with that name.....  so when I deleted that one picture I deleted 22 of my pics and I do not know which ones,

My CAMERA assigned the number DSCF0004 to this picture: 

 

I renamed it 'stairwell pic22'.

I searched DSCF0004 in my pictures and got this:

 

So all these pictures would have been deleted had I continued deleting one more picture.. 22 pictures of the same name.  One of them is this one:

Not a clear shot but it was a onetime thing and I would sure hate to have deleted it.

 

This has caused me no end of consternation [-(  

I will be doing some renaming. I need to find out how to add some alpha characters ABC, ETC,  to each download of pics, to make the downloads unique.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

God has allowed us to meet some of the best folk on the planet. In person and here on the net.  Thank you all for being here… and being YOU!

A good evening

  A picture from the Past.

 Me, jack jr and Mark in the  French Quarter in New Orleans

For Today:

We had a treat Friday. Sherry and Dean Mahue are down in Florida for a visit and we met them for an early dinner at Cody’s .

Entering Brownwood Villages (of the Florida Villages) I love the entry life size statues:

I could not move or delete these small shots. they are mini's of photo used here.

We are near kin to the Mahues because Sherry (my Sherry)  has a niece who married Sherry M’s dad a few years after the death of his sweet wife, Sherry M’s mother.

Anyway, we met at Cody’s Roadhouse in the Village of Brownwood.  We had a wonderful time.  For the first time however, the food was not the top of the chart as it usually is.  The manager came over and apologized, offering several options. WE only accepted another serving of their delicious yeast rolls with special spread. Mmmmmm! 

 Before the evening was over we had had a great time visiting and getting to know Dean’s sister Debra Masters and her hubby a Vietnam Vet.

I am stealing Sherry’s pics (shot by the manager) from the evening.

 My Sherry and Dean's Sherry

below is Dean, Sherry and Debra

NiteShipslog

PS:  Once again ‘Thanks’ AGAIN to you all for stopping by the Shipslog..  Life is getting better!!