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

Saurday 11/1 The “B’s” Breakfast and Bear

 Picture of the day

 When wandering around we have been entertained by some famous folk.  Once in Rondout Valley NY, we ran upon a FREE concert by two singers  BJ Thomas  and Billy Joe Royal. Good stuff!

WE saw Mel Tillis sing once not 5 miles from where I sit in 2004. Until then We had never seen a Florida Black Bear. Mel was singing at the Black Bear Festival and they brought a black bear up on the stage. 

BUT for now:

Once when I was trying to get rich Sherry told me she didn’t want to be rich, just be able to eat out once or twice a week. I said I will go for that, Like if I want to eat in Hawaii we can go and come back.  LOL WE finally made it.

BUT to qualify that, we seldom eat out now.  But this morning we went out to a small diner close here. WE each had 2 eggs, bacon, hashbrowns and coffee. Including a tip it was only about $32.00!!!!!!. LOL  me thinks we are rich.

But WE enjoyed it, my girl didn’t think the hash browns were brown enough though. ;-)  (they were hashwhites)

AS I sat there an old man and his wife came in and took a seat just in my view. He looked like a cowboy.  Most folks do not realize it, but Florida was once loaded with cows and cowboys.  There are still many ranches here.  As a matter of fact, We have more horse ranches than in Kentucky. (Texas is first of course.)

Does your mind ever rest, or are you always thinking and wondering? I cannot stop my mind, I am always working on a problem, i.e. Why will our furnace work one day and not another? If not that, I will find something to worry around.  Today I was looking at the rancher, wondering what the problem is?  He looked so deep in thought, that is what made me wonder…  I never asked him what he was so concentrated on.  LOL  I didn’t want to get shot. ;-)

Ok, leaving the diner we headed to an Awning Company. Mark needs an awning on his RV. I got the address off the net and it was only a few miles. We turned and turned and finally ended up on a dirt road, then it went to a single lane dirt road. Then we came to the dead end. GPS said you have arrived!

So I called their phone # and got a recording; left a msg and we headed out. 

Everyone knows we have lots of alligators, but you may not know Florida has Black Bears. SOOOO before we got off the one lane road, we got to see a Florida Black Bear, it jumped in front of us, ran up and across the road.

The one above (shows my poor photographer's ability ) was on the stage with Mel.

This bear (from the net) above could have been the one we saw! It was about this size.

WE said about the same time, “If this was a wild goose chase, it was worth it!”  YES it was…  WE have seen bears in the mts, but that was the first bear in the wild here..

Nite Shipslog

PS. 

The Awning man did return my call and I learned what I needed.. Time is moving on, Love from FL

 

Friday 10/31 Insurance, the Bet.

 Picture of the day:

The Desota was a very good car.  This is the 1955. That year North Carolina required liability Insurance. I think all sates req liability insurance on every car. The first year I owned a car, shucks.  1955 ws the first year of the 'wrap around windshields'.

 

Note: To Victor, it is also illegal now in the USA to leave the keys in one’s car.  WE have raised too many crooks over this way....

BUT for now:

I am not too fond of Insurance. When you insure your home, your car or appliances. YOU are betting that something will go wrong. YOUR Insurance company is betting nothing bad will happen to cause them to pay anything……  AS A RULE, THEY ARE RIGHT. (Or they would go broke!)

But LIFE INSURANCE? They are betting you will live a long time, but they KNOW, as YOU DO, sooner or later WE WILL DIE! So far on this earth everyone leaving this earth has left via death…....... OK, Bible believing folks know that is except Enoch, Elijah, and Melchizedek

I was 36 years old before I took out an ins. Policy. A salesman, said take this policy, keep it 5 years and if you want it, we will give you your money back, every cent of it. It was in writing!  

left to right: Mark, Sherry, Jack jr, and the Mark Garrison a friend. Picture taken in GTMO near where Columbus landed when discovering Cuba. (Yes, Cristopher also found Cuba). This was the age when I first took out Insurance.
     

I kept it 8 years and later talked to NY Life Rep. I proudly told him My agreement about my money back.  He smiled, do you get any interest on that money. “NO, but I get it all back!”

"Ok, Mr. Darnell, NY LIFE will give you the same agreement, BUT we will give you your money back with interest." I am an easy sell, I got my money back from the first insurer and now NY Life insures us.  So, I do believe in life Insurance, my wife and family do not need to suffer debt because I refused to get the insurance to bury me and help them thru life.

Funny antidote: While I owned the construction co, I kept a policy that would cover ANY debts on a house or houses under construction. JUST IN CASE I passed away unexpectedly.  When I stepped away from my construction company, Mark was still building and I asked if he wanted to continue the policy on me so when I did die he would be set.

“How much are you insured for dad?”

“About $700,000 I think.”

‘Nah, if it was a million I would keep it, but go ahead and drop it.”

Now I laugh at myself, the boy was right, I have lived a lot longer than I ever thought I would. He would have been paying high payments about 30 years, and nothing to show for them. LOL  I guess I have been too stubborn to die. ;-O

Nite Shipslog

PS. 

Life has been good to me and I am glad my Life Ins has not paid off yet.  WE have had most policies long enough that the interest makes the payments for us. Love from FL