Wheel chair ramp

A few months ago I built a ramp for my buddy Sonny. Sonny as you all should know, was my BIL. Now, Elmer, my double BIL, has had a knee replacement that has not gone well. He will be in a wheel chair for awhile. Soooooooo now I will build one for Elmer. The families are buying the materials and I just construct it.
I said Double brother in law. Elmer has been a family fixture ever since I met Sherry. Elmer was married to Sherry’s older sister Lennie. Cancer took Lennie away from us, we miss her. Kat passed away after about five years with Elmer. We miss her also.

This is Elmer with his last wife, MY SISTER KAT. Kat was married to her first husband for over fifty years.

This is Elmer with His First wife, SHERRY'S SISTER LENNIE. They were married over fifty years before cancer took her from us.

I had a wonderful Sister Kat. She lost her husband Dick while camping on the Blue Ridge Parkway. They were our traveling buddies, we were starting to walk the Appalachian Trail and they headed to the Blue Ridge parkway. Dick passed away while camping there. So I had a sister who was alone and Sherry had BIL who was alone. Kat and Elmer got together and married. Then Sherry said jokingly, now he is YOUR bro in law. Elmer, like Sonny, is one of the good guys.

The house I will put the ramp to is one I built for Elmer and Lennie. They wanted the same layout as the Condo Shirl lives in. I had built Kat one exactly like it, so when she married Elmer, she moved into a house exactly like she moved out of.
That is the story of the double brother in law.
I started to ask a silly question, should I make the ramp temporary or permanent? Before I asked it, I decided it would be permanent since Elmer is in his 80’s now, he can use the ramp from now on.
Story about Elmer.
After Christmas it was a tradition that Sherry and her sister(s) and we husbands would take a trip. That was before the motor home. We ended up in Little Rock Ark for some reason at a motel. I had already got settled in bed. Our rooms were adjoining . Sherry heard Lennie scream, “He is going to kill him! Help!”

Now it is hard to get your clothes back on in a hurry but I tried. At the time Elmer was around 60. By the time I got outside Elmer was walking back toward his car from the farther direction. The motel manager with him.

What had happened was, Lennie wanted something from the trunk of the car. Elmer went out to get it. After he raised the trunk, from nowhere a man stuck a pistol in his side and said give me your wallet. (AT that time Lennie who was watching from the window, started yelling when she saw the man and gun).

Elmer, being Elmer, said, “Boy, I’ll make you eat that gun,” and he grabbed it. They wrestled a little and the man got his pistol loose and ran, with Elmer in hot pursuit. Of course he outran Elmer, being a young kid of about twenty. It done no good to tell Elmer he was crazy. His only answer, ‘I worked hard for that money’. (He had done the same thing before, when a man tried to rob his business.) I still today cannot believe he got away without being shot. But he didn’t. Elmer is one of a kind.
Thanks for coming by the log.
NIte Shipslog
PS:
Law of Random Numbers - If you dial a wrong number, you never get a busy signal and someone always answers.

The SERMON that wasn't!

My Dad. One of the most honest dedicated men I have ever known, and he was a preacher.

For some of you that read this mess you know that in one life I thought I was preacher. WE Pastored 3 churches, one of them we organized and built. I think I told on here that I only performed two marriages, one is headed for a 50th anniversary. The other ended shortly in divorce. That was a 50% success. My funerals were more successful, everyone I buried stayed buried, 100% success rate.
That was the preface to today’s entry.

The Sermon that never was!
Sunday morning’s sermon by our pastor was one of the best I have heard in many years. The text was the part of scripture where the woman is caught in the very act of adultery, Moses Law requires that she be stoned and the Lord’s reaction to the situation. Now if you have been around preaching over ten years you have heard this from many angles. You are familiar with the time when confronted with the problem Jesus knelt and wrote in the dirt. The scripture does not say what he wrote, leaving speculation by men of what He wrote. It coulda been names, commandments, sins, etc. Or even the statement ‘I will die for her’.

Fred may know this preacher, Bishop Adeboye, I don't, I just found it on the net.

But today it was from the perspective of a possible ‘son’ of the woman caught in adultery. His buddy finds him and says, ‘hurry, they are going to stone your Mother to death’. The two run to where the confrontation is taking place and witness the scripture unfold, as Jesus teaches Love and Grace over the LAW. One of the best sermons I can remember. The boy sees Jesus save his Mother from stoning and forgives her her sins. What a Mother’s Day sermon. WOW!
HOWEVER IT NEVER HAPPENED! I MEAN THE SERMON WASN’T close to what I had heard. LOL

(My thoughts today, after Sherry explained I had not heard correctly)



On the way home I told my wife that was the most unique approach I had ever ‘HEARD’. When I re-preached the sermon she looks at me and says, ‘Are you crazy? He never came close to saying something like that, there was no son involved, etc.’!

So you see, us deaf, hard of hearing folks don’t necessarily hear what is said. But you have to admit I ‘HEARD’ a unique sermon. And I am LOL, honestly LOL. Sometimes I take these mis-interpretations as a special message to ME. I haven’t figured this one out yet.

Now Ora, you can pass that on to Chaplain Mixon. If he likes it I will ‘make up’ an outline like I ‘made up’ the sermon. Hahahahahahahahaha

That’s the Sunday School lesson for today kids, facts or not. BTW, my daddy who was a preacher would always ask, Where was the man in involved in this ‘adultery’?

Thanks for coming by the log.
Nite Shipslog
PS:
Something you may not know……
The Amazon River pushes so much water into the Atlantic Ocean that, more than one hundred miles at sea off the mouth of the river, one can dip fresh water out of the ocean. The volume of water in the Amazon river is greater than the next eight largest rivers in the world combined and three times the flow of all rivers in the United States ...

We never thought too much about it until we were talking coming home from church today.
Sherry's mom was Susie Geneva Hawes my mom was Grace Missouri Lloyd (Loyd). Geneva a city and Missouri a state.

Sherry and her Mom, Her Mom came to Biloxi, Miss for the birth of our first son Jack.

This is me with my Mom, she was so full of life.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO OUR MAMA'S WHO HAVE GONE TO THEIR JUST AND GREAT REWARD.

Both ladies were REAL Mothers in every sense of the word. I miss both mothers and Sherry does too. Our mothers were also close friends.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

Mothers hold the most special place in this world. No words are enough, and there have been billions written.

So to all you mothers out there, HAPPY MOTHERS DAY

Entertaining the Seniors in Lowell, NC

My perception of the poem by Sam Walter Foss called, "The House By The Side Of The Road"

Tonight was a success. I liked the medium. Once finished and I am wrapping up, Sherry told me she did not get any pictures. But promised to, next time. This time I operated the lights also and left her to enjoy the program. She said she was so engrossed in the story she forgot to take pictures. (Her story and she is sticking to it).

Part of the Story:
Foss was walking on his journey across country when he spied a sign printed on an old plank that read, 'to the spring'. He was hot and thirsty and followed the path down to the spring where he found a clean gourd, and a basket of shiney red apples. Another note saying rest stranger, drink this refreshing water and have an apple.

After being rested he knew there was a story behind the spring so he found the house using another path at the spring. The house was actually on the same road he had been walking. His enquiry at the house got him the story of a couple old folk who just wanted to be friends to tired travelers.


“He was a friend to man, and lived In a house by the side of the road.”- Homer

Part of The poem:
There are hermit souls that live withdrawn In the place of their self-content;
There are souls like stars, that dwell apart, In a fellowless firmament;
There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths Where highways never ran
But let me live by the side of the road And be a friend to man.
........ ........

I know there are brook-gladdened meadows ahead
And mountains of wearisome height;
That the road passes on through the long afternoon
And stretches way to the night.
But still I rejoice when the travelers rejoice.
And weep with the strangers that moan,
Nor live in my house by the side of the road
Like a man who dwells alone.

Let me live in my house by the side of the road
It’s here the race of men go by.
They are good, they are bad,
they are weak, they are strong, Wise, foolish- so am I;
Then why should I sit in the scorner’s seat,
Or hurl the cynic’s ban? Let me live in my
house by the side of the road And be a friend to man.

The program went well especially with the addition of the poem by Edgar Guest, It takes a heap of living in a house to make a home. Us old folk like to think of our house being a home.

Below is my palet. I was offered a dollar for it once by a young man, thinking it was modern art.


Thanks for coming by the log.

Night Shipslog

PS:
Something you may not know...

Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined. Canada is an Indian word meaning ' Big Village ...'

Computers and history

Computers are fun and interesting, they are also frustrating as everyone out there knows. In the case of computers a little knowledge is dangerous. Sort of like a person who is on a lot of meds. The doctor must be careful in prescribing a new one for fear of what it will do to the ones already prescribed.
That is how I see my computer system. I have just spent 30 minutes trying to get rid of the highlight as I type. I was highlighting yellow. I even tried to change the color to see if the highlighter was controlling it, nada. Now it is gone, and I do not know how I got rid of it. I also have the problem of underlines. I am typing long and somehow I hit the exact keys that are a shot cut to underline or strike thru and all of a sudden I cannot delete anything, just draw a line through it.

Above is the famous Eniac, the worlds first real computer. Your cell phone will do more, faster and more accurate than it could.

There are times I delete an entire document because I cannot ‘fix’ what I have messed up. If you follow my blog you know I have tried, done or been many things in my life. Not making me smarter than anyone, just more fickle. I have been blessed with an ability to fix things. Sometimes I fix things and don’t know how I done it. Anyway in one of my lives I was an Analog computer repairman, then a Digital Computer repairman, and finally an IBM Electronic Accounting Machines (EAM) repairman. Remember the IBM card?


This is a key punch machine this happens to be an 026 IBM. It creates the punched card. I repaired a ton of these.

(The IBM CArd. I have handled millions of these over the years. Did you ever get a Gov't ck, tax refund? Coulda been from a machine I have worked on. Or, me or one of my guys printed it.)

Since then I have been in and out of computers and electronics off and on all my life. Now I am saddled with the questions, how do they do all of this stuff? How do they create something the size of a pea, that will store a hundred books? I cannot imagine the number of commands it takes just to make the screen I am looking at as I type. How do they make and sell a watch for $3-5 that is as accurate as the $20,000 Rolex? How? How?

This is the Burroughs 205 (I think), the computer I worked on looked like this, but was called the "T-2B" (short for AN/FST-2B) Of course newer than the Eniac, but still could not compete with your cell phone, much less this PC I am typing on. The A/C unit was larger than the computer. It had to remain at 69 degrees, constant.

Then I try to say, I DON’T CARE!!!! JUST GET RID OF THE YELLOW HIGHLIGHT ON MY SCREEN, OR I MIGHT JUST SMASH IT. Hahahahahaha! Funny also I might be typing a long, look up and see nothing on the screen. I have accidentally hit the secret key, known only to Mr. Microsoft, that sends my entries to never, never land with some of Shirls, yours and mine.
I JUST HOPE THEY ARE ALL HAPPY TOGETHER OUT THERE IN MICRO SPACE!
Thanks for coming by the log. Nah, I ain’t mad, I am glad to be here. Life is good! I can make another entry.
Nite Shipslog
PS:
You might not know…..
The term 'The Big Apple' was coined by touring jazz musicians of the 1930's who used the slang expression 'apple' for any town or city. Therefore, to play New York City is to play the big time - The Big Apple.

DAy trip and a wonderful Surprise

Okay, here it is, She is smiling holding 3,856,423 calories. All from Bloggers in Wisconsin, that will remain nameless, namely Dar and Mel. (Okay so everyone thinks they are good. BUT I did suggest that she cut them in squares and roll them in powdered sugar to disguise the chocolate.

Oh what a trip we had today. I hope Mel's was as successful. This is just one shot of the many views we had today of the Blue Ridge Mountains of NC, near Virginia.

However the short part that was on the Blue Ridge Parkway was an eye opener. The ice and snow last winter took it's toll. YOu could see where hundreds of trees had fallen across the road.

But the parts of the Parkway that is lined with split rail fencing is so enjoyable to see.

After passing through Jefferson, NC we followed a great paint job. Too much paint or too much pressure, but safer, because you cannot miss the yellow lines.

We only made it to one State Park. Here Evelyn and Sherry are at the beautiful entrance.

Inside was the surprise of the month. Among the staff was a blogger some of you know. She has a super Blog and usually posts some great pictures of the Blue Ridge.

http://brboomer.blogspot.com/

YEP! what a joy to meet live and in person the excited and exciting BR BOOMER! She is as captivating in person as on her blog. She is also very knowledgeable and directed us to the interesting displays of the visitors center.
I was thrilled to learn more about the New River. Sherry and I have tried to learn as much about the river as possible after reading the book, "Follow the River" or "The Long Journey home." The displays and movie at the Visitors center gave us a little more insight.

We were looking for 'Shatley Springs' and the BrBOOMER, gave us good directions. We said good by and let her get back to work (Some folks need to do that to help the rest of us know where we are!). We drove thru their great RV camp ground. It has full hook ups, seldom seen at STate or Nat'l parks.

I stopped so Don & I could get as picture of this old house. Don and I are both fascinated by old cars, old buildings and old barns.

WE saw many Christmas tree farms. This was the perfect shot for us, the old barn and Christmas trees.

AS far as youcan see, Christmas trees. A booming business in the mountains now. It is safer than moonshining.

A quick shot of the New River as we crossed it for the fourth time.

We found Shatley Springs, and on the way in passed this small log house.

This is the old Restaurant at Shatley Springs, we decided to eat lunch.

It all started in 1890 at the discovery of a spring that hundreds, then thousands of folks declared the water contained secret healing qualities.

I drink some ever time I am there. That seems like about every ten or fifteen years. The restauant is a family style eating place. To be honest the quality seems to have dropped since we last were there. (Funny, many years ago we were there and ran into Sister Shirl and her Husband Jim, FAR FAR off her stomping grounds of the city of Charlotte.)

On the rail leading out of the restaurant I caught this Robin with a worm it was taking to the baby robins.

Oh yeah, and for you Vermonters and Wisconsinites WE HAVE CHEESE in the mountains of NC. This Cheese Store represents the factory which is in West Jefferson. I took the advice of DAR and this time tried the curds. Now they weren't warm, but they were good. I love the bland taste of these. We bought some Mountain Cheddar (sharp) a bag of Curds (no weys) and the chocoholic bought 2 pieces of Chocolate. Then we were off.

Headed back throught the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains by way of Boone and Blowing Rock.

BAck home we enjoyed coffee and a block of the cake cookies from picture #1. With all my griping, MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM Good!!!!

Thanks for going with us and, Brboomer, if you get a chance to read this, meeting you rivaled the pleasure of the mountain drive. Thanks for the smiles and help.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

Something you may not know:

Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan, carries the designation M-1, so named because it was the first paved road anywhere.

Friends & checking out the new idea

Surprise, Mary Ann came down from the mountain to visit. Here is Evelyn, Sherry and Mary ann. All Belmont girls. A lot to talk about. A winter inbetween visits. They got 30" of snow here that is sme kind of record.
Below is what I have cut the materials down to for the new chalk drawings. Weight about 45 lbs. We were unloading about 80 and twice plus bulky. I have eliminated three flood lights, heavy drawing board and six electronics pieces.

I am finding a little problem however, this below is 20 minutes into set up. I am usually set-up in that time.

Twenty-five minutes into set-up.

Thirty five minutes and I am set up. I think it can be cut in half. I had to remember what I had planned when I packed it up last.

The idea is to have part of the picture started in acrlyic, and cut down as I get more familiar with the medium. The medium being acrylic and chalk with the Substrait being black velvet. This time there will be a good bit of the picture done since this is new to me. This is original, I know of no other chalk artist that does this. As I get more familiar I will decrease the amount of permanent acrlyic. Naturally it is more impressive to start with a blank substrait.

First attempt with the black light chalk, I do not like the sunset. The lighting process is to have the white light on during the drawing, Sherry turns on two black lights and then dims the whitelight revealing the color of the invisible chalk under black light. I did not like the sunset above.

So I vacuumed it away and added a smaller red sun. The above picture is under white light

This one is under black light. I think I will have to increase the wattage on the black lights.

Other wise I think I will like it if I can get confident enough to do the entire picture as I used to on paper.

The above picture is drawn while telling the story of the poem 'The House by the side of the Road' by Foss, and how he came about writing the poem. Also 'It takes a Heap o Livin' in a House to Make A Home.' By Ed. Guest.

I am also experimenting with complete recordings instead of live music. Geo. Bev Shea sung today. LOL

Thanks for letting me experiment on you. We have a live program Saturday night to experiment with.

Thanks for coming this way.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

Things you may not know...

*****There are no natural lakes in the state of Ohio, everyone is manmade.

*****There are more Irish in New York City than in Dublin , Ireland ; more Italians in New York City than in Rome, Italy ; and more Jews in New York City than in Tel Aviv, Israel .

Oh yeah, we are on vacation. Now back to playing late and sleeping in until nine or ten. Last night we went to bed at around eleven. I am into Baldacci’s ‘Divine Justice’. Just finished ‘The travelers Gift’ by Andy Andrews. Jack loaned it to us, a very good book. Sherry is reading ‘The Last Two Bachelors’ by Debbie Macomber. She says it is two books in one and doesn’t necessarily like the idea, but like Debbie’s writing.

(Thinking about food from the Meditarrean area, This was taken during WWII. My brothers, uncles and cousins were off to war, I was left behind with my wooden rifle to protect Shirl and the family!!!)


Below, as a sailor in the Med. Sitting in the safety net, thinking about home.

Picture taken by a friend, after visiting Instanbul and buying this Attaturk's meersham pipe.

Today we go for the lunch special at a local Italian Restaurant called Meedo’s. They really do have some great Italian food. Speaking of Italian food, on my several visits to ports in Italy and Sicily, I found the local food excellent, and uniquely Italian. I know that sounds odd, but by that I mean I have eaten in most of the countries bordering the Mediterrainian and Italy is the most unique. It is the spices and sauces I am sure. When I ate in Corfu, France, Spain, Crete, Greece , etc it was a lot like eating in the average town in the USA.

Photo from my first trip to the Meditarrean as a Jar head.

(This picture was taken in Athens, during a cruise to the Med as a Sailor. A working party)

Now I must say while on a volunteer working party for an orphanage in Athens. I once ate at a Tavernas . Over in the corner was a huge caldron where the cook was cutting meat at a side board and laying it in the edge of the big pot. I ordered a bowl of soup and it was dipped from the far side of the same pot. It was delicious but I have always wondered how the cook kept the meat from migrating to the serving side less cooked. Ha! Of course as a sailor you are obligated to try the local beverages, I tried Ouzo (?) in Greece; it is a licorice tasting beverage, not to my liking. However wine from goat skin ‘flasks’ is different. Now I can drink wine, but I have always thought of it as a waste of good grapes. I have a feeling the wine the Lord made from water was great!

The Sailor home from the sea with his lovely bride and Mark the youngest.

I could not find ONE picture from Toranto, Naples or Messina. I have got to get organized (Ha!) But then I am on vacation.

Anyway, all that came from our lunch trip to Meedo’s.
Take care and thanks for taking the time to come by the log,
Nite Shipslog

PS:
Andy Rooney’s final word on women over 50:
Yes, we praise women over 50 for a multitude of reasons. Unfortunately, it's not reciprocal. For every stunning, smart, well-coiffed, hot woman over 50, there is a bald, paunchy relic in yellow pants making a fool of himself with some 22-year old waitress. Ladies, I apologize.
Now something you may not know:
The first city to reach a population of 1 million people was Rome , Italy in 133 B.C. There is a city called Rome on every continent.