Jim's Blog - Retired and Loving Every Minute Of It

2011-08-18T13:42:00.000-04:00

Today is one of those days where I am just watching the market take a nose dive and thinking how much money will be out of my account by the end of the day. As of now 8/18/11 - 1:30PM the Dow is down 463 points...

This is the second big drop in the last couple of weeks which does have a major affect on everyones invesments. Who do you blame? Well I am not sure who to blame, but I do know that it isn't good.

If you have a 401K tied to the stock market, I bet you don't even want to look at it ... I would suggest that you just don't think about it and hope that it recovers.....

I blame our President and all of the Congress for not having enough guts or maybe not smart enough to have taken care of our debt and make corrections sooner. My opinon is lets just get rid of all of them, President and all of the Congressmen and Senators and start over.

Thats all I have today - although I could go on a lot longer about the market... which is now down 474 points... OUCH

Update

2011-08-17T09:10:00.000-04:00

It has only been since April when I made my last post... that isn't bad for me. Since that time I have had a couple of follow up visits with my surgeon and almost everything is doing fine. Only thing that isn't working well is ... well guess I won't discuss that on here... LOL

As everyone knows it has been one terribly hot summer. Way back in April of this year when we had that terrible hail store go through here it pretty much ruined my roof - had to have roof replace, which just finally happened 2 weeks ago. Seemed like it was taking forever to get the contractors around to my roof, but I guess with just about every roof in my neighborhood destroyed along with the rest of the town, it wasn't any surprise that it took so long.

Just after my roof was replaced, the gutter people came out and replaced the gutters (Gutter Guard), and now all I have left to fix is to replace the screens on my back porch. Well they say it should happen at the end of August... guess we wil l see.

Till Next time

Seems Like A Long Time Ago

2011-04-17T18:45:00.006-04:00

Here it is April 17, 2011 and a lot of time has passed since my last post, and even more time since the Prostate surgery that I had back in September 2010.

Since that time I have been back to my surgeon and both times the test showed that they had got all of the cancer out and that I was cancer free at that time. Also been to my personal Doctor and his test also had the same results..........No Cancer. Just hope the results keep showing the same.

Side effects from the surgery were that I had to keep from lifting anything over 5 pounds for several weeks, couldn't drive my riding mower or do anything that involve exertion on my part.

Trying to keep from lifting anything more than 5 pounds was very difficult, it is surprising how many things weigh over 5 lbs. I hired someone to mow my hard until I was cleared, which didn't result in much, other than paying out a little money.

Of course the first week following the surgery resulted in having a catheter inserted which was the most inconvient thing that I had to put up with. There I was for about 9 days with this tube stuck up my pee pee, with it taped to my leg so it wouldn't get pulled out accidentially. Well I survived those 9 days and headed back to my surgeon to have the catheter removed - another exciting fun time. Will cover that in the next post.

Catch Up

2011-01-02T17:17:00.000-05:00

Well a lot of water has passed under the bridge since the post back in September. Just a week or so after the last post I underwent prostate surgery to have the prostate removed.

My initial thought was that I would have a lot of pain and seriously be in a lot of hurt for a while following the surgery. Well, it didn't turn out that way, as I will explain in additional posts as to what happened and how the surgery went

Enjoying Life

2010-09-04T21:56:00.004-04:00

Something that you probably don't think a lot about until it happens to you is are you enjoying life, and if not what are you going to do about it. Well I have really enjoyed my life and never had to put up with anything that would challenge my life.

That was until this past week. Last week I went to a Urologist to have a biopsy of my prostate, which was an experience. Didn't hurt, but was quite uncomfortable. Won't list here what they did, but just think about a piece of equipment stuck up (you know where), and then they shoot 12 little needles into the part that had a concern.... Yep - didn't like it at all.

Well yesterday, I went back to the Doctor to get the results, and they really wasn't want I wanted to hear. Yes - they found cancer in the prostate. It was only in one of the 12 sections that they did a biopsy in, if that was good news. However that one section had a rating of 9 out of ten as far as how bad it was... and that was not good either.

As the Doctor went through all of the different was that it could be taken care of, which I listend to very closely sufice it to say that surgery was the only thing that really should be done.

Continued bad news - after he went through all of the side effects of the surgery, and what type of problems and pain I would be going through once I got home - I said that lets go for it.

As I work through this I will try to up date my blog with my thoughts, actions and problems. Check back

New Blog Background

2010-07-07T11:03:00.000-04:00

I know - sometimes I change my blog often and don't put much on it to discuss. Maybe it is because I really just don't spend enough time coming up with new ideas to add to my blog. Although I am constantly think about things that I should put on here, but just don't get around to putting them into writing.

I constantly think about all of the political statements that I hear every day on the radio, TV and in the internet and wonder just how there can be such a big difference between the 2 parties about which way the country should be headed. It is interesting to try and understand why the left and right are so far apart in their thinking.

It seems more like the left is more of a younger crowd that thinks we should be taking care of the world and providing them with everthing that the right may not have. Hard for me to understand why more people want to provide everything for everyone and at the expense of most of the older generation.

The right seems like they want to save a lot of the money that everyone has scrimped worked for and saved so they can provide for themselves as they age. They feel that we should not be expanding all of our tax's to provide for those that don't have so the ones that have now won't have anything in the future.

On that part I agree - being retired, we live on money and investments that we worked hard for over the years so that we will be able to live comfortably on in our older age. I don't want to pay more tax's to help others, I want to pay less tax's so that I can take care of myself, and not those that don't want to work to earn a living. I don't want to pay for those that feel the government owes them a living. I don't want to allow any illegals to live in our country without paying their just dues.

Our little doggie is gone.

2010-02-05T10:14:00.000-05:00

I know it has been forever since my last blog - but I keep saying that the blog will be up to date, then I never make it. Not sure how I can go about keeping it up to date.

There has been so much going on since the last blog that I could have posted several pages of blogs by now. The worst part as the loss of my little Minature Schnauzer - she was a great dog and had just turned 15. Arthritis was really having a major affect on her - it was hard for her to get up and walk - she couldn't jump up and down on the couch like she use to. We had to put her on the couch, then put her down when she wanted down because she just wouldn't jump down because I think it hurt for her to do it.

Then one day she fell down and couldn't get back up - I had had her outside in the back yard and all at once she just fell down, and I tried to set her up, but she just couldn't walk. Then I brought her in the house and she just couldn't walk at all. I really think that she might have had a stroke.

We watched her very closely for the next week or so and she just wasn't getting any better, the Vet was able to discover what her problem was, but she got much worse. The the fatal day came -we had to take her into the vet and have her put down. That was a terrible day for both me and my wife - we both cried and Lady was gone. That was back in the late fall and I still think about here very day.

Well actually she wasn't gone because her ashes now sit on my desk and I look at her every day and think about some of the fun times we had. Pets just become so close to you and they are just like your children.

Now we have Sophie - a Chihuawa (sp) which is a wonderful little dog that my Grand Daughter gave to me because she couldn't afford the additional cost to kee her in her apartment. Sophie is a great little dog - any noise that is out of the ordinary she hears and lets us know. She is on one of our laps just about all day. She has become well trained and always lets us know when she wants to go out with a little squeel (not bark).

At night when we head to bed, she is up on the bed with us and will stay there all night. If she hears any kind of noise, she lets you know with several loud barks waking us up to attention, although it doesn't happen very often.

I guess Sophie is now going to be our dog for the next uncountable number of years and we both enjoy her very much.

How Time Flys

2009-10-07T10:22:00.007-04:00

It seems like it was just yesterday when I made the last post - but it was way back in July. Since that time we have covered a lot of territory, done a lot of things and enjoyed live even more.

In July we visited the Elvis Presley home in Memphis, TN -
PICTURES - which was a very interesting trip to see just how Elvis lived and all of the success that he had in life which ended by supposedly an overdose of drugs. How tragic of a thing to happen to such a fantastic entertainer.

In August - we took a short trip to Chattanooga, TN to go through the Aquarium which has greatly expanded since our last visit there. - Pictures - It is always so interesting to see all of the different fishes throughout the world - one of the really intersting exhibits was the different butterlies they had on exhibit. Such beautiful creatures which they raise right there in the aquarium.

We have had a few other trips this summer - but no major photo exhibits to add at this time.

September proved to be a very hard working month, we cut down a whole bunch of trees in the backyard. The photo at left doesn't really show all of the junk that was growing up in the back yard because I didn't get a good picture before I started cleaning out the trees. The photo to the right is what it looks like today after all of the small trees, which was probably 15 or 20 and 8 very large threes that were removed. Now I will have a very large back yard once all of the grass is up growing.

The picture to the right is the workers using a Bobcat to load brush onto their truck to haul it away. Over the course of 3 days they were here, they hauled away at least 6 or 7 huge loads of brush and logs from the trees they cut down.

It made me tired just watching these guys work in my back yard - although it is all done now and my back yard is really a back yard which I might be able to enjoy. I have already spied two (2) trees that would be a great place to put up a big hammock and rest next summer with a couple cans of beer - maybe even take a nap there.

I still don't have all of the back area seeded because every time I think it would be a good time to go down and work in the back yaard, then it starts to rain - or it has rained so much over the last couple of days that everything is still muddy and really making it quite hard to work in the mud.

Thats all I have for todays blog entry - will try to get back into blogging again and do a better job of updating my blog - although I have said that before.

Rats with fluffy tails

2009-07-07T08:22:00.009-04:00

For many years I have had several bird feeders in my back yard to help feed many of the beautiful birds that we have. With a backyard full of large trees - it was only natural that I do something to feed them.

NOTE: Click on Title above (Rats with fluffy tails) to go to my Photo Gallery

Also with all of the trees, I have many squirrels - not sure just how many I have, but trust me there are a lot. They just won't set still long enough to count - although I have tried that several times.

Up until this year, I keep the bird feeders hanging on a line that I ran between 2 trees, which made it very hard for the squirrels to get to the feeder and the birds enjoyed it much more. Not too long ago I decided to change the feeder and hang it from a post that I have in the middle of the yard where it is much easer to watch the birds.

Well that also made it easier for the squirrels to climb the post and eat all of the seed out of the "supposedly" squirrel proof feeder that I have hanging there. There is another feeder right next to it that they haven't figured out how to get in yet - but just give them time.

Anyway - one morning recently I was just sitting here watching the squirrels enjoy the sunflower seeds in the feeder and decided to take a few pictures of them. You can see more of the pictures by using the link - and I will add more pictures as I have a chance to take them.

As of this morning the squirrels have cleaned out the bird feeder so I am going to try ano ther feeder that hopefully is more squirrel proof (sure it is), and see how long it takes them to figure it out.

Squirrels are pesky little things - quite fun to watch as they scurry up and down and around the trees chasing each other. They are even fun to watch as they try to get into my feeders and figure out how to clean them out.

It is more fun that I have an opportunity to try and outsmart them - although I imagine that they will eventually outsmart me and do whatever they want to do.

Have a great day - check out the pictures in my photo gallery and then check back to see any new pictures that might be added.

2009-07-07T08:12:00.002-04:00

I think you will find this an interesting post. I recived it this week via EMail and it certainly tells a true story about todays change after the election of Obama.

John is 63 years old and owns his own business. He is a life-long Republican and sees his dream of retiring next year is now all but gone. With the stock market crashing and all the new taxes coming his way, John knows he will be working for a good number more years.

John has a Granddaughter. Ashley, a recent college grad, drives a late model car, wears all the latest fashions, and also likes going out and eating out a lot. Ashley campaigned hard for Obama, and after he won the election she made sure her Grandfather (and all other Republican family members) received more than an earful on how the world is going to be a much better place now that Obama won the election. Ashley recently found herself short of cash and could not pay her bills, again.

As she has done many other times in the past, she e-mailed her Grandfather asking for some financial help. Here is his reply: "Sweetheart, I am replying to your request for more money. Ashley, you know I love you dearly and am sympathetic to your financial plight. Unfortunately, times have changed. With the election of President Obama, your Grandmother and I have had to set forth a bold new economic plan of our own....the 'Ashley Economic Plan'. Let me explain.

Your grandmother and I are highly productive, wage-earning tax payers. As you know, we have lived a comfortable life and in return have forgone many things like fancy vacations, luxury cars, etc. We have worked hard and were looking forward to retiring soon. But this plan has changed. Your president is significantly raising our personal and business taxes. He says it is so he can give our hard earned money to other people. Do you know what this means, Ashley? It means less income for us. Less incomemeans we must cut back on many business and personal expenditures.

One example is, we were forced to let go of our receptionist today. You know her. She always gave you candy when you visited my office. Did you know she worked for us for the past 18 years? I can't afford her anymore. That is a taste of the business side. Some personal economic effects of Obama's new taxation policies include none other than you. You know very well that over the years your grandmother and I have given you thousands of dollars in cash, tuition assistance, food, housing, clothing, gifts, etc, etc. By your vote, you have chosen another family over ours for help. Judging from your Email requesting more money, I recommend you call 202-456-1111, a direct number for the White House. You yourself repeatedly told me I was foolish to vote Republican.

You said Mr. Obama is going to be the people's president and is going to help every American live a better life. Based upon everything you have told me and things we heard from him as he campaigned, I am sure Mr. Obama will be happy to send a check or transfer money into your checking account. Have him call me for the transaction and account numbers, which by now I know by heart. Perhaps you now can understand what I have been saying for all my life: those who vote for the president should consider what the impact of an election will be on the nation as a whole, and not just be concerned with what they can get for themselves ("entitlements," etc.).

What Obama voters don't seem to realize is all of the "government's" money he is 'redistributing' to illegal aliens and non-taxpaying Americans deemed "less fortunate" comes from tax money collected from the income tax-paying families. Remember how you told me, "Only the richest of the rich will be affected"? Guess what, honey? Because of our business, your Grandmother and I are now considered to be the richest of the rich. On paper, it might look that way. But in the real world, we are far from it.. But, as you said while campaigning for Obama, some people will have to carry more of the burden so all of America can prosper. You understand what that means, right? It means that raising taxes on productive people results in them having less money. Less money for everything, including granddaughters. Congratulations on your choice for "change."

For future reference, I encourage you to attempt to add up the total value of the gifts and money you've received from us over the years, and compare it to what you expect to get over the next four years from Mr. Obama. Remember, we love you dearly... but from now on you'll need to call the number referenced above when you need help.

Good luck, sweetheart.
Love, Grandpa

High School Reunion

2009-06-17T14:36:00.003-04:00

This past week (June 10) we headed up to Ohio to attend my 50th high school reunion in Somerset Ohio. We stayed in Columbus, Ohio for 4 days. On Thursday we drove to Cleveland Ohio where we previously lived for 4 years in the late 80's. The drive to Cleveland was almost like driving a boat up the expressway because it was raining so hard. This is about a 2 hour drive, and the rain never stopped raining all the way up there. Once we arrived in North Royalton, Ohio, which is a southern suburb of Cleveland we drove down to see the house that we had built when we moved there in 1986. The yard still looks almost as good as it did when I put it in myself way back in the fall of 1986. Good and green and lush and not a weed in it. I am not sure that the house looks quite as rich looking as it did when we left there in 1989, but it still looks pretty good. It is located in a development called Spy Glass Hill in North Royalton - which is a middle to upscale neighborhood. The development has expanded quite a bit too.

After that we then headed over to see a new shopping mall that a friend had told me about which is located in Strongsville, Ohio - another suburb south of Cleveland, Ohio. We found the mall, which was ginormous - in other words big. We got there around noon - and this was on a Thursday afternoon. You would have throught it was Christmas because we drove around for probably 20 minutes to find a parking place. Finally found one - which was even pretty close. We toured the mall, Jean managed to raid several stores and we finished up with shopping bags full of goodies.

After that - we headed back to Columbus Ohio where we would be spending Thursday night - of course rain almost all of the way back to Columbus. On Friday we went to Somerset, Ohio - original home and took a look at both of our original homes to see how they had changed. Then went to visit aunt June and spend a while with her. From there we went to Somerset and had pizza at one of my favorite pizza places - which always has great pizza. After some more shopping in Lancaster Ohio, we returned to Columbus for the evening.

On Saturday we headed down to the high school reunion which was being held at the Sheridan High School (the school we graduated from is no more). Got to see 9 of my class mates from the 1959 class - visited, listend to the boring program, had some what I would say was pretty bad steak, and visited some more with others at the reunion, which was by far the best part of the visit. Headed back to Columbus later after the reunion.

On Sunday - we got up, grabbed a McDonalds Sausage and Egg McMuffin, which was just not a real good McMuffin and headed on back home. We arrived back home about 6 hours later without running into much rain that day. Once we got back - unloaded the car, then headed to my LazyBoy for an afternoon nap.

Now we are planning our next monthly visit to somewhere - not sure where, but I bet it will be lots more fun.

The EYEs have it!

2009-06-08T13:23:00.008-04:00

It had been a couple of years since my last eye exam and so I decided to head into the mall to Lens Crafters and get my eyes examined and update my glass's. I had been thinking lately about trying out contact lenses since it had been about 25 years since I last wore them, I thought I would give it a try.

I went to the is this better or is this better or is this better routine with the eye doctor and finally arrived at a prescription for my glass's. Well I have astigmatism, which means I have blurred vision caused by an irregularly shaped cornea.

This means Astigmatism is when the cornea of the eye is shaped like a rugby ball rather than being spherical. It causes the eye to have two focal points rather than one and can lead to strain and headaches if uncorrected. Astigmatism is the 'Cylinder' value in a prescription.

So there I am with a rugby ball rather than an eye ball and it makes it difficult to fit a contact lense to my rugby ball. Of course I am "far-sighted", which makes it even worse so the Doc, said that he could fit my rubgy ball with a lense for far sighteness, and the the left eye ball with a lense for my near vision. Well that all sounded pretty good - so I said lets go with it.

After a little practice of sticking my finger in my eye again, I was able to get both of the contact lenses in place and the Doc said go out in the mall and walk around a little bit - which I did.

Well it all sounded like it would work - the Doc said that after a while my "brain" would understand what it was suppose to do and it would take care of getting everything in vision... ha ha ha.

After a little while, I went back to the Doc and told him what I was experiencing, so he decided to try another contact in the right eye - but oh no.... he didn't have it in stock. Said he would have to order it, told me he would call - which he did about 2 weeks later. In the mean time, I went next door to get my new glasses - which I did.... however, because of my prescrition and the lense which they needed - they also had to order the lenses (Glass's in an hour - sure).

Well - the glasses' cam in about a week later so I went to pick them up - they were find, fit well, just needed a little adjustment then off I went. Did check next door to see if my special contact lense was in yet - NOPE....

It eventually did come in, so went back in to see how it worked - and put it in the right eye and it worked great - fit well, could see well at a distance with that lense. Then put the left lense in which was different than the first ones that I tried - and headed home.

LOL - driving with these lenses in was a joke - right eye was good for driving, left eye was good for reading - and both eyes were a disaster... Actually reading wasn't very good either - had to hold reading material at the end of my nose, and looking at the computer was terrible, unless I was sitting right on top of it.

Went back next day told Doc the problem, so he said lets try another lense in that left eye, which he gave me and I went home. Well the right eye was still good, and the left eye was just a "little" better - but certianly not good enought - went back again.

Now he told me that maybe a "bi-focal" lense would take care of the left eye, so he gave me one to try and see how it worked - by that time I was getting a little impatient with contact lenses. Anyway I put it in and Doc said to check back in a couple of days....

Well - after a couple of days, I finally decided that this wasn't going to work either, the bi-focal lense was just a little bit better, but still didn't help much with using both eyes to drive, and reading was just a little better.... Neither one provided as good a vision as my glasses did.

So what do I do - give up wearing contact lenses until there is something available that I can out of both eyes with equally. Didn't mind the contacts in my eye, didn't mind putting them in and taking them out - just couldn't see like I wanted to see.

Guess I am just resigned to wearing glasses the rest of my life, even though I hate wearing them, but what the heck - nothing else will work... and NO I am not doing laser eye surgery - just sticking with what I got.

It was an interesting experience the last several weeks - but I tried them, several different ways, and they just wouldn't help me out..

Want to know more about astigmatism - CLICK HERE to access an article on astigmatism.

What has been happening

2009-06-05T10:22:00.008-04:00

Hard to believe the last blog that I posted was on March 1st. Now here it is 3 months later and I am working on another blog... Boy a lot has happened since that time. Probably the most fun was driving to Fayetteville, N.C. to watch the play off games there. Our daughter and her family traveled with us for the long trip down to Fayetteville which was a long trip - but we made it there and had a good time once we arrived. WOW - the coliseum at Fayetteville is certainly a Super Place for hockey.

We won 1 out of 3 games there then came back to Knoxville to finish up the season and win the Presidents Cup - another great season. The Ice Bears hockey team won the regular season championship as well as the Presidents cup. Pictures from the last couple of games are posted on my Photo Gallery. Click Here to view.

After the end of the season we then moved the players furniture out of their apartments to our storage area. Now the next project with the players will be moving the furniture that we moved out back into the new apartments once the new season kicks off - kind of a never ending project.

We have also had a couple of short trips and thinking about taking another trip sometime this summer.

Just a few weeks ago we made a trip to Helen, GA., which was a very interesting trip. Here is a web site of that area HELEN GA . More pictures that I took while in Helen, GA are posted on my Photo Gallery, click HERE . Take some time and view these.

Back Again

2009-03-01T13:49:00.003-05:00

When I decided to do a blog, I didn't realize just how difficult it could be to complete a blog every day, or at least maybe once a week, or even once a month. It has now been 2 months since I last made a blog entry - and I am truly sorry.... So I am going to try and do something to bring the blog up to date.

Since my last blog - the new little dog that we sort of fell into (Sophey) has become quite a lap dog. She has learned what she should do as far as whether she goes inside our outside and has become a fairly good housebroken dog. Those occasional slips are becoming farther and fewer. She has become pretty good about letting us know when she has to go - although if we miss her signal to go out, it may result in an accident - but don't have many of those anymore.

Now that we have 2 dogs - Sophey and our other dog Lady - the competition for the first one to get food - does result in some problems. Unfortunately Lady is not aggressive enough to give Sophey a little growl when she goes after her food - she just backs off and goes away. However - Sophey will eat anything that is near her - cleans up her food and goes after Lady's food. As a result this little Chihuahua is becoming fat. Not sure how we can go about getting her to eat less because of how she goes after everything around and tries to eat it.

However - she is a good dog, likes to hop on your lap and play with you a little, and then curl up in your lap and take a nap. Nice dog and I think we are really going to keep her.

Puppy

2009-01-02T13:10:00.002-05:00

The story in yesterdays blog reminded me of the new dog that we now have. About 2 months ago my Granddaughter moved into a different apartment where they had a charge for having dogs that was beyond her means. Well she already had a Chihuahua that was about 8 months old. She didn't know what to do with it, so Jean said that we would keep her for a while and see how she would work out.

Well we already had one dog, a Miniature Schnauzer that was somewhere around 15 years old and we really wondered how she would get along with a pup that was much younger, full of energy and on the run all the time.

The introduction of this new puppy to our dog (Lady), actually went quite well. She didn't have any problem with her, as long as she stayed away from her. The new puppy (Sophie) wanted to run and play with Lady she just didn't want to have anything to do with that running and playing - it was like "I am an old dog and I don't do those things anymore", and she didn't.

The first night here was about like we had expected - she was kept in a small crate which she was use to because that is where she had been raised most of the time. She didn't like being away from our Granddaughter and she cried most of the night. Although I think it did play out after a couple of hours, but I couldn't tell because I was asleep and ignoring it.

The first day - was a day of discovery for Sophie. She was all over the house, any place she could go or get into - she was. Our house is layed out in a way that she could run around the house sort of like a inside race track - and that is what she did. She really like to run - makes me tired to just watch her take off and run like that. I think she was trying to get Lady to play with her which was her initial intention - but Lady just watched.

Well - I had to put a stop to that running so there is a door that we had which is in the middle of the race track that we usually didn't keep closed - but it is closed now to slow down some of the race track running. Although there is still another way that she can run in a reduced race track way that I haven't put a block in yet. And she has slowed down some of that running.

The story of Sophie - will continue - as it could conceivably be a very long story because every day is a new thing. Until the next post.

Marley

2009-01-01T09:11:00.003-05:00

Yesterday we went to see the movie Marley and me. Marley and me which had been reviewed by the critics as not a very good show. Well let me tell you - at the end of the show, I think about everyone in the theater was sitting there crying. This story started out with this young couple deciding they didn't want children yet so they went and purchased a little puppy.

Well after 3 children and many years the little puppy has grown up to a big dog, and become quite a nuisance in their household, but they all loved the dog. Suffice it to say you new what was going to happen, the dog gets sick - it doesn't survive and they end up burying the dog at the end of the show with a lots of tears and remembering all the good times.

I brought tears to many people in the theatre - even I had the terrible feeling of what it is like to loose a loved one - person or animal.

Marley and me got me to think about our current situation that we are experiencing with a new dog in our family and I thought maybe I would start blogging about the various situations that we have had with her over the last month or so since we have had her.

This story will continue.

This is a MUST REAd article from David Letterman

2008-11-03T09:21:00.001-05:00

By David Letterman, on President Bush. (Surprising)

David Letterman wrote this; it's the David we don't often see....

'As most of you know I am not a President Bush fan, nor have I ever been, but this is not about Bush, it is about us, as Americans, and it seems to hit the mark.'
'The other day I was reading Newsweek magazine and came across some Poll data I found rather hard to believe. It must be true given the source, right?
The Newsweek poll alleges that 67 percent of Americans are unhappy with the direction the country is headed and 69 percent of the country is unhappy with the performance of the President. In essence 2/3 of the citizenry just ain't happy and want a change. So being the knuckle dragger I am, I started thinking, 'What are we so unhappy about?'
A. Is it that we have electricity and running water 24 hours a day, 7 Days a week?
B. Is our unhappiness the result of having air conditioning in the summer and heating in the winter?
C. Could it be that 95.4 percent of these unhappy folks have a job?
D. Maybe it is the ability to walk into a grocery store at any time and see more food in moments than Darfurhas seen in the last year?
E. Maybe it is the ability to drive our cars and trucks from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean without having to present identification papers as we move through each state.
F. Or possibly the hundreds of clean and safe motels we would find along the way that can provide temporary shelter?
G. I guess having thousands of restaurants with varying cuisine from around the world is just not good enough either.
H. Or could it be that when we wreck our car, emergency workers show up and provide services to help all and even send a helicopter to take you to the hospital.
I. Perhaps you are one of the 70 percent of Americans who own a home.
J. You may be upset with knowing that in the unfortunate case of a fire, a group of trained firefighters will appear in moments and use top notch equipment to extinguish the flames thus saving you, your family, and your belongings.
K. Or if, while at home watching one of your many flat screen TVs, a burglar or prowler intrudes, an officer equipped with a gun and a bullet-proof vest will come to defend you and your family against attack or loss.
L. This all in the backdrop of a neighborhood free of bombs or militias raping and pillaging the residents. Neighborhoods where 90% of teenagers own cell phones and computers.
M. How about the complete religious, social and political freedoms we enjoy that are the envy of everyone in the world?
Maybe that is what has 67% of you folks unhappy.
Fact is, we are the largest group of ungrateful, spoiled brats the world has ever seen. No wonder the world loves the U.S. , yet has a great disdain for its citizens. They see us for what we are. The most blessed people in the world who do nothing but complain about what we don't have, and what we hate about the country instead of thanking the good Lord we live here.
I know, I know. What about the president who took us into war and has no plan to get us out? The president who has a measly 31 percent approval rating? Is this the same president who guided the nation in the dark days after 9/11? The president that cut taxes to bring an economy out of recession? Could this be the same guy who has been called every name in the book for succeeding in keeping all the spoiled ungrateful brats safe from terrorist attacks? The commander in chief of an all-volunteer army that is out there defending you and me?
Did you hear how bad the President is on the news or talk show? Did this news affect you so much, make you so unhappy you couldn't take a look around for yourself and see all the good things and be glad? Think about it......are you upset at the President because he actually caused you personal pain OR is it because the 'Media' told you he was failing to kiss your sorry ungrateful behind every day.
Make no mistake about it. The troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have volunteered to serve, and in many cases may have died for your freedom. There is currently no draft in this country. They didn't have to go. They are able to refuse to go and end up with either a ''general'' discharge, an 'other than honorable'' discharge or, worst case scenario, a ''dishonorable' discharge after a few days in
the brig.
So why then the flat-out discontentment in the minds of 69 percent of Americans?
Say what you want, but I blame it on the media. If it bleeds it leads and they specialize in bad news. Everybody will watch a car crash with blood and guts. How many will watch kids selling lemonade at the corner? The media knows this and media outlets are for-profit corporations. They offer what sells, and when criticized, try to defend their actions by 'justifying' them in one way or another. Just ask why they tried to allow a murderer like O.J. Simpson to write a book about how he didn't kill his wife, but if he did he would have done it
this way......Insane!
Turn off the TV, burn Newsweek, and use the New
York Times for the bottom of your bird cage. Then start being grateful for all we have as a country. There is exponentially more good than bad. We are among the most blessed people on Earth and should thank God several times a day, or at least be thankful and appreciative.' 'With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, 'Are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?'
-David Letterman

BE SURE TO INVITE OTHERS IN TO READ THIS

Elections

2008-10-22T17:46:00.002-04:00

As I follow the electioneering for the Presidential elections coming up in just a couple of weeks, it is becoming more and more disappointing to see how so many of the people here in this country are so en grained with Obama. Everything I hear him say is that we are going to be paying more tax's to take care of all the various programs that he wants to set up for those that aren't working, or are in poverty.

Doesn't he understand that by taxing more of the people that are working, putting people to work and paying their tax's, the more those people will be out of jobs. These small business will not be able to pay tax's to help distribute their money to the rest of the people that have less.

Why is it that the Liberals are so adept at putting the "real" people down because they have a job, a business, and earning a good living. Why is it that the Liberals want to make more poor people, make more people depend on government to live their daily lives.

I don't know about anyone else, but I worked at a good job - put my time in, did my job, did what it took to be successful and earned a good living. Never asked for a hand out - never asked for the government to help me, although I did take unemployment income one time in my life.

Maybe it is easier to just vote for Obama and let him support you for the rest of your life. Then the rest of us can spend the rest of our life supporting and paying for you.

Please America - wake up, smell the roses, think green - because that isn't what you are going to be seeing if Obama is elected.

OK - so I have made my political statement - and I approved this message.

Egrets on the lake.

2008-09-11T11:38:00.008-04:00

Several weeks ago I spent some time down along the lake (Lake Loudon) just watching the birds as they flew around. There was ducks, geese and egrets. Here is a couple of pictures of the one egret that I was able to get a close shot of. They are so graceful as they take off and land and fly across the water. This particular egret was sort of hiding along the edge of the water. I seen it from a distance and tried to sneek up on it so I could get a real close picture of it. Unfortunately I didn't have my telephoto lense on the camera, I tried to get close. Unfortunately when I was about 30' away - it spotted me and decided that it was going to take off across the lake, which it did. It flew across the lake then circled back to the shoreline where I tried to get close for another picture, but still couldn't get very close. Guess maybe I need to purchase a much bigger telephoto lense (sure now you know that is going to happen).

I just find it interesting to watch all kinds of birds, how beautiful some of them are and how graceful they are as they fly across the sky.

Anyway - more pictures will be posted at a later date as I spent more time there taking pictures that day.

Tomato's

2008-09-02T13:08:00.004-04:00

Just about every year we usually plant several tomato plants and usually every year they don't produce much in the way of tomatos, or we don't end up in much of the way of nice plants.

This year it has been different - we treked up to Granger county earlier this year and pick up several tomato plants, hoping that we would have as much success as they do in Granger county.

Well - the plants came up great, blooms started to setting on and then "poof" the blooms were all gone. After a week or to of seeing blooms start and them disapper we came to the conclusion that the birds were enjoying the blooms.

So I decided that we should go get some kind of net and put over the plants to keep the birds off of the plants so we could end up with some tomatos. Well in order to hold the net up over the tomatos, I made a small wood structure to put over the plants to hold the net up.

It worked well for several weeks, however each day I could tell that the tomatos were growing like crazy - maybe an inch or two a day. And after several weeks, they started growing through the net as you can see in the picture. They are well over 6 feet tall now - probably closer to 7 feet in height. Almost like a tomato "tree".

But they are doing great - there are lots of tomatos on the vines, proabably get a couple of tomatos just about every other day now - and they are pretty good tomatos. However - they are still growing, it won't be long until I will have to use a ladder to pick my tomatos - almost like picking apples off of a tree.

Well I am not entirely sure why they got so tall this year - they were planted in ground that I had worked up quite well, tilled in some good growing mulch, and then fertilized them often. Maybe I will end up with the tallest plants award - suppose they have such a thing.

Thats my story today - and I am sticking with it.

Father and Son

2008-08-18T11:44:00.009-04:00

This is another picture that I took while walking along the riverbank in Columbus GA. this past spring. Father and Son spending time together fishing. If we could only get more fathers and sons to spend time together doing these types of family things - we probably would not be experiencing the types of problems that we see today.

Just today here in Knoxville as the kids were setting waiting for school to start another student came up and shot a 15 year old boy. He was rushed to the hospital immediately, but died shortly after arriving. Fortunately the boy who shot him was caught and is now being held awaiting arraignment for this terrible thing.

It is very hard to understand why this goes on in todays society - just a few weeks ago someone walked in to a local church and shot several people of which 2 died. Why would someone do this - what happened to them to convince them that they should kill someone who was so innoncent.

What can we do to stop these terrible acts of killing that is going on. Some are random, and others are directed to a certain individual, which is what they are saying happened today that it was directed at this particular individual. No one deserves to be killed like this - no one should ever have to experience this type of terrible tragedy. Probably someone will understand why this happened today - altough I can't think of a good reason. What should happen to someone that does this terrible act - should they be treated as an adult and punished as an adult should be.

They will probably be locked up for several years, and then some liberal judge will say the have served enough time and should be released - which certainly doesn't seem right after they took someone elses life.

To read more click HERE and learn about this young man and what he had experienced growing up.

New Items

2008-08-14T22:11:00.002-04:00

I have added a couple of new items to the right side of this screen. One is a stock ticker, the other is live radar of the east Tennessee area.

Be sure to scroll down the page to see various items which are listed on the right side of the page. Hope you will find them interesting

Neat Tree

2008-08-13T17:07:00.002-04:00

Last fall while in Columbus Ga spending the day there until the hockey game started that night against Columbus. We took a walk along their "river walk", which is in the downtown area. It is a very nice walk along the river - not much there except the river, a few people fishing in the river and these neat trees with these trunks that just go everywhere on top of the soil. The shore is very sandy, is infested with a lot of fire ants, and ducks and geese wondering along the shore.

I just thought this was a neat tree trunk - so I had to take a picture of it. I just ran across it today while looking for another picture in my file of pictures, which numbers to several thousand since I purchased my new Cannon D40 camera last fall.

SO - I just thought it would be kind of neat to post the picture here - the next time you are in Columbus, GA (although I can't imagine why you would want to) take a walk down on the river walk, and you might see this interesting tree trunk... There is actually several more of them along the river - which I have pictures of, but just posted this one here.

Sitting here watching the Olympics in China and watching Phelps getting ready to go for another Gold medal, which everyone says he should win. And again - he wins this heat, way ahead of the other swimmers. He is an amazing kid - so talented, so dedicated to his sport and he is on the way to set the Gold medal record. If you are not hooked on the Olympics this year and the fantastic coverage which NBC is providing then you must have your head in the sand.... That's all for tonight.

Read this and you may go to jail....!

2008-08-13T16:59:00.003-04:00

Ever notice some EMails that you get with the warning - that if you read this email and it is not meant for you - then you are notified that your access is unauthorized and any review, dissemination, distribution or copying of this message including any attachments is strictly prohibited.

I don't know about you - but this seems to be a little ridiculous to send someone an EMail, then warn them that if you got this EMail and weren't suppose to get it - then you are in really big trouble.... I guess it is kind of like leaving a bowl of donuts on the table with a warning that if you sniff these donouts, or take a bite or even eat one - then you are in really deep trouble. So if you don't want me to get your EMail - then pay more attention and just don't send it to me - IDIOT!

I get a lot EMails every day - many of them I really don't want, but they still come to my mailbox with this warning posted on the bottom of the page. Well - darn it, if you don't want me to read the EMail, then don't take the time to send it to me. AND - if you send me an EMail that you want me to read - then take that damn notice off of the bottom of the page - you sent it to me, and you have asked me to read it.....

Where did it go ?

2008-07-31T10:04:00.003-04:00

Can you believe it - today is July 31st - the year is 7 months gone -heck it won't be long until we are looking for Santa Clause - OK Santa - I want a new computer (getting my request in early).

It has been interesting watching the weather the last couple of weeks - in my end of Knoxville(west)we have finally started to get some size able amounts of rain. As you can see by the national radar picture below (7/31/08 - 10:20AM) it looks like we could possible get some rain today again. However prior to the last couple of weeks I would see these rains heading this way, then at the last minute - Then would just split and go north and south of our part of town.

But the weather guessers are saying that we should get some of this rain today - and even though everything is green and growing like crazy now and the ground is quite wet - I would still like to see additional rain - crazy aren't I?

I guess we are really never happy with the weather, either it is too wet, too dry, too hot, too cold, too much snow, not enough rain, too cloudy or whatever - no one is ever happy with the weather. I do find the weather to be very interesting though - especially when you can watch what is going on right here on your computer by just pulling up the national weather radar and seeing where the rains are. Click here to view the latest weather satellite, or you can access it from my web page.

Oh yea - speaking of computers I am having another battle with my laptop and virus's. About a month ago a virus popped up on it and after spending several days trying to get rid of the virus, I just had to re-format the drive and start over from scratch. Even though that wasn't what I wanted to do - after several hours it was up and running again.

Once I got it up and running again, I loaded another type of virus protection - which may have been a mistake because it didn't seem to catch the virus. What was kind of strange, there was a new Icon on the desktop of my computer. Crazy me - wondering what it was, I clicked on it and that started the virus. Not sure what put that Icon on my desktop, how it got there or why it was there, but inquisitive me - I just had to click on that Icon and get it started.

Well I have spent several days trying to get rid of the virus - working with the company that I purchased the Virus protection from - they have had me try several different things, and the virus just keeps coming back. I guess if I can't get it straightned out today - I am going to try a couple of other programs to try and get rid of it and if that doesn't work - then it is back to re-formating the computer again.

Oh well - it is a gloomy hot humid day, so might as well see what I can do with it. If you hear any screams or loud crashes coming from west Knoxville - you should know it is not an earthquake, but me pitching my computer out of the window against the nearest tree.

Service - Where did it go?

2008-07-30T08:46:00.002-04:00

As I have said before in my Blogs, we eat out "a-lot", probably once a day. In Knoxville there are lots of different restaurants, various types of menus, and many different levels of service being offered at those restaurants. I am not talking about fast food restaurants because that is a whole different ball game.

Most of the time we end up with a decent waitress/waiter who greets you very cordially, takes your drink order and then comes back in a few minutes with those drinks and takes your order. The greeting to me is what really sets the stage for my meal - if it is a very gracious greeting, filled with smiles and minor chit-chat, then I know the meal is probably going to be pretty good. Irregardless of the quality of the food.

However when the server comes up to the table and seems to be in real pain when asking you what your want to drink - right away, I know this is probably not going to be a great meal. That could possibly be the time to get up and leave that establishment and go to another restaurant. But I have never done that and instead suffered through the meal.

Which brings me to this post. Yesterday we were at the Calhoun's restaurant in the Turkey Creek complex which has been one of our more favorable places to eat. We were seated immediately (we arrived before the dinner crowd got there) by a nice friendly hostess. Almost immediately we were greeted by a very nice waitress - very cheerful, had a nice smile and was an extremely pleasant waitress.

She took our drink order, then came back with those drinks and took our main order. The whole time she was extremely pleasant - the type of hostess who could make any bad meal a good meal. She received a nice tip once we were finished and left the establishment.

However - as I usually do, I like to watch the other servers and how they interact with the various patrons for their meals. Every server was cheerful, smiling and seemed to be very pleasant, with the exception of one. This girl had several tables she was taking care of and it was quite evident that watching her take care of her patrons was quite painful. Through out our entire time there, which was maybe 45 minutes, I never once seen her smile or offer a pleasant word to her patrons.

I kind of felt sorry for those people that she was taking care of because they had to put up with her never smiling and being pleasant to them. It was almost like it hurt for her to put on a smile and seem gracious. I guess it was "just a job" to her and she was there doing her duty - even though what she did I wouldn't call doing her duty.

But I see this is many of the restaurants just about everywhere. For the most part the waiters/waitress are usually nice, cheerful, and greet you with a smile. They check back on your, keep your drinks full, and act like they are enjoying what they do. I know it is a job, but if you don't enjoy what you are doing - IT IS a job and you should really look elsewhere.

Although it isn't just restaurants - it is every where else. Most stores, public service operations, schools, just about everywhere you go there are people working there that see it as JUST A JOB, and they are not going to go out of their way to offer the type of service that whey would like to receive if it was them.

Maybe it is just to days society that feels they don't owe anyone anything. They can be just as rude and condescending as they want to be and don't give a hoot about you or anyone else. More sales will be made with good service then great merchandise. Whatever the product or service that you are looking for - if it isn't good, you are going to remember it and tell other people about their bad service. If the service is good - they you will be back there again, and you will relate your good experiences to many others. Owners and Managers of all types of operations should remember this and preach this to their employees.

I could probably go on and on about the various types of service that I have seen while out shopping in stores, and visiting different restaurants. Maybe I should sell my experiences back to these stores so they could improve their employees morale and improve the service that they are offering. Actually I think there is a business that does this to a certain extent, but not sure how or what they do to help the business's improve their operations.

Till next time

Ice Hockey School in Knoxville

2008-07-27T15:38:00.002-04:00

This past week the Knoxville Ice Bears sponsored a "Youth Hockey School", at the Icearium in west Knoxville. It was for kids age 8 to 15 - a great age to perfect your skating skills.

I always enjoy going out and watching these kids learn new skating and hockey playing techniques. It isn't just a skate, skate, skate and hit the puck type of school. The kids learn how to dive down and skate under something, jump over boards placed on the ice. They learn how to skate harder pushing other kids around on folding chairs, how to hit the puck, and many other techniques that will help them to be better hockey players.

None of them will probably ever be professional hockey players - but I talked to quite a few of them and they really enjoy this school and learning new things about hockey.

I know if I was a kid that age and knew about this type of school, I would certainly be there enjoying everything that is being taught to them. Unfortunately, when I was a kid, there wasn't anything around where I lived at that time. About the only thing to skate on was if a local pond iced over in the winter, then skating on it was kind of dangerous because the ice never got real thick - falling through the ice would have been quite possible.

It is really kind of hard to be thinking about Ice Hockey, when it is 95 outside and the humidity is 80% - although was pretty nice to walk in the Icearium when it was that temperature outside - except when you walked out of the rink and your glasses fogged over - actually there was frost on them that I had to de-frost before I could see out of the glass's.

But Hockey is still on my mind - the first game isn't really that far away - click HERE to check out the cound down clock. And speaking of that - if you haven't had a chance to see our local Knoxville Professional hockey team then you better get your but down to the Coliseum once season starts and watch the fun. Guaranteed enjoyment.

How long will it take for them to go down

2008-07-22T20:56:00.004-04:00

We eat out a lot - probably close to every day. And eating out that much, it is easy to notice when prices of food in restaurants go up. Not only are many of them raising their prices, some are also reducing the portion size they serve. Some of the prices have been jumping up maybe $1.00 or so every month, many more. Just enough that many people probably won't notice the price increase.

Tonight we ate out at a popular restaurant that we had not been to lately and when I perused the menu I noticed right away that my favorite salad was up by a couple of dollars. Well, I expected to see a much salad bowl when the meal was delivered. But NO - they only raised the price and kept the same size.

The night before we ate at another popular restaurant and noted that their price had also went up in just the last few days. In addition - the size of the portion had been down sized considerably.

Most of the price increases are tied around the price of fuel because it cost more to get their food delivered than it did last year. So - now that the price of oil is going down, just how long will it take for those lower prices to be passed on down to these restaurants and the customers who are paying for it.

Actually I guess it may be wishful thinking that we all hope the price of oil will continue to go down.

Even though the price of oil has gone down over the last several days - even today I have started to see the price of gas is also going down.

But I guess (sorry to say), that we are probably going to have to get use to living with these higher prices - but then again, maybe they will take a down turn and prove me wrong.

Satisified

2008-07-21T19:03:00.004-04:00

Well I have been playing around with this Blog program from Google and have found that it is very easy to use and has a lot of various things that can be added to the Blog. I would recommend that if you want to start your own Blog that you try the Google Blog. It is a no-cost system that anyone can use - very easy to set up and use so anyone should not have a major problem using this program.

Over the last year or 2 I have tried several different Blog programs, and this one is definitely an easy one to use. I know there are several other programs out there, but I haven't tried them, and probably not going to now because I just pretty happy with this one.

Now I can get back to my Blog more often and hopefully keep it more up to date than I have over the last couple of months. Hope you enjoy

My favorite sport

2008-07-21T18:38:00.002-04:00

As you may or may not know, I have become a huge hockey fan over the last several years. I have embeded a short slide show of a few shots that I took over the past hockey year. These pictures include shots at one of the monthly dinners, fun Karaoke night, fights and other hockey pictures. Hope you enjoy.

HOT

2008-07-18T23:08:00.002-04:00

Today was one HOT day - I think the temperature hit around 97, which is just darn hot. Woke up about 3AM this morning and was extremely hot - after getting fully awake I discovered that my air conditioning had decided it was time to take a break. Sure enough - it had quit. As soon as I was able to call our AC Servicek, they said they would be out to my house between noon and 2PM today - which was just fine with me - because of the annual service contract we have with our service, when we need help - our name always goes to the top of the list.

That always makes me feel good when there is a problem with either our air conditioning unit or the furnace - although we have never really had much in the way of problems. But when it is going to be 97 degrees outside - I want my air conditioning to work.

Well sometime around 10AM, I got a call from my AC people and the lady said she had some good news and some bad news. Well I went for the bad news first, which was they wasn't going to be able to come out this afternoon.....so I said, whats the good news? She kind of chuckled and said that is that if you are going to be home, our service guy will be there in just a few minutes.

Well WHOOPIE - that was really good news. They pulled in the driveway somewhere around30 minutes after that phone call. He went around to the AC unit and pulled the anel off - first thing he said was looks like the main capacitor has bit the dust. And then he said - I have these on my truck so I can get this fixed pretty quick. GREAT NEWS

About 10 minutes later, the capacitor has been replace, the unit tested, and the paper work completed with him holding his hand out asking for money. Well, I wasn't going to complain because I was looking fowards to some cool air rather than the warm/hot air that was being blown around the house.

I know many people are not in favor of service contracts - but just about evey service contract that I have purchased has been worthwhile. Just a couple of months ago our big screen TV went bonkers. So, I called Sears and said please send your service rep out to fix my TV. Which they did with a cost of over $800, which I didn't have to pay because I had a service contract with Sears.

Depending on the item - consider a service contract, especially if it is a big item that could cost a lot to fix.

Blogging with Google

2008-07-18T22:38:00.002-04:00

I have been searching for a nice blooging program to use for quite some time. This is just a test of the Google Blog program to see how it works. If you are seeing this blog - then check back soon because if I really like this blogging program, I will convert my other blogs over.

Jim