Reunions

 The last two days have been exciting in terms of finding old friends. Yesterday while I was sitting in my living room chair watching English football, or soccer, my phone rang. It was an unknown caller, the address was Glen Bernie, MD. Usually, when I get an unknown number I ignore it. I don't know why I didn't this time, but I answered it. A man responded to my "Hello" with "Could I speak to Ron Grandel?". I replied, "This is he".  He said, "This is Rich Morseburger, your driver from Vietnam". 

I couldn't believe it. When I first on Facebook in 2010, Rich was one of the very first people I looked for, but couldn't find him. Turns out, that he doesn't have a social presence online. Anyhow, we chatted for almost an hour trading stories, mentioning common friends from Vietnam, and each other up-to-date to some degree. We left our phone call of almost an hour promising to each other some photos we had each taken.

About two hours later, I got another call from a northern Virginia area code.  I didn't recognize it, but feeling good about my earlier call with Rich I answered.  It was Cordell Burch, my 3rd platoon leader from Vietnam. Rich had called him and gave him my phone number. Once again we reminisced about 1969 Vietnam and brought each other somewhat up-to-date.

It was a very gratifying afternoon. 

Then this morning I FB message from one of my Xavier ex-cadets, Mike Patti. He found a favorite teacher of his, Al Nilles, who lived in Lexington, Virginia. He sent me the address and I am going to try to look Al up (Al and I would run the annual school walkathon instead of walking it). 

All in all, it was a good last two days.

A Family Death

 My Uncle Wayne died last Friday. He was eighty-nine. He would have been 90 next month. Only nine years older than me.

He was a very good man. He was a juvenile delinquent. He gave my mother's mother many a day of angst, fear, and anger. But eventually, he married and settled down, had two sons, and had two grandchildren by the time he passed. He was an Air Force veteran of the 50's. He was a welder for most of his working life.

He would always call Jerry and me on our birthdays and wish us a happy birthday.

I will miss him.

Varia Revisted

 We are now approaching the end of another calendar year. Many things have either happened or changed that are blog-worthy. But not all will get an opportunity to take the stage today, but hopefully, they will get their chance. And another thing - I won't be writing about things in order of importance, but more likely what is on the top of my mind.

On the book club front, several things have happened. Remember that book I told you about? I mentioned in the previous post. I could stand it. I could never get past page 50. Well, the person who chose the book came online two days before the Zoom meeting and said he didn't remember the book being so terrible when he last read it 25 years ago! That's right, in 1999! Anyway, a consensus was quickly reached and the meeting was canceled until last Wednesday. My book was the topic: Die Around Sundown by Mark Pryor. Before we left our "Reply All" email, however, I asked everyone whether we should have it on the scheduled date - Thanksgiving Eve, if you will. Everyone said it would be fine.

Anyhow, fast forward to this past week, again two days before meeting, One person said she had to cook a very large turkey dinner for relatives; another said she was traveling but would carry her laptop with her. Two other hinted at conflicts with giving details. 

The Mystery Book Club

 Our book club met yesterday afternoon via Zoom to discuss this month's selection, Death in Vienna by Frank Tallis. Only five of us were there; Bill was still moving from Florida to southern Virginia. It was a wide-ranging discussion, where many topics came up. Some didn't even have anything to do with the book, which incidentally was a psychological thriller. 

One thing that did come up was whether we should/could expand our consideration to books that weren't that traditional police/private detective procedural. After the meeting, I wrote to the other members indicating my feelings about looking wider afield for mysteries. I am looking forward to any responses. I also recommended a few non-mysteries for the club members to read. More importantly, I announced my selections for next year: The Guest List by Lucy Foley for January, and The Briar Club by Rose Quinn for November. Neither is the hard-boiled mystery with police or private detectives as the primary characters.

Next month's selection holds no interest for me. It sounds like Carl Hiaasen on dope - Tim Dorsey's  Florida Roadkill. I'll read 50 pages but will not read further if it doesn't catch me.

I received my latest book purchase from BN today - The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens - and will add that to my reading list once I finish a Maisie Dobbs series selection and Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. 

I'm interested in responses from the other members to my email.

It's Been Awhile

 I won't make any excuses. I have not really wanted to write. So many things have been happening. This one entry won't begin to make up for the days lost. I'll just try to do my best. Starting with the most important seems to be the best thing to do under the circumstances.

I went to the dermatologist a few weeks ago and he took a small sample of a growth on my forehead  That's the photo above. The results just came back a few days ago and it was confirmed that it is basal-cell carcinoma. That is the fourth time I've had a positive biopsy result and second basal cell. I have an appointment with the MOHS surgeon on October 24th  to have it taken off. Dr. Vance did my third surgery. I'll keep you posted.

What other news do I have? I'm continuing to be a member of the Zoom Mystery Book Club. We began it because of COVID, but now we keep it because 4 of the 6 members are not in the area anymore. Most of the books I enjoy, but there have been a couple that I merely listen to the others. I did them though. I have led two meetings this year. In February we discussed Two Storm Wood, a story of the last year of WWI and the few months beyond. Last month I introduced the first of Anne Perry's five-volume WWI mystery, No Graves as Yet. I have one more to lead - November's WWII Die Around Sundown, Paris in 1940. I'll talk more about it as time gets closer.

What else? I did finish Moby-Dick and did indeed enjoy it. Not really Like I imagined. I may write a little about it, but then again may not. My reading takes up the majority of my time, but then I don't have any other hobbies.

I still think I would like to write a cozy mystery. And maybe continue with my memoir. The memoir is called Chapter 1 for now and is in the Files program. For that matter so are the notes for my mystery.

Closing for now. Dinner is ready.

     

Long Armour Infantry School

 No, that is not a misspelling of armour. It's the way the English spell it. And I am writing today about the course I was sent to in 1971 after the Armor Advanced Course at Fort Knox. 

It was an interesting course in that it was much different from the normal courses we had in the US Army at the time. This one was very technical. It was a 13-month course, from January 1971 to February 1972. I found some old documents about it as I was cleaning old files. The first was a packet containing copies of all the examinations we had to take during the first eight weeks of school. We had to pass them all or we would not be able to continue on. There were 30 officers in the program: 24 British, 3 Australian, 2 American, and 1 Canadian. We lost only Brit from the exams.

     

As you can see by the titles of the exams that it was a highly technical course. I was selected because of my mathematics background from college - I was a math major for my first two years before switching to history. At least that is what my branch told me.

More about this assignment in a future post. 

Mid-Month Update

 Well, obviously I have not been checking on my blog entries. I really thought I had written in June. I've been very busy reading and cleaning out books from the garage, but I really thought I had taken some time to write. Guess not.

Current reading: 1. Moby-Dick  2. The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher  3. Die Before Sundown  4. When We Were Young and Brave

I also have two other books I go to occasionally and can read less often because of the writing style; more of a diary style. 1. Lincoln on Democracy  2. Reporting WW2

I will add another book to the current reading by mid-week for the book club in the last week of the month: The Girl with a Clock for a Heart.  It's actually a re-read, but I need to refresh my mind.

In the meantime, I am struggling with my writing (you only have to look at this blog). I have put neither thought nor writing into my novel or my memoir.  Sad, I know. What can I tell you?

A couple of positives this month - with the cleaning of books in the garage and relocating some books on some shelves, I have found a couple from my "Find Books" file. But I still am looking for several more. I can only hope they are shelved behind others. I will get to them.

Enough for now; on to some reading.

NOTE: I did buy Doris Kearns Godwin's latest, a memoir about her and her husband, Richard Goodwin.