2018 A Strong Start...A Feeble Ending

The title says it all actually. While I began the year with the best of intentions, writing daily, once we moved in July it has been very spotty, to say the least. I will try to rectify that in the coming year, even if it only a few lines a day; which today's entry might be.

We did spend New Year's Eve as we normally do. After a dinner of shrimp cocktail, we had our lobster tails. Then we watched "When Harry Met Sally". We've done that for over 20 years. One of our favorite traditions.

Tomorrow starts another year and I am going to make the attempt to do much better at my blogging. We'll see.

Happy New Year, Everyone!

Our Latest Storm

This past weekend we had the second winter storm of the season and it isn't even officially the winter season yet.

We were forecasted to get between 3-6 inches; we got about 11 inches. At least it was just snow and not the ice storm we got about 10 days ago. We lost power and our driveway was impassible because of it being so steep.

This time I was able to clean the car off in an hour so the wife could go to work. The sun did the rest.

Rain is forecasted for the weekend; hopefully, it will wipe away most of the snow.

Pens and Bibles

Yesterday I went to my volunteering at the Stonewall Jackson House where I work in the gift shop I checked on my pens and pencils. Last week I couldn't take it anymore so I brought in sets of six new ballpoint pens and six new mechanical (cheap, but good) pencils. We had a mish-mash of stuff, much of it not working, pens dried out, caps missing, and pencils dull or broken.

Yesterday, when I went in, the first thing was to count them. One pen was missing. Two pens were left clicked open (another fetish of mine, along with capless stick pens)! All the pencils were there, but probably only because there is not much use for them. I will check again next week.

Today I counted my Bibles. I have 18. That includes one Book of Mormon and a Jehovah Witness Bible. And I have three Books of Common Prayer. I had more Bibles but gave several away. I did not count the small New Testament Bibles I have (3). Seven of the Bibles are the standard KJV. by far the most common type I own.

A Year Ago...a little over

Trying to get back into blog writing, I was reviewing entries I had written before. I found the following from last Thanksgiving. I thought I'd post it today while I am still thinking about what I want to write about...

Today is Thanksgiving.  It is also the anniversary of JFK’s assassination. As I watched the CNN news this morning it was all about the current sexual harassment accusations that have come to light this past week. Mostly in the Congress, but also TV news and entertainment. I saw nothing about Kennedy. No one, I think, knows where these are going, but it doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon. One wonders if this would have surfaced a year ago what effect it would have had on the presidential election. Or would it have not made any difference? One can only wonder.

What effect would this current atmosphere have had if it existed when John Kennedy was president? Or even before he was elected? Would have the newspapers kept it quiet because he was the president? He was not tremendously popular before he was the candidate. Johnson surely would have tried to use Kennedy’s womanizing to his benefit. Kennedy wasn’t really in the running at the start of the Democratic convention. The only thing that might have helped him, and it actually did, was the unpopularity of Nixon. While Eisenhower was a popular president, for the most part, that popularity did not extend to his vice president. After that first debate where Nixon sweated and looked for the most part swarmy, it was really a lost cause. However, in the end, the popular election was very close. I can’t remember what that the Electoral College results were. What if Nixon had won? Would we have had Vietnam? Would he still have instigated Watergate? Some interesting scenarios could be developed about later events.

I am disappointed that no one seems to talk about the Kennedy assassination. Even talking about him as a president today would be interesting to listen to the various arguments pro and con. But back then even the press was different. Many men, and usually they were all men, were given a pass on what they did out of the view of the public. When did it change? Watergate? That was only a few years later? The Pentagon Papers? That was about the same time. Iran-Contra during Reagan? Or did it hold off until Bill Clinton? Or maybe the press corps just crept along, growing bolder and more investigative along the years.

Just too bad this all didn’t happen earlier.

A Seinfeld Kind-of Day

With all that is going on right now, I think a day of nothing is appropriate.

I was thinking about fruit cocktail Jello salad this morning. I remember my mother making it for us. I seem to remember it was always in red Jello. A simple dessert, but very good. Here is a picture I found on Pinterest.

Cleaning out the box we keep in the GMC's rear storage area the other day, I found the piece of wood that caused the flat tire. I had forgotten that after I pulled it out, I kept it.

Next week is our final Books & Brews meeting for this year. We are discussing the book "Grace" as well as choosing the reading order for 2019. I have two books selected for next year; "People of the Book" by Geraldine Brooks, and "The Lost Painting" by Jonathan Hart.

Voting Day 2018

Did you vote? I did.

Watching the news this morning, it was a record-setting off-year election from the standpoint of voters - 113 million. This was the largest ever recorded.

We went to a new voting site for us this year. It was in a nearby school. But we almost didn't make it. We followed Google Maps, but there was a road detour because of road work. So after following the detour, we finally made it to the school.

The school had lost power earlier in the day and was operating on generator power. The line was long. I timed it and it only took 22 minutes from entering to exiting. Not bad, but not as organized as down in Lexington where we used to vote.

After voting, we went out to The Cheese Shop to get some candy and try the new donut shop. Wife said they were good, but still not the cake donuts she is hunting for. The search will continue.

Last nite we spent catching up on TV shows we had recorded because of football games and other conflicts. Still have to watch a slew of Anthony Bourdain's final episodes.

A New Month, A New Start?

Well, let's see if this month is better than last. It hasn't completely started out as well as it could of, but we'll see tomorrow. We got the Saturn back from a $600 service. But the GMC is still in the body shop because the paint is not completely dry. Supposedly, I am going to get it tomorrow morning first thing and return the rental. Then I have to get ready for my afternoon SJH shift.

In the midst of all of the car shenanigans today, I had two doctor appointments. Can you figure one of them out?

The podiatrist yes. And the dermatologist this morning.

My goal is to write something every day, however short or silly. Just write to get back into the habit. Hopefully, it will improve. For tonite, this appears the best I can do. Sorry.

Halloween

Well, we finally had some kids for Halloween. We spent 8 years in Lexington and didn't have any except our next door neighbors. We had probably about 25. Not a huge amount, but enough to make it fun. We bought a bag of about 200 pieces of candy.

We won't eat the rest of it but will have to find a place to get rid of it.

Another month. Hope this month I'll have more success at the blog.

What a Week

Everything was going well until Wednesday. Lisa backed into another car when she was leaving a client in Staunton. Of course, it was the new car, the GMC Terrain.

We took it up to the body shop Thursday morning. USAA handled everything. What they didn't, Charlie O'Baugh body shop did. Fortunately, it is only about $1,700. We have a $500 deductible. It goes in on Monday morning and we get it back on Thursday. Enterprise has a rental for us which insurance pays for.

So we decided to drive to Waynesboro library that afternoon. I ran over a piece of wood in the road with three nails. Spent an hour waiting for the repair truck, then took the car to a local tire shop next to our community. Walked home and walked back an hour later to pick it up.

Friday morning I woke up with stomach cramps and had to cancel my volunteering at the Jackson House. I spent the day watching CNN and the arrest of the mail bomber.

Today I felt fine. I spent most of the day watching CNN and the horrific shooting in Pittsburgh of the Jewish synagogue. 

Watching the events of the past week put everything in perspective. Who am I to complain?

Keeping the Mind Sharp

I found an app the other day that I rather enjoy. It's mathematically based, so I am prejudiced when I say that this is the best mind game exercise I've seen in quite a while. It's called Math Puzzles. The first few are relatively easy, but get quickly more difficult. Here is a screenshot of the first puzzle:

Relatively easy, it is simple addition: 1+1=2, 2+2=4...5+5=10. You just have to type in 1 and 0 in the "Submit" box.

The second puzzle is:

Again, not difficult - multiplication: 2x2=4, 4x4=16...5x5=25

Here is a screenshot of the 11th puzzle:

By now they are getting more difficult. Each one requires TWO operations:

     For the first, you initially subtract 3 from 5 and get 2.

     Next, you add 3 to 5 and you get 8. Your answer is 28. Simple, yes?

And the answer for 7, 5 = ?  212 obviously.  😏

Currently, I am on puzzle 17 and have not had to use pen and paper yet. But I have had to take a screenshot now and then to study.

It's a good way to waste some time. Try it.

Paco Rabonne

Last week I  was watching the first episode of the season of  "The Big Theory" in which Stuart was getting ready for a date and asked Raj to smell his wrist. After a moment or two of silliness, Raj does and says "Paco Rabonne", sounding impressed.
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That reminded me initially that I wore Paco Rabonne for a while in the 80's and 90's. In fact, during that period of my life, I wore many different kinds of cologne, trying what I liked and what I didn't. I tried many. I still wear cologne at times,and I have a few favorites - Aramis, McGraw, Paul Sebastien, Polo, and Eau de Cologne. But lately, I have been going retro. When I wear cologne now, most often I will wear one of two old standbys: Old Spice and English Leather.

Like many men, I wear Old Spice because I like the smell obviously, but besides that I wear it because my father wore it. Now, Pop wore Aqua Velva and Mennen Skin Bracer as well and I followed suit for a while. I think he used them because they were cheap. I have found that I enjoy Old Spice in the hotter times of the year. I wear either English Leather or one of my more expensive labels in the cooler temperatures.

I told you that I wear Old Spice primarily because that's what my father wore; why I wear English Leather is an entirely different story. But I will save that for another time.

Stuart or Stewart?

Last week I took a picture of a reproduction of a picture we sell in the Stonewall Jackson House. It shows Jackson and some of his more notable staff. Among them is "JEB" Stuart.

 If you look at the close-up you will see his name is spelled "Stewart".

I can't find anything to explain this. I'll have to investigate. Everywhere else and everything is spelled Stuart.

Habits and Routines

It's been almost three months since we have moved into our home in Stuarts Draft, about 35 miles NW of Lexington. In that time I have been continuing with my volunteering at the SJH and the Lexington Library. I drive down twice a week to do this. I will, however, be giving up on all my library activities except the monthly book club after next week. I have applied to volunteer at the Augusta County library, but so far though they have expressed a very enthusiastic response I have not heard from them.

I have also returned to my reading. Moving in July and getting things organized either slowed my reading down or for periods of time stopped it altogether. By last month I was back on track, completing a total of ten books. Admittedly, several of them were begun in either July or August, but what counts is that I stuck with it.

But that's the end of the good news as far as routines and habits are concerned. I have not been able to return with conviction to everything I did before the move.

The most obvious to you, the reader, is that I have not been able to stick with my daily blog. I'm not sure why that is. I did and do enjoy it. I get ideas every day. It is very easy going from my reading area - which is my Lazyboy in the living room - to my study where I blog. Now I admit that I do like to have at least one picture a day posted, but that can't be the only reason I am hesitant on returning to blogging.

Another habit is my walking. I have not been able to return to a steady walking routine. I will walk for maybe two days, then not walk for three, then walk again for a day, then two more days off; well, you get the picture.

I also ate five prunes each day before I moved. I considered it part of a healthy diet. I have stopped since I have moved. In this case, however, I think I know why. Before, I ate them in my loft while I sat in my Lazyboy reading. Now, I really don't want to leave them sit around in the living room. And for some reason I don't like a bag of them sitting on my desk; I tried that and it didn't work.

I'm hoping that by writing about this that it will get me motivated to return my old routines.

As for pictures, I am posting yesterday's lunch - a peanut butter and cucumber sandwich!

This was suggested by an Englishman who visited the Stonewall Jackson House a couple of weeks ago. For some reason, we got talking about sandwiches and he recommended it. Only he did say to use crunchy PB. I didn't have any and don't think it would have made much difference. I di put salt and pepper on it. I think the next time I will make the cuke circles twice as big - even more crunch!

Union Suits

I was shopping in Target the other day for socks and decided to look at white t-shirts. My Jockey shirts are getting very old. I knew that Target didn't carry the Jockey brand, but I thought I might buy the Hanes brand. While I was looking at the offerings, my eyes were captured by the following sight...

I walked over to see what it was and the tag said "Union Suit". I had never heard of that before, but it looked like a one-piece underwear. When I was talking to my brother via Skype last weekend, I told him about this and he immediately knew what union suits were. He said it should have had a drop-down hole in the back to go the bathroom, but I said I didn't check it out. I'll have to go back.

On my way out of the underwear section, I spied another one, more to my liking. Not.

Current and Next-Up Reading

Having some time to get settled, I have now begun to quickly build up my reading pile. The current pile began with two books but has blown to six, including one I just added today after a trip to our local library.

The future pile (or stack if you prefer) is very likely to change, but at least it is a start.

One of the current - "In the Garden of Beasts" is a B&B book group selection, and one  - "A Wicked War" - is one I am reviewing for the Stonewall Jackson House.

I'm Baaack...Well, Sort of

It's been quite a while. We are now moved into our new home in our new town. Stuarts Draft. About 30 miles north of Lexington. The big thing about the house is it is all on one floor. And I have been able to put all of my books except for about 50 in the house. Those fifty are in the garage on shelves for now. I don't have any room for them. In fact, I had to buy two more bookcases and double shelved them to get as many as I did.

And I had to buy new bookends - a globe on one end and a telescope and small compass on the other - to add a row on top! Anyhow, the books are in. I will be posting more pictures and talking about other matters besides my books and house in the future - after a while of course. This post was just to get back in the habit of doing it.

Things

Cleaning out in the loft this morning, I was getting rid of old magazines that had accumulated in a rack that my mother had. I found this at the bottom. I lived there for most of my youth and college. We moved there in 1956. Mom left it in 2004.

It was an old return sticker for an envelope. You remember envelopes, don't you? It's how we used to get letters.

Spent part of the day filing papers that should have been filed or cleaned out long, long ago. The last hour I have been prepping for tomorrow's book group meeting. Looking forward to it. I'll spend some time hopefully on that tomorrow. 

It's getting hard to write each day when so much other stuff needs to be done for the move. 

Bye for now.

Moving 2

Short post, have too much to do. Been busy all day working in the garage making room for boxes to move as well as selecting what could be sold at a yard sale. Not promising yet. The few large items we may put on a site that sells things like that. I forget the name, but our middle daughter suggested it.

Photos of the garage this morning:

I'll update as I can. 

I did spend yesterday attending the Jackson Symposium at VMI. It was very interesting. The ladies at the SJH did a fantastic job. My favorite presentation, though all were good, was about Jackson's books, given by Robert Krick (the senior). He talked about which ones he wrote in and where they were. 

The only thing I didn't like was a quote from someone (I forget who it was) that Krick said to be very suspicious of a man who hasn't read all his books. I told Professor Krick during a break that it described me. He laughed and said "Me too!"

The following inscription is in a bible that Jackson bought for his sister Laura. We have this bible under glass at the museum.

Well, back to work. I have a book group meeting Tuesday and need to look over the discussions one more time.

Moving

I thought I remembered reading somewhere that moving was very high of the stresses of life list. Looked it up today on the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale and it wasn't even in the top ten. I had to look further down the list and found it at number 32 (if the list continued in stress order so to speak). Right now, I would put it in my top five for sure.

Had a mover estimator come this afternoon to look around. He will work up an estimate and send it to us in a day or so. He estimated we would pack about 40 boxes and they would pack about 90, mostly books in both cases. I think that's right.

And the books keep going back on both sides of the picture. This doesn't include the books in the living room and downstairs bedroom. And we won't talk about the garage.

We're going to have a yard sale, but initially, we were concentrating on stuff that we haven't used for a long time, or in many cases since we moved to Virginia. I was going to include some books, but now have to revise my thinking. Possibly a trip to a local used bookstore in town to ask them to come and give me a quote. The problem is that the books are nowhere close to being segregated as to which to keep and which to sell.

And I don't have a place to put the ones I want to sell yet because I am cleaning that area for things to go towards the yard sale.

I think "change of residence" should be rated higher than 32.

Varia

I got my results back from the ultrasound on my lower leg where the bee stung me. Since it had swollen my doctor wanted to rule any blood clot. Since the swelling had gone done by the time the scan was done, I figured as much. At least I got a check on both legs (they did the left thigh for comparison)!

This morning I cleaned out my bathroom drawers and threw away all of the old powders, hotel shampoos, soaps, expired suntan lotions, and other things taking up space. Now it is ready to move.

Took the old littler box, with litter and furnace filters to the dump this morning.

Trying to read a library book "Educated", by Tara Westover; a memoir about her growing up in Idaho by a survivalist dad who believed in the End of Days and prepared for it. She goes on to Harvard, Cambridge, ends up with a Ph.D. after being only homeschooled until age 17. It's interesting, but not a fast read.

Five in a Row!

 Well, we won again. That makes it Five straight! There were only six teams,  but two of them were very strong competitors.  Bad Table Matters was finally at full strength and came in second with 24 points. The third-place team, The Gatekeepers, were two points back. Both of these teams have won in the past.

Since there was no sponsoring brewery, we had to rely on Taps to give us anything - cheapy give-aways like bottle openers and this wind chime.

I forgot to take a picture of our team.

Volunteering and Moving and Skyping

Today was spent doing several things that took me into the past, the present, and the future.

First, the past. This morning I had that Skype call with the high school student in Pennsylvania (Did I tell you about that?). She is a rising junior and doing a paper on Vietnam for her AP History course. Actually, the whole class is doing the same thing. How I got involved was that the student went to her librarian for help. The librarian happened to be a childhood friend of my oldest daughter, Kim. So she called Kim, and Kim called me, and Melissa called me to set it up.

The student called from the school's library resource room. She had a list of questions that the librarian, Melissa, had very generally gone over with me beforehand so I could prepare. I think it went well enough; the student seemed very happy. 

But I think she would have done better with an enlisted veteran who was drafted and got out of the military after his Vietnam tour was over. I couldn't give the right perspective to her on those questions, and there were several. Anyhow, I hope she writes it up from a different perspective from what she originally wanted.

Next, the future. Later this morning I spent time on the phone arranging for moving companies to come to look at our stuff and give us an estimate. I've contacted two and may call one more.

Last, the present. I went to the library this afternoon for my weekly volunteering. I worked on the CREW (Continous Review Evaluating and Weeding) process, identifying books that will get pulled from the shelves. I did take some time to go into the back room and see how bad it looked - I had heard we had gotten inundated with donations earlier.

And you can't see all of them! We have a monthly book sale beginning this Thursday, but these books will not make it through the process in time. It always gets bad this time of year.

It seems everyone is moving right now. Like us...

First Purchase for our New Home & Skype Calls

This afternoon we drove up to Staunton to buy a sleeper sofa for our living room.

We're doing this simply because we will only have two bedrooms and one of them will become my library. In the eight years since we have lived here, we have had less than ten persons visiting us. And no one in the last two years. So I will share my library with Lisa's two fitness machines.

We still need to get into the new house and do some measuring so we can make some decisions regarding where certain will or can go, as well as deciding whether or not to take other things.

It's going to be a very busy month and a half.

Good news on the health front - my renal ultrasound came back clear. Whatever cyst was there before has disappeared just as my urologist expected it to. My bee sting is gone and my swollen foot and ankle appear to be all healed as well.

I have a Skype call tomorrow morning with a high school student for a paper she is doing for her AP History course. I'll give more details later.

And sometime this week I need to tell you about my Skype call with my little brother (3 years younger). It was amazing!

June is Here

June is here and already I can see that it will be difficult to keep this blog current. I think I might try to write very early in the morning. It will mean re-scheduling some things and most of the entries will be about either what happened about yesterday and what is expected to be coming that day. We'll see.

The big news is that we have found a new house to move to in July. It is a one-floor townhouse with a one-car garage, a large open living room, a large area for a dining room setup. The kitchen is good-size and opens to the living room over an eating island. There two large bedrooms and two full baths. I believe I can have my library back together.

It's going to be a very busy month and a half. Here are two pictures of the front; ours is the narrow entrance in the center. I will post pictures of the inside as I take them

It is in Stuarts Draft, about 40 minutes north of Lexington, in a very nice and relatively new development. For the present, I intend on traveling back to Lexington to do my Monday and Friday volunteering at the library and the Jackson House. I will also commute for the once a month book group meeting.

We will have to see how the Trivia nights at Brew Ridge Taps work out.

Doctors and Houses

This is a busy week for medical stuff. First, I was supposed to finish my 30-day heart monitoring tomorrow, but I ended it yesterday. The leads, especially the top one, were greatly irritating my skin. The top one had begun to break the skin in a few spots. So I called my doctor's office and informed them that I was terminating the process and would be mailing it back immediately for analysis. So I did.

Later in the afternoon, my wife had a doctor appointment to discuss why she hasn't been able to smell or taste for about six months. She is scheduled for a CT scan next week.

This morning I went for my annual renal torso ultrasound for my belly/kidney area to check for any appearance of the cancer I had in my bladder several years ago. So far, so good. I'll know in a few days, but I have an appointment with my urologist next week to discuss things.

Friday I have to return to the local hospital for another scan or ultrasound - I'm not sure - to look at my lower right leg where the bee stung me last week. My foot and ankle swelled up this weekend and my doctor put me on 3-days of Prednisone and ordered the scan to check for blood clots. Interesting I have to wait for this for three days. Oh, I forgot to mention I went to see him yesterday about this. 

Between medical appointments, we're looking at new places. We had one locally yesterday, and tomorrow we had three in the Staunton/Fishersville area. Hopefully, by the end of the week, we should have it sorted out. 

Synchronicity or Coincidence?

I don't know whether synchronism or coincidence or some other word best fits what happened today when I thought of them, but two events happened that fit that deinition - whatever it is.

The first was as I was thinking about yesterday's post about lost friends from Vietnam. I remembered that Paul Urquhart went missing on 28 May 1971. Yesterday, Memorial Day was Monday, 28 May.

This afternoon we were looking at a house for rent in a neighboring development. I thought I remembered one of the women I work for at the SJH said she was going to move into the development. When I called her and asked, she said she was moving into an address that was TWO DOORS DOWN FROM THE HOUSE WE WERE LOOKING AT!

Amazingly, I see these things if not daily, very very often. I still don't know what to properly call them. 

But then, someone once said, "There are no coincidences."

Memorial Day 2018

A quiet day today. Thought about lost friends and soldiers. Two in particular; John Yeatts, a Cav soldier I served with in the 14th ACR in Germany before deploying to Vietnam; and Paul Urquhart, a W&J classmate, a LOH pilot shot down in May 1968. He is still listed as MIA.

This year when I went to buy my poppy, the lady asked me if I wanted the Vietnam poppy. I asked if it was new this year and she said that it came out last year. I hadn't seen it before. I bought it this year but will go back to the standard red poppy next year. We don't need a different poppy for each war.

Stonewall and Elvis

A picture from last evening's Staff Recognition Dinner for the Stonewall Jackson House.

It was great fun. Scott and Barbara, who I have worked shifts with at the SJH, are also team members on the Deeds Alone Trivia Team as well as members of the Books & Brews Reading Group. There are several others from the SJH that share one or both memberships as well. Barbara volunteers with me at the local library. 

As you can see, I am not posting daily anymore. I have decided that I will post when I have something to say or report. I was stressing out trying to keep up with a daily post. If it works out that I have something to say, then I will; otherwise, you will see sporadic posts.

That is all; Elvis has left the building!

Sunday and the birds are still here

We still have a little robin around; at least, it was this morning. It hung around on our porch, then later got up on our grill. Momma Robin even had to bring it some food. Maybe it was afraid of flying away. Later, it disappeared and hasn't returned.

It rained quite a bit last night, but today has been sunny. The next three days are forecasted to be mainly wet. Hopefully, by Thursday we can grill out. We haven't been able to use the grill since the robins took over the porch!

Flown the Coop!

The robins have gotten their flying wings and all four have left the nest! When we first looked out, we saw Mama Robin talking to two of them on the wooden fence.

We thought those were the first two, but when we had a chance to sneak a peek at the nest, all were gone.

Afterward, we saw them trying to fly higher and longer. Mama and Papa Robin were hovering over them. Hopefully, they will be fine. 

It's awfully quiet out there now, but it will be nice to get our porch back. I know Allie Cat is excited. 

And we will be able to grill once it stops raining later this week.

We're Hot in Trivia & Weather!

We won again! This is either the third or fourth in a row! To be honest, one of those earlier times was a tie with a four-man team from W&L. After five runoff questions, it was declared a tie. Last evening we only missed five questions and won by two over about a dozen teams.

This time we did it with two subs (very good subs I might add) and only five team members instead of the six maximum we are allowed. It seems we always have the right kind of mix.
The folks from Seven Arrows Brewery in Waynesboro are behind us. We won t-shirts from them as well as some empty growlers!

Today was not as hot, but it was more humid. It's supposed to get worse humidity-wise all week and into the weekend.

The robins are shaking the nest! I expect take-off shortly!