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.

It's Been Awhile

I was surprised when I came to my blog this afternoon. I last came here in ten days ago! I knew it had been a while since I had visited it, but I thought it was only a few days. But in my defense, I have been busy. 

I have been reading quite a bit and posting my Olympic torch story on Facebook.

I've also been busy finding books to read next. It may be that I will have to venture out into the garage.

Weekend Sports

 Writing yesterday about my reading caused me to overlook all of the sports that took up most of my television viewing this past weekend.

Sunday was the final day of the English Premier League football (soccer for us Americans) season. Manchester City won it again on the last day to claim its fourth straight championship. This is a record in itself. And six in the past seven years. Arsenal was second. My Tottenham was fifth. I hoped for fourth place, but my Aston Villa took that spot. Newcastle was 7th and West Ham 9th. All in all, a good showing for my favorite teams.

The golf PGA championship was this past weekend with Xander Schlaffle (a favorite) beating Brian DeChamboux (a LIV golfer) by one stroke to win at 20 under par. It was his first major championship win.

And finally, the Men's NCAA Lacrosse Quarterfinals were this weekend as well. The semis will be this Saturday with Notre Dame(1) vs. Denver(5), and Virginia(6) vs. Maryland(7). The final match will be Monday, the 27th.

I don't know if there is any golf, but I suspect so.

Reading Update

I've made some changes to my reading. A few days ago I began reading a spy novel by Anthony Price, a favorite of mine. He wrote during the 1970s and '80s. The stories usually involved Cold War intrigue between Britain and the Russians, sometimes a mid-East nation. The central character was almost always a British agent named David Audley, a civilian with serious credentials of historical expertise in British history. 

The current book I'm reading is "War Game" and involves recently recovered gold from about the 1640s and Oliver Cromwell and the King. It has rekindled my interest in English History which I majored in at college.

I have decided to add another book to my current reading. It is one of three by the author C.V. Wedgwood. It's called The King's Peace 1637-41.

Reading the history book will be somewhat tricky because I am also reading Peter Ackroyd's first volume of his history of England, titled "Foundation". 

The 300-year difference between the two books requires me to adjust my concentration, but it's interesting to jump between the two time periods. Add to these books the spy story about lost gold round during the present day - 1970's - and I feel a lot like Michael J. Fox in the "Back to the Future" series!

PA Trip and Miscellany

 We got back this morning from our quick trip to Pennsylvania for our youngest daughter's wedding. It was a very small private affair with just the parents of the bride and groom. The mayor officiated. Josh's stepfather built a very nice altarpiece and had it in the front yard. Josh's mom decorated it.

We went out for dinner afterward to a very nice restaurant near the Hagerstown, Maryland airfield. The inside was very impressive with all of the aviation decor. The food was impressive as well.

We came home this morning with a stop at our favorite bagel store in Stephens City, Virginia. The Everything bagels are huge and taste like the ones from NYC and New Jersey. It rained most of the way back.

I spent this afternoon napping, watching golf (the PGA Championship), and reading. Tomorrow is the final day of Premier League Soccer matches at 1100 am. Then none until August. 

Tomorrow is the final round of the PGA and also the quarter-finals of NCAA lacrosse.

Writing and a Book Review

 I reviewed a few pages of the book I'm writing and made some corrections. I will probably make some more as I begin to write more seriously. At this point, they were only ink changes on the printout. I did not make them on the saved copy on the laptop. 

I finished the library book I've been reading for the past few days. The title is The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.

It was an interesting read. It's essentially about a young woman, Nora, who is very depressed with her life so she visits her old high school librarian who is working in this special library that contains books on alternative choices to one's life, allowing that person to go live that alternative life to see if they would like it better. But this all must be done just a few minutes before midnight, otherwise the person will die.

Getting past this strange premise, Nora tries several of her past alternatives but finds none that she likes. Getting ever closer to midnight - the seconds are ticking down and we are now under a minute - she finally finds one she likes. But because of things she can't control and I'm not clear about, Nora almost dies. In the end, she is saved by (secret) and comes to realize that maybe life is okay as is.

I like the book but I'd read it again if I wanted to really understand it. I would look into the philosophy behind it in more detail. But I am going to see if I can apply a few things to my life.

Probably no blog tomorrow - traveling to PA for Sabrina's wedding. I will attempt to write when we return on Saturday.

Griz

Griz

Grizzly, or as we all knew him, Griz, was put down today. He was 15 years old, and dying of cancer. He was Sabrina's dog. He was here when Summer was born.

He was a good dog and loved his family - Sabrina, Summer, Serenity, and even Josh. But he loved Sabrina the most.

Where they lived - a second-floor apartment with 19 outside stairs - it was difficult for him to get outside. He had a chain leash that would allow him to go down the stairs by himself, do his business in the grass, smell around a little, and then come back up the stairs.

Once in a while when he was younger, he would get to go to the park and run around in the dog exercise area. But he was a handful for Sabrina. Over the past several years, he didn't get to go anywhere where he could run.

His diet was terrible. He ate anything. Yet it never bothered him. Sabrina made him a sandwich today while waiting for the vet to come to the house - he was too big for Sabrina to take him. And she had both girls at home as well.

We would always bring him a toy and a box of treats when we came to visit. He would destroy the toy by the time we left a few hours later. The treats lasted longer.

Goodbye, Ol' Buddy. See you on the other side of Rainbow Bridge.

Deja Vu All Over Again

 It seems like I keep returning to this same topic - catching up. I've spent the last several days organizing my files on the laptop and the thumb drive. I wanted to do some writing on my book, but by the evening I was too tired to do anything but read.

I have done some re-reading of my old blog posts and am amazed at how well I sound (in writing). I can see that I have lost some of that ability ignoring the blog. Hopefully, I can quickly pick it up again. 

I did find a list of blog topics that I wanted to write about. It's dated March of 2022 so probably not many have been written about yet.

I did read some more in Moby-Dick (from now on, I will abbreviate it as MD). The chapters are very short. though today's was an exception. It was where the narrator meets Queennog (sp?) for the first time. It was quite a hilarious meeting. They have to share a bed in the Pub - not really unusual back then.

I gave up on the map thief book - actually, it was called The Map Thief - because of all of the minute details about the early maps and the mapmakers. I will re-read my own book, The Island of Lost Maps, again. I enjoyed the first time and am considering it for my third mystery selection. 

An Old Document From 2016 - Before the Blog

Going through my saved documents on my memory stick this afternoon, I found this document. I thought I'd post to the blog since it was written before COVID started.

6 February 2016

My new exercise passion is Pickleball. It’s a combination of tennis, ping pong, and badminton with shades of racquetball thrown in. Played with a paddle resembling something between a ping pong paddle and a racquetball racquet, on a court about half the size of a tennis court, with a baseball-size whiffleball, it was invented in the Pacific Northwest back in the 1960’s by some enterprising young adults who wanted something different to do one day. Today it is played across the country, primarily by the older generation, and especially around retirement communities and other locations where such geriatric folks find themselves.

I got into it last October when I saw an ad about a “pickleball open house” in the local weekly newspaper. So a good friend, Chuck, and I decided to try it out. And we got hooked. So hooked since that time I have suffered black toe from too small shoes and a shoulder injury from swinging the paddle. The shoulder is still injured from falling on the ice after a recent snowfall. I haven’t played in three going on four weeks. I’ve tried to stay in the mindset by watching YouTube videos.

My stamina and breathing are better, it helps my knees, and helps keep the weight off. We play two mornings each week, Tuesdays and Thursdays, for about an hour and a half each time. I usually get in 4-5 games, which last from 5-15 minutes each, usually averaging about 9-10 minutes. It all depends on the competition. Usually, my games are shorter since of the about 40 members, I am decidedly the worst, or as I call it, the least skilled of all of them.

The uniform is modest. Just sweats or shorts, a T-shirt, and some tennis shoes are all one needs. I often wear a ball cap since my hair is not washed before I go in the mornings and it tends to scare the others. I also wear a baseball glove for my paddle hand since I do sweat a lot. When it is cold, I wear the pair. We play indoors at the pavilion complex at W&L where the college plays volleyball and similar sports. This is during the winter. When it gets warmer during the summer, we will play on VMI’s tennis courts.

Secretly, I hope this will eventually lead to my return to running. But that’s another story.

Some Changes to the Schedule; Mish-Mash

 Several changes have to be made to my/our schedule. 

Sabrina told us yesterday that she and Josh are getting married next Friday, the 17th, by the mayor. It will be at the home of Josh's parents. No other guests will be there. We will go up that morning, stay the night, and drive home early Saturday morning.

I changed my haircut appointment from the 17th to tomorrow. The car got serviced today. It needed new tires and several other things. The total bill was just under $1900!  And we just sold the Saturn yesterday to a local Kia dealership for $1500 yesterday! Unbelievable.

With the additional we just spent on the car plus giving a money gift for the kids, there will likely be no savings this month.

Reading-wise, I am getting into a groove of sorts and will be discussing the books here in the coming days. I'll be introducing them first. I am reading volume 1 of a four (so far) set history of England by Peter Ackroyd. I enjoy his writing. He does put a lot of information in whatever he is writing about, but I enjoy. Volume 1 is titled FOUNDATION and begins with the early Vikings, Saxons, and Romans, and goes to the first Tudor kings.

With the other books I am reading, I get to it about every 2-3 days. So far, it's workable. And I have two library books I am reading.

Still need to work on my writing, however. Don't know why I am putting it off.

Today was change the sensor day for the Fibrelyte 3 diabetes sensor. Every 14 days.

More tomorrow about the Saturn (the car we sold).

Reading Update

 I finished my book club book last night. It was titled "The Girl with a Clock for a Heart". I enjoyed it. It is a complicated (at least to me) mystery in two time periods, 20 years apart. The ending was a surprise with a twist I did not see coming. It's a June read, so I am returning it to the library for now and will attempt to get it again before we meet to help me answer the questions.

For now, I am reading an old paperback (1966) about a man who lost his sleep center in the brain, consequently, he doesn't sleep. It is a tongue-in-cheek mystery about lost gold, the IRA, and other extremist groups. I should finish it in a couple of days. By then I will have picked up another book or two from the library I want to read.

If I have time before dinner I plan to organise my writing notes. I don't know if I said anything before, but I am going to attempt to write that novel, but only for a hobby not for selling.

I still have Foundation by Peter Ackroyd and Lincoln on Democracy Mario Cuomo on my reading shelf and have just added The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell and The Mystery of Courage by William Ian Miller. The courage book is one I've read twice before.

I talked to Jerry this morning and will spend some time in the next day or so updating here.

A Good Day

 It was a good in that I was able to finish my putting my Vietnam photos into a special small album that I can keep on my desk.

The rubber band is only for extra protection to keep the photos inside. The motto Animo et Fide is Latin for "Love and Faith". This was the motto of the unit - 7th Squadron, 1st Air Cavalry. I was initially assigned as the troop/company commander of D Troop. It was called Powder Valley for the radio call sign.

I may have others but these represent the bulk of my memories. I was there from January 4, 1969, to December 23, 1969. I got a week or so drop because of Christmas.

Other than that, I didn't do much. I did talk to Barbara, a good friend from the Jackson House, who volunteered with me. She still does. We also volunteered at the Lexington Library which she also still does. She and her husband, Scott, have been friends since we came to Virginia in 2010.

I didn't get to read today so hopefully can do so later.

Recovering

 Continuing to recover from my dental procedure. I am eating soft foods along with some crunchy foods - a cookie, for example. I haven't tried a sandwich yet - that will be a few days from now - but did eat some Spam meat and a slice of cheddar cheese, both cut into small bites. I cut them up to make it easier to put into the right side of my mouth. I don't want to try to pull the food apart with my teeth yet.

I'm getting into the May book club selection, The Girl with a Clock for a Heart. This will be a change for me since I have not particularly enjoyed the selections this year. 

I put another book on hold at the library today. It's about a man who stole maps from distinguished libraries in the early 2000's. It's different from the one I may choose for my third book this year - The Island of the Lost Maps.

I did another 24 Vietnam photos today. Hopefully I can finish the album by the end of the weekend. I am throwing some away.

I'm still not sure of what I want to write - a novel/mystery or a memoir. I certainly have enough information to write the latter, several times over if I decide to. I did start a Graphic Trees notebook to help with ideas.

Gooing to close now and look over some of my writing notes.

My Dentist Visit

 Well, it was a success. I had four front-bottom teeth that were bad and had to come out. Actually, one had fallen out about a month ago on its own. It took all of 20 minutes to numb the area, pull the teeth, and get me out of the chair. Now I have to wait until at least May 30 - my next appointment - to be molded for a partial. The partial will be anchored on each side by the canine tooth still present. 

The first challenge of course will be to relearn to eat without any front teeth to pull apart the bread of a sandwich, or just help move the food around inside my mouth.

Update and Upcoming

 Whatever it was that Laid me low last week left and we were able to out to a 34th wedding anniversary dinner on Saturday, a day late of the actual date, the 26th. We went to Staunton to a restaurant we last ate at in 2010 when we first moved to Virginia. It is called Aioli and was very good. I had a blackened tuna steak. Lisa had a filet. We'll definitely go back before another 14 years - I would be 94 if for no other reason!

Today is a major crisis for me. I have a dentist visit to have three front-bottom teeth pulled. They have become bad and loose. It was originally four teeth, but one fell out about six weeks ago. To say I am nervous is to say the least. I hate going to the dentist - which is probably a major reason these teeth must come out now. I will be getting a partial in about 4-6 weeks.

I have just begun reading Moby-Dick. Let's see if I stay with it. I'm also reading two other fiction books - The Girl with a Clock for a Heart by Peter Swanson, and A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. The first one is for the mystery book club at the end of May.

I began again to place my Vietnam photos into a small album. A few each day. Maybe I can finish it in a month or so.

Now I have to get ready for the trip to the dentist. Results here maybe tomorrow.

From the Sick Bed

 I've been ill since Monday. Began with an upset stomach and quickly turned into diarrhea and throw-up. Still have got an upset stomach and am not hungry. I'm having to watch my blood sugar. 

I'm not going to write any more now. I feel very tired.

Road Trip

 We went to PA (actually Hagerstown, MD) to visit Summer for her 10th birthday. We met them at Ready, Set, Play. It's an arcade where children can play on slides and climbs, as well as arcade games that can earn tokens for prizes at the end of the visit. We did this last year and Summer enjoyed it a lot. This is an alternative to visiting at Sabrina's home that has 19 outside steps which I can't navigate anymore.

Summer is on her left. On the right is Aria, one of her very best friends from almost at birth. She doesn't get to see her very much anymore. Aria was very sickly as a child and was very much smaller than Summer. As you can see she grew!

Lisa also saw Serenity and played with her for a little while. Serenity turned 2 years old last November. 

All in all, it was a good visit though both of us are very tired; Lisa because she did all the driving, and me because I slept very little last night.

We ate some snacks and a slice of pizza while we were there. For dinner, we're having a small pizza!

Tomorrow I need to catch up on my English Premier League football (soccer) and golf. And try to sort through my writing folder.

Cleaning Up

 I have spent the past two afternoons going through my desktop file folders attempting to clean them up. The ultimate goal is to find all of the notes I have written about writing my so-called novel and other writings. I have only one more folder left - "My Book".

I'll try to work on it Sunday - we're going to PA for the day to celebrate Summer's 10th birthday - and finish things to the point where I am ready to begin treating my writing as a hobby and not trying to write the Great American Novel. I know that the preceding sentence is a terrible one. It is much too long. This is going to be one of the goals of my writing. To improve it. 

I'm also going to work on a notebook  I've titled "Memory Trees". I will attempt to show a picture of what I mean.

I'll talk more about this device in another post.

WhatAll

 Not really an original word I know, but it should convey the message I want and need for today. I have several things in the fire so-to-speak and wish I could say I've been busy, but in reality, I have been spending too much time napping during the day. 

I am not getting much sleep in bed at night. This is primarily due to not being able to lay on my right hip for any more than about two hours before I have to get up and go lie in my recliner chair. Before you ask, no I cannot lay on my left side for a variety of reasons.

I am still planning on trying to make an origami crane today. We'll see if it happens.

I also want to begin sorting the physical papers and files I have with my writing. I mentioned before that I decided to make my attempts at writing a hobby instead of attempting to write for money.

Come and Gone

 Well, my birthday came and went. There were some plusses and some minuses. 

I got my raw oysters - we went to a late lunch in nearby Stauntan to eat at The Blue Point, a seafood restaurant. We ate there once before; I think it was last year. I got a dozen oysters and then ordered fish and chips - another favorite.

The oysters were good. The fish and chips not so much; the fish was haddock and was one large piece and was overcooked. I had a Heniken non-alcoholic beer. But the worst part of all was that service was SO VERY SLOW. It wasn't poor, just slow.

On top of that, Saturday in the town meant the restaurants served lunch and dinner in the street. That meant finding another place to park from the usual one we used. That meant a longer walk. On uneven brick sidewalks. Oh, and did I say we forgot the exact location? Well, we did. Consequently, we had to retrace our steps on the streets.

On the positive side, I did receive over 200 birthday wishes and have spent the past two days answering them on Facebook with a simple "Thanks ....". 

I didn't get any presents (I got my tablet days earlier!), but did get a few cards. All in all, not so very memorable. 

Enough for now; have to get cleaned up to go buy a walker before this weekend (will explain in the next post).

A New Hobby Redeux?

 A couple of days ago - Wednesday, in fact - I mentioned that I would try to make an origami figure. Well, I haven't yet. But I have thought of ANOTHER hobby to start - writing a novel!

I have tried to write one before, always with the intention of writing the Great American Novel. But it has always fallen short. This time I am writing with a difference. It is completely for enjoyment, not for money. I've thought of several different genres but always worried about whether it is good enough to sell. I realize now that I don't have the writing ability to develop fiction well enough to make a book. So I am going to write for myself.

It won't be part of this blog. I might make another blog for it. Or I could keep it private and let it be a Word document. I already have a few Word documents that are notes, first chapters, and miscellaneous jottings to work from. I will start from there. Regardless, I think I will give it a try.

Tomorrow is coming closer.

A New Hobby?

 Somehow  last night I decided to try a new hobby, or at least a one-off. I'm going to try origami. I was going to say that I don't remember how I came up with the idea, but I just remembered. One of the NY Times games I play each morning in Connections. Combing four words together by some "connection" from a 4x4 matrix, one has to look for the answers for 16 words total.

 Yesterday one word was crane. When I Googled it one of the pictures showed a paper crane. I did a little reading about it and thought I would try it. I'll let you know how it comes out.

Good News for the Book Club

 I had a test run on my new tablet this morning and it works perfectly on Zoom! Can't wait until the meeting so I can actually participate instead of just listening to the other members.

Talking about the book club, I am reading next month's selection, Cover Her Face by P.D. James. I read the first fifteen pages yesterday, but there were so many characters that I stopped reading until I could prepare a character list. I did so this afternoon. It helps; slows the reading down a little but worth it.

In other news, I am going to try my hand at origami. I found some instructions online early this morning. I'm going to attempt a crane. It looked pretty straight forward.

My blood sugar seems to be coming down a tad. Using the FreeStyle Fibre 3 reader helps me see where it is anytime I want. And that is good. My Glucose Management Index I think that's what it is called) is 6.8 % for the last week, or 7 days. For the last 14 days, 6.9. I can't tell you how long I've had average readings this low. My appointment is in mid-May, so I am very excited.

Reading several books as usual, but not getting very far on any of them. Maybe I should briefly make a comment or two on the blog. That might spur me. We'll see.

Enough for now; I really need to do some serious writing about GTD. Maybe tomorrow.

Day of the Eclipse

 This day has finally arrived. And Good Riddance! It's as if we haven't seen an eclipse before. Maybe because it passed over so much of the US, millions would be able to see it instead of the relatively few who usually get to see one.

Because of cloud cover in our area, the event was a non-event. I didn't even go outdoors. Wife went out but didn't really see anything. 

I have a Zoom meeting appointment with Dave B. tomorrow morning to try out my new tablet. Hopefully, this will solve my problems with the rest of the members when we meet to discuss our book of the month. Stay tuned for this.

I finished the Sheehan book just before midnight last. I entered it into my  Goodreads account, but have not purposely written a review other than to say "I will write one in a day or so". A lot to digest. For one thing, I didn't realize he actually was writing it as he was dying. The epilogue was written by his son, George Sheehan III (He and his wife had twelve children). There is a lot to digest in the book. It will take time. And I need to be thinking about my life journey.

Going the Distance

 I will be 80 in one more week. Next Saturday. I've been reading George Sheehan's book Going the Distance which he wrote just before he died in 1993 of prostate cancer. His family published it in 1996. I bought it at that time. I had always been a fan of his - his writing especially. 

I have several of his books. I went to listen to him give a presentation in 1978 the day before I ran my first real race, the Kansas City Half-Marathon, in - you guessed it - Kansas City, MO.

All of his books are at least partly about running but are also about philosophy. This one is more so since it is about him as he dies of prostate cancer. I thought it would be an appropriate book to read as I approach my birthday. He was 74 when he died. One of the reasons I wanted to read it was to see if I could discover the real reason I stopped running - and then walking - and have essentially settled into a very sedentary lifestyle which is not healthy.

More later...

Hello Again

 This is just an experiment to see if I remember how to use the blog and post to it. Some things will be different - fewer photos. More about books. And more about the end of times - my times. No, I am not dying. But I am getting old. And since two years ago, some things have significantly changed. But more about them in future posts. Right now, I just wanted to re-establish my connection with the blog.

I will be 80 in less than a month. I have been trying to come up with things to go to, to do, and maybe even get. It's harder than you might think. 

Until next time.