Wondering about the great Halloween CME.

What is a CME?  These letters stand for "Coronal Mass Ejection".  It seems that our sun is now quite active with a lot of active sunspot regions that is generating a lot of solar flares and result is  series of CMEs.  Some will sweep past the Earth and some will deliver a glancing blow.  So, if your cell phones or your satellite TVs start acting goofy, you will know what is causing it.  But today, to help celebrate Halloween, we may take a direct hit.  There was an eruption from an Earth-facing sunspot on Monday.  Here are a couple of pictures of them taken from the SOHO satellite:

 

 

OK, do you want to know more about them?  If not, stop reading and go to some other blog.  If you do, just read on. . .

CMEs are quite fast.  They travel out into space from the sun at about 2000 miles per second, that is 7.2 million miles per hour.  I bet you can't outrun them, even in a really fast car or jet or rocket.  They can also contain ten billion tons of mass.  Imaging being punched in the face with that much mass.

Of course, if we do take a direct hit, the part of the world closer to the poles will be affected the most.  Canada and northern US, England, Europe, etc will get the strongest affects.  But, even though this is Halloween, make sure you treat all those ghosts and goblins with a lots of real sweet candy and have a great day, you hear? 

Wondering about superstition.

Are you superstitious?  I am not sure if I am or not.  I always said that I wasn't but somewhere deep down inside, I am sure that there is at least a very small shred of it clinging on.  Go to this list:
http://discovermagazine.com/2013/oct/23-20-things-you-didnt-know-about-superstition#.UnEqAvmkrGU

Now, look at number 13.  What it means to me is that the more intelligent a person is the less superstitious that person is.  Of course it had to be listed as number 13 and that is very, very unlucky, right?

This picture was taken from that site and it looks like the perfect place to take a long walk at midnight on Halloween.  You all go there and I will meet you there. . .(a sly grin).

We are getting a lot of rain here.  Maybe for the first time in many years my whole swamp/pond area will get filled. . . and maybe not.  I will let you know about that, of course, after the rain stops and it dries out a little. 

Wandering out to do KP on the RV.

Yesterday was such a nice day, so I went out and did KP duty on the RV.  Actually, "KP" duty is "Kitchen Duty", but I sort of use the term loosely to mean any kind of cleaning or maintenance duty, but the main reason is it rhymed with RV.  The most important thing I wanted to do was dump the fresh water tank and refill with fresh water.  It took a long, long time for the RV to pump out the fresh water since the hundred gallon tank was almost completely full, so that gave me time to open all the compartments, check what was in everything, move some things around, and make sure everything was stored right for going on down the road.

Here are some pictures I took while I was playing working on the RV.  The first one is looking down the curb side from the rear with all six storage doors open.  The rear three open up but the rear two only open up to the horizontal position so the slides can clear.  That is the reason the front three open like doors.  The middle one is between the two curb side slides and can open the whole way.

Now this next one is looking from the rear down the driver's side.  The first compartment from the front (shown closed in this picture) is the propane tank.  The next one is for the huge rolling table that can be pulled out either side of the RV.  It is the full width of the vehicle so my fishing poles fit in it just fine.  The next one is the water system and the last one to the rear is the electric system.

 And of course you couldn't go down the road without a motor.  Hidden deep in the rear of the RV is the yellow colored Cat Engine.  Can you see it down in there?

The diesel generator is located in the front of the RV.  When it is not running while driving down the road, all you can hear is some wind noise.  Of course, in the heat of Texas it is usually running so that both roof air conditioners can run while traveling.  That way, all of the RV can be kept nice and cool.  The AC's also have heating elements, but if it gets real cold, you would want to run the furnace to keep the basement from getting to freezing temperatures.

Everything checked out, now if I can only get all my doctor appointments completed, we can hit the road, probably to a Texas State Park.  Hope you enjoyed the tour of the exterior of my RV and you all have a great day, you hear?

Wondering, "Do you want some arsenic with that?"

"Arsenic"; that word conjures up all kinds of murder mysteries.  In all the old books and movies, it seemed that arsenic was the poison of choice.  The name itself gives its nature away, it was derived from the ancient Greek "arsenikon" which meant "potent".  It was used to describe arsenic trioxide which can be lethal at 100 milligrams which is about a fifth of a teaspoon.  Since it is tasteless and odorless, it made one of the most frequently used homicidal poisons in history, and of course, in fiction.  So, do you want some arsenic with that?

Well, of course you don't but you may getting it anyway.  We get it in our food supply.  Do you eat any rice?  A lot of the U.S. rice crop is grown in fields that contain arsenic-based pesticides once used on cotton crops.  The pure element arsenic can and does mix with many compounds, some organic and some inorganic.  (Organic means containing carbon and inorganic would be everything else.)  And guess what?  It doesn't take much to start causing trouble.  And even in an amount comparable to one drop in a swimming pool over time can cause deadly affects, like cancer, etc.

It used to be that the health officials only worried about arsenic in drinking water, but now, they are finding it in a lot of our food.  The really scary part is that it is showing up in jars of baby food.  We sure have poisoned our Earth, haven't we?  I sure hope I haven't ruined your appetite.  I am getting hungry, so will have to go get my daily dosage of arsenic.  Now, you all have a great day, you hear?

Wondering about a header picture.

Last night I got thinking that since most all blogs have a header picture, mine should have one, too.  Now, what the heck should put up there as a header picture.  My beautiful face. .  Heck no, I don't want to scare off any more readers than my writing and spelling does.  Well, most of the spelling gets corrected by the spelling checker and my wife reads it soon after it is posted and always tells me what words I misspelled, misused, or should not be used in that particular case.

I went through all my pictures from the last couple of years and finally decided on one that I took when I visited Ink's Lake State Park back about a year ago.  So that is what I did.  I can always change it later if I want to, but for now I think it will do.

In case you haven't heard yet, the Orange Jeep Dad has kept his string of bad luck going.  The house that he and his family moved into burned down along with everything they had including their two vehicles.  You may want to go to his site and check it out: http://orangejeepdad.blogspot.com/   I guess from now on he will have to change his blogging name to "Charred Jeep Dad", but to be serious, I hope all works out for him.

Let me know if that header picture is OK or give suggestions for what you like to see as header pictures on sites.  Now you all have yourselves a great day, you hear?

Wondering about the flea market and found a friend.

Yep, the weekend is here and of course we went to the flea market.  In the second row of outside sheltered tables that we walked through, I found this friend:

Ain't she cute?  It is a puppet.  You stick you hand up her in the hole in her lower back, put your thumb in her left arm, your little finger in her right arm, and the remaining fingers in her head.  I sat her in the crook of my left arm with her feet hanging over.  As I walked through the rest of the flea market, I would animate her and wave at everyone, especially the kids.  I would also clap her hands and try to make her look very life like.  I actually did fool a few people.

It was worth the effort.  I got lots of laughs and comments.  I just love to see people smile and laugh.  I guess I missed my calling. . . should have been a comedian.  You see, at my age I don't care if some people think I am stupid or crazy.  In fact, it is way too late to change me and I don't care!!  I want to make the time I have left a happy time.  Like the guy says on "Duck Dynasty", "happy, happy, happy."  BTW, my dogs did not like the monkey.  Guess I got to get this monkey off my back and hide it from the pups or it will be a pile of fluff and bits and pieces of cloth and hair.  I wonder if they are jealous or just think it is a new toy for them?  In case you are wondering, our pups have many, many, many toys.  It is another perfectly beautiful day her in East Texas and I hope it is nice where you are, too.  So, have yourself a great Saturday, you hear?

Wondering about some old jokes.

Don't know why, but I woke up this morning with some old, old jokes in my mind.  Of course, by the time I got out of bed, dressed, and got my computer turned on, I forgot most of them.  These are all so old that maybe none of you remember them.  I am going to tell you a couple anyway.

The Indian Chief was invited to go to Washington to see the president on the iron horse.  He was hesitant about getting on that fire and smoke breathing monster, but they assured him all would be well and that he would have all the comforts of home.  So he agreed to go only if he could take his squaw with him.  That too was agreeable.  After a couple of hours into the trip, the Chief got thirsty and had his squaw go get him a cup of water.  He drank it and said it was really good and to go get him another.  She did and he said he could use one more.  This time she came back without any.  He inquired why she didn't have any water and she said that someone was sitting on the well!!!

Another old joke is about the woman who had three germs living in her stomach and they made her feel ill, so she went to the doctor.  He asked her a lot of questions, especially if she went to the bathroom regularly.  She replied that she was very regular and went every morning at seven fifteen.  He couldn't find anything wrong but gave her an antibiotic.  Later the three germs started feeling the affects of the medicine.  The first one said he was leaving the stomach and going to the liver.  The second one said he was going to go to the heart.  The third one said he didn't care where the heck the other two were going, that he was taking the 7:15 out of here!!

I better quit, cause they don't get any better. . .  I just wonder how old these jokes are.  I have been telling them for probably close to 40 or 50 years or so.  Well, I hope I at least put a little grin on your lips this morning.  Have a great day today and be careful of that well water, it may leave three germs in your stomach, you hear?

Wondering what happened on a certain date.

It is interesting, at least to me, to pick out a date in the past and look up what all happened on that day.  OK, so what date should I start with.  How about the day something very significant occurred in my life.  Let me see, I guess that would be the day I was born.  Then I started to wonder if any body important, besides me (grin), was born on that date.  Wow, the Internet had a huge list!  Some I had heard of and some I had not.  There were five among the many that I immediately recognized.  They are:

Jack Benny
Hugh Downs
Florence Henderson
Jimmy Hoffa
Vic Morrow

Yep, we were all born on Feb. 14, 1943.  Since I am such an important guy, I don't know why my name wasn't listed there.(grin)  I also wondered what made the headlines that day.  It seems the major news headlines were all about the war.  The Soviets recapture their city of Rostov from the Germans.  Then there was a dark side.  The American troops experienced the worst defeat of the entire war, the battle at Kasserine Pass.  Over a thousand American troops were killed and hundreds taken prisoner at the hands of the German General Erwin Rommel!  The world was lucky that Germany didn't have more generals like Rommel.

Well, even though that wasn't a good day in the history of the war for the U.S., it was great day for my parents who had been wanting a baby for many years.  I guess I was worth waiting for (grin).  Now, why don't you all search the Internet and see what all happened the day you where born?  Whatever you do, make sure you have a great day, you hear?

Wondering if America was attacked in WW2.

I was always under the impression that the United States homeland was never attacked by either the Japanese or the Germans in World War 2.  Well I was wrong.  Just this morning I came across an article that told that we were.  On the west coast, California, Oregon, and Washington, were all attacked by the Japanese during 1942.  The Bankline Oil Refinery at Glorieta in Southern California was hit by thirteen shells on Feb. 23 that were fired from a Japanese submarine.  It only caused damage to one well.  A Japanese sub then fired on the Columbia River harbor defenses in Washington State on June 21.  The next day the military depot at Fort Stevens, Oregon, was shelled.

Deciding to try something different, a Japanese war plane launched from a submarine dropped four incendiary bombs on Mt. Emily and near Brookings in Oregon that started forest fires.  Then, twenty days later, the plane bombed Mt. Emily while the sub sank two tankers off the coast.

The East coast fared a little better.  New York City just got its picture taken.  Yep, in 1944, a German reconnaissance aircraft flew over the city taking pictures of possible bombing targets.  The British code breakers revealed this to the U.S.  Then the U.S. sent waves of bombers to destroy the German aircraft plants where they were building long-range bombers.

Then again, the Japanese air attack on San Francisco, which was used as an excuse to confine Americans of Japanese ancestry, never happened!!  I got this information out of my book "Weird History 101" and I learned something.  I never knew all this and never knew we were actually attacked.  I did know that German subs put spies ashore along the beaches of North Carolina.  The one thing I know for sure is that war is hell and hope that there is never any more.  But that is just a pipe dream.  There will always be "wars and rumors of wars".  Now, let us forget about war and have a very peaceable day, you hear?

Wondering about the gegenschein and other sights.

How many of you know what the gegenschein is?  How many of you have heard about the gegenschein?  I have to admit that I have never heard of it and if I did I would have thought it to be just some unknown German beer (grin).

It didn't take too long for humans to figure out that the lunar eclipse was caused by the earth blocking the sun's light from hitting the moon.  In other words, the moon entered the earth's shadow.  Well the earth also leaves its shadow on other things, like interplanetary dust.  On a clear evening, wait about fifteen minutes after the sun sets and go outside and look opposite from where the sun had set.  If you have a clear view of the horizon, you should see a deep-blue, curved band of darkness that should climb higher at the same rate as the now invisible sun sinks lower.  That is the earth's shadow.

Now, back to the gegenschein.  I have never seen it, or if I did, I didn't realize what I was seeing.  It is only viable in the middle of the night when the sun is half way from sun-up to sun-down.  Neither will you see it if there is a moon, or if it lies too near the bright Milky Way.  It is the very dim brightening of the sky caused by dust particles reflecting the sun's light back at us.  Now, I am going to have to look for it.  That is, if I can stay awake that long.

Below, are a couple of pictures that I found on the Internet showing the gegenschein.  There is too much artificial light and never any really clear nights here where I live.  So, I will have to look for it on a trip, maybe to the west Texas desert sometime: 

Even though you now have all this useless information, just try to have a great day, you hear?

Wondering about a two fast cars.

Way back years ago, before I got married, I bought a car that was my favorite of all the cars that I owned.  It was a 1957 Chevy Convertible.  I have already written a couple of blogs about it, but just in case you forgot what it looked like, here is a picture of me and my Chevy:

 And here is a stock picture I took off the Internet that is in color.

It had a 1960 souped up 283 engine with domed pistons, shaved heads, solid lifters, and the biggest carburetor I have ever seen.  It would turn over 8000 rpms.  I thought it was fast and then we got a visitor.

A high school friend of ours came to see us when he returned from his tour in Vietnam.  While over there, he saved all his army pay and when he got home he bought an XKE Jag.  I don't have a picture of it, but found one live of about the same vintage:

That car was remarkable and after he took me for a ride in it, I was really impressed.  I expected it to accelerate quickly but what really surprised me was when someone pulled out in front of us while we were going about a hundred or so, it stopped so quickly without loosing control.  Seat belt left a bruise.  I was impressed!!  Now, don't speed down life's highway, but take time to smell the roses, you hear?

Wondering about a special person and a cold front.

Before I get into the main part of my blog posting, I want to say that it is COLD out this morning, at least for this part of the country and at this time of year.  It is 43 degrees outside right now as I write this.  Brrrrrrr.

My Aunt passed away last night at 19:30 eastern time.  She was the last of that generation and a grand and wonderful lady who had a great personality and a sharp wit.  She will live on in her seven children (three boys and four girls) and all who knew and loved her.

I am going to post some pictures that I have taken of her over the years.  These first two were at a family reunion back a few years ago:

She had found an old photo of her when she was young and had a T-shirt made up with that picture on the front.  Then she laid down on the grass to duplicate the pose.  She was always willing to go that little extra to please others and give them joy.  We tried to pay back some that by making and sending her cards every day.

This next picture was taken only a few years ago of me and her, but before she fell and broke her hip and then ended up in the nursing home.

The next two were taken the last time I saw her, and that was back before I had the diesel pusher MH.  Not sure exactly when it was.  She was always happy and joking:

She even got me laughing:

And of course my wife was there, too:

She had a long life and because of the person she was, she always seemed to enjoy it.  Now, I hope she is reunited with the rest of the family that has gone on before.  You all please try to have a great day, she would have wanted it that way, you hear?

Wondering about another grooming day.

Yesterday was grooming day for our three pups.  Since our old groomer retired, we have been taking them to a new groomer and they seem to very good at it.  The pups don't seem to mind it too much although I am sure they still give them a hard time.  Our pups make sure the groomers always earn their money (grin).  Anyway, I am going to show you what they look like after we got them home.

 The top two pictures are of our oldest pup, Muffin.  She is jumping up on my wife, who has some treats for them.

The next picture is of all three of them.  It seems the other two discovered that my wife had some goodies.  The one on the left is our male and the one at the top right is the youngest and the one we rescued at an RV park.

 

 I like this last picture.  There are six eyes trained on my wife in anticipation of a treat.  Why is it that dogs always seem to be hungry.  Well, I think I can understand, I like to eat, too.  Well, it is time to head off to the flea market and get some walking exercise and visit with a few friends even though it is a cool, damp morning.  Now, you all have a great day, you hear?

Wondering at the beauty of the clouds.

Yesterday, the clouds seemed to me to be extra beautiful.  As I mentioned in an older post:(http://dizzydick.blogspot.com/2013/09/wondering-about-bob-ross-and-my-dogs.html)
every time my wife sees pretty clouds she says that Bob Ross is up there painting clouds.  The educational channel still runs his painting series.  I never get tired of watching them.  Like my cousin says, he could paint a masterpiece with a large brush used to paint barns.  Anyway, I thought that you would like seeing the clouds that were over my place yesterday.  This first one is looking east:

 This next one is looking directly overhead:

 And looking south west:

And the last one looking west:

 

I took all these pictures within a minute, but looking in different directions.  The whole sky was painted with beautiful and unusual clouds.  It was a magnificent sight for sure!!  That, of course, made my day and I hope you had a good one, too.  Now, you all have a great day and as my Grandpa always said, "Keep looking upwards", you hear?

Wonering what is in our food and a phone call.

Have you ever wondered what is in the food we eat?  You know, the stuff that isn't listed in the "ingredients".  Well I have.  A lot of deadly stuff, like arsenic, is found in soil and then winds up in the food on our table.  I was reading an article in the magazine "Discover" about just that.  It had a list of "Secret Ingredients" that are among the most common found in our food supply.  I don't want to spoil your dinner, but here is that list (shortened a little):

Arsenic

Rice, apple juice, chicken, pet food.

 

Melamine

Baby formula, pet food,

 

Mercury

Seafood.

 

E. coli

Spinach, lettuce, sprouts, bologna, beef, hazelnuts, frozen cookie dough.

 

Salmonella

Cucumbers, sprouts, tomatoes, cantaloupe, chicken, peanut butter, wheat cereals, red and black pepper, and more.

 

Listeria

Cantaloupe ricotta cheese deli meats, soft cheeses, smoked fish.

 

Norovirus

Responsible for almost half of all reported food borne illnesses and is spread by human contact and tainted food and water.

 

 

This list kind of makes you hungry, doesn't it?  We have to be careful what we eat and how we prepare it.

 

 

Got a phone call last night form my cousin informing me that my Aunt (the one we send cards to) had a turn for the worse and is now in intensive care in the hospital.  I am not going to go into any detail, except it doesn't look good and the fix wouldn't be that good either.  But, I want all of you to have a wonderful day today, you hear?

 



Wondering about Sofia.

Sofia is a grand and beautiful lady.  She is a great asset to the science community.  How many of you know Sofia?  Well let me introduce her to you.  No, I'm not talking about Sofia Cappola the actress.

 I mean NASA's plane that is a flying observatory.  Since the government is shut down right now, I couldn't get any picture off the government's NASA web site, so you will have to be satisfied with the few I did find on the Internet.  The picture below is of the Boeing 747 taking off on one of it's excursions to fly at 41,000 feet which is above most all of the water vapor.  Water vapor blocks infrared and this plane carries an infrared telescope.

It has a huge door that opens so the telescope can "see" out into space.   (The big door is on the other side of the plate.)   This was an engineering marvel.  If you just had a big door like that open on an ordinary aircraft in flight it would be catastrophic.  But this plane was specifically designed to be stable with the door open or closed.
 

"SOFIA was based at the U.S. Antarctic Program's airfield in Christchurch, New Zealand from July 12 to August 2, studying the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, star forming regions and supernova remnants in the southern sky, and the Milky Way's companion dwarf galaxies."  A quote from off the Internet.

You all know how much I love space and all the stuff that is out there.  This project which is expected to run for many more years will give me a lot of information that is missing from what I know about what is out there.  Now, I hope you all don't have a too "far out" day, but just have a great day, you hear?

Wondering about food and drink containers.

Remember back when most everything that couldn't be sold as is or in boxes, came in glass containers?  I remember a little town down river from my paternal grandparents' home that had a glass bottle manufacturing factory.  We drove right by it on our way to Grandma's house.  Now it seems that glass containers are getting to be a rarity and plastic has taken over.  Glass was the perfect sanitary container that didn't leach hardly anything bad into the contents.  That is after they lowered the lead levels in the glass.  A lot of older drinking glasses and goblets contained a lot of lead, although, if you just used them for drinking and didn't store anything in them, they should not cause any health problems.

In today's world, most food and liquid containers are made of plastic and newer fresh water plumbing is plastic.  We drink water from plastic bottles and food comes in plastic lined cans.  The average person eats or drinks from some form of plastic container every day.  Therefore there is a worry that people consume way too much BPA which is found in the plastic that bottles and food containers are made from and in the linings of cans.  BPA is known to be a cause of breast and prostate cancers, among other health problems.

There was a scientific study done to see if BPA was as bad as thought and if it did get into your body just from drinking and eating from plastic containers.  Twenty people who switched from canned and plastic-stored foods to fresh items for three days had their BPA levels drop sixty-six percent.  When they went back to their regular diets, their BPA levels shot back up.  This shows that the majority of BPA exposure is from food packaging.  So, what about other types of plastic?  Who knows what health risks are involved with them.  My opinion is that plastics are a product of the modern world and the human body is not equipped to handle the consumption of them, even very small amounts.  Drink from glass containers and have a great day, you hear?

It's a holiday.

Happy Columbus day everyone.  Since I don't have a good subject to expound on, I am not going to post my usual blog today.  But, have a good day today anyway, you hear?

Wondering about the numbe thirteen.

Today is 10-13-13.  Since there are only 12 months in a year, this is the most times the single number thirteen has shown up in a single date since the year 1913.  I guess the record holder would be the thirteenth day of a month in the year 1313.

Some people think that the number 13 brings bad luck, and some don't.  Some also believe that it is doubly bad if the thirteenth day of the month falls on a Friday.  So, why is that number considered unlucky and some other number, say 8, isn't?  How did this all get started?

Well, according to my book "Dictionary of World Folklore", it all got started because there were 13 people present at the Last Supper and Judas Iscariot went out and hung himself.  A very common English superstition holds that if 13 people sit down for dinner one will die before the year is out.

Thirteen is also called the "Devil's dozen".  There is also the Baker's dozen.  The Baker's dozen seemed to have started back when bakers were fearful of being prosecuted for giving short measures of their baked goods.  But don't any of you worry, you are all going to have a great day, you hear?

Part-2 of Wondering to Huntsville State Park.

As I promised yesterday, today I will put on some more of the pictures of Huntsville State Park that I took on last Thursday when we went up there and spent the afternoon walking a trail along the lake.  (Don't forget, you can click on the pictures to enlarge them)

Remember I showed you all the large pine trees?  Well, there were also ferns growing along the path in different places:

 Any low spot where water may be running off the hill and into the lake, had a nice board walk type bridge.  Under these bridges were trolls and alligators and ugly  monsters of all kinds. . .

 

We saw a couple canoeing on the upper part of the lake.  I have spent time with my canoe on this lake, too:

 

This is one of their fishing docks:

 

 And this is the boat ramp and dock:

 

And a picture of part of the lake:

 

Along the shore there were these pretty flowers blooming:

 

A close-up of the sign at the boat dock: 

 

And a sign explaining about the alligators:

 

 

 

Well, that is it for this day trip.  Hope you enjoyed the pictures.  If you are ever in the area, you may want to stay there or at least just go in for part of day.  Now, you all have a great Saturday, you hear?

Wandering a trail at Huntsville State Park.

After lunch yesterday, we decided to head up to Huntsville State Park and take a walk. My wife and I and our youngest dog really enjoyed the walk. I have a yearly Texas State Parks pass and it was such a nice day, why not? This time, we walked an old familiar trail which we had walked a few times before. There are a lot of trails and next time maybe we will try some other ones.

Yes, I took pictures and I will put a few of them on here for you to see. First is an unusual looking tree. I have seen trees with large holes in them but I this one has both a front door and a rear door:

 

Here is our little Gizzy leading the way:

 

 

My wife standing beside a typical large pine tree.  Those are beautiful trees and the State Park preserves them from the logging industry:

 

 

In a partial clearing, the shrubs and bushes can get enough light to survive, too:

 

 

A wading bird stands on the edge of a water lily patch waiting for a fish to come out of hiding:

 

 

Underneath the large pines, nothing seems to grow:

 

The large water plants have about swallowed the wood duck nesting box:

 



In the above picture the dirt at the shoreline has been all dug up.  I wonder if the alligators did that or if wild hogs are involved.  I didn't see any tracks to verify hogs so maybe it was the alligators.

That is all for today.  I plan to put more pictures on but don't want to bore you with too many in one day.  We had a great day and enjoyed it very much.  Now, we want you all to have a great day today, you hear?

Wondering about ways to win a war.

War is Hell!!!  No truer statement has ever been spoken.  Reasons for war are many and varied.  Some are very clear cut reasons and some are a little fuzzy.  I hate war, but some times it is necessary.  So, what does a look back in history tell us about the value of war?  Is it worth all the death and destruction?  I would imagine that these questions have been asked as far back as the beginning of the human race.  The answers would be varied and both the yeas and nays would have good reasons for their answers.

I found three quotes from three different periods of history that, to me, seemed to describe just how unnecessary and stupid war really is.  But I must add that there are times, when all else fails, that we need to go to war.  Here are the quotes.  I will start with the oldest one first:

"In order to win the city, it was necessary to demolish it."

The above quote was by Conquistador Juan Rodriguez de Escabar talking about the destruction of the Aztec capital city, 1521.


"It became necessary to destroy the town in order to save it."

Attributed to an American Army major explaining the bombing and shelling of Ben Tre, South Vietnam, on Feb. 8, 1968.


"We sure liberated the hell out of this place."

An American soldier in the ruins of a French village in 1944.

Why can't we all learn to live together in peace?  Until that time my government and I will stay heavily armed!

It is a cloudy morning around here but that shouldn't keep me from having a "sunny" day.  You all have a great day, too, you hear?

Wondering about the presidents' nicknames.

A lot of our presidents here in the U.S. have had unique nicknames.  I wonder how many of them you know?  I only knew a couple of them, but then, politics is not one of my stronger suits.  Here are a few presidential nicknames:

Richard Nixon - "Tricky Dicky"  He was called that before his illegal activities were known.

Woodrow Wilson - "Peck's Bad Boy"  Because of allegations that he had an affair with Mary Allen Peck.

Benjamin Harrison - "Little Ben"  He was 5'6" tall.  He was also the "White House Iceberg"  because of his icy demeanor.

Grover Cleveland - he had a few, some of which are "His Obstinacy", The beast of Buffalo, and "The Hangman of Buffalo".

Chester A. Arthur - "The Dude President", because of his flashy attire.

Rutherford B. Hayes - "The Usurper" and "His Fraudulency" because they felt the election was rigged.

Ulysses S. Grant - "Grant the Butcher" because of the high number of casualties among his troops during the Civil War.

Franklin Pierce - "Doughface", meaning a Northern man with Southern principles.

James K. Polk - "The Plodder"

John Tyler - "His Accidency" because he became president when Harrison died.  He was also called: "The Accident of an Accident" and "Executive Ass".

William Henry Harrison - "Granny Harrison" and "Old Tip-ler" because his supporters called him "Tippecanoe" and "Old Tip".

John Adams - "King John the Second" since people accused him of being a snob and aristocrat.  He was also called "His Rotundity".

I suppose we can all remember the slogan "I like Ike" when Eisenhower was running for election.  None of the presidents have been immune form the citizens' generated nicknames, not even the current one (but I will not go there).

It is another beautiful morning.  Yesterday was so nice I got most of the grass cut.  Now, you all have a great day, you hear?

Wondering about the speed of light.

I have a problem!!  Sometimes my simple mind can just not wrap itself around some, what seem to me, conundrums.  Some things just don't fit neatly into a slot in my brain.  Then, I just can't stop thinking about it and it keeps bothering me because I just can't explain it in logical terms.

OK, I guess I may have you a little confused about what I am thinking.  Maybe that is because I am a little confused.  Here is my problem.

Einstein said that nothing can travel faster than light.  The speed of light is the speed limit of the universe.  The distance of things that are really far away are expressed in "light years".  A light year is the distance that light travels in a year and should always be a finite number.  Nothing travels faster than light.  (If something did travel faster than light we probably couldn't detect it anyway.)

Now, here is my problem.  Since a lot of us have RVs, let me use one as an example.  Let's say you were sitting beside the road one night and you see a motor-home coming down the road.  You can see inside that motor and there is a kid in it shining a flashlight towards the front of the motor-home.  Now, if this kid were throwing a ball in the same direction, the speed of the ball would be the sum of the speed of the RV and the speed that the ball was thrown.  That seems logical to me, right?  Then if that is correct, the same thing should work if he were shining the flashlight towards the front.  The speed of the beam of light leaving the flashlight should be added to the speed of the RV, just like the ball.  Do you all agree with that?

Well, we would both be wrong.  If we could measure the speed of the flashlight beam from inside the RV and from outside the moving RV, it would measure the same!!  Now that blows my mind, but Einsteins universal speed limit has prevailed.  Now, please, someone explain this to me before my head explodes.  Then both of us will have a great day, you hear?

Refreshing!!

Woke up to a 48 degree morning.  That was refreshing.  Cool and dry (yes, I said dry) air moved in along a front yesterday and must have gotten reinforced during the night.  It was a clear night so there was a lot of heat radiated out to space since no clouds blocked it in.  Both of these things worked together to give me a really wonderful cool morning.  Love it!!  And it is only supposed to get up to 83 at the most.  A specially nice day to be alive.

My son stopped by this morning and had me scan a few things and then email them to his phone.  While he was here he only received one of them.  Don't know where the other two went.  Hope they catch up with him before he needs them.

Not all of us have had such nice weather.  Check out Jill's blog that was posted yesterday: http://jillgoes.blogspot.com/2013/10/trapped-inside-by-snowstorm.html

She and her family are stuck in a hotel without lights and running out of food and water.  They have no heat and a huge winter storm is blowing snow and drifting in the parked cars and making travel impossible.  There dream vacation turned into a nightmare.  If I had a preference, I would much rather prefer to be snowbound in my own RV than in a hotel.  Hope she and her family survive without too much more difficulty and can enjoy their remaining vacation.  Now I hope your day is as great as mine.  If not, try to have a great day anyway, you hear?

Wondering about my new license.

Remember back when I told you about taking the written and driving road test to upgrade my driver's license to be legal driving my RV since its GVW is over 26,000 pounds?  I passed both.  When I went to the post office Friday to get my mail, my new license was there.

I sure do like to sit around with people and talk.  I also, as does Billy Bob, like to tell stories.  Of course, no matter how far fetched my personal stories are, they are absolutely true with out any embellishments.  Got that?  Some people think otherwise.  Some people think that I am full of it; and you know what "it" is!!  Right?  Well, now I have a license that allows me to tell tall tales and a also some bathroom humor mixed in.  I now have a "BM" license!!!  Don't believe me?  OK, here is a picture that I scanned of my new license.  Take a look at the class.  Yep it is BM!!  And you know what those letters stand for. . .
 

 

 Now I can legally tell my stories because I have a license class of BM.  Now I can tell any far fetched stories or any BM, or should I say "BS", that I want to.  All my stories are absolutely true beyond a shadow of a doubt and without any embellishments.  And that is a fact.  Just in case you don't know, the class BM is actually for both a class B license that you need to drive a vehicle over 26000 pounds and the "M" stands for motorcycle.

 

OK, you all have a great day without any bs or bm or anything else to spoil it for you, you hear?





Wondering what caused the outage.

I was awakened in the middle of the night by the alarm going off on my oxygen machine.  It seems that the power had gone off.  Yep, no lights.  I got up and went and turned off my oxygen generator and crawled back in bed.  I wasn't there long until the electric came on.  How did I know?  Well, it seems I must have tried the switch for the over head ceiling light.  OK, got back up, turned on my oxygen machine and went back to bed.  Then as morning was approaching, everything shut back down.

I got up and just had me some almond butter and jelly on crackers for breakfast and, even though the electric was not back on, we headed off to the flea market.  But first, I went around the house unplugging all the electronic items in case there was a surge when it came back on.  When we returned, I heard the outside air-conditioning unit running, so I knew the power was back on.  So, now I have an excuse for posting later than I usually do.

OK, I am hungry, going to get some lunch.  My wife has cooked me up some Louisiana boudin sausage and with a couple of eggs, that will be a great lunch.  Now, you all have a great day, you hear? 

Wandering around the yard.

Yesterday, I noticed some wild flowers growing near to where I leave my Jeep parked.  There they were, just growing along the edge of the driveway.  There were both small yellow flowers and larger bluish purple ones with little white mustaches under their noses.  Here is a picture of both types of flowers:
 

I looked up the name of this unique and beautiful wild flower and found it to be a Butterfly Pea (Centrosema virginianum).  Does the "virginianum" part mean it was first discovered in Virginia or maybe a lady by the name of Virginia first found it?  Heck I don't really care where the name came from, it is a pretty wild flower:

Then a little later, I went out into the small area fenced in for the dogs off our back porch.  There I found this flower:

Then I noticed all the different types of mushrooms growing there.  They sprung up just after the rain.  This first small one had a beautiful delicate edge all aournd it. 

Then there was what looked like a puff ball that was trying to grow hair:

And my favorite ones.  These are small and they seemed to have little protrusions on them at ninety degrees from each other and a dark spot in the middle.  I thought that they were really beautiful: 

See, you just don't have to go far to see great and beautiful things.  You just have to look for them, even if they are only a few steps out your door.  BTW, did you spot the new young ones just popping up?  There is young one at the top of the picture and a little older one on the right side.  Go take a walk around your yard and really look to see what all is going on there and have a great day, you hear?