Doctors out the kazoo...!

Just when we get good news about my post operative condition other pressing medical matters arise. I had a post ready about an interesting day yesterday talking to the Doobie Brothers manager about setting up a concert in Washington DC for Veterans Day. Somehow that lost it's meaning when Julie visited the doctor today. As she describes the situation in The Yellow Bug News

"It being National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month and all, I decided I'd check into a problem that presented itself Friday night. I won't mince words...there is a growth".

She is due to undergo an exploratory procedure next Monday, that hopefully will solve the problem. We ask your prayers as the day approaches.

As I learned on Wednesday, December the 22nd when Dr. Brown announced that he was going to "crack me open..pronto" acceptance is the key to one's serenity in cases like this. Acceptance that what is....is God's unfailing plan for us. I also learned that modern medicine is an amazing thing and if my experience is any indication we'll be looking back on these several months as just another of lifes trials that we must endure with as much grace as possible.

Good day at the Doc....

Today we visited Dr. Brown, my cardiologist, for my 2 months+ post-op check up. I was heartened by the results as the nurse did the initial checks.

NURSE: "Hmmm blood pressure, 127 over 73"
ME : "Is that good?"
NURSE: "That's good"
NURSE: "Let's see now, heart rate 62."
ME: "Is that good?"
NURSE: "That's really good".

And then the affable and dually degreed Dr. Brown arrived. Dr. Brown has both an M.D. and a PhD. in Immunology. Personally I like doctors fooling with my heart to be as well educated as possible so this is good. Dr. Brown asked me how I felt. "Really very good", I replied. Dr. Brown then listened to several points of interest on my chest with the stethoscope and pronounced...."Everything sounds very good".

Sounds good to me too!

Eleven [11]......

Today is March the 6th, the day that the Alamo fell. And so did I, but in my case a fall that was followed by a rise from the ashes. It was today, eleven years ago that I escaped the grips of alcohol and became a sober and somewhat sane individual. The anniversary of our sobriety is a big deal to many of us, though we usually celebrate it in a spirit of humble gratitude.

And so big deal that it is, I'll simply say that the victory did not come cheaply nor easily and that without the help of some very special family and friends I would not be here today...literally. On this my birthday, I cannot help remembering one of my closest childhood friends, Rufe, who in spite of our efforts did not make it out of the grips of alcohol and who drank himself to death at the age of 50. There but for the Grace of God go I, and I try not to forget that. My life depends upon it.

Newsworthy......?

Welcome to curious West Texas newspaper readers drawn here by Stewart Doreens riveting and hard hitting exposé on Web Logs.

For out of town and International readers the online version can be found here, at the Midland Reporter Telegram. Names are named including several local luminaries of dubious repute!

Thanks to Stewart for his hard work over several months........

A day late and a shilling short.....

The London Times has finally made it to Midland and reports in a somewhat condescending article about the home town that made the President what he is today. Although the article has a slightly different subject and tone I may have to write to inform them that their counterparts from the BBC were about two years ahead of them in their journalistic inquiry interviewing some other local luminaries in an April 8, 2003 article. Better late than never I suppose.

And by the way, Brits.....concerning your reference, "where nodding donkeys silently extract oil from the ground". We call them Pump Jacks. Don't get cute.

Thanks for the tip from alert reader Don Dulin.

$80 oil.....

An OPEC spokesman says he believes that there is a chance that oil prices may hit $80 a barrel sometime within the next two years. Which is why we've spent the last several months in Andrews Co. recompleting this well.

I took these photos on Tuesday as we injected 5000 gallons of acid into a well to fracture the geologic formation to allow oil to flow. The oil business is an exciting way to make a living...if you don't go broke first.

By the way, the OPEC ministers don't believe that oil would stay at $80/BBL. for long...it would probably drift back to the $50 range as higher prices brought on increased production.

Lebanon.....

Things are changing rapidly in the Middle East, due in no small part to an aggessive policy on the part of our present government that has gotten things off of center at long last. The 3000+ deaths in our country on 9/11 and the 1000's more casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan will have a positive legacy if democracy spreads in the region. And today it is, this time in Lebanon where the Syrian backed government has resigned under pressure and citizens are taking to the streets to show support for democratic reforms.

I have had a soft spot for the Lebanese for decades now...since 1976 actually. In that year, having just returned from the army, I had taken a job as a stock broker with Bache&Co. in Dallas. After months of "in office" training I was on my way to the headquarters in New York City for three months to acquire further skills and to take the test to gain my NYSE license.

By chance we had a commodities broker visiting from the Beirut office who would be in Dallas for a few months, the same months that I would be absent, so we worked an arrangement whereby he and his wife would sublet my apartment while I was gone. Rafic Hassam and his wife were lovely, gentle, kind and well educated people and I learned much about life in Beirut from them. The city at the time was known as the "Paris of the Middle East" a beautiful seaside cosmopolitan place as charming and economically well off as any city in the world.

When I returned from New York early in 1977 the Hassam's had already gone back to Beirut so I never saw nor heard from them again. But what they had left in my apartment stunned me. They had completely stocked my usually vacant refrigerator with all manner of delicacies. My cupboards were stocked with canned goods which were arranged like a supermarket...by category, type and size of cans. All my clothes had been washed and pressed and neatly arranged in the closets, socks folded and arranged by color in the chest of drawers. Likewise in my bathroom the guylike stock of 2 towels had been added to greatly and folded neatly away on the newly added shelf paper.

Of course what happened to Beirut in subsequent years is one of the great travesties of the century, ground into dust by warring factions, sects and governments. I often wonder what happened to Rafic Hassam and his wife. I may never know, but if they are still alive and in Lebanon, now perhaps they'll have a chance at a better life.

A distinguished visitor....

Though very much a spiritual person I'm not as strong a church goer as some in my life would like. Namely my spouse and my mother. I actually enjoy the experience and like the people who attend church very much. I suppose I've just never felt the strong compunction for the organized aspects of religion as much as some regular attendees. I'm not judging them, or me, as right or wrong that is just where I feel I fit in. Actually over the years I've had just as strong a spirtitual experience while attending AA meetings where, in fact, the concept of God or more particularly a higher power is quite prominent. I suppose that in AA I can see God's works first hand and directly in action versus the concept of God in action while seated in a church service.

But today, Julie, Jack and I did suit up and show up at The First United Methodist Church in Midland, where coincidently the President and Laura Bush got married and where the First Mother-in-Law,, Mrs. Welch, still attends. And I'm glad that I attended for today, once again, we had a special guest in attendance.

The FUMC, not by design I know but none-the-less, has a mainly white upper middle class congregation and so I did happen to notice a very distinguished black couple and younger woman walk past me and be seated several aisles ahead. Not knowing them my first thought was that it was good to see a more diverse group attending the FUMC. Little did we know that the distinguished gentleman was in fact far more distinguished than we could have realized.

As mentioned a year or more ago, a non-denominational church group in Midland has found itself in the unique position of trying to assist in brokering peace in the Sudan bringing with it some degree of national attention. As the service progressed our friend Rev. Jan Reed made the daily announcements including a wish that we all pay our humble respects to visitor General Lazaro Sumbeiywo and his family of Kenya. General Sumbeiywo was the chief mediator of the Sudanese peace accords and was in town to show his gratitude to all the local people of faith who had helped make this possible. He is leaving tomorrow to make a personal report to the U.N.

Julie, Jack and I took time after the service to shake the General's hand and tell him thank you for all his efforts. A handshake with a unique piece of important world history.

I owe our sour grapes...!

Last evening the answer to another of life's important mysteries was revealed to me. I found out what the last stanza of "Those Were the Days", the theme song to All in the Family, actually says. While relaxing with some nostalgia TeeVee shows I made a vow to myself to consult Google and finally learn the lyrical truth about "Those Were The Days". Although you personally may have had the ear to discern the words as Edith and Archie sang the last lines of the show's opening tune, for 30+ years I did not. As hard as I would listen the last two lines of verse always sounded like "Gee I owe our sour grapes....those were the days". Now being somewhat astute I could not image that I was hearing correctly, "I owe our sour grapes" just didn't make sense. But once an idea finds it's way into my limited brain space there it stays, so I could not overwrite this data with something more sensible. Every time I've seen All in the Family for the last three decades I've heard "....I owe our sour grapes" knowing full well it was a bogus interpretation. I had no problems with the first 3 verses.....

Boy the way Glen Miller played
Songs that made the hit parade.
Guys like us we had it made,
Those were the days.

OK this verse is easy to understand and has meaning in the context of the show, the good ol' days when music was oh so tuneful and easy to listen to, not like the raucous rock n' roll of the early '70's when the show aired.

And you knew who you were then,
Girls were girls and men were men,
Mister we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again.

Again social commentary ala Archie Bunker...."We don't need no faggots here Meathead", things were simpler in the days of the Bunkers youth. People, places and things were straightforward and better. I can dig it.

Didn’t need no welfare state.
Everybody pulled his weight.

Here, the start of the final verse, is something that makes great sense and is in some ways the crux of Archie Bunkerism, the Commie Pinko Fag Hippies taking advantage of the American dream. But at this point, for decades, my brain lapsed into "stuck". Stuck on "Gee I owe our sour grapes". When in fact the actual lyrics are...... are you ready!

Gee our old LaSalle ran great.
Those were the days.

"Gee our old LaSalle ran great". That's it? Well no wonder I never connected up ear to brain and understood. That's lame, it has no contectual meaning to the show. Unfortunately now that I know the real words my brain will be stuck with them, but I think I'd rather still be hearing "Gee I owe our sour grapes". It's just as relevant. The songwriters, Lee Adams and Charles Strouse must have had a major work planned for this song and the producers cut them off just as they was getting going. "Sorry Lee, Charlie you're running long with this thing, it's a stinkin' sitcom theme song not a symphony". So Lee and Charlie just threw in some wordy rhyming drivel to complete the song and that was that. Leaving me stuck for 30+ years trying to figure out just what the hell they were singing. Thanks Lee, thanks Chuck.

Long time passing...

Late Friday evening I received a call from my old fraternity brother John Stephens. John lives in Houston, works in Pasadena California, but was calling from Bangs, Texas where he was visiting his folks. His Dad was the country doctor there for well over half a century. John was calling to see if I knew of the Iwo Jima 60th anniversary memorial and re-enactment being held at The National Musuem of the Pacific War a.k.a The Nimitz Museum in Fredericksburg, Texas and to see if we might consider meeting him there.

In fact it had not dawned on me that this weekend was the anniversary of the landings on Iwo Jima, and I think that if we had had just a little more notice we might have gone to Fredericksburg and met John for the event. Julie and I have been fairly regular visitors to the town and specifically the Nimitz Museum. Our friend, author Joe Galloway of We Were Soldiers fame has been a speaker there several times in the last years.

John's call Friday night did,however, get me thinking about the sacrifice those who fought not only at Iwo Jima, but all over the Pacific made all those years ago. And more particularly I started to think of all those men I have known over my lifetime who did participate in that fierce fighting but are now sadly gone from our midst. Men like my old scoutmaster and former Marine Bill Bosworth who just passed away 2 or 3 years ago. I'm not sure Bill was at Iwo Jima, but I know that he landed at Tarawa...I remember him telling us.

Bill was a big man, had a deep booming voice, and looked quite like Robert Mitchum at least to an 11 year old boy scout. He was the epitome of a Marine and like any good Marine he told things like they were. When boys sitting around a campfire tended to make South Pacific island combat a glamorous thing....Bill told us by his facial expressions that it was not. The only time I remember him telling us directly about his experiences it seemed that this big burly guy was about to cry....

We got to hear many stories sitting around a campfire and when I look back on those days growing up with Bill and other veterans of my father's age as my role models I still can see them all as were then, young men in their late 30's. When I was in scouts and these men talked about their combat experiences this was only 17 or 18 years after they had occured. It is now 60 years, or more, hence and so many of the combat veterans of World War II are gone. That's what I remember most about this Iwo Jima anniversary weekend.....I miss the old guys who made that history.

Update: Courtesy of reader, Ms. Durst, in Fredericksburg catch the story from onsite here.. Iwo Jimo Salute

Media Star.....

A very nice article in our newspaper, The Midland Reporter-Telegram, today about crosstown blogger and friend Eric Siegmund and his FireAnt Gazette......with color photo!

I'm just wondering if Eric has really sold out to the MMSM [minor mainstream media] and if he realizes just how many acres of trees in the rain forest had to be felled to print this article. And to think of the toxic inks used.......

Coober Coverage.....

A couple of days ago I made mention of the latest news from Coober Pedy. Among the recent items outlined by Coober Pedy News editor Gary Adkins was the formation of a new "football" team in CP. Sensing that this was big news in the outback I emailed Tim Blair and alerted him. My hunch was correct. I quickly got a note back from Tim....

Wallace,

This is fantastic! I assigned a reporter to this story about 30 seconds after reading your email -- photograph and article will appear in next week's Bulletin. Give me an address, and I'll forward a copy.

Cheers,

Tim

You have to hand it to Tim, he's been on the job as an editor at The Bulletin for less than one month and he's already gotten himself a major scoop! Hopefully we can look forward to a major story in Australia's leading newspaper......!

Listen to the music....

A sad note today, longtime Doobie Brothers drummer Keith Knudsen has died of pneumonia at the age of 56. Keith had had a long bout with cancer over the years which had depleted his strength. Though not an "original" Doobie, Keith joined the band in 1974 when it was decided that a second drummer would add to the groups need for a driving rhythm section. He played on six albums with hits such as "Taking It to the Streets" and "Black Water." Knowing some of the Doobies, I'm sure that this is a very sad day for them. Having been together for so long it is like a death in the family. My sad best wishes to them all.....

A PS: In the accompanying Rolling Stone web report....the picture shown is actually my friend Mike Hossack, the Doobies other primary drummer and orginal group member.

Update PS: don't know if it was my doing or perhaps others....but I emailed Rolling Stone Magazine online about the incorrect picture accompanying Keith Knudsons obituary.....and now it's changed to a generic Doobies group photo.

Travel getaway...!

Always on the alert for an interesting out of the ordinary vacation destination I've recently come across a real getaway spot courtesy of my friend Gary Adkins in Coober Pedy, Australia. Deep in the Australian outback and a mere 140 km. from Coober Pedy is Woomera Station, the world's largest rocket test range.

Once a restricted area Woomera is now open to the public and has all any traveler would want...a golf course, swimming pool, fitness centre, theatre, ten pin bowling alley, lawn bowling greens, tennis courts, squash courts, a 270 room 3-star hotel and a variety of fine dining establishments. A veritable oasis perched at the edge of the outback. Check out the ammenities on their website. This could be the perfect vacation experience for you!

Extravaganza bonanza......!

Last night was one of our big social events of the year, the St. Ann's School Mardi Gras Gala. The Gala is the big fund raising event of the year for our little Jack's school and quite the social venue! Julie looked beautiful in red and I was, I offer humbly, quite stunning in my new Tuxedo. A tuxedo purchased yesterday for $129 [including a suberb Italian closed tab Tux shirt]. We found this bargain at our formerly worn [i.e. used] consignment clothing store, Gentleman's Agreement. I had gone into G.A. to try and find an outlandish sports jacket to wear...and did so, until it was vetoed by Julie. She, however, made an amazing find. The only Tux available in the store and surprisingly it was just my size. It fit perfectly and was virtually brand new. As we were considering this purchase, the owner said, "by the way, if you wear a 16½ shirt, I have a custon made Italian shirt that just came in from Dallas to go with it". I do wear a 16½ shirt...and it was gorgeous. I'll be attending more formal events in the future.

The fund raising at the Mardi Gras Gala is through a live auction and a concurrent silent auction where items are bid upon from tables scattered all about the Petroleum Club. I have to say that I'm proud of Julie who, for our donation, put together a great trip to Santa Fe. Airfare for two, two nights at the LaPosada hotel, dinner at the Pink Adobe, train trip on the historic Santa Fe domeliner and a special treatment at an exclusive day spa. It went for $2550....a generous donatation to the school.

And what we came home with will certainly be beyond our little Texas Tech fan, Jack's, wildest dreams. As pictured above Julie bid on and won a huge basket of Texas Tech sports fan memorablia. It's stuffed full of TT booster banners, hat's T-shirts and even a street sign. But the real story is the autographed balls, one from each sport that the school participates in. Autographed by all the coaches of each sport. The highlight is, of course, the signed Bobby Knight basketball and the Mike Leach football. I won't divulge what this package went for but it was just slightly less than the similar University of Texas sports basket that contained a football autographed by the entire Longhorn team...the recent Rose Bowl victors. Jack won't see his new collection until Monday evening, but we're looking forward to seeing an 11 year old boy faint dead away!

Senior '68.....

Growing up in Midland I had two very best friends, Bill and Ronnie, with whom I did everything. Bill lived directly behind us, across the alley, and Ronnie [now Ron] lived a block or so away. I've known them now for almost 45 years. Both Bill and Ron have lived in Houston for most of their adult lives and we don't see nearly enough of each other.

For a decade or so in the 90's and somewhat beyond, we didn't do nearly enough to stay in touch even by phone or email. Recently, and I suppose because of my recent flirtation with mortality, we have been communicating more. In fact I'm even emailing Bill's mom, Betty, who was like a second mother to me.

I don't dwell in the past but I do like to keep in touch with those great times we had all those years ago. Great times in a simpler life. In fact, as a side note, I'm gratified that my adorable step-son Jack even likes to watch "Leave it to Beaver" each night with me. I was the same age as The Beav when it originally aired, had a big brother like Wally and my Mom was the stay at home kind who was there like June when we came home from school. So, Jack gets to see the kind of life I used to lead when I was his age.

One of the things I'm doing for Bill, Ronnie and Betty is taking pictures of the old neighborhood and of their houses so that they can see what the old homestead looks like. Bill's house has not changed a lick in 40 years. It's rather scary sometimes when I drive by...I expect to see the '64 red 4-door Valiant and the big finned Chrysler Imperial to still be sitting out front. Bill and I did some major league "cruising" in that Valiant, embarrased as we were to be seen in the family car.

As I was in the alley today taking some photos of the Stalling's house from the rear, I ran across the image depicted above. This graffiti is on my parents alley wall [they still live there] and was put there by me 40 years ago in 1965! I apparently was quite proud to be graduating from Midland High School in 1968.

The only problem was that I actually graduated in 1967! Mathematics never was my strong suit.

Proud of Casey.....

Perhaps you have run across this picture which has been prominently displayed in print media and around the Internet. A proud Marine saluting the Commander-in-Chief on his inauguration day. Well we're very proud of this particular Marine for it is our friend Mary Kelley's nephew Cpl. Casey Owens whom I wrote about months ago when he was wounded in Iraq. Casey lost both of his legs and suffered extensive injuries when his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb...one of Casey's buddies was killed. Casey has been in the news several times as a demonstration of great courage and the will to move on with his life and continue his service to his country. Casey has met President Bush and was acknowledged

by him during the inauguration. We're so very proud of Casey and his comrades in arms. America has none better. Oh and....Mary tells us that Casey is accomplishing one of his recovery goals this weekend. He's going skiing! This time on "bucket skis"....but hopefully soon it will be on the real things with his new legs.

Photo History....

With a population of about 100 thousand friendly souls, I don't know if Midland is a small city or more of a very large town. But I do know that for our size our arts and culture venues and events are amazing. This Saturday Julie, Jack and I will be attending a talk by and later having dinner with, Adrian Cronauer, of "Good Morning Vietnam" fame and then early next month we'll be attending a talk by world history maker, former Defense

Secretary Robert McNamara. But last night I attended a lecture and exhibit featuring two of my favorite subjects, history and photography.

One of our facilities, the Haley Ranching Heritage Library and Museum is currently featuring an exhibit of daguerreotype photos by Santa Fe artist Robert Shlaer which recreate the 1853 final trip west of historic explorer John C. Fremont. Mr. Shlaer was in town last night to give an indepth discussion of this work.

As the Amon Carter Museum describes the exhibit...."In 1853, explorer John C. Frémont led an expedition from Missouri to California in an attempt to locate a route for the proposed transcontinental railway. Tragically, the work of the expedition's original photographer, Solomon Nunes Carvalho, was lost to fire not long after the trek's culmination.

In this exhibition, Robert Shlaer, who from 1994 to 1998 retraced Frémont's route, recaptures the journey using one of the most beautiful and demanding of all photographic processes. By referring to engraved illustrations, period maps, and an account of Frémont's expedition written by Carvalho, Shlaer magnificently reconstructed Carvalho's lost work."

The time and attention to detail that Robert put into these works is stunning. Based on his studies, each shot was taken from as near to the exact original location as possible and the use of the daguerreotype process made the accomplishment of this feat all the more difficult. Though Robert had a leg up on the chemical systems necessary for this antique photo process.....he is a former Bio Chemical engineer. I enjoyed meeting Robert, bought a beautiful limited edition book of his journey [which he signed] and he invited us by his studio in Santa Fe the next time we were in town.

One Amazing Month.....

I've just returned from my now daily 1.5 mile walk around the small lake a block or so from our house. Today's walk was filled with gratitude for I was thinking that precisely one month ago at that exact time I was waking up at Midland Memorial Hospital with 4 "locks" in my arms discharging intravenous fluids into my body. I had a trach tube stuck down my throat to aid my recently collapsed lungs in pumping oxygen and I had 3 large tubes protruding out of my thorax draining large amounts of fluids from my lungs and surrounding environs. Not to mention that my rib cage had been cracked and my chest had been cut completely open exposing my heart which had been stopped to perform the by-passes. And this was just my upper body.

Down below, on my left leg, I had five sutured wounds where a foot or more of veins had been removed to be used on my heart I remember waking up in no small amount of pain and discomfort primarily due to the way my back and shoulders had been stretched for hours while I was on the operating table. Then I was told to try and not move for the next two days. The discomfort of all that was something I can't describe but the reason for the operation as outlined by my cardiac team was that the blockages I had and especially the blood clot in my cardiac artery could be fatal.

So as I walked around the lake today in the bright warm sunshine and admired the rafts of wild ducks as they winter over in West Texas, I could not have had more gratitude for the outcome of my ordeal and especially for all those who made it bearable. And as I walked at a goodly pace just 30 days after this operation I still am amazed, truly astounded, by the miracles of modern medicine.

The Convention...

As I've mentioned previously, I'm a dedicated member of Alcoholics Anonymous. Dedicated not only because it literally saved my life, but also because I like the precepts outlined in our program of recovery and probably most importantly, I just like the people. They're my kinda' people. We're all mostly alike even though some don't have high school eductions and some of us have advanced college degrees. We're still alike.

Like my Army friends, we people in AA have a common set of experiences that are unique to only people like us. Tragic experiences, touching experiences and quite often side splittingly funny experiences. If you have ever known a full fledge drunk then you'll appreciate the situations that only they [we] can get into. You can't make this stuff up.

And so for the last two nights Julie and I have been in attendance at our annual Midland "Mid-Winter AA Conference". We had 800 chairs set up at the Holiday Inn, and the two nights we attended the 8 o'clock speaker meeting......most all of the seats were taken. We invite speakers from all over the country to share their "experience, strenght and hope". That is, their story. The story of what it was like for them to be addicted to alcohol and/or other substances and the story of how they found their way out of this living hell. These are some amazing stories, and like me, many of these speakers count themselves lucky to be alive, much less have bountiful lives today. I don't make it through any one speaker without a tear coming to my eye. A tear of remembrance of how it was for me, how similar parts of my own story are with the speakers, and mainly because of the gratitude I have for AA and the people seated around me...the two things that saved my life and gave me a second chance at things.

I love to go to the conference every year to see people I haven't seen in years, people who are instrumental in my recovery and people who I just like alot. And I/We like to laugh and there is much of that. In fact I recommend that even if you don't have a problem with alcohol that you go to an AA conference some time. You'll learn a little something and you will hear some of the funniest stuff imaginable.

In the AA "Big Book" our real problem is defined as this...."Selfishness and self-centeredness, that we think is the root of our problem". Tonight I got to enjoy a little AA approved self-centeredness, I got to stand up with the "old timers". An old timer being one with more than 10 years of sobriety. We count down by decades. "All those with over 50 years, please stand up"....and believe it or not there are some. Then comes, "all those with between 30 and 40 years.....all those with between 20 and 30 years". And then came my group....."all those with between 10 and 20 years, please stand".

I'll have to confess, it does make me awfully proud to stand up with the old timers. But what it really does is shock the hell out of me to be doing so. Years ago I remember thinking that if I ever got one year completely sober it would be a miracle. If you could have seen what I was like 12 or 13 years ago, you would not have bet a plug nickel that I would even be alive much less clean, sober and happily productive for almost 11 years now. Such is the power of the program of AA and why I love to be among my kind at the convention.

A Kinky Governor.....

In an interesting move, one guaranteed to make Slatts in Geelong Australia happy, it looks as if Kinky Friedman will throw his Texas Jewboy hat into the ring as a candidate for Governor of the State of Texas. Following in the footsteps of luminary governors Arnold in California and Jessie Ventura in Minnesota, Kinky just may have a chance, though in Texas an independent is a long shot to be sure. I think he might be worth a try and it would certainly be an interesting experience! I would have to consider giving Kinky my vote...after all any man that has his own large scale dog rescue program is far more qualified than the typical professional politician in my books.

Kinky is seeking the governorship for several reasons including, as he says "I want to be governor because I need the closet space." And he wants "to fight the wussification of Texas." I consider these to be two very valid reasons. Good luck Kinky.....and I'm hoping that high on his platform will be state funding of rescue ranches for dogs like his very own Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch.

Update: Address Book....

Thanks for all the helpful hints and comments about restoring a wayward address book. I ended up making a .csv [text, comma delimited] copy of the address book residing on my office computer then installing it on my home computer and "importiing" this text file as a new Outlook address book. It worked fine, except that I had so much personal information on my home address book that won't be replicated by using the office version. Oh well....at least I'm back emailing.

As a thought...there has been some good TeeVee programming on at the start of this new year. Last night I watched the History Channel's presentation of "The French Revolution", a good summary of that long and tortured event. Don't ever listen to the French say that we in the U.S. are bloodthirsty maniacs. The founding of their republic was run by some really murderous whackos....and I don't think that they've ever gotten over it.

Simply vanished.....

Well it seems to happen about every 3 years on this computer. Outlook 98, my email program, just simply malfunctions and I lose everything to include my address book.

This happens while I'm not even actively on the computer. I come back into the room, turn the monitor on and there is an "fault" message big as day staring at me. One always seems to have a plethora of choices in these cases to try and save some data, and I usually make the wrong ones. Apparently, because everything has just simply vanished. I had close to 300 names, addresses and phone numbers, not to mention email addresses. Frankly I have most of these duplicated on my machine at the office, but some I do not and will have to wait for the vanished parties to contact me in order to get their information again.

The last time this happened I was able to recover much of the missing information but quite honestly I cannot remember how I did that. After 3 hours of searching the Internet trying to refresh my memory I'm about to give up and just say "screw it". I'll manually recreate most of the email addresses from my office computer and not worry about the rest. However if anyone has a down and dirty secret about restoring an old address book I'd love to hear your comments. I have both .pab and .wab files, the problem is reconnecting them to functionality. I hate it when crap like this happens.

Shiver me timbers....!

I think that my circulation has not come back up to snuff since the operation three weeks ago. Except for a couple of days when the temps were in the 70's, I've been terminally cold since I've been home. It has been chilly outside, in the mid to low 50's and today falling into the 40's, but I used to love cold weather. Age has mitigated that feeling and so now I'm longing for the pleasure of strong sunshine and the high 70's to warm up these old hands and feet. Posts to the Blog have been lacking.....it's hard to type when your hands are "froze up"!

Not much interesting going on anyhow. Except, that I heard from one of my old 25th Infantry Division soldiers.... circa 1972. Mike, "Andy" Anderson found me through one of my old websites and left a message in my Guestbook almost exactly one year ago. While visiting the old website I noticed his post with his enclosed email address. Luckily he had not changed e-addresses in the last year, so that when I emailed him I heard back from him several hours later. Andy sent a recent photo of himself which is really strange. A very familiar face, but one that has 33 years added on since the last time I saw it. I remember Andy as a 19 or 20 year old, he's now probably 52 or 53. Andy had some very kind things to say about his time in my [our] platoon which made me feel good. Good to know that as a young 22 year old Lieutenant, perhaps I was not as much a goofball as I remember. Andy has done well with his life since the army and has been a law enforcement officer, teacher, newspaper editor and mentor in Bisbee Arizona. Really nice to hear from someone I spent so much time with so long ago.

Excuse me now while I go warm my hands.......

Good Company....!

The other day I was over at Hugh Hewitt's place on the web where Hugh was talking about the interesting possibilities that Blogs offer for all sorts of real time communications assignments. If you have read Hugh's book, "Blog",

you know that he spends some time espousing the corporate use of the medium. One of the examples that Hugh gave was the ingenious use of "buzz" that Blogs can create in marketing such things as upcoming films. And as a current example he named the forward thinking firm of Grace Hill Media that was in fact using this technique to promote the film "In Good Company".

Grace Hill Media is offering free tickets to screenings of the film to those Bloggers who emailed and asked for them. Like me. Unfortunately, Universal Pictures decided that far West Texas is not a hot enough market to test the movie and so I won't be attending. However, and just as interesting to me, today I recieved a surprise package from Jonathon Bock, the President of Grace Hill Media.....a really nice "In Good Company" movie hat and "T" Shirt. A high quality hat and "T" shirt I might add. I won't be attending the screening, but I have to say that the movie trailers on TeeVee look interesting, and now that I have a personal connection to the film, I'll be much more likely to see it. Grace Hill Media is on the Blog ball....

A brighter day....

The funk of mild depression seems to be waning the last several days as I start to feel better and stronger and as I am able to reassimilate into the more active world. I've been at the office for several hours each of the last days and this afternoon Julie, Jack and I took a trip to our public library. The more I'm out in public, the more normal I feel and thusly my spirits are lifted.

Today I visited Dr. Patel, the genius surgeon, who took me apart and five hours later put me back together again two and a half weeks ago. He inspected my numerous incisions and pronounced all healing properly. The leg wounds especially are amazing. Some of these deep cuts are now just little more than red scars whereas just weeks ago they were ragged gashes. The human body and it's healing properties is amazing. We had a long chat with Dr. Patel who appologized for having to delay my surgery on Christmas Eve, but as it turned out God needed the good Doc in another place that night more than I and today we were elated because the final result of that drama was realized. My surgery was delayed for hours because Dr. Patel had been called to an emergency case in Odessa, a heart attack victim younger than I who had come into the hospital clinically dead. Dr. Patel brought him back to life and today the man awoke from an induced coma and will survive to thank Dr. Patel himself. We thanked Dr. Patel also, and I continue my prayers of thanks for all the people who took such good care of me and for all those friends and family who continue to offer their best wishes.

It's hard to be depressed when you're grateful.......!

Official medical update....

Dr. Brown the cardiologist this morning gave me a thumbs up and all systems go for further normal activities. Thankfully, he wants me to walk as much as I feel up to, so this means I'll be able to take, at least, the Big Gold Dog on his regular walking schedule. The small wild dog will have to wait to resume her walking schedule as I don't want to chance her pulling my arms from my newly knitted together rib cage.

The Doc says that everything looks good and he has faith that I know what kind of diet to follow and the sort of aerobic exercise program to pursue, which I do. I have decades of running and bicycling under my belt and I look forward to pursuing that course again. I also look forward to driving again and Julie gave me back my keys today so I am now typing this note from the office. It was somewhat odd to drive again after a two week hiatus, but it's only one mile from home to our building, so no major traffic to negotiate. Don't tell Julie, but it does hurt a little to turn the steering wheel, especially while parking. But it sure does feel good to hit the open road again!

Medical update.......

Not wanting to bore the readership with my medical condition I have been mute for the last several days, but since the condition dominates my activities and I do get a few emails asking about said condition, I thought I might add a note concerning my recovery.

In a word, it's going fairly well, although after two weeks of being hospitalized and/or a semi-invalid I'm ready to start back into a completely normal active life. But that's not to be for now. I go to the cardiologist tomorrow morning where I'll be given further marching orders about what I can and cannot do......like drive.

However, I am generally feeling much better and somewhat stronger on a daily basis and my lungs appear to be coming back to capacity with much less coughing and shortness of breath. My stamina is also more long lived and I'm walking with the Big Gold Dog a little further each day. It will help when the weather warms up as it is supposed to over the next several days. Julie dropped me off at my office yesterday afternoon for about an hour so I was able to have a change of scenery and to catch up on things with my partner Del who had just returned from Christmas in England. Otherwise I try and keep as active as I'm allowed, watch some TeeVee, catch a short nap each day and try and keep myself from thinking depressive thoughts about the long road back to good health. But, I feel I've turned the corner on feeling excessively bad and so things are indeed looking up! I guess it's time to go run my three miles and knock out those 150 push-ups so I'll report back later.........

Happy New Year.....

Happy New Year indeed. That's about all I can muster up today in the form of witty bon mots. I've been in rather a vegetative state for the last two days, not so much in pain really as just a post operative illness that renders me rather ineffectual at most anything useful at all. Such as thinking. Which is sad really since all physical activities have been banned for the next week, thinking was all I had. But I suppose that yesterday and today was custom made for someone with a lack of cognative skills due to illness and pain medication. Football on TeeVee for twelve straight hours was custom made for someone in my condtition and I have taken full advantange of it though I have slept through a few key plays.

I got up from the TeeVee to write this short note and to see if my legs still work. Now with both accomplished, I must get back to the television and to whatever bowl is being featured now.......

Anniversary.....

If today is December 30th, and I think it is, then that means it is our 1st wedding anniverary. One year of mostly all fun and joy with Julie...and Jack. We've all had some rough lessons to learn about each other, but love does overcome and so today we are all closer than we have ever been, genuinely close.

But what a let down once again this week for a major holiday. The happy couple's [plus one] big day of the year felled by my recovery from the major surgery. And unfortunately I didn't even feel as good today as I did yesterday. Not hurting, so much, as just feeling rather ill and perhaps with a touch of fever. I finally even had to ask Julie to go and purchase my Christmas gift to her, the romantic Dyson Vacuum cleaner. One happy spot of the day though....I can tell she really loves it, she put it together and is now vacuuming each room in the house, stopping by the office to show the amazing amount of dirt and dog hair it has picked up in excess of our old Hoover. Glad to she likes it, but sad that our big day is so dull. We'll let loose on our second anniversary.

Home again.....!

Never did one piece of real estate look so good as did 1207 Bedford when we pulled up to the house before noon today....my weeklong ordeal at the hospital complete.

Considering that my chest was ripped open and my heart rearranged with pieces hewn from 5 large slits cut deep into my left leg......I feel remarkably good. I do need to rest though so I just wanted to stop by and thank all those friends who supported us in this unexpected time of trouble. Friends from the Army, from high school, from college, from AA, from the business world and those close friends of the digital world, who, in fact, I have never really met in person at all. Julie printed each and every comment and email and brought them in a large stack to me in the hospital. I read them all several times. Thank you so much.

And, of course, the largest thank you is to Julie for keeping all my/our friends abreast of my situation. I guarantee you that she had more than enough to do in running the house, looking after Jack and two dogs and then trying to spend hours with me. I will write more on the experience however now Julie is giving me the "Quit what you're doing and rest" look, so I'm out of here

DRAINAGE, THE LACK THEREOF...

Unfortunately, the big needle was brought out today. About a quart or so of liquid was drained from the casing on the left side of W's chest, not the lung, via the big needle and even though it was a bit stressful, Wallace is feeling better. I'm continually amazed at his resiliance (I'd be in a massive heap under the covers with the shades drawn). The human body is amazing, it truly is. He's convinced he will come home tomorrow and he may be right this time. As of Wednesday, he will have been in the hospital a week. For someone who won't even take an aspirin, a week in the hospital is a life time. There's only so much History Channel to watch, you know? Keep your fingers crossed that the next post you read will be from the Blogmaster himself.

THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME...

Our Big Guy is ready to come home. He's up and walking the fourth floor of Midland Memorial, threatening to stroll over to the Walgreen's across the street. He wants a bowl of chili (not from Walgreen's) and is bored. Dr. Brown, the cardiologist took an x-ray of his lungs today as one of them still sounds like it isn't getting a lot of oxygen, but as of 9:30 tonight, we didn't know what the result was of that x-ray. He thinks he might come home tomorrow. That's his professional opinion though, not the doctor's. We'll see. His color is good, his left leg is healing well. If he can just get those last few bags of anti-biotics finished and walk more, I think he'll be able to head home in the next few days. Am I ready for that? I kept the arm restraints Nurse Helen used on him last Thursday night. Let's hope I don't have to use them any time soon.

SITTIN' PRETTY...

When I got to the hospital today, Wallace was sitting in a chair! That's progress folks. He stayed there a while and was helped back to the bed and tucked in all snuggly by saucy Shelia, who's warmed up a bit, it being Christmas and all. He's trying his hardest to do the breathing exercises, they're tough right now, but he's being very obedient. If his breathing levels get too low, Shelia bursts through the door and puts a big oxygen mask on him and makes him "take a treatment", so he has plenty of incentive to breathe and cough, even if it is rather unpleasant.

The shift changed this evening and Helen is at the helm again. She is Wallace's favorite nurse. She dotes on him and he loves it. He feels comfortable telling her his troubles and letting her tend to all those unfortunate things that come up when you're unable to go to the bathroom on your own. I draw the line at the bodily function stuff. I didn't even like changing diapers, so, I'm grateful Helen will handle all that for him.

He'll be moved to a real room tomorrow...One that has a telephone, so everyone be prepared. He's got a big story brewing and since he hasn't been able to post here at Streams, he could get windy.

He's doing just fine, really.

SHOW'S OVER...

Nurse Helen had to restrain Wallace last night. I knew if he figured out what had happened he'd be mad. She had to use the arm restraints. She said it was minor. Yeah, right. Oh, and...he did figure it out.

The real surgery began at 6:30 this morning. Upon opening the chest, one of the arteries blocked off completely, so Dr. Patel got right to work. The blood clot is believed to be by-passed now...thank goodness. I'm happy to report all three grafts were successful. The vein used for the grafting was taken from his left leg. There's a big I.V. in his neck and a monstrous chest tube I haven't had the courage to look at yet. I haven't seen the incision either. I'll be looking at that for a while, no need to get up close and personal just yet. His breathing tube was removed around 4 this afternoon and not 60 seconds ticked off the clock when Mr. Impatient Patient started giving Shelia the business...Shelia being the CCU recovery nurse. She looks tough. I think she smiled once today, at least I think that was a smile. I'm scared shitless of her, so I haven't made much eye contact. When I left, Wallace had a temperature of 101 and Shelia was about to get even with His Royal Highness. In her left hand she held an injection of sleep...in her right hand was a suppository. I thought it best to vacate room 109 for a couple of hours.

This isn't how we wanted to spend Christmas, but I'll take it. Thank you all for your calls, e-mail, visits and mostly, your prayers. I'm forever grateful for your friendships and Wallace will be extremely touched when I let him know you've been thinking of him. Merry Christmas!

Keep reading for updates.

GROUNDHOG DAY, PART 2...

Where do I begin?

Surgery at noon got bumped to surgery at 2 because Wallace's bag of platelets that were ready to go to the OR at 12 had to be given to someone else today. A new bag was ordered from Lubbock. The platelets couldn't be delivered by noon due to bad weather up north, so Dr. Patel had to rearrange his schedule, which meant he worked on someone else at 2. We were told the the surgery would begin at 4. At 4:30 we went to the OR. I kissed Wallace good-bye and went to the waiting room. At 5:10 the assistant surgeon (for lack of better word) came to the door and informed me Dr. Patel couldn't get to Midland because he was involved in a life-threatening surgery in Odessa. Wallace is on the table, unconscious, betadyne painted and catheterized with a breathing tube in place. An incision had not been made. What to do?

As I type this, my husband is in the CCU still under anesthesia. Surgery will take place in the morning at 6 or shortly thereafter. He's not going to wake up until after that's over. The tube stays, the catheter stays, they will have to re-paint him. I'm told he won't remember anything about this situation. I asked the staff to re-set the clocks and don't change the calendars. I don't want to be present when he figures it all out.

Stay tuned...

ALMOST, BUT NOT QUITE...

The Mrs. here, reporting on the health and well-being of the owner of this blog.

There will be a triple by-pass performed at noon (or thereabouts) which should last 3-5 hours, Thursday the 23rd.

Wallace felt awful this morning - not with chest pain, but shoulder and neck pain and some shortness of breath. He was also extremely grumpy. We got to the hospital around 9. He had bloodwork done along with 2 EKG's. After looking at the results of the first EKG, a cardiologist was alerted and W had an angiogram at 4.

WOW...when Dr. Brown flipped on the screen to show us the results of the angiogram, it was easy to see the blockage in three different places, plus a dangerous blood clot, I believe the doctor referred to it as a "time bomb". We're very fortunate we got to the hospital this morning. Wallace did not have a heart attack. He was on the verge. Left unattended, the result would've been a situation that would not have included survival.

We'll be celebrating Christmas at the hospital. I'll update you as soon as I can, please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Fa La La....

It's getting to seem a lot like Christmas. Which means I better get stated with my gift selections. For at least the last 10 years I have made an, apparently, not to solemn vow to start purchasing Christmas gifts at least by October. I have failed miserably in this vow. Why I make the vow is beyond me, knowing full well that I'll be stuck in the same frantic shopping spree come the last days preceeding Christmas. As many know, I have been a proud member of Alcoholics Anonymous for well over a decade and one key concept we have is this. "Acceptance is the key to my serenity". Acceptance of the way the world is and the way people are. This is coupled with the serenity prayer, a pearl of wisdom, that also states that you should try and change the things you can.

Apparently I will never change my last minute Christmas gift buying so I might as well accept this fact, lose the stress and just get used to buying gifts for the family in a mad dash. Maybe it has something to do with living on the edge..the challenge of getting it all done in two days. More likely it's just plain sloth.

Gratitude is another key concept I have learned in AA. I'm grateful that Christmas this year is on a Saturday giving me five full days to get it all done. But what I'm really grateful for this year is a bride who really does, I think, like to shop and knowing me well has already started buying gifts for some of my family. Two nieces done today and she always seems to know what little Jack wants and gets it for me, leaving me free to get him a little something extra.

And this year she spoke right up telling me what she really would like. A romantic and memorable gift from me that says......"I love you". A vacuum cleaner. We have two already, but what she wants is one of the new high tech Dyson's with root cyclone technology. The ones that generate 100,000 G's of suction, or so they say. Coincidentally, we read an article about them in the Southwest Airlines magazine on the way to Houston last week and they did sound very intersting. Anything that can generate a 100,000 G's of suction is interesting to me and it should suck the dog smell right out of the carpet and frankly will be good for my allergies. This kind of gift, though, takes me back to my childhood when I used to give my Mother pots and pans for Christmas, useful but somehow not to giftlike. I'll probably be getting her some other little token of my affection also.

KOFI.COM .......

While over at Roger Simon's place I picked up this tidbit of cheery news. Seems that Kofi Annan wants the U.N. to start taking a more active role in controlling the Internet by forming a heady little International body known as the World Summit on the Information Society.

Kofi has appointed a 40 member panel selected from countries with a history of free thought like Cuba, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe and Tunisia. At a meeting of the WSIS last month the members outlined their goals to include "Internet governance". If the thought of the U.N. having any form of governance over the Internet doesn't scare you then probably you also believe that the "Iraqi oil for food" program was an outstanding work of benevolence. My personal thought is that before the U.N. jumps right into actually governing the Internet perhaps they just ought to get their feet wet with a Blog and see how they like it. Read the whole article at the FrontPage Magazine

And if you haven't read Roger Simons work often you should. An interesting panoply of thought on a variety of topics and Roger is a nice and proactive Blog owner. I received a nice email from him last week concerning several comments I've left on his website.

Back from the big city...

We're back from the perils of the big city of Houston. The main peril being driving anywhere. Although we had a rental car from the airport, luckily we had friends, family and a hotel limo to negotiate most of the driving dangers for us. Houston is an interesting place, but we're glad we live in Midland, smallish town, Texas. That said, we had a good time, got to see family and friends from both the husband

and wifes side and accomplished our mission of taking Jack to a major sporting event for his birthday as depicted above. And no..that's not photoshopped [although it looks like it to me too]. We were in the shade at Reliant Stadium with bright lights behind, I had to use a low level flash to get Jack and his friend Mackey's faces to be more visible.

We stayed at the very nice Omni Hotel Riverway, which very coincidentally is in the same parklike office complex with the bank where one of my old friends and fraternity brothers is the president. Being rerouted due to traffic on our trip from the airport, we were not sure of our approach into the complex from the maze of freeways and so I called "Mac" on my cellphone to confirm that we were on the correct route to the hotel. I told him where we were and he told us to take the next left and look for a surprise. We took a left and the surprise was "Mac" standing out in front of his bank building pointing the way to the hotel. Nice in a megalopolis to see a friendly face to give directions. And...we were invited to come to the banks Christmas party the next morning being held at our hotel. I did go and had a nice visit with him and his wife.

The trip was full of coincidences for me. Since Julie was off to The Woodlands on Saturday yet another fraternity brother who lives in the West University area, fairly close to the hotel, came out to escort me around for the day. This fraternity brother, an engineer with the Bechtel Corp., was good friends and workmates with the contact that I am presently negotiating our large gas/electrical project with. The frat brother, John, and my contact Ken, used to race their sports cars around the Bechtel parking lot several decades ago.

John and I toured around areas of Houston I have not visited since the '80's and I got to see John's home which houses the sports car that use to race with Ken. A 1973 Maserati that John bought from Dr. Michael DeBakey. Knowing that John would want to meet my brother the NASA engineer we then drove to his house, which coincidentally is only about a mile away. When we arrived and introductions were made both my brother, Mark, and John each said that the other looked very familiar. John is working on a project out of Pasadena Ca. and lives at the Marriott Hotel there for much of the month. My brother, a Deputy Director of NASA, is at the Jet Propulsion Labratory in Pasadena several times a month and also stays at the Marriott. And you guessed it, they were sure that they had seen each other there very recently. Strange how small the world is.

With all the elegant living, seeing my family and friend as well as Julies old Midland friends and her brother and his family, the main purpose of the trip was a day at the Texan's football game with Jack. We would have paid to get in, of course, but if the old friends from Midland have season tickets with a close in parking pass all the better. And we had a great time, just the guys, Me, Jack and his long time friend Mackey and Mackey's dad Robert, a great guy who has been battling cancer for years but hasn't let this setback stop him one bit from living a full and active life. And thank God, the prognosis is very good for him now. A lesson in a positive attitude overcoming a deadly disease. Even though the Texans lost, I was impressed with the engineering wonders of Reliant Stadium and we got to see Peyton Manning in action. His arm and instincts are amazing. The stadium is one jumbo gigantic colossal piece of work but from where we were the field was very close and so the feeling is of a smaller place. Until, that is, you look up at the small specks that are the poor schmucks setting in the upper tiers. Small dots of humanity seemingly resting miles above the firmament. An impressive place. I was most impressed with how easily we got in and out by car, having endured the parking misery of the old days at Texas Stadium in Dallas.

All in all we had a great trip, enjoyed seeing friends and family, living the life of luxury at the hotel and eating beau cuisine in the big city. But, Toto, there is no place like home. Especially a home where you can drive down the uncrowded streets without feeling like every turn of the steering wheel just might be your last.

Gone....

The family will be on a short hiatus over the weekend....gone to Houston. It's young Jack's 11th birthday next week and he wanted to see a Houston Oilers Texans game. So off we go. We'll be visiting with friends of Julies and some of mine. Old friends of Julies from Midland and a fraternity brother or two and my actual brother.

While we're gone catch up on the latest edition of The Coober Pedy News hot off the digital press.

The Grinch steals Christmas....

Last evening I watched a small portion of the ABC news while catching a snack before going to Jack's fifth grade Christmas play. The segment was one of a multi-part series that they are apparently running to explain to us peons the difference between the "Blue" and the "Red" states. Last night's topic was religion in public places and how this affected Christmas. We were told that some people are offended by the mention of God and/or Christ in public displays of the Christmas season. We were shown a high school band in Indiana that could not play standard Christmas carols, even an instrumental version, as part of their holiday concert because Christ or God was mentioned in the songs. Another elementary school choir somewhere in the Northeast had to substitute "Happy Holidays" into each and every song that should have a reference to Merry Christmas. We were taken to malls and other public buildings where heated debate was ongoing concerning the installation of Merry Christmas signs and banners. Peter Jennings was good enough to tell us that many people disagree and think that it's OK to mention Christmas during the Christmas season.

Thanks Peter, but here's the take from Bedford Drive, Midland Texas. Christmas is a Christian holiday, always has been. If you don't like the mention of Christmas or if Christ or God offends you.....we'll then don't celebrate Christmas. Don't put up a Christmas tree which symbolizes the renewal of life and don't give presents which reminds us of the gifts of the Magi. Or better yet, get your own stinkin' holiday to celebrate the way you like. The majority, the vast majority, of Americans are Christians or at least come from the Christian ethic. The majority rules and we celebrate Christmas, not "happy holidays".

And by the way, Jack was stunning in his acting debut starring as the TV anchor who was reporting the story of the birth of Christ. And you know at the St. Ann's School we get to say Merry Christmas, we get to sing the standard carols completely unedited and the play got to actually mention God!

So Merry Christmas....or Happy Kwanza.

An optimist soured....

Concerning my year end leaf cleaning chores yesterday I wrote..."The, hopefully, last cleanup of leafy debris from the yard". What a sucker I am to have had so much hope. At approximately 10 o'clock this morning a thin wisp of a line of thunderstorms accompanied by 45 mph winds rolled through the estate tearing every dangling participle of a remaining leaf and twig loose from it's arboreal connection and depositing them on the lawn. Not to mention the accumulated pile of leaves and pine needles from the roof that was added to the melee.

The situation makes me pine for the good old days of my youth. The days in Missouri when we used to push all the leaves and debris into the street, wait for a damp wet day and just set fire to the whole mess. There was something rather charming about this method of leaf disposal and often times now when I smell fireplace smoke on a cold damp day I remember back to those years when the whole town of Cape Girardeau smelled somewhat like the fragrance of pinon pine smoke. I suppose it's against the law now to burn big piles of flammable organic material in the streets. Sure was fun though.

Leave it at that......

We are blessed here on Bedford Drive, Midland Texas, the desert, to have an overabundance of large trees. If you've ever lived in West Texas you'll know that gratitude. We have 3 large pecan trees, 4 big live oaks and a mimosa tree near the house. Lining the fence in the rear we have a line of tall and stately cypress trees and beneath these on all sides of the yard probably 20 cherry laurels. The centerpiece of the rear fenceline is a 35 foot tall mulberry. The highlight of the grounds is a very large pine tree of a species peculiar to our neighborhood that stands at the corner of the front of the estate. The circumferance of the trunk is probably 9-10 feet around while the tree stands a good 35 feet tall.

I love all these trees but to be honest they are a royal pain in the ass. Except the cherry laurels and perhaps the mulberry. The oaks and the pecans are not happy unless they are dropping some sort of debris 12 months of the year. Green acorns or pecans, ripe acorns or pecans, dead leaves and twigs. The oaks don't shed their leaves in the Fall, but they make up for it in April when I should be relaxing from yard work. About the same time of year, the pecans are dropping "lint"...little green streamers of fluff that disintergrate into green dust when the dogs track them into the house on their fur. Sometimes the pecan tree next to the patio drops it's green fruit unripe in the early summer. Sometimes it waits until fall when the nuts are ripe. All the pecan debris on the patio emits a dark brown stain when it gets wet, the stain readily absorbed by the Mexican tile. The pine tree, God love it, deposits a constant stream of dry needles in the flower beds, the front yard and on the rooftop.

The cherry laurels are very considerate trees.... and prolific. They drop virtually nothing on the ground but do have a tendency to be short lived trees, but more arise to replace them so they are considerate trees even in death. The mulberry does it's best to be a good neighbor of a tree. It's very broad leaves provide some great shade, they are beautiful fall color and the tree waits until the first hard freeze when quite amazingly it drops all of it's foliage in almost one day.

Which brings me to my afternoon's work. The, hopefully, last cleanup of leafy debris from the yard. The pecans have been shedding now for a month, slow death cleanup, and now with a hard freeze last week, the mulberry has finally dumped it's full load over the weekend. The first year I lived at the estate I carefully raked all the leaves and pine needles into piles and carted them to the alley. I am a quick learner. Since that first years raking torture I have purchased a lawnmower with mulching abilities. What took me a whole day 4 years ago now takes less than an hour and I'm making a contribution to being an environmentally conscious estate owner. The dead leaves are great fertilizer and help keep moisture in the soil over the winter. The pine needles I mulch separately and they make a great and attractive ground cover in the flower beds.

Additionally I've learned that picking up poop after two dogs is a full time job, one that we had primed young Jack for...but he quit. So now in an eco friendly manner I just get the high pressure hose and simply squirt the poop into the soil....again great fertilizer. I've also learned that, while mulching, dark brown dog poop is awfuly hard to detect when scattered among dark brown dead leaves. I have an environmentally friendly solution for that too. I squirt it off my shoes with the high pressure hose.

Techno Talk....

May I direct your attention to the right column of the page. Perhaps you've noticed that I now have a news feed link in place. I've been meaning to look into this technology for some time now but was slothful in my efforts. The reason that it's there now is that I was shamed into it. Shame ranks right after fear as a very powerful motivator.

Cross town blogger and techno buddy Eric at The FireAnt Gazette had made a complimentary mention of the fact that I had changed my Streams format. He also added a comment about installing an RSS feed. I could tell by the tone of his font exactly what he meant. That without a news feed I was becoming a second rate technorati, a disgrace to Blogging. Everyone who is anyone in the Blog O'Sphere has a news feed. If I wanted to maintain my social position I'd better get with it.

And so the very moment I read his post I did get with it. I enabled my "feed" on Blogger and then started researching the best systems to make it all work. Within an hour I had discovered and installed FeedBurner© an interface which allows browsers to read feeds seamlessly whether they are coming from .rdf or .xml files. Got it hooked up and it ran like a champ right out of the bag. Then to keep track of all my fellow Bloggers I signed up with the newsreader service NewsGator© and I was ready to go. Living in shame no more.

So now hopefully I can look my fellow Bloggers right in the monitor and stand tall and proud. One of the few, the proud, the news readable! Syndicate Me!!

And stop by the bride's site, The Yellow Bug News where we have her news feed hooked up too.

And an update: while working with Gary in the Outback at The Coober Pedy News he decided that as a learning experience he would like to set up his own new blog template for his Coober Pedy News Blog. He's learned quickly and has it up and running. I'm proud to be the subject of his first post, well actually my car is proud to be the subject of his first post. Hope you check in with him at The Coober Pedy Blog

It was a Grand Jury...!

The truth can finally be revealed. For the last six months I have been serving on the Grand Jury of the 142nd District Court of Texas. While actively serving we are sworn to a vow of secrecy to protect the innocent...namely us the jurors. My term expired yesterday with our final meeting so now I am free to speak of my judicial journey. If you ever are nominated to serve on a Grand Jury do so, it's an enlightening experience not to mention pretty damn entertaining at times. The ultimate reality show.

The Grand Jury is an important part of the legal process as it serves as the first buffer between a, possibly, overzealous police force or district attorney and the always pure naive citizenry. Twelve average citizens of good repute [well, eleven in our case] who hear the evidence in all felony cases and decide if there is enough merit to indict the recalcitrants and send them forward to a full blown trial. We saw it all, vehicular manslaughter, child abuse, assault with a deadly weapon, retaliation, armed robbery, organized criminal activity, drug possession and the ever popular DWI and "forgery by passing" i.e. hot checks. The last two categories making up the majority of the cases. We saw DWI movies, heard from expert witnesses, questioned suspects and had the power to subpoena anyone we saw fit. That was the best part...."Uncle Festus was there when the crime was allegedly commited? Bring him in we want to talk him.....!!"

I learned several things from my time on the Grand Jury. First, even in a mild mannered medium sized town such as ours, there is a lot of stuff going down, stuff that never makes the papers or is known by the average citizen. Secondly a large portion of the petty criminal activity is perpetrated by morons. We heard it all but here are some highlights.

The Case of the Pizza Pirate, a young man who while at a friend's party stole his VisaCard. Having gotten away with the act and gone unnoticed the Perp decided to start using his newly borrowed card. What does any good criminal do with a stolen card.....we'll he starts ordering pizza every night from the same Pizza Hut and having it delivered to his home. Not once, but at least 12 times. When the charges hit, the local sleuths had very little trouble tracking this criminal mastermind down.

The Case of The Discount Daddy, another young man who took a purse and it's contents from a parked car owned by an elderly woman, "Mrs. Smith". Within 20 minutes this Perp was on a shopping spree at one of the trendy hipster clothing stores at The Mall. The young criminal buys several hundred dollars worth of 20-ish style clothing with "Mrs. Smiths" MasterCard. In fact the clerk thinks that he's such a good customer she asks him if he wants to join their "Preferred Shopper" program to receive a bonus discount. Only a heartbeat from walking out the door scott free, The Perp can't miss a bargain so he signs up.....using his real name and address. The alert clerk notices that his name is not related to "Mrs. Smith" and calls the cops, who are at the Perps address before he gets home.

The Case of the Range Rustlers, two young men who broke into a local OffRoad Vehicle dealer on the edge of town late one night and stole two rather expensive Honda ATV's. Instead of driving down the asphalt road to freedom, they thought they would deter detection by going out the back through the adjoining ranchland. As you might know, the range land here is generally rather sandy. The cops had no problem at all when they brought their own ATV out and simply followed the trail several miles to the young criminals luxurious mobile home with two brand new ATV's out back.

I could could go on about the folks who steal checks and then write them to themselves using their real names and showing their real drivers licenses with addresses but you get my drift.

Mission Accomplished.....

I received an email and some great photos today from Major Gabriella Pasek at the 1st Cavalry Division's forward base in Taji, Iraq. As you recall I sent some of Joe Galloway's We Were Soldiers images to Major Pasek who wanted to use them as a backdrop for their Thanksgiving Day celebration. The theme was the 1st Cav's history in combat and the Ia Drang campaign was highlighted for the Vietnam segment of the display.

What they did using one of the photos is truly remarkable. A living history diorama, that as you'll see in the photos, is almost museum quality. Major Pasek has also promised to name a local military landmark for me, as is my usual qratuity for photographic assistance. She warns me though that there are very few permanent structures at their base so I may have to settle for the "Captain Wallace H. Craig Porta-Potty". Good enough.

Take a look at the photos: 1st Cav Thanksgiving

AWOL.......

I'm beginning to wonder if there wasn't some terminal turkey consumption on Thanksgiving three days ago. Many of my usual reading suspects seemed to have not made it through the feast. Crosstown blogger Eric at The Fireant Gazette has not reported in. Nor has Todd at The Steiner Aid up in Michigan. The usually punctual and prolific sage The Discerning Texan is MIA also. And that downunder wit and bon vivante Professor Bunyip has gone missing since the last days of October.

We miss you....if you need assistance please fire up one [1] green star cluster.

Update 10 P.M.: The Discerning Texan has come back to life, probably just out celebrating another shallow victory by the U.of Texas. And a miracle has occured in Australia....Professor Bunyip has reemerged, apparently after been being held captive by the Women's Studies Dept. at Sydney Orr University for over one month.

Coober Pedy Update.....

How long has it been since you've heard the latest news from Coober Pedy? Well pardner, that's to long.

Coober Pedy, Australia is my official sister city so I keep up with their goings on, but perhaps you haven't. Big things are brewing in CP. Gary has just posted the current edition of The Coober Pedy News where you can peruse the latest. But the big issue facing the citizens there is the referendum to ban "pokies" from the city. Pokies are the government registered poker gambling machines. Gary has outlined how the local folks have always had a game of chance going somewhere but it was usually a friendly poker game at some local gathering spot such as the Italian Club. But now, it seems, the federal government has taken over the action with the pokies. In other words most of the gambling money is now leaving town. The Coober Pedians would rather their gambling money recirculate within the community so a movement has formed to ban the pokies. Stay tuned!

In other news of the week worth reading school board elections were held, not without some voter irregularity and distraction by cell phones [happens even in the Outback], and the dog population of the city is being reined in. In a private converstion, Gary tells me that besides his opal mining operation he has also started a freight handling business. I questioned him about how freight comes to Coober Pedy and he tells me that it is all by truck....about 8 semi loads a week. Seems the new Australian Trans-Continental Railroad bypasses Coober by about 20 miles and a decent siding was not located there.

For those of us that can't wait the week or two between Gary's online edition of the Coober Pedy News, I have set up The Coober Pedy Blog for Gary and he tells me that he'll give it a go shortly. Can't wait!

Another year gone by....

Today was my birthday, my xxth. I'm not ashamed of my age, but it rather scares me to know that all of a sudden I'm xx. As one gets older, it takes more time for the actual number of the years of your existance to sink in. I will tell you that I graduated from High School in 1967....and I was one of the youngest in my graduating class.

You take it from there. But I'm told that I look younger than I am and I feel that way, though maybe I'm just deluding myself. I suppose that I would not be totally responsible for that delusion, however, because I live in somewhat of a time warp.

We live about 5 blocks from the house I grew up in and some of the same folks I knew in the 1960's still live in the neighborhood and I see them constantly. I drive by my elementary school and my junior and senior high schools almost daily and run into old High School classmates quite regularly. I had a nice chat with my sixth grade music teacher last year.....she said she remembered me as quite talented. She lied, but how kind and how nice to see someone that knew me as a young lad. Though Midland has in many ways certainly grown and changed in the five decades my family has called it home, in more ways it is still the same. And now though physically I'm xx years old, it's not hard to imagine myself cruising the streets as a teenager. I sometimes get that feeling quite literally when a Beach Boys tune airs in the car.

But tonight I was officially xx years old. It was a great way to spend one's xxth birthday, with only close family nearby. Julie and Jack, my older brother his wife and their two young girls [girls 5 and 8 years old, and he's older than me....but that's another story] and my folks. A combination birthday celebration for me, one of my niece's whose birthday is Friday and Thanksgiving since my brothers family departs for home tomorrow. A fine turkey dinner and entertaining conversation chiefly provided by three young kids. And then there was my surprise present....a complete Sporting Kilt Set provided by my trend setting bride. As reported previously, the Craig family has a strong Scottish heritage which she wishes to accentuate. And lest you think that she sees me as a new metrosexual go to the previous link and notice who is wearing this latest fashion statement.

And here's a hint that comes with the experience that being xx years old brings. Under no circumstances do you ever want to get a birthday cake with large amounts of blue icing involved. Don't ever do this. Kids and adults alike dove into the delicious cake that had large amounts of dark blue ornamental frosting. Then we all nearly choked with laughter when we looked at each other with blue stained lips and tongues. Semi permanently stained I might add. This frosting had all the best properties of India Ink.....I still have some on my hands as I type. Jack's tongue above doesn't do the totality of the blue frosting episode justice.

Remember election night? Remember several of the major television networks refusing to give President Bush a win in Ohio? Remember the Democratic pundits smuggly telling the major television networks that when the final tally of all the votes came in John Kerry would win in Ohio? Remember the "provisional votes" that these folks were hanging their hats on?

Well it seems these provisional votes are about all counted. And remember this...the President did even better in these votes than he did from the polling places.

Bush, George W. Republican 76,631 55.92%
Kerry, John F. Democratic 59,710 43.57%

NBA Brawl...

I've never been much interested in professional basketball so I haven't been glued to my nearest media outlet concerning the Detroit Brawl. I did, however, catch a story on the subject via FoxNews on their wrap-up show this evening. The commentator was shocked by the brawl. The coaches were shocked. The NBA commissioner was shocked. Were You?

I wasn't. What do you expect from players whose alternate career choice is "criminal" and when half the fans make pro sports their reason for living. I also won't be shocked when the NBA spins a story about an indepth investigation, "changes to be made" and then the players involved receive a short suspension and a fine amounting to about 1% of their annual income. What would really shock me is if the NBA would make a short inspection of the situation and tell the players involved that their services are no longer required and that they should plan on using their sub par high school skills in another career field.

Global Warming: Fact or Fiction....

That was the topic of a fascinating lecture I attended last night. The speaker was Dr. David Dallmeyer, geologist and climatologist, from the University of Georgia. David started off his hour and a half talk with the statement, "There is global warming, fact. We are polluting the atmosphere, fact." This had the mostly conservative oil business crowd nervous about the remainder of the talk, until Dr. Dallmeyer continued, "these are facts, but we still have no real idea whether or how much the two are related".

David has studied the global warming trend with the eye of a geologist's big picture ...long term. He had some fascinating data that put earth's climatological history in perspective. The amount of data put together over the last decade is staggering and largely glossed over by the more rabid of environmental movement whose view is that man alone is causing negative climate change.

As most people realize the earth's climate has seen drastic changes before man appeared on the scene. These wanderings of the climate are caused by such things as continental drift, the wobbling of the earth, sunspots and the earth's varying orbital path around the sun. They have profound implications for our climate. What David brought home to me however was that, except probably for continental drift, the other major variables are well documented and fairly predictable.

The data that has been gleaned from deep well ice cores in Greenland and the Antarctic, which are based on carbon dioxide, methane and heat values, are remarkably similar in showing that for at least the last half million years a cycle of cooling and warming has occured regularly on about a 140,000 year time period. Based on this data we are approaching the warmest period of that cycle. So, indeed, there is global warming, but given the record David suggests that perhaps we should be more concerned about global cooling.

I was somewhat disappointed that David did not delve into data on how man's recent [geologically speaking] activities will affect the natural cycle. However I don't fault him for this, he's a scientist and this speculation would be out of the scope of his expertise. He did comment though that carbon dioxide levels are currently higher than at any period he had studied and this concerned him. I enjoyed hearing from an impartial scientist and being updated on the facts some of which are summarized here.

What the.....?

Your eyes are not out of adjustment [as far as I know]. I made a few changes to Streams. Been meaning to for a long time primarily to make it more readable and to organize the links. I have some more to do and like most artistes I reserve the right to change much more. I'll have to let the new scheme sink in. Or perhaps I'll scrap the whole thing and concentrate on non-digital reality.

And over at Powerline you'll find pictures of some of my best friends at the Ia Drang Survivors Reunion held last weekend in D.C. Joe Galloway, Bruce Crandall, Chip and Vicki Parker. Wish we could have been there, but business and home life kept us away this year.

My Fitting Tribute....

As I mention here from time to time, and not to long ago in fact, I do a lot of digital imaging work using Joe Galloway's Vietnam photographs. Many months ago I supplied images per the request of SFC Morton a senior drill sergeant at Ft. Benning, Georgia. He was in the process of decorating his barracks with historical photos of the infantry in action and wanted to portray the events in the Ia Drang for his section on the Vietnam War. Having almost forgotten this, I was pleasantly surprised yesterday to receive an email from SFC Morton containing his thanks and pictures of the project which turned out very nicely. But to my delight he also took the time to honor me, and my service, by dedicating a portion of the barracks to me personally. Read his note below to see if you agree that his gesture was a fitting tribute!

"Sir, SFC Michael Morton here, Senior Drill SGT. Aco 30th AG, Ft. Benning, Ga. I just wanted to again thank you for all of your help in reguards to my barracks project "LZ XRAY". The barracks is now finished and I thought I would show you some of the results. I wish I could do more but I am limited on the amount of things they (command) will let me do. We dedicated the barracks yesterday on the anniversary of the battle. All of the soldiers who stay there and took part in the construction are overjoyed in the results. Everyone around the area loves the barracks and the soldiers can't stop talking about it. I believe the end result was met, teach the soldiers about our Army's history, and instill pride in our veterns efforts in Vietnam. I again thank you very much for all of your help, If your ever in Ft. Benning, please stop by and check out the barracks, I know the soldiers who stay there would love to meet you. After all, the CPT. Wallace Craig Latrine needs an offical dedication (I took your picture and made a tribute at the entrance way of the latrine like suggested) All of the soldiers ask who you are? The dedication reads: This Latrine is dedicated to CPT. Wallace Craig, US Army, 25th Infantry Division, Vietnam. For his service and dedication while gallantly fighting in the worst Latrine in history!
Thanks again, SFC Michael Morton"

It brings a tear to my eyes.....

Gonzo Weather....

My family has lived in these here parts since 19 and 60 and we don't think that we've ever seen it rain like it has in the last four days. It's been non-stop. Sure we've had spells over the years where rain falls over a long period, but it stops occasionally and then restarts. This has been one long constant rainfall since late Friday night. Drizzle and mist Saturday turning Sunday to periodic half inch toad floaters morning, noon and night. I'm closing in on 5 inches in our tasteful asiatic fish rain gauge. Two years ago we were in the midst of probably the worst drought on record.

In Midland during the last 10 years we have had the hottest summer temperature ever recorded at 119° [August 1994] and the coolest high on record for a mid summer day, 65­° [July 2004]. Weather patterns are cyclical and influenced by a staggering number of variables, but I do have my thoughts about what part man's influence on the atmosphere might be. I don't like the term "global warming", I think it has taken on to much political meaning and I think that much of the science behind it's Ultra Eco backers has been lacking. But...it does seem to me that the premise behind the theories may have some merit.

So, this Wednesday I'm going to hear Dr. David Dallmeyer from the University of Georgia department of ecology who'll be in town to address the subject. His topic will be Global Warming: Fact or Fiction. Should be interesting, if I can get there through the flooded desert.

By the way, if you haven't visited my highly acclaimed international weather website WeatherTalk© do so now and tell us how the weather is where you be's stayin'.

There is no bond so great as that between Veteran's who have served their country in the cause of freedom. To Veterans everywhere....
Thanks for your service!

The Author, 1971-72

No Fake Turkey Here....

I've talked before about some of the interesting people I've met and worked with through my association with author Joe Galloway and because I keep his Vietnam digital image files for distribution to different veterans, media and scholarly organizations. Thought you'd like to see a request I'm working on now.....perhaps one of the most important uses of Joe's photos that I've handled.

"My name is MAJ Gabriella Pasek. I am assigned as the Executive Officer of the 27th Main Support Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division currently deployed to Taji, Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom II.

I am writing to you today to request your assistance. My unit has very recently been tasked to put together a living history display for the Thanksgiving Holiday. We have started putting together several vignettes and historical scenes starting with the 1st Thanksgiving and then moving into "The Evolution of the Cavalry through History." For this latter piece, we will be depicting a Civil War scene (horse cav), Vietnam scene (air cav), and modern conflict with a static display of one of our M1114s and gun crew in full battle rattle.

As part of our living history, we are creating backdrops to set the mood for our stages. I found Mr. Galloway's photograph "Resupply at LZ X-ray" on your website and it would be the perfect backdrop for our Air Cav display - it is particularly suitable for us, as mine is the primary logistics support unit for the division.

Because the photograph has been copyrighted, we are requesting your gallery's and Mr. Galloway's permission to have this photograph enlarged by the Kellog Brown & Root Sign Shop onto an 8' X 12' metal display sign to be hung on a frame behind our soldiers (in period uniform) and stage scene, complete with sandbagged fighting position and ammunition crates......

If needed, I would be more than happy to send you a photograph of our display once it is set up to show you that we have done justice and honor to the soldiers that served before us in "The Cav."

This holiday display will be seen by the over 6000 soldiers serving here on Camp Cooke in Taji, Iraq as well as several dignitaries and senior officers that have committed to attending our Thanksgiving meal - and will be an immense morale boost for everyone in addition to reminding everyone of the Division's illustrious beginnings.

Thank you for your consideration in this matter. Request a response as early as possible to facilitate our backdrop construction prior to the Thanksgiving holiday.

Respectfully,

MAJ Gabriella Pasek"

We are, of course, honored to be able to help the 1st Cav in Iraq.