Groundbreaking....

The Springboard Center groundbreaking ceremonies, luncheon and celebrity events were a great success, highly entertaining and very touching. Thanks to all those who made it possible; especially the staff and talent at CBS7 and The Young and the Restless! Here are some photos of the day.

Ya'll Come.....!

The Springboard Center is a community based not for profit substance abuse counseling center. We have been operating out of cramped rented quarters downtown since 1999. As a board member I'm pleased to say that with more than generous financial support from the community we've raised about half of the $3 million+ cost of our new medical detox and treatment facility. And we're ready for the groundbreaking this Friday, snow or not!

The public is invited.....which means you! Our special guests will be soap opera diva Ms. Jeanne Cooper of The Young and the Restless, along with Josh O'Connell, producer of this long running CBS daytime drama. Other cast members in attendance is a distinct possibility. Ms. Cooper is our national spokesperson and Josh has told us that he is looking for ways to incorporate The Springboard Center into the Y&R storyline.

The Springboard Center facility is a long needed resource in Midland offering medical detox and substance abuse treatment to every member of the community no matter of their financial situation or ability to pay. There is no such facility in the area currently.

The groundbreaking will be at 11 a.m. this Friday at our site on Corporate Dr. off of N. Big Spring St., behind the First National Bank branch. Thankfully I ordered a tent....and today I asked them to throw in a heater. Please come say hell-o to Ms. Cooper, she's a captivating, caring and very sweet lady. Her Young and Restless fame not withstanding, I'm equally impressed that she has appeared in many of my favorite old time TV classics like Perry Mason and films like The Kansas City Bombers.

Photo Op's.....

One of the secrets of photography, I've learned, is just to keep plugging away, let people know of your interest and show them your work. Some interesting upcoming opportunities generated this way:

‡While in Boerne last weekend I met some very caring folks who run a weekend camp for severly handicapped kids. They asked if I'd be interested in coming down soon and photographing one of their weekends for use in presentation materials. A privelage!

‡This Friday, The Springboard Center will have the groundbreaking for our new $4 million facility. Attending will be our national spokesperson Jeanne Cooper, star of the CBS soap The Young and the Restless. Associate producer Josh O'Connell, having seen my shots of Ms. Cooper on a previous visit, has asked me to generate a portfolio that they can use in their national promotion of Ms. Cooper's involvement.

‡The best! Last fall I sent some photo samples to my alma mater, Trinity University, as a preliminary to entry in their alumni art show. Today I received a letter from Trinity asking me to be one of several "event" photographers documenting the visit of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair who will speak at Trinity in March. An honor!

Honor Flight.....

In my army career, and during the last several years in Midland, I have 100's of hours flying in helicopters; parachuting out of some of them too. I'm one of those whacko's who really loves flying in them with the doors open at low altitude. Except when getting shot at, it's great fun to me. But I don't think I've ever had as much fun, pleasure really, as I did today while flying in a Huey with my good friend Bruce Crandall. His face lit up like a kid at Christmas when he took over the controls of Gregg Baiano's huey.

Bruce was awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery while flying a Huey almost exactly like the restored Vietnam era model we were in today for three hours. Though he has briefly flown a few helicopters since his army days he basically stopped flying Hueys after a serious crash in 1968. Today he flew us all the way back from Iraan, Texas...a 45 minute flight. Like riding a bike, you just never forget how.

Several days ago when my friend Gregg heard that Bruce was in town, he said he would deem it a great honor if Bruce would take a flight in one of Gregg's three restored Hueys. So, today that's what we did, flying to Iraan to eat one of the best barbeque lunches I've had in Texas. Along with us was the new director of the Commmemorative Air Force, a fomer Army chopper pilot himself and Bruce's son Donovan who flew up from Houston today just for the event. Also I had called my friend Jose, the news director at CBS7 News, to see if they might like to send a reporter along. Jose called me back to say that no, he didn't want to send a reporter, he was going along himself and bringing their dirctor of photography to film the trip. So, next Monday, I understand, look for our trip and interviews with Bruce on the news at 6 and 10. And if you are in Iraan, try the barbeque joint, it's better than anything in Midland.

Online interview with Jimmy Patterson [click on icon at right]

Visitations....

It's odd sometimes how things work in life.

It seems like seeing old friends suddenly comes in a torrent. As the New Year approached I was invited to Boerne, Texas to be the guest of my good friends Gen. Tom and Toni Hill. Tom was a fraternity brother and I met Toni my freshman year at Trinity University also. I lived with Tom and Toni for four months when we all were in the army at Ft. Benning and after 40 years they are like family to me. Since our last visit together in 2003, we had a lot to catch up on. And with their extended families, their big gold dog and my Daphne in their large country home, it was a great time for us after a somewhat downsized Christmas.

On New Years Eve several other fraternity brothers who live in San Antonio came out for the day as well as my old high school classmate Bonnie who I haven't seen in decades. Laughter and remembrances were non stop while my friend, the other Pancho, and I took photos. It was tough to leave.

And so today I was pleasantly surprised when I received a phone call from two other dear friends, Bruce and Arlene Crandall. As you may recall Bruce is a recent Medal of Honor recepient, a ceremony I was honored to attend at the White House last February. Bruce and Arlene have been on a whirlwind appearance schedule since then, but are slowing down to spend three days in Midland. I think, perhaps, the invitation from my friend Gregg Baiano to spend two days flying in his restored Huey helicopters may have swayed Bruce to take this break from his rapid paced schedule. More fun will now, undoubtedly, ensue!

Jingle Bells.....Bam, Bam, Bam!

What better way to cap off that Christmas day cheer than to hear gunfire outside your house. Close outside....

As I was watching "The Greatest Story Ever Told" on the television about 11:30 Christmas night I heard a loud "pop" outside. In the first microsecond your brain optimistically says, "firecracker". But if you've spent years in the army firing every conceivable type of weapon, the second microsecond say's, no that's "gunfire". I muted the TV and heard muffled angry voices somewhere outside. Then "pop, pop, pop, pop, pop". No doubt about that, a semi-automatic pistol sounding like it was in the street directly outside.

Not being sure exactly what was going on I doused the lights in the den and staying below the window lines I reached my cellphone and called 911. The operator asked what the emergency was. Giving my name and address I told her that I was certain that there was gunfire in the street somewhere near my house. Her reply was, "we'll have someone check it out". Somehow I thought that she might ask a few more questions like, "do you see anyone" or is "anyone hurt". But no, "we'll check it out" was all I got. When you call 911 with a "shots fired" report you would expect to see flashing lights within a minute or so. As I peaked out the window for the next 20 minutes, what I saw was......nothing.

When people are firing automatic weapons somewhere near my home, I rather expect flashing lights, so this didn't sit well with me. Not wanting to be too alarmist, I phoned my neighbor across the street this morning and asked her if she heard anything last night. "You mean all the gunfire", she asked. This confirmed that I'm not whacko, so late this morning I went to the police station to ask about the incident. I later received a call from a Sgt. who confirmed that another neighbor, a block up, had also called and that he had reported shots fired by persons in a vehicle..firing at another vehicle and that in fact three police units had answered the call.

Knowing that neighbors were not trying to kill each other and that this was probably just two groups of armed drunks passing through the neighborhood makes me feel better but also sad to realize that this sort of thing can happen anywhere, even in a good, quiet, residential neighborhood with assistant District Attorney's as neighbors on both sides of your house. Merry Christmas.

Gratitude...

Christmas around here has not been the same the last two years for a variety of reasons. But, as I've learned, there is much to be grateful for. This time three years ago I was preparing to go into to heart surgery......this year I'm not.

For the past three years on Christmas Eve, I've shown my thanks to the folks in the cardiac unit at the hospital by taking them a little treat. In the photo above I'm at the Cardiac unit and this time I'm not hooked up to the monitors, now that's gratitude!

The Ventures....

The Ventures will be inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of fame this coming March. Well duh dudes it's about time. The Ventures have been playing rock n'roll for about 50 years having come together in 1958 and they are still touring! Their first big hit, "Walk Don't Run", still a classic, hit #2 on the charts in 1960. Their influence on rock has been profound with over 30 major rock stars declaring The Ventures to have been a primary influence on their own music. They were the sixth largest selling group of the 1960's. With over 110 million albums sold worldwide, the group remains the best selling instrumental rock group of all time.

Here is a 1994 rendtion of some of their hits. My Mom still loves to listen, occasionally, to Telstar on my original LP Album. By the way...I'm back to posting new classic bands on my website, Captured Memories

Dispatch from the front..

Hello and I hope everyone reading this is having a wonderful day. My name is Sgt Thomas Moses [top left in photo] and yesterday I received a package from you. First off I wanted to say thank you; I have shared many of the items with the soldiers under my care. Our unit has many responsibilities however my guys are pretty specific. We run a route security team thru Iraq ensuring the safety for anyone going anywhere at anytime. My guys and I are from all over Texas most of them are from the Dallas area, I am from Midland. During this time in our lives for many of my soldiers this is their first time not only out of Texas but their first time out of country and for many of them their first time away from their families and friends. Your boxes have helped them all; I always ensure that we share them.

My background, I have spent 33.3% of my life serving in the Army Infantry and I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. I have found that teaching those around me and helping guide young soldiers thru their lives is my calling. My family supports me more than I could have ever hoped and they have packed up and moved from country to country and city to city to ensure I have the support I need to carry out my missions.

During this time I ask that everyone take some time and realize what is really important in their lives. It's not the game systems nor the cars we drive, it’s the people around us everyday. Having been in Iraq for 3 out of the past 5 years I can truly say we are making a difference every day, one person at a time, and although I don’t believe Iraq will ever be a total democracy like what we have I do believe the people here will grasp and embrace their new freedom and understand that they hold their future within their hands. Once again I thank you all and I would also like to thank Cathy Gilleland, Mo and Cheryl Gaddis; I received your packages as well and I would like to apologize for not writing sooner but in my defense we have been quite busy with missions and I have 21 young and older soldiers (age 18 to 47)to tend to everyday being a parent isn’t ever as easy as it looks.

God bless everyone and take time to smell the flowers. Husbands take time to hug your wife and kids and share a sunset, buy someone something just because life is to short and embrace it with everything you have and you will never regret it. Thank you all again and have a wonderful new year.

Sgt Thomas Moses
11B20 Infantry leader
Iraq Delta RST/ACC


P.S. Who ever thought to put the bore snake in the package thank you very very much.

For more information: West Texas Troop Salute

Christmas for Our Troops...results

It has been just one week since our 600+ gift packages were mailed to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Today we received this email. Sure makes all the work of many people worthwhile....

Dear Scott, Wallace and Gail and all others at West Texas Troop Salute,

I am completely in awe with the generous package I just received from your organization! WOW! I shared with everyone and I can't express how truly impressive this box really was. A camera, batteries, a phone card, not to mention the Cheezits, which are my personal favorite, and so much more that I cannot mention them all. I am so grateful for people who rally to support the Soldiers. This is a 15-month tour and frankly, it is miserable. Not simply the conditions, but also the workload. Sometimes I really cannot imagine getting through another 6 months working 17 hours a day, every day (and the war-fighting troops are working much harder to make our area safer for the Iraqi people), so it is critical at times that other people are putting in time, too, to show us that our work and sacrifices mean something to other who are home. You choose to sacrifice time, effort, and money to show us your support and that is encouraging and inspires more greatness from us. Personally, I am proud to share these times with people like yourselves who want to accept some of the burden in bringing some love and support to the Soldiers out here. You are doing a tremendous service for your country and for that, I will always be grateful for your time and efforts - this one package means more than you know.

I am from El Paso and I am not sure how you got my info, but I am so pleased, once again to be from the best State in the Union! Thank you with all of my heart.

Sincerely,
Nancy Preston

Captain, Engineer Branch
Brigade Engineer
3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division
FOB HAMMER, Iraq

The Things We Packed.....

With so much of the news dominated by negative events, I am sometimes forgetful of how truly generous and giving most people are; especially in Midland, Texas. I was reminded today.

Today we had nearly 100 good people show up to help pack over 600 gift boxes for our troops in combat areas overseas sponsored by our Christmas for Our Troops program. We packed movie DVD's, music CD's, t-shirts, socks, frisbees, phone cards, books, duct tape, chapstick, soap, stocking caps, cameras and much more. And usually not just one of each item. We had thousands of phone cards, disposable cameras, DVD's and CD's donated. And food. We had cases of Slim Jim's, peanuts, pretzels, crackers, cookies and candy, soup mix, drink mix.

One gentleman, who wishes to remain anonymous, put a $2 bill in each and every box, a good luck token. Each 2 cubic square foot box was packed to overflowing, but with enough room at the top to add 6 or 7 personalized Christmas cards sent by Midlanders and school children along with our personalized letter telling each recipient how much we appreciate his or her service on our behalf.

Here are some photos of the people who made it all possible

Greed: How much is too much...?

Some of the more persistant talk around town this week has been whether Cowboys fans will be able to see the Pokes/Packers game on Thursday night. To hear the buzz this topic seems to be as important as Iraq or Afghanistan. Personally I'd like to see it too. I've been watching the Cowboys since 1962. But if I don't I won't lose any sleep. Apparently some will....

But get used to this. It doesn't take a media mogul to figure out the future for Pro football telecasts. If you want to watch, you're going to pay more one way or the other. I haven't been following the NFL [the National Felons League] closely enough to know if they've announced, or not, that they are working towards getting all the games on their channel. Even if they haven't announced this, bubba, you can count on it. Any organization that pays a whole team of functional illiterates millions of dollars each to play a game, has enough money to make even more with their own TV channel. And who'll they make it from is you. Not me, because I won't be watching, but if you do, you'll be making them richer. In light of people still starving on this earth, probably richer than God thinks is appropriate.

Because our wives both worked for the same Dallas radio station from 1983-1986, I became fairly good friends with former Cowboys linebacker Dave Edwards. Dave played for most of the 60's and early 70s, was a Pro-Bowler, played in three Super Bowls and wore a Super Bowl Champions ring. Dave once told me that the most he ever made, including Super Bowl money, was about $90,000 for that year. I believe that he told me this because he was shocked that some players then, in the mid-80's, were making a half a million a year. Some players make that much per game now.

OK, you say, I'm a big Cowboys fan, I can fork over a few more dollars to Grande or Suddenlink each month to watch the 'Boys play. And if this was the end of it, perhaps I would too. But for one minute, do you think that if this works for Pro Football that the other sports giants aren't going to jump in too? My pick for the next pay sports venue will be the NASCAR Channel. The guys at NASCAR took sports media marketing to a whole new level. They ain't gonna' miss an extra paycheck.

So now, people like me and maybe you, who watched the Cowboys from day one, spent money at the games when they were losers and cheered when they were winners, are being charged to keep watching and to make the Jerry Jones' of the world even richer. Too greedy? A lot too greedy!

"An article on Forbes Magazine's website, published September 13, 2007, lists the Cowboys as the most valuable sports team in the world, with an estimated value of approximately $1.5 billion, ahead of the Washington Redskins ($1.467 billion) and the New England Patriots ($1.199 billion). They are also one of the wealthiest teams in the NFL, generating almost $250 million in annual revenue"

Local News...

I've been thinking that I need to become, once again, more involved in local stories of interest. Here are a couple of items making news around the area:

1] New Mexico Air begins service out of Midland International Airport. Now one can fly to Hobbs NM round trip for $150. The obvious question on most people's minds is....Why?

2] The Midland city council approves expenditures for 20 new larger police cruisers. I'm sure we need updated models.....now if the police force could actually be trained to use these to enforce traffic regulations the money would be well spent.

Car shoppin' with Ma....

So Ma and I go shopping for a new car for her this morning. We first go to an old line respected dealer where my family has purchased autos since the 60's. A young salesman approaches and the conversation goes like this:

Salesman: "Mrs. Craig I think you'll like this car, it has many good safety features, has a great ride, gets good gas mileage, is quiet and......"
Ma: "I'll take it!!"

Not exactly like that, but pretty close. I've never bought a new car in 10 minutes. We did today. She liked the color. So now Ma has a spiffy new car with a sunroof, genuine chrome wheels [wheels, not covers] and OnStar. It took only from 10:30 this morning until 3:00 this afternoon from first look until the car was in Ma's garage. It took this long because Ma needed to go home for a restroom break and to clean out her belongings from the old car.

I don't know if she needed a new car, she just wanted one and that's OK with me. Her old car was twenty years old and, I'm not making this up, had only 25,540 miles on it! Only driven to church on Sundays. It also was in immaculate condition save for the mirror she had just knocked asunder on the garage last week; a small garage entry, I'm surprised it hasn't happened before. And, we had talked about getting a new car for her, so she just didn't wake up this morning determined to buy a car, but today was the day in her mind.

Really, I'm quite proud of her, making a decision and getting on with it. She'd never been involved in a new car purchase so this was a learning experience for her and she did very well, although she was surprised that buying "cash" would not earn her a discount. With all the variables to be considered one of her most important worries was whether we'd get two sets of keys...."Your Father always had two sets of keys". "Yes Ma, we'll get two sets of keys".

One of my biggest worries was how much time I'm going to be spending explaining OnStar to her. I could see her eyes rolling as we talked to the operator while getting the system set up. But for an 84 year old woman who used to think that A.M. radio was high tech she really seemed to take it all in stride. I think it took a moment to grasp the concept of talking to your rearview mirror to someone in India who's progamming your car, but she caught on quickly.

All in all not a bad day and frankly one I'm glad I didn't spoil with some sensible comment like, "don't you think we ought to shop around". Sometimes the best gift we can give is letting others have their moments without comment. It was good to see her excited about something again and my Dad would have been proud of us both. Nice "Ride" Ma.

Heritage....

The awards above belonged to my Grandfather and my Dad. The Marine Corps Globe and Anchor insignia was my Dad's Father's and is from the First World War; he fought in the battle of The Belleau Woods. The Combat Infantry Badge was my Dad's. He landed at Anzio and fought his way into Italy with the 45th Division, then was re-landed on the shores of Southern France after D-Day, heading towards Germany until succumbing to frostbite in the Vosges Mountains. My Dad recuperated at Air Base Depot #2 in England while the 45th made it all the way to Germany liberating Dachau concentration camp on the way to Munich.

My Grandfather was a Marine Corps infantry private, my Dad an Army infantry sergeant. I was a an Army infantry officer.

Veteran's Day...

Surfin' Again....

Loading IE ver. 6.0 and AOL ver.9.0 on Ma's machine has her surfin' down the digital superhighway once again. Surfin' slowly on dial-up and AOL, but connected again none the less. Thanks to the guys at A.G.E. Systems for the IE 6 software. According to the experts there, I was correct, IE ver 6.0 cannot be found anymore.

Problem Update.....

We shall soon know if Ma's computer will be back up and running on the Internet. As I described on Monday, converging glitches caused her to be offline for about a week now. In the intervening time I have gotten her to think outside of her box and to consider going to bundled services including broadband. Now just when we were about to go in that direction, through my friends at A.G.E. Systems, I've found a copy of Internet Explorer 6.0 which will allow repairs to AOL. Staying with AOL is the easier way in her mind.

But she has made progress. She went so far as to call Suddenlink to get prices on bundled service which we discussed at her 84th birthday dinner tonight. I have to say that Suddenlink seems to be more expensive than Grande which I have and have recommended to her. But unbelievably, no actually quite believably, there were cascading problems with getting broadband too!

Seems she has Suddenlink as her TeeVee provider. Also seems that some years ago my Dad paid a considerable sum of dough to have all their incoming utility lines buried, including Cox Cable, now Suddenlink. So if we got Grande they most likely would have to string a cable across the now uncluttered yard......so Suddenlink is the only choice she'll even consider.

But on Friday I'll install IE Ver. 6.0, install AOL Ver. 9.0 reboot her computer without problem, I'm sure, and she'll be happy, back where she was before. I'm sure all of this will happen. I pray all this will happen

Law of Cascading Problems

First off let me say that my Ma, who'll be 84 on Wednesday, does really well on the computer. She's been online for 5 or 6 years now and can email, surf the web, Google and even has an account at Amazon.com.....which she uses! She knows what she uses really quite well. But try to explain change to her computer world and....well that's a challenging experience.

She's been on AOL the entire time she's been online and even with my explanations doesn't really understand that there's another way to dial into the internet that may be actually easier; using a regular web browser and an email client program. But after years of carping about fixing her AOL problems, I've come to realize that she does well on it so let sleeping old ladies lie.

But....over the last weeks she's been complaining about being disconnected from AOL after only 3 or 4 minutes. Again, quite proud of her....she actually called the AOL helpline and explained to me [after asking me if I knew what she had to go through to talk to a real person...gee really!] that the nice man in India checked her system and the problem is that she's never updated her AOL software. She's on Version 5....AOL is on Version 9. Thus the disconnect problem.

I called and verified this with a nice AOL guy in Pakistan who confirmed this and said all we had to do was to go to Wal-Mart, pick up the new Version 9 CD and install it and our problem would be solved adding that to be sure I uninstalled the old AOL software before installing the new. Check. So off to Wal-Mart I went last Friday to pick up the CD and install it. And this is where Craig's Law of Cascading Problems began.

Craig's Law of Cascading Problems says that, with computers, whenever you are faced with an answer that is too easy beware; in applying the easy fix you will generate a never ending series of new corollary problems that become increasingly harder to fix. And so it was.

I uninstalled the old AOL version and ran through the entire install of the new AOL Version 9...that is until at the end a warning box appeared stating, "Version 9.0 requires at least Internet Explorer Version 6.0, please install IE 6.0.....Good-Bye". My Ma has IE Version 5.5. Muffled cursing ensued as neither the nice guy in Pakistan, nor the instructions on the software CD nor on the AOL help website had made any mention of this. I had no clue that AOL was in any way linked to Explorer. But being the model of serenity these days I told Ma that there was a problem and I would have to download something on my computer, put it on a CD and return the next day, thinking that surely I would find IE version 6.0 on a download site somewhere and retrieve it.

Silly me. Microsoft©, being who they are, likes to expunge all earlier versions of a product once a new one comes out. There is not a complete IE Version 6.0 to be found on the internet. So, I thought, I'll go to Microsoft© and download the larger Version 7....the new browser. Being somewhat savvy in these things I looked up the machine system requirements necessary to run Version 7.0...Ma's computer being 5 or so years old. It looked like her machine would handle IE 7.0 or so I thought until I read the fine print. Version 7.0 is not compatible with Windows Millenium Edition. Ma has Window Millenium Edition. More cursing ensued. How can they offer a new browser that won't run on one of their own operating systems. Apparently Microsoft© is trying to expunge the Millenium edition too.

I found this out over the weekend and knew I would have to report my findings, Ma has become an email junkie and is getting the jitters about not having the Internet. So today I just had to, in the simplest of terms, explain to her the problems. "We couldn't update your AOL because the browser, which you didn't even know existed and have never seen is out dated. They no longer offer the best updated browser that is the simplest fix and the newer browser won't run on your operating system, which I know you've never heard of, because Microsoft© rushed a dog of a product out and now denies it ever existed".

I asked her if she understood any of this. She said, "well maybe I need to call an expert.......the nice man in India said all I needed to do was get a new CD at Wal-Mart".