My WWC - Four Down, Five to Go

Last Saturday marked a milestone of sorts.  It was the tenth anniversary of the night that I had a myocardial infarction that put me in a Washington DC hospital for a week.  I have always considered it my third near death encounter and, in fact, the first doctor who attended me in Frederick, Maryland had pretty much written me off, too, even though he ordered a helicopter life flight for me.

Since I went through Frederick Saturday on my way to my son's house, I had occasion to recall that momentous night and the week that followed.  I felt good to have survived so long beyond that time, and I mentioned it to Judy and Brad Saturday night.  I should have known that it would be a jinx on me.

Sunday morning we were having our morning cup of coffee in the living room.  I had just taken a good sip and prepared to swallow it when, for some unknown reason, the coffee entered my windpipe instead of my trachea.  You know what happened next.

I stood while choking and Judy tried to pound my back, but before she could even begin, I lost consciousness and fell into the Christmas tree.  Fortunately, the tree stayed up, but there I lay partly beneath it (so I was told).

It took both Judy and Brad to roll me over and lift me enough for Brad to perform a Heimlich Maneuver on me.  It took over a minute for me to come around, and then I spent the rest of the day trying to dislodge the rest of the fluid.  Then we all lost most of our sleep Sunday night; me attempting to find a position that would allow me to breathe, and the two of them checking on my status.

Two days after the incident all seemed well and recovered.  That included my bruised right buttock--from falling on several of the presents under the tree--and Brad's pulled leg muscle, which was a result of lifting 205 pounds of dead weight off the floor.  None of the gifts suffered any harm, though I can't imagine why not.

All seemed well, but that was not entirely the case.  On Thursday Judy and I started our trip home from Maryland. We stopped for the night in Hillsville. Virginia.  By the time we arrived at our hotel there, I was doing a lot of coughing and didn't feel well enough to go out to dinner.  Matters only got worse the following day.  The coughing came in waves, and I couldn't get a deep breath.  When we got home I started a series of long bouts of non-productive coughing followed by short quiet periods.  I was unable to recline my body, so I spent the night in my TV chair with a pillow propped behind my head.  Needless to relate, it was not a sleep-filled night for either of us.

We went to our Primary Care Center first thing Saturday morning.  The doctor prescribed three medications.  He listened to my lungs and had a chest X-ray taken, both of which were negative for pneumonia, Thank God.  The meds are beginning to take effect, and I'm beginning to feel a lot better.  Maybe I'll even make a full recovery.

So now I have used up my fourth life.  If I were a cat, I'd have five more to go, but I don't know if I can keep this up.  After all, it is pretty traumatic for all involved.  At any rate, I am still around to wish you a happy and prosperous 2016.

Another Year Has Come and Gone

Well, here goes again with my feeble attempt to put together a wrap up for 2015.  It has been a good year in some respects, but a poor one in others - poor being the operative word here.  Seniors who live on a fixed income have been suffering low or non-existent interest rates for about eight years now, and it doesn't show signs of improving anytime soon.  I'm certainly glad that I planned ahead, but I would sure like to see more than the paltry returns I get on my savings and investments.

Health-wise, it was a pretty darned good year until the very end, when both Judy and I had dental problems.  Mine was a back molar that needed a root canal and, of course, a crown to complete it.  Judy needed a crown on one of her lower front teeth, and the one she got (temporary) is the wrong color.  I hope they will correct that after all the $$$ we spent.

We took several road trips this year.  We visited Corning Glass Museum and the Finger Lakes in the spring.  Then we tried to visit six national parks in 14 days; Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Glacier, Arches, Canyonlands and Black Canyon.  We did manage to get to every one of them, but the tail end of our trip was rained out and we hightailed it for home, skipping another part of the itinerary in Alabama.  Well, as it turned out, we got our opportunity to make the Alabama trip a long weekend one in the fall, and I finally got to visit the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro.  I have to go back there sometime and spend a day or two browsing.

This turned out to be my lucky year for the Augusta National (a.k.a. The Masters), in that I finally got to go to the final round with Jeff, my son-in-law, and we walked just about the entire course.  We arrived a little after noon, so the first two or three pairs were back in the clubhouse by then, but we got to see all the finalists and watched Jordan Spieth win  the Green Jacket (Well, we didn't stay for the ceremony, but we did see him) 

My work with Roadtripamerica.com now includes an advisory role for anyone who is planning a road trip and wants advice on routes, attractions and accommodations.  It is neat to help others plan an itinerary with lots of activities and sights to see. 

Another nice side benefit of working online for Roadtripamerica.com is that I've befriended several other advisors, one a lady of about my age from Australia, (they call it OZ) who is way ahead of me in her travels. This year she took a 182-day trip that crossed the United States east-to-west to Alaska and back to Boston and then north-to-south to Key West, Florida.  to finish the trip, she drove out to Colorado and put her truck in storage for her next adventure.

I'm already in the planning stages for two road trips next year, one to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the early summer and another up to New England for fall foliage, one of my bucket list items I've decided is past due. 

My granddaughter now has her very own bassoon and she is quite accomplished on it.  Maybe a philharmonic career in the making, there.  And her brother plays both clarinet and Tenor Sax, so maybe jazz band for him?

My grandson has changed from his job at Lowe's to one with Columbia County, where we all live here near Augusta.  He is part of a 3-man drain team (storm drains, not sewers) which they maintain.  When it rains, as it has for about the past week, the crew is not able or required to go down into the drains, so there is a lot of paid down time; a pretty nice piece of work, if you ask me.

That seems to be the only noteworthy news from this past year, so I won't bore you any further.  Wishing you and yours a very Happy New Year in 2016, and I hope to be around to do this again next December.

North Versus South One-Hundred-Fifty Years Later

One of the first things I learned when I entered the military (USAF) in 1956 was that our American civil War—also known as either The War Between The States, or The Northern Aggression—was still raging on.  

Yes, ninety-one years after General Robert E. Lee signed the formal surrender of the Army Of Northern Virginia to Ulysses Grant’s Army of the Potomac, there was still some doubt as to the outcome of that four-year struggle.

I had never been exposed to the Southern sentimentality before that time.  Heck, I hadn’t ever been below the Mason-Dixon line.  It took me only a short time to realize that there were some “foreigners” in our midst.  But then, come to think of it, I was the foreigner, since I took my boot camp at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas.  Texas was definitely a Confederate State from 1861 until 1865.

The reason I bring up the subject is that it ties into my topic for this week; and that topic is indirectly tied to a recent one that I posted, the writing of The Battle Hymn of The Republic.  I received a response to that column that linked to a website of vitriolic invective (whew, I love big words) regarding the penning of that famous song.

A fellow named Michael Dan Jones was the author, and he was highly critical of Julia Ward Howe and of the song she wrote.  I will include the link so that you can read his comments if you choose. http://www.plpow.com/Atrocities_BattleHymn.htm. 

It is apparent that the Civil War (or whatever you choose to call it) is still going on for some people, including Mr. Jones.

One of the more fascinating facts about The Battle Hymn of the Republic is that I have listened to several versions of it, and the word ‘transfigures’ is rarely pronounced as it should be, with the ‘ures’ sounding like the word ‘yours.’  Instead, it is pronounced as ‘ers.’ 

I got curious and looked up the word in the dictionary, since I really didn’t know the correct pronunciation or its meaning. Here is Webster’s definition:

1.      To change the form or appearance of

2.      To transform so as to glorify

(The dictionary doesn’t allow for the ‘er’ pronunciation, by the way) If I interpret that definition correctly, transfiguration is the change in appearance of Jesus so that his body actually glows and his head is encircled by a halo; he is beatified.  If that is so, then I suppose Julia Ward Howe actually believed that the Union soldiers would be transfigured as they fought their way south to defeat the Confederate forces.

I’ve never seen pictures of Ulysses Grant or William Tecumseh Sherman transfigured, so I surmise that Mrs. Howe was mistaken in her belief in the holy nature of the war.  But one thing we can surely say is that the battle rages on in some quarters.

It might interest you to learn that, since the ban on displaying the Confederate Battle Flag, I've seen more and larger ones displayed than ever before in my 9 years here in Augusta. Georgia.  No, the Civil War isn't over yet.

Missed Opportunity

 I am an inveterate road tripper and as such, I am on the road two or three times a year for extended periods.  In the course of my hobby, I have often missed out on something that was on my itinerary, or that I just plain missed in the planning stages.

One early example was from a road trip to Arizona that I took way back in 1980s.  I had heard about a really neat church built into the red rocks south of Sedona, and I really wanted to see it up close.  Well, we went driving among those gorgeous rock formations, but I completely forgot to turn off at the road leading to the church.  I didn't remember about it until a day or two later when we were well past a point where we could return to see the Chapel of the Holy Cross.  Fortunately, I was able to visit it several years later when we again traveled to Sedona with my sister and brother-in-law in 1993.

Another missed opportunity was on my 2009 solo trip to the Northwest United States. I took a right instead of a left near La Grande, Oregon and wound up driving a poorly maintained road for about 40 miles.  My intended drive was over the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway.  That one escaped me completely until I was watching Jeopardy! one night a few months later and one of the clues referred to Hells Canyon.  The name jumped out at me and I recalled seeing the sign for it near that interstate exit.

Thanks to Alex Trebek's clue, I flew out to Portland the next spring and drove over to the scenic route, which I spent the whole day touring.  I even had to do it from both ends of the loop due to flooding in the central portion, but it was beautiful scenery throughout.

This week I watched a National Geographic Channel program about Olympic National Park in Western Washington near Seattle.  Now I'm obsessed with getting back to that city and going over to Olympic, which I never attempted on my 2009 trip.  I'll probably fly in and rent a car.

I've been fortunate to have missed a lot of opportunities on the first go-around, but have been able to go back on a do-over and complete the mission.  I hope I live long enough to do it several more times, because you can never see enough of this beautiful country we call the United States of America.

Unknown Versus Known

 Two "events" occurred recently and one was probably unknown to about 99% of us, while the other was known to us and reported on incessantly, but with such duplicity and ignorance that only the mentally challenged could have failed to surmise the reason for its commission.

The first event, the unknown one, was a playground shooting that took place in New Orleans on November 22 at the Bunny Field Playground.  In that attack 17 were wounded, fortunately none fatally. As you might expect, most of the injured were children. 

I can't speak for you, but I didn't know about the incident until over a week later, and only then because my daughter ran across an obscure article about it.  I have since asked several people if they knew anything about a shooting in New Orleans and not one did. Of course, the story finally got out through talk radio hosts airing it on their programs, so now the press is all over it -- about two weeks too late and only because someone leaked the story to the unknowing public.

Oh, why do you suppose the major networks and news services didn't cover the story as front page or lead item news?  Well, this is just a guess on my part, but the shooter was a Black-African-American and he was in a confrontation with other B-A-A gang members, so it didn't fit the agenda of white-on-black crime.

The second event is well known, a shooting in San Bernardino that took the lives of  14 and left as many as 20 others wounded.  This one was committed by a man and his wife, both with Arab-sounding names.  At least, I think that Syed Rizwan Farook, and Tashfeen Malik are Arab and not African-American, but then, the names of some of the latter are pretty hard to pronounce and spell, too.

The California shootings left the suspects dead (shot by white police, can you believe it!?) so the motive for the shootings "could not be immediately determined," according to police and FBI investigators, and President Obama said that "we should not rush to judgment as to the cause -- it could be workplace violence and not terrorism at all."

One of the news services did report that there is an abortion clinic within a mile of the scene of the shootings, and that was quickly picked up by the mainstream media as a possible clue to the crime.  I'll leave that to you to puzzle out...

Well, as luck would have it, a further investigation of the residence of the two dead shooters revealed the presence of several pipe bombs and 2,000 rounds of ammunition.  These are not your average hobbyist's or weekend handyman's tools and crafts.

Now, this whole massacre might have been thwarted if the neighbor of the shooters had reported the suspicious activity she observed at their house, but she was afraid that she would be accused of racial profiling or (God forbid!) Islamophobia. Why do you suppose she felt that way?  Maybe the Attorney General's remarks about federal prosecution for anyone who bullies Muslims has something to do with it.

In light of the events and their consequences, especially the lack of reporting in the one case and the delay in assigning motive in the second, I wonder why it is that over half the American public bury their heads in the sand and ignore the plain truth that our media, our Justice Department and our President are not performing their duties.  We are at war, and they pretend that it is merely a case of "workplace violence" that causes some of the slaughter, while the rest is blamed on Republicans, gun owners, Tea Party followers and pro-lifers.

WAKE UP!!!  YOUR GREAT AMERICAN DREAM IS BECOMING A HUGE AMERICAN NIGHTMARE!

Refugees Truly in Need of Help

Now that we're well on the way to WWIII, it doesn't seem right to me that we should be opening our doors and our borders to refugees from the same lands where the enemy is in control, and especially not without fully vetting each and every one of them. The House of Representatives passed a veto-proof bill this week to stop the inflow until full vetting can be accomplished, but the Senate is likely to block it before it reaches the President.

But then, our President has committed to bring in at least 10,000 refugees without any background checks whatsoever.  You see, it is "the humanitarian thing to do."  Did he, somewhere in his extensive educational process, ever read the story of the Trojan Horse?

The President has said that the faith of refugees is not an issue in their acceptance for asylum, but that is just not true.  In fact, the law regarding immigration of refugees clearly states that religious persecution is a determining factor in their eligibility for refugee immigration status.  I hesitate to use the epithet "ignorant" for our President, but he is, after all, ignoring the law of the land.

Oh, and what about those other "refugees" from the Middle East, the Christian ones whom we see on the nightly news nearly every night being beheaded after the women and children are first raped and the men are tortured?  Are they among those eligible refugees, since they are proven to be persecuted and killed at a moment's notice? 

No, the President does not want to include the Christians in with the Muslims to whom he has given full immunity and benefits upon arrival.  They, the Christians, are "persona non grata" in the scheme of things here is the good old USA.

Oh, by the way, those unwelcome Christians are scheduled to be fully vetted without government assistance and without a single taxpayer dollar.  That's because they have been funded by contributions that currently amount to 12 million dollars through an organization called The Nazarene Fund.  Most of the adults are educated and productive workers who could fend for themselves here in America.  Most are also family groups as opposed to the single male individuals over 18 who make up the vast majority, over 62% by some estimates, of Muslims in the "chosen group."

I don't know how to get through to our President, and I highly doubt that it would make any difference if we could, but I do know how to contact my congressional senators and representative and the leaders of both houses.  I think it is high time we learn whether or not the Republicans and, yes, the Democrats have the guts to stand up for the only people in the Middle East whom we can guarantee are not part of ISIS/ISIL.  And we had better do it before they are completely eradicated, as four-and-one-half-million have been killed over the past decade.

If you do not know how to contact your senators and representatives, I invite you to contact me via email and I'll give you a tutorial.  But do it sooner rather than later, as time is running out for the true refugees.  Thanks for your support.

If you need any further incentive to make your decision, here it is from the office of United States Senator Jeff Sessions: ‎Below is a partial list of refugees and other Muslim migrants admitted to the U.S. who have committed or been charged with terrorism since just 2013.  Each year, the U.S. permanently resettles more than 100,000 Muslim migrants, in addition to thousands more on temporary student and work visas, a large portion of this funded through the annual appropriations bill:

An immigrant from Bangladesh, who applied for and received U.S citizenship,‎  tried to incite people to travel to Somalia and conduct violent jihad against the United States. (June 2014)

An immigrant from Ghana, who applied for and received U.S. citizenship, pledged allegiance to ISIS and plotted a terrorist attack on U.S. soil. (June 2015)

An immigrant from Sudan, who applied for and received U.S. citizenship, tried to join ISIS and wage jihad on its behalf after having been recruited online. (June 2015)

A Bosnian refugee, along with his wife and five relatives, donated money and supplies, and smuggled arms, to terrorist organizations in Syria and Iraq. (February 2015)

An immigrant from Yemen, who applied for and received U.S. citizenship, along with six other men, was charged with conspiracy to travel to Syria and to provide material support to ISIS. (April 2015)·

A Somali immigrant with lawful permanent resident status, along with four other Somali nationals, is charged with leading an al-Shabaab fundraising conspiracy in the United States, with monthly payments directed to the Somali terrorist organization. (July 2014)

A Kazakhstani immigrant with lawful permanent resident status conspired to purchase a machine gun to shoot FBI and other law enforcement agents if they prevented him from traveling to Syria to join ISIS. (February 2015)

An immigrant from Saudi Arabia, who applied for and received U.S. citizenship, swore allegiance to ISIS and pledged to explode a propane tank bomb on U.S. soil. (April 2015)

A Uzbek man in Brooklyn encouraged other Uzbeki nationals to wage jihad on behalf of ISIS, and raised $1,600 for the terror organization. (April 2015)

The Boston Bombers were invited in as refugees. The younger brother applied for citizenship and was naturalized on September 11th, 2012. The older brother had a pending application for citizenship. (April 2013)

A Moroccan national who came to the U.S. on a student visa was arrested for plotting to blow up a university and a federal court house. (April 2014)

6 Members of Minnesota’s Somali-American refugee community have recently been charged with trying to join ISIS. The Washington Times reported that “the effort [to resettle large groups of Somali refugees in Minnesota] is having the unintended consequence of creating an enclave of immigrants with high unemployment that is both stressing the state’s safety net and creating a rich pool of potential recruiting targets for Islamist terror groups.” (February 2015)

An Uzbek refugee living in Idaho was arrested and charged with providing support to a terrorist organization, in the form of teaching terror recruits how to build bombs. (July 2015)

An American citizen whose family is from Syria was sentenced for plotting to support ISIS and rob a gun store to kill members of the American military. (April 2015)

An immigrant from Syria, who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship, was accused by federal prosecutors of planning to “go to a military base in Texas and kill three or four American soldiers execution style.” (April 2015)

A college student who immigrated from Somalia, who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship, attempted to blow up a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Oregon. (October 2014)

An immigrant from Afghanistan, who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship, and a legal permanent resident from the Philippines, were convicted for “join Al Qaeda and the Taliban in order to kill Americans.” (September 2014)

An Iraqi immigrant, who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship, was arrested for lying to federal agents about pledging allegiance to ISIS and his travels to Syria. (May 2015)

Two immigrants from Pakistan, who later applied for and received U.S citizenship, were sentenced to decades-long prison sentences for plotting to detonate a bomb in New York City. (2012)

An immigrant from Yemen, who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship, was arrested for trying to join ISIS. He was also charged with attempting to illegally buy firearms to try to shoot American military personnel. (September 2014)

An immigrant brought here by his family from Kuwait at a young age, and who was later approved for U.S. citizenship, carried out the Islamist attack that recently killed 4 military personnel in Chattanooga. (July 2015)

Puleeze Stop Using the "R-word"

This will be a short column, and I'm sure it will piss off some of you. Be that as it may, I have to get this off my chest once and for all!

I sent out an email message that was (I admit) controversial.  Most of you who read my columns received it, so I wont describe it here except to reveal that it identified none other than the infamous Adolph Hitler - may he rot in Hell.  But the clues were eerily similar to the biography of another leader and would lead to a misidentification for some.

One of the offended parties who received the email took offense and wrote back a scathing email message labeling me a racist for equating that cursed Austrian (not German) Bastard with our current president.

I beg to differ, and I am not a racist. My neighborhood is about evenly divided between Blacks and Whites, and I smile and greet everyone exactly the same every day.  I hold no fear nor malice for any of my neighbors regardless of the color of their skin. I repeat: I am not a RACIST!

When will the liberals and (well , let me come out and print it) Democrats stop using the hateful "R-word" to defend their leader even when it doesn't apply, which is most of the time?  Whenever they can't debate or refute the message, they will impugn the character of the messenger. It's supposed to be the conversation stopper and it used to work, but not anymore..

The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King once said that he prayed for a time when a person was judged, not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character.  For many of us, including me, that time has come. I leave it to you to parse that statement.