Whatever

Just some random things in this post and thoughts of a Halloween many years ago.

If there was ever a reason to skip that trip to McDonald's this is probably the best one ever. Special sauce on that Big Mac--- don't ask.

One misspelled word and the hunt for a new job begins.

What school is this for? Seems like an issue. Must be a WalMart store.

Wish this was a joke. It isn't. Is this really the best way to spend this much money?

When I worked at the prison that happened every day on the way to my office. When I was in a housing unit wing talking to inmates probably spoke to that many in a couple of hours. Generally they were the easiest guys to work with in the place. Drug users, guys who commit property crimes and sex offenders always had some lame excuse for their conduct. Guys who murdered someone, they knew they had done a bad thing. They were also in for a long time so they knew they had to find some way to make the system work for them rather than spending all their time fighting it.

Audrey and Johnnie getting ready to head off for a day of fun at school. Halloween was always a good time to be a kid in grade school.

The year was 1977, the place- Mary Davis Juvenile Detention Home. The man, the legend Mike Blythe. Your first day working in a locked facility with juvenile offenders is always interesting. You don't have a clue what you are doing or what to expect. At the Mary at the time it was just you and one other staff member of the opposite sex and up to 20 or so juvenile offenders. Halloween night 1977 was Mike's first night of work at the Mary. Shift starts at 3:00 p.m. and the afternoon is spent with recreation and staff preparing and serving the evening meal. After the meal and chore cleanup by the kids they head back to the dormitories for showers. When those are completed they return to the main area for evening recreation. Tonight is special, It's Halloween. The recreation tonight is pumpkin carving. Every juvenile offender is given a pumpkin to carve and a sharp knife. So, imagine being Mike. First night of work. No idea what is going on yet. Everyone has a sharp knife except Mike. The only thing standing between them and escape is Mike and a set of keys he and the other staff member carry. Everyone has a sharp knife. Fortunately for Mike everyone chooses to carve their pumpkin. It is the most interesting first night of work anyone could ask for.

There Be Monkeys Here

The here referenced above is not Tybee Island. We got no monkeys here but surprisingly there are monkeys close. Lots of monkeys. Free range monkeys. The more I learn about this area the more I realize how ignorant I was of the south. So where are these monkeys? Morgan Island, South Carolina located in Beaufort County is also known as Monkey Island. It is about an hour drive from Tybee Island and accessible only by boat. A colony of free-ranging rhesus monkeys was established on the island in 1979.

Morgan Island is a 4,489 acre marshland island with 635 acres of upland. The island is uninhabited and home to a breeding colony of about 3,500 Indian origin rhesus monkeys. A 370 acre portion of the upland supports a semi-tropical maritime forest when the monkey colony resides. The monkey colony was originally located in La Parguera, Puerto Rico at the Caribbean Primate Research Center. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates there were incidents of free ranging monkeys infected with the herpes B virus escaping. The CDC also reported outbreaks among locals when the monkeys became overpopulated. South Carolina offered an island for research. In 1979 over 1,400 were relocated to Morgan Island. There are only two rhesus monkey colonies in the United States with the other being on the Silver River in Florida. Rhesus monkeys were released at Silver Springs in the 1930's and became feral. They remain along the Silver River run and can be seen when traveling the river. (A little note for Mike in case he wants to go about 2 hours north to the Ocala, Florida area). The monkeys on Morgan Island are owned by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases which is part of the National Institutes of Health. There is no research done on the island. Several hundred monkeys are captured each year and transported to labs around the United States for testing for diseases. Visitors are strictly prohibited on the island but those who venture near by boat often see the monkeys swarming toward the beaches to protect their shore. Depending on your viewpoint, fortunately or unfortunately, the monkeys have not chosen to invade South Carolina.

Unrealized Potential

Oscar Traveras age 22 and his girlfriend Edilia Arvelo age 18 died in an automobile accident in the Dominican Republic on October 27th,  If you don't follow baseball or are not a St. Louis Cardinal fan you may not know who Oscar was. That is a hard word to use- was. Oscar came up to the major leagues this year and was developing as a player. He was ranked as the second or third best prospect in baseball. Would he have developed into a superstar? Was he the next Albert Pujols in the Cardinal organization? Unfortunately we will never know. It was two lives cut tragically short.

Organizations like individuals have an identity and a personality. The Cardinals are no exception. The reaction from the Cardinal organization was well done.

Chairman Bill DeWitt, Jr. "We are all stunned and deeply saddened by the tragic loss of one of the youngest members of the Cardinals family. Oscar was an amazing talent with a bright future who was taken from us well before his time. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends tonight."

John Mozeliak, General Manager. "I simply can't believe it. I first met Oscar when he was 16 years old and will forever remember him as a wonderful young man who was a gifted athlete with an infectious love for life who lived every day to the fullest."

Manager Mike Matheny. "In my opinion, the word "love" is the most misused, and misunderstood word in the English language. It is not popular for men to use this word, and even less popular for athletes. But, there is not a more accurate word for how a group of men share a deep and genuine concern for each other. We loved Oscar, and he loved us. That is what a team does, that is what a family does. You will be missed, Oscar."

It is the way you hope your team will respond when faced with the tragic loss of a player. Oscar was an outfielder and played right field. Last night at Busch Stadium this was the scene. The only lights on the ones in right field as a tribute to Oscar.

RIP Oscar.

Tuesday on Tybee Island

It seems that there is always something going on here on Tybee Island. Today it was the Georgia Air National Guard with elements of the 165th Airlift Wing using a C-130 aircraft with the 123rd Special Tactics Squadron and Combat Readiness Training Center personnel conducting training off the beach. The training keeps the Air Force Pararescue Jump Teams ready for the day when they are needed. The Pararescuemen provide emergency medical treatment for wounded military personnel recovering downed airmen in inhospitable environments. They are also utilized in natural disasters when emergency rescue assistance is needed. It was also a great morning to walk along the beach and take pictures. No more commentary, just enjoy the show.

 Got lucky to catch the bird in the right hand side of the picture.

Wanted to get a picture of the C-130 passing over this outgoing container ship. It is a big airplane but doesn't appear to be so in comparison with this ship.

40

I took the weekend off from blogging because I wanted to spend the weekend with my bride of 40 years. Sunday was our 40th anniversary. We didn't do anything real special over the weekend just the stuff we do all the time. Spend time together and enjoy each others company.

It would be a fair question to ask. How do you stay married for 40 years? I wish I had a good answer. Maybe the best one is the one we usually tell people when they ask. Be stubborn. There are times, and we have had them, when it would have been easier to quit. Just throw in the towel and say the hell with it. There were kids to raise and they deserved two parents in the house. There were more reasons to stay together than there were to move apart. Sometimes you just have to be willing to struggle through the rough patches. It smooth's out eventually. Sometimes there are more bills than money. Sometimes there is chicken and noodles for every meal for a week. Sometimes the car doesn't work. There are always things that happen. Friday was a good example of how things don't go as planned. We had the heating and cooling folks out to give our system the once over before we head into winter here. We have a heat pump and found out it was 12 years old and on its last legs. The salt air here doesn't do them any favors. The system needed to be replaced. As a matter of fact while I am typing this they are working on installing the new system. So what does my lovely wife get for her 40th anniversary. A new heat pump and air handler. It apparently is the traditional gift for your 40th anniversary. The good news for me is that it wasn't our 50th anniversary because I would have been required to get the gold heat pump.

A final thought on long marriages. It is easier to accomplish when you can look at your family and see examples of how marriages can stand the test of time.

 This handsome couple are my maternal grandparent John and Harriet.

 This is John and Harriet 50 years later. Were those 50 years always easy? I have read parts of her journals and know that they were not. Somehow they managed and showed us that it was possible to enjoy a lifetime together.

 This is my parents John and Anna celebrating their wedding. Were things always easy for them? Of course not, they had three boys to raise. They remained married through good times and bad until Dad's passing in 1999.

Here we are at Benny's on Tybee Island yesterday afternoon enjoying some time together. We went in for a beer and had our bartender Wanda take this picture for us. I wonder in 10 years if we will look like the picture of John and Harriet up above. I hope so.

We Were Young My Friends, We Thought it Would NEVER End

My dear friend Mike from time to time posts pictures on his blog www.existinginbfe.BlogSpot.com of life when we worked at the Mary Davis Home. Surprisingly after having worked there 11 years I have zero pictures from inside that facility. In my 20+ years at the prison I have a few. Mostly they are my hostage photos. You know the ones they take in case you are held hostage so they know who to shoot. Some day maybe I'll track a couple of those down and share them. Today it is pictures from around the time I started at the Mary Davis Home. We are going to jump in Mr. Peabody's Way Back Machine (figure that reference out if you are young) and look at my family on a couple of dates. I began my employment at the Mary in December 1977 so this picture is one year into my career.

Here we are at my Grandparent's home in rural Wataga. It is Christmas Eve 1978. I have a little bit different version of this picture but in it my eyes are closed. You have to look closely in this one but they are open. I chose this one for a different reason. The smile on Carol's face. She looks very happy in this picture. Those weren't the best times for us. Newly married (4 years) and two young children, jobs we liked but didn't pay much. It was a struggle every day. I was a little surprised when I saw this picture that I had a beard. It seems back in those days it was a winter thing for me.

 This picture and the next two were taken on June 10, 1979. It is Jeremy's first birthday. He's a happy boy having just eaten a piece of the cake pictured below. No beard in this picture although with the sideburns it looks like I left about one pass with the razor between them.

 The Panda bear in front of him is the cake. Not sure how we ended up with a Panda cake. My Mom loves Panda bears...mmmmmm???

A picture of the happy birthday boy. He's a bit older now (36) and I can only hope there are days when he is this blissfully happy. Life was simple back then and a piece of cake could make your day. Seeing him this happy makes mine.

Pictures Make You Wonder

It has been a while since I posted any family or personal pictures. I was working on my office today and came across a couple I wanted to share. In addition to sharing we can go on a little adventure together. The first picture was undated. I know where it was taken, why it was taken but not when. It would have been nice to have that bit of information. It would have been somewhere in the mid 1960's since clearly puberty hasn't showed up in my appearance or height. It would be my best guess that it is between 1964 and 1966. It is the Knox County 4-H show and I have finished giving my show steer a bath. Well, if you're going to show you have to clean your animal up so he looks his best. It always surprises me when you look at these pictures that a kid who weighs maybe 100 pounds can lead around an animal that weighs over 1000 pounds.

There are a few things I wish I knew about this picture. The date it was taken and the name of my steer. We always got them in the fall, fed them every day and made sure they had water every day through the cold Illinois winters and showed them in the summer. Since you dealt with them every day they had to have a name. It was always clear they weren't pets and that someday (right after the show) they were off to be sold. It's not that you didn't get attached to them but you knew how the story was going to end. The harsh reality was that it would be some money in your pocket and food on someone's table.

The second picture has some important information on the back. It was taken in Camden, South Carolina in front of the home of Charles Owen in August 1969. Charles Owen is important in my life since my middle name is his last name. I used this picture to help date the one above. Since I know in this picture I am 15 years old. The vacation we took that year start with a trip to see my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins in Connecticut. It was the summer of Woodstock and somewhere along the trip in New York we got caught up in the traffic headed to that festival. After the visit with the relatives we headed south to see Mr. Owen and his family in South Carolina. I don't remember much of the trip other than a stop somewhere along the way for lunch. Race relations weren't a settled issue in the late 1960's unless you were traveling with my Dad. He didn't care what color you were or where you should and shouldn't stop to eat. We went to a small diner somewhere in the south and it was my introduction to southern cooking and black eyed peas. It was love at first bite. I still love southern food and those old diners on the back roads no one travels any longer. Enough of my babbling. Here is the family in 1969.

 Front row Mom (Anna) and younger brother David. Back row Dad (John), older brother John Jay and me.

I'd Take That Job

Most days when Lily and I go for a walk we pass by the Tybee Island lighthouse at some point during the excursion. One problem with seeing it so often is the chance that it will cease to inspire some awe in me. It is, and lighthouses in general are, amazing structures. I wanted to share pictures of a few with you. I know lighthouse keepers aren't needed any more. If they were it would be a job I would be willing to take.

 Is there a better view anywhere than the one pictured above?

 Maybe there is.

 This could qualify as well.

Great pictures are about subject matter and timing. This example approaches perfection.

Jesus Christ Jeff- What is Wrong with You?

If you ever wondered if I was going to hell (if there is such a place) these should dispel all doubt. They are not originals by me. Some talented person somewhere photoshopped these and I think they are great.

 Seems to me he would always win. Not a fair fight.

 Field sobriety test- NO Problem.

 Personally I would have had him pitch.

 Not fair- he knows ALL the answers. Looks a little old for that class.

Sure hope those are kosher.
Since I'm hell bound might as well throw these on the fire.

 That one is true. He would know.

 Love the eyes.

 Over 2,000 years and mothers never change.

 More truth there then we'd like to acknowledge.

 Could resist a poke at Republican Christians.