1976

We spent the weekend in Camden, South Carolina working on a home improvement project for Carol's sister and her husband. In the middle of the afternoon we determined we would be a few pieces of wood short. We had to head to Columbia, South Carolina to get what we needed. When we parked we noticed this truck a few spaces over in the parking lot. 

It is a 1976 Ford pickup truck in excellent restored condition. I say restored because I doubt this color was available back then. 

The interior was also very nicely done. 

The truck bed had been lightly used. A few minor scratches. 

A view of the rear. 

As we were walking away the owner was walking toward us and wanted to know if we were interested in buying. We talked a few minutes about old trucks and told him what a nice one he had. He never mentioned a price and we didn't ask. Another vehicle just isn't in the budget. 

Audrey

Our son John and daughter in law Mandie's Middle daughter is Audrey. She is a very sweet, intelligent and polite young lady. It seems to me the only way you have wonderful children like Audrey is because you are wonderful parents. Today Mandie posted on Facebook that Audrey was 4th grade student of the month at her school. Being a wonderful student is just part of Audrey's story. She is a great competitor in tumbling and helps at the local animal shelter. She has a kind and loving spirit. 

The award letter from her teacher. 

Miss Audrey with her proud parents Mandie and John. 

Audrey with her teacher Miss Dyche. 

Congratulations Audrey!

Offensive? Maybe

There are a few issues I feel like addressing. If any of it offends you there are plenty of other blogs and pages on the Internet to read or view.

I'll start with this image. I assume some dimwitted asshole thinks that former President Obama was a Muslim, Kenyan, socialist who kicked Jesus out of the White House. Since there is supposed to be a separation of church and state a reasonable Harvard Law School educated, duly elected, constitutional scholar would understand that he may hold any personal religious beliefs he wants but that he is forbidden from pushing them on to the citizens he has been elected to lead. Now we have a Republican President who has no idea what being a Christian means aside from being one of the tools in his bag of tricks to fool the feeble minded who can't see through his veil of bullshit. It would seem that Republicans would not be too keen on Jesus. He was after all a Jew from the Middle East. He went around telling folks to take care of the poor. He provided free health care to all even to the point of raising the dead. Clearly our current President would not want anyone to raise the dead for fear they would vote in the next election along with those millions of illegals that no one can seem to locate.

The only thing that surprises me about this one is that the two folks pictured appear to be white. Of course if the slope headed moron who developed this would take a little time to do some research he (it has to be a man) would discover that the states with the largest numbers of folks receiving government benefits are ruled by Republicans (read conservatives).

I rather enjoyed this one. Perhaps the proposed Secretary of Education should learn a little bit about sentence construction in the English language. To quote her perspective boss: "She needs to work on this bigly."

 Once again some idiot decided to post something that makes zero sense. Women marched to defend their rights not because any had been taken away by the President. They are working to maintain the gains they have made and not to take any steps backward. In addition, it appears from what he has said in the past he does intend to take away some of their rights. He opposes equal pay, he intends and has moved to restrict abortion rights. So, what is wrong with putting the President on notice that if those rights are restrict in an manner there will be a political price he will pay as a result? I recall plenty of protests about former President Obama allegedly taking away gun rights and confiscating guns even though neither happened.

In an effort to be a little bit balanced in my commentary I do agree with the above. Both political parties should be interested in what helps the American people and not just in the bullshit they have been scooping to get reelected.

Since this is my blog and I have a beard I agree with this. Well unless of course the current occupant of the White House grows a beard. He would still be a problem in my opinion.

Tomorrow

We get a new president tomorrow. So today seems like a good day to make fun of him. 

My personal favorite is the "Fat Bastard" picture. 

She may be revealing our future. 

Walking

I try to take a long walk every day. I guess long is a subjective term. What I think is long may just be a pleasant stroll for you. I try to take a five mile walk every day. Rose and or Lily go with me. I can't remember the last time I walked that far without one or both of them. Why walk? The answer is relatively simple. It gives me time to think. What is going on in our nation. What is going on in the world. What is going on in my life, my kids and grandkids lives and with Carol.

I track my walking a couple of different ways. First, I wear a Fitbit. Last year according to my tracker I walked 1,734 miles or 3,834,929 steps. The other way I track is by using a program on my iPhone called Map My Walk. It uses GPS to track where I walk, how many steps and how many miles. I have it set up to give me feedback on my pace every quarter mile. I had to stop using it for a while because it was making my walks less fun. I found myself trying to maintain a certain pace and with Lily and Rose that just isn't practical. They have things to do. Sniff interesting spots along the way. Stop to go potty. They would stop and I would get frustrated because I was knocked off pace. Obsessive compulsive people can't have things like that telling them how they are doing without some problem. It took time but I finally figured out the problem wasn't the program it was me. So now I listen to how far I've gone but don't pay much attention to how long it is taking. The walk is to clear my mind, not worry about how fast I'm going. I have managed to rediscover the joy in taking a good long walk. The sound of the ocean waves crashing against the shore. The flowers in the yards, The trees and bushes. The thumping of roofers repairing the hurricane damage. The smell of new cut grass. There are plenty of things more important than how fast I'm walking.

So, go out and take a walk. Make sure you walk along a route you normally drive. You will be surprised how many things you notice at 3 miles per hour that you miss completely at 30 mph.

Junk Email

I check my junk email from time to time just to see if anything important got routed to the wrong mailbox. After checking today I don't think so but I will share with my dear readers to see if anyone thinks I may have missed an important opportunity.

Brittany starts with the header: "Wanna hang out?" She offers a link I can click on to see her "sexy profile". She says: "I joined so I could cheat on my boyfriend." She wants to know what I think. Well Brittany, I think not. You sound like a disease ridden skank. Next.

BBW Desire Agent starts with a header: "Please do not tell anyone". Well, please keep this to yourselves. She also provides a link to someone she alleges wants to sleep with me. I should only visit the link if I can keep a secret. Since I told all of you I guess I don't qualify. I think if I clicked the link at least my computer would get infected. The email closes with "Have fun!"

EasySex Ad-Partner opens with the header: "Sexy video profile". It says: "Check out this sexy video profile of a woman that wants to meet a man to date and sleep with!" I think not.

LLive Nuudee Showss wants me to "WatchhGirlsStriipNaaked" Someone needs to work on their spelling.

E3mma starts with a header: "i c we r close...hang". The body of the message is a real keeper. "A group of girls that live in your area have been desperately searching guys that they can have sex with. They had no luck looking on their own so they joined this dating site. Ever since they joined they have been sleeping with a bunch of guys but they need some new members to join. That is where you come in. If you follow the link below you will be able to have sex with all of these girls whenever you want." Really? Any time I want? How about never? Is that a good time for them?

Instant Orgasms starts with the header: "She wants an orgasm". The body of the email is just a red lettered sentence stating: "She wants an instant orgasm." All I need to do is click the link. UMMMM- NO.

Ryaan emailed with the following header: "I want to buuy yuur timeeshare". The are a few problems here Ryaan. First yuuu kan't spel worth a shiiit. Second you dimwit I don't have a timeeshare or a timeshare for you to buy. So Fuuuuck OOOFFF.

EasySex AdPartner had this header: "Check out these sexy profiles". It goes on to say: "Sexually active women that live near you are posting naked pictures dating profiles of themselves. Check out all of the sexy profiles of single women in your area that you can meet in person!" Again click this link. They close with: "Warning: If you join this dating community you will be contacted by hundreds of women within a couple of weeks." This is a problem for me. First I would need to hire a clerical person to screen my calls. Hundreds, I don't have time for that in two weeks. I'm old and frail. Oh, and not at all interested.

I will confess to being a bit disappointed. No lottery winnings waiting for my bank account information. No inheritance from a Nigerian prince. No business partner wanting to throw millions of dollars at me for a once in a lifetime opportunity. Just Ryaan wanting to buy a timeeshare I don't have and hundreds of women wanting to meet me and sleep with me. I must confess I have never been this popular with the ladies in the past.

Side Trip

My friend Mike often writes in his amazing blog existinginbfe.blogspot.com about taking side trips on his road trips in BFE and Florida. A while back I decided that I had driven past a sign on Interstate 95 in South Carolina too many times. It was time to head off the interstate and into the real world. The highway marker was for the Tuskegee Airmen. The Walterboro Army Airfield was located at what is now the Lowcounty Regional Airport. The military base hosted the largest camouflage school in the United States, a 250 person prisoner of war camp and trained over 500 of the Tuskegee Airmen in advance combat fighter training after they graduated from the Tuskegee Army Airfield in Tuskegee, Alabama. I encourage you to take some time and read about these brave American pilots who often found the white German prisoners of war were better treated than they were. Here are some pictures of the memorial.

Unaware

I worked in juvenile detention and in a prison. It leads you to do your best to be aware of what is going on around you all the time. Carol gets upset sometimes because when we are out I will stare at people. If you are out and I see you doing something out of the ordinary I am watching you. The last couple of days I have had the opportunity to see some people who needed to be more aware of what was happening around them.

We go up to Benny's at least five days a week in the afternoon for a beer or two and some social time. The front of the building is windows and is referred to by regulars at Benny's as Tybee TV. The windows are coated so when you stand outside they look like mirrors. The other day a group of girls were outside checking things on their phones and talking. They kept coming up to the windows to check their hair and makeup and touch up whatever they felt needed attention. One of the regulars finally went out and told them we were getting tired of watching them primp at the window. They seemed surprised we could see them. The week before some guy stopped to check his nose and deal with a booger that was hanging. Wake up folks. They don't put mirrors in window frames on the front of a building.

Today I was out walking Rose and Lily. We were on Lynch Loop which runs by one of the coastal batteries and North Beach Grill. It is a one way loop and we always walk against traffic. I want to see who is going to hit me. A car came up behind us and the driver rolled down her window to ask me a question. It was very foggy today and visibility was about a quarter mile. The lady driving asked me: "Where is the lighthouse?" I was so surprised I couldn't even respond verbally. I just pointed across the street. It was about 500 feet to the west of their car. She had been looking for it on the ocean side of the street. Never mind that the only way to get where she was she had to drive by it.

The last one also occurred today. Rose, Lily and I were about a quarter mile from home when a lady and her dog came out of a house about 100 yards in front of us. Rose and Lily are huge barkers so I had them sit for a few seconds and then we took the next side street. It ran parallel to the street this woman and her dog were on but I was hoping we would walk fast enough to get ahead of her when we turned toward our house for the last two blocks. It didn't work that way. We got to the corner about the same time so I had Rose and Lily sit again and wait for them to get about 100 yards ahead of us again. We started walking and it appeared to me that the dog was walking along taking a shit on the street. It never squatted down just walked along shitting. Tybee has an ordinance that requires you to clean up after your dog. Sure enough when we got up where the dog had been there were several turds along the street. I know the woman never had a clue what her dog had done.

So, it is no wonder that our nation is in the shape it is. Too many of our fellow citizens are just clueless about what is going on around them. How what they do impacts others around them. They just are oblivious about anything. If they aren't medicated perhaps they should be.

Snowflakes

Snowflakes are not something you get to see on Tybee Island. This is basically going to be a post of some amazing pictures taken by Jane Diamond. Jane has a wonderful talent with a camera.

They say no two snowflakes are the same. Each one in its own way is unique. Well dear reader, so are you. No one else is like you. Go out there and be the unique flake that you are.

Rose

You never know what will happen when you have one dog and decide a second dog to the mix. We thought Lily needed someone to play with and sometimes she does. Since Lily has gotten so good at opening our doors when she wants to get away from Rose she can. They get along well and are not aggressive about food. Overall it has been a great addition to our family.

Could you ask for a pair to get along better than the picture above?

Here is one of Rose relaxing.

She doesn't look comfortable but she manages to sleep in these positions.

Rose, thanks for letting us be your people.

Wine Club

The first of every month Carol and I attend wine club on Tybee Island. One of the local restaurants host the event. It costs $150 per person to attend the once a month event all year. We are beginning our third year with the group. It is kind of interesting as most of the attendees are locals who have known each other for years. It stuck me last night that now I know how the unpopular kids felt at the lunch table in junior high school. You walk in 15 minutes before the event is to start and most of the chairs are tipped in toward the table. It's that subtle reminder that you can't sit with us. I could see it if they were all there but I think we were among the first five of about 40 to arrive. So we sit near them but clearly are not included in their group. Some of the others who end up seated with us complain about the chairs being tipped and not having an opportunity to sit at that table. It would seem that having to sit with us creates a desire to be somewhere else. Bald guys with beards and tattoos are apparently not desired table mate material. It is their loss. You might reasonably ask if that is the way it is why do we go.

It is not the best picture but that is the list of wines we sampled last night. Every month there are 6 wines to sample. If you like any of them you can order a bottle or as many bottles as you like to be picked up later in the month. Wines usually cost from a low of about $11 to a high of $25 or so. In addition to the wines you sample you are treated to some snack items from the kitchen. Some of the food offered is quite good. I think my favorite was the pork belly tacos.

The picture above is the typical sample size given to each person. So over the course of the year we will sample 72 different wines. Some we will like and buy. Some we will be thankful we were not at a wine shop and bought a $15 bottle of drain cleaner. So we go to try the wine. To try to learn something from the experts about wine and choosing a good bottle of wine. All of us who ever tried to buy wine have stood in front of literally hundreds of bottles wondering what is and isn't good. Labels aren't much help since no one is going to put on their bottle "Best enjoyed with Cheetos and a bologna sandwich while you waste another Saturday night at home alone." They talk about where they were grown and the flavors the grape has imparted to the wine. A hint of blackberry with tones of tart cherry with a smoky finish. Really? Sounds like pretentious bullshit to me. I want to taste it and if I like it and the price is reasonable then I will buy some.

So, as long as my Jenny (Carol) will sit next to her Forrest (Me) we will go to wine club and sit with the others at the losers table.

Mooning

Here are your opportunities to howl at the moon in 2017. Mark your calendars. 

Expectations

We all have expectations. Things we think will happen to us or that life will provide for us. The problem we often encounter is that what happens in our lives does not match up with what we expected to happen. I have tried for a long time to remember a simple fact. The key to happiness is low expectations. No one is responsible for my happiness but me. No one else can make me happy or sad for that matter. When I expect nothing from others and understand the world owes me nothing I am living the way I should. If something good happens or someone does something kind for me I can appreciate it and not be sad or hurt because they didn't do more. Make no mistake here about how I feel. I can love you, be kind to you, be your friend. I simply have no expectation that any of that will cause you to do anything. I know what I expect from me. When I'm upset about something it I generally because I have set an expectation for myself that I failed to meet. It isn't something someone else did or didn't do it was my failure. So, set your goals but remember that no one cares about them as much as you do. If they depend on someone else to achieve them you will probably fail. Go do your best and expect very little to happen. You will probably be happier when the results are better than you hoped. Beats being disappointed when you expected too much. 

Multitasking

I'm tired of hearing about how women can multitask and it is somehow beyond the ability of men. I will be the first to admit that often I am focused solely on the task at hand. When shopping the important thing is to get what I went there to buy. I'm not generally interested in just looking around. Recently Carol said something that caused me to confront her about women and multitasking. She basically said that when women go to the bathroom they are looking at what else needs to be done. Are there towels that need to go to the wash? Does the trash need to be emptied? She went on with a few other things she might consider while she was using the bathroom. 

Here is my response. Well, it should be easy for you to multitask in that situation. You're just sitting there. Why not take some time and look around to see what needs to be done. I multitask when I go to the bathroom. I'm standing there with my zipper down digging in my pants trying to find the shy little fella. I have to get my stance correct and properly aim. Since I have to hold my equipment I have to make sure I don't piss on my fingers. I have to be sure that I'm peeing in the toilet or urinal and not on the wall or floor. By god if I don't want to catch hell I had better raise and lower the ring. I asked her if she really wanted me standing there pissing and looking around the room to see if there are dirty towels or the trash needs emptied? I've got too many other tasks at hand with peeing, aiming and keeping my fingers dry to worry about those issues. 

So, do men multitask? Hell yes, or your bathroom floor is wet and the room smells like stale piss. 

Deep Well

Tybee Island began drilling a new deep well last year. The city currently draws its water from the 300 foot deep Floridan aquifer. The state of Georgia has mandated reductions in the amount of water Tybee can draw from that aquifer in 2025. The new well was intended to reach the Cretaceous aquifer at a depth of about 4,000 feet. Intended is used intentionally because at this point it seems unlikely the current project is going anywhere other than court.

In the middle of August as the drilling company approached completion of the well and was preparing to being testing the water problems were discovered. The 10 inch in diameter casing had collapsed about 3,000 feet below the surface. About 200 feet of the casing had collapsed leaving a hole only 2 inches in diameter. Georgia state officials assessed the cause of the collapse and considered possible solutions. They have been unable to determine the cause of the collapse. The drilling company Layne Christensen Company and the state have not been able to come to an agreement on the 4.2 million dollars spent on the well so far. The contractor has proposed side tracking and installing another casing. The state's only other option is to accept the well as is. Neither side is willing to change their position. Until the current well contract is resolved or terminated work cannot begin on a new well. The new well would have to be at least 50 feet from the existing well and close enough to the water to allow discharge while it is tested. If the current well cannot be salvaged the state has taken the position that the new well would be drilled at the company's expense. So at this point Tybee has a 4,000 foot deep worthless hole in the ground.

I have only one question. The well casing was required to be stainless steel. Where did that collapsed steel come from? There have been numerous instances in the past where steel purchased from China was not the quality claimed by the manufacturer. It seems to me that someone should be looking into that issue and determining if it had anything to do with the collapse of the casing.

Old Age

There is a good deal of truth in that simple statement. While many could argue I haven't reach old Age, I am older than I was yesterday. I don't dress to impress any longer. If you don't like what I'm wearing that isn't my problem. You don't like my bald head, or beard, or tattoos that is your problem not mine. If you don't like my political views, lack of religion or my beliefs about how my fellow man should be treated, again not my problem. At the same time as long as your actions don't negatively affect my life I don't care what you do. I will warn you that if your negative actions affect my fellow man then they negatively affect me and I will take action. 

Quilts

Carol with some (not enough) assistance from me has completed the Harley Davidson t-shirt quilts. They are pictured below. She is a talented quilter. 

Predictions

I've been a George Carlin fan for a long time. I took a few minutes today to look back at what he said about our government. He died in 2008 but it is clear he could see 2017 from that point. 

It is clear the Republican controlled Congress is coming after our Social Security money. They want to give it to their Wall Street owners. Yes, Wall Street owns Congress. 

They are ready to kick millions off health care and defund Planned Parenthood. They have screamed for years about the budget deficit but now that they are in control it doesn't seem to matter. Both those actions will substantially increase the deficit . 

Again George is right on target.