A Quick Trip

Went down Tuesday, surprised my parents who had no idea I was coming. Caught grief from Mom because I made a quick trip down and did not bring the boys.
We all went to moms Dr. appointment Wednesday. Her weight is down some more.
Doctor still will not let her drive because of the medication she is on. So she decided to take herself off everything. Still did not work, Doctor said NO to driving. Mom argued and said she will never go back to see him and that indeed she will drive. Then we talked to him about her passing out, and being constantly dizzy. She has had a series of mini strokes, and Dr. explained that is why he did not want her out driving. She said my sister and I were lying, and out to make her look bad.
Doctor literally threw up his hands in disgust. He told her she was the most stubborn and hard headed patient he has ever had. And that she could basically do whatever. I think he is done with her, and just letting time takes its toll on her disease.

My dad still just sits there.. does not saying anything. I think she has worn him down as well.

After the appointment I got back on the road for the 5.5 hour drive. I know my mother is not well, because my  mother of old would have begged me to stay and go shopping or something. My mom these days, asks me to leave -there are no tears, no long goodbyes like she would years ago. All she wants to do is get back to her house, and stay in her bed with the TV remote.

 The drive seemed to take forever..but I made it. I pulled up in our driveway and was greeted by all my boys. They were waiting outside for me. I missed the daylights out of them. While I know I needed to go see my parents, I also hated being away from them. I was thrilled to be home.

Tomorrow is Halloween, and now I must get started on making the home made costumes. One is being a Ghost bound by chains. The other wants to be a zombie again. I said you were a zombie last year. But, he said I have not been a zombie in SC .
I love doing our own costumes, it is always a lot of fun to be creative and see what scary things we can come up with. Since we are no longer in a neighborhood for organized Trick or Treating, we are taking the kids to an area mall.

The weather here is turning cold, Rain tomorrow night then down in to the 30s. even snow over in the mountains. BRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!

something cool...part 2

Upon cleaning out more shoe boxes that my Father-in-Law used to store all his paper items. I came across several of these old journals that Harrington and Richardson used to print. This one is dated from the early 80s. They were sold for the bargain price of $1.50.

I particularly liked this article on the H & R Revolver, when first produced it sold
for a price of $5.50-$8.00.

I personally had not heard of this brand, so upon further investigation I found their website: H&R 1871 and they are indeed still in business. In 2000 they were aquired by Marlin Firearms.
I asked Senior, and while he knew the brand, he did not know of the jounals.



Anyways, something kind of cool and useful that I can flip through and learn something new, from something old. It will help once Senior is done constructing our range. 



 In other news, the weather here has been nothing short of gorgeous. This coming week will be a bit stressful, I am headed to Florida and showing up at one of my mothers doctors appointment... oh boy!

-JUGM

Something Cool

This is something cool that an ole retired Navy Master Chief friend had on his facebook. My buddy OLD NFO likes to do a weekly post of different military posters. So I know this one would be right up his alley.

My dad and  uncle were a couple of guys like this. Dad was in during Korea, and had a saying : " I was in the Navy when Ships were wood and Men were Steel"

My Uncle was in the Navy during Nam and talks about his days along the Mekong Delta with lots of excitement. I guess despite all the politics surrounding the Vietnam War, he and his buddy's had fun and he has some good memories of camaraderie.

Senior's first 10 years in  the Navy was still fun but then during the second 10 years the PC crowd began to take over, and the good times like Chiefs Initiations and Shellback ceremonies  slowly began to fade and have become a shell of what they used to be. Soon I guess, they will be a thing of the past..... so sad  *Sigh*.

-JUGM

a history lesson

I saw on the local news last night that the Vietnam Traveling Wall would be on display in a couple of towns over from us. I asked Senior if we could take the boys.
So, after leaving a mega gun show we drove over to the park where the wall was on display.

Very reverent site....

First thing was the items on display..Guns that were used, sleeping bags, clothing. You see in movies where the guys would write stuff on the side of their helmets, I saw it for real today. 
I got a chuckle from the Vet who was explaining the AK-47 to someone, the Vet was all up in arms about how Russians were really good at stealing designs from other people, and that in fact it was not Kalashnikov that created the AK but it was in fact the Germans.

Then there was the Traveling Wall Memorial:



Notes and pictures were laid on the grass of troops who lived in the area and died. One such item was an ole toy gun. The soldiers sister had placed it there and wrote a note to her brother, and was remembering when they use to play "Cops and Robbers"   Oh Man, I got weepy eyed.

This man in the red shirt, was a tour guide He explained the panels to the crowd.. Somethings I did not know, was that the wall begins and ends in the middle. The names on the first  panel marked the deaths in the first five months of fighting...the next panels represents the next five weeks...and so on, until one single panel represents the mortality rate in a 5 day span.

We headed over to another trailer with memorabilia and another Vet took the boys under his wing and gave them a verbal history lesson. He told us the story of the youngest known Marine who died in Vietnam. I was intrigued by the story, and a part of me found it hard to believe, so I came home and researched it, and indeed it was true.
 His name was Dan Bullock, and when he was 14 he altered his birth certificate and enlisted In Sept. 1968.
He made it through boot camp and in May 1969 was assigned as a rifleman 2nd Squad, 2nd Platoon, Fox Company 2nd battalion 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division. He died June 1969 when his platoon came under small arms fire one night. He was only 15.

RIP PFC Bullock.

This kid remains on my mind this evening. To put it in perspective,  when he enlisted he was only 5 years older then our 9 year old son.  As I think about this Marine, I wonder if Obama had a son would he have looked like PFC Bullock? Probably not.
This boys life could have taken so many other turns, but he knew at such a young age that he wanted to be a Marine. He fought bravely and along with over 58,000 other brave Americans he died for his country. The portrait of a Great American.

turnips and chicks...

Yep!  the seeds that spilt out of the bag two weeks ago have sprouted..It will be fun sorting through this mess.

We put the rest of the baby chicks in the coop. Took a day or two but everyone is getting along well . This little beauty is " Stella":

This is one out of the five roosters:

He is a little banty as a baby his head was all white and reminded us of a bald eagle so, we named him "Patriot" he is a mamas boy, when I go in the coop he always comes right up to me and follows us all around. 

A new friend and coyotes....

God has blessed us with some beautiful fall weather. This past weekend it was in the upper 30s here.
Sunday afternoon, we met up with some of our new group members at a local park.  One member has a son around the same age as our boys. ND and NW are thrilled to have a new friend, and some one that they have so much in common with.

The boys mother and I took the kids on a hike to explore...we found a really cool swinging bridge that the kids had a blast on. Of course I got queezy when they started running back and forth..felt like I was on a boat out in the middle of the ocean.

In other news, looks like we have some coyotes that have decided to make frequent visits to our little estate. We picked them up on our trail camera, and this morning Senior found tracks that led past the chicken coop and down behind the house and in to the woods.  

Speaking of Senior, getting the tractor has proven a wise investment. He loves that thing. We attached the tiller and he got down in the garden which had become overwhelmed with nutsedge weed. The stuff was out of control. So, he got in there and tilled the crap out of it. I was able to  salvage all my collard greens and transplant them in the freshly plowed area. I also added some brocolli, and was sowing in turnip seeds, when I accidentally dumped the bag of them upside down in one spot. So, I did the best I could getting them up, and just threw them out into the plowed section. Now, we are going to have turnips coming up out of the ying yang.....lol

Anyways.... Remember Ebola wasn't suppose to come here..well it's here and you should all feel safe knowing the TSA is in charge of screening people flying in from Africa.....

Have a nice day!  

- JUGM

Thats Messed Up !

 

A relative out in Texas posted this to her Facebook page this morning..   I don't mean to poke fun at a bad thing..but you got to admit, this is funny...