Updated from 2015: “Lifeblood of the Navy”

 Ok, I tried to get back to an original  posting, unfortunately, I got nothin'. Drained me dry, Sarge did.  So...Another Repost. Hope he gets back soon.  His tales of daring do are highly entertaining.

About 11 years ago,  Old NFO had a tale of woe about the trials and tribulations involved in his move from the (ptui!) DC area to some as yet undisclosed location in God’s Country. (Those of you unlucky enough to not live here might refer to it as Texas.)  In that tale of woe, he mentioned that he had somehow misplaced his coffee pot.  

That harmless statement, as it always seems to, set off a flood of commentary.  One commenter went so far as to describe coffee as the “Lifeblood of the Navy”.  Included in the comments were the Top Secret procedures for making that Lifeblood.  (That should be good for an extra hit or two from the NSA.)

While most readers know that “back in the day”, I was in the Air Force as a Fighter Pilot, some may not have read these riveting posts on my first tour as a Joint Staff Officer.

One of the benefits of that job, other than, you know, being based at Camp Smith Hawaii, was spending time aboard the flagships of the USN’s 3^rd Fleet and 7^th Fleet, USS Coronado and USS Blue Ridge respectively. 

 

USS Coronado AGF-11 (decommissioned in 2006 and sunk in the Marianas during an exercise in 2012)
Public Domain

USS Blue Ridge LCC-19
Public Domain

 A small result of that time was getting to sample some of that “Lifeblood of the Navy”.

I also got to spend a good bit of time with 3 MEF on Okinawa. (I also spent time with I Corps at Ft Lewis WA, but that’s a different story).  All these deployments involved exercises in which contingency planning was the objective.  Coming up with an operations plan on short notice with a tight deadline necessitated some very long days.  Long days meant Coffee. 

I think I started drinking coffee in pilot training, but I was never more than a cup or two at a time person at that point.  Strapped in to an ejection seat and pulling G’s is not a fun thing with a full bladder, and the restroom facilities are sadly lacking in fighters.  (Never used a piddle pack! Not even on the Trans-Pacific drags.)

So….Where was I?  Oh, yeah.  Coffee and “Lifeblood of the Navy”.

So…There I was*

Camp Smedley Butler, Okinawa Japan.  Deployed to 3 MEF for a Joint Task Force training exercise.  The Joint Staff (in the Pentagon, believe me nothing good comes out of that building) has decided to test USCINCPAC’s ability to stand up a Joint Task Force, develop an Operations Plan and have forces ready to deploy on very short notice.  We get the Warning Order and, within 3 hours, my team is airborne on a C-141 bound for Okinawa. That's at least a 10 hour flight (more if it’s winter) and we couldn't afford to waste 10 hours of planning time.  This was back in the early 90s before airborne WiFi was commonplace.  We had a specially modified hatch panel that had a satellite antenna on it and so used that time to begin building the Plan, coordinating both with Camp Smith and Camp Butler.  Very exciting stuff at the time.  (Yeah, I know, it takes very little to get me excited nowadays.)

In any case (which, again, is Texan for “Anyhoo”), we arrive on Okinawa and continue to build the Operations Plan, sending drafts back through Camp Smith to the Pentagon.  We’ve been at it for about 36 hours and it’s me, another Lt Col (USMC) and a USMC Warrant Officer.  

My counterpart Lt Col referred to the Warrant Officer as “Gunner” with a high measure of respect in the tone of his voice.  I elected to follow his lead.  

We’re putting out the latest version of the Plan and it’s oh-dark-thirty.  The Gunner comes in and says he’s going to turn in and asks if we need anything before he does.  I ask him for a cup of coffee figuring he’d tell somebody to make a pot.  He walks off and shortly thereafter brings back a couple of cups. 

He’d made them himself. 

I didn’t sleep for at least 12 more hours. (At which point, the Joint Staff called EndEx as they couldn’t keep up with us.)

Navy Coffee was good, but I thought it was kinda weak thereafter.

We’ve had a Keurig in the house for a while, and my brew of choice was always Jet Fuel  for a couple of reasons, but the primary reason was it is as close to the Gunner’s coffee as packaged coffee could get.  Lately however, even that seemed to be getting weak and disappointing.

On our recent vacation, in the B & B we rented in Sydney, the kitchen came with a DeLonghi Espresso machine.  Now, I like Espresso, but I want my coffee in something other than shot glasses.  This machine had a setting that allowed you to make the Espresso as large as you wanted.  Suffice it to say, I was adequately caffeinated while in Sydney.

Coming back to the real world was tough, and the Keurig didn’t help.  However there was a posting on Instapundit about DeLonghi Machines being offered on Amazon at a special price.

 

Santa brought me one for Christmas!  Put whole coffee beans and water in the machine, push one button and Espresso comes out.  Life is good!

Unfortunately, the DeLongi met its maker at some point between then and now, which is a good thing. My Cardiologist has given me a strict order. One cup of caffeinated coffee per day, the decaf afterwards.  Took me a while to get over the shakes. Anyhow…some caffeine is better than none at all! ;-)

*SJC

Heck! Let's find out.

 

Ok, folks,  please ensure you've taken your blood pressure meds before reading this article in Fox news this morning. This falls into the category of YGBSM.

 

 

 

This fine upstanding citizen of the United States was convicted for killing a State Trooper 25 years ago.   While convicted and sentenced to death, a judge said that the guy believed he is "...immortal, and has already died three times on death row and will be resurrected again if the state executes him."

He also believes "...the judge at his 2002 trial and courtroom personnel were working against him because they were agents of "Beloved Kevin Rudolph," a deity that he thinks is part of a battle to rule the planet, according to the South Carolina Daily Gazette. Wood also believes he was given wings and immortality to win this fight."

Insane or Play acting, one way or the other, murder is murder.  IMHO. carry out the sentence. Let's send him the to the Lord's courthouse and let him decide where this guy goes next.

But that's just me, being understanding, at least of the term "Murder".  

Gonna take a day or two for me to calm down enough to "Peace out, y'all! " But I'll try.  

 

Noah! Redux

Morning Campers! Had an interesting day recently. Woke up, the sky was cloudy, but no big deal.

Yeah, Tuna, I know. "Red sky at morning, sailors take warning." Still, it was pretty and the forecast said "Chance of Rain."  Now, notice the green in the above picture.  This is Texas in June.  Not Rhode Island, California nor Florida.  By now, the hay is mowed and in the barn and what's left is fading quickly from light green to brown.  Oh, and Dust is starting to appear. Not the case this year.  Grass is still growing.  Expecting a bumper crop of hay this year (If I can get my Hay Guy to answer his phone).

But, Hey! It's Texas.  Love it or Leave It Don't move here! (newer more appropriate slogan).

In any case, round about 10 AM, it started looking like this.

Pay attention to the area between the two trees, it will be important shortly.

Little bit of rain to the North East of our place.

10 minutes later.

A couple of minutes later.

  

Now, we've lived on Okinawa.  We know what typhoons are like.  This was as close a reminder as we've had since we left there.  The green sunshade for Mrs. J's garden is about a quarter second from it's first solo flight. 

And a couple of minutes after that.

And shortly thereafter, it's safe to go outside.

The one piece of good news?  The Big Guy upstairs got tired of me not washing my truck and took care of it!

Oh and the Rain Gauge.

Just under an inch...in less than 15 minutes and with a lot of horizontal rain.

The Weather Radar was very multicolored in its display.

Yes, Beans, the Blue dot is our location, not a center of the storm indicator per se.

And that picture above I asked you to keep in mind.  This was about 30 minutes after.

Notice the different color under the tree to the right.  That water goes from the top left to the top right where it enters my property via a dry (usually) stream, crosses our property hopefully filling our stockpond and proceeds down into the Pedernales River.  

 

The following morning: Yay! Water in the Stockpond.  Beans can go swimming!

We gave it a couple of hours before deciding to go exploring.  Just in Case.

But...The Grass is green!

 Oh, my phone just dinged.  NWS has issued another Severe Weather Watch with more rain expected through the weekend.  As Morton's says.  "When it rains, if pours"

Any of you wood workers got a good plan for an Ark?

Peace out, y'all!

Never Mind...Figgered it out

 Well, last Monday I was in a bit of a funk.  MBD had asked for some help with her home renovation.  Specifically she wanted me to redo her living room book case and include some arches at the top for style.  To be precise, the dimensions called for an Ellipse.

 

This is an ellipse.  Important points are the focus and the major axis.

Source:softschool.com

 I had commented asking our readers for a few pointers to get me going in the right direction.  Thankfully I received a few.  However, STxAR was able to give me a few ideas and more importantly search terms which got me pointed towards this video.

OOPS, Coding error with the video originally. Sorry.

Anyhow, I decided (e.g. made a good decision) to try a practice run on a piece of cardboard.  Good thing.

As

 

 As can be seen, the intersecting point of the ellipse and the wall are short by about a half inch as is the top point and the ceiling.  However, the far intersection is darn near perfect.  Not sure what I did wrong.  Checked and rechecked all the measurements and they were accurate.  So.  put away all my tools and had a recuperative glass of wine on the front porch with my wife watching the T-storms rolling by.

Yes, Beans, they missed us.  But town was getting a gully washing.

The following day, I decided I was going "All In!" and using a sheet of the lauan plywood leftover I had on hand.  Marked out the rectangle representing the shelf including the 3/8" overlap on either side.  Figured out the two focal points on the major axis.  (You DID watch the educational video above, dincha'?).  Measuring and measuring again all the appropriate points.  Tied some pull cable I had left over to a figure 8 shaped metal pin on both ends and tightened it.  Removed the nails from the ends of the major axis and put them in just inside the focal points and looped the cable over it.  Pencil pull to the top of the minor axis...Went Left, perfect!  Went Right, perfect!

 

I'm defining perfect with a tolerance of 1/8".  Go ahead, Sue Me!

Treated myself to a celebratory trip to  Lowes for new Jig Saw blades, came home and cut along the Ellipse.  Amazing how accurate a new (e.g. sharp) blade will cut.  In any case. Voila! An Arch.

Mrs. J's bookshelf isn't quite the same size, but it's close enough to get MBD excited about the results.

 

The plan is to make my 4th trip to College Station on Monday. (The Rev, MBD and MG will be in Austin with his family over the weekend).  I'll take the Cutouts and check the measurements on the actual bookshelf.  Come back home Tuesday and using the bottom cutout piece as a template, rout out the three arches.  Bring them back to College Station on Thursday (5th Trip), drop them off, spend the night there.  The following morning, Mrs. J, MBD , MG and I will drive to Galveston and board a Royal Caribbean Ship for a little cruise vacay.

During which I plan to do a lot of napping and NO driving.

Again, thanks to all the readers who offered help and advice on how to do this project.  Got me pointed in the right direction, it did.

Thanks

Peace out, y'all!

Buried Treasure

 Yes, one more of the digitizing photo series.  But, I promise, it'll be short and sweet.

So, I'm digging through the first box of pictures I inherited from my Parents.  Mom had passed in 2002, Dad in 2010.  Mom had been pretty sick before so had a lot of time on her hands stuck at home and a certain focus on this photo sorting job.  

As I opened the box, 3 non picture things fell out. An important, at the time, document, a Card and a newspaper clipping.  Suffice it to say, shortly thereafter, things got a tad dusty in my office.  I hope you'll understand.

Sometimes you think History is Long, Long ago.  And maybe it is.  However,  I had a pretty good lesson in how "not long ago" history is.

The first teaching aid was this.

 I knew my Mother was alive in WWII.  But it never really dawned on me that she was impacted by it.  She was a little girl in San Francisco at the time.  Not Ned Simes on Guadalcanal/Saipan/Tinian level of involvement, granted,  but still impacted.  The term "World War" took on a bit broader and reality based meaning for me.

The Card looked like this when I opened the box.

 At first I thought it was one of my Sister's First Communion announcements.

Then I opened it.

Holy Cow! I'd never seen a picture of my Mom as a kid much less as a Kid, pre-Pearl Harbor!  I just never pictured her as anything but my Mom, as a grownup.

Then came the real kick in the pants.

Edith Mango King was my maternal grandmother.  She passed when I was about 10.  Memories of her were good.  She was a very nice person, a good cook, took good care of us kids when Mom and Dad needed time off.  In short, a great Grandmother.  But she was old!

No, juvat, maybe when you knew her, but not all her life!  

And, I guess that lesson is why I'm spending my time digitizing these pictures.

Welcome Back Sarge, See you Thursday. Tuna's got a good one for tomorrow.

Once more....With Feeling!

 Well, Campers, as explained last week, today is CBW Day.  In case you're worried about clicking links, CBW stands for Church and Blog Writing day.  My usual Sunday routine described in 4 words.  Yes, Beans, my life is that mind-numbingly exciting.  In that post, I expressed concern that I would lose track of the actual days of the week as CBW date anchors me in the space time continuum and other days are measured as CBW +/- X.  And, in fact, that happened.  All week long, I had to check my watch to find the day of the week as we had numerous events happening.  Fortunately, I was able to keep it somewhat together.

But, we have AC in the Woodshed, improved fencing for my Sister's house allowing her Dogs about an acre to explore freely.  The Bookshelves have been delivered and installed.  

MBD and SIL's Canines have been returned safely.  (In Spite of transiting the Highway from Hades with my usual running commentary at various loudness levels, they slept the entire way.)  Most importantly, reacquaintance with MG was established.  

Two of the biggest changes noted is her balance is very much improved.  She can almost stand on her own and has just enough wobble to warrant adult hands in the close, but not touching, distance.  Additionally, the sounds she makes are starting to have tonal qualities to them.  

So...Being the Pediatric expert I am (not), I foresee great things in the next little while.

On the "Where in the World is Carmen San Diego Old Air Force Sarge" front, rumor has it that they've decided "To Heck with Work and Rhode Island" and they're staying in the Southerin (yes, that's spelled and pronounced correctly) region.  I've also heard he's started using the words "Y'all" and "Fixin' to" quite frequently.  

As best I can figure, it means Beans, you got next week.  Tuna, the week after, Me, the next one et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. to quote Yul Brynner.

Now that we've got that out of the way, what else have you been doing, juvat?

Well, since that diabolical villain, Lt Fuzz, got me hooked on Photomyne, I've been digitizing family photographs.  

Some were flying related.

Picture was taken by my crew chief in the back seat of our F-15 (a two seat D model) just prior to taking him for an incentive ride.  His smile was even bigger than mine, and even bigger after the ride.

Getting ready for a Live AIM-7F launch.  Unfortunately, my wingman's missile guided for a direct hit destroying the drone.  Ah...Well.

Picture was taken by Mrs. (aka Captain) J of me refueling on a KC-135.  I must have been going someplace given the baggage pod on the left inboard (right side in the photo, Beans). but I have no remembrance of where.  Yes, That's how close you get, and it looks a heckuva lot closer from the fighter's point of view.  

Mrs. Captain J in the back seat for an incentive ride.  Pilot's callsign was Mongo.  She had a blast, got to fly the airplane a bit. (Mongo reported she was a natural.) Most importantly. didn't...well you know what.

On the family front, I found and digitized these.

The picture is of Little Juvat, MBD and I as a going away present to Mrs. J.  I was PCS'ing to Ft Leavenworth for Army Command and Staff College.  The rest of the gang was staying on Kadena for another year to finish out Mrs. Captain J's tour.  Hard to believe MBD now has a daughter older than she is in this picture.  Tempus Fugit as I said recently.

Post School, our next assignment was an extreme hardship to the USCINCPAC (United States Commander in Chief Pacific Command) at Camp Smith Hawaii.  You know, one of those assignments you just suck it up and say "Yes, Sir".

Little J, going all "Native" on me.

Two big moments in his life.

Getting fitted for his Texas Aggie Corps of Cadets Senior Boots.

And, even more important, wearing them to graduation.

So. my assignment to fill my wasted time is to digitize photos. So far, I've digitized about 1/3 of the first, small, storage cartons of photos.  Got lot's more, and I promise I won't bore you with the family history again.  However, you really might want to look into Photomyne if you've got a lot of paper photos you'd like to digitize.  I did 30 this morning and conversion from paper into my computer as individual files took about 5 minutes.  Highly recommended.

And yes,  they are on the Skylight digital picture frame. Of course!

Peace out, Y'all, I'm fixin' to take a nap.

Not Tarawa.

 So, Wednesday I ran a post that contained this picture.

Source

It contained the caption "Tarawa.  The US cleverly planned on invading at low tide (shown). Tide was so low the landing craft couldn't make it even to the beach.  The Marines had to wade almost a mile to shore.  The Japanese had machine gun emplacements all the way around the lagoon.  I knew a man that was in that invasion.  He wouldn't talk about it."

I made a mistake there.  It's all correct except the next to the last sentence.  I just found out the man I knew wasn't in the invasion of Tarawa.  Here, as Paul Harvey used to say is "The rest of the story".

When Mrs. J and I retired from the Air Force and moved to the 'Burg, we bought a wine store and sold Texas wines.  There weren't a lot of Texas wineries in the entire state, and 5 of them (Bell Mountain Vineyard, Sister Creek Vineyard, Grape Creek Vineyard, Becker Vineyard and Texas Hills Winery) were within 30 miles of us.  At the time, the large distributors didn't see much market for Texas Wines other than Messina Hof in Bryan/College Station and Llano Estacado in Lubbock.  Given that, I would regularly go and pick up wine from the above mentioned wineries to stock our store.  As such, I got to be good friends with the owners and staff of each.  

To be frank in all but Becker Vineyard, the owners WERE the staff or at least part of it.  It was a pretty symbiotic relationship that developed.  The distributors wouldn't stock their wine so it was hard for them to get traffic and be able to sell their wine.  It was hard for us to have unique Texas wine in stock to sell and we were on Main St in the 'Burg, so we got a LOT of traffic. So, win/win.

This went on for a year or so then, Mrs. J got a good Idea.  "Juvat, why don't we start a tour company and offer tours to the local wineries?"  Win/Win/Win. The wineries got more traffic, we made more money, the customers could taste/drink wine without concern for driving.  A good deal all round.

So, it's a Saturday morning and I'm picking up my tour group.  I've got my "uniform" on. A white polo shirt with a red& blue collar for color.  Pick them up at their quarters and give a short intro, my name, the wineries we're going to (all 5, but no word that that's all that are available, salesmanship doncha know) and the order we'll visit in.  There were 3 couples all in their mid 20's. Nice, enthusiastic and fun.  This is going to be easy.

First up will be Grape Creek vineyard.  Grape Creek at the time was owned by Ned and Nel Simes (pronounced Sims).  Great folks in their late '70's.  IMHO, they made one of the best Merlot's I have ever tasted.  Ned and I kinda hit it off as we had both been in the military.  Given his age at the time, I could surmise that he'd probably served in WWII. He was pretty circumspect, but he did say he'd been in the Marines.

However, I could tell that he didn't put up with a lot of BS.  Which I always respect.

So, we've arrived at Grape Creek and I'm giving my short spiel about the owner, types of wine and recommendations for tasting.  I mention that Grape Creek's Merlot was one of the finest I'd ever had and they should try it.

As you may suspect, I am on the cusp of learning a VERY important lesson.

So we enter the winery, there are no other customers, so Ned comes out and meets and greets.  He asks what wines they'd like to try.  Based on my recommendation they all said "Merlot".  Ned pours the six tastes + one for himself.  He's swirling and sniffing and discussing what he smells.  In other words, educating the guests on wine as well as doing a bit of salesmanship.  

Having completed that, he pushes the tasting glasses to the guests.  I'm standing next to one of the ladies as she swirls, sniffs and takes a big taste.

Then promptly spits it out, unfortunately and with uncommon accuracy, all over my once white shirt., while saying, in a loud Voice, "This is the WORST wine I have ever tasted in My LIFE.!"

My jaw drops.  I happen to glance at Ned and hope to never see a face like that again.  At that point, I knew exactly what a Marine in Combat in WWII looked like.  As to my guests, they recognized that their friend may have committed a bit of a Faux Pas. So we beat a hasty retreat to the Limo where I asked: "What the heck was that?"  I'm pretty sure, but not positive that was what I said.  It might have been a bit stronger.

The young lady said "That was my first taste of red wine.  I like sweet wines like Boone's Farm."

As I said, I learned a big lesson that I need to find out my guests preferences in wine before taking them to the wineries.  So, I took them home, refunded their money, changed out of my uniform and drove back out to the winery to make amends.  Ned had had time to cool off, as I came in and apologized and explained the situation.  He laughed, said OK and that he'd also add a bit of an interview to his spiel.  I later had an opportunity to talk to Nel, his wife.  I told her about the look.  She got very quiet and said that during the war, he'd been in on a few invasions, but had had a particularly hard time on an island she couldn't remember but that it started with a T.  The only one I could remember like that was Tarawa.  She said she thought that was it, but said it would be better if I didn't ask as he didn't like to talk about it.

So.  I thought it was Tarawa.  Ned passed away in 2004 and the Winery was sold in 2006.  I got to thinking about him as we passed the winery on our way to CStat earlier this week and decided I'd do a little googling.  Come to find out that the National Museum of the Pacific War, locally known as the Nimitz Museum, had interviewed Ned in 2002 about his experience in the Pacific.  The Transcript Entry Point is Here.  It's a little tricky to navigate, but in the top right is a download button.  Click that and the transcript will appear with arrows to switch pages.

I think the question marks contained therein were words that shouldn't be seen by children, but that was very much Ned.  

 

Source

And the T island?  Tinian, he was also in on the Saipan invasion and served time on Guadalcanal.  All three were very much the antithesis of a "Walk in the Park".  But reading that brought Ned back for a bit and gave me an inkling of what it was like.  

The Nimitz Museum is a National Treasure.  You should visit it if you get the chance.

Peace out Y'all!

P.S.  The wine industry is going gangbusters down here nowadays.  There are close to a hundred wineries within my old wine tour route.  There are also several dozen tour companies.  

Thanks Loads!

 Ok, it's last Friday, we've had guests in one of our guest houses for a few nights and they've asked for a late checkout because they need to run into town and pick up a few of their purchases they'd made on their shopping spree.  Normal checkout is 10AM.  We've got guests checking in to stay the weekend, normal check-in is 5:30.  They had asked to check in at 4PM.  We talked to our cleaning crew and they said "No Sweat".

You know where this is going doncha'?

The guests leave, the cleaning crew arrives, we see that she is loading up to leave, so we head down to check on things.  (We do this under the guise of dropping off the welcome basket and picking up dirty laundry, both of which are my side of the responsibility. In reality, Mrs. J is the primary reason.  She inspects the house.  Quite closely I might add. Personally, I think she was a boot camp drill Sergeant in a prior life, Yes, that closely.)

In any case, I'm coming back in the Cabin after loading the dirty laundry and I see Mrs. J and the cleaning lady futzing with the TV controls. I ask what's the problem.  No audio, they said.  I start checking connections, all is as it should be.  Perform the patented juvat fix to all things electronic.  Turn it off, wait 60 seconds, turn it on.  Works 90% of the time.  

We score in that remaining 10%.  I pull out my phone to look at the network and realize the Router is pointed to the cabin next door and is only showing 1 bar of connectivity.  Hmmm.  It's not a TV problem, it's a network problem.  Look for the proper network on my phone (which is a PITA in itself).  Nowhere to be seen.

Turn it off, wait 60 seconds, turn it back on.  Nada.  It's now 1+45 til the next guests arrive.  I figure the router had died in the T-Storm we'd had about 10 days before.  I tell Mrs. J  I'm running to Wally World to get a new Router (About $50).  Do so, RTB and we're down to T-1 hour.  Set up the router with the Network name, Router Password, Login Password and turn it on. 

Voila' It's working!  Now I have to put it back in its operational location.  That would be on top of a kitchen cabinet near the ceiling.  All but completely out of sight and certainly out of range of accidental touching.

Except as I put it up there, I accidentally push the WPS (W-ifi Protected Setup) button.  This button is intended for people that use the same equipment on the network all the time.  The Router and the Phone, for example, "Know" each other.  Therefore, you don't have to use a password to get on the network.  As soon as the Router sees your phone (or Computer, Or Picture frame) you're logged in and doing what you need to.

  

The WPS is the blue button just to the right of the internet connection.  That slot is where the internet is connected to the router.  Fine design to put them 1/4" apart.  Also there isn't any kind of "Are you sure you want to reset your entire network" dialog going on.

Unfortunately, that doesn't work, when your guests change 2 or 3 times a week.

What pushing the button does is erase all your settings and resets the router so that your network is not visible to non-pre-authorized devices.  The PITA part of all this is if you're handling the router, pushing that button is pretty easy.  Nigh on to impossible to push it if you're not handling the router.

So my question is "What were my guests trying to do by climbing on a chair to reach the router in the kitchen?"

In order to fix it, I've got to hook a laptop up directly to the router, push the reset to Factory specs button for a minute then shut off the router, but leave it plugged in, for 10 minutes then restart it, check that the reset worked, If not, start over and try again.

Fortunately, I've got the cabin back up on the other cabin's network with sufficient signal strength for the TV to work (It required rebooting also)..  Spent a good part of Tuesday, trying to get the situation Reset.

I wish people would realize that yes, they pay to stay.  No, they are not owners. Stay away from things YOU KNOW you shouldn't be touching, and let the owner's know if there's a problem.  It's not hard, it's common sense and it's good manners.

Fortunately, the two ladies that arrived at 4 were a bit older, not interested in TV, just wanted to shop and catch up with each other. So things worked out better than we had a right to expect.

Busy Bees got nothin' on me!

As you are viewing this, Dear Reader, Mrs. J and I are enroute to College Station.  Seems our good Friends at Buc-Ees in Bastrop are feeling neglected and requested a visit.  Whomever chose that location is a frickin' Genius.  Depending which way you're headed, you have just left or are about to enter the worst hour of your driving life.  Construction has been going on in the Austin metroplex continuously since the Romans put in the first road there in 00AD.  Couple that with the explosive growth in the region from people leaving other states for Texas.  

Highway from Hell is highlighted in red. Runs from west of Dripping Springs to the East side of Bastrop.

Remember folks, we want refugees only, not missionaries.  There's a reason you left.

But in any case, lanes come and go without any apparent reason.  Very few people move left as they approach an on ramp.  The On Ramp is too short to get up to highway speed in any case and there appear to be only three speeds on the highway.  15 above posted, 15 below posted and dead stopped, with no apparent rhyme or reason.

So Buc-ees?  It's either a place to get out of the car, use the bathroom and allow your hands to stop shaking,  (E.G. you're East bound and Highway hell is behind you) or it's a place to have some coffee to speed up your reactions and say a Prayer (E.G. West bound and the "fun" is about to begin).    

As I said, Buc-ee's location?...Genius.

But, we're headed to CStat for three reasons.  In order from least important to first.  

1) I need to deliver the much needed bookshelves.  I queried MBD on her and SIL's carpentry skills, she asked what was carpentry.  So...Dad to the Rescue. (Should I show up in tights with a towel hanging from my neck? )

2) We need to return their pups.  SIL was up in Dallas taking one of his last Divinity courses (crammed into one week) so needed somebody to keep them.  While both are generally good dogs, one is as mellow and sweet as she can be. Unfortunately,  the other Dog likes to assassinate squirrels.  

Squirrel Killer.  Looks are deceiving

We were not sure that her target recognition was good enough to distinguish between a squirrel (if she had a canopy, there would be multiple squirrel silhouettes on it) and our cats.  Solution?  The cats have been closed up in our bedroom for a week.  (Yes, Beans, their cat boxes are in there as are their dinner dishes.) But they are starting to get restive. 

Even makes the bed when she's done napping.

3) We need to check on MG.  It's been a couple of weeks since last seen.  She could be ready for college by now.  And her Mom and Dad are pretty cool also, so we like to visit them as well.  

Because of all the above, we're en-route as you read this.  Replies to comments may be delayed.

We're returning Thursday early as our Wine Maker Friends will have a booth at the 'Burg Farmer's Market, serving/selling wine.  We usually go to help (and demonstrate to the crowds how to drink it).  Also, Mrs. J is putting together a Wine Maker River Cruise for next year highlighting them and their wines.  It will be on the Danube with AMA Waterways. Their reviews are very (very, very) good and the wine makers are excited about it.  We just need to work out details.

More good news this week.  The AC guys came yesterday and installed the air conditioner for my workshop, so the move can commence when I get back. (And get on the mover's schedule.) 

Really looking forward to being able to work in the shop (with enough room to work).  Mrs. J is also.  She really wants to park our vehicles in the garage for some reason.  In any case, progress is being made.

Peace out, Y'all

War is Hell**

 This filling in for Sarge, while he's off loafing somewhere on the South East Coast, has been enlightening.  Finding ideas to post weekly has been challenging at times for me.  Other times happenings in my life demand reporting.  Writing a post daily is exponentially more difficult.  Sarge pulls it off well. But then again, he's got a book idea he's working on which helps.  I've thought about writing a WWII story myself. Tell me what you think.

There They were *...The Germans and Russians invaded Poland and won.  

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Then the Germans invade France and won.  

Pretty sure the guy in the middle is roasting somewhere very warm.

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Then they tried to invade Great Britain and couldn't.  But...It was a very close "couldn't".

We few, we happy few, we Band of Brothers

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Meanwhile, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and pissed off the USA, who declared war on Japan, Germany, and Italy along with some also ran allies of theirs.  

 

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Then the Germans back stabbed their erstwhile allies and invaded Russia,  which caused the Germans to eventually lose the war.  

 

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The Americans invaded Guadalcanal, learned a lot about logistics in the process and started island hopping towards the Japanese mainland which took a few years.  

 

Tarawa.  The US cleverly planned on invading at low tide (shown). Tide was so low the landing craft couldn't make it even to the beach.  The Marines had to wade almost a mile to shore.  The Japanese had machine gun emplacements all the way around the lagoon.  I knew a man that was in that invasion.  He wouldn't talk about it. Source

 

Meanwhile, back in Europe, the Allies invaded France and started towards Berlin as did the Russians from the East. 

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 In the Air, the skies were black with Allied aircraft reminding the Germans, Italians and Japanese that starting wars is a bad idea.  

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Finally, Hitler got the clue and shot himself.  Meanwhile, the Japanese needed a bigger reminder, so the Allies rescheduled sunrise on a couple of summer days.  

Hiroshima

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Nagasaki

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The clue bird landed at that point.  So much so that the Germans and Japanese became Allies and the Russians our enemy.

End of Story.

Now you see why I'm not a published author.  Although he clearly stole the idea from me, I like Sarge's version better.

 Part of the objective of the post was to find photos of the various aspects of the war I hadn't seen before.  To the best of my knowledge the only one I'd seen before was the one of the guy roasting in hell.

Lt Fuzz,  Excellent recommendation on the Photomyne App recommendation a couple of days ago.  That makes importing printed pictures SO much easier.

Not that I have that many to digitize.  No, Not at all! 

That program might just make it doable. Thanks !

*Non-Standard SJC

** Attributed to William Tecumseh Sherman.  I think this version attributed to Lt. Col. Dave Grossman is applicable also. The third sentence especially so.

“I am sick and tired of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell.”