Daytona 500....

In America, several things in a persons life hold great emotional treasures and reverence....

..a persons wedding day, birth of your first child, seeing your first grandchild.

..and most of all, the Daytona 500! No wonder we are so goofy. America has embraced the sport of driving in circles.

I must comment at this time;

I would like Nascar to build a machine that can race in the rain, thus putting an end to rain-delays and cancelled races. Now hold on before you go off half-cocked... I mean really now, I watch motorcycles race at 150 mph on road tracks in the rain every weekend. LeMans and other open-wheel Indy cars race on wet pavement. What gives? For the love of God man, don't tell me the tire manufactures cannot develop a rain tire compound. Enough said...now go and make it happen...before I really get mad.

35 years ago in American history.....

In 1974 I attended the National Outdoor Leadership School in Wyoming. I was 16, the minimum age, and in a group of 17 students and 3 instructors, I did OK for myself. This was perhaps the most fun and hard work that I have ever done. 28 days of backpacking across Shoshone and Yellowstone National parks. We didn't see another soul for 26 days after we started. When we came out of the mountains, we learned Nixon had resigned. My 'rating sheet' is attached. At least they recommended that I return and take the instructors course. When we got picked up and the bus drove out of the mountains, you could have heard a pin drop. The bus was completely silent except for the sighs and the sound of a bandanna wiping away a tear. We didn't want to leave.....

Army days

In 1967 I was commander of Task Force Kilo on the Tran Ngong Phuket Peninsula off of the Ukong Delta in Viet NamThis KGB file photo shows me taking a smoke break out back of the HQ building.

Yeah...

You're right....

That does look suspiciously like a cub scout uniform....

Hmmmm.........

Wrong photo -- right year.

When in doubt...go swimming.....

That was refreshing! A quick 20 laps in the Olympic pool and now I'll get in my Land Rover and drive to the Chesapeake Bay for a 2-mile swim. After that it's off to my martial arts training and then to National Theater for more rehearsals. Tonight Janet and I will be attending a fund raiser at the State Department for Haiti relief and then we are going to adopt seven children. What are you doing today?

I need a distraction from snow...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgmAt3-ipM4

I was thinking, maybe play a video game to take my mind off snow, then I remembered, I don't play video games. I like watching them.

Then and now...

This was on December 19, 2009 (my birthday) and I was taking snow off the roof of the carport that we park the camper under. Well....on February 6, 2010 the whole thing came crashing down.

I was minutes away from getting the ladder and clearing more snow from the roof of this structure (take a look at the first picture and then the second picture) and thankfully it collapsed at 7:25 am while I was still eating breakfast. The building is gone but I'm not smashed and buried under tons of metal and snow.

"I don't care if it rains or freezes, long as I got my plastic Jesus, sittin' on the dashboard of my car....."

Long friggin' day....

When I was a little younger, this snow would have been nothing but fun. I'm getting to fucking old to shovel snow. We dug out and now the next snowfall is on it's way with another 10" possible. As we say....."Cowboy up".

P.S. this is my front yard, lucky the driveway is only 130' long!

Rollin' in the dough

Now, I ain't no gamblin' man, but yesterday I thought I'd drop a "XX note" (that's $20 for you Roman-numerically impaired folk)on the game.

Actually it was a pool.

Actually, someone else picked two of the 4 squares for me.

But I won $100 and the missus won the other $25 in the pool!

And, to top it all off, it was a great game.

Annnnnnnddd.... I didn't wind up drunk and face-down in a field in the dark with the dog running around god knows where.

All in all a successful superbowl Sunday.

Huzzah!

And congrats to the Saints!without express written consent of the nfl, yo.

Thar she blows......

The storm, or I guess I should say 'blizzard', took it's toll on our metal carport.

We took the camper out from the carport the afternoon before the thing came crashing down at 7:30 am the next morning....that was too close for comfort. The camper is safe and sound at our friends garage next door. The tractor took a good lick to the gas tank (where the beam is resting on the tractor) but is fine other than that. Janet and I are tired of the snow. We've had three sizable storms this year and another will be here in two days. We are ready for New Mexico!

Oh, it snowed another 6" after these photos were taken.