H A L L O W E E N

BOOOO000oooo! It was a nice afternoon, sunny and the SNOW is melting but still have lots of it around, temps were up in the 50's. We spent the afternoon filling bags and bags of candy for the Trick or Treaters, We had some fresh homemade real old fashioned "Gingerbred People" to snack on and of course candy.

We set up the community room and about 5:30 the little gremlins, ghosts, vanpires, monsters, devils and urchins started arriving, everyone enjoyed themselves, a lot of the resident's children brought grandchildren in and everybody made a fuss over them and they were some cute ones!!!!

As president of the Tennants association I had the honor to greet and pass out the candy to the Young un's and also the older ones. We passed out 130 bags of candy till 8:00PM and what was left over we took into the dining room and put in big bowls and everyone got into picking out their favorite candy bar!!!!!!! Mine was a Mello Cup!!!

Hope everyone has a nice week-end, tomorrow is "My Honey's Birthday"! Hasn't told me yet what she wants to do or where she wants to dine out!!

TIRED THURSDAY

Well, we still have LOTS of snow BUT they are telling us its all gonna melt and go away, Tonight was our Monthly "STONE SOUP SUPPER", I went in to church early and made Chili and decorated cookies, set up tables and My Honey joined me later and then the donations of Chili, chili con carne, Cookies, Johnny-Cake *(corn bread) cakes, cup cakes, cookies, we had plenty of food, our people came in and we set up the tables of deserts, got ready and our Minister said grace about 5PM and we started feeding people as they came in.

Total we fed over 100 people a nice meal and gave them some good fellowship, and the work crew had some laughs and giggles, we got home about 8PM after the clean up, BOTH DOG TIRED!!!!!

So glad this election is winding down, sick of listening to all the claims of Honesty, hardwork, and the faults of the other candidate!!!! Just a few more days, DON"T FORGET TO V O T E !!!!

Tomorrow we go down and join the other tennants and re-arrange the community room, fill bags with candy and then wait for the little ghosts, goblins and witches and trolls to show up for trick or treat, last year we had about 100 little ones come here to the senior citizen housing for goodies and they got lots and lots of SUGAR so they could go home on get on a sugar high!!!

Day 2 of Snowstorm

Well--- we woke up to Lots and Lots of SNOW!!! My Honey went out and couldn't get out-- our side door cuz the snow blocked it, so she had to go out front, Our Maintainence Men were here before daylight plowing and shoveling and I WATCHED THEM WORK---THANKFUL I NO LONGER HAVE TO DO IT!!!

There were lots of shovelers and snowblowers out and quite a few cars stuck in the snowbanks in front of thier driveways cuz the snowbanks were about 3 feet tall, The streets were plowed fairly well, and you can tell the FOLKS who came up to Fort Drum from areas that don't get SNOW cuz there skidding thru red lights, slidding into snowbanks and stuck on small inclines!!!!!!, there is POWER OUTAGES and lots of area Schools in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence County are closed, I measured over a foot of snow BUT the higher elevations got more.

The Hospital's will be busy because there are lots of Sirens going off and ambulances trucking in Heart Patients who overdid it shoveling and there is accidents all over the place which is NORMAL for the first major snowstorm.

I took some pictures here at the Legion Post from the 4th floor Cuppolo, it was used during WWII to watch for enemy planes, it has a big white compass painted on the ceiling showing North and south, east and west, and there is still an old telephone line and junction box up there, the old black rotary dial phone is gone but the 4 number telephone call list is still visable -- right now at 10AM it is still snowing and blowing and the Temperature is right at 32 degrees with a slight wind blowing and more

S N O W falling!!!!!!!.

Friday its supposed to WARM UP and MELT ALL THE SNOW!!!!

Well its time to get back to work on the "Veterans Day" program and this afternoon it's off to church to set up for our "Stone Soup Supper" for the needy.

D O N ' T E A T Y E L L O W S N O W !!!!!!!!

NEVER FORGET---REMEMBER YOUR VETERANS!

"WINTERS HERE" !!

Started out as a nice day, we came home and had a Cookie Decorating party with the other tennants, drank cider and ate cookies and doughnuts. Nice afternoon till about 5PM and BANG, Old Man WINTER ARRIVED and it started snowing and blowing, and blowing and snowing and the Temperature dropped, It was almost a "NorEaster".

We got out and made it to a meeting at church thru about 4 inches of wet, packy snow, the drive home was a trip, the visibility was terrible!

Oh well, we're home safe and settled in and watching it storm!!!!

NICE FALL DAY

Woke up to a nice fall day, sunny but cool, had to put on a jacket!!! Coffee and Bran Muffin for my daily fiber, pills and Fish Oil then Off to the Legion, worked on the Veterans Day program, I have been asked to speak again this year so started writing my notes, Put article in the paper for Legion on Veterans day and again this year I did my newspaper "Letter to the Editor" on "Veterans Day" and what it means for us and our community and what we owe our "Veterans"! Its hard to explain how to repay a debt to someone who gave up their life for me!!!!

Lunch with My Honey was a nice, NO FAT, NO CARB, NO TASTE lunch and dinner was a piece of "Chicken and salad and veggies" (Have to PAY for the weekend of GLUTTONY), but thankfully I did not pack on too much blubber!!!

The *Weatherman is calling for (READY) that 4 letter word--S N O W!!

Possibly a few inches but then its gonna warm up and melt it away!!

The Election is down to a few more days of B-S and empty promises !!

On the local front for the State Assembly for our little community I am doing something I don't like to do, I'm voting AGAINST some one who has ran a dirty, back stabbing, underhanded, gossipy, taunting, slanderous, shifty, campaign for election, *(HEY) wait a minute, that sounds just like the Big Boys running for president!!!!! Oh well, its almost over!!

I can't wait till the day after election, *(Everything is going to be great)! The price of gas is going to stay low, food is going to be cheap, stocks are going to soar like a bird, houses will suddenly start selling like hot cakes, their will be more jobs than applicants, Large Company Executives are going to have to account for their $900.00 dollar lunches and those $450,000.00 hunting trips to England to hunt birds, all the children in america who go to bed hungry will be fed, finally the "N" word will dissapear, Old People will be able to afford their medications and get better health care and ------*SORRY, I must of dozed off their!!!!!!

Oh well, back to reality, Hope you all have a good week!!!!!

SUNDAY

Saturday we played Echre all afternoon & evening, It rained "Cats and Dogs" out, we got over an inch of rain and for dinner we went into the garage to Cook - out and had some of the Biggest hand cut and Best Country Style Spare-Ribs I ever tasted, *( from Eddy's Meat Market up in Croghan) slow cooked on the grill for an hour with stuffing, potatoes and veggies, Pumpkin Pie and all I can say was AWSOME FEAST!!!!!!! the euchre game was terible, we lost to My Honey and her partner 5-0!!!!!!!!

Church this morning was a good sermon and a full house! I learned a few things I didn't know before!!!!

Supper tonight was one of my all time favorites:

PANCAKES- SCRAMBLED EGGS--- AND CRISPY BACON!!!! THE ONLY THING MISSING WAS """grits"""!!!!! I Loves GRITS!!!!

Oh ya --by the way, PLEASE don't ask me about the diet and weight loss because this weekend I was "BAD""! and this coming week is gonna be """ROUGH""""".

It was nice all day """BUT""" Right now at 7:50 P.M. we are getting hit with some severe Lightning and THUNDER, wind and rain, Me an Honey love thunderstorms.

The Sky is lightin up and there are some nice rumbling, rolling thunder boomers.

NEVER FORGET---REMEMBER THE VET !

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Thursday

Woke up to a COLD Morning but it warmed up today, Good Morning, nice lunch with My Honey then off to the Doctor!!!! I have been having problems with my hearing!!!!

Ever have a BAD ear ache? I have, 10 or 11 years ago I had to have a procedure on my left ear, they had to puncture my ear drum, vacumn out a serious infection and then insert a drainage tube, the tube stayed in a long time and It was pushed out by the ear drum growing around it, I did good for a long time and then about year ago I had to have another one put in, this time a little biger one, that one lasted about 10 months and this afternoon I went and had to have the 3rd one put in my left ear which was a little bigger than the others!!!. "Jumped up Jehova"-- does it ever hurt!!!!!JUST LIKE THE OTHER 2 TIMES!!!!!

You sit in a chair, firmly grasp the sides of the chair in a Death Grip, cross your legs and DON'T MOVE! My Honey held my hand!!!! The ENT Doctor, *(really-really nice man) slips a funnel in your ear, puts on a pair of glasses that look like something from "StarWars" and then slides a long thin metal rod down your ear, *(He calmly) tells you he is going to puncture your ear drum and you hear (BOOM), I can only relate the pain as to what it would feel like to walk on the coals of the """Fires in Hell"""!!! *(WHICH I HOPE I WON'T HAVE TO DO!! *(WHO KNOWS)!!!

Quickly he removes the ROD, inserts a small Vacumn Cleaner and you hear the sound of a "Jet Engine" inside your ear, then quickly he reinserts the ROD with a small Drainage tube on the end of it back into your ear and into the hole in your ear drum, another "BOOM", and vacumns it out again leaving the Drainage Tube inseted in your ear drum then he pumps fluid into the ear, thru the drainage hole in your ear drum and it runs down into the back of your throat!

"ALL DONE" , he says, "you can relax now".

First, the ROD he inserts in your ear to bust the ear drum is a foot long and about as thick as my wrist!!!!!
Second: the Drainage tube is about the size of a Ping-Pong Ball.

Third: Its not all that bad, the pain really lasts only about an INSTANT, the tube placement lasts about a few seconds, the noise is loud because I CAN HEAR AGAIN!!!! *(THANKS DOC.)"!

This is what the 1st Long White Drainage Tube looked like, the short White second one and the Blue third one they put in today!!! It is really nice to hear again, MAYBE MY SINGING ISN'T ALL THAT BAD AFTER ALL!!!

The problem now is I can really hear all the B-S coming from the "Politicians" over the air-waves!!!!!

WEDNESDAY

Sure has turned COLD!!!! Its too early for winter, hope it warms back up SOON!!!!

We joined a group called "ALPHA", we meet at church every wednesday night for the next 10 weeks to Learn about each other, our church, and Jesus! We got there at 6PM and had a nice Pot Luck Dinner,

I opened the program with 3 songs and didn't do too bad singing all by myself, we watched a movie, then sat around for an hour discussing the movie and our thoughts and ideas about God, Jesus, the Church and people and home by 9PM.

The weather is changing fast, the leaves have peaked in color, "Leaf Peepers" have gone, most people have their winter 40 cords of wood cut, split and stacked and already burning it. Our Temp in the morning was 28 and it warmed up to 44!!!!!

We are in "Deer Hunting Season" and it should be a good year, there is plenty of them and lots of "Wild Turkeys".

Dont forget VETERAN'S DAY is approaching, A Veteran is someone who, at one point in their life wrote a blank check Made payable to 'The United States of America " for an amount of "'up to and including my life." That is Honor, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand it.

Rants and Raves

As you can tell from my Photo collection I am sick of this hype and blabbering and will be glad for election day to be over,

We been pretty busy, we spent a day up at our Ministers House, nice place about 1/2 mile back in the woods on a nice Pond, we had a work day, building roofs, insulating walls, skirting the bottom of the house, painting, stacking wood for winter, I built a nice large fire in the firepit and the best part was eating!!! I have to admit I went off the diet just a little bit, but I am now down to a proud 237 Pounds from a whopping 255 pounds.

We did our "Praise and Prayer" nite at church and I sang my little heart out and came home with sore fingers from playing the guitar so long!!!!

My singing has improved from the sound a FROG makes when your stepping on it to that of what a chicken sounds like while wringing it's neck!!!

Took a nice drive after church this afternoon and went down some "Seasonal Use Roads" which are mostly back roads of dirt, gravel, mud holes, small ponds, large rocks and ruts ---but saw some nice places.

DON'T FORGET -VETERANS DAY IN UPON US SOON!!!!!!!.

SUMMER WEATHER

Wow, got up to 75+ today, shorts and t shirt weather, Sunny and warm instead of windy and cold. Temps are above normal so says the weatherman!

Busy day, off to Doctors for Blood work this morning, then off to the Cardioligist for check AND his ok AND THEN it was off to the "Y" with my honey for a work out, I lasted 1 hour, I have not used this many muscles since trying to arrest a small giant back in the old days in a bar fight. BUT Back then I was 6-1 and weighed 180

I AM SO SICK OF LISTENING TO THESE POLITICIANS BLABBERING ON AND ON ABOUT WHAT THEY ARE GOING TO DO FOR ME, IF ITS TRUE AFTER THE ELECTION I AM GOING TO HAVE A CHICKEN IN EVERY POT AND MORE MONEY THAN I CAN SPENT AND NEVER PAY ANOTHER DOCTOR OR HOSPITAL BILL, AND I WILL BE ABLE TO DRIVE A LINCOLN CONTINENTAL.

Sunday

Church was great again today, It was a beautiful day, 75 and sunny and warm, we took a drive and went by the river, wandered around the woods, and enjoyed the heat, I took some pictures of the river and some foilage and a couple bluebird houses.

TOMORROW starts my program at the YMCA right after I see the Cardioligist. Gotta get some of this flubber off before "Old Man Winter" sets in for 5 long months!!!

Well, its gonna be an early night, were both tired and I gotta lots of pictures, paperwork, and a newspaper article to do tomorrow and THEN its time to start on my Veteran's Day speech and program.

Hope everyones week starts out OK and is an enjoyable one.

PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS THAT THE GOOD LORD WILL UNCLOG THEIR BRAINS AND SHUT THEIR MOUTHS UNTIL THEY HAVE SOMETHING SMART TO SAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY 233rd BIRTHDAY , October 13, 2008, TODAY we held out 11th annual Navy Birthday Party, the American Legion Post 789 hosted the event as most all in attendence are members.

Sure hope these pictures upload, HTML was invented to torment, confuse, anger, frustate, tease, and confuse us "Old Blockheads"! It says to Click on the picture to see the slideshow, hope it works.

Navy Birthday

The day started at noon with a luncheon, one of our "old mess cooks" made the "Original" , delicious Navy Bean Soup, to go along with lunch;

At 1300 hours, the Memorial Service started with a speech which I kept short and opening remarks by the LCDR and then the prayer, the Pledge of Alligence, and then we did the 2-Bell service, during the reading of the Memorial List of 124 names, at intervals of 8 names the ships-bell was rang 2 times, a red, white or blue carnation was placed in the wreath by My Honey and her helper, after the names were completed, all those Lost at Sea, Missing, KIA/POW were honored with the empty chair,a table where a fresh red rose, glass of water, salt, pure white linen cloth, and bone china plate were placed for Honors and rememberence and all were wished----"FAIR WINDS AND FOLOWING SEAS"!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

Then the Admiral of the Day was named who is our Post Adjutant. and in abstentia : DCFN Robert E. Montrois from the USS Vicksburg; then the offical Cake cutting by the Oldest and youngest Sailor present which was a Navy SeeBee and a Ships RP.

It was my Honor and privilege to be part of this service. It is sad to see the list increase each year and even harder to read the names of my uncle, cousin, schoolmates and friends who have passed on.

My only hope is that someday in the far off future there will be some one around who will read my name off!!!!!

WE WANT TO HAVE FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I must be a "Glutton for punishment, We live in "Senior Citizen Housing" beautiful place, a wonderful staff who will do anything and everything for you, Well I was nominated for "President" and My Honey was nominated for "Secretary" WE ACCEPTED and will see how it goes, Mainly my job is too keep some activities going, trips, dinners, and entertainment. We get along with most everybody but with this many people I am sure we are not going to please everybody all the time but will do the best we can.

The last trip friday to the "Heart-Doctors" was not fun, some minor changes and problems have litterly forced me to LOOSE WEIGHT, not just a little but a great deal------SO I will be joining My Honey at the Y every after -noon at 2 PM for some much needed exercise and fitness. We will see how it goes. I need to lose the weight to have some surgery re-done.

My carotoid's are plugging up again and the Old Doc will probably have to redo the right side and then do the left side!! Not anything I am looking forward to but will do what I have to since I am not quite ready to meet the "Master" yet, I am nervous about this and am telling you at the doctors my logging in was a mere 252 Pounds.

Did I tell you I hate "Rabbit Food", BUT My Honey is making sure I get lots of it now!!!!!!! OH YUMMY, I have some carrots and celery and an apple for my snack INSTEAD of my Turkey, ham, cheese, pickle, mustard, mayo sandwich, for my snack

NAVY DAY: this year is the 233rd Birthday, and the 11th year I have done the events, Banners, Pictures, Programs, Cake, Foods taken care of and speeches.

So far all I am lacking is people to show up that said they would, I was lucky and our weekly paper put in a nice article in about Navy Day and its history and our past Navy Veterans we have honored over the years.

NEVER FORGET OUR VETERAN'S, THOSE WHO HAVE SERVED AND THOSE CURRENTLY SERVING SO YOU AND I CAN ENJOY OUR ALL OF FREEDONS!!!

TUESDAY

The Leaves are sure changing fast, the adirondack Mountains have places that are past Peak Foilage, this picture is in our side yard here.

This morning it was 29, had to scrape the car windows to see to get to the Legion and had to drag out my old Mackinaw to keep warm.

Well I'm ready to celebrate the Navy's 233 Birthday saturday, so far we have 124 deceased names to be read at the "2-Bell Ceremony" and I have my ducks all in a row!!!!

I have the "beans" soaking now for "Navy Bean Soup" on saturday and found some nice "ham-hocks" that do not have too much fat on them!!! Another heavy frost tomorrow morning but then its gonna warm up.

Nothing on TV except the "DEBATES" and I am so sick of listening to the "B-S", it doesn't matter who gets elected, they still have to work with Congress.

Hope everyone is doing OK!!!!

MONDAY

Well I am still plugging along with this new Journal System, I Liked AOL better, I was going to try to upload all my old posts but since they have been already read, I figured WHY BOTHER!!

It was nice until 3PM and then the temps dropped, it's now 42 and supposed to get a FROST tonight. The leaves are really coming down and the Adironcack mountains have reached their peak colors already in some places.....!

If anyone knows how to increae the size of your pictures you post let me know, meanwhile I'll keep searching.

I am trying to put in a slide show but unsucessfully !!!! Says I need PICASA what ever that is.

Oh how I long for the old days when my son lived near-by instead of all the way across the country where he could just sit down and show me all those tricks and tips!!!

The flowers, the cake are ordered for Navy Day the 11th, all I have left to do is print the Bullitins and Deceased Roster and get out the old ships bell for the "2-Bell Ceremony", we have 126 Navy Veterans todate we honor on saturday and will have a few more names submitted at the last minute as usual---

NEVER FORGET-REMEMBER THE VET!!!