edwardjoninoregon

Recovering

2011-04-29T09:14:00.000-07:00

I am finally beginning to recover a bit from being sick.

Turns out that I had MRSA infection as a result of surgery. I pretty much lost all of the month of April just hanging out in the house. I was unable to go anywhere and got tired out just going out to retreive my mail.

I took a round of antibiotics and my most recent lab results this week show that the bacteria is gone. Whew....

Been sick

2011-04-14T10:43:00.000-07:00

I have been sick and unable to do much for the past few weeks including updating the blog.

It is looking like this is going to take a while to recover from. I had a type of surgery that knocked me into a place that I did not expect. I will recover eventually, but doesn't it always feel like recovery goes on and on and on? Two weeks after surgery I thought I would be a lot better than I actually am right now.

I researched on line to see how others coped with this kind of thing and it varies all over the place. But almost everybody had a more difficult time than they expected. My doctor did not prepare me correctly. He did not explain the consequences adequately. But in the end I had no other options anyway, so I had to do it regardless.

I do feel incrementally better today than yesterday. Maybe I might be on the road back finally? Man.... I sure hope so.

I really liked Rodney Dangerfield so I borrowed his picture today. Too bad we lost such a great comedian.

Iraq War Day

2011-03-19T19:43:00.000-07:00

Today marks the eighth anniversary of the American invasion of Iraq. We have been at war in Iraq for eight years now. Isn't it time to end our wars and take care of our own country? Our health care, education, social programs all suffer because we spend our national wealth on warfare.

When was the last time America was invaded? Why do we need to be at war all the time. Why does America spend more on weapons and our defense department than all the rest of the countries in the world combined? Why do we have 700 military bases all over the world? We are bankrupting our children's future for no acceptable reason.

We had a gathering in Corvallis today to remember. Here are a couple pictures I took this afternoon.

Saddam Hussein is long gone. There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Why are we still there?

Better and more Personal Blog?

2011-03-15T20:24:00.000-07:00

This blog used to be better and more personal than it is now. I used to post something to my blog every day.

I wonder if this blog has become too boring and even worth keeping at all? It could be a lot better if I gave it more attention. Not many people were following my blog so it seemed a waste of effort. Please leave a comment if you might read a daily post of my life and events. Who knows... maybe someone found me that wasn't here before. Maybe somebody might care that I even have a blog after all this time?

I moderate comments but I allow almost all except those that might have been made by people who could have been under the influence of something. Those kinds of comments are often inappropriate and sometimes are offensive. That is why I moderate comments.

Let me know?

Tree Well Garden

2011-03-12T12:04:00.000-08:00

My tree well garden has made a lot of progress since I first posted the spring flowers on February 14th. This is the same garden one month later. I took this picture this morning from different angle than February.

I really like springtime in Oregon even though it rains and rains. There are a few days of sunshine here and there just to give us a hint of what is coming when summer finally arrives.

Tonight we go back to daylight savings time. I wish our government would choose one of the two time schedules and stay on one or the other. Who really likes changing clocks twice a year anyway. It accomplishes nothing. There is no such thing as gaining or losing time. It is only a political trick.

Early Spring in Oregon

2011-02-19T15:45:00.000-08:00

I took this picture about one hour ago in front of my apartment building.   It is early springtime in Oregon.

The crocus are blooming and the daffodils are just about to open. There will be massive blooming of daffodils in about a week.   Sure feels good when the flowers begin to bloom.   It is still cold but the afternoons get a bit warmer.

The daylight is coming a bit earlier and the sunset is a bit later. I sure do appreciate this longer days part of the year in preference to the November and December shortening of days.

I will post pictures of daffodils in a week or so.   That is one of my favorite times of spring.   There are daffodils everywhere in Oregon. Both in peoples yards and even in the wild.

Market of Choice

2011-02-08T19:10:00.000-08:00

Man. It has been a long time since I made a new entry in my blog. Time seems to just go by and I am not as attentive to blogging as I used to be. I need to get back to making entries more often.

We have a new Market of Choice in Corvallis. Wow.. What a great store. Market of Choice reminds me of Healthy Foods and other stores like that in cities. I visited a Healthy Foods when I was in Denver last summer. Our new Market of Choice is even better and is right here in our little city of Corvallis.

I have been to market of Choice only two times so far, but I have found a great variety of things. I eat gluten free now and they have the most gluten free items I have ever seen. I can eat just about normally with the breads, cinnamon rolls, pancake mix, and so many other gluten free items they carry. I have a cupboard and freezer filled with great foods now that I don't need to spend a lot of time trying to convert to gluten free. Thank you Market of Choice for building a new store in Corvallis.

I took this image from their web page. I know it isn't a very good picture, but I will snap a better photo with my cell phone when I next stop at their store and I will then edit this post with a better picture.

Finally a new car

2010-12-23T11:23:00.000-08:00

I waited for the 2011 Honda Element to be released before I bought a car because I wanted to compare the 2010 to the 2011 just in case there wee improvements and upgrades.

The 2011 Honda Element turned out to be even less a vehicle than the 2010 model and had only downgrades. So I bought a late 2010 model from a dealership in Wilsonville, Oregon. It has been a wonderful car so far and I am glad I bought it. Not an ideal car for a wheelchair person, but quite usable when comparing the small number of available models for people who need a two door kind of car. I am adjusting to the car and making modifications as I use the car more and more.

Honda recently announced that the Element will no longer be built after April 2011. The model is being eliminated. So I am glad I got the model and color that I wanted while still available.

I have been pretty much negligent in updating my blog lately and will try to do better in 2011.

More TV Commercials

2010-11-11T23:29:00.000-08:00

Just when the Political ads ended on TV we are now swamped with Christmas ads. Man....

November Day

2010-11-02T21:19:00.000-07:00

What a surprising day for early November. Mid 60's this afternoon and no rain for a couple days now.

Last week was heavy rain all week and now is supposed to be dry and sunny for several days. The mornings are quite dark and the days are short this time of year so it is a welcome break to get fantastic days like today once in a while.

The autumn leaves are great in downtown Corvallis right now, so if you get an opportunity to walk along the riverfront this is the time. I took these photos shortly before 5:00 PM today.

Tired of Political Ads

2010-10-18T14:56:00.000-07:00

I will be glad when the election is over. The political ads on TV are so negative and everybody running for any office is made to look like a dishonest crook by his opponent.

I know who I going to vote for and the ballot measures I support and those which I do not support. I have read the voters guide and have made decisions based on what I hope to happen in Oregon and the U.S. Congress.

There are way too many political ads and they are almost all negative. People running say bad things about the other guy instead of telling us what he will do to when he gets into office.

Just short of three weeks and the election will be over... whew.

Honda Element

2010-09-30T17:12:00.000-07:00

I decided to buy a 2011 Honda Element but the new models are not yet released. Seems all the new Honda 2011 models are out except for the Element. This photo is a 2010 Element.

I could buy a 2010 model but I was hoping they might come out with cloth seats and a solid color paint that covers the entire vehicle in 2011. I don't like the black piece in back of the car. It would be so much better if it was painted the same color as the rest of the car. I am also not fond of the pseudo-plastic washable seats.

Tomorrow is October 1st, so maybe Honda is waiting to release the 2011 car in October? Maybe November? Maybe even December. I plan to wait until the release date whenever that occurs.

I can't even find any sneak peak information about possible 2011 Element in internet searches. Maybe Honda isn't doing anything at all to the 2011's so that might be why there is nothing.

Might as well wait until the 2011's finally get released. It is quite late in the year to buy a 2010. If there are no changes I can probably still find a 2010 at a discount.

Honda has released many of their 2011 models by now, but not the 2011 Element.

Went to Denver

2010-08-29T08:56:00.000-07:00

I went to Denver last week to see my son and his family and my grandchildren.

I sure enjoyed seeing everyone and I miss my son and his family. I seldom travel because it is so difficult when one lives in a wheelchair and cannot walk even one step. I cannot even stand up because my legs are missing... My legs remained in Vietnam and the rest of me came back home.

I took a few pictures of Denver and a lot of pictures of the grandchildren. I do not usually post photos of family or people on my blog. Sometimes, but rarely.

It was hot in Colorado compared to our cold summer in Oregon. It was mid to high 90's every day. We have had very few hot days in Oregon this summer. I have lived in Oregon for 20 years and this is the coldest summer I have seen in that time.

My Chevy

2010-07-28T09:18:00.000-07:00

I am still recovering from the wreck of my old Honda Accord last September.

I sold my 2010 Toyota Tacoma and am now driving this 2005 Chevy Monte Carlo. It works just OK for my needs as a wheelchair person, but I think I am going to keep looking for something that works out better. So I most likely will sell this Chevy as well.

I am waiting for 2011 vehicles to be released. It is a little difficult to find much information about 2011's on line right now. There is some information but not what I need. I suppose the car companies keep this information secret until they are ready to sell the new models.

The Chevy works out fine for the time being. But I am almost sure that I will buy a new vehicle before Christmas.

Summer Solstice

2010-06-22T13:18:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was the first day of summer 2010. Sure feels nice to have a bit warmer weather after such a wet and cold spring.

Oregon had a record wet and cold April, May and June. It looks like the weather is finally beginning to turn toward summer.

Every time I put away my long sleeve shirts I find that I need to get them out again the very next day. I again put them away and so far yesterday and today I have kept them on the shelf. Whew....

Pause to Remember

2010-05-27T14:48:00.000-07:00

In Flanders Fields

2010-05-26T19:29:00.000-07:00

In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

McCrae's "In Flanders Fields" remains to this day one of the most memorable war poems ever written. It is a lasting legacy of the terrible battle in the Ypres salient in the spring of 1915. Here is the story of the making of that poem:

Although he had been a doctor for years and had served in the South African War, it was impossible to get used to the suffering, the screams, and the blood here, and Major John McCrae had seen and heard enough in his dressing station to last him a lifetime.

As a surgeon attached to the 1st Field Artillery Brigade, Major McCrae, who had joined the McGill faculty in 1900 after graduating from the University of Toronto, had spent seventeen days treating injured men -- Canadians, British, Indians, French, and Germans -- in the Ypres salient.

It had been an ordeal that he had hardly thought possible. McCrae later wrote of it:

"I wish I could embody on paper some of the varied sensations of that seventeen days... Seventeen days of Hades! At the end of the first day if anyone had told us we had to spend seventeen days there, we would have folded our hands and said it could not have been done."

One death particularly affected McCrae. A young friend and former student, Lieut. Alexis Helmer of Ottawa, had been killed by a shell burst on 2 May 1915. Lieutenant Helmer was buried later that day in the little cemetery outside McCrae's dressing station, and McCrae had performed the funeral ceremony in the absence of the chaplain.

The next day, sitting on the back of an ambulance parked near the dressing station beside the Canal de l'Yser, just a few hundred yards north of Ypres, McCrae vented his anguish by composing a poem. The major was no stranger to writing, having authored several medical texts besides dabbling in poetry.

In the nearby cemetery, McCrae could see the wild poppies that sprang up in the ditches in that part of Europe, and he spent twenty minutes of precious rest time scribbling fifteen lines of verse in a notebook.

A young soldier watched him write it. Cyril Allinson, a twenty-two year old sergeant-major, was delivering mail that day when he spotted McCrae. The major looked up as Allinson approached, then went on writing while the sergeant-major stood there quietly. "His face was very tired but calm as we wrote," Allinson recalled. "He looked around from time to time, his eyes straying to Helmer's grave."

When McCrae finished five minutes later, he took his mail from Allinson and, without saying a word, handed his pad to the young NCO. Allinson was moved by what he read:

"The poem was exactly an exact description of the scene in front of us both. He used the word blow in that line because the poppies actually were being blown that morning by a gentle east wind. It never occurred to me at that time that it would ever be published. It seemed to me just an exact description of the scene."

In fact, it was very nearly not published. Dissatisfied with it, McCrae tossed the poem away, but a fellow officer retrieved it and sent it to newspapers in England. The Spectator, in London, rejected it, but Punch published it on 8 December 1915.

This Memorial Day entry is taken from the internet thanks to the Arlington National Cemetery.

I thank Arlington National Cemetery for providing such a great rendition of Flanders Fields. Indeed one of the best poems ever written about war. It brings tears to my eyes every year when I re-read it for Memorial Day.

Memorial Day 2010

2010-04-28T08:19:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day is only one month away. It is almost May and Memorial Day is coming on May 31st.

Here is the complete letter to my local paper that I submitted in 2009. Everything still applies and my beliefs have not changed for 2010.

Memorial Day is a day when we remember friends and neighbors who lost their lives in war. And it is also a day when we remember other members of our families who lived among us but have died. It is a time when we teach important lessons to our children about who they are and where they came from. Their ancestors.
I am a Vietnam War combat veteran and I served as an infantry rifleman with the 1st Cavalry Division. We lived like animals in rice paddies and jungles. Dug a foxhole every night and lived out in the elements. Bugs, leeches and torrential rains. I saw a lot of people die on all sides. I tell friends that I will be in attendance at Memorial Day services. They reply "I can see why you would do that" They are on their way to spend a long weekend camping or just picnicking and sleeping in. Why is it that people think that only veterans should attend these services? Everybody needs to be at these things. This year please bring your kids. I see way too few kids on Memorial Day. Teach them why the day is observed. Show them the graves of their ancestors and tell them who those people were. Tell them how they they came to be in this world in the first place. They are descended from those who came before and these are the graves of those people. Tell them. I will see you at the Benton Veteran's Memorial for services at 2:00 PM on May 31st.

This photo is a picture of me while I was serving in combat in Vietnam. February 1968.

Cool Food Art

2010-03-11T07:02:00.000-08:00

As you know, emails go around the world with some wonderful things enclosed.

Here is a small sample of an email I received today. There were actually forty pictures in the email. Here are three of them.

I take no credit for this art. I admire someone who has this kind of talent. I do not know who the artist is. What vision.

Family

2010-03-08T15:04:00.000-08:00

This is an early Simpsons family cartoon. Cool..

I really like the Simpsons Show. It is so well written and acted. Often the situations are so ridiculous that they are just hilarious. Good Job Portland native Matt Groening!

Ahhh Early Spring

2010-02-19T19:03:00.001-08:00

I was out and around in town today and took this photo at 2nd Street and Monroe downtown with my I-Phone. The dog is a brass statue on the corner.

It was a sunny and warm day. We have had a mild winter and a warm January and February. The flowers and trees are blooming early.

Vancouver Olympics

2010-02-13T21:15:00.000-08:00

The opening ceremonies were well done. I wish there were more snow. We have had a much warmer than normal January and February this year and it looks like the olympics will just need to find a way to cope.

Sure makes our local winter more enjoyable.

Local Clouds

2010-02-08T20:01:00.000-08:00

This odd cloud formation was outside my window yesterday so I took a picture of it.

There is a square portion hanging off the bottom of this cloud. I wonder why.

Kind of looks like a bucket of cloud without the bucket that it was formed in.

1969 Chevelle SS on ebay

2010-02-01T09:06:00.000-08:00

The Portland International Auto Show had a lot of cars, but they did not have Acura and they did not have the Chevy Volt electric car. If they had offered any wheelchair friendly two door coupe I would have bought one.

I have looked at all the possible passenger cars that should work but there is none. Manufacturers do not make cars for people like me anymore. I have started thinking about possibly buying an "old car". An old car that has been rebuilt or restored. I looked at a 1969 Malibu last Saturday in Portland, but it has been modified too much and isn't stock. It has loud pipes and a powered up V8 engine. And it does not look nearly as good in person as it looks on ebay. That car needs a lot of work.

Here is an ebay Chevy Chevelle in Illinois that is stock and looks great. But they are asking a ridiculous price of $42,000. Man... that is a ton of money for an old car. But as you can see, it is in wonderful stock condition. I won't be buying this one either.

Portland Auto Show 2010

2010-01-23T21:37:00.001-08:00

This is the logo from the 2010 Portland Auto Show next weekend.

I have plans to attend with a couple friends. Maybe they might have some interesting new models. Pretty much all the 2010's will be there and they said there will be some 2011's as well. And some concept vehicles that probably will never see retail sales floors.

I still would like to find a passenger car that works for my needs as a wheelchair person. Needs to be a bigger 2 door coupe like the older cars used to be. I owned a 1965 Impala immediately after I was released from the army. Bought it in Denver when I was recovering from war injuries in Fitzsimons Army Hospital. What a nice car.

The modern two door cars have a very small passenger cab. The cars are about the same size overall but the passenger space has shrunk a lot. Especially back seat space.

My 65 looked exactly like this one.

Ahhh.. Back to School

2010-01-05T18:57:00.000-08:00

Isn't it great that school is back in session. Oregon State University, Corvallis Public Schools, and all the rest. The Holiday season is over and we are back to normal everyday life. Ahhh...

I am glad to be back to my volunteering in local schools and the kids are glad to be back too. I spoke with the Principal and some teachers in my local volunteer site today, as well as the kids I work with. How fun....

Here are a few worthy quotes I have found along my way:

Holidays are enticing only for the first week or so. After that, it is no longer such a novelty to rise late and have little to do. ~Margaret Laurence

As long as there are tests, there will be prayer in schools. ~Author Unknown

A professor is someone who talks in someone else's sleep. ~W.H. Auden

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school. ~Albert Einstein

He who opens a school door, closes a prison. ~Victor Hugo

Education would be much more effective if its purpose was to ensure that by the time they leave school every boy and girl should know how much they do not know, and be imbued with a lifelong desire to know it. ~William Haley

Home computers are being called upon to perform many new functions, including the consumption of homework formerly eaten by the dog. ~Doug Larson

When a subject becomes totally obsolete we make it a required course. ~Peter Drucker

Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know. ~Daniel J. Boorstin, Democracy and Its Discontents

I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught. ~Winston Churchill

Learn as much as you can while you are young, since life becomes too busy later. ~Dana Stewart Scott

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. ~Henry Brooks Adams

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. ~William Arthur Ward

2010 Already?

2009-12-31T20:31:00.001-08:00

Is it 2010 already?

Man it feels like it was just 1969...

Time goes faster when you start getting older. I will become 63 years old in 2010.

Thank you to the universe for allowing me to stay this long. My next big time-line goal is 2012. I want to be here all the way through 2012. All the way to New Years Eve.

There might be another date that comes along before then but 2012 should be a good time to be alive. (look it up on Google).

I have no plans for New Years Eve so I think I will go down to the restaurant and the wine bar on the first floor of my high rise building for midnight bells and whistles.

Avatar the Movie

2009-12-30T19:33:00.001-08:00

I seldom go to movies but I did attend Avatar today. Good movie and worth going to the theater.

Please go to the 3D showing (with the glasses). I doubt that the 2D version would have the same effect.

Plase don't drink coffee or get one of those huge cups of Coke that they try to sell you before you go inside. The movie goes on for two and half hours and has no intermission break!

I never recommend movies but I do recommend this one.

Needle Boy

2009-12-26T01:08:00.000-08:00

Stories like this take a long time to leave my life for some reason.
this kind of cruelty and evil are just incredible to me. I cannot imagine anybody doing something like this.

I am a volunteer in a school for special needs children for the past 16 years. I work with kids of all kinds of abilities and disabilities.

All children of the world belong to all of us. We truly are a village and it is our collective responsibility to protect children and to be outraged about things like this.
Maybe it is because this is the holiday season or something, but this seems especially heinous this time of year?

This is a picture of the boy I found on the internet and here is a clipping that accompanied the photo. The link to CBS News is below.

In this file photo, a 2-year-old boy, found with 42 needles inside his body, arrives to a hospital in Salvador, northeastern Brazil, Thursday. Roberto Carlos Magalhaes, the boy's stepfather, said Sunday in a jail cell interview that he intended to kill the boy out of spite for his wife and didn't think he would be discovered. (AP Photo/Arestides Baptista

What do you think? Perhaps the punishment for the perpetrator should be prison and 42 needles stuck into his body? Since he is a grown adult maybe he should get 84 needles stuck into his body?

Sorry that I posted about this issue two days in a row. These kinds of cruel acts stay with me for a while. I sure hope the boy recovers and is placed into a safe home where he is loved and protected.

"It was truly an unbearable suffering," said Magalhaes. "It was to get back at the boy's mother. I thought the needles would work their way through his body and kill the boy. It was a way to kill without anyone discovering." But the pain led the toddler to complain to his mother, and on Dec. 10 she took him to a hospital where X-rays revealed about 30 needles lodged throughout his body. The boy underwent a five-hour operation in the northeastern city of Salvador on Friday to remove four rusty needles that most threatened his life, near his heart and in his lungs. Doctors said Sunday the child is doing well and will likely undergo two more surgeries, the next one on Wednesday at the earliest, to extract needles up to 2 inches long from his abdomen and spine.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/12/20/world/main6003001.shtml

Needles Stuck into Boy

2009-12-23T23:53:00.000-08:00

This excerpt is from the internet.

RIO DE JANEIRO - A Brazilian man publicly confessed to pushing dozens of needles into his 2-year-old stepson, saying Sunday he intended to kill the boy out of spite for his wife and didn't think he would be discovered.In a jail cell interview aired on Globo television's Fantastico program, 30-year-old bricklayer Roberto Carlos Magalhaes said he mixed water with wine to dope the child before he and his lover held the boy down and stuck sewing needles into him.
"I did this two or three times a week during one month," Magalhaes said.

Here is a link to just one site that has the story. It is hard to believe that anybody could be this cruel? This is truly an evil person to do something like this.

Man.... An innocent two year old boy.

http://www.lipstickalley.com/f50/man-sticks-needles-stepson-revenge-215018/

Oregon State University Lost

2009-12-23T23:36:00.000-08:00

The Las Vegas Bowl Game was played last night. Oregon State against Brigham Young. I couldn't watch the entire game because it was too disappointing. I clicked back and forth about every ten minutes to see if it was getting better, but nope. It was a disaster all the way.

BYU cleaned our clock. It wasn't even close.

I wonder if OSU was maybe still recovering from the Oregon v/s Oregon State game of a couple weeks ago? That game was indeed a good and well played game. Oregon won that one.

University of Oregon will represent our state in the Rose Bowl Game on January 1st, since they won the game two weeks ago. I hope they play up to their potential and clobber Ohio State. Oregon has a good team and certainly has the ability beat Ohio State.

But OSU has a good team as well, and I really thought they would win the Las Vegas Bowl. They just played poorly and lost.

Winter Solstice

2009-12-21T17:35:00.001-08:00

Today is Winter Solstice 2009. Tomorrow the days start getting longer!

The weather has warmed up somewhat from the freeze that we had about a week ago. Normally we don't get freezing weather that lasts so long. This one lasted over a week and ponds and standing water froze over. Many people had frozen pipes and broken pipes. Everything was just fine at my home.

We are having normal wet and warmer weather now. Our best winter weather comes from the Pacific Ocean. Yesterday was over 50 degrees. Today is a little cooler but not cold. Quite rainy though.

The Big Game

2009-11-30T19:21:00.000-08:00

Thursday this week is the biggest football game ever between the two Oregon PAC Ten teams. Oregon and Oregon State.

The Rose Bowl Game on January 1st generally has one of the California teams like USC or CAL to represent the West Coast in the game. This year it is Ohio State for the Big Ten and the Pac Ten part will be determined on Thursday evening right here in Oregon.

Oregon v/s Oregon State to be played in Eugene this week.

Isn't that something? Hard to believe. Oregon is some kind of backwater place where nobody even lives. The entire population of this state is very small.

Man this is wonderful for Oregon no matter which team wins the big game. Both schools have done a great job in the past several years. This game cannot be called at this time. It can go either way.

TVs in every home in Oregon will be watching football on December 3rd.

If Oregon State wins on Thursday, the Rose Bowl Game will see two teams from schools called OSU? Oregon State and Ohio State.

Veterans Day 2009

2009-11-16T09:04:00.001-08:00

I cannot take credit for this image. I found it on the internet. But the face of a war soldier has not changed much from WWI, WWII through Korea, Vietnam and now Afghanistan and Iraq. My face looked like this in Vietnam in 1967 and 1968.

I am a severely injured combat infantry soldier from my service in Vietnam.

I am a few days late posting a Veterans Day entry but I think it is an extremely important day is our lives. We must remember those who serve in our armed forces. It would be wonderful if one day there were no need for armies and conflicts, but that day sure seems a long way off.

I was invited to attend a whole school assembly at my grandchildren's Elementary School in suburban Seattle, and then to speak to each of my kids individual classes. The entire program was done so well and with such respect that I felt honored to be present. 500 elementary school children sat quietly and respectfully on the floor in the assembly hall and participated in their part of the program and respectfully observed as adults spoke their parts.

After all these years of being a Vietnam veteran I finally felt like a part of larger America again. Vietnam veterans were so hated and despised for so long that it gets absorbed as a part of our personality and we are often outside looking in.

Thank you for respectfully observing Veterans Day this year.

My Car is Crashed

2009-10-20T22:01:00.000-07:00

I brought my car into the service place last Wednesday to get the oil changed and they crashed my car. I bought the car brand new in this place 16 years ago and have brought it there for service every 3000 miles for the past sixteen years. The gas pedal got stuck they said.

Caught his foot between the brake pedal and the gas pedal. The appraiser called me yesterday and he said the car is totaled. Now I need to find money to buy another car.

Isn't it hard to believe how much damage was done? They crashed through the garage door and into the lift hoist. My poor little car is done for. I really took care of this car and kept it in great condition.

Insurance companies don't look at what the value of the car is to the owner, but just the book value of a car of the same vintage in Kelly Blue Book or something. I had 123,000 miles in this car and it had about ten years left. Maybe more.

Bad enough if I had crashed my car myself. But I was in the waiting area having a cup of coffee. I didn't even see it happen.

Road of Death

2009-10-13T11:00:00.000-07:00

A friend sent me an email with these pictures of what is called "The Road of Death" in Bolivia.

I saw a television program about this very road last Winter on one of those cable channels. This road is a miracle of engineering, but I personally would not choose to travel it.

The program said that there are some people who find it necessary to travel this road every day. It is the only road connecting a part of the interior of Bolivia to the coast. The TV program said this road is 30 miles if I remember correctly.

Maybe later this week I might Google the road to get more information.

I-Phone!

2009-09-28T11:10:00.000-07:00

I finally got a cell phone last week. It took me around twenty years to join the cell phone community.

I never really needed a cell phone, and I am not quite sure I need one even now. Everybody has a cell phone so I suppose I should have one. Now I need to get my cell phone number out there so people can call me sometimes.

I don't get many telephone calls even on my land line, so I don't expect that will change now that I have a cell. But it will be nice to have when I travel to Seattle or somewhere in case of emergency or something.

This phone has a lot of features. It can receive email and surf the web with a web browser. It even has wireless built in. Who would have ever thought that this kind of machine would even be invented. It is quite impressive.

My last post about the camera? I did finally receive a refund from the seller. He does not answer email but he did respond when I sent the entire package back to him in Connecticut. I will be more careful about buying things on line now.

Buy Carefully

2009-09-11T12:36:00.000-07:00

I bought a Casio Camera like this EX Z-50 from a vendor who sells through Amazon.com. This was to be a gift for my brother.

I had the camera sent directly to his home in another state, and when it arrived the package contained a completely different camera and is broken.

The Amazon vendor said in his ad that the camera is "like new" condition. That was a total lie.

I had my brother send the camera to me in Oregon and yesterday I sent it back to the seller. I have emailed the seller several times but they have not replied. I enclosed printed copies of all the emails inside the package.

I was under the belief that Amazon.com checked out the vendors who sell under the Amazon.com name. I was wrong. Looks like they allow anybody at all to sell through their company.

I wanted to post this on my blog to vent some frustration. I do not expect any of the money I paid to this vendor to be returned. I did ask them several times for my money but no response from them at all. They are ignoring me.

The camera should arrive back in Conneticut tomorrow or Saturday. I wonder if they will even acknowledge receiving it? I plan to keep watch on Amazon.com to see if they try to re-sell it to another trusting person.

Amazon.com has an area where one can post feedback about sellers. I plan to post extremely negative feedback next week. I will give one more chance after they receive the camera to see if they might have a bit of honor.

Labor Day 2009

2009-09-06T22:06:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is Labor Day. Please honor and remember the workers of America. This is a day set aside to remember working class Americans.

I will be at my annual Labor Day church picnic but I will remember what the day represents. I grew up in Michigan. One of the primary states of unions. Mining industry, Auto industry and others.

Have a nice day tomorrow.

I-Pod

2009-09-04T10:42:00.000-07:00

This is a joke I read in the Oregonian Newspaper September 3, 2009. In the"Uncle Edgster" column, page E6.

I do not take credit for authoring this entry, but I think it is worth sharing in my blog.

Here is the joke I am borrowing from the Oregonian:

"I was in the pub yesterday when I suddenly realized I desperately needed to fart. The music was really loud so I timed my farts with the beat. After a couple of songs I started feeling better. I finished my pint and noticed that everybody was staring at me. Then I suddenly remembered that I was listening to my I-Pod."

Big Moose

2009-07-28T10:13:00.001-07:00

Wow... look at the size of this moose! How would you like to come across this guy while you are walking in the woods?

Wheelchair Day with The Mayor

2009-07-24T18:35:00.000-07:00

On August 1st, 2009 Access Benton County in cooperation with Corvallis Parks Department is hosting a "Wheelchair Ride with the Mayor" from 10AM to noon.

This will be on Saturday at the same time of day as the Corvallis Farmer's Market.

We will have a specific route mapped out, with a handout and the route identified with sidewalk chalk all along the way. Not a difficult journey and only a few blocks long. Starting and ending at Jackson Street Fountain.

Twenty wheelchairs will be available for you to borrow when riding the route. We wish to just raise awareness of disabled access in a small way with this event. Kind of a small part of a typical day in Corvallis for a person who lives in a wheelchair.

The Mayor and other officials will be present and will ride the route in a wheelchair. City Council Members, Benton County DA and others. Various agencies who provide services to the public will be on hand, in addition to Access Benton County and Corvallis Parks Department.

Benton County Parks, CoHo Housing, Benton Health Department and others will be there. We will be giving away free information about many disability issues and we will even hand out some prizes as long as they last.

Please come to watch and to hopefully participate.

A route for kids will be in the area of the Jackson Street Fountain, so there will be no need for children to go out into the street and to cross traffic. The wheelchairs will all be adult size chairs and are somewhat big for kids to safely handle on their own.

Eat your Vegetables!

2009-06-04T22:56:00.001-07:00

I have always liked cartoons. I subscribe to a daily cartoon site and this one really was funny for some reason.

I guess mother has trouble getting junior to eat his vegetables? I don't know why this is funny. Kind of sick cartoon in a way, but I found it to be funny.

Delete?

2009-04-24T00:15:00.000-07:00

I see that all my old old posts remain on Google and everywhere else. Even though I mostly quit this whole blog experience?

By deleting all that old stuff from my blog I somehow believed I got rid of it. But now I see that I don't know how to get rid of anything. It just stays out there. Forever....

OK. .. I now see that everything just stays and stays.. Maybe some day I might figure out how to have search engines say that a page has been deleted? Right now I don't know how to do that.

Farmer's Markets are here

2009-04-22T19:13:00.001-07:00

These trees are in the parking lot on 1st street @ Western Blvd. There are so many flowers on these trees that is looks almost impossible. The photo does not do justice to this scene. But this is about as good as I can do with the camera I have.

This is the newly relocated Wednesday Farmer's Market now held on 1st Street near the Corvallis Skateboard Park. It just now closed at 7PM today. This is relocated from the Benton Fairground, and it switched from a morning market to afternoon from 3PM to 7PM. I sure hope this is a big success in this new location.

This is the first day of the 2009 Saturday Market downtown. It was real well attended and even crowded. The temperature was in the 80's. Wonderful.

Swallows Are Back

2009-04-20T17:47:00.000-07:00

Looking out my windows in the past week I see swallows flying around. A very good sign of Summer. Swallows wait until there are enough bugs around to eat before they come back to our part of the world.

The temperature for the past two days has been over 80 degrees. Wow! That is a temperature we sometimes have to wait for until July..

I have drastically cut back on posting to this blog. But thank you for those of you who keep coming back. I posted here daily for the first year but then got disillusioned for a while.

Last week I had terrible allergy problems, but this week it isn't as bad. What ever the particular tree or plant that I am allergic to must be finished blooming? Who knows. I am glad that I can now go outside.

Last week I had to stay inside a lot. I even drove out to the coast on two of those days so I could breath fresh air. Thousands of miles of ocean scrubs all the crap out of the air by the time it reaches our coast.

1944 Ford Ferguson

2009-03-12T21:48:00.001-07:00

I have a friend here in Corvallis who restored this 1944 Ford Ferguson. He said he will sell it to me. Or anybody I suppose?

He did a complete restoration by tearing this tractor down to all it's individual parts and replacing those parts that are worn out and rebuilding all the rest.

This is a 1944 Ford Ferguson, exactly like the one my father owned where I grew up on our family farm. This is a rare tractor to find. Built during the war and all. Most American factories were converted to production of war machines back then. Planes and tanks. Guns and bombs.

I asked my family, especially my brothers if they would help me to buy this tractor and bring it to the homestead in Michigan. Well... the response was mostly silence.

Dad's old Ford Tractor is in really bad shape after all these years.. I wanted to bring this restoration back to where the original was. In order for that to happen I guess I will need to buy this restoration myself and hire somebody to transport it to the homestead in Michigan. Too costly for me alone.

Yeah. Ours once looked like this one. But look at it now. I would like to see if somebody might restore dad's old tractor some day but that probably will never happen. At least we have it under shelter finally. That white stuff on the tire is just snow..

We managed to build a pole barn on the old homestead this past summer. A wonderful addition. Sure took a long time to climb out of poverty to a place where we can do something like this. A lifetime....

2010 Camaro

2009-03-02T18:49:00.000-08:00

This 2010 Camaro is supposed to be in Corvallis Chevy Dealer in June. I am going to wait for it before I buy a new car.

If it works out for me I am going to buy one. I drive a 16 year old car and have not been able to find something to replace it.

If General Motors and Chevy built cars like this one they wouldn't be going bankrupt. Build dependable cars that people want to buy. Just makes sense?

This is really a great car. About time you built a car like this Chevrolet!

Look this up on youtube.com. There are some great videos there. Just enter 2010 Camaro in the search box.

Republican Baby?

2009-02-24T07:00:00.000-08:00

This is one of my morning cartoons that I receive in daily email.

How appropriate!

I removed my "Veterans for Obama" bumper sticker from my car shortly after the election. I placed it back last week after the difficulty the Republicans have been dishing out. Just plain old bullheaded idiocy.

The Republican party does not appear to get it that we are in trouble. What the heck? Maybe they have too much money in their bank accounts and maybe do not personally know any "normal" citizens?

Road Kill?

2009-02-17T20:08:00.000-08:00

Don't you feel like road kill sometimes? I guess all of us get run over by events in life sometimes?

Here is a clever cartoon about it. Some of these cartoon writers do better at capturing life and it's complexity than actual photos do. Maybe that is why I like cartoons.

A lot of things have happened since I last added to my blog. Maybe I might get back to weekly postings or possibly even more often than that? I got so disappointed in the success of this blog that I almost deleted the whole thing. I needed time off from posting here for a while.

I have been looking for a new car for quite a while now. Man have I looked at cars! Just about everything that might work for a guy in a wheelchair. There are so few out there.

Almost all cars nowadays are four door vehicles. The few two door coupes made now are so tiny and they have no room in back for a wheelchair. Just no room. Four door cars are not an option for me.

All the manufacturers have some great concept vehicles on their web pages. But they just don't build those particular cars. All the car companies build almost the same cars as the others do. They seem to follow each other like lemmings?

If any one of them built something slightly different they would have people flocking to their businesses. There are many of us who need a slightly different car from the masses of vehicles made by everyone. Lemmings...

Tomorrow I plan to look at maybe the last two possibles in Corvallis. Or anywhere in America in fact. Looks like nobody makes a car for me?

President Obama

2009-01-20T21:37:00.000-08:00

President Obama. George Bush has gone back to Texas!

Kansas City Library

2009-01-15T19:39:00.001-08:00

This is the Kansas City Library. Isn't this something to see?

I once lived in Kansas about 100 miles West of Kansas City. It was a nice place to live and Kansas people are good people. Somehow though they have become farther right politically and religiously than they were back in the 1970's?

I have not visited Kansas since 1989, the year my father-in-law died.

I think it remains a good place as it was back then. Congratulations on an interesting new library. Cool..

Holidays are over

2009-01-07T22:52:00.000-08:00

I received this cartoon in my Yahoo page this week. As has probably become obvious in this blog I like cartoons. Good cartoons can be found among the piles of those not worth the bother.

I like the odd ones better than the most popular ones. The best cartoon in our local Gazette-Times is Crankshaft. The worst one is Cathy. The G-T could do much better in the cartoon section. One I would like to see added to the G-T is Pickles.

This particular cartoon is timely for early January. I have seen some extremely dry Christmas trees lately.

I hope everybody had a nice New Years Day.

January 2009

2009-01-03T19:08:00.001-08:00

I started this blog in January 2008, so it has been going for one year now. It has gone through an evolution of sorts. The biggest change so far is that I don't post every day anymore like I did through most of last year. I might get back to that eventually.

The big reason I stopped posting every day is because nobody really cares. It is quite a personal commitment to post something every day. People were not reading this blog, even though it looked for a while like they were.. Turns out most of those readers were getting directed here through Google searches. They stayed only one to two seconds. So my numbers were misleading.

I plan to keep blogging as long as it it makes sense to do so. I went to all the trouble of setting al this up so I guess I will keep doing this for a while.

See you soon.

IRS Fun

2008-12-29T16:39:00.001-08:00

Remember George Bush's stimulus check? I finally applied for it on September 26, 2008, after being very ambivalent about whether I should take dirty George Bush money or not. I went back and forth about this in my mind month after month. It was a moral issue for me. I can't stand George Bush. He ruined my country after I paid such a price to stand at her side. ( I was going to give the money away when I got it).

The deadline to apply was October 15th and I finally applied with two weeks to spare so enough time for U.S. Mail to get it there.

I never got the stimulus check so I called IRS today. I wanted to get it done before 2008 expires so they could not say I was too late now. On hold for 35 minutes before someone answered the phone. I went over the whole thing. The woman told me a bullshit story. I got mad and told her to go to hell. After I cooled down some I checked on the information she told me. Well..... she was lying.

I called back later. Another 35 minutes for them to answer the phone and I spoke with someone else. He was able to actually determine what happened to my stimulus check. IRS made an error. They placed some information that I submitted with my 1040A form into the wrong place when they moved information from my form into their computer. But they will not correct their error! I need to correct their error.

I now need to go through all my 2007 stuff and 2008 stuff and re-file the whole thing again in 2009. Can you believe this?

I suppose you can. Why not. You file taxes with IRS.

Food?

2008-12-28T14:08:00.000-08:00

I ate something yesterday that left me with food poisoning or food allergy.

Cramps. Extremely light headed to the point of almost passing out. Strong heartburn all night long. I slept on the sofa for hours yesterday afternoon, and then stayed in bed until 9:30AM this morning. I am better now. Whew.

I felt so good and energetic yesterday morning and the day had so much promise. Completely ruined by the wrong food.

I have been trying to figure out which it was that caused all this trouble. I think it was one of those white powder covered Christmas cookies that somebody gave me. I threw the rest of them into the trash. Christmas season is now over for me.

New Year resolutions? Probably the same one that comes around for almost everyone in America. Lose some weight in 2009.

Christmas Day

2008-12-25T09:12:00.000-08:00

Here it is Christmas Day. Nothing much happens around my home at Christmas. When one lives alone, Santa pretty much just passes over the house on his way to homes where kids live. That is how it is supposed to be and that is good.

It is 9:15AM now, and I have a date with friends to meet for coffee at Beanery at 9:30AM. Dinner this afternoon at friend's home. It is not snowing today. Whew. I am tired of snow already.

I attended two church services last night. 7:00PM service and again at 9:00PM. It was a very peaceful way to spend Christmas Eve. Friends who are moving here from Washington state were at the late service, and that is why I stayed for the second. They have bought their new home but the closing was delayed and they cannot occupy until sometime next week.

Holiday time is probably the worst time of year to get mortgages, title companies, and real estate people to come together? So many people take off for vacation this time of year and those left in the office aren't in a mood to work hard? Then add the arctic storms that buried Salem and Portland?

Today's cartoon has nothing to do with today's subject. But this is how people sometimes feel when visiting doctors.

Stormy

2008-12-19T23:06:00.000-08:00

It has been stormy right here in Corvallis all week just like it has been stormy all over the country.

I get stuck at home in this kind of snowy weather. I can't access the sidewalks in a wheelchair when they are snow covered. I tried to go to Beanery and can't even get there. One block away. I have been stuck at home for many days.

Nobody in Oregon scrapes sidewalks. I gave away my shovel when I moved into this condo.

Maybe I will buy a shovel from Robnetts Hareware store. I can shovel the walks for these two blocks myself. (maybe that might embarrass somebody able bodied into doing it themselves)? (Probably not).

Clobbered?

2008-12-16T20:06:00.000-08:00

Man. Don't you wish he had clobbered Bush with the shoe? Just a shoe.. Not a bullet. Just a shoe..

Show the world what an idiot we have tolerated for the past eight years. Thank you for throwing a shoe at this guy.. Somebody needed to do that a long time ago.

Especially good is that it was a respected Iraqi citizen..

Bush was quite agile though. Too bad. I wanted him to get clobbered by a shoe...

The old Tractor

2008-12-11T22:22:00.000-08:00

The old tractor looks pretty bad. I wonder if it can ever be restored?

Some old tractors in this kind of condition have been restored, and maybe if we can find the right person or place ours can be restored too?

This is what it looks like now after being neglected and left in the outdoors for too many years. The other picture is what it is supposed to look like and actually did look like at one time.. Back in 1944 when it was new.

Finished? Almost

2008-12-06T07:52:00.000-08:00

I have come around to the idea that this blog is pretty much a failure, and I am going to severely limit entries for a while. And I might even stop blogging.

You might notice that I have deleted most of the entries that I posted here in the past ten months. I began this blog in late January 2008. It is now mid-December 2008.

This whole idea of blogging is back into decision mode.

Family Shopping is finished

2008-12-05T17:34:00.000-08:00

I finished all my Christmas shopping for my family. Everything came from Hazelnut Hill.

See you tomorrow. Maybe.

Raiders Fan?

2008-11-02T17:27:00.000-08:00

I borrowed this picture from the Rocky Mountain News web page a short time ago.

This is great... What a clever idea. Somebody flew a small plane over Bronco Stadium today just before the Broncos and Miami Dolphins game with this banner.

I lived in Denver before I moved to Oregon. Bronco fans dislike Oakland Raiders intensely. More than any other team in the NFL. They have a long standing rivalry and some say they even hate each other?

This is such a clever idea. I laughed out loud when I saw this story. Oh, I watched part of the game today. Broncos lost..

Here is the story from the Rocky: Yeah, it is short..

It seems there's no escape from politics this year, not even on the football field.

A plane pulling a banner saying "McCain is a Raiders Fan" flew over Invesco Field on Sunday as fans gathered for the Denver Broncos-Miami Dolphins game.

The liberal group ProgressNow hired the plane after hearing about the plans of McCain supporters to hold a "hibachi tailgate" party in one of the stadium's parking lots. They planned to hand out "Joe the Plumber" stickers and other campaign materials.

The Raiders are longtime rivals of the Denver Broncos.

Invesco Field is where Barack Obama gave his speech accepting the Democratic presidential nomination during the party's national convention in August.

Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News

Chevy Volt

2008-09-16T20:37:00.000-07:00

Many people have been waiting for the Chevy Volt. General Motors Company Electric Car.

Chevy unveiled the production model of the Volt to the world today. Man. What a change from the concept car! So many bloggers are disappointed. Me too. I was actually thinking about waiting two years for Chevy to launch this car in 2010. I was seriously considering buying one. My car is 15 years old and I have been waiting for something that I might want in it's place.

Bloggers and people who have been waiting for this car are cancelling pre-orders. The production model looks like any standard model old lady's Chevy sedan off any Chevy lot in America? Just look for yourself. Isn't this a disappointment? Chevy blew it yet again? This production car does not look like the Chevy Volt that they have been bragging about all this time.

This is a clip of part of what CNN has to say today.
-----------------------------

GM debuts the Chevy Volt

General Motors gives the world an up-close look at its new electric car.

DETROIT (CNNMoney.com) -- General Motors unveiled the Chevrolet Volt electric vehicle on Tuesday, allowing outsiders their first full look at the car GM says will go on sale in 2010.

"The Volt symbolizes GM's commitment to the future," said Rick Wagoner, the company's chairman and CEO.

The Volt will be driven by electricity stored in a large T-shaped lithium-ion battery pack running the length of the car. After charging for several hours, the Volt will be able to run for up to about 40 miles without using gasoline.

GM did not announce pricing for the car, which will have the equivalent of about 150 horsepower and a top speed of 100 mph, the automaker said.

To charge the batteries, drivers will plug a cord into one of the ports just ahead of the driver's side mirror. The cord can then be attached to an ordinary home electrical outlet.

------
Then this news article goes on and on...

I don't think I will wait for the Chevy Volt now. It isn't the same car that they said it would be. It is just an old lady car now.

Longfellow and Ojibwa

2008-09-06T17:21:00.000-07:00

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Ojibwa Wigwam in the late 1800's

The Ojibwa peoples lived in the area of Lake Superior (Gitchee Gumee), and actually they still live there.

Longfellow wrote a lot more than the excerpt here, but this is the one you hear about.

I thought I would continue this line of thinking for one more day.

By the shores of Gitche Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
Stood the wigwam of Nokomis,
Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis.
Dark behind it rose the forest,
Rose the black and gloomy pine-trees,
Rose the firs with cones upon them;
Bright before it beat the water,
Beat the clear and sunny water,
Beat the shining Big-Sea-Water.
There the wrinkled old Nokomis
Nursed the little Hiawatha,
Rocked him in his linden cradle,
Bedded soft in moss and rushes.
Safely bound with reindeer sinews;
Stilled his fretful wail by saying,
"Hush! the Naked Bear will hear thee!"
Lulled him into slumber, singing,
"Ewa-yea! my little owlet!
Who is this, that lights the wigwam?
With his great eyes lights the wigwam?
Ewa-yea! my little owlet!"

Gitchee Gumee, Wow!

2008-09-05T19:26:00.000-07:00

This photo is borrowed again from The Upper Michigan site today. Seems to happen here from time to time?

This picture just has to be seen here on this blog. What a great photo!

No, it isn't Photo-shopped or manipulated somehow. This is how it really is. Who could have planted a tree at the end of this cliff? Only God.. Can you believe this? Next to a waterfall? On the shore of Gitchee Gumee?

(Lake Superior is Gitchee Gumee in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha)

Denver Protester, Feces in a Bottle

2008-08-27T14:21:00.000-07:00

I sure am glad that Rush Limbaugh's call for riots in Denver during the Democratic Convention have not come about. Rush Limbaugh has done immeasurable damage to America.

Rush is blow-hard and rabble rouser. And an irresponsible person. I wonder if he knows better somewhere in his heart? Surely he can't be this blind? But maybe his motivation is greed and the thirst for power that some people seem to have. I read about a month ago that Rush signed a contract for $400 million to stay on the radio. Whew. I wonder who listens to him? I know almost nobody in my circle of friends listens. But for $400 million, somebody must listen.

Denver is handling the convention very well so far. And thank you Democrats nationwide for a great convention. Hillary and Michelle both gave great speeches. Just great.

Here is an article from today's Denver Post about a protester that had feces in a bottle. If the protests stay in this category I think we are pretty much OK.
---------------------------------------------------------------

Police: Protester arrested for dropping bottle of feces

By Kirk Mitchell
The Denver Post

Article Last Updated: 08/27/2008 03:17:54 PM MDT

A 22-year-old Massachusetts man was arrested Monday after police saw him carrying a bottle filled with feces, according to a police report.

Zachary Patrick Grey, a University of Massachusetts student from Marion, Mass., was arrested at 1:40 p.m. Monday after a foot chase, according to a Denver County Court complaint.

He was the first known person to be charged with possessing bodily waste during the Democratic convention, though the threat of its use has been rumored by police and protesters alike for weeks leading up to the event.

"It's disgusting for anyone to throw that at anyone," said Denver police spokesman Lt. Ron Saunier. "It's just one of the tactics they use to try to incite a reaction."

There have been no verified reports yet of anyone throwing bodily waste or being hit by it.

A police officer was in the process of arresting someone in the 1600 block of Champa Street on Monday afternoon when a police lieutenant spotted Grey holding a bottle of feces, the police report says.

Grey was "getting ready to throw the bottle at officers," the report says.

The lieutenant tried to grab the suspect, who ran away, the report said. While he was running, Grey dropped the bottle, police said.

Grey was charged with interference, disturbing the peace and possession of "irritants" in public.

An irritant is something that "smells bad," said Saunier.

Grey posted a $150 bond at 4 p.m. Tuesday, records say. The phone number he left with the court was not working today.

According to CBS 3 of Springfield, Mass., Grey belongs to a group called Pioneer Valley Food Not Bombs.

The TV station quoted him as saying that he and others were peacefully demonstrating with signs against a two-party system.

He told the station he was surrounded and violently arrested by 20 bike cops who stretched his shirt.

"I did not deserve to be arrested because I'm here to organize community and take part in beautiful new world," he was quoted as saying.

Saunier said police believe they saw people throwing bottles of urine and feces from a garage during Monday night's confrontation at Civic Center. None were arrested.

---------------------------------------------------------

Somehow this event reminds me of all those many events where George Bush would only meet with selective invited guests to his public events. That insured that they weren't public, but private events passed off as public.

Bush and Cheney would probably have had a protester like this one arrested as a terrorist and attempted to have him placed in Guantanamo, Cuba prison as an enemy combatant. Held indefinitely without being charged? Hmmm.. Let's see if the Republican Convention in Minneapolis is an open event or is an armed camp..

Lake Superior Storm Clouds

2008-08-25T21:07:00.000-07:00

I borrowed these two pictures from the Upper Michigan site today. This is how thunderstorms form over Lake Superior. One does not see these particular cloud formations in Oregon. These storms form almost on the ground? Not high in the sky like out here.

I really like these cloud formations. Just after these cloud join together it gets very dark and then the skies open up. That kind of storm seldom happens in this part of the country. If you are out on the lake with a boat? This means you need to get off now!

Today was a busy day. Didn't start out that way but it just formed that way. I have been gone pretty much since noon.

I went to work on some computer problems at a friend's home. Had some home made apple pie made from my favorite kind of apple, the Gravenstien. (Gravensteins are ripening this week and next week). Then Shopping at Fred Meyer. And after I got home I had a dinner appointment with some other people at Cloud 9 Restaurant. Looks like tomorrow is going to be about the same. Busy and a bunch of mixed up commitments in various parts of town.

I am tired and still have other things to catch up with today, so I'll see you tomorrow.

Antique Toro

2008-08-09T21:11:00.000-07:00

Who ever knew that Toro ever made a tractor like this one? This is like a farm tractor.

I borrowed this from the Michigan site again today. This old tractor is located at the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge near Copper Harbor , Michigan. One of the most beautiful places in America.
-------------------
The Oregon Steam Up was held last weekend in Brooks, Oregon, south of Salem. Man. That is one great show and display. They have such an impressive collection of antique steam powered equipment! This event happens every year during the last weekend of July and again the first weekend of August. If you like old time machinery you really need to attend next year.

The Steam Up is very impressive. So much more than I expected. Much of the old machinery is running and demonstrated for you. Who knew that there were people who valued and restored so many of these great old machines.

Some of these machines have giant flywheels and only fire their huge one piston only once per minute with a tremendous bang. That one shot keeps it going for all of the next minute. Wow. Was that ever great!

Chile Volcano

2008-08-07T18:31:00.000-07:00

Two of nature's most spectacular forces produced an incredible brew in the skies of Chile as a volcanic eruption met a lightning storm. Tons of dust and ash from the eruption of the Chaitén volcano poured into the night sky just as an electric storm passed overhead. The collision created a spectacular sight as lightning flickered around the dust cloud amid the orange glow of the volcano.

The eruption was all the more spectacular because the Chaitén volcano, 800 miles (1,290km) south of Santiago, has been dormant for hundreds, if not thousands of years. The Patagonian volcano began erupting on Friday and the 12-mile-high plume has left vast tracts of land coated with a layer of ash.
----------------------------------------------
This is copy that I myself did not write. One of my friends emailed me some of these photos. I placed only three here.

If you Google "Chaiten" you will find great pictures like this of the eruption of this volcano.

Se you tomorrow.

Gasoline is 20 Cents

2008-07-21T19:44:00.000-07:00

How about this from when gasoline was 20 cents? I can remember when Gas was still 36 cents in the mid 1960's..

It actually wasn't too long ago when gasoline was around $1.50 per gallon if you remember? That was just about the time when George Bush took over our fine nation.

2008 Dodge Challenger

2008-07-18T17:18:00.000-07:00

I posted this Dodge Challenger a few days ago along with the 1938 Plymouth photo that was my father's first car.

That posting gave short attention to this deserving Dodge.

This car was on the corner at Wilson Motors here in Corvallis for one week. Just this one and no more. This is a limited production car this year and we don't usually see this kind of thing in this little town. I called Wilson Motors today and this particular car was pre-sold and is now gone.

Dodge is going to make this a production car that you and I can purchase for 2009. They plan to make three versions of Challenger for 2009 he said. Mid $20's, mid $30's and somewhere in the $60,000 range.. I will go look at one if we happen to get one here in Corvallis next year. Maybe I can buy one of the mid $20's if they get more than one in stock?

Colorful Icebergs

2008-07-12T19:13:00.000-07:00

These icebergs have layers of various colors of ice from cracks that formed over time, and then fresh water and salt water seep in and then froze.

At least that is what I was told. However this happens it sure is beautiful.

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This is the message that came along with the email that accompanied these amazing photos.

Amazing striped icebergs Icebergs in the Antarctic area sometimes have stripes, formed by layers of snow that react to different conditions. Blue stripes are often created when a crevice in the ice sheet fills up with meltwater and freezes so quickly that no bubbles form. When an iceberg falls into the sea, a layer of salty seawater can freeze to the underside. If this is rich in algae, it can form a green stripe. Brown, black and yellow lines are caused by sediment, picked up when the ice sheet grinds downhill towards the sea.

Civil War Statue is 100 years old

2008-05-26T19:42:00.000-07:00

I didn't manage to get these in the order I wanted, but this will have to do. This is at the Veteran's Memorial on King's Blvd and shows the table service set for Prisoners of War, and the Memorial Wall honoring the fallen, and some flags set for today's Memorial Day Observance.

Some flags at the Observation on King's Blvd.

Some of the crowd at Kings Blvd Service.

This Civil War Memorial Statue is 100 years old this year. 1908 to 2008. Some of the flags and Memorial Service setup at Crystal Lake Cemetery. A beautiful red rhododendron in full bloom way back on the right.

The Boy Scouts raised the flag at the Crystal Lake Cemetery this morning. They were so respectful and did such a fine job. One of the boys later placed a wreath to honor his father who is stationed in Iraq.

Stacked rifles at Crystal Lake Cemetery. In honor of a fallen comrade.

Another photo of the Civil War Soldier Statue at Crystal Lake Cemetery. This Statue is placed on the very site of two African American women who came to Oregon via the Oregon Trail in a wagon train, as slaves after the Civil War. Both obtained their freedom and eventually became home owners. They were mother and daughter. Both graves were reverently and honorably moved to a site nearby when the memorial was established in 1908. The graves of the women were decorated and honored at today's memorial service.

Mrs. Judy Juntunen gave the main address at the service and said among many other things, that there are a total of four African Americans buried in Crystal Lake Cemetery. Isn't that something? Only four in all these years?

Navy ROTC from OSU presented the 21 gun salute at Kings Boulevard Veteran's Memorial Service.

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I attended the 10AM Memorial Day Service at Crystal Lake Cemetery, and then the 2PM Memorial Day Service at the Veteran's Memorial on Kings Boulevard. That all took just about the entire day. Each service lasted at least one and half hours. Maybe even longer.

Ted Kennedy. Survivor..

2008-05-23T18:34:00.000-07:00

I have not seen much on local Corvallis blogs about Teddy Kennedy so I decided to post this political cartoon that says a lot. What a survivor he has been!