Memorial Day 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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.