Sept. 13th, 2010

Not a scam, but as close as the law allows!

Check your phone bills. If there is a billing for $9.99 for "Premium Messaging", it's probably a game or some other unwanted offer from an online company. In my case they have been charging my phone for the past three months (yeah, my fault) and I had not authorized it or in any way asked for the service. The company, in my case, is called "2waytraffic", located in NYC, and owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment. While it all may not be a scam, and they do tell you they follow the law, it is right up there with real questionable. Somehow they got my cell number, probably from the web site, then started to charge me through Verizon. If you get a text from 787-77 just delete it. Then send a text to that number and say STOP. All caps and they will stop. Forget about any refunds, all their service reps can do is read the scripts (in broken English) they were given. Good luck, I guess we all have to be smarter about whatever we do with the phones and of course online. I am no computer guru, and know how to get around, but they got me because I was not diligent.  Sony....your Pres. is going to get a letter. Your corporate reputation is better than this company!

The 13th day of the 9th month of the year of the camellia

GET READY FOR IMMEDIATE WITHDRAWAL!

I will be headed out of town for a week.  MD, DE, PA and NJ .... so you're going to have to get your news from Fox News, or something.

Leaving Wednesday and headed north to attend a mini-high school reunion in NJ , visit kids in DE and PA.  And maybe spend some times at the auction to look for antique frames.

This shot was made in some southern swamp where we got too close to nature.  Got to consider that when aiming something big and black at a gator.  Either looked like a gun or I looked like a tasty morsel. 

Yep, most likely the gun thing.  Or the camera, more likely! Certainly not a crusty old un-tasty morsel!

The 12th day of the 9nth month of the year of the Camellia

I was talking with my son last night and it seemed that my two grands, on my son's side, were going to spend the night "Camping" with their neighbor buddies.  That is they were going to spend the night in a tent in the back yard.

Now these kids are six and nine respectively!

It brought back a memory or two.

  Seems when you get older, there is no end to the stimulus that brings back those old adventures.

While in high school, my neighborhood buddies and I decided to do some deer hunting in northern New Jersey.  I had the old '58 ish pontiac station wagon at the time and we all piled into her Friday afternoon.

This was a time when urban expansion was not as noticeable as today.  There was rural and we were in it.  Farmers eeked out a living of sorts between the River and the mountains or hills to the east.  There were no golden arches to soothe our craving for grease and sugar.  And all liquid nourishment had to be "Carried In" so to speak.  This was roughing it to the extreme for guys who were basically spoiled to begin with.

We were going to hunt a private farm that belonged to a friend of my father, somewhere along the Delaware River north of the Water Gap.  In so doing we had to camp out overnight.  No tent of course and none of all the modern day camping equipment so popular and necessary today.  Some of had read the adventures of  Teddy Roosevelt, so we were prepared. 

I will also remind you of the fact that we were all accomplished archers and this would be a bow hunt.  It still amazes me that the local authorities had not arrested us all for roaming the neighborhood with our bows and arrows almost every day in the fall.  I think one of the parents might have advised the police of our basic ineffectualness.  But you know that God protects drunks and little kids.  We fell into the latter category.

This was our quarry!

Course we never saw one!

I remember that we pulled off a back road (two lane), in the dark,  and parked up against the side of a very steep hill.  A hill we intended to hunt in the morning.  There were four or five of us and our "Tent" was simply a big piece of canvas that we tied to the top of the car and then to stakes driven into the side of the hill.  A good lean too, we thought.   A small fire to heat water and cook whatever slim staples we had and we were good to go.  It was total darkness by the time we got set up and it looked pretty good to us.

Until---------the temperature dropped and it started to rain/sleet!

We didn't have a clue.  The rain ran off the tarp, onto the hill, down the hill, and across all our camp.  To add to all that we couldn't keep a fire going. 

Dinner consisted of a few bag of potato chips.

It's amazing how grumpy a group of good friends can become when under such stress.

Now we were in our mid teens and without adult supervision.

We did make it through the night, but with everyone sleeping in the car!

I have it on good authority that the Grands were asleep by 8:30 pm and no strange noises kept them awake all night.  They didn't sneak onto the porch and then into the house in the middle of the night because of  those night critters we all know are out there.  They made it through the night!

Way to go kids!

They did a great deal better than I those many years ago!

Second entry on 9/11/2010, the year of the Camellia

There are two national events of unequaled catastrophe to occur in my life time on this place.  The first and most recent of course was the utter senseless destruction of all the living people who died in the twin towers in New York.  Their souls live on you misguided fools who perpetrated that horrendous time.  May all your radicals die in hell without the reward of Allah or whoever it is you pretend to follow! 

Bless the memory of this place and how dare you plan to desecrate it?

I was having coffee in my great room on the Eastern Shore of Md when my neighbor called and told me to turn on the television.  I did so and we watched together the second plane hit.  Needless to say my plans for that day were changed and I was glued to the constant reporting.  I had worked for 20 years just two blocks east of those towers.  People I knew died---------------a sad day in our history.

Bless all those folks who died.  And those who tried.  Those who tried to save people and gave the ultimate.  Those who tried and succeeded in saving so many.  Those who survived.  And finally blessings to the loved ones who remain stained with that horror forever!

I was talking with my Senior Advisor at Penn State when the news that Kennedy had been shot was passed along to the academicians in that building.  As I recall it was a Friday and we all spent the weekend and following week glued to the television.  Another idiot now spending his time in hell for some radical idea or misguided theory.

And now with those two actual events behind us, all we have to do is to make sure it can't happen again.

That's all!

I am afraid that we are all destined to relive history if we forget.

Insanity is surely repeating the same things but expecting different results!

I for one, will never forget!

The eleventh day of the ninth month of the year of the Camellia

9/11

I REMEMBER!

The tenth day of the ninth month of the year of the Camellia

I am back after a brief respite and have been scanning some old negatives into the computer, just to see what I have missed.  Evidently a good bit.

The old story about how do you eat an elephant?  Answer of course is one bite at a time. 

Well, the same principle applies to how do you photograph a Hippo?

One piece at a time!

Course, you might want to take her out to dinner first!

She just looks so happy!

The first day of the ninth month of the year of the Camellia

September and the kids are back at school or will soon be.  This next weekend will be the last of the big weekends of the summer, and  we kids always anticipated a big time.  It was at least a three day affair that our fathers had off from work and that meant we went somewhere.  In my case, it was three or four days on Maryland's eastern shore at our place there. 

And btw, I did attend one of these one room school houses for kindergarten through second grade.

We had a boat of course and most of the weekend would be spent on the water, either swimming, crabbing, or fishing.  The bleak reality that school began again after the weekend was over,  didn't set in till along about Sunday afternoon.  But afterall we had our friends to look forward to seeing despite the regimen of school.

We actually had to put shoes on for the first time since June and say goodbye to our summer buds.  Then the long car ride back up to New Jersey was pretty quiet.  Didn't, as I remember those trips, fight with my sister too much.  It was sorta like the lambs being taken to slaughter, we were quiet and introspective.  Our lives would change irrevocably for the next 8 or 9 months. Then we'd take the shoes off and start it all over again in June.