Saturday, November 11, 2006
June Bug . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No, It's November Bug
(picture link)
(Original blog link)
(my current blog entry)
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.This is a Bogong Moth. What in the world is that? Jeanette found this cute little creature in her laundry room.
Photo courtessy of Jeanette of Jen & Cazz's Chronicles (link).
Bogong+Moth Nature Life June+Bug Bugs Humor Australia Friends HNT
For more information on this Australian moth, go to the Australian Museum Online (link) or (link). More links still are to be found through Google.
Friday, November 10, 2006
More work on my tag, the fifth item
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Mema is feeling a lot better now. The doctors are saying she is about as good as she will get. So she will have to take more medication from now on. As well she will be needing more care.
For sure she won't be going home until Monday, we will see then.
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Ok, so now a little more work on my tag again.
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Maybe Travel Plaza over at Happytraveller will be happy. I'm still not real pleased with this. My last tag post almost made me lose my religion then (link).
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This is a little continuation of Tuesday, November 7th blog (link)..
If I ever finish it it will be eight things about me. Today will the the fifth one.
Five.
I have lived in several places. When I was single there were a lot of rented rooms for me.
1320 "C" Street, Lincoln, Nebraska. I lived with my Mom's Aunt and her daughter, Mom's cousin. I decided to go to the University of Nebraska too late to get a dorm room. I had a lovely little room looking out over my cousin's garden and alley.
17xx "P" Street. A friend lived her, I moved there in my second year of college. It was close to campus. Each room had two bunk beds and four dressers. Not very nice for us students.
South of town, by the hospital. I don't know the address, that house has been torn down by now. I couldn't take the cramped little room on 17th Street any more.
28xx "P" Street. I found this nice room with a very friendly couple, it was walking distance to Elgin. I did have my Dad's but I walked the mile to work a lot.
xyz South 14th Street. This was my first apartment. Down in the basement, across from the Nebraska State Capital building, I had a lot of rooms. It was furnished too.
I had dropped out of college and was working at Elgin National Watch factory in Lincoln. This was an enjoyable life, single with a care of my own now, but not too rewarding at work.
At Elgin, I started out at $1.10 an hour running a degreaser machine. That job damaged my sense of smell because of the strong fumes emitted by the vat of chemicals used to dissolve the grease.
In a bit I was promoted to set-up man. There weren't any set-up women. My job was to keep an assembly line running smoothly. I had to keep sixteen women happy with their work. I repaired their equipment and kept their trim knives sharp. The trim knives were used to trim burrs off the brass parts where they had been drilled.
I was the youngest set-up man at Elgin. I think having some college helped me get that job. I didn't ask for it, my foreman chose me. It was all in the same department as was the degreaser operator job.
Sometime in my second year at Elgin we had a reduction in force and I got laid off from my set-up job. To keep from being laid off, I bumped a lady on the watch line. My former line had been making parts for proximity fuses for the Navy.
I never could make my quota on that line. The ladies would do my job for me while I was at lunch, that helped some.
I swear there are ladies' jobs, and this was one. I had to drill two holes in brass watch plates. I have no idea what went in those holes, but I was thinking alone the lines of pinions for little gears.
Just in time to save me as an opening for me to have, running automatic screw machines. Automatic screw machines could make screws out of a piece of metal rod. They could also make knobs with knurls on them, like watch winder stems.
I was at that job for almost a year. I spent a lot of money on my 1952 Ford. It got new fancy upholstery and I hopped it up with a built up Mercury engine.
We didn't have drag strips in those days, but did a lot of street racing. The best place was over on the uncompleted Interstate highway.
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My '52 Ford would out run the 1955 Chevy's, even the ones with Power Packs. It would stay even with the 1956s also. No other stock car could beat it.
My Ford was very loud and I kept getting troubled by the cops police over that. Eventually I traded it for a new 1956 Ford Sunliner Convertible. I saw it on the street one day, he was driving with his wife.
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At my apartment, rent was free. I did have some chores to do for the landlady in exchange in place of my rent. In the fall I was to rake the leaves, in the winter to keep the walks clear and tend the coal furnace. In the spring and summer I was to mow the lawn.
I knew the place was trouble, the landlady had signs all over, like shutting the lights off, setting the furnace differently when I left, and so on. There was at least one sign in every room, most had a lot.
She got after me about raking the leaves. I told her it would be "Monday" because I was working the night shift. That didn't suit her, she wanted those leaves gone for the weekend.
So I said I was just going to leave. The landlady wanted two weeks notice, I told her that to me it was a job and I quite [i.e. take this job and shove it].
About 11xx "D" Street was my next residence was . Here I had a nice room upstairs in a widow lady's home. She rented out her two upstairs rooms.
I don't remember that place very good. Two instances come to mind. The first was the day I got clocked for speeding on 13th Street. I ducked off to a side street before I had to pass the ticketing officer.
I drove around for an hour, then came home. My home was about five blocks from where I got clocked. Wouldn't you know it, I met them on my own street in front of the house.
The officers said they were just giving up finding me and were going back for other speeders. They weren't happy about my running off and added an extra charge to the ticket. Eventually this extra one was dismissed.
My second event was sleeping for 26 or more hours without waking up. A friend and I hitch hiked to Omaha to help sandbag the Missouri River. It was a terrible flood.
I had worked just about steady for 48 hours. We did get a little nap in the YMCA. Most of the work was free, we did work sixteen hours for a contractor, Peter Kiewit. For that sixteen hours we got a nice check.
Eventually I moved for a final time in Lincoln. It was way out past 48th and Vine streets. I was staying with a man and his wife, the man also worked at Elgin.
I had many memories while I lived there. I had my new Ford convertible, I bought a 1941 Chevy play car, was helping a couple of other friends with the 1934 modified stock car racer, started a whole lot more dating, and eventually met my first wife.
That is it for the places I have lived while I was single. The next writing will tell about the places I lived when I was married--maybe the ones when I was single again too.
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Life Humor Politics Quiz Truck Race Love Photos 1952+Ford
Here can be a vote. This gets long and even boring in some places. So vote:
Continue or
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Stop writing these.
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Labels: Cars, Jim's Life, Meme, Tagging
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Who is this masked man?
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It's Mema, my mother-in-law. She's feeling a whole lot better now, maybe she'll come home today. That is Ipratropium Bromide from the respatory therapist she is inhaling.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Mema is in the hospital tonight
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Picture from her 89th birthday celebration last February (link).
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Please pray for Mema, Mrs. Jim's Mom. She is in the Conroe (Texas) Regional hospital tonight. She called us saying she was having a terrible time breathing. We called 911 and the ambulance came for her right away.
She was in the hospital E.R. about 6:10. Her preliminary diagnosis is congestive heart failure. She will see her general practitioner and a cardiologist tomorrow. We won't know for a while how long she is to stay.
You can pray for Mrs. Jim too. We sure weren't planning for this.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
only better, and only if you want to do it!
No blog? Then do it on comments!...... :) ...... :)
My political call last night -- Eight things about me -- my answer to being tagged again
.Yesterday I was called seventeen times by political candidates or their helpers. All but one was using a machine or computer controlled recording..
I asked the ONE real person what she knew about the Do Not Call List law? I didn't let her answer, I lit into her.
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I told her that it was politicians like her who made that Do Not Call List law and then those politicians exempted themselves from that law. I told her that those politicians should be ashamed of themselves, I didn't appreciate being treated like that one bit.
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And then I hung up.*****
Ok, so now I've been tagged again..By Travel Plaza this time over at Happytraveller. And I'm not real pleased with it again. Most of you read my last post, I almost lot my religion then (link). .
It was Britmum of All Things English who did it then, I swore I wouldn't do any more tags. If I finish this one, it will be my last!
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Well, here goes because it really isn't very hard, who knows if it will be interesting? And a lot of you know most everything about me already, that's what it is supposed to be, eight things about me.
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I was born in a four room house in Burt County, Nebraska, out in the country. About six miles from where Cliff's (Cliff of Cliff Morrow's Blog) Mom and Dad lived then. Our mothers were friends long before they got married. I think Cliff is sixteen or more years younger than I am.
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Two.
I never have had an electric train. Nor a bicycle of my own for that matter. I had to share the bike with my sister, Lois. It was a girl's bike at that, I was probably six when Dad got it by mail order from Sears. He lowered the seat so I could ride it to school. She still has that bike and rides it some now.
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Three.
I'm not superstitious. But just in case it works, I don't walk under ladders, I always say someone is thinking of me when my nose itches, I act horrified when I break a mirror, I always give due respect to Friday 13's, and I say "Bless you" when you sneeze.
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Again, I'm not superstitious but, if I see a black cat that will be crossing my path I shoot it. No, seriously, I turn around and go some other way that doesn't cross that cat's path. That way it didn't walk in front of me, just in case there is something to that also.
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Are you superstitious? Take The Superstitious Test [quiz], here.
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Four.
I like cars. I didn't have a car while I was at the University of Nebraska. I bummed rides home and back to school, mostly with Tom T. of Tekamah or Dick H. of Blair. In high school I drove my dad's 1950 Ford pickup to school.
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In college I broke my foot during my last semester, third semester freshman, at Lincoln. It was initiation night at Pershing Rifles and we pledges had to march from six p.m. until midnight. After midnight the actives couldn't do a thing to us.
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At midnight it was tradition for the pledges to de-pants the actives. The fellow my friend and I drew wanted to keep his pants on so he kicked. It knocked me backwards some. (Where is this going?)
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About 1:30 or so I walked the mile to my rented room out on 13th Street. The next morning I couldn't walk on that foot. I took the bus that morning to the infirmary where they discovered I had broken my foot, a metatarsal, probably the first metatarsal, (Widipedia link) in the right foot.
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My dad felt sorry for me as I couldn't walk that mile any more. The first week or so I was on crutches, then on a walking cast for six more. Dad offered the loan of his pickup. I sure did take him up on that, fast! Dad never did know the real way I broke that foot.
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That January I dropped out of college. Of course I didn't tell my parents and for sure didn't give the pickup back. In about four months I was able to get a job at the Elgin Watch Factory in Lincoln. I still didn't give the pickup back but finally I did tell that I had dropped out of school and had the job.
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Working was fun for me, I was tired of going to classes. Notice I didn't say tired of studying because I didn't ever study. I didn't in high school and I wasn't about to in college. Better to tell the truth, I didn't know how to study.
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That pickup even went to the rodeo in Ames, Iowa, to the beach at Linoma Beach quite often, and on some (???descriptive?term????) dating. In fact I had a steady girl for the first time in my life, she worked at Elgin too.
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In another month or so, Dad had it figured out. He told me that maybe I should be getting a car of my own, did I want to do that? You see in those days, at least in Nebraska, kids couldn't buy cars until they were twenty-one unless a parent signed.
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My first car was a 1950 Studebaker Starlight Coupe that had belonged to Elmer Cells, my high school principal and chemistry teacher. He was Dad's good friend as well as Mr. Morrow's (Cliff's Dad--I think Cliff's family is related to the Cells). He had traded his Studebaker in on a new car and WE, Dad and I, got this one from the Ford dealer in Tekamah.
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Studebakers aren't very tough cars, that one didn't take the abuse I wanted to give it, so it gave up. Wouldn't you know it, just about the time I was trading it in for my second car? It depreciated a whole $200 in one week because it wasn't running very good when I brought it back a week later to get my used 1952 Ford.
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Like I said, I like cars. So I'll have to blog about each of my cars, one at a time. There just isn't time or space in this blog entry to do them justice. I have fond memories of just about every one of them, either things that happened while in the cars or where they took me or just plain the nice things about the cars.
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While I was a college dropout working at Elgin, I became involved with a 1934 Ford three window coupe. It had been converted to a modified stock car. Working on that car was fun and I learned how to keep them running. I even built two engines for my own 1952 Ford.
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The primary driver--I got to drive on occasion--was Bill. He spent more time on that car than I did. I was there the day his wife came out of the house (suitcase in hand?--I don't remember) and told him "You love that car more than you love me" and that she was leaving.
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She left, right out of his life at that moment. I never saw her again. I'll tell about his courtship with his new wife some other time too.
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So then, I'll keep this tag post just about liking cars, not the individual cars themselves. Later for that, but I will list them for you now.
.Read more ยป
Labels: Cars, Jim's Life, Meme, Tagging
Monday, November 06, 2006
Russia With Love -- Moscow I -- Day One
I will apologize for some of the poorer quality, some were taken from the window of a moving bus, others used telephoto mode, and various other excuses.
For more detail, you can click on any picture for a full screen view. Use your back button to return to the blog.
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This was our first bus stop for a photo shoot. Russia has churches all over the place, Moscow is no exception. This one is the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Isn't it elegant?
It was built to commemorate the Russian victory over Napoleon in 1812. .Construction was started in 1839 and was completed in the 1880s.
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This monument in the middle of the Volga River, a gigantic (300ft tall) new monument to Peter the Great is truly awesome.
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.Single and approaching age twenty-six? Better get married off fast or you'll get sent here! That was in the old days and included even the royalty and ladies from high-ranking families. That's why it's so big!
Here I'm standing at the edge of the lake, across from a huge old convent, the Novodevichy Convent (write-up). It was founded in 1524 to commemorate the 1514 victory for Moscow [Smolensk those days] from the Polish and Lithuanians. It has been a World Heritage UNESCO site since 2004.
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Our next bus stop was across from this Olympic Stadium, used for the 1994 Olympics. Most Americans didn't get to see those games because we boycotted it and did not allow it to be televised. Mrs. Jim, Karen, and I did get to see it because we were in Europe and they all were going for the Olympics gung ho.
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Across from the Sports Complex is the main building of Moscow University. From the 1930s through the 1950s high rise buildings were the favored architecture. They were of high artistic quality and is now called Neo-classical style. A lot of these type buildings are still in use today.
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The tourist season was just closing. These die-hard vendors were having a last stand. The background here is along the river, just to the left of the Sports Complex.
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Most major European cities have some sort of Arch de Triumph (Paris) or the like. Also notable is Berlin's (photo link) which was used as 'Check Point Charley' during the cold war.
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Our next item was a ride in the famed Moscow Metro (mostly subway). In Houston ex-Congressman Tom Delay prevented us from ever having a nice public transportation system in the Houston metro area. We have jillions of busses that pollute and break down instead.
The Moscow Metro's first line was started in 1932, construction has been ongoing ever since. Today the Moscow Metro covers over 200 kilometers of track and serves 9 million people each day (reference).
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Getting to the Metro from the picture above one must get on this escalator. It is the longest escalator in the world. It's a wonder Texas didn't figure out how to have a bigger one.
At the bottom of every escalator there was a guard in a little house watching out for problems. [A link to some nice Metro pictures]
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You wouldn't believe how clean these terminals are! Drop your gum and you'll pick it up of course [KGB might be watching?] and maybe be thinking the five second rule.***
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I couldn't find the name of this mural and didn't even get very close. Mostly I didn't want our train to come and be left behind down there.
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I did get back in time for this fine ride. The cars were almost as spotless as the station. No graffiti anyplace either!
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This station had chandeliers. The motiff and lights were different at each stop we made.
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More modern than most of the art we found in the Metro, these guys and other sports figures were repeated all over this station.
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.We are back above ground now. Our next visit that first morning would be to Red Square and the G.U.M. department store.
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*** The five-second rule states that if dropped food is on the floor less than five seconds it is safe to eat (or dropped gum, to put back in your mouth and resume chewing). This rule can also involve dogs, if dropped food can be picked up before the dog gets it, it will be safe to eat.
Photos Russia travel+and+places Travel Life Art travel+and+places Culture Monuments Tour Cruises Viking
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Note: We began our visit on October 15, 2006, but I did not have my camera set for Moscow time the first day. Some pictures will say October 14 in error.
Labels: Jim Does, Russia, Travel
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Adi Can . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Have a joyful harvest
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Copyright ยฉ 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
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o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
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Note: This is a golden rod plant, the Nebraska (Go Big Red!) State flower. I'll write a blog on this soon.
