StraightAhead

I took this great picture of a banana spider and it’s mate.  It’s going to be in wikipedia sometime.  My son is helping me with that.

Come into my Parlor

We have the biggest land based fireworks display in the country, sponsored by Chevy.  I’ll either have to watch it on TV or raise the aerial ladder here at the station and watch it from 20 miles away.  Of course we have  a pretty good one here in La Porte that’s closer.  I can see about 7 or 8 displays at the same time if I go up in the ladder, but if I get a call while I’m up in there it could take a while to get down and get out of the station.  Hmm, what to do?

This is pretty entertaining and hurts, too!

The last few days, I’ve had the greatest idea.  I’ve always wanted a BMW and I’ve been considering European Delivery.  I haven’t gotten to far into the idea yet but I like the 128i or 135i autos, the manual coupes, that is.  I’ve been looking at this site which has people’s posts on their experience of picking up the car in Munich and touring Germany for a while and then having the car shipped to the USA.  If I could come out ahead enough to pay for most of the trip , that would be great.  I read one post that said that was their experience.  I have a lot more investigation to do, obviously.  I enjoyed Germany immensely when we were over there a couple years ago, and there is much more I would like to see.  We’ll see how it pans out or if it does.  Of course I would have to let go of my Infiniti.  I could do that.

This is an interesting article on one of the greatest musicians that has lived.  He and his brother Randy , the trumpet player, had some great bands together.  “The Brecker Brothers” had some great albums. Michael had the same disease that my wife has now, MDS. Trouble is, he was Jewish and never found a bone marrow donor. I was fortunate enough to hear his brother live at a clinic at U of H here in Houston last year.  I got him to autograph a couple of my old Brecker Bro. albums.  He’s one of my favorite trumpet players, Randy , that is.

I haven’t posted anything in a while so I thought I would just write down a few things or a diary of my day and what has been happening in my life lately.  My wife has a donor for her bone marrow transplant who is not going to back out it seems, as some have done in the past.  She will be going into the hospital July 19th to start the process and we are both very thankful that it will begin, but also pretty apprehensive about it all.  We really look forward to it working and us both coming out on the other side of this tunnel.  After this is all over , I will be retiring from the fire department.  It’s about time, I guess.  I will have 32 years in the pension at the end of this year and will actually make more money retired than I do working, so I don’t want to lose money, who does?  It will be good to be free of working for somebody else.  I may actually look into some other things to make money after I retire.  I know that I will have more time to play my trumpet and start up at least one new band to do the kind of music that I want.  I may deliver fire trucks to towns or cities that buy a new one.  I’m going to have to get my cdl  for that,  if I actually decide to look into that.  I think I will do little or nothing the first year I’m retired other than working out and playing my trumpet.  I will continue to stay in shape for sure.

I’m at the fire station today and it has been a pretty quite shift so far.  I just had one call yesterday to a vacant building that had the fire alarm going off for no good reason.  It was a fine opportunity to have some fun making forcible entry, but I decided against it.  I couldn’t see any smoke or fire from the outside so all was cool.

I’ve started reading the blog of a good friend of mine.  He is having a lot of physical problems right now and I am wishing for his quick recovery.  He is a very funny writer.  I have been on some trips with him, one being a long driving trip so I have heard a lot of his humor or dare I say shtick.  I know he loves to make people laugh and that it does him a lot of good.  He sure makes me laugh.  Get well, Dave!!!  I’ve got to clean this place up and wipe the truck off.  I get off in the morning , which is a very good thing.  Adios, over and out.

Shame on these people that put this whole thing on.  I found this article to be kindof spell binding.  I know just what this writer is talking about and describing.  I admit I’ve never been to anything that goes this far with the tongue speaking and all that, but I know what he is talking about, I’ve been partially there.  No wonder that so many people in the world think all Christians are crazy idiots because they see this sort of thing going on or read about it as I did.  Shame on the Hagee bunch for giving all God believing , Jesus Christ believing people such a bad image, or is this how the majority of denominations are?  Wow, the demon of philosophy, really.  I had to laugh along with this rolling stone writer.  There are lessons to be learned by us in the Church about what not to do and how not to act.  Maybe this article can be a starting point, if it’s not too late.

All this hub bub about what Geraldine Ferraro said about Obama’s presidential race figures, I guess. Of course she was spot on. Do we really think he would have won Mississippi by so much if he weren’t black, or half black. Of course he wouldn’t have. To say it matters in an election if a person is a man a woman or black or hindu or muslim or whatever makes a lot of sense to me and certainly sways the outcome. To say it is racist is ridiculous and of course , Hillary had to say that she and her campaign don’t believe that what Geraldine said is true. Man, that’s a big one. I can just hear what her and Bill say about this when they are home alone. haha!

I guess everybody has stories that stick out in their lives , that they never forget. I have some that I have told over and over to whom ever will listen. Some are pretty unbelievable, some are not, I suppose. Some people don’t seem to believe this story about the Black Racer. That is a kind of snake, for those of you who don’t know. It could also be a marathon runner from Kenya, but in this case I am talking about the snake. When I was a young tyke of about seven, I was living in Humboldt, a small town in west Tennessee. The year would have been 1953 or there abouts. Humboldt still had many dirt/gravel roads within the town. I was riding my bicycle down one of these about two blocks from my house, when all of a sudden a long black snake came out of the bar ditch to my left and fell in behind me and my bike as pretty as you please. Well, needless to say, I pretty much freaked and added substantial speed to my lazy pace. I looked back to make sure I had pulled away from her. No , that didn’t happen. The snake was staying right in position directly behind my rear tire. I really freaked then and started pumping for all I was worth. The racer stayed right with me. I covered a good block by this method, the snake staying right in my vapor trail, until I made the decision to ditch the bike and run into a near by house on the corner. I ran up to the front porch of the home and ran right into the living room in the front of the house since the door was unlocked, luckily. There was a man and woman in the room watching television, or just talking. That part is a little hazy. I’m pretty sure they were watching television , though, even though not that many people had them that early. They looked up at me with that deer in the headlights look. I had to do some quick explaining about why I was barging into their living room unannounced. They bought it as I recall. They had a pretty good laugh whether or not they believed the story. They knew that I thought it was real and had really happened by the out of breath excitement in my voice and the shakiness of my knees. I’ll never forget that snake homing in on me and how fast that son of a gun could move. That’s why they call them racers. I’ve since read about snakes a lot. My brother and I used to catch all sorts of snakes. I think I must have gone through its territory and at times they can be pretty aggressive and protective. That just must have been one of those times. I never saw those people again and never knew their names.