Monday June 30, 2003
4:15a
     One day short of ten days past the beginning of Summer 2003. Should have started this next Journal book and part back then but I didn't.
     Yesterday morning I went over to my house and peiced together a thingy for the birds to roost on and put it down by the mailbox at Mom's house. It doesn't look all the good and seems odd to have an old limb stuck up next to it. But it's all to see if the birds will sit on it instead of the mailbox.
     Also yesterday morning and all afternoon I spent making digital pictures of the old slides. I got 81 more done and even got most of them uploaded to the website. I've run out of space already with 136 pictures there so I will have to start cycling out the first groups to make room for the newer ones.
     The pictures look ok and you can easily see what they are. It's just that they come out with lighter colors as compared to when you look at the slide itself. I've probably got too much back lighting now. I got the old slide screen out yesterday too and used it for a few of them. It's silver colored. But that didn't make much difference and the camera started to focus on the slide itself instead of the image on the slide.
     I've also noticed more the curving around the edges due to the wide angle curve in the lens. It makes the outer edges blurred some. But anyway it's something to do.
     Took Mom to the lung doctor on Friday. Actuall Leander came up and she drove us over there. She had been up the day before or maybe it was Wednesday and some how the car's air conditioning was mentioned. It doesn't work well in Mom's car. So she decided to come up that day to use her car. So that was different for a change. I get to ride over there and finally there's someone else with us instead of just me to wonder and worry about everything. She stayed down in the lobby area. I went down once and outside to smoke. Then we came back to Mom's house and she stayed to eat supper too. I went up to Arby and got sub sandwiches.
     Mom's doctor visit was much the same as all the others. The usual pre screening with medicines and breathing test and weighting. She saw the real doctor this time, first time in about a year. Mom mentioned her aches and pains so he wrote a prescription for pain medicine. He did mention coming back one more time and then she won't have to go back over there. I guess he's finally decided the lung condition isn't getting any worse. Either that of the medicare has run out for this particular aliment and he won't get any more money out of them.
     Work is a hassle now. We finished one hurry up and get it done project. Now there's another one and this one is for the Chinese engineers at the current owners headquaters. Never enough time to take time to do things slow and sure. I've been going in to work early recently too, kind of like I use to a while back.
     Oh well, time to move on with the rest of the morning stuff.
     Oh yeah, jwhughes at mindspring died on Friday. The spam finally consumed him and he just gave up.

     Obiturary Notice.
     The internet entity known as jwhughes and residing at mindspring.com has died after suffering a long illness commonly known as spam. During the last months of this desease the onslought overwhelmed jwhughes at attack rates of up to 60 per day. But he fought back galantly, slaughtering the attackers by the scores while they waited to be downloaded for their final assault. It is said he totaled 10,000 spam scalps during his life time. His passing was peaceful and with a bit of a grin knowing the spam agents of his attackers will be bounced back to their originators.
     He was born October 1997 and survived as the same internet resident for 5 and 1/2 years. This is considered a respectable long life in the cyber community where the average life expectance is measured in nanaseconds. He contributed a personal website to cyber-space-time world and it contains his personal journal, also known as blogs in cyber language, recording his own creator's life.
     His electro-magnitic bytes and bits remains were ceremoniously deleted from some storage device in the north-west quadisphere.

Tuesday July 1, 2003
4:15a
     Blogs, Bloggers, and Blogosphere ... they are online personal journals, derived from personal biography log I think. It was during the abc discussion forms that one of the posters there provided a link to Salam Pax's blog. His has been in the news, mostly during the pre and early part of the war in Iraq. I've been following his writings, photos and journal entries since then. Now he's added a message board to his webspace. It's most interesting to read ... and such a contrast to what is typically presented in the news media and US government officialdom.
     Of course one good link leads on to other good links. In Salam Pax's "dear_raed.blogspot.com link he changes the month number to the latest writings. Like 2003_06_01 will become 2003_07_01 soon. So here are the links to the real people world:

SalamPax
SalamPaxMB
Blogger #2
Blogger #3


     Since I've changed my email address the internet connecting routine is back to like it was before the onslought of spam. "There are no new messages for ..." is the old familar response to checking for email each morning.
     Well it's 5:30 now and I think I'll go ahead and finish up the get ready for the day routines. I should go lay back down after that but I won't. I'll go on to work since there's stuff to do for the Chinese engineers there. It's like Earl had mentioned once. Working on a project with the current owners in the Far East means the projects get worked on 24 hours a day. They do their thing while we are off and we do our thing while they're off.

Friday July 11, 2003
3:55a
     I just don't write in the mornings. I will read the message boards, blogs and the news sites (not nearly as much as I use to read the news, it's mostly all bad news so why bother, I've read bad news all my life).
     Last weekend I spent Saturday, or was it Friday?, cutting down the weeds over at my house. Did some trimming of limbs on one of the pine trees at the northwest corner of the house too. So I swung the weed trimmer out and back from early morning to early afternoon. So the grass cutting at my house is done for the Summer season. I think I cut them only once last year too.
     Drank a 1/2 gallon of orange juice too for the fluid replacement that day. Between the sweating the citric acid I got some of the nictine out of my system. If I could just quit putting it back in I would doing better. But anyway I manage to smoke less this week.
     Still working on the Chinese project, maybe I'll finish it today. But more likely I'll get to a good stopping place and then let it go. They have provided much feedback about the stuff I've sent over there. So I don't know for sure if I'm doing them any good or not. (That sounds familiar doesn't it ... never knowing if I've done good or bad.)
     Still working on making computer images of Dad's old slides. Got 246 done so far. I will put them up on the website for the other family and also download them to the computer at work. It has a CD burning and I will get them on CD there for sending out to the brothers.
     The new computer at work has always had this problem of being slow starting some programs. The man that works on them came up yesterday. That was after one of the programs closed itself a couple of times and I wrote email to the boss and the computer fixit guy. But anyway, he spend most all day doing this and that, trying that and this. He had to remove and reload some of them service packs things as they're called. There was one that had a secondary fixit patch, he left it off this time and that fixed one of the problems. So MegaBucks Gates sends out service packs and then sends out more fixit patches that really unfix what the service patches just fixed.
     The other problem about being slow never really did get fixed. He gave up toward the end of the day. While he was working we would talk about my Hughes proximity effect and how it messes things up when I'm near something. He has the other kind, when he near a computer that someone has problems with he says show me but then the user can't get it to mess up again while he's standing there.
     But anyway, he gave me a new computer idenity so now the computer thinks I'm really someone else and everything is working like it's suppose to. Kind-a like the government witness protection thing, except I'm hiding out from the computer I'm using at work.

Monday July 14, 2003
5:05a
     968 ... that's how many days and nights it has been since I lived in my house. It will be 1,000 come August 15th.
     Saturday I cut grass early, got started about 8:30 and I used the push mower to do it. The riding mower has something about to break inside, it's been like that for weeks now. There just never seems to be a good time to get someone to come and get it and fix it. So I thought I would use the push mower and get some extra exercise, actually get some real exericse since I don't get any otherwise. The grass was wet with the morning dew and that kept clogging up the opening. It was a real hassle and frustrating and not very pleasant. I had thought it would be easy, relaxing walking out and back. But you know how my plans and expectations go ... if I could only get out of that bad habit of expecting things to work out easy for me and just go ahead and expect the worst.
     Of course the yard had to be raked, I did that Sunday morning. The back of the white truck is full of grass cuttings along with some shrub trimmers from the this year's new growth. Now that has to be hauled off to my place and dumped beside the drive way.
     Mom tried calling Daniel and Frances last night. It's been a long time since she has heard or talked with them. They don't send much email for me to print out for her to read. I sent them an email this morning to let them know we will try calling tonight.
     Robert sent email yesterday and I got it this morning. Eli and Cassandra had their baby, Avery, on Wednesday.
     Time's up gotta go.

Tuesday July 15
12:10
     Thunder and lighting wake me up ... lay there a few minutes thinking about getting up to unplug things ... get up and unplug tv and fans ... stand in the den thinking about the new air conditioner ... if I turn it off it will get too warm ... if I leave it on the power will go off and back on and break it ... what to do ... turn it off and unplug it ... go lay back down ... lay there 20 minutes ... get back up, get dressed and go into the kitchen ... go smoke cigs on the porch ... there's a cat on the hood of the truck ... turn the computer on ... call up the internet ... check email ... Daniel and Robert have been talking about slide scanners ... look at the weather website, the only storm within 500 miles is here in Pickens County ... read some of abc's iraq board ... go use the toilet in the laundry room ... go smoke another cig ... sit here and make this entry ... now I'm going to up load it and go back to lay down and wait for the time to pass till I have to get up again.

Thursday July 17, 2003
4:20a
     971 days and nights.
     The ABC discussion board about the war in Iraq has fewer than 25 people posting now. Seems like they were hundreds back during the ... maximum killing period. The board has been effectively hidden from the general public for weeks now too, maybe a couple of months. There's no link to the community boards from ABC main web page now. The reality of the States (Bush's) failure and deceptions are setting in and now is the time for those proponents of the war to hide themselves from their own failures.
 :    Rumsfield made a comment about the soldiers yesterday, something about them being "professionals" and not complaining about the situation. That was really sick of him. First of all most of the men and women over there are not professional soldiers, they're reservists. They're people who's real regular job is just that, a regular civil job.
 :    But now they've been put into a situation that ... must seem like hell on earth for them.
 :    But they are professional enough to know when they've been lied too and mislead.
 :    What Rumsfield was really saying, "Shut up your bitching, stay over there to get shot at and killed so Cheney's company and the rest of us rich and powerful individuals can get richer."
 :    It's hot here now too, that old fashion southern summer humid hot. That little air conditioner I got the other week runs most all the time during the afternoon and evenings. Mom still thinks keeping the living room open with the floor fans going is cooler. But all that does is move the hot air from the afternoon and evening sunny side into the den. When I got it I thought the living room could be closed off. But of course, I was wrong, like most everything else. It may last through next summer but I'm not really expecting that.
 :    ...
 :    I've grown ... am growing ... more and more weary life these last few months. It's becoming more and more like watching it drip away a day at a time. ... Still waiting for better times to get out and get on with my own life. ... Been doing that for 35 years now.

Monday July 21, 2003
4:35a
     975 ....
     Yesterday morning was spent trimming the shrubery around Mom's house. I didn't do much of that last year and even less this year. There were a couple of vines growing up the wall and along the overhang next to the big window on the front. There was another one that had grow up the screen on the porch too.
     The shrub at the corner of the porch ended up being cut down to stumps. I started trimming it back but there was just no good way to leave it. So it's gone.
     Now there's a big pile of trimmings next to the hickory bush next to the metal building. And after I got it all piled up there I felt like it could just stay till it all rotted away. I really still don't feel like doing any more about moving it over to my house. I think that's why I didn't do any trimming last year.
     I didn't do anything with the holly bushes (trees now) at the front corners of the house. The one next to the front bedroom has lots of green berries on it ... the limbs are drooping with the weight. The one at the carport corner has been dying this year, started last year I think, and it needs to be cut down to a stump too.
     Saturday I did the rest of Dad's old slides, there's 337 of them now on the computer. I had thought there were be a lot more after sorting through the remaining boxes. But there were only 91 is that batch. I guess I could go through them all again and pick out some more.
     I should have checked on Friday the computer at work to see how many have already been downloaded there. But I didn't. I kind-of think I'm caught up there and could have deleted the ones at the website and uploaded a new batch. But anyway I can do that today.
     The Chinese project I was working on the last two weeks has been continued ... at some future date. I haven't heard much from the engineers there but I know why. I had trouble getting them on my email-to-list and I really didn't know who on their cc-list to include. So I just ended up sending all my email to the go-between down at Anderson. I think they, the Chinese engineers, decided the Jerry at Pickens didn't really want to talk directly to them. Oh well ... such is my luck, karma, dark-cloud-hanging-over-head thingy.
     The war in Iraq is still going on. It's 3, 4, 5 a week getting killed but that's just only the American men too. Seems like that was the rate in Vietnam during the early 1960s, maybe 1962-63. It's slowly coming to light that all the hype about Hussein, nuclear and bio-chem weapons was just that ... hype to hype up the fever for a war. But for the anti-war political camp that's old news, they knew all along.
     I really doubt if the general American public ... oh nevermind, they have no mind except what their politicans want them to have.

Thursday July 24
3:40a
     The internet connection must be doing maintenance this time of the morning. It's slow with the page loadings. But of course I think it's something wrong with just my connection, like that paranoid stuff.
     The lawn mower repair people brought the riding mower back yesterday. I think it was Saturday when they picked it up. And it was only the Tuesday before that when I first went up town to see them about fixing it.
     The engine was loose and that was what was making the bumping noise. So they fixed that and did all the other usual service things, like oil change, blade sharpening, belt change, fuel filter change. It was the first time all that stuff was done on it, except a couple of oil changes. So it's a lot better now.
     I uploaded the last of the slides to the website earlier this week. Now I need to download them to the computer at work. Then I'll make a CD of them all. I don't feel like doing any more of them now. Maybe I'll get around to going through the slides again and picking out some more later on. But then again, later may be a really long time and never come too.
     Today at work some professional writer is suppose to call and talk with Earl, Lee and me about how we use finite element modeling and analysis. It's about ansys particularly. We do such basic things and virtually all of it structural only that I don't see what would be interesting to the trade magazines he sells the article to.
     I need to check up on the death rate that's still going on over in Iraq. The last few weeks it seems like 5 to 10 a week. It's 5 during the last two days. It looks like the Iraqis are enjoying their new freedoms. They get to protest against the Americans being there, the infrastructure not being fixed back up and running ... and kill a few Americans also.

Friday July 25, 2003
4:45a
     Yesterday was a bad news day, as if there's such a thing as a good news day. Scott sent out a prayer request email at work, Jackie is going to have one those catherazition procedures done on Tuesday. She's been feeling weak and bad for a year and hadn't told anyone. Later in the day Mandy told about DM falling off a ladder while trimming on of the hedges around his house. He's messed up his hip and bent up one of his toes. So now he's in more pain than usual. Hasn't gone to see the doctor about anything either. Mom quit taking one of her medicines, predisone, a few days ago. Now her coughing and wheezing is coming back. She did that on her own but I think the doctor was thinking about taking her off that anyway. The last few days or weeks I've noticed that when I cough my head feels the pressure more now. That's at the temples mostly but sometimes it feels like the whole head. So now I've got visions of a blood vessel about to rupture in my head. But I guess it's always been like that and it's just one of those things you notice more the more you think about it.
     It's a wonderful life, isn't it? Yeah sure, could have been an Iraqi for the last 30 years too and Baghdad must be a great place too now that the Americans are there. No electric, no water, 110 degree heat, no government, no law or order, 'cept what you make for yourself on the streets.

Tuesday July 29, 2003
3:55a
     982 nights and days ...
     Adger Hayes died early Monday morning. He's one of the Hayes cousins. Aurie called about nine last evening to tell about it. She and him were sister and brother and both Mom's first cousins. She said he had just moved to a different nurse home that weekend. It was a heart attack. He was 88. He taught machine shop or was it agriculture at the High School.
     Bob Hope died early Monday morning too.
     Jackie has her catherization proceedure done today.
     Mom is still not feeling any better.
     Daniel called at lunch time yesterday. He's job hunting again or retiring or getting ready to do one or the other.
     It's gotten too hot in the evenings to leave the windows open when I go to bed. So the bedroom is staying warm and stuffy during the night. I think I've been doing 5 hours of sleep a night for a month now.
     Saturday I cut grass with the repaired lawn mower. Sunday morning I got the white truck going and moved the hedge trimmings over to that place beside the driveway at my house.
     Yesterday at work was spent trying to get volume control for the tool noise program functional. Got it working about quiting time and so maybe I can finish that project, or rather that part of it. Now I'll have to set up the recordings for playback.
     Well enough of this. I'll see if I can finish up my morning routines and go lay back down for a while.

Friday August 1, 2003
4:45a
     986.

Saturday August 2, 2003
4:50a
     Day and night #987, more or less.
     VT
     SalamPax of Baghdad provided that link on his blog yesterday. It's like he wrote there, "spooky", or some similar words. The power of the village's will is something ... well very powerful. It is indeed a strange culture there in the old-old world. I think this whole war against Hussein has only succeeded in replacing one bad tyrant with a village of tyrants.
     ....
     How goes the terrorist games? Fairly well, I've taken the States down sixty-seven times with variations of forty-nine themes. What's your tally?

Tuesday August 5, 2003
5:05a
     #990 ... ten day countdown.
     Daniel arrived Saturday evening.

Wednesday August 6, 2003
4:35a
     #991.
     Stood outside and looked at the stars for a few minutes this morning.
     Jackie came over for a visit last evening. She had learned from DM and Mickey that he was here. I had told Scott at work but I guess he never told her. Should have called her one day anyway.
     I guess I just go on out to the porch and sit. It doesn't look like the thoughts are going to happen now. Even though they're just kind of bouncing around in the head.

Friday August 8, 2003
5:45a
     Warblogging ... forty year ago it was the Letters From Nam that started filtering in back to the real world ... now it's email and personal, online journals. TurningTables

     SalamPax, the Baghdad Blogger, provided the link on his own blogging site. SalamPax

     I don't think the offical declaration that the major war hostilities were over really took hold ... except in the mind of the delarer.
     ...
     Yesterday I didn't go to work. Daniel wanted to go for a ride in the mountains. We went through Brevard, had breakfast there, and then on up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. We followed it to its Southern end at the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. Spent some time walking among the old pioneer homestead site next to the river at the entrance. Then it was on up to Clingman's Dome and Newfoundland Gap.
     I got to stand in places I hadn't been in 35 years, more or less. It was about 1:30 or 2:00 or so when we got up there. So I didn't get to linger around for hours, that would have been nice.
     And then it was back down the mountains, Parkway and Balsam Grove and Rosman. It was just after 6:00 when we got back to Mom's house.
     I suppose it's all really too close to being like it was then. Nam was going strong during 1968-69 when I was there last. Now it's Iraq. Strangeness.

Friday August 15, 2003
3:45a
     It has been a thousand days and nights.
     Voices from Iraq. SalamPax
TurningTables

Sunday August 17, 2003
4:50a
     Yesterday afternoon felt like the Nam years again.
     I had finished cutting the grass and was sitting on the porch. It must be related to doing that, yard work in the same yard for 40 years. And there was a war going on back then too. The 2003 powergrid failure probably contributed to the mindset as well. There was one of them in 1965 also.
     After I had cleaned up I got the three beers that Daniel had left and took them out on the porch. I drank two of them. So I just sat there and thought about the times, then and now.
     I see I had already posted links to SalamPax and TurningTables. Friday at work I printed TurningTables blog. I haven't started reading it yet. The thought occurred that I would spend some time collecting links to the other war bloggers.
     I think the Lady is suppose to have been or is to be graduated one of the August days pretty soon.

Tuesday August 19, 2003
5:25a
     Sunday evening there was a storm. The winds were from the northeast. They blew water down the side of the chimney and it was leaking through the stairs in the hall. But it wasn't much, or it could have been worst. A limb on the pecan tree was blown off. There was the top part of a tree west of the bridge at Singer/Ryobi/TTI/OWT laying in the other tree tops over the creek. Half a pecan tree was down in the empty lot in front of Hiott printing. Noticed the roof tops of their buildings had kudzu growing over them. There were six fires started by lighting. One of the houses was the old Stewart place in the old neighborhood.

Wednesday August 20, 2003
5:05a
     Will yesterday's event in Baghdad Iraq be enough to turn the tide? Are the armys of the world marching toward another new epicenter of terror? Are millions of Iraqi with stones and clubs turning upon the terrorists who did the disasterly deed? Will the mosics of the clerics who teach false Islam be empty come Friday?
     No. The terrorists in the world could do the same to the United Nations building in New York and the rest of the world would do nothing.

Friday August 22, 2003
5:15a
     Six, seven million Iraqi men who want their country for their prosperity marching against a thousand Islamic jihad militants who only want to kill for killing's sake.
     Dream on my young friend, it will never happen.

Tuesday August 26, 2003
5:10a
     The last week of August is going to be the hottest of this Summer. And all because I just happened to think cooler weather would began to arrive in the hot humid South.
     The American soldier blogger is becoming aware of the big lies now. Perhaps he was already on his way to that. The official military line is that it is all a war against terrorism, which is about the same as Vietnam being a war against communism.
     The young lady Baghdad blogger reports that things in Iraq are getting grimmer by the day.
     The two have connected, internetly speaking.
     But anyway, my thoughts have gravitated back to it's all individual power struggles. It doesn't make much difference, especially to the average person, what theology is cited and quoted. It is, the whole world, all about men wanting power, influence, and a place in history, local or world history.
     The president of the States, prime minister of Europe, small nation dictator, Muslim cleric, Christain evangalist, or any other person ... they all have the lust for power, influence, and control over the commoners.
     It has always been like that through human history. Even when our ancestorys were hunters, gatherers, crop growers they were individuals who wanted the power of rule and control.

Wednesday August 27, 2003
5:25a
     Good morning V-iet-nam! ooopppsss. Good morning I-raq! Sorry wrong lifetime. It does make one wonder what the movie sequal will be like.

Thursday August 28, 2003
4:45a
     Baghdad Burning ... smoldering cities in the States waiting for some spark to happen by and flame up into hell's inferno.
     Looks like it is time to find another place in the world to stand and wait for God's judgement. It is no long safe to be in the States.
     Cave dweller ... He crosses out Afganistan and pencils in Iraq, puts a check mark beside item number three on his to do list ... jihad against invading infidels in Iraq. He checks off two more items ... remove Americans from Saudi Arabia ... remove Hussein of Iraq. He ponders item number two ... bankrupt the States ... pencils in a note, work in progress.

Sunday August 31, 2003
5:30a
     DisasterCenter

     Riverbend talked about her trip through Baghdad to vist relatives. It must really be bad for them to be that fearful of being out on the city streets. Except for the war damage, occupation, and general lawlessness it doesn't look like the States have been much better.
     Since 1973, about the time Hussein came into full power, Americans have murdered 530,000 other Americans. Then there are the robberys, burglarys, rapes and all, tens of millions of those.
     She and SalamPax are getting into a disagreement over Iraqi's religious-political issues. What was he wrote ... blogwar? Except for the strange looking and sounding names of the individuals and organizations ... it probably could pass for an American political - religious debate.
     TurningTables went for another ride, this time out into the country somewhere. The soldiers there are having a rougher time than elsewhere in country. Tents in the open, under the harsh sun, soldiers grouped together under whatever available shade they can find. Some of that is in the bombed out structures of what use to be ... I don't know.
     He said they were erecting really big concrete walls ... barricading in all of Iraq ... or at least the areas the States' officials can called secured parts of Iraq.
     Then it's back to Riverbend ... what use to be Hussein's palaces have become American's palaces.
     Oh yeah ... another part of an oil pipe line got blown up. I think that's three major hits now. Cheny's company must be grinning ear to ear, more destruction leads to more rebuilding leads to more profit for them.

Tuesday September 2, 2003
4:45a
     Labor day. Started at 1:15 am when I had to go use the bathroom, something I ate must not have aggreed with me at all. I laid back down on the floor but I was too much awake and got up at 2:00. Did all the usual morning routines just like I was getting ready for a day. Then I laid down on the floor again at 4:00 and managed to doze some till 6:30.
     At 8:00 I went over to my house and laid on my couch in my room and dozed some more till 9:00. At least I got to be in a dream state for a while. Then I swept the floors there, so much for house cleaning at my place. Rode around town after there.
     After lunch I cut the grass at Mom's place. Did it twice but I normally do that anyway, only this time I didn't cut it as short the first time around. Then I went for another ride. Down by the old country club and old highway department place, across Liberty highway and into and around the area between Norris and Pickens.
     The rest of the day and evening was just like all the others. Nothing special on holidays for me.

Monday September 8, 2003
4:13a
     I spend just as much time reading the message board as I always did. It's such a waste of time too. And that is true even though the sense of it has changed directions. It's mostly anti-war, anti-bush and how messed up everything has become. But that is what the anti-war group was saying months ago when they were ruthlessly put down by the pro-war group. But then again they are so few posters there now, it doesn't have the impact as it would if they were many.
     The predictions of how bad it was going to be were accurate but the pro-war group has left and don't want to hear about it.
     On the other hand they are the TurningTable and RiverBend blogs. I spend more time reading them than the message boards. They are the real people making real postings. He is leaving Iraq in a week or two. He's also thinking of giving up his blog writings but he really should keep doing that. It is like all blog writings, something to look back on in 10, 20, 30 or 40 years.
     She is writing about the realities of the war zone. Today she wrote about one of her neighbors finding out what had happened to the father of the household. He went missing back in early April while going to check on his parents. He never made it there. Just one of the thousands of killed during the jaggarnaut's run though the countryside, villages and cities.
     It's really sad that the nation I have to live in has turned into ... who knows what. Or is it me just becoming aware of how bad it has always been?
     I've got more old slides to swap out on the website. I was suppose to have done that already. But like everything else I just keep putting it off. There is one slide, it's an arrial photo of the neighborhood made during the 1960s, that I printed copies of and was going to give to some of the neighbors this weekend. That never got done either.
     At least the weather has changed to being cooler. It gets down into the 60s at night.

Wednesday September 10, 2003
3:35a
     Seems like it has been two weeks of waking up after 4 or 5 hours of deep sleep. Like I'm in a sound sleep one minute and the next I'm wide awake with my mind going full blast.
     The three bloggers who I've been reading regularly are giving three different impressions of how things are over in Iraq. I started thinking about which one is correct or rather more correct than the others. But in the end they all three are just as real as any other. Everyone has their own individual experiences during war and terror. There's never any single view that defines the whole. It's all of them together that define the whole.

Friday September 12, 2003
4:30a
     Everyday is a Day of Remembrance for some group of people some where.

Sunday September 14, 2003
5:00a
     Looks like TurningTables is leaving on a jet plane, going back home, getting out of that place. SalamPax misses Baghdad like hell ... so he's been out of country. Then there's RiverBend ... left behind with the coping problems of living in the war zone.
     Interesting new tactic for the terrorists types, go shoot up an Iraqi police station then lead them (the Iraqi police) on their suicide mission into an American check point.
     Yesterday I drove down to the Old Saluda Dam area East of Easley. Made pictures of the really high and long railroad tressle as well as the dam and power station. The new road bridge was built in 1980 and is about 50 or 75 feet over the old bridge. And then the train bridge was another 50 or 75 feet higher than the new road bridge. I was there a few years ago and had wondered when the latest tressle was built. Actually thought about trying to find out but never did.

Wednesday September 17, 2003
5:20a
     John Ritter the comdey actor died last Thursday. That will be/is a great lost to the humor, full of life and living world.
     Jay Ricker, one of the boys who use to be Mom's neighbor, was in a traffic accident and is in really, really bad shape. Head injuries and on life support. That happened Monday I think.
     Darlene the secretary at work sends out Prayer Requests. They are for the ususal things, death in a family, health problems, surgerys, hospital stays, house fires, traffic accidents. It seems like it's been 3 and 4 a week for months now. That's how I learned about Jay's accident.
     I went over to Earl's office to comment on them Prayer Requests ... It's just a matter of time till mine or our names show up in one of them.

Thursday September 18, 2003
4:50a
     I've thought a few times about these Mulsim religious types who preach basically anti-American things in their Mosques. Especially those the encourge viloent acts. I've wonder if the people could show their disapproval of such by not attending those particular Mosques and leaders.
     RiverBend got an email from someone and it was a letter written up like it had been sent by Bush. It was a good one and she really liked it. That made me wonder if the Iraqis are beginning to learn that they are many Americans who disapprove of what the States has done under this so-called President leadership. One can always hope so.
     At work I've been developing some dynamic equations and evaluation for a reciporocal saw. It's the kind of stuff Fanis use to do, those really long and complicated equations.
     Where are all the Peace, Anti-War, Anti-Occupation protests and rallies and demonstrations? I know the killing (of American soliders) in Iraq is not as bad as it was during the worst of the Nam years. But it still seems like there would be demonstrations anyway. I've almost decided they're not out there on the streets because of internet. That generation has gotten old and grey haired and modernized, they're doing their thing on message boards and in chat rooms and on their own websites.
     For the majority of the Americans I don't think it's all that effective. The protests need to be on the streets and on the news shows like it was in the past.
     My blog just hasn't got what it takes to be in the SalamPax and RiverBend and TurningTables class. Dull, boring, common existence here ... wars, occupations, and all that stuff over there.

Friday September 19, 2003
3:00a
     RiverBend's blog entry today is a good one. She describes a raid on a neighbor's home that happened back in May. She's got it right, terrorists are everywhere ... and it really hurts to have to be an unwilling supporter of them.
     Who's going to liberate the Americans from their own ?????? what? destiny? elected oppressors? corporate empires? themselves?
     Excluding the unexpected, as usual, there will be no possiblity of change till Spring 2005. A new elected dictator that will simply exit the theator of operations ... even that is doubtful. The commitment has been cast into stone I think.
     It would be unexpected for the current occupant to declare victory, Iraq stablized and then leave. Unless the political bosses decide that's what it would take to get re-elected.
     Oh yeah, I watched a few minutes of that new Matrix show last evening. It said it was the pilot eposide and I guess it was the first of the season. I'm not sure how long ago the concept was developed, pre- or post- 91101. It left me with the sense that even it is part of the propaganda campaign to win the hearts and minds of the American public. Brainwashing the public into believing all those patroit act things are really good for national security. And also, that anti-terrorism efforts are as successfull as in the movie/tv show scripts.

Sunday September 21, 2003
3:45a
     Yesterday was one of the festival Saturdays at Hagood Mill. I went there during the morning to take pictures and video. It was typically nice for a country folk gathering. And I was being mostly happy and into the videoing. One of the museum/culture staff people asked if I was with someone, meaning was I making the video professionally for some business.
     But anyway, I thought of going to the upper floor of the mill and make some out of the window. I had to stand there near the window for a while waiting for a couple of girls to finish looking at the crowd below. Then I turned the camera on and it would not adjust to the sunlight. So it's broken and that ended my happy Saturday.
     There's really no point for me to try things and buy things and do things like normal people. I'm back down into the depression from whence I have always existed.

Tuesday September 23, 2003
4:30a
     First day of Autuman, another season has passed by.
     SalamPax has been, and still is in London. In one of his Guardian articles he talks about the going ons there with respect to Iraq. He compared it all to parents (UK, US, UN etal) arguing over how to raise the children (Iraq). He has it wrong, at least from what I see. It is more like children (UK, US, UN and all) fighting over a new toy (Iraq) that one bully (US) just took from another bully (Hussien).
     The Bush is to speak at the UN today. Somehow I sense a lot of the Americans are maxing out the controls for their anti-embarassment shields.
     Took Mom to one of her regular doctor appointment yesterday afternoon. It was just to get prescriptions renewed. The lady nurse who's been their a long time did that. The last new doctor left and she didn't get to see the latest new doctor. Seems like there has been three new ones since Dr Mauldin retired, but only two names come to mind, Dr Edens and Dr Southland.

Friday September 26, 2003
5:20a
     Not much to write about. I'm still here.