September 27, 2003
5:15a
     Final Accounting.
     I'm not sure there ever is a final accounting. That's something that happens as events run their course. Do they finish the run? Not really, they only lead to other events. The only thing one has to observe is the trail left behind and make your best guesses as to why ....
     Dump all the arguments, all the points and counter-points, all individual reasons for this and that, into one pile on the table. There's your instanteous final accounting. And when the next batch of information comes along toss it onto the pile ... another instanteous final accounting.
     The whole pile is true. Individual bits and bytes may or may not be, or be some partial derivative of true or false. But the whole is true.
     It's about the crude oil and has been from the beginning thirty, forty, fifty years ago. It will continue to be for an equal amount of time into the future. The industrial countries' exit plan out of Iraq and the Middle East is dried up oil reserves. It's about the continuing wars that will happen to do the exit plan.
     It's about the political and corporate corruption within all the countrys. It doesn't make a difference what the individual names are or who is associated with which company or party. The effect of the whole is that the systems are corrupt. They all want their share of profit, gains, control, influence, ....
     It's about terrorism as well. All one has to do is nail a political and/or corporate name to their forehead and toss them into that part of the pile. Of course they are ruthlessly bloody. So are the so-called civilized, rationally motivated wars fought by nations. It's death, destruction, horror and terror till everyone in a position of power gets what they want. I doubt if there's ever been a so-called justified war. One side is the big bad barberian who wants to extend his empire, the other side is the antithesis of that who only want to maintain and/or extend their own empires.

Monday September 29, 2003
4:20a
     I really should not have begun that.
     There are no predictions of what will come to be. Those are only statements of expectations for either good or bad. Everyone dreams and hopes for something good but then again others dread the possible bad results. One might as well make lists of all the possibilites and then make their best guesses as to the probablity of each. There are still others who write them on scraps of papers, tack them to a wall and then toss darts. Which one fares better? The former has one's own prejudices hidden within, the later is mostly chance. Which reflects reality? Or is it both?
     Osama bin Laden made his lists and tossed his darts. How has his cause fared? So have the States and the rest of the world. Who has predicted better than the others? It's doubtful any one has tallyed what they expected. They've all made adjustments and corrections as the game is played. That implies new predictions are made so that the original ones become meaningless.
     Recall what bin Laden said almost three years ago. Superpowers are only that if one thinks them so. It was his prediction that if one removes the concept that there are superpowers then they are no longer that. The same is true for terrorism. Or is it super-terrorism? He expected the States and the world to coward away from his own version of superpower. What did he get? Total rejection, repulsiveness, condemnation from everyone. He plan was defeated on that last plane that crashed in a vacant field and before the towers collapsed.

Thursday October 2, 2003
5:35a
     I always manage to waste away the morning time reading a few blogs and the ABC Iraq message board. Now it's time to get on with the day and I haven't wrote anything in my own blog like I thought I would.
     Today I'll go over into north Georgia and that will be my vacation trip. Oh joy oh joy.

Monday October 6, 2003
5:20a
     Vacation days are over. Back to work. Back to the daily routines ... even though I feel like I never got out of those routines.
     I didn't write any the day outtings. Maybe I'll get around to that. I still waste away the morning time reading those posts on the message boards.
     I got new tires on the truck one morning, that must have been Monday. The I went over to Spartanburg to take the video camera for repair. I really don't remember traffic being so bad on the interstates like it was that afternoon. I left Spartanburg and drove up to SC 11 for the return trip.
     I went up to Lake Jocassee one afternoon.
     Then I went out to Aurie and Gramham's another afternoon. And down to DM and Mickey's another. And then down to Leander's yesterday. I take vacation days to vist relatives.
     The trip over to North Georgia was ok. May have stood near a place where I stood decades ago, 1950s. But I'm not sure about that. It was Tahulla Gorge.
     Washed the winter clothes two mornings.
     Did some other odds and ends. Yet there's still items left on the to do list for vacation.
     Oh well it's all over now till Spring.
     Oh yeah. I have to go to the doctor this morning to see about the sharp pains I have in my head when I cough, sneeze or strain or other wise built up internal pressure in my body. I have thoughts of busting a blood vessel in my head.

Tuesday October 7, 2003
5:00a
     The doctor thinks I have some kind of infection behind the ear cavity and sinus cavity. So he gave me some pills to take for that. If it doesn't clear up in two or three weeks then he will start looking for some other kind of problem. It must have been the scratches I make in my ears when trying to clean out the wax and the water from the old pipes in the house. He said temple artitius and blood vessels about to bust are different all together. So like always I imagine and expect the worst then it's something less sever.
     On my day trip over into north Georgia, Friday I think, I stopped at Chattagoo river where US 76 crosses it. It's one of the places I use to hang out at when I use to get out and go places. It was a cool Autumn day by the river. A group of kayakers put in above the sluice. I don't know about these people who play in cold river water even though they do wear those thermal suits.
     Written while there.
     I don't remember the last time I was here, about 1998 I guess, maybe 1999. There was a group of kayakers here just a few minutes ago. Seven of them plus the driver. I suppose there should be something different about the place since the terrorism thing started full blast two years ago. But it is still just the Chattagoo River here. What difference does any great event mean to a place like this? Nothing. I'm the one what brings such things here. It's me. I'm going into northeast Georgia today. Clayton, Dillard, Tallahlu Falls. My vacation days and distances are really short these years.
     End of on site entry.
     On the way out I walked down stream to the old bridge and made a few pictures. There was one place to stand and look directly across the skelton. It was really narrow, like one car wide narrow. I stood on a bit of the old road bed leading up to it. It's always strange to stand where so many vehicles has passed over so many years ago.
     I drove on up to Dillard. It's the last town in Georgia and right next to the North Carolina line. You actually still feel like you're in town when you're suddenly in a different state. I don't remember it being that close. But that was 10 or more years ago when I was there last.
     There's a well know eating place there, the Dillard House. One of the founding familys for that area. There's also a private college prep school there that I wasn't really aware of. Nachoochee, founded in 1903, so they had their centennial this past June. Looked like a great little mountain valley place to be young and going to school.
     I was going to eat at the Dillard House but it looked to fancy and expensive for me. So I drove back down to Clayton and ate at a Wendys. Then it was on down the road to Tallahlu gorge and falls.

Wednesday October 8, 2003
4:50a
     Last evening while I was out on the porch smoking I heard the ambulance. It sounded like it was leaving from the Aniway View neighborhood behind the Vickery house. It sounded its sirens going up the highway and then again when it got to town. I'm not sure why but I had thoughts of it could have been over at the Vickery house.
     This morning I woke up about my normal early times, 3:17, and laid on the floor till an hour later. Then I got up and did the usual morning things. Sat out on the porch for a while for the first cig of the day. Then I spent about 40 minutes reading the message board. There's nothing really different going on there and I need to just quit.
     About 5:15 I went back out on the porch for another cig and finish drinking the coffee. Over at the Vickery house there's lights on and activity outside. It's the ambulance. I stood around out in front of the carport and watched and thought. The EMS people got the stretcher thing out and wheeled it around back through their carport. Several minutes later they come back out and put someone into the vehicle.
     I wondered around the carport and porch and the front corner of the house while seeing what was happening. I hunkered down next to the holy bush and watched too when they left. I prayed some too for whatever their crisis might be. I listened for the siren but they never used it. They wouldn't have used it anyway since it was early morning and people would still be sleeping. There wouldn't be much traffic on the roads either. So I guess I don't know what no siren really means. Good or bad or not too bad news.
     I came back in, fixed and ate my bowl of cereal. Went into the dining area of the living room and looked out that window. The house lights were off and I saw another vehicle leave.
     So anyway. I had another thought-happening-connection. Not a happy kind either. Foresight or is it "if you think it it will happen" sight? I really, really, really do not like having thought-happening-connections. They always seem to be something bad in the end.

Sunday October 12, 2003
9:10a
     Well I was going to do some writing this morning, now in fact. But it doesn't look like that will happen. I need to write a letter to Robert and the others.
     I did go down to DM and Mickey's yesterday. They were listening to the Clemson football game. Talked about how excited John, Linda's husband, gets during the games. It was a close game that went into overtime and Clemson finally won.
     I had been thinking recently about how few lifetimes it takes to get back a 2 or 3 hundred years. Like when a person in their 90s tells another person in the teens about someone they talked with who was in their 90s when they were in their own teens. Three encounters like that will go back almost 300 years.
     I asked DM if he could remember his parents talking about someone they had talked with when they were young. He said he would have to think about it.
     Of course they are Dad's relatives, my own grandmother and grand uncles like Addison and Wilson. They all were born in the late 1800s. But I don't remember them telling about other people who they knew when they were young.

Wednesday October 15, 2003
5:20a
     Daniel and Mary arrived yesterday about 1:15.

Thursday October 16, 2003
2:05a
     I woke up at 1:30 this morning. Actually I've woken up several times during the last 3 nights since I had that mole cut off the right temple. But anyway this morning it was wake up and be wide awake with my mind going full speed ahead.
     Yesterday at noontime Mom announced that the furnace was to be replaced. It had turned on early that morning while I was here at the kitchen table. I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary and I even went over to the vent by the oven to smell and listen. But she said it didn't run long enough later or wouln't turn on so she called the oil company people. The new man who worked with the old man who retired came out. He said the furnace had cracks in it and he turned the switch off at the furnace so it couldn't come on. It will be next week before they can replace it or start replacing it. So now it is cool weather and there will not be heat available.
     That's what got my mind going this morning at 1:30. Wondering if everything is really like it was told or if they are just selling Mom a new furnace. But it's old anyway. It is the one that Dad had put in the year before, or was it the year he died. It's 25 years old so it's time for a new one anyway. And last Winter I had thought of having new one put in during this past Summer but like everything else I just let it slide by without doing anything.
     The last couple of Falls Mom has mentioned how the thermostat has to be turned up higher than in the past to get the furnace to turn on. I had even got a new one of those last Winter and was going to put it in this Summer but I didn't do that either. Of course I've got it in my mind that that was the reason she called the oil company people. She thinks something is wrong with the furnace because the thermostat has to be turned up higher now. And it's not all that much either, 70 or 72 instead of 67 or 68.
     Daniel and Mary are staying at one of those bed and breakfast places near Table Rock. They are using Mom's car so it's up there now and was last night too. I guess that's the first time the car has not been in the carport at night ... probably ever, except for being worked on.
     Mary bought groceries yesterday while Daniel washed clothes at the laundry place down by the creek. She fixed supper last night and lunch too. She seems like a nice enough lady.
     They are looking at houses while here. They are going up to Whitewater and the mountains this afternoon.
     Well I guess this is enough for now. It's 3:30 now and I'm going finish doing my morning things and lay back down. Maybe I can pretend to be sleeping and fool my mind into thinking it is real sleep. Yeah sure.

Monday October 20, 2003
5:10a
     Last Wednesday I got here to Mom's house to eat lunch. She announced that the furnace would not turn on. It had turned on once before I left for work that morning. So we have been without heat, except for electric space heaters, since then. Today they are suppose to start replacing it.
     Yesterday I replaced the cord on the old heater that Dad had used in the greenhouse. It must be 30 years old. I looked at the thermostat control but it is broken some how and does not work. I was wanting to get it fixed too so it wouldn't be on all the time.
     I had brought one of mine grey Titan heaters from my house to use. But Mom didn't seem to want to do that. The circut breaker tripped one time when she turned the lamp on next to her chair. She had the old heater on the carpet in the hall by noon time that day. Radiant heat on 40 year old cotton rug didn't look good either. So I put the old heater back in the den.
     Sunday I felt the plug and it was too hot to touch and that's when I replaced the cord.
     I was suppose to go give some blood at the doctor's office two weeks ago for them to check it. You're not suppose to eat before doing that. I guess I'll try and get that done today.
     This afternoon the other doctor is to take the stitches out.
     So I'll spend the day without breakfast, or a late late breakfast. Go to one doctor this morning, go to another doctor this afternoon, and inbetween wonder if I should be here while they start replacing the furnance. I just know it's not going to be easy. Dad had to dig out the crawl space access last time to get the old old furnance out and the new old furnance in.
     Saturday when I went up to Bivens hardware to get the parts for the cord Don told me that bit of main street store history I did years ago was used alot this week. The high school history/geography honors class did a project on main street. He said they were up at Hagood Mill that day too. I drove up there but the class had already made their show and tell there.
     Anyway. The county museum people have dug up a boulder next to the creek. One that's been walked on and over for decades and centurys. They have found several petrographs on it. I saw the number 30 next to one. A couple have already had casts made of them. Allen the museum man thinks some of them are 800 to 8000 years old. The plans are to build an interpertative building over the boulder site.

Wednesday October 22, 2003
4:45a
     The new furnace has been installed. It took them a day and half, something they normally get done in a day or less. They had to break away some of the brick at the crawl space access and dig some to get the new one under the house. But that wasn't as much as I thought would have to be done. I remember Dad digging up a lot of ground the last time.
     Monday after work, I had left early to get the stitches taken out, I crawled under there to see how things were going. One of them is a Hughes, he doesn't think we are related but I think we may be distant cousins of some kind. And that's not neccessarily by a Hughes line either. The other man is a brother to one who works in the lab at Ryobi.
     By noon time yesterday one of them had finished the job. He had even got the brick work done and I had sort-of planned on staying here that afternoon to do that. He came back later and was still here when I arrived. He was just picking up the old parts and other things. I helped him do some of that.
     Mom decided to get a new thermostat too. He will be back Friday to do that since they didn't have any in stock. So maybe there won't be any more fussing about the thermostat not working like it's suppose to or that arcing she sees when the mercury switch tilts and makes contact. The new one is a digital type.
     The new furnace has an efficency rating of 81, on a scale from 78 to 89. I don't know what the old furnace was, whatever was about average 25 years ago.
     Robert's corner of the country got lots of rain Monday, 5 inches in one day. That made the NPR news yesterday afternoon. I listen to that while driving from work to my house. Other parts of the country get that much sometimes, but the Seattlians don't. The NPR news said it was so much that the people were shaking themselves dry, images of wet dogs and cats shaking themseleves came to mind.
     When I took Dan and Mary to Greenville last Friday we ate at the California Dreaming resturant. That was at the Pelhman road and I-85 exchange, where lots of motels and eating places and other businesses have accummulated. That was nice. The first time I've eating out like in a year or two or three. Leander said thinks the resturant has been there for 20 years or more. I know I've seen it when driving by on the interstate for many years. But anyway an occassion finally came along to stop and eat there.
     Also last Saturday I learned one of the classes at the high school has been done history research on Main Street Pickens. Don at the hardware store told me about it. They were learning about the buildings and businesses that have been in the stores. They had some sort of presentation at Hagood Mill that day but I didn't learn about it till it was over. I did find out from Allen the museum man who the teacher was. I sent him a letter and he called back yesterday. I had started doing research on the samething years ago. I never did get to finish it like I wanted. So I'm going to let them have my notes and files of the data I had collected.

Thursday October 23, 2003
5:05a
     This morning I get to drive over to Spartanburg and pick up my video camera. I will leave here about my regular time and go there instead of to work. It should be a nice ride on SC 11 through the northern parts of the counties ... at least till start southeastward toward the city. I guess I will still end up in the city at the busiest time though.

Monday October 27, 2003
6:35a
     The bad, really bad, guys in Iraq blew up the Red Cresent and Red Cross offices yesterday. Maybe that will be enough to turn the good Iraqis, all of them, against the militant jihad terrorists. It's way past time for the millions of Iraqis to start killing off the few thousand bad guys. Like how so appropriate it would be for tens of thousands of Iraq men, wearing those bio-chem suits with spray cannisters in hand, to stand upwind from Hussein's home village or where ever those bad guys are hidding out. It's time for payback for what Hussein did to those Kurds.

Thursday October 30, 2003
4:40a
     The job. This week I started doing an electrical finite element analysis. It is for a metal strip used to hold a commutator brush. This electrical FEA is a first for us in the analytical group. It's something new and different and of course I don't know much, or rather I've forgotten much of electrical and electronic knowledge.
     The thermostat. The people who replaced the furnance in Mom's house came by yesterday and put in a new thermostat. It's one of the digital types. I read the information sheet and learned enough to check the temperature and other settings. I adjusted the differential, the amount of temperature drop before the furnance comes on to 3 degrees. It hasn't come on so far during the night and it was 69 degrees when I checked it after waking up at 3:05. It has two more degrees to go before turning on. I think that was part of the reason for waking up early, early this morning.
     But then again it seems to be part of my sleep cycle. A few days of normal sleep and resting time followed by several days of restlessness and waking up extra early.
     Last night's dreaming time was something about Vietnam and military bases or compounds. The evening before one of the networks was doing a show about a women who researched her father's life during the Nam era. He was killed when she was just a few months old I think. There was also a sequence about politics. The channel four station was in front of Mom's house doing a report on Bush supporters or something like that.
     My head still hurts some when I cough or sneeze but it's not as bad as it was a month ago. So I don't know if the pills are going to fix the problem or not. It's like when you turn the water off quickly and the hydrolic pressure causes the pipes to shake. I think, or have in my mind, that some blood vessel is getting pinched shut and there's weak vessels in my head on the verge of busting. It's just worrisome but I'm familar with thinking the worst of anything that goes wrong.
     I started uploading the last batch of old slides yesterday morning. I'll finish that this morning. Then it's down load them to the computer at work and make the CDs. I've already gone through all the slides once and about half through them for a second time. I just don't feel like finishing the second pass through the rest. I've forgotten which ones I've already made pictures of and they all will look familar since I've looked at them all the first time through.
     There have been more severe attacks in Iraq this week. The Red Cresent and Red Cross offices were bombed along with four Iraqi police stations. It's beginning ... looking and feeling more and more like the whole venture will end in failure. There's been too many mistakes made in planning and actions ... or more likely failure in planning for the worst possible events.
     Like how long, really, does it take for one country to plan an invasion and occupation of another country? A couple or three years? It is more apt to be a couple of decades. It is truely doubtful that the States would spend decades planning for such an event. But then it would also be irresponsible for the States, or any country, not to make such plans. If one does not plan for the worst or extreme courses of actions then one effectively plans for failure. But then again if leaks of planning for such future types of events were to happen that would be a serious political liability. So which is it concerning the States - Iraq war and occupation?
     Given the run of events for the last 12 to 18 months, especially the occupation months, the details of the plannning were made only recently. If not that, then the States has done a miserable job planning during the last couple of decades.

Wednesday November 5, 2003
5:55a
     It must have been last Thursday evening when I was sitting in the truck smoking a cig. I had just finished it and got out. Then I forgot something, now I've forgot what I forgot, and turned back around and leaned inside to get whatever it was I forgot. That done I closed the truck door and stepped toward the edge of the carport. That is when the biggest, brightest meteorite (or meteor) caught my eye. It was passing directly overhead from the southwest to the north over the Pittman house and toward Pinnicle mountain. It must have lasted a good 3 or 4 seconds. Big as a marble held at arms length; it was white and mostly tailless.
     Sunday morning I did the usual things, internet, breakfast and go get the newspaper. I only glanced at the obituary page, I usually at read through the names but didn't that morning. It was later that morning or after noon time that Mom looked at the paper. She said two men from Pickens died.
     One was Robert Hiott the elder, he was 84 or so, and he died Friday. The other was Clyde Stewart and he was 98, almost 99, and he died Saturday. Both are real, go to church every Sunday and other activities, religious type, extra ordinary good men.
     It all has something to do with angels getting their wings with shooting stars and ringing bells ... really big, bright, white wings that fly halfway across the evening sky ... or maybe it was God sending a one of his best chariots to pick up a couple of special passengers for to carry them home.

Monday November 10, 2003
6:30a
     I was here this morning. Read the Iraq message board at ABC. Smoked cigs on the porch and in the driveway. Ate the cereal and waffles. Really nothing new.

Wednesday November 12, 2003
5:55a
     Monday was another bad day with the cough head hurt problem. This morning it doesn't seem so bad. I just don't know what is going on. More old age problems I guess. Monday night Tuesday morning I woke up at 1:00 and couldn't get back to sleep. This morning I woke up early early again but did dose some more even though it wasn't real sleep. It is still that something from 1977 or so about just waking up with the mind turned full on out of a deep sleep.
     The Lady wrote an email a few days ago. I think I wrote back but will have to check. I get so confused about what I think I've done and what I actually did or did not do.
     Today is Mom's birthday, she's 82 now.
     I will have to stop reading the ABC discussion boards at work. Probably should just quit that all together anyway. There was one new poster, JoeSoul, who had interesting things to write. But those types of authors are and always have been few and far between.
     The DCofUS page has been getting a few more viewings in recent months. I tried writing some more there the other day but gave up. The thoughts about Iraq, the States and all just get jumbled and don't get wrote up like I feel they should.
     Time to move on with the morning rituals.

Monday November 17, 2003
5:50a
     It has been three years since I slept at my own house. My life has been put on permenant hold.
     Saturday there was a group of Native Americans at the Hagood mill. There were only about 5 or 6. I stood and watched them dance on time. The drum beaters included one about 13 or so. There was another younger watching. The next generation learning the traditions. It brought the emotion and tears to me. I closed my eyes and listened most of the time. But anyway that's over.

Tuesday November 25, 2003
5:30a
     Forty year ago this past weekend was the Kennedy assasination event.
     I was in a Mrs Lindsey's science class, it was near the end of the class peroid, the room was the last one on the left in the east end of the front hall. Mr Bettis announced that the president had been shot. Gym class was next and that was down on the football field. After that I don't remember much of what happened at the school. I thought about the event while riding the bus home. The rest of the weekend and on into Monday we watched the television news coverage.
     Forty year ago Daniel finished at Clemson and was or soon would be down in West Palm Beach, Flordia. Robert started going to Clemson that fall. It was my first year at Pickens High School. ... It is all so long ago and feels so far, far away.
     On Sunday I drove down to Clemson and sat on a bench in the park in front of the old Clemson House. I don't think it was the same bench I use to sit on during the 1980s. One of the students walked by with a cell phone up next to his ear. That made me think of the old Star Trek show with the communicators and how what was such futuristic things simply are now.
     I watched the kids play on Bowmen field in front of Tillman Hall. Did some arithmetic and figured out some of them were being born or just babys when I use to sit on the bench during mid 1980s.
     The church had their Thanksgiving dinner Sunday evening. Mrs Pittman brought mom and I our plates. It was the typical dinner.
     Uncle Bob Hayes called yesterday at noontime. Edna is going to cook food and Bob will bring it up here on Thanksgiving day.
     Brother Robert sent some Native American powwow links. I need to look at them more. His work, the building industry, may be getting better now.
     That's all for now.

Saturday November 29, 2003
5:55a
     Thanksgiving was two days ago. Uncle Bob brought up about 8 dishes of food that Edna had prepared. He stayed and ate lunch with his sister, that was really nice. It's always interesting to hear him talk about things, especially the stories of his days in Iran, Arabia and all.
     It turned cold yesterday and last night and this morning. It's been below freezing for a few hours now. So Fall has arrived and Winter is moving in as well.
     That thing about the students doing the business history of Pickens has gotten me interested in that again. I went over to my house yesterday to get some pictures I made of Pickens in 1982. They weren't where they were suppose to be. So what should have I really expected, them to be exactly where I looked? It's the only pack of picture missing from the box. Hadn't had any real reason to look in that box for years much less that particular set of pictures. It's all part of that thought happening connection thing, the Jerry bad effect thing. But anyway I got the negatives and took them up to the drug store for prints to be made. I didn't ask about the price but I'm expecting about 90 cents each and they are 36 of them.
     Maybe I will get the leaves done today. I had been thinking of doing that for a week or more. I'm going to use the riding mower and sweep them up that way. At least the ones that don't get mulched up.
     Two more days left, the regular weekend days for this holiday time. I didn't go anywhere or do anything special ... again.

Monday December 1, 2003
5:40a
     Twenty five year ago Dad died. He went to work and didn't come back. It was a Friday instead of a Monday.

Thursday December 11, 2003
5:20a
     One would think that a person who sleeps 5-6 hours every night would be able to get lots of things accomplished during the other 19-18 hours. But I don't.
     There was a peace demonstration in Iraq yesterday. About 10,000 or so were on the streets for it, so some of the locals report. It's a good sign, could have been a better sign if they were out in hundreds of thousands.
     The States made its demands that the rebuilding of Iraq is for Americans only, effectively anyway. It is getting really spooky how the States has been acting these past couple of years. Many in the rest of the world have thought in the past the States to be the world class bully. So now it becomes more and more apparent that they speak the truth.
     During the election process these coming months it will become a fact that what was once believed to be the essence of the States is no more. It will have been sold and bought between the politicans and corporations and other special interests. The current occupants of power have proven their abilty to deliver legislation favorable to the largest contributors. It will make Enron and World Com and other such events look like small business failures.

Sunday December 13, 2003
6:25p
     After I connected to the internet this morning and after reading the usual Iraqi blogs I checked the news websites. They had the Breaking News banners going ... reports out of Iran that Saddam Hussein possibly had been captured. The source was comming out of an Iran news agency. There wasn't anyone else posting on the boards then either. So apparently it had just then been learned of by the news agencies. I made a short cryptic post on the abc board. I doubt if anyone else caught on.
     As the day progressed some of the Iraqi bloggers had started posting about the event. Of course their own message boards picked up. So today has been spent mostly reading what the rest of the world thinks of the event. All good reports.
     Then there is that abc board. It is dominated by american politics. The event, the good event for the Iraqi was hijacked for spin on american politics. Just like it seems the whole war has been. But enough of that mess.
     One Iraqi blogger was ready to unleash the counter terrrorism attack ... finish off the reminents of the former regime. A couple of the blogs by American soliders were active too. It is these places, real people in the real place in real time, that make the significant insights into world events.
     I would say the two of the earlist bloggers haven't been able to make posts to their sites. I suppose it is the electricity problems in Bagahdad.
     The Iraqi still do their celebrations with guns, men firing their weapons up into the air. Four more deaths resulted and sixty injuried ... at least that's what's reported now. Seems like even with his capture he still brings death and suffering to some of the Iraqi common folk.

Wednesday December 17, 2003
5:15a
     It is the first controlled powered flight day ... 100 years later.
     Riverbend the lady Baghdad blogger is catching some flak from a few comment posters on other bloggers' websites. It is unjustly and unfairly thrown at her. It makes me think of those few who can not tolerate any critisim against the States. They are the flammers and disrupters of the chat room gerne. If I were to be just as ruthless I would say they would make good dictators and triants who oppress any criticism of their own bad regiemes.
     I woke up at 2:30 or so this morning ... about the same as yesterday morning.
     I'm still having head pain problems when coughing or straining. Went to doctor Douglas again yesterday. A cat scan will be done Thursday. He said it may be only the beginnings of headache problems like other kinds of common old age problems. Though he said I wasn't old.
     That place where doctor Sutter cut off that mold has a pinhole size thing that has not healed completely. I had thought the nurse left a stitch in there the first week or two afterwards. Maybe that is the source of the current infection problem. So I will have to go back to him as well and let him or her look at it.

Saturday December 20, 2003
5:10a
     Thursday about 10:30 I left work to go to the out patient part of the hosiptal to have the computer aided topology thing done, a CAT scan. The waiting did not take long and the proceedure was only about 5-10 minutes.
     You lay down on the really narrow bench that moves you through the machine, a really big donut shaped contraption. I laid there while the technician got things set up. The bed moved some and I was thinking the process had begun. But then he came back into view and then went into the operators corner. A minute or so later the machine started making its sounds and the bed started to move and stop and move again. So in about 2 or 3 minutes it was finished.
     After I got up I asked if the images were still on the screen. He took me into the operator's corner and I got to see the insides of my head. It was typical CAT scan images. Black where the sinuses were, white for the bone and shades of grey for everything inbetween.
     After I left there I went on to Mom's house since it was close to lunch time anyway. I thought that I should have asked the man for printout or two but it was too late then.
     The doctor's office called about 1:30 yesterday. The medical assistant there said everything was normal looking. So there's nothing bad going on in my head. At least nothing is growing in there. Of course those fancy machines still can not see the bad thoughts, depression, worry and stuff like that.
     So the head pains must be just some form of headaches like some people have migranes. It will be something I have to deal with. I started taking the asprin and sudafed again yesterday morning. I'll see how that works for a couple of weeks.
     If it keeps on or gets worst I'll call the doctor's office and move on to a neurologist and let a specialist tell me it is something that just happens to some people.
     Or I could let that Hayes stubborn gene kick in and refuse to do anything else about it. The CAT scan says there's nothing there anyway.
     I wrote Riverbend an email one day this week, about Wednesday I guess. She's one of the Iraqi bloggers I've been keeping up with. Told her I read her writings every morning along with the others bloggers. And something about how in times past us common folk recorded history with our personal correspondance among ourselves. This internet blogging is the same. So anyway she sent an email back and I got it this morning. Probably one of the better moments in my life during recent weeks. Actually had an exchange with someone in Iraq.

Wednesday December 24, 2003
5:40a
     The Winter Solstice came and went on Monday. It was the day before that I was standing out in front of the carport at sunset. I watched the last bit of sun pass through the tree line on the horizon. It is rare for me to watch that, even more rare to see it happen close to a solstice or equinox.
     This year the season feels even less of a holiday season than the others in recent years. But I make that comment ever year recently also. I got the Christmas stuff down from the attic one evening last week. Put up the tree in the dining area on Saturday, I think, and that was all. I just got the chore done and just quit.
     It is partly because of the head pain thing since about September, the going to the docotor and the CAT scan and still no reason found for what's causing it. I have started taking asprin and pain pills regularly again. I'm sure the problem is still there, it is just not as noticable. I guess it's not all that much medicine, 175 mg of asprin and half of one of the non-asprin pain pills, twice a day.
     Frances stopped by on Sunday and then left on Monday morning. She is on her way to Flordia to be with Steve's family for the Christmas. She brought a picture frame for some of Mom's pictures. It's one of those for several pictures in one frame. So that's what she and Mom did Sunday afternoon.
     Bob and Edna left to go to their Colorado farm Monday morning. They flew out this year. He brought a pork roast up Sunday too, it's their Christmas gift for Mom. A bottle of maple surp was included also. He talked about their farm house being broke into and stuff stolen again. That happened in sometime in November and had happened before too. He thinks it is a group of theives out of Texas that does it. They lost a chest full of stuff. Lot of what they have out there is from their living in the MidEast countrys. They should have just went ahead and moved out there years ago. He really wants to be there but Edna wants to stay here.
     I made my countdown to Spring list of days last week. Started marking them off yesterday. I missed marking off the first day Monday evening. Eighty-nine more till Spring.
     There's a few more Iraqi bloggers online now. I still haven't make my list of them with links to their sites. I'm forever putting off what I think about doing.
     Oh well, that's all for now.

Thursday December 25, 2003
5:40a
     Merry Christmas, Seasons Greetings, Happy Holidays ... #3 of the Third Millenium.
     The night sky is clear and crisp, the temperature about 30 or so, the stars are bright and the wanderers are easily seen.
     Tomorrow begins the 'twixt and 'tween days ... but it is doubtful if any worthy thoughts will be recorded ... what will be or not will not be or will.

Sunday December 28, 2003
5:50a
     Friday afternoon was the Ring movie thing. I drove down to Easley about 1:30 and sat in the car park across from the old Easley Mall site (now Lowes). That was where the old movie place use to be with the donut place in front. Then about 2:25 I went to the new movie place east of town and sat there for a few minutes. There were lots of cars already there and I guess most of them were to see the Ring movie. The movie started at 2:45 ... finished at 6:00.
     The way back to Pickens started down US 123 instead of the usual ride back along Main St Easley. Of course it was already dark thirty then and I am seldom out after night fall in recent years. So that was unusal. I didn't go or do anything else, just went on back to Mom's house for the evening.
     Seems like some parts of the movie were like the book, but that is common. The biggest difference was the return to the Shire. Frodo and friends didn't have to finish cleaning out the last of the dark forces from their home village.
     The lighting of the fire signals was ... interesting. One huge bonfire pile of wood after another being set ablaze, jumping from one mountain top to another. The return of the dead to fight for Gondor was over to swiftly ... unbalanced with all the scenes of Mordor fighting the city.
     Yesterday was really nice outside. But of course I spent the first part of the afternoon sleeping. Then about 3:00 I drove up the one of the fireworks stands, the one on Hampton Ave, to see one of the young men I worked with at the pizza place. He's a traveling man now, something to do with insulation installations. He's doing well for himself, going places and seeing things. Another one of the pizza place workers is doing the fireworks stand thing too. It's interesting how the pizza place thing has lingered on, or rather some of the acquaintances with the pizza place workers has.
     Today is suppose to be another nice day outside. Maybe this time I will make myself get outside and enjoy it. Maybe do something useful and construction for a change.
     I still haven't delivered the Christmas candy packages to others. It was the blahhest days of Christmas ever. It seems to get worst every year.

Monday December 29, 2003
6:20a
     I miss the pubs, taverns, grotos, cellars. Dark places in a back corner, nursing an ale, dark beer, house wine for hours. Hyping up the talk of all the great things we going to do through life. All the while watching the front door, keeping a weary eye for the deamons that would burst through, tracking and trailing us. Constantly checking the back door to make sure the escape path was clear.

Tuesday December 30, 2003
5:40a
     It is part of "Those were the days my friend," not that I ever lived any of them. It is only because they feel even more remote in these final years. Perhaps it is more so that the talk of the great things to do never materialized. Now some forty years later it is obvious they never will.
     There has been an internet virus going around, has from its earliest beginnings. They are creatures out there who prey upon others on the bulletin board systems, message boards, chatrooms and now it is blogger's comments boards. They are the disrupters and their influence has been increasing steadily for the seven years I've been using the internet.
     The comments parts of the Iraqi bloggers are the latest infection. What should be a quasi-private exchange on a person's personal message board is ... just another political circus. What should have been an exchange of thoughts and ideas of each other's culture and history and future is manipulated by the disrupters into self-centered attention.
     They make unreasonable, sometimes insulting, postings to attract attention to themselves. It is part of the game to dominate the boards, to hijack the comments for their own ill use. That has always been their goal.
     How will the Iraqis fare in this internet realm? It is too much like watching a group of people treading into unfamilar waters while sharks circle close to shore.

Wednesday December 31, 2003
5:50a
     It is the morning of the last day of the year two thousand and three. So I get to state the obvious.
     The last of the 'twist and 'tween days ... and not much of any writings along those lines either. Maybe more will be forthcoming this afternoon and evening.
     Provided, of course, the world doesn't come to a bad end during the next few hours.
     On one of the Iraqi bloggers sites he made the usual best wishes and greetings and good fortunes for the new year. But there was one that seemed out of place and caught my mind.
     It was basically wishing bad fortune upon the bad people in the world.
     Interesting concept.

Wednesday December 31, 2003
6:35p
For those who follow the sun the New Year is nine days old.
May your adventures during this next year bring good fortune to those you encounter. May their adventures bring to you your own good fortune. May your rememberances of troubling times be soothed among better experiences yet to arrive with this year. May your path through life this year be filled with vistas more wonderful than those before. May the mud puddles in your path be small, easily stepped over, and left behind. May your forgiveness of others who do you wrong be greater than the forgiveness which is asked of you. May the four seasons this year bring their bounty as gifts to your home. May the elders of your tribe pass their wisdom from many new years to those who arrive this new year. May the Peace we wish for the world be discovered by you this year.