News from Back Home

According to the Wyoming Tribune/Eagle Newspaper in December 2002 then governor-elect Dave Freudenthal threatened to behead the state Treasurer, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Trent Blankenship, and the State Auditor.

Blankenship told Riverton Ranger editor Steve Peck that Freudenthal told the group, "Don't ever cross me or your head will be in your lap before you even know I've drawn my knife."

Hey Governor, you're in Wyoming, not Saudi Arabia. You can't threaten to behead someone around there without getting their dander up.

Governor, next time you feel like threatening the people you work with you might think twice about threatening to pull a knife on those folks. Do you have any idea how embarrasing it would be to have your family read in the Tribune/Eagle the next day - "Governor killed when he pulls a knife during a gun fight"?

Pay close attention to your surroundings Governor. Next time you might try threatening to lasso them and drag them down Capitol Ave like a wandering calf.

Now, I wonder if the Jim Storey mentioned in the article is the same Jim Storey that was the assistant Principal at Central High School when I went there? If I had known he was a former Marine I might have been more careful about my behavior....

Also. I used to work for the Wyoming Tribune/Eagle. I was a shaker/counter in the press room for the Eagle, which meant I worked the 11 PM to 3 AM shift. Before that I delivered the Tribune for about 2 years. Today they only have one paper, the Tribune/Eagle.

Nancy Pelosi Spews Again

I missed the Presidents speech last night. I was out on the golf course terrorizing innocent golf balls by hitting them into the water and then callously watching them drown. I don't need a ball with more distance and better spin, I need a golf ball that knows how to backstroke.

So I missed the Presidents speech, but thanks to Al Gore I can read the transcript on the internet. So I did. Then just because I'm a sick puppy who likes to go to bed feeling sad, tired and disgusted, I also read some of the Democratic rebuttal. I was right, it was sad, tired and disgusting.

True to form, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (from California) immediately used the President's speech as an opportunity to once again display to the whole nation her ignorance and her total lack of personal integrity:

"The president's frequent references to the terrorist attacks of September 11 show the weakness of his arguments," House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said. "He is willing to exploit the sacred ground of 9/11, knowing that there is no connection between 9/11 and the war in Iraq."

Congresswoman! Please, It's time to stop talking and take a deep breath your brain needs the oxygen.

Powerline.com is reminding us that Joint Resolution 114 that was approved by Congress and the Senate in Oct 2002 contained:

Whereas members of al Qaida, an organization bearing responsibility for attacks on the United States, its citizens, and interests, including the attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, are known to be in Iraq;

Whereas Iraq continues to aid and harbor other international terrorist organizations, including organizations that threaten the lives and safety of United States citizens;

Granted Congresswoman Pelosi did vote against this resolution. But 81 of her fellow Democratic Congressmen joined with 215 Republican Congressmen to pass this resolution 296 - 113.

The next day this same resolution passed the Senate with a vote of 77 to 23. With certain notable Democrats voting in favor of the resolution: Daschle (D-SD), Feinstein (D-CA), Kerry (D-MA), Biden (D-DE).

In case the opinion of 81 fellow Democratic Congressmen and 28 Democratic Senators is not enough for Congresswoman Pelosi then SoCalPundit.com a fellow Bear Flag League Blogger is collecting more evidence that in spite of the Congresswoman's delusions - Iraq and 9-11 are both intimately connected.

One final thought Congresswoman, We are not at war with Afghanistan and Iraq. We are at war with murderous zealots who use terror as a weapon. We are fighting a Global War against Terrorism. It just so happens that so far our military is fighting that war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Eastern Sierra Sunset

Last week I mentioned how much I enjoy the evening here in the desert. It topped out today at over 100 degrees. But the sun just went down a while back and it's about 89 and getting cooler.

This time I brought the camera out to the back yard to see if could get a picture of the sunset. Well I missed the actual sunset itself, but the orange sky around the mountains to the east sure is pretty.



A nice sunset, a quiet evening sitting on the patio with my dear wife, enjoying a dish of ice-cream. You tell me I don't have to get up and go to work in the morning and it's a perfect evening.

Golf on Tuesday 6/28

Once more we ventured forth to brave the summer heat for the sake of whacking a little white ball around. Well at least we were supposed to be whacking little while balls around. I was more intent on drowning them.

It was a beautiful evening. A little hot at tee time. About 96 degrees. With the humidity level of 13% it felt like it was about 102. Not much wind to start but it picked up to about 15 mph by the time we finished.

We got waxed tonight. Well my teammates all got waxed. I beat myself. It started out ugly and just got worse from there.

Scot our A player had a good round. He shot a net 36 for nine holes. Unfortunatley his opponent had better night and Scot lost down 5 with 4 to play.

I stretched my match to 7 holes but that was mostly due to my opponent screwing up a couple holes. I played awful.

Or CD player played a bit better but lost all 3 points also.

Oh well there's always next week.

What John Kerry Wants...

The President is going to address the nation tonight. This morning The New York Times published a prebuttal from Senator John Kerry to this speach that President Bush hasn't even given yet. That's why it's a prebuttal not a rebuttal.

A long time ago in a city far, far away, I was in High School. Several times I had to stand up in front of the class and argue different topics. One person would stand up and present their side to an arguement. Then the other side would be allowed to stand up deliver a rebuttal or a counter-argument. Sometimes we were allowed a back and forth arguement/rebuttal period at the end.

I always thought that the point of this exercise was to convince the rest of the class to accept my argument as the truth and then disavow my opponents arguments. I was surprised when the teachers didn't grade us on how many students we swayed to our side of the argument. Instead they graded us on our research, documentation, presentation and our general understanding of the subject matter.

However in politics is seems that you don't have to wait for your opponents to say anything before you counter their arguments. Senator Kerry must have spent a lot of time calling the Psysic Friends Network because he is able to refute the President's statements before he even makes them.

By the way Senator, you're not being graded on how many people your arguments sway. You are being graded on the quality of your research, documentation and presentation.

But ultimately it doesn't matter. You fail on both accounts. Your arguments are just a list of the same old tired Democratic talking points and the only people who are going to believe your rantings are the move-on.org and the democratic underground crowd and your fellow Democratic Senators. Those are the same people that believe that George Bush is Hitler, the United States Military has murdered millions of innocent civilians, Karl Rove has a secret remote control unit that allows him to change the ballot counts in Ohio and that making someone sit on the floor in a room with no air conditioning is torture.

So lets take a look at some of the things Senator Kerry has to say.

"The Bush administration is courting disaster with its current course - a course with no realistic strategy for reducing the risks to our soldiers and increasing the odds for success."

So Senator does the President truly have no realistic strategy or does he have one that he either hasn't bothered to share with you, or that you are just unwilling to understand or accept? We know what your strategy would be Senator - cut and run.

"Our mission in Iraq is harder because the administration ignored the advice of others"

So our mission is harder because the President chose to ignore your advice and went into Iraq in the first place, right?

"A little humility would go a long way - coupled with a strategy to succeed."

This statement is so laughable I can barely keep typing. Senator do you remember going snowboarding last winter and you had a collison with a Secret Service agent who was there to protect your life? When the media asked you about the accident you replied "I don't fall down, that SOB knocked me over." Be honest Senator, when your speach writer first wrote the word 'humility' you had to go look it up, didn't you?

We won't even talk about your ability to strategize. We all saw the Presidental Campaign you ran. If you and my 12 year old daughter ever get into a strategy game against each other, you're playing for money. That way I will only have to save enough for the other two to go to college.

"So what should the president say tonight? The first thing he should do is tell the truth to the American people."

This statement is followed up by nine paragraphs of lies and inconsistancies that Senator Kerry would like to hear come out of the Presidents mouth tonight.

Senator Kerry wants to hear the President say that

United States will insist that the Iraqis establish a truly inclusive political process and meet the deadlines for finishing the Constitution and holding elections in December."

Senator do you remember how long it took 13 states to draft and approve our Constitution? On June 1776 a committee headed by John Dickinson was formed to construct a plan of confederation. They submitted its proposals to Congress on July 12, 1776. It then took Congress 16 months to create and adopt the Articles of Confederation (November 15, 1777). The final ratification of that Constitution by all 13 states didn't happen until 1781.

That's a total of 5 years Senator, and you want to see results before December?

Senator Kerry also wants the President to announce that the

"United States will not have a permanent military presence in Iraq"

World War II, Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945, Japan surrendered on August 14, 1945. It is now June 28, 2005. Fifty years later and we still have troops in both those countries. Both counties are now allies of ours. They both have democratic governments and our military does not interfer with their political process. You are being naive to believe that we will not have a military presence in Iraq for decades to come Senator. The complete withdrawl of our military is what your detractors call a 'cut and run' policy. Something that our President is smart enough to know will spell disaster for our efforts in a Global War on Terror.

Eventually we get to what I believe is the key statement in Senator Kerry's prebuttal:

"The administration must immediately draw up a detailed plan with clear milestones and deadlines for the transfer of military and police responsibilities to Iraqis after the December elections. The plan should be shared with Congress."

I think Senator Kerry's biggest concern is that Congress doesn't know what the Presidents plan is. Which is probably a good thing. We all saw what happened in Vietnam when Congress started running that war.

Basically, Senator Kerry has issued a wish list of lies that he would like to hear the President tell the American people. Well at least most of it is lies. Senator Kerry makes one good truthful statement at the very end -

"Our troops deserve better: they deserve leadership equal to their sacrifice."

You're right Senator our troops deserve better. But it's hard to convince them that we as a nation are supporting and backing them to our fullest when you and your fellow Democrats take every opportunity to belittle, slander and castigate them.

The American people agree with you Senator, our troops do deserve leadership equal to their sacrifice. That's why we re-elected President Bush last fall.

Burning Old Glory

I've been trying to find the words to describe how I feel about the U.S. House of Representatives passing a constitutional amendment to criminalize flag burning.

I guess the most direct way to say it is tht I'm against both -flag burning and the amendment against it. There are few things in this world that will get my blood instantaneously boiling. Anyone not treating my dear wife with anything other than love and respect, anyone but me picking on my children, and seeing a bunch of pigheaded yokels burning an American flag. I guess I'm a traditionalist. I think the flag should be respected. Granted there are a lot of people out there that have no respect for the United States. But I'm not one of them. There are a lot of nitwits out there that truly hate the United States and every thing we believe in. They choose to demonstrate this hatred by burning our flag.

So if I hate seeing the flag burned so much then why would I object to a law protecting it? When you get right down to it what are these people burning. They are not burning the United States. They are burning a piece of red white and blue cloth. These protestors could stand on the White House lawn and burn flags until the ashes blocked the president's view out the second story window and it will not change any of the liberties and freedoms the citizens of the United States enjoy.

So go ahead and burn my flag it's just cloth and dye. The ideals it stands for will never burn.

Mark Steyn a columnist for the Chicago Sun Times made some very good points.

"...if someone wishes to burn a flag, he should be free to do so. In the same way, if Democrat senators want to make speeches comparing the U.S. military to Nazis and the Khmer Rouge, they should be free to do so. It's always useful to know what people really believe."

He also had this to say:

"A flag has to be worth torching. When a flag gets burned, that's not a sign of its weakness but of its strength. If you can't stand the heat of your burning flag, get out of the superpower business. It's the left that believes the state can regulate everyone into thought-compliance. The right should understand that the battle of ideas is won out in the open."

So lets nip this flag burning amendment in the bud before it goes to far. We're big enough boys that a little burning cloth doesn't scare us. Besides the enemy is much easier to keep track of if he has ashes on his fingers.

Rates of Speed

Copied from "The Motor Vehicle Law of the State of Minnesota" dated 1921:

"If the rate of speed of a motor-vehicle operated on any public highway through the closely built up business portions of any incorporated city, town or village exceeds ten miles an hour for a distance of one tenth of a mile, or if the rate of speed of any motor-vehicle operated on any public highway through the residence portion of any city, town, or village exceeds fifteen miles an hour for a distance of one tenth of a mile, or if the rate of speed of any motor-vehicle operated on any public highway outside of the closely built up business or residence portions of any incorporated city, town or village exceeds twenty five miles an hour for a distance of one-quarter of a mile, such rate of speed shall be prima facie evidence that the person operating such motor-vehicle is running at a rate of speed that is greater than is reasonable and proper. If the rate of speed of a motor-vehicle operated on any public highway in going around a corner or curve in a highway, where the operator's view of the road is obstructed exceeds six miles an hour, such rate of speed shall be prima facie evidence that the person operating such motor-vehicle is running at a rate of speed that is greater than is reasonable and proper."

Remember this the next time you are stuck on Hwys 395 or 14 behind some slowpoke who has no place to go and all day to get there.

"The Motor Vehicle Law of the State of Minnesota" dated 1921 also reminds us:

"...that when approaching an animal drawn vehicle head on if the driver of the wagon or buckboard waves his arm in the air it is the responsibility of the motor-vehicle driver to pull off to the side of the highway and turn off his engine until the wagon passes. This is to keep the animals from spooking. If you are approaching the animal drawn vehicle from the rear you are expected to wait to pass until you can do so without spooking the animals."

This guideline still has some bearing today. When approaching an Oldsmobile, Chrysler, or Cadillac that is at least 20 years old and is being driven by a hat and a pair of knuckles on the steering wheel. You should pull off to the side of the road and turn off your engine so as not to spook the driver. If you are approaching this vehicle from the rear you should find a different route to your destination because the driver is probably still following the guidelines for speed as established by the 1921 "Motor Vehicle Law of the State of Minnesota".

Bear Flag League

I just joined the Bear Flag League.

"The Bear Flag League is a consortium of Conservative bloggers who are current or former residents of the State of California. We enjoy the camaraderie of our fellow Left Coast bloggers and the spirit and struggle of being in the minority as Conservatives living awash in a sea of Liberals."

While I don't intend my Ridgecrest Blog to become a political blog, the politics just keeps creeping into it. So if you want to take a look at what some of the other Conservative California Bloggers have to say about things check out the list of blogs on the right of this page, right under the Bear Flag logo.

Ridgecrest Evening

Well it's about 10 PM now. The sun set around 8:15 this evening. It was warm today but not really hot, peaked out around 100. With the sun setting the temps have dropped and right now it's a nice comfortable 78 degrees. There is more than just a little wind blowing but the corner of the patio is sheltered so I'm getting just enough breeze to cool things off.

The air smells clean right now. I'm not sure why. Often the air around here has a hot dusty smell to it.

I'm sitting out here trying out my new wireless network. I installed the network a couple weeks ago but this is the first time I've carried the laptop outside to see how it works out here. I figured I'd get a good connection , after all I can see the wireless router through the open window behind me.

I need to send an e-mail to my sister's to let them know about my Mom and Dad's breakdown. They blew a head gasket in the car in Hardin MT. Dad described Hardin as a small town of aroud 25 thousand in the middle of nowhere. Gee that sounds like Ridgecrest.

Well it's a beautiful evening. It's finally quiet around here. The littlest kids are in bed, the oldest is upstairs watching Cosby show re-runs. The sky is dark because the Moon hasn't come up yet. There is still just the slightest hint of sunlight backlighting the edges of the Sierra Nevada mountains to the west.

I should probably try taking a picture to post, but the camera is inside and I'm just too darned lazy to get up and walk in there and get it. I'll try sending brain waves to my dear wife to bring me the camera.

Nope, no luck she must have her receiver off. Either that or our brainwaves messages only work when one of us wants the other one to bring home ice cream from the store.

Sorry no pictures of the beautiful desert evening for you tonight.

Wild Thing

My grandfather was a a die-hard-vote-the-straight-party-line-Democrat. When I was twelve he took me with him when he went to vote. We walked into the little booth, he pulled the lever to close the curtain then pointed out the Democratic Party lever. He said "Just pull that little lever and you're done." So he flipped the switch the pulled the lever to open the curtain. As we left I asked him who we voted for and he told me "the Democrats." He said you just do that everytime and things will work out just fine.

I've often wondered what Grandpa would think of me being a registered Republican. I used to worry that he would be very disapponted in me. But then the GOP released this video:

Wild Thing

I had convinced myself of this several years ago, but this video really drove it home.

Today's Democrats are not my Grandfather's Democrats.

Boy isn't that the truth. My grandfather would never tolerated the behavior today's leading Democrats are exhibiting on a daily basis. Grandpa was a good old-fashioned down to earth common sense kind of guy. Qualitys that todays Democrats exhibit a surprising lack of.

Raving Moonbat Alert

Once again an elected offical has stepped up to a microphone in Washington DC and proved that the people of California don't have a clue about what we are doing when we step into a voting booth on election day.

Yesterday House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi had the unmitigated gaul, the overinflated sense of self importantance to ask a reporter "I assume that the war in Afghanistan is over, or is the contention that you have that it continues?".

Then a bit later she said "This isn't about the duration of the war. The war in Afghanistan is over."

I don't know how Nancy Pelosi can call herself a Congresswoman, an elected representative of the people of California, and not understand that we, the United States of America, are fighting a global war against terrorism. She obviously doesn't undersand that Afghanistan and Iraq are part of that war.

Ms. Pelosi it's time that you grow a spine, develop a proper sense of morals, and do the right thing for just once in your life. Sit Down! Shut Up! Resign your seat in Congress! and for God's sake, please stop letting them show your face on TV, you're scaring my children.

Cosmos 1 - Solar Sail Missing

The Planetary Society's launch of a solar sail spaceship via a Russian Volna rocket has gone missing.

The Russian space agency (RKA) has made a tentative conclusion that the Volna rocket carrying Cosmos 1 failed during the firing of the first stage.

Either that or one of the ultra-secret space based weapons that George Bush had stashed on board misfired and destroyed the whole thing.

Opps, I probably wasn't suppossed to mention those......

For My Next Trick.....

This afternoon Slimeball Senator Dick Durbin was once again speaking before the senate. He had this to say:

Some may believe that my remarks crossed the line. To them, I extend my heartfelt apologies. There's usually a quote from Abraham Lincoln that you can turn to in moments like this. Maybe this is the right one. Lincoln said, if the end brings me out right, what is said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten thousand angels swearing I was right wouldn't make any difference. In the end, I don't want anything in my public career to detract from my love for this country, my respect for those who serve it, and this great Senate. I offer my apologies to those who were offended by my words. I promise you that I will continue to speak out on the issues that I think are important to the people of Illinois, and to the nation. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

In an earlier post I implied that Senator Durbin was a wolf in sheep's clothing - an unAmerican Sleezeball who has been disguising himself as a United States Senator. I made this accusation based on his comparison of Americans to the Nazis, the Soviet Gulags or Pol Pot. Well the above statement by Senator Durbin was intended to pacify the horde of Americans who objected to his slandering of us citizens and our men and women of the military.

If you read the above statement closely you will see that the Senator does not apologize for comparing United States citzens to despotic regimes. He does not retract his comparison. He only apologizes for offending us with his words. He does not retract or regret those words. In fact he promises to continue to speak out on issues that he thinks are important.

So quicker than the eye can follow Senator Durbin has worked a magical miracle. He has changed himself from a wolf into a weasel.

Golf on Tuesday 6/21

Well tonight was our first night trying to defend or first place position. We golfed OK but failed to defend our spot. As a team we went 4-2. However one of the teams that was 0.5 points behind us in the standings went 5-1. So we're back in second place 0.5 points back. But that's not a problem. Let the other team take the heat of being in first place. We'll sit here in second and concentrate of taking that spot away from them is about 5 weeks. We hope....

Did you ever seen a pro golfer on TV duff a bunker shot so it stays in the bunker. Then they get pissed off and slap the sand with their wedges costing them a two stroke penalty for grounding their club in the bunker. I always wondered what goes through that idiot's mind to make them do such a dumb thing. Well now I can tell you. At the moment you hit the sand you aren't thinking, you're just pissed off because you blew a pretty easy shot. Then microseconds after doing this dumb thing you are thinking "Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!...."

Then to make matters worse you have to hit again out of the bunker, finish the hole and then fess up to your opponents and partner about what an idiot you are.

To all the golf pros out there who I have called 'stupid' before when you did this, I'm sorry.

By the way did any of you see that beautiful full moon this evening? When it came up around 8:30 it was bright orange.

A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

Do you remember the old Chuck Jones cartoons of the Sam, the sheepdog, guarding the sheep and Ralph, the wolf, who tries to disguise himself as a sheep and sneak into the herd to steal sheep? Ralph usually manages to sneak into the herd but then his disguise will slip, or fall off and he will be revealed as the wolf. Then Sam tosses him out of the herd.

This last week we have seen a true life version of that old cartoon playing out in Washington DC.

The role of Ralph the wolf is being played by Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois. We didn't get to see the beginning of the story where Dick Durbin pulled to wool over the eyes of the voters in Illinois and convinced them that he was the kind of man that belonged in the U.S. Senate. At this point it would be easy to lambast the people of Illinois for voting for this wolf. But I can't do that. Because I live in California and we keep electing Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein to the Senate.

But back to our cartoon. Usually in the cartoons Ralph the Wolf's sheep costume will slip and reveal the wolf beneath. After 9 years in the Senate, hiding under his sheep's clothing Senator Dick Durbin didn't let his disguise slip. He stood up in front of the whole herd and threw off his sheepskin and yelled to world "I'm a commie pinko that hates America, loves terrorists, and will do or say whatever it takes to assist them in their cause." err, he said

"If I read this to you, and didn't tell you that it was an FBI agent, describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have happened by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime, Pol Pot or others, that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that's not the case. This was the action of Americans in treatment of their own prisoners."

Twice in one paragraph this slimeball Senator directly compares the behavior of Americans to the Nazis, the Soviet Gulags and Pol Pot.

There is a ton of opinions flying wildly around the blogoshpere right now. Mostly from conservatives who are fuming that 'Ralph the wolf' Durbin would compare the behavior of our military to such repressive and evil regimes. But I feel a little differently. Look closely at the above quote. Senator Durbin is not comparing our military to the Nazis or the soviet gulags, he is comparing Americans to the Nazis and the Soviet gulags.

Senator Durbin thinks that I, my dear wife and my three adorable children, my neighbors, coworkers, and every other man, woman and child in this country is an evil, corrupt, despicable excuse for a human beings.

I not too surprised at hearing a democratic senator accusing our military of being repressive and evil. That is the democratic party line. They have felt that way since the 60's and the Vietnam conflict. The democrats are the anti-military party.

What makes me feel angry, sick, disgusted and ashamed is hearing an elected Senator compare my family and my fellow Americans to the Nazi regime who exterminated about 9 million innocents, and the Soviet gulags who eliminated about 2.7 million, and Pol Pot who killed about 1.7 million people.

I am not alone in feeling this way. There are a lot of Sam the Sheepdogs out there who are coming for you Senator Durbin.

Here's a short list so you can start to watch out for them:

Michelle Malkin
Powerline
The American Spectator
and
Hugh Hewitt

This is just the leading edge of the sheepdog tidal wave that is hopefully heading your way.

Senator, your disguise as a loyal American is gone. Later when you are sitting outside the flock wondering how all this happened to a nice guy like you, don't forget - your disguise didn't get caught on a branch, nor did an unravelng thread expose your true nature. You grabbed your disguise and threw it to the floor then you stomped on it and shouted to the world I hate Americans!. So don't be too surprised to find out that most of America feels the same way about you.

One final thought. There are a lot of bloggers out there condemining Senator Durbin for his anti-American speach. The White House and the GOP have also condemned him for this. But where are the rest of the Democrats? Senators Boxer and Feinstein are you listening? Are you going to sit by while this colleague of yours slanders you and your constituants or will you display a little backbone and join the sheepdogs in decrying his treasonous act. Or do you agree with him?

COMO Golf Day 2

Today was the second round of the COMO golf tournement. I was swinging my clubs much better than yesterday. Not great yet, but much more improved. I had weakened the my right hand grip recently and didn't even know it. My "A" player from yesterday pinted it out to me near the end of yesterday's round. So I got my hand more on top of the club today and I was hitting a bit straighter and getting the ball into the air a bit better.

I had three new teammates today. We started ot on the 12th hole and started kind of slow. We made parr on the first three holes. Then the birdies started. We made birdies on the 6 holes.

For the day we were 10 under par. Combining that with the 2.1 strokes handicap we were getting we ended up with a 59.9 for the day which was good enough to finish in second place. We were 0.1 points out of first.

So I was on the third place team yesterday, the second place team today and I won the closest to the hole contest on the 8th when I dropped an 8 iron shot into 5 feet 5 inches from the pin.

I had a good weekend and am looking forward to next year already.

COMO Golf Tournement - day 1

I played in the first day of the COMO golf tournement today. The COMO is one of two tournements that I intended to play this year. I got pretty fed up with all the BS surrounding tournements the last few years. The men running the tournements would seldom play the format they advertised. If they did play the format adveritised the would play lots of little games with the hanidcap system that would bias the tournement in favor of the low handicap golfers. Their favorite game was to have the tournement played to only 90% of a players index. As a 26 handicap golfer with a 24.6 index that would give me 22.14 strokes of handicap for the tournement. So I would be giving up 3.86 strokes while a golfer with a 1.7 index and a 2 handicap would be playing to a 1.53 hanidicap for the tournement, a loss of only .47 strokes.

Well I got tired of the unannounced changes in the conditions of play and the handicap games so I swore last year that I wouldn't play in any of the tournements this year except for the COMO and maybe the club championship.

The COMO is a 2 day four man scramble tournement. They blind draw four man teams each day. So I get to play with six different people during the weekend. They usually pay out 7 places each day and closest to the hole prizes on all par threes.

The top 10 teams on the first day get to play in a horse race at the end of the day.

Well my team finished in third today. But not thanks to much that I did. I was really swinging poorly. My putting was pretty good. But everything else sucked.

We were eliminated from the horse race on the second hole. Our C player hit our approach shot on two to just short of the right hand green side bunker. The flag was located just 8 paces over the bunker. So I had to chip over the bunker and stop the ball near the flag without much green to work with.

I told my team that if I try to keep the ball close to the pin there is probably a 90% chance that I will drop the ball into the bunker. So I gave them the choice. Do they want the ball in the bunker or long past the pin. They took long past the pin. I hit the ball well and it landed right near the pin, but then released forward and rolled to the back side of the green.

I was feeling pretty bad that my bad shot had knocked us out of the horserace. But then it occured to me that our C player put me into the position to have to make that shot. Then our A player left the next shot, his putt, 5 feet short of the hole, and our B player missed the putt. Then the B player lost the chip off that we needed to win to continue.

So I guess over all our elimination from the horse race was a team effort.

More golf tomorrow with 3 new team mates. I just hope I can contribute more than a couple long putts and some good reads on the shorter ones.

Attitudes on Teachers

OK, I just made two post about teachers and the California Teacher's Association. I want to clarify something about my beliefs on teachers. They are for the most part wonderful people who have an often thankless and underpaid job.

Most teachers do what they do because they love it. I truly appreciate and respect hem for that. Anything I may say from this point on is directed not at teachers but at the administrations they work for. I'm 100% in favor os supporting, defending, and helping teachers.

However I have some real problems with the structure and organization that most of them work for. I personally think that the worst part of the public school system in this country is the teacher's union. I believe that the last thing the Teachers Union is interested in is educating our children. The only thing they care about is protecting their jobs, swelling their sphere of influence and making sure that they stay in control of the education monopoly that they currently hold.

That is why I support private schools and some sort of voucher system. I think a properly implemented voucher system would benefit the children to be educated and the teachers doing the educating.

You can't fix what is wrong with today public educational system by focusing on the teachers, the students, or grades. They are in most cases not the problem. The problem is with the administrators and the bureaucracy that is soaking up a major portion of the money that should be going to the teachers.

The private school that my children attend has an expense level that is about half of what the State of California pays per year per pupil for kids in the public schools. Yet every grade in the school tests, on average, a full grade point above the national standard. That is what good teachers who are unencumbered with an overbearing administration are capable of accomplishing

So when the teacher's unions start screaming that they need more money to fix what is wrong with the schools what they are really saying is there will be problems but if you give us more money we'll think of something or someone else to blame them on next year.

I you really want to fix the educational system in this country you need to do four things:

• disband the National Teacher's Unions
  
• Institute a voucher system to allow all parents to pick and chose where their kids go to school.
  
• Take an organization chart of each state's school system, with the class room teachers at the bottom level and the principals at the next level up. Then go up one level in the organization and from there up, fire every other person.
  
• Institute a salary system that mandates that no administrator may earn more than 85% of the salary of the highest paid classroom teacher who works for them.
  

The teachers are the key to our education system it's time we made them the focus of our time, efforts, and education dollars. Not the administrators who just keep messing it all up.

Just my opinions.....

Teachers Ripping Off Teachers

The California Teachers Association has decided to increase thier annual dues by $60 per year per teacher

to protect minimum funding to our public schools and to ensure the concerns of teachers, students and parents are heard if the governor calls a wasteful special election.

In other words they need more money for more ad champaigns to tell the people of the state of California that a 2.9 billion dollar increase in school spending next year is a budget cut.

Gee if the CTA would go after thier own administrators like Supervisor Baker who I just mentioned in my last post they could stop soaking money from their members that they claim are so underpaid. Supervisor Baker's salary increase and bonus alone would pay the dues increase for over 5000 teachers.

Nice Work If You Can Get It

Superintendent Ralph Baker of the Victor Elementary School District in Victorville CA has a new contract worth 1.2 million dollars. He is scheduled to get $250,000 a year for four years and a $200,000 signing bonus.

In the Victorville Daily Press he attempts to defend this new contract:

telling teachers at a special meeting on Tuesday that his salary will not hurt the district.

"I didn't take a penny from anybody,"

Baker opened up the meeting at a district building on Nisqualli and Mariposa roads by pointing out that his teachers were the highest paid, his district has the most distinguished and Blue Ribbon schools, and that he deserved his four-year contract. He added that his $1.2 million wouldn't have a negative impact on the district, the teachers or the classrooms.

Superintendent Baker is right on one account he hasn't taken a penny from anyone. However he has is getting ready to take 120,000,000 of them from the taxpayers of his county and state.

Before this new contract Superintendent Baker was earning $140,000 per year, his new contract gives him signing bonus that is 142% of his old annual salary. Then he gets a one time annual salary increase of 78% that is good for the next four years.

Then his crook has the balls to stand up in front of the teachers who work for him and tell them that he deserves this salary.

We are being blasted daily by television ads paid for by the California Teacher's Union telling us about how Governor Schwarzenegger is trying to destroy our schools by cutting thier budgets, while people in thier own ranks and running thier own schools are pulling crap like this.

Golf on Tuesday 6/14

Wow, tonight was hot! Not the golf, the temperature. At tee time it was 101 and the wind was blowing about 35 mph.

We started the night tied for third just a point and a half out of first place. I was golfing ugly tonight, but scrambling my ass off.

I only hit two drives all night over 150 yards and one of them was on the 217 yard par three eleventh hole. After 5 holes I found myself one down with 4 to play. We had finished 10 and I had 11 - 14 ahead of me. In most people's opinion 11, 12 and 14 are three of the tougher holes on the golf course. 13 is supposed to be pretty easy. Over those four holes I shot 2 over par scratch. Using my USGA handicap and in a stroke play event I would have been 4 under par net for those four holes.

I had a couple good chips and a couple good putts. Everything else was ugly, but worked. I won my match 1 up. I sure had a couple lucky breaks go my way. My approach shot on 12 needed to go over a tree and over the water. I forgot about the tail wind and misclubbed. I should have hit an 8, I hit a 7. But I also hit the top of the tree and it slowed the ball down enough that I ended up on the back fringe of the green in two. A long lag putt and short tap-in and I had my second par in two holes.

The team went 5-1 on the night and will be in first place next week by half a point.

This is the first time we have been in first place since the last week of the season in 1999. Our first year in the league, when we were clueless newbies who didn't have a clue about how tough this match play league is, so naturally we won that year.

This Week in History - 12 June

In 1811 an Ensign in Her Majesty's Royal Navy, Mr. Cedric Mortenay, approached the Admiralty with an ingenious plan. He proposed to build a ship that could hide from an enemy by submerging beneath the sea for short periods of time. The vessel would be built from oak like most of the existing British vessels. However there would be a few major differences. The hatches would all seal water tight. A large area of the hold would be taken over with a series of holding tanks into which water could be pumped to allow the ship to submerge. When the vessel wanted to resurface the water would be pumped out of the holding tanks which would increase the buoyancy of the vessel allowing it to rise. The pumps would be hand operated by the crew. The submerged time would be limited to one hour, the estimated amount of time that the air on board would support the crew.

The Admiralty was very impressed with the idea and authorized young Mortenay to immediately begin working on his vessel. The work authorization carried with it a promotion to lieutenant.

One year to the day that construction had begun the H.M.S. Poseidon slipped free from it's moorings and drifted into the center of London Harbor. With most of the British Admiralty in attendance as well as members of the royal family, the men of the H.M.S. Poseidon received the order to submerge.

The plans called for the ship to simply submerge from sight, wait one hour and resurface. Maneuvering under the water was not expected nor planned for.

As the hull slipped beneath the surface the viewing audience was breathless with anticipation. But the excitement was soon replaced with shouts of anger and outrage. The vessel had worked perfectly, the hull had slipped quietly beneath the surface and disappeared from sight. However the masts with all sails rigged and flags flying was still completely visible to all except the blind.

As the vessel resurfaced an hour later the a red-faced admiral was waiting on the deck when the hatches open and the young lieutenant emerged. Ripping the officers epaulets from the young mans shoulders the admiral began a long tirade about the waste of time manpower and funds. Lt. Mortenay managed to calm the admiral and convinced him that this was a minor setback. They could increase the size of the holding tanks and therefore take on more water and allow the entire vessel, masts and all to submerge.

After much debate they decided that it would be a shame to waste the funds already expended and authorized the Lieutenant a six month extension to refit the vessel with larger tanks.

Five months later the H.M.S. Poseidon once again sailed into the center of London Harbor. Received the order to submerge. And promptly disappeared from sight, hull, masts, sails, and flags.

Unfortunately the increased depth to which the hull was subjected, created too much pressure around the cannon ports and the integrity of the hull was violated and she began to take on water. As Lt. Mortenay ordered all hands to the pumps the outgoing currents of the harbor caught the sails and the began moving the vessel into the open waters of the English Channel.

The H.M.S. Poseidon, Lt. Mortenay and his crew of 40 sailors were never recovered. However his family received a posthumous award of Her Majesties Award of Honor because their son had indeed designed, built, and sailed the sneakiest ship in the fleet.

A Saturday Night Visit with Dr. Christensen

Saturday was certainly exciting. It didn't start out that way. It wasn't planned that way. But as the day rolled on it just gathered steam.

We started out kind of slow. Chaos was having a party that afternoon. She had invited 6 or 7 friends over for a "Schools Out For Summer" party. Things got going around 1 PM with a backyard full of middle school girls splashing, giggling, sliding, giggling, laughing, giggling, running, giggling, eating and giggling. Did I mention that they seem to giggle a lot? Well this went on most of the afternoon, ending with pizza and giggling for dinner.

The girls all seemed to have fun. At least that's what they told their parents while we were listening. So if they didn't at least they were kind enough to hide it from us.

So my dear wife and I have cleaned up around the house and are just sitting down to relax for the evening. It's about 7 PM and the kids are outside riding their bikes. Suddenly Chaos comes running into the house with her hand over her mouth and a shocked/pained/worried/scared expression on her face. Yes - each quadrant of her face was showing a different expression.

My dear wife and I give each other that "Oh what now look" and turn to see what is wrong. With her hand in front of her mouth Chaos blurts out "I broke my tooth on Destruction's handlebars."

Well I'm opening my mouth to ask "Why were you trying to eat Destruction's handlebars?", when she drops her hand and we see that one of her upper front teeth is half gone. The tooth just ended, in a nice neat straight line right across the face of the tooth. Only problem is it's now only half as long as the one next to it.

My dear wife and both leap to our feet, She rushes forward to comfort her baby, I manage to swallow my smart-ass question and instead ask, do you have the missing piece.

Chaos opens her other hand to show us a pretty good chunk of tooth lying there.

So while my dear wife comforts our oldest child I pace back and forth for a few seconds assessing alternatives. It's 7:15 PM on a Saturday. None of the dental offices in town are going to be open. The emergency room at the hospital is not an option; they don't have a dentist on staff. So quickly several other options run through my brain: Band-Aid - probably won't stick, Tourniquet - around what? besides she isn't bleeding, liquor - well at least none for the kid, spackle - maybe, oh, better scratch that also, five- minute epoxy - nope, I ran out of that, duct tape - might look funny, superglue - probably not going to get away with that while my dear wife is watching. So, finally running out of reasonable ideas, I get desperate and try something silly.

I grab the phone book and the phone and call a member of our church who is also a Dentist. I apologized for bothering him at home, but I was stumped for ideas. I explained the emergency and asked what I should do? Secretly I was hoping he would ask if I had any superglue around, but figured with my luck he would recommend five-minute epoxy instead.

Well this man, bless his plaque scratching, tooth mending heart, recommends that we meet him at his office in 35 minutes.

So Chaos had about 20 minutes of loving and comfort from Mom then we headed over to Dentist's office. He gets Chaos settled into the chair and does some dentist stuff. Finally he decided that he could just bond the broken piece back into place. So he did. Yep, I was right, it was five-minute epoxy and not superglue. It was pretty fascinating to watch. Since he didn't have a dental assistant I got to sit in her chair and watch. Seeing what goes on in your mouth looks a lot different from straight on, than it does looking at the reflection of what the dentist is doing in his glasses.

Well Chaos wasn't as interested in the whole process as I was. She was pretty scared. But once she realized that the Novocain injection wasn't going to hurt any worse than it did, and once she got numb she was OK. Well at least until I asked her if she wanted her tooth replaced with a silver or gold one.

So we got her fixed up and back into her mommy's loving arms. Dr. Christensen went far and above what I hoped for when I called him. I went looking for some suggestions and got a solution to my problem. Thank you, Dr. Dale.

So if you are ever in Ridgecrest and decide to bite a bicycle handlebar at 7:00 PM on a Saturday I know a guy who can fix you up. Oh, he's also a pretty good dentist during regular work hours also, and he'd much rather see you then.

Now all we have to do is figure out how Chaos and Destruction managed to get his handlebar slamming into her mouth while they were each riding their own bikes.

I figure it must have really been an accident and not one of them doing something that they weren't supposed to do, because Noise hasn't tried to tattle on either one of them yet.

Microsoft Update Update

Here's an update on my previous post about trying to Update my Microsoft Windows 2000 Operating System.

I'm not feeling quite so homocidial now. I had four hours of sleep and this morning to do some research and ask around to see if anyone else has had this problem.

Well I got it solved. When I installed all the updates and restarted the machine, it booted up in the previously never used administrator account. So that's why none of my settings or bookmarks and most of the applications weren't showing up.

I changed the default bootup account back to my normal account and everything showed back up just fine.

Gee I didn't even know that I had an administrator account on that machine. I should have known it, but last night when it was late, I was tired and everything was going to hell in a handbasket I just didn't think about it.

Now this doesn't mean the Microsoft is off the hook. Those upgrades still did some thing screwy to my system. I don't like it when changes are made that I'm not aware of. I like my system configured the way I set it up. So anytime my operating system starts thinking that it knows how I like things better than I know how I like things I get vewy vewy angry. But at least I've calmed down enough that if a Microsoft programmer ran my doorbell right now I probably wouldn't shoot him right away. I'd eventually still shoot him, but at least now I'd be willing to let him talk for a few seconds first.

Screwed Again by Microsoft

Well in a fit of insanity, stupidity, or just plain forgetfullness I went ahead tonight and ran autoupdate for my Microsoft Windows 2000 operating system. It's been over a year since I've done this and I was way behind on "Required Security Updates".

Well I have all my updates install now. My system is secure. It is also practically useless. By installing these updates Microsoft apparently reinstall my registry. I lost all configurations in every non-Microsoft program on my PC.

It looks like all my data is still here. But I have to now go through every program on my computer and reconfigure it to work the way I want it to.

To start with everything that was sitting on my desktop is gone. The files are still in the desktop folder, they just don't show up on the desktop anymore. So I had to move them all to another directory then back onto the desktop.

When I open my Firefox browser it opened up like a brand new program. My bookmarks, settings, everything was gone. I had to go find my bookmarks file and reattach it to the program.

I opened up Thunderbird and it also was blank. It started out asking me if I wanted to set up an e-mail account. It looks like all my mail accounts are still on the hard drive I just need to figure out how to get thunderbird to recognize them again.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. I will need to essentially rebuild my system from the ground up.

So I only have two questions - If I installed these security updates to prevent my system from getting hacked, and Microsoft essentially hacked my system, wiping out everything I use. What's the difference between them and a hacker. Either way, I'm looking at probably 40 to 50 hours of work to recover from my decision to make my computer safer.

Second Question? If I was using Internet Explorer and Outlook would this have happened? Probably not.

This is just one more reason why I think Microsoft is the most criminally dishonest company in business today. They are starting to make the oil companies look honest.

The Peanut Picker Speaks

Former President Jimmy Carter has called for the United States to shutdown the Guantanamo Bay prison.

"The U.S. continues to suffer terrible embarrassment and a blow to our reputation ... because of reports concerning abuses of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo,"

Apparently ex-president Carter is more concerned about being embarrassed over alleged reports and rumors than he is over any actual threat to the lives and well being of American Citizens.

What does former President Carter expect us to do with the detainees at Guantanamo? He doesn't say, but if we shut down Guantanamo then we really only have two choices - let them go, or move them to facilites on the US mainland. Neither are choices I would back or recommend.

So how about an opinion from one of those U.S. Citizens whose reputation he is so concerned about:

"I am concerned that the U.S. continues to suffer terrible embarrassment and a blow to our reputation ... because of reports concerning ex-president Carter siding with our enemies in the Global War on Terror."

or maybe this one:

"I am concerned that the U.S. continues to suffer terrible embarrassment and a blow to our reputation ... because of we are constantly being reminded that we were once stupid and naive enough to elect this deluded peanut picker to be our president."

or finally:

"What part of Global War on Terror do you not understand? These are our enemies you are championing. These are people that will do or say anything for a chance to undermine the resolve and strength of the United States of America. To see a man who was once known as the leader of the free world working to destroy the country he once led is sickening."

But then those are just one common everyday American's opinions, and what do I know, I'm not as smart as a peanut farmer.

On This Week in History - 5 June

After extensive research and examination it has become apparent that absolutely nothing of importance happened during this week in all of history.

I have found some references to an incident in 1943 involving a one week temporary truce between a US Aircraft Carrier, a German U-Boat, and a Japanese Destroyer near an Island in the South Pacific that was occupied by nothing but female headhunters.

But there doesn't seem to be much of a story there.

Getting wet in the backyard

This afternoon we had an end of the school year party for the twins and several of their classmates. We had two girls and 3 boys come over. It was a nice manageable size group.

We set up the water slide, an inflatable pool, a slip-n-slide and the zip line trolley in the back yard.

The kids had fun. They were sliding and splashing in the pool when I pulled out the squirt guns. It was a fun water fight. Except that I was outnumbered 7 to 1. Good thing I had the best squirt gun.

The kids played for several hours then I grilled some burgers, hotdogs and sausages. The kids all seemed to have fun. My two feel asleep rught after they all left. I'm tired and sore enough that I guess I had fun too.

Now we just have to do it all again on saturday with the oldest kid's friends. I may not start a water fight with that crew. I don't think I can pick them up and toss them into the pool as easily as I could the 8 year olds.

Golf on Tuesday 5/31

OK, I'm not going to babble on about the weather or the rest of my team in tonights match. The weather was fine, the team played well. We won 4 out of 6 points. We're now only 1.5 points out of 1st place in the league.

I'm going to mention one shot in particular. As a fairly novice golfer I always try to make sure that in each round of golf I play I have at least one shot that makes we want to come back for another round.

Tonight my one shot will keep me coming back for several rounds. The 17th hole is a 168 yard par 3 to a slightly elevated green. The green is closely guarded by a bunker and a large tree on the right hand side.

I struggled through my round for 6 holes and suddenly found myself 2 down with 3 to play. I managed to squeek out a win on hole 16 to get to 1 down with two to play. Then we teed off on 17.

I shanked my tee shot to the right. The ball only went about 100 yards. It was laying in the midst of some hard packed dirt on the right side of the fairway. I was far enough out from the fairway that I had both the tree and the bunker completely in play.

In intramurals I always try to play safe smart golf. But on this hole I had no safe smart play. My opponent was laying in the rough off the right side of the green. I had to win or tie this hole to extend my match. I couldn't chip under the tree, the bunker was in the way. I couldn't chip to another part of the green, the tree and bunder took the entire green out of play. I couldn't hit over the tree, it was so close that only a lob wedge would get the ball into the air fast enough and high enough to carry that tree. But my ball was lying on hard dirt. It's hard to get a ball into the air with a lob wedge if there is no grass under the ball.

Well I examined my options and finally decided that I need to get onto the green with this shot if I wanted any chance to extend this match. So I pulled out my old lob wedge and took a couple practice swings. Each time I could feel the club bounce off the hard dirt. If the club is bouncing like that I'm most likely to skull that ball straight into the bunker.

So with each practice swing I swung harder and harder. On the 4 swing I felt the club dig into the dirt and explode a bunch of it into the air. So I didn't hesitate, I shifted forward to the ball and took the same overly hard swing at the ball. I was doing my best to pound that open faced lob wedge into the dirt right behind that ball.

There was an explosion of dirt. I felt the shock of impact in both wrists. I looked up into the setting sun just in time to see my ball sailing over the top of that big old honking tree. It carried the bunker, and landed about 2 feet from the pin. It took a short bounce and stopped 8 feet from the flag.

I made my putt for par. My opponent mischipped and took a 4. On the next hole I hit my tee shot out of bounds and eventually finished with a triple bogey 8. But my opponent played tag with a couple trees and the lake. I won that 18th hole to win my match after being 2 down with 3 to play.

All in all it was a great night and I didn't play very well. Except for that one lob wedge shot. That shot will keep me coming back for a while.

A & L Tire

One of the most common complaints I here from people that live in Ridgecrest, and I make the same complaints myself, is how much they dislike many of the local businesses.

Unfortunately there does seem to be an over abundance of business owners in Ridgecrest that act like they really don't want to be in the business they are in. Many of them seem to go out of their way to alienate their customers. All to often we run into clerks or owners in stores that act like they want you to just throw your money on the counter and get the heck out of their store. Many of them offer poor or nonexistant service, poor products, poor selection of products, high prices and usually a very snotty attitude.

Then there are the other stores in town. There are several stores in town that have a much different attitude about things.

One of the second type of stores is A & L Tire on Inyokern Road. As I said a couple posts ago, we blew a very new tire on the way home from San Ramon yesterday. So this morning I got up and headed for the tire store. I have at one time or another over the last 20 years done business with 4 other tire stores in town. I always avoided A & L because I had been told that they were too expensive by several people.

Well I had trouble with every other store I did business with. Either the product was inferior or the service was bad, or they just went out of business. The last place I bought tires from sold me tires that the tread bubbling off after about 10K miles. I couldn't take them back to the store because they had gone out of business. No one else in a 100 mile radius carried that brand of tire.

Since I was out of options, I tried A & L to get new tires for the van. Yes they were a little more expensive than any other dealer I had bought tires from. But you know what? It was worth it.

A & L has turned out to be one of the best businesses I have dealt with in Ridgecrest. They really know their stuff. Their store isn't much to look at. But it looks and smells a lot like the parts departments that my Dad worked in when I was young. The people that work there are polite and efficient. The tires they sell are well known national brands. They back the products they sell you.

I took my two week old tire with the 5 inch tear in the sidewall in. The manager looked it over carefully and was unable to tell if it was road hazard, something stupid I did, or a defective tire that caused the blowout. So he apologized to me for the inconvienence, and told me that they would replace it - no charge. So I got a new tire mounted, balanced, and reinstalled for free. At the same time I asked them to check a rear tires that seemed to have a slow leak in it. They found a nail and fixed that tire at the same time. While fixing the slowly leaking tire the kid doing the work noticed that one of the studs on my wheel was damaged. Since he had trouble getting the lug nut off with the air wrench, he didn't want me to have to deal with it on the road with just a lug wrench. So they replace the stud, then told me about it later. Total charge for the repair was only $10. Which is the standard price for a repair. When I asked about the stud, I was told don't worry about it.

When the work was done they packed my spare away, and even put the jack and lug wrench, that I'd left laying in the back, away.

I addition to good tire work, A & L also supports a lot of the youth activites in town. They are big supporters of the youth soccer and softball programs, as well as many high school programs. This summer they are sponsoring a youth soccer clinc where they bring in coaches from England to teach the kids for a week.

So if you need tires, or tire work done in town, or you just want to deal with a good honest businessman. Check out A & L Tire on Inyokern Road

Memorial Day

Ok, one more post before I turn in.

It's Memorial Day.

So I'd like to send a thank you and a prayer to every service man and woman who has defended the freedoms we take do much for granted in this country.

Thanks to my Uncle Arnie who fought in World War II. Thanks to my Grandpa Dick who was in World War I. Thanks to my Dad who served in Germany in the 1950s.

A special big thanks to my Nephews who are currently serving in the Marines and Navy.

The Adventure of Going Home

We got up this morning around 8 and started packing for the trip home.

The kids were in stall mode and so were the dear wife and I. None of us were looking forward to the 6 hour drive home.

Finally we loaded the car and headed home. Shortly after merging onto I5 the rest of the family fell asleep. Which was good. The traffic got heavy and they all get nervous in heavy traffic. So I had the car to myself and Rush Limbaugh on the radio. Rush and his callers were hilarious. They were making fun of the Ted Kennedy for his honoring the one year anniversary of the Abu Grabe (sp) prison scandle. But the time his show ended they were turning it into a national holiday and making lists of what kind of presents you should give your favorite liberal on Abu-Grabe Day. It was funny, if highly irreverent. I don't alway agree with Rush, but I do enjoy listening to his show. It passes the miles quickly.

After Rush ended I put a mix CD in of my favorite old Motown songs. I was quietly singing along with the Temptations when suddenly my right front tire exploded. I was fortunately in the number 2 lane. So they shoulder was there on my right. A few moments earlier I had been in the number one lane with 70 miles an hour traffic to the right, front and back of me and a median too steep to pull into on the left.

I controlled the car and moved over the graded wake-up strip on the shoulder. I was able to get far enough over to keep about 2 feet between the van and the traffic then I got the tire changed.

The tire had a 5 inch tear in the side wall. I have no idea what caused this blowout. The road in that area was rough but not that rough. Additionally the tire was only two weeks old.

Regardless I got the mini spare on, and the back of the van reloaded. Since the tire was only two weeks old I wanted to take it back to the dealer where I bought it. So I didn't want to stop and buy a new tire so far from home. So I set my speed at 50 mph which was the recommmended speed for the mini-spare and we spend an hour longer getting home than we had planned.

Boy I have to tell you, I5 into Bakersfield and Hwy 14 from Mojave to Ridgecrest are really boring at 50 mph. I munched most of the way and made the family keep talking to me to avoid getting sleepy. On the bright side I didn't have to worry about passing anyone. I was definately the slowest thing on the road today.

We finally got here safe and well. I already planned on taking tomorrow off work, so instead of installing the new ceiling fan in the patio I guess I'm headed for the tire store.

Its good to be home again. We all like going to visit family, but coming home is always good. Well its getting late and I hear my own pillow and bed calling.

Happy Memorial Day to all, I hope you all got home safe also.

More Expensive Golf

BIL and I tried golfing again today. A little par 63 course called Dublin Ranch. It was a fairly new course, seeing as the area it was built in was all wilderness just 10 years ago. Now it's houses and a golf course.

I thought Canyon Lakes was expensive two days ago. Dublin Ranch was $48 and that was the twilight rate. Ouch. If we ever moved into that area I'd have to give up golf - just too expensive.

Dublin Ranch was a beautiful Course. Even prettier than Canyon Lakes. The fairways were smoother and closer mowen than some greens I have been on. The rough was fescue grass that was mowen about 1.5 inches. It was so thick it was almost impossible to swing a wedge through. It just grabbed the club head and stopped it cold. Outside the rough was tall fescue grass. And I mean tall. It was about 2 feet. You had to play all this tall grass as a lateral hazard. We lost several balls in this grass but each time we found more than we lost while looking for our lost balls. We seldom saw a ball we found, we usually stepped on them and felt them through our shoes.

The greens were hard and fast. I don't know how well they would hold a ball, then only greens I hit with approach shots the ball landed on the fringe and bounced onto the putting surface.

BIL and I played as a twosome. We had fun. No rush, no a$$holes. It was a wonderful afternoon. The only other golfers we met were polite and friendly. On the third hole we played up behind a fivesome. They immediately stepped off the green they were preparing to putt on and waved us through. We shouted thanks and motioned them to play on. We kind of liked waiting behind the fivesome. It gave us time to discuss our shots, offer some advice on course managment to BIL, and to look for lost balls.

At one point a twosome played up behind us. Seeing the fivesome a head of us, and that there was no one behind them, eveytime they caught up with us they would just ride back and repeat the last hole.

The weather was fantastic. The course wonderful if expensive. BIL and I had fun. All in all a great day.

San Ramon Wind Festival

San Ramon had a wind festival today. Coming from Ridgecrest where the wind really blows it was kind of funny. A wind festival when the wind is only blowing 5 miles and hour. Around here we wouldn't dare try and have a wind festival, the wind might show up.

We wandered around and looked at all the arts and produce vendors and watched the kite flying demos for a few hours. The music was good - some local band that covered a wide range of other peoples music. They turn out was incredible. Coming from a small town where a street fair might drum up a couple hundred people and the Christmas Parade might bring in a thousand spectators it was amazing seeing literally thousands of people wandering through the park.

A Good Round of Golf Spoiled

Well my brother-in-law-in-law and I went golfing today. What the heck are you supposed to call your wife's sister's husband anyway? I'll just settle for BIL (brother-in-law) until I learn otherwise.

BIL and I went golfing this afternoon. We played a course called the Canyon Lakes Country Club. The facility was nice. Pretty fancy. Pretty pricey also. Our round was $65 each. This kind of caught me off guard. I'm used to 20 - 40 dollars per round and have only ever paid over $50 for a round of golf once before. But then everything in San Ramon is significantly more expensive than Ridgecrest. So I was sort of prepared.

Well BIL and I were next to tee off and were warming up when the starter paired us up with another twosome who was waiting to tee off. This is a pretty standard practice at most golf courses and I usually look forward to it. It gives you a chance to meet some other golfers and sometimes some interesting folks. So we were going to play a round of golf with K and M.

However this time was different. Really different. When we first met these two we warned them that BIL was a new golfer and I while having played for 8 years was a 26 handicap. We just wanted to warn them that we might occasionally be a little slow while looking for wayward balls, and that we might be taking a few more swings than the average golfer.

Both guys told us don't worry to much about it, they claimed to be an 18 and 20 handicap themselves so there wouldn't be a problem. Things started out nice, friendly and chatty. You know, standard stuff - where you from, what business you in, how long you been golfing, etc.

Well it started out slowly but soon became apparent that we were in for a really ugly day. These two guys turned out to be the worst example of sportsmen, gentlemen, or just reasonable golfers that I have ever had the misfortune to have to spend 18 holes with.

For two guys who played as well as these two they must have had a lot of experience on the course unfortunately these two obviously never learned anything about the sportsmanship part of the game.

I should have suspected that something was going to be wrong when on the first tee I duffed a short drive and BIL had a short drive that just passed mine. We were both laying just off the right side of the fairway. K and M were both 50 yards beyond us in the middle of the fairway. As BIL and I rode up to our golf balls, K and M just rode right past us and on down the fairway to where thier balls were. We had to yell at them twice to watch out so we could hit as they were standing right in our line to the green. I assumed that they were just inattentive and had made a mistake.

No mistake there. These two consistantly outdrove BIL and I and they would ride past our balls and straight to theirs every single time. I had to constantly warn them to lookout because they were in our line to the green. Never once did they move out of the way. They would just step behind their cart and grumble to each other because we were taking too long to hit.

During the front nine I lost 6 golf balls. One in a water hazard, they other 5 were in deep grass just off the fairway. This course had very little room for mistakes. If you strayed more than 10 feet off the rather tight fairways you found your self in shrubs or 12 inch long grass. So five times for myself and 6 times for BIL we say a ball land in the deep grass. All eleven times M and K just roade past the spot where our balls landed and headed up to their balls. Each time that BIL and I stopped to look for our balls we were reminded that we needed to speed up and were told to just drop a ball there and play on. The longest period of time that we had to look for a lost ball was about 30 seconds. We found that one, while turning back to the fairway to capitulate with our playing partners wishes to just drop and play on.

Several times during this round they had both holed out their putts while BIL and I were still chipping towards the green. Then while BIL and I were putting they would practice putt towards the same hole.

On one hole I hit my approach shot into a pot bunker next to the green. BIL rolled his ball up to about 3 feet from the pin where M and K were just finishing putting. As I was working my way into the bunker I told BIL to go a head and putt in if he was ready. He stepped up to his ball and just as he started his swing, K reached back and stuck the flag he was holding back into the hole and walked away.

On the very next hole M and K finished putting before we got onto the green, then they stood there with the flag in the cup and their backs turned to us, while I walked all the way up to the flag removed it from the hole and walked 30 feet back to my ball. When I got to my ball I turned to find K putting the flag back into the hole and walking away.

On the 13th tee we had to hit a blind tee shot over a hill. In the distance we could see that a tree lined creek bordered the entire left side of the fairway. My tee shot was long and straight for about 150 yards then it took a huge left turn and we say it go flying into the trees along the creekbed. I turned to K and M and asked them if there was room to drop along the edge of the hazard down there (because I couldn't see the fairway where my ball would have crossed the hazard boundry) or should I re-hit from here. M turned to me and said "it's your call."

Disgusted at his nonanswer I started to retee a ball. Then K asked "why are you hitting again, we have to get going?" I said ratherly snottily I'm ashamed to admit "Since I have never played here before and I can't get a straight answer from the guys who have played here before to the simple question - Is there room to drop down there. I have two choices, make you all wait here while I drive down there and check it out and maybe have to drive back up here to hit again anyway. Or I can avoid inconviencing the foursome that will be coming up behind us soon and just hit from here."

They looked at each other, then M looked at me and said "Oh, OK, whatever." And they drove off down the cart path. I teed up my next ball and took a swing while praying with all my might that I could pound that ball right into the middle of their cart. Fortunately for me, and them, I'm a 26 handicap and I never hit what I'm aiming at.

On 17 a long par 5 that you couldn't see the green on until you were within 100 yards, BIL and I took several shots to get to the top of the hill where we could see the green. M and K were already putting on the green. When my approach shot hit the front of the green, they turned in a hissy fit because we hit near them and didn't holler "fore". I ignored them. Just like they had ignored us for 16 holes.

However I almost wasn't able to ignore them any longer when M's tee shot on 18 went wide into a hedge. He and K stopped to look for the ball and BIL and I played on, just like they had to us for 17 holes. When they caught up with us they were both comnplaining and whinning because we didn't stop to help them look for M's ball.

All in all it was a beautiful day, nice golf course if a little expensive and difficult. BIL is a nice guy to golf with who with some more practice will be giving my tips instead of me giving him tips. But the whole experience was badly marred by having to spend 4 hours with two of the most selfish, self absorbed, ignorant, insportsmanlike, a$$holes I have ever met.

M and K need golf lessons really badly. Not for they way they swing their clubs but for the way they behave, on and around the golf course. The few club pros who I have had lessons from and the two juniour college teachers who I took golf classes from all stressed that golf is a gentlemen's game. You have to play by the rules, and be a good sport to the people around you. Unfortunately M and K apparently never had teachers like that. Or if they did they failed those lessons.

I pity the next two guys who get stuck playing a round of golf with those two clowns.

I Have the Greatest Wife Ever

We made it to San Ramon in good time. Got here about 9 PM. Everyone is tired and stiff. So we took some time to unwind and relax then every one headed to bed.

Today is my 16th Anniversary. We came up here for My sister-in-laws birthday but having a larger selection of restaurants than at home to celebrate in is a plus.

I just want you to know that I have the best wife ever, she's letting me go golfing on my anniversay.

My brother-in-law took up golf this year and wanted to get me out on some of the courses up here. I never turn down a chance to go golfing.....

Well he wants to go today, my 16th anniversary. My dear wonderful wife told me to go ahead and have fun. So we are....

On the Road for Memorial Day

We're leaving today for San Ramon, CA. San Ramon is a bedroom community on the east side of San Francisco Bay, south of San Francisco.

My sister-in-law lives there. She turns 40 on Saturday and we're headed that way to pick on her about it.

It's about a 6 hour drive along some pretty boring roads. South from Ridgecrest to Mojave, The west to Bakersfield over the Tehachapi Pass. Then north west along I5 through the California Central Valley to Tracy. Then west through Livermore CA to San Ramon.

Golf on Tuesday 5/24

Tonight was another beautiful night, weather wise. It started out a little hot, with some wind starting up after about 2 holes. Fortunately the wind never got anywhere near the 30 MPH that the weather service was forecasting.

Our A player was in a pretty tough match with both players working hard to lower their handicaps. Both players were under net par for the evening. Our A player had birdies on holes 1, 5 and 7. This is his second 3 birdie round of the season. Depending on who you ask, hole number 5 is either the hardest or second hardest hole on the golf course. So I don't expect to see too many other golfers making birdie there, especially if the wind keeps blowing.

Our B player played a slightly different game. He lost the first hole. He managed to get back to even two holes later, then dropped the next two holes. When he made the turn around 9, he was 2 down with 2 to play. He managed to win both the last two holes to tie his match.

The AB side went 2-1 with a win by the A player and Ties for the B and the Best Ball match.

On the CD side the golf wasn't pretty. OK, it was just down right ugly, with an occasional bright spot. Our opponents are pretty good guys and we had fun anyway. I was in a bit of a rut. With the exception of a freak 5 on hole #9 I shot only 6s and 4s all night. Now, as a 23 handicap, and since I was alternating 6-4-6-4 etc. I was averaging 5 strokes per hole. Which would work out under normal circumstances to be a bogey round of golf. A pretty good night for me. I jumped out to a quick 2 up lead after two, then played pretty even until I finally won the match 2 and 1. I shot a 47 (net 36).

Our D player had a much different plan for his game. His opponent jumped out to a quick 2 up lead and he spent the night playing catchup. My partner finally took his first lead of the night on the 7th hole then lost it on the next hole. He went into the final hole even up with our best ball match dormie. He then got the dubious pleasure of watching his partner (me) hook my tee shot into the trees and knew that he was on his own for both his match and the best ball on that hole.

Then while standing over his ball on the tee box of hole #2, our last hole to play, my partner started his swing motion just as we hear 4 voices from back on the first fairway all yelling FORE! TEE BOX!

So there's my partner, in the middle of his back swing, people behind us are all yelling, the rest of us who are standing around on his tee box are all ducking and moving around and just as a ball comes smacking down onto the back side of our tee box, My partner rips a crushing drive 280 yards down the left side of the fairway. Leaving himself only 70 yards into the green for his second shot. He settled for a bogey on the hole which was enough to win both his match and the best ball.

Over all the team went 5-1 tonight, and had quite a bit of fun doing it

This Week In History - 22 May

The Lord said to Noah 'Build an ark and place in it all the animals of the earth, two by two. For I will open up the heavens and make it rain for forty days and forty nights.'

And Noah did as the Lord asked. And when the ark was completed he loaded all the animals into it. Then he loaded his family into the ark and sealed the doors. Then the rain began.

As the rain continued to fall the people who had harassed and ridiculed Noah began to worry. They moved to higher ground and began to make boats themselves. When they realized that the waters were rising too quickly they grabbed what weapons they had and stormed the Ark.

Beating on the hatchways of the Ark with whatever was available, shovels, pitchforks, furniture and pottery, they struggled in vain to gain entry into the Ark.

Finally the waters rose to such levels that the Ark teetered precariously upon its dry-dock supports. The outside population launched a final desperate assault. But the water was too deep to get near the hatches. So they tried to batter their way through the bow of the vessel. All attempts failed.

As a last defiant act, a desperate member of the rabble hurled a crock full of wine against the hull of the vessel, just as the Ark slipped free of it's supports. The complete futility of this last desperate act of a doomed man created a lasting impression upon Noah and his family.

As the waters receded and the occupants left to repopulate the earth they remembered, and as they built boats to sail the seas they made a custom of launching each one with a bottle of spirits.

Summer Has Arrived

My Dear Wife and I with the three kids were coming home from seeing Star Wars RofS this afternoon and the thermometer in the car said that it was 101 degrees out this afternoon.

I guess that means that summer is here. Well I guess we had better get used to it again. Once the 100s start we usually get around 6 months of them.

I can feel my shoes sticking to the blacktop already.

Volleyball - Final Night

Last night was our last match as a volleyball team. We didn't end the season quite the way I had hoped they would. My girls seemed to forget everything they learned all season about serve receiving. They also got really sloppy with their serving.

It was a very frustrating night as a coach. I just don't know what to do or say to motivate a team when they get into what I call 'zombie mode'. It seems like every now and then every team gets into a situation where the entire team just stands around and watches. I've tried calling time out and pep talks. But all I can do is tell them to move, to get off their heels, to get into the game etc. But there are some times that those are only words. And apparently words aren't enough some times.

Inspite of the lackluster performance we lost the match close. We were down the first game 23-16 and came back to lose 26-24. The second game stayed close throughout and we ended up losing 25-23. All my girls needed was a couple more good first serves or a couple serve receives that stayed in bounds and they could have ended the season 7-1. But I guess that a 6-2 record with a team that only got practice 7 hours the entire season isn't bad.

I'm not bothering with the statistics I kept. The league is over, the team disbanded and I may not see any of those girls again. Except for my daughter, I keep bumping into her quite regularly.

I really hope I do see some of them around again. Hopefully on a volleyball court. There were a couple young ladies on my team that I would love to have play for me this fall. But they don't attend St. Anns. So I hope I at least get to see them on the other side of the net.

It was a good season and I had a blast. A stressful, heart-attack kind of blast.

Well I got more volleyball coaching to do tomorrow. We're having a three hour camp tomorrow for our school team. I hope several of the 5th graders who will be 6th graders next year show up. I'd like to get an early start with these ladies. The volleyball season starts so quickly after the start of the school year that it's hard to get them ready for the start of the season. So we are going to try and hold a couple camps this summer. This year it will hopefully help us get our 6th graders ready for the next season. If we can make these camps a regular summer activity we can also use them to help our 8th graders next year to get ready for high school ball.

I'm a Star Wars Geek

OK, I admit it. I'm a Star Wars Geek. I took some time off work today and made sure I had tickets for the first showing of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. So there I was an hour before the doors opened sitting around on the sidewalk with a bunch of 20 somethings who reminded me way to much of myself 25 years ago.

I want to make something very clear - I Love the Star Wars Movies. All of them. Sure some were better than others. Some were lacking things I'd like to see more of. But over all if I had to make a list of my all time favorite movies they would all six be somewhere up near the top. At least 2 of them would be in the top 5.

They are fun, adventurous, exciting and most of all entertaining. But I'm not a total Star Wars Geek. I don't own a light saber, nor a mask or costume, not even an action figure. I have the DVDs and two sets of Star Wars Legos that I was given as gifts. I love the movies but I don't buy into the hype and marketing. They are fun movies but that's it.

I wasn't disappointed at all with Revenge of the Sith. It was a good tie in to the first trilogy, yet a good story in itself. Sure it wasn't perfect. There were several things that I wish were different. Specifically, Anakin gives in to the dark side way to quickly and easily. I was hoping for a more drawn out conversion. I wanted to see him keep taking little baby steps towards darkness until suddenly he finds himself in a very dark place, looking out at the light. How believeable is it for him to suddenly just decide to be dark? OK he had motive, but maybe he had other options also.

The chemistry between Padme and Anakin was nonexistant. Hayden Christohper proved in this and other movies that he can act. Natalie Portman has shown in other movies that she can act. So why when they are on the screen together are they both so bad? Regardless of the dialogue those two have no chemistry together. They do absolutely nothing to make me believe that they care for one another. Obi-wan and Anakin very obviously care for one another. It's apparent even without the words. Threepio and R2D2 have marvelous chemistry on screen together and that's tough to do from inside a roll of tin foil. Heck even the affection shown between Yoda and the two wookies was more believable than anything between Anakin and Padme. I can't really blame the actors for this, as said they both can act. Is it the dialogue? Maybe. Better dialogue certainly wouldn't hurt. But mostly I suspect that it's the direction they are receiving. I'm sorry but whistful gazes and clumsy hugging does not portray deep emotional feelings. Where were the small touches, the caresses, the hand holding. Why do they always look so ucomfortable together? If they wanted to make us beleive that they are truely in love then they should be able to just stand next to one another and look as comfortable together as an old pair of levis and your favorite tee shirt.

Lastly, Padme's Babies were two big, to clean, to normal looking to be as premature as they had to be. She named them way to quickly, and where did those names come from? Did she name them after her favorite brand of ice cream back on Naboo? Luke and Leia's Lucky Lemon Surprise?

Well enough of that. I don't want to spoil the movie for anyone. Go see it. It's a good entertaining movie. It's better if you have seen the Clone Wars Cartoons before, but not necessary.

I have just one more question: With all the advanced technology in the Star Wars universe, have they never heard of jetways or canopies against the rain, general anesthetic or ultrasounds?

Dell Computer Complaint

I finally decided to break down and buy a laptop computer. I've wanted one for years. Our desktop computer at home is an old Dell Dimension 400 Mhz PII. So I figured instead of upgrading it I'd just get a laptop for me to use and leave the desktop for the kid's homework etc.

So I started shopping around and had myself talked into buying a Dell Laptop. I was looking the Inspiron 6000. So I logged into their outlet website and started shopping through the systems there. I found just what I was looking for. Well, OK it wasn't just what I was looking for. I still had to pay for it. But they didn't have any free laptops in the system so I figured I could settle for this one.

I wanted to get this whole process done tonight because they were running a free shipping offer that ended tonight. So I picked out my system added it to the shopping cart and started the check out process.

I was in a bit of a hurry because the outlet store will only let you keep a system in your shopping cart for 15 minutes. So a 9:50 PM PDT I start checking out. After filing in all my information, name, address, credit card, etc. I was shown a total purchase page that included the system I ordered, free shipping, california sales tax and an $8 environmental surcharge tax for buying a computer monitor in california. A big Thank you here to the California State Legislature for finding just one more way to tax us poor voters into oblivion. Like making me pay $8 when I buy a monitor is going to improve the environment here is Taxifornia.

Off Soapbox and back on subject now - I had to read and accept Dell's purchase agreement, Then I had to click that I wouldn't export this computer. All in all I had to click through about 5-6 different pages and on each one I was being shown what my order was - computer, free shipping, tax, enviro fee tax and total charge.

I eventually get through this entire process and get to the last page where I'm allowed to review my order one last time before clicking on the submit order button. Now what to my wondering eyes should appear on this final page? My order of laptop computer, $49 for shipping, California State Tax, and California Stick-it-to-the-taxpayer environmental surcharge tax.

WAIT A MINUTE - $49 shipping? What they heck happened to my free shipping. I start reading the fine print and clicking back through the pages and everyone one of them has a $49 charge for shipping on it.

So I'm pissed, I'm tired, I'm confused, and I don't feel like dealing with any crap from a rip-off company right now. So I shut down my browser and flop back in my chair and glance up at the clock that reads - 10:03.

Wait a minute, Dell is located in Texas, which is in the central time zone, so if it's 10:03 here in California then it's 12:03 in Texas. 12:03 on May 19th. The free shipping offer expired on May 18th.

Now I'm really hot! Dell expects me to pay California State Sales Tax because I live in California. They expect me to pay the California Environmental Surcharge tax because I live in California, but they cancel my free shipping 2 hours early because I live in California?

Well that is just a load of BS. The free shipping offer expired at midnight. Well according to every clock in my house I still had 1 hour and 57 minutes to midnight. Sure Dell has to set a cut off time to end the freebe offer. But nowhere did it say midnight Central Daylight Time May 18. It just says "offer ends May 18". Well according to my clock here in California it's where I have to pay state sales tax and stupid environmental surcharge tax it is still May 18th.

So Dell - pick one are you doing business in California or Dallas. If you are doing business in California and charging all the different California taxes then why would you cancel a free offer early in California?

Crap, it's late, I'm tired, and now I have to start shopping for a new laptop computer - tomorrow.

This Week in History - 15 May

The annuals of naval history are full of great adventures and epic battles between men and ships. From the discovery of new lands, to the destruction of the Spanish Armada in the English Channel, through the sinking of the Bismarck by the British, to the heroic battles of Midway, both the men, and the ships they call home, from both sides of the conflicts have repeatedly shown themselves to be filled with strong senses of honor, duty, and national pride.

History books tell of the exploits, deeds, and courage of men such as Eric the Red, John Paul Jones, Christopher Columbus, Chester Nimitz, Sir Francis Drake, Ferdinand Magellen, Sirs John & James Ross and countless others. But none was braver, more resourceful, more daring, or more willing to risk it all for the needs of his country than an unnamed 2nd century BC ships captain.

Our unnamed seaman most likely commanded a small fleet of merchant triremes operating out of any one of many small coastal cities, near present day Tunis, on the North African Coast.

When approached by his King and General of the Army, this Captain readily agreed to make his fleet available and thereby entered into history as one of it's most daring, courageous, self sacrificing, and least known adventurers.

Most history books tell the tale of Hannibal's crossing of the Alps to invade Rome. But seldom documented are the great sacrifices, and trials (not to mention the mess) endured by a sea captain who agreed to transport Hannibal's elephants across the Mediterranean Sea in preparation for his historic venture.