Good morning!!!!

[Pixguy]

12F now clear sky temps dropping.
2"+ frozen solid even tractor wouldn't break thru and plow just rode on top,scraper blade did supper job w/no effort...driveway level w/plenty of grit.
3 neighbors ask if would do there driveway,2 neighbors said there snow blowers had no effect...that was short work.
Other neighbor didn't even make attempt nor try to shovel his walk way,and he has 2 teen boys that are just plain..... sure hope they got snow remove this afternoon...getting cold and dark.

Time watch little football and 60mins.

Stay warm all.

Ya, I got rid of that slush yesterday before if froze. Rock solid today.

Go Pats (tonight at 8:30)

 

[Larro Darro]

Our high was 64F and we are down to 61F now. This has been the coolest day in a while. {I wore long pants to work}

Just talked to Margie. They got checked in alright and have finished the only meeting scheduled for today. {She is at a small county elections conference in Orlando} She said the hotel is just a couple of blocks from the entrance where folks go to see the rodent with big ears. There are no plans for them to sneak over and ride the rides though.

Larro

 

[sodamo]

Dachau, now that was also emotional, but in a very different manner. Fortunately, don't have anyone closely associated with that travesty.

We did have the privilege to chaperone a group of American kids to Berlin and Checkpoint Charlie before the wall came down. Perhaps it was because all these kids had some connection to the U.S. Military, but it was really interesting to experience their shift in demeanor once inside that museum.

No doubt, the events mentioned today are dramatic examples of our history and give pause for thought.

Pearl Harbor and the horrors of the **** regime no doubt spawned what has been called our greatest generation. I still find many of the logistical and manufacturing feats simply amazing. To say that many of us now enjoy benefits paid at least in part by much of that suffering is not a stretch and we grew up in a far better world.

Like many here, I watched 9-11 unfold glued to the TV screen, but I have to ask, can anyone name the significant benefits? TSA?

<CSIHelper: 0x17a67ce0>

 

[Buppies]

Got more leaves up hung some Christmas decorations now football is on.

The sacrifice made by those before us proved they were the greatest generation. The ones that I knew have since passed but they never complained only wanted to make things better and make sure we never had to see what they saw or experienced. God bless each and every one of them.

 

[dave1949]

10F this evening, probably get down around 0F by morning. The mid-week storm is shaping up now in the forecasts. Looks like another 32F wet, windy snowstorm. Maybe 10" around here. Guess I should put the 3pt blower on tomorrow. I think Larro's long pants have something to do with this impending mess. Butterfly in Kansas, long pants in Florida--it all makes sense to me.

9-11 and other related Mideast events are really a continuation of events that began with oil extraction (first well in Iran, 1908) on through and following WWII. The Mideast, from our perspective, combines strategic locations and resources. Modern Mideast events really cannot be separated from the earlier events that lead to them.

WWII and the aftermath: ****** established, borders of Iraq set by Allies, increased reliance on Mideast oil resources, Cold War alliances with puppet governments (on both sides: USA+Shah of Iran=Khomeini and 1979 revolution, USSR+puppet Afghanistan govt+US arms support=Taliban, Taliban hosts Al Qaeda=9-11), are some of those forerunners to modern events. US Military convoys with Iranian truck drivers drove through Iran to supply Russia during WWII. Around 1970 Iranian jet fighter pilots trained in Texas. Honeywell attempted to train Iranian mainframe technicians in Phoenix around that same time. Ten or so years later the Tehran American Embassy was overrun and hostages held for over a year.

It's very difficult to draw a line between these ongoing events and treat them as separate things with benefits tied to them. In the process of defeating ****** and Emperor Hirohito--definitely a good thing--we inherited a host of issues and created some to go along with those. The Soviet expansion led by Stalin started in 1939, the early stages of WWII. Since war was imminent perhaps that expansion, which eventually contributed to the Vietnam War, would not have been possible otherwise. Certainly Stalin's stance as an eventual WWII Ally strengthened his own position in Russia.

Fast forward a bit to the 1991 Gulf War to preserve Kuwait's independence weakening the enemy (Iraq) of our then and still enemy (Iran). Or the 2001-present Afghanistan War followed by the 2003-2010 Iraq War. The Mideast tale is never ending and WWII is part of the story.









GEO ExPro - The First Oil Discoveries in the Middle East

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Feeling sad about Wayne.

Life is short. Tell someone you haven't talked to in a long time that you love them and that you think of them often. Invite them over for a meal or go meet them for coffee. We almost all have someone like that in our life.

 

[300UGUY]

I forgot about the fuel...little tendrils of oil floating up after all these years.
I also recommend touring a concentration camp if you ever get to Germany.
16 of my very extended family died in one and it was something I had to do.
I believe I went to Dachau. My family was sent to Belzig, one with a 100% death rate.
**** On Earth.
Different, but ultimately the same as being in the engine room of that battleship going down into the mud of Pearl Harbor.

And while we honor the past, we should look to the future - are the fundamentalist Moslems spreading the same madness that consumed the world in the past?

 

[Larro Darro]

10F this evening, probably get down around 0F by morning. The mid-week storm is shaping up now in the forecasts. Looks like another 32F wet, windy snowstorm. Maybe 10" around here. Guess I should put the 3pt blower on tomorrow. I think Larro's long pants have something to do with this impending mess. Butterfly in Kansas, long pants in Florida--it all makes sense to me.

9-11 and other related Mideast events are really a continuation of events that began with oil extraction (first well in Iran, 1908) on through and following WWII. The Mideast, from our perspective, combines strategic locations and resources. Modern Mideast events really cannot be separated from the earlier events that lead to them.

WWII and the aftermath: ****** established, borders of Iraq set by Allies, increased reliance on Mideast oil resources, Cold War alliances with puppet governments (on both sides: USA+Shah of Iran=Khomeini and 1979 revolution, USSR+puppet Afghanistan govt+US arms support=Taliban, Taliban hosts Al Qaeda=9-11), are some of those forerunners to modern events. US Military convoys with Iranian truck drivers drove through Iran to supply Russia during WWII. Around 1970 Iranian jet fighter pilots trained in Texas. Honeywell attempted to train Iranian mainframe technicians in Phoenix around that same time. Ten or so years later the Tehran American Embassy was overrun and hostages held for over a year.

It's very difficult to draw a line between these ongoing events and treat them as separate things with benefits tied to them. In the process of defeating ****** and Emperor Hirohito--definitely a good thing--we inherited a host of issues and created some to go along with those. The Soviet expansion led by Stalin started in 1939, the early stages of WWII. Since war was imminent perhaps that expansion, which eventually contributed to the Vietnam War, would not have been possible otherwise. Certainly Stalin's stance as an eventual WWII Ally strengthened his own position in Russia.

Fast forward a bit to the 1991 Gulf War to preserve Kuwait's independence weakening the enemy (Iraq) of our then and still enemy (Iran). Or the 2001-present Afghanistan War followed by the 2003-2010 Iraq War. The Mideast tale is never ending and WWII is part of the story.









GEO ExPro - The First Oil Discoveries in the Middle East

Sorry if my slacks sent all that nasty weather your way

In regard to international politics and oil, I was lucky to serve in the Navy between wars. I was too young to ever feel the stress of the draft number lotteries that were going on when I was a child. While I served on the USS Saipan {LHA2}, the only time we had a General Quarters when they didn't preface it with, "this is a drill, this is a drill," was in the Persian Gulf, rounding the Straits of Hormuz. We had re-flagged all of ****** Hussein's oil tankers with the Stars and Stripes since Iran had been bombing them when they went through the straits. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Our "good" friends today is who we will most likely be going to war against in a few years.

Larro

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Our 10 year old electric dryer stopped heating. I watched a few youtube videos to diagnose it. Those things are really pretty easy to work on. The thing I'd like to warn everyone about that I didn't know, is that dryers get lint deposited inside at the bottom. If the lint gets too thick or high, it can catch fire. The video repair guy said to take them apart about every 2 years and clean out the lint. No way to get it out other than to take it apart. I found partially burnt lint in the heating tube. So fortunate that it did not catch fire. Turns out the element needs replacing. About $35 on amazon prime.

 

[dave1949]

Sorry if my slacks sent all that nasty weather your way

In regard to international politics and oil, I was lucky to serve in the Navy between wars. I was too young to ever feel the stress of the draft number lotteries that were going on when I was a child. While I served on the USS Saipan {LHA2}, the only time we had a General Quarters when they didn't preface it with, "this is a drill, this is a drill," was in the Persian Gulf, rounding the Straits of Hormuz. We had re-flagged all of ****** Hussein's oil tankers with the Stars and Stripes since Iran had been bombing them when they went through the straits. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Our "good" friends today is who we will most likely be going to war against in a few years.

Larro

You would think we could break out of that cycle, or at least sit out a round now and then. Being intensely engaged hasn't worked out all that well. What if we had spent our war trillions on developing oil alternatives over the past 40 years--one wonders.

My Dad was a WWII vet, served in France, US Army Infantry. The war experience was hard on him mentally and he received a tank shrapnel leg wound which didn't help. He was a gentle soul who really had no business being in a war--but there he was like many others. He and Mom visited us in Germany a couple times while we lived there, so it was a good opportunity for my Dad to go back to see some things--with a personal driver.

We visited Dachau outside Munich but he could only stand being there for about 30 minutes and had to get out. He had been to camps as they were liberated and the memories were just too much.

We also toured the big US Military cemetery in Luxembourg where Gen. George Patton is buried, a very nicely kept tribute to the fallen. When we reached Patton's grave my Dad got really agitated and upset. He hated Patton, told me Patton's tanks ran on the blood of infantry men. I believe he came close to spitting on the grave--seriously--and that would have been nothing like his normal character. The intensity of his feelings were like a gate opened somewhere. From a comfortable distance I can understand that a general can afford to lose more infantry soldiers than tanks, but I wasn't there in his shoes of course.

Those memories and anger that I never knew about had lived inside him for 45 years. Like most vets he didn't discuss the war, I know practically nothing of his experiences, but it must have been always with him. It's a sad thing.

 

[Larro Darro]

My Dad was a WWII vet, served in France, US Army Infantry.

Like most vets he didn't discuss the war, I know practically nothing of his experiences, but it must have been always with him. It's a sad thing.

My dad only started talking about the war and his time in a POW camp just a few months before he died. And I don't think he really planned on doing it then, it just happened because of a comment I had made. We were watching something on TV, and someone got shot with .45 and kept on running. I said that it would have knocked him down, even if it was a hit him in the arm. Daddy said, "I got shot in the arm with a .45 and it didn't knock me down." He paused a second, then said, "well, it did go through a German soldier first, though." After some prompting, he went on to tell the story.

He went ashore about a month and a half after the big D-day invasion. They were fighting their way through France, some days taking large areas with little resistance, and fighting for every inch of ground on other days. He was combat infantry, so they were walking. His squad was moving along in a kind of loose circle when a German soldier stood up in the middle of them and demanded they surrender. The Captain shot the German and the same bullet struck Daddy about the elbow and came out at his shoulder.

The next day he was being taken toward a field hospital in a Jeep when they were ambushed. He was shot again, this time by the German Army. The bullet hit him in the side, breaking a rib, but not that serious of a wound. They rounded up everyone who could walk, and took them prisoners. The Jeep driver was gut shot and couldn't walk, so they killed him.

For the next three months he was taken back toward Germany, stopping at hospitals along the way. Sometimes he was just a few miles ahead of the front line. Then he spent the rest of the war {about 3 more months} at Stalag VII-A near Moosburg in southern Bavaria. And to note what a small world it is, his soon to be brother in law was near there in a sub-camp. They would go out during the day to clean up bomb damage in the town, and he saw him one day. He bribed a guard with a Red Cross Hersey bar to take him over for a visit.

Another little bit of pleasantness. When the Allied bombers would come over to bomb the railroad tracks, the prisoners would be put in railroad cars hoping some of them would get killed so it could be used for public relations.

They got by on bread that was mostly sawdust, and some thin broth with a little bit of chicken skin and some potato peels. Daddy never would eat potatoes with the skins on them after that. He was blessed that the war didn't seem to do him much harm emotionally. He was always a happy, easy going man.

Larro

 

[RoyJackson]

2014-12-08, 0311

Minus 3 right now and it looks very very cold outside! 24 will be the high today...

I cleared off as much snow as I could on Sunday. By then, it was pretty dry so the snow blower did a good job....chewed up the ice chunks easily.
Not surprisingly, the town did it's usual poor job in clearing the road...so I did that too (3rd time this year).

Boy, I hate to say it...but I'm turning into a wuss. I was chilled to the bone yesterday and after reading the cabbed tractor threads (late yesterday), I'm starting to consider one for my next tractor.

 

[MossflowerWoods]

32 here. Great thread.

History is powerful... Must be understood.

Yes Irv, I believe you are right. Unfortunately...

I'm going back to bed...

Thanks to all who have stood in the gap...

Be well,
David

 

[daugen]

40 degrees going up to 54 today on a cloudy, drizzly day, quarter inch of rain by tonight predicted, then dry weather.

Many of us are about the same age and have similar memories. My dad was an Air Force intelligence officer sent to China to help get supplies "over the hump". He was a lawyer before he enlisted, so they made him an officer, gave him a .45 and sent him over there. I asked him if he ever shot his gun and he said only once, at an airplane strafing their camp. I think he was taking his frustration out on the Japanese. His brother was XO of a battleship in the South Pacific, and became a destroyer captain after the War, then retired and taught school for forty years. What stories he could tell, and he never would, even when he had a few too many. Enemy planes strafing the deck of his ship, dodging kamikazes. I can see why he didn't want to relive those memories. I grew up with the pics of my father and uncle in their military uniforms on the wall, proudly hung by my first gen grandfather who came through Ellis Island in 1901.

One only has to watch Saving Private Ryan to get some minimal sense of the horror of DDay and the War in general. Yesterday we sent men out like cannon fodder. Today we seem to focus on technology vs the K-Bar. I suppose that is progress. Too bad we can't let the drones duke it out over the Atlantic.

Roy, you are NOT a wuss. You are showing your wisdom....

 

[wngsprd]

32 now, adding only a few before the rain gets here tonight.

Thanks for sharing your WW2 stories. They are very moving. I hate to think what the world would be like without the sacrifices of the American military.

 

[Thomas]

-0F clear sky and quite high mid 20's.
Grind day already looks like the northeast in for mix bag weather most of the week starting late tonight
Strange you mention about cab Roy,told Mrs. same,she said how about pickup w/plow instead I said how about both...I got the look.
Guess I better let pickup warm up this morning before heading out...brrrrr.

Enjoy the day all.

 

[Buppies]

30 outside this morning high of 38 later maybe some light snow tonight.

Diabetes forced me to buy a cab tractor the cold which didn't bother me before now causes me to freeze to death or at least that's how it feels, but now not so bad

 

[DABSGT]

17 deg. Feels like 10, one day closer to spring. Off to work have a good day all.

 

[Buppies]

Stronger signs now showing up that indicate a white Christmas for those in the East. Big ridge in west trough in east and weak ElNino all good if you like snow

 

[dave1949]

-3F, low-20's today. Warming & messy weather Tuesday.

Going over to the dark side eh Roy? :laughing: And that Drew is just egging you on I think like the Candy Man of Cabs telling you how good it is going feel.

Off to the dermatologist for a routine mole survey this morning which is about two years overdue of course.

Be safe all.