Latestarter's ramblings/musings/gripes and grumbles.

[Mike CHS]

I know that working one handed is no fun.

 

[Latestarter]

I just have to post a welcome to the present to Senile_Texas_Aggie who will shortly be reading this and be all caught up on this journal. to you for staying the course! Hope I didn't bore you too much while you got here. Perhaps I provided a little entertainment, maybe some smiles, some insight and possibly even a nugget or two that will benefit you in your future with your new place I didn't "@" you because I wanted you to just come upon this as you got caught up.

 

[Wehner Homestead]

 

[goatgurl]

latestarter you're so funny!!

 

[Latestarter]

I was looking on Youtube for music videos to DL to my computer to play while on it. I was DLing Jerry Rafferty when I saw RIP in the comments... I had no idea he'd died way back in 2011. Love his music. Then it dawned on me how many awesome musical talents we've lost in the past few years... Most recently, Aretha Franklin. Tom Petty, Glen Frey, David Bowie, Keith Emerson & Carl Palmer of EL&P, Prince, George Michael, Merle Haggard, Greg Allman, Glen Campbell, Malcolm Young (AC/DC), David Cassidy... And many more... So many gone.

I'm getting on in years so more of the musicians I grew up listening to are going to be leaving us in the near term.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Regarding

I just have to post a welcome to the present to Senile_Texas_Aggie who will shortly be reading this and be all caught up on this journal.

Amazing that you were so close to when I actually would finish! I just now finished reading your entire journal. It was entertaining, educational, and I enjoyed it immensely.

I am wondering about a few things, so maybe you can clear them up for me. First, early in your journal you wrote about one of your daughters who has epilepsy, and you considered not leaving Colorado over your concern for her. Later, you mentioned going after one of your daughters in Colorado for a visit (the time when you hit the black ice). Was that the same daughter? Then quite recently you mentioned your daughter was in Maine when she came for a visit to see you around July 4th. Has she moved to Maine permanently or is she just visiting?

Second, I was quite bewildered when there was a discussion of tattoos for goats. TATTOOS FOR GOATS? Do some of them get ones that say "Mom"? Something more goatie? I suggest you tattoo them with this:

As a warning to all you other BYHers, I will be stalking each of you as well. But this time, I am not going to let you know in advance the way I did @Latestarter. The only problem I see is that there are so many good journals to choose from. Decisions, decisions...

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Latestarter]

The daughter in Maine now, is the same one who I went and got in CO. She doesn't like heat and humidity and she was initially raised by her unwed mom, living with her grandparents, in ME. I met the mom and married her while stationed at NAS Brunswick, ME, and adopted her and changed her name to mine when she was 4 yrs old. She's the reason I married her mom. She called me dad the first time she saw me Anyway, her grandma died quite a few years ago from Alzheimers disease. My daughter got to visit with both of them about 6 months before her death when I took all the kids back to ME on vacation in a rented motor home (Back when I was making decent money and self employed). Her Papa is getting old and has medical issues... kinda common among older folks. She is not living with her mom but with her aunt, so that she can see and spend time with her Papa. Her mother lives up there as well, but was never really a mother except in name alone, and that hasn't changed even with her proximity.

Anyway, to get back to your question... Her initial idea was to move there permanently but once her Papa dies, there will really be little left to hold her there. She has visited with me down here several times now and I believe has come to the conclusion that heat in the winter and AC in the summer can make anyplace habitable . She has also become very attached to Mel and my goats. (Of course she spent time with Mel quite frequently when we both lived in CO. She and her dog Teddy would spend weekends with me quite frequently) She would spend several hours each day out with the goats and Mel and I do believe that it helped with her anxiety and depression in a remarkable way. She really loves the goat babies and wants to be here for next kidding season (March). As a result, I won't be able to bring her here for Christmas this year.

Since she really can't work, and there's really few jobs in Maine unless you work at Bath Iron Works (BIW) building Navy destroyers, swing a chain saw, or drive a big truck, her options are limited. There's also a lack of public transportation unless you live in a big city, (of which there are 3) which she can't afford because she has no income. So I anticipate that at some point, she'll be asking if she can move back with me. Advantages to this arrangement is that she'll get to see her brother and his wife and kids when they visit, and they plan to move to TX in the future as well, so she'll be close to family when I'm gone. She'll also be a great help to me.

Many/most livestock are tattooed/branded for ID purposes. Some animals get ear tags or get their ears cut with notches. Goats are supposed to have tattoos in their ears, but since Lamanchas don't have ears... I guess you're supposed to tattoo them on the skin web on the underside of their tail. It's really important if you plan on showing them in competition. I don't tattoo mine. No "biker" goats for me! 24 yrs in the Navy and no tattoos on me either. No piercings... Guess I'm just a dull old guy

 

[Mike CHS]

I wasn't a tattoo guy either but I did get one after finding out I wasn't going to spend most of my life in Leavenworth.

 

[Bruce]

There must be a story there that you want to tell us Mike!

Joe, I hope your favorite oldest daughter will make her home there. I think you two need/want each other

 

[Mike CHS]

Bruce - I'll have to figure out a way to do the short version because this ordeal went on for over a year. I was confined to the ship but every time we went out I worked approach control since I was one of only two that was qualified and we were both restricted to the ship. Short version is we had a crash on the ship, our tape recorders had failed and were turned off so the investigation board charged us with erasing the tapes. The Landing Signal Officer said I gave a command to the the aircraft that crashed that I denied making. The pilot in command that made the error was a Captain that was an Admiral selectee so the E4 approach controllers (me & Larry) didn't have a lot of weight on our side.

I was charged with enough that if convicted I would have spent most of the rest of my life in Leavenworth. The night before my Court Martial convened, my JAG lawyer was playing handball with an officer from the USS Kidd. My lawyer was telling the man off of Kidd about my case and had told him I was done since we had no way to prove what I said since we had no tapes. The officer from Kidd just happened to be one of the Combat Information Centers officers and said you mean the crash that happened back in (whatever month that was). My lawyer said yes and the Kidd CIC officer said we were monitoring Forrestals frequencies when it happened and had the tape (which they kept).

As we were walking out of the court complex in Norfolk my lawyer put his hand on my back and said you had an Angel on Your Shoulder since I had you written off. Later that night I and the other controller that had been charged were sitting in a bar in Norfolk and having had more than a few too many I told Larry what the lawyer said. He looked kind of silly as he looked out of the window at a tattoo parlor across the street and guess what he saw? A poster of an angel sitting on some clouds that now resides on my shoulder.