Verna took this photo of me and Cabela as we were returning down the road from our mid-morning walk. Verna was walking with Bay Bay following us down the road toward our house seen in the background on the left.
Walking with the dogs is one of the most important occupations that we, as seniors, have. It gives them the necessary trip outdoors to do whatever comes naturally, and it gives us some very beneficial exercise during the several trips taken each day. Click on the image to enlarge.
I took this photo at the west end shopping plaza yesterday. These are ten claret cup cactus flowers in bloom in the landscape section in front of the bank. Our hedgehog cacti should soon be producing similar flowers, but will be pink in color. Stay tuned! Click on the image to enlarge.
Today’s special meal was (naturally) traditional corned beef and cabbage with boiled vegetables. Verna started the meat in the crockpot overnight and added the veggies this morning. She served this great dinner this afternoon to celebrate the Irish American in both of us. Click on the image to enlarge.
Verna had a notion to have stuffed pork chops and since she had a surplus of cream cheese, she wanted to add mashed potatoes that used that ingredient. We deviated from stuffed baked pork chops to cooking them on the grill and serving the stuffing on the side. The grillmeister can be seen in the image above. Some poached sugar snap peas and Verna’s excellent gravy completed the meal. It sure was good. Click here to view this sumptuous meal.
This is a portion of my rock garden alongside the RV drive. A boulder, several rocks and an old piece of desert deadwood (probably mesquite). The row of river rocks in the foreground marks the edge of the RV drive. Rendered in sepia, the image looks pretty artsy-fartsy.
You can view the non-sepia version here. Click on the image to enlarge.
I cannot remember the day this photo was taken. My Mother dressed me up in a sailor suit and took my picture with her little Kodak Brownie camera on the front lawn of our Long Beach, California home. I think I was about a year and a half old at the time. I think the little stuffed animal I was holding was named “Buster” by my Dad after he returned from his World War 2 US Naval deployment to the Mediterranean in 1945.
Of course, I enlisted in the US Navy in 1960 at the age of seventeen. It was in the Naval Reserve and I did not go on active duty until 1962. I was released from active duty in June of 1965 and discharged from the Naval Reserve in 1966 after a three-year hitch with the discharge rate of third-class petty officer.
I’m proud to say that I served in the United States Navy in the early 1960’s. When I joined, President Dwight D. Eisenhower was in the Oval Office. When I mustered out, it was after the Cuban Missile Crisis, after JFK had been assassinated, and while President Lyndon B. Johnson was busily escalating the war in Vietnam.
I went to Navy ‘A’ School in Memphis, Tennessee to be an avionics technician; after completion of school (I was first in my graduating class), I reported for duty to the U.S. Naval Missile Center, Point Mugu, California. When I first reported to the air station, I was assigned to a security infantry detail on the base – NEGDF (Naval Emergency Ground Defense Force). It was half intensive training and half security guard duty, complete with hard helmets, leggings and sidearms and M-1 Garand rifles.
After my security assignment was over, I was an air crew member, primarily as radar and radio operator for transport and patrol aircraft. I flew on missile test launch aircraft and also on other missions over the Pacific Missile Range. One mission transported a target remote operating platform to Holloman AFB, New Mexico in an old Douglas DC-4 (Navy R4D – Navy three seven two eight niner). When not on a mission, I worked in the avionics shop, maintaining the command’s aircraft communications and navigation gear.
I left active duty to work in aerospace and defense, but remained in the Inactive Naval Reserve until I was discharged.
