"I'm TRYING to crawl!!"

 

WHEW!!! What a day!!

Well, just when did today begin for me???? I'll catch you up.......AFTER we left the pool party, the next youngest generation (my two children and a few nieces and nephews) asked me to go with them for a drink. Soooo, never being one to pass up the chance to have a laugh or two, I told them "sure!". Sooo, off we went across the hotel parking lot to the restaurant and lounge, but....they closed at midnight and we hadn't been there THAT long. Soooo, we went into Hannibal and found a smoke-filled pub and were there for another hour or so having some laughs and a drink or two. Played a little pool/billiards and just enjoyed being together. Upon leaving we decided to get something to eat, so found a little all night cafe and ate around 2AM this morning........and so, it was a VERY short night for any rest.

Up at 8AM......and then had breakfast (very little for me). The kids hit the pool again for about an hour before we checked out and headed to Shelbina....about 35 miles west of Hannibal. It had snowed last night and there was a very, very light fluffy snow of about 1-2 inches covering everything......BEAUTIFUL!! Each family group left on their own and by 12 noon we were all at the Golf Club at Shelbina. We had rented the building and we had the family dinner for over 40 members catered. Very good meal....and an excellent facility for the family Christmas!!!!! The pictures will tell most of the story........family pics after the turkey dinner, and many gifts for the great grandchildren from Granny......the family Matriarch. Always....ALWAYS a fun time for everyone. There were eleven members of the family that were unable to be with us today.....with as many as we have in the family it is almost impossible for us all to gather on one specific day due to distance and jobs.

Drove home late afternoon and early evening.......Hmmmm.....I seem to be a bit tired.......sure can't understand why I should feel that way......hehehee!! It was a fun-filled family weekend......and an excellent way to celebrate Christmas for the 1st Lady and her family!!!!!!! Soooo, with my creative juices not flowing quite as easily as usual, I will bring this to a close for this evening. And......as always......

Life is GREAT.......and I hope it is for all of you, too!!

Family Pool Party.....yeah!!

 

All I want for Christmas is my teeth!!!!!

 

Mermaid Sisters...

 

Hot tub party.....!!

 

Cousins

 

LOVE this swimming pool!!

 

Family Christmas Pool Party!!

The alarm clock went off like a shot in the dark at 5:30AM this morning.....UGH!!!! Perhaps a four letter word would work better than that three letter one.....??? Anyway.....we readied ourselves and headed down the hill at 7:10AM for Hannibal and the annual Christmas get together of the 1st Lady's family. We stopped at a couple of places in St Louis for some last minute gifts. Another VERY necessary stop at the Chesterfield valley Mall......shopping??? NOPE.....a grande cup of Starbucks Cappuccino!!!!!!! Wow....did I ever need that!!! And then it was on up the highway to Hannibal and the Quality Inn and Suites for the evening. By the time everyone arrived that was coming this evening we had 26 family members here.......with many more to arrive by dinner tomorrow.

The late afternoon and evening was spent at the inside pool room with everyone enjoying the reunion and the pool, the hot tub, and a few Christmas spirits and lots of goodies which everyone brought. Several games of Mexican Train were played when there was time between watching the smaller cousins as they became water logged by spending soooo many hours in the pools.

If you are ever overnighting here in Hannibal, I highly recommend this facility!!!!!! The people working here are soooo nice and go out of their way to ensure that everyone has an enjoyable time while staying here. They have a complete hot breakfast each morning compliments of the hotel for all who are registered here.

I am going to post a few pics of the evening. Tomorrow the 1st Lady's mother, the matriarch of the family, will join all of us in Shelbina where a catered dinner will be held for all of us, and then gifts will be opened by all of the little ones. We began this way of celebrating Christmas a few years ago after "The Matriarch" became to elderly to play hostess at her home in Monroe City......and it works beautifully!!!! With the snow flying outside the hotel, what better way to enjoy the family than by not having to worry about preparing food, making beds, sharing bathrooms, etc., etc. It WORKS!!!

Soooo, with a wonderful warm evening of laughs and love enjoyed by everyone, I will close and, of course......

LIFE IS GREAT!!! And.....I hope it is for all of you, also!

A LONG day online......

OMG.....am I ever tired of sitting at my desk, in a chair, spending ALL day working on a glitch in my anti virus program.....Norton. I can't figure how many hours I have been online today......but almost from the middle of the morning until late afternoon. The entire Norton Anti-Virus program needed to be uninstalled and then reinstalled. Well.......sounds simple, but with all of the tentacles that the program has reaching into unknown nooks and crannies in my computer programs.....well, to follow all of the instructions, which needed to be printed out as the computer had to be restarted numerous uncounted times, and then following more instructions with each click of the "mouse"......the story continues, but I will not use the language that I was using in the privacy of my study as the day wore down!!! Anyway......I am currently without any anti virus program, living in sin and with possibility of being viciously attacked by strange, lurking viruses that are floating out there in cyberspace just gathering forces for the attack!!!! Well....enough of this crap with a capital S.....and I will bring closure to this discussion.

Today was the 1st Lady's birthday......the correct one I will not divulge, however, I will say she sure does not look her age!!!!!!!!!!!! And that is a compliment to the highest degree! So, I had red roses delivered to the classroom this morning and then this evening we dined at a new contemporary restaurant in Farmington. Her dinner was better than mine, from what she decided. My fillet was overdone and I should have sent it back to the chef as it was not as I had ordered it. But, being the nice guy that I am, I took small bites and chewed each little bite THOROUGHLY to eliminate choking from the dryness of this fillet. The dressing on the salad, bleu cheese, was way to heavy and thick, leaving a strong after taste at the finish of the salad.....AND....God forbid, the coffee after the meal was horrendous!!!! With the bill coming to $75.00, I thought about speaking to the waiter about these things, but then thought better of it as he would have just written it off as a few negative and nasty remarks from some old man who was feeling very crotchity (sp?)!! Besides, tonight wasn't about me or my dinner, but about the 1st Lady having an enjoyable evening......and when I complain, she gets upset and embarrassed. (Surely she is getting used to it???) hahaha.

Ok.....THAT was my negative, tiring day!! One of the few that I have had in recent memory!!!!! But no matter about all of the above because........

Life IS Good.....and I hope it is for all of you during this Holiday Season, too!!

(I will be in Hannibal tomorrow and most of Sunday for the 1st Lady's family's Christmas gathering and celebration. I think the Quality hotel has wifi........but, should be able to post anyway thru my cell phone.)

Relaxing (from what?) at home....plus another Thai Tale

Yep......from what in the hell did I relax from?????? Was it necessary to just kick back and do not tooooo much of anything???? Well......I AM retired, and if I want to do absolutely nothing if I have nothing to do, then I most certainly will NOTHING!! Hey....no soapbox tonight over this.....just verifying my feelings about doing nothing. Hmmmm.......enough of this crap, John!

I did walk two miles this afternoon, even though the wind was a bit nippy as I walked into it. Spent about an hour in TheHowserHouse.......needed to run the gennie and also needed to check out the new entertainment receiver and surround sound after having it replaced. The DVD player worked wonderfully, as well as the surround sound. Sooooo, while the gennie ran for an hour, I listened to a CD of Nora Jones being piped throughout the RV, cleaned out a few drawers that needed some arranging, and took out he microwave/convection oven manual for the Jim and Sherry.......who never received one when they purchased their new Cedar Creek!

Supper was a rerun of last night's Jambalya(still don't know the spelling??).....and it was even better than last night!!!! LOVE THIS RECIPE!!!!!!!!! And the 1st Lady even really likes it, and she is not one for tooo much heat in a recipe/dish.

The 1st Lady is busy this evening......finishing up the present wrapping for us.....and for Santa Claus. Thankfully, it is about complete......it is beginning to drive her nuts trying to make certain that the granddaughters have EXACTLY the same number of gifts!!! Of course, the girls NEVER count them, but she feels this little exercise in futility is necessary.

Thailand Tales:

I don't believe I have ever talked about exactly what I was doing for the USAF while in Thailand. I was just there on temporary duty for two months and then for another two months, at my request. I worked in equipment supply, which meant while in the Kingdom of Siam, any aircraft parts that quit working in one of our planes had to be returned to me and then I would issue a new part. When I arrived at Ubon AFB, the supply sgt. who had been operating the issue/return supply section had not done the required job.......and I am not telling a tall Thai tale!!! There were two million dollars in aircraft parts that were defective/broken which had not been turned in when the new parts were issued!!!!!! THAT is a lot of money worth of broken parts.

Sooooo, a long story made short, I set about combing the base and over a period of several weeks, I located the missing parts...or at least about 1.5 million dollars worth. Consequently......I was awarded a commendation and some "time off" from my job there at Ubon. Sooooo.....I grabbed a flight to Chiang Mai, the second largest city in Thailand which is in the northwest part of the country. Located rather in a triangle of Thailand, Burma(at least that is what is was called then), and China. The beautiful city lies at the foot of the mountains, much as Colorado Springs and Denver do. I had four days for the trip and needed much more, but after all.....I was in the USAF and we were fighting a war in Viet Nam.....not very far from Ubon.

The city, as I said above, is a beautiful city with some wonderful hotels......now keep in mind this was in 1970!!! I enjoyed walking around the city and visiting some of the incredibly beautiful Buddhist temples while I was there.......what an experience. One day I took a bus tour....which made circle route around the area surrounding Chiang Mai. All around this route were small little Thai villages.....and the unique thing was that each village specialized in a specific art or craft. Once village made paper umbrellas for blocking the sun....and there were tons of little open air shops with these brightly colored umbrellas hanging from wires and blowing in the breezes. Another village made Thai silk.....weaving the various colors and designs on hand operated looms in large buildings cooled only by large fans. The silk is highly prized for its beauty and high quality. I purchase many yards of the silk to take back home as gifts to family and friends that enjoyed sewing.

Another village worked with silver.....making small boxeds, jewelry, and beautiful art works for homes and offices. The tour took us through many villages and there were several more: one that did art work on very, very delicate rice paper which had scenes of Thai life on them......another worked in laquer ware, making wooden vases, boxes, plates, etc., etc and then the pieces went through cycles of painting the lacquer on the items.....and the layering of the lacquer took days and days to complete; another village was the incredible Thai wood carvers.....WOW!!!!! This place was just hard to believe: all items were carved from Teak wood and and finished soooo beautifully.....all by hand. I purchase a 32" hand carved elephant....about 50 pounds.....and the price???? $3.00.....yes, I said three dollars!!!! Everything was sooooo very, very cheap at that point in time.

I bought at least one item from each arts/crafts village that we visited. I wasn't sure if I could get all of these things back on the USAF aircraft to return to Ubon.....but I decided to take that chance!! As it turned out, I didn't have anything in comparison to some of the others.....some had purchased desks, beds with large ornately carved headboards, etc., etc. When we started down the runway to take off.......well,..we had to make three attempts to get off the ground because the aircraft was soooo heavy with furniture and gifts!!!!! Three times we gathered speed and then had to brake and turn around and try again!!!!! A bit nerve-wracking, to say the least...hahaha!

Sooooo, with my day in the villages around Chiang Mai now extracted from my memory, I will close this for tonight.....and so,

Life is GREAT (and was in 1970 also), and I hope the same for all of you!!!

An ugly gray, but busy day...

Overnighted at the Moser Estate west of Washington, MO with Dr. Jeni and family. Meghan had been taken to school, exactly one mile from the Estate, prior to this old man getting out of bed and coming down to the Great Room for coffee. Looking out the back through the 3 floors of solid windows, I could tell it would be rather bleak and dreary today, or at least thru the morning. I love to be close to a forest at this time of the year when the trees stand naked.....the visual sights thru the trees is wonderful......soooo many vistas can be viewed in the winter that simply do not exist during the other three seasons.

After a few cups of coffee, and a mind full of winter sights out the rear of the Great Room, I decided I needed to hit the road for the city and a bit more shopping for the Holidays. Which......I did, finding myself at South County Mall by 10am. After a couple of hours and many wrenching gift decisions, I headed down the road to F'town...through fog, drizzle, and pure grayness. I stopped in Farmington and had the oil changed in the Buick and then continued on down the road to the stick and brick.

A quick run to the grocery store for some supplies, and then I started to put together a one dish meal for dinner: a southwestern Jambalya(sp??). It is always very, very good and today's, the first in a almost a year, was outstanding.....if I do say so myself....hahaha!!! Onion, green pepper, garlic, olive oil, celery, smoked sausage, Rotel tomatoes/chilies, Western beans, rice, and about a pound or more of shrimp. For the cooking liquid, I use chicken broth.....and in this pot, it took five cans after almost four hours of simmering. The shrimp is not added to the mixture until about 3 minutes before serving as the shrimp become very tough if cooked for more than the 3 minutes. This dish does have some heat to it......but not overwhelming as the other flavors do come through nicely and leave a warm, comfy feeling to the palette upon finishing the meal.
I also used a Tuscan round loaf of bread that is course and excellent with this "comfort food" dish......and of course, the dark red medicine to help with the digestion!!!!!!! An excellent meal to end a dreary day.

Prior to dinner, I had my five students for their 30 minutes each with me for their music instruction. It is sooooo nice to have students that want to learn and work to do all they can to improve themselves each week. My h.s. piano student is like a sponge......he just soaks up the advice and instructions which I give to him.

Anxious to get back to discussing some memories of the Far East......and in particular...Thailand. There IS much more to discuss.....and I do enjoy doing so. The five months I was assigned to Korea.....well, that was an extremely fascinating place to be 36 years ago......soooo different than it is now!

Oh......guess I neglected to mention the dam which broke today.......about 24 miles or so from here to the west. Such an unusual location for a dam.......right on top of a mountain and the "lake" formed by the dam took up the entire mt. top.....just like a fortress on top of a high hill! The concrete "dam" surrounded the entire body of water.....1.5 billion gallons of water......it looked like a strange hat on top of the mt. Weird....to say the least. When electricity was needed, the water came down the mt in huge tubes, going thru the turbines and making the energy.....then all of the water was pumped BACK UP the mountain to the dammed in area to begin the process all over again. BUT.....it is all gone as of this morning!!! At least, so far, there have been no deaths from this tragedy. Just luck......

Sooooo, after a gray day I bring the day to a close........

Life is Good......and I hope for all of you, also!

St Louis..Elementary Program...THE LINZ's WIN AMAZING RACE!!

After trading vehicles this morning with the 1st Lady out at the high school, a quick stop at the local furniture store for bean bag possibilities, and then the drive to the city for some Christmas shopping......and the morning was finished. Shopped most of the day......finally found an ink cartridge for our "free printer" which we got back in early fall when we purchased the 1st Lady's laptop, and then some Christmas shopping and looking and looking and looking. No more can be said here in cyberspace......the 1st Lady just might for the first time read this blog. She NEVER even looks at this.....think she thinks she will be embarrassed at what I am saying.....hahaha!!!

Went out to Washington, MO for supper at Appleby's(sp??) and then on out to the Moser Estate....about 8 miles or so west of Washington in the beautiful rolling hills along the Missouri River. Easy to understand why there are sooooo many German immigrants here originally......it resembles hills along the Rhine and in southern German......it is so pretty here, no matter which season you visit.

Then......to the elementary school out here in the hills. Hundreds of people were there for the K-4th grade Christmas program. It was really good......and, of course, Meghan was the best........could I be a bit biased???? Surely not....haha!! I have put some pics below from the program.....all focused on Meghan.

Afterwards, it was back to the Moser Estate.....and THE AMAZING RACE....which we had "TIVOed" while we were gone. Oh my God.......I thought for sure the Weaver Family was going to win......but in the end, my pick of the familys from the very first night of the show....the Linz family.....WON!!!! This particular family was sooooo positive and had sooooo much fun as they played the game......it was just fun to sit back and watch them have fun doing the race.

Now......Survivor is over.....The Amazing Race is over.........what will there be to look forward to on the tellie???? Medium is still there, but they seem to be showing re-runs frequently, and I don't particularly enjoy that! Do I allow myself to get hooked on The Bachelor???? I'm not sure about that......... May have to just read more than I normally do.

I am rather tired tonight........shopping all day, going to the music program EARLY to save the seats on the 1st row...hahaha..for the proud parents of Meghan.....and then "running" the Race to the finish line....whew!!!! What a day!!!! So.....think I will check my email and hit the sack.....up in the bonus room in this rather large house. Hope I can find all of the light switches here in the Great Room.....there are lights everywhere that seem to be on and there isn't just one switch for them......oh well............

Life is GREAT......and I sure hope it is for all of you, too!!! (Enjoy.... Dr. Vinai!!)

This song's for you, Pawpaw

 

I really like to sing...

 

Are you singing????

 

It's over already......

 

A gray, cloudy day.....

WOW.....where has our sun disappeared to??? It is damp, very chilly, and just plain depressing around here....even with the Christmas (not Holiday) tree lights on. Last night I had asked this friend to call me.....well, around 10am I remembered he wasn't working today, AND.....currently does not have internet at home. Soooo, how was he supposed to know to give me a call???? Sooo, I picked up the phone and called him and we set a time for lunch. Well......as is almost always the case when we both have open schedules....we sat and ate and talked for almost 2 hours at the local Pizza Hut. It has been almost 2 months since we have each had the time to get together......so, 2 hours was probably not enough, but we managed to cram a lot of gossip, education, religion, family, trips, and plans into those couple of hours......notice I did NOT say anything about politics. We just agree to disagree.....so why have to disagree over a pleasant lunch meeting??!! HAHA.

This little blog was a topic of much talk during lunch. We dicussed the phantom reader from Thailand that checks this blog a couple of times each day. And.......to my surprise....the "mystery person" from Thailand that has been reading my blog regularly wrote me an email today from Thailand......and what a great surprise!!!!! It is Dr. Vinai and his wife from here in F'town who are spending the winter in Thailand with relatives and friends from their early life there. It is soooo good to hear from them......he is/was not only our family physician, but good friends who accompanied me on a tour to Europe a few years ago. I am sooo jealous of them spending the Missouri cold winters over in Thailand where it is nice and warm!!!!!

Tomorrow.....well, I am running up to the city (STL) to do a bit of quick shopping: the 1st Lady's birthday is this Friday as well as Christmas next week, AND our 34th anniversary is the 28th of this month!! ALWAYS an expensive month for this old man!!! Then tomorrow evening I will be going on out to Washington, MO to the Moser Estate as Meghan is in her very first school Christmas program......kindergarten class!! Sooo, I must lay out the camera for this premier performance and first stage debut!!!!!

Not only did I hear today from the "mystery man" from Thailand....but also two former students who have been reading this little group of rambling thoughts. It is always such a cool thing to hear from the many, many former students of mine.......nice to know that their thoughts about this aging old man are sooo full of positives and greatfulness. Teaching does have many uncountable rewards.....

Soooo.....with such a fun and positive day.......I will close, and as always......

Life is GREAT!!! And for all of you, I hope the same, also!!

Cloudy....and the snow melted!!

YEAH.....the snow is gone as the temps went up overnight........GREAT! Today....well, we slept in a bit toooooo long and didn't get to church this morning. So....something unusual.....I fixed breakfast for the two of us.......I am NOT a breakfast eater, but this morning it just seemed right to be lazy and have breakfast in our garden room overlooking the patio.

This afternoon....well, I attended the high school "Holiday Concert".......the name having been changed a few years ago because of a religious group within our community that does not celebrate Christmas within their church. It was good to hear the band....hadn't heard it this year......but, it is mucho smaller...about half the size as when I was directing it. Quantity does not mean quality, I know....but there are other factors which have to be accounted for in having a band.......more on that later.

As to this business of using the word "holiday" versus "Christmas"..........everyone has their own opinion and some are deep rooted feelings about it, I know! But.....my own feelings are that we are a country of great diversity and it is just this diversity that makes us soooo great!!!! Historically, Christmas did not become a holiday in this country until 1877, only 128 years ago......not that long ago to me since I have lived almost half of that amount of time. (I have been a life-long Methodist, having joined the church when I was in the 8th grade.) Having traveled throughout the world and having experienced so many different cultures.......there are many religions in the world, and there are many different religions in our great country......of which I respect very much. We each have our own religious days which mean much to all of us and they should each be respected by all of us, after all.........we are not a theocracy....and I certainly hope we will never become a theocracy!!!!!!! I think this begs the question that many oftentime use: "What would Jesus say?" And you know what he would say......."Happy Hannukah!" Sooooo, I see nothing wrong with "Happy Holidays" because it does encompass many important days for several religions, all of which are important in our country and the world!!! I will get off of my soapbox now.......

SURVIVOR!!!! Yeah....Danni won. I'm a bit surprised, but I never wanted Stephanie to win from the "git-go". As the show progressed I was hoping Rafe would win it......but that wasn't to be.....and so I did hope Danni won tonight as she is Kansas City girl!! And now......on to the finale of The Amazing Race!!!!!

There are more Tales from Thailand (and other countries), but you will have to "hold your breath" because tonight is not the night.........the religious discussion above has brought out some of my more "open-minded" viewpoints and this in turn has my memories suring forward about Buddhism in Thailand and my wonderful, warm experiences and conversations with some of the Buddhist monks while I was there. I also experienced some great contacts with the Hindus during a short 3 day trip to Calcutta during that time period.

Sooooo, I will close for this evening.......and as always:

Life is GREAT.....and I hope for all of you, also......including Doug and Juanita!! Goldie.....coffee tomorrow morning(Monday)??? You know my number......

Just a day in my Life......

A morning and early afternoon for celebrating the life of the father of one of our best friends. The visitation was held at the Christian Church with the services 2 hours later at the church. Audra Hanner, who was 89 years old, was an avid sportsman: fishing, turkey and deer hunting, and any other type of hunting were the things he loved to do. Soooo, included in his coffin were his fishing pole, his turkey calling box, and a box of Ding Dongs....his favorite snack. This was something I had never seen before.....however, it shouldn't be so unusual as the ancient Egyptians included all types of things in their tombs. Even the casket flower arrangement was a wreath of grape vines and intertwined were some deer antlers and his fishing reel.......another little touch of the things he loved during his life.

After the services, a luncheon was held at the Hanner home for many, many family members and close friends. It was great to visit with Danielle and Ozzie.....the couple whose wedding I wrote about and posted a few pics of back in October.......the mixed cultural wedding. Danielle is a former student of mine and after having graduated from Univ. of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music in Opera Performance, she and Ozzie now reside in Chicago where she teaches voice and piano. They have not yet been able to set a date for their Turkish wedding outside of Istanbul. His documentation and papers between Turkey and the US may take longer than they thought, so the wedding might not be until September. THAT is a better time for us to be available to make the trip to Istanbul, Turkey!

By the middle of the afternoon, I was back at the stick and brick. Did some reading, a bit of tellie watching, and just relaxing in the quiet of the house. The 1st Lady went to St. Louis after the visitation this morning.....she had a few more things to get for Christmas gifts. And.....she didn't get back until about 7:30 this evening..........laden down with "last minute items" and rather exhausted from the shopping experience two weeks before the big day.

Well.....my creative juices are no flowing tooooo abundantly this evening, so I think I will put away my memory passport and Thai visa and bring this little discussion to a close for tonight. As always, though....

Life is Good......and for all of you, I hope it is the same!!!

Too much snow-no school-1st Lady home all day!!

Yeah.....our first school snow day in TWO years!!!! Last year there was hardly a trace of snow here so it turned out to be the first year without a snow day in my ENTIRE lifetime!!!! I had never seen a winter without having a snow day.....in all of my years as either a student or being in the academic life. BUT......I certainly hope this first snow is not an indication of the full winter this year.....UGH!!!!! (no global warming here...haha)

Not certain where the day went to.....we did receive news that our closest friends, Dave and Sue.....well, his father passed away. They currently are working as a catastrophic insurance adjusters in southern Florida, so they were to fly back to town today for tomorrow's services. They are sooooo busy down there as there are simply not enough adjusters available to take care of all of the damages from all of the hurricanes this summer and fall. It is their daughter who married the man who is from Turkey and whose wedding celebration we attended a couple of months ago.

We visited Mike this afternoon and were joined by our daughter-in-law, Becky. While there we met with our attorney who is handling some legal affairs for all of us.

Stopped in Farmington for a late supper......sandwiches at Steak and Shake......my FAVORITE place for hamburgers!!!! They do taste like REAL hamburgers from the kitchen frying pan!!

I've spent the last hour catching up on some emails and some new developments. Also.....had a great...really great letter from this former student of mine who had contacted me earlier this week. His successes in Life have been great......living in various places all over the world, as well as traveling to other parts of the world. He was an outstanding trumpet player for me back in the 80's.....always giving me 110% in his performances and his attitude towards our band achieving our goals. It has been soooo many years since we have interacted in each other's lives....and so it is with great interest and pleasure that we have wandered into each other's lives once again!!!! It is amazing how this happens.......because....

Just a couple of days ago, another former student from the class of '82 wrote me an email. He currently lives in the state of Washington and plans to be back in MO for the holidays. It would be super if we could get together so I could see his growing family, but not certain the dates will coincide with my holiday plans.

Thailand Tales (tails if you read last night's posts...):

One other cobra story from SE Thailand......... While living on the air base in Ubon, our shower and restroom facilities were in another building behind our three man rooms in the "dorm". Soooo, one morning I was heading out to grab a shower........not sure why now as I look back on this....I was always so damn hot and sweaty from the heat/humidity that a shower had to be taken quite often several times a day over there.
Anyway.....some other NCO came running out of the shower building with only a towel draped around him....yelling: call the MP's!!!!! It seems that he had gone inside to take a morning shower.....and as he stepped into the multi-shower faucet room, there was a LARGE King Cobra in the shower room!!!! It must have "sneaked" into the moist room during the night. Anyway......before too long the LONG snake was history!!! Sure as hell glad the other NCO was earlier than I was that morning.......there is nothing that I detest more than SNAKES!!!! Makes me now wonder why I loved, and still do love, Thailand.

I wish I could post some pics from those wonderful days of living in such an exotic country, but I always had the films developed into slides in those long-ago days. Haven't looked at them for years, but now I know I am going to have to locate the old boxes and take a look at them this winter........memories are still flooding out from the mind of this aging man.

Did I tell you that I also spent 5 months living in Korea while in Asia during those 13 months????? Lots of experiences while there......!!! Did I tell you that I had to go to an Air Force Base just outside Tokyo every two weeks for a day long meeting almost the entire time I was in Asia........been to Japan 26 times???? Did I tell you that while living in Okinawa my roommate disappeared while on a flight over Laos??? That I caught a 100 pound shark while deep sea fishing off of Okinawa???

There is a lot more to talk about from just my 13 months in Asia, 1969-70. Stay tuned, and as always......

Life is GREAT......and I hope for all of you, also!!

SNOW...SNOW....SNOW!!!!

More than four inches of snow today......more than we had TOTAL during all of last winter!! Enough though that they closed school early today and we just received a call that there is no school tomorrow. There goes Martin Luther King holiday as a school vacation.....oh well....I don't teach anyway.

It was quite nice watching the snow come down....and at times it was really heavy. The snow covered ground and trees now makes it look like Christmas, but.......I hope this is the last snow. We have one....so that is plenty.

Did some reading today as the snow fell outside the windows. What a nice quiet day. It was also a time to reflect on more of my memories of terrific Thailand. I have had more comments and emails after last night's post than on any other subject I have written about!! Soooo....

"My" tuk-tuk driver always had a smile....as do almost all Thai citizens, even at that particular time when there was a long -ongoing war right next door in Viet Nam. I can't remember just how little he charged me to drive me around every evening....but it was a small enough amount that I could certainly afford it. And......no matter where I wanted to go, he ALWAYS waited for me to finish shopping, eating, or whatever....and there he would be ready to take me someplace else.

Jewelry shops were everywhere......Thailand has soooo many rubies and other precious stones. I found myself purchasing gifts for people back home in the states, along with several cuff link sets and a black star saffire ring for myself. Once again.....entering a shop I would be offered some refreshments to drink as I looked around and shopped in the store. I found one particular shop that I used most of the time and the owner and I became "friends". In fact, he and I often had dinner together in various cafes around the city.

The stones/jewels were always displayed in small bowls.....like a cereal bowl. If I was interested they would bring the bowl of rubies, or any other stones, out from the glass counters for me to look through so that I could pick out the stone that I liked.....specific color, weight, shape, etc., etc. Then I could design the setting, or pick out one from a catalogue/magazine that I specifically liked. An example of prices during those days: I bought a ring that had several....believe it was eight....rubies and eight small diamonds set in gold and in a "princess" design. Cost??? It was $12.00!!!!!! Hard to believe, I know. I had a pair of cuff links made out of solid gold and imported light green Chinese Jade stones.....and I paid only $25.00 for them....and when I returned to the states a few months after purchasing them,I had them appraised and they worth over $800!!!!
I almost went broke saving money over there.....haha.

As the days became hotter.....and I mean HOT......often over 110 degress with high humidity, I found myself seeking cooler places in the late afternoon or early evening when I left my work station. So, one day I had my driver stop at a large and beautiful Buddhist temple. I always enjoyed observing the architecture and the designs of the temples with all of the solid gold roof tiles and religious items inside the temple, along with the many precious jewels that would be set in the walls, etc. of the temples. As I became acquainted with a couple of the Buddhist monks at this particular temple we oftentimes would sit in the coolness of the temple and talk and discuss various topics. The grounds of the temples were always neat with exotic landscaping using the various palm trees and colorful plant materials that are available everywhere in Thailand.

In all due respect to the Buddhist religion and its teachings, I still remember how terribly upset one of the monks became one day while he and I were strolling through the temple grounds. He was, as always, in his orange saffron colored robes and we had stopped walking and were looking at some of the flowers. I saw an elephant going down the street with very colorful decorations on it and so I turned to look a bit more and I suddenly realized that something was under my foot. Very quickly the monk became quite upset........and began speaking in his native language as he "lost his cool", if that is possible for a monk!! I looked down and saw that I had squashed a native gecko......a lizard...by accident as I had turned around. Of course......the killing of anything within the temple grounds was NOT something that is to ever happen!!!!! Needless to say.....I made my apologies and bowing in the traditional custom, I left the grounds and quickly got into the tuk-tuk and left the area. In retrospect, I am certain that the monk probably thought that I had squashed someone's soul that resided within the gecko!!!

One non-working day I decided to hike out of town going down this gravel road through the rice fields. Off in the distance I could see a very modern Buddhist temple......a totally different kind of architecture for a temple. So.....as always, it was much farther away than I thought it was when I started walking down the road. While headed toward the temple, I saw some movement not too far in front of me....about 5 feet...and then going across the road was a very large king cobra.....moving rather slowly! Obviously, I froze....and then without any problem, the cobra moved on off the road and disappeared. Cobras were seen frequently and it was necessary to always be on the lookout for them!!

Sooooo, a bit more of my Thailand times......and there is more to tell as I write each day. It has been a good day........in fact:

Life is Good......and I hope for all of you, also!!!

2nd Post today.....

I deviated today by allowing my memories to play in my mind when I realized that someone from Bangkok had been reading my posts for the past few days....regularly. And then the floodgates of my memory opened and wonderful experiences from 35 years ago surged outwards and seemed to be as real today as they actually were in 1970.

I spent 4 months in southeast Thailand.....on the edge of the city of Ubon at our USAF Base of the same name: Ubon Air Base. My actual assignment was in Naha, Okinawa, which came about through a mistake made by the Air Force in assigning personnel to Korea, but that's another five month experience of mine. While in Okinawa, I was sent on temporary duty for two months to Ubon.....and liked it sooooo much that I asked to spend two more months there.

There are many, many memorable experiences that I could tell about living in Thailand, albeit on an Air Force Base. I never spent any more time on the base than my "job" absolutely demanded of me. Late each afternoon when I was finished doing my job of locating replacement parts for the aircraft of the unit I was attached to, I would go out the gate and there would be "my" driver with his tuk-tuk.....waiting patiently for me. He would take me all over the city and then would wait for me when I would ask him to stop......be it for dinner, shopping, or just some sight-seeing. Oftentimes as he pedaled us down the street, we would have to take to the side of the street to make way for an elephant coming down the street carrying a couple of Thai citizens.....always an exciting time for this central Missouri young man.

Where did we go?? Well, I became a habitual shopper while in Thailand!!! The incredible jewelry shops with soooo many beautiful items that were sooooo very, very cheap, but of high quality.......the tailor shops where in one I became friends with a tailor from Bombay, India, and where I would stop in to have a new suit, slacks, or shirt made ....in some cases overnight!!! Again......very high quality and very inexpensive: a new sharkskin suit for $30.00, slacks for $3-$5, and shirts much cheaper than that!!! He had bolts and bolts of fabric lining the walls of his shop which made it quite a task to pick out just the right material. As soon as I would enter the little shop, he would offer me tea, beer, or wine to enjoy as I browsed through the shop. Often he would sit on the counter, his white turbin on his head talking with me as I enjoyed the refreshments while shopping. He always kept my measurements in a little notebook so I didn't have to be measured each time I wanted something made.

Well....I have regressed just a bit.....perhaps I will return to these memories more often???? I have been told by a few close friends that I should write a book.....hahaha!! What a thought......but, well.....I do enjoy telling about some of these wonderful experiences I have enjoyed during the travels of my lifetime.

Sooooo, today!!! I got my granddaughter taken to school......she loves Kindergarten, and she is sooooo ready to learn. I got her out of the car, opened the school door, and off she went, jauntily swinging her little pink backpack on her arm....very anxious to get to her classroom so she could read some more. I returned to the Moser Estate and did a few household chores while I spent the day there. Dr. Jeni, Darrel, and Ava went to Rolla to court to complete the closure on the adoption process, which took place without any hitches at all......YEAH!!!!! Ava is now officially: Ava June Moser!!!!!

They returned and picked up Meghan at school.....and I hit the road with only a couple of stops: one for Starbucks cappuccino and the next stop was for a quick sandwich. This evening.......well, I just kicked back and relaxed and enjoyed a movie on the the tellie.

Sooooo, it was a very good day for me....and for the rest of the family as we DEFINITELY have a new granddaughter!!!!!

Life is GREAT........and I hope for all of you, also!

Bangkok....Krung Thep???

With my site meter I am able to see where readers are from, or at least where they have their internet service. At the present I have seen where there is someone that is reading my little blog at least once per day from Bangkok....sometimes more often each day than just once!!! While there are people from all over the world who "tune in" to check out this site, this one is becoming a regular reader, so my interests have been heightened as Thailand is one of my very, very favorite places in my memories. It was, and is, a beautiful country with the friendliest people of any of the 41 countries that I have visited......a great compliment to the citizens of the former Kingdom of Siam. I am looking forward to returning with the 1st Lady in the near future as she has never been there to experience the incredible culture of this fantastic place.

Who ever is becoming a daily reader, please feel free to make some comments. I would enjoy communicating with you!!!

More later this evening!!

Did we have YESTERDAY????

WOW......just what the hell happened to yesterday???? I woke up with a pounding headache......and the problem most likely was because I didn't have any of my dark red medicine on Monday night!!!! But....anyway, the damn pounding by that obscene little man inside my head kept going the entire day....soooo, I did turn in early last night.....just to hopefully get the little obscene man to go to sleep and quit his hideous pounding. And....he did!!!

I managed to drive up to Farmington to get ONE more string of lights for the indoor Christmas tree......as I talked about on Monday's post. Came straight back to TheHowserHouse stick/brick and laid down and just got my head off of my shoulders and onto a pillow.

Before I knew it....it was time for some closure for the pounding day......and so, without writing and publishing last night......I just closed the day!!! Whew......

Wednesday:

Today.....a much better day!!! I finished decorating the tree with all the "prettys" and then started some research on my ongoing genealogy project.....an entire Lifetime project, to say the least. Before long, it was time for my students to come for their lessons.

THEN....I am now at the Moser Estate as Dr. Jeni and Darrel and little Ava have to be in court in the morning to close on the adoption legalities for Ava. I drove up here this evening....about a 2.5 hour drive. Sooooo, Pawpaw has to take Meghan to Kindergarten in the morning and pick up back up tomorrow afternoon......if the Moser family has not returned by the time school is finished.

I have missed "The Amazing Race" , however, Dr. Jeni has turned on the Tivo and I will see it in a few minutes when I publish this installment of TheHowserHouse. I will be returning to my stick and brick tomorrow evening sometime......the 1st Lady can NOT do without me.......no one to cook....haahaa!!! Hope she doesn't see this...hehehee!!!

Soooo, with that statement which now puts my Life in jeopardy, I will close.......

Life is Good.....and I hope for all of you, also!!!!

Decorating Day....and a voice from the past

Yep......time to get ready for the Holidays, which means digging out the red, green, and silver ornaments, etc., etc.......and attempting to find all of the storage boxes and containers in the garage ...which is still not yet back in order......one more coat of paint to get done. So.....the stick and brick is in one horrific mess this evening with empty boxes/containers laying around the floor just waiting for me to pick them up and return them to the garage for about 3-4 weeks. The tree is still topless: the 1st Lady likes to wrap the lights around the branches for each layer as I put them into the tree "trunk". And......we ran out of lights today so the top two layers of the tree and the very top are not yet part of the tree......does all of this crap make sense to you???? Sorry about that.......anyway, I have to run to Farmington in the morning to get some more lights as our wonderful, marvelous, new SuperCenter( the model for stores to be built) does not have any more Christmas tree lights!!!!!! Can you believe it??

Wow.....that was one huge paragraph with many topics included, wasn't it?? The day has been dreary, cloudy, cold, and generally miserable as I carried all of the above named crap into the house (baa...humbug). Two trips to the SuperCenter this afternoon/evening....I am about done with this decorating. Just one run up to Farmington in the morning.......hmmm.

Soooo, I am sitting here with this warm little lappie doing some surfing, and I get an email that is from no one that I recognize even tho the subject mentions "from the past". I hesitated to open it up.....don't want any damn virus.....but I took a chance and there was an email from another former student.......a trumpet player in the band from the middle 1980's!!! He is using a different name....perhaps his middle one....I can't remember. Anyway....it was soooo good to hear from him after sooooooo many years. In a few very brief sentences he told just a bit about his life, including having lived in Moscow, Russia and another little former Soviet country. All this did was to create more questions in my mind about him and his life.....so I'm looking forward to hearing more from him!!!! Do you hear that Lane/Darren.....whatever!!!

And with that, I am going to have some hot tea and close this uninteresting little posting of another day in my Life.

Oh yeah.......I am having soooo many emails about the 1st Lady's "stolen" jewelry...a quick update: upon returning last night she discovered that she was also missing a solid gold necklace that I bought for her in a gold shop in Florence, Italy,...on one of my trips to Europe. Soooo, after calling the hotel this morning...the Manager was not there.....so I will have to get hold of her tomorrow morning. I made it VERY CLEAR that I would be calling in the morning and she needed to be there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sooooo, the saga continues.....

Once again: LIFE IS GREAT......and I hope it is for all of you, also!

Ms. Gina Keltner.....the Talent Coordinator of the Grand Ole Opry!!!!

 

The 1st Lady, Gina, and the OLD man in Nashville

 

A Marvelous Morning......a dreary afternoon!!

WOW.....what a wonderful morning....because of our mid-morning breakfast with Gina Keltner.....our former student 20+ years ago in Eldon, MO. Gina is now with the Grand Ole Opry......creating the weekly programs for the Opry shows and highly successful in this position......of course!! We spent 1.5 hours together eating and chatting and chatting and eating and all too quickly the time had slipped away. The 1st Lady and I learned sooooo much about the inner workings of the Grand Ole Opry and how the shows are designed and how the performers/entertainers are selected each week...........and this all comes to fruition by Gina! She is highly talented, she has ALWAYS been highly talented, and the Grand Ole Opry is better off for having her there to put their great show together into such fun and enjoyable evenings. How proud I am to be able to say that Gina Keltner was a student of mine!!!!!!!!!!!

After breakfast ended around 11:30 and we all parted promising to get together again in Nashville very soon, we went by the Gaylord Hotel Conference Center and picked up Bruce....the other science teacher who had come to Nashville with us. From there.....we left a bit after 12 noon and headed north into the dreary, drizzily, gray day. It never got any better .....in fact, after stopping in Cape Girardeau for a chinese supper, the fog descended and made for some difficult driving during the last 50 miles to F'town. But.....we are again in our stick and brick......and now the three days in Nashville have become memories in our minds. Isn't that what we all have left from our great experiences?????

Soooo, Life is GREAT......and I hope for all of you, also!!!

Ryman Auditorium before the crowed arrived

 

Riders in the Sky

 

Little Jimmie Dickens (85 years and still going)

 

Porter Wagoner

 

Smiling after a not-so-good day....

 

Another day in Nashville!!

An early wakening this morning as the two science educators needed to be over at the Conference Center by 8AM......so this aging taxi shuttle service driver(that's me)....got up and took them. Then I came back to the hotel, watched the "Today" show, made myself beautiful(well, more beautiful than normal)...and headed to Starbucks for my morning dose of caffeine, a grande cappuccino. Then it was up the road about a half mile to Camping World where I wandered around looking at everything, but only purchasing two items!! I was surprised......didn't really find anything that I just had to have other than a front tripod stabilizer and I didn't have room for that in the trunk of the 1st Lady's Park Avenue.

Then it was off to Barnes & Noble for some well deserved time of looking and reading and cappuccino.....again. Returned about noon to the hotel....and the 1st Lady called about 1pm and was ready for lunch. We went and had a bite and then returned to the room. As we were driving there, she said she had forgotten to take her jewelry box....a small velvet one....and put it in the car. Well.......yep....you guessed it.....three pairs of her earrings that I had given her from time to time as gifts were missing!!!!!!!!!!! Sterling silver and solid gold ones!!!! I raised hell with the Manager as I was only gone about 3 hours and the maids had been in during that time and cleaned the room. She took all the data from me....and said she would file a report with the local authorities and give me a copy tomorrow morning. Needless to say......I am pissed and Marsha is angry and very upset at losing these items........worth a rather large sum of money!!!! I'll see how tomorrow goes when the Manager talks with the maids........hmmmmm, I doubt anything changes!!!!

We set around the room upset....angry....pissed.....depressed!!! I cannot replace those earrings....they were purchased at different locations in the states and in Europe!!! But....we came to our senses and got ready to head into the city center to attend the Grand Ole Opry. Went into the center early as they were to have a Christmas Parade and I knew the streets would be closed where we had reservations to park......in the Batman Building....(SW Bell).....it looks like Batman!!!

We had excellent seats....the Ryman Auditorium is a former church.....MANY years ago....and the seats are all curved church pews!!! Well.....everyone else was crammed into the pews, sitting almost on top of each other. BUT....the 1st Lady and I had a 6 seated pew all to ourselves and the one in front of us was not used, so we had a very clear sightline to the stage!!!! This was all because one of our former students from 20+ years ago is the Talent Coordinator at the Grand Ole Opry!!

The 2.5 hour show was good. We both enjoyed it, but it certainly is different to see it in person. Plus.....the only singers/musicians that we recognized were from decades ago.....Porter Wagoner, Little Jimmie Dickens, Riders in the Sky, Jean Shepard, Mel McDaniel, Bill Anderson, Marty Stuart. Age has arrived and settled upon all of these "stars"......Little Jimmie Dickens will be 85 next week!!! And speaking of age......I do believe that the 1st Lady and I were the youngest people there!!!!! WOW.......made us feel pretty good.....hahahaa!!!!

We had a great short conversation with Gina Keltner....the former student. She plans to pick up for brunch in the morning prior to our leaving to return to F'town. I am anxious to ask her all about her job with the Opry and how the shows are planned, programmed, and the performers selected. Lots of questions.....

Afterwards we walked around the corner onto Broadway and stopped in Jack's Barbque......and WOW....was it ever good!!!! Think there is one in KansasCity.....for all of you KC residents. Really enjoyed it!!!

Then back out to the hotel.....and now to get this posted. I will include some pictures taken tonight, however......the flash didn't carry far enough for some of them. I went up to the stage for a couple so they are a bit brighter!! But......even tho there was a major problem in our room this afternoon.................I still believe that:

Life is GOOD......and I hope for all of you, also!!

What a day...!!

Up rather early so the 1st Lady and the other science teacher who came with us could get to the National Conference meetings/sessions. I then went over to the Opry Mills Shopping Mall as there was a Barnes & Noble there and I thought I could get some GOOD coffee. However........my body went into "lack of caffeine shock" as they didn't open until 10AM!!!!! They have NO idea how much business they missed by not allowing John Howser inside at 8:30 this morning!!!!!!!!! My mouth and body were just going into spasms for a GOOD cup of cappuccino this morning......DAMN!!! Sooooo, I did my morning exercise and walked the Mall with many other gray haired and balding senior citizens in their white tennis shoes. ONE of them had a cup of coffee and after walking about a mile, I finally found a place open in the mall that had some black....well, sort of black....coffee.

The rest of the morning....after 10AM I walked and shopped. The 1st Lady met me late morning and we did some Christmas shopping. Had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe........it was quite good!! Then some more shopping until late afternoon when we went back to the hotel to refresh our aging, sagging bodies. Then....it was off to the Nashville Science Center for BBQ, beer, wine and an evening of "open house" at the Center for the Conference attendees and spouses. Music was provided by local struggling bands who need exposure in this city of "music wannabees"....and it was really enjoyable. BUT......this Center does not even hold a candle in comparison with the St Louis Science Center!!!!! The exhibits were a bit disappointing, to say the least.

The Gaylord Hotel is magnificent!!!!! The pictures posted below can't do it justice.....not at all!!! The walking grape vine was like something out of Cirque de Soleil (sp?). She was incredible.......just jaw dropping in the artistic and very smooth way she walked and clinged to lamp posts and other hotel architectural decorations. The Riverwalk brings back memories of San Antonio.....only on a smaller scale. I am really impressed with this huge facility!!!!! I checked to see if we could bring the family down for the week between Christmas and New Year's weekend.......HA!!! What a stupid idea of mine!!!! They are booked solid.....1200 rooms....during that week!!!!!! UNREAL!!!! Oh well.......plan ahead, John!!

Sooooo, this was a very busy and packed day......but......

Life is GREAT (I am traveling/sight-seeing).....and I hope for all of you, too!!!!!

Gaylord Opryland Hotel riverwalk

 

Full view of walking vine.....10' tall!!

 

Closeup of walking grape vine....such poise!!!

 

Living walking grape vine....on stilts....WOW!!!

 

Gaylord Opryland Hotel 60' tree

 

A quick drive to NASHVILLE...

A very busy morning......had to dash to Farmington to have my 69 graying hairs trimmed back a bit.....doesn't take very long as my "hairdresser" can clip those few hairs very, very quickly!! Then a quick stop in Sears, and another quick drive back to F'town. Drove thru a car wash to remove the dirt and grime of the past few weeks, home to clean the inside a bit, threw some clothes into a bag(getting so I dislike having to pack a bag...would rather go to my closet in TheHowserHouse on wheels......and before much longer the 1st Lady was home from school. Loaded the car and then one of the other science teachers arrived at the stick and brick and we headed for TN. It only took a bit less than 5 hours to drive down there......and a very easy drive.

Not a problem locating the hotel.....checked in....and then the science educators in my car were deposited at the Opryland Conference Center to register for the National Conference. And.....finally we were off to dinner deciding to stay in the area. So.....we ate at the Santa Fe restaurant.......a place the 1st Lady and I had eaten back in 2004 when Jeremy was working here in Nashville as the researcher for Al Gore's Presidential Campaign. His national headquarters was here in town and so Jeremy moved here after he had graduated from Auburn University and was hired by Gore. The food was very good.......a relaxed type of place where you can just toss your peanut shells on the floor.

Back at the hotel now......and anxious to get out and about tomorrow while the science nerds(don't tell the 1st Lady I said that!!!) are at the Conference. Lots to do and see here.....and I intend to do and see as much as possible in the next 2.5 days. On my plans are a shopping trip to Camping World.....actually just up the street from the hotel!!!! Weather looks good for the next couple of days, too!!!

Doug....how was the golf game this morning out there in Californialand???? Andrew......guess by now you have signed your life away on your first house.....WOW.....that IS exciting!!! Linda....can't believe you stayed in bed until 5am this morning!!!!

Sooooo, before I get myself in trouble talking to a few of you on here tonight......(I've had a small glass of my dark red medication)....I will close this.

Life is GOOD (I'm traveling!!!!!!)......and I hope it is good for all of you, also.

Gaylord Opryland Hotel entrance....

 

Tree of Lights towering over regular trees on hotel drive