Mowing patterns into grass

                             jpr: too pretty to play on

Last man of World War II closes club.

WEIRTON - Milton Fabianich presided over the last meeting of the Weirton Last Man Club Sunday during an emotional dinner at the American Legion Post 10. The 88-year-old Fabianich officially closed the club charter after a final reading of the names of the 95 deceased members of the club that was organized 60 years ago by World War II veterans.  We knew and our father worked with many of these men.  RIP
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not a political endorsement just observation

jpr:  Lessons learned....It must be said or stated from of old,, by Alexander the Great;

"There is nothing impossible to him who will try."

"I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion."

"I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well."

Uncanny:   https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YnMcs_5oTV8

USS Texas in Sam Houston Sip Channel

USS Texas (BB-35), the second ship of the United States Navy named in honor of the U.S. state of Texas, is a New York-class battleship. The ship was launched on 18 May 1912 and commissioned on 12 March 1914.

Soon after her commissioning, Texas saw action in Mexican waters following the "Tampico Incident" and made numerous sorties into the North Sea during World War I. When the United States formally enteredWorld War II in 1941, Texas escorted war convoys across the Atlantic, and later shelled Axis-held beaches for the North African campaign and the Normandy Landings before being transferred to the Pacific Theaterlate in 1944 to provide naval gunfire support during the Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Texas wasdecommissioned in 1948, having earned a total of five battle stars for service in World War II, and is now amuseum ship near Houston, Texas.

My kind of hero.

Born May 11, 1906, Richard Overton at 110, is believed to be the oldest-living veteran.  He served in the South Pacific during the second world war. He drinks whiskey and smokes everyday. And has a large collection of firearms. He is 1 of the 16,112,566 members of the United States Armed Forces during World War II. There were 291,557 battle deaths, 113,842 other deaths in service (non-theater), and 670,846 non-mortal woundings. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, 697,806 American veterans from the war are still alive and 492 die on the average day. May they rest in peace and may we all remember thier sacrifice.

Dr Heimlich says 84 year old woman using his maneuver

He invented it.  It has saved 100,000's of lives, but he's never used it.  That is until yesterday when a dinner companion at his retirement home started choking.  Heimlich, 93 years old, to the rescue. Other's saved include former President Ronald Reagan, pop star Cher, former New York mayor Edward Koch and Hollywood actors Elizabeth Taylor, Goldie Hawn, Walter Matthau, Carrie Fisher, Jack Lemmon and Marlene Dietrich.  In 2014 actor Clint Eastwood saved a golf tournament director. Celebrity promoter Simon Cowell was reportedly saved by comedian David Walliams after a mint became stuck in his throat.

Our veterans....thanks

                                          military cemetery at normandy

big cricket farms

Founded in 2014, Big Cricket Farms, Youngstown,Oh was the first American insect farm to obtain food-grade certifications from their state Department of Agriculture and the FDA. Big Cricket Farms aims to drive the edible insect industry forward in the United States and abroad by connecting buyers to suppliers and lowering the bar for new entrants into their growing industry.

Crickets offer marvelous advantages over traditional protein sources like beef. Crickets need only about two pounds of feed per pound of usable meat; for beef, it takes 25 pounds of feed for the same pound of meat. Likewise, it only takes about 1 gallon of water to raise one pound of crickets, compared to 51 gallons of water for a pound of cow. And crickets produce 100 times fewer greenhouse gasses than cows.

Competence

Sincerity and competence is a strong combination. In politics, it is everything
. Peggy Noonan


Jpr: that which we seek most in others

The modern road intersection

In one glance find the route desired, the correct turn. and most importantly the right of way.

Star of the Sea

Marine scientists have undertaken the difficult task of replacing the beloved starfish’s common name with sea star because, well, the starfish is not a fish. It’s an echinoderm, closely related to sea urchins and sand dollars.

There are some 2,000 species of sea star living in all the world’s oceans, from tropical habitats to the cold seafloor. The five-arm varieties are the most common, hence their name, but species with 10, 20, and even 40 arms exist.

jpr: who cares...they will always be called a star fish

My owls

Jpr: last evening at 1:25 am a great horned owl awakened me from my sleep by his loud calling. He  was posted quite close to the rear of my home where a 5 acre field is found. His mate was heard answering faintly in the distance. This hooting ceased  and quiet returned at 1:33 am. I have seen his leavings about woods for years.  One must consider this happening as a rare favor surely.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p4CRqJJW6S8

baby robin on the ground

jpr: me dog searched out a critter in the grass among some trees. We both looked about. I was weary of a snake. Our eyes fell upon a blob of a piece of tree bark, Turn out to be a baby robin lying low with head hidden

Audubon society: Many species of birds such as robins, scrub jays, crows and owls leave the nest and spend as many as 2-5 days on the ground before they can fly. This is a normal and vital part of the young birds' development. While they are on the ground, the birds are cared for and protected by their parents and are taught vital life skills (finding food, identifying predators, flying).

Wife or dog?

   

Q. How does a man determine who loves him most, his wife, or his dog?

A. Place the wife and the dog together in the trunk of a car. An hour later open the trunk and see which one is happy to see him?

Deer netting for cicadas

Jpr: wrapped several vulnerable bushes (3 wraps each ) with deer netting. Couldn't get a finger through the layers of netting...expect cicadas to be blocked. They lay eggs in end of branch which dies, falls to the ground where the larvae digs back into the earth. Btw usual netting sold out!

Great Idea

Walking football is a variant of soccer for people over 50 not able to play the traditional game because of age or physical limitations.  The sport can be played both indoors and outdoors.  Devised in 2011 by the Chesterfield F.C. Community Trust.  It has become extremely popular with more than 600 clubs and some TV coverage.  Rules make running, side tackles, and most physical contact illegal. Originally designed to improve health in the elderly through exercise, it has proven a viable tool for dealing with depression, loneliness and similar psychological troubles of the elderly.  

see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUB8TTrbwZo

^[

Who eats cicadas?

 Just about everything!

The Pope Who Gave Ireland to The English

The English invaded Ireland in 1171 and ruled her for 800 years.  The ‘normans’ justified it, they were Roman Catholics at the time, as the will of the Pope and the Roman Church.  In 1155 Pope Adrian 4th, the only English Pope, was petitioned for permission to invade Ireland by English King Henry II.  Adrian issued a ‘Papal Bull’ instructing the ‘normans’ to seize Ireland for ‘the advancement of the Christian religion.’  So began 800 years of misery for the Irish people.  The Pope, with no other accomplishments noted in history, wanted greater control over the independent Celtic Church and the gratitude of his fellow countrymen.  The Irish have suffered every since at the hands of both the English and the Church.

My dog does the same

Looks like my pups in this field of wild flowers. This is a zen moment for sure.

barnwood builders of appalachia

These guys are from west Virginia. They repurpose pioneer age cabins, barns, and sheds. Their reality show is the real view of Appalachian life and people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_5tem5SYN8

Moses' rock at Horeb?

Reputed to be the real deal?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eC7gYKi01w4

what the incompetent can accomplish

I am, as I've said, merely competent. But in an age of incompetence, that makes me extraordinary. 
~ Billy Joel

I have had enough, more than enough.

I consider myself a tolerant person.  My house, my work, my social circle have always embraced gays, straights, a-sexuals,  blacks, whites, greens, Catholics, Jews, atheists, short people, fat ones. Arabs. midgets, and the physically and mentally (lots of these) disabled.   Your opinions are yours as long as your respect house rules.   Hell,  I even have a Transgender colleague who considers me her/his friend.  But I have finally reached my limit.  O'Bama's (I voted for him twice)   Justice Department 'guidelines' that require high schools to allow transgender people to use the bathroom of the gender with whom they identify or risk losing federal funds is sooooo f--king absurd as to defy rational thought.  I shall voted for Trump  --- crazy, narcissistic, arrogant, and fairly ignorant Trump,  purely as a protest vote.  Its time for us to take control of our government.

The Pope still trying to move the Church forward

L

Pope Francis holds a special audience with members of the International Union of Superiors General at the Vatican on Thursday. Francis said he is willing to create a commission to study whether women can be ordained deacons in the church. Women held such positions in the early church.

72-year-old woman gives birth to her first child

A 72 year old woman  in India and her 79 year old husband have delivered their first child after 2 years of fertility treatment.  Raises serious ethical questions for science, the doctors and society in general.

~11 billion trips on US public transportation in 2015

some new ideas for public transport
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv8_W2PA0rQ

jpr: this idea maybe difficult to sell.

So True

God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers. 


Rudyard Kipling

All that I am, all that I have accomplished, all that my children we be.  I owe to my mother ---- Billy

A Real Talent

Florence Foster Jenkins was a 20th-Century US socialite who styled herself as an operatic soprano and became a sensation. One of the most famous singers of her day, she was incredibly rich, a generous philanthropist, and garnered legions of fans including celebrities such as Noël Coward. Florence’s fame, however, rested not on her musical talent, but rather its opposite. Her astonishingly bad voice and abject inability – seemingly unbeknownst to her – to pitch correctly became the stuff of legend as she worked hard to lovingly massacre her way through gems by Mozart, Strauss and other leading composers.  Her concerts at Carnegie Hall regularly sold out.

Who Knew.

They look cute and cuddly and are sometimes kept as pets - but raccoon dogs are a menace, threatening wildlife across Europe.  Their faces are raccoon like but the animals are actually dogs.  They occupy most of Scandinavia and roam as far as Poland and Ireland.

Ladder art

What mind was at work here?

Los Puquios in Peru

Water in sub ground aqueduct is driven by wind pressure captured in numerous curvaceous well structures.
 Originally built about 1000 B C, most are functioning today in one of the driest places on earth.

well I'll be plucked!

ten hot fiddlers

Mole hood

The winter vortices have almost eliminated the snake population much to the relief of Mr Mole.
My gardens look like wwII was spent there this winter.  I miss the black snake ...may hunt me a few for my field in back.

those small colorful birds

                      Goldfinch, Cardinal pair, Oriole, Eastern Bluebird

Jpr: saw my first goldfinch this a.m.  Cardinals been in view for week or more. Summer is close!

the colorized 5k race

The Color Run™ is “The happiest 5k on the planet.”  A 5K race that celebrates individuality, happiness, health, and giving back to the community, it is an un-timed race in which participants become splattered with “paint” (colored cornstarch) throughout the course of the race. The Color Run™ has two rules: 1. Wear white at the starting line and 2. Finish plastered in color. The Color Run™ takes place on Saturday, September 21, at the Tacoma Dome, Tacoma, Washington.

month of may

"A swarm of bees in May
Is worth a load of hay;
A swarm of bees in June
Is worth a silver spoon;
A swarm of bees in July
Is not worth a fly."
-  Rhyme from England

may flowers are the best