Follow the path.

Christmas was a very nice day for me and I could have not been any happier. My wife and I enjoyed a pot of coffee and chatted the morning away. I received a phone call from a friend and he told me that his marriage was on the rocks for sure. I told him I think you are making more out of a disagreement than it really is. We chatted for a while and he was telling me his story it took me back to when he was telling me about how he had all of the things in his house networked and he could monitor everything. He had put his movies and music on a entertainment server so any one in the family had access to his movies and songs. When he was telling me about this I was thinking that would never work in my house. Judy and I both have computers but were I can use one she is more like a babe in the woods. As my friends story went on his wife was wanting to play some music for Christmas but she could not get anything to work. She told him she was up set about this and wanted him to fix it for her. He got defensive and told her there is nothing to fix you have to learn how to use the network. Again she told him just fix it so I can use it. Then it kept on going all day long and into the next day they would argue about anything and everything. Then my friend goes into telling me how all they every do is fight about every thing and they can do nothing together with out a argument. As we all know there is two sides to every story and I didn't have a opportunity to talk to his wife but I don't think she is all that much different than most woman that like to keep things easy. My wife has told me so many times to do anything on the computer if it takes more than 3 steps I am lost. There is so much more to all of this it is not funny. He was telling me that his wife was using a computer that he built for her back in 1998. I told him you have to be kidding. I never kept anything that long for me or my wife. Computing changes fast and back then it was changing real fast and a 14 year old computer is trash. Two weeks ago that hunk of junk died when she was trying to use it for her new Galaxy phone. So he got busy and built her a new system and then it hit me like a ton of bricks. The reason she never had any network issues before was she didn't use the network her computer was junk and she could care less. Now she has a nice new super fast system she wanted to take it out for a test ride and found out her husband had a network she didn't even understand. So now we are back to today and she is upset and he is upset and he wants me to tell him ya get a divorce. I told him just the opposite. What has happened over the years is you drifted apart you were into your world doing your thing, she was in her world doing her thing now your worlds meet in the land of  technology and disaster follows.
 I was thinking this was not something that just happened it was something that developed over time. The bible tells man and woman how to love one another and it is about as basic as you can get. The woman is told to submit to her husband and the husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. When you love each other in this fashion you will just grow closer in every way and in  all things. When you don't do this you just drift apart over time like you are going down two different paths.

Fathers day thoughts

Fathers Day is just about on top of us and I never spend much time thinking about my Dad. When I was a little boy I would sit on the front porch and wait for his bus to drop him off at the corner and run down and walk home with him. At that time my Dad was my hero. I just thought he was the best guy in the world and could do no wrong. My Dad went out of his way to do things for me because times just sucked it was WWII and everything was hard to come by but my Dad made toys for me out of wood and I thought he was so cool. I grew up in the western suburbs of Chicago and at that time there were very few homes on the street that I lived on. Wild berries grew in the vacant lots by our house and my dad would take me berry picking with him and when we got done he made jam out of some and pies out of others. When I started school my life became hell on earth. They had me doing stuff that was so hard for me but the other kids got it right away. The teaches told my parents that I needed help at home and my Dad just screamed at me and told me how stupid I was and made me hate school all that much more. My mom did her best to help me to learn how to ready and write but I was no good at it at all. I was writing backwards and reading the same way. School was a struggle for me till I was in the 3rd grade and I had to do a lot of special testing to see what could be done with me. I was excited when I found out that I could learn I just had a disability. I told my Dad that I was taking special education and he called it dummy school. He said the biggest waste of time was to send a kid like me to school because I would never amount to anything much at all. School was never real easy for me but I did get better at it. By the time I got to high school I had lost all interest in education. I was just putting in my time hoping that the day would come that I could get out of school and put an end to my misery. It was April of my senior year of school and I made the choice to quit school and join the Army. I talked to the Army recruiter and he told me to talk it over with my parents. I told my Dad about my idea and he said that is about the smartest thing you ever said. Going to school is a waste of time for a kid like you. My mom was all upset but I told her that I was on the road to no were at the time and I had to do something. May 6th 1962 I joined the United States Army. Little did I know what I had in store for me at that time. Three years later I got out of the Army with the rank of SP 5 and my Dad was kind of shocked to see that I did so well. I told him I'm not the Dummy you think I am I can do what ever I want to do and I don't want to take any more crap out of you. I was 21 and that is how our relationship lasted for the next 17 years. I did a lot of things in those 17 years and most of them were not to smart. The smartest thing I did was have a long talk with my brother and found out a lot of things I never knew about my Dad. I had assumed my Dad grew up like me but that was not even close to being true. I had the greatest Mom in the world and she loved me and showed it all of the time. My Dad had a hard life Growing up in the early 1900's and was in the Navy for WWI Nothing about his life was easy every inch of the way was hard. His parents were hard on him also. Wes told me that my Grand Mother had to be one of the meanest people that he had ever met in his life. Once I got the drift how my Dad's life was I could understand why he was so bitter because that was the way he was raised and all he was doing was what he was shown. I knew I had a choice in life and I could be as nice or nasty as I wanted to be. I love my Daughter more than life it self and wanted nothing but the best that I could provide for her. I felt that I had short changed Holly on being a good Dad but she told me that was not that case at all. Holly told me I was a GREAT Dad and should be proud of all of the values that I taught her. To be fair loving and kind to your children. Spend time with them have fun and laugh and eat ice cream together. Nothing easy about being a parent and babies don't come with a manual on how to operate them. I'm sure at times my dad felt like I do that he failed but he didn't fail at all. My Dad did the best he could with what he had and it was not much at all. After I made my amends to my dad I told him I loved him every time I saw him. Ya my old man was my Hero after all, he made toys for me out of wood, how my people can say that?

being a vet

When I was 18 they still had the draft system and I knew I did not want to sit and wait to get drafted. I knew the military was not going to be easy but one thing for sure I just wanted to get in and out and get on with the rest of my life. I never had a clue how that choice was going to chnage the rest of my life forever. I joined the army because it was a 3 year gig and all of the rest were 4 and 3 years of my life was enough for me to give up. Besides I was 18 and had nothing better to do. What do you do when you are out of high school and don't have any cash for education? I knew the party as over for me and it was time to make some choices. I did not have a clue what was going on in the world I just joined and the army told me I could be a helicopter mechanic and to me that was a cool job. Little did I know that job was going to take me half way around the world to a place I never even heard of called South Viet Nam. ( French indochina ) When I got off that plane in Siagon I thought I was going to die from the heat. It was about 10:00 PM and at least 100 degrees. I had never been to a third world country before and that is when I found out what poor was all about. People were living in grass houses and happy to have them. Others lived in a house that was made out of anyhing that they could get their hands on. People did back breaking work for a few pennies a day so they could have food. I was a PFC making about $120 a month and I felt wealthy next to these people that had nothing. I knew I was in a bad place and it didn't take a genius to figure out when you have nothing you have nothing to loose. Poverty made the Viet Cong a very tough foe. They had nothing to loose and everything to gain. My group did just as much flying as any other in that country and we saw a lot of action but God had to be with us because we lost so few boys. Most of the guys like my self were just kids out of school and 90% of them were under 22 years of age. Even the piolets were young guys I think most of them were under 25 and yes a few older but not many. When I got back to the states I could not quit thinking about the hard reality of the military that most of the men were boys out of school putting their life on the line because that was what their job was. I had it good doing what I did most of my war was in the air, and the Viet Cong were lousy duck hunters. Don't let this fool you at all because on the ground they were on their own turf and were proficent killers. Once I was out of the army I did find my self in a VA Hospital and got to see first hand how good the Viet Cong were at getting men out of the field. I saw young boys missing most of their body parts some had all of them gone others were missing arms and some legs but one thing that they all had in common was they were all boys. When I left that place I cried all of the way home and to this day I cry when I think about them and what they lost. That was my biggest fear when I was in Viet Nam not to die. To me to die was nothing next to living the rest of my life with out arms and legs. These boys are the real heros they gave up a lot and suffered a long time. Think about this the next time you get some mail from the disabled vets. They did not ask for this fate they were boys like me they had a choice join the army now or get drafted later on but you are going to go one way or the other. God is good he has watched over me all my life.

Economy

As we all know the economy is in bad shape on a good day. Lots of folks are out of work and in need of a job and more jobs go up in vapor every day. Our nations leaders decided to hand out money to different business that are in deep trouble and this sounds like the noble thing to do to keep people on the job. My first idea is if you are going to pass out Billions of bucks why not just give every retired or working American one million bucks. The population of the country is a bit over 300 million and growing. Now what we need to do is figure out a way that you can keep people going to work when you just gave them one million bucks. Maybe just start off doing it in a lottery fashion Spin the wheel to see who gets paid first. One thing for sure a lot of folks would be quitting their stinking job so if you were in need of a stinking job there would be one out there needing to be filled. Oh by the way this hand out is just for Legal citizens of the US No border jumpers please. We might need a little bit of help with the time frame in getting every one their Check. I was thinking about doing it maybe over a two year time frame and make adjustments along the way. I'm sure that a lot of the folks that were on the top of the list and got their money first would be broke in two years because they had money they didn't work for and just blew it because they could. They would be ready to go back to work in the stores once again because they need money to eat on. One thing for sure money would be flowing and people would be buying and jobs would be at hand. Just kind of hard for me to think in the terms of that kind of money and what you can do with it. Just think if you had a billion dollars and for $300000000 you could make every one in the nation rich beyond their dreams. Not only that but you would still have $700000000 left over so you could have a good time also. Some how I think that this would be more of a disaster than my mind can imagine. No one would be working except the smart that can see you can't live for ever on a million bucks. You need to put that money to work for you before you can do something like that. What would this do for crime? How much of the money would find it's way to drug lords? One thing for sure I think out nation could do and that is to put a lot more money into the care of our veteran. Young men and women need out help and we turn our backs on them and that is just not right. We should treat them like kings and queens that they are. They are the giants that the rest of us depend on to have a safe life. With out them we would be nothing.

Fresh Start

I was doing real good at this blogging stuff for a while and then I just fell off like a ton of bricks. I guess now that I'm retired and not driving the roads every AM with a bunch of fools that don't care if they live another day I don't have much to moan about. I'm still trying to figure out what makes a person spend + $20K for a car and drive like a fool? That is something that is way beyond my thinking style. When I got to Alabama it didn't take me to long to figure out that a truck might be a handy thing to have. I had a SUV at the time and it was kind of a gas sucker so I didn't think a truck could be that much worse. I was not thinking about the little fact that North Alabama were I live is all rolling hills so no matter were you go it is up and down hill all of the way. When I go visit my Aunt my truck will get about 18 mpg and when I come home I get 17 mpg. I told my wife the trip north must be up hill because I get lousy gas mileage. Hard telling when you are behind the wheel it feels like the same trip just going a different direction. Last Christmas I started having trouble with my left knee so finally after way to much pain I thought it was not going to get any better till I see a doctor. I had no idea what was wrong with it. I did have a knee replacement done on it in 2006. I thought that it was going to last me a life time but I had no idea what I was in for. My doctor did some testing and told me that my knee had come apart were the knee meets the bone. I asked him what was the fix and he told me more surgery. As it turned out he called me in and told me that he wanted to put in a different style knee that would be more sturdy. All I could think about was the pain of recovery but I knew that was short and what I was doing was going to be forever unless I had the operation. I had Surgery on Feb 25th and I had my first rehab therapy on March 2 nd. I knew what I was going into but I had no idea that they were going to do what they did. The therapist took my leg and put it in her lap and she was stroking my Knee and said are you ready and she pressed down on my knee. The pain was unreal I thought that I was going to hop out of my chair and then she told me she was going to do it two more times. That night when I went to bed I told the nurse that I wanted my pain medication. When I got out of bed in the Morning I told the nurse I wanted my pain medication. I could take the medication every 4 hours. I wanted to make sure that I had plenty of pain medication in me because I knew what was ahead of me. I went in for Therapy and the young lady gave me a Ice pack for my knee and I had a little bit of a work out and then went for breakfast with the ice pack still on my knee and after breakfast it was once again time to stretch my knee. I thought to my self well I'm good and stoned on pain meds this should not be to bad. Well the results were about the same and all I could do was try to suck it up and cry. Tears would run down my cheeks and there was nothing that I could do to stop this. I felt kind of strange in a room full of adults and here I am crying. Finally one lady said I really feel sorry for you I can see how bad that hurts. I told her well it is something you have to go through if you want to walk again and that is a desire of mine. First time I had this done it was all different. I was home for two weeks getting home therapy and after that I had to go to out patient therapy. Right now it has been 36 days that I had my surgery and I'm up and walking in the house with out a cane or walker. Yesterday I was out most of the day cutting my grass. I am so amazed how fast my knee is healing. I saw my doctor last week and he was amazed to see how well I was doing. He checked out the movement in my knee and told me Mr Fisher you are a blessed man. I told him ya it is all God's work that is for sure he just gave me the courage to endure. Once in a while at night it will ache some but there is not much I can do about that it just makes it kind of hard to sleep. The good part about that Is I can sleep when ever I want.

cowboy

When I was a small child I wanted to be a cow boy. This past weekend I got a small taste of what a cowboy does and God was good to me by not granting me that one wish. Saturday morning I got up and was having a cup of coffee and pounding on my key board and chatting with the wife and I hear a loud MOO. Most of the times cows are quiet and don’t do a lot of MOOING, I knew something was up. Next thing I know my sister in- was asking me to help her with the cows that they got out of the pasture. I went and got a bucket of feed but then I found out that all of them were out and gone. I was walking around looking for them and my Dogs were with me and I looked at them and said go find the cows. It was like they knew what I said and they took off running through the woods. They let out a few barks and the other 4 dogs came running. I thought that all of this was kind of funny and I was still checking the fence to see were they got out. Peggy was out on the ATV hunting them and all of a sudden I hear all of the dogs barking like mad. I knew they found the cows and I started laughing to my self. Peggy came by and ask me If I had seen any of them and I told her no but it sounds like the dogs have found them. Peggy went off in the direction of the dogs barking and I went back to repairing fence. I heard Peggy driving down the road and I knew she had to have at least one cow with her. I dropped my stuff and went to check and found her coming down the road with a cow in front of her. Most of the time all you have to do is shake the feed bucket and they will come running so that is what I did. I had the pasture gate open and the next thing I know is the cow jumps the fence to get into the pasture. Just for starters cows don’t jump to good and she kind of went under the top strand of barbed wire and pushed down the metal wire and knocked the electric fence wire down. I was standing there thinking cows are not very smart. All she had to do was walk over to me and get some feed and it would have been a lot easier on her. I went back to fence repair and I get a phone call that my nephew has the rest of the cows and they want me to open another gate to the pasture. I get over there and Ted looks like the pide piper of cows. He is walking along with a pail of feed and they are all following him. I open the gate and all of the cows go in and then it is back to fence repair. The place the cows chose to tear down the fence is all rocks. Ted and I begin the task of driving new fence post in and I notice the post is not going in the ground. I told Ted I think you hit a rock and he moves the post and we keep doing that for about 30 minutes taking turns trying to find a place to put a post where there are no rocks. I told Ted this is like putting up a fence in the city that we need a jack hammer to make a hole. Finally we found a spot and put a new pole in the ground. That gave pain in the neck a whole new meaning. Usually you give it a few good whacks and it is in the ground. 4 hours later we have the fence fixed the cows back in the pasture and I was glad I was not a cowboy ever.

busy taken it easy

My brother once told me he didn’t know when he found the time to work. I think I’m getting the idea of what he was talking about. Most folks think all you do once you retire is sit and do nothing. For me that is far from what I do. I have thought just keep a blog of what you do and you can take care of that on a daily basis for something to fill in time. Wow is that ever a joke. Filling in time is something I don’t have to worry about. I can’t even keep a blog going as often as I would like to. Don’t get me wrong I’m not slaving away like a dog but I do stay busy. Last week uncle Norman passed away (Robert’s Uncle) He was a fine man and loved by many and had the respect of the community. Norman chose to be a farmer and he did work hard at it. I was amazed when he told me that when he was in the army he saved all of the money he made and this was during WWII. His wife worked in a five and dime and she also saved all of the money she made. When Norman got out of the army they had enough money to buy a small farm in Alabama. Working on a shoe string things were not easy for Norman so he had to do a lot of things by hand and fix things himself when they broke down. Norman wore many hats during his farmer days and not only did he farm but he was also a repairman that could fix just about anything that broke. He was a Husband to a lovely wife and a father. He was more than that he was also a uncle that loved his nieces and nephews and would do anything to help them along in life. Norman would treat himself to deer hunting in the fall because it was one of the things he always enjoyed. I don’t blame him for that myself, I also like to hunt for many reasons and the best one I can think of it takes you a bit closer to God. When you are out sitting in the woods by yourself you have a lot of time to think and reflect on life. To be honest I don’t think I ever started living till I retired and can enjoy the time I do have. Living and working in the city is just not fun at all. Too much dirt way to many stupid laws and fines. When I was living in Illinois I felt like I had another hand in my pocket all of the time taking money I needed to live on. I can understand the need for rules and laws but to me it would make more sense to have builders make wider streets so you can get a fire engine down the street with cars parked on both sides of the street. They didn’t even think about it they let the builders do what they wanted and made laws to work around the stupidity of it all and the residents of the community have to suffer by paying large fines for parking on the wrong side of the street. Well all of that is in the past and that is where it is going to stay. I park my truck where ever I want to but most of the time I park it in the same place to make it easy on others. Now here is the cool part if I want to have a yard sale all I need to do is pound a sign into the ground and have on it yard sale and sit and wait. Kind of like hunting and fishing and you get to meet some nice folks at the same time. Yesterday started out with a trip to the store not just any old store this was a store for hunting and fishing goodies. I thought to myself this has to be as close to heaven as you are going to get on earth. Only bad part is you have to pay for stuff. I found a real nice fishing rod and I was all set to buy it till the sales man told me it would cost me $159. I put it back on the rack and started looking at other ones. Ted told me if you want a rod get one of these and showed me one that was made by Fuji and it was only $40 and it was a $100 rod. I thought that was more to my liking. I never in my life thought that I would have more than one rod but that is a joke. Sometimes you are fishing with a worm and then you want to use a different bait you just pick up a different rod with that bait on it and keep on fishing. Most of the time I only use 2 different kinds of bait so I only need 2 rods, the one I never change is the one with the spinner bait on it. The other one I use worms, top water baits or deep water baits. I was looking at the cost of baits yesterday and just about choked. I guess there is a reason I use worms a bunch.