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17 Jan ‘10

There is not much going on with the Website.  A few items have been added here and there but they have been trickling in. 

My back problem finally got better after four weeks of not being able to even hardly walk and I was able to get back into full swing on the basement remolding project.  I finished the electrical and all of the plumbing.  Yesterday I nervously cut the hot and cold water lines and tied my plumbing into it.  I turned the water back on and was happy to find that I had no water leaks anywhere but discovered that I had inadvertently tied the hot to the cold and visa versa.  This would not have been a major problem and on cold Minnesota mornings to set on a warm commode might not have been all that bad but it wasn't right so I couldn't accept it.  So I cut both lines where they run through the floor joists and reversed them.  So now everything is correct. 

I also finished sheet rocking yesterday and will be starting taping soon.  Yesterday I also went to Home Depot and bought the floor tile which I will lay today after the Viking/Cowboy game.

I would like to have another Breakfast Get-together sometime in the near future.  If you have any suggestions for a date contact me.  I am leaning toward sometime in February as there are only two weekends left in January and I have a Ham Radio testing session this coming Saturday morning and it would be short notice for this Saturday.   

If any of you are obituary readers and noticed that a William J. Lord passed away the other day I just wanted to let you know I am sorry for the William that passed away but am happy to announce that it was not me.  I apologize for what I am going to now say but you all know me....not a serious bone in my body....I actually thought of going to the funeral and signing the guest book.  This most likely would have freaked out some people.  Sort of reminds you of a Larry The Cable Guy routine....forgive me Lord.

The Website is going to be 2 years old next Sunday and will be up for renewal sometime in March.  I will be using the left over funds from the Luau to ensure the Site is up for two or three more years.  We are going to have to purchase some more space on the site as we have used up 69.4% of the 5GB on the site.  I am going to try to double this space which will allow us enough room on the site for us to grow over the next two or three years.  I will be working this week on putting together a post which will go on the site next Sunday reflecting on the growth of the site and the happenings over the past two years.  So be sure to log on next Sunday the 25th and check out the special addition of this Newsletter.

  

06 Jan ‘10

I wasn't planning on writing in the column so soon again but I realized today that I had left out a very important piece of news....something I am proud to share with you, my dear friends.

The 20th of December was a day I have thought of for some time and a day I shall unlikely forget.  It commemorated the day I had enough smarts left to realize the need and the courage to make it happen.  It was 10 years ago on the 20th of December that I finally put the cork back in the bottle where it remains today.

For those of you who have supported me on this sometime not-so-easy journey I wish to thank you.  The road to full recovery is a non-ending journey as there is no end to the road.  AA sums it up very nicely with the statement that the journey is "one day at a time".

 

05 Jan ‘10

It has been quite awhile since I wrote in this column.  There are a couple of reason for the delay.  With the holidays I have been just too busy to dedicate any time to the Website.  Then another reason is because I lost my entire address book in Outlook which I use for e-mail due to a computer crash and was unsuccessful in restoring it from a backup so had to completely rebuild it from scratch.  I had the data backed up on hard copy but this meant I had to enter the data piece by piece which was very time consuming.  I know some of the data is incorrect as the backup was not a real current copy.  I will be working on this for some time before I get it back close to where it was.  There were a small hand full of Shipmates who had requested to be excluded from e-mail mailings and I tried to remember who they were so their names would not be added to the address book but I am sure I missed one or two.  So if you are one of these Shipmates and start receiving e-mail from me again I apologize.  Just drop me an e-mail and request you name to be removed and I will honor your wishes.  I know there is a lot of stuff that go on the site that some of you have no interest in but occasionally some worthwhile stuff makes it's way to the site and if you are not included in my mailing list there is no way to get the word to you.

I intend to send out an e-mail requesting that you update your e-mail addresses, phone numbers and spouses name for my records as much of this information was lost.  I hope you will take a few minutes to update your data for me as it is extremely helpful having this at my fingertips.

2009 has come and gone and I for one am not sorry to see it go.  I would venture to bet this feeling I have is shared by most of you as well.  I have lived for 68 years now and I believe I can safely say that 2009 was by far the worst year of these 68.  I know I have been hesitant to put anything on the site of a political nature but am going to stray from this policy momentarily and state that I fear for the Nation over the next three years.  I feel that we are selling out our forefathers and the founders of this once great Nation.  I just hope we all wake up soon before it's too late.  Enough said.

I hope everyone had a good Christmas and got to spend time with their families and especially you grandchildren.

Speaking of Christmas, I noticed something this year that I haven't seen for a few years now and this is retailers actually greeting you with "Merry Christmas".  When I would hear this I would take the time to thank them for their courage to disregard this PC crap and make the statement.  I also stated that I was surprised  that the management would allow them to offer this greeting and was told by several that they didn't care what store policy was they were going to say it and if management had a problem with them doing so "they can fire me" to quote a couple of clerks.

One the lighter side today I ran into an older gentleman wearing the USS Bowfin ball cap and had to stop and talk to him.  This was his first boat back during WW-II.  He talked of his time aboard the Bowfin and seeing a lot of combat.  He proudly wore the silver Dolphins on his cap.  I invited him to visit our Website but he said that he has never owned a computer.  Too bad as I am sure there are stories there that would have been great to publish on the site.

The project of the basement remolding I started some time back has come to an almost standstill as I hurt my back and have been unable to do much of anything for the past four weeks.  I finally went to the doctor today and am slowly recovering.  I hope to get back into action and complete it soon.  I have all the walls up and sheet rocked.  I still have to sheetrock the bathroom.  The plumbing is in and most of the electrical has been completed.   I have the shower in with the exception of the door and won't install it until the walls are sheet rocked as I fear that it might get broken while sheet rocking.