There were many on youtube but this one seemed to say it best for me.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...=

I've joined a group who writes to a soldier each week.  I'm sent a name and address and the rest is up to me.  I figured if I'm going to talk the talk about supporting the troops, I should walk the walk and do what I can.  I don't know these young people, and may never hear back from them, but that's not the point fo doing this.  It's to send mail to someone who may not be receiving mail at all.  And if they are, one more can't do anything but help the morale.

I received this in email from the organization this morning and want to share it on this Memorial Day weekend.  Check out the link too.

MAY NO SOLDIER GO UNLOVED: BOOK 1

Pasadena, CA (May 30, 2007) – In the past four years, Soldiers' Angels has grown to become the country's largest military support non-profit organization.   May No Soldier Go Unloved: Book 1, by Jeff Bader (272 pp, $19.95, presale at www.angelsstore.org), chronicles the incredible journey of one woman's desire to help, and how that has drawn over 120,000 volunteers and millions of dollars to her cause.

Patti Patton Bader has the heart of Mother Teresa, the motivational mastership of Vince Lombardi, and the mobilization skills of Genghis Khan. She was raised an army brat; the great niece of the famous World War II General George S. Patton, daughter of decorated Vietnam Veteran Lt. Colonel David W. Patton, and brother of Iraqi War Veteran David Patton.

When her oldest son, Brandon, was sent to Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom, in the spring of 2003, she decided to send him at least one care package a day and keep a blog of the events that occurred in Iraq and Afghanistan as an electronic scrapbook for Brandon when he returned.

What started out as a mother's small commitment to her son, soon turned into Soldiers' Angels.   Assisting deployed troops around the world, Soldiers' Angels sends care packages and letters of encouragement to those in the field, provides first response backpacks and blankets of hope to the wounded, ships voice activated laptops to soldiers who have lost their arms, hands, or sight, and delivers "living trees" to the fallen hero's families who have paid the ultimate sacrifice.

Patti has received numerous awards and tons of letters of appreciation from soldiers, airmen, sailors, marines, family members, doctors, nurses, the Surgeon General of the Army, the Secretary of Defense, and the President of the United States.  The Smithsonian Institute now hosts the same blog that Patti started years ago, brandonblog.com, which is still updated daily.  

Patti Patton Bader is a regular guest on numerous radio shows around the country, and the stories of her and other Soldiers' Angels' deeds and actions are published in local newspapers and magazines almost daily.  Her newsletter alone raises several millions of dollars a year in donations. She takes not even one dime for compensation, and does all of this from her bed with a laptop computer, a big screen TV, and a cell phone.

Patti has Hepatitis C and fibrosis of the liver, and is often confined to her bed. She is in extreme pain most waking hours.

I should know… I'm her husband.

My wife is an amazing example of selflessness, patriotism, caring and dedication. Like an angel, she has anonymously and thanklessly touched the lives of many people she doesn't know.  She works from the time she gets up in the early morning to the time she falls asleep from exhaustion late at night.  Patti Patton Bader is a true American patriot. This is her story and the story of the founding of Soldiers' Angels.

May No Soldier Go Unloved: Book 1 , by Jeff Bader, is available at www.angelsstore.org for $19.95.  The first 1000 copies will be signed by the author, and by Patti Patton Bader.   This is the first in a series of books to be published about Soldiers' Angels and its journey.

--

May no soldier go unloved.
May no soldier walk alone.
May no soldier be forgotten,
Until they all come home.

SoldiersAngels.org

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Here are pictures of the ranch I've talked about.  If you click on larger view and maximize you can see it better.  We bought the lower 20 acres of an old ranch outside of town when we lived in Tehachapi.  The house had been the caretakers house and, as near as we could tell, was a bout 80 years old.  It was a mess with broken windows, battered walls and remodels over the years.  We went in and gutted it, keeping every other stud and floor joist just to say is was a remodel and not  new construction. 

We kept the same roof line (pitch) but had all new rafters.  Basically the shell was mostly original but we extended the back, put the long hall back in that dissected the house, extended the kitchen, master br and service porch, added a bathroom and other odds and ends.  We worked on that house for almost 5 years and when I left it was complete except for the loft, main bath and two bedrooms.  Oh, and did I mention it still had plywood floors in the kitchen and service porch still waiting for tile and vynyl?

It still sits between  the gate of the Indian Hill Ranch Campground and Alpine Forrest in Tehachapi if you're ever in the area.  It finally got finished when the ex remarried.

Point being..that house was 80 years old and the framework was still good solid straight lumber, and it WAS rough sawn.

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This was in my email today from Readers Digest.  I subscribe to it on line and they're having this contest for Yogi-isms.  See below.  Anyone have any they want to add?  Or any of your own?

Wanted: Another Yogi Berra!
Baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra turned 82 a few weeks ago, and we'd
like to honor this man who has done more to advance the English language
than anyone since Noah Webster and his dictionary. But question: Is Yogi
the master of the malaprop or a philosopher par excellence? We've
collected some of his best quotes so you can decide:

"Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."
"The future ain't what it used to be."
"It gets late early out there."
"If you come to a fork in the road, take it."

As convoluted and garbled as many of these lines are, Yogi's genius lies
in the fact that somehow they make perfect sense. Now let's see if any
of you share that same genius. Send us your best Yogi-isms -- ones
you've made up yourself, or overheard a friend say. The author of our
favorite will win a cool prize and might just get published in Reader's
Digest.

LOOK IN THE MIRROR, JIMMY CARTER

By Jeff Jacoby

The Boston Globe

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

     Gracious as ever, Jimmy Carter says that when it comes to international relations, the presidency of George W. Bush has set an all-time low. "I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world," Carter told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette last week, "this administration has been the worst in history."

     Former presidents don't usually insult their successors quite so blatantly, and Carter's slur, not surprisingly, drew international attention. Whereupon he claimed that his remarks had been "maybe careless or misinterpreted" and insisted: "I was certainly not talking personally about any president." No, of course not.

     If "Pot Calling a Kettle Black" were a category in the Guinness Book of World Records, Carter would be a shoo-in for the upcoming edition. History's ultimate judgment on Bush may not be known for some time, but its verdict on Carter, who vacated the White House 26 years ago, seems clear enough. And that verdict is -- well, let's just say he would be well-advised not to toss around phrases like "worst in history" when the conversation turns to presidential performance.

     Christopher Hitchens this week recalled arguing with Eugene McCarthy, a lifelong liberal who had voted for Ronald Reagan in 1980. McCarthy was unapologetic about crossing party lines. Carter, he said, "quite simply abdicated the whole responsibility of the presidency while in office. He left the nation at the mercy of its enemies at home and abroad. He was the worst president we ever had."

     The worst of the 20th century, at any rate. During the Carter years, America's international standing went into freefall.  The 39th president entered the White House as the tide in the Cold War was turning in the Soviet Union's favor. Vietnam and Cambodia had fallen to the communists, and Marxist governments had seized power in Mozambique, Angola, and Ethiopia as well. Yet the new president went out of his way to dismiss principled anticommunism as foolish paranoia: "We are now free of that inordinate fear of communism which once led us to embrace any dictator who joined us in that fear," he said in a Notre Dame commencement address 30 years ago this week. Instead of acting forcefully to block any further expansion of communist power, Carter sought to appease it.

     Before long, he was slashing billions of dollars from the defense budget, canceling the B-1 bomber program, and ordering US missiles removed from South Korea. He welcomed the Sandinista takeover of Nicaragua, and provided the junta with $90 million in aid, disregarding what Lane Kirkland, head of the AFL-CIO, called "Nicaragua’s headlong rush into the totalitarian camp." He began diplomatic relations with Fidel Castro's dictatorship, unperturbed by the thousands of Cuban troops fighting with Marxist forces in Africa. As Moscow engaged in a vast military buildup and cultivated an international network of terrorists, the Carter administration sliced hundreds of intelligence positions at the CIA.

     Not until the Soviets invaded Afghanistan did the scales finally fall from Carter’s eyes. Moscow’s naked aggression, he said, "made a more dramatic change in my opinion of what the Soviets’ ultimate goals are than anything they’ve done in the previous time I’ve been in office."

     Toward those who warned that American weakness was dangerously provocative, Carter was scornful -- "simplistic," he said of Ronald Reagan in October 1980, "jingoistic ... shooting from the hip." Toward tyrants and goons, on the other hand, he was creepily unctuous. "A great and courageous leader" who "believes in human rights" was Carter’s description of Yugoslav dictator Marshal Tito. To Romania’s brutal Nicolae Ceausescu, the president fawned : "Our goals are the same ... to let the people of the world share in growth, in peace, in personal freedom ... in enhancing human rights." His sycophancy in the face of malevolence was memorably captured in photographs that showed him kissing Soviet ruler Leonid Brezhnev at a 1979 summit in Vienna, just months before the invasion of Afghanistan.

     Worst of all was the Carter administration’s supine response to the seizure of the American embassy in Tehran later the same year. When Carter hinted that he might use military force to end the crisis and free the 52 US diplomats being held in captivity, he was mocked by the Ayatollah Khomeini. "He is beating on an empty drum," Khomeini sneered. "Neither does Carter have the guts for military action nor would anyone listen to him." The hostages were not released until Reagan was sworn in as president, 444 days after they were taken captive.

     The fruits of Carter’s spinelessness have been bitter, says scholar Steven Hayward, author of *The Real Jimmy Carter.* The fall of Iran, he observes, "set in motion the advance of radical Islam and the rise of terrorism that culminated in Sept. 11." Similarly, by doing nothing to prevent the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Carter invited an evil from which grew the jihadist violence that is such a dangerous menace today.

     It took Americans only four years to realize what a disaster Carter had been; they booted him out in 1980 by a 44-state landslide. "The worst in history," he says of Bush. Look who's talking.

(Jeff Jacoby is a columnist for The Boston Globe.) 

This past weekend wedding has brought some thoughts of the real changes in our families lives this past year.  Of the 5 grandchildren, the three oldest are the ones I've spent the most time with.  Two lived with me for a time and I babysat the other one as well as having her with me in one of my businesses, and as a down the street neighbor.

I'm not sure how it happened but beginning last July, the oldest (the only boy), married.  They had a lavish wedding (that they paid for themselves) and the bride had the wedding of her dreams.  This past weekend Cassie also had the wedding of her dreams as she finally got to marry the man of her dreams after many delays by the army.

On June first my third grandchild will also be walking down the aisle with the man of HER dreams in a completely different wedding setting.  They are both into judo and so have chosen to be married at the Dojo in gingas in front of their friends and families.

They have married in the order in which they were born if not the distance in years.  All 3 are 5 years apart but somehow they ganged up on us with wedding dates.  Our family has now grown by 2 and will grow by one more in two weeks.  Cassie will be off to Germany, or wherever the army sends them, Katie is off to Louisiana after her wedding, and of the oldest 3, only the grandson will remain in town.  Hopefully the two youngest will give us a break for a few years.

Life is all about change and a lot of it is hard to accept.  These three weddings are happy changes...   a renewal of life and new beginnings.   Those of us who have had our day in the sun can only sit by and watch as the younger generation walks off into the future to take the world by storm. 

God love them...and God bless and keep them.

Wisdom of Larry the cable guy.  (Some are old but all pretty darned good.)

Wisdom of Larry, the Cable Guy

1. A day without sunshine is like night.
2. On the other hand, you have different fingers.
3. 42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.
4. 99 percent of lawyers give the rest a bad name.
5. Remember, half the people you know are below average.
6. He who laughs last, thinks slowest.
7. Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.
8. The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese in the trap.
9. Support bacteria. They're the only culture some people have.
10. A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
11. Change is inevitable, except from vending machines.
12. If you think nobody cares, try missing a couple of payments.
13. How many of you believe in psycho-kinesis? Raise my hand.
14. OK, so what's the speed of dark?
15. When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
16. Hard work pays off in the future. Laziness pays off now.
17. How much deeper would the ocean be without sponges?
18. Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines
19. What happens if you get scared half to death, twice?
20. Why do psychics have to ask you for your name?
21. Inside every older person is a younger person wondering, "What the hell happened?"
22. Just remember -- if the world didn't suck, we would all fall off.
23. Light travels faster than sound. That's why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
24. Life isn't like a box of chocolates. It's more like a jar of jalapenos. What you do today, might burn your ass tomorrow

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Most of you have seen where I talked about the long awaited wedding of my granddaughter and her fiance.  There were so many delays due to his surgeries and treatments for injuries in Iraq that we are so happy to finally announce the marriage of Cassandra and Angelo (Joe).  Meet Mr and Mrs. Reguschi.

They are joined in these pictures by Mark (motopoet) father of the bride, Aidan, the family (Bev, Mark, sisters Ariel, Camilla, mother Nanette), and yours truly. 

Here we go again.

Someone found your profile on The Bakersfield.com and wanted to tell you the following:

"Hello dear, I am Barrister Edmond Bon from Malaysia, I want to link you to a business transaction, and also to inform you that this transaction requires your high degree of confidentiality,this transaction is going to be formal,legal and official. Please contact me at once to indicate your interest. Regards, Barr.Edmond Bon. Senior Advocate/Solicitor."

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More than before.
Email: registration@bakersfield.com
Website: http://people.bakersfield.c...
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Bad thing is, you don't know for sure it's spam til you open it.  The subject line just says "Message from Bakersfield.com user" so it could be anyone from the blog.

Some of you might remember motopoet and I talking about his daughters fiance who has been at Walter Reed due to injuries sustained in Iraq.  He was due in Bakersfield at noon today and we're getting together to meet him at a barbeque this evening at Marks house.

I offered to take her to pick him up but she said he didn't want any fuss and would either rent a car or take a taxi.   I felt bad because had I thought, and he wouldn't have been uncomfortable, I would have let a lot of people know so they could be at the airport to shake his hand.

I was anxious to meet him but figured they need a few hours alone before the poor guy gets innundated with relatives.  Cassie tells us that if he's able to stay in the army, he will be sent back to Germany and she's planning on going too. 

We're all going to Vegas on Friday to be with them as they marry and will send them off to visit his family in Napa Valley.    We'll be taking lots of pictures and sharing them with all of you.

Yesterday I was at a birthday barbeque for a very dear friend who just turned 80.  We've known each other for over 40 years and looking around at all the good friends attending I started, once again, to wonder where all the years had gone.  How did I get to this point?  When my granddaughter got there with her baby Aidan, one of the friends asked, "now who's baby is this" and I had to tell her "it's Marks grandson."  My sons grandson.  How did that happen?  How did my son get to be old enough to have a grandson when I'm so young?

Thus begins a new cycle in our lives with the birth of Aidan.  Of a third generation.  And I watch in amazement as my two children become parents-in-laws and grandparents.  As they become middle aged.  The wonder is still there...where did the years go?

My grandson married last year and he and his wife are both teachers.  No..that can't be.  You can't have kids teaching kids.  Then I have to remind myself...he's 30, not 16.  Two of my grandaughters are getting married within two weeks of each other in the next three weeks and I wonder again..."when did they get old enough to marry?"    Of 5 grandkids, the youngest two are beginning their own adventures as one is graduating 8th grade this month and entering high school in the fall.  The other is going into junior high.

 This is a song that always brings nostalgic tears for me.  For my daughter and son who each have a daughter marrying now, this is for you.

Turn Around

Where are you goin' my little one, little one?
Where are you goin' my baby my own?
Turn around and you're two
Turn around and you're four
Turn around and you're a young girl
Going out the door

Chorus
Turn around
Turn around
Turn around and you're a young girl
Going out of the door
(Turn around and you're a young wife
With babes of your own)

Where are you goin' my little one, little one?
Little dirndles and petticoats, where have you gone?
Turn around and you're tiny
Turn around and you're grown
Turn around and you're a young wife
With babes of your own

Chorus

Where are you goin' my little one, little one?
Where are you goin' my baby my own?

_________________________________________________ _____________

 Kingston Trio 1964 Words and Music by Harry Belafonte, Alan Greene, and Malvina Reynolds

Got this in my email this evening.  Now I guess they're targeting bloggers.  I'll get right on it..my bank is just awaiting the word to go.  (:-0}

Forwarded Message:

Someone found your profile on The Bakersfield.com and wanted to tell you the following:

" Good day, Am 22 years old young lady My late dad is a successful business man before he died,My mum died when i was a baby am the only child in the family.i wanted to seek for your abolute assitant in recovering my inheritance. My dad seriously warn me to keep this money secretly because he knew that,it was because of all his wealth and properties,his brother decided to kill him ,he seriously advise me to transfer this money which is US$10.5 Millions to oversea account for my investment,where to start my life & education.Because of this reason,i am soliciting for your assistance for the claim and transfer of the to your bank account. Honestly,i am ready to give you 15% of this total money for your assistance For God sake,reply me so that i can tell you more about myself and the transfer.you can reach me at my email delph123_83@yahoo.com. Best regards Delphine Claude "

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More than before.
Email: registration@bakersfield.com
Website: http://people.bakersfield.c...
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Just a note to let you folks know motopoet is spending the night in the hospital.  He was in a lot of pain on Sunday when we went to breakfast and by Sunday night decided he needed urgent care.  He told me they didn't diagnose him correctly and he ended up in the hospital all day today with tests to find the problem.  He was finally diagnosed as having kidney stones and is a guest at San Joaquin Hospital.

When I talked to him he said he was still in the hall waiting for a bed.  I was at work at the time and asked if he needed company but he said he was ok and was going to rest as soon as he got in a room.  I'll be going to see him first thing in the morning and will post his progress.