Pulled the Plug...

We recently pulled the plug on our satellite provider. After completing our annual financial review and taking stock of all the "leaks" in our money bucket, we realized just how much those reruns of MASH and Andy Griffith cost. We pay by the year and that gives us almost a free month but even with that, the tally came to $80+ a month. If the programming was outstanding, it wouldn't be so difficult to defend the expenditure, but every night we scrolled through the channels and couldn't find anything we really wanted to watch. Hundreds of channels and click, click, click, and always defaulted to Andy, MASH, or America's Funniest Home Videos.

Frustration boils when you have several TVs, add on HD, add this, add that and next thing you know you are talking real money. Pull the plug! Beach vacation consumed two weeks of the initial cold turkey and we are still adjusting to what we call "regular TV". So far, the only program that has held any grip on us has been, "America's Got Talent". Don't know how much talent we will end up with, but at least it is interesting and amazing to see how much pleasure the judges seem to take in holding the vulnerable acts over a slow cook fire while they decide if they really do "have talent" and will go to Hollywood. I'm being brutally honest here!

Loving Wife's Permission

This is an ad I saw in a local paper. Really gave all of us a chuckle. Thought you might enjoy it too.

Weekend on the Pamlico

What a wonderful weekend. First time back to the river since our dear friend Jim Pinkney had passed away this spring. It was a good healing time for all of us. When I say "us", I mean the usual river group that comes. It was hard to be in the cottage and not imagine that I was hearing his kind voice and expecting him to walk through the door to the porch at any time. Our dear Jim had just retired from East Carolina University, as celebrated professor there for many years. He luckily came to Greenville by way of Nebraska from Minnesota, his home state. Seems he had two job offers, one in Michigan and the ECU job. His wife Kathy being from SC, and the warm weather here sealed the decision making process. They bought a house near our friends, Tony and Paula, and the friendship began. Jim had two seasons, baseball and football. The beautiful river house helped him through the summers and the winters always seemed way too long for him. Jim was deadly at Scrabble, Crossword Puzzles and the final answer on any Trivial Pursuit game. He spoke Korean and was a translator during his service years and was our original "Google". He knew everything and if he didn't he made you think he did and no one would argue. His Sunday morning Bloody Marys were killer, made with love and enough stuff, olives, onions, celery, and lime to cover several vegetable servings on the food pyramid. A true gentleman, Jim always made everyone feel as though they were the most important person around. How we all miss him. Even Millie, the dog that lives next door. I sensed she was walking around the house this weekend as if to look for Jim. I watched her as she scratched to go inside the cottage and then walk to his bedroom, look on the bed, turn around, come out and continue to look for him. Jim was always sneeking bits of food to Millie. Her diet is limited but he would make sure she had a few tasty morsels discretely given during our wonderful porch meals. She always stayed close to him waiting. Millie is a good judge of people cause she sure loved Jim....and so did we. The river is still beautiful but it is missing someone very special.

Worms....

If you see your tomato plants looking like this first photo with missing leaves and vines...you need to look around for a Horn Worm. (see next photo) When I was growing up, we called them tobacco worms because they would make their meals on tobacco plants. A good army of them could devastate a field and most farmers were on the lookout for them. They don't bite or anything and are relatively easy to pluck off, just have to do it before they damage the plant which can happen very quickly. I had just checked my plants the day before so be aware that they are easy to overlook. He was nice and fat so guess he had been munching all day. The worm below was offered to my hen, but she turned him down. Maybe they don't taste good. They sure are pretty worms with their bright red horns on the end. He was later offered to the opportunity to go swimming, but didn't seem to be able to swim, maybe he needed water wings. Oh well....

Land of the Free BECAUSE of the BRAVE!

This was the reply from my niece about the obituary:

I saw that you posted this, what an interesting life he led. The Seals have a large presence at our base, NAB Little Creek, and in Virginia Beach. It's really sad though that we've had to organize close to a dozen memorials for them in the past few years. At my shop we print poster-size photos for the services and we get to see pics of the big burly dudes during their 'softie' moments, with girlfriends, wives, parents and kids... it's very sad. But, there are some men out there who are definitely made for that kind of lifestyle... gotta harness that energy somehow! And as I heard someone say on the radio a few days ago... we're "The Land of The Free, BECAUSE of The Brave" and these guys epitomize that sentiment.

Interesting Obituary

My niece, Stephanie, is helping with a group of Navy divers today in Virginia and her comments about their antics brought this old obituary to mind.

This is an obit that I ran across some years ago returning from Key West, FL. I picked up a KW paper in the tiny airport there to read on the flight home and saw this. I love to read obits that really let you wrap your arms around the person that died and this one certainly does that. He must have been a character you wouldn't soon forget. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.

James Wesley Ferguson

Cap'n Jim died at home in his own bed, peacefully, a way he never thought he would go. He'd always thought his death might be violent and the bed not his own.

Jim crowded much into one 73 year life. He learned to swim in Tahiti while on a cruise in his uncle's schooner, almost before he could walk. He met his family in Scotland before he became old enough to go to school. He grew up in Coral Gables and spent his high school years in Knoxville, Tenn.

After playing lots of football and being carried off the field more times than he walked, he graduated from the architecture school at the University of Tennessee.

Jim enlisted in the U.S. Navy. He fought in World War II, mostly in the South Pacific, not at a desk of course, but on the sea and in the jungles. He was a various times a Seabee, a hardhat diver, an engineer, a POW, and an explosive-mine diffuser. A member of one of the first two frogmen units, he helped write the book for the Navy Seals.

He was shot and stabbed, bombed, bludgeoned and bayoneted, shrapnelled, torpedoed, and sunk. Admiral "Bull" Halsey pinned a silver star on him for bravery. He was chosen for duty aboard the USS Williamsburg, President Truman's yacht, serving under oath to protect the president's life with his own. He also had the privilege of doing private investigative work for President Truman in Korea. He left the Navy a captain.

He was a ship captain in the Merchant Marine, the owner of a furniture-making business in Miami, a bar owner in Houston. He blew a mean jazz sax and shot moneymaking craps. He was a good woodcarver, songwriter and sculptor with a creative and inventive mind.

He was good at children, too! Linda Brown of High Point, FL., Wesley Nairn of Labelle, FL., Kristy Ferguson of Denver, Colo., and Karen Ferguson of Corpus Christi, TX., are the the much-loved issue of two of his marriages. Equally loved are children in China, the Marshall Islands, and Australia from less formal liaisons.

Jim died of lung cancer. If his friends feel they'd like to do something in his memory, perhaps they could help the smokers they love kick the habit.

He is survived by his children and grandchildren, and also by his widow, Marilyn, who will always be grateful to have found someone to laugh with.

Jim's body will be returned to the sea on Sept. 17, 1996.

Storms blowing through...

Just had a strong storm go through the area. Little bit of rain and a lot of wind. Sun is peeking out now and shining through the rain. Can still hear the rumble of thunder off to the east. Beautiful photos of the sun shining through the clouds and will post soon. Watched the cows as the storm was coming. The babies were in the coastal hay which needs cutting and it hides them except for the top of their head and ears. The mothers started bellowing to find them as the winds picked up. The babies stood up and the mothers rushed to them and started licking. After they found them they all started grazing again and the storm came on through.

Only one peep!

Just home from 2 weeks at the beach and my hen, Henny Penny, that I couldn't find before I left has one little peep.