time marchs on

When one is at sea time can be a drag. Nothing new to see and unless you have the watch or we are having one of the many drills it can get boreing. There are free movies every night, at sea and in port. But I didn't go to many of them. In port, no reason to go see a movie. When at sea I went to a couple of them but it was no fun sitting on a bench and the break between reels always came at the wrong time for me.

I remember my shipboard friends Bookman (Bookie) and Renner (you don't want to know). It seems that sailor will not pair up as buddies but form a threesome. I was called Pancho. To help past the long hours at sea we use to sing. Lots of Kingston Trio song. Bookie had a guitar and he would bring it out and the three of use would just sing. Not saying we were any good but we worked just about as far up on the ship as one can get. There we would talk, eat our snacks and then Bookie would start to pick a tune and soon we were all singing.

You can listen to some of the songs we sang by clicking on them at the left. It helped pass the time. Now Renner has died. Bookman lives on a mountain in West Virginia. It was not till a couple of years ago that he got electric power to his house and still has no phone landline. Has to use a cell and have as power booster in his house to boost the signal. He has written a book and gone big game hunter around the world. He tells me he can't do that much anymore as time has started to catch up with him. The things that do not get old are the memories. They remain fresh in our mind. To be lived again and again. I hope we will always have them

got a webcam

Well, after many days of pondering, I got a webcam. After getting it installed and running I had a nice l0ng talk with my son in Provo. How nice to see him and talk to him. Lianna, my granddaughter came in and said "That's Bobby!". And he said, "boy, she has grown".

I was surprised by how good it really looks! I had seen some that were so choppy and dark with a little tiny picture. It is not as good as the one my son has but same brand. It is as logitech quickcam communicate STX. Easy to install, sounds good and you don't need a bunch of light. After getting it installed I went to messenger and found someone I knew online and after a little tweaking and reading the instructions she was able to see me. Frame rate is not bad and color is good. I always wanted to be as purple as "Barney". Kidding. It works well. You don't have to have a cam to view those who have one.

I guess one gets what they pay for. This one ran under 50 bucks and didn't come with the software my sons came with. But the purpose for which I got the camera is well served. Must remember to comb hair and put on a clean shirt before I sit down before the thing. Oh, and not look at the keyboard, it shows how much my hair is thinning. But who wants fat hair?

catacombs in Italy

The catacombs are an underground series of tunnels where the dead were buried long ago. You may have read in history books that the early Christians use to meet in the catacombs to escape the Roman soldiers looking for them in an attemp to wipe out the Christians.

I was able to visit the catacombs as a young sailor. It was strange to see the bodies hung on the walls. Some of the bodies were dressed in prison uniform and still had the rope that was used to hang them around their necks. Others you could see were dressed in priest garb. I believe these priest came much later. The poor were stack as one would stack lumber, on shelfs, next to each other. Very close to each other. The rich that could afford a coffin were there also, on stands or on the floor. It is hard to imagine how many skeletons there were and how long the tunnels were. There were branchs off the main tunnel with rooms where more dead were laid to rest.

It was a strange place to visit, but I don't plan on a return visit.

Darn Scuds

Darn Scuds


During Gulf War I a lot was heard about the Scud missile. If one thinks back they can recall the horror of watching the
evening news and hearing that a scud had hit a building that housed American service personel. I believe that more then 200 Americans were killed by that one missile. The scud is a very inaccurate missile. You lanch it at general direction and hope it hits something.

Saddam launch many of these at Israel hoping to get the Israel to strike back knowing that if they did, the Arabs who were with the coalitioin led by the United States would leave. Perhaps even attack Israel because she had attacked an Arab state.

The scuds were hard to find, they were on mobil lanchers and could "shoot and scoot". They could be fitted with chemical or biological warheads. Thankfully they never were and were fitted with high explosive. The launchers could be hid during the day in barns, under any kind of cover and at night they could run out set up, lanch, and then they could scoot out of the the area before they could be found. We never did find any to bomb during the whole time of Desert Shield or Desert Storm.

So here are a couple of pictures of a scud. One in travel mode and one (same one really) in launch mode. They are 1/48 scale. That is one inch is equal to 48 inchs in real life. I enjoyed makeing this bit of history and hope you enjoy seeing it and remembering them.