Like A Nightmare -- Entering A Room Full of Snakes

I opened the door, stepped over two  feet of planks at the entrance into the small barn -- and entered a nightmare.  Big black snakes were everywhere, running across the floor, climbing up and down the walls, and falling from the rafters.  I was startled, to say the least, and stepped back and fell through the door onto the ground.  I don't remember what I said, but I must have shouted something like, "Hey, this building's full of snakes."  They were chicken snakes, which are not poisonous but can bite.  I carried a scar on a finger from a snake bite I got as a child.  No doubt rats had made a home in this abandoned barn and the snakes had followed to feast on them.

We had enough land on the home farm to keep us busy, but daddy had rented this place from our aunt. The soil was sandy and well drained so it could be worked earlier in the spring.  We had traveled from home in a wagon loaded with plows and other tools and feed for the horses. I had opened the barn to store the feed when the snakes and I became acquainted.  We walked back home at the end of the workday but for the remainder of the week we would travel by car, including home at noon for lunch.

The farm was traversed by a small brook and there were several places too low and wet to use for crops.
There were plenty of snakes ranging  from coach whips to cotton mouth moccasins.  The last time I visited the place my  cousin was showing me his grape vines and I saw two large snakes, what kind I don't know.

Another adventure with snakes there is more fun for me to rememember.  We were working in one field and a farmhand was plowing in an adjacent field.  He had stopped plowing and was throwing clods of dirt at a stump.  Daddy yelled at him to get back to work and the farmhand yelled back that he couldn't because he had seen a snake and it had hid in the stump.  Daddy said to him, forget it, that snake is a pet; he won't hurt you.  The hand yelled back, "I don't make no pets of no snakes."  We had to find and kill the little snake before he would resume plowing.

North Carolina Football Troubles Are Bad for Everyone

Even the most rabid LSU Tiger football fan is unhappy  with the problems University of North Carolina and its football team are having.  Around  UNC you hear all around,, " We had a good chance to beat LSU," or even more aggressive,  "We were going to beat LSU," followed by, "but now we've lost half of our football team."  On the LSU campus you hear the plaint, "If we win everyone will say it was because UNC was missing some star players, and if we lose, we will really look bad."  They are referring to the report  that several UNC players will be suspended because of  violations.

Actually, injuries, suspensions, transfers, and bad officiating are challenges all teams face.  LSU has three injured players who will  miss the game, several players transferred, and one projected starter has been suspended. No one, not even the people in a position to know, has all the details of the facts around the UNC situation, certainly who or how many Tar Heels will be suspended for the game.  North Carolina began an investigation when it was learned some players and/or coaches had associated with agents. It was then discovered that a tutor, no longer with the school, had possibly written some papers for players. This transcends sports; it goes to the heart of academics and reflects on the integrity of the university.UNC will do the right thing; what punishment, if any, by the NCAA may not be known until a day or so before the game.

Every university should take this as a warning and monitor more closely its tutorial programs. Some schools want to win so badly they will hire coaches who have committed violations at other schools. They are an exception as most schools want to have a clean program, but the pressure to win is there for all schools..  They must be watchful lest something similar happens to them. The NCAA considers academic fraud the worst infraction a program can have.

Too Much Reliance on Green Energy Could Be Disastrous

Stupid.  That's what Economist Loren Scott, speaking in Shreveport recently, termed the idea that wind and solar are the answers  to our energy needs in the future.  President Obama's dream of  "clean" energy could  lead us to an oil shortage and a devastating blow to an already hurting economy. I can hear it now, "You're  beating a dead horse.  Many have warned about this."    Yes, but Obama seems determined to ride that dead horse no matter where it takes us.  A few days ago when questioned about the economy and unemployment, his only solution offered was that if we lead the world in clean energy plenty of jobs will follow.

Obama appears to be sincere in his dream that EV's are the future for America.  This was seconded by a Democratic congressman who told Greta Van Sustern that the United States should build batteries and electric cars for sale to China. He didn't consider that if the Chinese want electric vehicles they are capable of building their own.   Some people believe the day of the electric car hit its peak around the end of the 19th century.  Even the sale of hybrid vehicles has decreased from three per cent of cars sold in the summer of 2008 to two per cent today.  If there is a demand for batteries to power electric cars, why did we have to bribe a Korean company with 150 million dollars to build a manufacturing plant?

While some dream of electric cars, wind and solar, real jobs in the Gulf have been idled by the moratorium on drilling.  The White House has admitted that it knew thousands of jobs would be lost but went ahead with the moratorium.  Obama has shown in the past that he will tax some industries to subsidize others in his zeal to shape the nation to fit some dream of his. Congress is debating additional taxes on oil and gas when the need is to produce more.  Oil and gas are responsible for 9.2 million jobs. Development of more production will save some jobs and create more. Think about this; one-third of our domestic oil is produced from wells in the Gulf, 80 per cent of that from deep water wells, as defined by the government.  If this moratorium goes on much longer, this nation could have a shortage of oil.  Rigs moving out of the Gulf may not return.

How I Passed Spelling in the Seventh Grade

I had always been a good speller, making perfect on spelling tests and getting certificates from the state three years in  a row. Therefore, my parents were shocked when I came home with F's  in spelling in the seventh grade.  They demanded an explanation and I gave it to them.  We had to write with pen staffs, a problem in itself.  To be correct a word had to be spelled correctly and free of any writing errors such as an  e being too tall or an l too short, a loop in a t, or too narrow a loop in an l.  The girl who sat behind me graded my paper and took delight in finding a flaw in every word and marking nearly all wrong, thus giving me a failing grade.  I was helpless to contend with this.  My dad came to my rescue.  I had no money to buy the girl a candy bar and thus influence her,  but we had pears, pecans and peanuts in abundance, so I showered her with them. It worked; she started being reasonable and I passed spelling. I don't remember my grade, but for the first time I wasn't perfect in spelling. The teacher, Oren Trout, not only had students grading papers but let the class vote the  conduct grade for each student.  You can bet no boy got better than C. We also gave some of the mos popular girls C but he raised their grade to a B.

Cost of stimulus greater than cost of Iraq War.

A report on Drudge  says the Iraq War added very little to the national debt.

Too Many Senate Staff

Our founding fathers made a big mistake.  They provided for two senators per state but did not set a limit on senate staffers, which now exceeds 10,000.  A small step in government down-sizing would be to limit the number of senate staffers. Cutting the pay of federal employees while reducing those numbers would be another good move.

Today Is My Birthday

And  it's just another day.  Birthdays were never a big deal in our family as we were growing up. Maybe because there were so many of us.  The birthday boy or girl got to pick the type of cake that would b e baked for the Sunday nearest the birthday.  I've talked about my sad 18th birthday in the hospital in San Diego, a time I felt so alone, and then my 19th that passed while in San Francisco preparing to go to Japan, at first it was to invade and then when Japan surrendered it was to occupy.  Events were moving so fast I didn't remember that I had become 19 until two weeks later.

Owing to my wife Jen my 50th was marked with a few relatives and friends on hand.  Then my 80th with many relatives and church members shocking me by observing the day with me. Again, thanks to Jen.

Tomorrow, August 22, is the birthday of  brother-in-law Frank Cascio, who if he is not reading this should be. Also it would be the 97th  birthday of  Mark White, a fellow crew member on the Pickens.  I did not know him then but almost feel like I do now through his writings and correspondence with his son John.