This is what a buck looks like when you put it in a high fence pen, give it a lot of food to eat, and a couple of willing does to frolic with. I’m pretty sure this was the daddy to the two sets of twin fawns. The other buck was as mature, but his rack was a lot smaller, and he was obviously limping from an injury.

And this is a big buffalo. The herd at Salato has at least two bulls, a couple of cows, and a calf. Like I said, I haven’t seen buffalo since I was a kid. This particular bull was wearing the bark off of a cherry tree scratching multiple itches.

Today is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo XI moon landing.

H/T to Radley Balko over at The Agitator for linking to an article about President Nixon’s alternate speech. It was to be used in the event that the unthinkable happened and Aldrin and Armstrong either died on the descent or were unable to make the ascent from the moon.

I’m sincerely glad that that speech went into the archive, and the world was able to rejoice at the success of Apollo XI.

Well, I had my final follow-up on my sinus surgery. Doctor gave my nose a clean bill of health. I still have allergies, but at least they can be managed with medication now. Now that I’ve gone through it, it was worth it. But I hope to never have to go through it again.

Well, summer is in full swing here in Kentucky. OK, it’s been unseasonably cool for the most part, which has been nice. But it’s going to warm back up again, and summer in Kentucky is nasty. It’s not the worst I’ve ever felt, but it’s bad enough for me to look back fondly on the 120 degree dry heat of southeastern Arizona.

Thoughts:

Summer is the season when Kentucky women wear shorts that are way too short. On some women, it’s not a bad thing. On most, it is. And on all of them, it’s trashy. And on all men, it’s just wrong.

Louisville is a wonderful city with many parks, bike trails, and a vibrant night life. But in the middle of a hot, muggy day in July, downtown Louisville smells like an open sewer.

I prefer winter to summer. I can always add another layer of clothing when I’m cold, but I can only get so naked when I’m hot before the neighbors start to talk.

Kentucky – Indian word for schizophrenic weather. It was chilly enough on Saturday morning that I packed light jackets for everyone before we went out. Today, it’s getting to the point where all I want to do is go home and sit under an air conditioning vent.

And to sum it up, here’s a song that tells you everything you need to know about my opinion of summer, no matter where I am:

This weekend was kinda see-saw-ey. Thursday night, Baby Bear wasn’t feeling well. I was up with him most of the night, and stayed home with him on Friday. He didn’t run a fever, so we chalked it up to teething. For the most part, he slept all day, which was good because I spent the morning on the phone giving presentations to my management and the afternoon dialed in and working on minor problems.

Saturday we got up and headed out for the day. We wanted to do something family oriented since we weren’t going on our mini-vacation. We went to Gallreins and bought a bushel each of sweet corn and green beans and a HUGE watermelon. Baby Bear and Girlie Bear enjoyed the petting zoo very much. All of the animals were interested in Baby Bear except for the llama, which reacted to Baby Bear reaching out to him as if he were going to get shot. Considering that Baby isn’t the most gentle creature on earth, that might not have been such a bad idea.

After that, we tooled down to Frankfort to the Salato wildlife center. It’s the headquarters of Kentucky Fish and Wildlife, and they have an education center that’s outstanding. They were having their reptile roundup, so Girlie Bear got to spend an hour looking at and learning about the various snakes and lizards in the commonwealth. We took a walk around to see the animals they have on display. We saw the biggest black bear I’ve ever seen, and two sets of whitetail twin fawns. This was the first time Girlie Bear had ever seen buffalo and elk, so she was fascinated. I haven’t seen a buffalo since I left North Dakota, so it was a treat. Baby Bear was fascinated by the snakes and the fish in the aquariums, and he got to pet a stuffed bear and coyote. Irish Woman took a lot of pictures, so I’ll post those once they’re downloaded from the camera.

That evening, we went to a friend’s house for her daughter’s 16th birthday party. It was a pool party with about 20 teenagers, 4 adults, 2 preteens, and one toddler. Oh what joy. I did get to watch Super Troopers, which if you ever get the chance, pass. It was nice to sit and talk to our friends for a few hours and just relax once Baby Bear went to sleep.

Sunday morning, Irish Woman and Girlie Bear woke up with headaches, fever, and upset stomachs. I won’t get into the ugly details, but I need to hit the drug store next time they have a sale on Pepto-Bismol. Irish Woman felt bad enough that when I directed her to go to bed and stay there, she didn’t argue too much. Our friends from Saturday night called to chat, and when they learned what was going on, they offered to take Baby Bear off my hands for a few hours. That gave me a chance to do some of the weekend housekeeping and kept Baby Bear from exposure to whatever was running through the family.

Luckily, I’ve not been hit with it so far.

This morning, of course, Baby Bear woke up with a slight fever and kinda sluggish. Irish Woman was feeling better, but not 100%. Since she works in the hospital, that means she’s persona non grata at work today. She stayed home and is watching over Baby to see if he gets better or if we’re going to have to take him to the doctor.

Girlie Bear was up, bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning. She went to her mom’s for the week. She was supposed to go last night, but her mom and I agreed that if she wasn’t feeling well, it made no sense to subject her to the half hour drive and possibly spread the ick to Little Bear and her mom.

So, that was my weekend. Saturday was fun, but Friday and Sunday were a wash. Hopefully the week will improve.

We spent this evening getting ready to go on a family mini-vacation. We got the snacky smores and fizzy pop for the trip. I had printed off our reservations and directions to our destination. The Irish Woman and Girlie Bear were packing for the trip.

Then I took a good hard look at the reservations.

I noticed that the date we had reserved and pre-paid for was identical to the date I had made the reservations on. Months ago.

A quick call to our reservation had us down as having reservations back in June, and they are full up this weekend.

We were able to get our payment transferred to a reservation two weeks from now. So we will still go on our little vacation.

But I am officially an idiot. And an idiot in the doghouse for the next couple of weeks to boot.

I’m going to go eat some more crow and go to bed.

I just learned that Walter Cronkite has died.

I am truly saddened to see him go. When I was growing up, the voice of Walter Cronkite was a nightly experience. I am a news junkie, and I owe that to Mr. Cronkite.

Walter Cronkite was a journalist of the old school. For the most part, he kept his politics out of his reporting, and stuck to the facts. He made a very wide and bright distinction between news and commentary.

Go with God, Mr. Cronkite. When I get to the Pearly Gates to see if God grades on a curve, I expect to see you and Edward R. Murrow doing the news.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I had read “One Second After“, a story about what would happen to America if she was attacked by an Electro-Magnetic-Pulse (EMP) weapon.

I was pointed to a really good interview with the author, William Forstchen, via Survival Blog.

Go and read. The interview boils down the main themes in the book.

Many of you have heard of the HBO series, Band of Brothers. One of the men who served in Easy Company was Shifty Powers, the honest, hard-working, country boy who could blow the balls off of a fly at 100 yards with his M1 Garand.

Mr. Powers passed away recently, and the world is a smaller place without him. BlackFive has an excellent writeup of his passing.

More and more of our WWII vets are passing away every day. When I was a cub scout, we did things with World War I vets. They were the kindly grandfathers and great-grandfathers who could tell us thrilling stories by the campfire. By the time I got to the Army, they were all gone for the most part.

The World War II veterans are now the same age as those World War I veterans were when I was a boy. Soon, they will be just as rare.

If you know a veteran of the World Wars, please reach out to them, tell them how much you appreciate what they did, and learn as much from them as you can.

Farewell, Sergeant Powers. The roll will be called, a space will be empty, and you will be sorely missed.