Good Morning All!
HAPPY FATHER’S DAY TO ALL OF YOU DADS OUTHERE! Here’s to the two best fathers anyone could ever have in this life…my beloved Dad, Don Newbold (Newby The First) and my beloved other father, Judy’s Dad, Dwain McIntosh (Papa Mac). Thanks for being great examples to follow on what it means to be a loving father. And here’s to some of my other favorite dads…David Knaggs & Jake Newbold!
Happy Birthday to my friend, Karen Cabrera, who celebrates her birthday today! Here’s to you Karen…teacher, spouse & mother extraordinaire! And Happy Birthday upcoming to friends Neal Buster and Jan Ager Karel, who celebrate their birthdays tomorrow (June 17th)! Neal did a great job cleaning our office building for many years and is a great student of history. I enjoyed our talks when I worked after hours in my office in downtown Spokane. Jan does a great job in the fund-raising arena (follows in her mother Jeanne’s footsteps) and is a loving mother to her children. Here’s to all of you!
Also, Happy Birthday wishes go to professional golfer Phil Mickelson, who turns 49 today; to character actor Bill Cobbs of “Night At The Museum” movie fame (he played Reginald…one of the former security guards) & “Ghosts of Mississippi” movie fame (he played Charles Evers), who is 85 today! Here’s to you two!
Speaking of movies, my friend Jeff Hastings and I went to see “John Wick 3” last night. There was sure lots of gratuitous violence, although it was entertaining to watch all of the great martial arts moves. For all you stunt fans out there, this movie had lots of that & more! Staging the fight scenes in this particular movie must have been quite a process…I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it! I must admit I got a little lost on the plot of the movie. John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is the “hero” in the movie, but he sure has to kill and maim a lot of people in the process. What ever happen to the old Gregory Peck & John Wayne movies, where the good guys wore the white hats and the bad guys wore the black hats and you could keep it all straight? And why is it, that in most cases, the book far exceeds the movie in entertainment value and keeping one’s interest in the story line? The highlight for me was the movie popcorn…truth be told, that’s the real reason I attend big screen movies! The other great thing about it is hanging out with my friend Jeff. That man has a lot of wisdom & insight into human behavior!
Speaking of entertainment, you might recall I gave a “Shout Out” to The Black Pearl Restaurant in the Spokane Valley. It’s located at the Pines Street exit…go north from the I-90 and it’s on the right side of the street past the railroad tracks. You can visit them on the internet at www.blackpearlspokane.com….be sure you check it out. You’ll be glad you did!
Before we went to the movies last night, I took Jeff by to visit my Mom. She is slowly recovering from her heart episode from this past week. We marveled at how many medications she had to take and how to keep track of when to take them! The hospital changed the timing of her medications and added a couple. You need a diagram to keep track of it all! We can’t quite figure out why they are suggesting having most her medications taken in the morning. Mom’s concerned that it will upset her stomach and she won’t be able to keep them down, which is counter-productive, for sure, since she needs these meds to ward off future difficulties. Mom had developed a good schedule which was designed around taking her daily meds around meal times and at bedtime, instead of loading up on a number of meds in the morning…in other words, spreading them out over the course of the day. We’ll be visiting with her cardiologist about this when we next see him. In the meantime, Mom’s going to stick with the way she is taking the meds, since it’s much easier for her to remember (i.e. taking them at meal times rather than most of them all in the morning). We’ll see how that goes! Boy, it sure is confusing when different health care professionals want to do things differently from one another! Jeff suggested having Mom’s pharmacy pre-package the doses for her and that’s a pretty good suggestion…we’ll be looking into that….at $25.00 per month for that service, it seems to make sense to go that way…
Well, I almost forgot that yesterday was Flag Day. Here’s to “Old Glory!”…the symbol of a country founded & built on the promise of individual freedom & justice for all. Are we there yet?…well, no, but our country is the grand experiment in human history to see if a country built on individual freedom and responsibility can survive over the long-run. “Old Glory” is the symbol of this grand experiment and should be honored by all of our people…not because of the mistakes that have been made over time, but what the flag means in terms of the sacrifices that have been made under it to achieve a more just society…think of all of the boys who died for freedom for black slaves in The Civil War; for the liberation of Europe from evil oppression in World War II…our country and flag should be honored for those reasons, not disrespected. For me, it’s a “no brainer” to stand at sporting events when our country’s national anthem is played and show respect for what our flag symbolizes. I also try to fly the U.S. flag each day and a flag from one of our states or a place I have visited (for example, I have the flag of Quebec City…one of my favorite cities in the world!). To do anything less is to disrespect and not pay proper homage to the inspiring sacrifices made by so many to sustain our country’s founding principles. For me, our flag points the way for all of us to do all we can to further the noble principles of freedom and liberty for all…it’s more than just a flag, for sure!
Speaking of World War II…here’s some more from my recent World War II related adventure with my friend Harold Voltz:
May 20, 2019
This morning I rose early and headed out for a run through the streets of Caen. I noticed that the city has so many maple and sycamore trees. There are many more hardwood trees in this part of the world…I’m used to pine trees back in Spokane! I ran along the Orne River and saw a huge nuclear power plant (where Caen gets most of its power, I think) and ran through a beautiful technology park…lots of software companies, the economic development bureau for Caen and the surrounding area and other technology related companies. This area seemed to be the hub for all things computer technology-related! Caen has a pedestrian & bike trail along its main river (the Orne) like we have in Spokane (The Centennial Trail along the Spokane River). It’s a great asset to have and it really encourages/facilitates people getting out for a walk, run or bicycle adventure.
We left the hotel for our trip to Omaha Beach, a visit to the American Cemetery in Collevielle-de-Sur (right above Omaha Beach), Point-du-Hoc (scene of the epic ascent of the cliffs by U.S. Rangers) and the beautiful town/village of Arranches, France (the site of the incredible artificial Mulberry Harbor constructed by the Allies to serve as one of the main supply depots for the Allied armies at Normandy). And to think that his harbor was really only used for 2-3 months in August-October of 1944. Mulberry Harbor is truly an amazing engineering feat…making a harbor out of nothing! In addition, under “Operation Pluto” the allies were able to build 17 pipelines in September & October, 1944 across The Engish Channel to supply needed oil & gas to Allied armies…truly an amazing accomplishment, wouldn’t you say?
On our way to Omaha Beach, we traveled by Isigny, France…this village was the original home of Walt Disney’s ancestors! How about that! The village of Isigny is home to a large dairy cooperative where a great deal of milk and cheese are processed. In fact, all through the area of Normandy we visited (inland for Utah & Omaha beaches) there are a large number of dairy farms. Most of the farm land is devoted to dairy cattle, at least from what I could see.
As an aside, a couple of things I noticed about life in Europe that is different from life in the U.S. are:
—There doesn’t seem to be much litter strewn along the roadways (particularly in Normandy).
—People use their own bags when shopping for groceries (no plastic or paper bags provided by the grocery stores). It’s inspired me to start taking a shopping bag with me every time I go to the grocery store…I imagine it will take some getting used to, but that’s one thing I can do to help Creation.
Since I’m a collector & avid fan of flags, I was taken with the flag of Normandy, which turned out to be the flag of William The Conqueror himself. It’s two yellow leopards on a field of red. I was able to find a large-size Normandy flag in a gift shop on Utah Beach, so I now proudly have that as a part of my collection. Every time I fly it at home, I’ll think of this beautiful part of the world (and there are so many beautiful spots in Creation, don’t you think?). I also noticed many flags on government & public buildings, both in Belgium & France, that feature a rooster (a yellow rooster on a field of red). Our guide explained that the rooster is the symbol of French-speaking people. I never realized that a flag would be created to honor a particular language…just goes to show how many different uses flags have all across the world and in history.
As we traveled through Normandy, I was struck by how narrow the roads are there and that hedgerows are used extensively as fences, not only at homesites, but also to demarcate field boundaries. It really is quite beautiful, but it did give our American GIs quite a challenge in moving inland from Utah & Omaha beaches. The hedgerows are so thick with vegetation that they are hard to get through and you can’t see what’s on the other side of the hedgerows. Visiting the hedgerows gave me a much better appreciation for them than what you read in history books. Sometimes there is no substitute for visiting an actual site…I guess the best authors are the ones who can describe something like this with the greatest justice possible through the written word….but some things defy adequate description in words.
While at Arranches, we visited a Cinerama that played a film about D-Day and it was spectacular. Something about being in the round and having the film clips being shown all around the theater with the great speeches from Churchill & Roosevelt and the words of encouragement that General Eisenhower gave our troops before going in on D-Day was powerful…it moved the spirit, for sure. We had fish & chips with our friends Norm & Lou at a little fish & chips shop in downtown Arranches. A Danish couple was sitting next to us and seemed to enjoy our banter and jokes. They came over to our table and visited with us. They were a lovely couple. Both worked in criminal justice in Copenhagen. He was a retired national police officer. His mother spent time in America for a period of time before the war. He told us that she really enjoyed America and had many stories to tell her children about her experiences there.
Our guide for that day (the Brit with the BBC accent) told us that 420 British commandos of the 47th Marine Division landed early in the morning at Arranches on D-Day. 10 landing craft came in that day…one was lost at sea, killing some 28 commandos even before they could land. Of the 420 commandos, 46 died within the first day of fighting. The guide shared that his father was one of the British commandos in this group. 28 commandos, his father included, were charged with the task of capturing a fuel depot some 23 kilometers in land. Their goal was to come in from behind and surprise the German defenders there. They were ultimately successful, but they lost 4 soldiers on their way in and 12 in the battle at the depot. Of the 28 sent in, 12 survived. I found it interesting that the British Commandos and the U.S. Rangers (those who scaled the cliffs at Point-du-Hoc) who were involved in D-Day all trained together in Scotland…
To be continued…
Here’s the silly question for the day:
Q: Which dinosaur knows the most words?
A: A Thesaurus.
Here’s the silly joke for the day:
“A pun, a play on words, and a limerick walk into a bar………No joke.”
Here are some thoughts for the day:
“So when I realized I could sing for a living—do what I loved and be paid for it—I thought, “This is unbelievable!” And that felling has never left me.
—Tom Jones, Welch singer of “It’s Not Unusual” fame
“I felt I had to write. Even if I had never been published. I knew that I would go on writing, enjoying it and experiencing the challenge.”
—Gwendolyn Brooks, American poet (1917-2000)
“In heaven the whole man is to drink joy from the Fountain of Joy.”
—C.S. Lewis, “The Weight of Glory”, as quoted in “C.S. Lewis’ Little Book of Wisdom: Meditations on Faith, Life, Love & Literature” (2018)
Here’s to a great Father’s Day and lots of love always!
Press on,
Papa ‘a (Dad, Uncle Mark, etc.)