By Golly, It's Almost July...!

One thing I've noticed as I've become older...time flies at an alarming rate of speed!

I'm still trying to figure out just where the first 6 months of this year went, and it's already July! What happened to the last 10 or so years?

Anyway, I thought I would borrow some facts about the month of July from the Almanac! They seem to be able to keep up with all this stuff a lot better than I can, ya know?

July, the Seventh Month

Thursday is the first day of July. Julius Caesar named July after himself when he reworked the old Roman calendar. (Ironically, the change went into effect in 44 B.C., the year Caesar was assassinated.)

Although Earth is at its farthest point from the Sun this month, the sunshine comes with enough power to make July the warmest month in most of the continent.

Sweet corn—knee-high by the 4th of July, with luck—thrives now, and an attentive gardener literally can hear it growing (just listen for a creaking sound).

July is for sailboats and lemonade, thunderstorms and ripe peaches, haying and fireworks. Traditionalists eat eggs on St. Swithin’s Day (the 15th) and oysters on St. James’s Day (the 26th). The rest of us fire up our grills or head for the clam shack.

See what I mean? I couldn't remember all this information! Heck, I can barely remember how to tie my shoes!

Maybe if we get some fresh coffee or iced tea and sit out on the patio...my memory will get better! Now, which way was the patio again...?

2nd Amendment Stands The Test...!

This must be the week for good news!

This story from the Houston Chronicle shows that we may have some hope yet! This is an important piece of legal news, because it deals with not only the federal government, but could affect the local and state governments as well!

Give a read...!

Supreme Court backs up right to bear arms

Associated Press
June 28, 2010, 10:23AM

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court held Monday that the Constitution's Second Amendment restrains government's ability to significantly limit "the right to keep and bear arms," advancing a recent trend by the John Roberts-led bench to embrace gun rights.

By a narrow, 5-4 vote, the justices also signaled, however, that some limitations on the right could survive legal challenges.

Writing for the court in a case involving restrictive laws in Chicago and one of its suburbs, Justice Samuel Alito said that the Second Amendment right "applies equally to the federal government and the states."

The court was split along familiar ideological lines, with five conservative-moderate justices in favor of gun rights and four liberals opposed. Chief Justice Roberts voted with the majority.

Two years ago, the court declared that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to possess guns, at least for purposes of self-defense in the home.

That ruling applied only to federal laws. It struck down a ban on handguns and a trigger lock requirement for other guns in the District of Columbia, a federal city with a unique legal standing. At the same time, the court was careful not to cast doubt on other regulations of firearms here.

Gun rights proponents almost immediately filed a federal lawsuit challenging gun control laws in Chicago and its suburb of Oak Park, Ill, where handguns have been banned for nearly 30 years. The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence says those laws appear to be the last two remaining outright bans.

Lower federal courts upheld the two laws, noting that judges on those benches were bound by Supreme Court precedent and that it would be up to the high court justices to ultimately rule on the true reach of the Second Amendment.

The Supreme Court already has said that most of the guarantees in the Bill of Rights serve as a check on state and local, as well as federal, laws.

Monday's decision did not explicitly strike down the Chicago area laws, ordering a federal appeals court to reconsider its ruling. But it left little doubt that they would eventually fall.

Still, Alito noted that the declaration that the Second Amendment is fully binding on states and cities "limits (but by no means eliminates) their ability to devise solutions to social problems that suit local needs and values."

The case is McDonald vs. City of Chicago.

It's nice to have the higher courts finally stand up and tell the government what "we the people" have always known! That is that the right to keep and bear arms is our "legal right" and is protected from the federal and the state governments...both by law and by force, if necessary!

About time the lawful citizens caught a break, especially from the higher courts! I love it!

How about some hot coffee or iced tea in the kitchen? Raining outside, so the kitchen will have to serve this time! OK?

Good News In Bits And Pieces...!

Once in a great while, the smallest bit of good news can help to brighten the day.

For me, this was one of those bits. Enough of these bits added together could make a good day for us all, don't you think?

Maria Cheng - Jun. 25, 2010 09:09 AM
Associated Press



LONDON - Oscar the cat may have lost one of his nine lives, but his new prosthetic paws make him the world's first bionic cat.

After losing his two rear paws in a nasty encounter with a combine harvester last October, the black cat with green eyes was outfitted with metallic pegs that link the ankle to the foot and mimic the way deer antlers grow through skin. Oscar is now back on his feet and hopping over hurdles like tissue paper rolls.


After Oscar's farming accident, which happened when the 2 1/2-year-old-cat was lazing in the sun in the British Channel Isles, his owners, Kate and Mike Nolan, took him to their local veterinarian. In turn, the vet referred Oscar to Dr. Noel Fitzpatrick, a neuro-orthopedic surgeon in Eashing, 35 miles southwest of London.

Together with biomedical engineering experts, Fitzpatrick gave Oscar two metal prosthetic implants that are a bit wobbly, to imitate a cat's natural walk. But first, he covered the brown implants with black tape to match Oscar's fur.

Fitzpatrick said he and biomedical engineers designed the artificial paws so that they would be fused to the bone and skin. "That allows this implant to work as a seesaw on the bottom of the animal's limbs to give him (an) effectively normal gait," he said. "Oscar can now run and jump about as cats should do."

The veterinarians then inserted the peg-like implants by drilling them into Oscar's ankle bones in his rear legs. The metal implants are attached to the bone where Oscar lost his paws and were coated with a substance that helps bone cells grow directly over them. The cat's own skin then grew over the end of the peg to form a natural seal to prevent infections.

After rehabilitation training that taught Oscar how to walk again, the cat was on all four feet in less than four months. Oscar's owners said they hoped his new paws would also further the technology for developing artificial limbs for humans.

"This is a pretty lucky cat," said Dr. Mark Johnston, a veterinarian and spokesman for the British Small Animal Veterinary Association. "Giving a cat artificial limbs is a very novel solution." Johnston said that while there are many "perfectly happy" three-legged cats and dogs, animals that lose two legs do not usually fare as well.

Dogs might cope better with some sort of animal-wheelchair for their back legs, but cats don't usually adapt to that because of their freer lifestyle, he said. "If a cat has two legs that are damaged beyond repair, it's very hard to keep him going," he said. "We would generally euthanize a cat in that situation."

He doubted the technique would be widely available due to the cost and said it was still relatively rare for animals to lose two legs at once. Gordon Blunn, head of biomedical engineering at University College London, who led the effort to make Oscar's fake paws, said they cost about 2,000 pounds ($2,996) to make, not including the cost for the operation itself.

In 2008, Fitzpatrick made an artificial knee for a cat named Missy who was struck by a hit and run driver.

Johnston said the next six months to a year would be critical for Oscar. He said veterinarians would have to closely monitor the feline to make sure no infections, sores or other movement problems crop up.

"It may not last forever, but even if you provide the cat with a few years of pain-free mobility, it may well be worth it," he said.

I could only hope that we can find a bit of pleasant news like this each and every day. I know that I could sure use more!

Why don't we get some fresh coffee and sit outside? Maybe we can find some more "feel good" stories in the paper!

Want Silly ? Then Try This...!

A fine example of the government in action!

Because of actions like this, it's no wonder that people's faith in the wisdom of the fedgov is seriously questioned! Seems like you can be a domestic terrorist, even at the age of 6!

6-Year-Old Northeast Ohio Girl on 'No Fly' List

WESTLAKE, Ohio - Alyssa Thomas, 6, is a little girl who is already under the spotlight of the federal government. Her family recently discovered that Alyssa is on the "no fly" list maintained by U.S. Homeland Security.

"We were, like, puzzled," said Dr. Santhosh Thomas. "I'm like, well, she's kinda six-years-old and this is not something that should be typical."

Dr. Thomas and his wife were made aware of the listing during a recent trip from Cleveland to Minneapolis. The ticket agent at the Continental counter at Hopkins Airport notified the family. "They said, well, she's on the list. We're like, okay, what's the story? What do we have to do to get off the list? This isn't exactly the list we want to be on," said Dr. Thomas.

The Federal Bureau of Investigations in Cleveland will confirm that a list exists, but for national security reasons, no one will discuss who is on the list or why.

The Thomas family was allowed to make their trip but they were told to contact Homeland Security to clear-up the matter. Alyssa just received a letter from the government, notifying the six-year-old that nothing will be changed and they won't confirm nor deny any information they have about her or someone else with the same name.

"She's been flying since she was two-months old, so that has not been an issue," said Alyssa's dad. "In fact, we had traveled to Mexico in February and there were no issues at that time."

According to the Transportation Security Administration, Alyssa never had any problems before because the Secure Flight Program just began in June for all domestic flights. A spokesperson will only say, "the watch lists are an important layer of security to prevent individuals with known or suspected ties to terrorism from flying."

Right now, Alyssa has other priorities. "My Barbies, my magic mirror and jumping on my bed!" But her name will likely stay on the list and as for the next time she flies, the FBI says they'll rely on the common sense of the security agents.

"She may have threatened her sister, but I don't think that constitutes Homeland Security triggers," said Dr. Thomas.

The Thomas family can still fly, but the check-in process will likely take much longer. They plan on making another appeal to U.S. Homeland Security.

Yaa know, if i stop and think about it...I guess this doesn't surprise me at all! It should, but it doesn't! That's pretty sad, don't you think?

Let's get some fresh coffee and sit outside for a bit. We can talk about how a 6 year old becomes so dangerous to the government!

Let Me Tell You A Great Story...!

Often when we hear a story, it seems to far fetched to be factual.

But many times, additional study proves that the story turns out to be true. This is just such a story.

It reads like a novel...full of top secret workers, secret instructions, clandestine air drops, and everyday escape plans that would stretch the imagination of most Hollywood screen writers! That's what makes it so special! Verified through Snopes...it's a story I just know you are going to like!

Starting in 1941, an increasing number of British Airmen found themselves as the involuntary guests of the Third Reich, and the Crown was casting about for ways and means to facilitate their escape...

Now obviously, one of the most helpful aids to that end is a useful and accurate map, one showing not only where stuff was, but also showing the locations of 'safe houses' where a POW on-the-lam could go for food and shelter.

Paper maps had some real drawbacks -- they make a lot of noise when you open and fold them, they wear out rapidly, and if they get wet, they turn into mush.

Someone in MI-5 (similar to America's OSS ) got the idea of printing escape maps on silk. It's durable, can be scrunched-up into tiny wads, and unfolded as many times as needed, and makes no noise whatsoever.

At that time, there was only one manufacturer in Great Britain that had perfected the technology of printing on silk, and that was John Waddington, Ltd. When approached by the government, the firm was only too happy to do its bit for the war effort.

By pure coincidence, Waddington was also the U.K. Licensee for the popular American board game, Monopoly. As it happened, 'games and pastimes' was a category of item qualified for insertion into 'CARE packages', dispatched by the International Red Cross to prisoners of war.

Under the strictest of secrecy, in a securely guarded and inaccessible old workshop on the grounds of Waddington's, a group of sworn-to-secrecy employees began mass-producing escape maps, keyed to each region of Germany or Italy where Allied POW camps were regional system). When processed, these maps could be folded into such tiny dots that they would actually fit inside a Monopoly playing piece.

As long as they were at it, the clever workmen at Waddington's also managed to add:
1. A playing token, containing a small magnetic compass
2. A two-part metal file that could easily be screwed together
3. Useful amounts of genuine high-denomination German, Italian, and French currency, hidden within the piles of Monopoly money!

British and American air crews were advised, before taking off on their first mission, how to identify a 'rigged' Monopoly set -- by means of a tiny red dot, one cleverly rigged to look like an ordinary printing glitch, located in the corner of the Free Parking square.

Of the estimated 35,000 Allied POWS who successfully escaped, an estimated one-third were aided in their flight by the rigged Monopoly sets.. Everyone who did so was sworn to secrecy indefinitely, since the British Government might want to use this highly successful ruse in still another, future war.

The story wasn't declassified until 2007, when the surviving craftsmen from Waddington's, as well as the firm itself, were finally honored in a public ceremony.

It's always nice when you can play that 'Get Out of Jail' Free' card!

Man, if any story fully deserves to be made into a movie...this is it! I guess that this is truly a case of truth being stranger than fiction!

Now, my friends, let's have some fresh coffee or iced tea on the patio. I have both and, as always, it's free!

Making The Best Of What You Have...!

We have all been given special talents as gifts.

All too often, we don't recognize these gifts, allowing them to lay unused and of little or no use to us.

Likewise we all have dreams, but often don't think they are obtainable or that we are not worthy of their fulfillment! But then, on occasion, there are those of us that never give up our dream. Those that never stop working toward the happiness of realizing those dreams.

This is one of those stories! You may have heard it before, maybe not. If you have, then it's worth hearing again. If you haven't heard it before, you might enjoy it!


Let me tell you, Jesse hated this job. And you would too, I imagine, if you had to do it. Jesse was a chicken plucker. That's right!

He stood on a line in a chicken factory and spent his days pulling the feathers off dead chickens so the rest of us wouldn't have to. It wasn't much of a job.

But at the time, Jesse didn't think he was much of a person. His father was a brute of a man. His dad was actually thought to be mentally ill and treated Jesse rough all of his life.

Jesse's older brother wasn't much better. He was always picking on Jesse and beating him up. Yes, Jesse grew up in a very rough home in West Virginia .

Life was anything but easy. And he thought life didn't hold much hope for him. That's why he was standing in this chicken line, doing a job that darn few people wanted.

In addition to all the rough treatment at home, it seems that Jesse was always sick. Sometimes it was real physical illness, but way too often it was all in his head. He was a small child, skinny and meek. That sure didn't help the situation any.

When he started to school, he was the object of every bully on the playground.

He was a hypochondriac of the first order. For Jesse, tomorrow was not always something to be looked forward to.

But, he had dreams! He wanted to be a ventriloquist!

He found books on ventriloquism. He practiced with sock puppets and saved his hard earned dollars until he could get a real ventriloquist dummy.

When he got old enough, he joined the military. And even though many of his hypochondriac symptoms persisted, the military did recognize his talents and put him in the entertainment corp.

That was when his world changed. He gained confidence.

He found that he had a talent for making people laugh, and laugh so hard they often had tears in their eyes. Yes, little Jesse had found himself.

You know, folks, the history books are full of people who overcame a handicap to go on and make a success of themselves, but Jesse is one of the few I know of who didn't overcome it. Instead he used his paranoia to make a million dollars, and become one of the best-loved characters of all time in doing it!

Yes, that little paranoid hypochondriac, who transferred his nervousness into a successful career, still holds the record for the most Emmy's given in a single category.

The wonderful, gifted, talented, and nervous comedian who brought us Barney Fife ...was Jesse Don Knotts!!

NOW YOU KNOW, "THE REST OF THE STORY!"

Well, I hope you enjoy this story. The moral of the story should not be lost! It's a simple moral...DON'T GIVE UP! Keep your dreams alive and keep working toward finalizing them!

Never doubt that you have a talent! We all have a talent of some kind, a God given way to help people, make people smile, or brighten their lives! We just have to find it! So find it, develop it, and use it to the fullest potential that you can!

Now, let's have some fresh coffee or tea on the patio. Sound good...?

Would You Say " Lucky Or Unlucky..."?

You might say that if it weren't for bad luck, this guy would have no luck at all!

You also might say that he is just plain lucky to be alive!

Either way, you'd be right!I'm sure he has his own opinion about which is which. This story from the fine folks at Snopes does make you wonder!

Man hit by lightning, then mauled by bear

by Paul A. Specht - Jun. 23, 2010 11:14 AM
McClatchy Newspapers


RALEIGH, N.C. - Some guys have all the luck.

And then there's Rick Oliver, who might be one of the unluckiest men in North Carolina, if not the world.


Oliver was mauled by a bear in his otherwise peaceful front yard a few weeks ago.

"It was like getting struck by lightning," he said.

Turns out, Oliver might be one of the few people in the world capable of accurately making the bear-lightning analogy.

And for Oliver, 51, the two incidents seem to go hand in hand.

Ever since he was struck by lightning in 2006, Oliver says, he's had trouble sleeping.

On restless nights, he tends to putter about his farm, checking on his chickens, working on his tractors and, as he was in the wee hours of June 3, fixing up his Chevy Malibu.

About 2 a.m., he heard a distant rustling on his 17-acre spread in an unincorporated sliver of Wake County between Cary and Raleigh.

As he turned to investigate, he was dealt a heavy blow. "I heard this strange huffing," Oliver said. "And the next thing I know I had been run over and stepped on by a bear."

The black bear's claws gouged his wrist so deep that when he first took off his bandage, blood spewed onto his farmhouse floor. "Like a hose," he said.

"That was when my daughter said, Dad we need to take you to the emergency room.' "

The biggest cut was so deep and wide that doctors at WakeMed couldn't sew it up. So doctors bandaged up Oliver and told him to keep pressure on the lacerations.

Nature 2, Oliver 0.

"He's a little unlucky," said Cameron Rhodes of Cary, who was married by Oliver at Piney Plain United Church of Christ in Cary, where Oliver is a minister. "But he's even more lucky he has survived both of them."

The chances of being attacked by a bear are rather slim, biologists say.

Between 2005 and 2009, only nine people were killed by bears in the United States, according to the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.

Compare that with the 141 people who were killed by dogs during the same period, and you get the idea.

The chances of being struck by lightning are also extremely narrow. "You have a greater chance of getting struck by lightning than getting killed by a bear," a report published by the U.S. Forest Service's Bear Aware program says.

So it doesn't take a math whiz to figure out the extreme unlikelihood of both happening to the same person.

"The probability is infinitesimal," said Ross Leadbetter, a statistician at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. "The closest approximation is certainly zero."

The odds get thinner still in the Triangle, where people vastly outnumber omnivorous bears. About 11,000 bears live in North Carolina. But there are very few in the Raleigh and Cary area, said Joe Folta, a wildlife biologist at the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.

"The ones that do pass through are the one- to one-and-a-half-year-old bears who have been chased off by the bigger bears from the eastern and northern part of the state," he said.

It's common for young bears to travel through the Piedmont region in search of food or love during mating season, said Folta, who has studied bears for 25 years. Black bears will usually run the other way when confronted with danger.

"The best thing to do with a black bear is to clap, bark or make a loud noise and make yourself look bigger to scare them away," he said. "It's not uncommon to find a bear going through your garbage, or even destroying your barbecue grill or bird feeder."

Oliver, who was on a much needed vacation in Myrtle Beach last week, admits he may have left something to attract the bear. "Leftovers," Oliver says, "from lunch in a bag up on the top step."

Sometimes it's like the saying goes...you can't win for losing!

I don't know about you, but I don't think I want to hang out with this guy very much! It might just rub off, know what I mean?

Now, I have hot coffee and iced tea on the patio this morning! Take your pick and pull up a chair!