8/19/2006

Saturday AM 8/19

I have not been checking the content of my blog messages, so some things do not read the best or flow correctly. I sometimes think that my mind works that way jumping from I thing to another in no special order and then back to the first thing and then to third thing and finally back to the second.

This not being able to work is a bummer the bills are not getting paid and I am going crazy, not being busy. I always have been a work alcoholic so this is very hard.

I turned in the accident on the Ford, for those who do not know, I was hit and run in the North Atherton WalMart. I have Nation Wide Insurance, I took it to the Ford dealer they sent me to. The bill is for $1177.82.The work will be done, starting on 28 August 2006 I will also be getting a small rental car through insurance, it is going to cost me $0.78 a day. The big problem is my deductible is $500. So I hope my income tax finally comes in. The IRS web site say’s I should have it by the 22 of August.

For something to do today I am taking a neighbor to a hospital benefit auction this morning. They are going in early to help set up. It is to help with the medical bills for a child that has cancer and a head injury that left him with partial paralyze and also diminished mental capacity.This will help me from being so board today.

We are celebrating Jared 9th Birthday on Sunday afternoon. It seems like just yesterday that he was fighting to breath at the Hershey Medical Center, not 9 years ago.
I must close for now and eat as my sugar was 81when I just tested it. And I can smell the fresh coffee.

Be careful out there and be well.

Love

Bob

8/18/2006

Friday 8/18

It is Friday about 7:50 AM and I have had breakfast and taken my medicine, my sugar was 151 not to bad but could be better. I am off to the Ford dealer to get the estimate for the repairs on the rear passenger side on the 98 Ford.

I am a little tired so I do not know if the upping the multi vitamins and one iron capsule a day is cutting it. I slept 9 hours last night and only got up to go to the bath room twice so I should not be tired. It is the heavy eye lid type of tired, and my legs are a little shaky.

I might have over done it yesterday as I felt so good and well. I had not felt that well in over two weeks.

I am going to try and finish painting the middle section on the right side of the bus/RV, this really makes it look newer and sharper.

Be safe out there and be well

Love

Bob

8/17/2006

Thursday evening 8/17

Well I have been able to get most of the stuff I planed on doing today. I am tired but not the exhausted kind. I have been going around the yard picking up junk and just trying to straighten up a bit.

I filed an accident claim with Nation Wide Insurance and have to take the Ford to State College Ford at 9 AM tomorrow; I was hit and run in the parking lot at WalMart last week. It is quite a bit of damage to the passenger side rear panel. I have full coverage on the Ford even rental coverage. We will see how the Blue ribbon service from Nation Wide works. State College Ford is authorized to do the estimate and fix it.

I hope this doubling of the multivitamins and taking the iron capsules will do the trick. Wish me luck.

I can not think of another thing to say except something happened to Betty’s Blog neither one of us could find it, it is like it was deleted so I had to built her a new one, I do not know if she is going to use it, she is really ticked off. The new address is http://betty-lee.blogspot.com/

Be safe out there and be well

Love

Bob

Thursday AM 8/17

I feel a lot better this morning; I seemed that I rested real well last night. When I finished my shower this morning I was not as tired as I was yesterday. I hope this is a good sign, let’s hope so.

I am going to try and cut the front lawn this morning, so that will be a good test on how today is going to be. I have about 6 small projects that I would like to get done today. One is just to straight up the mess I have made in the bus, by trying to upgrade the interior, and another on is One of the speakers for the new stero system is not as secure as it needs to be, and there is always more blue paint to spray on the bottom half of the bus. I also need to pickup the extra support rail for the ramp that I use for vans. My weather vane also lost its South arm and needs to be welded back on.

I have started the lawn mowing and am now waiting on Jared to ride in the trailer; he is getting permission from his mother.

Well the front lawn is cut I just need to run the weed whacker for a very short time. Jared has helped me load the trailer to take a bunch of things up to the shed.

Now the damn tractor will not start, it is acting like there is a flat spot on the starter, so I am going to get the charger and see if a little more juice will make the current jump the flat spot.

Be safe out there and be well

Love
Bob

8/16/2006

Wednesday evening the 16th

I finally am able to post again I do not know what exactly which setting was off, I have changed so many I do not know which one or combination fixed it on this computer. But I am back, so everyone has to put up with me again.

I have had a rough day, I do not know what is going on. I think the post polio is kicking up again. I have been so tired today, any time I did something I almost had to lay down. I did take a 2 hour nap and am still exhausted.

I have doubled my vitamin intake today, sometimes that helps. I’ll keep everyone posted on how
this works out.

I am going to try and eat a little something and lay down

Be safe out there and be well

Love
Bob

My life as I remember it # 5

When I arrived in State College in the middle of April 1979, I stayed with my mother who lived on Crickelwood Dr. in Toffee trees Area.

I applied for a breakfast cook’s job at the Nittany Lion Inn (The Penn State's top of the line Inn) and lost the bid. So I took a night cook’s job at the AutoPort restaurant. To start on a Tuesday, on Monday the Nittany Lion Inn called and told me the new guy they had hired did not show up for work, so would I start at 5:30 AM Tuesday. I said I would as it was a union job with all the medical benefits and retirement. I also went to work at the AutoPort at 4 PM. I worked 6 AM to 2:30 PM at the Nittany Lion Inn and 4 PM to 11 PM at the AutoPort. I was off at the Inn on Friday and Saturday and off at the AutoPort on Tuesday and Wednesday, which worked out well for me. I have always been a work alcoholic. This schedule made it so I never worked the two jobs on the same day more than two days in a row. I kept this schedule for 2 ½ years.

The AutoPort is where I met Betty Lee, she was the only waitress in the coffee shop in the evening. There were about 10 waitress in the main dinning room. We both had a friend working the front desk of the motel of the AutoPort. He invited both of us to go to a club with him and this started Betty Lee and I getting together. We started to live together on the 10th of October 1979. I had bought a one bedroom trailer in Hill Top Trailer Park. Where we started our life together.

Be safe out there and be well.

Love

Bob

8/15/2006

My life as I remember it # 4

I think in the last post I told you about getting the contract to feed the truck drivers for another company. We did this for a year and then all of a sudden I could not get my Visa renewed. As in most foreign countries to open a business you must have a local partner and as in most third world countries politics and all government agencies run on bribes. The Farolito had about $60,000 in antiques in it, Which I knew I could not remove from Argentina, it does not alow the export of antiques. and was making over $6,000 a month profit so they wanted it all. They said that they would send me a $1,000 a month for 60 months. I received one payment.

And had to sneak out the back door. As I did not find out till the last day of my Visa that it was not going to get it renewed, and the banks were closed and I wanted the last weeks recipts $3,200 I waited till morning and bribed my way into Paraguay and the took a licking on getting the US dollars converted to buy a ticket. In Argentina to buy an international ticket it had to be paid for in US dollars but Paraguay it was with the local currency. A $700 ticket cost me $1,200 at the offical exchange rate. So when I arrived in New Orleans I had $150 left of the $3,200. And when I arrived in State College PA I had $25 left.

I will try and write more tomorrow. Please excuse the spelling errors as I usually writ this in Microsoft word and cut and paste it into the blog after I spell and grammer check it and with all the problems with logging into this blog Iwas afraid to try and do this.

Be safe out there and be well

Bob

8/14/2006

Saturday night on my computer

I got into my blog by changing my password I do not know if I can get in the regular way yet.

I think this is where I was when I had to quit because of the spilled water. I sure hope that the keyboard stays working.

So I took that $1000 and opened another restaurant called "la Farolito" The little lantern. I furnished it with items that I had picked up at abandoned whaling stations and other places in the Antarctica. I built the new exhaust hood put in new sink stove work tables bought new, pots, pans, dishes, table cloths, etc. Business started real slow, as always, for a new business then I got lucky another American in the area contacted me. He asked if I could feed all his drivers when they were in town. His transportation company hauled drilling supplies to all the oil rigs and pumping stations in Tera Del Fuego. We worked out what he wanted served and I set what I thought was a fair price, he accepted and it worked out to be worth about $2500 US a week.

I am going to close for now and get some sleep.

Be safe out there and be well.

Love

Bob

computer problems

For some reason I can not axcess either my blog or Betty's blog I am on her machine while she takes a nap. I have not figured what is wrong yet I hope i can i'll try and update the machine when I finish this.

I am taking Jared and Neil (the girls father) to PSU's Ag Progress days in the morning. It should be a good day off.

Be safe out there and be well

Love
Bob

8/13/2006

My life as I remember it # 2

My folks Lived at the Auto Port Motel and restaurant as the ranch house on Pugh St. was being finished. I finally got my first 3 week leave, after graduating from munitions school at Lowey # 2 AFB in Denver CO, over the 1953 Thanksgiving holidays. I had brought a girl friend with me, she was a RN and she asked me after we left when my mother was expecting the baby. My younger brother Kenny was born the following spring.

I had to return to Ardmore AFB in Ardmore OK, if you went out the back gate you were in Gene Autry OK. I stayed there from mid December 1953 till March or April 1994. I then went to Greenville SC. and was there till September 1994 I was then sent to Sandia Army base in Albuquerque NM Where I studied nuclear weapons. I was there till June 1995 I took two separate courses. From there I went to the 8th ADS at Lakenheath England. I was there for 18 months. I then was sent to Brisenorten AFB out side of Reading England. I came back to the States in November 1958, I went to Donaldson AFB in Columbus OH Were I was discharged in February 1959. I lived in the Columbus area for a year doing odd jobs. I returned to the North Reading Area for about 2 ½ years. In late December 1959 I went to State College to be with Dad as he had a growth removed from his face (we were afraid it was cancer). On the way back The guy I was riding with panicked on a small patch of ice and we hit 2 tree’s in the middle of a field. I took 130 stitches in the side of my head and a steel screw in my right leg, I was on crutches for 91/2 months and then in a walking cast for 6 more weeks. There went my hopes for reenlisting in the Air force. I then returned to the State College area where I worked as a short order cook at the Electric Diner. From there I went to Riverside CA where I managed a service station (gas station) for a professional billiard player. He used the station as a tax write off but he forgot to tell me this and I really turned the station around and it really started to make money for him
I got bored and moved on. I then went to New Orleans where I finally went to work on the oil rigs as a cook, a good life two weeks at work then a week off. This job helped me get my seaman’s papers I then joined the National Maritime Union and started Sailing as a 2nd cook on freighters and tankers. Then I moved up to Chief Cook and Steward and continued to sail on the big ships. In 1970 shipping tight, it got real hard to find a ship. The US had laid up all the passenger ships, this happened because the US government quit subsidizing them as they said the no longer need them to move vast numbers of troops. This dumped a large number of cooks Stewards into the freighter tanker pool with a lot of seniority so I had to go looking other work. I landed a year contract on a ship called the R/V Hero. It was owned by the National Science Foundation. The crew was employed by the Maritime Research Company - out of Miami FL. It worked the Southern half of South America and the Antarctic Peninsular. The home Port was listed as Palmer Station Antarctica. I ended up spending 7 years on the ship and worked for 3 different company’s before I left. I lived in Punte Arenas Chile for 3 years, I still sort of, own a house there When I left I told the girl that I lived with it was hers but did not have time to get the paperwork done. We had to leave due to the political situation, this was when Alende was President of Chile.

We moved the South American home base, supply base to Ushuaia Argentina I ended up opening a barbeque restaurant there. I was open one season as it was a tourist town and it had a 4 month season and I did not get open till late in the season and did not have enough capital to hold over till the next season. I was offered a job with the ship chandler company that I Use to buy supplies from for the R/V Hero The had started a catering company and gotten the contract to feed the international crews that were going to pull the pipe line under the straights of Magellan. They needed a person that could teach their cooks how to fix American style breakfasts and special things like American biscuits and pancakes. And other things that they needed. They only paid me $1,000 a month but they also paid the rent on the house in Rio Grande. They also paid all the utilities and even the cleaning woman. I also had an unlimited expense account with a $2500 base I also had a full time Argentine driver and two dual wheel Ford 1 ton pickups. One of the major parts of my job was to entertain the big wigs of the oil company and sub contractors. We started with these two camps and when I left we had 10 camps and 4 drivers and 5 pickups. We bought about $20,000 worth of food a week. So I never had to buy cigs, wine, booze ect. So the $1000 was clear.

I JUST spilled water on the keyboard and must close.

BOB

My life as I remember it # 1

I was born in Wakefield MA. on July 8, 1935. My parents told me I was a very sick baby. They had to carry me around on a pillow, as I could not stand to be touched very much due to Polio. Our family country doctor had no knowledge of this sickness, so I was very lucky that it was a mild case of Polio. The Polio left my left leg ¾ of an inch short and my left arm ½ an inch short so as I grew up and started to walk then run, I fell down a lot. This left my knee caps with almost a solid scar on them. I did play football in junior high school. (Tackle). In October of 1952 4 of us young high school boys (Billy, Andy, Donald, and I) decided to enlist in the military (remember this was during the Korean war) Billy went into the Marines and I was accepted into the Air Force. Andy had a heart murmur and Donald had a punctured inner ear drum. When we took the aptitude tests my mechanical skills were listed as very high. They gave me a waiver on my short leg and put me in the ammunition field. So I ended up blowing up things. I was sworn in on the 18th of March 1953.

My family and I, my mother, father, brother, and 2 sisters lived in North Reading MA. Till I went into the USA Air Force in March of 1953. My father worked at M.I.T. in Harvard Square at the time. He was in the mineral industry’s department of M.I.T. He was in charge of all the research laboratories in the department. The Assistant Professor of the mineral industry’s department at MIT took the department head job at Penn State in June of 1953. After he toured his department and got settled in he called dad and offered him the same job he had a MIT at PSU for about $25 a week, a $100 a month in 1953 was a lot of money, so they moved to State College PA. in September of 1953. The professor said the laboratories were no way near being up to date for a top of the line University.

I must close for now

Be safe out there and be well

Love
Bob