The garden is coming along very nicely.

and that is a good thing.

The marigolds are blossoming and many of the zinnias are opening up and the garden looks nice. The petunias are doing well, too. Maybe next year I will plant mostly petunias.

Several of the neighbors have commented favorably.

While I am not really a gardener I have found out that I can make the house look nice and I do like looking at the flowers I grew from seeds.

Last night I startled one of the pair of fawns that seem to like to sack out in the back yard and the little creature took off like a shot, quick, lithe and as graceful as you please. It's amazing how fast the little animals mature.

I've watched the mother bird going back and forth into the bird house I put up on a pipe and I wonder what is going on in it. Are there eggs? are there new little birdies there? Will I be home in time to watch then fledge?

Today after I get the grasses planted I think I am going to run an 80 meter antenna and see what happens tonight around dark.

I might get as I hear that 80 meters is a pretty good frequency to try and DX on. I hope I can get the wire run in such a way that I can put it up and down with no hassle.

The wire I am using is fairly tough and should easily last the winter. The insulation is hot pink, but not because I like pink, which I do. It is pink because antennas break and fall down from time to time and it is more visable and therefore less likely to be overseen when I mow the lawn and wind up balled up in the mower.

I am going to use paracord as the part that gets tied to the tree because it seems to be the thing to use. I have 500 feet of the stuff which sounds like a lot but it isn't. Guys for my masting will use that up at an alarming rate. Maybe I should have bought 1000 feet. We'll see.

I just had a thought.

Here I am, I am known well as a competitive shooter that has embarrassed a couple of the local gendarmes. A couple of them have seen my targets from 3 and 600 yards and their eyes popped out.(I was unloading my truck and Nebby Al panicked and called them so they simply stopped by and asked me a few questions. I showed them a few off my targets and they were astonished)

I am constantly feeding Nebby Al and the mouth a couple doors down wild stories about Bangalore torpedoes, land mines,dead hookers in the trash, stuffing little kids in the chipper shredder and the like. Numerous loud noises have erupted in the back yard at odd times.

The Miata in the garage is set up for racing and it looks it, yet I drive it responsibly.

It was duly noted that I was the first on the scene giving first aid to a little kid that got hurt some time ago and that when the neighbor refused to let me use her phone, I simply shouldered past her and dialed 911.

I have been seen drinking Jameson's out of the bottle while sitting on the front porch one summer day when I got totally plastered.

Lord knows what they would think if they had my entire history; the sailboats, tipis, bush flying, commercial fishing and so on.

They do know I am a licensed Merchant Marine officer and run a tank vessel, so I suppose they think I am at least somewhat responsible as companies generally do not put irresponsible people in charge of multi-milllion dollar pieces of equipment.

I also have the hands down prettiest garden on the entire street.

I am a mass of contradictions, a tough guy in a pink T-shirt out there gardening. It would be interesting to see what the local gendarmes have on me in their files. I'll bet they can't figure me out.

Truth is I am nothing more than a person with varied interests that has decided that you only go around once and you had best do what you have to do to make a complete life. You have to follow your dreams.

I have an out and out hatred for stupid, I do not suffer neb$hits or fools at all and simply believe in taking care of myself and taking what is mine and leaving the rest alone. There is one cop that used to be on the local force that I have made a fool out of twice.

Belay that about making a fool out of the cop. He did that to himself. I simply pointed it out. Both incidents were over what I was wearing. The last incident was over an old Hellgate pilots jacket and he wanted to know what gang it was. The idiot. When I told him that they were ships pilots and not a gang he really felt stupid.

I believe in being a good neighbor because it pays huge dividends.

One of the biggest paradoxes is that I am probably one of the last people to commit a serious crime, and if I were accused of one I would simply go down to the station on my own and sort the mess out.

I suppose it they did have to cart me off they would send the SWAT team to pick me up and they would be sadly disappointed when they found I had slipped out the back and was waiting for them at the police station.

It would be interesting to see my jacket if they have one.

I'd bet thay have it all screwed up.












my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/