We recently picked up a load in Columbia, PA which is where the pen is pointing on the map.

We saw this mural in the middle of the town.

It's a little hard to tell from the picture but the mural is painted on the side of a 2 story building. We took the picture out of the side window of the truck.

With all of the rain we have had lately, we have seen quite a few rainbows. Here is a video I made, along with (of course) some of my original music.

   I think I am, finally, going to be alright. I just had an operation that I put off having for many years, but now I'm really glad I did it. I'm also very happy its over. Let me start at the beginning.

   When I was young, I had quite a bit of stomach pain. Then, when I began operating a printing press, about 20 years ago, I started having lots of heartburn. I kept a bottle of Tums on my desk and ate several a day, then after a few years I started taking over the counter acid reducers. After I started driving a truck, our doctor prescribed the new acid reducers. Prilosec first, then Nexium. I still had heartburn and was told I needed an operation to close the flap at the top of my stomach.

   No way I said. Nobody is going to cut holes in me, stick in a bunch of sharp metal objects, and cut, tie, and rearrange my insides. So I started taking 2 of the heavy duty acid reducers a day and ate bunches of Tums. Then somebody reminded how my grandfather died. (Those who are squeamish should look away during the next few sentences.) He constantly had heartburn. In his late 50's it got worse and one day he started throwing up blood, was taken to the hospital, and died a few days later.

   Finally, after a sleepless night of heartburn, late last year, I decided I was going to let them cut holes in me, stick in a bunch of sharp metal objects, and cut, tie, and rearrange my insides. First, I had to take some tests. One of them determined how much acid was in my esophagus. The surgeon said, "if I scored a 14 on their scale, I would be eligible for the surgery". I scored a 67.  The surgery was scheduled for Feb. 5th.

   On the morning of the 5th we drove to the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. I was taken to a small room and an IV was started. The doctors came in and basically said they would take good care of me then I started feeling sleepy. I heard a nurse say, "give hugs and kisses", and I was out. I barely remember looking around the recovery room, then I was being wheeled into my hospital room with a bunch of holes in my belly.

   I couldn't be happier with how easy it went. They gave me a button that would give me a shot of morphine when I pushed it. The next day, after a scan, they sent me home. They gave me pills that took care of the pain for 4 weeks and then released me to come back to work.

   I have not had one bit of heartburn since the day of the surgery. About my only side effect has been an occasional feeling of butterflies in my stomach. The surgery is called Nissan Fundoplication, it was performed by Dr John D Scott, and it has greatly improved my life.

  We finally got a load out of New Orleans with extra time to deliver it, so off we went downtown. Here is a video of some of the bands and sights.

If someone tells me ghosts do not exist, I certainly won't argue with them. However, I do try to keep an open mind about things. As the great physicist, Carl Sagan, said, "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence". And something happened to us lately that might even be evidence.

Tracy's mom was married to a man named Don for many years. Don was a tough old guy who was a paratrooper in the Korean War. Don had very strong opinions on almost any subject you wanted to discuss and he was always ready to share his opinions and speak his mind. I spent many enjoyable evenings talking with Don, having friendly arguments, and listening to his war stories

During the last year of his life, Don and his wife, Sue, (Tracy's mom) moved to Florida to be near his kids. When Don passed in Sept. 06, Tracy's mom wanted to move back to Tennessee. We helped her to move back and set up a manufactured home on the lot we own beside of us.

For Christmas that year we gave most of our family and friends "Atomic Clocks" as gifts. They look like this.

The clocks pick up the signal from the national atomic clock so it always shows the accurate time, day, and date. Note the day of the week displayed in the lower right corner.

Now what I am about to show you might be explained by somebody. If you know why it did this please let me know. It is still very strange that out of the dozen or so clocks that we gave away, this is the only one that ever did this.

A few days ago Sue was sitting in her living room thinking about Don, as she often does, when she looked up at her clock to see this.

I don't think that "Don" is a day of the week. There probably is a perfectly good explanation for this but......Hey Don. If that was you. It was nice hearing from you.

The next day, the clock was back to normal.

Here is a video from our trip to Grand Cayman Island where we fed a large group of stingrays. I added my own original music.