Our RV Adventures

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Brandi said that the other night she was in bed with Landon watching one of his favorite shows and singing along with the theme song. Landon reached over, put his hand over Brandi’s mouth and said, “Calm down, Mommy!”

Out of the mouth of babes, so to speak.

They’re making more progress on Brandi and Lowell’s new house. The first coat of paint is on the walls and some of the kitchen cabinets are installed.

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We spent most of the day waiting for the DirecTV guy to get here with our new HD DVR. He was supposed to be here between 8 and 12, but didn’t make it until almost 2 because he got hung up at another job.

We upgraded to an HD DVR, but not for the HD service.

Our Winegard Carryout Satellite Antenna doesn’t work on HD, but since it was free, we wanted to upgrade to the HD model because it holds so many more hours of video, over 400 hours compared to our old R-16 which only held about 70. Plus I can plug in an external HD that will allow it to hold over 1600 hours. Neat.

But we did run into a problem in setting it up. Although the DVR will work just fine on SD channels, it can only be activated while connected to an HD capable antenna. So he had to take it back to his shop, hook it up to his HD antenna and activate it, and then bring it back here.

Which of course made him late for his next appointment, so I couldn’t complain about him being late for mine.

But finally about 4pm it was up and working. Now we just have to go back and reprogram it for all the shows we want to record.

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For dinner we had the leftover pizza from our visit to Organ Stop Pizza the other night. Still really good and very cheesy.

About 6:45 Jan and I headed out for our walk. We did about 1.25 miles before calling it a day, using RunKeeper to keep track of our time. It’s nice to see that we keep picking up our time a little bit every walk.

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If you’re a history buff, I’ve been reading a really good book that you might be interested in. It’s called The Battles that Changed History and is an excellent read. It cover 16 battles from Alexander the Great against the Persians, through Jeanne d’Arc, and ending with the Battles of Vicksburg and Midway.

One of my favorite of literary subjects is Alternative History, where one historical event unfolds differently, and changes things afterword. One famous turning point used is Lee’s Lost Orders.

A copy of the orders, detailing Lee’s battle plans for what became known as the Battle of Antietam, was lost by a Confederate courier and recovered by a Union corporal. This led to McClellan being able to blunt Lee’s attack and force him back out of Union territory. Although not really a Union victory, Lincoln used it to justify his issuing the Emancipation Proclamation which discouraged Britain and France from recognizing the Confederacy.

In Harry Turtledove’s How Few Remain, the first book in a 14 book series, the Lost Orders are not found by the Union, the Battle of Antietam is not fought, the Emancipation Proclamation is not issued, Britain and France come in on the side of the South, and the Confederacy wins its independence. Of course he takes a whole book to tell you this.

Even a luminary such as Winston Churchill wrote a ‘counterfactual’ as he called it, detailing how Lee won at Gettysburg, thus changing the course of the Civil War.

Sorry. It seems like I took the long way around to get back to talking about “The Battles that Changed History”, but the battles described here are perfect examples of where a small change could have major consequences on history.

Check it out.

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Thought for the Day:

Live your life in such a way that the Westboro church will want to picket your funeral.

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Joe Berti is both unlucky and lucky.

He’s unlucky because he was close up and personal at the Boston Bombings.

He’s lucky because he passed the explosion area about 30 seconds before it went off. He was even more lucky (as was his wife) because she was less than 10 yards from the first explosion and came through without a scratch.

He’s unlucky, because three days later he was driving into his home town of West, TX just as the fertilizer plant explosion took place. His car was rocked by the blast and debris rained down on the roof of his car.

He is lucky because he was once again unhurt.

His wife said they’re going to make him just stand out in a open field for a while in case he attracts any other disasters.

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I’ve seen a lot of articles recently talking about how society is coming apart at the seams with all the bombings and other terrorist activities. But when you look a little closer you get a different story.

Would you believe that out of the 10 worst bombings in US history, 5 of them took place more than 80 years ago, and one of them more than 120 years ago?

And 8 of the 10 took place more than 30 years ago.

The 10 Worst Bombings in US History

10) The World Trade Center Bombing (February 26, 1993): A van filled with explosives went off in the parking garage beneath the World Trade Center. Almost unbelievably, although over a thousand people were wounded, only six were killed. It could have been much worse because the goal of the bombing had been to take down both towers. Had that happened, the body count would have been even larger than 9/11. The terrorist behind the attack was Ramzi Yousef, who is now serving a life sentence.

9) The Preparedness Day Bombing (July 22, 1916): The Preparedness Day parade was designed to lift morale in San Francisco in anticipation of the possible entry of the United States into World War I. Before the event, anti-war activists were harshly critical and during the parade a suitcase bomb went off, killing 10 and wounding 40. Labor leaders Thomas Mooney and Warren Billings were convicted of the crime and were both eventually sentenced to life in prison. After the two men spent 20 years in jail, Democrat Governor Culbert Olson grew concerned about whether they received a fair trial and pardoned them.

8) The LaGuardia Airport Bombing (December 29, 1975): Four days after Christmas, a powerful bomb that had been placed in a locker at LaGuardia Airport went off. It collapsed the ceiling and fired shrapnel across the room. Eleven people were killed and seventy five were injured by the bomb. Although a number of groups were thought to potentially be responsible including FALN, the Palestinian Liberation Organization, the Jewish Defense League and also a Croatian nationalist named Zvonko Busic, no organization ever claimed credit and the crime remains unsolved.

7) The Haymarket Affair (May 4, 1886): A protest rally in Chicago led to a clash between anarchists, union members and police. During the protest, an anarchist threw a bomb at the police. A police officer was killed by the bomb and several others were wounded. That led to an exchange of gunfire between the cops and the violent crowd. Seven police officers and four members of the crowd were killed while one hundred twenty people were injured. While no one ever figured out exactly which anarchist actually flung the bomb, seven were prosecuted for the crime. Ultimately, Oscar Neebe received 15 years in prison, Michael Schwab and Samuel Fielden served life in prison, Louis Lingg killed himself while he was jailed and Adolph Fischer, Albert Parsons, George Engel and August Spies were hung.

6) The Los Angeles Times Bombing (October 1, 1910): A bomb wired to 16 sticks of dynamite exploded in an alley next to the Los Angeles Times. The bomb killed 20 employees of the paper and injured another 100. It turned out that two brothers who were members of the Iron Workers Union, John and James McNamara, were angry about the anti-union slant of the Times and set the bomb as retaliation.

5) The Bath School Disaster (May 18, 1927): After losing an election for Township Clerk, School Board Treasurer Andrew Kehoe decided to take revenge by executing what turned out to be the worst massacre at a school in American history. After murdering his wife, Kehoe set off bombs that he had secretly been planting inside the school for months. As rescuers arrived to begin helping the wounded children and teachers, Kehoe drove up in a truck filled with explosives and blew himself up, slaughtering even more people. By the time it was over, 44 people were dead and 58 were injured.

4) The Wall Street Bombing (September 16, 1920): A horse drawn carriage packed with 100 pounds of dynamite and 500 pounds of iron was detonated outside the headquarters of J.P. Morgan Bank on Wall Street. Although anarchists were believed to be responsible, no culprit was ever prosecuted for the bombing that took the lives of 30 people and injured another 300.

3) United Airlines Flight 629 (November 1, 1955): John Gilbert Graham had a poor relationship with his mother, Daisie Eldora King. After taking out 4 life insurance policies on her, he offered his mother a "Christmas present" that turned out to be a bomb. It went off while United Airlines Flight 629 was in the air, 35 miles outside of Denver. All 44 passengers and crew died.

2) Continental Airlines Flight 11 (May 22, 1962): Thomas G. Doty bought a couple of large insurance policies, purchased 6 sticks of dynamite and then got on Continental Airlines, Flight 11. Doty then committed suicide via explosion in hopes that his wife and child would receive the insurance money. All 45 passengers on the plane died when the bomb knocked the plane out of the sky.

1) The Oklahoma City Bombing (April 19, 1995): Timothy McVeigh, along with his co-conspirators Terry Nichols and Michael Fortier were responsible for destroying a large section of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building with a truck bomb. They were motivated by anger at the government in general along with the heavy handed tactics used by the Clinton Administration during the Waco Siege and at Ruby Ridge. There were 169 people killed in the bombing and 675 were wounded.

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On a much more cheery note, check out this family with 10 kids in Montgomery, AL.

They’ve all have been, or are being, homeschooled. But the amazing part is that 6 of them started their college studies by age 12. And that’s just the first six to reach that age.

The oldest of the 4 remaining kids, 10 year old Katrinnah, plans on taking her college entrance exams next year.

22 year old daughter Serenneh, is on track to become one of the youngest physicians in American history. And the others are no slouches, with one a spacecraft designer and another, a certified architect.

The family says they’re just ordinary folk. The father was an Army helicopter pilot, and the mother dropped out of nursing school to homeschool the kids.

They have a website called College By Twelve that tells more about how they do it.

And the rest of us wonder “Why Johnny Can’t Read”.

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A little after 4pm Nick showed up at our door and off we went. Our first stop was at Nick’s in-laws to pick up Miss Terry and then we all headed over to J & M II Chinese Restaurant, our favorite local Chinese restaurant.

Every time we go I keep telling myself that I’m going to have something different, but every time I end up having their delicious Szechwan Garlic Chicken. And having tasted mine last time, Jan changed from her usual Combo Pan-Fried Noodles to the Szechwan Garlic Shrimp.

And of course along with it we had Hot & Sour Soup and some Crab Won-Ton.

Everything as good as usual.

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Thought for the Day:

The only thing more frightening than "another government commission" is a "strongly worded letter."

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