The Palmerton Press Volume 35

Founded December 17,1912 Ceased Publication Thursday February 1, 1951

Book 1 Volume 35

Original Volume 35 republished using KompoZer

editors

Our Butternut

At this time I want to acknowledge the deep debt of gratitude to all those who have supported me in this endeavor. My wife, Queen is my inspiration and greatly augments my efforts. I realize that I sometimes must drive her nuts with my ravings and antics. Her support has been a lifesaver.

My son George, grandsons; Andy and Jason have been instrumental in making these things appear at all. They all suffer an old fool well, my thanks to them all. I also deeply appreciate the responses from my readers who seem to enjoy my view of our life as well as the pictures. I regret that some still have problems opening the pictures. At least these pages don’t have to stand on their literary merit alone. Ha!! Thank God.

Saturday, July 17, 2004 8:01 AM 63 degrees at LVIA and 62.2 in the bus stop
It looks like a great day this morning. It is a new week of this web page. However I just got this note from Prolog:

At this time, we ask that you reduce your e-mail storage space and personal storage space usage to within the allotted 15 MB. More details on disk space and recommendations on how to avoid disk space overages can be found on our support site at http://www.ptd.net/support/disk_space/

Effective August 1, 2004, customers that have exceeded 90% of their allotted storage space will receive a weekly e-mail notification until their average disk usage falls below 90%.
To check your current disk usage go to PenTeleData's Account Management section at www.ptd.net and click on the Account Management login located on the right-hand side of the page.
Thank you for your business and continued support.
PenTeleData

This means that I will have to drastically reduce the old pages left on line.. I wondered why I had not heard from them previously. I regret the drastic cut back but I have little choice. I had to pare down my e-mail content also. The allocated disc space includes everything. Now that Queen also has e-mail that compounds the problem. My average has been running over 23MB. My limit is 15MB so figure!!

It has turned into a nice day. This morning we were busy making sure things are all right now that the Maytag fridge is working. We cleaned and defrosted the freezer in the basement. It was a real lifesaver.

My blood glucose was 105 and the weigh is 201. These new test strips all seem to run substantially lower than the old strips. I hope they are accurate but with a margin of error of + or- 20%, I don't trust them for beans. This afternoon after a rest I plan to head to the pool for a swim. I decided not to go this morning due to the freezer cleanup. By then the water should have warmed a bit from yesterday.

Last evening after the thundershower I saw a spectacular rainbow. These pictures don't do it justice at all.

This afternoon after 3 PM I went to the pool for my swim. Golly they went very smoothly with no problems. Today the advertised water temperature was 74 degrees. I suspect that was an honest 74 degrees because it was very comfortable swimming.

Tommy was up there for his swim this morning. He made a repeat appearance this afternoon. He is invited by Hager Furniture store to a show at Penn's Peak this evening. It will be a repeat of Raymond, the Amish Comic.

I got this from Queen's cousin, Bob Greenawalt

Flight Comments On landing, a West jet stewardess was heard to say: "Please be sure to take all of your belongings. If you're going to leave anything, please make sure it's something we'd like to have."
___________________
Also from West jet: "There may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but there are only 4 ways out of this airplane. So pay attention!"
_________________
"Thank you for flying Delta Business Express. We hope you enjoyed giving us the business as much as we enjoyed taking you for a ride."
___________________________________
As the Continental plane landed and was coming to a stop at La Guardia, a lone voice came over the loudspeaker: "Whoa, big fella. WHOA!"
_____________________________
After a particularly rough landing during thunderstorms in Memphis, a flight attendant on a Northwest flight announced, "Please take care when opening the overhead compartments because, after a landing like that, sure as hell everything has shifted."
_____________________________
From a Southwest Airlines flight crew member: "Welcome aboard Southwest Flight 245 to Tampa. To operate your seat belt, insert the metal tab into the buckle, and pull tight. It works just like every other seat belt; and, if you don't know how to operate one, you probably shouldn't be out in public unsupervised.
________________________________
In the event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, masks will descend from the ceiling. Stop screaming, grab the mask, and pull it over your face. If you have a small child traveling with you, secure your mask before assisting with theirs. If you are traveling with more than one small child, pick your favorite.
_____________________________
The captain's dulcet tones droned over the plane's speakers: "Weather at our destination is 50 degrees with some broken clouds, but we'll try to have them fixed before we arrive. Thank you and remember, nobody loves you, or your money, more than Southwest Airlines."
_____________________________________
"Your seat cushions can be used for flotation; In the event of an emergency water landing, please use them to paddle to shore and feel free to take them home with our compliments."
_______________________________
"Should the cabin lose pressure, oxygen masks are in the overhead area. Please place the bag over your own mouth and nose before assisting children or other adults acting like children."
_____________________________
"As you exit the plane, make sure to gather all of your belongings. Anything left behind will be distributed equally amongst the flight attendants. Please do not leave children or spouses."
________________________________
And from the pilot during his welcome message: "Delta airlines is pleased to have some of the best flight attendants in the industry. Unfortunately, none of them are on this flight!"
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Heard from a flight attendant on a West jet Airlines flight just after a very hard landing in Edmonton, Alberta: "That was quite a bump, and I know what you're all thinking... I'm here to tell you it wasn't the airline's fault, it wasn't the pilot's fault, it wasn't the flight attendant's fault...it was the asphalt."
___________________________
Overheard on an American Airlines flight into Amarillo, Texas, on a particularly windy and bumpy day: During the final approach, the Captain really had to fight it. After an extremely hard landing, the Flight Attendant said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Amarillo. Please remain in your seats with your seat belts fastened while the Captain taxis what's left of our airplane to the gate!"
_______________________________
Another flight attendant's comment on a less than perfect landing: "We ask you to please remain seated as Captain Kangaroo bounces us to the terminal."
___________________________
A Canadian airline pilot wrote in his journal a few years ago that on one particular flight due to strong crosswinds, he had unfortunately hammered his ship onto the runway with a very hard greeting. The airline had a policy, which required the first officer on the flight to stand at the exit door while the passengers disembarked, to smile and repeat, "Thanks for flying our airline." His comments indicated that, in light of the poor landing, he avoided eye contact with the passengers in an attempt to avoid any smart comments that might result. Finally there was only one little old lady left to exit the plane. Walking slowly up the aisle with a cane, she approached the awaiting first officer and said, "Sir, do you mind if I ask you a question?" Why, no, Ma'am," said the pilot. "What is it?" "Did we land, or were we shot down?"
____________________________________
After a real crusher of a landing in Phoenix, the Flight Attendant came on with, "Ladies and Gentlemen, please remain in your seats until Capt. Crash and the Crew have brought the aircraft to a screeching halt against the gate. And, once the tire smoke has cleared and the warning bells are silenced, we'll open the door and you can pick your way through the wreckage to the terminal."
_________________________________
Part of a flight attendant's arrival announcement: "We'd like to thank you folks for flying with us today. And, the next time you get the insane urge to go blasting through the skies in a pressurized metal tube, we hope you'll think of US Airways."
_________________________________
A plane was taking off from Kennedy Airport. After reaching a comfortable cruising altitude, the captain made an announcement over the intercom, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. Welcome to Flight Number 293, nonstop from New York to Los Angeles. The weather ahead is good and, ther, MY GOD!!!" Silence followed, and after a few minutes, the captain came back on the intercom and said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I am so sorry if I scared you earlier. While I was talking to you, the flight attendant brought me a cup of very hot coffee, which ended up spilling in my lap. You should see the front of my pants! A passenger in Coach yelled, "That's nothing. You should see the back of mine!"

My blood glucose is 116 and the weight 200 this morning. It was raining when I let Butternut out. I will be heading for the "park bench" with my 8 O'clock coffee as soon as it is ready. I took the camera along.

It is a gray murky day this morning

Everything looks lush and green this morning. It is now raining but we went for a short walk anyway. A flash flood watch has been issued for this area. This pretty well shoots a swim today! <sigh>
This morning we completed the cleaning out of Queen's old Kelvinator fridge in the basement. We defrosted it and Queen wiped it out and now we should be in good shape. It was put to good use last week.

Monday, July 19, 2004 7:22 AM 64 Deg at LVIA and 64.4 in the bus stop

It looks like another cloudy threatening morning on hand. I saw Marlene and Lee as they were just about past the house on their walk. They didn't see me though.
This morning the blood glucose was 121 and the weight 200. I shall be heading out with my 8 O'clock coffee as soon as it is ready.

Everything is wet outside this morning. It must have rained overnight. Today is washday for Queen. Not the biggie but nonetheless a pain.

We went for an abbreviated walk this morning. It is quite sticky but it was good to get out nonetheless. We went down to the Post Office and IGA. We stopped in at the T.N. emporium for a quick hello and then home.

This afternoon after 3 PM I went for my swim. The sun had finally came out. The water temperature was a comfortable 73 degrees. Tonight is the last home swim meet.
It was smooth as glass with the lane markers up.

I spoke with George Ashman a bit and we left the same time. This afternoon I got an e-mail from Dick Fiske. He asked to be added to this mailing list. I haven't seen nor heard from him in years and years. We both graduated from PHS in 1944. His Dad was instrumental in the Palmerton Memorial Park being here in the first place. They so over engineered that pool that many other local community pools have had to be rebuilt, some several times. This one is still here. Thanks to those foresighted men.

I recall just after I learned to swim CP was watching me dive into the pool from the edge. His admonishment of “Bob, take a little spring and keep your legs together otherwise you look like a frog”! I thought that was a good comment!

I told George about Dick's e-mail. I am always gratified to be able to reach out to Palmertonians from years past, particularly from my past.

This afternoon I went for my swim. It really felt good. My 20 laps went very well. I didn't even run into anybody while I was swimming. I saw Rev. Doris swimming as well as a lot of regulars.

Golly today I spent most of the usual time I spend on the computer undoing a problem I inadvertently caused last night. However sometimes there is a small glimmer of hope for the old geezer. It took awhile but I finally figured a way out. As daughter Mary told me when I first got started in computers, "Bob, there must be hundreds of ways with Windows to do the same thing." She is right.

Somehow I changed the formatting of my web page. It was all completed up to Tuesday night so that when I checked its appearance as a HTM document many of the words trailed off the page. In other words, the words didn’t “wrap” any more. No matter what I did to it. Nothing helped. Today a light came on and I realized if I removed the formatting of the document and then re-pasted it as a new "MS Word" document it might work. Sure enough finally I saved it as a text file and copied and pasted it as a new blank word file and all was well. Then I had to retrieve the pictures and adjust fonts and colors until it looked as normal as it ever gets, Sheez!!! The whole day shot. Jason, Andy and George probably would have fixed that in two minutes. No they would never have been so dumb in the first place!! I should have my head examined. If I didn’t love this stuff so much I would have quit long ago. If this is considered as keeping an active mind, then mine must be doing pushups!!!

Tonight Queen took a page from Sharon Minnich’s cookbook for using zucchini. Queen peeled some of them, removed the seeds, split them, and took meat, rice, veggie mix, and tomatoes that she cooked in a pan, filled the hollowed out zucchini, covered it with several types of cheeses and baked it in the oven. Then we had an ear of Mike’s Corn Barn sweet corn along with some cottage cheese. It was delicious! A small dish of ice cream and coffee finished the meal. She is the best cook in the world!!!!

Tomorrow morning we plan to go blueberry picking for what I suspect will be the last time.

sep

Thursday, July 22, 2004 6:32 AM 64 /Deg at LVIA and 63.3 in the bus stop
This morning the blood sugar is 120 and the weight 199. We are off to an early start in the berry patch, so I am posting early.
<9:15 AM> We are back.

We got 13 ¼ pounds of Blueberries for $10.90.

When we left this morning Queen said “are you sure you want to go in this fog?” I replied sure it will get better out there. Sure enough by the time we passed Fernbrook it was brightening considerably. When we entered the field it looked like the top two pictures below. Soon the sun broke out and by the time we left, it was beginning to get hot.

Marie Dieter The pickers Queen picking

They had a good crowd there today. We both suspect this will be our last picking this year. They are drying out on the front room table and soon will be packed away.
We got a post card from brother in-law Walter Guyer. He is vacationing with his son, Dr. David and family in the Adirondack Mountains in New York State.

I got this from Russ Howell in Texas:

Priceless
Marty wakes up at home with a huge hangover. He forces himself to open his eyes, and the first thing he sees is a couple of aspirins and a glass of water on the side table. He sits down and sees his clothing in front of him, all clean and pressed. Marty looks around the room and sees that it is in perfect order, spotless, clean. So is the rest of the house. He takes the aspirins and notices a note on the table: "Honey, breakfast is on the stove, I left early to go shopping. Love you." So he goes to the kitchen and sure enough there is a hot breakfast and the morning newspaper. His son is also at the table, eating.

Marty asks, "Son, what happened last night?"

His son says, "Well, you came home after 3 A.M. drunk and delirious. Broke some furniture, puked in the hallway, and gave yourself a black eye when you stumbled into the door."

Confused, Marty asks, "So, why is everything in order and so clean, and breakfast is on the table waiting for me?"

His son replies, "Oh that! Mom dragged you to the bedroom, and when she tried to take your pants off, you said, "Lady, leave me alone, I'm married!"

A self-induced hangover - $100.00
Broken furniture - $200.00
Breakfast - $10.00
Saying the right thing - priceless

This afternoon about 2:45 I went to the pool. The weather report looked threatening so I thought it best if I went early. The parking lot was crowded. Including a bus that brings kids up from a day care center in New Tripoli for an afternoon of swimming. Apparently they all have memberships and use the facilities every day. I notice also that other park facilities are being utilized more and more. That is good. I noticed that day camp groups have an archery range set up as well. The water was very comfortable and there was a minimum of bumping into folks this afternoon, in spite of the crowded parking lot.

There was no sign of George Ashman. He must have been busy coordinating at the Miller Bloodmobile this afternoon.

This evening Queen had one of those Tyson prepared small chickens that we got at Aldi. It weighed less than two pounds but when reheated in the microwave it was delicious. We had a half of baked potato each, an ear of Mike’s corn, and green beans. It was an excellent meal.

I was roaming about the internet and came upon an interesting site: http://chrenkoff.blogspot.com/2004_05_30_chrenkoff_archive.html It is a site that writes about the world’s events far differently than the conventional press. If you want to see how things are really going in Iraq, take a look. It is a real eye opener.

Friday, July 23, 2004 7:01 AM 75 deg. At LVIA and 73.5 in the bus stop
This morning the blood glucose was an unbelievable 99. I suspect the blood sample was too small. The weight was 199.

The other day I downloaded a new photo program from Google but did not take any time to look at it. It finds every photo on my computer and will display them and show me exactly where they are on the computer. It also allows me to work with them and manipulate them as well as display and print them.

It is called Picasa. It is by Google and they offer it free. http://picasa.google.com/ It looks terrific and is well worth some detailed examination. This might turn into a very handy thing for me in preparing my web page. I don’t off hand recall where all my photos are on this machine but it automatically finds them all and shows me the exact path. Then if need be I can manipulate them further with my ACDSee regular photo program. This is one of the pictures it found for me. It is neat and quite useful. Also you can’t beat the price!! One can readily e-mail pictures to anyone with their setup. I sent one to myself. It was fine and free!!!

The house on the right is the house where Dr Nicholson now lives. Sand Quarry road angles up to the left.

I was up on the park bench this morning. When I got the car out I took a heavy-duty garbage bag up with me. The garbage men did not take everything with them. There was a garbage pail with a lot of spoiled stuff from last week’s refrigerator disaster in it. It was rotting and smells to “high heaven”. I tipped it over drained out the excess water and covered the whole works with the bag. At least that should help contain the odor. I sure as Hell am not going to lug it back down here!!

As I pulled up at the house Marlene and Lee were walking past. She complained about the humidity. I turned on the air conditioner here in the family room. We are planning on doing our shopping this morning. I would like to look at the Farmer’s Market to see if they have any fresh lima beans yet.

More and more I am getting E-mail from friends and acquaintances in relation to this oncoming presidential election. Apparently Mrs. Heinz-Kerry is being viewed with increasing distain. If John Heinz could see how she is spending the family fortune he is probably spinning in his grave!!
I do have another observation on the events of the world. Much is made of the “ingratitude” of the Germans and the French. The English are more orientated in our direction because of a shared language and common heritage.
We can’t understand why they behave as they do particularly the wars this country has fought in their behalf.
As I thought about it, it occurs to me that Europe has battled one another over the centuries for domination of that area of the world. What to me seems to be happening is not ingratitude at all, we are witnessing human nature at its worst!! They perceive the sight of this country being the only superpower left in the world as the greater threat to their way of squabbling among themselves as they have always done and they don’t like it. They don’t like it because they can no longer control it. Thus we are perceived as their biggest threat. They still want to run Europe their way. They are not concerted by the fact that if the “terrorists” defeat us and win, they are next.
The British threw out Winston Churchill after the war was decided. I hope the electorate in this country does not perceive this terror war as over or no longer a threat.
Ed Koch, Ex-mayor of New York City, has said that none of the Democrats have the guts to do what needs doing. He is about as liberal a Democrat as they come but he is supporting Bush. It we lose that war the economy means nothing. Mr. Kerry and his ilk haven’t the guts to do what needs to be done. Oh well another sermon!!

We got back from our shopping trip. It is a miserable muggy damp, and humid day. It is raining just enough to be nasty. The humidity is so bad one can cut it with a knife.
I remember in my television service days. This kind of humidity was always good for a lot of high voltage problems. Now with solid state I presume that is mostly a relic of the past but deflection yoke and fly-back transformers were all subject to breakdowns in this humidity. The humid conditions and a layer of dust inside the high voltage supply was all it took to start it arcing and short-circuiting. Smoke usually ensued.
Well I have officially entered the ”modern age”. I just established my first debit card account!!!

Well, it is time to close for this week and send it to my proofreader, spell checker, and censor, Queen.

Please love one another Mom and Bob [Queen and Bobby]