Our Butternut

  Book 1 Volume 48

Founded December 17,1912    Ceased Publication Thursday February 1, 1951
    The masthead appearing above and below is not an accident nor is it meant to be a gimmick. My dad, George R. Elliston was the owner, founder, editor, and publisher of the Palmerton Press. I am trying in my own way to keep that banner visible.
    First and foremost this thing makes absolutely no attempt to be a real newspaper. For that one must read the Times News at www.tnonline.com/news/. I write this for my own enjoyment. I hope others will enjoy it also.
Below is the actual lead slug masthead of the Palmerton Press in it's days of operation.
It now resides with son George R. Elliston 2nd.Here it is shown reversed to read.
 
          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. She is my proofreader and censor and the one that attempts to keep me on the straight and narrow! Ha!  I realize that I sometimes must drive her nuts with my ravings and antics. Sometimes the blue smoke emitting from my ears is not pretty. However, her love, support, and help have been indispensable.  
        I am particularly interested in reaching not only current Palmertonians, but also former Palmerton residents, who may still find the old town a source of comfort and the remembrances of happy days.
        My son George, grandsons, Andy, and Jason, have been instrumental in making these things appear at all. They supply the technical expertise to put and keep it on line. I can type the words, but they keep the press running!
    Don’t expect much in the way of earth shattering events to appear here. This is how Queen and I live. Oh an occasional “Bobby’s” ranting opinion will appear. This is run as an autocracy not a democracy. Hey there is always the delete key.
         At least, with the addition of pictures, these pages don’t have to stand on their literary merits alone. I also thank God for my mentors. They all suffer a now 78-year-old fool well. I wish to express my thanks to everyone.
    I also deeply appreciate the responses from my readers who seem to enjoy our view of life as well as the pictures of our town and home. Grandson Andy says this is basically a letter with pictures. Actually it is more of a diary with pictures.
   


Saturday, October 16, 2004 9:52 AM 48 deg at Slatington E.S. and 50.1 in the bus stop  
    Please bear with me on this. I am attempting to learn a new system that should solve a lot of problems.

    It is a site shown that properly formats and makes ready these pages so that reading them by other systems should cause  problems to be at a minimum and  be vastly improved. {I hope}  My main problem is having to learn a whole new way of doing things. Methods used in MS Word do not work here!! One thing that amazes me is that there must be hundreds and hundreds of fonts to chose from in composing this thing! I think I am going to like it a lot!!
    We went for our walk this morning and while it was threatening it was fine walking. I took a few pictures of the new modular house up the street that I will share here
  

 
  Later this morning we went to Walmart and looked for a few things. I got a replacement for the hub that went south last week. It will handle USB 2 and the price was right. Today my disk usage is 10.95 MB.
    Later this afternoon a very sad occasion took place. We took down the "tent" up at the glider. I documented that sad event.

Sigh
   

Fritz arrived this afternoon to attend his High School class reunion. He will be back about 11 PM and will stay here overnight. He was in Baltimore today and then drove directly here for the occasion.
   This morning in my e-mail was another marvelous site from Google. It is a program that will find anything on your computer. It is amazing. After downloading it I had it look for old web pages and letters I had written. While Fritz was here I entered a phrase used in an old  web page. It not only found it but several more that were used in previous pages. Unfortunately it can only be used on XP or Windows 2000. It found everything.

 By John McCaslin
  "But then Mr.  Vincent came face to face with a personal side of Mr.  Bush that
few have seen, particularly in the Oval Office - his spiritual side.  "After
about 30 or 35 minutes," Mr.  Vincent recalls, "the president and first lady
made one more pass down the line of awardees, shaking hands and offering
congratulations.  When the president shook my hand, I said, 'Thank you, Mr.  
President.  God bless you and your family.' "He was already in motion to the
next person in line, but he stopped abruptly, turned fully back to me ...  and
said, 'Thank you - and God bless you and yours, as well.' " Mr.  Vincent then
took the opportunity to request that Mr.  Bush remember his stepmother, Loretta Vincent, in prayers that day.  At that exact moment, Mrs.  Vincent was having a
tumor removed from her skull at a hospital in Kalispell, Mont.  What occurred
next is worthy of presidential, if not religious, history books.  "He grabbed me
by the arm and took me back toward his desk as he said, 'So that's it.  I could
tell that something is weighing heavy on your heart today.  I could see it in
your eyes.  This explains it,' " were the president's words to Mr.  Vincent.  
Mr.  Bush then discussed with the award recipient the importance of family and
the strength of prayer.  "He said, 'If it's okay with you, we'll take care of
the prayer right now.  Would you pray with me?' I told him yes, and he turned to
the staff that remained in the office and hand motioned the folks to step back
or leave.  He said, 'Bruce and I would like some private time for a prayer.' "As
they left he turned back to me and took my hands in his.  I was prepared to do a
traditional prayer stance - standing with each other with heads bowed.  Instead,
he reached for my head with his right hand and, pulling gently forward, he
placed my head on his shoulder.  "With his left arm on my midback, he pulled me
to him in a prayerful embrace.  He started to pray softly.  I started to cry.  
He continued his prayer for Loretta and for God's perfect will to be done.  I
cried some more.  My body shook a bit as I cried, and he just held tighter.  He
closed by asking God's blessing on Loretta and the family during the coming
months." Mr.  Vincent's wife, Patti Jo, told Inside the Beltway from the
couple's home in Libby, Mont., yesterday that Loretta Vincent is undergoing
radiation for the tumor and "so far, so good." Sadly, Mr.  Vincent lost his
mother to the same form of cancer in 1996."

Oh I am well aware those of you who hate and despise George W. will view this as just another bit of my propaganda which I readily admit. I am indeed biased however this is not an appeal to the "Party Line" but an appeal to the human side of us all.
   This is a true story. I remember my first trip to Huntington, West Virginia for my first "passing family inspection" with my then wife to be Queen. We flew down there and her sister Grace and her Dad picked us up at the airport.
    At this time I met not only her sister and her Dad but  many of their mutual friends. One of them was a marvelous spinster a retired schoolteacher, Josepha Dober, "Jeff", for short.
    Queen, her Dad and her sister, were out in the kitchen preparing dinner and "Jeff" who was sitting with me on the couch out of the blue turned to me and said, "You love Ruth very much, don't you? I stammered out a "Yes, I do. How do you know?" That marvelous old spinster looked right at me with a big smile, and said, "I can see it in your eyes". It has been said the the eyes are the window of our soul.
 From then on I had a staunch ally in presenting my case to her family. I never forgot this. I must say that light is still there.
     However the moral to all this is don't sell George W. short. There is whole lot of fine man there. I for one can "see it in his eyes!!
     Somehow in the back of my mind is the thought that the last thing Bill and Hillary want to happen is for George W to lose!
    This morning my Weight was 196 and the blood glucose was 131.

 Sunday October 17 2004 7:24 am 35.6 at Slatington E.S and 37.9 in the bus stop
    Fritz slept here over night and is having breakfast this morning before his trip back. He says today will be a busy day for them. He left about 8:30 AM.
    This morning my blood sugar was 137 and the weight 194.

Now we are going for our walk.
   
We are back. It is not a beautiful day sun wise but it was great just getting out. With the advent of this cool weather I guess I will have to get the the bus stop ready for winter. Eating out there is not too inviting these dark and cool evenings. All vestiges of summer are now going down the seasonal tubes. <Sigh>
Below is the retirement center up on Princeton avenue. The newly seed lawn seems to be growing.
I got this from Queen's cousin, Bob Greenawalt 
 Political Review
DEMOCRAT:
You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. You feel guilty for being
successful. You vote people into office who put a tax on your cows, forcing
you to sell one to raise money to pay the tax. The people you voted for
then take the tax money, buy a cow and give it to your neighborhood. You
feel righteous. Barbara Streisand sings for you.
SOCIALIST:
You have two cows. The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow.
REPUBLICAN:
You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. So?
COMMUNIST:
You have two cows. The government seizes both and provides you with milk.
You wait in line for hours to get it. It is expensive and sour.
CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE:
You have two cows. You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows.
DEMOCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE:
You have two cows. The government taxes you to the point you have to sell
both to support a man in a foreign country who has only one cow, which was a
gift from your government.
BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE:
You have two cows. The government takes them both, shoots one, milks the
other, pays you for the milk, and then pours the milk down the drain.
AMERICAN CORPORATION:
You have two cows. You sell one, lease it back to yourself and do an IPO on
the 2nd one. You force the 2 cows to produce the milk of four cows. You
are surprised when one cow drops dead. You spin an announcement to the
analysts stating you have downsized and are reducing expenses. Your stock
goes up.
FRENCH CORPORATION:
You have two cows. You go on strike because you want three cows. You go to
lunch. Life is good.
JAPANESE CORPORATION:
You have two cows. You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an
ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. They learn to travel on
unbelievably crowded trains. Most are at the top of their class at cow
school.
GERMAN CORPORATION:
You have two cows. You engineer them so they are all blond, drink lots of
beer, give excellent quality milk, and run a hundred miles an hour.
Unfortunately they also demand 5 weeks of vacation per year.
ITALIAN CORPORATION:
You have two cows but you don't know where they are. While ambling around,
you see a beautiful woman. You break for lunch. Life is good.
RUSSIAN CORPORATION:
You have two cows. You drink some vodka. You count them and learn you have
five cows. You have some more vodka. You count them again and learn you
have 42 cows. You count them again and learn you have 12 cows. You stop
counting cows and open another bottle of vodka. The Mafia shows up and
takes over however many cows you really have.
TALIBAN CORPORATION:
You have all the cows in Afghanistan, which are two. You don't milk them
because you cannot touch any creature's private parts. Then you kill them
and claim a US bomb blew them up.
POLISH CORPORATION:
You have two bulls. Employees are regularly maimed and killed attempting to
milk them.
FLORIDA CORPORATION:
You have a black cow and a brown cow. Everyone votes for the best looking
one. Some of the people who like the brown one best, vote for the black
one. Some people vote for both. Some people vote for neither. Some people
can't figure out how to vote at all. Finally, a bunch of guys from
out-of-state tell you which is the best-looking one.
NEW YORK CORPORATION:
You have fifteen million cows. You have to choose which one will be the
leader of the herd, so you pick some fat cow from Arkansas

 This afternoon we took Butternut for his walk. Actually Queen did most of the walking and cleanup I was busy taking pictures. The sun had come out and it was glorious.
Monday,October 18,2004 7:28 am 40.4 at Slatington E.S and 41 deg in the bus stop
    It is chilly this morning but it should be a nice day. Tomorrow is another story with rain predicted.
    Yesterday when we went for our walk the sun had come out and I got some pictures.
   


     


I saw this article in the Journal. I have already downloaded the program and it really works.

ABOUT THE COLUMN
Tim Hanrahan and Jason Fry write Real Time every Monday and Real Time Exchange every Thursday.
Tim is the daytime news editor of the Online Journal. Jason is an assistant managing editor, and also co-writes The Daily Fix sports column. The Real Time column won first place in the online category in the National Society of Newspaper Columnists contest in 2004. Write to Tim and Jason at realtime@wsj.com.
Dow Jones, Reuters
 
Google Looks to Conquer
Our Humpty Dumpty Desktop

Plus: Will Biochips Get Under Our Skin?
October 18, 2004
For more than three decades we have used the same line when pressed about our toy-strewn rooms, our gummed-up school lockers, or our messy desks: If we clean it up, then how will we ever find anything?

It is an admittedly shaky, and convenient, line. But there is something to it. At some point it becomes too much trouble to keep all your books, clothes and papers in perfect thematic or alphabetical order -- the entropy is too much. You may leave lying out the 10 or 15 CDs you use the most, and let the rest fall into disorder.

The same is true inside our computers and online. Sure, we have the My Documents folder, and some crude organization of our inbox. We learn tricks on how to sort stuff and find stuff. But it's basically a mess -- and a time-consuming pain to sort through, like finding the one unwrinkled, not-too-smelly shirt in the hamper.

This frustration is why a small piece of software unveiled by Google last week has us excited -- if a bit wary. Google -- despite the protestations of Microsoft and others that its technology was no true breakthrough -- made it insanely easy in the late '90s to find things out on the Web. Now, six years after it first launched and amid feints from the giants in Redmond and Dulles, Google is trying to make it just as easy to find the stuff you already have on your computer -- your e-mail, Web history, online bank transactions and yes, even your instant-messaging conversations.

We tooled around a bit with the Google Desktop Search application over the weekend. We had some proxy issues that took some time to sort out, and meant jumping on and off our corporate connection -- first hopping on to let Google index our corporate e-mail and then hopping off to run the application to search it. It worked as promised, quickly searching the hard drive for e-mail and other documents, and helping us find a boss's note we had misplaced and quickly check an archived bank balance.

We wrote last month about the possible demise of physical things (mostly media like newspapers and CDs) but the Google service seems to herald the death of disorganization -- and the vindication of the sloppy, the lazy and the couldn't-be-bothereds. After all, why get organized when services like Google's tool promise to sort through the clutter for you? There are some flaws in the tool -- it can't index Gmail yet, for instance -- and some concerns. Snooping, of course, will become remarkably easy as compromising Web pages or e-mails pop right up (even deleted ones, thanks to caching), rather than requiring laborious searches of each application separately.

The power and pitfalls will take a while to sort out. The San Jose Mercury News's Mike Langberg put it well last week when he wrote: "Suddenly, I no longer have to ponder where I saw some piece of information: In an e-mail? On a Web page? In a document?" He added: "This is hugely valuable, yet occasionally creepy."

Are you more disorganized on line and in your computer than you'd like to be? Going to check out the new Google tool, or a similar one? Write to us at realtime@wsj.com, and we'll post selected comments this Thursday. If you want to share your thoughts but don't want your letter published, please make that clear.
 
  It is cloudy today but I think we shall forgo a walk. Queen has a very big wash and I don't want her to do too much.

     I have been learning how to use this new program. I did notice that when I click "save as",  it goes into the designated folder that I choose but it displays everyone I have ever saved and I can go back to it in case I made as error. This is a  nice feature.
    This morning was another dark day for summer! With Queen as my "gofer" and official ladder holder I installed the blue tarps around the bus stop.
 
 
    It was a nice day to do it and the sunshine helped.

Tuesday, October 19, 20047:21 AM 45.9 at Slatington E.S and 46.9 in the bus stop
It is a damp dreary day this morning. The blood glucose was 141 and the weight 196.<Sigh>
    With the rain this morning we decided to stay in and forgo the morning walk. We both miss it though.
     We were both tired last night. Queen had her big wash along with a shot at leaf cleanup yesterday. I helped with that but also got the tarps installed around the bus stop. It wasn't all that hard to do physically but for the old man standing on a stepladder's top step or next to it puts a stress on one that really causes tiredness that  I can really notice in my back later in the day.
    Thank God my Queen was my helper ,ladder holder, and "Gofer". It would have been much worse had I needed to get down from the ladder to pick up all the sundry parts that I am prone to drop.. Beside she inspires confidence while I am up there. Some places the stepladder can't be set exactly level this does not inspire confidence!!

I got an e-mail from my chief mentor, son George, in Delaware advising me as to where to look for some useful information using this new Nvu web page program. I really think I am going to like this program a lot.
    
  
 I am afraid we wont see much sun today. I took these yesterday afternoon almost in front of Sharon's house near the First National Bank before the batteries went flat.<Groan>

    I saw in last evening's Times News that our old friend Judge Richard We, is going to retire next year at the sixty years of age.

I copied this picture from the Times News
 
  He wants to take the time to enjoy life. To this I must heartily agree. It is later than you think.
  Later this morning Queen wanted to go to K-Mart and Super Fresh. It wasn't a nice day for driving. However we got some strawberries, salmon, and coffee all of which were on sale.  


    This picture I took yesterday as a close up of the weather vane on top of the First National Bank building. I am using a new Bushnell binocular-digital camera .
I had to steady the camera on the car roof. It really needs a tripod for sharp pictures. What I see of it so far I like. It was inexpensive enough.
 
   Tonight for supper we had half of the salmon we got this morning. We also had  "Freedom Fries" a few onion rings, cauliflower,  tomatoes, and cottage cheese. We were to full for dessert.

    After supper we called Mary and sang "Happy Birthday" to her. She is another good kid!!

    I got an e-mail this morning from Fritz. It confirms our impression of what we thought he implied in the conversation we had when he returned Saturday night from his class reunion.

Bob & Ruth, 
 My thanks to both of you for your hospitality on Saturday night.  I've been reflecting a lot on the reunion experience.  I'm glad I went, but I can't really say it was fun.   When the main event is a sit-down dinner, it's very hard to move around and find out what people have really been up to - and who they've become.  I was only able to do it with three or four people, and nobody did it with me. Unfortunately, the class reunion listed just about everybody's occupation as "retired;" so, you don't know what they used to do.  Still, they were my classmates, and there was something wonderfully sad and warm about the celebration.
  Fritz

    I suspect I would feel the same. I am sure I would see a lot of "old people". I find his comment interesting and I suspect very typical.
Wednesday, October 20, 2004 7:37 AM 43.5 at Slatington E.S. and 46.5 in the bus stop
    We went for our regular walk this morning for the first time in over two days. It was great getting out. We met Gail Nonnemaker and Shirley Neff at the top of Columbia Avenue. They were almost finished with their walk. At least three folks beeped at us on our walk. The only one we could recognized was Tommy. I suspect he was going hunting this morning.

    So far I can't show much for my efforts but I have been working with this Nvu program all day. I am having quite a time figuring out how to do it. I really think this will be an excellent thing if I am ever able to master it.
 
  We took Butternut for his walk this afternoon and I used the binocular camera.
 
 
 
Unfortunately it is a cloudy day and it was very difficult to hold the camera steady by using some rocks or a tree.There certainly is a difference in the steeple picture above. I planted the camera firmly on on our car roof.

We figured that tonight perhaps Butternut would stay out of trouble if he had a walk. Last night apparently we were not successful in placing things out of his reach. He got an entire box of crackers, tore them apart, probably ate some, but made a glorious mess. He also got into a can of mixed nuts. He opened that also but was content to chew on the lid. Honestly!!


Yesterday I received an e-mail from Photo Island that they are going out of business. They set up a method for me to reclaim and download all the pictures I have on that site. I haven't done it yet but I had better do it soon.


Thursday October 21, 2004 4:24 pm It is 46.8 at Slatington E,S and 49.6 in the bus stop
Golly but this is my latest post in a long time. I had all kinds of problems befall me yesterday.The computer started acting strangely yesterday afternoon and finally became virtually unusable last night. I ran the newly updated anti-virus and I had a Trojan on the machine that thoroughly gummed up the works. I finally got rid of it and discovered that I lost all the pictures on this page. Everyone except the last three. After much work I think it is finally straightened out now.

    Then this morning we did our shopping. In between chores I kept at it until now I think all is finally well. Needless to say things have been anything but normal.

    This morning my blood glucose was 140 and the weight 194. It was an interesting shopping trip today. When we arrived at Giant we discovered that the "Geezer Fair" was on today. Queen and I went around and looked at all the displays. From funeral plots to bedpans all was there.We both entered a lot of drawings. Last year Queen won a dinner for us at the Terrace Restaurant .
 
  Tonight for supper Queen is having pancakes and chicken gravy. A sure winner! Man but it sure was a winner. We don't have it that often but she did a first class job on this meal.
 
  Now I finally have the computer up and running at what passes for  properly. I sure was in a pickle last night at this time. It is amazing what ideas come upon one while resting or just sitting about when not really thinking about it. I had pretty well worked my way through the worst of it tonight. I sent my experts a running account of what I was trying to do and what worked and what didn't work. In the report I sent the same e -mail with the new additions to it as I tried them. Then this evening I got some e-mails from son George in Delaware detailing some cures that certainly helped a whole lot. I am in pretty good shape for the moment until the next screw up. Ha!!

     We are both tired tonight. I got an e -mail of the impending visit from son George. They will be arriving tomorrow for the weekend. That will be a nice visit.

     We have to get ourselves going tomorrow because Queen and I must be at the Hospital annex at 2nd and Franklin Avenues in the morning at 8:15 for our flu shots. Then that will be done. In the afternoon Queen goes to her Gynecologist up at the hospital. I understand most women don't look forward to that trip.


Friday, October 22, 2004 7:06 AM 43 deg at Slatington E.S. and 44.9 in the bus stop
    We are off to an early start due to our upcoming trip for our flu shots at 8 am this morning.

<8:31> We are back. We got our flu shots and then went to Country Harvest to pick up part of tonights dinner.
    They have that flu shot thing down to a fine art. Since one needs appointments there is no crowding or long lines. It went very nicely. I think Queen wants me to run the plow in here this morning.
    One of the things I did last evening was to create a set of CD-ROMS from which in a pinch, I can set up shop on practically any windows computer and be back in business. I will keep those CDs in a separate place.

    After we ran the plow this morning the sun came out and we went for a drive and got a few pictures for today's web page.
 

There was just enough sunlight from the right direction that I got some pictures that turned out very well. Then we drove out to the Country Club and I got some shots there.






I can readily see that there is great difference in the pictures taken on my regular Fuji camera and this Bushnell binocular camera.

There is a great difference in detail as well as overall quality. Hey for 40 bucks it doesn't do badly.
This will now be sent to the proof reader, spell checker and generally good kid, Queen for her perusal. Therefore I had better to bring this to an end for this week.

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

 PS, In keeping with this new program we tried something new. Instead of printing the page and having Queen correct it with a red pencil we both sat here at the computer screen as as she saw errors I made the necessary changes. It was a wonderful way to do it.

  prolog        Nvu