Gold! There’s Gold out there!

January 24 1848 is a day that will live forever as one that changed American history. John Sutter had hired a millwright named James Marshall to construct a sawmill along the south fork of the American River. The water was not flowing in the right vicinity so they cut a fresh millrace. The timber from […]

Pigboats

Pigboats “With his heart in his mouth, Tom glimpsed a dim bow as it came hurtling toward him out of the night. Firing had ceased; they were evidently too close to fire; evidently they meant to ram. Hadn’t he got his recognition signal right? He pressed a button; below him klaxons shrieked a warning through […]

G’day Mate, mind the dingos

I can’t possibly imagine two places on earth that are more opposite then Diego Garcia and Perth Australia. Finishing up a quick run somewhere in the Indian Ocean and pulling up next to a destroyer tender was welcome after all the excitement, but you quickly come to realize that if there was an end to […]

He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother

I don’t believe an accident of birth makes people sisters or brothers. It makes them siblings, gives them mutuality of parentage. Sisterhood and brotherhood is a condition people have to work at. ~Maya Angelou If you are lucky in life, you get to have a real brother. This is no reflection on my actual siblings […]

Pardon me, can you tell me how to get to Carnegie Hall?

Altogether now: Practice, practice, practice Getting from one place to another has always been a core competency of human kind. Man has made an evolutionary journey since the earliest recorded times on how to accomplish the journey more efficiently. Stars were pretty useful once the early navigators figured out that they moved around. Understanding […]

Location, location, location

After living near the sea coast for most of my life, living in farm country is a unique experience. What’s particularly interesting is that we live between several large chocolate companies and a number of farms. Inside the house, you can see the weather rolling in from a number of directions. But you really have […]

You are sooooo dumb!

1968 is often called one of the most pivotal years in the second half of the 20th century. Even by today’s post 911 standards, many key events happened that would shape the way American’s would view themselves and our place in the world. January kicked off the whirlwind of events that literally transformed us from […]

Daylight into Darkness

The first time I met Jim was on a Thursday evening in the choir loft at the church I decided to attend. We had just moved to a new job and didn’t know anyone outside of work. Finding a church with a decent music program has become more important since retirement from the Navy. […]

Clear the Square… NOW!!!

I’m not sure if its vanity or just a curiosity, but I have always been interested in things named McPherson. My family name was actually spelled that way when they first emigrated to the US in 1845 at the beginning of the potato famine. The family came from northern Ireland on a ship called the […]

The Submariner

Looking back over the last forty years, my thoughts of what a good submariner looks like have become much clearer. I have not been on a boat for over twenty years but there are some things that still stand out even through the haze of the years. I should tell you that I greatly admire […]