Tennessee State Flower

I was going to be the proud owner of not one, but two, of Tennessee State flowers, plus a weed...........................here they are..........................

well - I was all signed-up and ready to go for Direct TV - all the channels, local channels (requiring the second disk) and an antenna to get High Definition from the local area......

The installer called on Wednesday and said he was sick and he wanted to reschedule for Friday...... OK was my answer............ Friday came, 1 pm came......5 pm went........... no installer?????????? so I called Direct TV and cancelled............ the lady I talked to said that the installer had set it up for next Friday..............not this Friday....... I said that was wrong, that I knew I couldn't do it next week............ I cancelled my order...........

So, now I am watching the playoffs in High Definition from Comcrap............... I still think the product they give us is poor.............for over a year they have been telling me that we will have duel DVRs and SportsSouth........and we have neither.......... they are great liars.... and they just raised their prices for their bad service............ but it is installed and it only requires one wire(cable)................

Oh Well.................... Instead of Direct TV I got to buy a new washing machine today!!!

take good care of yourself, john

It's about time!

Participants in the 'Human Zoo' are watched by a young girl at the Adelaide Zoo January 10, 2007. (Matt Turner/Reuters)

Full story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070109/ts_nm/australia_zoo_dc

John and Sandy and Dennis and Marie

Happy New Year from Amelia Island

We went to Amelia over New Years to vist Marie's brother Larry and his special frient Ellen.. After dealing with all kinds of shit on Friday morning we finally got away at about noon..... Dennis and Marie drove and Sandy and I hung out..................

We got to Larry's home around 8:30.......... Here is a picture of Larry and his dog, Ed....

Here are Dennis and Marie.........

Dennis is in Larry's garage.........it is a football watching haven.....three tvs and an frig for adult the adult beverages that Dennis refered to in his blog...... yummy!!!

We saw a church........Memorial United Methodist Church in downtown Fernandino Beach........... we were actually at an antique mall..............

Also there are three wise men..







Notice that you are not seeing neither Larry nor Dennis nor John.... Uumm, imagine that!!




Okay, here is Sandy............... That is Larry in the background............ Sandy is watching football!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In the Garage!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Besides eating, drinking, and watching football, we saw a most incredible display of lights that you can possible imagen............ an entire street with lighted homes (a couple didn't have 'em).... the display was remarkable..................

Ok, I do not have a picture of Ellen........ and my camera battery is getting low...... so, that is all from Amelia Island.............. Tomorrow, we will do Savannah........

We had a great time......... God bless you all, and remember, take good care of you so that you can take good care of someone else!!!!!!!!!!! love, john

Snow in East Tennessee

Brrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!

I'mmmmmm back!!!!! And here is the whole, hole story!!!!

As you know by now, Dennis & Marie and Sandy and I went on vacation over the January 1st weekend..... We left, thank God, on December 29.......... around Noon.... The plan was to leave earlier and this is where the story begins!!!!

The picture above is the hole that Marc doug to find our septic tank lid..... On the 29th shortly after 7 am I met Dennis and Marie at the vet where our dogs were going to be boarded... all went well and we left I came home and they went home to pack and come to our home to pick us up for our excellent adventure to Amelia Island, Florida.

When I got home, Sandy was trying to plunge the upstaies toilet that was clogged-up. She was not having much success and ask if I would try. I flexed my muscles and took over the plunging..... When I plunged, stuff flew out of the upstairs sink and bathtub, but could be rinsed out.... progress we thought......... We I plunged and I plunged and I plunged some more and finally, we decided the clog was not going away so we put a not on the toilet - "Do Not Use." Then we went downstairs to get ready for Dennis and Marie....

When we got down stairs Sandy noticed that the floor in our entry-way and downstairs bathroom was wet...... I looked and we discovered that the downstairs tub and stall shower were being occupied by sewer waste..... the stall shower was actually full and running over.... what luck!! We knew our vacation was ruined..... someone was praying........ (it was not me!!) We called Roto Rooter and got their answer service and we Mr. Rooter and got the answer service and we called Rooter Man and got a person.... and so we decided that whoever called back first would get the job...............because, we figured out that the septic tank had backed-up into our house... It, by the way, did not take a Ph.D., which I have, to figure this out...........

In the meant time Dennis and Marie called telling us they were on the way and we told them what had happend and they came over the give us moral support.... (they also provided us with bathroom shuttle servce to their home as it was needed...........) While Dennis and I were a bathroom run one of the people I called returned the call....It was now 9 am an hour after our departure time............ Marc called from Rooter Man and said he was on the way and got directions from Sandy.... A little while later Marc called from Rotor Rooter - it turned out to me the same person....... the other person called later and we told him we did not need his services after all.... I turns out the Marc from Rooter Man, is starting his own business while working for his brother-in-law who owns Rotor Rooter............. very soap operaish!!!!

He arrived 10 and 10:30......................found the septic tank, doug the hole you saw at the beginning and sucked out all the stuff from our septic tank into his truck.... and was gone before noon....... meantime, Sandy was cleaning up the downstairs bathroom while I watched Marc.............. Thank you Sandy!!!!!!!!!! We left on vacation around noon.....

Today Marc retruned to install a riser.... makes it easier to suck out your septic tank which you should do about every three to five years (not knowing this rather important fact, we had never, in 7 years had it cleaned out.....)

The lid!

The riser! The riser in the ground!
Marc cutting off the excess riser!Marc filling up the hole!

The riser cover at ground level!!Now it will be easier to clean out the septic tank the next time............

and that is the whole, hole story!!! cheers, john

ps: many thanks to Dennis and Marie for hanging in during the shitty times as well as the good times - true friends..............