Papa Al

Wedding costs

Just got the latest bill, for flowers, on my daughters wedding which took place in May. Despite efforts to hold cost down, we were shocked at the final figure. My wife was the wedding planner you might say and she did a fantastic job keeping everything going and watching costs as much as possible.

The wedding was beautiful, the bride was beautiful, the groom was handsome, the mothers beamed, the brides father (me) read a poem that was very touching and had all the participants fighting back tears. I authored the poem also. Grand son (9) and grand daughter (6) perfomed their duties wonderfully.

My wife since then has been busy creating the wedding book. She has done such a good job. She is very interested in perhaps going into the business of doing wedding books for others. The way she does it is not just sticking the pictures in an album. She creates pages based on whatever theme seems to be appropriate. I think there are people, who once they saw her work, would be interested in allowing her, at a fee of course, to create the books for them.

Literary interests

The American Civil War and World War II have for some reason always been of great interest to me. I am descendent from two great-grandfathers and a great uncle who fought courageously for the Confederate States of America. Now I don't have any visions of the "South will rise again", but I do have pride in my anscestors for fighting for what they believed in. None of them were slave owners, in fact they were all just farmers. So please don't tell me that they fought to preserve slavery. I'm sure they felt their right to govern themselves was being trampled upon and they were willing to die for for those rights. When the war ended they came home, started families, worked hard all their lives, and became good American citizens. While I don't know all the battles they participated in, I know they were at Chattanooga, Chickamauga, and were with Joseph Johnson when he surrendered his army in the Carolinas.

I also am very interested in World War II. I read many great books during my high school years like Leon Uris "Battle Cry". Mailers "The Naked and the Dead"  and others I have forgotten. Three of the best books I have read are the trilogy by Cornelius Ryan, "The Longest Day", A Bridge too Far", and "The Last Battle". Ryan's works are so detailed and they present the story based on thousands of face to face interviews with the actual participants, from the major military mover and shakers, to the dog face soldier, to the civilians caught in those perilous times. I am also reading the second of Rick Atkinson's trilogy "The Day of Battle". His first book is "An Army at Dawn" which is the story of the North African campaign in WW II. 'The Day of Battle" is the fantastic story of the Italian campaign and the terrible battles and difficult terrain that the Allies had to go through to drive the Nazi's back into Germany. The Germans fought tenaciously for every inch of territory and Allied casualties were appalling. Tom Brokaws book calling that era The Great Generation appropriately describes those people. How they did what they did is unbelievable.

Drinking water

A Mennonite farmer walking in his pasture in south Georgia notices a man drinking from his pond with his hand. 

The Amish man shouts: 'Trink das wasser nicht. Die kuhen haben dahi Gesheissen.' 
Which means: 'Don't drink the water. The cows have pooped in it.' 

The man shouts back: 'I'm from Chicago and just down here campaigning for Obama. I can't understand you. Please speak in English.'.....

The Amish man says: 'Use two hands, you'll get more

My first post

This is a new and exciting time for me. I am finally getting the courage to go out on my own after many years in the corporate world doing the 9 to 5 thing. Look for  additional information in jus a few weeks.