My Photo is in the Republican National Committee's Calender

Well I am Happy to say that I got one of my Photos Published in the REPUBLICAN National Committee’s Calendar for 2015, It's the October photo with all the Pumpkins.

It's Christmas at the Mall

 It's Christmas at the Mall

I took my yearly trip to the Woodfield mall today. They have the Christmas decorations up, so I brought my camera along with me. Seeing all of the Christmas decorations and the people wandering around shopping reminds me of when my Mom would bring me down to State Street in Chicago. They didn’t have Malls back in those days. One of the fun things was looking at all the window displays they had at Marshall Fields. When you went inside they had this Huge Christmas tree in the center of the store that went up several stories. I thought that was the coolest tree I had ever seen. Being a kid was so much fun during the Christmas holidays. Mom always held on to my hand so I wouldn’t get lost in the crowd. I can still feel her touch.

Right in the center of the Woodfield Mall is Jolly old Santa Clause.

 I smiled and watched the children sit on his lap telling him what they wanted for Christmas just like I did when Mom brought me down to see him. I don’t sit on his lap anymore but I do make out my Christmas list every year and keep it to myself. Santa knows what's on my list.

 In the middle of Woodfield Mall they have Christmas ornaments hanging on Christmas trees that are for sale. That is where I am headed to with my camera. I love photography.

An Angel

I loved This Stocking

The Elf on the Shelf

Santa Clauses

They Just Looked Happy

Pretty Blue Ornaments

What Christmas is All About

 When I was through with taking pictures of the Christmas Ornaments, I walked through the stores. I needed to get in my exercise.  I was going to stop in the Lego Land store but as you see it was crowded so I walked on. I walked into the Sears store and saw a really nice couch. I was tempted to put in on my credit card but I kept my discipline. I will have to put that on my Christmas list to Santa.

I had a pretty good time at the Mall. In the last store I stopped in, I saw this brightly colored dumb looking stuffed Frog. I laughed at it and took his picture. Santa, don’t bring me this. Its dumb looking, LOL

 

Schaumburg Fire

Schaumburg Fire

8am Friday November 28th 2014. I was asleep this morning when I heard all these sirens. I got up and looked out the window and saw all these flames coming out of the townhouse across the street. I jumped up and grabbed my camera and started taking photos of the fire.  I don't know what happened to the people that were inside but that must be terrible on this Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

 

Six apartments uninhabitable after blaze in Schaumburg 
 http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20141128/news/141128560/

ABC News used one of my photos.
http://abc7chicago.com/news/no-injuries-in-schaumburg-condo-fire/414757/

The Fire department was out there this Sunday morning at 10:34 looking at it. I guess they were investigating the fire.

Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day Weekend

The weekend turned out to be beautiful. On Sunday I grabbed my camera and  headed to the forest. There were a lot of people out there having fun and cooking over the grill. My interest was to get away from them and find a trail that I could take. I found this one trail and followed it. It was so quiet and peaceful. I loved it. I started finding shots that I thought would turn out.

I found out from experience that after shooting about 50 photos only around 3 or 4 turn out really nice and I am happy with that.

 

  I spent the afternoon taking my photos and had a wonderful relaxing time. Everyday should be like that, nice and tranquil. 

 

 Several hours later I found my way out of the forest.

Now I have some beautiful serene summer forest pictures I can look at when winter comes. 

Schaumburg Township Disability Picnic

                                         Want to get your Face Painted?

  This Pretty Girl was at our Schaumburg Township Disability Services 29th Annual “Luau on the Beach” Picnic today. We had a great time getting our face painted along with plenty of food and bingo afterwards.

 To: Schaumburg Township of Illinois

"Thanks for All the Work that you Do"

Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance

Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance 

I wish the people in Washington and the people around this country would heed the words of this wise old comedian.

My 4th of July

                                   My 4th of July

Styx finished the concert and then off to the left, the Fireworks started shooting right over the roof of the Grand Victoria casino in Elgin Illinois. I ran to the middle of the parking garage roof to get a better shot of the Fireworks Show. I made money, got a free dinner, saw a concert and got to see a cool Fireworks Show. That was fun.                                                                                                                                                         

I Finally Got to See Cher

I Did it, I Finally Got to See Cher

Cher and I are the same age and she has always been one of fantasies. So when I heard that she was going to go on tour again, I jumped at the chance to see her this time in 2014 on her “Dressed to Kill Tour” before one of use drops dead. If I didn’t go this time I knew I would never get a chance to see her again. I missed seeing her in 2008 at the MGM in Las Vegas by 2 days when Heavy had his Crapsfest.

 I looked up to see where her tour would take her and found out that she was coming to Chicago on June 6th and then going to Des Moines on June 9th. I was going to go by myself here in Chicago but I called up my daughter to tell her all about it. She said, “Why don’t you come here and I’ll go with you.” “Alright, it’s a date,” I told my daughter. I was so excited doing a Very Cool Father Daughter thing. I bought the tickets back in October. It was a long wait but this past Friday I headed out to Des Moines to see her.

 When I got to Des Moines I was a little early. My daughter hadn’t got off work yet. I thought about Heavy’s trip report about the Prairie Meadows casino there in Des Moines and how really bad the crap tables are. So I had to check them out. The last time I was there they had 4 hard tables. That wasn’t the case this time. They replaced two of the tables with slot machines, so what else is new? They only had one of the tables opened at $5. I went over to the empty tables to check out the layout. Heavy said in his report that they were bouncy. Well when I put my finger on the green felt, I put a dent in it. Yeah, it was that thick. It was like when your feet are swollen and when you press on it leaves a crater in your foot. Well that’s how the tables are at Prairie Meadows casino. I swear they have a ¼ inch of foam rubber under the felt.

 I had to see how the dice were reacting. So I went over and bought in for $30. The shooter rolls a 9 to set the point and then he rolled three 10’s in a row. I don’t know why but I put $5 on the Don’t Come and the shooter rolls a forth 10. I was pretty sure he wasn’t going to roll anymore 10’s so I laid the single odds on my No 10. Next roll was a seven-out. That was it for me. I wasn’t about to play on this stupid table anymore. At least I made $10. I would STRONGLY suggest that no one play at the Prairie Meadows casino in Des Moines Iowa.

 On Sunday we went to a fabulous Buffet. I couldn’t believe it but it was inside of a HyVee Grocery store no less. I’m here to say it is better than any buffets I have had in any casino. Everything was FRESH and there was a huge selection to choose from. If you are ever in the area go eat there. Buffet was $14


 HyVee Market Grille 8701 Douglas Ave. • Urbandale, IA 50322

 After Brunch we went to my grandson’s soccer game which they won. I got sunburned. Now I don’t have to take any more of my Vitamin D2 pills.

After the game everybody went out to some wedding party that a friend of theirs were having. That left me all alone for the rest of the day. So, I thought about checking out the casino again. This time I bought in for $50 and played a $5 don’t come game. I got the dice twice. The table only had two other guys at it so my turn came quick. I set the dice using the straight 6’s set. I just laughed when I saw them bouncing around the table and then landing on the floor 3 times. It was so ridiculous. But I was able to make $15 anyway. That was it for me, “I’m out of here.”

 The next day was Monday, I was anxious to go see Cher. When my daughter got home from work at 4:30 I was ready to go. She had made reservations at some fancy restaurant but cancelled them after speaking with a woman from the Wells Fargo Arena. My daughter thought that part of the amenities we had would include something to eat. That wasn’t the case though. So my daughter worked some magic and we ended up inside the arena at a restaurant. When I got the tickets I wanted the best they had. They had the Hospitality Package which would have cost me a $1,000 for 2 tickets and since Cher would not be there at the party, I wasn’t about to spend that kind of money. So I got the gold package. The tickets were $105 + $153 for amenities. I still don’t know what I will be getting but they will send them in the mail sometime soon. Anyway in order to sit up front, I had to spend $526 for two tickets. Like I said this is the last hurrah for me and Cher since we are both 68 and I really wanted to see her.

 Cyndi Lauper opened up the concert for Cher. She was amazing. She is a real firecracker. Cindy went on to sing some of her best songs. She sang for an hour which was a concert in itself and then an intermission for twenty minutes. The big curtain dropped and there she was standing way up high on a pedestal. Cher sang for an hour and a half. It was all and more than I expected especially having my daughter with me. That made everything so Cool. That’s a memory I will never forget. 

  Cher’s body looked so good. She had a butt like a girl in her twenties.

 The 5 hour trip back to Chicago went without a hitch. What a great time I had.

 Just to let you know, Cher is taking her tour through Canada next. There is talk that she might tour Europe in 2015 but that hasn’t been finalized yet.

 

Obama's Legacy

Everyday it's one thing after another with this president. Obama is doing  what our enemies have been trying to do for the last 238 years.

I Was There in The Gulf of Tonkin

                                                      

 I Was There

I was there in the Gulf of Tonkin on Aug 5^th 1964 aboard the USS Constellation CVA64 . Today was my birthday. It was sunny and calm out at sea. All of us on catapult # 1 and 2 were waiting around for the next launch, just routine. All of a sudden we heard “General Quarters, General Quarters. All hands man your battle stations. This is not a drill.” It sent shivers through our whole bodies. “What’s going on,” someone said. No one knew what the hell was happening. We all went to our assigned battle stations. My battle station was out on the flight deck on catapult #1 with the rest of my crew. As we waited for the launch we saw that all of the aircraft were loaded was bombs and rockets. Actually we were a little scared because we didn’t know if we were about to be attacked by enemy planes or what. Not knowing what is going on is the worse. Our adrenaline was up as they brought the aircraft forward so we could hook them up to the catapult. Once they were on the catapult our job began, hooking up the cables from the catapult to the aircraft. It was strictly business at that point and doing our job. We couldn’t afford to have our head up our ass or someone would get killed. 

 The launch went perfect. It was quiet now that all the planes were in the air. Since we were at battle stations we couldn’t leave the flight deck. We took off our ears that protected us from the sounds of the jet aircraft and stood there. We were trying to find out what was happening but no one around us knew anything.  After a while we heard, “Secure From General Quarters.” That meant that we could get back to our normal routine. We had other launches during the day but not under General Quarters. The planes were still being loaded with bombs and rockets though. It wasn’t until after our last launch sometime during the night that the Captain came on the load speaker. “I guess you have been wondering why we went to General Quarters today.” “Yeah, we sure are wondering,” I thought to myself. He went on to say that we had launched an air strike against North Vietnam, sinking 21 torpedo boats. 

  From that day forward, every combat aircraft that we launched were fully loaded with bombs and rockets for the rest of our cruise.  

USS Constellation (CV-64)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Constellation_%28CV-64%29

Operation Pierce Arrow
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Pierce_Arrow