Navy Chronicles

This post/story is twenty four pages long and so I am going to put it up in two page increments. It covers the three and one half years I spent in Naples Italy. After this one has run it's course, there will be other ones concerned with side trips and adventures embarked on with in this same time period. As other items of interest come to mind, I will post them, interspersed with the above adventure. Enjoy if you will!


Landing on foreign soil

Well here I am, following in Charles Lindberg’s steps winging my way across the Atlantic Ocean on my way to Paris France. The only difference between my self and “Lucky Lindy” was that I was flying courtesy of the US Navy with a civilian airline, Pan-Am, instead of piloting my own aircraft. But this one I’m on is one of the most beautiful airplanes ever constructed. It is a Lockheed Super Constellation. It is a giant gleaming silver bird with four engines and the distinctive triple tail feathers that made this plane such a beautiful sight.
After about ten to twelve hours of playing non stop games of cribbage with my seat mate, we arrived at Orly Field about ten o’clock at night. After collecting our sea bag’s and our wits, we were whisked off to a hotel in down town Paris for the night. The hotel people showed us to our rooms and at that time I became aware of the Parisian’s haughty attitude and disdain for Americans. After having saved the French people’s collective asses from the domination of the Germanic tribes twice in the first half of the last Century, I have never been able to figure out why they look down their pointed Gallic noses at us! Maybe we should have left them to their own devices on both occasions. Maybe they would have preferred having to learn to speak German instead of our form of bastardized English. But I do digress.
The room we had for the night was beautiful, and while exploring the whole place, we came across an odd looking device in the bathroom. It was sitting right next to the toilet and looked like one somewhat. It had the same shape of its neighbor, but had no seat to speak of. It also was minus any sort of a tank to dispense water for flushing. Also, it had two knobs on the back of it that looked like those found on the sink. Hmmm, what is this? We looked at it for some time trying to determine just what it was and what it was used for. After standing directly over it and turning one of the knobs, and getting a forceful jet of water right in the face, we finally figured out that it must be for washing your feet if you didn’t want to take a full bath! Problem solved, that’s what it was, a foot-bath. Ingenious people these French! Well it wasn’t for another month, that I found out just what a “bidet” was and what it was really used for! Imagine my surprise! We didn’t have anything like that on good old Block Island!
Right after finishing our inspection tour, we decided that we should go out and see some of this Parisian night-life that we had heard talked about on the trip over the big pond. So out the door we go and start walking down the street looking for this “night life”. It turned out that we were in a residential district, and the good old US Navy put us out there in the sticks on purpose. Don’t put temptation in their path and just maybe they will not stray off the straight and narrow and cause any diplomatic bumps in the road. Hah! We did finally manage to find a bar and commence to get slightly inebriated. We were due to leave about 0900 the next morning so we headed back to the hotel. The only trouble now was, that we didn’t remember the way back and couldn’t ask anyone either. All the smart folks were home in bed at 2 AM. Even if there had been anyone to talk to, we’d have been out of luck! Non parlous vous Franchise.
After wandering around up and down a few dozen streets, we finally came upon our abode about three hours before we were to leave from the airport. After getting all cleaned up, we were just in time to get breakfast and get on the bus for the airfield.
We had our tickets in hand to get us to Naples Italy, so all we had to do was find the Alitalia gate and climb aboard the plane. Just finding the gate was another of the adventures I was to undertake over the next three years. Back in the fifties there were no signs in the various languages for travelers. We hadn’t as yet become the mobile society that we are now. French was the universal language back then, at least as far as travel and the diplomatic Corp was concerned. If you couldn’t read it or speak it, you were at the mercy of all the little dictators of their fiefdoms. Even finding the location of the head, (bathroom) was an excersise in futility! A few graphic hand signs and motions always seemed to do the trick though.
After an uneventful trip of a couple of hours, we arrived right on the door- step of my new home for the next three years. Il Capo Di Chino was the name of the airport there in Naples, and it was shared by the civilian airlines as well as the Italian Air Force, and the good old United States Navy. Stepping off the plane, the very first thing that caught your eye was the volcano, ‘Vesuvius’ dominating the whole landscape. It appeared to loom over the airfield as well as the whole city of Naples. It was then and still is a beautiful sight.
At the end of my first day at la aeroporto Capo Di Chino, I had been assigned a place to live for the next three years, and was all checked in with the people and places that really mattered. You know who, the chow hall, the paymaster and the chief on the flight line. The next morning bright and early I go down to the flight line and meet some of the other guys and my new boss Chief Sam Baker. This guy was about six foot three and had a face that looked like it was carved out of granite, but had been shot at with steel ball bearings, and hit too! He was from somewhere in the South and had a really easy-going demeanor until you got on the wrong side of him.
Well, I was assigned to one of the crews performing routine maintenance on all the planes that we had stationed there. We had four SNB-5’s, three R4D-8’s, one R4D-3, one R5D-6Z, one R4Y-5Z, four AD5-N’s and one HUP-2 twin rotor helo. These were just the station aircraft. In addition to them we performed all the scheduled maintenance on every R4D-3 & 4 that belonged to an embassy throughout the whole of southern Europe, the Mid East, and all of Africa. This came to a huge amount of a/c and we were busy all day long every day, as well as a night shift that worked from 1600 to mid night. This was just grunt work, but it was the main reason that I had joined Uncle Sam’s Canoe Club in the first place. To be continued.

Gifts from the sea

Next time you are out walking along the beach, as you go along take the time to look at each of the piles of seaweed and trash that are just lying there. Go over and move them around a little bit with your foot to see if there is anything interesting in there. It might be a message in a bottle from Gilligan or Mr Carosue(sp). But then again it might be something a lot more interesting and needful of your help.
That is what happened to Jamie Johnston the other day. After a couple of days of the NE wind we have had, he was out either fishing or just walking and passed by a bunch of seaweed and deitrus and thought he saw it move, all on it's own. When he went over for a closer look he could see that there was indeed someone on distress. After extricating it from a ball of monofilament gill net and other assorted junk, he held in his hands, a leather back turtle that from the size of him, was probably eight to ten years old! So after calling a friend to come and take a few pictures of him, they put him back in the water and sent him on his way to wherever he was going. Hopefully, he will manage to avoid anymore of those loose nets out there floating around in the ocean. NICE JOB JAMIE!!! Maybe the pix will show up in the paper so we can all get a look at him !TIFN

Two Tough Questions

2 TOUGH QUESTIONS

Question 1:
If you knew a woman who was pregnant, who had 8 kids already, three who
were
deaf, two who were blind, one mentally retarded, and she had syphilis,
would
you recommend that she have an abortion?
Read the next question before looking at the response for this one.

Question 2:
It is time to elect a new world leader, and only your vote counts. Here
are
the facts about the three candidates.

Candidate A.

Associates with crooked politicians, and consults with astrologist. He's
had
two mistresses. He also chain smokes and drinks 8 to 10 martinis a day.

Candidate B.

He was kicked out of office twice, sleeps until noon, used opium in
college
and drinks a quart of whiskey every evening.

Candidate C
He is a decorated war hero. He's a vegetarian, doesn't smoke, drinks an
occasional beer and never cheated on his wife. Which of these candidates
would be your choice? Decide first... no peeking, then scroll down for the
response.








Candidate A is Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Candidate B is Winston Churchill.
Candidate C is Adolph Hitler.

And, by the way, on your answer to the abortion question: If you said YES,
you just killed Beethoven.

Pretty interesting isn't it? Makes a person think before judging someone.
Wait till you see the end of this note! Keep reading...

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember: Amateurs...built the ark.
Professionals...built the Titanic

And Finally, can you imagine working for a company that has a little more
than 500 employees and has the following statistics:
* 29 have been accused of spousal abuse
* 7 have been arrested for fraud
* 19 have been accused of writing bad checks
* 117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
* 3 have done time for assault
* 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
* 14 have been arrested on drug-related charges
* 8 have been arrested for shoplifting
* 21 are currently defendants in lawsuits
* 84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year...
Can you guess which organization this is?



Give up yet?
It's the 535 members of the United States Congress. The same group
that crank out hundreds of new laws each year designed to keep the rest of
us in line.

No Truer Words!!

I received the following as an e-mail this morning and just felt I had to pass it on. They are not my writings, but they do express my feelings on the whole New Orleans disaster/fiasco. So read and enjoy!
Been sitting here with my ass in a wad, wanting to speak out about the bullshit going on in New Orleans. For the people of New Orleans...

First, we would like to say, Sorry for your loss. With that said, Let's go through a few hurricane rules: (Unlike an earthquake, we know it's coming)

1. A mandatory evacuation means just that...Get the hell out. Don't blame the Government after they tell you to go. If they hadn't said anything, I can see the argument. They said get out... if you didn't, it's your fault, not theirs. (We don't want to hear it, even if you don't have a car, you can get out.)

2. If there is an emergency, stock up on water and non-perishables. If you didn't do this, it's not the Government's fault you're starving.

2a. If you run out of food and water, find a store that has some. (Remember, shoes, TV's, DVD's and CD's are not edible. Leave them alone.)

2b. If the local store has been looted of food or water, leave your neighbor's TV and stereo alone. (See 2a) They worked hard to get their stuff. Just because they were smart enough to leave during a mandatory evacuation, doesn't give you the right to take their stuff...it's theirs, not yours.

3. If someone comes in to help you, don't shoot at them and then complain no one is helping you. I'm not getting shot to help save some dumbass who didn't leave when told to do so.

4. If you are in your house that is completely under water, your belongings are probably too far gone for anyone to want them. If someone does want them, let them have them and hopefully they'll die in the filth. Just leave! (It's New Orleans, find a voodoo warrior and put a curse on them)

5. My tax money should not pay to rebuild a 2 million dollar house, a sports stadium or a floating casino. Also, my tax money shouldn't go to rebuild a city that is under sea level. You wouldn't build your house on quicksand would you? You want to live below sea-level, do your country some good and join the Navy.

6. Regardless of what the Poverty Pimps, Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton, want you to believe, The US Government didn't create the Hurricane as a way to eradicate the black people of New Orleans; (Neither did Russia as a way to destroy America). The US Government didn't cause global warming that caused the hurricane (We've been coming out of an ice age for over a million years).

7. The government isn't responsible for giving you anything. This is the land of the free and the home of the brave, but you gotta work for what you want. McDonalds and Wal-Mart are always hiring, get a damn job and stop spooning off the people who are actually working for a living.

President Kennedy said it best..."Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."
Thank you for allowing me to rant. George Carlin

The Best Retirement Account in the World!

I was reading another blog the other day, one that gets a lot of exposure, and had it revealed to me about a retirement plan that I want to get in on. It is the one that our Illustrious Senators and Congressmen have voted into law, strictly for themselves! If they serve for only two, or six years, or go on for forty or fifty years like Senator Byrd of Virginia( I think). They will go on receiving from the government a check equal to the amount they were receiving on the day they retired or lost an election, UNTIL THE DAY THEY DIE!!! This amounts to millions of dollars for each and every one of them! On top of that their spouses will receive about $275,000 until they pass on. I want some of this! So I'm going to run for Congressman and then quit after two years so that one of you can get in on the gravy train to!

What needs to happen in these two hallowed halls of crookedness, is for the electorate to vow NOT to vote for any incumbent the next time they come up for election. It is the only way to stop the good old boy back room dealings that go on now. And if they had ANY balls, they would institute term limits at the next session of Congress. With this crew that is in there now, virtually all lawyers, they will never do the "right thing" for the people of the US because they are to damned greedy. Breaking this chain of shame, by getting rid of these, "henchmen of the Sheriff of Nottingham", is the only way to start over with a some what clean slate.
So that's what I'm doing next year, care to join me? TIFN

This Won't Take Long, Did It?

I saw on the news tonight at six, that the moped operators of the State and BI got to that Judge Rubine early. He decided to let them keep on doing as they have for years in defiance of an existing State Law. I almost fell off my chair when I heard him say, "what's the urgency in enforcing this existing law?" I now wonder if he feels the same way about many of the other state statutes. I guess if your pockets are deep enough you can get anybody you need, bought. Wasn't it Mr. Hagopian's father that inflicted these things on us in the first place? I am not against mopeds as I own one and ride it every day in preference to my 1100 cc motorcycle. If this judge continues to let these people do just as they damned please, then it is up to the legislators of this mostly crooked state to write a law with some teeth in it that WILL make them comply with the rules. While we are on the subject of enforcement of the laws of this State, why is it that virtually NO ONE does anything about enforcing the muffler laws that pertain to the operation of full sized motorcycles? Mine has a regular muffler just as the laws prescribe, and it came from a foreign country. You look and listen to nine out of ten Harley Davidsons that come over here on the boat and they all are in defiance of those laws as they all run straight pipes that can raise the dead!Whats up with that? TIFN

Politics, It's like a Country Road

Have you ever noticed that as you drive along down a winding country road, that the road starts to become a very good analogy of what politics is all about? As in politics, it has a center, left, and right. Now as you go along that road, you can veer a little to the left or right, or you can drive right off the edge into pure hate and anarchy. Dept. of Transportation people just label their road with the names Left and Right and you should stay in your lane. In politics though, we have taken to calling OUR side of the road, "Conservative", and the OTHER guys call theirs, "Liberal". Now just as in when you are driving your car along this road, if you maintain a steady course, you usually arrive at your destination in good order. But you can by inattention or intention, veer off the road by a little or a lot. The degree of variance really does determine what is to become of you, whether as a driver or a person. Will you go 'over the edge' too the right and become a Neo-Nazi or someone of that ilk? Or will you completely lose your mind, and for some reason cross that painted double line into the LEFT lane? And have you ever noticed that those people, once they get in that lane, THINK that they are doing just fine, even though they are going in the wrong direction! I'm not to sure what name attaches to those of the "far lefty persuasion" that are driving along in the bushes on their side of the road, but whatever the name is, it should have something that Identifies them too us all, so that we can avoid them like the plague. After watching the Judge Roberts confirmation hearings, I came away again, wondering if there were really that many STUPID people living in Mass.! How can they keep electing that buffoon that sat there looking like a chimpmunk, as he rails against a MAN with more intelligence in his little finger than Teddy has in his whole body, and who makes Teddy, look like he just recently descended out of the trees? A couple of million years too late I might add. Some one else surely has to write down his questions for him to ask, because he couldn't come up with one on his own if it didn't have the word "abortion" in it. That was virtually the whole line of questioning that he brought with him to the hearing. The guy is a laughing stock to every other thinking person in this country. Teddy, Why don't you just pack it in and go back to Hyannis and finish drinking yourself into oblivion so that we all can rest more comfortbly knowing that you are no longer a member of the United States Senate! You are a DISGRACE! GO HOME!! Oh PS: Careful of those bridges around Chappaquidic,(sp) They are a bitch! TIFN

Bringing Home Billions of Buck$$$!

So I understand now that there are about 1 million people who have lost their homes and or business down along the south coast. I guess after Monday, that number will probably go to triple the present one. I also read/heard that the federal govt. has committed $60 billion to those people alone. That doesn't include what ever money has come to them by way of private charities. That is all well and good and I don't begrudge one thin dime to them. But! Where is the money going to come from to pay out that 60 bil? Already there is talk that the prescription medicine handout from Medicare may be coming under attack. But that is another blog. I have a suggestion as to where it might come from. How about if the first thing we do is to kick the UN out of the US? Send it to france where they can support and administer it in their typically incompetent manner. That would get us a few billion. Next we really should withdraw from NATO and close all our bases in Europe and let those folks fend for themselves for a change. We have been holding their hands and wiping their asses for them long enough. They OPENLY hate us now, and make no bones about it. SO let them hold each other in a firm embrace while keeping a close eye on all the Islamofacists in their midsts that are about to bring down the life style and ideals they have lived with for decades. The mullahs are working over time to finish them off. By closing all those European bases we could keep another $150 billion for our own people. "Foreign Aid". There is a sad chapter in American history. It started out all well and good but over the years has been corrupted to the point that we now give "billions and billions", so Carl Sagan would have said, to countries that openly oppose us and our ideals and actively engage in acts that are a direct threat to our countries safety and well being. The number to put in here is beyond my understanding, but have read somewhere that is close to a Trillion with a "T" bucks! It is time for the Congress of these United States to take a good long unbiased look at all the money that we give away to these countries. Just stop it outright! Then go over each countries past use of the aid, and whether it was used against us in some way. If each applicant does not measure up, or live up, to a strict new set of rules, then they either don't get it to start with, or it gets summarily pulled if they are found to be playing hanky-panky with the money. It is time to stop trying to buy peoples good will with dollar bills. They take it all the while laughing up their sleeves at us. PROVE too us that you are worthy of Aid, and MAYBE some will be forthcoming. For a while! TIFN

New Town Hall

There was a Town Council meeting last evening and one of the topics was about the new building that is now under construction! Before the first bucket of cement has been poured, it came to light during the meeting that this building is already destined to join the other town building fiasco's. It seems as though the structure, before any bid request have gone out, is going to exceed the 1.7 million budgeted by a nice round 10%! What the hell is going on in the town hall? Is there ANYBODY there that has a clue about doing this sort of project and getting it right? Remember the Library, the School, and now the new Town Hall? There has to be someone in charge of these projects who knows his ass from a hole in the ground! It would behoove the Council to hire a Town Public Works director and do it now, if one can be found. Another thing that amazes me is that in this era of skyrocketing energy costs, that there has been NO attempt to do anything to mitigate those costs! There are lots of things that could be done. There are items that can be incorporated into the foundation that would warm the foundation from within, and radiate that heat into the interior space as well as upwards to the floor above. Electrical dump loads fed by a number of solar cells on the roof would do that job. Water circulated through pipes in the foundation and fed by solar water heating panels is another option. According to the August National Geographic magazine, there are still plenty of grants out there for new construction municipal buildings if the cities and towns are willing to go after them. Another option, and I know this will bring the anti-WECS lobby out in full force and throat, is the use of some sort of windpower. In that same issue of the NG magazine there was a study someone did that put forth the proposition that if every house in Americe had a 1 kilowatt wind generator attached, the oil imports to this country would diminish to virtually nothing. Denmark gets 75% of it's power from offshore WECS and more are planned, as it is for most of the other Scandinavian countries.
So getting back to the new town hall, I can't help wonder why there has been absolutely no attempt to do anything in this vein. Somewhere in the not to distant future as I've said before, our children and grandchildren are to reap the results of what we should have sown! A big NOTHING! Everyone seems to think that reducing energy consumption is passe and no big deal. Well after getting your last bill from BIPCO, that should have put a huge hole in your complacency blanket! But I will tell you one thing for sure, my electric bill was a couple hundred dollars less than most of yours because of that "ugly", "noisy", "monstrosity" in my front yard! Somewhere in your future you are going to have to reconcile the need to have electricty to make all your appliances run with your "need" to see the water, or the shore or the dips and swales in the country side. Maybe after all the people who got the WECS ordinance gutted, leave the Island because there is not enough juice to go around, we can return to some sort of rational thought when it comes to renewable energy of all kinds. Get and read that copy of the National Geographic and it just might give you a different mindset. TIFN BTW, turn off those uneeded lights in the evening and then go watch your meter turn a lot slower!

Will It Ever End?

There is a letter in the paper this week from a Dr.R M Wood in which he attempts to save us from ourselves again,as have countless others before him. How REALLY interested in us is he? He starts his letter like this. "Parting words for the Medical Center. My summer visits to Block Island have come to an end".That certainly sounds to me as if he has NO intentions of coming here again except maybe in the winter. So of course on the way out the door he takes a few "artfully created" parting shots at the people who live and work here. Apparently he feels that no one should be paid anything more than the minimum wage to do any job, be it menial or one that takes a great deal of skill. Where does he get the idea of a 'severence package'? There is none as far as a couple of the board members know. Just another unsubstantiated stab in the back. "This present system provides several, (1) "highly paid" administrator(s), (actually less than other people in the town who do similar work),with full benefit packages to do these tasks". His words. Oh yes he mentions free housing for the administrator, but "artfully neglects" to mention that housing is free to one physician, as has been the case for fifty ears or more and was part of the lure to get and hold a doctor. No problem there. The other, gets a $22k subsidy over and above salary to help pay for their housing.
Does anyone recall what has been going on in the town finance office since all or most of the billing and collection was "outsourced". Of course it is ALWAYS smarter and more cost efficient to pay someone else to do the job even when qualified people are already on board and able to do the job.
I was glad to hear that the only difference between a doctor and a hair stylist, is a Nurse and a different supply list. Maybe I'll go to the Beachcomber next time I get sick and see what happens.
I wonder if Dr. Wood has any clue as to why the Med Ctr was set up as it was in the very beginning? There must have been some very good and compelling reasons. Look into that please sir before you advocate ripping apart, what has served the people of this town, and thousands of visitors for a very long time.
Now, all this advice on how to conduct the day to day business of the Med Ctr. which sees between twenty and fifty people a day, (conservative est. I think) is freely given by a Doctor who's practice is for the most part limited to incontinence in the fair sex, and who sees approx. eight patients a day, or so I am told by an, "un-named but realiable" source.So I personally would not put much stock in all the allegations and or fixes advocated by this particular person. Go to the meetings and find out, "What's going on up there" and why.

Unlawful? Underhanded? Unethical? Which?

Hi All, Here is a little scenario I want to put forth. What if a person decided on their own hook, and in their own home, to "call" a "meeting" of the "board" that oversees the process of the job held by this person? Oh yes, and be sure NOT to invite to the same "meeting", two of the members of said entity who will not acquiesce(SP) to your requests/demands without due diligence? Well this happened a couple days ago and the Board in question is one that we are all familiar with. I was not, and am not privy to what was said there, or what if anything was decided on, to be voted on at a later meeting. Everyone who did not have a clue, had a lot to say about what went on at these previous, OPEN meetings. Now it appears that 7/9 ths of this board has taken it upon themselves to hold some sort of a clandestine meeting without the knowledge of the rest! What does this sound like to you. I understand they were discussing staffing issues, and solutions to same. Having an invited guest as a speaker to tell them how to do their job was another highlight of the evening. I don't know if all members were "sworn to secrecey" or what, but if I had been one of the members invited, when I found out that a select few were intentionally un-invited, I would have left the room and urged the rest of my fellow mwmbers to do the same! This is just plain Bull****!! I thought the days of backroom politics were to become extinct in my generation, but it apparently has flourished here on this little piece of rock. I would encourage the Town Council to abolish the whole damn board and start anew with a new set of people. Ethicality here in this board, has leaked right out through the floorboards and into the bilges with the rest of a few things called honor and accountability. PISSED again, I say, TIFN

More Junk

Well, I have to eat some 'crow' this morning. It seems as if there really are some responsible boaters out there. There are a group of young guys who come over here quite often on their jet skis and park them on the earlier mentioned beach. I gusee they were a little upset with the way things looked, so they took it upon themselves to get hold of a bunch of trash bags and tools and proceeded to rake up the beach and pick bags of junk out of the base of the breakwater. Then they hauled all the bags to the dock and went to get the Harbormaster to back his truck onto the dock whereupon they loaded it all on board and drove it to the dumpster. I was flabbergasted and very impressed with what they had done. As they passed me by, I thanked them most vociferously on behalf of all the people who live here. Guess I should have waited a day or two before I unloaded on the boaters. It is never good to paint everyone with the same brush. Thanks again guys! TIFN

Uncaring and Uncouth Boaters

Did anyone notice that this weekend just past brought as many or more people to the Island than on the 4th of July? The traffic downtown as the boats came in and unloaded, was the worst that I can remember. We still DO NOT need traffic lights, as the local boys in blue did a real good job of keeping things moving and within five to ten minutes , traffic was all eased up again. Not so for the people "thronging" up and down the sidewalks but mostly in the street!
Looking at all the people in the streets, you might also have noticed all the small boats lined up along the east breakwater. I'm not sure what it is that lures those sized boats to the Island. Maybe it is the free use of the sand and anchorages they encounter over there. Apparently all during the weekend, they buy their beer, booze and food at Ballards and tote it back to their boats to consume. A better bet is that they bring it all with them. But what really gripes my ass is that they don't have the common decency to take it all home with them when they leave! Nope, it is much easier to stuff it in a garbage bag and leave it all in a pile at the north end of the east dock. I went down there this morning after having the pile of trash pointed out to me and I was really pissed that that they couldn't walk another 200 feet and put it in a dumpster. These people in their boats that go for upwards of $50-60 thousand care so little about this place that they feel no compunction about leaving their disgusting crap on the dock and all over the beach to! They even bring their dogs and let them use the dock and beaches as their own personal outhouses. If it was just them and their ilk using the area, I'd say let it happen, they have to walk in it! But there are a lot of other people who frequent the area. So after a lot of discussion amongst a bunch of us there at the dock, we came to the conclusion that there were no town employees who job discription included picking up this stuff. The herring gulls had done an admirable job of spreading it all over hells half acre, so one Captain of Interstates ferries, three or four guys who work for the local Parasail company and myself proceeded to clean up the mess, and it WAS a mess. It is also NOT in the job description of the Harbormaster or the people who rent the few charter spots to be janitors, although throughout the summer, they do this job and keep the docks in relatively sightly condition. Assuredly there is no money in the Harbors Dept for such a person as all the money gets hijacked into the town general fund and spent where ever the TM feels it should go! SO,,, maybe it is time for the town to get off it's collective ass and do something about that area. If a former proposal I had made had been acted on years ago about docks out there and rent charged, it probably would have been all paid off by now. There used to be docks out there back in the 30's and 40's. It is way past time that some sort of order be established out there in the wild wild east. TIFN

MOI? Socialist Scum?

This post is directed to the person who answered a post on The Block Island Blog, and identified him/herself only as Anonymous 6/27/05 4:49 pm.

With regard to the problem of the Old Harbor Dock, if the town could manage to put together three or four consecutive Councils committed to fixing the dock, it would have been done by now. Capital improvement money has been set aside for ten or twelve years in a row, but for some reason or other, plus changing attitudes and vacillating political wills, the Councils, and Town manager always find other ways to spend the money except for where it was designated to go. Institute the Port Authority and then keep the money there, and all reconstruction and improvement would be done! The way things are being done now, we are just shoveling 'you know what' against the tide!

About my feelings concerning the ferry companies. I think I well realize the fact the ferries are our lifeline to the rest of the world, for all of us. I don't believe I said anything about kicking them out. You must be the same person who is always trying to put words in my mouth. But, WE should have a lot more say in just how many people/cars etc. are being dumped here every day. NOT ONE of the ferry companies gives a good rats ass what the effect is to the Island or it's people. Their ONLY concern, as in every operating business is the bottom line.

I feel SO put upon, and put down, that you think my family, all of us, couldn't "MAKE" it out here without owning the LPG business or using the ferry to accommadate our business. We have managed to survive out here, one way or the other, for about three hundred years, without the 'help' of folks like you. What has been your contribution to the Island? Where are you from, and what do you do? You seem to be lacking in the cojones department if you are a guy. If a woman, I wouldn't know how to denigrate you without coming across as a mysoginistic ass. This business started out very small, and over the last thirty years of catering to everyones whims, we have managed to grow it right along side every other aspect of the local and national economy.
Does your business pay the ferry company $360 every time a truck with your goods in it comes to the Island? Four or five trucks a week in the summer time. That doesn't sound TO exorbitant does it? Do you have an insurance bill that tops $18,000 dollars a year JUST for liability? Do you have four trucks that cost about $75,000 ea to buy, and thousands more to insure and maintain each year. Do you spend about a month of 8/10 hour days, filling out paper work and forms in order to comply with all the rules and regulations promulgated by, the EPA, EPCRA, DOT, SARA, DOT-HAZMAT, DOE, OSHA,and about seven or eight more all to do with Homeland Security? As well as all the RI State ones? Well, Do You?

A philosopher/economist once said a long time ago that,"The only thing wrong with Socialism is Socialism, and the only thing wrong with Capitalism is the Capitalist!" So I and my children will continue to try and hold up our end of the equation and it has NOTHING to do with Socialism! I spent twenty years of my life trying, in some small way, to maintain the level of freedom that we enjoy in this country, and I resent to the highest order of magnitude, your claim that I might EVER have harbored any thoughts of Socialism! So spew your gutless invective somewhere else. I mean in another Country. Try up North, they are pretty well screwed-up, up there also! And too you I say, STUFF IT!!! But feel free to post a comeback here in this venue though! Oh Yeah, put your name up to, Oh Cojonesless one. TIFN Everett

Second Step Complete!

Well the "_Supreme_? Court" just took the second step in the gradual stripping away of rights guaranteed to us by the Constitution. The Fifth Amendment is now on it's way out the door. Every local crooked politician and Administrator will be holding open their pockets just waiting for the also crooked developers to stuff them full of cash! I can't believe that those nine people who are supposedly so 'learned' can give away what was earned at such a cost, so blithely. I had always thought that their job was to interpert what was "ACTUALLY WRITTEN DOWN" on that piece of paper? Not, what these 'oh so far Left leaning' nine THOUGHT the original framers MIGHT have been thinking! They cannot know that! Even though in their own minds it has become apparent that they believe they are clairvoyant.
The first step was and is the introduction of the McCain-Fiengold act that is still in the process of wending it's way through the halls of Congress. When it gets through, say good bye to this medium as an uncensored right to express your thoughts, as well as the daily papers. Well, actually the New York Times and the Washington Post wouldn't be such a great loss. Maybe some other at the least "objective" papers could take up the slack!
And while we are here, I think that during the next round of Senatorial elections, it would do the country as a whole a great service, to unseat the currently entrenched, petulant, do nothing, and whiney,occupants of the "worlds most exclusive boys club", and replace them with people who truly have the values and needs of the people of this country foremost in their minds. Immigration, Social Security, and a host of other problems that never get resolved because "the Boy's" are busy playing one up manship,CYA, and making your opponent out to be an incompetent ass! On that last count, almost all of the present crop of idiots qualify with a 4.0 GPA! TIFN

They're Back!!

Well here it is not even summer yet, and already the blood pressure starts to rise whenever I get in the car to go somewhere. What's the reason you may want to know? Well it is "THOSE PEOPLE" who can't for the sake of their own lives, figure out which side of the road to walk on, or in some cases ride a bike on! Now a lot of these folks are high priced exec's and people who can do complicated calculations in the business world. So I have finally come to a conclusion that was told to me quite a few years ago by an old BI resident. It goes like this. "Apparently, every car that comes to the dock in Pt Judith, is handed a 1, 2, or 3 quart Mason jar, according to the size of the head. Directly after being handed said container, the driver of the car removes his brain and puts it in the jar, and then puts it under the front seat of the car. There it remains for the entire time of the owners sojurn on the Island!" I HEARTLY CONCUR!! TIFN Everett

Busy Days of Summer

I have tried to get back to this blogging business a few times recently, but there is just too much going on these days. So I would inform all that posts will be few and far between for most of the summer or until I finally run out of things to work on around the house and grounds. Hah! That won't happen anytime soon! Hope every one has a good summer and check us out once in a while to see if anything has happened. In the mean time, go to Block Island Blog to keep up with another point of view. See you now aqnd again! TIFN Everett

Slow getting back in the saddle!

Hi all, I realize I have been remiss with this thing for a long time. Man that Extra Corporeal Lithotripsy put me right on my knees for a long time. It felt like I had been in a fight in a dark alley with a bunch of muggers, ALL delivering kidney punches!! It has been just like having a bad case of mononucleosis(sp), which I have had before. I was making a continual circuit from the couch, to the chair, to the bed, to the floor! No place felt good. Anyway it all seems to be on the wane and hopefully I'll be able to come up with a viable comment in a few days.
I did have a short conversation with Peter Wood the other day and he asked me where I ever got the idea that he changed or left out parts of letters to the Ed. when he owned the paper. He told me in no uncertain terms that I was completely in the wrong there. If so, let this serve as an apology. If not,????????????. TIFN Everett

So, You want to have a Colonoscopy Eh?

My Doctor here on the Island, Dr. Peter Baute finally convinced me that I should venture to the mainland and have a colonoscopy performed. He had mentioned because of my advanced age 66, and never having had it done before, it would serve me well to know just what was going on up there in the "hinterlands". An appointment was made with a local gastroentroligist(sp). That in and of itself was quite a feat, because I made the appointment in December for the 14th of April. So you can see right off the bat, I had a nice long lead time to get myself all worked into a dither about the upcoming event. Over the intervening four months, the forthcoming event had come up on numerous occassions with a varied list of people who were only to glad to give a ten to fifteen minute discourse on the whole subject. Without fail, everyone who had had the deed done, had all come to the same conclusion, "It was no big deal"! So over time my fears were somewhat allayed and on the morning of the 13th, my wife and I went to the boat for the trip over. There were three or four previous receipients of the procedure there and one of the last comments from one of them was,"Don't forget to ask for the warm blanket when they are all through"! What was that all about I says to myself as I drive onto the boat.
Skip ahead to 7pm of the same day when it is time to imbibe one of the two bottles of a concoction called, Fleet's Phospho-soda Bowel prep. It comes in an innoccuous 1 1/2 bottle and is a clear liquid. In the instructions it tell you to mix the bottle with a half can of ginger ale or sprite and to drink it down in continuous gulp. 'Nuff said, down it goes and then I decided to read the rest of the instructions. They mentioned something about it taking from 30 minutes to six hours for it to take effect. Well their timing was about twenty nine minutes off, for while I'm reading this thing strange and ominious rumblings are emanating from inside of me! I barely had time to drop the paper and make a mad dash for the bathroom while fumbling desperately with a suddenly re-calcitrant belt buckle! Ah, safe arrival, deposition of "product" as predicted, and on to the couch! Well that little sojourn lasted about ten minutes and it was on to repeat the previouly documented trip to the bathroom for the rest of the night. About half way thru the night I got a little smarter and switched to a pair of sweatpants. Now as I sat there awaiting my next lurch to the head, I read some more of the instructions. It said to drink 'copious' amounts of water to replace all that I would be losing. See, this nasty stuff pulls ALL the water from all the sourrounding area, tissues, organs, muscles, hell it even sucked the water right out of a glass I was holding in my hand without waiting for me to drink it! It then goes right into the bowel to assist in the reaming out of that organ by using the 'deluge and hot flush' method! By the time things began to calm down, at four AM, it was time for the second dose! Now I'm telling you, it was a struggle to get this dose down. There was a hell of a fight between the up and down and the in and out factions of my gut, but with a lot of will power and lots of deep breaths it stayed down and immediately started on it's journey to the end of the road so to speak. Well about thirty minutes into this process, I begin to have feelings in my 'right, lower, posterior, quadrant' that no one had mentioned to me as being a consequence of drinking this stuff! Over the next three hours, the pain back there became so intense that I could barely make my way down to the car. My wife then drove us to the South County Hospital where I was admitted to the ER in a state of total and excruciating pain. Well after a few questions etc., it was determined that I was in the process of trying to eject a kidney stone from the right kidney. It seems that all this unusual amount of water rushing thru the old kidney had dislodged a local resident who had been lurking there for some time waiting for the right time to wreak havoc on me! After a few shots of some mysterious, but absolutely welcome "juice" was injected into me along with what was to be 9 big bags of IV solution, a Urologist came along and told me after talking to the colon guy, that if they could control the pain over night with some stuff called "oxycontin", they would proceed to do the colonoscopy the following afternoon. The urology guy then mentioned that they would take care of the "stones" three days hence. So eighteen hours go by during which time I am taking these oxycontin tablets every twelve hours on the dot and it does a wonderful job of keeping the pain at bay. I can see why it has become the drug of choice for so many regular abusers of the stuff. I was in LA LA Land for three days and didn't much care about anything! On to the Colonoscopy lab where as advertised and predicted by all other receipents before me, it went well with no problems, and I received my warm blanket at the end of the procedure,which was a blessing as it was freezing assed cold in there! Especially when only covered with one of those,"my ass is hanging out in the back" Johnnies? they called them?
Well that was much ado about not too much I thought, as I came home on the boat for a couple of days before the next impending disaster. Now over the ensuing three days I was not at all hungry, 'by-product of the oxycontin maybe?', and ate very little. Before I know it, it is the day before the impending, "Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy" treatment. That name alone should scare the shit out of you! Only in my case it didn't!! It seems that one of the detriments to taking oxycontin for an extended period is to lock up all that previously ingested forage into a solid block of nitrogenous waste matter! But, according to this piece of paper I received with instructions for the Lithotripsy, I must have an empty bowel upon presentation of my self for the treatment! Guess what? Eighteen hours before the event you must subject yourself again to the injestion of ANOTHER of those little "soda bottles" of diarrheal death! After another fight between in and out, it stayed there and went to work. This time with completely different results!Man, what is going on? Last time I couldn't get to the head fast enough! This time as I lingered close to the door, ready to "run", nothing happens! Upwards of seven hours later as a severe pain has developed in the lower nether regions and I think I am going to have to go the ER again, this time for exploration of the same orfice for a different reason, the gates of relief clanged open with one hell of an explosion! The rattling of the door to the head alerted all in the other rooms as to the status of the situation, as well as my cries and sighs of contentment! All was well again in the nether realms. Off we go to the OR this time for the treatment. In the mean time I had had to stop taking the oxycontin for some time before the upcoming event, so as the day progressed the pain threshold got lower and lower till it became non-existant and began building at a rapid rate in the other direction. One of the questions the nurses would ask every time before giving you a shot was, "on a scale of one to ten, one being the lowest and ten being the highest, what is the level you feel you are at right now?"
Now a small discourse in anatomy. The kidney has a little tube about eight inches long that runs from the kidney down to the bladder where it emptis into. The INSIDE diameter of this little tube is about the same as the lead in a mechanical lead pencil. You know, so small that it is hard to pick up, and you almost can't see? Anyway this is the area that kidney stones try to traverse as they attempt to exit the body. Now this little tube for some reason is just innundated and infused, and saturated, and completely engulfed in millions of nerve endings! Getting the picture? Well I have had quite a few ladies who have been affected with stones relate to me that it was worse trying to pass a stone than to have a baby!And so a little more of a graphic illustration may help in picturing and feeling the pain of this all. Think of that little tube as a garden hose of about three quarters of an inch in diameter. Now think of that stone as being the size of a softball and you can feel it start to hurt already no? Now back to the nurse and her questions about pain level. When she asked me what the level now was I replied that it was at the top of her scale and it felt like I was about to have a baby and that the little bastard was covered with razor blades to boot! For some reason this cracked her up and she said this was the best level inidicator she had ever heard. I'm ever the wise ass, even when I think I'm dying. Off I go to the CT scan room to get a picture of the offending stone. After getting on the table and run through the machine a few times the guy says to relax and he'd take me back to the OR poste haste. As I'm lying there I hear this guy say to someone in the little alcove with him," Holy shit Ed look at the size of this sucker, there are two of them, one about 13 mm and one about 8mm!" If you want to know how big that is think of about a 9/16" to a 5/8" nut! Now think of that in relation to the lead pencil. Carry it to the garden hose analogy and it is like trying to drive a Mack Truck through that damn hose. NOW, you might begin to suspect what it feels like to push one of these babies out. Of course something that big won't physically go thru, so it has to be broken up into sand sized grains. This is what the Lithotripsy was for and it worked very well. The only problem will be sweeping all those little grains down the super highway one at a time over a six to seven week period. Not a project I look forward to with much anticipation.
So intrepid future colonoscopy people, when you go to see that doctor for the first time,be sure and mention to him if you are in possession of any of those little calcium or uric acid stones. It just might save you from the torture I underwent for a few days that felt like months!! TIFN Everett

Daisies

The wife, you know, the 'other' person who wants to rule the Island, and I went out for a Sunday afternoon ride yesterday, and one of us remarked on how more and more of the lots and edges of developed property were cleaned of brush and junk. Well that thought sent me on a little "deja vu all over again" visit to the past. When I was in grade school and high school, the self appointed grassfire lighter, bug burner and noxious weed eliminator, would head to the west side, (the Worst side)over too about Wardens Pond. There abouts, he would accidentally drop his match that he had just lit his cigarette with and also the cig. Damned if it didn't start a little grass fire! Well he would just move a few feet down the road and try again. No sense having that fire licking up his leg and denuding him of leg hair. After going thru the same routine four or five times, he would have a sheet of fast moving flame about about a hundred yards long and tongues of bright orange licking up to about thirty or forty feet in the air. Well pretty soon the siren would go off and all hands in the fire department including all male members of the school, 6th grade and above would report for duty to the fire barn which was where Aldo's is now located. There we would be equipped with a straw broom and a bucket to carry water in. We would then be loaded into trucks and delivered to a site down wind of the impending flames and up wind of a house that might be in peril. Our job was to fill the bucket with water from various sources, wells and cisterns mostly, stick the broom it in to get it, the broom good and wet, and then go get between the flames and the house and defend said edifice from those greedy,hot, devouring little tongues of flame. Most people kept the grass trimmed very short around the perimeter of the house just fore this reason. They used various forms of accoutrement's. Some times it was a scythe and sickle, and in some places a newfangled thing called a lawn mower! Damnedest thing you ever saw! It did nothing useful, but turned perfectly good blades of grass that would have done a fine job filling the haystack, into useless little pieces of grass that the cows wouldn't even eat! But I digress FAR afield. Most folks owned a varied lot of grass eating animals and they did an unusually good job of keeping things trimmed very short. So mostly all we had to defend against were the flying pieces of grass and straw that would find their way to the rooftops, This was a good place for all we nimble youngsters to be positioned so that we didn't accidentally get eaten by those voracious flames.
Daisies you say? What's with the title of "Daisies"? Well some of the good things that happened because of these unexpected fires, was that a lot of the not so good weeds were toasted and that no underbrush was allowed to accumulate. It also did a wonderful job of keeping the stone walls clear of brush. Now early in March, wherever you looked you would see blackened fields all over the Island. In a few places you could even see faint blushes of green trying to break out of their places of hiding. Give these fields a few weeks of rain and some warm weather, and by the time the Graduation exercises at the school rolled around, there were just ab-so-lute-ly millions of daisies of all kinds and colors proliferating in every square inch of Block Island's fields!! It was an awe inspiring sight. The kids at the school would go out with cars and trucks, and scissors and knives, and come back in a few hours with enough daisies to completely cover the wall behind the stage where the Graduation exercises were to take place that night! A grid of thin boards covered with chicken wire was erected against the back wall and the flowers were tucked in the openings by the more artistic of the female members of the school populace. Some times they even spelled out words or even pictures. IT WAS FANTASTIC! It was as close to the Rose Parade as we would ever get to here on BI. And it was "woe" of the highest order if you were afflicted by the pollen distributed throughout the room! There was always a full compliment of June Bugs winging their way busily around the room, to also add too the evenings entertainment. The ladies DID NOT like them landing in their hair. It was always a fun thing to watch them trying to remove them from the hair nest. Some tried to be oh so discreet about it, and others just yanked, hauled,screamed a lot. Sure was funny to us little guys. Damn, they were only June Bugs! But as the farming died out, along with the fishing, and people moved away from the Island, the fields were slowly given over to the assortment of "trees", shad, bayberry etc. That now infest the Island.
So as I ride around the Island on a sunny Sunday afternoon, in my minds eye I can still see those fields loaded with the daisies, and the possibility that in the near future, some semblance of those fields might again re-appear for all to enjoy as much as my generation did! SO THERE! No politics! TIFN Everett

Mr Smith's Letter- Rebuttal- NOT Forthcoming!

Hi All, In the last previous post I said that I was going to have a rebuttal to each of Mr. Smiths points in his letter. I do have one for each, but after talking witha couple of people involved with the West Side plan, it seems that most all of the salient points have been addressed to all those concerneds(sp,use?) satisfaction. So in the best interests of the project going forward without any more setbacks or delays, I am going to drop persuing this whole line of inquiry. Now some of you are going to say that I am chickening out and that may be. BUT! I don't want to be the one that keeps all these twenty families from getting a home!
I only have one other thing to say, and that is that Mr.Smith does not have the intrests of the lower, lower-middleclass people of the Island as his first or even second priority! Enough said!! TIFN Everett

MR. SMITH'S LETTER

Rebuttal to follow in a day or so....

P.O. Box 984
Block Island RI 02807
401/466-5995



February 22, 2005

Gerald Pierce
Block Island Economic Development
PO Box 619
Block Island RI 02807

Dear Gerry:

I am writing to make suggestions about the West Side Road project. My original concerns focused on the environmental impact. Since learning more about the project, I now have grave concerns about the impact on affordable housing, the impact on the owner-residents, and the impact on the community’s affordable housing needs in the future.

This is one of the three largest single building developments in the Island’s entire history. This project involves the town’s resources and public funding. Many of our decisions will be irrevocable. We have to get it right and come up with a plant that a wide consensus of the community supports. My interest, since I first heard about the project, has been to make it one that truly meets our needs, serves the needs of the future owners of the units, and respects the natural environment that each of us here is fortunate to experience.

In that spirit, I make the following suggestions:

1. This site has a steep ravine that the proposed plan seems to make no allowances for. It would be unwise - and incompatible with the values of Block Island – to alter, remove, or flatten the natural contours of the land.

2. This can be done by clustering some of the units and combining four to eight of them into single buildings. This will provide variety in the neighborhood and allow more open space – for recreation, gardening, and a sense of living in sync with the natural environment.

3. With such topography and for other reasons, it is not wise or necessary that every house have a basement.

4. Combining some of the units in one or two buildings allows for some occupants to save on heating costs. It will save on installation of sewer, water, and utilities, making the units more affordable. It will increase the size of yards for owners who want and need them. It will increase the number of residents with great views. As currently planned, the project has 70 percent or more of the homeowners looking at other houses from their windows, not at the Island’s natural beauty. Imaginative siting of the units can take care of this and save money as well.

5. Having all units of identical sizes is not in the interests of the future occupants nor does it help meet the housing needs of the Island to the maximum extent possible. A person living alone may not need two bedrooms, a second floor, and a basement for many years into the future, if ever. Yet to live in the proposed neighborhood, middle-income buyers would have no choice but to buy a two-bedroom unit. It is true that the basements and second floors would be unfinished, but the owners would have heating costs for that unused space. Their mortgage payments would reflect the additional construction costs. And what of buyers who expand their families and need three or four bedrooms? There is no place for them to move. And what of middle-aged couples with children who want to downsize when the children leave home? They will either have to stay in the same two-bedroom residence where they are or move off the Island.

6. By the same token, the lot sizes should not be uniform, but varied according to the unit sizes, to the topography of the land, and to wise planning. Some residents will want a traditional yard, but others will prefer a small plot because they will save on the purchase price and save the time and expense on yard maintenance. If everyone’s lot size is the same, no one’s needs will be met. If every lot size is the same, it is impossible to build within the contours of the land.

7. Clustering and combining some units will open up a significant amount of communal space. This will give young children space to play without having to cross West Side Road to the playground or to be driven elsewhere. It may also allow enough open space so that middle-school children and young teens to play ball or other games in their own neighborhood. It will allow all the children to grow up surrounded by the natural environment, as Island kids have for decades. If we make our single largest housing neighborhood one where this is not possible, we may lose the distinctive Island ethic of appreciation for the natural surroundings. The idea of same-sized lots for everyone is a suburban model, not an Island model. Knowledgeable planners have said that individual front lawns are the most wasted and unused space in America. On an island we obviously have limited space.

8. It’s important that affordable housing have opportunities for owners to downsize or upgrade. But the project as planned does not allow for that. That means that there will be a minimal amount of mobility in the neighborhood. There will be little turnover. Occupants will be locked in, and when we need to locate middle-income school teachers, medical workers, hospitality employees, or town employees in the future, the West Side Road project will have provided us no vacancies at all.

9. One of our most pressing affordable-housing needs is units for new school teachers, police officers, and health center employees who are single or childless and need housing for a couple of years until they decide whether they like living and working here. There are no units for those persons in the current plan.

10. In fact, as I understand the current qualification requirements, the newcomers would not even qualify for the ownership units. That means that we cannot use this new development of 20 affordable ownership units as a recruiting tool for the positions that we need to fill shortly.

11. Our second most pressing need is rental units for short-term employees who come to the Island. There are no units for these persons in the current plan. Substituting three to six rental units of varying sizes, in place of some ownership units, would meet this need and allow prospective buyers to become part of the neighborhood while they wait for an ownership residence to come on the market. It would allow flexibility for owners whose family situations change because of divorce or death or other factors. Management of rental units may be a challenge, but there are creative solutions: One would be to have the owner of one unit act as a rental manager (and thereby offset monthly mortgage payments). Another would be to combine rental management of the Searles Ball and West Side Road developments. A third would be to contract rental management to the Block Island Housing Board. Still a fourth is to contract it to the Women’s Development Corp.

12. The steep grade of the roads in the proposed plan may not meet town specifications. At any rate, it raises risks. And it raises construction and maintenance costs. It would be a shame if the homeowners association of this new neighborhood is saddled immediately with large expenses because of a road washout.

13. It is hard to see that emergency equipment can pass through the inclines currently proposed. Reconfiguring the units will eliminate this risk. The fire department should be asked to take a close look at the road configuration and provide a written report on whether it allows for necessary emergency access. That report should discuss whether the alternative cul-de-sac plan is an acceptable alternative.

14. The road in the current plan does not seem to allow adequate setbacks from the pond and wetlands, as required by town specification. They may not meet state Department of Environmental Management specifications.

15. The proposed plan contemplates an addition of 40 automobiles. The Island’s fragile environment can hardly accommodate that. The plan seems to send a message that two automobiles for each residence is the expected norm. The neighborhood would be enhanced for the residents, especially the children, if accommodations for some motor vehicles are in a cluster lot, much like the Searles Ball housing and the Old Harbor Meadow complex. Not every unit needs to have auto parking right next to it. By clustering some of the cars, there will be less wear and tear on the land, less uncontrolled run-off of oils and other auto discharges into the fragile wetland by West Side Road. And the neighborhood will be improved aesthetically.

16. And yet, the proposed plan seems to have no accommodations for visitor parking. By clustering some of the residents’ parking, that space could be used for owner-occupants and for some visitor parking. This might make the right-of-way to the Greenway trail accessible to more people. Why not provide space for one automobile adjoining some units and create a small cluster lot for other automobiles. The plan could also designate additional space for additional parking if it becomes necessary in the future?

17. A vast amount of the proposed plan is devoted to automobiles, either coming and going to the residences or parked. In fact, there is almost as much space devoted to motor vehicles as to human beings. This is an inefficient use of the acreage, and incompatible with the values of the community.

18. In the current unclustered proposals, most if not all of the units will not have adequate setbacks to allow an owner easily to expand the footprint or otherwise personalize the house. He or she would need to get zoning approval for a modest expansion. This would require moderate-income property owners probably to hire lawyers, engineers, and designers for a modest expansion. Clustering the units eliminates the need for setback variances in the future.



When I met with you and Mary Jane in January, she said that there would be no paving and no central air conditioning; I trust that this remains part of the plan.

Under the Community Development Block Grant interim financing grant, the project managers, before money is spent, must conduct an environmental review, with public comments. This provides the opportunity for us to consider these suggestions – and suggestions from others – and come up with a plan that a wide consensus of Islanders can support. We will then be able to have the plan presented to the Planning Board and Zoning Board with widespread support for it in the community.

The state agencies responsible for funding this project have told me that all of these modifications to the proposal can be considered at this point in the process and that the project plans can be altered accordingly. I plan to present these suggestions to the Planning Board. It would speed the process if we could reach an agreement before the project goes before the Planning Board.

Time is of the essence, for two reasons. The community needs the affordable housing right away. And all of us want to have an Island-based non-profit organization develop this project and fulfill the town’s needs rather than to risk leaving affordable-housing development to commercial developers who may use provisions of state law to bring to the community a bogus “affordable housing” venture.

Yours truly,



Robert Ellis Smith
Member, New Shoreham Town Council

Cc: Mary Jane Balser

Multiplying Blogs

Better beware when you turn on your computer because the Island blogs are multiplying like rabbits! Here is another one. http://www.adriansisle.blogspot.com . Some one with an undecipherable email address sent me this one last night. Well at least he/she is not in my address book so it might well have come from Osama himself! Anyway it is another view although a little hardline!TIFN OK I'm to stupid to make the link work, but if you type the address into the Gogle search block it comes up and then you can
bookmark it!DUH!a

The Council and the Road Contract

Hi all, I think a lot more of us should have gone to the Council meeting last night. Apparently the contract with the State about the road takeover, came up and there was heated discussion about it. It looks like from sitting on the sidelines, that the Town Manager/Council is trying to make the TRUE cost of this fiasco disappear into the nether regions of the projected new budget for this coming fiscal year. What SHOULD happen here is that every single damn dime and penny to be spent on the maintenance and upkeep of the roads should be in a separate category. That way we will all have an accurate depiction of just what it is going to cost us. If we don't get it right this time, right now, I doubt very much the State will agree to re-negotiate it at a later date. They KNOW that they are getting the very best of this screwy deal! Name one other town in this totally crooked state that has this same deal?

And BTW,has the Town Manager recently taken a bunch of courses in the world of Finance? If not, where does she derive the power to assume to direct the machinations of the finance office. She has NO BUSINESS trying to RUN that Office! That's what the Finance Director was hired to do. And why was it that last night when Councilor Balser brought up a couple of 'suggestions' as to what 'might' be done in the finance office, She was accused of trying to "run the Finance Office" by our First Warden Jack Savoie? But when another councilor was asked to give a legal opinion, no one accused him of trying to take over the Town lawyers job? Why that little discrepancy Jack? I think you have let your job title go to your head. What happened to that down to earth guy that started out on the council a few years ago? Been swayed to someone else's way of thinking? You folks all need to put all your perceived differences aside while you sit in those seats and do what you were sent there to do! And while you are at it , rein in Mr Smith as far as the West Side Road housing complex is concerned. It doesn't look good for ANY of you from where I sit! TIFN Everett

New Housing--Disaster in the making!

Well folks, this is addressed to the 20 to 50 young familes who are vying for one of the twenty homes to be built next to the E. Searles Ball complex. You had ALL better get out your letter writing materials, and in your most earnest and vociferous voice, let this Council know in the strongest terms you are able to muster, that you are incensed by what is going on behind the scenes! Your elected by 'proclamation' Council member, Mr Robert Ellis Smith has taken it upon himself, to inject himself into the process of bringing the project to fruition. Only in his case it seems he is working in the opposite direction. He is trying to get this project killed by putting himself where he was not asked to go, and has no business being! I don't recall Council members having to be in the vetting process for any of the other housing complexes that are now completed. Which of them was it that sheparded the Ambrose lane project? NONE! If you are one of the hopefuls, you NEED to get those letters written and it needs to be done and hand delivered to the Town Hall TOMORROW! This is not something that can be put off! There is to be a meeting between the people who wield the money, and MJ Balser and the aforementioned Council member sometime in the VERY NEAR future. The whole project could hinge on what he says to these people up in Providence. He is up there all the time and is in 'bed' with some of them to some degree. You all know how he feels about the project by his deeds and actions. He has forgotten just exactly what the hell he is supposed to be doing in that office! You are supposed to be looking out for the people of this town who live here, not kow-towing to the amorphous crowd of monied people from everywhere else! Look to your own backyard and stop trying to stab a bunch of fine, hardworking, young families in the back! STAND UP AND BE COUNTED MR. SMITH!!! I'M TOTALLY PISSED!! Everett

Navy Life -- #3 Final in this venue

After this one I'll move on to better stuff hopefully! And so it continues;

When you had committed a particularly heinous act that incurred the Company Commanders ire, he had a way of wreaking havoc on you that I still remember to this day. He would have you go to your locker and take out your seabag and commence to fill it up with everything you had in that locker. It went into the bag in the prescribed Navy order thank you very much! Then you would pick it up and go collect your 1903 .30-06 caliber bolt action WWI, 8.5 lb rifle and proceed to the aforementioned "grinder". Once there, you would commence to make as many circuits of said premesis as he thought necessary to bring you into line, and to help you mend your ways! He always preceded his awarding of punishment with a small speech that went something like this. "Foul Balls! The Navy does NOT like foul balls and I don't like foul balls, and Littlefield, YOU are a FOUL BALL!! Now get out there on the double and go round and round until I think you can stay within the bounds of the playing field"! It was absolutely miserable out there doing this in the middle of the afternoon for a couple of hours. It was, after all, June through September in the South! Oh yes, I forgot to mention one thing. Before you started loading up your seabag for this land-bound voyage, you would have to dress yourself in your very best set of Dress Blues! This is a dead of winter uniform too. Oh man did they ever smell by the time you had finished paying the price for your transgressions! This happened to me on two seperate occasions, and after the second one, I "saw the light" and realized that I should probably keep my mouth shut for the remainder of my incarceration. This I did admirably, considering that I was regarded as some sort of a wise ass by the powers that be.

Well after 16 weeks of being verbally assualted by the Company Commander and his henchmen, and having had our poor feeble brains stuffed with Naval lore of all types, we were deemed ready to graduate and to go inflict ourselves on the poor unsuspecting Fleet. Graduation day finally came and as our company, 252 lined up on the grinder with all the other company's, The Drill Team, me included passed in review with all the other graduating companies following us. For this day only, the Drill Team got to use chrome plated rifles with bayonets attached. They really flashed and looked good as we marched by twirling and flipping them in the air. For most of the guys, it was the beginning of a two week leave before reporting to their next duty station or ship. For a few others and myself, we got to hang around good old Bainbridge for another 6 months, because our schools didn't start out in Norman Oklahoma until April 1st.
In the intervening 6 months I found out that I did not like working in the Galley as a full time vocation! I had managed to escape during service week but now I was just a lowly old swabby like the rest of them waiting to go somewhere. That three month period of "mess cooking" was a miserable affair for the most part. There I was, right back in the same exact building where I had been eating for the last four months, only now I was one of the cooks. Well, not really a cook, more like a cooks slave you might say. We did all the stuff the cooks didn't like to do like peeling thousands of pounds of potatoes,washing dishes, trays, silverware etc., swabbing the deck. All the rotten menial jobs. One day I got promoted to the line where the Waves were served. Those are the Lady sailors in case you didn't know. We were to stand there at parade rest with a serving spoon and put the food in the appropriate compartment on the tray. You were NOT allowed to speak to them, nor were you to make eye contact with them. Well after I hd been there for a couple of weeks I started sneaking peeks at them to remind myself what a girl looked like! One day while sizing up a fine looking young lady, I managed to put a big spoonful of whipped cream right smack in the middle of her stewed tomatoes, insted of the strawberries where it should have gone! I had been checking this gal out for a few days and wondering if I had the gall and gumption to defy orders and say something to her.That chance was taken from me when she looked down at her tray, then up at me, and then said in her New York accent, "You dumb son of a Bi---, it's supposed to be on the strawberries"! She concluded her tirade with a few other "expletives deleted" that I hadn't up till that time heard come out of a girls mouth! Well there went my budding, in my own mind, romance! I didn't know such a sweet-faced young girl could talk like that! None that I had ever known talked that way. Being the thoughtful and gentlemanly person I was at the time, I immediately and without thinking of the consequences of my impending speech, answered her in kind, with all the Navy jargon, lingo and swearwords I had picked up in my woefully short Naval career! Needless to say, the large hand of the Chief avenging Cook descended onto my shirt collar and I was physically yanked away from the serving line. I was dragged/pushed to the DEEP SINK room where I was to spend the rest of my mess cooking career. The DEEP SINK room had this particular name because it had five or six very large, very deep stainless steel sinks in there. Now there was at least one logical thing in this mans Navy! This was the place where all the big old cooking pots and pans came too, to be restored to pristine condition before the next meal. They had to sparkle like they had just been bought brand new. This entailed some kind of steel wool that looked like it had been made out of a piece of chain link fence, and about twenty foot pounds of elbow grease per pot or pan. This was true of all pots and pans except for the sheet pans on which the cake and rolls were cooked. The Cook's liked them nice and black but still hygienically spotless. Needless to say I guess, is that the first thing I did was to screw up and get two of them back to that store-bought brightness before I was apprehended!

This room was a good approximation of Brer Rabbits briar patch. Nobody wanted to get put in there till the actual deed was done. It has been one of the best kept secrets in the US NAVY! Why do I say that? 'Cause this was the place that ALL the leftover food came too, to be disposed after the meal! Steaks, porkchops, all sorts of veggies, and best of all, all the left over desserts! It was all the stuff you could never get enough of out in front of the serving line. Now here it was , mana from heaven! Man, now when they had strawberry shortcake, I didn't have to worry about getting it in the right slot on the tray, all I had to worry about was which hand to plunge into the berry or cream pot and stuffing it in my mouth by the HAND FULL before the other nine guys ate it all up! One other advantage was that we didn't have to be there in the sinks thill thirty minutes after the chow hall opened. Then we were usually out of there an hour before the rest of the guys got through cleaning the whole chow hall from top to bottom. Every Day! The Navy was fanatical about cleanliness in body as well as domicile!

This unvarying routine was carried out with monotonous regularity until my three month tour funally came to an end and I was reprieved and sent on to my next job at good old Bainbridge MD. As I remember, I spent the next three months being what my rich Uncle euphemistically called a "compartment cleaner". Thats a nice sounding name for "MAID"! I swept, swabbed, scrubbed and cleaned like a fiend for the remaining time I spent there.

I did manage to get on the Base drill tem for that last three month stay there, and got to go on a lot of places around the area putting on demonstrations of our prowess with a chromed rifle with a 12 inch chromed bayonet on the business end. It is actually pretty impressive to watch those spinning rifles as they are tossed back and forth to each other with those shiny blades reflecting the sun. Lots of oohing and aahing as the watchers wondered who was going to get there nose cut off, or get stabbed in the heart first! Well the end of my house-cleaning career finally arrived and we were sent off to Norman Oklahoma where the Navy owned a prep school for prospective aircraft maintenance folks, one of which I so dearly wanted to be!

Next duty station was to be Quonset Pt. RI of all places!!

Spring Poetry...Well,... Almost

Does anyone out there have a short/funny/??/ whatever poem concerning the advent of Spring? I have two little short one I learned as a kid. After reading them you will see why they were aimed at the juve set. Forthwith, I give you #1.

Spring has sprung,
and the grass has riz,
I wonder where the birdies is?

#2
Little Robin Red Breast
Sitting on a pole,
Wiggle, Wiggle, went his tail,
Phhuuut,went his hole!

Well, I did warn you! If there is anyone out there offended but this bit of 'smut', let me know post haste and I'll remove it if the demand is such that it is warranted. So come on all you poet laureates, bring forth those words for us all to hear! TIFN Everett

R/C Aircraft

Is there anyone out there that is interested in flying radio controlled model aircraft besides me? When they get the new gym finished, if ever, I'm going to go put in my request to put on a demonstration of said aircraft. The ones used inside a building will be electric powered and fly at about 5-10 mph. I intend to demonstrate the really weird things you can do with a small wingspan(18-24") electric powered FOAM airplane! These new ones use lithium polymer batteries. That is the same ones that are in your cell phone and most of all the other small electronics. So somewhere in the not to distant future, when that building is done, come on up and watch a few crashes! Even after doing this for 40+ years I manage to get some pretty spectacular ones! If you are interested in learning how to fly one of these things, give me a call and I'll help get you on the road to electric aviation. It's a ball and even a little cheaper than cigs and booze, but not much! TIFN, Everett

Navy Life- Installment 2

We were then marched into an adjoining room where everyone was measured for clothes and shoes etc. and had handed too us a full issue of clothes we would need for the next four years. Also received was a seabag in which to store all our new found wealth. Wearing only a pair of skivvies, (thats Navy talk for underwear son!) we were then directed to a door at the end of this room. When you went in you had a full head of hair, when you came out you had none and was as bald as a billiard ball! This didn't bother me to much as I was already pretty light in the hair department when I was seventeen. But some of those guys acted like they were having their hearts cut out. In 1956 there were a lot of guys who wore their hair, cut and styled just like, "THE KING"! That would be Elvis in case you who are reading this weren't born then.

Dragging all our worldly goods with us in the aforementioned seabag, we were led/marched out the door and along the road till we came to an empty barracks building which was to be our home for the next 16 weeks. Inside you were assigned too a double bunk with some other unfortunate soul, of whom you would be smelling much in the coming weeks. We never did get to eat that first morning because now we were involved in stenciling our name on every piece of the newly issud clothing. I mean even the socks. Myself and a couple of other guys of Polish descent had a hell of a time trying to get the first two initials and full last name on a sock! We spent the rest of the morning doing this and getting every thing stowed in a very small locker according to a rigid plan. No variations allowed. And I mean NO variation. If your sock wasn't rolled up so that your initials were facing the front when the door was opened for inspection, you were in deep Poo, and you would have to go all over the barracks looking for your stuff, because everything not in order was given the heave ho. I was usually in Poo right up to my neck, as that had been a given all the time I was growing up on the Island. A handkerchief that was a quarter inch out of line would earn you a few more poo points. Then it was outside where we put into positions within the group that we would adhere to till the end of bootcamp. Now we were told that we were to be called Company 252 and that we would all be called "Recruit" whatever your name was, and that you had better answer up on the first call! By now it was lunch time and we had our first disasterous attempt at marching as a group over to the mess hall for lunch.

The whole setup of the training grounds revolved around a huge piece of macadam about three football fields square. This was called a "Grinder" and we would find out very soon why it had that name. Around this, was arranged about twenty barracks buildings with a huge mess hall at one end. At the other end was another large building that housed all the classrooms where we would matriculate in the coming months. Now began a daily routine of reveille at 0600, go to breakfast by 0615, be back by 0700, and get the barracks cleaned up and squared away by 0800. "Cleaning up" entailed a complete sweeping and swabbing, (moppimg) the deck, cleaning and polishing of all the sinks, showers, and toilets in the HEAD. Thats a bathroom to all you landlubbers. After all this maid service was done, we began our daily indoctrination into becoming 4.0 sailors in Uncle Sams Navy! They taught us Naval history so that we would understand some of the traditions that had arisen over the last two hundred years plus. Fire fighting aboard ships, damage control, boat handling etc. a basic intro into the more common ratings that we would all work in, were presented. We had a go at trying out some of them. Mostly it involved what the Boatswains,(Bosun's) Mates would be doing as most of the recruits would go directly to a ship of the line out in the fleet after graduation.

At the end of the first week we were stood at attention outside the barracks and asked if anyone would like to try out for the Company Drill Team. First thought that came into my head was that this was some kind of nasty job that we hadn't yet heard about. I also remember someone telling me not to volunteer for anything! The Company Commander then proceeded to tell us that the Drill Team was a team of sailors who marched in a precision group, and would represent our Company in the graduation ceremony and some other functions around the Bainbridge area. When he told us that it would entail rising at 0500 and walking a mile or so to a special place where the team practiced every day till graduation, many of the would-be's backed out. Well I had been getting up earlier and walking about that distance on a lot of days when I was younger so it didn't seem so bad to me. Well, I volunteered to try out and that afternoon myself and nine other hopefuls went off to this place to begin our tryouts. When we got there we were all formed up according to height and then a drill instructor began marching us up and down this huge Gym floor. He began snapping out commands faster and faster. Every time someone would screw up, he would stop the group and the offender was told to go back to his barracks. We had started out with about 100 guys representing all the Companys sourrounding our grinder. By the time the Instructor was done with us, there were only 28 of us left.I was the only surviving member from my Company, and went on to throughly enjoy the rest of the time spent on the team and the demonstrations that we gave. I went on to join the Drill Teams at the next three duty stations also. Being in the team also exempted you from what was euphemistically called "Service Week"! It was a full week where all your Company spent its time doing the scut work fore the whole brigade. You worked in the mess hall doing all the necessary chores asscociated with cooking and cleaning up for 2000 men. You would be doing outside work like cleaning the streets, buildings, mowing the grass, cleaning the classrooms, painting inside and out etc. In short we were the maintenance crew for for the brigade for that week, and then it would fall to the next company in line to continue our fine work! After enduring service week and hopefully surviving it, we returned to the same daily routine that had preceded the temporary break. TO BE CONTINUED

Council Meeting TONIGHT! 3/16/05

Well tonight at the Council work session meeting, 6PM at the Town Hall, anybody that has questions about either the money from/to the Library, or about those 'consultants' fees, should get right on down there and hear what is going to be said! Maybe then we will have a little more diversified commentary on what went on! I'll be waiting to hear. TTFN Everett

"Moonspinners", et al

This mini history lesson is in response to "Sams" comment in the "Busted" Blog.
First off, we didn't "support" King George per se. We tried to maintain a neutral stance toward both of the belligerent entities. Those old fellers knew that they would get their heads handed too them by whichever party came ashore looking for 'refreshments' as it were. So they acted the part back then, that the Swiss did during WWII. Actually pretty astute of them on their part I think!

"Shipbreaking" and "Moonspinning", H-u-u-m, those are two words that I had never heard of in association with the many wrecks that littered our shore, until Mr. Livermores poem came out, and a movie was made about moonspinning in the early fifties. Then all the pundits jumped right on the wagon and stories of killer Islanders abounded. There was never a "documented" case of it ever happening that I've ever seen or heard about! It is all heresay BS! There was NO Southeast Light back then, and most wrecks were the result of poor navigation plus a combination of wind and tide working against the ship Captains. The nailing of ship nameplates salvaged off the beach was no different that the practice of hanging up oars and license plates in bars and resturants nowadays.

It drives me to distraction that people think that the old Islanders were so callous as to cause a ship to come ashore and kill all those people for a few pieces of wood or coal etc. When in fact on at LEAST one occassion, when the SS Larchmont was hit by another ship off of Sandy Point, it was those self same Islanders who went out in the dead of night in the middle of winter, to try and rescue the people aboard that ship. They were in fact, collectively, awarded I believe, 13 Carnagie Medals for bravery! The most ever to one community before or since. I don't believe they were the heartless bastards portrayed! Salvage was a way of life back then. You picked up and used what the sea delivered, and was damned glad to get it. There were no Home Depots to go to then!

As to what went on around here in the sixties and seventies, I have to defer to another chronicler as I was in the U S Navy and absent during that time.

As far as Prohibition was concerned, Block Island wasn't the instigator of the circumvention of the law. They just assisted in the facilitation of avoiding it's consequences! . It was a law passed by the righteous few and rightly ignored by the many! Realizing it was un-enforceable it was repealed in a few years. Guess that's it for this time. TTFN Everett

Town Council Attendees-Lack of;

I am addressing this particular essay to the younger taxpayers of BI. Those in the age brackets from 50 back down to 20 or so. You really do need to participate or at least attend some of the Council meetings! YOUR future is being decided there, or at least the tax levies that will be assessed against you in the future. Some of you, as the people who will be financing and running this town in the next few years need to be aware of what is going on! Over the last two years, and more, there has been on average, one (1) person at most of these meetings! That is a dismal record. That one attendee has for the most part been the SAME person, time after time. She is getting a little "long in the tooth" and needs to have reinforcements to keep up the constant "surveillance" if you will, of what is going on in there. Witness the Town Consultants fiasco! Being the young homeowners and taxpayers of the future, it is in YOUR BEST INTERESTS, to become involved, and to not abrogate your responsibilities to yourself and your kids. Don't say to yourself, "let somebody else do it", because they WILL NOT have your best interests at heart! Jump in there! Make them BE accountable! TIFN Everett

BUSTED!

I read with much glee the headlines in todays paper! The one I am refering to of course was the one about the drug bust. I have been amazed that it took all these years to finally crack down on these people who have been pedaling these deadly substances with virtual impunity! Great job Chief Carlone and the rest of the Police Department, it has been too long coming! Keep up the good work and catch the REST of these no good, low life, "bastards" whoever they are, who are feeding this crap to our kids! If this was Ecquador, those two guys would be a pile of festering meat in front of a wall right now for just having had it in their possession! It is instant death down there and if it was that way here also, the drug problem would almost disappear of its own volition. Is that last, a bit over the top or what? TFIN Everett

New Blog on the Block

Hey all you Bloggers out there, there is another point of view out there now and it is called, Block Island Blog. To get to it just type in, www.blockislandblog.blogspot.com in the search space. It will come up and say no info available, but drop down one line and go all the way right and click on the purple! Bingo! Give her/him some support. TFIN Everett

Navy Life- Installment 1-Boot Camp

I think that I will try to do this particular story in four sections. It is probably to long for most people to stay interested for the duration. In between I'll revert to my usual rants! This episode is not as interesting as future ones, but try to suffer through to get some background! There are no x-rated words in here yet!

Early on in my life, I had decided that I wanted to join the Navy in order to be able to work on, and fly in, all the great planes that they had in the 40's and 50's. So with that in mind, I made the first overture to a recruiting Officer in Springfield Mass. I took the required physical exam for all military inductees and was accepted for service. At that time in the history of the navy, you could make a request as to which "rating" you would like to strive for. I made my pitch to them that I wanted to be an Aviation Machinists Mate R. The "R" stood for 'reciprocating as that was the type of engine that I wanted to work on.I was assured that after the successful completion of boot camp I would be assigned to a school to learn all about those babies.
Eventually graduation day arrived, and that evening I was presented with a diploma signifying that the end of 12 years of terrible mental exertion had arrived! After all the graduates had been given their kudos and awards, I was a non-recipient of either, it came time for a Naval Aviation Pilot to do the deed, and swear myself and two other equally naive children into the service of their country. This took place as we were still wearing our cap and gown outfits and clutching that hard won sheepskin in our other hand. This all occurred on a Friday night and we were then advised that we would be leaving the Island the following Monday to journey to a place called Bainbridge MD. That was to be the place where we would receive our indoctrination into the life as a US Navy sailor.

Well the day of departure finally arrived. I had been looking forward to this with the greatest of enthusiasm. It meant that I would miss the summer of 1956 on the Island but that was no big deal then. So on June the 15th the three of us went down to the New Harbor to get on the boat to leave the Island. Damn, this was an event in which I had never participated in before, as the boat we were leaving on was the one that went to New London CT. Man! Already I was in uncharted waters and I hadn't even left the damn dock yet! As the boat pulled away from the dock, and I looked at my Mom and Dad standing there, I had the first slight twinges that maybe I was being just a little bit hasty in my departure from everything I had ever known and everybody I loved!

We got to New London in good order and went to the train station which was only a few yards away. The train got us underway for the next part of our adventure. It was an adventure to, because here was another form of conveyance That I had never been on before! The next few hours got us down to Grand Central Station in New York City where we were deposited along with a few thousand other people. The only difference between them and us was that they knew where they were going and how to get there. Not so for we hicks from the sticks. Someone had told us on the way down to walk over to Penn Station to catch the train for Maryland, but we didn't have a clue as to the location of this place the end we wound up taking a taxi and not so sure that we didn't get a shortened tour of the city before our arrival at our location. After sorting out all the tracks and finding the right one, we boarded that train for the last leg of this odyssey.

We arrived in a small town in MD called Perryville at about 1:30 am and climbed off with about 40 to 50 other guys who looked just as bewildered as me. Just then a big old gray bus with the words US Navy painted on the side arrived. Hooray, Salvation! We weren't going to have to sleep on the railway platform after all. These guys were going to give us a nice soft bed. HAH! They loaded us aboard and after about a 20 minute ride we came to a stop in front of a huge building. Off the bus and into the building we went like a herd of cattle. Inside this cavernous edifice, was just a huge floor painted with three foot squares covering the whole thing. Now comes out a door this person who was about six foot forty and commences to scream at us. Not even my mother could scream this loud! He told us to occupy one of the squares, stand at attention, (whatever that was) and don't talk. Then he hollers at us, "Divest yourselves of all the civilian accoutrements you have on your US Navy issue body!" We all stood there and just looked at each other trying to figure out what the hell he was talking about. Well he made it abundantly clear to strip off every stitch of clothes that we had on including shoes socks and underwear! Right at that moment, I knew for sure that I had made a HUGE mistake in joining the USN! This incident occurred about 0230 in the morning and we were left standing at attention in our birthday suits till 0600! So much for the nice soft bed! TO BE CONTINUED. Everett

Quote from the past

There is a quote at the top of the page at his blog that we should require of all our public officials, elected as well as hired or appointed. Click on this link http://www.bunkermulligan.net to read it. Everett

"Those" Town Consultants!

Has anyone out there ever heard of an outfit called Information Systems Technologies, Inc.? They are the people hired by the town to assess and recommend upgrades to the Finance Departments computer networking system if needed. The operative words there being, "if needed"! There are pages of techincal gibberish and jargon used in the preparation of the bill to justify the size of it! Things like, delivery and discussion, preparation and planning, assistance and application, participation and planning again. There is a lot of "planning" going on in the propasal. A total of 51 hours was needed to do all this stuff which was probably already on a hard drive in their computer somewhere. They used to work for Middletown in the same capacity but have since been let go. I wonder why that is? This all came to the tune of approx. $6400! Now the total cost of the software used came to the grand sum of $225.88, plus the freight of$15.95 Must have big one big assed and heavy CD! Since that time there has been bill after bill presented to the town for all the supposed "stuff" listed above that comes to a total of $174,160.75! Does anybody but me feel the shaft, oh so gently and surreptitiously being slid home? Who the hell is overseeing this farce? Is anybody watching the store here? How about if we demand an item by item, and a credible explanation, of each of those items listed above? There is obviously some clandestine things happening here, and the bright light of exposure needs to be shined directly, right on the perpetrators of the whole sordid mess! How about if a nice lucid and honest evaluation were to appear in either this forum or at least, the BI Times?
The credibility of the Town Hall and its inhabitants is going to be coming under close scrutinity in the coming weeks about this disaster. So strike first ye denizens of said abode, and enlighten we people who donate our money to your care!!

Alternate fillers for this space

In the near future, as soon as I can get all my "stuff" in one bag, I am considering putting up occassional snippets of different stories about my time in the US Navy. I have written them over the years since I retired from active duty. Some of them are to long for one sitting, so I guess you could say they will be in "serial" form. Hope it doesn't bore you all into oblivion. We will still be talking about all the good stuff that happens around here to! TIFN Everett

Practicing

Pitting cherries in the back yard I am practicing how to put pictures in these things. Pay no attention to duplications or anything wierd that may show up here