I am a collector

An old time friend of mine collected anything to do with chickens. Another one collected dolls. A very nice neighbor, seemingly intellegent, collects elephants.
I don't know why these things happen. Many years ago I decided to collect matches and within a short time had such a pile of them that I finally threw them away. Next I did something much better. I collected little miniature bottles of liquor. I have hundreds of them and still will pick one up if I run across something unusual. How smart is that ?
But now I am doing something much better ( and much more expensive ). My current collection is the newly minted dollar presidential coins, one issued every three months, of the US presidents starting with Washington. It will take years for them all to be issued and I suppose I won't be around to complete the collection.
I am buying $25.00 rolls and leaving them in the package.
Why do I think this is so smart ? 3oo,000,000 of each isssue is being minted, about one per person in the US, not to mention foriegn sales. As far as I know, none has actually been circulated. Is it possible that they may become obscenely valuable
one of these days ? Jefferson is next on the list. I can hardly wait. It gets issued in September.

VACATION

Jan and I have just returned from a short vacation in the lovely village of Machesney Park, not far from Chicago. We visited Tom and Holly ( and kids, dogs, and cats ) for what seemed to us a short stay. Tom and Holly may have heaved a ssigh of relief when we left. Not only did they keep us amused, they also threw a great garden party for us. Holly obsesed over the food ( Lots of it and very good ) and worried that no one would come. Lots of people did, includding their kids and Holly's Mom. The dogs attended as well, proudly wearing decorative bandanas.
Their garden is enormouse and beautifully cultivated with much exotic flora and a charming fish pond. I suspect that they have put in lots of work on making the place so attractive.
Flying there and back was less fun. Every flight was delaayed. The food was, at best, mediocre, and the flight attendants looked like a selection from a fright show. They weren't very friendly either. In spite of the horror of flying, the plane was packed as usual. No wonder Continental is making money.

Strange verbiage

I tasted a rather expensive nectarine this morning and commented that it was not up to snuff. Where did that come from ? It was a lousy piece of fruit. Perhaps I should have said that it didn't cut the mustard. That way, in one fell swoop I could have covered several of the strange expresions that have cropped up in the English language.

On a completely different subject, the three heros mentioned previously were a mystery to almost all my failthful readers. 1) Generalisimo Francisco Franco ( Saved Spain from WW II
and communist domination, established order and left Spain with an excellent government
which exists to this very day ). 2) Chang Kai Shek (many different ways that is spelled )
( Thanks to our General Marshall he was defeated by the Chinese Communists but escaped with his army to Taiwan where he ruled with an iron hand till death but left a country of extraordinary prosperity and an excellent democratic government ) 3) Pinochet of Chile with a history somewhat like the previous two. He, as were Franco and Chang Kai Chek, has been
reviled by the liberal press and will go down in history as terrible . Pinochet is even under indictment for supposed crimes he committed.

Heros

I suppose we all have individuals that we have looked up to and admired.
The heros that I have in mind are not the granddads, parents, siblings , or children.
Rather, they are international people who have made a difference on the world stage.
I limit them to those who did something during my lifetime. Let me describe them.
There are three. All were military men who overcame comunist encroachments,
became dictators for a prolonged period and established order in their countries and then voluntarily retired, leaving excellent governments, based pretty much on good democratic principles. The countries involved have subsequently prospered greatly.
Guess who they are.

Medical Stories ( cont. )

Some confusion resulted from my previous entry:

The doctor's miraculous cure is a true story. The rest of it was supposed to be a joke.
I thought it was hilarious. Jan was not amused.

Medical stories

People of a certain age tend to like to tell stories about their ailments. I am horified to find that I am no different. Hence, this short tale of a recent adventure with my beloved GP.
A slight but persistent stomach ache found me in his office for a check up. He layed hands on my afflicted part and I was cured at that instant. The doctor was not sure that he had such curative powers and suggested a colonoscopy and sent me to the doctor of his choice.
Arriving at this doctors office I dicovered that he was a proctologist. My medical credentials are not extensive but I am almost certain that there is nothing wrong with my proct so I did the prudent thing and walked away. Smart move ? Absolutely ! I have had no recurence.