Thanksgiving Morning in the New Orleans French Quarter - I saw Santa and Evidence of the Reindeer

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Dead Battery but Elvis is Alive and Driving a Tow Truck Near New Orleans

I drive to Job # 2 near New Orleans and decide after a few days to rent a condo instead of a motel room. I found an OK efficiency (smaller than a one bedroom) in Craig's list and met the owner who is living with her sister since she is having back surgery soon. I settled up on things and I am renting in a nicer place for half the cost of a motel room. It is nice to have a big bathroom, a small kitchen with a full size fridge and a King size bed. No cable TV or Internet though so that is a bit troublesome. (Too cheap to have it hooked up for just one month.)

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I have a nice pool view from my deck - although it is a bit cool for swimming - gets down to about 50 at nite. It is stunningly quiet at night - sometimes I sit on the deck and do a divers ear puff just to check that my ears are not plugged. It is really quiet and dark at night - very nice change from the motel life. I also have a nice Country Club a block away but I have not yet had time to wander over there to see what is going on. Lots of golfers on nice days - not sure if it is restricted to members or not. Might be a good Sunday activity if the public can play there.
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Unfortunately Elvis and I met on my first day at the Condo. My car would not start and it turns out that the battery was so bad that it would not charge either. Elvis, the local AAA tow truck driver who drives for Corvette Towing (yes, this is his name and he sings in the local clubs and he has the tapes to prove it - listen to the movie below) took me to Walmart for $20 to get a new battery. He then took me to the Waffle House near my old motel to catch his buddie's taxi back to Diamondhead, MS where I now live (it cost me $30). He could not pick me up at Walmart that is 8-blocks away because it is technically in a different city and he cannot get a license there because the mayor's uncle already owns the cab rights there. Boy, the things you learn by asking...
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Working at a Pipe Mill in Little Rock, Arkansas

I spent a month working with Frank, Terry, Terry, Terri, Gilles and others in Little Rock at a Pipe Mill owned by an India Corporation. I really enjoyed working with the Team Quality People and it was also fun & interesting to get back into "Technical Issues" after two years of virtually no involvement. Hope to do more of this with Team Quality Services. I met several people of note: Charlie Lamb of Napa fame is Plant Manager, Mike Wilheit of Double Ender World Wide fame was there as well. I also met two Indian gentlemen in the Lab by the name of Chary and V-Jay. Both have recently obtained their Masters Degrees from the SDSM&T in Rapid City. We had a great laugh about that - small world eh I would say - trying to speak Canadianese like the rest of the group. Chary and V-Jay were very capable and cooperative Quality people and most open to suggestions based on my experience.

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One of my assignments was to inspect the 50-car unit train before it left the Port of Little Rock. I did a whole bunch of walking. The whole train is almost a mile long.
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While I was busy with the UP unit train, Warren bought BNSF, the switch engine that works at the Port now belongs partially to me. I had an interesting conversation with the engineer who is pleased about the sale.
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I missed my girls. Upon return, Panama came for an overnight. We had several walks, including this one where we found a collective of plastic animals along the sidewalk. Of course, we had to stop, name each one several times and rearrange their positions in the world. (We in fact had to rearrange several times. Panama sure knows her animals - the only one she did not know was the porkypine (not going to risk a spelling error.))
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Amaya had three firsts while I was home: her first cold, poor thing, her first all juice popsicle and her first dose of brain freeze half way through the eating of it.
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Woke up on my 58th Birthday to frost on the pumpkin - frost on the windshield actually.
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On the Road Again... another pipe mill down the road near New Orleans. The scope and length of the job yet to be determined. Bye for now...
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I Miss My Lovely Wife - Have Fun in Florida!!

Hi to all of our California friends meeting at Tim's place in Florida. Sorry I could not make the trip - little busy right now finishing up a job in Arkansas. Tim, I will see you at some point - we need to golf...

I Miss My Babies

I am still working in Little Rock and enjoying getting back into some pipe business. However, I sure miss everyone, especially the babies.

Carol says they have grown bunches since I left two weeks ago.

She sent me a picture to prove it.

Holy Cow...

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Sunday Off From Work: A Hot Springs, Arkansas Visit - Bill is in Town for His Class Reunion.

Hot Springs: City of Water, Foliage and Flowers.

Many of the stores were shut down since the tourist season was over. Also it was Sunday. It was a beautiful day and the little city in the Hot Springs National Park was interesting.

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Downtown Halloween Decorations
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The town of Hot Springs, Arkansas has a "hot springs" that provides an opportunity for free very hot water (140 F). There are 5 or 6 very nice hot spring spas lined up on main street, very near the hot spring that feeds them and the town with hot water. Most springs in the world have a history of so called "healing benefits." Today, people enjoy the springs for relaxation purposes - with spas this beautiful, no wonder.
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This is a Convalescent Home - not sure what that means.
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The town's "Visitor's Center" has sidewalk commemorative plaques that surround the center. Read on to find out more about these famous Arkansas inhabitants: Alan Ladd, Bill Walton, Jack Fleck, Johnny Cash and Jo Ann Castle.
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Meet Jo Ann Castle, born in Hot Springs

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Meet Alan Ladd from Hot Springs

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Meet Johnny Cash from Kingsland

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Meet Sam Walton from Rogers

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Meet Jack Fleck from Magazine

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Worked This Week in Little Rock, Arkansas With Terry, Terri, Terry, Frank & Gilles

My friend Frank called two week's ago and asked if I was interested in replacing Terry at Welspun. He said that I would be working with Terry's crew of Terry, Terri and Gilles on the night shift. I said Terry-fic, Terry-fic, Terri-fic and Golly when do I start. I have been here almost a week now - we are working long hours but due to the Holiday in India that the Plant Qwners celebrate, we have the weekend off. I was going to get up this morning and go to their Holiday celebration at the plant - which included free delicious Indian food, and blog photos, but I just could not get up after only five hours of sleep. While in Little Rock, what else is there to do except to go visit the Bill Clinton Presidential Library. It was 7 bucks and interesting enough.

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The William J Clinton Presidential Library and Park next to the Arkansas River.
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The Presidential Library is also right next to the beautiful Bill Clinton School of Public Service.
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The only picture of Bill and Hillary that struck me as one that I wanted on my blog. They are shown getting off a turnip truck sometime during his first Presidential campaign. (Wall Street - want to go there and recreate this shot with Carol.)
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Someone collected his campaign buttons and made an exhibit.
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A replica obviously of the Oval Office. He has several things that were significant to me. He has the Frederick Remington "Warrior" and a collections of Army Coins. In his audio, he mentioned that one of his prized possesions is the Coins that different Army Generals would give him as he visited his troops.
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A different view of the Oval Office.
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Bill & Hillary own a 1967 Ford Mustang.
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Invited to a private little dinner at the White House? This is what the table would have looked like. Bill, where are the toothpicks? Cigars anyone? Hey Bill, mine is soggy, wassup?
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After dinner, Bill will blow a little horn. He has some beautiful horns given to him by many famous horn makers - I guess technically these horns belong to the public. Good Luck on checking this beautiful horn out of the Library.
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Want to get married and have a reception at the Clinton Library? Well you can. They were setting up a reception at the Library while I was there. Very elegant digs and the food was already cooking - smelling very good.

Things like this happen to me once in awhile: I notice the reception being set up. After my tour of the Library, I drive leisurely down main street until I decide to take a left to follow the signs to the State Capitol. After parking in one of the Congressman's parking spots, I proceed to take several pictures as I wander around the outside of the Capitol building. As I get to the front of the Capitol, I notice a photographer that I noticed at the Library finishing pictures of a very cold, bare armed red haired bride at the Gold Front Doors of the Capitol. It was cute. I wandered back downtown, randomly choosing streets, looking for a Starbucks, until I noticed a big church steeple. I turned left for a possible blog picture. Guess what, the red haired bride had just arrived in a mini-van at the First Baptist Church. She was being greeted by the biggest wedding party I have ever seen. There must have been 20 men and 20 ladies all dressed up. I proceeded a little further down the street and recognized that I was again going toward the Presidential Library. I turned the corner, hoping somewhere I would find a Starbucks. What I did find was a high rise Holiday Inn. It had a big welcome banner, guess what it said? "Welcome Heather and Jason and Family. Have a great party at the Library!" I am convinced that I saw Heather at the Capitol and at the Church. I am pretty sure that she is having her reception at the Library and of course a few hours of sleep at the Holiday Inn. Small town USA, everybody, even strangers knows your business...
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The best picture of the Capitol, the back side. The front side had scaffolding along the left side and a red head soon-to-be-married-young-lady at the gold front doors.
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This sculpture was at the State Capitol. I believe it probably commemorates the integration of the public schools back in my childhood. Not sure of the year...
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A video of the Eternal Flame Memorial at the State Capitol for the Veterans.
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A Visit to Eric/Megan/Pancakes' House for Supper

We have been keeping this Paso Pobles, California wine for a special occasion. What can be more special than an Eric made gluten free meatloaf, yummy, and a pre birthday party for Panama who is turning two the day Grampa is driving to Little Rock for a week of work. I will miss her 2nd birthday but we celebrated a bit early. We had fun, too bad Panama was a bit under the weather with a flu bug. She is a hardy warrior though, pausing only to "V" 3-times and carry on...

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Panama has a "big girl" bed now and two tiny little frogs next to her bed which she carefully feeds every night before bed.
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A careful feeding session taking place.
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Nana made Panama and Amaya matching poodle skirts. She is checking "the look out" in the mirror.
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Nana helping Panama spin just right to get the centifugal force acting on the outside diameter of the skirt. (A highly technical motion.)
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A finger painting session early in the evening turned into...
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A finger and toe affair - water soluble ink so no one is worried. We had a great time!
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Clarksville County Oktoberfest

We went to what Mama called Oktoberfest - it is a fun place where men walk around in shorts and knee high socks - they also wear funny hats with feathers. Mom and I danced to the music of the Oompa band - it was fun. Nana and Daddy drank lots of beer out of big, big cups - they ate big wiener things and then big plates of sweet things that had lots of something Grampa called guttins, I think. Mama and Grampa just watched them eat and drink.

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I asked Daddy to win a something for me at a booth where people throw sharp things at the pretty balloons. Daddy took money out to do what I wanted. I didn't know how to tell him that I wanted one of the big bears that I saw hanging up in the booth. I figured that he would know.
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The bears were really cute and I really wanted one of the big ones - My Daddy can do anything - I knew he would know that I wanted one of these big stuffed animals.
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But I guess he didn't hear me because all he won for me was this pointer thing. At first I thought it had real jewels - that is why my Daddy won it for me. Then I realized that the jewels were plastic. Hmmmm.... I think Daddy got ripped off - he chose this pointer over the big bear I wanted. He must have thought the jewels were real but they weren't.
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This is a movie of Mama and me dancing to the Chicken Dance. It was fun... I like the Chicken Dance. I think we will play the Chicken Dance when I get married.