Lake Festival winds down

Don't even know why I should call this thread Lake Festival? Have not been up town for the entire event...will go up this morning to fetch the Lima News for mom, seems she, as well as Patricia, is sick...don't know what it is with these summer "colds", but I want no part of them.

Blew off most of the plans for yesterday, no Tiki, ankle not up to the 2 mile walk, then another 2 miles back after a few beers, down the dark, limb strewn bike path, was just not in the cards...good thing for festival goers, the rains missed us completly.

Back to Greenville tomorrow, for my two days-a-week gig at GTI....then will take Mike to the VA Clinic in Columbus, stopping(at least that's the plan) off to see his daughters and their young ones.

Talked with my buddy Jim Olson in Minot, ND, last night, he wants to trade me for a Pete Rose autograph...if I can dig it out, what the heck? Plans are for me and Nick Hromish to head to the Twin Cities next Friday to meet up with Jim and another guy for the Twins-Cleveland weekend series.....

87 and sunny is today's forecast.....excuse me while I work on the format for this blog/diary.




38 years ago
_________________I was just completing my first month in Vietnam, at Nha Trang AB. Actually had a pretty good gig, A(Day)Flight Law Enforcement, worse things in Vietnam than being a Air Force Cop...dangerous? As I look back, yes...but it wasn't like being a ground pounding grunt...my cousin Jack Poling had been killed the previous July, and before that, my brother Mike's best friend, Kim Deeter, was killed in a firefight in April 1968....that was the main reason I had opted to join, rather than let my name come up for the draft...no gung-ho warrior was I.

I do credit Vietnam with turning me from the non-confrontational type of guy(wimp?) I was, into a "you can kiss my ass" guy that really didn't give a rat if you were a little bigger than me or not, I was not going to put up with your BS...that got me in a few fights as the years passed, never remember losing, because I was smart enough to know when defuse the situation, if needed. But in July 1969, I was still a "newbie" and just getting my legs on the ground...the most interesting year of my life was just beginning.

prh