Jim Skipper

Storm Damage

jamesmskipper@netzero.com — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:12:16 GMT

Previous tornadoes have caused extensive damage in Conway County Arkansas where several of my relatives live. One last week came close to destroying the old family home of one of my brothers-in-law. It tore down all the trees around the house and blew off all the shingles on one side.

He was there caring for his elderly mother and wasn't able to get her to the storm cellar so they just stayed in the hall. Many folks were out the following morning to help clean up. They had to get a bull-dozer to clear out all the broken trees and stumps.

We're were in Appleton Saturday when storms blew through that area. At least the TV weather news said storms were coming through. The even reported that there was a tornado on the ground in Appleton and in Jerusalem, the next little town to the east. We didn't see anything; not even wind and rain.

However, we didn't know it, but our youngest son and a fellow Harley-Davidson employee were riding from Memphis to Little Rock right in the teeth of the storm. He had decided to come to Conway County to surprise Ann for Mother's Day. And what a surprise it was! We enjoyed the visit Sunday morning and then they headed back to Houston via scenic Highway 7 through Hot Springs. They had been to a Riders' Edge motorcycle safety conference in Memphis. They rode up on Thursday, leaving Houston at 7:00 a.m. Houston to memphis is about 600 miles.

We left Houston Thursday at 10:00 and drove the 360 miles to Hope, Arkansas, where my cousins had supper waiting for us. We spent the night and had a nice visit. They live about 10 miles south of Hope but drove into town with us to have lunch at the Mellon Patch, a restaurant associated with a women's shelter.

We drove from Hope to Appleton to visit one of my sisters and here family. She's the mother of the first test-tube baby born in Arkansas. He graduated from Arkansas Tech University Saturday, so they were getting ready for a party. We spent the night and then went to my oldest sister's place to visit them before the graduation.

Two nephews were graduating and both had parties Saturday afternoon so we spent some time at each and then went back to my sister's for the night.

Sunday we drove to the old home place in Cleveland (Conway County) to met before going on out to the cemetery. Our son John and his friend had made it there during the storm and as it happened, my brother John was there for a week of cleaning up and checking around the old home place which he owns. We were not only surprised, but confused when we walk into the house and found a crowd gathered in the living room just looking at us! Finally, we realized that our son was sitting across the room from the door. We still couldn't understand how he could be there, because his wife had just told us that he was going to be driving home on Sunday and expected to be there by mid-night. She just didn't tell us that he would be driving from Cleveland, not from Memphis! :) So they pulled a complete surprise on us. BTW - I'm 13 years older than my brother and he's 14 years older than my youngest son.

We all went to the Old Liberty cemetery for the Decoration Day observance and got to see many family members and friends that we seldom see. After "dinner-on-the-grounds" Ann and I drove on to Springdale so she could spend some time with her mother for Mother's Day.

We're at my sister-in-law's house using her computer and high-speed connection. My laptop has slowed to a crawl since I made so many changes to it after getting access to high-speed at home last week. It won't even to a "restore" anymore.

Early Mother's Day Observance

jamesmskipper@netzero.com — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:28:33 GMT

The children arranged to observe Mother's Day Sunday, since Ann and I will be in Arkansas observing Decoration Day at Old Liberty Cemetery on Mother's Day. All but one daughter-in-law, who was sick, and the two older step grandsons were there.

It's nice to get to visit with all of them. We met at Becky's and she showed pictures they have taken at their place in the woods. Mostly on motor bikes and four-wheelers. John and Madi got Ann a new digital camera.

"Escape"

jamesmskipper@netzero.com — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:23:22 GMT

I just read Escape by a young woman who managed to escape and break free from the FLDS during the time many of them were being moved to Texas. She was one of Merril Jessop's many wives. He was 50 when she was assigned to marry him. She was 18. Merril became a close friend of Warren Jeffs, when Jeffs took over the FLDS in that area.

They had eight children and she was able to get custody of all of them.

This young woman had become totally free of the FLDS by the time Jeffs was arrested.

Anyway, it was a fascinating insight into an odd religious cult.

Casper - A Cat of Liesure

jamesmskipper@netzero.com — Tue, 06 May 2008 00:08:42 GMT

Fifty Years Ago (as of May 2004)

jamesmskipper@netzero.com — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:24:55 GMT

Back in 2004, I put this page of photos and notes from my childhood. I just accidentally found it again.
Old Page Link
I can't remember whether I put a link to it in LJ back then or not.

High-speed Internet Service ...

jamesmskipper@netzero.com — Fri, 02 May 2008 02:17:56 GMT

... is really nice as I suppose all of you already know!

We found out that AT&T now has optic fiber service and our neighborhood and we subscribed to a TV and internet package which was hooked up Monday.

We have to use the AT&T email address because a secure server is required. I finally called technical service support to get one set up (long story). I found out that my Netzero email can be forwarded to the AT&T service so I'll keep that email for awhile.

Now I have the speed to upgrade my Windows XP and also upgrade to Internet Explorer 7.0.

And at work I'm having fun working out the temperature and water flow measurement systems for the little space suit water cooling component we're testing. There have been a lot of improvements in test instrument systems since I last had hands-on experience many years ago.

I get to do the set-up, wiring, and functional checkout myself, because only one other guy in the group can do it and he's busy with other things.

We have had to request support for data acquisition support with a PC running LabView. In my previous job (and it's still in use there) we had a central data acquisition system, so I had never seen LabView. I was very pleased to find out that such a thing is available.

Smokey Mountains Bus Tour

jamesmskipper@netzero.com — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 21:33:14 GMT

A group of seniors from church will be leaving early tomorrow morning for eastern Tennessee. We'll tour Gatlinburg and the Smokey Mountains and visit Dollywood. We're scheduled to see several shows there. I guess they're at Dollywood.

We return late next Saturday. It will probably take a few days to rest up although I'm supposed to show up on the job. Then it's off to Arkansas for Decoration Day observances at the family cemeteries. Also, two nephews are graduating from Arkansas Tech and a step-cousin once removed is getting married, so all in all it should be fun!

"Blackbird s[ing]ing in the dead of night ..."

jamesmskipper@netzero.com — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 02:50:48 GMT

A big blackbird was trapped inside our building over the weekend. We are in a three-story “high-bay” building with a two-story high door. The door was open a lot on Friday so the bird must have gotten in then. The guy at the desk next to me let the bird out when he got there early this morning.

I think the bird lived on my desk and the on next to mine because some banana peelings had been left in the trash can between the desks. That must have been all the poor thing could find to eat.

It roosted on my computer LCD display and used my coffee cup for its ‘pot.’ However, it missed the ‘pot’ a few times so there was splatter on the display screen, the keyboard, the mouse, the mouse pad, and other spots on the desk. I took a photo, but it doesn’t really give the full effect. It took 30 minutes to clean everything. The coffee still didn’t taste right though.

Young People

jamesmskipper@netzero.com — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 00:01:38 GMT

I spent the afternoon helping interview currently graduating engineers for the company I work for part-time. The ones I talked to were a well educated and intelligent bunch. The group I'm with wants to hire two and we had at least six good prospects.

It reminded me that I was going through that interview process 45 years ago. These young people weren't even born then! Goodness! Probably some of their parents weren't even born then!

Convention Photos

jamesmskipper@netzero.com — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 22:28:11 GMT

I took a few photos at the Democratic District Convention and put them on this page:
Photo Page.

Car Repair

jamesmskipper@netzero.com — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:34:50 GMT

I had to replace the horns on the Plymouth mini-van. I never use the 'horn' so I didn't even know it was out. Also, I had disconnected and recharged the battery (the car has just been sitting for several months) and that re-set the computer and it was ready to report its pollution data to the inspection computer. Now I have a few more days to start it and drive it so that it will be ready for the test.

I couldn't believe that both horns had gone out, but I was hoping it wasn't the horn switch in the steering wheel. The fuse and relay box is readily accessible under the hood and I did enough trouble-shooting to satisfy myself that the steering wheel switch, fuse, and relay were all working. Then I had to find the horns. Ann suggested trying the other van and that showed us that the horns are behind the bumper under the left front fender with access from below. It helped to take the inside fender shield loose. That wasn't hard because the inner fender and bumper cover were plastic and were held in place with three screws.

The replacement horns (Basso and Alto) only cost $30, but they didn't have the factory connections so I had to crimp some spade lugs and splice the wires to the factory wiring horns. The certainly beats pulling the air bag off the steering wheel.

I'm doing laundry today and hope to mow some if the grass drys a little more before the evening rain comes in.

Top Pages for March

jamesmskipper@netzero.com — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 04:40:39 GMT

1487 Cross 29.32% - Stations of the Cross Statues in Texas panhandle
597 Barracuda 11.77% - Getting my Barracuda back in running condition
541 Monte Ne 10.67% - The story of 'Coin' Harvey's Flooded resort at the bottom of Beaver Lake
535 TripodIndex 10.55% - My Index Page
303 Kayak 5.98% - Kayak trip on the San Marcos River
251 Turkey 4.95% - Turkey Shoot in Garfield, Arkansas
201 Space Women 3.96% - Stories from my NASA career
194 Halbrook Stories 3.83% - My stepdad's stories about his family
130 Tornado 2.56% - 1952 Tornado in Judsonia, AR. Photos by my uncle
123 Perspective 2.43% - Photographic perspective
117 MonteNeLissa 2.31% - Lissa's photos of Monte Ne

A Very Long Day

jamesmskipper@netzero.com — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 01:47:23 GMT

I went early and stayed late. The convention committees had trouble getting all the delegate information data processing done in a timely manner.

It was interesting being with a bunch of Democrates though. And I enjoyed conversations with several of them from my precinct and from others. We had plenty of time to sit and talk while we waited for the committees to do their work. The resolutions were typical Democratic fare; support for teachers, etc.

My daughter was a delegate from her precinct and one of my daughters-in-law was a delegate from her precinct. My daughter was originally an alternate, but I got my daughter a delegate spot from a delegate who couldn't attend. My daughter-in-law and I were elected to the state delegation; she for Obama and I for Hillary.

They went home around 6:00 p.m. and I stayed on to the very end at 11:00.

Democratic District Convention

jamesmskipper@netzero.com — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 00:34:50 GMT

Our precinct was been paired with another small precinct so that together we qualify for one delegate to the state convention and one alternate. One of our Hillary delegates has made a tremendous effort to get all the Hillary delegates to attend. Our precinct has five delegates for Hillary and four for Obama. The other precinct is three and three. If all the Hillary delegates are there, we can elect a Hillary delegate to the state convention. An Obama delegate will obviously get the second spot and go to state as an alternate delegate.

In the meantime, the Hillary delegates in the precinct my daughter is in did not receive any information about training sessions or convention details. I've tried to contact them and at least found one who is not going and got her to designate my daughter as a delegate to replace her. I also located a very enthusiastic couple and they will go. There isn't much hope for that precinct though, because the Hillary folks were outnumbered 9 to 6.

Smokey Finds A New Home

jamesmskipper@netzero.com — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 03:04:46 GMT

We got a call from our daughter as we drove home last Saturday. A friend of hers had found a cat and they wanted to find someone who would take him. Actually, he had found them. They checked with animal control and took him to a vet to see whether he had an I.D. chip and didn't know what else to do to find the owners. They aren't "cat people" and have dogs.

Smokey had been neutered and his front claws had been removed and he was very gentle. Ann had been wanting a loveable cat to replace her Ginger who died last November and, after all, we only had two. I warned her that it was not going to be a kitten, but we agreed that we would go take a look at him and you can see what happened. He and Baby may eventually become friends, but I'm not sure about Casper.

At the District Convention Training Session

jamesmskipper@netzero.com — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 02:59:45 GMT

I was surprised to meet heathadahlin at the training session. She is also a Hillary delegate from our precinct. storychick is a mutual friend. Heather recognized my name at the precinct meeting and double-checked on LJ to verify that I was the same LJ user. I'm much older in real life than the icon photo I use.

The Hillary delegates decided that I might be the best Hillary nominee for State Convention delegate. Our precinct will be paired with another so that we will qualify for one state delegate and one alternate. Hillary has a one delegate (8 to 7) advantage with our paired precincts. If the three Hillary delegates from the other precinct vote with our Hillary delegates, a Hillary delegate will go on to State and an Obama delegate will go to state as an alternate.

Democratic District Convention

jamesmskipper@netzero.com — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 17:26:57 GMT

The convention for my state senatorial district is Saturday and we delegates have been asked to attend a training session tonight. I'm a delegate for Hillary. That's for the district convention only; I'm not likely to be elected to go on to the state convention - much less the national convention.

The chair of our prencinct delegation is a young black women (the same age as my daughter) whom we met at the precinct convention (caucus). I've never been directly involved in partisan politics before because of the Hatch Act.

Rain

jamesmskipper@netzero.com — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 01:58:03 GMT

I think it rained each of the 24 hours of Tuesday, but only about 4 - 6 inches here. Today it was cool and sunny. We visited Ann's mother at the rest home and took Ann's dad to the library. He checked out 20 books. I bought two of their discards for a dollar.

Ann's sister and nephew were over for supper tonight.

We plan to head south tomorrow.

At the McDonald's in Waldron, Arkansas

jamesmskipper@netzero.com — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 00:58:28 GMT

We stopped here for a short break on our trip to northwest Arkansas.
The U.S. Highway 71 seems to be prospering. Waldron is the first large
town south of Ft. Smith. The other larger towns are Mena and DeQueen.
Mena is the largest. U.S. 71 jogs east at DeQueen and then turns south
to Texarkana. We usually continue south of DeQueen to New Boston,
the first town across the Red River in Texas.

This photo was snapped over my left shoulder. I wasn't sure what
I would get. The double arch motif and those odd shapes make an
interesting separator between the booths and tables.

Sunday Worship

My father-in-law didn't feel like getting out Sunday, so Ann and
I went to 'their' church for Sunday and picked up Ann's brother.
After Sunday School we went to the rest home to visit Ann's mother
during the worship service. She's hold a 'big print' song book
and had turned to "Blessed Assurance." After the service we pushed
her back to the cafeteria for lunch and we picked up food at Arby's
to take home for our lunch.

Ann's Sister Now Has More Cats Than We Do
Here are two of them.

January 31, 2008

jamesmskipper@netzero.com — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 00:48:34 GMT

This is a photo I took when we were here last January for my mother-in-law's 86th birthday. She and many others at the rest home have had a bad stomach flu recently, but seem to be better now.

Both of them seem to be a little better than they were when we came through last October.

Arkansas

jamesmskipper@netzero.com — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 16:54:00 GMT

We're in Arkansas again. All the trees are green up to about the Red River some most of Arkansas is still bare. Jonquils blooming in southern Arkansas but just beginning to bud up here. The fortieth annual Jonquil Festival is being held in Old Washington, Arkansas. That's in the far southwest near Hope. It was the capitol of Arkansas at one time; perhaps during the Civil War when the Yankees took over all the rest of Arkansas. Well, we won't get to go to the Jonquil Festival since we're way up in the Union part of Arkansas.

Another New Baby

jamesmskipper@netzero.com — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 18:49:36 GMT

Owen was born in October when Ann and I were in California on the Route 66 trip, so we missed most of the details; or forgot them. So it was nice to visit with Katy on our recent trip and get up-to-date on her life. Katy is my little sister's youngest step daughter. My sister raised one set of step children and had a child of her own and then two more. Katy attended the Baptist University in Arkadelphia and married a Civil Engineer. Little Owen looks mighty big for three months old.

Katy's brother Joe is younger than Katy and he got married about a year ago. Now Katy is known as Joe's sister because his is so well known in their home town. Also, his parents are known as Joe's parents. :) He's quite a guy. See! An entry about his sister's new son is full of information about him. He's a great photographer, by the way.

Annual "Cows for Kathy" Photo

jamesmskipper@netzero.com — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 18:26:18 GMT

These are the cows of my brother-in-law Rex. He is driving a tractor with a round bale of hay on the back, just visible near the center of the photo in the distance. The cows are turning to follow him.

The Mother and the Daughter of the first test-tube baby born in Arkansas

jamesmskipper@netzero.com — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 05:13:17 GMT

Brenda is my second sister and Audry is her only grandchild.
We had a nice visit with them on our recent trip to Arkansas.

118811

jamesmskipper@netzero.com — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 03:40:19 GMT

I've read that men have a special interest in number patterns like this.

I just looked at the 'hit' number at the bottom of my Index Page, and that's the number I found.