Wednesday, June 26, 2019

I Changed The Clock...

...in my car today while driving west somewhere in Kentucky. I'm well on my way to Benton, AR, my temporary stomping ground until I get an apartment either in TN (yes I can spell Tennessee) or TX. Every other time I've visited Brendan in Benton, I kept NY time on the dashboard clock and depended on my phone for local time. This time is a bit different as I am not returning to my residence in NY since the sale of our the house closed yesterday.

Odd feeling it all is; I had thought once I had left NY, we would be separated legally by mutual agreement and I'd not be going back soon. That all potentially changed when divorce papers wete served on me. So, I may have to go back for court and or to hire an attorney. Hopefully we can still resolve it more or less amicably by way of a mutual agreement. 

As for the clock, I am not changing it back, it will stay on central time and if I go back to NY, I will use my phone to tell time there.

All the best,
Glenn B

Monday, June 24, 2019

Whatever Happed To...

...Pokemon Go? I have not heard of a single Pokemon Go player being mowed down by a dump truck or walking off of a cliff in years or so it seems. Has the craze died and been replaced by something else. I imagine that Trump Derangement syndrome could have something to do with Pokemon Go accidents falling out of favor with the media since they devote so much time and space to Trump bashing. Just wondering about it since I was reminded of PG while looking over another blog this morning.

All the best,
Glenn B

Saturday, June 22, 2019

You Can't Take It With You...

...or should I say I can't take them with me! I gave away two of my beloved tortoises today and also gave away two last or earlier this week. The two I gave away then were Russian Tortoises which I have had for about 5 years; then went to a good guy Gideon H. I liked them a lot and will miss them but know Gideon will take excellent care of them over the long haul. Of the two I gave away today, one was a Redfoot Tortoise and the other a Hermann's Tortoise. The Redfoot I got from a good friend Harry F. a couple or few years ago, the Hermann's was hatched here in my house, the offspring of a female Hermann's I have had for possibly 15 to 2o years now and the sire was one of her first offspring or in other words both the stepbrother and father of the little guy I gave away today. That one given away today was two years and some months old. I had had an unrelated male that I had been breeding to the female but he disappeared out of my backyard maybe 5 or 6 years years ago, either stolen or wound up as racoon or hawk food and the older male I have now was the offspring of the original male and female I had. The ones I gave away today went to Harry F; he too I am certain will take excellent care of them.

I am left with only three tortoises of the seven I had as of late and I have a bit of grief over that. The remaining are my female Hermann's, my older male Hermann's ad my older Redfoot that I recall I got via an Internet dealer back in 2008. Thus I have had it for 11 years now (how time flies even relative to a tortoise's life). You may not think so but you do become attached to tortoises somewhat. I never named mine, always a disappointment to those who ask me what are their names, but I have become somewhat bonded to them. While not nearly as responsive as a dog they are highly responsive to their keepers as far as it goes for reptiles. Hopefully they will like their new home wherever we wind up.

All the best,
Glenn B

It'S Been A Busy & Torturous Week

I've been getting ready for my move down south and that means getting ready for the house closing on Tuesday. It also means that I was working on the separation agreement for me and my wife but that was all to naught because now she has filed for divorce. Talk about being disheartened, there I was thinking we had quite the fair agreement but you should see what her lawyer is demanding. I figure, if I do not contest it, I will be trying to live on maybe 35% of the current income from my pension, I may qualify for WIC if that becomes my income. 

Among other things, if I understood correctly: we would have to split our assets supposedly in an equitable manner, I would have to purchase her health insurance totally on my dime, if she has medical bills unpaid by insurance then I would be responsible for them (and I am guessing that such potentially could wipe me out for life), I would have to splitting my income with her, I would also be required to maintain life insurance with her as the ONLY beneficiary (so in essence screw our children because I had already told her I would be switching it over to them instead of her), and life insurance policy I have now would increase by probably 25 to 50% in cost to me when I hit 65. (And you probably thought federal employee benefits were excellent and while somne are wonderful - it is certainly not so for FEGLI life insurance! Which by the way, I was about to change in 2011 to a private company's policy not long before my retirement - I had three or four policies from which I was about to choose - but was then diagnosed with stage 4 throat cancer. Oh well, I was stuck with what I had back then.)

After receiving the divorce paperwork, I offered my wife a substantial percentage more of the net proceeds from the sale of the house than she would otherwise have been getting but have received no reply from her nor from her lawyer. Well, that is except a text from the wife saying that her lawyer expects me to call her and expects me to supply tax and other documents - apparently to help them with their case. No reply by tomorrow on my offer and I will have to cancel the offer and hire an attorney myself. This could have gone so smoothly but to that all I can says is: 'Alas poor Yorick (in my case 'alas poor good, merry, happy, sad, difficult and even bad married times')! I knew him, dear readers.' 

Or maybe I should say it it all, as the great Bard said it centuries ago, and you can think of Yorick as me, or as any man, in a marriage that has died:

"Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rims at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your
gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment,
that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one
now, to mock your own grinning? quite chap-fallen?
Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let
her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must
come; make her laugh at that. "


Well anyway: All of this amazes me for some reason but you would think that after 32 years of dealing with attorneys throughout my career, and 33 years plus of being married to the same woman, I suppose I should have expected it. The funny thing is that what gets me the most is that the lawyer, for whatever reason, will not contact me directly and my wife will not give me the lawyer's email address so I can contact her in writing. I did send a text but got no reply. So, I tried to find out from my wife if the number she gave me for her attorney is a cell phone but as with other inquiries I have made of her, she has not replied. Go figure.

What looked as if it was going to be an amenable separation leading to divorce has turned into what promises to be only the first episode of a lifelong nightmare.

All the best,
Glenn B

Monday, June 10, 2019

On Starting Out Being Alone Again


Dinner - First Full Day In The House Alone - is a Genoa salami,provolone and feta cheese sandwich on French peasant bread with Italian dressing and a bottle of Ommegang's Three Philosophers ale. With a diet like this, I may not live long when single but I will enjoy myself.

All the best,
Glenn B

Sunday, June 9, 2019

Proof That Even Mice Get Married


All the best,
Glenn B

When The Heck Is Heterosexual Pride Month...

...or White History Month, or whatever celebration there is just for men. Someone please let me know.

Thanks,
Glenn B

Bang Bang, We Shot Each Other Down




At least not one of us that I know about!

All the best,
Glenn B

Two Pictures Say it All




All the best,
Glenn B

Okay - So It Seems Like Forever...

...,since I last posted anything on the blog. In truth, it's been a week. I was down in AR for the last week, brought more things down to my storage locker and to my son's place. Darned storage locker is full side to side but has some room going up, that is it would if the bottom boxes were not already collapsing under the weight of those higher up. I have more stuff but not all that much and it will get squeezed in there on my next trip to AR. That one is likely to nbe my last trip out of NY; then comes the wait for an apartment in either TX or TN. I am not about to live in AR on half my pension and have to pay state income tax - thus TX or TN. Right now, I am banking on the Texarkana, TX area for an apartment because it is closer to brendan in benton, AR bt if I buy a house with some land, it may be in TN because the land is less expensive there (and it is greener there too). of course, it is also about an hour and a half to two hours further from benton (at least where I would buy) but that would be okay I suppose.

More blogging later.

All the best,
GB

Sunday, June 2, 2019

CSA General Smith's Surrender - Not The End Of The Story

On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House. That is the name of town where surrender took  place - the actual surrender did not take place inside a court building but in the parlor of the Wilmer McLean home. (Source.

While that surrender is often considered to be the end to the American Civil War, it was not until almost 8 weeks later, on June 2, 1865, that the last full general of the Confederate States of America - General Edmund Kirby Smith - surrendered to Union Forces at Galveston, TX. Up until that time, Smith and the forces under his command continued to resist the Union Army. He fled to Mexico immediately after his surrender but later swore an oath of allegiance to the United States to receive amnesty. (Source.) Some consider Smith's surrender to be the actual end to the Civil War but there is a bit more to the story.

There was at least one field general left in the Confederacy who had not yet surrendered.  "In 1861 Stand Watie, a Cherokee {aka: De Gata Ga (Cherokee: “Stand Firm”)}, had raised and commanded the first volunteer Cherokee regiment—the Cherokee Mounted Rifles—mustered into the Confederate Army." (Source.) He was later promoted to Brigadier General and placed in charge of the First Indian Brigade. He surrendered with his forces on June 23, 1865. "Stand Watie was the last Confederate general to surrender his command." (Source.)

Now mind you, that quote said that Stand Watie was the last CSA General to surrender; yet, even his surrender was not the final surrender of CSA forces. There was still a Confederate ship in the fight. That ship had been purchased by CSA forces in Liverpool England in 1864 and renamed the CSS Shenandoah under the command of Captain James I. Wadell. After the above surrenders, the Shenandoah continued on its mission to destroy New England whaling ships. During that campaign in which the Shendandoah destroyed several Union ships, Wadell was informed of the surrender of the Confederacy. He decided to return to Liverpool where he surrendered. 


"The last Confederate surrender occurred on November 6, 1865, when the Shenandoah arrived in Liverpool. The only Confederate vessel to circumnavigate the globe was surrendered by letter to the British prime minister, Lord John Russell." (Source.)

All the best,
Glenn B