It was a beautiful but cold day for a walk on the railtrail today, but I'm glad I made the effort. This is the Cass River back up toward the bridge on M-15. It is one of my favorite spots. I caught my one and only pike so far right at the end of the grassy finger sticking out into the river. That was quite an adventure.

My new phone, the droid x, is working well and getting better coverage than I had with the Blackberry. I had trouble making calls from some parts of my house with the Blackberry. Of course, my office was a big offender on that. Now, that seems to have gone away. We'll see.

I run my internet browsing on wifi with the new phone. No more dead spots and the speed is lightning fast compared to a 3G connection on the Blackberry. This will make the phone a real competitor with the computer for internet access.

The picture above is from the droid. It's an 8 MP shot. I loved the old camera at 3.2, but after seeing what happens when you blow a shot like that up, I really didn't want to keep on creating memories and documentation in that format.

It's been a good day. I cooked supper for a change. All went well.

My Father and the Reising Gun

Dad was a Marine on Guadalcanal. It was a transforming event in his life and one filled with many stories. Some of them related to instantaneous death. One of these small stories was about a friend who was walking down the beach talking with two other Marines.

A Japanese sniper was in a plam tree looking for such a target. The sniper killed the man farthest from Dad's friend who was carrying a Reising gun. The sniper swung to the next man in line while the Marine hit the butt of the Reising gun; threw the gun into position and fired. The sniper was dead before he could swing to the remaining man.

The Reising gun had a bad reputation. Troops thought that the magazine you see extending below the gun could be used as a handle. This caused the gun to jam; not a good trait in war.

As you have heard, this gun was more than enough on at least one occasion.

My New Granddaughter

A new person is coming into my life. I wonder what she will bring into our lives. This crazy, little smile that brings a smile in return from me will bring joy to many. She is an undiscovered treasure.