Author: Dick

Sometimes I wonder about people who read blogs. EFD is something that I do more as a writer’s exercise and hobby than it is trying to reach some specific (or unspecific) audience. Those that read EFD do. Those that don’t …

I have mentioned before that I like my StatCounter but not so much for the recording of hits. Rather it allows me to have at least a general idea who is reading EFD. By using its visitor’s path I can tell where the visitor came from, what kind of computer was used, how long they stayed and what they were looking for on the search engine that sent them here. Pretty awesome, if not voyeuristic. Here is a sample of what people who end up at EFD are searching for:

From Singapore: “human spitoon.”

This person from Eau Claire, Wisc., had us confused with an Antarctic adventure movie: “Eight feet deep movie.”

From Aggieland, College Station, Texas, some one is searching for the ever popular: “Texas flag bikini.”

Someone from Vietnam perhaps is expecting to an second Sun to show up: “SUNBLOCK SPF80.”

Yes, we all are searching for something. Me? I’m searching for something to eat.

Implement of torture

Our lives have become much easier because of so many gadgets and devices. So why is it that simple tasks of auto maintenance such as changing spark plugs have become a bigger pain in the ass than ever?

My Tacoma pickup last week started running like a terrier with distemper. So I have begun the old process of elimination routine of automobile repair. I started with the simple stuff: gas treatment, carburetor cleaner. No change. So I bought some plugs and finally had time to put them in this morning. The first sign it was going to be a bad experience is when I finally got the first wire off and looked down at my plug which appeared to be 40 feet below. It was way down there and I had no tool to reach it. So I went to the auto parts store and purchased the above 6-inch extension for my ratchet drive, pictured above.

Now it would seem like changing plugs would be a snap in my truck. They are located on top of the engine block, the same configuration a Corolla I once owned had. It was very easy to change the plugs in that car. But like most automobiles built in the last 20 years or so there are so many wires and assorted other crap crammed under the hood that it is a chore to get to anything at all. So it was a challenge getting to the plugs, getting them out and putting the new ones in. In the process, I pulled a little too hard on a plastic covering on a wire and broke it. So now I am awaiting a ride to the auto parts store to buy a set of wires since they don’t sell just one wire. Oh well, I guess a new set of wires is a good thing.

Birds fear me. Yeah, right.

It hasn’t been a very exciting day. But on the bizarre side, my downstairs neighbor planted a small garden next to a fence and has put up two of these scare owls to keep the birds away. They look pretty strange. I think it would be funny if a large flock of birds landed on the two owls and they fell under the flock’s weight and busted. I would almost pay to see that.

This is kind of what the fire scene I saw earlier looked like had it not been somewhere completely different.

Another exciting afternoon walk in my Old Town neighborhood of Beaumont, Texas. This afternoon my walking route became invaded by the Beaumont Fire Department as a house burned very impressively near the intersection of Evalon Avenue and North Sixth Street.

I walked up near the house just as the first fire engine pulled up. Fire was shooting from the rear roof of the house and black smoke came from just about every crack in the structure.

Speaking of crack, Homes, the dude across the street, told me about 10 homeless guys who had been living there and that the place was a crack house. Another guy, whom is the guy I see quite frequently drinking beer when I pass by, was across the street drinking beer and watching the house burn. The guy drinking beer said the people who lived in the house died about three years ago and the house had been vacant since. He said the police had been called to keep the homeless people out but the squatters kept coming back.

That’s all I know. So now, you know.

Re: Karma

I just lost all the research that I did today for my tech project — about five hours of work. It was gone in the blink of an eye due to my own stupidity by not saving my work. Okay, so I’m stupid. But I think Karma just gave me an ass-whupping too. Like Johnny Cash said: “I don’t like it but I guess things happen that way.”

It is often edifying to check out “This Day in History” Web sites such as that of The History Channel. This is certainly the case on rainy days when nothing else comes to mind that I might write about. Of course, the blog is strictly voluntary on my part. I don’t have to write if I so choose. But writing helps me keep in touch with my inner haftpflichtversicherung, or as they used to say in Germany: “Personal liability insurance.”

Among the items that I found the most interesting which happened on this day were relative to the Vietnam War. To be more specific: On March 29, 1971, Lt. William Calley was found guilty at a a court martial of premeditated murder in the My Lai massacre. The total number of those slaughtered by U.S. soldiers that day is not certain but is believed to be between 340 and 500 Vietnamese civilians. Also on this day — two years later in 1973 — the last combat troops left Vietnam. The U.S. involvement there would not officially end until April 1975 when U.S. forces helped to evacuate those fleeing from Saigon when South Vietnam fell to the communists.

These two historical items that happened on this day are of significance to me. Part of the reason is that the Vietnam War was a watershed period in my young life and was thus an intensely personal event even though I never served in the war.

Hearing about the My Lai massacre and the subsequent news surrounding Calley’s involvement was the first time that I totally wondered what the hell was wrong with people from our country. With the massacre it was a bit more complex to get at the answer. This is especially so because I know many who served in Vietnam who said you couldn’t tell who was enemy and who wasn’t. But murder is murder is murder. Calley was paroled in 1974 after serving about a third of his 10-year sentence.

If I felt shamed because of what our troops did in My Lai, I felt pride in meeting and interviewing retired Army Chief Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson Jr. Thompson, pictured above, died Jan. 6, 2006, in Lafayette, La. I was fortunate to have talked with him by phone for a newspaper column and later met him at a speech he gave in February 2005. Thompson was the helicopter pilot who saw the massacre taking place on the ground at My Lai, and upon landing with his two crew members covering him, he confronted Calley. Thompson is credited with saving about a dozen villagers. After being threatened by Army officials and members of Congress for telling what happened that day, Thompson was finally awarded the Soldier’s Medal for his heroism almost 30 years to the day after My Lai.

As for this day in 1973, I recall being ecstatic. I was a high school junior then and up until that time I had gone all through high school wondering if I would eventually be drafted and sent to Vietnam. Of course, I also wondered about my options if that happened as well. As it turned out, I would enlist in the Navy some 16 months later. But not until I burned my draft card.

Yep, I was being processed into the Navy in Houston and this guy asked me for my draft card. I asked him what he was going to do with it and was told that he would tear it up and throw it away. I asked him: “Can I burn it?” He agreed. So I torched my draft card and watched it smolder in an ash tray. There might be symbolism there but I’m just too brain dead from tech writing today to figure out what it is.

Oh yeah, also on this day in 1990, record companies agreed to place warning labels on music products that contain potentially offensive lyrics. It might seem funny but I don’t think I have ever even noticed those labels. I wonder why that is?