My 11-year old granddaughter, Ava...might be spelled Eva, don't remember, was recently baptized. That is a major event in a youngster's life. Great! I still recall being baptized at 8 years old and my Granddad was the one dunking me. Personally, I thought he kept me under far longer than the service called for, but he might have figured I needed extra time and wanted me good and doused. He was a good man, who had taught my brother Larry and I how to fish. We spent a lot of time fishing off the Pismo pier in California, catching mostly perch and the rare flounder. I went back there years later, only to find that more than half of the pier was destroyed in a terrible storm. Now the fishermen were dropping their hooks where the surfers caught the waves. Mad me wonder if any of the surfers ever got hooked as some of the best waves were right close to the pier's wood pilings. I used to surf, riding...or attempting to ride th waves at the beaches of Corona Del Mar, Newport and Balboa. Never was that great, took me a whole summer to learn and back then we used the "big guns", surfboards nearly twice as long as the boards used now. But, I really got into body surfing. Slap on a pair of fins and it really helped you catch a good ride. Ate a lot of sand too. But the best rides of all was using those rubberized personal inflated rafts. You felt like you were zipping along at 50 mph or better and you held on for dear life. Ah, those were the days.
My great-grandchildren both have their birthdays this week. Solomon is turning 5 and Segan is turning 2. They live with us, or I should say Canaan and Patrick, their parents, who have a small house on our property. To look at Segan you wouldn't even think she had just experienced a life-threatening sickness and went through an emergency flight by air ambulance from Seward to the City of Anchorage to undergo emergency surgery. Being so young, she most likely won't remember it, but a lot of prayers were answered and we thank everyone who was involved. I had a similar emergency happen to me when I was 5 yrs old and my appendix ruptured. We lived across the street from the hospital. I only recall the good parts of that experience.
I also turn 66 years old this month and that still feels mighty strange to think I've been around that long. I've already out lived my dad and his father, both taken in their late 50's. But my mom, she made it to 91 years. A lot of longevity on her side of the family, so who knows how long I'll be around. Both my older brothers are now with the Lord, but we each had different fathers and Larry, who is 5 yrs older than I, was killed by a drunk driver. He was riding his Harley home, a former outlaw biker who came to know the Lord, when a drunk driver nailed him from behind and forced him into the oncoming lane of traffic and into the grill of a 10-ton Kenworth Tractor-trailer rig. It all happened fast. Paul, my oldest brother, who was part American Indian, died of a disease that struck those of his bloodline. This strange disease also took the life of his oldest son. Like everyone else who believes, I figure I'll be around until the Good Lord calls me home.
I'm working on Chapter 7 of my current writing project. I've been telling the story of the typhoon that hit us in Seward and it rained for 30-days, flooding parts of the town and bringing in the Alaska Air and Army National Guard. For a week Seward was closed off as parts of the Seward Highway was under water. Hundreds of salmon could be seen scurrying across the road between the boat harbor area and a large lagoon. Several homes were lost and a lot of others damaged by the storm, but the town prevailed, just as they did following the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake and Tsunami.
I'm also telling the story of the wildest Halloween Night I ever worked as a police officer. A bunch of high schoolers had planned this night of revelry and the activities that occurred that night would long live on. One of the families owned a chicken farm and produced dozens and dozens of eggs every day for the sales market. The teenager of the family had been hoarding all the eggs not fit for sale and had hundreds of dozens of eggs, ammo for one of the largest egg fights in history. By morning, every business downtown was plastered with egg yolk, and every car left parked was covered too, including dozens of cars in the boat harbor. I pulled over several carloads of teens that night and found them and their vehicles, inside and out, and the occupants, coated in foul smelling egg yolk. A lot of teenagers were found with unbroken eggs in their pockets and they usually received a light tap with the night stick to break the eggs before they could be used for ammo. The looks on their faces as the yolk ran down their legs was quite memorable. Yes, a lot of these teens would be spending the next couple of days cleaning their cars, or their parents cars, and a lot of the town businesses and vehicles/boats. It was one big mess and the foul odor of rotten eggs was memorable and the event would long be remembered. As a police officer having to work on many Halloween Nights, I truly learned to hate that night and all the troublesome merrymaking it produced. Toilet papering someones house was one thing but this vile egg yoke did a lot of damage to a car's paint job, much less what it cost to clean a vehicle's interior.
Here is some headlines: "Multi-state Child Exploitation Operation Bust Leads to 82 Arrests and 17 Rescues".... "12 Million Pounds of Tyson Chicken Strips Recalled"...."China Using 'Concentration Camps' Against Muslim Minority".... "Taiwan Police Detain 350 People in Crackdown on Organized Crime"...."Russia Unveils 'Sea Ghost Stealth" Submarine"...."Hurricane Season Over Last Two Years Has Produced 32 Named Storms"...."Alabama House Votes 74-3 to Ban All Abortions"...."Bank of America Found to be Funding Planned Parenthood"...."Trump Announced Tariffs on Chinese Goods to Increase to 25%"...."Nurse Denied World Record For Not Running London Marathon in a Skirt"...."More than 700 Hamas Rockets Rain Down Upon Israel From Gaza Strip"...."Trump Administration Says It May Review Relationships With Countries Who Are Anti-Israel"...."North Korea Tests Rocket and Tactical guided Weapons"...."Israel Defense Force Attacks 70 Targets in Retaliation to Hamas Rocket Attack"...."Florida Governor Reviewing Bill That Would Arm School Teachers"...."Anti-Israel Posters Adorn London Bus Stops"...."Israel and Hamas Declare Cease Fire"...."United Nations Release Report that Extinction is Looming Over 1 Million Species of Plants and Animals".... Denver Voters May be Asked to Decriminalize 'Magic Mushrooms' "...."U.S. Deploying Carrier Strike Group and Bombers to Middle East to Deter Iran".... "China Warns Two U.S. Naval Vessels to Leave South China Sea".... "5.8 Earthquake Strikes Northern Philippines Islands"...."Russian Plane Crash Kills 41-People After Making Emergency Landing and Bursting Into Flames, Report that it May have been Struck by Lightening"...."U.S. Readies New Sanctions on Cuba, Russia For Backing Dictator in Venezuela"
I forwarded a report on to you that I had received regarding the dangers of using electro-magnetic communication devices as it MAY be a source for leading to illnesses. The report was too lengthy for me to add to my journal and I forward it on as information for you to review, as I believed it came from a reputable source. If I was wrong in doing so, I do apologize. Take it for what it is, possible useful information or fake news. I have had reputable news sources burn me in the past, I truly do not know at this time if this was the case here. I have received bits and pieces of such claims from other sources, but who knows they all could be full of hot air.... or possibly right on the mark. You judge.
I will occasionally forward on to you copies of the news reports issued by the Gatestone International News. Mainly because I find their stories quite interesting, but far too lengthy for me to add to a journal. I have found Gatestone to be a proven reputable news service, a Christian-Jewish supported service that prints out stories the mainline news services will seldom touch. If you do not wish to read these, simply delete.
I do hope this beautiful spring morning finds you all in good spirits. I also ask the Lord to bless your week. BILL