Sunday June 19, 2005
6:45p
     Yesterday, after cutting the grass, I started working on that door I got for the outdoor storage room the first week of May. It had been leaning up against the wall inside the storage room since I got it.
     Yesterday I did most all the marking, measuring, figuring and routing. Went down to the hardwire place by the creek and got a bore for making the door knob hole. I took the old door down and used it as a guide. Got the hinge and latch areas routed. One of the few times I've used the router, it gets used about every 4, 7 or 10 years. Drilling out the latch hole wasn't easy. I had to use one of Dad's old, really old, wood boring bits, one of the long ones. I used a couple of his other old bits too. After I finished and put them back up in the big wooden tool box in the metal building I did the Buddist monk, Japanese shalen (sp?) think; seven bows. I do that at Dad's old tool box over at my house too. It's a shrine thing, this bowing stuff.
     Today after lunch I did the planing to make it fit. Used Dad's old hand planer of course. That took several tries, not wanting to take too much off except a little bit at a time. In the end I took off a lot anyway. I hung the new door on the hinges to see how it fit, then take it down again to do more planeing.
     After I decide everything would work, I drove over to my house to get a paint brush and came right back. So I painted it. Waited a while for it to dry mostly. Then painted it again. I was going to paint it first before hanging but I didn't. I got it hung that last time and just decided to go ahead and to the painting. It was after five when I finished it.
     I put the stuff up and the I went and cleaned up. Sat around to eat supper and watch golf. Then I went out to put the old door knob back on the new door. So that job is finished now, except I will try and put another coat of paint on it in week or too.
     Mom had money with an attorney, ever since 1983. She would drawn some out every now and then on one account. The other account she would get predated quarterly checks. Since 1989 she just let the interest accummulate. Well anyway it looks like that money is gone now.
     A couple of years ago, 2003 I think, the attorney had a stroke. I was up early that morning like I usually am and saw the amblance over there. A few weeks latter the talk around the neighborhood was that it was a stroke. Later that year I remember seeing him walk, really slowly, down his driveway a short piece. He was going to therapy somewhere for a long time too. Later still they, he and his wife, moved to Easley, something to do with being closer to therapy I think.
     But anyway there was the usual rumors and talk and speculation about everything. I think it was Christmas time last year I saw a crowd over at the attorney's house. They went down into their woods for a walk about I guess. One of the people who use to visit Mom sort of regularly, she talked about other people wanting their money back from the attorney. I think that talk could have started after I lost my money at Carolina Investors and mom had mentioned where she had her money.
     So about February mom decides to ask for her money back too. It was a combination of concern over attorney's health and ability to continue handling her money. It was about this time that Dan and his girl friend were planing their cross country trip too. Mom wanted to get some of her money and start spending some of it on me. She's always wanted me to go places and have a normal life since Dan and Robert were going on about their lives too.
     I guess that's when it became offical with Mom, the attorney didn't have the money anymore. He just started paying the interest monthly.
     Sometime during May, after she got out of the hospital, the bankruptcy court letter arrived. I went over to the creditors meeting June 2. That was an all day traveling day since I had to go to Anderson that morning too. I drove I 85 from Anderson to Spartanburg. Made a quick stop in Greenville at Best Buys looking for a computer replacement. They are all to much and I would have to start over again with everything. But anyway, on to Spartanburg.
     I got there about two or so, parked in the courthouse car park, walked around to where the bankruptcy court building was to verify I had found the right place then went back to the truck. I ate a late lunch at Subway and then went back to the truck to wait for an hour or two. Spent some of the time figuring up Mom's interest and withdrawls and how much she had. She's gotten back interest for twenty-two years pulse those time she got money out of the accounts. It's more than what she started with.
     The coutroom proceedings were interesting for while waiting for the attorney's case. It was just a bunch of regular questions then the judge would declare no asset case. It took about 3 or 4 minutes per case. But when the attorney's case came around, it was the last for the day, they set up microphones and other arrangements for a lot of people. Then it turned it one of those things where individuals would get up and do lots of talking about things a long time ago. Several were upset of course.
     But anyway, I was expecting to just learn what with wrong with the investments and what to expect in the recovery and what the process would be. None of that happened. There was one lawyer who already had some clients and I think he was there to drum up some more too. I really don't want Mom to get into all that. Just take whatever the courts decide and be done with it.
     Those monthly interest payments will probably be called into question by the court. Something to do about some creditors getting something for their money while others don't. But of course some of the others may be getting monthly interest too. It will be like what happened to some of the Carolina Investors who made withdrawls but had to give it back.
     Well I really wasn't going to write about all that so I will just quit. Besides it just more of the same ol misfortunes of a couple of us Hughes'.
     Except for the door thing. I got that done and don't have to think about it anymore ... at least until some bad happens to it ... like falling off since nothing I try to fix works out anyway.

Sunday June 26, 2005
6:20p
     The light switch in Mom's bedroom had quit working a couple of months ago. She never mentioned anything about the light not working or needing changing. She had thought the light bulb had burned out. But that was a couple or three weeks ago. I got a new switch about that long ago too.
     After lunch today I changed the switch. Got Dad's old power checker and some tools. Had to take the old switch out to check the power. Then I went into the laundry room and check that old piece of paper with the breaker labeled I did decades ago and turn off the power. Then it was back to the bedroom to finish changing the switch. So another piece of the old house got removed. I guess I will take it over to my house to put with all the other pieces.
     Yesterday was much the same old things, wash clothes, haul off trash, get groceries and cut grass. Sometime between getting groceries and cutting grass I cleaned behind the vynile baseboard in the blue bathroom. Parts of it had been loose for a long time too. The adhesive had dried out and was crumbling.
     I got it cleaned out behind them and most of the loose chips off the vynile. But I decided to take them outside to wash off. The adhesive must have been a water base and as I scrubbed them more of it came off. So I ended up spending lots of time getting them cleaned. I did that out on the back stoop.
     So I got two extra things done this weekend.
     At work I started doing some calculations for one of the new belt sanders. It has three pulleys with the belt drive. It mostly just figuing the forces and reactions. But at least it's something to do.
     There's a sketching or drawing application I use to make diagrams with. It's one I've not used that much because it wasn't easy to how to do just the simple drawing of lines and circles. But at least I'm getting some diagrams out of it now. There was another one that came wtih an older version of MathCad, Smart Sketch, that I had used for two or three years. But that one got left behind with some of the MathCad updates. So I had to learn this other one, Freehand, that Joe the lab test guy had.
     The man who had Mom's money and is filing for bankruptcy has another court date this Thursday. But I'm not going, it's too much hassle to get over to Spartanburg, find parking, and sitting around waiting for something to happen. And it will be like last time with a bunch of creditors getting up and telling their life stories of hardships and broken trust.
     Mom still hasn't send that form from that lawyer who was at the last court date. She doesn't know what to do even though I've explained everything to her. I just think she needs to let the court do what its going to do and stay out of the rest of it. I doubt if they would get much more anyway and the lawyer would get a fourth of third of that. It's just going to be long, drawn out thing just like Homegold and Mom may die before she would get anything.
     Besides there are two men retiring the same day and I may drive down to Anderson for that instead. At least that will be more pleasant.

     You know the world would be a decent place if we could just get rid of all the politicans. There's one group who really hates the other group. Their hatred of their adversaries is greater than their love of the nation. It's the same in most all the countries around the world. It is what will bring the States to its knees, decline and demise.
     Down with politicans, down with lobbists, down with corruption, down with governments, down with the rich rich, down with everything.

     Oh yeah the Summer Solistice happened last week. The moon was extra low on the horizon. Nothing else happened ... didn't do anything special for it either ... but that's become the norm now.

Tuesday July 5, 2005
2:45p
     I left about 11:45 this morning to go over to my house to cut the grass (weeds). Loaded Mom's push mower into the truck, it has a collaspable handle so it can fit under the bed cover. Put the gasoline powered, monfilliment trimmer in there too along with a tank of gasoline. Then I left to drive over to my house. Nothing odd about that is there? Just moving stuff to do stuff.
     Changed into my smelly work clothes, the pants I got for working at the Pizza Inn and a couple of the university tee shirts I got back during the 1980s. I forgot, it keep them on the porch here at Mom's house so I put them in the back of the truck too. I cut around the house first then I had to sit and cool off and rest. Next was the area around the mail boxes. That had gotten tall and thick again and was hard to push the mower through. It was about 1:30 or 2:00 (standard time) then and I could tell I was getting hot. But I managed to finish that section and then I rested and cooled off again. After that I did the area around the end of my driveway and the side of the road down to the next neighbor's driveway. He had been keeping that cut some too, I guess because he has a riding mower and wants to. So anyway I got that down and pushed the mower up my steep driveway. I was lifting the rear wheels off the pavement. Then it was sit, rest and cool off again.
     I must have been resting and cooling off as much as I was actually working. It's not really good to get out and do that kind of stuff when you're not use to it. It being noon day Summer heat probably wasn't good either. But anway it's done for another month. It's been raining a lot recently so the grass grows fast, more that it has in past Summers.
     Last evening Mom watched one of the Fourth of July specials, the one on ETV at the capital. She stayed up later than she normaly does to see the fireworks. There wasn't much and that was after 9:00 (daylight time). I was wanting to go on to bed like I normally do but that got messed up. I didn't get to sleep and was back up a few minutes before midnight. Sat out on the back porch and listened to the local fireworks. There wasn't many because it was raining last evening. Typical I guess, people going to outdoor activities and it rains. After that I went back to the front bedroom and laid down to wait for sleep to happen. Woke up again at 5:30 dt, did my usual morning things and then went back to bed about 7:00. Stayed there till 10:20.
     Yesterday it was mostly cloudy and wet but not as hot as it could have been. I didn't do anything till the afternoon and drove through Liberty to Clemson. Sat on that bench in front of the old Clemson House hotel. There was a student out shooting basketball next to the building. There wasn't much to see while sitting on the bench. The trees have grown up and full of leaves. You can't see the Tillman building except for the very top. Most of the old library buiding is hidden from sight too. I just sat there and though of the years past. Then I left, drove back to Picken through Six Mile, the same old road I drove almost 40 years ago.
     Sunday ... it was just another Sunday ... drove up to Holly Springs cemetery and sat next to Woodie's grave like usual. I did get my calculator out and was cleaning inbetween the keys when I heard some odd noise, the stratching of styrofoam. It was some lady putting up a reef on one of the graves. It kind of suprised me because there were no cars around and I couldn't tell where she came from. But when she left she went up to the long, private driveway above the cemetery. Even then I didn't see any vehicle but I heard a door close. She walked over the the Chastain grave too and did something but I didn't look.
     Saturday I was up at Holly Springs too. That was after doing the grass cutting around Mom's house. I didn't stay long because there was lots of lightening on the mountains. Must have seen a dozen hits on those nearby mountains. So I left and went back to Mom's house to wait for the storm to get there. It wasn't too bad though because the strom went down the west and on to Six Mile.
     So that's been the Fourth of July holidays.
     The celebrations just don't mean much to me anymore. There's just too much wrong with the country for such. Kind-a like watching all the crooks, criminals, politicans, super rich people and others celebrating their good life at the expense of all us common folks. And then there's that war thing going on over in Iraq and Afganistan. The new states empire celebrates its first acquistions of the new american century.
     At work the last week or two I've been doing the basic force and reaction analysis on a belt sander. It has three pulley wheels and a pinion/gear set. I got all that worked up in a Mathcad worksheet. So it's been some real work going on at work. I think I've finaly figured out a general method for doing forces and reactions. Determine all the angles from the positive X axis, right up the moment equations as all positive forces and reactions, then let the sines and cosines determine the direction of everything. I've tried using something like in past years but it seemed like something would always get messed up. But this time I looks like it works ok. ... I see I've already talked about this so on to the next thing.
     Sometime in June Mom tried making an appointment to see her lung doctor. That office has one of those automated answering systems and you're suppose to press numbers depending on what you want. She can't do things like anymore. This time she got in a fuss with an operator or the receptionists. The same thing has been happening with other doctor's offices and she just can't cope with it. I have told her to let me make the calls but she just wants to keep doing it herself. So this month it's time to do it all over again for an appointment next month.
     I got Mom changed to a new local doctor. Got that done the last of May and first of June. So she doesn't have to put up with that doctor who doesn't like to write prescriptions for some medicines. That's the end of her going to the same family practice office since the early 1960s.
     Daniel and Robert have been talking some about coffee again. Daniel says Startbucks is changing their ways of making the stuff. He thinks it's the beginning of the end. Robert says he goes to most any of the local private places anyway and thinks their coffee is probably better than the big name place. But since I can't drink coffee anymore ... I've learned there is life after no coffee.
     One of the space programs crashed a probe into a comet this weekend. Raised up a big cloud of something or other.
     I suppose I should have gone to see DM and Micky but I didn't again. Leander still comes up to see Mom every couple of weeks. She did her hair the last time.
     June the 30th Arie Hayes Watts died. She was in her late eighties. She and Grahman had just moved to Iowa so their son Forest could see about them. That was late last year and/or early this year. They were living in a vetrans place sine Grahman was a pow in world war two. She just quit eating and finally died. Sometimes I think the living in a different or strange place was the last straw. They are to have the interment this coming Saturday.
     They lived out on Shady Grove road since the early 1980s after moving from Pennsylvania. Grahman is the one who collected lots of old stuff and their house was full of things and the out building were too. Someone managed to clean all that out after they had to move to Iowa. I bet someone got a really good deal on lots of old stuff too.
     One of Mom's sister-in-laws, the one who has to have dylalisis at home, she had a stroke the other day. They didn't keep her at the hospital but sent her on home. Then some days later a visiting nurse decide she needed to be in a rehab center. So that's where she is now.
     There was another court hearing June the 30th about the lawyer who has/had Mom's money. I didn't go. I called someone who I knew would go and learned from her that the court has called in a real estate lawyer specialist to figure out where all the money went. That's going to take eight months. Then there'll be more time after that to sell whatever parcels are sellable. Oh yeah, the lawyer's son was there again too instead of the lawyer neighbor. I guess he just really can bear to face the crowd ... or else the son is the one who messed everything up so he's making him face the court.
     It doesn't matter much anymore anyway. Mom will probably pass away long before any of that stuff is decided.
     So I've written a lot this time. Just trying to make up for all the voids during the last year or two I guess.

Saturday July 30, 2005
3:00p
     The last couple or three weeks I've been reading a book I got when I went up to Mt Mitchell. It's about the Cherokee, Myths, History and was written by James Mooney about 1890-1900. He did some work for the American Enthology Bureau, some part of a government agency. I guess that was his life's work, doing stuff for them because he cites some of his previous work for the bureau during the later 1800s.
     I must have gotten past the history part of the book and into the myths and stories part. Then I started noticing familar names for the Pickens, Oconee, Smokey Mountains area. The Cherokee town on Keowee was one, of course that was part of the history section too. But it was nice to read some of the old Indian stories and recognize the place names. Keowee river, Chattago river, Hiwasee, Clingman's Dome, Mt Mitchell (use to be called Black Mountain) ....
     Learnt that the Keowee town had a drum carved from stone and shaped like a turtle. The neighboring villages and towns would borrow it for one of the dances or ceremonies. Then there would be the occassional ball game, lacross descended from it, between the different tribes.
     I had thought of copying some of the local stories to make a new web page for my website. So anyway it's be more interesting reading as compared to some volume of the Encyclopedia Britiannica.
     ....
     It got hot the last ten days or two weeks. Hot like it use to get back during the 1980s and the drought years. Except it's been raining and showering regularly too. The upper 90s, and one day right at 100, were the norm high temperatures. But about Thursday evening and yesterday it got back down around 90. Today has been extra cool, overcast clouds and about 75 for most of the day. The thermoter on the back porch is near 80 now though.
     There's been more activity at work the last three weeks too. I've actually got projects and testing backed up. I finished one, sort-of, and did my usual thing of publishing the progress reports as I went along. Ended up finding a mistake and had to do most of it all over again. I really should stop doing that and just wait till everything is finished and then check it over before sending out anything. But I want to generate something and get it out so they know I'm doing something on their project.
     One of the things we did was pressure test some high pressure washer hoses. Had to wait a really long time on some test equipment and values. But we did that Thursday. Pump the water pressure up to almost 12,000 psi, watch and listen for it to bust open somewhere. That project must have tooken a month to get done since we had to wait for stuff. That happens a lot and I think the project engineer who requested the testing really gets tired of waiting, makes changes anyway and moves on to something else.
     I think most all those designers and engineers think we should get their stuff done in just a couple of days. They will spend months designing their products, get it finished modeled on the CAD system, and send it out for tooling. They're finished. Then they will ask us in the analytical group to do our analysis to see if everything is ok. So we end up doing design analysis while tooling is being made. We could spend as much time analyzing as they do designing to get everything done right. But of course it's hurry up and go from concept to production in 8 or 9 months now. That use to be a two year process.
     Our group had to go down to Anderson to do a show and tell about what we do and the analytical lab equipment. The new young engineer put it all together. I had to stand in front of a lot of people and talk some. All I did was have a list of past projects we're worked on. I don't like doing that since I can't talk loudly and plainly.
     Oh yeah ... they will be shutting down all the production lines here in Pickens ... moving them to China. The company owner was here recently too. Learned marketing spent 4 million dollars on their new office space. He didn't like that at all, rumor is he told them they're not spending his money on that.
     ...
     While I writing about work ... I've never know what I was doing with all this mechanical engineering and analysis. The man I work with is a real engineer (civil) and doesn't understand computer programming much. Me doing structrual analysis is like him doing programming. ..... I'm getting really tired of it all.
     ...
     Some of Mom's family are having troubles. Sister in law had a stroke, sister's grandson is acting out and up, brother's legs are worst.
     I've got two weeks of vacation to use up before the end of the year. Maybe in September and October or use a day here a day there during December like the others. Still won't go anywhere or do anything special. Something always happens to make it feel like I haven't had a vacation anyway.
5:15p
     I think it was two Saturdays ago I did some house repair after cutting the grass. Some weeks before that one of the lightening, thunder, wind storms finished blowing down the gutter drain at the corner of the back porch. This is at Mom's house by the way since I don't do anything over at my house anymore except keep the weeds cut down.
     So anyway, I had already gotten a board and it was in the outdoor storage room. I was thinking of replacing the whole board. Where the drain had attached to the corner column the water had gotten in and the wood rotted away. That looked like too much for me to do so I just cut off a short piece of the new wood and used it. Did the paint chipping and scraping, repainted the bad looking wood on that column and the other corner next to the carport. Pre painted the new wood ... let it dry ... and nailed it to the old wood. There's been some really old coffee cans in the laundry room for decades. I found the nails to use in it.
     The drain had a sheet metal part to hold it to the column. I straighted and flattened it out some. Sort of held the drain up like it was suppose to be and marked where the bracket thing was suppose to go. I was expected that to end up in the wrong place anyway since the screws holding the drain to the bracket had to line up along with where the top of the drain fitted next to the gutter. But it went back together ok.
     Mean while the new door to the storage room had swollen up some and was hard to open. I learnt that when I got the new piece of wood and was going to put it in there. So I did some more planing on the sticking edge. Left off the latch in the door knob too, just put the screws back in so that friction holds the door closed. I did get a scrap piece of wood and a brick to brace the bottom of the door. So that's fixed again ... till something goes wrong with my repair jobs.

Saturday August 27, 2005
7:20p
     This came to mind a day or two ago. Sometime during the last two weeks of August 1975 I got out of the navy. I think it was August 18th, I'd have to go look it up on the discharge papers. But anyway it just another one of those things that happens to be a 30 year ago thing.
     Work the last three weeks has been ... trying to do mechanical engineering stuff which I don't know how to do. Maybe I've already said that. It's just that it's getting worst and sooner or later I'm going to be told to leave cause I can't do my job.
     I posted some messages at the PickensPolitics.com place about the Homegold thing. So I got that out of my system and I'm good for another 5 or 6 months.
     I need to write up that thing about Woodie Chastain too. I'm still thinking about that and leaving something there too.
     The political divisions in the country over the Iraq war and Bush and those new conservatives in power and all ... well it's all just getting worst.
     It's the beginning of the 50 year decline of the States ... or its transformation into all the bad things it use to be against.
     Bye.

Sunday August 28, 2005
6:50p
     I was in Virginia Beach, Virginia during August 1971. Actually I was there for four and half years from December 1970 to August 1975, the Navy years for me. But anyway it was late August or early September that year, I called back home for some reason or another or just to talk with the parents. I asked Dad if there was any news back home. He told me Woodie Chastain got killed in Vietnam. I must of paused for a second or two, am I suppose to know him? No, I just asked what the latest in Pickens was and he told me. So that's how I came to know about you.

     Now it's ... what ... 34 years later. Still I think about the Nam years, always have off and on.

     You were two years behind me at High School. We may have passed in the halls or at some ball game or something. But you know, we were just both faces in a crowd.

     There was a couple of guys ahead of me by a year or two also. They were the first ones I really knew about, Lyles and Jones. I think it was Lyles who came back to see some of his teachers after he had finished. I was in physics or chemistry class, Mrs Lindsey's class. He came in and talked a bit. Said something about going on the college or staying in school or otherwise ended up going to Nam like he was headed.

     But anyway, stuff happens and you don't really think about it at the time.

     Like I said, it's 34 years later and I've thought about them, others I've never knew, off and on for decades now. Seems like the Vietnam years have never been far from my thoughts. It's more so now cause there's this other war going on now. I don't know whether or not it was the right or wrong to start it. It just feels erily like Nam again, a politican's war.

     I was in college, down at Clemson the first two years after high school. I think it was during those years I subscribed to the Congressional Record. One issue had the list of names in them, all of them who had died in Nam up to that time. I hung onto that one ... it's still in the lower left draw of my desk at my house. It's been there since 1969 I think.

     There was this think called the moving Wall, a model of the one up in the District. It was in Greenville sometime during the late 1980s, April 1988 I think. I packed up that old yellowing Congressional Record into my back pack and took it over there. It was dusk one evening, sat off by myself across the road from the park it was it. Someone tending to the booth saw me and pointed me out to someone else. He came over and talked a few minutes ... looking for Nam Vets. Told him I had been carrying around my own list of names for 20 years and showed him the old book.

     ....

     Oh well, I've started rambling on about things I've done since 1971. The last couple or three years I've been driving up to Holly Springs Church to sit in my truck at the upper side of the cemetery. That started out 'cause it's a great view of Pinnicle, Table Rock, old Camp Adger. I just sit there and think about the past ... the long ago past too when there was a road into North Carolina through Camp Adger.

     But anyway I started looking at the grave head stones next to the truck, probably the first time up there, and saw your name. Woodrow "Woodie" Beal Chastain ... I'm suppose to know that name. Probably took me a week or so to make the connection back to that phone call in August/September 1971. Now every weekend doesn't feel complete unless I go up to the cemetery and just sit and think about the 'twist and 'tween from then and now.

     I suppose in my long winded way I'm just trying to say I remember, always will remember those of our generation who .... Well that's all most any of us common guys can do, just sit and remember each other and never forget our war years.

Wednesday August 31, 2005
4:50a
     PING! I wakes up, it's 2:30 am, looks at terrorist attact probability meter, it's flickering upward from 0.5591 to 0.6719, makes record in log book, goes back to sleep. Going to be iffy the next 30 - 60 days.

Sunday September 4, 2005
3:40p
     Kitrina the hurricane took out New Orleans last Sunday and Monday. The relief effort had to start as a rescue effort but then deterriated into no effort. Seems the government and political leaders can't do anything right anymore. But that's become the expected.
     The looting, killing, every bad person for himself rule started immediately. People stranded on roofs, in attics. No plans for food at the main gathering places, the superdome and convention center. Rapes and killings and people just plain ole dying. Hospitals raided by the mobs, hospital workers and patients retreating to the upper floors.
     By the time it's all accounted for there will be tens of thousands dead.
     This hasn't been mentioned on any of the news programs but I know it's been going on too. The mob, organized crime, has probably already moved in to do the big heists at the banks, jewlery, museums and all that.
     There was one report already about the budgets cuts to make the levees stronger for a #5 hurricane. Budget cuts to pay for the war in Iraq. There was another short one that no one will remember. It was with someone involved in planning a few years ago for the big hurricane. The low level planner talked about tents for the refugees and that go snickers from some of the big wheel planners. "Americans don't live in tents." What a joke for leadership in this country.
     People, families are being scattered about the country. Some going to Texas others to Tennessee. And that's just the ones who couldn't make it out on their own.
     The oil and gas lines ran empty in just a couple of days, the two big ones that run up the eastern states. Three dollars and change here already, five dollars in other parts of the east coast. That suprised me, that we live that close to the edge on gasoline. The oil rigs and refinerys got hit bad this time too.
     Between rebuilding the city and ports and refinerys and displaced families and people it will be a really long time for things to get back to normal. Like 5 to 10 years.
     I guess the main thing learned from this is that the first rescue and relief workers into a disaster area will have to be Army, Marines and National Guard people to keep their fellow Americans from killing each other. It was amazing how quickly the bad people took over the run of the city.
     The other news ... not any ... just same ole I don't know what I'm doing stuff at work, haul trash off, get groceries, cut grass, watch tv, wake up early, so on and so forth. I did start straighting out and cleaning up the kitchen over at my house. I had been just letting junk mail and other junk pile up on the counters and floor. Did that yesterday. Tomorrow is a holiday and will do more of that then, do the study room and file all that accumulated stuff away. Then it's work four days. The next week I will take a vacation week but not go anywhere like always. Sort of thought of going up into North Carolina to look for some of the places I read about in that American Indian history book. But now gas is scarice and costing twice as much as it did a few weeks ago.
     Oh yeah, Blondie the comic strip is 75 years old this weekend.

September 10-18, 2005
Hawissee Cherokee LandB>
     It's really November 5, a Saturday, I've been putting off writing in this Journal for two months. So all this is mostly just making a record of the things that have happened.
     I took one of my vacation weeks about mid September. I think it was the week after Labor Day week. It was mostly just hanging around like I have been doing on days off from work. I did make a two day trips, one into north Georgia and the other one up to Cherokee and Franklin North Carolina.
     On the trip into north Georgia the objective was to travel as far as I could before time to turn back. I drove past the Bull's Sluice place on the Chattoga River. Drove through Clayton too head west on the road I took back in 1986 on the jeep tour.
     There wasn't a whole lot that I recognized from the trip long ago. It was mostly just knowing I was traveling the same road I did before. There was one turn out some miles past Clayton that overlooked some of the low mountians of the lower Appalicans. It had an information board and told about the hill people living there and then selling their land to the tree cutters. I think it said about fifty cents a tree or something like that. You know the lumber people were getting a lot more than that for them. I just spent a few minutes there and smoke a cig and then drove on west.
     The road crosses the Applician trail a few more miles west of there. I past it and just realized what it was as I did so I had to turn around and go back to it. There was a tour bus for some group of people taking up most of the parking area beside the road. There were a few tables and the information boards there too. The boards had the usual write ups about the trail and stuff for those doiing the hiking thing. Mostly miles between points I guess. It was all beside a small stream. I walked across the road and down the trail a few tens of yards. It wasn't much special about it, just that it was part of the long trail between Georgia and Maine or where ever it ends. I left just as another truck with a recreation vehicle pulled in.
     I just drove on through till I got somewhere south of Hayes North Carolina. It was in the lake area of north Georgia. Hawissee, that's the name of the place. I was sort of driving along trying to decide where I was going to, sort of thinking of trying for the southeast corner of Tennesse. But I passed an old brick house of a building near the lake. It was the only building in the immediate area. I saw it had a Native American sign out front as I drove by so I had to find a turning around place down the road and go back.
     The old house was once the home of one of the local rich persons. It was part of some state park or nation park system now. The Cherokee out of North Carolins had a lease on it and a couple managed the gift shop. I was the only tourist there. There was a lady in the gift shop so I spent time looking around and taking about the Cherokee. It all seem friendly enough but she left and her husband came out of the back rooms to tend to the shop. I didn't think much of it till later but I guess she started to feel uncomfortable with a strange man hanging around the shop.
     But anyway I talked with the man. They are both Cherokee of course. Told him some about the book I had read recently, James Mooney's Cherokee History, he knew the book and about the author. He pointed to a picture on the wall, it was of a Cherokee, his wife grand uncle or some distant relative. The man in the picture was a boy when Mooney did his interviewing on the reservation back in the late 1800s and early 1900s. So that was kind of neat, a bit of a connection with someone connected to the book I had just read.
     The man tending the shop asked where I was from and I told him Pickens SC. A few minutes latter he talked about going down to Pickens to get married and that lots of kids in North Carolina did that. I asked about Indian mounds, I think I did that before the lady left and she said the one in Franklin was still there. I looked around the shop some more trying to find something cheap to buy. Everything was 30, 50, 75 or up to 500 dollars, an expensive Native American Gift Shop. I eventually get a dream catcher and it was 30 dollars.
     By the time I left the shop it was to late to try and go further west or north so I headed back the way I had came. I did stop at a Hardee's place and ate one of those big real beef hamburgers. The it was just drive back through the lake area and seeing the same things I had seen that morning.
     I did stop at the Bull Sluice on the Chattoga. Took my walking stick, cigs, cushion and my new possession, the Dream Catcher and walked the trail down to the river rocks. There was no one there all during the time I stayed. I found a small limb hanging down from a tree on the steep bank above the rocks. I took the Dream Catcher out of its bag and hung on the limb. I just sat around like I usually do there, stand was walk around a little, sit and smoke cigs and think. Every so often I would turn to look at my Dream Catcher swaying in the breeze.
     I was hoping it would catch lots of the river spirits for me take back home with me.
     No one around, no river riders drifting around the bend up stream, no one coming down the trail. It was all to myself for this time.
     I did finally start to get my stuff together to leave. Did my bowing thing to the Dream Catcher. Then I left. It wasn't but a few yards up the trail that two guys were headed down to the river. Just like always it seems, I leave just a bit too early to see someone else on the river. We just nodded to each other as we passed.

Cherokee Reservation NC
     It may have been the next day or day after that I drove up into North Carolina. The goal this road trip was the Reservation.
     I went down to Ingles to pick up a couple of things, some orange juice to drink and fruit bars to eat. Drove up to Highway 11 and headed west again exept I turned of to go up the Whitewater Falls road. Stopped at the over look on that connecting road to check the coolant. I started thinking it was running hot but it wasn't. Had a hard time getting the truck hood closed but I did. So anyway it was drive on to Cashiers and across US 64 onto that road going north out of Cashiers.
     It was another one of those roads I hadn't been on in a really, really, long time. I don't think it was part of the jeep tour, I think I went on to Whiteside mountain and Highlands then. So it was some other time I was last on this road.
     I do remember riding this road back in the 1950s when we went on family trips to the Smokys and Cherokee Reservation. It has that big pipe coming out of the side of a mountain, down a ridge and into the side of another mountain below the road way. It goes on to a power plant further along the winding road.
     The road work people were doing their thing and had to stop and wait for one way traffic to be lead through the work area. Oh yeah, it rained some while on this road just out of Cashiers. I had seen or been in rain for weeks, it been really dry down in the hills. But it didn't last all that long, maybe an hour or so.
     Some of the sights on this road were sort of familar. The big river beside the road, the mountains tourist things occassionally. But it was nothing I could really remember, except the pipe and power plant. I did eventually get to some town up that way. It had a zig-zag way through town with a train station on one side. I can't remember the name of the place now but I think must have been one of the place I drove to back in the late seventies or during the eighties sometime. Then again it might be some recollection from the 1950s trips too.
     The road near this town was a divided four lane. I'm sure it wasn't like that years ago. It passes by Western North Carolina University and that college is really big now. Buildings everywhere. It's another one of my mistakes from the past, should have go to a small college like that back then.
     On the main road that goes on into Great Smokies and before you get to Cherokee there's a old mill with a really big water wheel. I sort of remember that from years ago too.
     I turn off the main road and go into Cherokee where the reservation and Indian Museum is. Some bit of the tourist village area felt familiar. At least as best one could remember from when they were just a kid. I guess Dad and Mom bought some of the indian stuff for me in one of the shops back then.
     I spent the late morning and early afternoon at the museum. Sat through the video thing where one of the natives was dressed up like a medicine man and told some of the old stories. Just like the ones I read about in the book. On the way into the theater room, it wasn't very big, there were big murals on the walls. One was of a indian I saw picture of in the book, it was Swimmer. I asked one of the attendants if that was Swimmer, he said it was. Just sort of letting them know I knew a little bit about the Native Americans.
     The rest of the muesuem is a walk through exhibit area. I guess it was mostly just more of the same things I read about. There was another laser image thing where the same medicine man told another story about medicine.
     I spent some time in the shop looking around for something else to buy. I just bought a couple or three trinkets that still cost about about 20 dollars. Nothing's cheap anymore.
     It was to late in the afternoon to spend a lot of time wandering around the tourist town. I drove on down to Franklin to see the mound. The road again was a divided four lane with some motels and other tourist buildings at the beginning. But then it was just a big road through the mountains. This is the same road that connects to Clayton Georgia.
     I drove on into Franklin where one of the main streets goes up a steep hill and the other main street is on a lower level. I didn't see any reall markers for the mound so I had go back through again on the lower street and then again back up to the high street. I parked and went into a Scottish heritage shop. Of course everything there was expensive too, 50, 100 and 300 dollars. I was looking at the small daggers, whatever the right Scottish name is for them. I would have bought one if they hadn't been $30. I find some small Celtic design on a stone for a neckless and get that for my token. I ask about the mound when I checked out and they said it was just down at the bottom of the hill. I had drove by it the first time going into town.
     I make another loop through the bi level town and see the grassy knoll next to some fast food place. I park and look at it for a short while. I took my book with me that had a picture of it made back about 1890. I got it out and compared the mound with the picture. I decide the picture was made from the other side of the mound. The man who owned the mound back then was standing on top of it. I tried to image him there in the same spot then and now. Sure there had been lots of people to stand on the place over the centuries.
     The river was only a couple hundred yards away so the settlement was a river side one.
     So it was late afternoon when I left to go back to Pickens. I took the road between Franklin and Highlands. It was the more typical two lane road though the mountains this time.
     One of the last times I remember traveling this road was when Chuck and Rose had their family get-together at Rainbow Springs. The Appalachian trail goes through there. But anyway that was the time I got too stoned smoking with them, started feeling paranoid and left late in the evening. Drove by the road that went up the side of a ridge, back then I drove up it a ways looking for God. There was another road that went across the river beside the highway. It went up to a church and I remember driving up to it also looking for God.
     But that's was a bad night and I left my walking stick at the campground and had to call up there the next day and apollogize to Chuck and ask him to leave it at the store and drive back up there after they had left to get it and ... blah ... blah ... blah
     But anyway the main thing about the road between Highlands and Franklin it the gorge. The road is cut into the side of cliffs at some places. It was build a long time ago when the roads were narrower than now too. It's kind of scary on that segment, especially going down hill while looking at how big and deep the gorge is.
     The rest of the trip was more like just another mountain ride between Highlands, Whiteside and Cashiers. I did make the decision to go all the way back to Rosman and down 178 back to Pickens. That made the trip extra long and it was getting tiresome before I got to Rosman.

So anyway.
     That was my vacation week in September.
     I did hang the Dream Catcher on the drap rod in the front bedroom where I sleep on the floor. But that was only for a couple of nights. I put it out on the porch and that's where it's been hanging since then. I guess I'll bring in sometime before the cold, stormy weather gets here.
     Work days were about the same as always. Just doing what has to be done and then fretting about not having real work to work on.
     Everything else has been the same too. Cut grass, get groceries, wash clothes, go sit in the cemetery at Holly Springs.
     Maybe it was sometime in September I left the message in the plastic container at Woodie Chastain's grave. Put in some small stones from my house to keep it from blowing away. Also put in a quarter for the 1965-1970 years. There was a small metal marker like the ones they first put at graves behind the granite head stone. I left it there so it wouldn't be too intrusive. So anyway that's done.
     I guess it's on to October now and write up something for that month.