I have always felt like one of the luckiest SOBs on the planet. I spent eight years in the US Navy as a Missile Technician on a guided missile destroyer on the Pacific Ocean out of Long Beach, CA four years of that as an E-6 IE a first class pettyofficer. Being a first class is the sweet spot in the hierarchy of the navy. Not quite a chief and more than a common swabbie. Lots of authority with hardly any of the boring paperwork. I saw many parts of Asia; Japan, The Philippines, Hong Kong, Midway Island and Guam. 

In addition, as a civilian,  I worked at Kawasaki Steel in Kobe Japan and briefly went to sea on a nuclear submarine out of Yokosuka. I worked in Melbourne Australia at a Goodyear plant and spent some time in Seoul Korea. I've been in all 50 states and visited half of Europe half a dozen  times and been to South America. Needless to say, I love to travel. We also bought an Amtrak 30 day rail pass and crossed the USA and back.

We took a cruise through the Panama Canal  a few years ago. We left the port of La and headed south. The  ship stopped in Cabo San Lucas which both me and Jamie had been to many times but we had fun. Next we went to Nicaragua and anchored for a about an hour but the ship's captain decided that the  weather was too windy so we weighed anchor and proceeded to Costa Rica. We took an extended bus tour up in the mountains and saw many exotic tropical critters. We spent about three days at sea on our way to Panama. On our way to Panama we had a Thanksgiving dinner aboard. We have taken a few cruises in the last few years and our trip through the canal on Princess Cruise line was the best. Carnival Cruise line is the Circus Circus of cruise lines. It's cheap and it shows it. While transiting the canal I saw an old friend jutting above the   tree line. I said to Jamie, "See that crane sticking up ahead? That's Herman the German which used to be a fixture of the Long Beach Naval Shipyard".

As usual se said that I was full of shit and expected that poeople would believe any story that I dreamed up. A few minutes later, the captain came up on the 1MC and explained that the sight just ahead was none other than Herman the German which used to be a fixture of the Long Beach Naval Shipyard.

Once again, I was vindicated.  

 

 

 

 

 About 1974 I went to Kobe Japan to start up a rolling mill at Kawasaki Steal for transformer steel. I flew on JAL from Lax to Hananda Airport in Tokyo. It was very pleasant nonstop flight. It was my first trip to Japan since leaving the Navy. I needed to take a ride to our trading company in Tokyo. I asked at travelers aid how to get to downtown Tokyo and was asked if I wanted to take a bus, taxi or monorail. Heck a long ride on a monorail just like Disneyland was my choice. I went outside to the monorail station and in a few minutes the monorail glided up. I thought to myself how these Japanese are so up to date with technology. As I boarded, I noticed a small metal plack that  said ALWEG Monorail Cologne Germany, built under license by Mitsubishi Heavy Industry Tokyo, Japan. Well I guess that notion was flawed. 

After spending the weekend in Tokyo, I took the Shinkansen Bullet Train to Kobe. Kobe was a nice Japanese city. Not too big and crowded and not too small. I stayed at the Newport Hotel, a traditional Japanese inn. I slept on a tatami floor in a futon, A traditional Japanese bed typically consists of a futon set, which includes a shikibuton (mattress) and a kakebuton (duvet), laid directly on tatami mats. It was just like being back in the Navy.

On Monday morning, I walked down to the station to take the commuter train to the Kawasaki Steel mill. The train station is always crowded during rush hours like any other station in Japan. As I walked with the throng I once again became aware of being a full head taller than everyone else. I began to think of myself as The Occidental Giant.   

Being my father worked at at Republic's steel mill back in Cleveland I was right at home except this mill was an order of magnitude cleaner than the Ohio variety. The Japanese at Kawasaki were so export oriented that when the roll of steel came off of the mill there was no place to put it down except into the ship sitting at the dock. 

I was there to get the automatic control system up and running. The company that I worked for was known for their non-content Beta Gauges. The thickness of the plastic was measured by the intensity of the radiation from either a Krypton-85 or Strontium-90 beta ray source. For steel sheet we used a Gamma Ray Americium - 241 gamma ray source to penetrate the metal.  

Life in a Japanese steel mill was a far cry from an American mill. In an American mill if a foreman tells a union worker to pick up a hose laying on the floor, the worker will tell the boss that it isn't his job or to just tell the boss to go screw himself. In Japan the worker stands in front of the foreman and then bows. He then will pick the hose up, roll it up neatly and hang the hose in the proper place.

We have been led to believe that dogs are colorblind but they have a wonderful sense of smell. I pretty much agree with this but I'm wondering if they don't have an enhanced level of smell that we humans have no clue of. Sort of like a color degree of smell that we humans have never experienced. I read yesterday that the dog's sense of smell is 100,000 times more than a humans. I find this hard to believe. A hundred times better maybe but I have my doubts. A thousand times makes me question the person, or persons making these claims. How could they know? Do they count nerve endings in our noses? 

I make the claim that instead of 100,000 times the sensitivity there is a aspect of odors that we so called advanced apes can not comprehend. Imagine smelling someones butt as the dogs do and getting a 100,000 times the jolt. I think that would be more than simple sensory overload. It would knock us into next year. 

I make no claims of being a zoologist but I do posses a pretty strong common sense. Just sayin'. Maybe stuff like this doesn't keep you awake at night. Actually nothing keeps me awake at night but I know there are gangs of  worrywarts out there to take up the slack. So keep calm and carry on.

 

 I went up to our postbox this morning and I had three things addressed to us. The first was a letter from PBS stating that my credit card was no longer valid. Well I actually knew that because I changed cards last month. I do that about once a year to weed out any of those pesky auto payments. Mission accomplished. I know this is no big deal but like they say on TV, there's more. 

Next I got a flyer from Musical Theatre, sic, West. Long Beach's very own musical company. I'd make great gay man who loves musical theater except I'm not gay. But I do love musical theater, too bad I'm not gay. The show they are pimping is Into The Woods. It's a Stephen Sondheim show and I'm not a really big fan of Sondheim but the tickets "start at just $20". So it's not like the front row at The Hollywood Bowel and we should go to patronize our own group.

Lastly, the big Kahuna. Jamie, she's a registered Orange County Voter,  got a flyer from Tony Strickland asking her to vote for "A fighter in Sacramento". Tony is, God forbid, a member of "the Republican Party of Orange County". He is endorsed by Michelle Steel US Represtative (Ret.), Don Barnes Orange County Sheriff, Stephanie Klopfenstein Mayor of Garden Grove and Janet Nguyen County Supervisor all Republicans. Has good old conservative Orange County swung back to the right? Whether or not you knew it, I am nether a Republican or a Democrat. I am a registered Libertarian but if I can't see a Libertarian winning I will vote against whomever is the incumbent who these days in The People's Republic is a Democrat. 

I also consider myself  as a Patriot.  

Speaking of patronage, The Bay theater in Seal Beach is now open after too long a time. You do owe it to yourself to enjoy an old time movie theater. Also try The Art Theater on fourth street. It's the last remaining independent  cinema in LB.