A Celebrated Man Amongst The Gurneys. They Can Fix Me Proper With A Bit Of Luck.

Well, THAT was fun.........

I am sitting here at the Casa, still just a bit buzzed. This is the very first time in a good while that I don't have ANYTHING hurting. It's pretty darn nice. -grin- Of course, it will not last, but I am enjoying it while it does.

The entire right side of my neck is covered with tape, gauze and other odds and ends, the port is sticking out and ready for tomorrow. If you remember, I had both the port and a filter put in to prepare for surgery. I was awake for the whole thing although sedated. It is quite an experiences to be able to feel the probe traveling through your body. They came a little too close to my heart and I felt it speed up which was weird but not unexpected, since they warned me about it before they started the procedure.

There was only one small bobble in the procedure. I started bleeding very heavily from my neck just as they were finishing up. I would like to point out that feeling a LOT of liquid dripping down your neck and hearing a Doctor say "Ah S**T" with a great deal of passion is not one of the most pleasurable things for a patient to experience. No doubt, this is covered in the medical school class "Bedside manner 101".

Well, enough of that, tomorrow is the big day.

Once again, Wish me luck.

Just Thinkin...........

O.K., maybe it's the percocet, maybe boredom, but it just struck me.

Has anyone else noticed the remarkable resemblance between Nancy Pelosi and Cruella De Vil of 101 Dalmatians fame?

I'm just sayin..............

At Long Last................

Well tomorrow (Well, actually today now) I go in for the preliminary work up for my long awaited surgery.

They place my portal and filter in me, then send me home until Wednesday when they take me back in and put me up on blocks. I will be in the hospital for around 4 days then home to recover.

I am somewhat torn about the whole thing. With having this surgery, I am taking care of things which no doubt will improve my life and allow me to fix things which have been causing a gradual loss of "quality of life" for me for the past three years. No matter what the result of this operation, it will be worth it if I can get rid of some if not all of the pain I have been going through. However, (There is ALWAYS a however or a but) this is so much more serious and involved than the other operations I have had in the past. There are a heck of a lot of things that could go wrong both during and after the operation that only a fool wouldn't be somewhat concerned. But as Caesar said before crossing the Rubicon, "The die is cast" so I am committed to getting it done.

I don't know what my blogging will be like for the next little bit, but I will let ya'll know how I am doing.

Wish me luck!!!!!!!!!!!

Lost And Found...............

It's was semi boring around the Casa last week, just waiting until this week when I go in for my long awaited surgery. It was SO boring, I decided to do a archaeological dig in my study (the room the good wife calls, "the rat nest" ) to see what I could see.

Now as you dear readers know, I have a LOT of varied interest. So many, as a matter of fact that I have no idea what I will be interested in from day to day. Add to that I am a inveterate trader and swapper, who will pick up various items that I might be able to use or trade at a later date, and I have a BUNCH of "stuff"

While going through various odds and ends, I found a fairly large bag of loose ammunition that I had picked up in a trade, one of those things tossed in "for boot" or to "sweeten the pot" I started going through the bag, and amid various rounds of 45ACP, 38 Special, 32 ACP, 9 mm, 22LR. and other odds and ends I found 40 rounds of 455 Webley pistol ammunition.

Now what made this so special is that I some time back I picked up a Mark VI Webley pistol, but hadn't been able to shoot it because I didn't have the spare money to order ammunition for it and the dealers who advertise they have it for sale are currently out of stock.

This stuff I uncovered was a bit dirty, and some had a slight bit of corrosion on some of the cases. The head stamp is Rem-UMC so it is American made, but I don't know old it is. I can't ever remember ever seeing 455 ammunition mentioned in Remington catalogs and I have been a gun crank for as long as I have been sucking in air. I don't think it's corrosive primed, but to be on the safe side I will clean theWebley as if they are, just to be on the safe side.

Well I took the Webley out today, nothing fancy, just a few rounds to see what she would do. I was tickled with her performance. I fired 13 of the 40 rounds that Ifound at a fence post in my back yard. I had one failure to fire of the 13 which I didn't think was too bad. The Webley is a heavy weapon, so recoil wasn't bad at all. Since I didn't have a lot of time or ammunition to waste, I didn't do any doubleaction work, but stuck with firing single action. She shot a little high and to the left but grouped well. Not bad at all for a 93 year old lady. I am looking forward to finding a better supply of ammuntion so that I can "wring her out" properly in the future.

Today In History....................

In 1813..............

The frigate U.S.S. Chesapeake commanded by Captain James Lawrence was defeated in a sea battle by the British frigate H.M.S. Shannon commanded by Captain Phillip Broke just outside of Boston Harbor. The battle which only lasted 11 minutes cost the Americans 148 killed and wounded as well as 83 British seaman killed or wounded. Almost all the American officers were casualties including Captain Lawrence who was being carried below deck after suffering from multiple wounds gave as his final order to his crew, "Don't give up the ship!, Fight her till she sinks!" Lawrence died of his wounds three days after the battle while the Chesapeake was being taken to Halifax as a prize.

The British Captain, Phillip Broke, was also severely injured in the battle. While leading a boarding party on to the Chesapeake, he suffered a cutlass slash to his head, which opened a three inch gash in his skull and exposed his brain. Captain Broke survived this terrible wound and lived for about 28 years after the battle. He stayed in the navy, but due to the nature of his wounds, was never able to have command of a ship again.

Lawrence was given a hero's funeral by the British in Halifax, and after the war ended his body was brought back to America to be buried in New York.

Laurence's fighting spirit lived on. His death would be reported to his friend and fellow officer Oliver Hazard Perry, who would order a large blue battle ensign stitched with the phrase "DONT GIVE UP THE SHIP" [sic] in bold white letters. The Perry Flag would fly from his flagship during his victorious engagement against the British on Lake Erie in September, 1813.

This flag is now displayed in Memorial Hall at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD.

Today In History........

In 1678..............

The Godiva Procession, a commemoration of the legendary ride was instituted as part of Coventry fair. The first person who portrayed Lady Godiva was a young boy. (I don't know HOW they pulled that off)

In 1913...............

The 17th Amendment to the Constitution, providing for the popular election of US senators, was declared in effect.

In 1916................

Off the coast of Denmark, British and German naval fleets met at the battle of Jutland.

And Movies Are As Bad As Eating Chocolate Ice Cream (Part II)..........

If you haven't figured it out by now, I am a big fan of movies. I love the classics, such as Casablanca and others, but I also enjoy the lesser known ones. I thought I would share these with you since you may not have heard of them and might want to check them out. All of them deal with some phase of history.

The Lighthorsemen

This film portrays the exploits of the Australian Light Horse (Mounted Infantry) in the middle east in World War I. Well filmed and written, it covers a little known facet of that war, the long struggle against the Germans and Turks in the holy land. Another more well known film, Laurence of Arabia showed a small part of this campaign and type of warfare, but this goes a bit more into the details of it. It also shows what is considered the last cavalry charge in history, the Light Horse's assault on the town of Beersheba.

The Real Glory

This is a hard to find Gary Cooper movie. It is set in the Philippines just after the Spanish-American War. Not many people are aware that in the early 1900's we were engaged in putting down a insurrection of Muslim rebels that had a great deal of similarities to what our troops face today in Iraq. Cooper portrays a army doctor who has to deal with both contagious diseases as well as training the local recruits for the Philippines Constabulary. His biggest difficulty is to be able to have these recruits to lose their fear of the Moros (the rebels) who are looked at with almost a supernatural fear.

David Niven also stars as a one of Coop's fellow officers and be sure to be on the look out for a very young Broderick Crawford.

Captain Blood

Sometimes, you just need to escape, and I can't think of a movie better to do it with. This was Errol Flynn's first famous role, and no one could have done it better. Errol was a young pup in this movie and is shows in the action scenes. The supporting cast is wonderful, particularly Basil Rathbone as the French buccaneer.

Treasure Island

This one is real hard to find. It's the version filmed by Turner a few years back and stars Charlton Heston as Long John Silver. It is closer to the book than any other version I have seen. It has a grittiness and realism that others lack. In this version unlike the others, you know that while Long John has affection for Jim Hawkins, that he would cut his throat in a heartbeat for the treasure if needed, just like a real pirate would. The soundtrack music by the Chieftains is like icing on the cake. Now if they would only bring it out on DVD before I wear out my v.h.s. tape.

Unconquered

Another Gary Cooper film set in 1763. This was time of Pontiac's rising. Cooper plays a officer of the Virginia Militia, fighting against renegade whites selling weapons to the Indians. Paulette Goddard is Cooper's love interest and the movie also stars Howard De Silva as the bad guy, Boris Karloff as the Indian chief, and again be on the lookout for a very young Lloyd Bridges as a British officer.

The Train

This movie stars Burt Lancaster as a leader of a group of French railway workers who were also in the anti-German resistance in World War II. Directed by John Frankenheimer when he was at the top of his game, it is a well crafted movie. The plot of the movie deals with the German attempt to steal a train load of famous artwork and transport it to Germany. One of the interesting things about this film is that Lancaster did ALL of his stunts for the movie, and it shows in the final product.

Cross Of Iron

This one is a Sam Peckinpah film which stars James Coburn. It's set in WWII on the Russian front which looks at the war through German eyes. It is your typical Peckenpaw slow-mo, blood fest, but does bring some interesting views to light and looks at the war with a whole different perspective.


Well that's it for now. What about you guys? Do you have any favorite movies that you think I or other folks should check out?