The Boy on the Beach - Omaha Beach 2014

https://pinearts.smugmug.com/The-Boy-on-the-Beach-Omaha-Beach-2014/i-vPVMh5F/A

I did not shoot this video.
I did title it and post it here for memorial Day 2020.
I thought it was appropriate for the times.  Maybe it will remind viewers of how we are as Americans and how we got here.

On June 6, 1944 thousands of young men of every race, color and creed risked their lives for something they had in common that was worth saving.  Everyone of their lives mattered, and they succeeded, at great cost.
The message here is not only to remember the young me who gave their lives for us that day, but also that we are still Americans, we are still Americans, and we still have something precious that is worth saving.

The video was done as part of project vigil - started by The Boy On The Beach and his father in 2013.  Al I know is that the boy's name is Richie.  He is now 17 years old (in 2020). You can learn more about project vigil at:
http://www.projectvigil.com/

Going Back In Time - 1944 vs 2014

This is really incredible -
First picture during war in 1944 -
Click on picture and see it as it is in 2014 - 70 years later

You can keep clicking picture to go back and forth between pictures
REALLY ASTOUNDING!!

https://interactive.guim.co.uk/embed/2014/apr/image-opacity-slider-master/index.html?ww2-dday

HAPPY DOGS VIDEO!!

Cleaning Venice Canals??!!

Venice canals drained and cleaned, circa 1956.

More recent pictures click here

Maintaining Venice's Canals
By Durant Imboden

Robert Benchley, the humorist who wrote for The New Yorker, once arrived in Venice and sent a cable to his editor that said:

"Streets full of water. Please advise."

That pretty much sums up the challenges facing the Venice public-works department. In most cities, repairing the streets is a straightforward process of tearing up the old pavement, grading the surface, and covering a base of dirt, gravel, or crushed rock with a fresh layer of concrete or asphalt. In Venice, however, the streets consist largely of canals--and before the streets can be repaired, somebody has to get rid of the water.

The first step in canal maintenance is to erect one or more cofferdams. These temporary walls seal off the canal from adjacent waterways such as the Grand Canal or the Venetian Lagoon.

Once the cofferdams are in place, the work crew uses pumps to drain the canal. Then comes the hard part: removing the thick, charcoal-grey layer of silt and sludge that may have accumulated over several decades.

At the dredging site, a canal worker uses a small dragline (i.e., a duty-cycle crane) to dig up the sludge and transfer it into a wheeled vehicle with a tilting hopper. Each time the hopper fills up, the vehicle's driver backs along temporary rails until he reaches a barge. He tips the muck into the barge, then returns to the waiting dragline. This process is repeated hour after hour, day after day, until the canal is ready to be flooded and reopened. Shovels are also used when needed, to clean out whatever the dragline leaves behind.

Two factors make the job more complicated than it might appear at first glance:

Ancient pilings. Venice's palaces, churches, and other buildings are supported by thousands of wooden pilings that date back hundreds of years. As long as they're submerged, the pilings won't rot--but when they come in contact with the air, deterioration begins. This requires that exposed wooden pilings be protected during the cleaning of the canal.

Public utilities. Today's Venice has water mains, electric power lines, fiber-optic cables, and other utilities, just like any other city. Work crews must be careful to secure exposed utility lines and avoid damaging them while cleaning out the canals.

In The World of Venice, Jan Morris describes the stoical men who clean Venice's canals:

"Far down in the gulley of the empty waterway, beneath the ornate doorways and marble steps of the palaces, you may see the labourers toiling in the sludge....Their bodies, their clothes, their faces are all smeared with the stuff, and if you engage them in conversation their attitude is one of numbed but still mordant resignation."

As the saying goes, "It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it." That's reason enough to drink a toast of thanks to the canal workers of Venice as you sip Prosecco on your next gondola ride.

Funniest VIRUS PUNS!!

Here they are - some of the funniest VIRUS PUNS all in one spot! 

Some of these are laugh out loud funny!!

Broadneck High School’s Class of 2020 Senior Prank Maryland

Carla and Carl Cavedweller are social distancing champs!
From Santa Cruz Boardwalk Sky Glider
Santa Cruz, California
Beach Boardwalk

STAYING HOME . . . 

I was so bored I called Jake from State Farm just to talk to someone.   He asked me what I was wearing…

2019: Stay away from negative people. 

2020: Stay away from positive people.

The world has turned upside down. Old folks are sneaking out of the house, and their kids are yelling at them to stay indoors!

This virus has done what no woman has been able to do … 

cancel all sports, shut down all bars, and keep men at home!!!

Do not call the police on suspicious people in your neighborhood!

Those are your neighbors without makeup and hair extensions!

Since we can’t eat out, now’s the perfect time to eat better, get fit, and stay healthy. 

We’re quarantined! Who are we trying to impress? We have snacks, we have sweatpants! I say we use them!

Day 7 at home and the dog is looking at me like, “See . . . This is why I chew the furniture!”

Does anyone know if we can take showers yet or should we just keep washing our hands???

I never thought the comment, “I wouldn’t touch him/her with a 6 foot pole” would become a national policy, but here we are!

Me: Alexa what’s the weather this weekend?

Alexa: It doesn’t matter – you’re not going anywhere.

Can everyone please just follow the government instructions so we can knock out this corona-virus and be done?! I feel like a kindergartner who keeps losing more recess time because one or two kids can’t follow directions.

I swear my fridge just said, “What the heck do you want now?”

When this is over I am wondering what meeting do I attend first … Weight Watchers or AA?

Quarantine has turned us into dogs. We roam the house all day looking for food. We are told “no” if we get too close to strangers, and we get really excited about a car ride.

Saw my neighbor out early this morning scraping the  “My Kid is aTerrific Student” sticker off her minivan.  Guess the first week of home-schooling didn’t go so well!

Pollution levels dropping at record breaking rates. Fewer cars on the road, fewer cruise ships on the seas, fewer planes in the sky.    Same number of cows.

NO SPORTS! BUT… if you dump a bag of Skittles in the toilet, squint your eyes and flush it’s almost like watching a NASCAR race!

Remember when you were a kid and you would say “don’t touch me, you have cooties”? Ding ding ding…Round 2. Just older now.

As soon as the stores open up again, let's all run out and get some really great teacher appreciation gifts, like the thrill you got finding that the store had a package of toilet paper!

Since we are stuck at home we should call random numbers in India and ask them about their extended car warranty ...... college loans due .... emspfennsbbw (unintelligible babble about something).

Wonder how many students are missing their old teachers because their new one is too mean?

Publix and other Florida supermarkets are announcing special early morning hours just for people 60 and older. The other 10 people in the state are thrilled to have the stores to themselves the rest of the day!

Day six of no sports: Today I watched birds in the backyard fight over worms. Cardinals were beating the Blue Jays 4 to 2.

I'm putting 4 beers in every room and getting dressed up … then I’m going bar hopping!

I need to practice social distancing from the refrigerator!

*****After years of wanting to thoroughly clean my house (basement, garage, closets) but lacking the time . . . this week I discovered that wasn’t the reason. 

GOTTA KEEP A SENSE OF HUMOR!

We Didn't Have The Green Thing In My Day . . . . BUT

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much older lady that she should bring her own grocery bags, because plastic bags are not good for the environment.

The woman apologized to the young girl and explained, "We didn't have this 'green thing' back in my earlier days."

The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."

The older lady said that she was right our generation didn't have the "green thing" in its day. The older lady went on to explain: Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.

But we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day. Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags that we reused for numerous things. Most memorable besides household garbage bags was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our school books. This was to ensure that public property (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags.

But, too bad we didn't do the "green thing" back then. We walked up stairs because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn't have the "green thing" in our day.

Back then we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts. Wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days.

Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right; we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.

Back then we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana.
In the kitchen we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us.

When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power.

We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she's right; we didn't have the "green thing" back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blade in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn't have the "green thing" back then.

Dinner was cooked and desserts made in our own kitchen.  We didn't buy everything and then have gobs of trash for landfill.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service in the family's $45,000 SUV or van, which cost what a whole house did before the "green thing."

We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the "green thing" back then?

The Touching Story of the Boy Who Listened and Did!!

The little boy put on his warm clothes, since it was so cold and wet outside, and then told his father:

"Ok dad, I'm ready"

His Dad, the pastor, said: "Ready for what?"

"Dad, it's time to go outside and distribute our flyers."

Dad replied: "Son, it's very cold outside and it's drizzling."

The child looked surprised at his father and said: "But dad, people need to know about God even on rainy days."

Dad replied, "Son, I'm not going outside in this weather."

With despair, the child said: "Dad, can I go alone? Please!"

His father waited for a moment and then said: "Son, you can go. Here's the flyers, be safe."

"Thank you dad!"

And with this, the son went out into the rain. The 11-Year-old walked all the streets of the village, handing out the flyers to the people he saw.

After 2 hours walking in the rain and in the cold and with his last flyer in his hand, he stopped on a corner to see if he saw someone to give the flyer too, but the streets were now totally deserted. Then he turned to the first house he saw, walked to the front door, touched the bell several times and waited, but no one came out.

Finally the boy turned to leave, but something stopped him. The child turned back to the door and began to touch the bell and pound the door strongly with his knuckles. He kept waiting while he continued to knock. Finally the door was opened gently.

An older lady opened the door with a very sad look and gently asked:

"What can I do for you, son?"

With radiant eyes and a bright smile the child said "Lady, I'm sorry if I bothered you, but I just want to tell you that God really loves you and that I came to give you my last flyer, which talks about God and His great love for you."

The boy then gave her the flyer.

She just said, "Thank you, son, God bless you!"

Well, the next Sunday morning, the pastor was at the pulpit and when the service began he asked:
"Does someone have a testimony or something they want to share?"

Gently, in the back row of the church, an older lady stood up. When she started talking, a radiant and glorious look sprouted from her eyes:

"Nobody in this church knows me. I have never been here, even last Sunday I was not Christian.
My husband died a while ago, leaving me totally alone in this world. Last Sunday was a particularly cold and rainy day, and it was also in my heart; that on this day I came to the end of the road, since I had no hope and didn't want to live anymore.
I took a chair and a rope and went up to the attic of my house. I tied one end of the rope to the rafters of the roof; then I climbed onto the chair and put the other end of the rope around my neck."
I stood on the chair, so alone and heartbroken, I was about to throw myself off the chair, when suddenly I heard the loud sound of the door being knocked.
So I thought: 'I'll wait for a minute and whoever it is will go.
I waited and waited, but the door knocking was getting louder and louder every time. It got so loud that I couldn't ignore it anymore.
So I wondered, who could it be?
No one ever comes close to my door or comes to visit me!
I released the rope from my neck and went to the door, while the bell was still ringing and the door was still being knocked on.
When I opened the door, I couldn't believe what my eyes saw  -  in front of my door was the most radiant and angelic child I've ever seen.
His smile, ohhh, I can never describe it! The words that came out of his mouth made my heart, dead so long ago, come back to life, when he said with the VOICE OF A CHERUB: 'Lady, I just want to tell you that God really loves you'.
When the little angel disappeared between the cold and the rain, I closed my door and read every word of the flyer.
Then I went to the attic to remove the chair and rope.
I didn't need them anymore, as you see. Now I am a happy daughter of the King.

From the direction of the boy and his flyer, I was to come to this church. I came personally to say thank you to that little angel of God who came just in time, and in fact, to rescue my life from an eternity in hell. And replaced it with an eternity in God's presence. "

The story touched the whole congregation and tears were in their eyes, with a radiant countenance upon them.

The Pastor walked down from the pulpit, where his little angel was sitting; he took his son in his arms and thanked him for listening to and following the promptings of the Holy Ghost.  They both walked to the back of the church to hug the lonely women and invite them to their home for dinner and much needed company.

Remember, God's message can make a big difference in someone's life, never be afraid to spread it.

I Became A Teacher Because of the GREAT Example of A Teacher

An old man meets a young man who asks:

“Do you remember me?”

And the old man says no. Then the young man tells him he was his student, And the teacher asks:

“What do you do, what do you do in life?”

The young man answers:

“Well, I became a teacher.”

“Ah, how good, like me?” Asks the old man.

“Well, yes. In fact, I became a teacher because you inspired me to be like you.”

The old man, curious, asks the young man at what time he decided to become a teacher. And the young man tells him the following story:

“One day, a friend of mine, also a student, came in with a nice new watch, and I decided I wanted it and I stole it, I took it out of his pocket.

Shortly after, my friend noticed the flight and immediately complained to our teacher, who was you. Then you went to the class:

‘This student's watch was stolen during classes today. Whoever stole it, please return it.’

I didn't give it back because I didn't want to. Then you closed the door and told us all to get up and you were going to search our pockets one by one until the watch was found. But you told us to close our eyes, because you would only look for his watch if we all had our eyes closed.

So we did, and you went from pocket to pocket, and when you went through my pocket, you found the watch and took it. You kept searching everyone's pockets, and when you were done you said

‘open your eyes. We have the watch.’

You didn't tell me and you never mentioned the episode. You never said who stole the watch either. That day you saved my dignity forever. It was the most shameful day of my life.

But this is also the day my dignity was saved and I decided not to become a thief, a bad person, etc. You never said anything, nor even scold me or took me aside to give me a moral lesson, I received your message clearly.

And thanks to you, I understood what a real educator needs to do. Do you remember this episode, professor?

And the professor answers:

‘I remember the situation, the stolen watch, which I was looking for in everyone’s pocket, but I didn't remember you, because I also closed my eyes while looking.’

This is the essence of teaching:

If to correct you must humiliate; you don't know how to teach "

Something Even Better Than Biscuits!!

One Sunday morning in a small church, the new pastor called on one of the older deacons to lead the closing prayer. The deacon came up on the podium, stood by the pastor, bowed his head and said, "Lord, I hate buttermilk!"

The pastor opened one eye and wondered just where this was going...

The deacon continued, "Lord, I hate lard!"

Now, the pastor was totally perplexed...

The deacon continued, "Lord, and I ain't too crazy about plain flour neither, but after you mix em all together and bake em in a hot oven, I just love biscuits!"

"So Lord, help us understand when life gets hard, when things come up that we don't like, and we can't figure out what you are doing, that we just need to wait and see what you are making. After you get through mixing and baking, it'll probably be something even better than biscuits. Amen!"

Romans 8:28

Incredible Christmas Song "Christmas 1915"