Happy 4th - a little Trivia!!!

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.
Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.
Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army;
another had two sons captured.
Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.


They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

What kind of men were they?

Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists.
Eleven were merchants,
nine were farmers and large plantation owners;
men of means, well educated,
but they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward , Ruttledge, and Middleton.

At the battle of Yorktown , Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.

John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill
were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.

Some of us take these liberties so much for granted, but we shouldn't.

So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and silently thank these patriots. It's not much to ask for the price they paid.

Remember also the thousands who have died since then to keep our country free.

Remember: freedom is never free!

New Movie/Book

VV I know you will love this!!

Update On the Eagles

As I previously posted back on April 30th that I had been watching three baby eagles via an eagle CAM set up in a nest in Sydney, British Columbia. Three eggs are not normally hatched, nor do the eaglettes all live to maturity. There were times I had to turn the CAM off because I use to worry so much about Tiny, eaglette #3. They picked on him so badly, and would steal all the food. Poor Tiny would just hide in the corner of the nest. I thought, there is no way this poor thing would survive, but he/she did and is getting ready to Fledge (fly) … “guess-estimate” is July 9th, three months after Tiny was born.

They had a contest and named all three eaglettes … Breeze, who is already flying. The next is Hero…Hero is a bit of lazy eaglette and seems to like “nesting” more then flying. And then there is our favorite Tiny!! Who has become the “hellion” of the nest!

Here are the Three amigo's back in April

Here is a picture of the nest about 95 feet up

Here is a closer picture, with one of the eaglettes out on the branch and one of the parents in the nest

One of the parents bringing in lunch!

Here is the eaglette Breeze in one of his first flights...a shot of breeze flying high. If you click her larger, you will see that her wing feathers are of different lengths, thus still growing in. When they are younger in the nest, their feathers are full of blood, thus very heavy. This blood nourishes the growth of the feathers, which then become hollow and light in weight. It is then at this time, that they really start to flap. They have over 8,000 feathers, and they weigh more than their body weight. As the young birds take years to learn how to hunt, but rather scavenge for food, nature has made their wings larger than the parents. On a good day, with warm thermals, they can cover 100's of miles in a day.


And Ma and Pa hanging out catching some sunshine!

This is an amazing shot ...
PA FLYING WITH THE BIG GUYS the photographer was mortally afraid for pa, what a jet wash they put out, and the noise, unbelievable...but brave pa took them on and scared them away. Harry................CLICK PHOTO FOR LARGER


Here is a clip that is on You Tube ...

I am BACK!

Lots of changes in my life going on ... including my PC which is in the hospital ... I guess I am a desk top kinda girl ... laptop is just not working for me.

I saw this today and thought it was a hoot!

CHICAGO – Visitors to the Sears Tower's new glass balconies all seem to agree: The first step is the hardest.


The balconies are suspended 1,353 feet in the air and jut out four feet from the building's 103rd floor Skydeck. Their transparent walls, floor and ceiling leave visitors with the impression they're floating over the city.

"It's like walking on ice," said Margaret Kemp, of Bishop, Calif., who said her heart was still pounding even after stepping away from the balcony. "That first step you take — 'am I going down?'"



Kemp was among the visitors who got a sneak preview of the balconies Wednesday. "The Ledge," as the balconies have been nicknamed, open to the public Thursday. Visitors are treated to unobstructed views of Chicago from the building's west side and a heart-stopping vista of the street and Chicago River below — for those brave enough to look straight down.

John Huston, one of the property owners of the Sears Tower, even admitted to getting "a little queasy" the first time he ventured out. But 30 or 40 trips later, he's got the hang of it.

"The Sears Tower has always been about superlatives — tallest, largest, most iconic," he said. "Today is also about superlatives. Today, we present you with 'the Ledge,' the world's most awesome view, the world's most precipitous view, the view with the most wow in the world."

The balconies can hold five tons, and the glass is an inch-and-a-half thick, officials said. Sears Tower officials have said the inspiration for the balconies came from the hundreds of forehead prints visitors left behind on Skydeck windows every week. Now, staff will have a new glass surface to clean: floors.

"It's very scary, but at the same time it's very cool," said Chanti Lawrence of Atlanta, adding that she's made her first step toward overcoming her fear of heights.

Adam Kane, 10, of Alton, Ill., rushed to the ledge with his friends and siblings, and they each eagerly pressed their faces to the glass bottom.

"Look at all those tiny things that are usually huge," Adam said.

The balconies are just one of the big changes coming to the Sears Tower. The building's name will change to Willis Tower later this summer. Last week, officials announced a 5-year, $350 million green renovation complete with wind turbines, roof gardens and solar panels.

With the ledge, visitors like Kemp said the nation's tallest building has succeeded in creating something they've never seen before.

"I had to live 70 years for a thrill like this," she said.


Hope you do not have acrophobia (fear of heights)!!!

Neda

Neda Agha Soltan (1992-2009)
A Voice of a People - A Call to Freedom

After VV did her post, I had to go out and find out more info on this beautiful young woman called Neda, It has been reported that the name Neda means voice or call in Farsi... Her name was Neda... and she is the voice of the people. She is a call to freedom.

It is rapidly becoming the most galvanizing image in a week of drama and tragedy - perhaps the most image-saturated week in the history of the internet. I am talking about the unbelievable and heartbreaking events in Iran, a week of human drama captured in TwitPics, Flikr photos, YouTube videos, cellphone camera pics and blogs and hi-def video and...

Despite the billions upon billions of megapixels of imagery that have been captured to characterize this clash -- seas of greens, motorcyle thugs, clouds of tear gas, masked protesters -- one image is starting to make an impression above all the others, even in the short-attention-span universe of Twitter.

Early today, a beautiful young woman was demonstrating in Tehran, along with her father. When friction between the Basiji - the brutal packs of militia that patrol the streets of Tehran, beating women and children and students -- and the demonstrators broke out, it was her ill-fortune to become one of the first victims of Basiji homicide, though she was doing nothing more than standing by innocently, watching.

It is said that a Basij sniper shot her through the heart, simply to see her die.

The final moments of her tender young life leaked into the pavement of Karegeh Street today, captured by cell phone cameras. And not long after, took on new life, flickering across computer screens around the world on YouTube, and even CNN.

The words of her fellow students, her fellow Iranians are already burning an indelible message into cyberspace. Within minutes of her name being identified, it became the fastest-rising 'trending topic' on Twitter.

Her name was Neda, an innocent bystander shot dead just for watching.

Warning this is graffic


8:53 PM ET -- "Sister, have a short sleep, your last dream be sweet." Yesterday we printed a touching letter from an Iranian woman that began with these ominous lines: "I will participate in the demonstrations tomorrow. Maybe they will turn violent. Maybe I will be one of the people who is going to get killed..."
Story continues below

Tonight, she posted a second letter, passed along and translated by two readers. She writes about her "sister" in this cause who was killed today, referring to Neda.


Yesterday I wrote a note, with the subject line "tomorrow is a great day perhaps tomorrow I'll be killed." I'm here to let you know I'm alive but my sister was killed...


I'm here to tell you my sister died while in her father's hands
I'm here to tell you my sister had big dreams...
I'm here to tell you my sister who died was a decent person... and like me yearned for a day when her hair would be swept by the wind... and like me read "Forough" ... and longed to live free and equal... and she longed to hold her head up and announce, "I'm Iranian"... and she longed to one day fall in love to a man with a shaggy hair... and she longed for a daughter to braid her hair and sing lullaby by her crib...

my sister died from not having life... my sister died as injustice has no end... my sister died since she loved life too much... and my sister died since she lovingly cared for people...

my loving sister, I wish you had closed your eyes when your time had come... the very end of your last glance burns my soul....

sister have a short sleep. your last dream be sweet.

Fathers Day - Memories of Dad

Memories of Dad

I would like to take a few special moments and turn my thoughts to my dad on this Fathers Day.

He dwells among the angels now and left way too soon.

I envy folks who have such vivid early childhood memories, although I do have one, I was very little and he use to take my down to the corner bar with him in Brooklyn, called John’s Tavren and give me quarters to play the games, and I use to drink yummy “Shirley Temples” with lots of cherries. I do remember going with him to the “old House” that is what we called it. I don’t think I ever said we were going to see grandma and grandpa – it was always going to the “old house!” Seeing that the house was erected appox. In 1650, it was the OLD house in Brooklyn!

Here we are out side John's Tavern in Brooklyn, he always carried this picture in his wallet

As years passed and young adulthood meet me, so did the forming of my “own” personality, and it was one that had a tendency to clash with dads. Let us just say that we did not agree on the way “I should live my life.” I was a bit of a rebel, and he very often fought me like a true combatant. Those years of my Iife were in true turmoil. I truly struggled with the “reasoning” and not “understanding” why my father hated me with such tenacity.

As my teens years left, and I presented dad with a new granddaughter, the man really changed once again, He became a wonderful grandfather, and a pretty nice dad too. He at one time had said to my mom, that helping raise is grand-daughter was sort of trying to make up for the things that were bad between us (so mom says).
Picture of dad, me and grand-daughter Regina
dad with his granddaughter Regina


Dad LOVED to bar-b-q, he would cook all summer long, well into the fall. Leg of lamb, roast beefs, hens, steaks, ribs, everything. Dad always planned the “opening season bar-b-q” which was held every Memorial Day and “closing season bar-b-q, held each Labor Day". The whole block would come out for it, lobsters, salads, steaks, corn-on-the-cob, potatoes thrown into the fire, lots of beer and cocktails. It was the street event!

And our boating. I can not begin to tell you how many fish I caught on our boats! Fluke, Flounder, Porky’s, Whiting, Blues, Mackerel, and occasional eel, and sand shark. We spent many hours fishing and clamming, and not an ounce of sun-block was ever used!
Here is dad in the Captains Seat

I took this after we got done closing the boat up for the winter and dry docking it


I remember the last time I spent with my dad, I had flown down to Florida to see mom and dad, my father wanted to take me to some pier in Clearwater to see the pelicans, who flock there in droves, or what ever you call a bunch of pelicans! These birds are of pretty good size too and in a large group they can be a wee bit intimidating! Dad handed me a container of small smelt like fish, word got quickly in bird squak terms, and the pelicans came from everywhere!! I was trying feed them but they were so overwhelming I was dropping the fish and they were biting my toes, jumping up on the railings behind me, trying to land on my arm, well finally I just threw all the fish off to the side and quickly dashed away from the pelican mob scene. I remember how hard dad was laughed at me. Dad died early the next year, and when I went down to Florida for the funeral mom handed me this pelican holding a fish in it’s mouth. Dad had seen it at a fair and got it to give to me, it reminded him of the day on the pier. It surly does not fit into my décor, but the pelican holds a special place on a shelf in my home. Here is a picture taken that day

Dad has been gone 26 years, he died young, and I miss the things he never got to share with his grandchildren, and I miss him too, he would have liked the woman I became, after those teenage years! So dad no matter what plane you may roam on, Happy Father’s Day dad!!

Here are some pictures I have of dad:

Here is my grand-father and dad

Dad with his grand-daughters all five


Dad doing the "Paco Dance" with his grand-daughter Maureen



HAPPY FATHERS DAY TO ALL YOU DADS!!!!

Babies Feet

Well VV you asked for babies feet and here they are!

I took this pic of my grandsons toes when he was two weeks old ....

Then I found this pics a few weeks ago, don't you just love the toes and mom and dad's wedding rings!! What a great idea!!