RIP Bob Despain

We've lost one of cherished shipmates on the Iowa.

My fellow crew member Bob Despain passed away the other night.

Bob was on the crew of the USS Hoel, DD-533, as part of Taffy 3 during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, also called the Battle Off Samar. The Hoel was the first ship sunk by the IJN, and absorbed an amazing amount of punishment before she sank.

The Daily Breeze had an article in 2013 about the reunion of the USS Johnston-Hoel Association, which was held on the Battleship Iowa that year.

I was honored to have known Bob, and had him autograph my copy of "The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors" which details the Battle Off Samar and the fate of Taffy 3.

Godspeed, Bob

The Truth vs CNN

Mr. Whittle blasts another one clean outta the park!

Battleship Iowa Needs New Mooring Lines

Geez....I hate to bug people about stuff like this, but the mooring lines on the Iowa are rapidly approaching the end of their life. We were able to pick up some good, used ones last year in Bremerton when we go on our annual "Scavenger Hunt", but we still need a few more.

For those that don't know, the mooring lines are the BIG "ropes" that all ships use to "tie up" at the pier. Due to sunlight, salt air, and constant cycling of the tension on them, they eventually wear out and need to be replaced.

And they're not cheap!

I've kicked in $100, but even if all you can donate is $5, it will make a difference.

The Battleship Iowa is 100% self supporting through paid admissions, donations, special events, and oyher sources of income like renting the ship to film and TV crews.

We receive NO funding from Federal, State, County, or City sources, except in rare circumstances. The good people of the State of Iowa gave us $3 million to help get the ship ready to come down here, but those gifts are few and far between.

Here's the link to the GoFundMe page.

Thanks for anything you can afford!

Small Plane Down On The 405 Freeway At MacArthur Blvd

Looks like he lost it taking off from John Wayne (SNA) airport. Report says it's a Cessna 310, a light twin.

No word on casualties.....

Two survivors were reported. Southbound lanes of the 405 are still closed but Northbound lanes are open again.

Several incoming flights were diverted to Ontario and Long Beach airports. Departures are reportedly unaffected.

Serious Toy Collection For Sale! Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel, Coca-Cola, ETC, ETC, ETC

Before I start doing the eBay thing on this collection, I thought I'd toss it up here and get any insight my friends might have....

My wife's first husband (RIP!) started buying all this stuff as what he called his "Retirement Fund".

You name it, he bought it. He generally avoided anything labeled "Collectible!!", because as Rick says on "Pawn Stars", if it's marked as "collectible", it aint!

He had over 4000 comic books, all new and neatly bagged, and we "gave" those to the kids. They were able to get rid of them, and make in excess of several thousand bucks in the process. Most of the comics were in the "$1 class", but some of them went for a couple of hundred bucks each, and one of them (I don't remember which one it was) netted them $2200.

We just finished dragging about 80% of the toys out of the garage so we can look at it and get an idea of what we have.

Here's a few pix of what we have:

All of it is new, in unopened packages, BUT, because of the way it was stored, they packages range from "pristine", to dirty, and some of the plastic packaging "bubbles" have popped loose from the cardboard backing.

If anybody has any ideas about the best way to dispose of all this, or any friends in the toy business, please contact me. Some of it she may want to keep, but the bulk of it is available for immediate sale.

As they say in the retail biz, "Everything Must Go!"......

For anybody who might be interested, here's the Photobucket page with just a small amount of what we have

Real Estate Pricing In 90807

Well, we just had a meeting with our second realtor today.

He's advising we price this place at $550,000, or even $575,000!

I'm stunned.

He told us houses in our immediate area are selling within two weeks, sometimes less. The typical contract with a realtor is for 30 days, and he told us they haven't had a single contract expire this year without selling the house.

I think you'd have to be straight-jacket loonie-bin crazy to pay over half a million freaking dollars for this house, but both he, and the nice young lady we talked to this morning, told us the same thing.

The market in this area is "on fire", and they've seen houses with a certain appeal go into bidding wars, and sell for $25,000 more than the listing price.

This is absolutely nuts........

Home Depot Being Sued Over "Two by Fours" That Don't Measure 2" by 4"

Just heard this on the radio....

Some dolt has brought a class action lawsuit against Home Depot for selling 2x4's that "only" measure out to be 1-1/2" by 3-1/2".

And people wonder what good shop classes do when *everybody* should get a "College" education.....

Happy Father's Day

To all the Dads out there.

Enjoy your day!

My Dear Brother In Law Passed This Afternoon

His Doctors took him off the ventilator earlier today and he passed within the hour.

My poor little wife is devastated.

Light blogging to follow.....

Brother-In-Law Update

Well....it's not good at all.

My wife stopped in to see him on her way home from work, and she was able to talk to the two neurologists that are monitoring his condition.

They were very frank with her, and said they doubted if he'd ever regain consciousness. When she asked them what would happen if they took him off the ventilator, they told her that he'd stop breathing on his own after "a short time".

They didn't quantify how long a "short time" would be, but she got the distinct impression it would be less than 24 hours.

I'm greatly saddened by this..............

Home "Repair" Progress

The handyman guy is doing a bang up job, BUT.....my wife keeps finding more things, and adding more to his list, and wondering why he isn't finished yet.....

SIGH.....


He's fixed up the big gap between the brick front porch and the house that was caused by the porch settling due to the drought here, sanded/filled/primed and then repainted ALL the trim/fascia, repaired all the cracks in the stucco, and repainted about 3/4 of the house.

I've got our bedroom all cleaned out, with most of the furniture stashed around the house so he can scratch out and fill all the cracks in the walls and then paint it. She settled on "A nice, clean, bright Navajo White", BUT I don't think she realizes how badly the color blinds are going to clash with white after the window sills and walls are white.

The bathroom, front bedroom, living/dining area and kitchen have all been repainted in the last year, sooooo......that means the Radio Room will be in her sights very shortly, meaning I'm going to have to pull EVERYTHING out of here so it can get patched up and painted.

And after that's done I can see her really squawking about putting anything back in here, no matter how nice and clean the equipment is, or how well it's displayed.

SIGH.....


No word at all about her brother, other than it's "Day-By-Day, and Hour-By-Hour" per the duty nurse, and his case nurse.

I just went through the "What do you want us to do if you're severely incapacitated" paperwork with my primary care provider, and I think I said to give me a week on life support, and if the prognosis looks "really, really bad" to go ahead and pull the plug. I know they can keep the body alive almost indefinitely, but if there's no brain activity, and no hope of any in the foreseeable future, then is it worth it? I guess that's something that can only be decided on an individual basis, but I hope I never put my wife in that position......