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We have joined the hordes, lazy ones all, who have put up a Web as a way of keeping in touch with friends and family. One buzzword for what we have in mind is 'Weblog.' It's even been shortened to 'Blog.'

This ploy has some advantages over other ways of communicating: Visitors can log in only when and if they want to. It's cheap and easy to do. It's fun. We can include some of Mary's photographs. Visitors can easily comment, protest or otherwise respond.

There are some disadvantages: It's pretty impersonal, even more so than the holiday form letter many of us have scattered around. It works only for those who are on-line. It's very public, worse than putting your message on a penny post card (Well, I can remember when they went for one cent.)

But, We're giving it a try.

On this opening page we post a daily (or weekly or whatever) log of, mostly, trivia. Periodically the current log will be removed and added to a running log page accessible through a link in the 'Links' frame at the left. If you're a regular visitor this page may be all you'll want to view for each visit. (The picture is Mary and Clint, costumed for a Miscowaubik garden party amid the lupines on Agate's South Bay.

  Click the Button to send us an e-mail

Current Entries, sequenced with latest first. (Pictures are thumbnails, click to enlarge, use browsers back button to restore or choose 'back' from right-click dropdown menu.)

Saturday, 03 May, 2008.  And have added some photos of our new treadmill to the deck screening project photo gallery. (Click) Assembling this device was a bit of a chore and getting it up onto the deck even more of a challenge. But three chaps from the Village staff worried it up and, thankfully, didn't get hurt in the process. The treadmill is working out well and we're both logging a bit of time on it. I use it those days I don't get to take a long walk outside. Today for example, Mary dropped me off at Mexiquito on her way to a 'show-and-tell program at Picket Fence in Harlingen and I got to walk home--about a mile and a half.

Thursday, 10 April, 2008.  Finally have the pictures of last month's deck screening project in place. Click for that photo gallery.

Sunday, 16 March, 2008.  This dollar bill is posted on my office wall. If you were to enlarge it you'd see the caption reads, "This dollar bill has a very low albedo." --an inside gag. The story is: In discussing a Foreign Affairs article we'd just read about the growing Arctic Ocean with friend John Rogans, I mentioned that the ice cap had a much higher albedo than the open water that's replacing it and this fact was speeding  up the melting to the point this 'ocean' would be navigable within a few years. John said, "Albedo? I'll bet you a dollar there's no such word." (We often wrangle over obscure words and their meaning.) When we found the word in our dictionary I was able to post John's dollar on my wall.

Saturday, 1 March, 2008: Sitting in our carport/deck/outdoor room at dusk we spotted this fellow across the canal. I'm calling him a sand crane but I could be mistaken. When the flash went off (I doubt it did much good at this distance) for the shot at the left, his head snapped our way as you can see at right. He was followed down the canal edge by the smaller fisherman, possibly, a laughing gull though I'm again probably wrong. A dozen or so different shore birds fish our canal. The only ones I've ever seen catch and swallow anything are the pelicans, our most abundant residents.

Friday, 8 February, 2008. And again, just to let you know we're still here--in the throes of the Friends of the Port Isabel Public Library Annual Book Fair. Our main contribution is printing and assembling all the signs marking the various categories and other announcements. The Fair starts at 8:00 tomorrow morning and ahead of that I'll need to place my easels pointing to the event  out on Queen Isabella Blvd. The easels are loaded into the Camry ready for the morning jaunt into town. And Mary is upstairs making cookies to take to the bake sale that is part of the Fair. Regular hardbacks sell for 50 cents and paperbacks for 25. A few very special books are marked higher. One of these is the giant unabridged Oxford Dictionary, an older edition I think. It comes complete with a reading glass to decipher the fine print. Even so, it'd be worthless to me. I prefer my computer Webster that I can search by clicking and zoom in on if necessary. The event is the Friend's main money-raiser but the more important function is to get reading material out of attics into the hands of new readers. About my own reading, I'm well into Ghost Soldiers. It's the story of the Ranger's rescue of the survivors of the infamous Death March on Bataan, told in the most part by the participants.  I must have been in the theater at the time of these events but probably was still in New Guinea, hadn't arrived in the Philippines. Jean and Dick sent me a copy of the book a few days ago.

Sunday, 13 January, 2008.  Just to report that all's well with Clint and Mary. We've been enjoying mostly unseasonable summer-like weather. Got my head back into AutoCAD and AutoLisp a bit to generate the Hour Angle Differences chart for 2008 and post it on this site. You can click the navigation bar above or just Click here. Remember it's a PDF page and you need Adobe Reader to open it. Use your browser's back arrow to return here.

Wednesday, 26 December, 2007.  Most windsocks around here are fish, porpoises and the like. But as bona fide UP residents we're entitled to fly a moose.

Tuesday, 25 December, 2007.  With the Long Island Village Grill open, we take our meals out a lot so it was a treat today to broil our own steaks for Christmas dinner.

Thursday, 22 November, 2007.  O'er the river and through the woods---Well, not quite but we did walk across the street to Caroline and Clifford's where we had  a delightful time and a delicious Thanksgiving dinner. Clifford's son, Mark was with us.

Wednesday, 31 October, 2007.  The first Wed. 'Chicken Night' of the 2007-08 season in our Village Grill was followed by the Halowe'en party. At left are the prizewinning costumes--Tom and Patsy Olson. At the Thomas table, right, the only costuming effort was Mary's witches hat.

Tuesday, 30 October, 2007.  The latest Jumper book is out and is available at book sellers including Amazon.com. More information about it is available at our web at www.senoipraaq.com. It's a biography and was some seven years in the making. These years included the research Davis did in the UK, in Australia, in Florida as well as several stints in Malaysia. One regret is that Ruslan didn't live to see the book. We think he would be pleased and proud.

Thursday, 18 October, 2007.  Along with John R. we attended a most interesting lecture at Club Padre on the Island this afternoon. The lecturer was Dr. Richard Price, currently a professor in the Physics Department and in the Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy at UTB/TSC. His topic was "Curved Spacetime, Black Holes, 21st Century." It was a great lecture and included some of the history I remember from the sixties and seventies and later. The lecture was very well attended and very well received. Dr. Price has his own web page at www.phys.utb.edu/~rprice/rprice.html .

Wednesday, 15 October, 2007. The new dishwasher is installed and working fine.

Monday, 14 October, 2007. The Sears repairman found serious rusting problems with the dishwasher, too expensive to warrant keeping the old one so a trip to Brownsville to buy a new appliance. 

Saturday, 13 October, 2007. It's taken two visits by the Rio Elevator repair serviceman from McAllen, but the elevator is working well again. The convenience of this facility is well worth the expense.

Friday, 12 October, 2007.  The excitement wasn't over it seems. Sitting at the computer this afternoon water started pouring over me and over the printer. Covered the latter with some toweling and figured we were in for major de-construction--removing the wiring from the ceiling to take down the paneling and expose all the plumbing that is over head. Probably dismantling the computer and moving it out of harms way. Then I remembered I had just started up the dishwasher for the first time and that it's directly overhead. Rushed up and found it to be the source; turned it off and the water soon stopped dripping below. An inconvenience but not as bad as feared.

Wednesday, 10 October, 2007.  Had just started up from the ground floor in the elevator when there was a grinding noise and I came to a stop. Fortunately there's no lock on the ground floor door to the shaft so I was able to open it and maneuver myself down the five or so feet without phoning for help. As luck would have it Mary was stranded in the loft. I went up the outside stairs to let her know what had happened but found the door locked and I didn't have my keys. Fortunately again, Caroline was home and provided her key to our place. I let down the attic stairs onto the deck to rescue Mary from the loft but couldn't lift the trap door because of things piled on it. Mary had to crawl into the attic and move things around before I could open up and help her down. Most exciting.

Tuesday, 9 October, 2007.  Our UPS shipment arrived on schedule today and included the external hard drive so I can start catching up on computer chores such as updated web sites.

Wednesday, 3 October.  This year we took off on time, had a smooth trip with comfortable stopovers in MSP and HOU. At BRO Caroline and Clifford walked in just as we deplaned. Stopped at Wings for some wings and a beverage. Picked up the Camry on the way home with no problems. Everything at the house was in good shape thanks to the cleaning Caroline and Clifford had done. Some problems are to crop up over the next few days however.

Tuesday, 2 October, 2007.  Moved the garage screens that I'd taken down a couple days ago into the garage and backed the Chevy into its winter quarters. Turned off the pilots, shut off the gas at the tank, rolled the blinds down and we were away by mid afternoon. Dropped the UPS boxes off. Since they already had pre-paid labels, Copper World charged a dollar a box for holding them the driver to pick up the following day. Miscowaubik is normally closed on Tuesday but today they had a big private party and Karen had assured we could stop there on the way to our motel. Karen remembered, by the way, our machinations last year when the early morning plane failed to take off because the only mechanic available for some needed repair was duck hunting and I showed up at the Club much to her surprise. On to our motel, a rather uncomfortable room and not a good nights sleep. Must remember to book earlier next year and get better accommodations. 

Monday, 1 October, 2007.  Peg came to help with closing and among other chores emptied the fridge and gave it a thorough cleaning. Then she dropped Clint off at the airport where he picked up a car for a two-day rental. This saves Mary from having to drive it to Agate and makes tomorrow, the final close-out day, much less crowded. Because we'll be gone by mail time tomorrow I carried the mailbox in but had just crossed the road when the mail man drove up with the last delivery. He hadn't yet seen the forwarding instructions so we got one more delivery in. Finished packing and labeling the five boxes we'll drop off at Copper World in Calumet tomorrow and tucked them into the boot of the rental.

Sunday, 23 September, 2007.  After several cold and rainy days, today turned warm and sunny for the annual Miscowaubik Fall Color Cruise aboard the Isle Royale Queen !V. Along with Mary Ruth, Roy , Davis and fifty some others we enjoyed a delightful 'cruise' out of Copper Harbor and back--with great beverages and hors d'oeuvres en route and a delicious box lunch after docking. Click for some more pictures.

Tuesday, 18 September, 2007.  We had pieces of Mary's birthday cake before leaving for Eagle Harbor Inn. (See right) Then, after dinner at the Inn, she blew out a second candle stuck in her piece of blueberry pie.

Saturday, 15 September, 2007.  I was just thinking: I don't watch much television but since ours is on much of the time I've acquired a few aversions. One is for canned laughter. It doesn't even sound like laughter and is a clear admission that the gags are so weak the listener has to be told when to laugh. And then there are the talk shows where participants interrupt each other midsentence. Clearly they aren't listening to each other so why should we listen to any of them? Ah well.

Friday, 7 September, 2007.  Fall is definitely in the air but day temps still in the seventies. And we still manage to get up two tables for Men's Bridge Night at the Club. I think I came out almost a whole dollar ahead last night. Mary is cutting out a new quilting project, a Halloween wall hanging she says.
    We're enjoying our first look at Ruslan of Malaysia which is now available at book sellers such as Amazon.com. It's a fine looking book but one detail disappointed us. We had formatted the book with a full inch margin at the binding but the printer, R. R. Donnelley, cut that to five-eighths which makes it a little hard to read to the end of the line and encourages abuse of the binding. I suspect they've never printed a book with this many pages (441) or they wouldn't have made such a serious error. The proof pages we okayed didn't reveal the problem. Probably this will be among the things we'll discuss when the Jumpers stop by here in a couple of weeks.

Tuesday, 28 August, 2007.  If you recall our encounter with the gray squirrel a couple weeks ago, you may be pleased to learn that he's still at large and in residence under the tool shed. But he's learned to enter the live trap and consume the bait therein while keeping the door from slamming behind him until he's backed out. I've no quarrel with the squirrel because I don't think he gets into the house but I sure wish he'd stop interfering with our campaign to rid the premises of destructive chipmunks. We removed one chipmunk to Hebard Park a couple days ago but now every time I set the trap the squirrel springs it and steals the bait before a chipmunk can find it. Ah me.

Friday, 24 August, 2007.  Bob and Sue left this morning after a great visit. Among the things we did was their treating us at the Harbor Haus in Copper Harbor. They posed for Mary as we left the establishment.

Wednesday, 22 August, 2007.  One of the first pictures Mary took with her new camera (pre-birthday gift) was this shot from the deck and looking over the mouth of Agate Harbor's bay.

Monday, 6 August, 2007.  I've a long story to tell. You may remember our campaign last summer to expatriate a tribe of destructive chipmunks from the Thimbleberry Patch. There was little sign of their occupancy this past winter but we did spot one youngster on the deck so I set up the live trap--in the usual spot on the wooden walkway just outside the garage/office. Inside the entrance to the metal trap is a trigger panel that snaps up the door behind the beastie that has entered. There's no way to enter to the get bait at the other end without walking on the trigger panel. At least I'm sure that's what the design engineer thought. Ha, he/she doesn't know how smart our Yuppie beasties are.
    Yesterday while sitting here I heard the trap give a loud bang. I turned and watched through the screen while, not a chipmunk, but a hefty grey squirrel, sitting in front of the trap, daintily and leisurely nibbled up the peanuts while he held each in his paws. How in the world?? Then I saw what he had done and realized what the 'bang' had been. He had tipped the box over and walked in on its SIDE, avoiding the trigger! Sated, he scurried off.
    It'd probably be a better story if it ended here but it doesn't. I left the trap on its side where it was and a few minutes later I heard it snap. The squirrel had returned and must have brushed the trigger as he entered and was securely and unhappily ensconced inside. I started to plan which locale along the highway I'd honor with his residency. But, no. This guest was much stronger, heavier and wilder than our chipmunks. He crashed against the door at the back of the box until it popped loose and Mr. Squirrel is again free to smirk at us. The picture at left above shows the trap just as he left it.
    But we really don't want to entertain a smart squirrel any more than we would a dumb one, so I'm trying again. I've drilled a hole through the rear door and through the box and dropped in a nail. (Wonder if I could market my redesigned live trap?) And, as you can see at the right above, I've weighted the trap down so it's a bit harder to tip over. We'll see.

Monday, 30 July, 2007.  Got my "Hour Angle Differences" AutoCAD/AutoLISP program running since we didn't have a 2007 chart here at Agate. Then decided to make one available on this site. So, here it's a PDF document and can be opened by clicking. Use your browser's 'back' button to close it. Or, to read a discussion of the chart first, click here.  You can see from the chart, for example that Venus and Saturn have been in the same vicinity all month but are now too close to the sun to be visible.

Sunday, 22 July, 2007.  Last evening we had our first deer visit, a fleeting one. When I stepped out onto the deck to take the flag in, the light on the east corner was lit. It's turned on by a motion sensor (remember, Bob and Sue?) so something or someone had been on the deck. I heard the swish of something running through the weeds and when I went to the rail a deer had stopped to look back at me. It was too dark to see clearly but I think it was a big buck. A moment later I spotted him trotting back up the hill the other way toward Hackmans.
    We're off this evening to a 'meeting' of the Eagle Harbor Book Group. It's in St. Peters basement and the book is Kafka on the Shore, a translation of a Japanese author's  very different novel full of mysticism.

Saturday, 21 July, 2007.  This afternoon we went to the Grand Opening of the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge Expansion. The place was packed. They'd been doing tours all day, a tent was set up with continual rock band in full blast. We didn't do the tour but had dinner and then wandered around taking a few pictures. Click to see the results.

Friday, 20 July, 2007. Being not long after the summer solstice, you can see how far to the north the sun is setting over South Bay. And if you look closely you can spot the beverage that accompanied my enjoyment of the sunset. Temps were a cool sixty degrees.

Wednesday, 18 July, 2007.  Got an e-mail from a chap inquiring how one creates spirals in AutoCAD. It seems he'd stumbled on our 'Phi and Fibonacci' essay. He was interested in the spiral growth pattern exhibited by sunflowers. It always gives a kick when someone finds something of interest on our site. When I told him an Autolisp routine would do it he replied he'd have to look into that language. At the moment I can't find the program I wrote to do the logarithmic spiral.

Tuesday, 10 July, 2007.  This afternoon we attended the memorial service for long-time Eagle Harbor resident, Fred Kellow. St Peters was packed with standees extending out onto the porch. The service and the testimonials were fine, but apparently Fred didn't approve. As the ceremony ended the sky turned dark and a downpour kept everyone trapped inside for quite some time.

Wednesday, 4 July, 2007.  Today the Keweenaw Gourds gathered at Jean and Dick's for the summer's first general meeting and a huge feed. If I counted correctly thirteen were in attendance. That's not counting the dogs who were banned to the garage. Mary's picture shows a couple of the kitchen volunteers. Others are pictured and identified in a photo gallery reached by clicking.

Monday, 2 July, 2007.  We arrived at Agate on schedule on 27 June but today is the first I've been able to boot up and log on. A few hours ago we picked up the computer at Computer Mechanix (now back in Houghton) where a new power supply was installed. For some reason the old one had not survived the winter. Today also the boxes shipped from Texas  arrived and brought the external hard drive so our webs are back in business. Or at least I think they are, will know when I publish this update
    Found the cottage in good shape. Mary's sisters had spruced it up and stocked the fridge a bit. We have hot water but I've been unable to start the space heaters so we're fighting the chill with some electric heaters. It's been forty at night and barely sixty during the day. The gas man is due tomorrow and he'll get us going I'm sure.  Will try to post a bit more regularly than has been the case the past few months.

Tuesday, 12 June, 2007.  Received word from Mike Hubbard of the Wayne Memorial High School class of 1953 that our colleague Don Paschke had passed away. Don was a few months older than Clint. We've not stayed in touch but this picture is on my office wall. It too was sent to me by a member of the 1953 class and was taken at the WMHS reunion honoring that class in 2003. Pictured are Bernie and Don Paschke, Palmer Brown and Dan Diadun. Don's obituary can be seen on the Uht Funeral Home's web site at www.uhtfh.com

Friday, 8 June, 2007. I mentioned last year (Wed., 13 Sept., 2006, in Old Logs section) the Pippenger letters we've been loaned. They're all typed and I'm inserting each in sequence into a single Word Perfect document. They've been scanned and saved as PDF documents. Having the internet at ones fingertips adds to the fun. For example in a letter I inserted today he wrote about a typhoon he was in on his way from China to the Philippines. Sticking "typhoon 1900" into Google found that, sure enough, on 9 Nov, 1900, a major typhoon struck Hongkong with numerous deaths and devastation of shipping including the sinking of a British river gunboat and I was able to insert a footnote with this tidbit. BI (before Internet) how much effort would have been required to retrieve this smidgeon of history? Enough that I wouldn't have done it of course.

Friday, 1 June, 2007.  Often these evenings, and mornings too if we're about early enough, we're entertained by the the plaintive cry of our aptly named mourning dove. The cupolas on the sea cottages are his favorite spots for his lonely vigil. One morning I caught him in the act atop the cottage across the street.

Tuesday, 29 May, 2007.  Return from a fairly smooth overnight in Houston, the second trip this month. Mary's earlier x-ray was unreadable for some reason. Nothing threatening surfaced and the trip was pretty smooth. This time we were able to book at the Rotary House attached to M.D. Anderson.

Monday, 30 April, 2007. M.  D. Anderson called with word that Mary's semi-annual mammogram is scheduled Thursday so we've booked an overnight trip to Houston, flying out Wed.

Sunday, 29 April, 2007.Ever since we got rid of the Four Runner last year we've realized our carport was open to uses other than storing a vehicle. For example since it's close to my ground-floor office it's a handy locale for a beverage break from the computer. But the concrete slab wasn't all that attractive and we've been talking of tiling the whole thing for some time. Last Tuesday the contractor started the job and finished it Friday. Click for a photo gallery documenting the process and the results. Oh, After it dried out, Mary's watch works fine.

Friday, 27 April, 2007.  A day unusually full of misadventures. When we departed for lunch at late midday, the chaps tiling our carport (I'll report on that project later) were grouting towards the street so I decided to exit through the oleander patch at the bottom of the stairs. I forgot to warn Mary about the muddy patch there which I'd been stepping over all day. As I held the bushes out of the way for Mary she slipped in the mud and grabbed for me. The branch I was holding provided no support and she stumbled down dragging me almost on top of her. Mary suffered no harm except for getting muddied up but I scrapped a branch with my cheek and slammed my head into the ground for a bruise and a little blood. More seriously my spectacles were crushed into an unwearable state. The fellows tiling rushed to get us onto our feet.
    Not wanting to depend only on my prescription sunglasses, we decided to head, after lunch, for Herman's Optical in Brownsville. Mary remembered one of their locations was on Alton Gloor but I said I knew exactly where one was, on 802 right at the end of Parades Line Road out of Los Fresnos. We missed a turn but soon pulled into the shopping center right where I was headed. But, it was the location of New Sound, where I get my hearing aids, not our spectacles. By then it was almost 5:00 and we decided not to seek Herman's (following Mary's directions this time) and headed home instead. There we could enjoy a drink in our newly tiled carport and deck with my several boners behind us. Well, not quite. Before leaving I had thrown the muddy clothing we'd stripped off in the laundry into a tub of wash--clothing including Mary's dress into whose pocket she had tucked her wrist watch. Mary is now the proud owner of, I'm sure, the cleanest, non-functioning watch in the county.

 Wednesday, 25 April, 2007. This large (139.4 m) ship docked at the San Benito/Port Isabel pier across the channel this morning. It's the Bold Endurance, a fine looking craft with an interesting history. It was built in 1978 in Finland for the Russian Navy and was named Stakhanovets Petrash. Over the years it has had several new names, owners, refittings and missions. For a number of years it was a cable-laying vessel in the Atlantic and in the Middle East. It appears the Bold Endurance's current role, with a capacity of 60 persons, is a sort of floating hotel to provide living quarters for crews trapped for long periods on drilling platforms out in the Gulf of Mexico. The accommodations are reported to be quite comfortable. Presumably it's here to take on supplies.

Wednesday, 11 April, 2007.  One of books suggested for the Eagle Harbor Summer Book Group schedule was Tom Sandage's A History of the World in 6 Glasses. While not scheduled for a group meeting, we ordered a copy anyway. It's a fun read as well as being a "crash course in ancient, classical and modern history." as the blurb on the cover states. In an interesting way it constitutes a bridge between Jared Diamond's Germs, Guns and Steel (one of Sandage's sources) of a couple years ago and last year's The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman (which is likely to be on this summer's Eagle Harbor list). 

Saturday, 24 March, 2007.  The Long Island Village Grill closed yesterday and won't open until next fall. When the winter Texans start to leave there's not enough patronage to support the operation. So, this week's was the last 'Chicken Night'--the grand buffet the Grill staff sets up in the ballroom each Wednesday. As they've been doing much of the winter, the Jumpers attend. This photo shows Davis Jumper and Bill Leslie under the hats and below Alan Whitelock and Roy Jumper. There's an expression describing the wannabe Texans; it's: All hat, No cattle!. The Grill's closing is a good time to document the place a bit so Click to open an LIV Grill photo gallery.

Monday, 12 March, 2007.  Thinking it was the 13th, we got up early to keep Mary's appointment with Dr. T. When I booted up to read our e-mail, I saw it was only the 12th. Ah Me! (Also noticed neither Windows XP nor Atomic Click had adjusted the time to CDS.) The photo is the Columbus ship Niña replica soon after it docked at South Point Marina last week It's a telephoto shot across the channel from a spot here in the Village. Yesterday I paid a visit to the Niña.  It's scheduled to leave Port Isabel tomorrow I think. Mary wasn't up to the trip. Click for report on that visit and a few more pictures.

Saturday, 20 January, 2007.  Got to thinking again about Diophantus' conclusion about the area of circles, mentioned below in the 12 Jan. entry. I've some reasoning that may be similar to that which led him to his conclusion about the area of circles. It's sketched on a PDF page you can open.  Click. It's not a proof but it's a visualization he might have used.

Tuesday, 16 January, 2007.  'Twas 39 deg F. here this morning and never got above forty one or two. Freeze warnings are out for Cameron and adjacent counties. And drizzle. We can count on a few fender benders; Texans aren't very ice-wise. Probably won't get quite that cold this close to the Gulf. The chill is to last most of the week. We're staying in pretty much with the thermostat turned up. We hope to get the Jumper book out this month but I find preparing files for electronic transfer to the press a bit of a challenge.

Friday, 12 January, 2007.  Am having fun working through the latest Stephen Hawking book. It's sub-titled "The Mathematical Breakthroughs That Changed History." Am unearthing fun math tidbits that I've forgotten or, more likely, never knew. More tragic, I doubt that I ever pointed them out to my own students. For example in the third century DIophantus, with no use or maybe even knowledge of the value of Pi pointed out that the area of a circle is one-half the product of its circumference and radius. This result falls out when combining the conventional expressions for circumference and area. I don't think I ever pointed it out in class. Another little gem Hawking translates from Rene Descarte--he of cogito, ergo sum fame. I've fashioned my own treatment and include it as a PDF page if anyone is interested.   Click   (If you're not used to zooming in PDF documents it might be easier to read if you just print it.)

Tuesday, 1 January, 2007.  We've been following the events in Somalia and of course these bring back to mind my three years in that nation--June to June, 1967-1970. Having troops from Ethiopia, their traditional foe, in their country, even welcoming them, has to give many Somalis pause. Many I'm sure are suspicious of the invader's real motives. Anyway, the current happenings motivated me to review the 'Somalia' chapter in my 'memoirs' and to do a little research into the events surrounding the close-out of Eastern Michigan's USAID project in Somalia. I uncovered on a State Department web site some of State's cable traffic of the time and put some quotes therefrom into my chapter. Then, in case anyone is interested, I've added that chapter to this site. It can be opened by clicking, but it's a PDF document and will open automatically if you have Adobe Reader on your hard drive.  If you should print it, it's formatted for two sided printing and has some 24 pages. The quotes confirm most of my memory of events but not quite all of them. They neither prove nor disprove my belief of the real source of the pressure we received to be the one advisor to stay on in Somalia.