Friday Morning

Well we finally got some rain last evening and into the night. Lots thunder and even some lightning and I'm sure the yard and garden will be most appreciative. Thursday was a day that I was back at the VA Center for a checkup and to meet my primary physician. He is a young doctor with some Asian decent, very personable and interested in my physical condition. I really like him and he will be my physician while I'm in Florida and then I will use Doctor K while in the mountains. Hopefully I won't need much from either of them but he did suggest that since I smoked heavily during my formative years I should have an aneurysm scan which I have agreed to and that maybe I should have a colonoscopy depending upon the fecal test I just mailed into the VA lab. I did receive my first ever pneumonia shot as well as a flu shot today. I sure hope I don't get sick again but I feel fine this Friday morning.

I spent most of the morning at the VA getting my photo taken for an ID card and also learning that my DD214 failed to show my participation in the Vietnam campaign. I'm making steps to correct that as I have nearly 5000 flying hours on a C-141 and lots of missions into southeast Asia which included Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia. I learned of the mistake when I went to sign up for the registry of being exposed to Agent Orange. While I was never directly sprayed by this defoliate we transported it from the states to Vietnam on the C-141 and several of my load master buddies suffered ill effects from this agent. Many have cancer as a direct result of just being aboard the aircraft with this highly carcinogen agent. Luckily I've never seemed to show any affects but I know of one veteran who led a terrible quality of life before his death.

I'm getting paper work to correct my DD214 to show that I was flying into a combat zone several times a month for 7 plus years. I have an Air Medal hanging on my wall that shows I had at least 35 missions in Vietnam from July '66 to Oct of '67. Once you reach the 35 missions you receive an oak leaf cluster for any additional 35 missions and if my memory serves me correct I have at least 4-5 clusters, oh well!! They don't award the Air Medal for flying stateside.

Well I got home just before lunch so I watered the gardens and then Amy brought GG along with Sam for lunch. The girls ate chicken salad on a garden salad and I cleaned up the black beans and rice from last nights supper. We all sat out in the yard an watched Sam play and read as well. After everyone left Nancy headed to the rec for her workout and I chilled reading.

GG came for supper and Nancy made chicken Kiev as well as fresh green beans from the garden to go along with a fresh Caesar salad. Wow was that ever delicious. The rain started about supper time and last until about bedtime; nothing to hard but it seemed at times to be steady. We were certainly dry here in Florida. I guess its part of the big front that's supposed to hit the northeast today with major snowfalls of 2 feet or more, yikes!!! LATER