Trips, volcanos, earthquakes

Ok, I got the laundry done, cherries cleaned, pitted and bagged for freezing. Food for Hubby, food for me to take. I always get Linda some mixed nuts and candy from our 5 and 10 (computers no longer have the 'cent' key...) store. My older sister works there so I get an employee discount :) They have the BEST candy. The 'old time' kind in the bins that they scoop out and weight....mmmmm I would have to check but I'm sure the building was built before 1900 and has been re-done on the outside but inside it still has the wood floors that creak and are no longer level. Electric outlets in the floor, skinny little isles, cloth baskets to carry while you shop and that old building smell. I love going there! They have the oddest things there yet it's handy stuff you just don't find at Walmart. Dang, now I realize I should have taken my camera. I will next time. Someone, on a blog, said that too....always take a camera! Can't remember who said it lol heck I couldn't remember to take the camera! ha! (Note to self, pack camera) I know, I know, like that's gonna work! pfft!
I checked the 'This Day in History' and it was pretty lame stuff. So no history today.

I do have the word of the day:

procrustean

\pruh-KRUSS-tee-un\

adjective

Meaning

1 : of, relating to, or typical of Procrustes
*2 : marked by arbitrary often ruthless disregard of individual differences or special circumstances

Example Sentence
The company abandoned its procrustean scheduling policy and began allowing single mothers and other employees to work more flexible hours.

I'll have you know that my spell checker says procrustean is wrong! good grief!

Volcano update:
Chaitén - June 11-17
Visual observations of Chaitén were inhibited due to inclement weather during 10-12 June. Customs officers in the town of Chaitén reported noises on 11 June. They also reported the presence of two new craters to the S that emitted ash-and-gas plumes on 12 June. The plumes drifted S. Later that day in Chaitén town, an abrupt swelling of the river Chaitén was observed. Seismic events increased in number and intensity.

An overflight on 14 June revealed spines rising above the top of the new lava dome, which had grown in height to exceed the old dome. Gas, ash, and steam plumes were primarily emitted from a vent, about 100 m in diameter, at the SE contact between the old and the new lava dome. Previously, emissions came from the NW contact between the old and new domes. Continuous explosions produced ash plumes that rose to an altitude of 3 km (10,000 ft) a.s.l. and drifted E. Several other points of gas-and-steam emissions were seen along the contact. Small block-and-ash flows from the new dome had descended the S flank of the old dome and occasionally reached the caldera floor. The Alert Level remained at Red.

Based on observations of satellite imagery, SIGMET reports, and pilot observations, the Buenos Aires VAAC reported that during 11-16 June ash plumes rose to altitudes of 2.1-3.7 km (7,000-12,000 ft) a.s.l. and drifted N, NE, and E.

China Earthquake update:

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- The death toll from last month's massive earthquake in southwestern China is expected to exceed 80,000, state media reported Tuesday.

Officially 69,181 people are dead with another missing 18,498, according to authorities.

"Because it is presumed that the missing people are already dead, the total death toll of this disaster is likely to exceed 80,000," said Vice Premier Hui Liangyu.

If all the missing are dead, then the death toll would top 87,000.

The magnitude 7.9 quake devastated Sichuan province and surrounding areas on May 12, leaving more than 5 million people homeless.

On Monday China reported it had fired 12 officials for dereliction of duty and misuse of earthquake relief.

Supervision Minister Ma Wen said her department had received 1,178 complaints involving officials' response to the May 12 quake in Sichuan province and had dealt with more than 1,000 of them.

Administrative punishments were handed out to 43 officials, the most serious being removal from office, Ma said at a news conference. She didn't specify when the officials had been fired.

That just about does it for me. Still not sure if I'm taking off tonight or tomorrow. The list of pros and cons is about even. The only thing that tips the scale for staying tonight, and since this is my blog I'll say it, Nookie!! Once in a 6 week time period is not enough to make this girl a camper happy! Either way, this will be my last post until next week, I imagine. Stay safe.....Jusqu' à la poste prochaine! (until next post!)

No header, No theme, No time..just the way it is :P

This is going to be a short post. For the past 3 weeks I have been covering for different people here at work who are taking time off for whatever reasons. Between juggling my own work and theirs I've just about drove myself crazy! I figure I deserve a break to post a real quick update. Now, it's close to my turn to be off work. I am taking weds-fri off work and will travel down to Kentucky to help my best friend move. Well, get ready to move. She is moving to New Jersey on Saturday. Depending on what I can get done here, I'm hoping to head down there Tuesday after work. Will have to drive the Hubby's gas guzzling truck because some stuff she wants me to store here in our barn or upstairs so she will know where it's at. We have been friends with her since we bumped into her on the Internet playing games more than 8 years ago! She is in her 60's and not in the greatest of health and needs the help! She is/was living with her daughter but can no longer afford to do that so she's moving. She would probably kill me for posting a picture of her buuuuttt.....what the heck! She won't know until she's in NJ, right!? When she does see it she will be to far away to do anything about it then he he he...

I still need to get by the store to get food for hubby, laundry caught up, my stuff packed and I still have 2 bowls of cherries to pit and bag for freezing!! Then when I return on Saturday evening Amanda, Tom and the kids are to camp out in the back yard that night and then have a huge birthday party for Maggie's #1 birthday on Sunday. Phewwwww, if I survive all this I will post again next week.
Ok, out of time for today. Take care all......until next post.

T.G.I.F!!!!!!!!

Well, went to town last night to replace my dead dryer. Got a deal at HH Gregg, they took $100 off price if we bought the one on display. It had a few marks on it but let's get real, it's going in my basement, who cares about marks?! And the few it had came off with fingernail polish lol. So, we're back in the laundry business....yippee!
Since yesterday's post I saw the tiger Momma carrying the tiger baby to the wood shed so I now know who the Momma is. I also know she has more than 2 since I could see the 2 from yesterday and hear at least one more back in the corner of the wood shed. We have wayyyy to many cats!!! The 2 from yesterday I grabbed up and cleaned their eyes out. Both of them had matted eyes shut.
Not sure what we are doing this weekend. Sunday is our 33rd Anniversary and I guess we got a new dryer! Plus, a trip through Burger King...big spenders! ha
Today at work, we are having a cookout then a meeting with the 401K people so I get less phone time! yea!! Believe me I will try to stretch it out as long as I can!

This Day in History:

June 20, 1931

Hoover vs. the Depression

Unlike his successors Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, Herbert Hoover is often remembered for what he didn't do during his tenure in the White House. In particular, Hoover has taken his share of knocks for supposedly failing to marshal the nation's legislative forces against the Great Depression. While it's true that Hoover viewed the business community as the primary engine of America's economic revival, he did help devise a number of initiatives that aimed to speed the end of the Depression. Case in point: on this day in 1931, Hoover urged leaders of various nations to suspend payment of international debts and reparations for the next year. The moratorium was intended as a precautionary measure: with the recent demise of a major Austrian bank, Hoover feared that the international economy was on the brink of a nasty slump that would only worsen the United State's woes. The international community readily acceded to Hoover's wishes and by July the freeze was in effect. But, though Hoover's moratorium initially helped restore confidence in the world's various markets and economies, its healing powers were short-lived: that fall, Great Britain abandoned the global economy, shattering most nation's fragile faith in the international economy.

June 20, 1947

Bugsy Siegel, organized crime leader, is killed

Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, the man who brought organized crime to the West Coast, is shot and killed at his mistress Virginia Hill's home in Beverly Hills, California. Siegel had been talking to his associate Allen Smiley when three bullets were fired through the window and into his head, killing him instantly.

Siegel's childhood had been pretty similar to that of other organized crime leaders: Growing up with little money in Brooklyn, he managed to establish himself as a teenage thug. With his pal Meyer Lansky, Siegel terrorized local peddlers and collected protection money. Before long, they had a business that included bootlegging and gambling all over New York City.

By the late 1930s, Siegel had become one of the major players of a highly powerful crime syndicate, which gave him $500,000 to set up a Los Angeles franchise. Bugsy threw himself into the Hollywood scene, making friends with some of the biggest names of the time--Cary Grant, Clark Gable, and Jean Harlow. His all-night parties at his Beverly Hills mansion became the hot spot in town. He also started up a solid gambling and narcotics operation to keep his old friends back east happy. Just before World War II began, Siegel traveled to Italy to sell explosives to Mussolini, but the deal fizzled when tests of the explosives did too.

In 1945, Siegel had a brilliant idea. Just hours away from Los Angeles sat the sleepy desert town of Las Vegas, Nevada. It had nothing going for it except for a compliant local government and legal gambling. Siegel decided to build the Flamingo Hotel in the middle of the desert with $6,000,000, a chunk of which came from the New York syndicate.

The Flamingo wasn't immediately profitable and Siegel ended up in an argument with Lucky Luciano over paying back the money used to build it. Around the same time that Siegel was killed in Beverly Hills, Luciano's men walked into the Flamingo and announced that they were now in charge. Even Siegel probably never imagined the astounding growth and success of Las Vegas in the subsequent years.

Not much in the news history today. Have a great weekend and be safe!

Piggies and kittens

KINGSTON, Iowa (AP) -- Luck ran out for about a dozen pigs who escaped their flooded farm, swam through raging floodwaters and scrambled atop a sandbag levee in southeastern Iowa.

Officials said they killed the pigs over worries that they would weaken the levee.

Des Moines County sheriff's officials shot the pigs Tuesday, not long after they reached the levee several miles from the nearest hog farm.

Officials said they killed the pigs over worries that they would weaken the levee. Onlookers said the animals were having a difficult time trying to maneuver their way off the sandbags, and that they scurried back into the water as people approached.

"Basically you cannot have something with a hoof walk on plastic and not poke a hole in the plastic and let water into it," said LeRoy Lippert, chairman of the county emergency management commission. "Hogs, they have a tendency to root and that would not have been good either."

He said the state veterinarian and other agencies were consulted, and that 10 to 16 animals were killed

"It happens every day. My gosh, that's what slaughterhouses do -- that's how we get bacon and pork chops," Lippert said. "It's just one of the casualties of the flooding situation."

The carcasses were left at the site and treated essentially as road kill, Lippert said. "You don't get them out of the mud and over the dike when you're worried about people and people's property," he said.

Louisa County Sheriff Curt Braby said he had heard about the incident and understood why the pigs needed to be killed.

"They did not want to take a chance on losing a city due to a few hogs," he said.

This just makes me so sad :( I understand why and that it was right thing to do. I'm too soft hearted. Which is why we never got any cows to raise. I knew I couldn't send them to the butcher. Hubby teased me that I would give them names, baby them and set up individual stalls with their names on them lol You know, he's probably right!

It's also the reason we have so many cats on the farm. We have 3 Momma cats outside right now. 1 had 6 kittens, and 2 of them have 2 kittens each, I think, not sure I've seen all the babies yet. Along with 2 males from an earlier litter. This morning, one of the Mommas had 2 babies (maybe 4-5 weeks old) under my car. So, here I am at 7:15, in my dress clothes, kneeling in the driveway and coaxing them out from under the car. 2 of the Mommas are skittish (half wild) so don't know how many kitties each of them had for sure. The ones under my car were a black male and a tiger female. Don't know if they belong to the black Momma or the tiger Momma. Both Mommas kept checking under car but wouldn't go to the kitties when I put them down. Finally, I just put them in the wood shed with the 6 from original Momma and figure their Momma will find them, I hope. So, now I will worry all day about them and if their ok....sigh. I suppose to many people I'm silly but like I said....soft hearted, that's me!

Will meet hubby at home after work to go shopping for a new dryer and get some supper. Have no clue what to do with the old one but it's close to being an antique lol...just kidding! We looked at the papers from old set and we bought them in 1991!! Sure doesn't seem that long ago...time flies...

This Day in History:

June 19, 1885

Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor

On this day in 1885, the Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor as a symbol of Franco-American friendship.

Nine years late, the 300-foot statue was a gift from the people of France, who had been the Patriots’ primary foreign ally in the War for Independence, to those of United States as a celebration of the Declaration of Independence’s centenary in 1876. The monumental work is mounted on a steel framework designed by Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc and Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel. Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi sculpted the statue, originally titled “Liberty Enlightening the World” from copper sheets upon a steel frame. After completion, the statue was disassembled into 350 sections and shipped in 214 crates to New York Harbor. Over a year later, on October 28, 1886, the statue was reconstructed and dedicated in a large public ceremony by President Grover Cleveland.

The statue’s pedestal bears the words of poet Emma Lazarus, written in 1883:

Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

These words echoed those of the radical Patriot pamphleteer, Thomas Paine, written in his 1776 call to arms, Common Sense:

“This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe. Hither have they fled, not from the tender embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster….”

When the Ellis Island immigration center opened its doors on an island in New York Harbor near the Statue of Liberty in 1892, Lazarus’ words welcomed the 12 million immigrants who passed by “Lady Liberty” after trying trans-Atlantic journeys on their way to becoming Americans.

June 19, 1945

"Who's on First"

On this day in 1945, Abbott and Costello's classic comedy routine "Who's on First?" is seen in the film The Naughty Nineties. The duo had already made the routine famous in live performances and on the radio, and a shorter version had been seen in the 1940 film One Night in the Tropics.

June 19, 1949

NASCAR stages first Grand National

NASCAR staged its first Grand National event at the Charlotte Fairgrounds; the event marked the birth of NASCAR racing as we know it today. In 1946, race promoter Bill France began promoting an event in Charlotte. As he explains it, "I wanted to run a 100-mile national championship race at the fairgrounds, but [local sports editor] Wilton Garrison said I couldn't call it a national championship race." Garrison argued that France "might call it a North Carolina championship race, but you have to get some kind of a national organization to sanction it in order to call it a national championship race." So began Bill France's dream of creating a national sanctioning body for stock-car racing, which would govern a points standing as well as organize races in states across the country. During the 1946 stock-car season, France formed the National Championship Stock-Car Circuit. France withheld a purse for the point fund, kept track of standings, attempted to enforce uniform rules, and paid the drivers on time. That year, France expanded stock-car racing's range, arranging races all over the South. The 1947 season began with a 160-mile race at Daytona Beach. By the middle of the season, France had incorporated more than a dozen tracks into his circuit; he offered a guaranteed purse of $2,000 at each event; and he had a slogan, "Where the fastest that run, run the fastest." But at that point most of the race cars were modified stock pre-war Fords, and France and his governing body had a nearly impossible time enforcing regulations placed on modification of the car engines. The combination of his success with the NCSCC and his failure to enforce strict rules led him to call a meeting in December of 1947 at the Streamline Hotel in Daytona to discuss a more substantial governing body for stock-car racing. What emerged from the meetings was the National Association for Stock-Car Auto Racing, or NASCAR. The 1948 season was a more tightly governed version of the previous year; the sport's final breakthrough came in 1949. France decided that product identification would greatly add to fan interest in stock-car racing. As all of the major car companies had released postwar models, France created rules in the off-season that would allow for a Grand National division of NASCAR racing. Only late-model, strictly stock cars would be allowed in the Grand National class. A crowd of 13,000 watched as Jim Roper won the inaugural event on the three-quarter-mile dirt track at the Charlotte Fairgrounds. The Grand Nationals later became Winston Cup Series events. Which became Nextel Cup, which became Sprint Cup...

Ok, I have to get some work done...take care....until tomorrow.

Paul McCartney and road trips

This Day in History:

June 18, 1942

Paul McCartney born

On this day in 1942, recording artist Paul McCartney is born in Liverpool, England. The son of a jazz-band leader, McCartney began playing guitar after his mother died of cancer in 1956. The following year, he met another young Liverpool musician, John Lennon, and joined Lennon's band, the Quarrymen. Later that year, he persuaded Lennon to add his friend, guitar player George Harrison, to the group. The three played together under several different names, and with assorted members, until 1960, when they adopted the name the Beatles.

The band toured German beerhouses in 1961 and debuted later that year at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, where they gave more than 300 performances during the next two years. Drummer Ringo Starr joined the group in 1962, just before the group hit the big time the following year. The band scored its first U.K. hits in 1963, launching the Beatlemania tidal wave that hit the United States in 1964. In a little more than 10 years, the group transformed rock and roll, scoring 20 No. 1 hits on the Billboard pop charts, more than any group in history. The group's records spent a total of 59 weeks topping the charts between 1964 and 1970.

I want to start today's blog with this story because it reminded me of a concert I went to in the late 80's. My sister, Alicia, and I went to see Paul in concert on Valentine's day one year in Indianapolis. We got us great seats! Row 10 but rows 1-9 were on the floor and row 10 was first row on the riser. When Paul was playing the piano from time to time he looked at us. Ok, ok I'm sure with the stage lights he couldn't see us but it looked to us like he was looking at us.

We laughed about the crowd. How a lot of the people were dressed up 70's style and how we had similar items in our wardrobes lol. The fringed suede jackets, thigh high boots, long straight hair, mini skirts and psychedelic clothes. We worked together also at the family printing firm and we had one of those fax machines that would copy too. Sooo....the next day before Alicia arrived for work I sneaked in and typed up a letter that read something like.

Alicia,

Had a great time after the show!

Thanks again!
Paul (for his name I put one of his promo sheets with his signature on it on a light table and traced it onto the letter)
Then I ran the letter through the fax machine to make it look like he had faxed it to her and put it on her work table. OH MY GOSH!! What a hoot we had for many days over that. It still brings a smile to my face after all these years. I think she still has it somewhere!
A few years later, 1994, The Rolling Stones were doing their Farewell Tour but no stops in Indianapolis. Alicia wanted to see them so I told her to check and see if they were coming to a city within a days drive and we could go to concert and stay the night in a hotel. Detroit, St. Louis, Cincinnati to name a few.
Did I mention Alicia is directionally challenged? No? Later that night she calls me too excited to talk.
"OHMYGOSHKARENYOUWON'TBELIEVEIT!!!" I swear it all came out as one word! Once I got her calmed down enough to understand her, she told me how she got 2 tickets for front row seats.
"Woohoo! front row!?" I asked
"Yesssss, can you believe it!"
"Where at?"
"The Metro Dome!"
Now, I didn't want to burst her bubble but the Metro Dome was in Minnesota!! That was like a 12 hour drive!! She thought it was in Michigan (Silver Dome) lol small mistake, right?! She's not a football fan either.
Well, as the saying goes...when given lemons make lemonade! We turned it into a road trip and it ended up with Mom going and taking her 3 daughters, me, Alicia and Kay, and those daughters took their daughters, Krista, Amanda and riding piggyback (Kay was pregnant) Bethany. We had an absolute blast. We hit some of the tourists spots on the way and, of course, with the all female group, the Mall of America, plus Alicia and I got to see the Stones Final Concert Tour! Even though our front row seats were the front row of the balcony but it didn't matter at this point because of the quality time we were having on the trip as a whole.
Alicia and I took a Taxi back to the hotel after the concert and it was the first time we had ever been in a Taxi. (Well, we were raised in the country and if you wanted to go somewhere you better get a job to buy some gas cause Dad didn't pay for that..quote-unquote LOL)
ahhhh......memories :) I've reminisced so long I'm out of time today...take care all....

Flooding continues

Will try to squeeze in a post, been crazy again at work...I still try to touch base with the rest of the world but I get absorbed in reading the news and eye witness reports and next thing you know it's late afternoon and I haven't posted yet!. The news sites like CNN show pictures but no story and no follow-up! Drives me nuts! lol! Like this one in Oakland, IA. It just breaks my heart to see these kind of things, not knowing how it turns out. Caption reads: Hogs struggle to breathe in a hog house Monday in Oakville, Iowa. That's it, no more to the story....grrrrrr

But then you come across this kind.

OMAHA, Neb. -- A Labrador retriever lived up to its name Friday when he plucked his 12-year-old owner out of the Platte River in Nebraska.Tony Bailey can usually swim in the river, but recent rains have pushed it up higher than normal and whipped up unusual currents. When Tony jumped into the Platte on Friday, he was quickly sucked in.
"It was, like, over my head and I couldn't touch," he said.He was only a few feet away from the shore, but the river current was strong enough that it was pulling him down and under. He said his cries for help weren't being heard by anyone, except Jake, the 4-year-old Lab.
"I was saying, 'Help, help,' and I saw him jump in, and then my head went under, and when I came up, he was right here by me," Tony said.Tony said the dog swam out next to him and he grabbed the dog's neck. The dog swam back to shore with the boy in tow."It's something that I wouldn't have expected him to do -- to have the brains to do, I guess," said Tony's mother, Diane.Diane Bailey said Jake isn't usually the smartest dog."He doesn't listen. He doesn't mind," she said."Sometimes he can act real hyper and weird," said Tony. "He'll pick up rocks and think they're balls and wants you to throw them to him."He was just smart enough on Friday."You think you know your dog so well, but then he does something like this," said Diane Bailey. "He's got a big heart and he does have a brain in there.""Thanks guy," said Tony. "I love him so much."Diane Bailey said she thinks the river channel changed during the flooding and washed out much of the bank where her son swims, which is why it was so unexpectedly deep. Jake got a very big bone for efforts and was forgiven for every hole he dug and all the mud he tracked into the house, the Baileys said. (and he deserved that big bone too. I figure he deserves to have his picture posted too...Good job, Jake!!)

Just had a call from my daughter, Amanda.... Maggie Rose, who will be 1 year old on June 30th, is walking!! Boy are they in for it...hahaha!!! Just a little background here. Maggie was born with bi-lateral club feet, meaning both feet were turned inward. It runs on my husband's side of the family and he was born with one foot that way. 10 days after she was born (only because of the Fourth of July holiday or would have been sooner) she had casts put on both legs. I have a picture here at work with the new casts and I will edit post later when I get home with a more current picture of her.

Of course, we all had to sign her casts even though we knew they had to change them weekly. Each week they would take her in, cut off the casts and put new ones on because they grow so fast at that age. When she was 10 weeks (I think) they went in and cut the Achilles tendon on each foot and put the casts on. She wore the casts until she was 12 weeks then she moved onto the shoes-on-a-bar. Once she could start moving around and crawling she only had to wear the bar at night or naps. It didn't seem to slow her down much and she never knew anything different. So she has crossed a milestone.

Ok, more from home later soooo check back :)

Late, late post. Got caught up making a cherry pie. Can't remember if I posted that I picked cherries from the trees out back the last 2 evenings. Now I have a pie cooling and ice cream ready lol

Here's our little trooper! We only spoil her a little ;)













Off to eat some pie. Take care and more tomorrow...

Car repair, Chaitén, China updates

Can't resist telling my stupid car story. The first of last week my 'Service engine soon' light came on telling me it's time to change the oil. So, on Fridays we usually get off work early, which we did, so I head across town to have the oil changed. When I pull up there are 3 cars ahead of me at the dealer...ugh...I hate waiting but it needs done. Soon it's my turn and I pull in and tell the mechanic what's going on and he goes to get someone else. The second guys starts telling me the the Service Engine light could be many things and that the Check Engine light is what tells you it's time for oil change. They would have to put it on the diagnostic machine and that takes about 45 minutes to run through the program and they had cars ahead of me, blah, blah, blah. Now, I had the time but they didn't as they close in an hour. Then the second guys says, "Give me about 15 minutes to check something and I'll come see you in the lounge" so off I go to sit in lounge and wonder what is wrong with my car...how much will it cost to fix...where will I get the money if it's costly to fix....how much time or days will they need the car? I had at least 15 scenario's go through my mind but 10 minutes later the guy comes over to me and says, "You're ready to go. The gas cap wasn't tight." Who the &$%@ knew a car would notice it's cap wasn't tight!! Lord, I felt stupid but happy it wasn't something more. And they didn't charge me anything to tighten my gas cap lol. The worst part of it all was I needed to stop and get gas but decided to do it after I got the oil changed. Now if I had done it the other way around I wouldn't have known why the light had come on or how smart my car is :P

Here's another fine mess I got myself into...Since I was sick at Mother's Day and didn't get over to see my Mom or get her a present I decide to go whole hog on 1 gift for Mother's Day and Father's Day. So, I go and buy them a Digital Photo Frame. I got a small 4 X 6 one so they can take it with them wherever they go in the motor home only to find out it doesn't have internal memory. No problem, I just need to get a memory card. WRONG! I don't have a way to transfer info from computer to card. So, next I go out to get a USB Memory Stick. (Keep in mind the light on the dash of my car is flashing and beeping at me during all this running) Now this little baby is wonderful. You plug it into a computer and download anything to the card. It was a real learning curve but they love the frame with 130+ photos on it LOL and I know they will love showing all their 'snowbirds' in Arizona the pictures and stories behind the pictures this winter!

Current News:

Chaitén update: The volcano continues to issue gas and ash. On June 12th there were gas emissions and pyroclastic flows from the south side of the volcano. Two new craters have formed. Here's a satellite photo from 6-15-08 where you can still see a small trail of ash.



China earthquake: Workers successfully drained the lake created by the earthquake in May by draining it into and evacuated town. Here's a before and after picture.



Today in History:

June 16, 1884

First roller coaster in America opens

On this day in 1884, the first roller coaster in America opens at Coney Island, in Brooklyn, New York. Known as a switchback railway, it was the brainchild of LaMarcus Thompson, traveled approximately six miles per hour and cost a nickel to ride. The new entertainment was an instant success and by the turn of the century there were hundreds of roller coasters around the country.

June 16, 1904

James Joyce meets his future wife, Nora

Aspiring writer James Joyce meets his future wife, Nora, a lively, uneducated woman with little interest in literature, on this day in 1904. Joyce will immortalize this day in his masterpiece Ulysses, whose narrative unfolds entirely on June 16, 1904. (Many claim Johnny Depp's new tattoo is a quote from this author.)

Just for some thing new...Word of the Day:
Obeisance
\oh-BEE-sunss\ noun
meaning:
1. a movement of the body made in token of respect or submission : bow
2. acknowledgment of another's superiority or importance : homage

Until tomorrow.......and stay safe....

Gangster Speak - Iowa flooding

Happy Friday! yeah! Even if it is Friday the 13th (spooky music). Weather pattern still not changing. We are to get more rain today and tonight. Not just rain, they are saying storms, heavy rain, high winds possible...here we go again! Weekend to be nice and less humidity so if we can just get through today and tonight!

Edited to add: I just came across these pictures on CNN of Iowa flooding and had to post a couple of them here. Hard to get your mind around all this flooding in so many areas. Not just one state but many!

Cedar Rapids Iowa before:


This was taken after:

Photos are from opposite directions but you can clearly see the 'ship island' and the cross over roads are losing the battle.

I came across this gangster translation list. If I said.....

"You dumb mug, get your mitts off the marbles before I stuff that mud-pipe down your mush - and tell your moll to hand over the mazuma."

Would you know what I was saying?

• Bangtails: Racehorses
• Barbering: Talking
• Be on the nut, to: To be broke
• Bean-shooter: Gun
• Beezer: Nose
• Bent cars: Stolen cars
• Berries: Dollars
• Blip off: To kill
• Blow: Leave
• Blow one down: Kill someone
• Blower: Telephone
• Bo: Pal, buster, fellow, as in "Hey, bo"
• Boiler: Car
• Boob: Dumb guy
• Boozehound: Drunkard
• Bop: To kill
• Box job: A safecracking
• Brace (somebody): Grab, shake up
• Bracelets: Handcuffs
• Break it up: Stop that, quit the nonsense
• Bucket: Car
• Bulge, as in "The kid had the bulge there": The advantage reeze: To leave, go. Also breeze off - get lost
• Buzzer: Policeman's badge
• C, or C-note: $100, also a pair of C's = $200
• Cabbage: Money
• Chicago overcoat: A coffin boose: Jail
• Chin music: A punch on the jaw
• Corn: Bourbon (as in corn liquor)
• Deck, as in "deck of Luckies": Pack of cigarettes
• Dip: Pickpocket
• Dip the bill: have a drink
• Dive: A low-down, cheap sort of place
• Fin: $5 bill
• Giggle juice: Liquor
• Gin mill: Bar (speakeasy?)
• Harlem sunset: Some sort fatal injury caused by knife
• Hash house: A cheap restaurant
• Marbles: Pearls
  
• Mazuma: Money
• Mill: Typewriter
• Mitt: Hand
• Mouthpiece: Lawyer
• Mud-pipe: Opium pipe
• Nevada gas: Cyanide
• Rats and mice: Dice, i.e. craps
• Rattler: Train
• Sawbuck: $10
• Soup job: To crack a safe using nitroglycerin
• Souping the kidneys: ?? driving fast?
• Two bits: $25, or 25 cents

Today in History

June 13, 1970

Last Beatles chart-topper

On this day, "The Long and Winding Road" hits the top of the charts. It was the Beatles' last No. 1 song. The group announced its breakup in April, but their last album, Let It Be, was released just as the announcement was made, and several songs became hits. (And the world was never the same...Rest in peace John and George)

A short blog day today. Have a great weekend, stay safe and Happy Father's Day to any Dad's that stop in.

Is it the weekend yet?

Well, we got the pile of debris burned. Actually, Amanda and Tom were there before we got home and had the fire started. She also had brats and polish sausage wrapped in foil with peppers and onions cooking in the pit, fresh veggies, chips and s'mores for dessert! mmmmmmmmmmm Just gotta love having kids when they do something like that! :) The grand kids were playing in our kiddie pool so we were all happy campers.
More rain to move in tonight and usually when we get rain it travels down river to the southern counties that are still recovering from flooding. Here' an interesting chart for rainfall in June


This image from NASA shows rainfall totals from June 2-9. This image shows rainfall totals for the 7-day period between June 2 and June 9, 2008. Rainfall amounts exceeding 100 millimeters (approximately 4 inches, shown in green) extend from north-central Oklahoma up into South Dakota and eastward into Michigan and Ohio. Higher amounts on the order of 200 to 300 mm (about 8 to 12 inches, shown in yellow) cover significant portions of this same area. The highest totals for the period (shown in red) exceed 400 mm (16 inches) and are located over central Indiana. More: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/shownh.php3?img_id=14880 (NASA)

As you can see, south central Indiana got hammered! Crops are gone and some communities will never recover. Will be a long road for many. 90% of the town of Paragon was under water.


6th and Cottage St. in Columbus, IN









Mud lines on car in Columbus, IN


Interstate 70 in Putnam County, IN

Today in History:

June 12, 1942

Anne Frank receives a diary

On this day, Anne Frank, a young Jewish girl living in Amsterdam, receives a diary for her 13th birthday. A month later, she and her family went into hiding from the Nazis in rooms behind her father's office. For two years, the Franks and four other families hid, fed and cared for by Gentile friends. The families were discovered by the Gestapo, which had been tipped off, in 1944. The Franks were taken to Auschwitz, where Anne's mother died. Friends in Amsterdam searched the rooms and found Anne's diary hidden away.

Anne and her sister were transferred to another camp, Bergen-Belsen, where Anne died of typhus a month before the war ended.

Anne's father survived Auschwitz and published Anne's diary in 1947 as The Diary of a Young Girl. The book has been translated into some 30 languages.

June 12, 1965

Supremes set record

On this day in 1965, the Supremes set music industry records when "Back in My Arms Again" becomes their fifth consecutive single to top the charts. The record still stands today.

June 12, 1987

Reagan challenges Gorbachev

On this day in 1987, in one of his most famous Cold War speeches, President Ronald Reagan challenges Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down" the Berlin Wall, a symbol of the repressive Communist era in a divided Germany.

June 12, 1994

Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman murdered

Nicole Brown Simpson, famous football player O.J. Simpson's ex-wife, and her friend Ron Goldman are brutally stabbed to death outside Nicole's home in Brentwood, California, in what quickly becomes one of the most highly publicized trials of the century. With overwhelming evidence against him, including a prior record of domestic violence towards Brown, O.J. Simpson became the chief suspect. (Who could forget: If the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit? IMHO this trial was a joke and travesty to justice. The prosecution messed up and he got away with murder.)

Ok, I need to get some work done....latersssss ;)

Storms and the clean up....

There are still some rough areas around Indiana but for now things are getting better. So glad we don't have the flooding problems around here. There were a couple dams south of Indy that were overflowing and threatening to burst but the State sent in 140 Marines to help local people in sandbagging and so far it's holding. It stayed dry yesterday and to be clear today but more storms are expected on Thursday and Friday unfortunately. We got hit Monday with a bad storm. Moved in fast and furious at, of course, just before 5:00. Couldn't leave work until it passed. My car was only 10 yards away but I couldn't see it from the driving rain. Winds were at 65 miles an hour for about 10-12 minutes. Lost power at work off and on but I heard this morning that of the 10,000 without power on Monday, only about 120 were still without. The drive home was tedious at best. Had to go slow because of pooling on roads. Was suppose to go by the store but they had no power so we had 'potluck' for supper that night lol. Once I got home the yard was full of sticks and branches and the barn door had been blown off its track.
Spent last night after work picking up the mess and man are my legs sore from all the bending!! If wind stays calm today, we plan on burning the pile of debris after work today. The pile is almost as tall as me. I know, that's not saying much LOL but needs to go before the next round of mowing.

Today in History:

June 11, 1776

Congress appoints “Committee of Five” to draft the Declaration of Independence

On this day in 1776, the Continental Congress selects Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut and Robert R. Livingston of New York to draft a declaration of independence.

June 11, 1962

Alcatraz proves escapable for three men

John and Clarence Anglin and Frank Lee Morris attempt to escape from Alcatraz federal prison. The three men were never seen again, and although some believe that theirs was the only successful getaway from what was known as "The Rock," it is far more likely that they drowned in the chilly water. Four days after their escape, a bag containing photos, which belonged to Clarence Anglin, was found in San Francisco Bay. Escape From Alcatraz, both a J. Campbell Bruce book and a Clint Eastwood movie, later dramatized the incident.

June 11, 1979

John Wayne dies

On this day in 1979, John Wayne dies. The star of countless westerns, Wayne had been battling cancer for more than a decade.

Wayne was born Marion Michael Morrison in 1908 in Iowa. He moved as a child to Glendale, California. A football star at Glendale High School, he attended the University of Southern California on a scholarship but dropped out after two years. Working as a movie studio laborer, he befriended rising director John Ford. Wayne played bit parts under the name of Duke Morrison (a childhood nickname derived from the family dog, Marion's constant companion). In 1930, a college buddy, Raoul Walsh, hired him for $75 a week for his first starring role, in Walsh's film The Big Trail, which flopped.

Indiana History:

The Great Flood of 1913 recalled

Water levels have surpassed those of 1913 catastrophe in some areas

(from The Star Press) The Great Flood of 1913, as it's told, was the most devastating flood to ever hit Muncie and the surrounding areas.

The swollen White River was responsible for the death of a Yorktown man and caused damage estimated at $500,000 (equivalent to $10,890,000 in 2008, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis).

Dorothea Hensley of Muncie was born three years too late to witness the flood, but certainly heard all about the devastation when she was a little girl.
"My dad and mother told me the story," Hensley said. "I heard it many times."
The story begins with the wedding of Hensley's parents, Elisha and Irene Losh, who exchanged vows that year in their hometown of Matthews, located about 16 miles northwest of Muncie.
After the wedding, the newlyweds had planned to travel to a farmhouse near the Gaston-Yorktown Pike where Elisha accepted a job.
Those plans, however, were put on hold when flood waters wreaked havoc on the area.
"They couldn't (leave)," Hensley said. "The bridge wasn't there."

The bridge, as Hensley remembers the story, was washed away by the strong water currents, leaving the couple stranded in Matthews.
Hensley said workers eventually pulled the wood bridge back to its location with teams of horses.
Nowadays, the method of recovery is much different than chain-pulling horses. But the effects of the flood are just as devastating.
Indiana is witnessing record-breaking water levels that have surpassed those of 1913 in some areas.
And while records had already been broken by Monday, more rain continued to fall Tuesday and the death toll rose to at least three people across Indiana.
"We've had a lot of rain, that's for sure," said 77-year-old Thomas Crooks, who lives in the McKinley neighborhood just northeast of downtown Muncie.
Crooks' family history in that neighborhood dates back to the early 1900s, when his grandfather lived at 625 N. Elm St. during the flood of 1913.
Crooks, of course, wasn't alive at the time -- but like Hensley, he remembers the stories.
"Every time we had a big rain they would talk about the flood back then," Crooks said.
The family house still stands and ironically Crooks lives directly next door.
He doesn't know how much damage the home received during the flood. But he's sure the basement had standing water.
"The basement always floods," he said. "It still does."

It's easy for Crooks to somewhat imagine how it might have been in 1913 from photographs and postcards passed down by family members.
In fact, he has a black-and-white picture dated March 25, 1913, that shows a flooded Elm Street with the Crooks family home visible in the photo.
Crooks said his great-grandfather kept a tidy journal about life in Muncie, up until his death in 1910.
Oddly, the journal also included meticulous weather conditions, according to Crooks.
"He must have gone out every hour to figure out which direction the wind was blowing," said Crooks of his great-grandfather.
Crooks is certain his great-grandfather would've written about the Great Flood of 1913 had he lived long enough to see it.
"He would've," Crooks said. "But he died too early."

1st photo is a line of houses and trees submerged in water along Madison Street, a major road through the center of town.
2nd photo is a group of boys looking at flooded Elm Street from Wysor Street.

There is water control now because of this flood but you can never control Mother Nature completely, as we've learned. Be safe everyone!

Happy Birthday Johnny Depp!!

Happy Birthday Johnny Depp!!!

I know the man has already had his dreams come true so I will just wish him some rest and fun times spent with his family.

Still a lot of water in southern Indiana but Sunday was dry and people were able to get organized and some water began to recede. There are now 29 counties under Disaster (edited yesterdays post for a typo). These storms flooded hospitals, fire and police stations, county offices and courts along with many, many residents. Weather service says more to come today and tomorrow :( So far radar shows everything still to the east of Indiana. Lets hope it's not a lot of rain. Even 2-3 inches could hamper efforts to clean up.
There is still one spot on I-70 that is closed due to a collapse due to erosion. I haven't heard anything more about I-65 so hoping things are ok that way since I will be traveling to Kentucky in a couple weeks.
Gotta go....real life calls....More later maybe.

No rest for the weary...

The weekend started fast. At 4:15 on Friday my daughter, Amanda, called me at work. Her husband, Tom, had been taken to the hospital from where he worked and she needed me to come get the kids. Come to find out he was having an appendicitis attack and was heading to surgery. Everything went fine and he got to go home Saturday. It got late Friday night so I put the kids to sleep here and Amanda ended up staying here for the night too. So we babysat Friday night and most of Saturday while she got Tom picked up and settled at home.

While all of this was going on, we had major storms coming through in waves. South of Indianapolis got hit especially bad with heavy rain. A big swash of south central Indiana received 10 and 11 inches of rain over a short period of time. Rivers and creeks swelled and so did some lakes. Local TV cut into programming to show where a lake was dammed but overflowing as we watched the water broke through and spilled into the next lake which quickly rose and broke through it's dam flooding everything in it's path. This domino effect continued through several counties now. It's just too much water at once and nowhere to go. Things are really a mess and right now there are 21 counties under a state of emergency. 2 of those counties being the ones that were hit by tornadoes earlier.

Here's some pictures:

Schafer Lake Dam

Close up

For the Public Enemies fans, here's one from Moorseville, In., Dillinger's hometown:

Pioneer Park, Mooresville, IN

A view of Columbus, In. I saw on Rod's Blog that Columbus WI was having some flooding too.

Columbus, IN June 7, 2008

Time for me to get busy, I still have some yard work to get done and some laundry. Plus there's a race to watch. Take care....

Karen

Dillinger History

Found some interesting news today in the local paper, www.thestarpress.com:

Historic Indiana building hopes to cash in on John Dillinger movie

CROWN POINT, Ind. — A group that gives tours of the former home of the Lake County Sheriff in Crown Point hopes to cash in on the publicity over a new movie about John Dillinger.

The Old Sheriff’s House Foundation is raising the price of its 30 minute tour from $2 to $10.

A portion of the movie “Public Enemies,” starring Johnny Depp as Dillinger, was filmed at the house in March.

Foundation member Dan Rohaley says the movie company helped restore portions of the home and the tour has been expanded.

Dillinger escaped from the Lake County Jail in 1934, driving away in the sheriff’s car.
Tours of the home are conducted on Saturday mornings.

Being born and raised in Indiana I have heard all kinds of stories over the years about Dillinger. My brother-in-law swears his grandpa told him Johnnie buried some stolen money on his farm. Many in the family have searched and dug around for 70 years and have never found a dime. Everyone has their "Dillinger hid out here" story. Kind of like 'George Washington slept here...' but only a few places are truly where Dillinger hid out.

There is a place about 6 miles from my parents house that was a one time hide out. It was where an Aunt and Uncle of one of the gang members lived and they did hide out there once over night. Also, the bar across the street from where I buy groceries was once the Bide-A-Wee Tavern (now the Oasis) that Dillinger robbed in June 1933. A lot of people said John Dillinger was there but Crown Point wasn't one of them to brag. In fact, when I was there for the filming, I talked to some of the older townspeople that were there watching too and there was quite a few of the older ladies and gentlemen who said they 'didn't agree with the filming and that Sheriff Holley would be rolling over in her grave' if she knew what was going on. I found it interesting that 70 years later the elder townspeople were still so adamantly protective of Sheriff Holley over Dillinger's escape.

Here's an excerpt from Wikipedia:

On March 3, 1934, Crown Point etched its name forever in the history books as the infamous bank robber and FBI "Public Enemy #1" John Dillinger escaped from the "escape-proof" (as it was dubbed by local authorities at the time) Lake County Jail which was guarded by many police and national guardsmen. Dillinger apparently escaped using a hand-carved wooden gun blackened with shoe polish, although this was disputed by some witnesses. Dillinger further embarrassed the city, as well as then-42-year-old Sheriff Lillian Holley, by driving off in her brand new V-8 Ford. The press augmented her chagrin with such headlines as: "Slim woman, mother of twins, controlled Dillinger as sheriff." Incensed, Holley declared at the time, "If I ever see John Dillinger again, I'll shoot him dead with my own gun. Don't blame anyone else for this escape. Blame me. I have no political career ahead of me and I don't care." Furthermore, Sheriff Holley made certain the Dillinger name would have no standing in Crown Point up until her death in 1994 at 102. Due mainly to her efforts, there is no mention of the "Great Escape" to be found anywhere in the city, save for a brief mention on a National Register of Historic Places plaque outside the old Sheriff's house.

Most businesses that tried to make some money off the Dillinger connection Crown Point floundered. I'm not sure about this new venture. It's only hope is for the tourists business because I feel like there is too much stigma attached locally. I had heard they were also giving tours of the jail house and people could actually be locked in the cell that Johnny Depp was in. I'm not sure if it's the same cell that Johnnie Dillinger was in but from what I've heard of Michael Mann it probably was.

Another thing I find disturbing is the fact that it says they are raising the price from $2 to $10 dollars!!! Geesh.....talk about bank robbery!! To me it sounds like someone is trying to make up for 70 years of not profiting by trying to get it all at once between now and when the movie comes out. I guess it's the new American way, or not so new. Maybe just the degradation of man in general. Wow, that last sentence sounded like I was getting too deep! Time for lunch break. Will try to add more later...

Sometimes it's the little things in life that go far...

I am hoping to get back to a normal posting routine next week when I'm not covering work for co-workers on vacation. Looking forward to Monday for a change lol!!

Found out the covered bridge that the storm took out was 122 years old, along with many of the houses that were that or older. How sad that piece of history is forever gone. Even if they re-build, it won't be the same. They would probably re-build with 2 x 4's anyway. I like to see people's faces when they see the beams in our house and barns, they are 12" X 12" hand-planned (sp?) hard wood with the wood pegs connecting the joints. It's the kind of wood you have to drill before you can hammer a nail into it. Over the years, as we have had repairs and changes, the tradesmen just smile when they see them. We hear a lot of: "They don't build them like this anymore." or "This is when they built them to last" We remodeled the bathroom last year and the guy we had helping us would every once in awhile cuss that 'damn hard wood'. The house was built wayyyy before indoor plumbing made it to the country farmhouses.

This Day in History:

June 5, 1870

Constantinople burns

A huge section of the city of Constantinople, Turkey, is set ablaze on this day in 1870. When the smoke finally cleared, 3,000 homes were destroyed and 900 people were dead.

The fire began at a home in the Armenian section of the Valide Tchesme district. A young girl was carrying a hot piece of charcoal to her family’s kitchen in an iron pan when she tripped, sending the charcoal out the window and onto the roof of an adjacent home. The fire quickly spread down Feridje Street, one of Constantinople’s main thoroughfares.

The Christian area of the city was quickly engulfed. There was a high degree of cooperation among the various ethnic groups who called the city home, but even this was no match for the high winds that drove the rapidly spreading fire. An entire square mile of the city near the Bosporus Strait was devastated. Only stone structures, mostly churches and hospitals, survived the conflagration.

In 1887, Edmondo de Amicis published perhaps the best account of this disaster in a book called Constantinople.

June 5, 1956

Elvis creates uproar

On this day in 1956, Elvis introduces his new single, "Hound Dog," on The Milton Berle Show. Elvis scandalized the audience with his suggestive hip gyrations. In the media frenzy that followed, other show hosts, including Ed Sullivan, denounced his performance. Sullivan swore he would never invite Presley on his own show, but that autumn he booked Elvis for three shows.

Presley had been recording since 1954. While working at a Memphis electrical shop, the 18-year-old Presley dropped by a Memphis recording studio on a lunch break and paid $4 to record two songs for his mother's birthday. The office assistant at Sun Records, where he made the recording, was so impressed that she brought the record to studio executive Sam Phillips, who signed him in 1954. His first recording, "That's All Right," hit No. 4 on the country-western charts in Memphis.

Elvis soon began performing regularly on radio programs and made his television debut on a Memphis show in March 1955. That September, he had his first No. 1 country record--a rendition of Junior Parker's "Mystery Train." RCA purchased Presley's contract, and he made his first RCA recordings in Nashville in 1956, including "I Got a Woman," "Heartbreak Hotel," and "I Was the One." On January 28, 1956, television audiences met Presley on the variety program Stage Show. He appeared on several more programs before filming his first movie, Love Me Tender (1956), which took just three days to earn back its $1 million cost. All of Presley's singles that year went gold. Elvis' controversial dancing, with his trademark hip gyrations, upset parents but delighted teenage girls. During an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956, cameras showed him only from the waist up.

Elvis received his draft notice in December 1957 but took a deferment to finish filming his fourth movie, King Creole. Before his military induction, he recorded enough material so that the stream of Elvis hits was uninterrupted during his tour of duty. He continued to dominate the charts through the mid-'60s and made more than 20 movies.

Elvis stopped performing live in 1961 but made a comeback in the late '60s, becoming a Las Vegas fixture and releasing several top singles, including "In the Ghetto" and "Suspicious Minds" in 1969. As his popularity continued to skyrocket, the "King of Rock and Roll" reportedly turned to drugs. His final live performance was on June 25, 1977, and on August 16, 1977, the day of his next scheduled concert, his girlfriend found him dead in a bathroom at Graceland, the Memphis mansion where he'd lived. Congestive heart failure was cited as the cause of death, but prescription drug abuse was suspected as a contributing factor. He was buried at Graceland. Nine years after his death, he was one of the first 10 people inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. During his life, he had scored 94 gold singles and more than 40 gold LPs.

June 5, 1968

Robert F. Kennedy shot

At 12:50 a.m. PDT, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, a presidential candidate, is shot three times in a hail of gunfire in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Five others were wounded. The senator had just completed a speech celebrating his victory in the California presidential primary. The shooter, Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan, had a smoking .22 revolver wrested from his grip and was promptly arrested. Kennedy, critically wounded, was rushed to the hospital, where he fought for his life for the next 24 hours. On the morning of June 6, he died. He was 42 years old. On June 8, Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, also the final resting place of his assassinated older brother, President John F. Kennedy.

Robert Kennedy, born in Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1925, interrupted his studies at Harvard University to serve in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He was legal counsel for various Senate subcommittees during the 1950s and in 1960 served as the manager of his brother's successful presidential campaign. Appointed attorney general by President Kennedy, he proved a vigorous member of the cabinet, zealously prosecuting cases relating to civil rights while closely advising the president on domestic and foreign issues. After Kennedy's assassination in 1963, he joined President Lyndon B. Johnson's administration but resigned in 1964 to run successfully in New York for a Senate seat. Known in Congress as an advocate of social reform and defender of the rights of minorities, he also voiced criticism of the war in Vietnam.

In 1968, he was urged by many of his supporters to run for president as an anti-war and socially progressive Democratic. Hesitant until he saw positive primary returns for fellow anti-war candidate Eugene McCarthy, he announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on March 16, 1968. Fifteen days later, President Johnson announced that he would not seek reelection, and Vice President Hubert Humphrey became the key Democratic hopeful, with McCarthy and Kennedy trailing closely behind. Kennedy conducted an energetic campaign and on June 4, 1968, won a major victory in the California primary. He had won five out of six primaries and seemed a shoo-in for the Democratic nomination and, some thought, the presidency.

Shortly after midnight, he gave a victory speech to his supporters in the Ambassador Hotel and then, while making his way to a press conference by a side exit, was fatally wounded by Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan. Sirhan was arrested at the scene and indicted for first-degree murder. A mentally unstable drifter, his motives in killing Kennedy have never been clear. Some journalists have alleged that Sirhan was part of a larger assassination conspiracy, supposedly brought on by Kennedy's promise to end the Vietnam War if elected president. These conspiracists cite forensic evidence and witness testimony that they say proves the existence of additional shooters who were not detained.

In 1969, Sirhan Sirhan was convicted and sentenced to die. In 1972, his death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment when the California Supreme Court abolished the death penalty. Since 1983, he has repeatedly been denied parole by prison officials who consider him a serious threat to public safety.