MEMORIAL DAY - 2011

Today would be amiss if I did not pay tribute to the brave men and women who have fallen in defense of our country!  I have walked in Arlington National Cemetery  and other National Cemeteries; I cannot count the many crosses and monuments with military designations. And I believe I would be amiss if I did not recognize the fact the fallen  military personnel's family deserve recognition for the loss of a loved one, a sacrifice, in and of itself.

Being married to a  military retiree, I know a tad about the life of these men and women. These men and women are family to each other--in some ways more than blood. 

Have you ever had a job where you absolutely were not allowed to question orders, and certainly not your mission? Ever heard the word, insubordination?  Yet they fought, and numbers beyond my comprehension have died, so you and I have the freedom to do those very acts. Don't like you commander-in chief or even you immediate officer one step above you? Tough! You still do as he says and do your job, whatever it is.

Yes, they vote, yet ballots are not sent to those serving overseas in a timely manner, so their vote often is not received for counting by the deadlines  and not counted. What a shame!

They are defending our freedom to have a say in our government, and yet it appears unimportant to see they have ballots in a timely manner. This is a state by state deficiency and not all states are guilty.

These men and women deserve our respect every day, not just some holiday, be it Memorial Day, Veteran's Day, and should you encounter one of them, thank them for their service.



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I am posted a slide show I made with Picasa, my first. I ran out of time or I would have spruced it up a tad more, added some music, changed the color of the font, etc. Since I am working on an older computer, my usual editing programs are not on this so I had to wing it.

These pictures are primarily of Bull Shoals Dam and the massive releases of water headed toward the lower Mississippi River, and unfortunately lower Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana, none of which need more water.

I also heard the Missouri River is beginning to receive massive amounts of water from record snow amounts at its source. The Missouri River merges with the Mississippi above Arkansas.

If this slide show fails here it is on FACEBOOK and plays, as I have tried it. I am somewhat disappointed with PICASA as the photos appear blurred with full screen, but so do the captions which makes me think it is the resolution Picasa makes them or the program itself.  I did not photograph the captions!!!

Weird! Ominous! Beautiful!

Weird Frontal Cloud Formation

Monday found us on Bull Shoals Lake fishing--first trip out this year for me. Yes, we caught 4 respectable, but not 'keeper' bass.  But fishing is not the subject of this post.


A weather front was approaching from neighboring Oklahoma. We watched clouds slowly move into our area of Arkansas.  "Watching the weather" is a secondary occupation of fishermen, especially on large reservoirs, like Bull Shoals, which impounds over 45,000 acres and 700 miles of shoreline at power pool to 70,000 acres and 1000 shoreline miles at 690 ft. near top of the flood pool. 


Misjudging an approaching storm can lead to an inconvenient drenching, or more disastrous events.  Lightning strikes is very real danger to vessels on the water. Capsizing when the winds stir the water into white-capped waves is another hazard.

Weird Frontal Cloud Formation

However, this front was a very slow-moving storm. We returned to our boat stall about mid-morning.  As we returned home we noticed the looming cloud formations were unusual, not in the tornadic sense, but, well.....weird!


As we crossed Bull Shoals Dam, the clouds appeared as very neat layers, almost as if an artist had painted them! Come to think of it, a Great Artist did 'paint' them!


Because of construction/repair crews (your TARP dollars at work) and other restrictions on the Dam, I could not jump out of the car to capture the moment. I waited until we arrived home to capture the effect. By then the effect was not as dramatic, as the moment we crossed Bull Shoals Dam.

Local media received phone calls, alerting news reporters of the  unusual cloud pattern, and expressing anxiety of impending danger.  Indeed there was a short term weather alert of sky-to-ground lightning but nothing indicative of tornadic activity.


As the clouds passed over us, we received thunder, some lightning, and rain, generally a mundane weather event, except for the CLOUDS!