Tuesday February 24th, 2009
We are having a colder winter than normal with night temperatures constantly falling into the low 20’s. This morning when I got up the temperature stood at 20. I remember many winters when the temperature almost never got that low except for a few days when a cold front came in from Canada. I am looking forward to March when we usually begin having days when the temperature reaches a more comfortable level.
I drove to Bowen’s Farm Supply this morning to buy a new pruning extendable pole cutter. My old one broke yesterday as I was snipping branches on the two apple trees in the back yard. The old one must have been about 20 years old. I checked Home Depot online this morning and they did not have one for sale. I am continually surprised how often this chain store, where each store has thousands upon thousands of items, does not have the item I need, but the small farm store, Bowen’s always seems to have what the huge store does not have. I am glad to give the business to Bowen’s. I did call before I drove to Bowen’s to be sure they had what I wanted. They not only have new ones, but also replacement parts. Additionally, a family run store is always friendlier than a chain store.
Anna Z IM’ed me using Skype a few minutes after four here. I asked her if it wasn’t her bedtime. She said actually it was a bit after her bedtime, but she was staying up until eleven. She has been sick with a viral infection and has medicine she has to take every 7 hours and the next scheduled time was 11:00 Prague time. Every 7 hours seems a strange segment of time. I do not believe I have ever had a prescription that did not have me taking it as intervals that could be divided into 24.
President Obama gave his economic speech to Congress this evening. I thought it was a good speech in that he laid out the problems that Congress needs to face during the coming year. I do not know if they are up to the job or not. Time will tell. If the Republicans continue to go down the road of opposing everything he proposes without coming up with something positive then they will continue to be in the dog house with many Americans. They need to realize we are no longer in the Reagan era. Time has changed and the world has changed. Continuing down that road will not help the situation.
Looking down one of the tranches used by Lee's soldiers to defend Cold Harbor.
Behind well dug and built trenches Confederate soldiers waited for Union troops to charge. Generals on both sides never seems to realize the great advantage men behind fortifications had against approaching soldiers. These trenches were, when constructed, were similar to those found in France in World War I.
There is no harbor at Cold Harbor. The word harbor was used here to mean a stopping point for the teamsters where they could rest and buy food and drink. The word cold was used as this particular way point did not sell hot food, only cold food ... thus it was named Cold Harbor.
