Happy Flag Day...

...America!

Old Glory was adopted as the official flag of the United States on June 14, 1777 by resolution of the 2nd Continental Congress.

And in 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a presidential proclamation designating June 14 as "Flag Day".

Interesting tidbit for the TDS afflicted among us...

AOC, Jeffries, Schumer, Moulton...

...it's also President Trump's 80th birthday.

It's altogether fitting Trump was born on Flag Day...

...as he fights to restore respect, honor and appreciation - not just for our flag, but for our country, all across the globe.

Our Colors...Fly Them Proudly!

When we first moved here in 2017, there was an enormous green spider perched on our wall:

At least that's what it looked like to me.

It was actually an overgrown tree whose wild and wooly branches had breeched the boundaries of the courtyard.

Those untamed boughs also housed some sort of exotic bird - we regularly heard this loud reverberating chirping sound, sort of like a cricket on steroids - emanating from the tree, or so it seemed.

We never found our noisy friend in the spider tree, and a few years later - once we learned more about the home we'd purchased - when it was built, the architect and his original vision - 

"Baysweep" by Dean Bryant Vollendorf, circa 1961

- I set about the task of eliminating all the misplaced and unkempt foliage others had planted, then ignored through the decades:

a rainy day look at the front wall now...

...and the erstwhile big green spider, cut down to size today

Every once in awhile we still heard that strange sounding bird call around the courtyard but try as we might, we could never locate the source.

Until a few nights ago.

We were watching tv with the front door open to enjoy the cool night air, when Chirpy started up again.

The acoustics in the courtyard are quite good, so it was loud - so loud we'd have to shut the door, which we didn't want to do.

Instead, we grabbed a flashlight and headed out on safari.

Of course as soon as we opened the screen door he stopped.

So we waited.

And waited.

And just when we were ready to head back inside, Chirpy sounded off again.

Karen quickly pointed the flashlight in the direction of the sound, and finally...after all these years...we said hello to Chirpy the wingless bird:

Aka, a frog.  Who knew?  And he still has great pipes:

If only he could actually sing like Michigan J. Frog of Merrie Melodies fame:

Then again, <maybe not>.

Unless you're a humorless cretin sans moral compass -

[aka a D, in which case you can exit here:]

- it's time to 23 Skidoo, to wit:

he actually stood on Dale's shoulders to get up there

first daisy of the season

so that's how it gets emptied

so...tired...

roses in bloom

ain't he jes' the cutest li'l thang?

Had to laugh the other day when I read Steven Spielberg's claim that  his new movie...

...would make <Christians question their faith>.

The few reviews I read said it was mostly a slow moving mish mash of tired cliches and that Mr. S has lost his touch.

So yes, Steve, you've done it!

God's Word has been around for millennia, preserved by Him for those who are called to be His children, attacked, impugned, scorned but mostly ignored by the world for centuries, but NOW...

...now YOU've come up with the definitive foil that will cause the Christian faith to crumble.

How arrogant can one man be?

As the Scripture says, "Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.

"Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud."

    - Proverbs 16:18,19

But it is good to be reminded of what Jesus taught His disciples about the end times in Matthew 24.

He uses the word "deceive" four times because it will be an age of deception.

Paul echoes this in I Timothy 4 when he writes "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron..."

    - I Timothy 4:1,2

Lies, hypocrisy, deception...sounds familiar.

So...are we there yet?

God knows.

If we are, then those who have put their faith in Christ be in heaven soon.

If we're not, we're commanded to soldier on, doing our best to heed God's calling on our lives.

Either way, hear what Jesus told His disciples: "And what I say unto you, I say unto all: Watch!"

    - Mark 13:37

later, mcm fans...

June 6, 1944...

 ...D-Day...aka "Operation Overlord":

The decisive beginning of liberating Europe from the Nazis' death grip during World War II via the beaches of Normandy, France.

There were five targeted beaches for landing points that morning:

Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.

None of them were easy; enemy forces were poised to kill the liberators from superior vantage points as the vulnerable soldiers disembarked their landing boats.

But Omaha beach was the meat grinder.

Overall kill rate at Omaha was 8% of all landing forces...that's 2,811 men killed out of a little more than 34,000.

But those are summary numbers taken days after the victory had been won.

What was the kill rate on Omaha when the first companies - Able, Baker, Charlie - made the initial attempt to storm the beach at 6:30 in the morning?

Upwards of 90%

Think of that for a moment:

You're a 20 year old kid weighed down with 50 lbs of equipment on your back when they drop the door of your landing craft...

...that's still in 8 feet of seawater, 20 yards from shore.

You obediently race off the relative safety of the landing craft and into the frigid waters where you discover with a shock you can't touch bottom.

Panicked, you realize you're in over your head and rapidly sinking to the ocean's floor.

If you're quick witted enough you struggle to shed your 50 pound pack of gear that's supposed to help you survive this mission and bob to the surface to catch a gulp of life giving air.

As you do the water is strafed by machine gun fire from the bluffs high above you, and instead of catching your breath you take a bullet in the throat.

It took less than 30 seconds for you to die and you didn't even reach the beach.

It's not possible for most of us, sitting in the comfort of our homes, leading our sedentary lives of peace and safety, to grasp the terror of that morning on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France.

That anyone from that first wave of the liberation forces was able to traverse the deadly stretch of sand from the shoreline to the bluffs is - well, depending on your spiritual view of the universe, either a miracle of God Almighty or some unexplainable quirk of fate.

But in spite of the overwhelming odds against them and the mounting evidence of tragic failure all around them, those soldiers kept coming, kept disembarking, kept dying there in the blood red surf with only 1 out of 10 being able to inch their way to safety.

It staggers the imagination to try and conceive of the deadly reality of that morning, but they experienced it.

In spite of the impossible odds against them, they established a beach head and the objective that was supposed to be achieved that morning was finally realized over the course of several days.

Those men who paid in blood, who forfeited their lives, who gave up their families, their hopes, their futures so the evil of Hitler's Nazi Germany could be defeated...

Those men deserve our undying thanks, respect and reverence.

So on this early summer day, 80+ years removed from the unspeakable horror of that awful time of unmatched bravery and ultimate sacrifice, take a moment to give thanks to God in heaven for heroes such as these.

We - and much of the world - are free because of what they did on that terrible, glorious day.

NEVER FORGET

Admit It:

the proposed Trump $250 bill

You want one.

And why not?

He's the President of the United States during our country's 250th anniversary.

When we celebrated 150 years in 1926, the U.S. minted a half dollar coin with President Calvin Coolidge's image on it:

There's no guarantee this will happen, of course; there are laws now against putting the image of living people on our currency:

<$Trump 250$>

But fear not; if this does come to pass, it will be great fun watching the TDS gang collectively lose what passes for their fragile little minds in public.

You'll see deranged blue haired unemployed marxist D's in search of a life...

antifa mugshots; all dressed up for the riots

...burning $250 Trump bills for CNN's cameras, paid for by some lefty billionaire (Soros, Steyer, Gates, Zuckerberg) who recognizes useful idiots when he sees them.

The irony will be he'll pay his army of trolls with the leftover Trump $250 bills that he bought but didn't burn.

God bless America, y'all.

It's now official:

...summer hath arrived at the Castle Frankenstein.

It is always a joyous occasion when we open the pool: the official kickoff to our outdoor living season.

Admittedly it's a work in progress; still balancing the chemicals, vacuuming winter's spoils from the bottom of the pool and rescuing summer's decor...

it's a little known fact flamingos hibernate upside down

...from the storage shed.

First swim target date: Monday.

Can't wait.

It's possible...

teeing off on #2...I didn't splash it, but neither did I hit the green

...this is the last HGU you'll ever have to endure.

I've decided from now on I'll only include hickory golf updates when I win...i.e., bogey or better on at least 5 of the 9 holes.

All other outings - like my most recent one, when I had 3 pars and a bogey against 5 double/triple bogeys - will be interred silently, without comment, to the unmarked grave of shamefaced history.

thought you might appreciate that

My problem so far this year is one of consistency.

Missing 3 rounds already due to rain hasn't helped; definitely feeling behind.

But more to the point are my dicey mechanics.

Every swing is an exciting adventure, a romp through the nerve wracking world of the unexpected.

Occasionally the little white sphere lands exactly where I hoped it would; often it veers off into the realm of bizarre physics and parts unknown.

I do think I may have discovered the hitch in my giddyup late in this last round, but time will tell.

About the only good thing I have to report is I've remained calm in the midst of my golfing woes.

Yes, it's been disappointing, but I've avoided the angry meltdowns for which golf is (in)famous:

Another innocent club pays the price for the sins of the golfer

Not that I haven't been tempted, but so far by God's grace, I've steered clear of the nonsense.

More to come?

Time will tell.

Remember, you can only get genuine 23 Skidoo here, at the AMC.

(this Accept No Substitute ad paid for by the Accept No Substitute advertising council which reminds you to...ah, forget it.)

found this guy on a window in our courtyard catching bugs...Loki sniffed him and mr. frog dropped down to the sidewalk where he graciously agreed to pose for this pic

rooster cogburn makes his first seasonal appearance

we put those pavers in when we first moved here...the decree came down from on high to carve away 9 years of grassy growth

the view from our front garden

peonies are starting to pop

"moon over the water", from Larry at his cottage

a blast from the past...summer, 2018

There's been a lot of hoopla recently about aliens...

a 2025 documentary by Dan Farah

...stoking renewed interest in the question human beanies have asked for years:

Are we alone in the universe?

"Mars Attacks", 1996

Well, if we do have company, and if they look anything like Tim Burton's Martians, I say we vote them off the island.

Who wants to listen to Slim Whitman yodeling all the time?

But on a more serious note, that question - are we alone in the universe? - was definitively answered by God the Creator ages ago.

The envelope please...

<No, We Are Not Alone In The Universe!>

In fact, we're the Johnny-come-lately's; God created angels long before us (Job 38:4-7).

But praise God in heaven we have help; the LORD knows we need it.

¹⁴ Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be the heirs of salvation?

    - Hebrews 1:14

Food for thought, mcm fans...