Winter Arrives

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Winter of 2011 has arrived along with the dark skies and rainey days. The temps have been down in the 20's on some cool mornings and the beautiful colors of the mountains has changed to the black and white pictures I used to make when I was a boy with my Polaroid camera.

I'm into doing some courthouse researches now and I have found it to be a challenge to say the least. I enjoy being there but there is a learning curve. Did I mention how much I dislike learning curves?

I'm off to Maryville today but don't dare say it like that up here. It's kind of like the Gautier and Saucier that we had in south Mississippi. It's pronounced Mur-vul to the locals.

I'm doing mortgage research today and should stop this and get on the move. Catch you on the flip side.

Location:Knoxville, Tennessee

Fall 2011, I'm back...

I met with the Knoxville Area Photography Meet up group for the first time this past weekend.  We met at Cosby, Tennessee which is just at the foot of the Smokey Mountains.  It was a very nice day and the weather was better than anyone could have hoped for.  The scenery was perfect and the people were friendly and helpful.

Claudia was home with a broken Wrisk but a friend of mine from work, Ed Mackin, was along for the ride and we very much enjoyed the day and the photography.  I am looking forward to more outings with this group in the future.

The days are getting shorter and cooler now and we're looking forward to it after the heat we have had this summer.  It won't be long now until the fire is burning in the fireplace and we are turning up the thermostat to get warmer.

Ed Mackin

I have recently redone my websites and updating them for some of the activities that has been going on.  This is the picture that I'm using on them.

Bob Walley

I think I will change all of my pictures to this one.  I like just showing one half of my face thus lessoning the blow of the total impact of seeing me all at once.  I have on my serious face which I wear sometimes when I'm busy doing something that deserves my attention :)

I will make an effort to blog more often and keep everyone up to date on what I am doing and the progress of Claudia's arm etc.  We are planning a trip down south after Christmas to see my daughter and family and some very close friends.

Almost there...

Only 2 small pounds from my ultimate weight gold this morning and I'm very proud to be here. Started this adventure in July 2010 when I was told that I was a diabetic (funny, they don't tell people who have cancer that they are cancerous).

After doing a little reading I saw that one of the most important things to do, for a man, was to lose any excess weight, especially around the middle. I had let myself go after 2003 when I fought depression after Hurricane Ivan destroyed our Town Home in Gulf Breeze, FL and the insurance company didn't pay for three years and then only after we took them to court. When in a state of depression, as I was, doing something that is enjoyable is welcomed with both arms. For me it was a good meal and so I began to gain weight. I knew that was bad but I just didn't have the will to fight it.

When the doctor told me that I was a diabetic we discussed a plan. She sent me to a dietitian and a diabetic nurse who laid the ground work for my way back to a controlled and healthy diabetic. We decided that for my height and build that 185 would be a good weight for me. I almost laughter out loud. I was then 227. We're talking 42 pounds. I had trouble loosing 5 pounds.

It wasn't the weight I had to lose. It was a new lifestyle I needed to adopt. I had to change what I had been living and begin living another way. It wasn't an option it was my very life. When you are faced with changing or dying it's not much of a battle to change.

I am blessed to have only two people in my home now. Just me and my wonderful wife Claudia who decided that a healthier way of life would be good for both of us. The difference is this between myself and some of you reading this. I don't see that having that piece of chocolate is an option. I could have it if I really wanted it but I just don't. I don't eat those wonderful bread sticks at the Olive Garden or snack all day when I'm not really hungry. I count everything I put in my mouth without exception. It's so easy to eat three or four bread sticks that are at least 200 Calories each and the wrong kind of carb. So now I would have eaten 800 calories and not even started on the meal. Go figure. No wonder why so many of us are here.

I weighted in this morning at 187, only 2 pounds shy of where I'm going. I know that I can never stop counting those things I put in my mouth and I have to weigh myself daily to keep it under control. My lifestyle has changed and different from all the fad diets where you lose then gain back all the weight plus some. If it's a diet you're on then to quote an unknown "Results will never bring about change, but change will bring about results.". Stop dieting and change what got you there in the first place. Then and only then will you be the person you want to be. Changing on the outside without the change on the inside will only lead you down the same road again. You can do it if you want to bad enough.

Another Season begins

Another season is about to begin in Tennessee. Along with that season will come football season which really makes me happy. I'm not sure what the Vols will do this year they have had three coaches in three years so it's time to see what Dooley can do with the team.

I'm sure that everybody has their favorite team(s) and Claudia and I are no different. We like both of the Payton kids and we're not sure at this time if Brett Farve will play or retire. I would like to see him retire before hurting himself and not being able to enjoy his retirement.


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Location:Roberts Rd,Skaggston,United States

Life Moves On

Well I have competed my first week of being a diabetic. I will see a diabetic nurse on Monday which will give me some good information on what to do and when. I have been doing a lot of reading on the subject and have started a diet and am proud to say that I loss 3.5 pounds last week. I have started an exercise plan, one of the hardest things I do, and am falling into some sort of routine. I won't to live long enough to see my youngest granddaughter, Madison, graduate from college. That would be another twenty years or so. LOL so if she decides not to go to college I guess I'll live forever...

I have had no fear of anything for I know that eventually everyone will die and I have no fear in whom I have placed my trust and what my God has done for me.

I've never wanted to die a painful death because I just don't like pain that much. I would rather die in my sleep.

Well this has been a little on the morbid side but I am just sharing a few thoughts on the subject.



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Location:Knoxville, Tennessee

Take me out to the ballgame

Tonight Claudia got to take in a Smokies ballgame. They are a minor league team and their sister team in the majors is the Chicago Cubs. It was a good game that the Smokies won. We were the guess of Claudia's boss Mike and his wife Michelle. They bought our tickets and gave us $15 each to buy dinner. It was a great time and we enjoyed ourselves a lot.
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Location:Knoxville, Tennessee

Remembered, finally.

Monday of this week I had my first VA Clinic appointment. It took about three months to be approved and after I was approved it was another couple of months till my first appointment which was Monday.

I was very impressed with the quality of care I was given. Everyone I met was super kind to me and everyone thanked me for my service to our Country. It was the first time ever that anyone thanked me for my service.

I served during the Vietnam (Conflict) War. The guys coming back from the service were not welcomed as the returning heros. We were known as "baby killers" and some other nice terms. What was so bad was we didn't want to go to start with. Those that had political pull were admitted to join the National Guard or some other reserve unit that would not see any chance of action. Today it is the Guard that goes, so times have changed.

I find myself at odds, sometimes, with people my age over political matters and the first thing that crosses my mind is, "Did you serve in the military?" because if you didn't don't lecture me about all of your rights.

None of us wanted to go and my room mate in Junior College even faked his hearing test to fail and not be drafted. I legitimately had a bad ear and was told that "Uncle Sam only wants you to have one good ear, son".

I went, I served and I came home again. I was one of the lucky ones. The average age of those killed in Vietnam was 18 years old. At that time we couldn't drink if we wanted to and we couldn't even vote. At that time the voting and drinking age was 21. In other words we were considered to be children.




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Location:Knoxville, Tennessee

A Special Day

My best Navy Buddy Tom Connelly

Yesterday was a very special day for me. It was my first trip to the VA Clinic in Knoxville. I was totally taken back at the new center and the friendly people at the clinic. Everyone thanked me for serving my country. That was something that no one had ever done before. The vets of Vietnam were not the returning Heroes of the day. We were the baby killers and the war mongers of the time. Most of us didn't join because we wanted to go to the other side of the world and fight and lose our lives. We went because we were drafted or about to be drafted and joined something else instead. Anyway the "Thank You" yesterday was well received.

A tour in the service in 1967 was a unusual thing. Being on a ship with a bunch of kids your own age was an adventure in it's self. Not before nor afterwards have I experienced the closeness of friend and work partners. I should have stayed in until retirement but it's way too late to second guess that one.


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We were young once

We were young once and stupid. We didn't even know why we were being drafted and sent off to a war that even the government refused to call a war. They had the nerve to call it a "conflict" to keep the congress from having any say about it at all. We watched the TV at night to see how many of our youth, my classmates, were killed that day and they reported the number of them that were killed and I ask you if you had just learned that your son had been killed would you care how many of them were killed and who won the battle?

It wasn't like today when you volunteer for the service. Today you join and hope you are accepted. Then at the ripe old age of 18 you head out to rid the world of all bad guys. Good luck with that one. You don't have to leave the country to find bad guys.


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Location:3 Points Rd,Skaggston,United States

What's Up Front?

I know you've heard the statement "One step at a time" and I so have I from the time I was a little boy riding my broom stick horse. I always thought that was kind of a dumb statement because I didn't know another way to do it.

Well turns out that statement referred to faith. Martin Luther King said " You don't have to see the entire staircase to take the first step." I also heard from a Bible teacher I respected that "if you can see a process from beginning to end then it doesn't include faith and God isn't a part of it."

What's around the next curve is a mystery and I sometimes wonder if I knew what was there would I have taken that turn. The simple answer is "no" but there is more to it than that.

Everything that you are now is based on every decision you've ever made. Even what looked to be bad ones at first glance have all worked together for, in some cases, wonderful results.

If I look at my first marriage when I was so young and the fear of serving in the military during the Vietnam War, excuse me, conflict, it looks to be a mistake of great proportion. But now some forty years later I see God's plan so clearly.

A daughter was born and from that daughter came three wonderful grandchildren and a good wife for a great son-in-law. And all of their children to come. So I ask myself was my first marriage a mistake? The answer I have come to is "No". Where would the world be without them?

So when you look back on your life give yourself just a little break because you were always making the best decision that you could based on the information you had at the time.

You can't see that next step on the staircase but trust that it's there anyway and take the step.

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Location:Knoxville, Tennessee