Photos by johnt75 : on the map, in Google Earth (KML)

I'll pass on the life as a sailor.

well, I did! ...at first, at least! (the attempted second kidnap episode of my life, when...) The draft noticed arrived, stating "Report June First to that-there Navy Base" (pointing to the other end of the country, which I had never been near to before, nor ever felt a desire to). I fought them, until June 1 passed and I was reassigned to defend NATO (from the French in the west?) from a base in the southern Rhine valley (not a bad place to be if you like food and wine ...AND get paid a living to afford it -- and there was the rub!). Well, I scared 'em silly, so it worked (or was it me?)!

thanks for that "nice" story about your experiences on a rig at sea... I won't bother making you envious telling stories of my stint in that industry, living in a brand new house trailer in a country club on the shores of Lake Maracaibo... where speed-boots would take you out after breakfast and bring you back home from the drilling rig for "lunch and a little siesta" ...before taking you back out for a couple of hours to check on progress of whatever task or experiment one was taking care of that day... but, nope, I wouldn't want to have to do "often", such things get boring quickly. So I had my own little plane (kind of a 2+2, like an antique Porsche: either +2 kids or +2 suitcases -- makes for wonderful weekend outings into the Andes or Llanos or a quick evening flight (30 minutes) out to Curacao or Aruba for "dinner and a change of action". That got boring too... better than the daily commute through Caracas traffic though, where I could barely keep myself from buying a houseboat anchored about 90 miles north (inside a beautiful coral reef lagoon) and commuting to work with a (home-built and maintained) little 2-seater chopper using a VW-engine... just as fast, even cheaper than most new cars then... but, no sir, it wasn't that tempting to overendulge on lobsters and all the other maritime goodies that fishermen would bring in large quantities (at little or no cost, given that you were their best buddy AND "the best and fastest ride to town" ...and master of favors, like same-day-delivery from the big city of something urgently needed... otherwise unaffordable and unavailable at any price). I figured out all on my own that "that stress alone" would kill me, if the weather didn't do first...

...but cruising the Caribbean, circumnavigating the North-American continent (using the inner-coastal waterways mostly, competing in regattas on those huge lakes everywhere... quite entertaining thing to do for "most of the year, for a couple of years" <-- it definitely beats letting yourself get dragged around by an expensive to own propeller attached to a tiny cabin. There simply is nothing like a VW-camper of the skies -- but there are many of those floating on top of H2O.

oh well, the hole day passed me by and I never finished writing this little note of response.

Gobble-Gobble, I saw no turkey meet all week long (I hate the stuff), but the venison had on Thursday (see photo) was delicious!

so, how was after T-Day Shopping this year in your neck of the woods?

Angolazione perfetta!!!

Hi, johnt75, I am impressed with your photos. If you live in the Corpus Christi area I would like to invite you to the Corpus Christi Camera Club. cccameraclub.tripod.com Of course all are invited. I have worked in the oil field for a long time but I have never been around when they are fracturing. Man! That's a lot of equipment.

Wonderful sunrise. Greetings.

Texas Tech is still the best even though we lost to Alabama.

Beautiful photo! I took one from the Lighthouse inn side on a sunny afternoon. You can see it here. http://www.panoramio.com/photo/1983653