A Visit To Wine Country & Some Fun In The Desert With Trav...

Suzy and I took advantage of the last real nice week-end of the season to visit wine country for a little wine tasting tour...well lets put it this way...Suzy tasted and I drove...there are about twenty or so wineries in a thirty mile stretch of Route 14 that runs along the west shore of Seneca Lake...it is some of the most beautiful fall scenery you will find in this part of the world..of course Canandaigua Lake is the most beautiful but the rest of the Finger Lakes come in a close 2nd...I took some more pictures through the lens of my sunglasses ( for effect)...just in case your wondering how I got that great sunset shot a few blogs ago....by the end of the day Suzy didn't really care about the scenery as she dozed most of the way home....we both had a great time...some more than others...and I got some good shots...and now Suzy will probably shoot me....Just kidding sweetheart....I'm not much of a wine drinker but I did try a couple...this part of the world is coming into it's own as far as producing some quality vintages...you should give some a try if your into wines...

















Travis took some big shots out to shoot machine guns and rifles...I think he said it was the base commander and his unit commander...but here are some shots of Trav and guests showing off their WMD's... at least on the one to one level.....Trav said they all had a good time and his job of Combat Arms Instructor is one of the coolest jobs in the Air Force as far as I'm concerned...














Went to lunch with baby Dakota and her mom so of course I have to include a picture of the world's cutest grandchild...pay no attention to the man with the funny hat and mustache..he is just some old man we asked to hold the baby so we could get a good shot of her trying to get away.....

















P.S. Kyle is doing fine in Wyoming..his marks are great and he is really putting a major effort into his studies..I'm very proud of him and I'm still waiting for some more pictures to post....

Til Next Time...which will be from sunny Florida...

Semper Fi

Monk

Word From The Desert and Other Fun Stuff

Travis sent some pics of his first trip into town....Abu Dhabi that is....he said the first trip in to town they never got out of the vehicle...it was more of a driving lesson than a visit..then they went back on a little site seeing tour and snapped some pics of the place...Check out those cars...that's not your grandfather's Oldsmobile....there sure is an awful lot of money floating around over there....if you got it...flaunt it....

Just down the road a ways is Dubai ...the natives on that side of the world call it the "Disneyland of the Middle East".....this is the one and the same place that has the world's only indoor ski resort and it happens to be in the middle of the desert...this is also the home of the world's tallest hotel and it happens to look like sailboat in the middle of the Gulf...it is also the place where they are building a group of islands made to look like a palm tree and another group of islands that will form the shape of all the worlds continents...I hope Travis gets to visit Dubai while he's on that side of the world...I threw in some pics of these as well for your entertainment....just one of those things would be quite an amazing feat...they have them all....isn't it wonderful that they can do all that with the billions and billions of dollars from oil....what will they do when at long last one of the alternative forms of energy pans out and we and the world no longer need dead dinosaurs to run our cars and power plants....it will happen and when it does I'm sure some savvy bastards will grab that up and overcharge the world for it....but as Walter Cronkite would say.."and that's the way it is".....how true....

Book two is ready and will be available soon from my publisher...Southfarm Press...and is also available now as a pre-order from Barnes and Noble ...I hope all of you who have read book one will get to read book two..not for the money...but because I think you will enjoy this one as well...it's called Monk's War "Crossfire" and you'll find out why about half-way thru...there are more stories of war but also some good ones about R&R in Japan and my last days in Vietnam...there are 13 great stories...and the cover looks strangely familiar....thanks again to all of my fans...

til next time..

Semper Fi

Monk

It's Official...I've Gone From "Over The Hill" to.."Dirty Old Man"

I can't believe I'm 60 years old...How did this happen?...the last time I checked I was a young 50 something...Now I'm practically a "Geezer"....My inner view of myself in my minds eye over the last few years is the man I was... and still thought ..I acted like... at about 35 or so...then I look at pictures of myself and see the gray hair and pouches under my eyes and think..."That's not me"...it must be a malfunction of the camera....my self image sure doesn't match the real one....I guess that's a good thing...otherwise there would be a lot more grumpy old fogies around than there already are....it's all about self image..you got to think young to be young...

I will still try to act and be young...and that's what counts..hopefully I don't regress to far and sink into an infant like state of drooling and mumbling...that will probably come later if I live long enough...right now with the help of the "Monkmobile" (see previous blog) I will re-live the missed youth of my teens and mid-twenty's with my muscle car instead of the used VW's and family hatchbacks that I really drove at that time in my life....

Suzy and my family threw a great surprise birthday party for me....everyone had a great time...it was at the Moose club so everyone could enjoy the horseshoes and basketball and get to have a little fun instead of just hanging out with the birthday "almost a Geezer"....Suzy did a great job of decorating with the poker theme...I love Texas Hold-em and play whenever I can...I don't win much but I have come in the money several times this summer and even won a couple of small tournaments...I love the hat and I'm going to wear it to the next tournament...It might distract the competition long enough for me to bluff them out of a pot or two....

Of course no blog would be complete without a picture of the world's cutest grandchild...she and her mom are visiting in New York while Travis is in the desert.....

It's great to be me...I'm truly a very lucky man to have all these wonderful people in my life...

Til next time...

Semper Fi

Monk

Fall Is In The Air...and Soon I'll Be On The Road

All of the snowbirds, including myself, are getting ready to fly the coup...the anxiety is building and I can hardly contain myself...It must be a biological thing...now I know how migrating birds feel...I'm driven to fly south...I have my grandfather's genes...he went south every year no matter what...nothing would hold him back...family complained and friends tried to talk him out of it and he would get this glazed look in his eye and say nothing was going to stop him....He would go down every year..not to relax in the sun...but to work in it..he was a stone mason and every year he would go to St. Pete and build another house with his Florida buds.....not being a rich man..that's how he earned his keep...many is the time he would return from Florida in the spring nearly broke but with a big smile on his face ready to spend his summer working hard and getting ready for his next migration...I remember one spring he was overdue by a few days and no one had heard from him in a while...we were all worried and thinking the worst when he came strolling down our street one sunny afternoon...a big smile on his face and only one dime in his pocket...he had spent all the money he earned in Florida and had to hitch-hike back home..he never let anybody know how broke he was..and he was to proud to ask for help....Yep, he was one of the best stone masons around and his work is still around today...I used to help him on summer vacations and I can remember a couple of jobs that I still see..the one I think of the most is a fireplace and chimney that we built from stones that were gathered from the customers own property....gramps would get these round field stones and deftly give them a couple of smacks with a chisel and hammer and they would split open revealing a beautiful multi-colored sparkling interior which he would then use as the face on each stone he set in place in the fireplace and chimney...I drive by that house at least a dozen times a year and remember..other than my Dad... the kindest and gentlest man I have ever met..he had a heart of gold and literally would give you the shirt off his back...my father and he were two of a kind..each time I drive by that house I think to myself that I should stop and ask permission to lay my hands on that fireplace and say a prayer for Gramps...then I think that the people who now live there will think I'm nuts...so I just think of him as I drive by and say the prayer anyway...whoever is in the car with me at the time gets told the story about how we built it together...even if they have heard it a dozen times before...they never let on that they know all about the field stone fireplace and chimney.....

I don't have a picture of the house, but the picture I snapped this weekend is of one of the spots on the lake that both gramps and I used to love to stop and read the names and dates on the old tombstones...we'd be in his old red International truck and I'd be riding with my chin resting on my hands against the dashboard...which now would be considered almost suicidal...we'd stop and admire the view as we read the stones...I'd always tell him that this would be a great place to be buried..overlooking one of the prettiest lakes in the world...and he'd make some crack like "You'll be dead and won't give a lick for your view from where your bones are buried. You want to make sure you live your life so your looking down on all this and not looking up..if you know what I mean."....He and Dad always had something to say about everything and it usually would crack you up...but in this case...truer words were never spoken...

Had a book signing this week-end at the local library in Canandaigua....it was just too nice a day for anyone to be inside..only sold two books and made a couple of trades with other authors...I did have a good time and it was the first time I'd ever been at a multiple author book signing...I don't promote like I should..but then again..I wrote the books for my children and not to make a million bucks..don't tell my publisher I said that....here are few shots of some the great people I met...

Well that's all for now...

Til Next Time...

Semper Fi

Monk