Monday

                          Musing and History

Quote of the day:

When told that he had died she said "It makes me sad but I am grateful that I was able to spend so many years with the coolest man on the planet."

               Kim Bush, long time girlfriend of Ken "The Snake" Stabler

Trivia question of the day:

What was the largest bird ever documented?  Answer at the end of the blog.

I was in Pensacola right after Snake retired and he hung out on the Redneck Riviera a lot and that being the Alabama gulf coast around Gulf Shores and vicinity. I think he was at the very first “Mullet Toss” at the immortal “Flora-Bama” Lounge. I was there once when he was there at the same table with the ex-wife of George Wallace and a few bikers from the Screwballs Motorcycle Club. The Flora-Bama was and is a major stop on the gulf coast between New Orleans and Tampa. Snake kept his yacht/fishing boat at the Bear Point Marina near Orange Beach, Al. and was named “Honky Tonk”. His girlfriend at the time was names Wanda but he called her “Wicked Wanda” for reasons I never learned. There was very few people that ever existed that enjoyed life any more than Kenneth “The Snake” Stabler. Ken died of cancer in a hospital in Gulfport, Mississippi on July 8, 2015, he was 70 years old. He and was inducted into the Football Hall Of Fame the next year. His eulogy as given by Fred Beletnikoff (also in the Hall of Fame) one of Snakes favorite receivers, and his grandson amid many tears by both.

                      The Saga of Heidi

This is the tale of Heidi. She is small of stature but has the heart of a lion. No one knows what her real name was because she was named Heidi by a receptionist at a doctor’s office. She was found roaming the streets in near Lexington, South Carolina in 2005 by a citizen who called the officials to come and pick her up because she was crippled and barely able to move. Heidi was found and taken to a safe shelter for the time being. Little Heidi is a dachshund whose spine had been damaged and her hind quarters are inoperable. The Lexington County Animal Control called a member of Dachshund Rescue of America who lived in nearby Columbia, South Carolina. This dedicated member gathered up Heidi and took her to a veterinarian for an examination. The vet said that surgery would not cure Heidi’s affliction and she should be euthanized because of the lack of a “quality of life” in her future. It is the policy of this particular Dachshund Rescue group that before a dachshund under guardianship of a member can be euthanized, it must be voted on by the President and the Board of Directors. After the President had a conversation with the vet, it was decided euthanasia was not necessary. Heidi remained in this member’s house even though Heidi would move around dragging her hind quarters. As you might suspect, Heidi did not have control of her bodily functions so the member fitted her with children’s number 3 diapers and cut a hole in it which allowed her tail to stick out. I met Heidi and on our first encounter it was obvious that she did not know she was handicapped. She ran around playing with the other dogs and responded to any actions by the people there. In fact, there was an obvious touch of vinegar in this dog’s attitude. She was advertised for adoption on the Dachshund Rescue website which is www.DRNA.org. Later on a lady from Canada admired Heidi’s obvious spirit and will to survive and adopted her. Through a series of transfers from one member to another, Heidi made her way to Canada and the ownership of the lady of faith. This fine person fitted Heidi with a small carriage with wheels that lifted Heidi’s hind quarters off the ground and allowed her much more mobility. The lady from Canada reported that when she took Heidi to a dog park she thought she was in command by running around and trying to herd up the other dogs. Heidi became a Canadian celebrity from her sheer courage and spirit. She eventually became a mascot that is taken from facility to facility that cared for crippled people and homes for the elderly to show that life is not over when a wheelchair is required. She is loved by all who has seen her. Her “wheelchair” has a checkered race flag and the word Heidi painted on it. She is an inspiration for us all. I am glad I got to meet her. By the way, the rescuer and guardian was my daughter Mardy, in whom I am well pleased as I am of all of my children.

After this writing Heidi's organs began to fail from old age and was mercifully euthanize. She is gone but the memory of her heart and spirit remains.

Back in the mid 1500's Spanish conquistadors came ashore in California (Coronado), Mexico (Cortez) and South America (Pizzaro). They found an enormous horde of gold, silver and precious gems in the hands of the natives. Their answer was to slaughter those that resisted and enslave those who didn't to gain the treasure. They eventually had several ports on the Caribbean used to load cargo ships with treasure and sail them back to Spain. Word of this conveyor belt of treasure was soon discovered and the Spanish treasure ships repeatedly came under attack by pirates and privateers. Spain's response as to station warships at several places along the sea lanes back to Spain. One deal location was on the south coast of Jamaica near what is now Kingston. There was a narrow strip of land that ran out from the shore into the Caribbean enclosing an ideal harbor. The Spanish established the town of Port Royal on the tip of this peninsula along with a fort to control who comes and goes in and out of the harbor. It also became a major slave trading port. The town thrived and grew to about 3,000 permanent residences. England and Spain were at war and therefore in addition to the British navy to worry about the Spanish had to be concerned about privateers (private warships hired by England to fight its enemies) and outright pirates that were only after the treasure. The British navy launched an all out effort to capture Port Royal and was successful in kicking the Spanish out of Jamaica. With the natural harbor (one of the greatest in the world at the time) and shallow sand bars that allowed “careening” that was much traffic in and out of this harbor and the merchants in Port Royal grew very wealthy especially the bar and whorehouse owners.

Careening means the wooden ships would be pulled up to a sand bar, tilted on its side and the crew would scrape off the barnacles and seaweed and patch any cracks. Sir Henry Morgan and Sir Francis Drake had their headquarters at Port Royal.

Then on June 7, 1692 at about noon an earthquake struck Port Royal. The quake was so severe that the entire town slid in the Caribbean. The strange thing was that even when the ground was still quivering there were looters out stripping gold rings and bracelets off the dead. Many of the looters were killed when the houses they were in collapsed on them or took them out to sea and drowned them. The horror increased when several cemeteries were flooded and corpses floated to the surface and drifted around in the harbor. Naturally, cholera followed. What normally happens after an earthquake on seaside communities is, you guessed it, a tsunami. Sure enough an enormous tsunami showed up and swamped or capsized many ships in the harbor. There was one fair sized cargo ship that was lifted up, pushed inward 2 miles and deposited on a 30 foot high bluff. This ship was used as a hospital for several years. The actual number of dead is unknown because since it was a slave port there were undocumented slaves by the hundreds in the surrounding communities. It was hell for those that experienced it.

Answer to the trivia question:

The largest bird ever documented is the Elephant Bird of Madagascar. A mature one was About 9'-10” tall and weighed 1,100 pounds. They went extinct about 300 years ago.

                   Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow