Hurricane Katrina Animation

NOLA.com and the Times-Picayune have constructed an animation of how the City of New Orleans flooded. This animation will help you understand what happened. You will also find a lot of other information about the hurricane on this page.

Hurricane Katrina Archive

Have a great weekend.

Until the next time
John Strain

A Sailor's Farewell

Did you catch this news story yesterday?

USS Oriskany surrenders to sea

I received this email from my brother George who was a sailor on this ship.

I saw on the Nightly News tonight that the aircraft carrier Oriskany was intentionally sunk off the coast of Pensacola, FL to be a fish reef. It looked a little funny sinking, since I once walked her decks-but it was in a dignified manner, all in one piece, good old American engineering, no falling apart even in it's final moment in the sunshine. She was the first aircraft carrier to have a jet powered aircraft leave her deck and was a veteran of 2 wars, Korea and Viet Nam, which is where she and I shared nearly a year. Another part of my past now gone forever. John McCain (Senator from Arizona) was a pilot on her for a while also. Well, now on to tomorrow and we'll see what it brings. See you later. -email from my brother George

The stories that ship could tell.

Yesterday I talked about importance of things like junk mail. That is, something could be someone's entire life, but mean nothing to someone else. The sinking of this ship was a footnote in some newscasts, but to the men who served on her, she is the focal point of their days at sea.

Men lived on her and died on her. She was the veteran of two wars and countless voyages to ports around the world.

Now she is at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico to become an artificial reef. At least she is at home and at rest. Those who called her home have a spot to which they can travel to pay homage if they choose.

She was important to many and deserves to be known by many more.

Until the next time
John Strain

Importance

I grabbed the stack of mail out of my box at work. "How you doing John," the security guard said. "Oh, pretty good," I replied, "I just came in here to throw away my mail." I continued, "Someone spent a whole lot of time designing and printing this stuff. Someone else went to a lot of trouble to deliver it to me and I am just throwing it away." The security guard laughed as I dropped a stack of catalogs and advertisements into the trashcan.

It was true. It is a lot of work to make a catalog. Someone takes great pains to illustrate and photograph the merchandise. The copy has to be written and the fact must be checked. It goes to the printer and a lot of money changes hands.

Mailing the final product isn't cheap either and the mailmen across the country fly, drive, and finally hand the finished item to me in my location somewhere across the country from where its journey began.

What is my response to all of this effort and all of this expense? I throw it in the trashcan without even looking at it.

We all do it.

It is funny and sad at the same time. It is the human condition. You have no idea what I do or put up with throughout the day. The stresses with which I deal and the obstacles I struggle to overcome are known best to me.

Likewise, I cannot completely appreciate the things you must deal with on a daily basis. From the hamburger flipper at McDonalds to the checkout girl at Wal-Mart to the high school history teacher to the dentist; we all work and our jobs have their moments.

Maybe a little more understanding and appreciation is in order. I like it when I flip the light switch and the room illuminates. I love to walk into a store and have a choice of all kinds of goodies reasonably priced. It is a luxury to have gas available to put in the old gas tank at any price. Try going without it for a while and you won't complain about price.

We are at the mercy of others in many respects. We are interdependent. A society is that way. The alternative is all of us do everything for ourselves. We don't all have to grow our own food; farmers are doing that for us. We don't have to make our own clothes; other folks do that too.

So whatever you do, thank you for doing it. You are part of something big. You contribute to a versatile society. We all benefit from what you do. We give and we receive. What we do as a group is greater than the sum of its parts.

Think about that the next time you toss some junk mail without opening it.

Until the next time
John Strain

Boston Marathon Photos

Click photos for larger image

Did I ever tell you about the second time I ran the Boston Marathon?

Until the next time
John Strain

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day ladies. Here's to hoping your day is relaxing and enjoyable. I hope you get to spend time with your offspring or at least talk with them on the phone.

You have a tough job. Lots of blame and little credit, but your rewards are mostly hidden from everyone else. The things you treasure wouldn't seem like much to the average Joe.

Moms do the little things in the background that just get done. They watch and they worry and this is what we call love. Don't get between a mother bear and her cub and don't mess with a mother's child.

A mother is an advocate, nurse, cook, counselor, mechanic, maid, advisor, policeman, CIA operative, banker, lawyer, drill sergeant, coach, cheerleader, and biggest fan.

If a mother does her job right her children know that they are loved and that they can do anything they choose to do because she has instilled the belief deep within them that it is much more important what you think of yourself than what others think of you.

If a mother does her job right her children know they are always loved even if she is not pleased with what they just did.

If a mother does her job right, her children have confidence in themselves and they can face whatever the world dishes out because they know that they are loved.

My mother did her job right. Thanks Mom and I love you.

Happy Mother's Day

Until the next time
John Strain