Retirement...

So, I was having a text conversation with someone, who has known me for just about forever, about his upcoming birthday and retirement...

Absolutely LOVE the positive attitude :D


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My Uncle Jimmy... MORE TO COME

It was in the news yesterday, that Billionaire Paul Allen (I believe the co-founder of Microsoft, with Bill Gates) found the wreck of a WWII ship, the USS Juneau, on March 17th, St. Patrick's Day, 2018. The Juneau was famous for the Sullivan Boys... 5 brothers who wanted to serve together. Sadly, their ship was hit and all 5 perished. The Navy, believing that no family should have to endure such a great loss, would no longer put brothers on the same ship. Which was why my Uncle Jimmy and my Uncle Gordon were not on the same ships during their time in the Navy during WWII.

This got me to starting to research my uncle, and his lost ship, on the internet, in the middle of the night.

Jimmy was oldest of the four Long boys, my father's oldest brother. I do not know if he joined up or was drafted.

First I went to findagrave.com to find his memorial stone in the cemetery in Bedford, Indiana, my family's home town. This gave me the date of his death.

I then went to a page I found that listed all of the Naval ships that were lost during WWII. I went through each category until I found one with the same date, July 18th, 1943... the LST-342. I had asked my oldest cousin some time ago if my aunt remembered the name of Jimmy's ship. It really didn't have a name, just a number...

There had always been the story that when Jimmy's ship was struck, the back half with most of the crew had sunk immediately. That appears to be the fact.

More of the same general information...

I am not sure if this map shows where LST-342 was hit, or where the bow was towed and remains abandoned.

Iron Bottom Sound is located here...

But at least in this general area, is where we lost our family's son, brother and uncle...

The bow was towed...

So busy....

OhMyGracious... I cannot believe it has been a whole month since I last posted. I have just been so busy with the emotions and transactions of being a Business View Photographer, that I have barely had time to do much beside get to work on time, and sleep... and eat.

Yes, went 12 days without sugar, even while stress eating, but then broke down with creamer in my McDonald's coffee when I didn't have time to purchase Almond Milk. So have started again and I think I am heading into Day 3 because then the next day I muffed it up with some Nutella. Every day I don't eat a chocolate donut is a true success, in my opinion :)

On my days off from the toy shoppe, I am up in Astoria talking to businesses. First Tuesday, talked with 15 people. Wednesday, 10 people... and landed my first real shoot: Baked Alaska. Went Monday to shoot and have been battling a problem with "moderating a constellation" since I got my edited stitched panos from my guy in Romania. Yeah, I "have a guy"... in Romania.... long story. But he does a great job with hiding my stupid tripod by working my 5th floor shot into the pano, and isn't charging me much at all. This is totally a no-brainer for me since I can concentrate on talking and selling, and not fretting over the editing part of this adventure. I may learn eventually, but in the meantime, this is "Outsourcing" and it's perfectly acceptable because a lot of professionals do it.

I am waiting on some help with the problem I am having, but otherwise, I am ready to upload the tour and deposit the check!!

That Tuesday, after I took the pics, I took the day off to relax, and then on Wednesday, I talked to about 7 people. I have a few places I feel really good about, some I haven't been able to propery connect with yet, but even though I am not hitting the goals I originally set for myself, I feel like it is happening at the correct pace. Any more and I would be strung out emotionally to the brink!

Locked my keys in the van at Fred Meyers the other day. Too much on my brain. Then an unexpected blessing from the adventure... The lock guy was really tweaking my door with his inflatable pillows in order to reach in with his tools... and guess what? My majorly jacked door hinge which had gotten blown hard by the wind a month or more ago, is closing more smoothly without me having to lift it up each time I close it! Like Wow!!

Business at the toy shopped is picking up... Spring Breakers are beginning to show up. Nice to be busy. Winter boredom was tough.

Night before last, I closed the store to check out the sunset, and it was beautiful. Then as I called away the clouds above kept getting more bright pink. I had to go back up the street for a few more shots.

Sunset, Cannon Beach, OR, March 16th, 2018