Prologue: For those of you who are permitting us to intrude on your morning coffee, thank you for your indulgence. There is no good rationale for this Blog other than it keeps Bill busy and maybe out of trouble. We do not do crosswords or Soduku at the breakfast table, but filling the world with fairly useless (but innocuous) information has been the path to our expertise in Cryptocurrency and Artificial Intelligence. Go to our Home Page concerning a little more on the direction of the Blog.

This Post 3 of a series. Posts 1 and 2 (and all following Posts) can be found by pressing on the Blog Alley button on this site’s Home Page. Also, the Home Page has a button entitled “Oooops” when post-publication corrections have been made to Posts. I am still working on a work-around to eliminate any advertising contained in the You Tube clips.

Thanksgiving has come and gone. Wow! Lots of moving parts going on in and around the “Home” with the visit of the Greg and Annie, and Lindsey. Great visit and great Thanksgiving. First time we have all together since February. Of 2020; Bill was still in the ICU post-heart-surgery and remembers nada of the 2020 gathering.

Now, on to the boring next phase of the Blog; the Navy, the ”Coinens” (as we were occasionally called), San Diego, and the Western Pacific (Westpac). In September 1966, Bill reported to USS Rogers (DD 876), a former WWII destroyer which had gone through FRAM, Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization, and which had just returned from a Westpac (think Vietnam Theater of Operations) rotation. Coming back to San Diego (SDIEGO) was the reward, but merely meant Rogers was starting operations locally to get ready to return to Westpac. Local operations were many and prolonged, so it was a busy time for its brand new Operations Officer (that would be LT Bill). We had pmoved to a small home north and east of the destroyer base in SDIEGO, close by new construction of a stadium for the-then San Diego Chargers. We were able to attend the first ever game in the stadium, the Chargers vs. Los Angeles Rams.

Rogers deployed to Westpac in late September 1967 for what was scheduled to be a 6-month deployment. Most operations (e.g., gunfire support, interdiction, and search/rescue) were conducted within the South China Sea, adjacent to Vietnam, although there were forays to the Philippines, Japan, Taiwan, and just a few days R & R in Hong Kong. The time we spent in support of the United States and its allies in the Vietnam Theater of Operations were arduous, never fun, some times scary, and long in the tooth. We were anxiously awaiting our exit orders in the sixth month of deployment when, oops, the USS Pueblo was attacked in the Sea of Japan by North Korea, captured, and towed to North Korea. All of a sudden, Rogers was important for world security, and we spent three extra months in and around the Sea of Japan as part of an operation regarding Pueblo (which, thankfully, was more or less a “nothingburger” event). But the delay was not good news for shipmates and their loved ones at home. There was also something neat with this predicament, however; Rogers arrived back in San Diego on April 6, 1968 – our 5th anniversary – giving Bill the opportunity present Barrie with her engagement ring, albeit 5 years after our marriage. And, disregard any stories that may have been generated my sister Jane or her late husband Alan about Bill colliding Rogers into the pier upon docking; it was a mere “brushing” , as was and is, recommended. It didn’t matter – home again with a set of Orders for Bill to report to the Naval Reserve Officers Training Center, University of Rochester, as an Assistant Professor of Naval Science. In a few months, we were enroute to Rochester, with our brand new Ford Country Squire and our pretty old Plymouth Valiant convertible, riding through the Rockies in tandem.

Now, on to “stuff” about things other than B & B. Goodbye B & B, hello You Tube. The next clip highlights (lowlights?) the following “Signs of the Times”, a statement (one of many found on You Tube) of the overall good, bad and ugly of signage adorning us wherever we are.

The Big Finish: My favorites from Les Miserables by a wonderful flashmob rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus. B & B wish you and your’s a very joyful Holi season.

The Last Big Finish: Meet our neighbors, Dr. Richard and Michele Keown live on the fifth floor of our “tower”, directly above our place on the second floor. We ate “roofmates”. Back in 2018 when we moved to Fort Myers, we moved into a two-unit condo where the Keowns were our condo “roofmates”. “Roofmates forever”. We cannot thank them enough for the aid and assistance they gave to Barrie when Bill was hospitalized in February 2020 for heart surgery, and again in October 2023 when Bill was hospitalized with a severely broken ankle.