Dear Friends:

  It is an obligation to serve justice in jury duty if all is well. Tommorrow however I have to call the judge's chamber to talk to a legal assistant or secretary. I need to be excused from duty.

   JoAnn allways needs help in lifting Becky from her wheelchair. I help JoAnn with Becky as much as I can. Needless to say at my young age I take a lot of medicine. My health, in ways I best not describe, is the primary reason I prefer not to go.

   To add to this I have two areas that I have been dousing with medicine and covering with antibiotic medications. Being a diabetic I must be carefull or a sawbones physician will come calling.

   I have been taking antibiotics. The areas seem too look O.K. but I am watching them. JoAnn has helped by doctoring on the areas as well. I hope I will be excused when I call the office. I believe the areas will probably heal if I can avoid the temptation of sweets, and not walk too much. God Bless 

Dear Friends:

    Like I said, leave it up to God. Wall Street did better today, a lot better. Brought in the bull market, whatever that is.

     I do not have stock at Wall Street but I prayed anyway. Cost of prayers have not gone up. Probably lots of people said a few prayers for the DOW, whatever it is.

   Maybe I will sell one of my many guitars and buy some stock. I will sell one of my worst guitars just in case Wall Street try's to get stupid again.

    God did it. A little help from Europeans trying to cover their royal ,you know whats, by pitching in 2 Trillion dollars ,I read.

      The World Economy is hungry too. It will probably do better once the oil jazz is adjusted to normal rates. Who in the hell buys gasoline at high sky prices, unless you have no choice and have to drive to work. 

    Oil is going to go down. The greedy scum that are selling foreign oil at sky high prices are going to go under unless they start comming down more with their ugly prices for their black Gold.  God will win in the end. God allways does.God Bless

 Dear Friends:

    My father was a World War 2 disabled Veteran. Because of hearing difficulties he only made it to the rank of Sergeant.

    Dad was troubled by the war. He was a career soldier , but the world war , the overseas fighting in  jungles , the bombs, artillary,  were contributors to his problem called shell shock.

    He was hard of hearing, and at times quite troubled . He was trained to be a jungle fighting soldier.He told me that American soldiers had to be brutal because the Japanese soldiers were  brutal. They killed Americans with no mercy. Some would slice open their bellies so that they could see their own guts rolling out.

   I came to the conclusion quite young in life that war is terrible for everyone, and not only for soldiers. Mother and dad and my older brother and myself  was our complete family. My brother and I would hear Dad talking to himself about the war. He would talk for hours late late at night while he cleaned his hunting rifles and shotguns.

   Doctors said that he could be dangerous because he had to be a front line fighter in the jungles. They said he could snap and turn on us at anytime. I was a boy when I told the doctors that I did not want my father in an institution. My mother and my brother and I made the decision to take care of him ourselves and to take the risks because we loved him. He was our father. He was my mother's soul mate and the man she loved regardless of his changes in personality.

   My father was a man, a real kind of father. He would find peace only at rivers where he would fish. Nature was his true healer. He never waisted his time talking politics. He loved this country in his own reserved way. 

     Dad went threw real hell. His war ravaged our family and we all grew up fast. In my heart I hated wars.  I never hated the Germans or the Japanese people. I only hated Hitler. Hitler was a real piece of dirty work. He killed millions of Jewish, French, English, Polish, Americans, all kinds of people.

   I care about all kinds of people. What Hitler did was to destroy minds. He was the worst enemy in history of this planet. Somehow his warped insane political ideas snowballed out of control, and caused a renegade mental illness that somehow changed Germany. He became very dangerous very fast.

   What I learned about wars are that they should be fought to be won. Many great American generals believed the same thing.

   No one likes Iraq in this land, but I think we should own Iraq because our American blood is there and our soldiers are the Roman soldiers in heart that brought freedom there.

   When we leave Iraq under any Presidential administration, who will be the ones that will go into Iraq to try to take it and govern it ? If we do not want Iraq, who will protect it, and keep it free ?

  I personally believe that the Iraq people would like normal lives again. I hope that whomever takes charge of Iraq in the end, when we are not there to protect them, will be capable of protecting them. 

   The war is expensive there is no doubt about it. All wars are expensive in life and in money.

    I do not think it should matter what any other leaders think. Our soldiers went to Iraq and some died there. We fought terrorists there. If we were to take Iraq we would be accused of taking it because of it's oil. However we fought Iraq to save Kuwait and to defend ourselves against a rogue dictator that could have plotted the attack of the World Trade Center. Saddam could have played a role in an attack of the Pentagon. He could have been involved with terrorists. He had the opportunity and the money to do it. He was an extremely rich dictator that had to hate America for bombing Iraq.

   If Iraq could become an America state, we could protect Iraq with Iraq's money from it's oil. We would be in a very good position to protect ourselves geographically against any Iranian future intentions of attacking us by atomic missles. If they acquire the ability to make atomic weapons they could become a serious threat to our government.

By taking charge of Iraq our country could have more affordable oil. Maybe our presence there for the sake of good circumstances could help that country and our country.  

   How many wars will our country fight so that terrorists or communists could eventually take them anyway? If we do not want Iraq it would only be because we would feel guilty by  benefitting from it's oil. 

   I do not feel our country has done anything wrong. I do not feel our president did anything wrong. Our country never does anything wrong. God Bless.

  My opinions may not be everyone's cup of tea, but they involve my right to express them.

Dear Friends:

   This recipe involves a little work and some time but the benifits are worthwhile if you like donuts with coffee. Add chocolate chips to the recipe if you wish. Coffee is delicious with them. For an extra yummy pleasure prepare a bowl of instant vanilla pudding, chill it and place it on the kitchen table and you and your children will love this wonderfull treat.

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   French Market Donuts:

1 Envelope active dry yeast

1  1/2 cups warm water

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs beaten

1 cup evaporated milk

7 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup shortening

oil for deep frying

powder sugar

(Optional) Chocolate chips

   In a large bowl sprinkle yeast over the warm water; stir to dissolve and let stand for 5 minutes. Add sugar, salt, beaten eggs and evaporated milk. Whisk or use electric mixer to blend thoroughly. Add four cups of the flour; beat until smooth.

   Add shortening, gradually blend in remaining flour. Cover with plastic wrap and chill at least 4 hours or overnight. Roll out on floured board to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut into 2  1/2 to 3 inch squares.  Deep fry at 360 degrees for 2 to 3 minutes until lightly browned on both sides. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle generously with powdered sugar. Serve hot with coffee.

   Makes 4 to 5 dozen. Dough can be cut and frozen seperated on wax paper.

(Optional) Mix in chocolate chips before the dough is ready to be taken out of the refrigerator

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Tips:  If you mix chocolate chips, form your dough into the shape of a sausage shaped roll, then flatten it to about 1/2 inch thick. Cut short strips. Push back into dough any chocolate chips that might be sticking out. Place your strips in a plate. When the plate is full then cover the layer with a sheet of paper towel.

  With the paper towel on top your strips you can now add more strips on top of the towel. You can continually create layers of raw donuts like this that are ready to be cooked.

Tip: Fill a medium pot with about 3 inches of cooking oil. Heat the oil . Turn the handle of your pot away from you. When the oil is hot you can start cooking donuts. Donuts will first sink in the hot oil and then quickly rise to the top and bubble. When their light brown they are done. If you use chocolate chips in your donuts then cook them a little longer because your donuts are thicker. Remember that you made them a little thicker to compensate for the chocolate chips.

Tip:  Use a large brand new Zip lock bag. Pour powdered sugar in the bag. As donuts are cooked place them on paper towel in a bowel. When you have time, as the donuts are still warm, drop some of them in your bag with the powdered sugar. This makes it easier to cover them with the sugar.

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Tip: Prepare your coffee, a bowl of pudding of your choice handy, set some donuts on your table and enjoy in serving dishes. Don't forget your coffee mugs.

God Bless:

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Dear Friends:

    I believe we are facing a brave new world. I hope I am around in ten years to see the cars of the future. 

    I feel optomistic about the future. One thing for sure, they say we came close to a depression so from here the graphs should start showing upward trends. This might be a time to buy stock. Maybe I will sell a few of my guitars and buy some stock. :)

    I got up early this morning. I made some French donuts for JoAnn and Becky. This time I stuck some chocolate chips in the dough. When I get some time I will rewrite my French Donut Recipe and add chocolate chips to it.

   I was short of sugar so I added Splenda with sugar and they turned out fine. Sometime this morning I will go to bed since I did not sleep much. God Bless and wishing everyone plenty of sales.