The Night of Monday, December 8, 1980.

This blog and post is in memory of John Lennon, one of my favorite singers from as far back as high school. From 1976-1980. He had left the music business to help take care of his new son and was living in New York in the Dakota Apartments.
While on vacation in the Bahamas he had the inspiration to start writing music again after spending five years raising his son, Sean. He got the idea for the name of his album from a flower he saw in the Bahamas called "Double Fantasy."
He called Yoko to let her know he was starting to write music and she started as well. They started to record at The Record Plant in New York City. They signed with Geffen Records. The album was released in November of 1980. The first single was "Just Like Starting Over."
The album was declared gold by the end of November.
Mark David Chapman came to New York on December 6, a Saturday. He first purchased the album "Double Fantasy" in a record shop in New York. It wasn't until December 8, in the afternoon, when he got John Lennon to sign his album. He waited several hours until John returned to his apartment and when he was walking through the doorway he yelled, "Mr. Lennon?" He then shot five bullets at his back.
The police arrived minutes later and the guard at the Dakota pointed at Chapman who was standing across from him, reading a copy of "Catcher in the Rye." Chapman was arrested and taken to the police station. Lennon was taken to Roosevelt Hospital where he was declared dead minutes later, after the hospital staff tried to revive him with blood transfusions.
A press conference was held, after they arrested Mark Chapman, announcing the death of John Lennon.
The next Sunday they had an 11 minutes of silence on the radio in memory of John and a vigil was held outside of the Dakota Apartments in memory of him.
Mark Chapman was eventually sentenced to 25 years to life and is serving at Attica Prison in New York. The picture of Jared Leto, in "Chapter 27," refers to the movie about the killing of John Lennon. The film is pretty fair.
I was attending Oregon State University in Corvallis during fall term when I heard the news of John Lennon's death. I collected newspaper articles which I placed on my dorm room door for people to read. They described what happened. In 1983 the album "Milk and Honey" was released, which was going to be a follow-up to "Double Fantasy." It was released posthumously and featured some of Yoko Ono's work too.

Trick or Treat!!!!!

BOO! Choose your trick or treat from the bowl. Go on. Take one. Candy is good for you on Halloween. But be sure and brush your teeth after. : )
Tonight I went over to my sister's house to hand out candy for her. It was fun. There were about 20 little kids who came by, I think.
Click on the picture and you'll be so close to the candy you can smell the Butterfinger candy bars.
It was a perfect night for trick or treating. No rain. There was some earlier in the day, but tonight there was just fog drifting over the roads and making things look spooky.
My sister had a pumpkin outside with a candle in it. There used to be several packages of M&M's in this bowl, but they went first. I gave the kids their choice, and most of them wanted those. Well, hope you had a good Halloween. I did!

Mental Health Awareness Week.

THIS post is a little late, but I wanted to let you know that the past week - in fact, every year during the second week in October - was Mental Health Awareness Week.
There was a recent article in our local newspaper on events being held to mark this. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, sponsored a vigil to mark the beginning of the week.
The group has online mental health services. Check them out if you have questions.
Here is another link to the whatadifference organization. This is for people living with mental illness or those who have friends with mental illness. I hope this helps someone understand the difficulties of day to day living when you have these problems.
Things have been going well at the Portland Zoo. The baby elephant is coming along and growing fast.
The animals are cared for very well. It is getting chilly at the zoo, however, and before you know it, it will be time for Zoo Lights and everything will be lighted up and lots of visitors will ride the Zoo Train.
Check out the Portland Zoo if you are in town.
The photo above is of the Oregon countryside. The fields are plowed and ready for winter.

The New Addition to the Oregon Zoo.

Recently Rose-Tu gave birth to her first calf. Its name is Samudra, or Sam for short.
The young elephant likes baths and splashing water. I've seen the baby a couple of times inside the observation building. It was with its mother and with Chendra, another elephant. Chendra is a friendly elephant.
At first there were some problems with Rose-Tu getting acquainted with its new calf, but with time it was able to get connected in her relationship with Sam. Hopefully it will have good mothering skills.
All the zoo staff, the workers too, got a framed complimentary photo of Sam the new elephant for all our hard work at the zoo. There was lots of work, too, with all the visitors we had.
The weather at the zoo has been excellent. With the good weather all the visitors have been coming to get their first look at Sam. For a while, he couldn't have visitors. TV photographers and interviewers were at the zoo, covering the story of the new elephant - especially since Asian elephants are on the decline.
Come up to the zoo if you have the chance and take a look at Sam for yourself.

Hey! Happy Birthday to Me!

The best sister in the world (well, one of them - I have three) made me this marble cake for my birthday, which is tomorrow, August 25.
She is a great sister because they don't make marble cake mixes any more. She had to make a yellow cake and a chocolate cake and mix them together. It turned out to be three wonderful layers high.
As you can tell by the cake I will be 49. It doesn't seem possible. The years go by pretty quick.
Thank you to my brothers and sisters for making time in their day to remember my birthday. I hope they know I appreciate it VERY MUCH!
If you want to know what I want for my birthday, how about world peace or a starring role in a great movie for Leah Remini?

A Post To Help Others Understand

Schizophrenia is a disease. It is not something you can control easily, even with medication sometimes. But there is help and there is understanding. I have posted this YouTube video so others might find out more.
I hope it helps you or someone in your family understand this disease a little better. I think this video helps clear up a lot of misunderstandings - and this comes from first hand experience.
Thanks a lot for taking time to read this. Zookeeper

Your Show of Shows - This is Your Story

You might enjoy watching some classic TV. Carl Reiner, Sid Caesar, Howard Morris, Louis Nye - those kinds of comics.
They are doing a satire of "This Is Your Life" and it's really funny. Here's the YouTube video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apwsZWUjl7g
This video is in two parts. After the first one ends look below for the second part.