I spent 6 years Active Duty Navy and 10 years in the reserves, and I don’t remember ever hearing about this man.

On February 26, 1802, Esek Hopkins, an American Revolutionary War Admiral and commander and chief of the Continental Navy died. He had been born in Rhode Island on April 26, 1718. He began his sea career captaining merchant ships. During the French and Indian War, he became a successful privateer. A privateer was an entrepreneur of the high seas who claimed the enemy’s merchant goods. In other words, he was a pirate. Click here to read rest of post

George Rogers Clark captured Fort Vincennes (Vincennes, Indiana) from British on February 24, 1779 from British Governor Henry Hamilton. On February twenty-third, the Americans surrounded the fort manned by 90 British soldiers. The patriots were outnumbered, but tricked the British and their Indian allies by dividing their own army into groups of ten so that it appeared that they had more than a thousand surrounding the fort.Only a few months earlier, the Continental Army was hunkered down in Valley Forge, facing defeat. What changed? Continue reading on The Ugly Duckling

I have been having difficulty coming up with events that relate to the American Revolution this time of the year, but in my research I found this interesting controversy related to Ohio. On February 19, 1803, Congress accepted Ohio’s constitution, but statehood not ratified till 1953. How did that happen? Click here to read rest of post at my Word Press blog The Ugly Duckling

On February 17, 1776, the first volume of Gibbon’s “Decline & Fall of Roman Empire” was published. A few months later on July 4, 1776, a new empire was born which was to become known as the United States. This new empire didn’t seem to have a mother, but it did have fathers. Founding fathers, that is. Among these founding fathers were five men who eventually became the first five presidents of the United States. Click here to read the rest of this Post: Happy President's Day.

If you haven’t gotten your sweetheart a Valentine’s gift yet, you still have time. Men all around the country are calling florists or stopping by their sweetheart’s favorite candy or jewelry store to pick up evidence to the one they love that they do not deserve to spend the night on the couch.

Last night I was watching a rerun of the television show The Big Bang Theory and Dr. Sheldon Cooper said that he could not understand how the execution of a monk named Valentine could have lead to the holiday that we now celebrate on February 14th. For all the Sheldons out there, I researched the story. Today, Valentine’s Day is a day when we celebrate love and romance by giving flowers, cupids  and candy to our sweethearts, however, the origins of this holiday are not so romantic. Click Here to Learn what I learned about the Origins of Valentine's Day.

Did you ever wonder what it is that makes a person famous? Are we born to be famous? Are we some how gifted at birth with the skills necessary to be successful?

  Today in 1809,  Abraham Lincoln was born in Hodgenville, Kentucky. He grew up living a poor pioneer life in Kentucky and Indiana. He only had one year of formal education, but taught himself to read and the law. As an adult he lived in Illinois and had many jobs including postmaster, surveyor and shop keeping. He was physically strong and was a legendary in Illinois for his wrestling skills, and he became known far and wide for his ability to entertain everyone with his folksy wit. Click Here to Continue Reading post on Word Press Blog: The Ugly Duckling

Almost every religion in the world follows this line of thinking. What goes around comes around. Its the idea that there is a set of rules that we must follow. If we do something good or bad to someone else eventually, good will win out in the end.  There’s Karma, reaping what you sow, and the “law of reciprocity”. We all want there to be rules and we all want those who don’t play by the rules to get penalized.  If heaven or hell did not exist, we would invent it because we don’t see the evil being judged in the world. It also explains the desire for reincarnation. Obviously, life isn’t always fair, so perhaps the fairness comes in the after life. It is those times, however, that this “law” does seem to show up in the world that renews our faith in the idea that we “reap what we sow”.

Sometimes history bears this philosophy out. Click here to read rest of post

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm”-Winston Churchill
Failure Doesn’t Have To Be Permanent The first attempt that the United States made for creating a document to live by, The Articles of Confederation, failed to provide a government strong enough for the country. It wasn’t until the Founding Fathers got together and drafted The Constitution of the United States that it finally found the working document that would catapult the fledgling nation into the greatest country on earth.

Other great events in history did not occur without much failure. Everyone knows that Thomas Edison failed countless times before he invented a functioning light bulb. Everyone has also heard the question “What do you do when you have failed seven times?” and the answer: “Get up an eighth time.” Click Here To Read the Rest of Blog Post

Today is the second day in a row that my daughter’s school has been canceled due to inclement weather and the eighth day this entire school year. Her school district is known for not having snow days when other schools in the area all are off because of snow, but this year is different.  It is certainly a coincidence that my work in progress A Coward’s Solace is situated at Valley Forge, and this winter has been quite severe for this part of the United States. It is also not a coincidence that even though this winter has been cold and snowier than we have had in quite a few years, in respect to other winters of the past, this winter really isn’t so bad. Click here to continue reading post

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”—     Theodore Roosevelt

 I forget that not everyone knows what I know. I think that is something that I am learning from writing is that I really do have something to say that can impact the lives of others. When I started this blog, I didn’t know where I was going with it. I just knew that I had things to share. I simply decided that I was going to allow my words in this blog take me wherever they would. I have taken these words of Theodore Roosevelt and taken them to heart. I am doing what I can with what I have where I am. I am not stressing about it, I am not worried about my next post, I am simply writing what I have to say when I have it to say. I am writing what I know.

All my life I have had it thrown into my face all the reasons that I couldn’t do something. In some ways it made it easy. I couldn’t do something because. . .Click here to read rest of post