Parasite Birds

It has been a hot day. With central air on, it is still not comfortable. There is a lot of allergies and the doctors are advising people to stay inside to avoid the bad days.

The cowbird parent lays its eggs in the nests of other birds. They will even kick the owner's eggs out and then deposit their own egg in its place. This ensured the parasite bird lives and the other bird perishes. In this example the cardinal, in red, is feeding the baby cowbird it is raising because the egg hatched in the cardinal's nest. The cowbird was once a follower of buffalo or bison and as those large herds moved across the country, their grazing stirred insects up and the cowbird was there to eat the insects. In this way, the cowbird could keep up with the herd and insects and be sure the eggs laid in other bird nests would be taken care of and raised as this cardinal is feeding the baby cowbird

About Abraham Lincoln

Birth Information
Abraham Wesley Lincoln was born October 25, 1934 in the small village of Gordon, Ohio just as the clock began to strike 12 Noon. His parents were Lurton Clarence Lincoln and Vivia Elizabeth [Ballengee] Lincoln. The midwife was Emma Schoenfelt. Abraham weighed 10.5 pounds at birth.

Namesake
Abraham is President Lincoln's third cousin — three times removed.

Military Service
Abraham entered the US Army in 1953 and took basic training at Camp Breckenridge, Kentucky. He completed clerk typist school at Camp Breckenridge and was the company clerk of the 101st Airborne Division's 2nd Regimental Combat Team - destination Korea.

Aboard the troopship, U.S.S. Breckenridge, orders were changed and by the time he arrived in Honolulu, his new destination was Yokohama, Japan. From the Camp Drake Replacement Depot, Abe was sent to Sapporo, Japan in November 1953 and he began wearing the 1st Cavalry Division shoulder patch. He was transferred to Sendai in April 1954 and became a member of XVI Corps which was one of the early Corps in the area. After the XVI Corps was retired all members began wearing the IX Corps patch at Camp Sendai.

Abraham was transferred to Camp Schimmelpfennig (aka Camp Schimm) and became a member of the famous 1st Cavalry Division and 5th Cavalry Regiment.

While in the 5th Cavalry, he was a member of the assault team that retraced the landing on Iwo Jima ten years earlier. Abraham left Japan in  April 1956 and returned to the United States.

While Abraham was in Japan, he took hundreds of photographs. Those photos are the foundation of his famous Sendai, Japan Web Site that has been repeatedly written about in the Kahoku Shimpo newspaper and shown on Miyagi Television in Sendai, Japan. It is a fabulous photographic essay that records the history of Sendai-shi. The photographs are now housed in the Sendai City Museum of History and Folklore in Sendai, Japan.

Abraham was responsible for a group of Counter Intelligence Corps analysts stationed at the CIC headquarters at Fort Holabird, Maryland from May 1956 until his honorable discharge from active duty in May 1957.

Research and Development NCR
After his discharge, Abraham worked in Research and Development at the National Cash Register Company from 1957 to 1967. His work was related to Data Card Readers, Lunar Shelters, Rescue Beacons, Thermal Printing, Micro-encapsulation, and electronic warfare vehicles used in Vietnam.

Hobbies
After his return to civilian life Abe was constantly involved in oil painting, drawing, and wood carving. He won many awards and sold many works of art that hang in board rooms, and lobbies of buildings around the country. He also illustrated numerous magazine articles for national publications.

Author
He has written more than two dozen books and most have been used on the college level in this country and abroad. One, The Buffalo and Indians,  was written entirely by hand and bound in leather, and it won an international award. One of his first workbooks has sold over one million copies.

Teaching
After attending classes at the University of Cincinnati, Abraham became a school teacher in 1967/68 and taught until 1976 when he went into full-time business at home working on calligraphy products and services.

Wall Street Journal
A story about him appeared on the front page of the Wall Street Journal in 1978. He is the only local businessman who has ever been written about in the WSJ.

Television Series Host
Abraham did a thirteen week television series partially sponsored by Parker Pen Ltd. that was shown on PBS stations in the United States and on The Learning Channel in other countries.

Videos
He was among the first calligraphers to produce educational videos and workbooks for scribes and calligraphers-to-be. He also invented numerous products still used by calligraphers including the split nib marker and the polymer gilding medium.

Web Site Designer and Developer
He operated a web site design service: Whiz Bang Graphics in Brookville, Ohio, before he retired.

Cat In a Sack

Cat in a sack. The black cat loved to get into sacks and boxes. I suppose he thought that he was hidden from view to all of us and didn't seem to mind my taking his picture. This is the cat who bit me in the hand on the first day he arrived in our house. After the initial shock of that, me and the cat became best friends and he would eventually allow me to pet him on the stomach like I do with my dog. I guess cats don't like their belly rubbed as much as dogs do.

Japanese Bath

This is typical of the Japanese man being given a bath by his wife or even a mistress. Most men had at least one mistress and many had several and all were known by the wife and family. The Japanese way of life was totally unique to Japan and awkward to Americans. Besides being bathed at home, there were "public" baths where lines of people walked down to the bathhouse with a towel and rinsed off under a spigot of running water. There might be 25 people--men, women and children already in the water and all their eyes are on this American with his white skin and short brown hair who seems ashamed and tried to cover himself somewhat until he could get in the water.

Pachinko Man

Pachinko Man
Pachinko is a game similar to our "pin ball" games in this country. They have entire shops or stores filled with pachinko machines and the sounds the little balls make as they drop to the bottom is very loud. This man is waiting on children to come out with their pennies to spend them on his mobile pachinko machine.

Noah

Noah, our grandson, lives in Darke County and gets down to see us almost every Sunday. Now that he is driving, he drives down and brings his mother, Melinda, along for the ride. They were here yesterday, July 3rd, for Melinda's birthday. We had chocolate cake that was just right and moist and we had chocolate ice cream cups and Becky made some cheese balls that were delicious. You missed it all by not being here.