The Front Page
The Risk is Real - Serving our Country
Remembering those that have served and those that are serving our country.
You know sometimes it doesn't hit you until it is personal.
Please remember these Santa Anna folks that are serving our country in combat, training, or support: Maricela (Marty) Siller, Clay Hubbard, Eddie Dawson, Ike Garza, James Watson, Austin Voss, Randy Casey, Mike Montgomery II, Mark Rutherford, Allen Tucker, James Culpepper, and Shane Watson.
1519 American soldiers or sailors have died in Operation Enduring Freedom as reported by the
Department of Defense and the
Iraq Coalition Casualty Count. Pray for our country, its' leaders, and our soldiers and sailors.
I don't want to take away from any life given for this war or for wars of the past but I was curious about how the War in Iraq compared to other wars in the past as far as those in service, number of deaths, and wounded. The Korean War lasted about 37 months and resulted in about 54,000 deaths and 103,000 wounded Americans. The Vietnam War lasted about 101 months with around 3 million men in the conflict and resulted in about 58,000 deaths and 153,000 wounded. Some of this information was taken from The Korean War Educator and The Department of Defense DIOR.
Desert Storm included around 225,000 in service, over 380 deaths, and 467 wounded.
World War II saw over 16 million in service, over 405,000 deaths, and 670,000 wounded.
World War I had almost 5 million in service, over 116,000 deaths, and 204,000 wounded.
And the Civil War had over 2 million in service, almost 365,000 deaths and over 280,000 wounded.
You know sometimes it doesn't hit you until it is personal.
Many service men and women return home safely. Operation Tribute to Freedom Homecoming Photographs.
Late this Friday the 18th, Clay Hubbard will be coming home. Clay has been at sea for the last several months. I have been keeping up with him from his e-mails and the USS Abraham Lincoln website. Clay has been to such exotic places as Hawaii, Singapore, and Hong Kong. The Lincoln played a major role in the recent humanitarian aid delivered to the Tsunami victims in Sumatra.
What's Ginning at the Cotton Gin?
See the latest edition of the Business Page to find out..
From one end of the town to the other
My old friend Bobby Morgan, aka "Mick", and sons Bo and Tyler are opened up finally at Morgan Time Machines.. they had a ribbon cutting with the Chamber of Commerce last week as I saw in the Coleman paper. They had several delays in opening due to holdups on paint booth parts mostly. Nevertheless they just about got it all together and the state of the art paint booth is really a sight to see.
I have been helping them out with their website MorganTimeMachines.com. We have some more work to do on it still. I also got to help them put up their new sign a few weeks ago and took this night shot of it a couple days ago.
New Things on SantaAnnaNews.com
Well Tuesday I had to work late and by the time I got home I didn't feel like getting too much done. I had been working on a few ideas and just thought I would play around with the new Amber Alert banner you see at the top. I was working in one of the sheriff's offices the other day when an Amber Alert came in and thought why can't I find something that shows the Alerts for SantaAnnaNews.com and I ran across BeyondMissing.com's banner.
I had also found code for adding the Home Page Button and thought it might be useful.
By now you know that I am a big Google user and I have been wanting to make SantaAnnaNews.com searchable, especially the archives. So what better way than to use the Google Site Search? If you want to Google the Internet or SantaAnnaNews.com all you have to do is use the Google Site Search at the top of the Front Page of SantaAnnaNews.com
I hope that you find those things useful and if you can think of anything else that you would like to see on SantaAnnaNews.com or a news article suggestion or submission just let me know.
It has been a while since I have done a Sunset and I know that some of you share my love for them. I caught the Sun bouncing off of the horizon Wednesday night as I came across the railroad tracks. By the time I turned around and took this shot it had already gone halfway down and a few seconds later it slipped around the edge of the Earth.
Water Works
Work continues on the new water tank for the City. The tank will be located on the part of the West Santa Anna Mountain where the sand mining was done and also is near Coleman County Broadcasting's Wireless TV Tower. It is also just up from First Street.
The new water line to the tank is now buried going up the side of the Santa Anna Mountain.
The new water tank is starting to appear above the edge of the mountain.
Need a ramp? Update/Part II
I had reported on the progress of the wheelchair ramp upgrades in the downtown area by TXDOT a few weeks ago and just thought I would give you a little update. They appear to be completed for the most part.
See the Stuff Page for the rest of the update.
Santa Anna VFD gets New Fire Truck
The Santa Anna Volunteer Fire Department got a new fire truck this past week. Roving reporter and my Step-Dad, Tex Wright, caught the guys playing.. er.. testing the new truck and it's foam rig. Thanks to Tex for the photos.. I guess he is giving up reporting for full time photography because he said the story was up to me!
Maybe one of the volunteers will volunteer the story.. or I may have to call my neighbor Rick Reese or my old buddy David Huggins for the details.
Just the truck.
Here is the whole gang gathered around.
Checking it out from the rear.
SantaAnnaNews.com Classifieds Work..
Have you sent in YOUR classified yet. It doesn't have to be a car or big ticket item. It can be anything from a house for sale to a garage sale. Best of all it is FREE! Send your classifieds to news@santaannanews.com today.
Brad Stroud e-mailed me Wednesday the 9th:
Want to hire someone to brush hog, disc, and plant sunflower on 6 acres 10
miles south of Santa Anna.
He e-mailed me on Monday the 14th:
I just had a call from a guy down the road who can probably do everything I
need thanks to your ad. I sure appreciate the help, thanks again.
What are you waiting for?
Spring Break
Well the kids are out of school for Spring Break. I was just thinking how I need a Spring Break. Oh for the days when all we had to worry about was the next school holiday. Jennifer was out of school last week and her and Josh took advantage and took the kids to the Fort Worth Zoo and then camping and fishing at Hords Creek Lake this past weekend.
Jason, Chrystal, and Jessica went to Amarillo over the weekend to visit friends and go hiking in the Palo Duro Canyon.
Jessica was planing on going to Six Flags one day this week.
I had really meant to get by the school and take some pictures of the Santa Anna tennis tournament last weekend but I smooth forgot it with all the work around the house. Jessica isn't playing this year so it is a little harder keeping up with the tennis schedule. Maybe someone will send us the results and or some pictures.
The Jr. High is scheduled to go to Goldthwaite for a track meet Friday followed by the High School on Saturday which I hope to make it to.
Weather
Well I kind of wished it had rained Saturday or Sunday because the weather was so good that I worked my tail off!
I am so dang tired that I probably won't get too much done as far as news is concerned for Monday.
Sunday afternoon, we.. Cindy and I.. and the mouse in Cindy's pocket, transplanted a crepe myrtle that has been growing beside our house since we lived here. I never did really like where it was because it grew under the eve and right by the side door of our house.
I started out trying to dig a ball about two feet across. Let me tell you it gives me new found appreciation for Mr. Mata and his helpers that dig these things up all the time! I started out digging a shovel wide and then grubbing hoe wide trench about 20 inches deep around the three sides I could get to. I then took a couple of chains and a come along and tried to pull them away from the house using a cemented post on the old grape arbor and when it started to give way I latched on to one of the two and a half inch tubing posts on the privacy fence. These are drove into the ground about three feet. I started to pull down the fence so I thought I would tie on to the pickup trailer hitch. Cindy pulled the truck around while I removed a couple of fence pickets to pull the chain thorough the fence. The back of the truck started sliding so I thought I better get something else. My neighbor, Curtis Fellers, was hanging around outside so I hollered at him to see if he would pull his little Ford tractor over and let me tie on to it. He did but it would not work either. I then I took a piece of pipe and drove it on the outside of the landscape timbers under our fence and it worked pretty good with some more digging as I pulled. There were actually two groups, one with about one inch diameter trunks and the other with about three inch diameter trunks they were so close together I was afraid they would could not be separated but the further along we got they came apart.. so much for my ball. The larger one did come out with a pretty good ball but nothing like I expected.
And then came the hole digging for the two new locations. Let me tell you that three or four holes dug in a day will wear an old Grandpa out.
I just hope the darn things live now.. I will keep you posted.
More Weather
Brrr.. I have been trying to tell myself that it is still March. As much as the wind has been blowing I figured we were in for at least one more Winter blast. And that sounds like what we are getting with a foot of snow in the Panhandle and three feet in parts of New Mexico.
Don't put that coat up for the Summer just yet!
You might be from Santa Anna if..
..you've ever stood on top of a mountain and tried to find your house.
Submitted by Mike Hartman.. not sure if there are any mountains in Snyder.. if there are I am sure they are similar flat mesas like the Santa Anna Mountains.
It's been a while since I did any Mountain climbing. I may have to go soon but it won't be anytime this week!
Want your own dot com?
This is a great time to get it whether you just want it for an e-mail address of your own, like james@yourlastname.com, or for putting some family pictures on the web, or getting your business on the web
1 and 1 is by far your best bet!
Any questions just send me an e-mail and I will be happy to help you get started, or just click the 1 and 1 ad on the left, or any of the links in this article.
