I'm glad all is well, the reunion went well, we managed to adapt, overcome all unexpected obstacles. We even learned some neat tricks when wall papering walls! I took some photos and will be sending them out a few at a time via e-mails. Hopefully Craig can put some on the blog. I will attach a few here, thanks to all, and it was real pleasure seeing everyone. My wife mentioned "what a very nice bunch of guys!" So, I told her, "guys" are in the Army, ooohrah!!
Joe Brooks
P.S. Sorry we missed you at the end Jim and Mary, hope your trip home was good. Oh, and by the way, if you ever walk the length of Bourbon Street, I suggest a very abrupt 180 turn when you arrive at St. Ann Street, just when you think you've seen it all, I saw the largest crowd of "young guys", spilling out of the very dark corner tavern, watching inside as 4 male dancers, on the bar top, in their skivvies....say no more....got out of there!!!
Joe and Barb Brooks
______
John Wilkes IV wrote:
Marines,
I have just survived a terrible week. First my computer was attacked by hackers suspected to be in Russia. All of a sudden all my files on the hard drive and the thumb drive that was plugged in at the time were encrypted and rendered completely unreadable. I received a ransom demand for the encryption key for $500 right away or $1000 if I dragged my feet. I believe the cyber world is referring to this malware as Cryptowall. Of course, I would not consider paying any sum no matter how much I needed my files back. Actually I had made back up files for almost everything that was important, and the worst part was having to go off line. It happened at a very bad time for me, as I was deeply involved in the final coordination of the Det 4 reunion. Since there are no known computer wizards in my small town, I had to send my computer cross country to a very capable friend of mine. He was able to regenerate all my files and clean up my computer. I just received it back from him and everything seems to be fine.
If that wasn’t enough, my 16 year old constant companion Catahoula had a medical emergency. Last year I had a huge tumor removed from his left shoulder, but It came right back. It had not bothered him and because of his age, I avoided putting him through that operation again. Extended general anesthesia is very dangerous for old dogs. The tumor was getting so big, however, I was afraid it would rupture and begrudgingly scheduled his surgery for the Monday after our reunion. In the middle of the night of the same day as my computer disaster, Kayto woke screaming in pain and unable to put weight on his left front leg. Something internal had ruptured. The next day, the vet surgeon removed a 4 ½ pound tumor using over 2 feet of incision that starts on his right shoulder, goes over his back, and down his left shoulder where it splits into each side of his elbow. I have been his 24 hour nurse ever since. It has been five days now since the operation, and the incision cannot be bandaged and is still oozing fluid and blood, and my boy and I have been living in the kitchen to protect the carpets and rugs. Anyway, that is the reason I didn’t make the reunion and nobody has heard from me for a week.
Semper fi,
WILKES
