As you all may know, Smokey broke his leg 7 weeks ago today, Feb. 5, 2010. It was not healing the way it should have, but we and the Vet kept treating him as best we could. Last night, just at bed time, he began laborious breathing. He couldn't relax or lay down and struggled to get enough oxygen.

We stayed up with him all night long, and called the vet at 8 AM. They got us in right away. Dr. Randy checked his heart and said it was out of rhythm and his breathing was very bad. While on the x-ray table he passed away with us standing next to him. It was a shock and unexpected. The x-ray didn't give us a definitive answer as to why, but the vet believes he may have had lung cancer as the x-ray showed that possibility. His heart was not exceptionally enlarged, so it most likely was not a cardiomyopathy.

Of course Diane and I are deeply saddened as he was with us for 8 years and was our best friend. Thank you for all your concern.

February 7, 2010

Di and I are heading South tomorrow morning, we just need to get away for a few days. Maybe the warmer weather will give us a little boost in our morale.

 

Welcome to my web site. You can click the above link for a welcome video, or you can browse the various pages.

One of my main goals is to provide an internet vehicle to display my family tree that I created on Reunion 9 software. Hopefully, others who have an interest in my line of the Graves' family will be able to share in what I have discovered through nearly 30 years of research. To view my FamilyTree go to this link:

Roger Graves Family Tree

Sunset on Stuart Lake

Favorite Quotation:

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

What I Do

I enjoy golfing at Marshall Country Club. I'm not ready to go on "Tour" yet, but I really enjoy the game. I  golf three times a week.  I have a group of retired men I golf with who I refer to as "The Old Guys". Click on this link for a short golf video:

Golf at Marshall Country Club

I used to ride Harley Davidson motorcycles, but gave up riding this past Spring. I thought it was time. I bought the BMW Z3 to kind of replace the Harley. It tries hard, but its not a Harley.Click these links for short Motorcycle Ride videos:

'05 Laconia NH Motorcycle Trip'

'06 Deals Gap/Tail of the Dragon Motorcycle Trip

I spend a lot of time with family, having six grand kids in the Marshall area. Sons Roger and Randy are both engineers at Eaton Corporation and have settled in the Marshall area. I've been married to my wife Diane for 47 years. We live on Stuart Lake with our Dobie, Smokey. He's our fifth Dobe whom we love and enjoy a great deal.

What I Used to Do

Professionally That Is

I'm retired from the City of Marshall where I served as the Director of Public Safety, i.e., Police and Fire Chief for 19 years. Prior to that I had the same job at Leoni Township, Jackson County. I had a total of 33 years in law enforcement.

I also retired as a part-time District Court Magistrate in Calhoun County on December 28, 2009. I spent 7 1/2 years with the Court, so its time to hang it up and spend more time at the lake or on the golf course. 

Computers

I've been messing with Computers for many years. For 25 years Diane was a graphic artist working for the Michigan Quarter Horse Association as their magazine editor.  That's what led us into computers, specifically Macintosh. Currently we both have iMac 3.06mhz Duo Macs with 24 inch monitors. I have an additional 24" monitor that gives me a lot of desk top space for playing with pictures and movies. Diane enjoys digital photography as well.

You can check out her web site at www.stuartlakemichigan.com

  I also have an iPhone 3GS which I have a "ball" with. It is so much fun. The applications that are available to the iPhone are amazing. Built in GPS, voice recognition, PhotoSpeak, bar code scanner, Google Earth, etc. etc. etc. Also, this is really exciting, it is a telephone. The only drawback you have to use A.T.&T., which stinks. Terrible coverage, so you have to take the bad with the good.