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This year, America celebrates its 250th anniversary.

On July 4, 2026, our nation commemorated the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

On the night of December 25–26, 1776, George Washington crossed the Delaware River to launch a surprise attack on Hessian forces in Trenton, New Jersey.

America won the American Revolutionary War by outlasting British forces through a defensive strategy of survival, leveraging local terrain, and securing decisive military and financial support from foreign allies like France.

Good Sources:

-- The American Revolution

-- George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River

-- America 250

-- America 250 - Mississippi

-- The Gilder Lehrman Institute

About Mike

The Daily Grind

I don't plan to share every detail of my daily work, but I will post interesting updates.

School is back in session. My granddaughter starts her final year of high school today. Yep, she is a senior now. Then it's off to college.

My son is renovating my late mother's house, and I'm helping. It's a slow go for him cause he has a full-time job and that job doesn't pay diddly. I should post some pictures, like the before, during, and after ones. But I'm sure I ain't no photographer.

- The CMS Blues -

(08-04-2026) I woke up at my usual 3 am time and got started on my day. It's 6:30 now, and I can hear people shuffling around in the kitchen.

I have had this weird problem with the CMS I'm building where I couldn't get it to update any of the content. But, as things go, I fixed it. And what's really strange, I don't know how I did it. But I will find out by process of elimination. And when I do, I'll let all of you know. So stay tuned.

UPDATE (08-08-2026): So, here's the way I fixed my broken CMS. It turned out I was using two different databases. I was using MySQL offline, and the online server was using Maria. These both handle all of the information that is produced on the CMS. There was a conflict between the two databases in the way they handle data. The fix: I changed my local database to Maria, and that solved the mystery.

(08-15-2026) Big day yesterday, my 72nd birthday. And because I don't celebrate my birthdays, it was just like any other day. My oldest daughter and I ate some food I bought in the evening. And all the kids wrote on Facebook, "Happy Birthday Dad". I mean, what else do you need?

Welcome! To my humble abode.

Hi, I'm Mike, the owner of this website and this "About Me" page. I designed and built HomePage CMS a few years back and have been working with it ever since. I lapsed last year and let it go for a while. But now I'm back and want to make something out of it.

I enjoy writing, not saying I'm any good at it, but I try. I'm sure that you have seen some of the stories I wrote on the lead-in page. Well, anyway, on this page I plan to write about the events of my daily life and the things going on around me.

I have many interests, and here are a few:

Woodworking - I have a small shop that has more than enough tools to complete any project I want to work on. There is just something about small. You learn how to maneuver around if that's all you know.

Gardening - Right now it's just mowing the grass. Oh, and edging too.

Web design - This is my main interest. I've been a designer since 1996. I am self-taught and now code in 3 or 4 languages. HTML5, CSS, PHP 8, PHP Data Objects (PDO) and some JavaScript.

CMS designing - If you visit Coders Junction, you will see the first Content Management System that I designed and named Spectra. I am building a CMS, HomePage, off the back of Spectra. It's smaller but still has a lot of features.

If anyone has ideas about how I can improve this page, click the Contact button up there and let me hear them.

Things That Go Stupid In The Night

I know you've all seen those places where people can go and skate. They call them "Skate Parks". You know those places where kids go to break and tear themselves up. I saw one that is located in Oxford. Really not much to look at, but some people really enjoy going there.

Now the stupid thing is, I saw someone with a skateboard, no helmet or padding of any sort. And if someone were to get hurt (heaven forbid), there ain't anyone around to call for help.

The moral to this is get properly equipped or stay home.

The Good And The Better

Water Valley had its annual Watermelon Festival last Saturday. I never go cause it's usually too hot. This year it poured rain the Friday before. It's a really large event with lots of vendors. It's on Saturday day and night, and if you drive past it on Sunday morning early, you would never guess that anything happened there. Everyone is gone, and it's clean.

Those Backyard Things

I have started abusing myself by working out in the yard. The backyard, specifically. In my shed, I tore up an old wooden walking thing and raked up all of the debris. I am going to park my riding mower in there.

Next, I tore up some more of the same wooden walkways outside of the shed. And I have one more span to do. If you have never experienced a Mississippi summer working outside, then you owe it to yourself to do so. The routine is: go outside, work, sweat, wipe the sweat away continuously, give up, and go inside.