Wednesday's Digressions

USMC CPL Burness Britt wounded in Helmand Province. Shrapnel from an IED severed an artery in his neck. He has a long road ahead of him, but he lived. AP photo

• I bumped into a woman today with whom I share multiple of just a few degrees of separation. Among others I worked for years with her father and an old friend used to date her. All I could think of while we chatted was, Holy smokes- she looks just like her dad and frog tongue! after what my bud had said about the way she kissed.



• I took my eldest to his Army training recently. We had dinner afterwards and made each other laugh. It's oddly OK when you talk about things with an adult son that you know may help save his life and end the lives of others. It was a little weird though, when we laughed after I told him about the gruesome (but nonetheless interesting/dramatic) deaths of some insurgents killed by my unit.



• When you find yourself at the intersection of 281 and 57 in Stephenville Texas (as we all will at some time or another in life's journey) stop at the Hard Eight BBQ place. When you do, have one of their 2 inch thick pork chops and when they say,"Can I dip it in butter for you? say Why, yes please- I thought you'd never ask.



• Then the next time the universe brings you there, have a chopped sandwich on a sourdough jalapeno roll. Then, place what falls out of the sandwich onto the butcher paper into a bowl of beans from the 5 gallon cauldron that you help yourself from. Scatter some cheese and onions across the top and think of me.



• My son's choir will be having a performance in a fancy place this weekend.



• A family member's military job requires a clearance of above top secret. He goes places for short periods of time and can't tell his immediate family where he's going. Based on: what I surmised as his honest denial when I asked if it was a common country in the region for our guys to go, a country he admitted in another conversation using as a jumping off point to get to the country he works, the language he's recently been studying and my limited knowledge of world events- it just hit me on the drive home last night where's he's been going. Mmmmm- very interesting. Ah, this is either going to be big news someday- or no news at all.



• I know it's shamelessly anthemic, but if you missed this as part of your youth and hear this song today and would not trade all those years to have experienced those days- well, there's no hope for you.