Wednesday's Digressions

From Enchanted Rock

It always catches my eye when I see a personal message or a person's address in a used book.

The most widely recognized military symbol in the world. 

My first memorable military job was driving a vehicle that any WWII era soldier would have recognized immediately. My career ended with one that had computer mapping and satellite tracking capabilities and that was twice the cost of nice houses I've lived in and provided as much protection as some WWII tanks. As I recall, the Jeep cost 13000 dollars. The Jeep motor probably generated 30-40 hp, the HMMWV about 200.

Bird carvings by Japanese internees during WWII.

This Japanese mortar was incorrectly called a knee mortar by our troops. The would capture one and a bunch of ammo and say, Hey, lets use this cool knee mortar to blast some Japs!  They would then place this bad boy on their thigh, fire it and promptly break their femur.

• Everlast White Trash Beautiful
• Funny Onion headline: DEA recruits Lil Wayne to use up all the drugs in Mexico.
• I'm tired of my aquarium and think I'll give it to my friend-girl.
• My goofy buddy recently taught Zachary to make realistic fart noises with his mouth. I'll admit though- I laughed so hard my face hurt.
• Our get tough on crime- lock 'em up and throw away the key attitude has already cost us terribly, but if this country fails it will need to be input into the equation for why.We have 2+ million people locked up. Probably the most egregious aspect of this is the numbers whose offenses are related to drugs or alcohol. This is about as sensible as locking up a cancer patient for their disease.
• In other headlines NASCAR racers at Talladega stop their cars mid race and walk off the premises stating,"This is just ridiculous."
• A big, scary homeless patient went berserk in the clinic recently. Predictably a supervisor trying to defuse the situation said, Here sir, lets step into Kevin's office and see if we can figure this out... Man, he would have been scary and crazy looking without being in an absolute rage. I don't get this way often but I felt small and powerless in his presence. I was aware that if he really did snap I would die or be hurt so bad I would wish I were- I was defenseless. That is not an awesome feeling.
• Jeff Corwin and Brady Barr's wildlife shows are the best. I hope they never stop doing what they do.
• As many people do after a visit to the hill country I fantasized what it would be like to live there. I looked up a property I remembered seeing a roadside sign for. It was 500 acres and the Pedernales River ran through it. The list price was 45 million dollars. Huh? I nearly fell over. A lottery winner still couldn't dream of having a place there these days, or the very least- they better dream small.