Wednesday's Digressions

• I try to raise my children to thoughtful and compassionate without being wimps. You would be very unlikely to hear them bellyache about physical effort regardless of environment. Hot? Drink water. Cold? Wear a good hat, gloves , socks and boots.



• Zachary is 4 and it's nothing for us to walk 2-4 miles just to do it when I'm up to it.. He will routinely when we walk out and he realises we're headed for the car say,"Uh! Can we just walk to the store instead of drive?"



• He's riding circles around me (literally) in the house on his bike.



• He's learned an astonishing variety of curse words from somewhere. I'm trying to get him away from that without entrenching it by making too big of a deal of it.



• Boat: a large fiberglass hole in the water into which you throw money.



• I'm unsure if a single friendship could be rekindled from interacting with old classmates at a reunion or whatever, but I'm oddly thinking it would be nice to see a lot of them.



• A funny thing in that regard: I still have a mimeographed copy of my first grade class roll. There is only a name or two I don't recognise and nearly every one else on there made it all the way through with the group to high school.



• Combat vehicle graveyard at my base in Iraq. My first thoughts: One of the Bradleys filmed was destroyed by a massive IED on a route my unit patrolled regularly. Six men were killed. One of the M1 tanks had a perfect, bloody hand print inside the commanders hatch. I could not help, but place my hand over that print and imagine that poor mans pain and hope and pray he lived. This was a parking area for combat vehicles which were to be canned (cannibalized) or rebuilt- the park for other destroyed vehicles had close to 100 HUMVEES, trucks, trailers etc. in it. Memories are mine- video shot by someone else.

Monday's Missives

• When anything out of the ordinary happens or I answer my phone I automatically check the time.



• I hardly ever have headaches.



• My daughter has the craziest, most gorgeous shade of red hair you've ever seen. She loves me like no other and is a total daddy's girl.



• Several days ago my neighbor sat for a long while with her forehead in her palm while parked in her car. I wasn't sure- finishing up a favorite song on the radio before going in the house? Was she sad? Bad day and have a headache? Was she hurting emotionally? I made it a point to engage her and now she stops by when she sees me, even sticking her around the corner in the morning to say hi when she sees my door open. That is a good feeling.



• Saving the world one person at a time- that's my motto.



• Pete Doherty covers Neil Young's The Needle And The Damage Done.



• My eldest is now a roadie for a local rock band and has gone on stage with the singer of the band he helps and another band during their set and rocked out singing Sweet Child Of Mine.



• Hey dude- stop living my dreams!

Caturday

• Joe Strummer And The Mescaleros The Redemption Song.




• Two things everybody should promise themselves- I mean they should make a pact with God and their significant others: If experiencing chest pain they should stop what they're doing, take an aspirin and go to the hospital and if they experience signs or symptoms of cancer again, stop what they're doing and call their doc.




• My work is contract so I never know when I'll get offered shifts- it may be at 6 in the morning for a day shift, 1 in the morning to finish a night or 3 in the afternoon for a case to start the following day. Recently two separate times helping two separate friends with something I have missed cases- that means not only that days shift, but whatever else I would have gotten out of the case. Yikes, I hate to think how much that cost.




• But I am- for even relatively short term-ish cases it would be a couple grand easy.




• I am a very good friend.




• Nicky D's burgers in Crowley are very good. My friend offered to take me there yesterday acting like he was offering something special. I thought he said,"Micky Ds". Not only that, but I distinctly heard,"great burgers and best in the world" in the same sentence that I thought he said,"Micky Ds"




• Really? Are you pulling my leg?




• America what a country: I know at least two people who pretty frequently leave the front door open while sitting on the front porch to allow a cool breeze from the A/C.

I Did Not...

• When I was downrange a pretty universally hated, fairly senior NCO left his camera in the guard shack at the entry control point. We did not take turns shoving it down our pants and taking pictures of our junk. Further, as an NCO myself I did not encourage the lower ranked soldiers and Marines to do the same.






• The same NCO considered himself quite the sniper hotshot after a short course back at Hood and being issued an M14 and scope. He absolutely berated one of our Marines when he asked to be allowed to have his picture made with it. I mean really- he intentionally tried to make a fool of the kid for no reason. I did not when that weapon got left in the guard shack call that Marine off his post and take pictures of said Marine rubbing his junk all over the weapon. I further did not provide the Marine with the NCO's email address to send pics to said jackwagon of an NCO once the Marine got back home.

Wednesday's Digressions

• Michelle Bachmann needs to realize she doesn't stand a chance and bow out gracefully before she allows herself to made a forevermore laughing stock.




• I saw a news clip where the topic of discussion was the suggestive nature in which she was eating a corn dog. Man- there is no non suggestive way to eat a corn dog if people are looking that hard to gig you on something.




• I've recently been watching more cable televising than normal. They still produce shows about UFOs and alien technology being used to build the pyramids and other structures here on earth.




• Nonsense.




• One goob said to the effect, they had sciences and technologies that we could not even imagine today.




• Ridiculous.




• One guy was termed an, independent Egyptologist. Pfht. He should have called gooberhead who spends way too much time on conspiracy theory chat rooms and sites.




• There's a show titled 50 documentaries To see Before You Die. Commercials beat me down too much to try and sit through a program like that which is kind of slow paced anyway, so I've tried to catch some of it here and there. Inevitably, I'm catching the same parts over and over.




• Most infomercials make me feel, sad, mad or ashamed to be a sentient being.




• Shh- 3000 Miles To Graceland is on.




• Now, that's what I call entertainment.

Monday's Missives

• Zac and I witnessed a wreck while we were out walking this morning. A woman in a KIA SUV smashed a curbside parked pickup. There's no telling why it really happened ( I picture her texting). She was going fast enough though the sound of her vehicle behind us caused me to turn in time to see it happen. Glass, reflectors, trim and body parts (of the cars-not people) flew forward 30 feet and as high as the landing to the second story of the apartments.


• Bet she's wanting a do over.


• I've met two people from the blogs we read and have figured out who 3 or 4 others were when I saw them.


• There's a girl who works in a local business who looks a lot like a younger Natalie Portman. I mean a lot- she says she hears that nearly every day.


• Got fussed at a little by a commenter who said I talk about war too much and mentioned to the effect we need to wrap up the ones we're in. I get that and she's probably right on both accounts, but part of the reason I have this blog is to document my thoughts on my war time experience and also our countries wars in general.


• We will never do anything like win in Afghanistan- one reason to get out.


• And Iraq? We've bought that country in more ways than one. We brought a lot of misery and also a lot of hope to the people of Iraq. We can't leave them for these reasons and the fact it is still winnable.


• My friend has a key to use the internet at my house. It's nothing to walk in and not know he's there (he usually texts me, but I miss them like any other occasionally). It sort of perplexes other people, but I think nothing of it at all.

Saturday's Situation

From a zombie walk in Mexico City. I guess this was done for the benefit of Mexican people who don't know what decomposing bodies littering the streets looks like- both of them.












• Translating womanspeak: A woman says to you," You could do so much better than me." Translation- I could do so much better than you.




• How was your day? After a sigh and a deep inhalation she said, "Well, for starters _______ walked out bawling without saying anything. I said,"What's wrong with her?" Well, she's pregnant. Then, _________ wouldn't help with anything. _______ is a mess since her boyfriend left..."




• After that, I could see her mouth moving, but I couldn't hear a word she said.




• It's going to be up to me to get my eldest to Army training the next session.




• Zachary found a cicada in the pool and brought it in the house. I assumed it was dead until I leaned against the counter it was lying on 8 hours later while I was talking to my friend and the stupid thing started trying to right itself by grasping my arm.




• No- I did not squeal like a little girl.




• NIN Every Day Is Exactly The Same




• My friend and I are very dependant on each other. Last night he text me at near midnight, Hey man are you still up? I felt awful that I was already long gone for this world and did not even see the message until this morning.