A Great Soldier

My favorite soldier

Usually I hate sitting next to someone on a plane who insists on talking the whole time. This is usually my prime napping or reading time. Although I do get a lot of usage out of my Nintendo DS at 35,000 feet also.

But yesterday I sat next to a 21 year old girl with an ‘Army Strong’ T-Shirt on. Most of the plane in fact was military. Well she was telling me about life in the Military.

Apparently she joined the army three months ago. As soon as she got to Basic Training she was horrified. She proceeded to tell me that there were bugs in the barracks. And the mattresses weren’t nice, in fact they were quite used.

Not to mention that they had to wear those drab green camouflage outfits ALL THE TIME. And she even took off her shoe to show me the callous she had on her big toe from the uncomfortable boots they gave her.

And don’t even get her going on how early they expected them to wake up every day.

So after three months of Basic Training the Army decided that they needed to part ways, apparently she wasn’t Army material.

Unfortunately it was a quick 40 minute flight from Columbia SC to Atlanta GA. I was bummed when this great insight into her military career was over.

Official Quaker NOT!!!

Well after all of the excitement waiting to become a Quaker, I met with the ‘Clearness Committee’ after Church on Sunday for a couple of hours. We talked about everything from pacifism to tolerance (I assume they weren’t going out on a limb and didn’t mean tolerance of people who don’t look like us cause that’s just crazy talk) (that was humor)….anyway we sat around a table in a little library-like room and ate fresh fruit and talked about the responsibilities of being a Quaker such working to make changes whether they’re small changes to improve a situation or working towards big changes and so on. It was a fine talk-nothing really heavy. Kind of like a bunch of old 1960’s era peaceniks who grew up but still covet the tie dye t-shirts and love beads. No weed though.

Although I did 'fess up to them that if I ever saw someone hurting one of my kids or something I would not hesitate to pick up a club and beat their brains out. So......pacifism unless someone is messing with one of my peeps.

Anyway the bummer was that I missed a step. Now they have to report back to the Membership Committee who approves me as a member. Wow, it was easier buying a house. So the third Sunday in September I’ll be an official Quaker. They already assured me I passed. So I guess I won’t have to start wearing my burkha until then.

Sad Lincoln

Well this past week I was in Lincoln, Nebraska. The place was really nice. The people were outgoing and very friendly and yes-they called ‘pop’ ‘pop’ which I always consider a bonus.

The downtown area was very clean and safe and I went walking every night after work. And the minute I got out of the airport when I arrived I couldn’t believe how fresh and clean their air was.

But the entire week Lincoln made me sad. When I go around the cities that I visit I like to dig into the history of the place. And every plaque that I read on the historic looking buildings said things like ‘This building was erected in 1843 when some company came into town’ etc. The buildings were cool but all it reminded me of was that the history of that whole area was that Europeans bowled through the area, killed or displaced the Native Americans and took over.

I know that it’s not the folks alive today who did that so there were no bad feelings there, but every time I looked over that beautiful area it made me really sad to think about the history that this area was based on.

Not too hip

Well I just got back from the doctor after another week of hip issues. In order to save the hip and not have to have surgery I have to start taking Fish Oil, Vitamin D, get new shoes (I liked this part of it) and continue walking and/or swimming every day. She said that I really need to rebuild the muscles around the hip to avoid surgery. Oh yeah, and that weight loss thing. Obviously she didn't realize that I'm a former captain of a 'Biggest Loser' team.

The cool part of the doctor appointment was that I ran into Deb Hendricks on the way out. We chatted about hips for awhile. When did I get that old?

Well, time for my fresh fruit and afternoon walk......

America Embarrasses Herself Again

Well, America has gone and embarrassed herself in front of the whole world again. Bill Clinton was sent to N. Korea to help free some imprisoned journalists. Don't you think he would have known about the time zone differences? If you look at the picture on the left it's clear that he caught the N. Korean leader still in his jammies. sigh....

Bear 09

Bear 09-What a blast! I was a crazed party animal staying up until after ten both nights. Janny and I drove up Thursday with Jenna and Julia.

We got to meet Holly which was cool-she’s great. Eric and Annie, Fatty and Jean and Marilyn and Charlie came up too as well as Tree and Emily, Jason and Brenda, Pat Chuck and the kids and of course, it wouldn’t be the Bear without Linda and Jim, Adam, Jake, Wayne and Eland and Jason and Nicky and Richie. If not for Jacob and/or Richie I couldn’t go into town or find the dunes.

I got a lot of pictures-at the beach Nathaniel figured out that he could drink up the lake with the snorkel.

The kids loved the pump and Julia and Nathaniel kept filling up cups and watering the stones with it. So probably next year the stones will be much bigger.

At one point I was taking pictures and Annie wanted her picture taken and freaked out until I finally took one…..

Then Janny and I wussed out early and left Saturday afternoon. We had an awesome time-at the Bear who wouldn’t? But we missed the real action-The Frisbee Game-the person who tossed the game winning point? None other than up and coming Frisbee Star Jenna Leppala!!! I’m still excited about that and I wasn’t even there!

Can’t wait ‘til next year.