Train Ride

Friday I am going to take the Amtrak from Fort Worth, down to San Antonio. How exciting! I have never been on a train before, and am looking forward to it. My little roomette should be plenty of room for just me. Hopefully I will be able to get some good reading done. They have a lounge and dining car as well, that should be interesting. There will be about four stops, so it will take about three hours longer than driving would have.

It isn't much of an adventure of course, but it is mine. I was thinking of trying to get one of my old laptops working, and creating a blogpost about it. That would probably be very boring, but if I can breathe life into one of the old girls, it might happen.

There is something romantic about trains. The garden variety Amtrak rolling along through flat Texas won't capture the glamour and excitement of riding in an old lavishly appointed private car through the wild west or in the far east of course, but it will be a small taste.

I wish my wife and baby were coming with me, but they can't this time, so I will adventure alone. Frankenstein and Wise Blood (the first two books at the bottom of my reading list) will be with me however.

Politics Free Weekend

Well once I saw that Bush signed the abomination, that shall not be named, my brain made a decision. No more politics this weekend. I am not going to think about the election, read any political postings, talk about anything political in the least, or anything else of the sort.

I am done for now. My level of confidence in my fellow citizens to govern is very low, so why dwell on it.

Besides I am going to the lake house on beautiful Possum Kingdom Lake tomorrow with my wife, baby girl, and my best bud and his family. We are going to do some fishin', eatin', maybe a little beer drinkin', and definitely some domino playin'.

Screw it boys, have a good weekend, and moon any politicians if ya see 'em!

Naval Retirement

The wife and I took the day off Friday (09/12/08) to attend the retirement ceremony of my best friend, HM2 Kirk Blakesley. He spent the most of his career as a Corpsman, and did two tours in Iraq with his marines. His first tour was in Ramadi in OIF II, and he spent the second stretch at Camp Taqqadum, with HMLA-169(Vipers).

Having not ever served our great country, the retirement ceremony was a humbling experience for me. The entire family, in addition to the serviceperson, sacrifice a lot when the father and husband is a career sailor. There were lots of long deployments, and as I said, two combat tours mixed in those 20 years of service. The entire family was honored individually during the ceremony. His wife and all five children received certificates of recognition from the Navy. It isn't nearly enough for what they have done for this country, but it was a nice gesture to be sure. They were all very happy to be escorted to the stage to receive their awards.

It was a very moving scene. Kirk was dressed in his white uniform. Several people including a retired marine that is a good friend of Kirk's and the commanding officer of the station's medical clinic spoke after the colors were presented. After that all of Kirk's various awards were presented to him. There is a myriad of items presented to the retiree and his family. The most interesting one was an awesome shadow box that contained his individual awards from throughout his carrier, a photo from when he enlisted and one from his time in Iraq, and an American and Texas flag. Very neat deal for sure. There were also proclomations for he and his wife from Governor Rick Perry.

One of the most emotional parts of the ceremony included "Old Glory" being recited, during the passing of the flag. That is something I will never forget. The recital of "The Watch" was another highlight. The neat thing about the navy retirement ceremony is that it is carried out as if it is on a ship whether it is or not. The retiree and several of the officers are given permission to come aboard or to go ashore during the ceremony, culminating with Kirk and his family going ashore for the last time.

I am a better person for having attended such an event. It was an honor and a priveledge to be invited and to attend. Kirk is my best friend in the world(except for my wife of course), and I am so glad to know him. He is a truely an awesome guy.

There was a lot more to this deal, than just the ceremony and such. I saw Kirk sitting up on the stage in his uniform, and he had the biggest smile on his face the entire time. The only thing was you could tell that he totally had mixed emotions about the whole thing. He was proud of his service, excited to be able to spend more time with his family, scared about the transition, wondering what it was going to be like not to be a sailor anymore, and probably one hundred other things. The emotion on his face looked like a guy that was very proud, happy, and sad all at the same time.

Towards the end of the ceremony it was his turn to speak. I don't remember a lot of what he said, but I do remember this. He said, "I love my flag, and I love my uniform." He barely got it out. It took everything I had not to bawl like a baby at that point. Here is a man, like many before him and after him, that served his country for a very long time. He is proud of what he has done, and he is proud of his country, and he loved being a sailor.

Afterwards we all had a bite to eat, and left the facility. We met up with Kirk later that evening, and I was able to present him with a small token of our appreciation for his service. I gave him a Springfield XD-40, which he liked a lot. We were able to go shoot it a couple of weeks ago, and it shot very well. I may just have to get me one at some point. :) I hope to be lucky enough to spend many more afternoons with Kirk and his boys at the shooting range. It sure is cool having such a good guy and family as our friends.

From My Beautiful Wife

My wife wrote this to me in an email. I thought I would share it, and hope that I can live up to it. Thank you honey. I love you.

To My Wonderful Husband

How do I begin to tell you how lucky I am to have you in my life?
I'll start by saying what a gift you gave me the day you asked me to be your wife.

You're my best friend in the good times and my rock in times of sorrow.
You're the reason for sweet yesterdays and my promise for tomorrow.

I never thought I could feel this loved until I became your wife.
You make my year, and every year the best ones of my life.

You’re more than I could have ever dreamed, more than I could have hoped for.
Each morning I wake to see your sweet face, I love you more and more.

Good to be Back

My two week vacation is now over, and I am glad. It was a good time for the most part, but it will be good to get back in my routine.

The Independence Day fireworks show went off without a hitch, and my mortar racks functioned flawlessly.

The entire vacation was a mixed blessing however. We have taken on the responsibility of raising our three month granddaughter. It wasn't really a voluntary thing, she was pretty much dumped on us. We love her so, so much, and just want what is best for her, so we hope to be raising her for the duration now, with no insane interruptions. We are financially able to handle her thankfully, so the only sacrifice is our freedom to some extent.

The vacation turned into a mourning period of the loss of our ability to come and go as we please, and a period of time to deal with our new situation. We have gotten through the emotional turmoil for the most part now, and are enjoying our little Brooke as if she were our own. She is such a sweet, sweet baby girl.

It is a sobering experience to realize that you are all another life has in the world. This precious life is totally dependant on you for all it's needs. I think it may be a bit easier when you are expecting such a thing, but to have it suddenly thrust upon you without warning takes a bit of getting used to.

Besides who could refuse such an angel?


Hmm, maybe it is time to go look at those pink Cricket rifles now!

Merry Christmas!

The wife and I are certified Christmas geeks. We just love it so much. It is definitely our favorite holiday and time of year. The Christmas music has been playing since the 15th, and we are watching our favorite Christmas movies already. There is a new darkness that has raised it's ugly head this year however. Last weekend we purchased a fake tree! Oh, the horror! :)

It is a very nice looking fake tree. The wife has put the lights on, so decorating will commence tonight. This weekend promises to be especially treacherous for me. I am to illuminate the house. Hopefully I won't kill myself while on the ladder stringing up the C9s. These bastards suck up some juice. Three separate circuits will have to be used for what I have planned most likely. A nice quiet generator sure would be nice to have for this purpose. It isn't that I am pulling a Clark Griswald, the C9 strands just suck up the power. Only 200 lights should be used on any circuit. This leaves about 3 amps to spare on a 15 amp breaker. Of course, this assumes that nothing else is running on the circuit. The usual M.O. is to use a cord from the garage, one from the front room, and one from the back of the house. That worked last year, so it should not be a problem this time. As the strands start to crap out in the next few years, I will go with LEDs probably.

We are spending Christmas Day at home, and most likely traveling to San Antonio to see my parents for a couple of days after that. I don't want to be away from home for to long, as we really enjoy our time at home during the holidays.

Caffeine and Sugar Only Go So Far

Well, as many of you may have guessed, I have been a busy beaver this week. There has been no time to blog at all. I am codemonkey! It has been some time since my body has sat in front of a computer screen for more than 12 hours straight writing God-forsaken Java code. It hasn't been long enough unfortunately.

It all started Wednesday or so. My Overlords decided that all the changes I had left for a project that has been ongoing for over a year, just had to be done this week. Their way of expressing authority I guess. Typical manager move really. They have no clue what it takes to make this stuff, so they just guess, or don't care.

Anyway so I look at what is left and figure it is probably a weeks worth of work. I have three days. OK, this sucks, but it is doable. Unfortunately the users of this application have been sitting on their asses instead of testing it, so up until yesterday at 4:30, the project coordinator was still recieving modification requests.

My wonderful manager decides Thursday that we will accept all modification through Friday, and "You will just have to work this weekend a little." She said she would see me here this morning! LOL! I got a call from her at 6:00 PM from her soccer game she was watching. Typical.

Anyway so I have been coding at least 12 hours a day since Wednesday and it sucks. I am to old for this bullshit. Other people's lazyness should not result in me being the only schmoe working all weekend.

Oh well, I am a coder, and it comes with the territory. Just needed to whine for a couple minutes.

Lawn work!

Well we spent the weekend working on the lawn. We ended up with 20 bags of leaves after bagging them up all day Sunday! A lot of that included grass sucked up by the mower, while The Boy, was mowing up the leaves. This was only the front yard!

We also cleaned out a bed that had a couple of nasty Buford Holly bushes. They were not doing well, and had apparently been just surviving for years. The Better Half chopped down the bushes and was able to fairly easily remove the root balls. She hates Bufords apparently. We ended up planting a bunch of hostas, and caladiums in the space, and mulched it with some new black mulch. It actually looked really cool. The only problem is going to be keeping the stupid leaves out of it!

It was a nice bit of work, got the yard mowed and ready to start growing for the season, and got a lot of cleanup done. Hopefully next weekend will be the back yard. It should be a bit easier, than the front.

We still have a few leaves falling so, we will probably have to do the cleanup routine again, but it won't be nearly the hassle it was this time.