Memorial Day 2007

It is that time of year again. It is time to bow our heads and tip back a cold one for our fallen brothers. Last year I posted about the Memorial Day of my youth and American Flag etiquette. This year, Memorial Day has snuck up on me. I will take my son on Rolling Thunder tomorrow morning and will no doubt get too much sun. I'll be sure to wear sunglasses as blatant displays of patriotism cause me to cry red, white, and blue. On another Memorial Day, some old buddies and I spent a day looking up other old buddies. My wife snapped a picture of the three of us looking for "Joe."

God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.

Looking for Joe

Perspective

You probably saw this at the Dawn Patrol, but it is worth reposting here.

Wicked Awesome Ink

Buckethead over at Minor Perfidy wrote up an awesome article about this tattoo.

I'll take that soul, please.

A snippet:

Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host —
by the Divine Power of God —
cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits
who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls.

Amen.

And he found some background on the origins of the prayer.

“I do not remember the exact year. One morning the great Pope Leo XIII had celebrated a Mass and, as usual, was attending a Mass of thanksgiving. Suddenly, we saw him raise his head and stare at something above the celebrant’s head. He was staring motionlessly, without batting an eye. His expression was one of horror and awe; the color and look on his face changing rapidly. Something unusual and grave was happening in him.

"Finally, as though coming to his senses, he lightly but firmly tapped his hand and rose to his feet. He headed for his private office. His retinue followed anxiously and solicitously, whispering: 'Holy Father, are you not feeling well? Do you need anything?' He answered: 'Nothing, nothing.' About half an hour later, he called for the Secretary of the Congregation of Rites and, handing him a sheet of paper, requested that it be printed and sent to all the ordinaries around the world. What was that paper? It was the prayer that we recite with the people at the end of every Mass. It is the plea to Mary and the passionate request to the Prince of the heavenly host, [St. Michael: Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle] beseeching God to send Satan back to hell."

Sweeeeet.

Time

Wow, I can't believe how quickly the week was spent. Of course, they say that time moves more quickly as you get older. I always thought that was a myth, but my own experience tells me differently. What is it about age that causes the velocity of time to increase? I have a theory.

Watching my (nearly) one year-old, I have noticed that she is aware of everything. Nothing escapes her notice, even if for only a moment. For example, we were driving the other day and she probably noticed: the lush green foliage (gotta love spring), all the flowering bushes and plants, the sparkle of the other clean cars, the smell of the leather underneath her seat, the baby CD playing in the background (seriously, kill me), etcetera. The list could go on forever.

Compare that to what I noticed. How closely the guy behind me was following, whether or not I was going to make the light, thinking about what I wanted to accomplish that day, etcetera.

The fundamental difference between my daughter and I is that I have already seen and experienced everything that she observed on our drive. I may have noticed foliage, flowers, and a snazzy car, but I moved on because it is more of the same. I believe that time moves more quickly as we age because we process our current experience through the filter of past experience. We get flashes of new, but we generally don't appreciate it.

A couple years ago, Sexy Squirrel and I drove cross country. While it didn't last long enough, the new sights, sounds, and people definitely made a difference in how quickly time seemed to be ticking. Also, we didn't worry much about when we would get somewhere, we just opened the moon roof and enjoyed! Also, at the end of it all, we eventually took nearly three weeks off. Now THAT is a real vacation!

I'm sure that there are more elements to it, but that is one Squirrel's view.

2007 Milblog Conference

It started with a meeting at the Carpool in Arlington, Virginia... just down the street from the Westin Hotel, where the Conference took place.

Happy hour was awesome. I met a ton of people and should have taken notes. The funny thing was that Blackfive was the only person that I would recognize from his face time on CNN. So I hooked up with Teresa as we searched for fellow milbloggers, and then we hung out till Matt showed up. I met people from The Weekly Standard, ThreatsWatch (hey Mike), Wired Magazine (Noah... cool cat), Buckethead, lots of Soldiers Angels (donate now), Andi from Andi's World, Jim Thompson (Sgt. Hook), John Noonan (OPFOR), Sean and "pink-haired-wife" from Doc in the Box, ArmyWifeToddlerMom (who is a force of nature, BTW), and of course Blackfive. I have to leave my last shout-out to Squirrel Lurker, Rich Lowe. Rich was the only person who I didn't know and had read my crapblog. He was a great guy and I only wish that I had more time to spend with him. He has actually motivated me to tell more stories and throw some Squirrel Spin on things. Thanks Rich... you can still lurk, but I hope that you don't (please send me an email). There are tons of others, but the beer has ruined that part of my memory.

We drank too much and I had to disappear a bit for some work stuff, but I rejoined the group at the Westin for the "formal" party. Of course, I had come from the range and looked like the proto-typical doorkicker in utilities pants and khaki ballcap. Ah well, at least I got to attend. I had some more drinks (I still owe Noah a cold one for saving a cashless Squirrel) and must have looked pretty scary. I talked to Mary Katherine Ham for a moment and she couldn't seem to get away fast enough. Nice woman, but clearly squirrly about the Squirrel. LOL! Too much fun.

Anyway, I managed to sneak out at some point, only to have Buckethead yell at me from a balcony. Thanks. Thanks for pointing out my weak exit. Ah well, at least he didn't think I was a zombie as I shambled back to Carpool (where my damned Visa sits to this minute).

Great success. I got to have some milblogger time and still had the weekend with the family (which was awesome)! Now I get to go back and see what happened by reading everyone else's blogs. Nice.

LOL!

GOP Presidential Debate No. 1

Well, I missed the debate (on purpose). As I've said here before, I'll not comment on the candidates until we are much further along in the process. My perusal of conservative sites that I trust don't really show a winner, but there was consensus about a definite loser... Rudy Giuliani. That's all I know.

Okay, I said I'll not comment, but if I ran the world, Fred Thompson would be my President.


Oh FWIW, I'd also have Pamela Anderson leading the Presidential Council on Boobies.

Ace Slays Me

I compel you to go and read this post by Ace. Now, dammit!

Okay, now check out the comments. My favorite from "iowahawk."

This is the story of Joe McGlock
The boy who was born with a corkscrew c***
He spent all his life on a desparate hunt
To find a girl with a corkscrew c***
He found her
He f***ed her
And then he fell dead
Cuz her corkscrew c*** had a lefthand thread


Burma Shave

Seriously, people at work think I have a laughing problem. Well, they can go duck themselves! HA!