Home

1530 miles later; 1800 for Soldier Girl as she left Goodfellow AFB before I took off from Newark and met me at DFW with her battle buddy Eastman. He took a flight to Cleveland to see family and will be stopping by our house later later in the week on his was to his new assignment in GA. Seems like there wasn't enough room on the plane for him and his guitar so it accompanied us on our trip home. We'll stuff him with pasta and put him up for the night to help him on his to GA. Maybe he'll play for us. Soldier Girl says he plays rather well. Eastman is a nice kid, they were in the same training battalion in basic (Ft. Leonard Wood) and have the same MOS - been through the exact same training now for two years.

It is amazing how much of America looks the same from a two lane. TX was flat as a pancake and hot as a pistol. We left DFW at about 1:00 PM Central time and were in Arkansas about 5-5:30. Lots of road construction along the way on I 30; I believe it is probably stimulus funded.


Lots and lots of Ford pickups and SUV's on those roads. Not very many Chevy and Dodge trucks. My daughter's four-year old Nissan was dwarfed by all the 150's and 250's that passed us. I really missed my Explorer as her little car was stuffed with all her gear and Eastman's gitfiddle. I am 250 lbs plus and was pretty well surrounded in the passenger seat. She wanted to do all the driving so there I sat with my ass about four inches off the ground - at least it felt that way.

Things got a lot greener as we passed Texarkana. Lots of state police doing busy work. It was nice to see trees again. Everything was pretty lush. And my ass was still four inches off the ground.

We pulled into a nice LaQuinta hotel in Memphis around 10:45 PM. And swam to the front door. It was in the low nineties and 250% humidity. Up at oh dark hundred and back on the road by 6:15 AM.

Tennessee is s beautiful state filled with flowers, trees and state police. We were in Kentucky a bit later and if it weren't for the big sign, you wouldn't know the difference. Even the bug spatters didn't change - though we did drive through a large mating bug binge fur ball or something that pretty much painted the car and made the windshield wipers weep.

We didn't see much of Louisville at all but stopped at a place for gas and the most disgusting Hostess chocolate mini-donuts I have ever sampled. I will eat almost anything that is dipped in chocolate but these truly fell below my miserable standards. It was more like a package of chocolate covered penance. Next stop for gas in Kentucky we found a Dunking Donuts place (thank you Lord!) and bought a Nashville coffee cup for my wife. One half of the rack was for TN souvenirs and the other half KY. They also were selling NY Giants mugs. Go figure.

Heading towards Cincinnati. CinnTown is a very good looking City; unfortunately we encountered the worst traffic of our trip - probably added an additional half hour but for a 1500 mile jaunt, that isn't too bad...

What can I say about Ohio? Once we left CinnTown we hit the corn belt. And idiots in fast little cars. And no troopers. It seemed to take forever to drive through Ohio, skirting Columbus and then Cleveland. Made a wrong lane change getting to I-71 outside Columbus and had to backtrack some. By now we were eleven hours outside of Memphis and starting to get a little edgy. Seven more hours to go. The joy was gone.

We stopped again just east of Cleveland and grabbed some subs and gasoline. Tried a cold bottled Starbucks mocha Frappucino there - good stuff, very tasty (chocolate). Kept me awake without the concomitant need to pee right away. My daughter had one also. We slammed down Philly Cheesesteak subs and back on the road.

Now we are on I-90; this takes us right to Syracuse. Just point the car and stay awake for six more hours. Lots and lots and lots of road construction. I wish I had invested some money in orange traffic barrels. Or Frappucino. Those stinking Pennsylvania orange barrels were like a blurred nightmare. Miles of them. Hating us. Mocking us. I think I was getting a little overcaffeinated.

We started the day in high spirits. By time we hit the NY border it was like "ARRRRGH Please God Make It Stop!"

My daughter likes Celtic rock bands or whatever they call themselves. We had been listening to quite a mixed bag of music all the way home until now. We went through Texas playing the Beach Boys and the Turtles. Arkansas was a mixed bag of oldies and bluegrass. Tennessee we were playing Johnny Cash. I bought a Stones oldies CD in OH at a truck stop.

Soldier Girl had an iPod and I had my Blackberry jacked into her car radio. In eastern PA she really needed to keep awake and the best way to do this was for her to play this God awful music. It was like a bunch of liquored up IRA terrorists had tripped over some drums, guitars and an accordion. What the hell... I think someone had a fiddle too.

I finally used my noise cancelling headphones and put on a Strauss opera. Just in time for the NY toll booths. By this time we had driven slightly over 1200 miles from Dallas without paying anybody anything other than for gas, food and lodging. And a coffee cup. No tolls.

Welcome to NY, pay me bitch, pay me now.

It was pitch dark and raining intermittently. We were both hallucinating and had to pee. Three more hours.

I don't remember much of the rest of the trip. Soldier Girl let me play "Ist Ein Traum, Kann Nicht Wirklich Sein" from Der Rosenkavalier and then tried to kill me. Some of you may think it was justifiable.

We got home at 12:45 AM. Mummsie and Boof were waiting up and there was a very joyous reunion in the doorway. It took them twenty minutes just to get out of the garage and into the kitchen.

One thousand, five hundred-thirty miles. Lord, thank you for the travel mercies. It was a great trip, a memory I will cherish always.

Long Day

I'm in Memphis tonight. My daughter is getting transferred to Ft. Bragg and is taking some furlough. I thought I'd keep her compay for the trip home. She picked me up at DFW at 1300 and we drove just beyond Memphis before finding a place to crash. God willing we will be back in Syracuse late Sat or early Sun morning. Been on the go since 0430 this morning and gotta get some rest. *yawn* My soldier girl is all through with training (2 years of it) and now, as she says, "I finally have a job." She's in the 82nd Airborne.

He's Home

My grandson went home this morning. His blood oxygen levels have been stable since late last week and the NICU doctors let him go this morning. Praise God and thank all of you for your prayers!

Update On The Young 'Un

Well, apparently the pneumothorax has cleared up but there is something new.

He has neonatal pulmonary hypertension that was revealed by a sonogram. Now this is a normal condition while he was in the womb; the gas exchange occurs in the placenta, not in the lungs. But once he starts breathing on his own, not good.

The doctors state it is not a real serious condition (it could be worse - requiring surgery) but we are still waiting to see when he can come home.

He has the most amazing head of hair I've ever seen on a new born.

Not Yet

We thought he was coming home today. Nope. The pneumothorax still has not healed completely and he is back on 100% oxygen.

Briefly:

• 2% of new borns will have it.
• Boys are more likely to have this than girls (by a ratio of 2:1)

He's been in NICU for a week now. For the past few days our daughter has been staying at the hospital nursing him. The NICU has a crisis room that they let her sleep in. She'll be coming home today for a spell ... she sounds exhausted.

Back To Square One

My grandson is still in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The MD's thought that his lung had sealed but it didn't; or there is another new pneumothorax. So he is back under the oxygen tent and his respiration rate is elevated. The NICU gets a case of this every week so the staff is not particularly concerned about this. But we are.

In addition, he has a moderate case of hyperbilirubinemia. This is also fairly common amoung new borns.

But according to the nurses he seems exceptionally physically strong for a newborn. When I saw him he has very broad shoulders and a deep chest - looked more like a two month old. My wife accompanied our daughter to the NICU this evening while I stayed home with Dad and the other grandkids and fixed their computer - it had a few nasty bugs. My daughter is getting worried and wants her baby home.

Plus the OB-GYN said something really stupid to her which set both my wife and the attending nurse practioner's teeth on edge. I think I would have slapped her. She insinuated that my daughter is at fault for this since she didn't have a C-Section. Of course the doctors get more money for that. I'm pissed.

One More

Just got home from the hospital..
My newest grandson was born at 1515 hr this afternoon.
Big boy - 9 lb 9 oz. - his momma is kinda sore.
The grand kids are staying with us tonight; my SIL will pick them up after church tomorrow.
May God be praised. Everyone is OK. The little guy is in neonatal ICU due to a pneumothorax but he should be home in two or three days.

UPDATE:
Thanks all. Just found out that the little guy will be in the hospital maybe a day or so longer then anticipated. They may have to reinflate the lung if it does not seal itself. They use a narrow guage needle to let the air escape from between his lung and the chest cavity. Or something to that effect. My daughter should be home tomorrow.

As it was explained to me, he tried to take a real big breath after birth and something popped - his lung deflated. So he is still using only one lung but everything else is fine. Your prayers are deeply appreciated.

Time For A Break

The older I get, the less tolerance I have for fools and jackasses.

I have had it with the idiots running this great country of ours. What started out as an unparalleled experiment in human freedom 200 some odd years ago is turning into lazy-assed pinata built by pandering thieves who would trade our freedoms for their political security. Our leaders have for the most part abandoned us and pursue economic and social folly. A pox on them!

I get a dose of this everyday at work, from the newspapers and from the web. Everywhere I look I see the results of selfishness, ignorance, stupidity, lack of respect/lack of regard for God and our fellow man.

I can only take so much outrage before I gotta back off.

So I am taking leave for a while until I can regain some semblance of equanimity, some perspective of why God is allowing this to happen. I can't just turn into another perpetually pissed off curmudgeon who contributes nothing but spleen to the conversation.

I know where I will eventually end up. In Psalm 73 where I always find balance.

Home Again

We took a quick trip to southern Maryland last Thursday to visit my sister and her husband. Two of her kids had moved back near them lately (both lived in Georgia) and just bought new homes within the past three months so we were dying to see them all again. One nephew is still in Florida but hopefully we'll see them soon also.

The trip down was long and tedious as there was extensive road construction in central Pennsylvania on Rt 81 and a sudden downpour at about 10:30 pm just before we hit the PA/MD border on Rt 83. Other than than the trip down was uneventful.

My big sis (she is 8 days less than a year older than me) and her family are doing fine. My nephew has a great job with a major aircraft manufacturer and was transferred to MD to take charge of a new Navy project. My BIL also is busy for a contractor who is also working on a new Navy project.

My niece bought a 1,200 sq ft condo and it is beautiful. Two bedrooms and only a fifteen minute drive from the school where she is a teacher. She also has a very nicely developed talent for home decorating and has done an incredible job with very little money.

My nephew bought a home that is almost palatial. I have never been inside a house like this. Their master bedroom suite bathroom is bigger than my bedroom. Two stories, 4,200 sq ft. Kowabunga. This Friday their kids just got their instruments (viola and alto sax) for elementary school band and are all excited about their first music lessons this week.

Saturday we had a delicious seafood luncheon at Stoney's Restaurant on Solomon Island. Solomon is a little place on the Patuxent River just across from the Patuxent NAS. This area is famous for its local crab industry and just a small sandwich is incredibily filling. The meat is very sweet.

My sister was treated for breast cancer this year and is doing very well. She has no trace of cancer cells and the disease is not expected to return. Because of her digestive problems and her cancer, she has been involved in nutrition for quite some time. She has finally convinced me to start making our own bread. She grinds her own wheat and bakes fresh bread several times a week, among other things.

She also uses something called Juice Plus which our family has decided to try. After four days I already feel like I have a lot more energy. This has been a problem for me the past few years and my physical activity levels have suffered as a result. I come home from work and feel like I want to go straight to bed. I am anxious to see how this works out and will talk about it more in the future.

All told it was a great visit. For the ride home I decided not to revisit the construction sites on Rtes 81 and 83 and took 95 N to 476, PA Tpke. No delays at all and we were home in record time, only a little more than 6.5 hrs driving as opposed to over 8 hrs on the way down.

Glad To Be Home

Due to an American Airlines jet malfunction in Dallas, we returned a day later than scheduled. We left San Jose on time but could not make the Dallas-Chicago connection. AA put us up overnight in Chicago and we landed in Syracuse about 11 am this morning. Something about the jet's windshield heater that would not work and hail storms over Illinois.

We were exhausted. There is something about travel that knocks you out; must be the stress and all the sitting around. We got to the Hyatt at 2200 local time, had a quick bite and collapsed. We were up since 0400.

But we had a good time visiting our daughter in Monterey.

Monterey/Central California is stunning; cold as all get out along the coast, but incredibly beautiful. Most of the time the temperature stayed in the mid-sixties. Funny, as long as you were out of the wind you could get sunburned and stay comfortable. When we left the Navy Lodge to drive to San Jose at 0520 hr it was 49 degrees; when we landed at Dallas it was 99.

I didn't take any photos when we went to our daughter's barracks at the Presidio as she said the guards get antsy about that.

Got some pix from Big Sur, Cannery Row (Monterey) and San Francisco. We traveled about sixty miles down the coast south from Carmel to see the following.

BIG SUR

The pictures above and below are from the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. The estate of Lathrop and Helen Hooper Brown (the land was purchased as the Saddle Rock Ranch in 1924 and the house was built in 1940) was torn down in 1966 and the land donated to the State of California. The park is named after a close friend of Mrs. Brown, Julia Pfeiffer, the daughter of a Big Sur pioneer family.. The scenery is just incredible. Pictures simply cannot do it justice.

CANNERY ROW

There are no more canneries in Monterey but there was a motorcycle race in the area over the weekend and the place was packed curb to curb with every motorcycle make and model imaginable.

There are all kinds of tourist shops and restaurants. At night the cops closed off the entire area for motorcycles. They even towed cars that the owners had left parked on the street.

SAN FRANCISCO

What can I say about San Francisco... We froze our asses off.
Cold and windy, beggars and street freaks and street cars. To get here we drove a rental from Monterey to SF - about a 2.5 hour drive up CA Hwy 1. Going north on Hwy 1 was not as spectacular as the southbound trip but there were several areas of interest.

The wind was fierce. I had some trouble keeping the camcorder steady on top of this hill whilst photographing the Golden Gate. Right behind me is the remains of a 12 inch rifle battery that was installed after Pearl Harbor. It protected the entrance to SF Bay during WWII. I really should have taken a picture of it because it looked like it had barracks and fortifications at one time.

One other thing - the tourist sanitary accommodations at the bridge were atrocious; it resembled an Iraqi prison crapper. The only things missing were chains hanging from the ceiling and car battery jumper cables for my nuts. I was tempted to take a picture but it grossed me out.

This is City Hall; very impressive edifice.

Haight Ashbury - Yeah, there be hippies here. The girls wanted to go shopping at all the different places. There are a ton of specialty shops and little restaurants here as well as beggars and street hustlers trying to sell crap, they are all in their twenties. We got my grandson a camouflage jacket at a Army Surplus store on Haight St. We ate at the Pork Store Cafe - I must admit the food was good and the coffee (non-Starbucks) wherever I went was excellent.

This is on the Bay side. Those are florescent-yellow clad tourists taking a Segway ecologically approved tour through SF. It was like watching a flock of geese go by with brooms stuck up their asses. I would sooner die, truly.The Segway geese were behind me as I was taking this picture. There is a wharf down the road.

Alcatraz in the Bay from the back of a street car. We drove up one SF street in our rental Impala and I thought the car was going to flip over backwards. This city would be impossible in the Northeast where it snows for five months of the year. I have never seen hills like this with houses and apartments cheek-to-jowl coming out of the ground at almost a forty-degree angle to the road.

The people we met were very, very nice. Some lady gave my wife three all day street car passes at the ticket kiosk, just like that and they go for $11 a pop. We got lost several times and people went out of their way to help us get to where we needed to go. I just can't imagine taking a trolley to work everyday but these people seemed rather laid back compared to us twitchy northern types.

Everyone in SF that I approached agreed that this is typical summer weather. I was the only fool in SF wearing cargo shorts and no socks. Now I know why they stuck that prison out in the middle of the Bay.

We had a good time and now that I have finally had a decent night's rest (I got sick the day before we left Syracuse on 2 July and was still coughing and hacking today) even the missed flight due to the foul up in Dallas isn't all that bad in retrospect. It was such a joy to see my three daughters together again - you would not believe the silliness and laughing.

I really don't want to see SF again though, once is enough. Tony Bennet should sing that song "I Froze My Ass In San Francisco."

Outta Here!

This probably will be my last post for the next week and a half.

Tomorrow morning we are all flying to San Jose, California, and then taking a rental to Monterey to visit with our daughter. Monterey is about 75 miles south of San Jose.

She is an Army Spec 4; her AIT is the Defense Language Institute in Monterey where she is studying Arabic. We are staying at the Naval Lodge about 3 miles away from DLI. She is a bit lonely right now and is very tired of being in school for so many years. She wants to get deployed but will not be through with all her training until late Spring next year.

We are all on pins and needles waiting to see her again. Her sisters are sooooo excited. The youngest (she is 17) has never flown. The middle girl (22) flew overseas twice in 2007, once to Cairo (January) and once to Israel (June).

A Great Day

Today is our anniversary; 27 years with the same wonderful gal.

In honor of this achievement, and being the warm, caring, loving husband that I am, I decided to do something special.

I went turkey hunting for the first time. We hunted on state land in South Otselic. It is really very beautiful, rolling farmland.

No, we didn't see a single tom, just some hens.

We're going out again tomorrow morning.

That's my trusty 1100. I have had it for over thirty years.

This is my SIL trying to call in some toms.

This is our friend Rob. Walking behind him I swore I was behind Chewbacca.

You don't want to piss off a Wookie.

Oh, yeah. Since it's our anniversary. I got my best gal some flowers, some cards and we are going out to eat at a brand new restaurant in Manlius called the Saucy Swan.

I did change my clothes.

Grandpa Redux

Our oldest daughter just told us tonight that she is pregnant again.
Number 4.

We are all tickled pink. She is a little nervous as she will be 39 next month and this was not planned, but she is in very good physical health and is an RN - she knows the risks and how to take care of herself.

Her husband will be the the same age as I was when my last daughter was born almost seventeen years ago. May God be praised!

Meet Luke .... and Emma

This is my wife's cousin's new baby, little Luke.

Luke is the one without the fur.

Emma is the one with the fur.

Emma is kinda fond of Luke.

Don't mess with Luke, particularly when Emma is close by.

Seven, Oh What The Hell, Eight Things

Cookie tagged me (again) and I am supposed to tell seven things about myself that people may or may not know about me. Here goes.

1) My sister, my brother and I were adopted. My birth certificate is dated 1958; I was nine years old. Don't ask about the sperm donor that I refuse to call my father.

2) The very last memory I have of the sperm donor is while I was playing on the front porch of my grandfather's house. Two huge cops in dark blue uniforms were looking for him. I think I was about five or six. A shrink could have a ball with that given my chosen occupation.

3) I have a dead brother named Michael. He had red hair and blue eyes. He was allegedly a SIDS death but after years of police work and my knowledge of the sperm donor, I suspect that Michael may have been shaken and stirred like a freaking martini before his death.

4) The man I call Dad once told me that he fell in love with the three of us before falling in love with my mother. I remember having a tiny little fishing rod - I used to sit on his lap and fish in his bellybutton while he was dating Mom. He died in 1990.

5) My Mom and Dad came from NYC, they lived only two blocks apart in Brooklyn but they never knew each other. My grandparents (on my mother's side) moved to Merrick, Long Island when she was young. My grandfather was a conductor on the Long Island RR for many years.

6) I graduated at the top of my class in the regional police academy in 1974. I was also the best pistol shot.

7) I once made two burglary-in-progress grabs in one day. The first grab was my first call out of the barn at about 2315 hrs. The jerk tried to coldcock me with a bicycle when I cornered him on a porch. The second grab was the last call of the day at about 0615 hrs.; this guy was armed with a handgun.

8) Oh hell, here's one more. I was working vice and I was the bait for the whore detail. I was in a downtown dive and I made the deal for a bj with some blonde hooker. I walked out of the bar with her and gave the high sign to the cover car down the block where another vice detective was sitting, waiting for me. As he pulled away from the curb, the hooker made the car and got a little panicky.

She grabbed me by the neck and said "It's a cop! Maybe he'll think you're my boyfriend!" She then planted those God-awful lips on mine. I thought I was going to puke. I wanted to wash my mouth with battery acid. She got arrested. I never asked her what she was doing with her lips before she kissed me nor how many times she had done it.

Winter Storm

We got about 8" of snow yesterday but fortunately the storm left the area about 1900 hr and the road crews did a wonderful job in keeping the highways clear. My Explorer got a work out earlier in the afternoon as things were kinda bad; the street I live on was unplowed but the Ford took me up the hill in 4X4 without a hitch. Sweet.

After suffering with my 1983 Ranger and putting up with my wife's 1978 T-Bird (yep - it's been awhile since a Ford's been parked in my driveway), I didn't think I would ever say this - but I really, really like my Ford.

Our daughter's plane from DC was delayed for a half hour and we didn't get back from the airport until almost midnight. But she looks great! She had a bunch of funny stories about her drill sergeants and classmates - so we stayed up yakking and laughing until the wee hours.

We were all packed into the little spare room where she is staying for two weeks (her 16 yo sister commandeered her bedroom downstairs as soon as she left for boot camp). It is just so good to see her at home even for a little while before the Army lays claim to her again. She is fit as a fiddle and was showing us the lengths her squaddies will go through to introduce the "Gun Show" - where they flex their biceps. For such a little thing she is tricked out I must admit.

Any how, the coffee's good this morning, the wife is in the shower and the kids' are all still abed. So I was perusing through some milblogs and stumbled across this at Strategy Page:

I know it ain't the same, but can you see this smashing through a snowbank in Upstate NY? I sure could. It's a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) Armored Vehicle plowing through sand dunes at a training course in Iraq.

It'll work.

Bravo Company Graduation, 1/48th Infantry Battalion

We returned home from Fort Leonard Wood last night around midnight. This morning we are pooped.

I don't know if I'll ever fly with Continental Airlines again. But I do know that I never want to step foot in the Newark Airport again.

Anyway, we left the house at 0715 to go to the airport and arrived at St. Louis around 1615. Once we got to St. Louis we were greeted by some of the nicest strangers you could ever meet. Then it was a two and a half hour drive to reach our Hampton Inn hotel in St. Roberts which is about four miles form Fort Leonard Wood. We checked in around 1900 , unpacked and got something to eat then collapsed in bed. Asleep by 2100.

We had a hasty breakfast and got to the base around 0710 the next morning. It's a good thing we left early. There was a two mile traffic jam in front of the base - tons of people going to work or attending other graduations.

We arrived at Baker Theater on Iowa Ave. and joined about 600-700 people who were there for their loved one's graduation. There were a few PR type videos and then the company Commander, Capt. Cole, introduced the graduates. He warned us that we are in his house and his house gets noisy. And then the house came down.

Everyone went nuts as Bravo Company marched in, all four platoons. Our daughter was 4th Platoon. It was amazing. Each platoon then marched separately onto the stage with their Drill Sargent singing their cadence. The soldiers then shouted their rank, last name and home state and marched off the stage. Here's part of it here but there is a 100 Mb limit on these clips and only this was small enough to fit.

There were special awards for outstanding effort. Our daughter got one for having a perfect physical fitness rating, 300 out of 300. And then it was over.

We got together at Shea Gym afterwards and met her three drill sergeants along with some of her classmates. There are not many pics here because, well, her MOS is mil intel, I don't know where her friends are being transferred for AIT and it just ain't a good idea to throw a clear pic of her face or her friends' around the Internet.

Then we took off to the PX for some shopping. A few hundred dollars later we finally got off base and asked her where she wanted to eat. We were almost back to the hotel and she yelled "Cracker Barrel!" It was the first non-fast food restaurant we drove by. She was just so desperate for non-Army food. She scarfed down her pulled pork sandwich with fries and sweet potato casserole like she just got out of jail.

We then returned to our hotel and just sat around talking for hours while she drank tea (no caffeinated beverages at all were allowed during basic training) and TheraFlu for her cold. We ate dinner at the same grill as the night before and had to have her back on base by 2045.

We drove back on base and walked her to her barracks ("You got five minutes Bravo!" yelled a female sgt. with a thick Jamaican accent). We left when the sergeants called everyone into formation (count heads to see if any one went AWOL).
This pic is as we were walking away. There are almost 200 soldiers in Bravo Company and they are all going to Advanced Individual Training (AIT) - many for medical training and transportation. Only three are mil intel and will fly to Monterey for DLI.

We slept in the next morning; our daughter called us at 0900 and said they were all outside the barracks sitting on their gear and waiting for orders. No one had a clue.

We left the hotel around 1100. At 1130 we stopped in Rolla, MO, for brunch. While eating our meal (thanks but no grits for me), our daughter called and said she was on the bus and had just left the base. The driver had just put "Ironman" on the bus's dvd system. She was on her way to St. Louis airport and her flight wouldn't leave until about 1600. Great! We could see her again in St. Louis for a little while.

We ditched the car at Enterprise (I will never rent another Corolla! It only had 2,800 miles on it when we rented it and the interior was falling apart already. It was an uncomfortable, annoying little car!) and grabbed the shuttle to the airport. We walked into the ticket area and it was a sea of green. Soldiers were lined up everywhere getting their boarding passes.

Our daughter found us and then we found a Starbucks. She was wearing her brand new ACU's. It was only an hour but you just hate to let the time go. But she is a soldier now and she belongs to Uncle Sam. We finally said our goodbyes for the last time and she walked away. She's so dawg goned little but she has the determination of a six footer.

The flight to Newark was late but uneventful. The Continental people in St. Louis were mocking Newark Airport as we waited for the plane to arrive. I just hate these little jets. The ERJ145 has only three aisles; one seat along the left side of the plane and two seats along the right side. You just can't get comfortable in it. Thank God I didn't have to use the rest room.

What can I say about Newark Airport? It is huge and under construction. When we landed I could see that there were lots of aircraft lined up ass-to-nose along the runways.

Continental contracts with a smaller provider for service to Syracuse and you fly these little turboprops that sound like insane angry eggbeaters. The actual flight only lasted about forty-five minutes and we were taxing around for longer than that trying to take off. The idiot captain binged us and said that we would be waiting four or five minutes to take off. Forty minutes later we were still on the ground.

We sat in the very ass end of the plane, a Bombardier Q-200 that seats only 39 people; any more passengers and you have to install meat hooks. The prop wash was shaking us like a terrier with a chew toy. Applause broke out in the cabin when the blasted thing finally took off. They should issue 'ludes as standard fare whenever you board these little stinking planes.

We got into Syracuse and drove home. Today it is raining and we're just putting things away and making calls.

Our daughter called about 1500. She is in the plane at LAX - she was not allowed on the flight from LAX to Monterey last night because she had a bad nose bleed. She called the base and offered to rent a car and drive the six hours to DLI, but they told her to catch another flight in the morning. One of her buddies from basic who is also assigned to DLI is still with her and refused to travel onto DLI without her. They drill it into your head not to abandon your buddy and this gal did just that. The guy that was with them left but I don't think he knew she was not able to fly.

The two of them spent the night at the LAX USO on a couch.

That darn head cold of hers.... she was blowing her nose so much that the discharge has been flecked with blood for several days in a row. She finally popped something. The USO people took good care of them; she slept about ten hours but she still sounds terrible..

She did the correct thing and called the base to notify them right away of her transportation issues. She is still worried that she may be in trouble. I told her that she is just following orders. They told her to grab another flight in the morning, nothing was said about waiting for the MP's to arrest her. I truly hope the soldier who stayed with her is not in hot water.

She really has to get herself to sick bay first thing.

Off To Lost In The Woods

Our daughter finishes basic training this week and the graduation exercise is Thursday. She'll now be a Spec-4 just in time to be shipped off to DLI in Monterey, CA, for a year and a half.

So tomorrow morning we fly to St. Louis. From there we rent a car and drive two hours to Fort Leonard Wood to partake in the festivities. Neither my wife nor I have flown since the late seventies so this should be interesting.

I was texting her at work today about the small aircraft we are going to fly in: "The Widow Maker" (a Bombardier Q400 to Newark with some crop dusting jobs along the way) and "The Angel O'Death" (a newer Embraer RJ 145 from Newark to St Lou). Things certainly have changed with the gas crunch.

Bombardier Q400

RJ 145

She has since decided to render herself semi-conscious for the entire trip with Dramamine washed down with vintage YooHoo .

We'll be back Saturday if the stinkin' Fokkers leave us alone. I'll be watching our six the entire way. See ya then.

33 Days And A Wake Up

Just got off the phone with our daughter at Ft. Leonard Wood.

GOOD NEWS! GREAT NEWS!

Courtney's brother is alive. He has been wounded and is in Germany right now. Three vehicles had gotten separated from a convoy and were attacked; he was wounded but I have no information as to the nature of his injuries but it involves one or both of his arms. His last name is Burd, and I believe that he is from Oswego County just north of us.

We are flying down to Ft. Leonard Wood for our daughter's graduation from boot camp. We can't wait to see her. In her own words, just "33 days and a wake up" and we'll be with her for a few hours anyway.

My Precioussssssssssssss

I went looking at new cars last week, not really expecting to buy anything. My Impala was eight years old and was still running fine, but I was thinking about replacing it because I knew things were starting to go - power steering was leaking, noise from the rear end, rust is starting to grab hold of the sheet metal, etc.

I had been looking at cars in the classifieds and researching them on the web for the past three months. So the wife, my youngest girl and I took a trip. I have owned nothing but Chevys for the past fifteen years but I got tired of the so-so quality and that Chevy can not seem make a vehicle with decent windows. All three of my last Chevys have had problems with the windows.

We test drove Fords. First the Edge, but I didn't like the ride; it over steers, the head rest forces your head forward unnaturally and the brakes felt like crap. And that was just what many reviews said about it. I really liked its looks so I wanted to see for myself. They were right - but it is still a fine looking crossover. Too bad.


Then we drove an Escape and I really liked the ride, but I wanted something bigger so we can pack all our gear when we go to summer camp.


Then I test drove the 2007 Explorer. Yep, that's the one. This is my first 4X4 vehicle. I have owed several pick ups and an old Chevy Suburban in the past but nothing quite like this.

It's in the driveway now. It has satellite radio, Advance Track RSC and 4X4 transmission (auto, high and low), third row seats and overdrive. There's a lot more options that the Explorers could have had but I am not one for a lot of bells and whistles. This suits me just fine and the price was extremely affordable. The combined city/highway mileage is just 2 or 3 miles per gallon less than what the Impala was getting - the Explorer is getting about 16 - 17 mpg. A round trip to work is only 14 miles for me.

Now I can't wait for the Upstate NY winter to kick in. Come on snow!