When the Smoke Clears

One of my young elites hurt me yesterday. Oh it was not a physical blow; that would have been much easier to take. Nay, this was emotional.
With the exception of the year and the last line, I heard from my young one the echo of a conversation from many many years ago when one [...]

Mom is out of the hospital. She had to have emergency surgery, I went.
I have to say whatever the hospital she was staying in did to recruit their nurses they had better keep right on doing it. I have worked in healthcare. I know how much nurses have had to take on with “paperwork” [...]

A positive attitude is supposed to be the way to go. It’s hard right now. So many things are looking up, pushing me in a direction, while other things have cropped up making life difficult. But we soldier on.
And now there’s so much more.
I always talk to my mom on Sundays, even if [...]

Hmm… I’ve not been around much lately it seems…
The last few weeks have brought on multiple field-training exercises, prep work for the next stage of the game, all combined with the demands of the regular job, new employees, old battles, etc.
But I am thankful to my friends, some online who have become real-life friends, [...]

The weekend started off well, with me hearing from two of my employees, “Why don’t you go on home early? We’ll call you if something comes up but it’s Friday, nothing’s going to happen.” And it didn’t. But mom called.
She and her sister were on their way back from West Virginia. A number of [...]

I’ve been holding a lot of cards close for a while, obviously, about this decision and been keeping my own counsel in spite of all the blogfodder. (stories forthcoming.)
Part of the reason is that there are things to work out at the regular job, things that were not going well in spite of my [...]

* A Corvette is the only practical car to own when living near the ocean.
* Don’t be afraid to laugh at even the most bizarre situations. Everything can be a sitcom or at least a Carol Burnett sketch.
* Cherish your friends and make the effort to stay in touch with them, even when [...]

MOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!
Stop shopping for Corvettes and come fix me!!! I want Macaroni and Cheese!
I don’t wanna go to school tomorrow but I wanna go camping with the boys this weekend!!!
(and by the way, mom, say something in the comments. These people want to hear from you.)

While driving to my aunt’s house my mother managed to get in a few logistics phone calls.
“So don’t make the potatoes, we’ll make the potatoes…. …. …. no he’ll cook them (you’ll cook them, right?)”
“Yes, of course…”
“With onions and sour cream and garlic, right?”
“You know what, I’ll make them and then [...]

Well good Christmas morning to you all!
Already had a few minutes talking over video with “Butterbar”/Blackbar in Iraq and called his parents to get them online as well. I wanted to introduce him to my mother, but, mom being who she is, only just woke up and did not want to be seen. Maybe later. [...]

I’m a random present-giver. I despise the feeling of obligatory Christmas presents and generally avoid giving them. When I find something that reminds me of a friend that I think they will like AND that will not necessarily add to a clutter collection, I snag it. For example, no Las Vegas shot glasses for friends [...]

Another Cayman anecdote, this time about the fine mother:
For a while at her place in the Caymans she decided to do some pest control of her own. She lived on the southeastern end of the island at the time, near the cliffs where water used to crash into the rocks, pressure coursing through age-old tunnels [...]

As many of you might imagine, I have a certain obligation on a day like this to calm the storm… so to speak. I wasn’t able to go visit my mother this year, but I did talk to her on the phone… once I tracked her down. And believe me, it’s not easy on a [...]