Reporting In

Driech weather. Cold, rain, and wind. The Ketchikan Trifecta.

Quote of the Day - SCOTUS Edition

States may have grown accustomed to violating the rights of American citizens, but that does not bootstrap those violations into something that is constitutional.

----Attorney Alan Gura, in response to a question by Justice Sotomayor, during McDonald v. Chicago.

Whooah, Mr Gura!

2030 and Debi is still at work

Another Wednesday, another long day for SWWBO. She had a total of seven clients today. The last one finished their IV administration at about 1700, and only then could she get started on the charting for all.
Long days. Weather is terrible tonight, so no hot tub. Supper will be later than normal which means staying up later. We both hate to go to bed soon after supper.
Long hours. Manhattans at zero paces. Maybe two.

Another Fine Supper

Last night was the Annual Robert Burns Supper. This year, the Misty Thistle Pipes and Drums were the sponsoring organization. Jane Bolima, President of the MTP&D, did the lioness's share of the prepping, decorating, organizing, cooking, calling, arranging, and running. Really, she is an amazing woman, with far more energy than I want to have. Energy like that means everyone wants you to do everything, because, apparently, you can.

Good crowd at the Supper. We ordered rotisserie turkeys from A&P and that turned out to be a very good deal. Tatties and neaps, salad, and, of course, HAGGIS. We ordered six pounds from Charles Lamb, in Oregon, and Jane tried her hand at home made haggis. I think hers was better.More pepper is needed, but if she is willing to prepare it next year (see, I do it, too), that is another $200 we will save in costs. The turkeys, used instead of salmon, saved us almost $500. All told, it appears that we netted over $1100. That is a few pipe reeds or kevlar drumheads.

Left, Northern coast weather: overcast, warmish, intermittent light drizzle

Fun, ach, aye.

Where Do The Thoughts Go?

November 20th? Really? That is a pretty long time to not have any trivial drivel to write down or comment on.

Right now, working on the Wearable Art Show 2010 "On The Rocks" script. Lot of repetitive typing, working from the piece descriptions by the artists. It can be...rocky.

New haircut, or rather, loss. Just had Nicole give me a zero buzz cut. That and a beard trim. Looking kind of svelte. Then I look below my neck and that thought no longer holds true.

Left, Northern coast weather report: Rainy, complete cloud cover, gusty wind.

This Will Go On My Permanent Record

I received my first tattoo yesterday. Small one, in a usually non-public location.

I won a silent auction for the work at the Arts Council's Bouy Ball last Saturday. Angel, one of the artists at Rain City Tattoos, did the work. Fast, and very well done.

And no, I will not post a photo.

November 9th, 1989

It had been another day of classes at the Non-commissioned Officer Academy, at Ft Leonard Wood, Missouri. I was there for the Combat Engineer Advanced Non-commissioned Officers Course (ANCOC). Those of us that got a lift in the shuttle van entered the barracks hallway and went to our rooms. We pretty much agreed to meet in the small commons area to head for the dining facility in about five minutes.
Upon entering our rooms, we all pretty much automatically turned on our televisions. They were all tuned to either MTV, the Weather Channel, or a news channel.
Pause.
We were all senior NCOs. All of us had either done one or more tours in Germany or Korea. We all had a pretty good idea of what we could be called upon to do, in the event of a breach of the fences in either place. We jokingly, as had thousands of our predecessors, called ourselves "speed bumps".
We had performed border patrols, practiced our wartime missions (in sector), and generally knew what a terrifing amount of firepower, death, destruction, and pain was awaiting all forces, on both sides of the fences.
But, that was our job, and not a one of us was serving as a draftee. Volunteers all.
End pause.
BANG! CRASH!
Every door on the hallway slammed open.
All of us were standing in our doorways, staring at each other with a Cortezian "...wild surmise."
We moved as a group to the commons and spent the next several hours in front of the big television in that room, watching as The Wall came down. We watched as thousands of Berliners, East and West that morning, but just Berliners now, climbed on, over, and atop that hateful barrier of concrete and wire that snaked like evil thought through the heart of Berlin.
We watched people pick up sledgehammers and chip away at the face of The Wall. We watched whole sections of The Wall pulled thunderously down, to thunderous cheers.
We saw the world turned upside down, the world that we grew up in and served in, flip on its axis and reright itself in a new way.
To this day, I will proudly proclaim that, after forty-plus years of staring at each other, we (the West) outlasted those evil bastards on the other side of the fence.

That is what I remember about November 9th, 1989.