Tired

One week left. Thank goodness.

I'm tired of getting up at oh-dark-thirty and getting home late. Don't get me wrong, it's good training, but it ranks as one of the hardest schools I've done in the past 20-some years. It wears me out.

Tired of missing my family, not being there to see the kids everyday and have time with my wife.

Tired of eating out all the time, of being stuck in a hotel, and of not having much to do since I don't go out getting drunk and partying.

Just feeling sorry for myself and ready to get home.

Whole Foods Market Win

I know at various times I, like other bloggers, have used this opportunity to vent my frustrations with a business over their policies - one of the joys of an open society is that we can share such thoughts. This time is the other way, where I am going to compliment one.

I've enjoyed shopping at our local Whole Foods Market since they opened - they get the win in every area but the butcher shop, and that's only because we have another local spot which is a hair better in my book (although WFM still beats a regular grocer hands down for it!) Sure, many laugh at some of the "hippy" elements of the store & customer base, but overall I have found it a nice grocery for the organic, upscale or just otherwise uncommon items.

Well, now I'm going to go out of my way to shop there more. It seems the head of the company went and put an editorial in the Wall Street Journal about the whole health-care reform debate. In doing so he apparently caused a bit of a stink among the "typical liberal fanbase" as it were, who were OMG shocked that someplace they shopped didn't support the collectivist plan.

What I find really interesting is that Mr. Mackey absolutely agrees the current system is broken - he just then goes on to say look folks, #1 the Constitution and reality both address the fact that health care (as in treatment provided by others) is not a right, but a responsibility of the individual and the market; and #2 that the last thing we need is another gargantuan government program to sink generations deeper into debt. He doesn't say that our current system is all sunshine and flowers, he doesn't say we don't need fixes - he just says that the plan being pushed ain't the way folks. But the fact he refuses to drink the kool-aid has the other side in a tizzy.

As everyone knows, where we spend our money helps support companies that believe as we do. I'm sure Mr. Mackey and I have disagreements on plenty of issues, being individuals after all - but the fact that he feels strongly on this, and has the courage to stand out and say so, means he will get more of my business in the future.

Well done to the Administraion

While all who know me know my general thoughts regarding D.C. right now, I am going to step out here and give full credit to the Administration for pushing this issue through:

Federal agencies will soon have the option of hiring certain military spouses without having them compete for jobs, under new guidelines issued by the Obama administration Wednesday.

The guidelines apply to the spouses of military service members relocating for new assignments, some physically disabled spouses, and those whose husband or wife was killed in the line of duty. They will be able to apply for a federal job and ask that recruiters allow them to bypass the traditional hiring process. (from Blackfive)

Back when I was in the service my wife couldn't even GET a job on the base due to the status-of-forces agreement, much less get preference for one. Coming back to the States wasn't any better. And, as others observed, with the pressures of transfers and deployments many businesses are wary of hiring military spouses only to lose them in a few years. The chance for these spouses to have an improved opportunity for a well-paying job in order to help their families and further their own careers is long overdue.

Well done.

I have been challenged...

So tonight a coworker and I went to a local place for some bar-b-que for dinner; apparently it has quite the reputation and has one a number of awards for the cooking. Now, it wasn't bad by any stretch (and yes, the ribs were some of the best I've had), but when I looked very matter-of-factly at my partner and told him that my brisket was much better he looked shocked.

I then explained to him (I kept it brief, honest) about brining, smoke rings, crust, the difference between smoking over indirect heat with actual wood and charcoal vs. just an oven, etc. By the end of all that he seemed a bit more aware, but still questioned if mine was really that good.

So apparently when I get home I have to do an end-of-season brisket for purely educational purposes. I'm sure my wife will feel most put out.

Texas facts

Haven't lived there in QUITE a while, but these are all pretty accurate to my memories...


Armadillos sleep in the middle of the road with all four feet in the air.

There are 5,000 types of snakes and 4,998 live in Texas.

There are 10,000 types of spiders. All 10,000 live in Texas, plus a few no one has ever seen before.

Raccoons will test your melon crop and let you know when they are ripe.

If it grows, it will stick you. If it crawls, it will bite you!

Nothing will kill a mesquite tree.

There are valid reasons some people put razor wire around their house.

A tractor is NOT an all terrain vehicle. They do get stuck.

The wind blows at 90 mph from Oct 2 till June 25, then it stops totally until October 2.

Onced and twiced are words.

Coldbeer is one word.

People actually grow and eat okra.

Green grass DOES burn.

When you live in the country you don't have to buy a dog. City people drop them off at your front gate in the middle of the night.

The sound of coyotes howling at night only sounds good for the first few weeks.

When a buzzard sits on the fence and stares at you, it's time to see a doctor.

Fix-in-to is one word

A TANK is a dirt hole that holds water for irrigation, watering the cows, or swimming

There ain't no such thing as "lunch." There is only dinner and then there's supper.

"Sweetened ice tea" is appropriate for all meals and you start drinking it drinking it when you are two.

Backwards and forwards means I know everything about you.

"Jeet?" is actually a phrase meaning, "did you eat?"

You don't have to wear a watch because it doesn't matter what time it is.

You work until you're done or it's too dark to see.

You Know you are from Texas if:
1. You measure distance in hours.

2. You've ever had to switch for "heat" to "A/C" in the same day.

3. Stores don't have bags, they have sacks.

4. You see a car with the engine running in the Wal-mart parking lot with no one in it, no matter what time of the year.

5. You use "fix" as a verb. Example: I am fixin' to go to the store. (note: in the portion above "fix-in-to" is one word....)

6 All the festivals across the state are named after a fruit or a vegetable or an insect.

7. You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.

8. You carry jumper cables for your own car.

9. You know what "cow tipping" and "snipe hunting" are.

l0. You only have four spices in your kitchen: Salt, Pepper, Catsup, and Tabasco.

11. You think everyone from north of Dallas has an accent.

12. You think sexy underwear is a tee shirt and boxer shorts.

13. The local paper covers national and international news on one page but requires six pages to cover Friday night high school football.

14. You think that the first day of deer season is a national holiday.

15. You know which leaves make good toilet paper.

16. You find 100 degrees a "tad" warm

17. You know all four seasons: Almost summer, summer, still summer and Christmas.

18. You know whether another Texan is from East, West, North, or South Texas as soon as he opens his mouth.

19. Going to Wal-mart is a favorite past-time known as "goin Wal-Martin" or "off to Wally-world."

20. You describe the first cool snap (below 70 degrees) as good chili weather.

21. A carbonated soft drink isn't a soda, cola, or pop.... It's a Coke regardless of brand of flavor.

22. You understand these jokes. If you do, forward them to your friends from Texas (or others so they'll understand Texans).

Nothing to share

Still alive out here, just nothing blog-worthy to share. Hopefully my muse will reappear soon.

At peace

The remains of Scott Speicher, missing in action for 18 years, have been recovered and identified in Iraq. At last his family will have some closure, and be able to lay him to rest.

Thanks to those members of the armed forces and those civilians who never forgot the need to keep searching, and to leave no man behind.

Rest in peace sir, with our thanks for your sacrifice.

Parental Quote of the Century

From Marko:

Reader and occasional commenter ZerCool is sleeping in the guest bedroom. He asked whether he should set the alarm clock, and I just gave him a blank look. A-larm klok? A device that makes you wake up from your sleep? I have heard the Elders speak of those.

I told him that the guest bedroom was right next to the kids’ bedroom, which means that an alarm clock is about as necessary as a kickstand on a submarine.

He pretty much hit the nail on the head with this one (particularly for my poor wife!) One of the most interesting parts of this trip has been the fact that yes, I need to use the alarm to get up early, as opposed to just a tool to let me know when I can't make excuses to hide in the bedroom any longer...

Small world

One of the fun things about the career fields I've worked in for the past twenty years is that it tends to be a relatively small community. Both in the military and police work I've ended up running into a number of the same people again and again, or into friends-of-friends. I have one friend I've bumped into literally around the world - we can go years without a word, then out of the blue will somehow end up in the same place. Other times someone will drop the name of a mutual associate and we realize that we know the same people.

Which leads to this post - in the short time I've been down here, several states away from my normal stomping grounds, I've already encountered two instructors this way. One of whom inside of about five minutes spotted several things about me, asked if I had been in the Navy and what I had done, and we quickly figured out that our respective paths had missed each other by a few months for a number of spots, along with knowing a lot of the same people. Before you knew it we were sharing tales & stories like the two of us had known each other for years.

Then this week I was walking down the hall when I had another instructor stop me and ask if I had been here before, and where he knew me from. I had already recognized him and let him know which military school he had been teaching at ten years ago when I was a student, and again we played catch up on travels since then.

Just something I thought was amusing - not even the six degrees of separation, more like another case of life reminding me that it's really a small world.

Blogroll Addition

I feel bad, as he has apparently linked me previously - but recently found Straight Forward in a Crooked World. Good reading from someone with experience, and he currently has an excellent series on what to do if in a bad situation overseas which also would apply nicely to unrest here.

Drop by and give him a visit.