The Holidays (Part 1)

So...

Thanksgiving Day (and my birthday) has come and gone. 

We had a good holiday. We made the annual trip to Trussville (just outside Birmingham) Alabama to my parent's house for the big family holiday. Altogether, we had 18 people there. There's always plenty of food, plenty of beer, plenty of football to watch, and plenty of fun. Our car's acting up (again. I know, but it's got 160,000 miles on it) but we made it. The biggest concern to me outside of that is that Mom and Dad will be wiped out from all the stuff. Mom's 84, and Dad turns 80 Dec. 22nd, They're both in good health for their age, and 100% mentally, but I know that Dad especially will be worn out all of Friday and most of Saturday.

Now it's time to look forward to Christmas.

I like the holidays, I really do. But in my business, it's hard. So much pressure, so busy, so many people. No extra time off to enjoy the special events. And at Sam's Club, they don't even have the piped-in music anymore, so no Christmas music to get you in the mood.

But I still enjoy this time of year. Joshua has been talking about Christmas for weeks. Some of the best Made-for-TV movies come on. And people generally get into a better mood, especially the last few days before Christmas. So break out the egg nog, put out the cookies, and let's go! It's the Holiday Season!

Veteran's Day

I know that I can never really know what it must be like to serve overseas in the military. How in the world can a person survive mentally and emotionally in a situation where they are subject to traumatic injury, even death, at a moment's notice every minute of every day? When you see a movie where soldiers attack an enemy position, knowing that most of the people they're with will die before they get there, it's hard to realize that that is happening in real life EVERY DAY to people just like me.

No, not like me. The people who do this are special people, a cut above. These people put their personal lives on hold for an ideal, an image. They believe that the concept of America is worth whatever sacrifice is required to preserve it. Over there, it doesn't matter whether a person is Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, black, white, or green. They don't worry about who the President is, just that there IS one. They do what has to be done for the America that, as imperfect as it is, stands for freedom, opportunity, justice, liberty, and peace.

And they don't have to be deployed to serve and sacrifice. Even those here at home are subjected to stresses and such that would kill anybody else. 

Most people I know appreciate our military. Everyone says "Thank a soldier." And that's good, I know service members who say that it really does mean something to them to hear those thanks. But try and put yourself in their boots, and try to understand what emotions they have to overcome and suppress in order to serve. I think that may help you gain an even better appreciation. If politicians did it, it may solve many issues in the world.

 Think about kneeling behind a wall in a foreign country, bullets whizzing all around from people trying to kill you. Your heart is racing from adrenaline. Sweat is pouring down your face, into your eyes. There are ten friends over there in the same situation. Only YOU can save their life. You have to stick yourself around the side of that wall and kill the enemy before they kill you. The odds are against you, and you know it. You take a deep breath, and start to move.

I honestly don't know how they do it.

Truly Random

Sometime's you just feel like you should write something, so here I go. The reason I started this blog in the first place was because I enjoy writing, and felt like I needed an excuse to do it, not to mention a place. I have written some fiction in my spare time, but not lately. I don't even know if it's still around here anywhere. I guess I ought to try to find it.

How did people live before spell check? I'm a very good speller, but a terrible typist. I looked back at that paragraph and it's got more words with red underlines than not. Just think how it was back in the day when you had manual typewriters and had to fix errors with White-Out. How did they (we) get anything done? Especially when making carbon copies.

I wonder how many young people know what "CC:" on their email means. Mine didn't. It stands for Carbon Copy. It's used on letters to show who received a carbon copy of the letter. YOU knew, didn't you?

When was the last time you sent a letter? I know that I haven't in years. I hardly ever mail anything nowadays. I use online banking to pay bills, I use email to communicate, or text messaging. Of course, that's why the Postal Service is suffering. They need to figure out how to get onto the digital bandwagon.

I'd like to write about the Penn State situation, but honestly, I don't know what to say. I know how I feel about it, but not sure I can put it into words well enough to make my point clearly. I think that there is a huge rush to judgement and political correctness going on. For example, did you know that there is a decades-old student-run charity (THON, I think is the name) that many contributors have pulled their support for? Why would they do that? What did the charity have to do with Sandusky? I believe that there is a ton of information yet to come out and that any real reaction should wait. Another example of that: I understand and even agree that Paterno had to go from the university's standpoint, but I was feeling that he was getting a bit shafted. Then I hear on ESPN Radio today that he signed over the deed to his house to his wife for $1 - just this past summer. After his grand jury testimony. It seems incredible to me that all this was going on for all those years, and NOBODY knew it. Why did Sandusky retire in 1999 in his fifties at the prime of his career? This was the year he received national "Assistant Coach of the Year" awards. And why was he never interviewed for head coaching jobs? There's dirt everywhere on this scandal. It's sickening. And there needs to be more emphasis on getting help for the victims.

And yes, I have read the Grand Jury's presentment of the case, so I feel at least informed enough for an opinion.

I guess I did know what to say, after all...