Phone Call!

MAP called today. He sounded better than he has in a while. He's looking forward to R&R, for which he has a tentative date. I'm not telling...Actually, I'm not being mean. I'm not allowed. It's OPSEC, folks.

My Children Want to Disown Me

I am so ashamed.

Your Inner European is French!

Smart and sophisticated. You have the best of everything - at least, *you* think so.

Who's Your Inner European?

Goin' to College

I have been asked to "at least audit" a class a friend of mine is teaching at the local community college. It's title? Women's History. Taught by a conservative. A conservative conservative. There will be much to report, I am sure!

I Want to Tell You What's Happening to a Soldier I Know

He has been serving for 7 years. He has a wife and three small children.
He and his wife are separated. It happens a lot to soldiers. This particular wife could not remain faithful during his first deployment, but he forgave her. During his second deployment her existing mental illness worsened to the point that she spoke of hurting or killing the children. She continued to be unfaithful and violent, and, so, they separated.
She wants him to go away, but send child support. He wants to be a full part of his children's lives. In his state, he recently learned, it is likely that she will be granted what she wants. As his third deployment looms, he wants to provide the children with time away from her, with grandparents taking the time he would spend with them, if he were home. While this could be arranged, she does not want it, so it will not likely happen. Even if it did, she could go to court and change it while he's gone. Thanks for serving your country.
He attends college full time, is running out of money, and wants to work to support his kids. He cannot lie to employers about his military status, but worries that they won't hire him if they know he'll be leaving for War not too long from now. Some have already refused. Thanks for serving your country.
He wants to provide health insurance for his children. His state's governor pushed for a much-ballyhooed insurance plan that would cover veterans' children. One of the rules of the plan is that no policyholder can be eligible any other plan and remain eligible for this one. He is eligible for regular veterans' insurance, so his children cannot be covered by this plan. Only children of those with dishonorable discharges, who would NOT be eligible for veterans' coverage, can be covered by this scam of a plan. Thanks for serving your country.
But I truly thank him. His "hang in there" attitude, despite his moments of despair, keeps me going when I worry about my kids. He is an inspiration.

"24"

I think I'm going to stop saying that I stay up too late, and admit that I've changed my body clock. I'm like the 3 month old who has it's days and nights mixed up! Changing back will be Job 1 for the rest of the week.
But, you'll be glad to know, the world is safe, or at least California is, once again, safe from nuclear threat. True, we stayed up too late and slept in this morning. And, true, Jack has lost the girl (again) and has had to go into hiding. But Tony and Michelle are together again, Chloe has earned a little respect and Kim and Chase are, well, where are they? Yeah, we're a couple of seasons behind, but we've been enjoying catching up.
We aren't huge TV watchers, usually picking a couple shows to watch and leaving the rest for someone else. In the past it's been ER, Law and Order and The Love Boat (we were very young!) But, as it happens, and, thankfully, in the case of The Love Boat, we moved on to others. Right now the frontrunners are The Unit and Criminal Minds. But there's this doggone writers' strike and we're tired of reruns. So the nice people at Netflix have been sending up DVDs. They really are nice, those people at Netflix. If you've been thinking about it, take the plunge.
We had been hearing about 24 for years, of course. At first, I thought the premise was kind of silly; follow a guy around for every minute of 24 hours. That's a season? But I wasted, er, watched a season of "I love her, she loves someone else, he loves me" on ER. Then I found out Jack never goes to the bathroom, picks his nose, or eats, some of which I'd rather not see. (He may pick, or cut off, someone else's nose, though. Just a warning.) So we decided to give it a try. Being advised that 1) it'd be best to watch from Season 1 and 2) it's a pain to wait for the next episode each week, we decided it'd be best to get the seasons on DVD and watch them one by one. We figured, one episode a night. We started at about 10pm one night late in December 2005. We went to bed at 3am. It was too gripping to toddle off to bed after one episode. It's kind of been that way since. We have to make solemn promises to each other to cut each other off if we want to stay watching too late. It was worse when the kids watched with us, as they did until Season 3. MSP lost interest midway through that one. EP lost interest midway through this last one, Season 4. He missed out on Jack almost being sent to Chinese prison, although he didn't mind missing the Tony/Michelle kissy face. We didn't miss out on grumpy kids the next morning.
And Kiefer has his own issues, but they're beyond the scope of this blog.

Mom's Battle

Thanks to Some Soldier's Mom

MOM'S BATTLE
by Sgt. Wm. M. Golden, Jan. 6, 1945

Mom's battle is the toughest one,
Cause it's the kind that's never won.
It's not a fight with fire and gun;
It's all day wondering, "Where's my son"?

It's not a war. It's a fight within.
It's where I'm at, and where I've 'bin?
It's what I eat' am I getting thin?
Am I steering clear of "hell and sin"

Do I pray to God to see me through
My every day, like I used to do?
Am I still the carefree boy she knew?
It's been so long...a year, or two.

It's remembering, when I was small,
How 'round the house I used to crawl:
And the day that I began to walk,
And later when I learned to talk.

The things I said; the things I did
When I was nothing but a kid
It's all these things that haunt Mom's mind,
It's a battle of a different kind.

A day ne'er starts, a day ne'er ends,
Without a prayer that dear Mom sends
To our Heavenly Father up above,
That He'll watch o'er her fondest love.

She has no defense against attack,--
Just prays to God to send me back
She fights her battle for her son
With prayer her weapon...not a gun.

But I guess that's what a Mom is for,--
To guide the son she proudly bore,
Whether he's home or off to war
A guy can't ask his God for more!

Well.

I had much to say today, and even some pictures to share. But after grandchildren and friends came to visit, and a rousing Airsoft campaign was held in my yard, I am wiped out. That's about as much writing as I can handle today.
I'm off tomorrow for a women's retreat, and then to spend some time with good friends. Maybe I'll pop in Sunday. Maybe not.
I SAID I was tired!