Facebook funnies....

The children are beautiful, but the thug behind them doesn't have a hearing aid, hoping that he won't be mistaken for Secret Service (suit is way too cheap, although the shoes might make it and that is about thirty extra years of wear in his face and body), still it could make it difficult to get a job in day care, don't you think? You would be so wrong if you thought I was carrying a Glock that day, only a Colt .45 would have met the requirements and I fall so short. Still I do like that picture.

Blood Pressure Alert...

Mine is really where it ought to be, thank you Doctor Jin, just hope my liver survives those three pills. Discussion at work about a brother (not mine) that had tried to hurry across America and was stuck in Michigan - and how Americans seem to push themselves to get it all done. Maybe I am not pushing so much any longer and that would be a good thing. I like to think I am accepting what is and fixing what I can when it is possible and not worrying about what I can't, there are a few billion folks out there and so many more capable then I.

Reading pieces of Paul Revere's Ride, and both books from writers that ought to know about Crazy Horse. Next trip to South Dakota and I will go see the mountain and the carving of his image. All I have to do is schedule the time to break free, after I get some new tires on the Triumph. Actually planning on motorcycling to the Idaho Appleseeds since a sleeping bag and possibles fit well if packed properly. Have you noticed, Summer is fleeing? Best catch some of it before it is gone again. My program manager is going to be on the beach for two weeks, and has one shopping bag of books to read and expects her sister to have another of recommended reading. I will continue to add more books to the McNeil Island collection, talk information resources and entertainment with the fallen (ever wonder where Fallen Angels go? Purdy is where).

Yeah, acceptance is important and being in love is excellent, and being loved is really good for that blood pressure... okay, I will still take the pills and watch Doctor Oz on Oprah... yeah, right.

The work week is done... fast!

I was watching some ants scurrying around in the heat and thought about how fast they get as it gets hotter, and it is getting hotter here. I seem to have dropped into that faster is better pace, walking to the dock today, longer strides more of them per minute and my trek over sooner. Maybe the doldrums from lolling in Hawai'i are in my past and the hamster wheel is spinning.

A short four day week, and we finished overdue notices today, added books to the collection, began to open and process books from the purchase orders, started training the clerks in new tasks and established a rotation of two weeks per station and job skills until everyone can do all the tasks. No more territorial rights, seniority dibs and been here longest. Our biggest circulation days were Monday and Tuesday, but we are open more hours then and were well used. I did inmate payroll and end of month reports, still waiting for a few missing numbers. I gave warning about my vacation (working out East) at the end of July first part of August - it will be fast, too. One of my older workers came back from court - he will leave when his address is approved, so I will lose two of the current workers in a couple of weeks or months and have to hire and train more, but that is a constant. I finished updating the Branch Manual, if you ever come to my library and want to know how to make it work, just look in the Branch Manual, everything except MY secret password is there to help you. Of course, I don't have time to read how anything is supposed to be done, I am too busy - which may be why they make me close and go off to learn, discuss and review how the library could be working if I read all the paper and plans that pass or plaster against me...

I was inspected this week by two fine men from Department of Corrections at McNeil Island, it was just a quick look around and talk to staff and inmate workers - giving the inspectors an impression that the library is fine and functioning, and the comment about needing one more worker was even in the report, I found out today that the Job Center lady is on vacation and who to contact if I had an emergency, I don't have one - we are full up again for a little bit.

For those that can't visit, we have two kinds of stands up along the roads in Washington now, one dollar for a basket of cherries (bumper crop and get them now!) and the fireworks stands everywhere - yes, you could buy totally noisy bangs for your bucks. Now I did catch World News tonight and know that the Stimulus Package isn't doing enough for the economy -- well, the President should take a lesson from a salesman in Puyallup, and he has Nearly Naked Fireworks stands, manned (or is it womanned?) by bikini clad babes. And those fireworks and the babes are moving, as opposed to America's economy. Although, I did catch that Ford is doing fine without the Washington leadership and oversight... The not so beautiful people are miffed about the babes, but they have been moving Latte for a long time in that costume, and the owner of the stands says next year there will be more of them.

I know that the world now thinks everything is new, but I have evidence that some things are forever, what was Eve clothed in before the Serpent ruined it all?




Those Greeks and Romans knew a lot about tile.

I can't tell who is happiest... the birthday boy or

his mother. But I know it is all good. Seems the only serious human face in the whole transmission is the baby boy, wondering why he was being shoved towards that Apple logo and why that machine was laughing at him... I really do wonder what it came out in the tiny one's mind.

To think I have to go back to work tomorrow and Wednesday, two days worth of Institutional Library Services training conference in Federal Way and then we get to travel to Hawaii on Saturday. By air of course.

Take care out there and watch out for all the little ones - they have to pay off the Bush-Obama debts... or not.

Amazing changes in my son - all around his... ain't it a wonder?

Easter in the Great Northwest, and my heart...

It is raining on Easter and the Sunrise in its glory is behind the clouds. Don't you know it is beautiful above the clouds and beyond the bounds of Gravity and Earth's grip? So often one has to be a pilot to see the beauty of our home -- far from the grit and grime of our lives. It rains here on Easter. A cool refreshing rain, turning the grass and moss into a gleaming green, rich and alive. The flowers are blooming, birds courting and flying off to safer nesting areas. It is Easter and I am reminded that Spring is a new beginning, to get started on that harvest for the returning Winter. We are blest with the opportunity to do it again, to do it even better; it is time to be about Love's business.

The best of ideas...

As I jog I think, and my thought for today is 'go out and do good stuff, and only good stuff' and with that I leave you having started my thought for today the same way...

Change is a constant, know that or forget it, happens...

A couple magazines were talking about Darwin and Evolution, and one was trying to shout that Man was still evolving. Don't think the writer meant I was close to becoming an Angel, but I was better than my Grandfather and the long ago Great-greats. No truth in that, Man changes his environment to meet his physical needs, not dies off because the long haired men kept getting their locks caught by trees as they sped cross-country on ATVs, and all the high and tight or skin heads fathered all the children of our future. According to evolution, only vacuum breathers can go into space and colonize the Moon, none of us that have to drag oxygen need to apply.

Sure, they may have something with evolution, those that no longer have to hunt and gather twenty miles a day, seven days a week forever no longer have to think they will die off before forty-five when their teeth are ground down or fallen out and they can't eat enough. The NEW MEN will be able to eat lots of calories, exercise very little, and think only deviously and just interact with digital representations of storm and angst. They will be fathering the future of our society - oops! forgot the mad rush to sire children, doesn't seem to be happening - seems children have become and inconvenient truth (one has to raise them - too trying, sigh). Don't worry, there are sperm banks, the future is assured. Now you too can offer your genes to the pool of embryonic stem cell research, improving the species by the latest little gods, Science and Medicine. Wasn't there some kind of prohibition against offering your children up on altars to false gods - some long ago fantasy, I do read too much and it is getting tougher on those little letters.

Don't worry, folks, if I get bowflex I can be forty-one, in the best shape of my life and playing in a rock band. Or so I have been told.

Actually, I need to do the right stuff, for the animal that I am, since I am evolved, thank you Mom and Dad. This is self motivation and boring. Measure, devotions, exercise, eat simple, learn, work and create, love, dry fire daily, run that heart rate up in maximum sustainable pumping for thirty minutes or more, prepare to die for the evolution of the better of the species, and avoid doctors or medications that will cause weird things to happen for over four hours (now if you find a warm, breathing bundle of joy that can do that - hang on!). Got to go, life calls me, I will not become the future of humanity - I adapt to change so badly, the government doesn't have a bail this boy out policy. Obama (President Obama) can't get a couple thousand folks in Washington DC to agree on a cure for what ails the economy - and there are over three hundred million Americans (who are the economy) waiting for salvation. I can't wait - there is a Trusty Triumph in the garage that needs to roll out, a library in a prison that needs opened and a real lovely lady that will talk to me tonight as I fail to adapt... to change.

Time to participate in government, by the People...

Have been meaning to write to my Congressman, Adam Smith, so I did this morning. Nothing like cold icy weather to make me think. I put a stamp on the letter and will drop it off on my way out the door. As I was thinking about the expected non-response, it is about the 2nd Amendment after all, I considered running for his office in two years. And I looked up the qualifications, I meet them, and the entry fee, here it is one percent of the annual salary for the position - or, the signature of a registered voter for each dollar I can't afford to pay. Sounds like it could work.

He doesn't need to worry, I am not a public enough person, and a Congressperson needs to be comfortable in front of people and working crowds. Still, if this year is going to go strange and against what I believe, I may have to become what the Founding Fathers intended - an active motivated armed and concerned citizenry - politics is not a spectator sport, one must get out there and play the game... we count and it matters.

Why I don't need a purse... or do I?

I saw this from NFO and thought about what do I carry - the basic stuff is the watch, the wallet, the handkerchief, the folding brush comb, keys to the car and the home. On the right is the things I could carry around the home, shopping (which I don't really) and riding the motorcycle. On the left is the work related things, take-home keys for the library, DOC ID badge, pocket protector with pens, and the memory stick on a cord. There are other knife choices, but the Leatherman Wave and the Case pocket folder are basic minimum. Come to think of it there are other pistols, but I really don't carry them unless I am going shooting. Add a digital camera in a pocket sometimes, and a flashlight in a sheath on the belt for night ops. The items on the right are prohibited in a Prison Environment, the items on the left are necessary tools of Power in a Prison Environment (very little power, only a library, folks). Anywhere I would not be treated as a freeman I cannot carry the items on the right - Communist China, Zimbabwe ... Massachusetts, Illinois - you get the idea, and the number of gun fights I have ever been in are somewhere in some military history or NEVER HAPPENED, no matter what someone told you about the dangers of firearms. I am getting too old to worry about carrying a weapon, but then I stopped worrying about heart attacks and cancer once I accepted my mortality and almost ancient status. The youthful immortals can plan for a finer future, I am going to be busy living what I have left. Take care out there.

Hmm, did I ask for this?

Well, I didn't ask for it but it is all mine. I stay home hiding from the icy roads, blowing snow storms and work. I did Christmas cards, between playing wargames and being uglier than my neighbors. My wife decided, since she stayed home day two, that she should get a picture taken in the snow, and her hair looks great against the dark of the forest - her picture is smiling, and mine is me - I can smile at times but don't really remember when that time was. Oh, it couldn't have been that long ago, nor too far away. I do think I can get better vibes from a real smile shared with a perfect stranger than I can with the cranky old man with attitude face.

Well, back to a long winter's nap... or is it too early for the night before?

It's the reload time that kills me...

No, I am not talking about putting in another clip or magazine and continuing to shoot down swarms of zombies, I am thinking about only having ten or so years left and using up so much of it checking favorite blogs to find out if there is something worth reading. If I mentioned you in my Visits for Daily Thoughts I find what you write interesting and I want to come back and read some more - well Blogger knew my pain, going and waiting for the reload and then finding nothing new, sigh. So they allowed me to pick favorites to follow, then gave me a cool thing that tells me there is a new post and when it went up, and clicking on it I go straight to the post, which means I could miss a few since some bloggers put up lots to look at almost on top of each other.

Turning on the television to catch the news and weather - I get more commercials than news and weather - and if you pay attention (DON'T!!!) you will notice much of what they call news is to get you to watch = a movie, television show later, television series, an interview where you will learn about (whatever). I am not going to change the world, but I can pick and choose what I participate in, like I can choose the Caravan or the Trusty Triumph to roll on to work today. I should try doing exercises every time a commercial break shows up, see how high my pulse rate will get during an hour and the calorie burn, estimated would be. Reading Time magazine yesterday I found a writer (?) using a treadmill while she worked - I just stand up at my workstations and type on my feet and then flee to help workers and patrons without the scooting back the office chair - just a step away. My able (?) assistance is just a quick step away from the computer. No waiting for my lumbering to my feet, getting all the fat into motion - I must remember that although I will weigh less up on the moon, my mass will be exactly the same and the vacuum is cold and totally unbreathable. Remind me to get back to some Physics in the near future... how much time is left to read, retire, retrain to re-me'd me?

My vision is shorter than the depth of the view...

Holiday time and the world isn't as it should be, mankind looking at the ground instead of the heavens, missing the wonders. Personally, Home Depot and my wife's displeasure are upsetting my harmony with the Universe - and she won't allow me to blow the whole thing up. Nice lady is my wife. That is the woman not telling my mother the truth about her terminal cancer (which she doesn't have, but my aunt told my mother it was so - so it is). There are real sad things out there, tragic and at the same time wonderful events in the near and more distant future. Sure enough one of my brothers-in-law told me off in an email - as I rippled his harmony in his Universe (I refuse to live in his, although if he were within a thousand miles I could get to him on the Trusty Triumph and beat him up). Well, it wouldn't be worthy of my real skill and fading powerful muscles and deadly techniques - and why would I want my sister to think badly of me? There are enough problems with Earl that she doesn't need to remember the terrible fellow I was, and could become again. At church I was charmed by three beautiful young women that weren't paying any attention to me, when they smile the world is brighter - come to think of it those little children's smiles and laughter were a wonder, too. I was told I was really sounding good in the choir today, I think I said thank you - they have no idea how little I know what I should sound like, when and where, only when the director cuts me off am I on cue. As the Pastor gave the sermon on Advent, John and the future now long past I started working on a Christmas story, or my Christmas story for this year and season. Being that I told my lonely mother that she should write one for this year and of her being all alone this Christmas, another dear friend of hers died yesterday. As I get older I do notice the passing of those that were always around. Some so young and some so old and all of them loved, not enough to keep inside one's heart but wrapped around oneself like a soft warm blanket of goodness.

Remember to be Thankful , for those that serve...

A C-141 cargo plane was preparing for departure from Thule Air Base in Greenland, and they were waiting for the truck to arrive to pump out the aircraft's sewage holding tank. The Aircraft Commander was in a hurry, the truck was late in arriving, and the Airman performing the job was extremely slow in getting the tank pumped out. When the commander berated the Airman for his slowness and promised punishment, the Airman responded, "Sir, I have no stripes, it is 20 below zero, I'm stationed in Thule, and I am pumping sewage out of airplanes. Just what are you going to do to punish me?"

butlerwebs.com/


Thanks to my mother for reminding me to be thankful for all the wonders and the works. This is never the day to be alone, reach out and touch someone, somewhere, somehow - we are not going to be alone in saying thanks, in giving thanks nor earning a heartfelt thanks. Thanks. Especially to the Rogue Gunner where I gleaned the idea, never alone.

I don't understand memes...

Gimme 5...

5 Things I Was Doing 10 Years Ago

- Working as a newly hired Library Assistant on McNeil Island Corrections Center
- Missing my son off in the Navy in Spain
- Missing my father off to Higher Realms
- Singing badly in the church choir
- Trying to be a better man

5 Things on My To-Do List Today

- Clean the gutters and the roof before the next Pineapple Express
- Dumping the old blinds and one old coffee table
- Exercise vigorously, and like it
- Finish two books
- Take cool pictures of self in Rifleman gear

5 Snacks I Like

- Apples
- Melons
- Nuts
- Popcorn
- Asian Pears

5 Things I Would Do If I Was A Millionaire

- Not tell anyone about it
- Give money away
- ten acres with shooting range, swimming and hound and little animals
- travel and tell you about it
- Continue working in the prison library

5 Places I Have Lived (for various lengths of time)

- Minnesota where I was born
- Ligonier, Pennsylvania where I started becoming me
- Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where I was young and foolish always
- Korea where I met my better be better half
- Firebase Phoenix for far too long

5 Jobs I Have Had

- Ticket taker at the movie theater
- Dishwasher
- Rifleman and Machinegunner
- Primary Jumpmaster on a flight with a jump refusal
- Leader of small fine units

5 People I Tag to Answer

All those that read these words that haven't every looked at their life enough (not five, hmm?)

another Veteran that keeps a Library at McNeil...

Veteran's Spotlight:
Luan Vu , Library and Archives Professional

By Jose Cortez
Communications Consultant

Luan Vu’s voyage to the Department of Corrections took him through the Special Forces in Vietnam, a Communist re-education camp, a high seas rendezvous with a ship and then an immigration center in the Philippines.

Now he provides legal resources to offenders for their research on appeals to state or federal courts at Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW) and McNeil Island Corrections Center (MICC).

Vu started his professional career in 1965 as a high school teacher teaching chemistry, biology and physics in Vietnam. After the war broke out, Vu was recruited from local militia by the United States Special Forces in 1970 where he served as Platoon Leader until the collapse of South Vietnam in 1975.

He spent the next seven and-a-half years in a communist re-education camp until his release in 1982 when he joined his family’s bakery in Vietnam. He saved enough money to buy a ride on a fishing boat that rendezvoused at sea with an American natural gas tanker heading to Japan from Indonesia.

Luckily for Vu, he spoke English and convinced the captain (who was also a Vietnam veteran) to take him and his family to Japan. From there, they went to an immigration processing center in the Philippines.

He then joined his in-laws who already had set up a life in Olympia. He has lived in Olympia for 23 years.
“We provide a meaningful legal access to incarcerated persons,” says Vu. “I try to be nice to everyone, including offenders.”

Jane Parnell, Associate Superintendent, says that Vu is a very hard worker and doesn’t get caught up in politics.
“He is very knowledgeable about the law. He works at two very different institutions so he has to adjust to the different populations and he really works to meet the needs of offenders,” she adds. “He’s very into family, and he’s a real solid citizen.”

She also says that Vu is so adaptable and changes his schedule to meet the requirements of the law libraries at the two prisons.

Before coming to the Department of Corrections, he was a youth counselor at a group home from 1987 to 1997 and then worked at the Washington State Supreme Court Law Library in Olympia.

“The field I was in before I came to DOC was very limited and I as soon as I heard there was an opening at McNeil Island I applied and got the job,” Vu says.

Soon after, he became the librarian at both MICC and WCCW.

“I love working here because it’s a change every day and I like the staff. They are all very nice people.”

Vu has been married for 35 years and has three children. Outside of work he enjoys photography, traveling and reading. He eventually wants to write a history of how he came to the United States for his descendents.

“I want them to know where they came from and how their family got here,” He explains.

Raining, constantly raining, November has arrived

Not only do I have the extra hour they took from me last Spring back, but I have all the rain that I missed (lightly) during the dry Summer, and since I was motorcycling I wasn't missing it too much. The heavy drops pelt the skylight and rock on the roof, the water flows down to the gutters and down the down spout and out onto the lawn. The moss will love it, the moles will build more drainage to stay a bit dry, but the grubs and worms they feed on will like the moisture.

Hibernation begins, staying inside instead of running along the roads, my wife is much better about hitting the treadmill than I, but I can do it when I don't get distracted by what I found on the computer or the mindless mush of the television - now in HDTV - better pictures but same commercials framed by folks that don't know how I think. One day they will surprise me, but it will never get repeated. We did decide that the YMCA wasn't for us, the Air Base and Fort Lewis have the same facilities and equipment if we need them, and in the end driving somewhere to exercise only makes sense if one is going to be social at the same time - team sports or events for charity. Otherwise sweat at home, run that heart rate up and then get the hot shower and pose in front of the bedroom mirror (better not imagine that - we are Seniors far beyond foxy fifties). Although my wife did get some cute pink patterned pajamas and top to lounge around in after her workouts, I just slide on old gray sweats and a muscle shirt (muscles only in the name not on the body).

Cup number three of coffee, the mind is working. My blood pressure was good this morning, the weight excessive - stupid candy eating fool I am, should have frozen it until next Halloween, or taken it to leave at the church. Anything except gobble it down - chocolate and sugar - when it comes time to report the cause of my demise - look for the wrappers before your eyes - chocolate and sugar - no surprise. CSI will only have to find out who bought the goodies and charge them. See how boring that episode would be?

Well, nothing to write about, the darkness is waiting outside, the rain still striking the roof and I have time after devotions to exercise, breakfast, clean up and go off to work. I must pay those bills and the taxes, millions of us must pay the bills and the taxes, billions of us must pay the bills and the taxes, what was that about the hamster wheel whirling on?

Promised bail out for Institutions, I got zero...

Went to the ATM and withdrew a Yuppie Food Stamp - a twenty dollar bill and found I have a negative balance in my account - HOW DID THAT HAPPEN! I thought the government covered all the bad paper out there by printing more, I should have tons of money. I know that one has nothing to do with the other, except that the government expects me, as a working tax payer, to cover their foolishness - because they give me a vote and then force me to put up with their stupidity, sigh.

I have one thing left to do in life, get ready to leave it, nothing I will do will make crooks better, stupids smarter, or the sky bluer (lucky that isn't in the hands of me nor the Federal Government) enjoy it while you can. Pay off remaining bills, consolidate our retirement savings in anything except Government bonds and financial institutions, enjoy free stuff with my wife and the love of my life (good that they are the same person). Simple goals for simple old man, hope it works out.

Good news,

I watched my second DVD on shooting, sitting position and then kind of practiced it - does the need to have stretched in the last fifteen years enter your life lately? It is knocking on my door, sometimes I just hate the limber youth... but I do know how to stretch, slowly, and will add that to my things I do to make my wife laugh. I won't talk about her limberness.

In the email is the notice that I will receive my M1 soon, and that is fast! Can't send stuff like that through the mail, but FedEx will have it at my door by 10:30 AM, requires one adult wife to sign for it.

I am off to shave, shower and depart on Trusty to work -- real work! at McNeil Island Corrections Center Library, okay! And tomorrow - I refuse to bore y'all, I am riding to Whidbey Island for a charity motorcycle run, keeping the rubber side down. Happy Friday!

Later edit: Great day trying to catch up at the Library - it didn't happen, but I was busy all day and laughing most of it. Came riding home boldly on the motorcycle thinking about tomorrow, met wife and had dinner, opened FedEx box and looked at my new (well, to me) M1, very nice, and it fits me, so well! So to celebrate I took my wife for a walk in the park, looking at the ducks and the black berries and listening to about five different bird calls as we walked around, this another wonderful day. Thank the Lord.

Let's get the Rifle and go shoot... soon, one hopes.

I came home early yesterday, to find my wife needing to go to the doctor and my package from the Civilian Marksmanship Program. I took my wife to the doctor and two of the booklets prepared by the United States Army Marksmanship Unit: Service Rifle Marksmanship Guide and International Rifle Guide.

Now I have had, for more years than you need to know, a terrible jealous envy of any group of soldiers that get to fire rifles and pistols in competition, with armory support and opportunity to earn the President's Hundred Tab and those other cool medals and honors. Yep, I never met any of them, they didn't seem to come out to play where I was engaged with godless Communist hordes or training groups of young men to shoot well and work as units to engage the hordes of enemy. So I had what I thought the Army was about and for, and was pretty proud of being a paratrooper, but I didn't think well of the Golden Knights or the US Army Marksmanship Unit, glory boys and playboys is what I thought of them. I was sure they didn't eat mud nor snakes like my buddies and I, and although they could really shoot well I was sure I had more ways to kill quickly than they (suburban legends?) and being artillery I could kill in mass and really out of rifle range for the forward observers and grunts. But I am being cleansed of the jealous envy.

I received "Mind over Matter" 3 DVD set for High Power Rifle Competition with the US Army Rifle Team. And it is great, and the shooters from the unit do a fine job of instructing and sharing their skills with the rifle. Which justifies the whole unit to me, just wish they had been sent to do more work periodically with the rest of the Army. Or made a DVD to share for trainers without their many rounds and shooting experience. Great DVD, buy a copy for your local library to share with the shooting and non-shooting public.

I have to go and prepare for the Courthouse wait again today, but for all of the United States Army Marksmanship Unit members past and present I do apologize for being jealous and mean spirited, I just wanted to shoot more and better but had other things on my plate. I am glad that someone gets to be the best and lead the rest, Thank you.

I just can't do it all, not to the level I should...

When I mentioned my girl friend and wife in the same sentence, it must have bothered some people, but if I can keep my girl friend and wife in the same person it shouldn't bother anyone but her. I only have to remember half as many special days and buy half as many perfect gifts to goo over if there is only one. Women are awesome as girl friends, great as wives and special as mothers of our children, but then lose it a bit when they shift from mothering departing son to smothering present husband (I know what is stupid and dangerous and wasteful and habit forming and unhealthy - honest! I have a mother and she told me all that before and drove me out to find a girl friend so I could do all that stuff without being reminded), THANKS, MOM!

There is a post at Tam's that talks to Appleseed and two points of view, one from a participant, Breda, and one from a professional frowner PDB (I couldn't leave my comment there so left it at Tam's place, I am so incompetent).

Anyway, Breda's experience reminded me that I was going to get back to spending more time and effort in my rifle marksmanship. So I look into getting a Garand, and decide to go CMP and get one from them - lower cost and it will shoot better than a sixty year old deserves and I can pretend my father, that used one in WWII, would approve my purchase and shooting it. Although, he tried to bring an M1 Carbine home, but left it in an Amnesty Box when he returned to the United States and sanity. I still have his pistol belt and bayonet from that time and era, and the Japanese military saber he brought back. Trade it all in for the return of my father, but then that last trip is one way.

Coffee stop today, if anyone were driving north on I-5 at the Scattercreek Rest Stop, from 10am to 2pm, I will be there or be square - which I always was and will ever be. Amen.