Family Foibles

Gen Odierno requested that everyone read President Reagan's 40th anniversary of D-Day speech. Wow. You can find it here: http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/reagan-d-day.htm

RLTW

I'd also like to direct my readers to Fareed Zakaria's piece in Newsweek echoing Friedman echoing my frustration with the Obama speech. So it's not just that I'm biased because I'm sitting in Iraq and feeling neglected.

Anyway, today's theme seemed to be guys talking about their parents and grandparents. I'm not sure what started it but it kept coming up.

In some ways the chats were more about a way of life that is being lost. Their grandparents could make anything they needed with their hands. Even some of the older guys, their parents could make anything they needed with their hands.

One guy was telling the story of being on a satellite phone with his dad to ask about setting up some plumbing and wiring for their team house during one of his deployments.

My neighbor here was talking about how his wife's grandparents, who moved from Montana to Alaska cause it was getting crowded (OK, so really her grandfather got a job up there, but I've met people like that), keep everything. When one shed got full, they'd build another. Never know when you'd need it.

So I was telling stories about my Grandfather as well. I'm not sure how many people's families he managed to support by jotting down brilliant ideas on the backs of envelopes and napkins and then giving them away, but it wasn't just ours.

I'm not sure if those skills were the product of the depression, of shared military training from WWII, or just necessity in the days before hardware stores. All I know is all of us here, despite having our own mix of skills, are a little jealous when we talk about it.

Hank Williams Jr. and my SERE instructors were right: a country boy can survive.

At lunch one guy was telling crazy stories about his family. I guess they are a little, um, closed-minded. When he brought the woman who would become his wife to meet them they heard her last name and asked if she was a, well, they didn't use the word Italian. His mom;s only comment on his future wife's ethnicity was that her father (my friend's grandfather) had fought against the Italians in WWII. To this day his parents send a Christmas card addressed to him and family.

When they went to visit him once at his on-base house, there just so happened to have been a domestic dispute across the street that ended with a wife stabbing her husband. His parents arrived soon after the police. So they are all looking on the scene and apparently taking it all in.

My friend was going to comment on the crime scene across the street. Before he could say anything his dad, looking at another couple that was gawking at the scene, asked if that was really a white woman with a black man. My friend, stunned, just looked at his parents and shook his head.

He hasn't talked to them in six years. It's sad, but he doesn't really have much nice to say to them.

I almost had a really proud moment today. I picked up what I thought was the next level up in the grip strength trainers I squeezed it. I got it. YES!!!. So easy. Then I checked the label. It was still the beginner one.

I'm getting closer though. My soon-to-be-crush-skulls-with-my-pinky-strength courtesy of Captains of Crush.

I received my pelican case for my iPod. Nice.

My neighbor and I also showed each other pictures from our iPods. We both have pictures of ourselves with our respective wives from Destin, FL. I guess it should be expected that guys working in this community will have pictures from Hurlburt Field.

As for my actual work, I remarked to my neighbor today that I felt like I was missing something in my forecast. I was looking over the data and computer model output and something just didn't sit right with me.

I also mentioned that to another forecaster that I work very closely with. I told him the story of how last time I was here there some days like this where we got surprise thunderstorms. At the time my partner on the day shift (I was working nights) had 25 years of experience and his response was to just shake his head and say that it happens. Technology is only so good I guess.

Well, lo and behold, it happened today. Nothing major but some unexpected storms and light rain. I was surprised in the sense that it wasn't in the forecast I put out but not surprised in the sense that I had a gut feeling that something weird would happen.

So it goes.