Well, just wanted to pop in and let you know I hadn’t dropped off the face of the earth – again.

I really haven’t been doing much – I got a bid for an entertainment center, and will be starting that project very soon. Well, as soon as my workshop dries out. I do most of my woodworking in the backyard, and it’s been a bit cold and damp here in Phoenix lately. I have even resorted to wearing long pants and actual shoes, for crying out loud.

The planting of trees has been sidelined by the weather, also – digging holes in soil that collapses as you dig is fruitless.

On the upside – MEG is beginning to really blossom – she so wants to walk, and is frustrated with all this crawling around she has to do. It’s only a matter of time before she figures out the whole balance/movement issue, and then it will be off to the races!

I’ve been spending time with her, reading, and just sitting on the floor and playing. I could get used to this, but I’ve got to get the business going so that TMBWitW can get used to it instead.

I pray your week is going well – and that this Christmas Season finds you with the ones you care about the most. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy New Year – and if you don’t celebrate any of those, Happy or Merry whatever you do celebrate.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

On this day, in 1943, US forces landed on Tarawa. In honor of that occasion, once again I refer you to this post:

=+=+=+=
It was low tide. The young man stood on the outermost shelf of the reef that protected this island paradise, the crashing waves behind him, the coral cliffs that supported the flat top of the island more than a hundred yards away and thirty to forty feet high. The reef itself was only eight inches below the surface of the water; waves didn’t make it to this point because of the deep drop off at the end of the coral shelf. He had carefully made his way to this vantage point, gingerly stepping around the many sink holes that would be hidden from view in more turbulent water. His eyes scanned the many scars and cracks on the face of the cliff, knowing that each mark was man made-either with the picks and shovels of the defenders or the impact of high-explosive ordinance thrown from the invaders’ ships more than forty years in the past.

He searched and found the narrow slits at the tops of the cliffs, and followed them down twisted pathways to the narrow strips of dazzling white sand at the water’s edge. In his mind he replayed the words he had read – “…the landing craft ran aground on the reef… …as the ramps crashed down, we were sitting ducks for the Japanese guns in the cliffs… …I was the only one that made it to the beach from our LC… …they were dug in so deep we couldn’t get at them… …the water was red from the waves to the shore…” – and stood there, in the quiet summer sunshine, and listened to the ghosts of the Marines who had taken Tarawa.

He turned from the cliffs, and rejoined his fellow Marines as they regrouped at the base of one of the paths to the top. Pausing, they examined the shreds of leather that had been their boots before they stepped onto the knife-sharp coral shelf. The joking back and forth died down, replaced with the sobering realization of just what those young kids had faced in World War Two. Scrambling up the steep path, they found an opening into the warren of caves behind the cliff face. Moving from room to room, bent over double, they could see every inch of the defender’s territory from the base of the cliffs to the watery horizon. Idle kicking of the dust on the floor would turn up Japanese machine gun casings, bits of shrapnel, and the remains of cooking fires – signs of human occupation many years past.

Returning to the coveted airstrip, they boarded an older model cargo plane, ready to continue their flight back to the base on the island of Okinawa. The plane’s propellers strained against the wheel brakes as the engines were readied for the launch; assisted by an auxiliary jet engine, the plane leaped back into the clear blue sky over the Sea of Japan.
=+=+=+=

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

My, how time flies.

Last week, one thing lead to another. Most of you have probably noticed that I don’t visit or comment or read my mail on Wednesdays, since that is the day TMBWitW works from home. MEG and I occupy ourselves in another part of the house, and leave TMBWitW to her work; working from home is a privilege and we certainly don’t want to lose it… Well, that means that I don’t have access on Wednesdays. Wednesday was spent chasing down a set of keys for the house I am sprucing up, so that I could get my tools gathered together and re-consolidated. Wednesday evening I made a trash run for all the material that had been removed during the sprucing – old carpeting, padding, baseboards, etc. Thursday afternoon the keys were obtained, the tools were gathered, the tool trailer was emptied at my house, and the trailer itself was taken back over to a friends house, since the HOA does not allow me to leave my trailer in the community. Friday morning (at 1:26 am, but who’s tracking?) marked the onset of MEG’s stomach flu. She was throwing up every hour or so for most of the night; we were both up with her, trying to comfort her and keep her calm – nothing like a ten-month old getting hysterical in the middle of the night. TMBWitW was somehow able to go to work on Friday; God bless her for her strength. MEG saw the doctor’s office at noon, and we got the news – a stomach bug. Advice was given, and we headed home. Saturday dawned with MEG having another restless night. TMBWitW and MEG stayed home, sleeping as they could, I attended the Truth Project session for that week. Afterward, I headed over to the project house and picked up the owner’s son and we went to the Palace of the Orange Aprons to purchase supplies.

Supplies is right. Guess who started getting nauseous and dizzy while at the Palace of the Orange Aprons? We got the trailer full of supplies back to the project house and parked in the backyard; I headed home. As I pulled into the driveway, I needed to jump out for a moment to move some items in the garage. When I headed back to the driver’s side, my breakfast decided to fertilize the little tree in front of the house. I am so glad it was a quite day. The echoes of the retching bounced off the neighboring houses, drawing the attention of a stray cat. Luckily, no neighbors were out and about.

When I got in the house, I found out that everyone had been doing the same all day long. We spent the rest of Saturday and all day Sunday in bed or racing to the bathroom.

Not fun.

Yesterday, I helped my chiropractor move his office. He adjusted me afterwards, but the muscles in my lower back are now screaming for my head on a platter. I’ll be working on reconfiguring some of his old cabinets today; they will be going into the restroom in the new office.

I’ve trimmed the blogroll a bit – and added One Loon’s Tales. Please give the Loon a visit; we need to support our northern friend as much as the Loon supports us!

So – how was your week?

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

My friend, TexasFred, has established a completely non-tracking, anonymous polling blog. (Link here: TexasFred’s Non-Scientific Polling Place)

According to Fred, this is “a place where reasonable and intelligent questions can be asked by ALL and responded to by all as well…”

Fred has set this site up without any tracking capabilities to protect the intellectual freedom of open discussion, so if you have a question, or would like to engage in the serious discussion of questions and answers, head on over there.

Thank you for stopping by and God bless you all.

You may have to live in a warm region (heh – he said “warm”) like Phoenix, Yuma, or, recently, SoCal, in order to appreciate this next statement –

Ah! Fall! Time to open the doors, let the cool breezes flow through, and take a shower that is not automatically HOT!

The last two mornings, the thermometer was broken – no, really, it was – because it said it was cooler outside than inside. After a record breaking summer of temps over 110 (I think the old record was 28 days, this year we had – I believe – 32) it is glorious to be able to walk outside in the morning and not burn the soles of your feet.

My shower this morning was actually cold. Usually, just turning on the cold tap produces water hot enough for most people’s showers in the winter. I needed to turn it past the normal point to mix in some water from the water heater to get it up to shower temp – not much, in my case, since I really do prefer a shower slightly cooler than most people I have discussed this with – which means the ground is cooling off. That means the pipes, which weren’t buried deep enough to keep the water from being heated before delivery, are no longer being baked. Which tells me, in the end, that Fall has officially arrived.

This brings us, unfortunately, to a very awkward time of year, because now that the temps have dropped at night, we don’t need to use the AC all night. Some of you may be saying, “What’s the big deal?” I’ll tell you the big deal – the electric bill. Even keeping the house at a relatively warm 78 (most businesses in Phoenix keep their buildings around 72 – 74, so most people keep their houses the same) our bill would top $450 a month if we didn’t have a program that allows us to pay the same amount each month. This allows us to run a deficit in the summer, and build up a slight reserve in the winter, so we don’t have to take out a second mortgage to keep our cool.

Cooler weather = starting to erase the deficit and build the reserve. We have electric heat also, but I have only used that once, when we first moved in and we didn’t have all the animals creating so much ambient heat. The last five winters we haven’t turned it on at all.

(Hmm – I can see the Global Warming lemmings lining up here – let me dispel you all by saying that Phoenix is in the desert, and in the southwest, in case you are also geographically challenged. Even in the ‘cold’ years, it’s hot here. Now, go play with your Al Gore trading cards.)

Hope you all have a wonderful week – enjoy the cooler weather!

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, support Warriors for Innocence, and write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008!

Tag: Write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008