It's 12:43 on Friday September 3, 2010

The wrinkles only go where the smiles have been.

Flat Daddies Hold Soldier’s Place At Home

I thought this was SUCH a cool idea!

The Maine National Guard is giving life-size from-the-waist-up pictures of soldiers to the families of deployed guard members. Guard officials and families say the cutouts, known as Flat Daddies or Flat Soldiers, connect families with a relative who is thousands of miles away. The Flat Daddies are toted everywhere from soccer practice to coffee shops to weddings.

What an awesome idea, and a great way for Command to support the families!

Wouldn’t it be neat if communities started adopting their NG and USAR units, and finding a printer who would do this at a decent price, so every unit could do this for their troops?

September 30, 2006 | Filed Under Military | Leave a Comment 

How I Spent My Day

The cat needed to go to the vet, so I had her in the carrier, heading out the door, when Eli spotted me.

“Daddy, where are you going?”

“I’m taking Amber to the vet.”

“Can I come?”

I was already running late, and didn’t really want to wait, but I did. He got his shoes on, and went potty (it’s important; he’s 4), and off we went.

As we got near our church, I saw a Nissan SUV pull into the lot through the exit driveway. I didn’t think much of it, since lots of cars use our lot to turn around. As I passed the church, though, the SUV drove around behind the church.

Now, in the 6 years we’ve been associated with this congregation, we’ve seen more criminal activity than we did in 8 years at a congregation that’s much closer to the big city of Columbus. In just 3 years, we’ve had our John Deere tractor stolen once, along with another attempt; there was a break-in as well, although nothing was stolen. I’m an ex-cop, as well, and when people like me see something like this, we think, “That’s a clue!” So I turned around to go check on things.
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September 26, 2006 | Filed Under Law & Order | 2 Comments 

It IS black and white

“She’s basically looking at this as a black-and-white issue,” said defense attorney Thomas Liotti. “People need some degree of hope, and under Kathleen Rice’s policies, they’re not getting it.”

So who is Kathleen Rice? What are her horrible policies?

She’s the Nassau County District Attorney, and she’s hell on drunk drivers.

Among other things:

  • No plea deals
  • alcohol sensors for probationed drunk drivers
  • murder charges when a death is involved

    • Predictably, defense attorneys don’t care for her actions, as Mr Liotti’s comment illustrates. But it really is a black-and-white issue. How can anyone who’s been alive for more than 10 years not understand that driving after drinking alcohol is stupid, and in most cases, against the law?

    I won’t go off on an anti-alcohol rant here; alcohol is not the issue. Impaired driving is. More power to DA Rice. Go get ‘em.

    September 25, 2006 | Filed Under Law & Order | 2 Comments 

    I weep for our future

    At a forum I frequent, someone asked if a photo had been “photoshopped.” That in and of itself is a good thing, I suppose. After the Reuters Photoshop scandal, among others, people are a bit dubious about photographic evidence.

    I just wish he were more knowledgeable about the photo in question.
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    September 13, 2006 | Filed Under General | Leave a Comment 

    A Parental Moment…

    We usually start cleaning up around 8:00 PM. It’s not a hard and fast rule, but that’s our target, so they can get upstairs by 9:00.

    I wasn’t paying attention tonight, so I got them started cleaning up at one point, just using the timer. I glanced at the clock at one point, noted it was twenty-five minutes before the hour, and told them they only had twenty-five more minutes to go.

    Then I looked more closely at the clock.

    It was 25 before 8.

    I was an hour ahead of time, and told them so.

    I expected them to ask if they could go play with their friends, who had just left, because I thought it was time to clean up. Instead, Erica said “Hey guys, let’s keep going, so we can get to bed early tonight!”

    Hmph.

    September 11, 2006 | Filed Under Parenting | Leave a Comment 

    What are you doing Monday?

    It’s a normal day for me. Two rides, average for a Monday. We’re going to talk to the Realtor about making an offer on the house we saw today.

    But what about The Day? Come on. It’s five years after that day. Aren’t you going to do something special, or different? ARe you going to watch all the stuff on TV?

    I was planning on watching some of the coverage. But I was thinking a while ago about how I felt that day, and there’s really no need to dredge all that back up, now is there? I’m stressed enough as it is, financially and emotionally, and watching all that coverage and such really won’t do anyone in my family or anywhere else in the world a damn bit of good.

    It wasn’t until just a few months ago that I was really able to watch the French film [I]9-11[/I], where they were following the rookie firefighter. Part of me had really wanted to see it, but once I started watching it, I didn’t like the pain it brought up for me, and I wasn’t there, and don’t know anyone who was, or who lost someone. I caught a few minutes of some of the stuff that was on tonight, and cringed. We know how it’s going to end, and that’s painful enough. I don’t know that I’ll be seeing [I]United 93[/I] any time soon, although the Oliver Stone movie might have potential. In a couple of years.

    I’m just going to love on my kids a lot tomorrow, and pray about a bunch of stuff. In the end, I think that’s a better way to spend such a day.

    September 10, 2006 | Filed Under General, History | Leave a Comment 

    Moving

    Six years ago, when we started building our current home, we planned to be buried out of it, after marrying off all of our kids here. We had 3 kids at the time, and didn’t know how many we were going to end up with, having decided early on in our marriage to let God decide how big our family would be.
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    September 10, 2006 | Filed Under General | Leave a Comment 

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