Amazing week..

From the property behind me, comes the sweet evening sound of semi automatic weapons fire (yeah, after 45 minutes, I have called the local sheriff's office, and the officer who answered the phone did let me know that I wasn't nuts, that is IS Semi Automatic Weapons Fire, and they are sending someone out)Cute young sheriff's deputy just came up... he's interested that the SAWF is also interspersed with High Powered Rifle and shotgun fire... so now he gets to drive around on the back roads and try to find whatever yutz is out there playing games.

Let's see... it was my birthday, and a very nice one too. a lovely card from everyone at work, roses and truffles from my sweetie in the Sand, a watch from my folks, but without the booklet and it has lots of buttons and dials and stuff.. The "kids" called, but the baby was sleeping so she didn't chat. DIL left me a lovely message the next day, with the grandbaby babbling... it was so cool!

Work is going fine. It really is a great place to work!

I am trying to get our webcams to work... AOL didn't work last night. let's just hope that MSN is going to work tonight.

Watching West Wing.. damn, I'm going to miss that show.

Talk to you later. ~LAW~

John Wayne vs. pukka british stiff upper lip

The article I have linked to is from the Telegraph. It's a whole different way of looking at the war in Iraq. The Bush administration continually says that we are not in the business of Empire Building... you coulda fooled me. And we aren't fooling anyone else in the world, either... Take a look at the article and remember, the Empire Builders of Britain, in the Cecil Rhodes, Clive of India mold didn't use overwhelming force. Big business (the East India Company, Diamond miners) followed the conquerors.... Halliburton/Brown & Root, anyone?



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/04/19/wirq19.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/04/19/ixnewstop.html

Happy Birthday, Lilibet

Ok, I know. She's an anachronism. She's not a warm and cuddly type. She's oldfashioned, wears dreadful hats, and her voice could break glass. But, she is loyal, true and steadfast. Not just to her husband, her family. But to her country, the Commonwealth and her people. On her 21st Birthday, she told the world that she pledged herself and her life "whether it be long or short" to their service.

But I still have to admire her. (Yes dear, I know,... we fought a war of Independence to get away from royalty.... be nice... hush) Throughout the entire fiasco of her children's marriages falling apart, she kept that stiff upper lip. When Diana died, she may not have shown the world her grief, but she stayed with the people that mattered the most, her grandchildren. And she keeps going, with hundreds of engagements a year, listening to the same old speech, eating the rubber chicken, walking through hundreds of factories, schools, and asking questions, listening with attention to daft answers and babbling dignitaries. and she's 80 years old on Friday.

Yeah, yeah, she's a rich woman, one of the richest in the world. Well, blame her ancestors, (and credit her husband with some smart investments) Show me another 80 year old who is still working full time at her job. She takes no time off from the red boxes, is the greatest source of history for her prime ministers and others, is greatly respected by heads of state around the world, and especially with the leaders of countries in the Commonwealth. Her family may be a mess, but she has never shirked her duty. And that's the biggest jewel in her crown, her loyalty and her duty done.

Contrast that with our present leadership in the US... yeah, pathetic, isn't it?

So, to that wonderfully British anachronism, Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, Her Most Excellent Majesty, Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her Other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith... HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MA'AM.

It's really spring... HONEST!

Finally. Here on the tundra, spring has arrived. Nests everywhere, the pheasants in the back acreage are yelling away! Most of the trees are fuzzing out with that amazing green, that soft sweet colour that makes your heart smile. The forsythia is showing off in it's own brazen style, the day lilies are poking up, the lilac buds are getting fat and happy. Mud, everywhere. I didn't realize how finicky the dog is, she really hates mud on her paws. But then the other day, she killed a gopher and rolled in it... so how is a little mud different?? The Harley's are out, pretty soon they will be flocking up to the North Shore and we'll hear that thunder along the back roads as they wander up and down. But I found the real, official, harbinger of spring a while ago. The ticks are out.. oh joy.

I saw spring in Mississippi, trees were blooming, and it was lovely. Spring here isn't nearly that far along yet, but I'm hopeful. And that's a good thing. The grey cloudy blah weather has been a reflection of my mood, so maybe this sunshine and new start will be what I need, to cheer up, to pull myself out of that funk I got into this winter. Now, if I could just lose the 10 (oh, c'mon... tell the truth...) 15 pounds I packed on.

The list of to do's ... is growing! Need to get the basement finished, get the cupola finished, new boiler, the mower needs to be fitted out for summer, landscaping, fill all those pots on the deck... and the job needs work too! They have been marvelous about my leaving for the deployment stuff, and for my parents anniversary.. but I need to buckle down and get to work! Lots of cases piling up, and I really enjoy it. The commute kicks my butt some days, over an hour one way... but that's what we get for moving out here right?

No new pictures of the most beautiful child in the known universe... but I'm hopeful of getting some soon.

Take care, talk to you later. ~LAW~

50 years together

It was my parents 50th wedding anniversary last week. Amazing! 50 years together. 50 years of love, bickering, anger, trust, and tears. I'm sure, hell, I KNOW there were times they were close to divorce, times they both wanted to say to hell with it. I'm not sure what held them together, was it love, was it stubbornness, were they too scared to split? But there they are. Still doing their imitation of the Bickersons ..... ok, you kids... go look it up. I'll wait.

They kvetch at each other, Dad mutters about "putting up with this for all these years"... Mom mutters about "needs a hearing aid... selfish.... " and its comforting! Because they have been doing this since I can remember. When I was little, it scared me. I was sure they were going to go off and divorce, and I'd be like my friends, living through that incredibly awful tearing apart of a family, watching your familiar life fall apart around you. Sometimes, when they weren't talking for days, I thought it would have been better if they had. But now, they have grown together, and one without the other is unthinkable.

So, Mom and Dad, Happy 50th. May you have many many more.