TSO brings the goodness…
I hope this night finds you safe in home and hearth with family. Say a prayer for those in the military on duty world-wide who protect our freedoms…
Time with family is important to all of us this time of year, and more especially when one has to travel to get there…
It also brings back memories of holidays missed, far away places; ships, airplanes, bases, foxholes, as the case may be for those who served.
Luckily I have a chance to spend time with the daughters and the grandsons, although never as much as I’d like…
Grandson 1 playing with grandson 2. Just a ‘bit’ of a size and age difference there…
And there is Jace with his ever present guard dog, Vito…
And then there is Vito ‘patiently’ waiting for me to play with him… 
And lastly, there is this… Political correctness run amok again…
“Our equal opportunity representative stopped the briefing and told us that we can’t say Christmas,” the soldier told me. “Almost the entire room blew up. Everybody was frustrated. The equal opportunity rep told our commander that not everyone celebrates Christmas and we couldn’t say Christmas celebration. It had to be holiday celebration.”
Read the article HERE.
And the Grinch is alive and well in San Francisco too…
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — Put away the chestnuts; the Bay Area Air Quality Management District has announced that wood burning will be banned in the region on Christmas Eve—and possibly on Christmas Day, too.
Read the whole article HERE…
Where does this crap end???
h/t Les
Vito… again…
Conflicted or not, Vito IS going to get his ‘pound of flesh’ out of me…
First it was the ‘gentle’ nudge…
When that didn’t work, it got a ‘bit’ more pointed…
You WILL play with me… after he wormed his way UNDER the table (barely fitting) and rather pointedly shoving the ball into me…
It’s no wonder it took me three hours to get through all the blogs!
And this from Frito, from back in the day…
This one is for Old AF Sarge, and F-4 in full on high-G load in zone 5 burner!
Frito said this was taken at Magu in the middle of a 1V1 when they were about to get the six position on their ‘opponent’…
The ‘things’ on the rails are the range tracking pods.
And here comes Vito again, tongue and all… sigh
God Bless all who stand in our defense…
h/t Farm Dad
Out on the left coast with family, snuck out one day to see an old friend and former roommate from 37 years ago…
He pops the garage door and what do I see???
And the tag is a 71269X33 code…
It’s a real one!!!
He’s fixing a couple of issues, otherwise I’d have taken it for a spin, but lights and having the dash wiring partially torn apart make that rather hard…
In other news, we drank some good scotch, grilled some steaks and caught up on old and new times…
Also, I was lucky enough to finally catch up with Not Clauswitz and he was good enough to drive down and meet us for breakfast. Truly nice guy, and like the rest of us getting caught up in the age discrimination issues in the job market… dammit…
Truly enjoyed the chat, and listening to his ‘learning experiences’ of home ownership vs. living in a condo… BTDT, and it IS an interesting transition- If you don’t do it, nobody will unless you pay the man $$. He and his wife are working hard (as you see from his blog), to get it up to where they want it.
Sadly I had to bolt to go see my grandson play in a basketball tourney, and while they lost, he played pretty well. He’s on the freshman team and they were playing in a JV tourney down in Davis. He scored 9 points, got 12 rebounds, got a bloody nose in a tussle for a loose ball, and got banged in the knee going for another one… In other words, he played hard!!!
Now up with youngest daughter and Vito… and new grandbaby. Pics to follow, and Vito is now conflicted… Licks me, licks the baby, trying to sit where he can see both of us…LOL
I hope y’all are having a great day, and are with family. Please remember those in the military who cannot make it home. Say a quick prayer of thanks for them…
Off spending time with family, but this one is funny as hell…
A 850 H.P. John Deere diesel vs. a steam tractor rated 18 H.P?
Lets just say it’s ALL about torque and traction… enjoy 🙂
Nothing like getting your ass handed to you by an antique, run by an old antique in his gimme cap, and knowing he’s laughing his ass off at you… 🙂
In lieu of a real card…
I wish each and everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. And I wish you the best for 2014…
I’m off to see the kids and new grandbaby for the holidays, so posting and commenting will be light for the next week or so.
Enjoy the time with family and please remember those in the military who are defending our freedom where ever they may be in the world.
I don’t know the author, but this one kinda makes my point…
A Different Christmas Poem
The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So slumbered I, perhaps I started to dream.
The sound wasn’t loud, and it wasn’t too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn’t quite know,
Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Trooper, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.
“What are you doing?” I asked without fear,
“Come in this moment. It’s freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!”
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts.
To the window that danced with a warm fire’s light
Then he sighed and he said, “It’s really all right,
I’m out here by choice. I’m here every night.”
“It’s my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I’m proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died in Europe on a day in December,”
Then he said,
“That’s a Christmas ‘Gram always remembers.”
I’ve not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures. He’s sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and Blue American Flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother.
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall.”
“So go back inside,” he said, “harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I’ll be all right.”
“But isn’t there something I can do, at the least,
“Give you money,” I asked, “or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you’ve done,
For being away from your wife and your son.”
Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
“Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we’re gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us.”
Talk about MASTERY of camouflage…
Dr. Roger Hanlon at MBL Woods Hole has been studying these suckers for years.
Interesting how they do this when they are colorblind! Much less how they change skin texture…
Kudos to Dr. Hanlon and his team for bringing a rather interesting creature to ‘light’ shall we say. For more info and videos his link at MBL is HERE.
I’m off to see the kids for Christmas, so light posting and commenting for the next few days…
These are the people that Reid et al choose to kick to the curb so they can fund illegals…
What is a veteran and retiree?
Some veterans and retirees bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye.
Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg – or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul’s ally forged in the refinery of adversity.
Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem.
You can’t tell a veteran just by looking.
What is a veteran?
He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn’t run out of fuel.
He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is out weighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.
She – or he – is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.
He is the POW who went away one person and came back another – or didn’t come back AT ALL.
He is the Marine Corps drill instructor who has never seen combat – but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other’s backs.
He is the parade-riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.
He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.
He is your next-door neighbor, who endured fierce door-to-door fighting in Fallujah only to see his best friend blown up by a terrorist carbomb while returning from patrol.
He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of the Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean’s sunless deep.
He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket – palsied now and aggravatingly slow – who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.
He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being – a person who offered some of his life’s most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.
He is a soldier and savior and sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more that the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.
So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say Thank You. That’s all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.
Two little words that mean a lot, “THANK YOU”.
Remember Veterans Day, Memorial Day, EVERY Day…
“It is the soldier, not the reporter, Who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet, Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier, Who salutes the flag, Who serves beneath the flag, And whose coffin is draped by the flag, Who allows the protester to burn the flag.”
Father Denis Edward O’Brien, USMC
Once again the military (specifically retired military) has been thrown under the bus by this administration and the @#$%^ congresscritters…
This does NOT start with new inductees, it is going to apply immediately in 2014 to all current active duty and retired military (including those retired with disabilities) under aged 62.
A provision cutting the pensions of military retirees in the bipartisan budget deal that the Senate will vote on this week does not exempt disabled veterans, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.
Disabled retirees were previously thought to be exempt from the changes to military retiree pay, which could cost servicemembers up to $124,000 over a 20-year period.
Read the whole steaming pile of !@#% HERE.
This is on top of the administration trying to dump us out of TRICARE and force us to get obummercare insurance (Thankfully that got killed), and the latest stated goal of closing all the commissary’s…
This is just flat unconscionable…
Military retirements are not THAT large. I retired as an officer (O3E) after 22 years at 55%, and my retirement is a little over $30,000 a year. That is chicken feed! I could actually get more on welfare than that…
It’s no wonder we all have to go get jobs after we retire…
I’m gonna quit before I start using four letter words, but I’ll say this. If you were looking at going in the military, DON’T! If you were looking at one of your kids going in, DON’T…
If you are a retired vet, or know one, please, PLEASE raise holy hell with your congresscritters while they are home on their Christmas break.
HERE is the official link to find out who is ‘representing’ you… Or not…