Category Archives: Fallen Warriors

Sprung

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At least I think Spring has sprung. Of course, there was frost on the grass and rooftops this morning, and we have two more of those mornings in the forecast. But I did do some significant yardwork yesterday, clearing the winter debris and die-off from the front yard. I also did the early Spring fertilizing on the lawns.

Also accomplished: not too damn much. I finished playing Bioshock Infinite, which was fun, even though I saw the ending coming from about a million miles away. Fun game, good story. Nice drive by on Rapture, right near the end, too.

In celebration of TableTop Day yesterday, we played Scrabble ™ in the evening. Herself came very close to beating me both times. Lexi helped, too:

Lexi helps with Scrabble

Lexi helps with Scrabble

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After  a wonderful month and a day without a casualty, DoD reported on April 4 that Capt. James E. Chaffin III, 27, of West Columbia, S.C., died April 1, in Kandahar, Afghanistan, of a non-combat related incident. Our condolences to his family and friends.

Whoops…

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Frankly, I don’t know what happened on Sunday. It wasn’t a particularly stressful day, I got some stuff done, but not much. Not much at all since I managed also to forget to post, and continue forgetting until Marcia reminded me just now. What’s been going on? Today:

Yeah, more snow

Yeah, more snow

You wouldn’t guess it was Spring already, eh? In other news, I’ve been a much better boy when it comes to sticking to the exercise routine this year. I picked up in earnest in early February and have been improving as I went along. Today, along with sit-ups and a few push-ups, I managed this on the elliptical:

Today's elliptical workout - 845 calories & 5000 "strides"

Today’s elliptical workout

So I’ve got that going for me.

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Good news, no new casualties reported by DoD (none announced since March 3). Ciao!

Time Bandits

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They’ve been, and gone, and an hour of my life has been stolen from me. Worse yet, I had patching duties this morning early, and the vague worry about over-sleeping meant I actually slept very little. Sigh.

However, it was seasonably warm here this weekend: mid-50’s yesterday, high 40’s today, so I wore shorts all weekend, yay! Walking the dog past shrinking piles of snow while wearing shorts made me unreasonably happy. I also made an early start in the garden: I turned over one bed, and planted snow peas. Just in time for possibly more snow, Wednesday night into Thursday. Sigh.

Speaking of that, the Tuesday morning following last Monday’s Snow Day it got down to a brisk 0°F by the time I was driving into work, at about 0630. Wowser! New low records set all over the place in MD. Saves shaving though, I just wander around outside for a bit, then break the whiskers off flush with the skin. Sigh.

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

  • Lance Cpl. Caleb L. Erickson, 20, of Waseca, Minnesota, died Feb. 28, while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.
  • Master Sgt. David L. Poirier, 52, of North Smithfield, Rhode Island, died Feb. 28, from a non-combat related incident.

Yardwork … errrr, Spring almost upon us.

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I withstood the temptation to wash cars this weekend, which was difficult, because the weather was glorious. About 60° F both days. We did open up the house both days and get some fresh air in, which was very nice indeed. But the highs are dropping back down into the 30’s, with chances of snow a couple of days this upcoming week. So I’ll just wait. Soon it’ll be time for washing of cars and yardwork … but not just yet.

Today, I was going to cut my hair and bathe the dog this afternoon (shopping and work this morning), but instead ran Marcia over to G Street Fabrics in Rockville, to get us a little time out of the house. Pretty day for a drive.

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Instead, I am dealing with my second SSD failure in a year. An old Crucial M4 gave up the ghost last year, and yesterday my Windows box failed to boot to the Samsung 840 I had installed there. No data lost, I have good backups, but it’s still a pain in the ass. To replace it, I’ve ordered on of the Seagate “hybrid” hard drives. I’ve not tried one of those, and I’d like to see how good they are. I’ll still probably end up with another SSD in this system, but not just yet.

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Our condolences to the family and friends of Master Sgt. Aaron C. Torian, 36, of Paducah, Kentucky, who died Feb. 15 while conducting combat operations in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

Happy Birthday, Baby

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Not puttin’ you in a corner, never fear. Yeah, my lovely had a nice birthday yesterday. She enjoyed a Downton Abby marathon, and we went out to supper with two other couples, each with a birthday celebration going in this week(end?). Good meal at Four Seasons Grille in Gambrills, just up the slightly frozen road from us a double handful of miles.

Not much else to report. I should do taxes tomorrow, which is bound to be a cheerless and disappointing task. Why tomorrow? So that I can shell out some more dead Presidents to fund the current President’s predilection for non-legislative action. Sigh.

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

  • Pfc. Joshua A. Gray, 21, of Van Lear, Kentucky, died Feb. 10, in Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, from a non-combat related incident.
  • Spc. Christopher A. Landis, 27, of Independence, Kentucky, died Feb. 10, on Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, from wounds received when the enemy attacked his dismounted patrol with a rocket propelled grenade in Kapisa Province, Afghanistan.
  • Spc. John A. Pelham, 22, of Portland, Oregon, died Feb. 12, in Kapisa Province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when he was struck by enemy small arms fire.
  • Sgt. First Class Roberto C. Skelt, 41, of York, Florida, died Feb. 12, in Kapisa Province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when he was struck by enemy small arms fire.

 

Cold Sunday

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Still haven’t got above freezing, snow and ice everywhere around yet. Other than that, and a nice supper in with neighbors last night, nothing too exciting going on. Unwound today playing Bioshock. Fun.

Oh, yeah. We watched Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing this week. Loved. It. Loved it! You should watch it, too.

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Our condolences to the family and friends of Chief Warrant Officer Edward Balli, 42, of Monterey, California. He died on Jan. 20, in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, of wounds from small arms fire when he was attacked by insurgents.

Not as much fun…

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The second week of the year, sadly, was not so much fun (though overall successful and much more eventful).

I flew out to Columbus on business last Sunday night, and concluded the work in time to be home on Tuesday evening. Wednesday morning, I got out of bed and spontaneously “decided” that emptying my stomach was going to be the previously unplanned activity of the day. Although that was a solo event, the aches, fever, and general lack of ability to focus lasted pretty much through yesterday. So I lost a week to Ohio, and to the flu. But all is good now.

I see from the news that I won’t have to watch the StupidBowl this year. Sad for Tom and his team, but I get an entire Sunday back in my life.

Tomorrow is a holiday for my ${FIRM}, so I’m going to be doing some house cleaning and a bit of project work down in the woodshop.

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

  • Sgt. Daniel T. Lee, 28, of Crossville, Tennessee, died Jan. 15, in Parwan Province, Afghanistan, from wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire during combat operations.
  • Chief Warrant Officer Andrew L. McAdams, 27, of Cheyenne, Wyoming, died Jan. 10, at Bagram Airfield, in Parwan Province, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when the aircraft he was aboard crashed.
  • Sgt. Drew M. Scobie, 25, of Kailua, Hawaii, died Jan. 10, at Bagram Airfield, in Parwan Province, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when the aircraft he was aboard crashed.
  • Spc. Andrew H. Sipple, 22, of Cary, North Carolina, died Jan. 17, in Kandahar City, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, from a non-combat related incident.

Pre-cooling

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While the West is unseasonably warm and horribly dry, we’re hovering around normal on precipitation here in this back yard – .28″ measured for 2014 to date. But the temps we’ve got coming are something else again. Today was a summer-ish 38° F, with some rain to knock down most of the snow, more’s the pity. It was pretty outside, but not so much, now. Day after tomorrow, we should be around 0-2° F over night, with a high around 12° or so. That’s cold, baby! And dicey driving on roads slick with snow-melt that stopped melting. After that, oddly, we’ll be back up into the 40’s for a few days.

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I’ve been working on a small project. Here’s a piece of it in progress:

Working with wood

Working with wood

It’s nothing to do with a Buffy remake, if that’s what you’re thinking.

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Coffee – For these two weeks, we’re drinking a Guatemala Huehuetenango – Tono Sanchez. It’s roasted to City+, about halfway between first and second crack. Delicious!

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Our condolences to the family, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

  • Sgt. Jacob M. Hess, 22, of Spokane, Washington, died on Jan. 1, 2014, while supporting combat operations in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
  • Sgt. First Class William K. Lacey, 38, of Laurel, Florida, died on Jan. 4, 2014, in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when the enemy attacked his unit with rocket propelled grenades.

Trapped Between Holidays

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Two Wednesday holidays back to back makes for broken work weeks and broken routines. I like routines – a well-ordered life makes me happy. That said, we had a nice, quiet Christmas day at home. We called relatives here, there, and everywhere. For supper, we enjoyed more turkey.

The next evening we watched the Doctor Who stuff that we’d picked up on the DVR on Christmas night. I enjoyed that immensely.

I got some work done over the weekend – not as much as I’d hoped, but that’s the joy of doing things that need to be done off hours. This afternoon, I broke from that and we attended a surprise birthday party for a neighbor. That was fun!

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Our condolences to the family and friends of Capt. David I. Lyon, 28, of Sandpoint, Idaho, who died on Dec. 27, 2013, from wounds suffered when his vehicle was attacked with an improvised explosive device in Kabul, Afghanistan.

T’was the night b’fnord

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That is arguably one of my favorite blooper scenes from the Carol Burnett Show. No Harvey in this one, but Vicki as Mama kicks butt. At least as much fun as Christmas, eh? Speaking of the holiday, we’re having a quiet one, at home. No travel, etc. Keeping expenses way down, since we might want to get Marcia a new hip this year…

Missed my post two nights ago. I was confused on Sunday – it was so bloody warm. Two nights ago it was mid-60’s after Lexi’s supper – shorts and t-shirt. Tonight, thirty and snow flurries. Weird.

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Our condolences to the families and friends of these fallen warriors:

  • Petty Officer 1st Class James L. Smith, 38, of Huffman, Texas, died Dec. 11, in Landstuhl, Germany, from a non-combat related incident.
  • Chief Warrant Officer 2 Randy L. Billings, 34, of Heavener, Oklahoma, died Dec. 17, in Now Bahar, Afghanistan, of injuries suffered as a result of a helicopter crash.
  • Chief Warrant Officer 2 Joshua B. Silverman, 35, of Scottsdale, Arizona, died Dec. 17, in Now Bahar, Afghanistan, of injuries suffered as a result of a helicopter crash.
  • Sgt. Peter C. Bohler, 29, of Willow Spring, North Carolina, died Dec. 17, in Now Bahar, Afghanistan, of injuries suffered as a result of a helicopter crash.
  • Sgt. 1st Class Omar W. Forde, 28, of Marietta, Georgia, died Dec. 17, in Now Bahar, Afghanistan, of injuries suffered as a result of a helicopter crash.
  • Staff Sgt. Jesse L. Williams, 30, of Elkhart, Indiana, died Dec. 17, in Now Bahar, Afghanistan, of injuries suffered as a result of a helicopter crash.
  • Spc. Terry K. D. Gordon, 22, of Shubuta, Mississippi, died Dec. 17, in Now Bahar, Afghanistan, of injuries suffered as a result of a helicopter crash.
  • Sgt. Daniel M. Vasselian, 27, of Abington, Massachusetts, died Dec. 23, while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.