Category Archives: Fallen Warriors

Fall Yard Work

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Yesterday I worked in the front yard, cleaning out some stuff from the beds, giving all the shrubs a haircut, and mowing the grass. I found this bird’s nest while I pruned the forsythia, and want to know if there’s a recipe. This isn’t, I think, the right type for bird’s nest soup. To give you a sense of scale, this would comfortably hold but one golf ball…

Bird's Nest. Soup?

Bird’s Nest. Soup?

Today, I worked in the back yard. I pulled out about 10 pounds of potatoes, a couple of shopping bags full of peppers … and that’s about all she wrote for this garden. Three of the beds are cleaned out, four left to go. I had the iPhone propped up on the fence playing me music while I wielded the shovel. After a while, I noticed the music, it was gone. This is the iPhone’s excuse:

iPhone's gotta fever!

iPhone’s gotta fever!

So, rule of thumb – don’t leave the phone sitting in the sun, it’s not a happy place.

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

  • Staff Sgt. Liam J. Nevins, 32, of Denver, Colorado, died Sept. 21, at Forward Operating Base Shank, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire while conducting range training in Gardez, Paktia Province, Afghanistan.
  • Staff Sgt. Timothy R. McGill, 30, of Ramsey, New Jersey, died Sept. 21, at Forward Operating Base Shank, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire while conducting range training in Gardez, Paktia Province, Afghanistan.
  • Lt. Cmdr. Landon L. Jones, 35, of Lompoc, California, died Sept. 22, as a result of an MH-60S Knighthawk helicopter crash while operating in the central Red Sea.
  • Chief Warrant Officer Jonathan S. Gibson, 32, of Aurora, Oregon, died Sept. 22, as a result of an MH-60S Knighthawk helicopter crash while operating in the central Red Sea.
  • Staff Sgt. Thomas A. Baysore, Jr., 31, of Milton, Pennsylvania, died Sept. 26, in Paktya Province, Afghanistan, from wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire during combat operations.

Welcome to Fall

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Now I’m waiting for the first 39 degree morning as my next harbinger.

The weekend … it was productive. Mostly moving stuff around on walls, and hanging up assorted wall hangings that Marcia’s made for the house over the last few years.
That and patching systems made up most of my time. I still have more cleanup to do in my office, but that can wait for later. Very tired, and a long week ahead.

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

  • Staff Sgt. Randall R. Lane, 43, of Indianapolis, Indiana, died Sept. 13, in Kabul, Afghanistan, from a non-combat related illness.
  • Sgt. William D. Brown III, 44, of Franklin, North Carolina, died Sept. 19, in Laghman Province, Afghanistan, from a non-combat incident.
  • Spc. James T. Wickliffchacin, 22, of Edmond, Oklahoma, died Sept. 20 at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, of injuries sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his dismounted patrol during combat operations in Pul-E-Alam, Afghanistan on Aug. 12.

X < 50

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… where X is the temperature outside when I get up in the morning. Today was the first day for that event, post-summer. But only just, 49 degrees fahrenheit at 0800 this morning. This is my leading indicator of the imminent arrival of the Fall season. There’s also the calendar, which tells me the Autumnal Equinox is 6 days and 20 hours or so in my personal future. But the temps are the big deal for Fall as far as I’m concerned, not the calendar. It was a cold summer, all things being equal. I’m waiting to see what Fall brings us.

Yesterday was a chore day. I shaved the brown lawns front and back, and did a bit of weeding in the sad gardens (where weeds are now the big product, and the veg is mostly dead – a lot of August travel on my part had a big effect on garden maintenance). In the afternoon, I vacuumed the house, did a bit of bathroom cleaning, and cut my hair. Dog walks were interspersed throughout. Today was not as ambitious. Shopping, coffee roasting, and a bit of computer work rounded out my Sunday.

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of this fallen warrior:

  • Staff Sgt. Robert E. Thomas Jr., 24, of Fontana, California, died Sept. 13, at Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, of wounds suffered during a non-combat related incident on April 21, 2013, in Maiwand, Afghanistan.

Launch weekend

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Well, it was a launch for NASA’s LADEE mission, a lunar orbiter (full name Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer”), from Wallops Island in Virginia. I headed up by the tennis courts to get a better south east view, further from the trees. Using binoculars, I was able to clearly see the ascent from about 10 seconds post-launch, through first stage separation and second stage firing, and on into the distance for a long while. Very cool. Usually the Wallops launches aren’t so spectacular, and I’m usually clouded in and can’t see them anyway from this distance.

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In other news, I stripped Scientific Linux (a Red Hat respin distro) off of Serenity, the home Linux box, and refettled the hardware with the latest Kubuntu. For a home box, I wanted a bit more versatility and package selection than SL had on offer. Start to finish about 24 hours. Lots of stuff to copy off the old box, then rebuild RAID and boot stuff, copy backups on again, and configure services so that all the assorted jobs and services that depend on this system work again. All good now, far as I can tell.

Also over the weekend, I started re-finishing the small table I had in my office – that’ll be an occasional table in the guest bedroom once I’ve got enough coats of poly on it.

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and unit of this fallen warrior:

  • Staff Sgt. Todd J. Lobraico Jr., 22, of New Fairfield, Connecticut, died Sept. 5, 2013, from wounds sustained when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire near Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan.

Travels done

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And we’re back!

Nine days in California and in the air are done: We flew out to SFO on the 22nd, and flew back through DFW on the 30th. We visited with my folks for about three days, then headed over to SF and stayed there while I attended VMworld 2013. I attended three general sessions and 19 technical sessions in four and one-half days … my brain nearly exploded. I watched countless demos, met many wonderful and smart people, and acquired enough t-shirts to last me until the next millennium. The weather was lovely, and Marcia split her time between the City and learning some design software.

While in the air, I was reading a couple of Liaden Universe novels by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. Agent of Change and Fledgling are both available for free at both the Baen Free Library and on Kindle for the time being. You can consider those to works to be a gateway drug, since the writing is wonderful. You’ll spend some more of your time and money on their books, because you should. Learn more at http://korval.com/.

I’m not sure, but I’d guess that the authors get more of your money if you purchase through Baen … you can always ask them. It’s certainly worth encouraging the Baen Free Library when you buy from Baen, too.

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

  • 1st Lt. Jason Togi, 24, of Pago Pago, American Samoa, died Aug. 26, in Hasan Karez, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device.
  • Sgt. 1st Class Ricardo D. Young, 34, of Rosston, Arkansas, died Aug. 28, in Ghazni Province, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit with small arms fire.
  • Staff Sgt. Michael H. Ollis, 24, of Staten Island, New York, died Aug. 28, in Ghazni Province, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device, small arms and indirect fire.
  • Staff Sgt. Joshua J. Bowden, 28, of Villa Rica, Georgia, died Aug. 31, in Ghazni, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire while on dismounted patrol.

Virtually busy

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I’ve been doing a lot with virtualization at work recently (using VMware), and at home too, using KVM on Scientific Linux. It’s fun multiplying my hardware without spending any money (at home, grin). The garden is sad, and the heat is back.

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

  • 1st Lt. Timothy G. Santos Jr., 29, of Helena, Alabama, died Aug. 18, in Fort Bliss, Texas, from a non-combat related illness diagnosed on March 24, in Kuwait City, Kuwait.
  • Master Sgt. George A. Bannar Jr., 37, of Orange, Virginia, died Aug. 20, of injuries sustained when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire in Wardak Province, Afghanistan.
  • Spc. Kenneth Clifford Alvarez, 23, of Santa Maria, California, died Aug. 23 in Haft Asiab, Afghanistan, from wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their unit with an improvised explosive device during combat operations.
  • Pvt. Jonathon Michael Dean Hostetter, 20, of Humphreys, Missouri, died Aug. 23 in Haft Asiab, Afghanistan, from wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their unit with an improvised explosive device during combat operations.

Working weekend

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It was a working weekend. Not as much as others in my department, but several hours yesterday, plus early morning snapshots and patching this AM. I note this not to whinge about it, but to observe how important it is for me to do things the right way, regardless of the time of day or week. Some tasks require commitments outside of business hours, and I’m happy to do that, and enjoy a job well done. “Well … enough.” anyway, as GladOS would say.

I’m also caught up on the coffee roasting, did the shopping and a self-inflicted hair cut today, and managed to relax for a couple of hours each day, so life is pretty darn good. Oh, yeah, and I made a lobster pot full of red sauce. Yum!

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

  • Staff Sgt. Octavio Herrera, 26, of Caldwell, Idaho, died Aug. 11, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with indirect fire.
  • Sgt. Jamar A. Hicks, 22, of Little Rock, Arkansas, died Aug. 11, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with indirect fire.
  • Spc. Keith E. Grace Jr., 26, of Baytown, Texas, died Aug. 11, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with indirect fire.

1400 miles later …

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Saturday last we departed for the big vacation of the summer, and spent a week in Saugatuck, Michigan, with family from Marcia’s side of the tree. Good times, picnic with grand-nieces and -nephews, etc. Oh, yeah, and three days of fishing. We did some shore fishing on Kalamazoo Lake, and managed a couple of dozen fish between us – all catch and release. Here’s one of the carp that Marcia reeled in:

Marcia's carp

Marcia’s carp

The drive was 700 miles each way, taking about 10 hours and change on each of the Saturdays. Overall, we got 34.8 MPG out of the 328i for this trip, which isn’t too shabby.

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Back due to popular request, the back yard rain gauge stands at 37.50″ fallen since just before Sandy came ashore last fall.

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Our condolences to the family, friends, and unit of Specialist Welch:

  • Spc. Nickolas S. Welch, 26, of Mill City, Oregon, died Aug. 6, in Bethesda, Md., of injuries sustained July 23, when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device in Soltan Kheyl, Wardak Province, Afghanistan.

Cool times

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Very oddly for July and August around here, it’s been quite cool. Lows were in the high 50’s, and highs in the mid-80’s, with mild humidity. Quite strange. And a month of solid rain, followed by heat, did nothing good for the garden. It’s dying early, sad to say.

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

  • Sgt. Eric T. Lawson, 30, of Stockbridge, Georgia, died July 27, in Ghazni Province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device and small arms fire.
  • Spc. Caryn E. Nouv, 29, of Newport News, Virginia, died July 27, in Ghazni Province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked her vehicle with an improvised explosive device and small arms fire.
  • Sgt. Stephen M. New, 29, of Bartlett, Tennessee, died July 28, in Bagram, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when his unit was attacked by small arms fire in the Sarobi District of Kabul Province, Afghanistan.
  • Spc. Nicholas B. Burley, 22, of Red Bluff, California, died July 30, in Pul-E-Alam, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when enemy forces attacked his unit with indirect fire.

 

Last days

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For the home office refurb project, that is. Today, I fabricated and attached the hard maple edge banding onto the back desktop. I also got two coats of poly applied. Depending on how it feels tomorrow, it’ll either get two more coats of poly, or get installed. I’m hoping for the latter. The garden has languished for attention, but I’m probably going to make salsa in the next couple of days for the first time this year. Yay!

Legacy technology

Legacy technology

I spotted some legacy tech today while shopping. I think you pick that thing up, put in some coins, and talk Ernestine into connecting you with your party.

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

  • Spc. Anthony R. Maddox, 22, of Port Arthur, Texas, died July 22, in Landstuhl, Germany, of a non-combat related incident that occurred in Andar, Afghanistan.
  • 1st Lt. Jonam Russell, 25, of Cornville, Arizona, died July 23, in Soltan Kheyl, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.
  • Sgt. Stefan M. Smith, 24 of Glennville, Georgia, died July 23, in Soltan Kheyl, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.
  • Spc. Rob L. Nichols, 24, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, died July 23, in Soltan Kheyl, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.