Well Nellie and I finally made it to Tucson, and after much drama, we even found a place to stay. Curse you, pets. I think we could probably take a cruise with all the money we’ve paid in pet deposits and fees. To somewhere nice too. Like Mexico. (That becomes funnier if you know that Tucson is like 60 miles from Mexico.) I oficially start work again in about 2 hours. It’s been wierd to have all this time off. I haven’t had this much free time since I bought a motorcycle and took off across the country for 6 weeks. Time off has been good though. Nellie and I got to see old friends, new friends, and family. We got to have some nice, drizzly, depressing Oregon weather. As soon as we left, Portland skyrocketed to 104 degrees, breaking all kinds of records, I’m sure.
We find out in the next few days if our next month will be spent in a hotel, or if the Air Force will actually decide to house us on base. Combine that with the miles of red tape involved with inprocessing, and my life is going to be pretty exciting for awhile. Hooray for things that you don’t really want to do.
June 2006
June 28, 2006
June 9, 2006
Just found this on a buddy o' mine's myspace blog and thought I would pass it on. It's where I'm at.
"I've come to the conclusion that each day is over sooner than the day before it. Before long, and at times it seems to have happened aleady, the day will be over before it begins. I honestly have to say that this frightens me at times. Maybe it is because as time goes on I've managed to fill each day with the things I must do, leaving little, if any, time for the things I'd like to do. How did this happen?
When I was young, I remember the eternity of time between breakfast and lunch. My brother and I spent that time enriching ourselves with activities such as damming up the creek, setting fire to the alfalfa fields, climbing trees, jumbing off barn roofs, inspecting every crank and gear of the trucks and tractors filling our machine shed. We found time to spot bumble bees and follow them from flower to flower until we became distracted by beetles scurrying under rocks and leaves. Soon, bored of such activities, we would check out the spot in the barn that we found the day before where one of the farm cats Butter Ball had just had a litter of kittens. Never mind that they were just a few days old, we scooped them up as if they were our very own, our personal playmates to pet and to cuddle. To throw onto roofs and tree branches, their tiny claws crasping the bark for dear life. After some time it would be apparent that the little kitties needed a break so leaving them to rest and to allow mother kittie to lick their wounds we would venture across the barnyard to our secret bomb laboratory. Here we would manufacture the worlds most clever and ingenious explosive devises using nothing but old tin cans, wire, and a few nuts, bolts and springs. The inginuity lay hidden within the simplicity of the devices. Nobody would ever be able to match our whit and cunning for we were the most powerful terrorists in all the world. And that was okay, terrorists were a figment of our own imagination anyway weren't they? Fortunately for the world, our mother stepped outside and the sound of the large brass lunch bell echoing across the vast expanse of farmyard cut short the final assembly of the devices ignition coil. This would have to wait until after lunch.
Looking back over time, it seems that as a child I'd accomplish as much in that time between breakfast and lunch as I do now in the span of a week if not longer. Could it be that the days truly are getting shorter? Or maybe it is simply that as a child I knew clearly what my priorities were. My every activity sought to accomplish but one simple goal. To enjoy my life during each and every moment. Where and when did I, we, go wrong? Society places on us an ever increasing number of challenges and standards and goals. Technology allows us to accomplish more and more each year and tells us that we must accomplish more than that or be left in the dust. Yet the human being remains the same. When does it end? Society teaches us that to reach our goals and to be truly "happy" we must first accomplish this, this, and this and a little more of that. Before long, "this" and "that" have dominated our lives so much so that we no longer have time to begin, let along to enjoy, those things that "this" was supposed to allow us to obtain in the first place. What were those things anyway? It's a terribly vicious cycle and I'm not quite sure how to break it. But I do know that I'm done waiting for the things that enrich my life to fall into my lap. I'm going to have to take the initiative one tiny step at a time. Fullfilment, remember me? I'm that little five year old kid you last saw so many years ago."
