• The weather refused to cooperate today too.  Oh well, it was decided that I needed to swap out some 2×8 for 2×12 anyway.  I’ll work on the porch next weekend.
• We celebrated Labor Day by laboring.
  • Nothing like a dreary day to do all of the inside work you’ve been neglecting.
  • I love the smell of pine cleaners and oil soap on hardwood floors.
  • Irish Woman cleaned out all of the old toys in Boo’s room cleaned it from floor to ceiling.
    • I give it a day before it looks like a bomb went off.
  • The trash man is going to curse our name.  Irish Woman was on a tear.
• Boo convinced me to buy two large bones for the dogs.  He is now their favorite human being.
  • How long do you think a pig femur will last when chewed on by a large dog?
    • If you said one hour, you get a cookie.  I was surprised too.
• Girlie Bear and I started watching “Star Trek: Enterprise” this weekend.  Three episodes in and we’re interested.
  • Captain Archer needs a heavier boom to lower on his subordinates.  Doesn’t that ship have an airlock?
  • The security on their sidearms sucks.  It appears that just about anyone can get a pistol from the armory and their holsters have absolutely no retention.
  • Apparently the future never learned about night vision or weapon lights either.
  • I haven’t watched any Star Trek regularly since about the third season of TNG.  Watched maybe one or two episodes apiece of DS9 and Voyager.  I’m just getting caught up.
• Apparently Godzilla has arisen and is tearing the Gulf of Mexico oil platforms apart.  Gas went up 30 cents from last weekend.
• Girlie Bear has learned how to do laundry without turning her blue jeans white or her whites blue.  I have waited years for this day of freedom.

I think I may be in trouble.  Irish Woman just figured out how expensive ammunition can be, and she moved the ammunition boxes last night, so she knows how much ammunition I have.

• Dinner tonight – Homemade french onion and mushroom soup, served under toasted sourdough bread and toasted provolone.  Hey, I didn’t get fat because Irish Woman can’t cook.
• After eating soup that just came out of a 500 degree oven as fast as I could without requiring skin grafts, I was off to a parent’s meeting for Girlie Bear’s JROTC class.
• The class is taught by a retired master sergeant and a retired colonel of infantry.  I’m not sure how old these two are, but I’m pretty sure the colonel has an efficiency report signed by Joshua.
  • And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
• It is refreshing to go to a gathering at the school and be told that if my daughter works hard, I shouldn’t have to pay out-of-pocket for her to do any of the extra things that JROTC offers like field trips, camping, and white water rafting.
  • Of course, that means I’m trading green dollars for spare time, but I prefer to trade sweat for cash.
• If Girlie Bear ever says she’s bored, there’s more for her to be doing.
• Girlie Bear signed up for the school rifle team, and did the safety briefing/training this week.  Next week they weed out those who didn’t learn.  I’m hoping she remembers what I’ve taught her.
• The colonel stressed that he is not a recruiter. He pushes education, respect, and self-reliance.
  • He is, however, proud of how many of his students go on to either join the military or attend the service academies.
• It says a lot that a good percentage of the adults who help with JROTC have kids that graduated years ago, but still want to contribute.
• Girlie Bear is one of 205 JROTC cadets at her high school this year, which is astonishing.
  • To put it in perspective, my high school in California cancelled its JROTC program a few years before I came along because no-one was signing up for it.
• The program includes mandatory community service.
  • It’ll either get the kids used to the idea of doing for others or it’ll get them ready for their first rungs on the judicial punishment ladder.
• The colonel enforces the school dress code on both students and parents who participate.
  • Quote – “I don’t need to see it.  You don’t need to show it.  Put on some clothes.”
• Apparently Girlie Bear is going to be issued both ACU’s and a green dress uniform.  Proper wear one day a week will be part of her grade.  Guess I’m going to have to find my old copy of AR 670-1.
• Use of the word “yeah” by a cadet got all of the cadets doing pushups.
  • They all did it with smiles on their faces.
    • That’s a very good sign.

• Apparently it would be considered a bad thing if I was to cause a wide bodied jet to tip back on its tail during loading.
• Someone must be putting jackass pills in the water here in Louisville.  Luckily for me, I have only been drinking water that comes out of a diet cola bottle or has gone through a coffee filter.
• Going to a pizza buffet for lunch before trying to sit though a rather dry lecture on loading airplanes properly might not have been my most intelligent decision ever.
• Ladies, if you have the good manners to not have loud discussions about the inner workings of your body on a speaker phone, I thank you.
• Dangerous question of the day – “Honey, did you know my company flies to Hawaii and Guam and I might be able to work on one of those flights?”
  • For those of you counting, I’m down to three lives.
• While driving home from work tonight, a fire truck whizzed past me on the freeway, lights blazing and siren wailing.  A few minutes later I passed it on the shoulder.  It had all its hoses out, the ladder was deployed, and they were working on rolling up the hoses.  No evidence of a fire.  I have no idea what was going on, but my gut tells me it was pretty cool.
• Apparently “I’m in a class for the next few days, but I’ll check email and voicemail when I can” isn’t a big enough hint for some people.
• Whoever signed me up for a series of catalogs with $100 Halloween costumes for children, I will find you.
• I’ve had early ’80’s synth pop super groups running through my head all day.  Not sure which elder god I displeased, but I’m about ready to start sacrificing bulls to make it stop.

• Tonight I reprised my role as “Unarmed Villager Number 12”.  It’s a non-speaking part, but I think I pull it off quite nicely.
• I really need to get the sewing machine out and make my own garb.  The stuff that’s handed out is just too small for me.  Seriously, it must look like David Banner turning into the Hulk when I’m putting on a man dress.
• Just because you’re an unarmed villager doesn’t mean that a young American soldier won’t shoot you in the face if you surprise him in the dark.
  • Note to self – Write a nice note of self to the manufacturer of my face mask thanking them for my eyesight.
• Not sure which is louder, grenade simulators or flashbangs.  It may be a function of proximity and how closed in the space is.
• A couple of red laser dots on your chest is a very direct and polite way to say “Stop” and “Back away slowly with your hands up”.
• You know what gets me moving faster than realizing that someone is shooting at me?  Realizing that someone is shooting past me and isn’t really worried about me becoming a backstop.
• There’s a fine line between “Wow, that’s a really cool pyrotechnic effect” and “Holy crap!  The building is on fire!”.
• Stopping at a stop-n-stab out in the middle of nowhere for gas after 11 PM is a cultural experience.
• Example of parental love – Stopping at Superdupermegamart after midnight to pick up school supplies while covered in dirt, wax bullet residue, and smelling like a burning tire.

I’m looking at my latest bill for my arthritis medicine, and I’m pretty sure it says that a three month supply costs three unicorn tears, a baby fart captured in amber, and the still warm tooth of a Hawaiian fire gecko.  Thank goodness I have my health insurance through Merlin Mutual, a name people have trusted since Galahad was just a lad.

I really ought to start supporting my local print newspaper more.  I mean, you can’t start a barbecue or a fireplace with a web page, now can you?

• I’m a pretty simple parent.  I really only have two rules.  First, that which I say do, I expect my children to do.  Second, that which I tell my children to not do, I expect them to not do.  Is that too much to ask?
• Took the family to the state fair.    Yeah, I need to have my head checked.
• Costs for the day, not including incidental purchases:
  • Entrance for the adults and teenagers – $50
  • Entrance for Boo – $6
  • Parking – $8
  • Food – $60
  • Not sure how so many people can afford this.
• I was specifically forbidden from coming home with more animals than we left with.
  • No, I was not allowed to substitute a child for another animal.
  • Yes, I asked.
  • Yes, she checked.
• The FBI, TSA, and ATF had booths set up next to the state and city police booths.
  • The FBI, and TSA booth had people talking to them, but the ATF booth was about as popular as the HS Precision booth at the NRA convention.
  • TSA had a static display of what they consider dangerous explosives, including cans of Goex and IMR powders.  The lady working there couldn’t explain why they were included with dynamite and det cord.
• Irish Woman was unaware there were so many breeds of cows and doves.
• I wasn’t aware there were rabbits the size of cocker spaniels.
  • Am I wrong for asking if they judged the bunnies for taste?
• Someone needs to tell the local bands that playing 20-year-old Top 40 hits by Nirvana and Green Day doesn’t make them edgy and controversial.
• We didn’t try any of the deep-fried delicacies.  Yes, I know it’s tradition, but my arteries started to hurt just from the smell of the food booths.