A volcano in Iceland is spewing an ash plume all over Europe.  This is, of course, disrupting that most modern form of travel, aviation.  Having volcanic ash, which is really a microscopic shard of rock, sucked into your engine will really ruin your day.  Of course, you’ll get a few seconds of glider time to add to your flight log, but it’s unplanned.

The powers that be in Europe have prudently shut down their air travel network for the most part.  Thousands are stranded at airports and are scrambling for alternate means of transportation.  In Europe, that usually means the train.  Rail travel in Europe works very well, and to be honest is probably not much slower than flying once you take into account the amount of time it takes to go through security at an airport.

But what do you do if you’re stranded at an airport in the US, where long-distance travel is usually either done by car or plane?  Amtrak isn’t really an alternative. 

Let’s say you’re flying from Los Angeles to New York, with a layover in Denver.  That’s probably the longest journey you will make in the continental United States.  You get to Denver, and a blizzard and ice storm comes in, stopping all air travel for the foreseeable future in Denver and the surrounding states. 

You aren’t in LA, where you could just go home.  You’re not in New York, where hopefully you’d have some people to assist you, either in business or personal life.  You’re stranded in the middle of the continent with no real way of going forward or back. 

Best case scenario is you have friends or family in the Denver area who can take you in until you can get your travel mess straightened out.

If you’re lucky and have the cash, you get to the rental car counter before the rest of the Golden Horde and get yourself a go-go mobile to get you back to LA.

If you can’t do that, then if you have the money and you at least have some luck, you get into a motel to ride out the storm until transportation can be found.

But let’s look at worst case scenario.  No friends or family.  The rental car counters are all closed because they’re out of cars.  The hotels are all full to the brim. 

So you’re stuck in the airport for the foreseeable future.  You have with you the clothes on your back, unless you can convince someone to get your bags out of the checked luggage area.  You may have some food and drink with you if you thought to bring some for the trip.  You may have some cash or a credit card to buy food at the airport, but that can run out fast.  Everyone and their brother who’s stuck in the same predicament is at this very moment rushing through the food court and convenience stores to get what they can.  Maybe you have a book, or a laptop, or an iPod to keep you from going insane.  Hopefully, you packed a toothbrush and the small pack of toiletries the TSA will let you take on-board.  Did you put your necessary medication in your check baggage?

Can you go for 3 or 4 days on what you have in your carry on? 

Here’s what I always pack in my carry-on no matter what when I travel by air:

1. Blanket – either a small thermal blanket or one of those space blankets
2. Water – After I get through security, I always buy two of the biggest bottles of water available.  TSA doesn’t allow bottles of liquid through their checkpoints, so I’m forced to grin and bear it on the price of water.
3. Food – I always pack some snacky smores for munching, but I also pack two or three energy bars for emergencies.  You can stretch this out for a day or two.
4. Communications – Always have a cell phone with you, even if you have to buy one of those disposable pay-as-you-go phones at Best Buy.   If you’ve got a laptop and can get access to a power outlet, you can use wireless Internet connections to stay in contact with home.
5. Entertainment – You’ll always find two or three books in my carry-on.  A book of puzzles like crosswords and a pencil or two will give your mind something to do.  My iPhone is with me, of course, but I always make sure I have the 110 to USB adaptor for it too, along with a charging cable.  If you’ve got a laptop, you can get absorbed in a video game to wile away the hours.
6. Toiletries – At the very least, I have my toothbrush, a small tube of toothpaste, and some baby wipes. You’d be surprised how good it feels to brush your teeth and wash your face.  Even if you can’t get a shower or shave, little things like that can make you feel human again.
7. Medication – I always hand carry my meds.  In addition to my normal daily medication, I make sure I take along some extra Benadryl, Immodium, and Pepto-Bismol in case I get sick during a trip.  Nothing worse than trying to find a drug store when you’ve got a raging case of Montezuma’s Revenge.

As for what you do when you’re stranded, I suggest finding a place where you can see all around you to camp out.  Hopefully the airport has TV monitors so at least you can see CNN or whatever they’re piping in.  Don’t go off somewhere quiet to try to get some sleep.  Being alone makes you an easier target, no matter if you’re a 6’4″ lumberjack or a 4’10” housewife.  Stay with the crowd, and try to group up with people you can spend extended time with.

And until you find a way to either continue your journey or go home, try to keep a good attitude.  Every jerk in the airport is going to be harassing the staff either for information on when they can get out or for help in getting the things they need but didn’t think to bring along.  Being polite to those around you, especially airport staff, will go a long way to keeping everyone from turning into wolves.

A few weeks ago, I wondered if the use of dueling would do anything to bring down the level of stupid in our society.

Well, Cracked has taken up that meme and done a pretty good job of explaining why dueling would be a good alternative to our kinder, gentler way of resolving minor conflicts:

Go and read the entire article.  It’s good for a chuckle and to make you think.

Bayou Renaiscance Man has an excellent series of four articles discussing the crisis erupting globally within the Catholic church over sexual abuse of children by clergy. 

He discusses the basic structure of the church, the process of becoming a priest and how it might add to the problem, priestly celibacy, and the churches response to the crisis.

Go read his articles, then come back for my commentary.

First, some background:

As some of you know, I consider myself a lapsed Catholic.  I was born into a Lutheran family, and celebrated my faith in that mostly Catholic environment until my parents divorced when I was 12.  My mother then went on a tour of all the local denominations, and took us along for the ride.  When she met my step-father, she, along with all of us kids, entered the Catholic church.  The stability and serene environment of the Church after several years of holy-rollers and snake handlers brought a lot of comfort to me, and I stayed in the faith even after I was divorced and could no longer take part in all of the sacraments.

When Irish Woman and I met and wanted to marry, a problem was found.  You see, it was hard to get an annulment of my previous marriage when all of the witnesses were scattered to the four winds by military life.  After a year and a half of working with the local diocese, we decided that it would be best if we went outside the Church for our marriage and life afterwards.  It wasn’t just the issue of the annulment, but let’s just say it was the final straw.  The way that the church in Louisville specifically and the U.S. generally was dealing with the sex abuse scandal, along with other issues, led us to look elsewhere.

Luckily, we found a small Episcopalean congregation that accepted us, flaws and all, as full members of their family immediately after we entered their chapel.  Other than the fact that the Father is really a father, the sacraments and beliefs are very close to what we were both used to.  And when we go for counseling to our priest, he can empathize with us about our problems as a couple and as parents. 

Here is my take on the abuse scandal within the church, and they mostly parallel what BRM has to say:

1. Clergy who have harmed their parishioners, child or adult, male or female, in such a reprehensible manner need to be defrocked.  They can be forgiven for their acts if they express true contrition and sin no more, but they should never be trusted in a capacity that would allow them to have authority in the Church.  If a priest breaks his vow of celibacy with a willing adult woman, he can be defrocked.  Why should the penalty for forced sex with a minor be less?
2. The Church should be open and transparent on how it deals with these fallen men and women.  Nothing cleans out a problem like sunlight.  The secrecy and stonewalling the Church has practiced so far have done more to harm Her than anything wayward priests have done.  It’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up that causes the most harm.  Bishops and other church officials who have facilitated this abuse by trying to either ignore the problem or shuffle problem priests around after “treatment” should be removed from their vocation.
3. Each and every bishop in the church should meet with the victims of sexual abuse in his diocese and sincerely and vociferously apologize.  He should offer any and all resources of the Church that can be used for treatment of the harm done to these people.  He should also offer any and all measures available to atone to them for the heinous crime that a representative of the Church inflicted on them.

I have no expertise in how a seminarian should be indoctrinated on his responsibilities to his flock, or how those who are at great risk of doing such horrible things should be filtered out of the seminaries.  I also will not comment on the applicability of celibacy in our modern world.  All I can say is that celibacy is one of the punches on the ordination ticket.  If someone does not feel that they can faithfully remain celibate as a condition of their ordination, then they should not be ordained.  Whether or not we should allow Catholic priests to marry and all that that entails, I will leave up to those who know more about it than I.

Those who harm children are the lowest of the low.  Those who enable them are just as bad.  The leadership of the Church needs to be honest with itself, with its parishioners, and with the world at large on this problem.  Only when the light of day is shone on those who harm those entrusted to their care, those who have been harmed have been healed, and a way is found to prevent such things from happening will the Church regain its reputation in the world.

I’m pleasantly surprised that President Obama is going in person to Poland for the funeral of the Polish president.  I half expected him to send Cussin’ Joe Biden.  Guess Joe hasn’t been let out of the pit in the basement of the White House yet.

Obama has seemingly gone out of his way to insult our friends and allies, including Poland.  The Poles I met when I was in the military were very pro-Western, and especially pro-American.  Poland has worked hard in the years since they got the Soviet troops out of their country to become a productive member of NATO, including offering to house our troops and missile emplacements.  On a couple of occasions, President Obama has kicked Poland in the teeth in attempts to curry favor from Russia.

Now, that country has been pretty much decapitated.  The Poles are still trying to get their legs underneath themselves, and any moral assistance we can give them will probably help.  

Obama going to Poland will go a long way to heal wounds that his treatment of our European allies has caused.  He just needs to remember this:  the trip is not about him.  He is going to pay his respects to the leader of a friendly nation, and by so doing show how much that nation means to our country.  He is not there for sound-bites or photo-ops.  Classiest thing he can do while he’s there is to tell the press that he’s not going to answer any questions, and that he’s only there to share in the grief of the Polish people.  I hope that he shows at least some class here.

I was going to say something about the dumbass who is refusing to deploy to Afghanistan because he believes that President Obama can’t be president due to the supposed location of his birth.

But Uncle Jimbo over at Blackfive beat me to the punch and did it in a very good way. 

My favorite line:

We’ve been around this block enough times, but to clarify once again- Officers in the military do not get to question the credentials of those lawfully appointed over them.

 Here’s my take on it:  What this jerk pulled not only hurts himself, but makes life harder on the soldiers he has trained and worked with.  Their team has lost a member, which means that whatever expertise he has is gone, and must be made up by someone else.  Deployment is hard enough.  It’s even harder when you have to do your job and someone else’s too.

I hope they throw the book at this guy and he lives a long time to regret it.

Two years ago this evening, a small, wonderful, strong package of stubbornness entered my life.

Since then, I’ve been fortunate to re-live all of the parts of raising a small child that I love, and I’m experienced enough to side step those parts I dislike.

He started this day as he started his first day, crying and in a bad mood.  He’s a chip off the old block.

Over at Monster Hunter Nation, Larry Correia has posted the first 7 chapters of his upcoming novel, “The Grimnoir Chronicles:  Hard Magic”.  Larry is fast becoming one of my favorite story tellers. 

The story will appeal to you if you enjoy the noir detective novels from the 40’s and 50’s.  Or if you like science fiction/fantasy. Or heck if you just enjoy a good yarn.

Go, enjoy.  Leave Mr. Correia a comment or two so he knows we appreciate him giving us a taste. Of course, he’ll make money on the comeback, like any dealer.

After I left the machine gun shoot, I picked up Little Bear from his grandmother’s house.  We got home, cleaned up, and took possession of an additional young lady for the night.  One of Girlie Bear’s school friends came over for a sleep over.  I piled the older kids into the car, and took them to see How to Train Your Dragon.  If you haven’t seen it, it’s a great movie.  Definitely going to be a buyer when it comes out around Christmas.

Dinner was grilled out hamburgers and hotdogs, followed by toasted marshmallows over the grill.  Nothing like filling young people up with sugar to make an evening exciting.

Overheard during the marshmallow roasting:

DaddyBear – I’m going in to grab a jacket.  You guys be good for a few minutes.
Little Bear – Don’t worry, I’ll watch them.
Girlie Bear – Whatever
Little Bear – I’m older!  You respect your elders!
Girlie Bear and friend, in harmony – Whatever!

Currently, the kids are enjoying some video games in lieu of another movie.  Girlie Bear’s friend is kicking both of the others’ butts at Wii Sports Resort. 

Now that I’ve had two eleven year old girls in close proximity to both each other and me for a few hours, I know why I’m glad Girlie Bear wasn’t a twin.  They’ve all been very well behaved, but they’ve been twittering like birds since 3 this afternoon.  Oh well, better chattering than sullen silence.

I’m looking forward to going to bed in a few hours.  Hopefully the girls will get at least a few minutes of sleep tonight.

Took a morning jaunt down to Knob Creek for their spring machine gun shoot, and a good time was had by all.  It’s funny when you realize that  a .50 caliber sniper rifle doesn’t sound so loud when it’s competing with machine guns and cannons.  I personally didn’t pay to shoot automatic weapons, but it’s almost as much fun to watch other people do it.

The accompanying gun show was also excellent.  If you were looking for something and couldn’t find it, you weren’t looking hard enough.  Only thing I was looking for was a .22 conversion kit for my1911, and they had them.  I can get a better price online, so I passed.  I did buy 100 rounds of .38 at a really good price.  The ammunition situation appears to be loosening up, at least for common calibers.  Lots of 7.62×39, 7.62×54, .308, and .223 to be found.  The only one I didn’t see was .380, and it may have sold out yesterday.

Props to the crew at Knob Creek, who are as always on the ball.  I don’t expect to ever meet a nicer, more professional group of people.  I’m definitely going to go back in the future.

Here are a few pics of the festivities

Dude, if you hide your stash in your kid’s school bag, make sure you get it before he leaves for the bus.

If you forget, then be cool.  Calling the school to see if you can come get something you put in his bag tends to get them interested in exactly what it is.

Have fun trying to figure out prison etiquette over 4 ounces of weed in an Elmo bag.