Well, it’s been a week, and I feel almost human.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of last week were spent flat on my back. It’s all kinda fuzzy, but I’m pretty sure the doctor opened up my face and stuck in a dinner plate. Irish Woman says I looked like a Who from Dr. Seuss, with a turned up nose.

I started moving around a little on Friday, and by Saturday I was able to walk across the house without getting the spins.

Sunday I had a little improvement, but not much.

Monday, the doctor removed the splints he put in, and almost immediately I felt much better. He also decided to “adjust” some things in my sinuses, which if done to a prisoner of war, would have gotten him in trouble with the Geneva Convention.

My boss has taken pity on me and allowed me to work from home today, and I go back tomorrow. I was supposed to take over our pager support for the week on Monday, but one of my guys has carried it for a couple of extra days. Can’t complain about the people I work with.

Still no opinion on whether this was all worth it. It’ll be a couple more weeks before I’m back to 100%. Hopefully it’ll make use of my nose a bit better.

I’ll be off the net for the next few days. I’m having minor surgery tomorrow morning, and I can’t promise I’ll feel like posting while I relax under the influence of pain killers.

Have a good week, and I’ll see you later.

but it’s close.

A young soldier in Afghanistan responded to a Taliban attack while he was out of uniform by pulling on his kevlar and vest, then running to his fighting position to return fire.

Of course, there was a reporter nearby, and the photo he snapped has circled the globe pretty quickly.

I say bravo. When you hear the stand to, you don’t stop to pull on your pants, you grab what you need and lean forward in your foxhole.

The wildest thing I ever saw in kevlar was a young nurse who responded to an emergency medivac flight coming into her hospital wearing her helmet and silk pajamas. Now that’s a memory of the military I don’t want to lose.

Well, Nancy Pelosi, AKA The Joker, has officially accused the CIA of misleading her when they briefed her about interrogation techniques. She is refusing to discuss it with the American people via the press, and will only give statements re-asserting her accusation, but will not answer questions about the matter.

The CIA denies this, and asserts that the Congresswoman from Babylon on the Bay was told about these techniques and how they were being used.

Obviously, someone is being less than truthful.

I have given this some thought as it has played out in the press, but I couldn’t articulate it very well.

Then I listened to the latest episode of Dan Carlin’s excellent Common Sense podcast this morning.

Mr. Carlin definitely gelled my feelings on this issue, and I agree with him that an independent investigation needs to happen.

If the CIA lied to the Speaker, then someone needs to go to jail. If Mrs. Pelosi is lying now, then that needs to come out in the open, and her career needs to be impacted by her actions.

Well, Memorial Day has come again. I encourage everyone to take a little time this weekend to remember the people in their lives who have served and passed on. For those of you in Louisville, I suggest the ceremonies at Zachary Taylor Cemetary or at the Patton Museum at Fort Knox.

Over the years, I’ve known several veterans who’ve passed on. I’ve lost 5 good friends to either military accidents or combat. And I’ve served in a lot of units with an institutional memory of loss.

Blackfive has an excellent slideshow of “motivators” that will get you thinking about this day.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Well, today I took the plunge and joined the American Legion. It’s been a few years since I left the military, and I’ve considered it several times, but never got around to it.

I guess my motivation for doing it now was the time that Girlie Bear and I spent in Washington last weekend. While we were touring Arlington, it occurred to me that a lot of the privileges I enjoy as a veteran are due to organizations like the Legion. Also, I read an article recently about how hard it is becoming to find honor guards for veterans and troops who have died in the war in some areas. Being in the Legion will let me participate in a good civic organization, and let me give back to those who came both before and after me.

When I was growing up, almost everyone’s dad and grandfather belonged to either the American Legion, or the VFW, or both. So I guess I’m following a family tradition.

Apparently, Members of Parliament in the UK have been caught with their hands in the cookie jar. They’ve been billing the UK government for personal expenses such as home repairs and porno.

Now, some of them believe that the stress of the scandal is driving them to suicide.

Cry me a river.

If you can’t deal with the stress of the publicity, don’t do the dishonorable behavior. I don’t advocate suicide under any circumstance. I’d rather that politicians who’ve stolen money from their constituents suffer public humiliation and finish their careers out cleaning porta-potties.

OK, I was at the National Archives this week, and I did hang around for while looking at the exhibits, but I didn’t steal a hard drive.

Honest.

Now, if you excuse me, I’m off to buy an outboard disk enclosure.

If your child is going on a trip that has at least one overnight, someone needs to go with him or her. It’s not fair to the child or the parents who go along to give up your responsibilities for a weekend. One poor girl burned through the spending money her mom had given her when she dropped her off at the airport, and the other parents chipped in to make sure the poor thing ate on Monday.

If you do go on a trip with your kids, then please act like a parent. I had to correct a lot of kids who acted inappropriately over the weekend. Not the kids who got loud in the park. I mean the kids who tried to climb up on the lap of President Roosevelt’s statue in his memorial for a cute picture. Or the boys who thought it would be fun to stare at and take flash pictures of the homeless people sleeping on a grate near Union Station. If you don’t like me correcting your kid, then you act like a parent.

When you’re on a mass trip like we just did, teach your kids to be polite. We were moving through crowds at the various museums and memorials, and I was never prouder of Girlie Bear than when she kept excusing herself and making way for other people. A lot of the kids acted like they were the only ones using the stairs, escalators, elevators, and sidewalks.

Don’t let your child take a Gameboy or whatever when you’re out and about at the sites. One kid had his parents spend hundreds of dollars for him and his mother to go to Washington, and never stopped playing his Nintendo DS, including during the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns and at the Kennedy gravesite in Arlington Cemetary. Something tells me this trip isn’t going to go into his autobiography.

On a more positive note, I owe a lot to Girlie Bear’s teachers for all of the work they did to put the trip together and make it happen on the ground. Good teachers deserve a heck of a lot more money and respect for what they do.

A shout out to the nice young lady who was riding in the car we got on at the Metro Center subway station on Saturday. That pole dance you were doing at the front of the car was quite entertaining. While I’m sure your boyfriend liked it, I had a heck of a time getting myself and other dad between you and the kids so we wouldn’t have to explain what you were doing.

Another shout out to anyone who flew on Southwest between Baltimore and Louisville on Friday and Monday. I’m so very sorry. I know it was only an hour or so in the air, but it was probably the longest hour of your week.

Same shout out to the people who rode the Blue or Yellow lines in the Washington DC metro this weekend. We tried to keep the kids down to a dull roar, but we know our large, noisy, and energetic group disturbed you.

When visiting our nation’s capital, please remember that security is up. Don’t get snitty with the security guard at the museum when she wants you to open your bag for her. It’s not personal, it’s her job.

Every 16 year old boy and girl should be forced to accompany and participate in a 5th grade class trip. It would be the best birth control known to man.

Sorry I didn’t get this out sooner. I was just plumb exhausted on Sunday night, and it’s been crazy since Monday morning.

Sunday we went to the American History museum, and it was awesome. Girlie Bear and her friends really enjoyed going through the military history display. We were in there for almost 2 hours. They also spent a lot of time in the Abraham Lincoln exhibit. Of course we went to see the original Star Spangled Banner. The Smithsonian just finished a renovation of both the museum and the flag, and both were worth the expense and time. The museum was able to grab and hold the attention of 10 year old girls for hours on end, and we could have spent all weekend at that museum alone.

We went to the National Archives on Sunday afternoon to see the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. That was the one thing that Girlie Bear insisted that she had to do while we were in Washington. The security there was the tightest we had to go through, including the airport.

Sunday evening, the teachers took all of the kids to the ESPN Zone restaurant for a few hours to give the parents a break. Bless them. I’ve said it before: They aren’t paid enough to put up with those animals. I had plans to stroll down to a book store to get something for the flight home, but I passed out for 3 hours on my bed until it was time to retrieve Girlie Bear. Apparently a fun time was had by all.

Monday was our last day. We spent the morning and part of the afternoon at the Air and Space museum. Again, it was wonderful. The kids really enjoyed all of the interactive displays, and I got an appreciation for early aviation that I didn’t have before. They even had a display of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, which took me back to my days at Fort Huachuca.

Our flight back was pretty uneventful. We got back to Louisville at about 9 PM on Monday, and were home and in bed by 10. I haven’t slept that soundly in a long time.