Parting gift from my son

Part of his training was to learn the Soldier's creed:
• I am an American Soldier.
• I am a Warrior and a member of a team. I serve the people of the United States and live the Army Values.
• I will always place the mission first.
• I will never accept defeat.
• I will never quit.
• I will never leave a fallen comrade.
• I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills. I always maintain my arms, my equipment and myself.
• I am an expert and I am a professional.
• I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat.
• I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life.
• I am an American Soldier.
They all quoted it as a group at his graduation.

The other side of the tag says the seven Army Core Values that all soldiers live by:
• Loyalty
• Duty
• Respect
• Selfless - Service
• Honor
• Integrity
• Personal Courage

Modern technology brings pleasure

I can see my granddaughter's first laugh, caught on camera: youtube.com/watch
Or just go to my profile page: people.tribe.net/btd and it's there too.

Price of car fuel

Firstly, why "Car fuel"? I was in England where it's called "petrol" (short for "petroleum" I guess), whereas in the USA it's called "gas" (short for "gasoline" - although I personally think calling a liquid "gas" is asking for trouble).

Anyway I was in England last week (Jul 1 → 8) and the price there was about 97p/litre. With the exchange rate as $2.01 for £1.00, that means each litre (or liter in the USA) costs $1.95. So for a US gallon at 3.78liters [see note below], that means fuel there is:

        $7.39/gal

BUT most of that is tax (I hear: 80% - whereas US tax on gasoline is apparently 22%).

At least the car I rented was quite fuel efficient at 58 miles per gallon - no not a hybrid, it was diesel - and VERY sporty too - I must say!

Note: A UK gallon is 4.546litres, so the price is £4.41/gal - I remember back in 1978 it was £0.88/gal.

Met my granddaughter

After hours on the plane, waiting, another even longer plane journey, stuck in a huge line for passport checking into England (not surprising really). Then driving a couple of hours, I then got to see my granddaughter.

It was a little late (so the photos weren't so good), so we're meeting tomorrow, when the light will be better - so better photos soon.

Experiencing life

I wonder what these eyes have seen over the past few months of training.
I wonder what they will see in the upcoming years of service.

No doubt he'll see beauty and amazing places of the world.
But maybe some horrors and haunting visions too.

I wish him a long, successful, and wonderful life.
I wish I was there with him, but he has his own life to lead of course.
My goal to raise him has happened.
I should feel happy, and I do.
But I feel sadness too.

He's in the army now

Yesterday, an overnight flight to my sons army training base, then driving a couple of hours with no signs and no maps of the base, to know where to go, so I was pleased to get there before his ceremony started, but I did, as I said I would, and he had his "turning blue" ceremony.

Tomorrow is his graduation, and we get to spend the rest of the day and Saturday morning in Atlanta. We're planning to see the Coca-cola factory/museum.

His best friend and his friend's mom (who looked after him for his remaining few months of senior year, when I moved to California) came too.

Saturday, he's then off to Minneapolis for a few days before going to his posting, overseas (not England and not Iraq - at least for now). And I'm off to England for a week.

If you've a parent who've suddenly experience a child leaving the nest, becoming an adult, I think you'll know how I feel: a mix of proud, yet sad, but happy for him.

I also have thoughts of what his life will be like, when I will see him again, will he end up in Iraq or elsewhere.

Down in the mouth?

Q: Why are dentists so sad?
A: Because they're always down in the mouth.

Q: What time is good to go to the dentist?
A: Tooth-hurty (ie 2:30)

Please feel free to add more dentist jokes.

As for me, and my experience...
The dentist could see after removing the old filling the nerve was very close to the surface that remained. Also also needed a crown, so it would be best to fix it for the long term.

Root canals are not as bad as society would have me believe!

FYI those X-rays are actually, truly, of me this morning.
Strange way to have everyone looking inside my head, but I guess I try to do that in my posts and blogs too!

Introduce yourself

You're probably on my friends list. Either way, I'd like to know 25 things about you.

1. Do you have a tattoo?

2. How old are you?

3. Are you single or taken?

4. Eat with your hands or utensils?

5. Do you dream at night?

6. Ever seen a corpse?

7. Sugarland or Metallica?

8. Do You Hate Bush?

9. Whats your philosophy on life and death?

10. If you could do anything with me, and have no one know, what would it be?

11. Do you trust the police?

12. Do you like Country music?

13. What is your fondest memory of me?

14. If you could change anything about yourself what would it be?

15. Would you cheat?

16. What do you wear to sleep?

17. Have you ever peed in a pool?

18. Would you hide evidence for me if I asked you to?

19. If I only had one day to live, what would we do together?

20. Which do you prefer - hat or no hat?

21. Do you Mosh at metal shows?

22. What's your favorite color?

23. If you could bring back anyone that has passed, who would it be?

24. Tell me one interesting/odd fact about you?

25. Will you post this so I can fill it out for you?

Repost as "Introduce yourself", you'll be surprised how much you didn't know about your friends after doing this!

The longest day of the year

Today is the longest day of the year (as in daylight) at 15h16m - where I live.
It's the first day of Summer, when the summer solstice happens, which this year is at 18:06UTC (for me that's 11:06am PDT), which is when the path of the Sun is above the Earth as far North as it can be (on the tropic of Cancer)

Read about it at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solstice

Have a nice day

2½ months

My daughter sent me a photo, so I thought I'd share.
I'll meet my granddaughter (see above) in just under 2 weeks.