Grouch(y) Updates

Yesterday was my drill day and due to some fluke in scheduling no other National Guard unit was drilling on post. Things were incredibly quiet. I had been alerted earlier in the week that "Military Days" was being held at Ft. MacArthur this weekend and that we would have some recruiters present. For those not in the know on Ft. MacArthur, click here: http://www.ftmac.org/ Military Days is a two day reenactor festival. What are reenactors? Well, click here for a lesson: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reenactment Anyway I saw a perfect opportunity to get some fun away from the unit and requested some time to visit with our recruiters to assess their duty performance. I'm sure the Commander saw through this charade but he told me to go and see what was happening there. Ft. MacArther is located on a bluff overlooking the San Pedro and Long Beach harbors. The view is incredible and probably the most beautiful ocean view in the L.A. area. Just driving up to the installation was a treat. When I got to the front gate the lady dressed in late 19th century garb demanded $10 from me to enter. "I'm with the recruiters" I told her. Uh-huh - that will be $10. "I'm here on official business" Uh-huh; admission is $10. "You won't make a serviceman pay to enter will you?" I asked with my most winning smile. She finally let me go in, probably to get rid of me. The reenactors covered all eras from Romans to modern Iraq. My internal reaction was interesting. I thought the costumes and gear was interesting until it got to Vietnam. That made me uneasy. The guys doing Iraq left me cold. Maybe that is too close to reality but I thought the Iraq/Afghanistan reenactors were wanna-bees. There was a group of high school boys dressed as some sort of Blackwater types walking around pointing their air-soft replicas at the crowd menacingly. I wanted to spank them and send them back home. But, at the same age I would have been in heaven doing the same thing. The middle aged guys dressed as WW2 soldiers with their belts straining to hold their paunches in were just silly looking. A guy dressed as General MacArthur himself complete with corn cob pipe and aviator glasses stopped to pose with me and the recruiters (yes they were on the job and signing up prospects as fast as the forms could be filled out). As soon as we lined up with the General a group of camera snapping photogs rushed over to take our picture while our picture was being taken by someone else! The last event of the day was a group of Japanese Army garbed reenactors attacking American Army garbed reenactors in a squad v. squad firefight with blanks popping and the Japanese officer waving a sword in the air. Once again it seemed both silly and disrespectful but a similar demonstration by Civil War reenactors would not. I guess I am just weird.

Where were you when the Eagle landed? http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/07/10/1992656.aspx

I was at my grandparent's house in Ft. Lauderdale with my family. We watched the whole thing on TV (or at least I watched the whole thing) and I even recorded Walter Cronkite's narration of the events on my little tape recorder. I have the tapes somewhere. I was enthralled at the time and actually I still am by space travel. Twice now we have seen the space station pass overhead at night. It is a very bright light moving very fast through the sky. I hope my children live to see space travel expand and become routine and maybe, just maybe they will get a trip into orbit! Reminds me of the opening lines from Heinlein's classic "Have Space Suit, Will Travel"

"Dad," I said, "I want to go to the moon."
"Certainly," he answered and looked back at his book. It was Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat, which he must know by heart.
I said, "Dad, please! I'm serious."
This time he closed the book on a finger and said gently, "I said all right, Go ahead."
"Yes, but how?"
"Eh?" He looked mildly surprised. "Why that's your problem, Clifford."

Yes, that is our problem - but I hope that smarter and more able people than me will have it figured out before I die.

I watched The Caine Mutiny last night for about the 4th time. What a movie! If you haven't watched it, you must. It is a fantastic story of loyalty, a young man maturing, another man pushed past the breaking point, cowardliness, danger and redemption. It is full of references
that have found our way into our pop culture: Queeq's steel balls that he rolls in his fingers when under stress, the missing strawberries, and others. I read the book one summer as a high school teen before I had a summer job and not much to do. I remember even then that I sympathized with poor CPT Queeq. Watching the movie again last night reminded me that most always things in life are not black and white. Jose Ferrar's scorn that he blisters the Caine's officers with after they are found not guilty of mutiny is fantastic. What am I talking about? You will have to see the movie. I will lend it to you if you like. Just be sure to return it.

It is 100F today at 2:00 p.m. so it will be even warmer a little later today. I got up early to cut the grass and do some work on the Jeep before it really got hot. I like this weather but it makes me sleepy. I see now why the siesta is an important part of the cultures of the Mediterranean and Central/South America. I am all in favor of adopting this sensible practice. So, I believe it is time for my siesta.