Almost Home
Nov. 6th, 2004 02:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pecuniumYesterday was the end of my class at Ft. Lewis. I now have three semester hours in whatever course they credit one, when one has completed, "Intelligence in Combatting Terrorism". Interesting stuff,and I wish I could have taken the resident course (where among other things one has to take part in a group research project, to plan a terrorist attack... you don't want to know some of the ones which have been proposed, all of them feasible, most of them horrible, and most of them, pretty much unstoppable... I now know how to take out Las Vegas, and E.L.F. would love to know the plans I have for... should I?, No, I I guess I better not.).
None of it was new, but most of it wasn't anything I'd ever had to put together in that way. It was figuring out the threat to an area, and the countermeasures to take. I got a 97 on the exam, and three of the points I was dinged for were bullshit. :)
The flight to L.A. (that is why I'm almost home, not until tomorrow, around midnight, will I be home again. Monday I get to cook dinner) was gorgeous. I saw steam rising from Mt. St Helens, and there was a large area od bare rock, where snow ought to have been. Because United lets one listen to the radio traffic I know there is a 13,000 ft interdict on overflight.
The prettiest part of the flight was watching the sun rise in the west. As we climbed over Puget Sound the angle changed and a sliver of orange became a blob, and then a disk. After which it began to settle again to the water, slowly melting into a puddle of liquid gold. In the meantime it colored the clouds, and we were in a haze of rose colored mist, a tunnel of pink and violet.
Would that I'd had the weekend, or even a free day. There were places I wanted to visit (Lark in the Morning Music, shops in Seattle and San Francisco) Kells (a pub, near Lark in the Morning), the Tacoma waterfront, Nisqually (wonderful photo ops) Snoqualmie Falls. But I had not the time.
I did get to seelibertango and akirlu, as well as the irresitably cute, Sara-monster, for dinner at both Mashiko (think of it as jazz sushi... experts doing riffs on a known theme, with focus, and direction, but no score, and lots of talent) and to Pano's Kleftiko, a wonderful Greek taverna, near the Space needle.
The company of friends, over food and conversation; in what is the most comfortable time of year for me. I like autumn, the lingering evening, the crisp air, the colors of the trees. A sense of preparednes, and quiet (Mole End). Settling in for the winter, getting prepared for snug fires, and warm drinks. Cozy evenings of blankets on the couch. The holidays run from Hallowe'en to New Years, lingering with friends, conspiring to make through the harshness of the coming winter.
So seeing them made up for not seeing my girl, my dog, or my bed for the past two weeks. For hotels, and restaurant meals, and isolation. For Texas having Indian summer at the start of November).
Autumn is, for me, a time of refreshment. Spring is rebirth, but autumn is restoration.
None of it was new, but most of it wasn't anything I'd ever had to put together in that way. It was figuring out the threat to an area, and the countermeasures to take. I got a 97 on the exam, and three of the points I was dinged for were bullshit. :)
The flight to L.A. (that is why I'm almost home, not until tomorrow, around midnight, will I be home again. Monday I get to cook dinner) was gorgeous. I saw steam rising from Mt. St Helens, and there was a large area od bare rock, where snow ought to have been. Because United lets one listen to the radio traffic I know there is a 13,000 ft interdict on overflight.
The prettiest part of the flight was watching the sun rise in the west. As we climbed over Puget Sound the angle changed and a sliver of orange became a blob, and then a disk. After which it began to settle again to the water, slowly melting into a puddle of liquid gold. In the meantime it colored the clouds, and we were in a haze of rose colored mist, a tunnel of pink and violet.
Would that I'd had the weekend, or even a free day. There were places I wanted to visit (Lark in the Morning Music, shops in Seattle and San Francisco) Kells (a pub, near Lark in the Morning), the Tacoma waterfront, Nisqually (wonderful photo ops) Snoqualmie Falls. But I had not the time.
I did get to see
libertango and akirlu, as well as the irresitably cute, Sara-monster, for dinner at both Mashiko (think of it as jazz sushi... experts doing riffs on a known theme, with focus, and direction, but no score, and lots of talent) and to Pano's Kleftiko, a wonderful Greek taverna, near the Space needle.The company of friends, over food and conversation; in what is the most comfortable time of year for me. I like autumn, the lingering evening, the crisp air, the colors of the trees. A sense of preparednes, and quiet (Mole End). Settling in for the winter, getting prepared for snug fires, and warm drinks. Cozy evenings of blankets on the couch. The holidays run from Hallowe'en to New Years, lingering with friends, conspiring to make through the harshness of the coming winter.
So seeing them made up for not seeing my girl, my dog, or my bed for the past two weeks. For hotels, and restaurant meals, and isolation. For Texas having Indian summer at the start of November).
Autumn is, for me, a time of refreshment. Spring is rebirth, but autumn is restoration.
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Last word on the subject.
Date: 2004-11-08 10:49 pm (UTC)I said, based on my experience, you didn't seem to be of the SF mold. I asked for some character references. For all that you seem to have gotten your feelings hurt, it wasn't rude.
I didn't say that, if we accept your statements at face value, they are even more to be faulted, in that they fail to live up to the credo, and values of the NCO corps. You chose to be more than a tad; no I shan't mince words, you were made a very public ass of yourself with your suicide watch post, and when called on it you chose to be rude, intentionally offensive and then got sniffy because the victim of your hostility chose not to roll over.
Then you tried to trump her, rightful, idnignation by implying that your having been in SF was somehow more meritorius than her service, and that because you've been shot you were somehow entitled to engage in behavior that would merit a right cross and public beating were in done in public.
Your reflexive dismissal of the valor, worth and; as evidenced here, merit, of those who disagree with you is unbecoming of one who is so busily trumpeting the outstanding nature of both his service and the Army.
Past good deeds do not make up for present violations.
TK
Re: Last word on the subject.
Date: 2004-11-09 10:23 am (UTC)Re: Last word on the subject.
Date: 2004-11-09 05:37 pm (UTC)Doesn't change the facts of me in the least.
But I care a great deal for civility, and for the Army, seeing the one breached; and the other made to look shabby, is rarely something I will sit still for. At times my hot-headedness, on both subjects has gotten no small amount of the aforementioned impugnation.
TK