Sunday - February 16, 2003
This & That
It’s been a quiet weekend so far. I’ve
been trying to get caught up on the next town hall newsletter but it’s hard
when the information I get is so sparse and sketchy. Jerry Barber, the
zealous town hall president, has been nagging me to attend the town hall
meetings but I’ve been resistant. They’re only once a month but it’s really
hard for me to drive back into town for a 7:30 meeting on a work night. My
day starts at 4 a.m. and by 7:30 p.m. I’m thinking about sleep. Another
reason I don’t attend is that I’m trying not to get sucked into doing more
jobs. I guess that’s a bad attitude but I have a problem saying no and the
existing town hall officers are always looking for new volunteers.
It was a wet week and for the first time in two years I can hear frogs
croaking around the property. I’m not sure where these frogs go during the
dry times but it’s good to have them back. The creek is still dry and if
things don’t get flowing soon, I’m afraid their stay will be a short one. We
moved to the country to experience wild life but with the drought, most of
the interesting animals are staying at the wetter, higher elevations.
I’ve really been in the mood for a good movie. I’ve kind of lost touch with
what’s happening on the Hollywood scene and I don’t recognize most of the
popular actors these days. I guess my tastes lean toward escapist movies but
even those haven’t drawn my attention. The last movie I liked was “Signs”
and boy did I take a lot of heat for recommending that! Ok, ok , the
plot was full of holes but I liked it anyway. Lately I’ve been trying to
watch
Ebert & Roeper to get a hint of what’s happening at the movies.
Interestingly enough, Ebert had “Signs” on his top ten list for 2002. Hmmm.
Michael of
bunt
sign also sparked my interest in the movie "About Schmidt" so I’ll
be looking forward to seeing that when I get the chance. Old Jack has come a
long way since “Easy Rider”.
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Nov 17, 1966 - Thursday
Tonight I had a Civil Air Patrol meeting. This is the organization that
teaches flying instructions. This is how I plan to get most of my training
for a pilot’s license. The C.A.P. is a very militaristic unit so I’m going
to get a lot of training in marching and various military training. The main
goal of the C.A,P. is to teach leadership and to interest people in the Air
Force.
Our meetings have been every Thursday night from 7 to 9. Somehow the
commanding officer was looking over the applications of the cadets and I was
chosen to be a flight leader. I only have two other cadets higher than me so
I have to be able to take charge and be a general good leader. This is hard
for me but I think I’ll enjoy it.
One of the things that is required of me and the other cadets is that we
memorize certain things. I’m not sure of the purpose but they do the same
thing in the Air Force Academy. For example an officer will walk up to one
of us and ask us to give him “the how of the cow.” The person he asks
immediately recites this little poem as fast as he can, “Sir, the cow. She
walks, she talks, she full of caulk, the lacteal fluid extracted from the
female of the bovine species is highly prolific to the nth degree. Sir!” If
the poor cadet can’t recite this, he ends up doing push ups or reporting to
telephone poles all day.
One thing that I’m really looking forward to is the survival school we’ll go
through. I’ve always wanted to learn how to live off the land.
After the meeting I was taking a bunch of the guys home and since many were
in the same history class we decided to pay our teacher a visit. The teacher
wants us to learn the Star Spangled Banner so we drove up in front of his
house and sung as loud as we could, the first verse. I then sped off honking
the horn. I don’t know what reaction this brought but tomorrow I should find
out.
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