Memorial Day

I always lament when this day comes, because it is the last day of the three day weekend, and it means that tomorrow I have to go to work again. I need a vacation pretty badly, but I'm in no position to do so. I'm trying so hard to build up my hours so that I can take a nice long two week vacation, and it is really slow going.

Last night, hubby and I watched a special on 60 Minutes about a fellow who broke away from his unit in Afghanistan to save his best buddy from being carried away by Taliban soldiers, risking his life and limb, obtaining his dying buddy and bringing him back to safety. The young man won the Medal of Honor for his heroism, but he would give it up in an instant if he could have his buddy back. And of course, the show had all it's standard fare for folks from the past who'd won the medal as well.

Then they broke away from this and exposed the fighting at the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Our Army and Marines are telling the television expositor that they are basically fighting Pakistanis--Pakis that are coming to the aid of the Taliban in droves that keep on coming.

It sounded like an advertisement that our President should head on into Pakistan and begin the conflict there as well, since they seem to want to join in the fight...never mind they want to join the wrong side, but that's just my own opinion. Perhaps they are just confused? Or maybe we're over there getting shot at for the wrong reasons ourselves? Never mind that this is approximately where Osama was found and killed, I believe, though I could be wrong. Our government sounds like it has decided that the Pakistani government didn't know Osama was there. If that's the case, then WHY are these people getting shot at and killed for a man who was obviously setting up their relatives for massacre?? I don't know, and it boggles my mind. It would seem that plausible deniability has become the M.O. for Muslims in this part of the world, but these Paki people are doing zip to hide their part in the plan. Then again, the whole show could be propaganda--still, flying bullets and hiding a female news commentator inside the ATV were pretty convincing. The cameraman was a soldier, too, so at times, he would sit the camera down in order to take up arms and fight. It was pretty harrowing. The news commentator was hiding on the floor trying not to be a target.

And it is just a matter of time before our president decides to go in and take care of business. I'm sure he's much better at getting "intelligence" about the matter than one 60 Minutes news commentator. Why she would go into the fray like that with people who are so anti-woman is quite beyond my understanding.

She was British, too, which I suppose only exacerbated matters. (Sorry, that's the Scot in me.), AND blonde (ok, that's the female in me.). She had it coming. (Just kidding.) And she was pretty scared, and did everything that the man entrusted with her care told her to do. She fumbled with the door handle on the humm-vee and he grabbed it for her, covering her body as he did so, while shots rang out and rpg's and mortars were being fired all around them. All you heard was "snap snap snap" and "feu----" just like during the 4th of July when the fireworks get shot off, then a "kudgeboom" as the mortar hit pay dirt. It was pretty noisy.

So, I think you can count on the fighting continuing, and not only that, but that the president will likely drop some troops behind the lines in Pakistan and get these Taliban supporters, capture and bring them in. It's just gotten to be too long, and basically, I think the Pakistani government owes us. Added to that, we're a little tired, the average american human, of this whole terrorist business. Boys like their war games, I suppose, and war has gotten to be pretty high tech. A marine can't go into the fray without lots and lots of training. But our boys keep getting shot and keep dying. Mothers and Fathers are losing their sons. It can't be just because the economy is bad over here.

All my opinion, and based on what I see on the propaganda cube that we call television. I don't believe everything I watch on television, but the fellow who did most of the talking, he didn't seem to be telling tall tales.

After this, hubby and I watched a National Geographic show about the caves in Upper Mustang, (pronounced Moose-tang, even though it looks like a Chevrolet), which is an area of Nepal. There are lots of cave openings in the mountains, very unforgiving terrain, and this expedition group of rock climbers and historians and archeologists were climbing up and down, going in, documenting, taking pictures of wall art, etc. It was really quite something. One of the caves they climbed to (no mean feat trust me because the mountain face was made of sand and pebbles that was not conducive to proper climbing condition), had a TON of writing in it--writing that looked suspiciously Arabic, but was thought to be very old Nepalese. It was done in ink on lined paper, and as they were taking pictures, it looked for all the world like they were showing it to us "upside down". I wondered to myself if it was actually upside down and backward, but that's just me in my Leonardo kick. It could have been children learning their letters for all I knew, but there was a lot of it, and the printing was pretty artsy--so I figured that it was done by someone or other who'd been at it for a long while, and goodness knows what it meant. Of course, they couldn't take the documents with them. They had to leave everything and take pictures. The paintings on the walls were done by some pretty outstanding artists, too, no matter how long they'd been studying. Pictures by the score were taking.

The team was only able to document about 4 caves, as they had only a month's permission to work on the project. They brought their children with them. I thought it was a wonderful thing to expose kids to, again, that's just me--but what an adventure!? Rock climbing, cave exploring, finding lost artifacts--all archeologists would love to get their hands on this kind of project. It takes years to prepare for a month's work. The show was an interesting documentary.

Today, hubby and I are celebrating his birthday at his mothers. I've already purchased his pressies and given them to him. A pair of pants, 3 shirts and a Josh Turner cd with his favorite country song on it "Long Black Train". He was really excited about the clothing, since he hasn't many short sleeved shirts that aren't work shirts in his closet, and the cd was just the cat's meow.

We're going to have brownies at his mother's house. We might go fishing. Personally, I'm ALL about the fishing. There was a storm yesterday, and his mother's house lost a tree. Had we celebrated yesterday, our car would have gotten crushed. Mother's house and barn are fine however. The tree, though is done for. I think it was one that she had a face nailed to--we'll check it out when we get there.

We just heard that the kid's in laws lost their power, and have no electric to run the sump. It's taking in water in a finished basement, and that means MONEY. So we're working on getting them a generator to use.

Well, we got that all straightened out, then went over to Hubby's mom's for his birthday brownie and supper. We spent most of the day there in the comfort of the air conditioning. Then we came home, in the air conditioned car. When I got out of the car the humidity nearly knocked me over. It was like stepping into a furnace!

I came into the house, and it's pretty stuffy in here, but the windows have been closed all day, so the humidity hasn't made it into the house much at all. I turned on the fans, and things indoors are cooling off a tad. Not sure how we're going to sleep this evening, but it's too late in the day to try to put in the window air conditioner, so we'll sleep (some) without it.

I'll be going to the office in the morning.

My friend has messaged me on my phone that she needs a ride to a State Office. Apparently, she can't get the help she needs from her daughter--too busy or not enough time. I have no idea if she got an appointment on Tuesday or not. I can't seem to reach her daughter on her cellular, so it's sort of hard to work things out. I'm hoping that I can reach her on Facebook or on Yahoo tonight to know what needs to be done. We shall see.

In the meanwhile, it's nearly 9:30pm. I have to take my meds and so does hubby. I'll let y'all know what transpired on my Tuesday workaday tomorrow. :) L8s!