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12 years ago
A Tense Christmas
December 29, 2009Here's what happened to me on Christmas five years ago:
Christmas morning.
2004
Balad, Iraq
We have a system of sirens here on the base to alert us of danger. One pattern of siren blasts indicates an incoming aerial assault (usually mortars or rockets). Another pattern indicates a ground invasion. Another pattern indicates a nuclear, biological, or chemical attack.
There are signs posted everywhere to remind everyone what the sirens mean. Normally, the insurgents pop off a few mortars a day, and we hear the mortar siren, and we hustle to a bunker until the all clear signal, which is all we can do since mortars are shot from far away and more often than not, the insurgents are long gone from the launch site by the time the mortars make impact.
I'm in my room -- a space not much larger than a walk-in closet, enclosed by little more than a thin layer of corrugated tin on the outside and wood paneling on the inside. But, it's better than living in a tent with a platoon of other people.
Iraq has surprisingly cold winters, and I'm shivering a little bit.
I'm putting on my uniform to have what I'm sure will be a better-than-usual (since it's Christmas) lunch with some friends, when I hear a different siren than the usual mortar alarm. I don't immediately recognize which alarm it is, but I know that the other two siren options are really, really not good.
Oh. Crap.
It just got real.
I feel paralyzed for a split second.
Then, my eyes go round, I get tunnel vision, the blood drains out of my face, a lump goes into my throat, and my mind starts racing.
Is that the ground invasion siren or the chemical alarm? Where's my gas mask?!? Wait, that's definitely the siren for ground invasion. Those punks waited all year to invade the base on Christmas Day! I can imagine the newspaper headlines back home. I pat my chest to make sure I'm wearing my dogtags so they can identify me at the hospital. There's no way I'm letting them capture me and parade me on TV. I'm going out of this world fighting. What do I do first? Fasten my pants or grab my rifle? How many of them are coming in?
This is why I went to basic training. This is why I spent all that time lying in the cold, wet mud at the rifle range. All that training was designed to harden me. Exhale. Let's do this.
I jerk my belt through the buckle without buttoning my pants, slam my helmet on my head, strap on my vest, grab my M16, and pull out my ammo magazine. It's cold, my hands are slightly numb, I fumble the magazine. If you are even a little familiar with semi-automatic magazines, you know they're spring-loaded.
The magazine hits the floor. Cartridges spill out and roll off in 20 different directions like a river delta. My face, which was chalk white a second ago, turns hot red as my blood pressure pounds my head.
GAAA!!!! That's not supposed to happen! I pick up the magazine, and it's only half full now.
Great!
I realize that my unit only gave us one magazine to carry so it would be less weight. The idea is that we are to use our one magazine to fight our way back to the main ammo supply. Brilliant.
Almost panicking, I slap my half-loaded magazine into the well of my rifle, put a round in the chamber, and bust through my door into the colder air outside.
I want to yell, "Where are they?!?", but I don't see anyone else. Then, the siren changes to the mortar alarm.
What's that mean? I trot to the nearest bunker where a few other people are as confused as I am.
This all happened in about 20 seconds. It turns out that the person controlling the alarm just hit the wrong button or something, and it was just the usual incoming mortars. Not nice, but a lot better than having to deal with a ground invasion.
After everything settled down, I went to lunch with my friends and enjoyed a somewhat uptight day off with them.
True story.
Getting Fined on the NYC Subway
It looks like the NYPD is superflously uptight about some subway rules:
A Fashion Institute of Technology student and a waiter at a Brooklyn diner were each recently nailed by graveyard-shift transit cops, who hit them with $50 fines for taking up more than one seat on virtually empty trains at around 2:30 a.m.
MTA rules -- which are enforced by the NYPD's Transit division -- say a passenger may not "occupy more than one seat" or "place his or her foot on a seat."
Stevens said that both times he was ticketed he was in a nearly deserted car with only one or two other riders. And while he said he definitely was stretched out the first time, the next day he merely crossed his legs. Read more
We'll have to remember this since we will probably ride the subway on our vacation.
Class of '95 Meeting at Orde's of England
December 26, 2009We had a Greenwood High School Class of '95 get-together at Orde's of England last week after the Babb Christmas. Only a few of us showed up, but it was a good time anyway, and it was great to see Mary and Adrian.
Babb Christmas
December 24, 2009Last night was Christmas at the Babbs'
After I was finished there, I went to Orde's of England where the GHS Class of '95 was supposed to be meeting, but only three of us showed. Oh well, it was great to see the other two and it was a good time anyway.
Las Vegas 2007
December 22, 2009Here are some pics from our Vegas vacation in 2007
supper in the Venetian
me in a poker tournament
riding the gondolas in the Venetian
in the game room at Treasure Island
the Bellagio. Josh saw the guy from NYPD Blue in there
Vince Neil Ink on the Strip
in the cab on the way to the Hard Rock Hotel to see Willie Nelson
Our Family Christmas
December 19, 2009We had our family present opening this morning.
Haden could barely contain his excitement
new coffee mug
wrapper toss 2009
Fat Boys
December 12, 2009It was raining one day last week, but I wanted to get some exercise by walking to Granny's house for supper. So, I needed some waterproof shoes to wear. I rifled through the attic for some of my old Army boots and I found some. As I was putting them on, I noticed something was in them -- a couple of cassette tapes.
One of the tapes was the very first tape I ever bought:
Fat Boys Crushin
hehehehehehehe wipeout!
Weekend
We don't have anything on the agenda for the weekend.
The Greenwood Shrine Club Christmas party is tonight, but I'm skipping it. The Eaton children's Christmas party at Skate Away USA is tomorrow afternoon, but we're skipping that, too -- the boys have outgrown that, I think.
My printer freaked out during the big storm this week, so I need to go get a new one tomorrow.
The Food Network episode they filmed in Greenwood during the Festival of Discovery will air beginning January 17:
Great American BBQ Showdown
Episode CC1001H
Four passionate barbecue teams come to Greenwood, South Carolina, armed with their best barbecue recipes. The teams must ace all four competition categories: pork, chicken, ribs and beef brisket in order to win $2500 and the title of "grand champion."
Tune In:
*
Jan 17, 2010
8:00 PM ET/PT
*
Jan 18, 2010
3:00 AM ET/PT
*
Jan 20, 2010
7:00 PM ET/PT
What is it With This Town and Tornadoes?
December 9, 2009So I'm sitting here at the computer this morning having my breakfast when I hear the tornado siren. I bolted up the stairs and brought the boys down.
Then the power goes out. Great -- I have to shower and get dressed by candle light.
I get ready and I'm standing in the kitchen when I hear CRRRRRAACKKKK THUD.
It was one of our neighbors' trees.
I'm lucky I don't have to deal with that. The wind blew over our cactus, though. I wonder if I should file a claim?
I checked out front and saw a large tree downed and blocking the street. So, I went the other way and there was another tree blocking that direction. I was trapped.
After about 30 minutes, some people cut up one of the trees and unblocked the road.
That big tree at Kinard's Animal Hospital fell over, too:
*edit*
It turns out we are missing some shingles because of this, so I did file an insurance claim on that.
The Ups and Downs of 2009
We'll go in chronological order:
January
One of the first orders of business for the United State House of Representatives after President Obama's inaguration was to pass a resolution commending the Florida Gators for winning the 2008 National Championship.
Maily's here!
The boys and I went on a Man vs. Wild hike through North Greenwood.
I was robbed
February
I had to have a fractured tooth repaired after about a year of pain
My crown
Work on our new library began
March
It actually snowed on us
I took my first crack at auto-interior repair after some punk tried to break into my car.
We hung out and enjoyed our back yard more this year
I love this picture
We went to an open football practice this Spring at Clemson. Will hitting the sleds.
Self Regional had a big layoff
We raised a very noisy and messy duckling
April
Survived a tornado
We paid off Melissa's car after only having it for a year and a half -- I'm really proud of that.
We took an East Coast road trip to our nation's capital, and to Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Arlington National Cemetary
Smithsonian
The Capitol
The Lincoln Memorial
The White House
We saved several hundred dollars a month by refinancing the mortgage on our house.
May
The boys pooled their money and bought themselves a trampoline
Sam and Boo's pulled off the trick of the year
I made the grave mistake of trying Crest Pro Health Mouthwash. Don't do it!
We had a good time at the Spring Hejaz Shrine Ceremonial in Duncan
June
I was harassed by Ocwen
We had a great week at the beach with the whole clan. While we were there, Kayla and Nathaniel got engaged, MJ died, Ed McMahon died, Farrah Fawcett died, and Governor Sanford went missing. I think Elvis went ahead and died again to keep up with everybody else.
July
Spent our traditional Independence Day at Mary's house on Lake Secession. There is a video that exists of me having a ton of fun on a big wheel this day. Jason, if you still have that, email it to me... I can't open it on my phone!
I started riding my bicycle to work on some days, which led me to convince Mel that it wasn't really that scary to ride near traffic. So, we began riding around town as a family a few times. Good fun.
The Festival of Discovery. That's all I'm saying about that
The wedding of the year. Kayla, take notes.
Mel grew some killer sunflowers
The boys got back into football this year
August
We had a delightful trip to the Biltmore Estate for our 11th anniversary
We got locked and loaded
had an absolute blast in Virginia Beach
September
We made it to a few Clemson games
Triplets!
October
Fun in the mountains with the Wightmans
Greenwood School District 50 stuck their nose where it doesn't belong
November
The kids spent some time with nature
December
Alabama ended Florida's 22 game win streak. Clemson won the Atlantic division, but lost to a team in the championship that uses blocks that should be illegal.
It's the end of the year and the end of the decade. For some reason, the end of this decade doesn't seem as big a deal as the end of the eighties. I remember during the eighties, thinking of the 1990s as some super-spacey futuristic period. Instead of flying cars, we got Color Me Badd. There was some great music made during the 90s -- to much to list right now, though. Oh yeah, a little thing called the Internet took off during the 90s, too.
Here's to a great 2010 and hopefully more ups than downs for everybody.
Greenwood Christmas Parade
December 7, 2009Haden was in the Christmas parade for winning his league championship.
Kaitlin
The lineup
a nice old mural in an alley off of Main Street
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