In my own little corner...

Tsunami Relief

Here's a link to a blog/consortium blog that's keeping an updated list of problems/issues, and ways to donate for Tsunami relief.

I like what one poster said:

I just made a contribution to the International Response Fund of the American Red Cross. I picked a number, and then I doubled it, thinking of what is needed for relief to Darfur as well.

Thinking about it some more, I realize how stingy I am. I donated less than four times what it cost for the DVD set of the Live Aid concerts, something that I requested on my Christmas list and that I received Christmas Eve. And I'm willing to spend double to quadruple the donation I just made to take Vicki out for New Years Eve and our 9th wedding anniversary.

I just talked it over with Vicki and we chose staying home for New Years Eve, or doing something simple with friends, donating what we would have spent going out to the disaster relief effort instead.

Car Dreams

With 2 greyhounds, my  Ford Ranger is no longer a practical vehicle.    So I'm dreaming.... not big dreams, just reasonable, 2-greyhound dreams.

I've been thinking about other cars since I first adopted Angie, and have narrowed my choices down to either a PT Cruiser or a Pontiac Vibe.  Both cars will easily fit 2 greys (and an IG), and both cars have good points to them. 

The big question now is how long can I wait. I wish I could afford to take advantage  of the inventory-reduction sales currently going on.  I can't remember if they're as desperate in late Jan as they are in late Dec, but if so, maybe by then I could swing it, if I could find a good enough deal.  I don't really care whether it's brand-new or late-model, although I'd prefer brand-new if it's an automatic - I've replaced both transmissions on the 2 used automatics I've bought.  Kind of left a sour taste in my mouth for auto transmissions, ya know?

Right now, it takes 2 trips to drop the girls at the dog-sitters, and that's gonna get real old, real fast, when I'm doing it every couple weeks.

So I'm dreaming....

Boxing Day Prayer

Father God,

I come to you tonight sick at heart over the tragedy in Asia.    I don't even know where to start my prayer, God. So many dead, without any warning.

I can't wrap my head around the enormity of it.

Be with them, Daddy. Comfort them in their grief, and their anxiety.   Shelter them with your mighty love,  and rouse the world on their behalf, to come to their aid.

Let the waves wash away the differences between us all, Lord God, and remind us that we are all, first and foremost, human beings living on the same planet.

Your children are grieving, Lord. Help us to help them.  Show us how to be your hands. Embolden us with your unending love for all people, and let it shine forth in this dark hour.

In Jesus' most holy name I pray,
Amen

What did you give?

What are you doing for someone else, at Christmas time?  Not your family and friends, but the other folks amongst us?

Firewood!

I love the sight and sound of a crackling fire in the wintertime.  I know all the stories about how it's not cost effective, etc. But it's aesthetically pleasing, and satisfies a need inside me somewhere.

Today, my next-door-neighbor and I tramped around the outer edges of the property, and collected a good variety of dead branches and small trees. So I now have a good collection of hardwood firewood that is well-seasoned, and most importantly, FREE. :D

I told him I'd buy him dinner tonight as a thank you for his help with it.  We had pretty well filled up the bed of my truck with dead oak, cherry and ash  saplings and brush for kindling. Then we stood outside, not really noticing the cold, and cut it up with his bow saws.  There's a nice stack out there now, and we're going to do it again in January, probably.

Of course, I've been back inside for almost an hour, and am still chilled to the bone, but it was a fun activity, even if it was a cold day (I don't know why we couldn't do this when the temps were in the 50s, and had to wait until today, when the cold front was moving in).

"The Americans fought for this land as if it were their own..."

(cross-posted from my other blogging home)

We seem to have missed  mentioning this particular event here at The Daily Brief.  To be perfectly honest, for most of my life Dec 16 only meant I needed to send a birthday card to my uncle Jack.

But this year, especially, we should have marked the date, and mentioned Germany's Ardennes Offensive. This year marked 60 anniversaries of that coldest winter in memory, when over 1 million soldiers froze and fought together over a small town that intersected several main highways.

The town is named Bastogne, and the Ardennes Offensive is more familiar to us as The Battle of the Bulge.

The Cassandra Page   posted about it, and I just got around to his blog today to read his commentary.  On following the links he posted, I found one survivor has posted his war diary online.  John Kline was a member of the 106th Infantry Division in Dec 1944.

In his words:

On 16 December 1944, the day the battle started, I was a 19 year old Sergeant, heavy machine gun squad leader (30 cal water cooled) turning twenty on January 10, 1945.

The 106th Infantry Division, my division, was spread over a 21 mile front. Normally a division covers five miles. We received the initial thrust of the German counter-offensive. I was captured on 19 December, 1944. I spent four months as a Prisoner of War, walking over 525 miles, with a loss of 50 pounds of “fighting” body weight. I was only in a sheltered camp for one month and one week..

I'll be reading his war diary shortly.

My own memories of Bastogne are of a much more peaceful time.  In 1988, Uncle Sam saw fit to reassign me to Florennes AB, Belgium, not far from the Meuse river that the Germans were trying to reach.  Bastogne was just a name on a map to me. I had heard of the Battle of the Bulge, but only vaguely, because my high school history classes rarely made it much past the Great Depression,  and spent very little time on the history of WWII.  And my own personal interest in history stopped with the invention of the automobile. I thought anything after that was very mechanized, and lacked human interest (ah, the folly of youth).  This impression was furthered by my friends who were boys, who were only interested in planes and tanks and army trucks as their playtoys.  I was far more interested in horses than in tanks or airplanes, so I closed my mind to the marvels of our 20th century.

Until Belgium. 

Adult Education

The academicians assure us that anytime an adult is learning, it's adult education.  If that's true (and it must be, since they are, after all,  academicians), then I've been engaging in a large amount of it lately.  Mostly via the Internet, and not on a topic I would normally choose.

Seems  the heating/cooling unit in my rental house in Texas is on the fritz.

Things I want

Besides peace on earth, good will to men.  :P

This will be a very materialistic, goal-oriented post. I need to write them down so I don't forget them.

Once I'm working again, and have a paycheck or 2 under my belt (and in no particular order other than as they left my brain), I want....

Dear Mom...

Just thought you'd like to know what's going on, or gone on, in this past year since you went away.  We're all doing ok -- oh, the kids still fight, and the sister still acts like grandma, and can't see it in herself, but overall, we're ok.  The nephew has a new wife with ready-made family, and seems to be settling down well, which is a relief. This time last year, he was just out of jail, and not sure he'd be able to jump through all the hoops that were necessary for him to stay out.

There's a new grand-baby..Dylan Hunter.  Based on his pictures, he's a cutie. He was born in early Nov.   All the grandkids are boys, except for the girls in the nephew's ready-made family. They're good kids, too, Mom... you'd have enjoyed getting to know them.

I met Tom's daughter last year - took her out to eat, and the most beautiful thing she said to me about you was that she was almost grown up before she knew you weren't her real grandma. You always had such a way of accepting people into your family, and treating them like your own. I hope that I've inherited that ability from you... it's one of the things I've always loved about you.

mid-December ponderings

The semester is all but ended - some last minute changes to assignments need to be made, but I have until later this week to finish them. The mad rush in the part-time job is over as well - the deadline for completion was Dec 11, and the target was reached, at least on my part.   It's 12:20am, and I'm curled up on the couch with my laptop, enjoying  the remnants of my evening's fire, and occasionally gazing around at the peacefully sleeping hounds (2 of whom are sharing the couch with me).

A peaceful night, or early morning, and a time that lends itself to thinking quiet thoughts, and remembering good memories. 

I've been thinking a lot lately, as I've driven around my city doing this project for my part-time job.  I've done a lot of talking to myself, and a lesser amount of talking to God, and occasionally, I've talked to Mom.    Some of these internal conversations have centered around today's date - Dec 12.  What would it be like, I wondered.  What would *I* be like on this date?

What does one do on a day like this?   One part of me says "Stay home, and remember."  But a friend has offered to buy me lunch (or dinner), to celebrate my birthday and my new job.  So... meet the friend, or say "I'm sorry, but I'm planning to be depressed on Sunday."  (I'm meeting the friend, but I left myself an opening to change my mind. She understands - good friends are like that).

I want to spend my day quietly... not rushing around, not working.  Reflecting, and remembering.  Honoring and affirming a life that's gone, but also affirming that life goes on.  So I'm planning on meeting my friend.  We'll eat, we'll drink cappucino, we'll reminisce and catch up on each other's lives, and we'll be restored by the fellowship.

And at some point during the day, either before or after meeting my friend, I will raise a chilled glass in silent toast - "To you, Mom - thanks for all you did. I'm glad I knew you, and humbled to be your daughter."