Well, between preparing for one of my classes to graduate, laziness, and the release of Galciv2, I've fallen behind in updates. I've actually done three funerals since my last update, but my most recent will get it's own post, just like I usually do. The other two funerals I did were two man funerals in mid-February. The first was in Monterey at a chapel just outside of downtown. The funeral was for a Navy veteran so I took a Sailor from our pool of volunteers with me. We were told the...

I've never really ever been much of a fan of the Rolling Stones. I realize their impact on music and all. I'm just not a fan. So I am biased in saying this. The halftime show sucked. Plain and simple. The Stones sounded old and tired. Hell, by the end of the set Mick sounded winded. I was chatting with some friends online during the show and as soon as the first song started up, I said, "I bet they cant' say 'You make a dead man come'". I was surprised that they said they ca...

I mentioned this to some friends recently and it got me even more fired up... I was driving home from work the other day and the sweet sounds of Paradise City started playing from my car radio. I said to myself, "Hell yeah, G'N'R, Baby!" Then I looked down at the radio while I turned the volume up and noticed I was on the classic rock station. WTF? Classic rock? Guns'N'Roses? There oughta be a law that says you can't play music on the classic rock station until it's 20 years old or...

The first couple of weeks for this rotation made it seem like it would be the busiest one I had served on. But then it slowed down quite a bit. One of the assistant NCO's was planning some leave when family came out to visit, so prior to his leave, he took on a couple extra funerals to make up for the week he'd miss. So, it was a few weeks between funerals for me. I found out about Saturday's funeral at the practice on Tuesday. It was just a two man funeral and since we had one more co...

I found out about the funeral for 19 Jan during the Tuesday practice prior. We had a brand new group of Marines show up to practice that day, so we decided to get one of them involved right away. According to the email, we would not have to fold the flag at the funeral, but we practiced it anyway. After talking him through what we would do at the ceremony and practicing the folding a few times, I sent him home with a flag to practice with. On Thursday morning, I called the civilian in c...

It has been a busy two weeks so far this rotation. I'm on pace to do 16+ funerals right now. That will be more than either of the other two rotations I've been on. Sundays funeral was another two man ceremony. I was unable to make it to the practice on the prior Thursday, so the overall NCOIC made sure my bugler was trained and ready to go for me. We met on Sunday at 1315. We drove down to Pacific Grove and parked outside the mortuary chapel at 1330. This was my partner's first c...

I had my third funeral of this rotation today. We had a practice on Monday and I volunteered for this one as it would cause minimal trouble for my teaching schedule for the week. On Tuesday, I got a Soldier that volunteered to come with me and we practiced a two man fold of the flag. We then set up a time and place to meet and I let him go back to practicing the full honors detail with the rifles. We met today at 0945 and I got the keys to the detail van. It was at the same chapel I ha...

I had my second funeral of this rotation on Saturday, 7 Jan 06. This was another two man job and was at a cemetery in Seaside that I'd been to a number of times before. At the Thursday practice before, we only knew about one Saturday funeral and the overall NCOIC had planned on doing it. On Friday, I got a call that I'd need to come in on Saturday and take care of a second funeral. When I got to the base on Saturday, everyone was there and ready. The NCOIC had originally planned to t...

I'm back on the funeral detail again. This time it will run from Jan-Feb. We started practicing with the outgoing team during the holiday break, or as TRADOC likes to call it, Exodus. It was a pretty busy couple of week for the detail. The overall NCOIC for the detail has not done the detail before, so she wanted to get with the three assistant NCOICs beforehand. We've all done it before, so it was mostly just a matter of getting her up on what all goes on. She even attended a funer...

Don't get me wrong, I like COSTCO. I don't mind the crowds of people there. I don't have a problem with buying a membership that could potentially cost you more than you save, if you only buy bagels and big pizzas. I don't have a problem with their exclusive policy on AMEX or cash. I like COSTCO. We go almost every weekend and buy at the least, a couple cases of waters. I hate their shopping carts, though. I don't know if it's the coating on their carts, the floors, or maybe the ...

I came home from work the other night and my wife had a friend over that she'd met at work. The woman was also from South Korea and they were hanging out. Shortly after I got home, they went outside to smoke. That's when the fun began. The woman had parked outside our house on the street, but on the wrong side. I park in front of the house so I didn't see her jeep around the corner parked against the red painted curb or else I'd have told her to move it myself. Well, in that little bi...

So, it's my birthday today. Happy Birthday to me! I've always liked this song and so, today, I figured I'd share the lyrics here. The song is by Concrete Blonde and named Happy Birthday. All rights and credit to them (specifically, Johnette Naplitano and Jim Mankey) and all. It's a short song originally off their album titled Free and but it's also on Recollection: The Best of Concrete Blonde. You can find it on iTunes and several other online music services, I'm sure. Check it out....

Yeah, it's been a while since I posted anything. Bite me. This started as a comment fueled by two separate blogs ( Link and http://bakerstreet.joeuser.com/index.asp?AID=93566) and it grew too long to make just a comment. It no longer touches on just the two points brought up in the original blogs and has grown to include not only the comments, but also more of my own thoughts. Too bad if what you see here is hardly recognizable as being related to either blog any more. I'm feeling...

I've been busy at work since getting back from my TDY trip to Cleveland so it's been a long time since I posted. This may be the longest I've gone without posting since joining JU a little over a year ago. I've even let two weeks go on my fantasy football league updates. As for the trip to Cleveland. It was a fairly busy week. I got my orders late (they were ready for pick up for a while, but I was on leave) so I ended up not taking any leave in conjunction with the trip. I flew out ...

than reduced fat peanut butter? BLECH! My Ecosystem Details