Seshet

25 Dec 06.

A month or so before my daughter's first birthday, we put her in her stroller and took her for a walk down by the river, not far from where we lived at the time.  A few blocks into our walk we met a cat and stopped to say hello to it.  It was a young cat, very friendly, and when we walked away it started following us.  Every now and then it would head up the front walk of a house we were passing, but then it would turn around and hurry to catch up with us.

There was a small embankment between us and the houses along that street, so every one of them had a few steps in its front walk.  The embankment didn't run straight - it meandered a bit, so at some houses those steps were right out at the end of the walk, where it joined the sidewalk along the street, while at others they were set back, closer to the house.  And it didn't take us long to notice that whenever the cat stopped to investigate a house, it was always one where those steps in the front walk were right out next to the sidewalk.  So we figured the cat was lost, and while it didn't know where Home was, it knew what Home ought to look like.

It had been following us for several blocks when a woman out working in her garden as we passed commented on what a pretty cat we had.  We explained that it was a stray that had attached itself to us, and she offfered to loan us a cat carrier so the poor cat wouldn't have to walk all the way to our house, which was still a few blocks away.  We accepted and carried it the rest of the way home.

The next morning we printed up some "FOUND CAT" signs and set out to post them in the area where we'd found the cat.  Just after we finished attaching the first sign to a telephone pole two teen-aged girls came up and stopped to see what we were doing.  After reading our poster one of the girls said, "Oh, that's Megan's cat!"  My wife recognised Megan's name - she was a young lady who had been murdered a week or so earlier by her estranged husband - and remembered her address, so we walked over to have a look at her house.  It was a block or two from where we'd first met the cat, and sure enough, it had steps at the end of its front walk, right out at the sidewalk.

So we went back home and discussed the cat.  She was a grey tabby, similar to one we'd lost the year before, very friendly, and she seemed to get on well with our other two cats, so we decided to keep her.  According to the vet we took her to she was around a year old, or perhaps a bit more - a month or few older than our daughter.  We picked the name Seshet* from a list of Egyptian goddesses, and she settled right in.

26 Nov 09

A year later we transferred from Norfolk to Groton.  We were only allowed two cats in Navy housing, and we still had two of the three my wife had had before we were married, so Seshet went to live with my in-laws, in the next town over.  The other two cats died over the course of the next few years, but by then Seshet had become used to being an indoor/outdoor cat, which wasn't permitted in housing, so she stayed on at my in-laws' place, even after I retired and we moved out of housing.  She's still officially our cat, though, not theirs.

*******

It's now a few weeks shy of eighteen years since that walk with our daughter and a poor, lost cat.  Seshet has gone deaf, and arthritis has set in; she can still jump up onto the porch railing, but she can't sit properly - she squats, with her butt still an inch or so off the ground - and she's no longer flexible enough to clean herself properly.  Recently she's begun losing bladder control, and forgets to use the litter box.  So it's been decided that tomorrow she'll make her final visit to the vet....

We'll miss her.

5 Aug 14

* Wikipedia prefers the spelling "Seshat."

Sextus

Our neighbourhood always has a couple of stray (or semi-stray) cats wandering around. When we first moved in, back in the summer of '03, one of them was a grey male. He was a very friendly cat, even permitting our daughters - who at the time were eight and five - to pet him. As autumn drew past, however, we noticed that he was sneezing a lot, so my wife scooped him up one day and took him to the vet. There didn't seem to be anything wrong, though, so we assumed it was just allergies.


And, since it was starting to cool off at night, we let him move in with us. Officially his name is Sextus, but because of the allergies he's also known as Sneezlepuss, or Snarflepuss, or even The Incredible Sneezing Cat. The vet's estimate at the time was that he was seven to nine years old, thus making him around 14 or 15 now. He's gotten a little hard of hearing over the last couple years, and he seems to have problems with arthritis - bumping his right foreleg in particular can lead to a nip.


And then I noticed the other day that his pupils were both fully dilated - almost perfect circles, with just a thin rim of iris visible around them. And it wasn't particularly dark in that room. So I carried him into the bedroom, which was better lighted, and his pupils didn't change. Even when he looked directly at the lamp. Wife took him to the vet yesterday, and as we suspected, he's now blind. So he spends most of his time in the upstairs loo, where he doesn't have far to go to find his supper dish and litter box, though of course we take him out to spend some quality time with us each day.

Requiescat in pace

Today would have been my brother's 70th birthday. He was born in a New York City vastly different from the one we know today. FDR was president, George VI was king; Adolf Hitler was chancellor, with six months to go before he started World War II. My dad was a grad student at Columbia, working on an MS in botany; Mum was a housewife, in a day when most married women stayed at home.

He dropped out of high school when he was 17 to join the Navy - reported in to RTC Great Lakes just a couple days after my second birthday - so I didn't see much of him when I was a kid; maybe once a year he'd come home on leave for a few days. Brought us some neat presents, too - I still remember the book about Pompeii he brought us after one of his Med runs.

In Athens, 1957 - Med run aboard USS Everglades (AD 24).

He started out as an electrician's mate (EM), but then converted to interior communications electrician (IC) very shortly thereafter.

IC2 aboard ship - not sure which one.

During his career he served aboard USS Everglades (AD 24), USS New (DD 818), USS Randolph (CVS 15), USS Proteus (AS 19), USS Hoel (DDG 13) and USS Fox (DLG 33). He also did two tours on shore duty, at NTC Great Lakes and at DATC San Diego.

Aboard USS Randolph (CVS 15) - 1962.

Milwaukee, 24 Nov 1962.

He had a Navy Meritorious Unit Citation, the Navy Good Conduct Medal (x4), the National Defence Service medal, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal and the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal.

Visiting a boat whilst stationed on the tender - 1966.

ICC at his last reenlistment - 1973.

Not only was there a fifteen-year difference in our ages, but while he enlisted at 17, I waited until I was 27. Thus he did his twenty years (plus a two-month extension to finish a WestPac), and retired five and a half years before I enlisted. The first time I went in to see a recruiter, I talked with him for about 45 minutes; then I went home, called my brother, and spent an hour and a half discussing things with him. Then I went back to the recruiter....

With his wife and kids - an Xmas card from the late '70s.

He'd stayed in San Diego after he retired, so when I went out there for A school I stayed with him and his family, instead of in the barracks. I was amazed at how much alike we'd turned out, despite the difference in our childhoods (with him as the eldest and me as the youngest of four).

He died of a stroke in 1985, just a few days after his 46th birthday. We still miss him.

Many thanks to my niece for the photos.

The approaching horror

Only two more months until we have a teenager in the house....

A little bragging about the kids

K was advanced to purple belt last month. Here she's holding her souvenirs - one for katas, one for kamas - from an in-house tournament a week or two earlier. It's something called Shorin-Ryu Kobayashi Karate, I believe, though I have to force myself not to call it Kobayashi Maru Karate....


(She's determined not to let her braces show in pictures these days.)

Her sister A had a skating competition up in Massachusetts last month. The costume in the centre photo was meant to depict a gambler (she was skating to Joplin's "The Entertainer"), though she decided not to wear the sleeve garters. Both her coach and my wife are sure one of those two silvers would have been a gold if A hadn't kept looking at her skates.

Four things....

I've had variations on this one e-mailed to me several times in recent weeks. Rather than keep sending it on its way, I'm just going to post it here. (Besides, that lets me include links....)

Four places I've lived:
1. Eaton Rapids, Michigan
2. Waukegan, Illinois
3. Groton, Connecticut
4. Dunoon, Argyll

Four jobs I've held:
1. Orderly in a nursing home
2. Chef's helper in a Chinese restaurant
3. Baker
4. Submarine radioman

Four favourite actors:
1. James Garner
2. Sean Connery
3. Tommy Lee Jones
4. Brendan Fraser

Four favourite actresses:
1. Katharine Hepburn
2. Maureen O'Hara
3. Carol Burnett
4. Hayley Mills

Four movies I can watch again and again:
1. Billy Jack
2. 1776
3. Silverado
4. Oscar

Four favourite authors:
1. Arthur Ransome
2. Andre Norton
3. Poul Anderson
4. S M Stirling

Four books I can read again and again:
1. Swallows and Amazons, by Arthur Ransome
2. Tarzan of the Apes, by Edgar Rice Burroughs
3. Alas, Babylon, by Pat Frank
4. Metzger's Dog, by Thomas Perry

Four favourite foods:
1. Venison
2. Pizza (especially pizza quattro stagioni)
3. Haggis, neeps and tatties
4. Pies of Paris

Four favourite snacks:
1. Bananas
2. Chocolate
3. Potato chips/crisps
4. Doughnuts

Four places I go over and over:
1. Work
2. Public library
3. Dunkin' Donuts
4. Commissary

Four websites I visit often:
1. MOD Defence News
2. The Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
3. Fantastic Fiction
4. VictoriaCross.org

Four Five blogs I can't live without
1. Jen Robinson's Book Page
2. The LawDog Files
3. The Stupid Shall Be Punished
4. Tetrapod Zoology (its original rendition can be found here)
5. View from the Porch
(why, yes, I did have a lot of trouble narrowing this one down....)

Four places I've been on vacation:
1. Lafayette, Indiana
2. Shenandoah National Park
3. Niagara Falls
4. Independence National Historical Park

Four places I'd like to be:
1. Scotland
2. Slovenia
3. The Lake District
4. Rome

Four places I'd not like to be:
1. Hawai`i
2. Subic Bay
3. Berkeley, California
4. Iraq

Four organisations I've belonged to:
1. National Rifle Association (NRA)
2. Mensa (both American and British)
3. Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA)
4. American Legion


Note: Yes, I've updated this a time or two since it was originally posted, as I receive different variants on the original e-mail which inspired this.

Pictures

My niece found these whilst going through a box of old stuff recently, and sent them to me, asking if I knew when they had been taken. I think I have the correct year for each one....

First grade
Northwestern Elementary School
Fall, 1960








Second grade
Northwestern Elementary School
Fall, 1961








Third grade
King Street Elementary School
Fall, 1962








My, that seems like a long time ago....

Philadelphia IV

On the second day of our Philadelphia trip, we accomplished our other two objectives - visiting Independence National Historical Park and having lunch at Fogo de Chão.

The Assembly Room in the Pennsylvania State House (more commonly known as Independence Hall). It was in this room that George Washington was appointed commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in 1775, and the Declaration of Independence was adopted on 4 July 1776.

Another view of the Assembly Room. The design of the American flag was agreed upon here in 1777, the Articles of Confederation were adopted in 1781, and the US Constitution was drafted in 1787. Busy place!

The stairs in Independence Hall. This is where the Committee of Five (Adams, Franklin, Sherman, Livingston and Jefferson) sing "But, Mr Adams" in the movie 1776.

A and K meet a couple of the carriage horses.






The menu posted in the window at Fogo de Chão. I'd meant to get a couple pictures of the waiters, but lost interest in the camera after the food started arriving.


Independence Hall.










K and A thanking Truman (the horse) for our tour.








N, K and the Liberty Bell. There's a picture of A and me, too, but by this time A was getting a little cranky so I'm not going to post that one.







The Liberty Bell. I'd never realised quite how large the famous crack was.









Philadelpia was the national capital from 1790 to 1800. The House of Representatives met in this room on the first floor of Congress Hall, immediately to the west of Independence Hall.


The Senate met in this chamber on the second floor. (They were really the upper house and the lower house in those days!)



The carpet on the floor of the Senate chamber is a reproduction of the original carpet, which was made in Philadelphia in the early 1790s.



A view south from the Independence Visitor Centre, with Independence Hall in the background. The low building to the right is the Liberty Bell Centre, wherein the bell is, with Congress Hall visible beyond it. Note the DUKW headed east on Market Street; next time we go to Philly we'll have to include a "duck" tour in our plans. (Unlike the folks in Boston, who use restored WWII-era DUKWs, the ones in Philadelphia use newly built vehicles based on the DUKW design.)

Philadelphia III

It's only been seven and a half months, but at last I'm able to get pictures of our Philadelphia trip uploaded here....

Our main purpose for going to Philadelphia, as I said before, was to see the King Tut exhibit at the Franklin Institute. We took the train into the city, then walked from the station out to the museum.

I don't know who approved this statue, but he/she/it shouldn't have. Not only is it ugly, but it's also a fountain - with the water issuing out from the backside of the figure at upper right. What were these people thinking of?






The front of the Franklin institute, with the King Tut logo and the picture on the steps. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the exhibit, alas - I would have really liked one of the peculiar signage on a couple of the display cases.



My wife (N), older daughter (K) and younger daughter (A) across the street from the museum entrance.






I'm a little more daring (or foolish, if you prefer) when it comes to jaywalking, so I got across the street first. Here come the rest of them....




For me, the other big attraction at the Franklin Institute was the Baldwin 60000 locomotive - a 4-10-2 built in 1926. It was hard to get a good picture of it, partly because it's painted black and partly because it's so bloody big - and it's inside the building, so you can't step back from it to shoot the whole thing. Here I am to provide scale.

The locomotive is set up on a section of track so that it can be moved back and forth a short distance, using hydraulics. Here K and A are sitting in the cab, listening to the guide's talk.




Another picture of the locomotive, taken from the balcony at cab level. The engine is 45' 2" (13.77 m) long - 86' 11" (26.49 m) including the tender - and the drivers are 63.5 inches (161.3 cm) in diameter.






K looks at the telescope in the astronomy display at the museum. They have a lot of hands-on exhibits; the kids enjoyed them, though unfortunately a few of them weren't working.







K and A looking at the fountain in Logan Square, across the street from the museum.

Before and after

Oh say, can you see my eyes?
If you can, then my hair's too short.

I've never liked short hair. When I was a kid, my mother kept it that way; it wasn't until I was in seventh grade that I was allowed to grow it out past a crew cut. I had to get it cut short again in high school, due to my Army Junior ROTC class (required for guys at my school, in those days), though I received a lot of demerits on weekly uniform inspections because I usually went too long between haircuts. Right after dropping out of high school I got another crew cut, then waited 19 months to get it cut again; the ponytail went down to six inches or so below my collar.

I was already in the Navy when I met my wife (and still getting into trouble occasionally because of my hair length). I told her all along that I wasn't planning on shaving or getting frequent haircuts after I retired, but I'm not sure it really penetrated. My last Navy haircut was a boat haircut, given to me by an ET1(SS) from my division a day or two after we left Gibraltar - call it 1 August 2003. That was almost six weeks before I had my final interview with the skipper and went on terminal leave, by which time I was already rather shaggy by Navy standards. My next haircut was in April of '04, my next haircut after that in March of '05. I would have been quite happy to continue on with annual haircuts like this, but my wife didn't like it. My hair was just barely touching my shoulders after a year's growth, but to hear her and her mother talk, you'd think it was long enough for me to sit on.

So we compromised, and I've been getting it cut twice a year - sometime around Easter (getting ready for the heat of summer), and then again in September (so it would have time to grow out some before the cold weather hit). So last week I got my eighth haircut since leaving the Navy. I go to the Navy Exchange barber shop (where I can get it cut by the same barber who always did it when I was here for SubScol, back in '83), and get a regulation cut under the theory that the shorter I get it cut, the longer I can wait until I have to go back.

Philadelphia II

As I said in part one of this, my camera-to-computer cable has apparently gone to God. I've been holding off on finishing this post, hoping that it would show up, but no luck yet. Hard to believe it's been three months already....

On the second day, we got off the train at SEPTA's Market East Station, a few blocks west of Independence National Historical Park. We arrived at the old State House (Independence Hall) at 1100, just in time for the tour we'd booked in advance. The tour started with a talk about the building's place in history as the place where the Second Continental Congress met and the Declaration of Independence was signed (1776), and where the Constitutional Convention met in 1787.

From there we went on to the main building. First we visited the courtroom, where the Pennsylvania Supreme Court met; then came the Assembly Room, where Congress met.

1776 is one of my younger daughter's favourite movies, and it's my favourite musical. Most of it is set at Independence Hall, so of course we had to compare the real thing with the movie version: Not only the meeting chamber itself, but also the stairs where the Committee of Five sang But, Mr Adams, and the outside of the building, where (in the film) the members of Congress run out to see a fire and the conservatives board their carriages.

Then came lunch.

A few months ago WillyShake, of Unconsidered Trifles, mentioned having visited a Philadelphia restaurant called Fogo de Chão. After reading his post, I of course had to view the restaurant's website* - and as soon as we decided that we were indeed going to Philly, I added it to the list of Things to Do.

The restaurant, a Brazilian churrascaria, offers a salad bar, with such things as artichokes, cheese, and an excellent apple salad. In addition, each table is given plates of cheese bread, mash, fried polenta and fried bananas (wonderful!). All of these are somewhat superfluous, though, because this place is Carnivores' Heaven.

Each diner is given a cardboard disk, green on one side, red on the other. Want meat? Flip it over to green-side-up. The servers are constantly passing through the dining room with skewers of meat, fresh from the grill; when they see the green disk, they'll stop to see if you're interested in what they have. Had enough? Or just need some time to clear off your plate a bit? Flip the disk to red-side-up, and they'll stop coming. Want more? Go back to green.... (Did I mention that it's all-you-can-eat?)

My younger daughter, as I'd expected, loved the linguica (sausage); she also said the beef ancho was very good. Her sister is a very picky eater, but she liked the chicken breast (served in chunks wrapped in bacon). The lamb chops were good, though a little too heavily salted for my taste; I agreed that the beef ancho was very good, as were the fraldinha (bottom sirloin) and the filet mignon (also wrapped in bacon). The picanha, however, was my real favourite - after a couple samples of that, I was about ready to mug that waiter and take his entire skewer.

Wines are available, but we all settled for sodas; my wife and I really enjoyed the Guaraná Antarctica. They have desserts, too, but even the girls weren't interested. Maybe next time....

After lunch we returned to the NHP. We decided to start with one of the horse-drawn carriages, which offer tours of the area, and took a 40-minute ride. Don't remember the driver's name, but her horse was named Truman, and he took us through the historical district while she pointed out various old houses and churches. We ended up back at the NHP, of course, and went in to have a look at the Liberty Bell. From there we went across the street to Congress Hall (immediately west of Independence Hall), where the US Congress met during its stay in Philadelphia from 1790 to 1800. Downstairs is the large chamber where the House of Representatives met; upstairs are the Senate's meeting room (truly an upper house and a lower house!) and several committee rooms.

We'd hoped to get to see the US Mint, too, but by this time it was already closed, so we caught a train back to our car. We were still full from our lunch at Fogo de Chão, so instead of having supper we just stopped off for ice cream, then headed home.

Going back? Absolutely! In addition to the Mint, there's a lot more to see at the NHP. And my older daughter still asks from time to time when we can go back to Fogo de Chão.

And hey - maybe now that I'm posting this, the cable will reappear....


* Amongst the reviews available on their site is one of the Philadelphia location.

Polichinelle

Younger Daughter (nine-almost-ten) had the part of Polichinelle in the local figure-skating club's 10th annual Nutcracker last weekend.

This was her fifth time in the show, and the first time that she had a solo in addition to being part of a group. (She was one of the soldiers fighting with the Nutcracker against the Mouse King.)

The approaching horror

Yesterday was my daughter's 12th birthday.

This means that in less than a year now, we'll have a teenager in the house.

A condition that will last until January of 2018....

Philadelphia I

I had meant to include a few photos in this post, but apparently my camera-to-computer cable went to God. After I find or replace it, though....

We went down to Philadelphia this week to see the King Tut exhibit at the Franklin Institute Science Museum; figured something educational like that would justify the girls' missing a couple days of school. 1776 is the younger one's favourite movie, so we also planned a visit to Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. There was also one more important stop, which I'll discuss in part two of this.

Neither of us felt like trying to drive in downtown Philly, so we got a hotel room out in the suburbs and then rode the train in from Paoli. The walk from the Suburban Station to the Franklin Institute turned out to be rather shorter than it looked on the map, and along the way we passed through Logan Square, which has a really nice fountain in its centre (perhaps not as large as the one in Chicago, and certainly not as fancy as the one I saw in Toulon, but nice nonetheless).

Once in the Franklin, we started with the IMAX film about the finding of King Tut's tomb. Narrated by Omar Sharif*, it was quite impressive, though I would have been much happier seeing it in a regular cinema. (The stairs were too steep and the rows of seating to narrow for my taste - I don't do heights.)

As I'd expected, no photos were permitted in the King Tut exhibit. (Why do museums always do that?) Not all of the material in the exhibit came from Tut's tomb - there were things from his father's, and from others - but it was all interesting. I'd love to have that golden dagger, for instance, or the cosmetic jar with the lioness on its lid. My real favourite, though, was the fan.

Everybody knows what an ankh is: A cross with a loop above the arms, the Egyptian symbol of life. The fan was a semicircle (sort of) of gold attached to the top of a handle; originally it held a bunch of ostrich plumes, though they're long gone. The fan is heavily decorated, of course, with a scene showing Tut riding in a two-horse chariot, getting ready to shoot a pair of odd-looking ostriches. And right behind the chariot, running along on two little legs and holding a similar fan in its hands, is ... an ankh. Looks like something Disney would have dreamed up.



My wife spotted one weirdness. Each item had two cards describing it - one card next to it in the case, and another at the top of the case, presumably so that if the room were too crowded one could read that card above people's heads and decide if it was worth the trouble of trying to get close enough to actually see the item (or for something to read whilst waiting for the people in front to move). The texts on the two cards were identical - but in two places, on the top card the "fi" in the word "figure" had been replaced by a thorn:

Þgure

Yes, we checked; the cards inside the cases read correctly. It was just the upper cards that had this odd quirk.

The IMAX film had taken up almost an hour, so we didn't have time to see much else in the museum. The most interesting permament exhibit, to me, is the Baldwin 60000 steam locomotive, so after leaving the King Tut exhibit we test-operated a couple of geedunk machines and then headed down to the first floor.

The Baldwin 60000 is a three-cylinder 4-10-2, built in 1926 to demonstrate some of Baldwin's newest technological innovations. The railroads found it overly heavy, at a total weight of over 350 tons for the engine and tender, and were wary of most of its features, so it was put in stowage in 1928 and was eventually donated to the Franklin Institute in 1932. It's set up on a short section of track, with a hydraulic system to move it back and forth a few yards; visitors can enter the cab and listen to a short talk about the engine and its history which includes a "demonstration" of the controls: A visitor mans the throttle, while the museum guide operates the switches that actually work the hydraulics.

After leaving the train area (they also have a 4-4-0 and an early 0-4-0, which I didn't pay as much attention to as I should because I was so fascinated by the big Baldwin) we made short stops in the Space Command exhibit and the gift shop before heading out. By this time the museum was closed, except for the King Tut exhibit and presumably the theatre.

After passing through Logan Square again, and giving the girls another chance to splash in the fountain, we headed back toward the train station. Along the way we stopped at TGI Friday's for dinner. This was the first time I'd ever been to a TGIF, though I did eat at a TGI Thursday's** once in Dubai.

Right outside Friday's is a fountain that gives me problems deciding whether I want to smack the artist first, or the person who decided to put it out on a public street. I can't find a picture of it on the web, so as soon as I can hook the camera up to the computer....

After that it was back to the train and then the hotel. More later on the next day's adventures.


* One of those "wow - is he still alive?" people.

** The name "TGI Friday's," of course, comes from the expression "Thank God It's Friday" - because that means tomorrow's the weekend and I won't have to go to work/school. In the Arab countries, though, the weekend - meaning the days off work at the end of the five-day work week - are Friday and Saturday. So the restaurant chain there is TGIT's, with the same menu and decor as in the American restaurants, as near as I could remember.

Forty years

It's hard to believe it's been this long, but forty years ago, plus or minus a day or few, I met my best friend.

1967 was The Summer of Love, but it was also a time of unrest - there were race riots in Newark, Detroit and Milwaukee, amongst other places. I don't recall my mother's ever showing any signs of prejudice, despite having grown up in Florida and Georgia during the '20s, and there wasn't much going on in Waukegan*, but she was still a little nervous about having me walking to school by myself. Fortunately for her peace of mind, one of the ladies she worked with had a son who was also starting eighth grade, and they lived just a few blocks away, on a reasonable route to school.

So early one September morning I presented myself at Gary's house, to walk the rest of the way to school. But Gary already had a friend he walked to school with, so our first stop was at his house.

And thus it began....

Turned out that the friend shared my interest in the military, as well as other things, and we hung out together all the rest of the way through school. We'd go to one of the local cinemas (there were three, plus the X-rated one) to see films like A Stranger in Town, The Hell with Heroes, Two Mules for Sister Sara, or Chrome and Hot Leather. We'd sit at his house and watch Ray Rayner or Garfield Goose on telly, or play game after game of Scrabble, or The Game of Life. We'd wander around the malls, or downtown, or one of Waukegan's great city parks.

I dropped out of high school in '72. He (two years younger than I, but only one year behind in school) graduated in '73, then joined the Army later that summer. We lost track of each other for a few years after I moved to Iowa; by the time we hooked up again he was in Rhodesia and I was married. We kept in touch by post during the next few years, while he roamed the world and I stayed at home in Iowa. Then I joined the Navy, and a few years after that he settled down. The last time I actually saw him was in the spring of '87, when he had a brief stop in Honolulu on his way home to Australia, but we still keep in touch, by mail and e-mail (and sometimes even by way of this blog).

Happy anniversary, mate!


* Though there'd been a riot there the preceding summer.

Awfully quiet around here....

As I said here, last year we sent our older daughter off to spend two weeks at Girl Scout camp. Two weeks for each girl is a bit beyond our budget, alas, so this year they're getting one week each at 4H camp. The older one left today, and will be home Friday evening; her sister will get her turn later this month.

Pictures

I finally got around to adding a picture to my blogger profile. (Actually, I had picked one out several months ago, but it promptly disappeared before I could give it to my wife so she could scan it into her computer at work.)

That's not really the complete picture, though. It was clipped from this picture of my wife and me, taken at the Navy and Marine Corps Birthday Ball, at NAB Little Creek VA, back in '97.



The US Navy's official birthday is 13 October, and most Navy bases hold a ball or some other celebration around that time. (Except for submarine bases, that is; we tend to celebrate 11 April, the birthday of the submarine force, instead.) The official birthday of the US Marine Corps is 10 November, and again, most Jarhead bases hold some sort of event near that date. Little Creek being an amphib base, it has not only lots of sailors, but also lots of jarheads, so rather than hold two balls a month apart, they hold one combined ball somewhere in between the two birthdays.

Usually active-duty personnel are required to wear uniform (dress blue or better) to these events, but in '97 they forgot to specify that in the event announcement. So I broke out the kilt, and my mother-in-law made a new dress for my wife, and off we went. We attracted a bit of intention, of course - I even had a Jarhead bird colonel come up and introduce himself, saying he wished he could have gotten away with wearing his kilt instead of his evening dress "B" uniform.

I got it from Kelly; she got it from Gail

This meme, which I first found at Big A little a, has been wandering around for a while. It was originated by Kate S, at Kate's Book Blog, who issued a general "tag" to anyone who reads her post.

Here's my version....

1. How old were you when you learned to read and who taught you?

My sister taught me to read when I was three. My earliest memories, however, are from when I was four, so as far as I'm concerned I've always known how to read.

2. Did you own any books as a child? If so, what’s the first one that you remember owning? If not, do you recall any of the first titles that you borrowed from the library?

Many. My whole family (parents, brother and two sisters) were readers. The earliest book I remember was The Story of Ferdinand, about the Spanish bull who just wants to sit under the cork tree and sniff the flowers. My sister tells me that this was my favourite book when I was really young, and it was the one she used for the reading lessons I don't remember.

As for library books, the earliest one I actually remember was The Guns of Shiloh, by Joseph Altsheler. I had a terrible time convincing the school librarian that I, a mere second-grader, was capable of reading such a book (Amazon says it's for ages 9-12) and that she should let me check it out.

3. What’s the first book that you bought with your own money?

Yeah, like I'm really going to remember that far back....

4. Were you a re-reader as a child? If so, which book did you re-read most often?

Yep. My sister bought me a lot of the Landmark books, from Random House, and I know I reread the one about the Bismarck more than once. Once I got started on Edgar Rice Burroughs (see next question), I reread most of his books.

5. What’s the first adult book that captured your interest and how old were you when you read it?

I was about ten years old when my sister (she's almost thirteen years older than I, and yes, she was a major influence on my early life!) brought home copies of The People That Time Forgot and Thuvia, Maid of Mars. Those two books were my first introduction to ERB, and even more importantly, my first introduction to science fiction. Ace and Ballantine were just reissuing most of his works in paperback at that time, and I ended up buying almost all of them. The following year, I discovered A Bertram Chandler, and I've been a big SF fan ever since.

6. Are there children’s books that you passed by as a child that you have learned to love as an adult? Which ones?

Can't really think of any. Most of the children's books I really love - Swallows & Amazons, Green Knowe, Enid Blyton's "Adventure" series, Dean Marshall's books, Trixie Belden, &c - are books I first read as a child or as a teenager.

(And my thanks to Tom Lehrer for the subject line I used....)

Humbug

Not even halfway through November yet, and I had to spend all day yesterday and today listening to Xmas songs at work. *#$&%&!!! And the Xmas displays went up the first week in October; even my ten-year-old (now eleven) was annoyed by that.

It's things like this that make me hate Xmas more and more each year....

Good news

Got an e-mail from an old friend (the girls' honourary grandmother) a couple days ago. Her youngest son, a sergeant in an Army artillery outfit, is home from Iraq. With all body parts intact and in proper working order.

Make that great news.