long may she wave

My father is an Air Force veteran from the Korean conflict, a duty that he took on willingly right in the middle of college when duty called, returning to earn a degree in agriculture after his tour. If you can believe this (and why not?) I wore his heavy wool navy overcoat to a Led Zeppelin concert BAREFOOT in my hippie days. I'm sure he never got over that or the fact that I went to Memphis State for a year. At least my degree is from UT! He has always been patriotic to a fault, knowing firsthand what it's like to be far from home and scared to death. Not many of his old AF buddies are alive, but now and then he hears from one. When I heard on TV today that this is the first Veteran's day ever without a living WWI vet to march, I cried because of the passage of time and the fact that we still have not learned that nothing is worth the sacrifice of the lives of our troops. Nothing but freedom, and the way I see it all we need freedom from right now is oil. Let China have it. I've noticed the last few times that I pulled in the driveway at the homestead that Daddy's flag is getting ever more tattered by the day. The pole got blown over and cut off and the old stars and stripes like like they've been carried by some soldier on a horse into the heat of battle. Fear not dad...Christmas is coming!

I had a weekend at the sawmill that wasn't bad and gave me an opportunity to get caught up on continuing education which is required to carry a health occupations license in our state. Plus we pay the licensing board a fee for the privilege of working. As states go, ours is one of the more prepared for the Affordable Care Act what with our experience of having learned about TennCare the hard way. The opportunity for corruption with this type of brokering or "exchange" if you will, is that there is money to be made and often political favors end up being the death of a program that should have worked except for the greed of some who cater to pillheads for a buck. When they don't get what they want? Guess where they go.

I'm ready for more than one day off and it just so happens that it's the eve of that happening. zzzzzzzzzzzzz and all that! Faith is still doing much better, thank you sweet Big Ernie because really? I just couldn't deal with losing her right now. Not enough Xanax in the world dude.

Keep the faith ^j^