So... This week I go Home, at last. I'm going home to see my folks. I haven't been since Easter. I haven't been since before my Dad had his surgery. I'm long, long, long overdue for a trip home, to hug my Mom and Dad, siblings, in-laws and outlaws, nieces and nephews. My 93 yr old Grandma will have her annual family reunion as scheduled, on the Sunday before Labor Day. I'm going there too, and get a big hug or several with her as well.

I talked to Grandma on the phone last weekend. She's an amazing woman. She's got her act together, still. It's been a long-running wonderful show. She's humble and generous and full of common sense as well as outright intelligence. I hope I'm growing up to be like her. My mother's like her, so there's hope it's being passed down. I've gotten a lot from my Dad and his family too. In fact, I've inherited quite a phenomenal legacy from both sides, as far back as I have traced them so far. I'm proud to carry all my ancestors along with me, and they're not a bit heavy. They give me a considerable lightness of being. They've known how to make the best of tough situations, and how to be grateful when the going is easier. Excellent skills.

Anyway, I'm going Home... to get me some more o' that.

And, I'm bringing it back with me. Dad's doing great, so he and Mom are going to come here and see the new place. I'll be glad to have the extra time with them.

Anticipation.... Anticipaa-aaa-aaa-aaa-ation.... Is makin' me late... Keepin' me waa-aaa-aaaitin'...
We can never know about the days to come, but we think about them anyway...

I wrote a whine. I deleted it. Sooner or later, everything will work out.

Waiting, waiting, waiting... for the house sale to happen.
Have I mentioned that patience is not my long suit?

In Brief...

I am grateful that E et al made it through hurricane Charley crossing Florida. I hope Bill and Skya and their families are okay as the tempest passes. I am grateful that Xan and the Xoo were not harmed by fire. Naturally I wish the best for all my loved ones, even if they aren't immediately in harm's way. I thank the Powers for all care and tending.

I am hopeful that the appraisal on our house was satisfactory and the sale will proceed apace. I am once again hopeful that Ghost will be coming to the Ark, since his other job fell through. In the meantime, I ask that he and his family will be cared for.

I am thankful for Dad's continued terrific recovery, and for Mom's continued strength. I look forward to being with them for a while when I go home for Grandma's family reunion on Labor Day weekend.

Today's Straw: The War in Iraq
What frosts my wheaties about the war is not so much that we went or why we're 'really' there or who knew what and when and who exaggerated and all that. It's the foggy-headed comparisons to Vietnam... yeah, Viet-friggin-Nam! Anyone old enough to know about Vietnam should know better than to think our excursions into Iraq are remotely comparable.

I'm so apolitical it's scary, and I avoid news whenever possible, but even so, I've finally heard enough of this bullshit to peg my irritation meter.

Vietnam. Go read about it if you don't remember seeing slaughter on the evening news every night for ten years. The entire Iraqi business, including the first time we went over there to bail out Kuwait, doesn't add up to one year of death resulting from Vietnam. Claiming that our troops are currently in the same position now as they were then is an insult to every name on the wall in Washington and all the names we don't even know because we lost track of them in the swamps. It's an affront to every Vet who came back broken and even the guys who broke up their lives to avoid the meat grinder in Asia.

I'm sorry but our current volunteer military is made up mostly of people who wanted college money or couldn't find a civilian job. They are NOT facing the same thing as all those tens of thousands of drafted young men who found themselves fighting deep in the swamps, or in ragged streets where even children could be explosive.

Don't get me wrong, I support everyone we've sent to Iraq. I want every single one of them to come home, safe and sound. I support their families, especially those who have lost or will lose a loved one. But, this is not Vietnam, and this current lot of soldiers isn't likely to return home to people spitting on them or threatening to harm them on our streets too.

Yes, there's danger in Iraq and people are being killed, on both sides. War is like that. People die. If we don't want any more of that, then we must find ways around it. But... don't for a minute try to say that a few hundred deaths in a year equals a hundred in a day.

We're not going in and bombing the shit out of acres of people like we did in Vietnam, Cambodia, etc. We're trying to drop food and supplies for them. We're not wedging ourselves between two obvious factions. We knocked out a man who was committing crimes against humanity and maybe, just maybe, afforded a beaten and fractured population the chance to breathe long enough to figure out what they want. They couldn't dare think about it until now.

I don't know if it was really the right thing for us to go into Iraq. I don't know if we ever really had justification. But I have to say this, I'm damned glad we're not killing and being killed in massive numbers as it was with Vietnam. We're still playing at war and I hate it, but at least we seem to be a little smarter about how we're playing it.

That incomplete list on the Vietnam wall in Washington has over 58,000 names on it. In the year and a half of the Iraqi war, the Coalition forces, not just the US alone, have lost about 1000 in Iraq.

Don't fucking tell me you see a resemblance between Iraq and Vietnam. Don't insult those who died there, or those who've spent every day since trying to figure out how to live with what happened there.

After more than a week of passing counter offers back and forth with the buyers, we're supposed to have a real contract for the sale of the old house as of Monday. According to our real estate agent, the buyers are anxious to get the closing done so they can get moved. We're all for that. It will be very nice to be out from under the additional mortgage payment and utilities, not to mention having the cash proceeds from the sale. Here's hoping.