The things you see

The Mister and I moseyed down to JRB today. Before leaving, we thought we'd take in some of the local base sights. So we stopped at the main "old military crap" display.



Looks pretty much like most such things. Couple of old planes, old helicopter in the background, etc etc. Heck, a few hundred yards away there's even some old SeaBee bulldozer. Pretty much the average display. Except...



Except one item that actually seemed to have attracted visitors. What on earth is the large green object that could attract visitors to one of these tiresome displays?



That'd be a thermonuclear bomb. I'd tell you about it, but I'll let the signage do that.



Pretty cool, huh? One of three. I assume that it's not one of three functional bombs. Although that would be a pretty cool thing to put on display, really.

There's also a nice plaque about the history of the JRB. I really like the ending.



Food for thought. Much as our current wars suck, what with being confusing and vague and all, it is fortunate indeed that we never trotted these critters out for a real-life use. If the order of the day was deterrence, then deterrence worked, and I for one am mighty thankful for it.

Great Ideas

I was in Fry's (the giant electronics place) with Girl Child on Tuesday. Fry's has everything, including non-electronic stuff. In fact, they had a large bin of personal-size pepper spray near the checkout.

Abby, said Girl Child, can we get pepper spray? That would be cool!

I thought about it for a moment, and my poor judgement kicked in. Sure, I replied. But if your Dad disapproves, it's a no-go, and I personally think that before you guys can walk around with pepper spray, you'd have to try it on yourselves.

She cheerfully assented, I bought a couple of little cans, and didn't give it another thought. I figured the idea of trying it out had probably turned them off.

I was wrong.

Last night, they remembered. The Mister agreed that one should experience pepper spray before being allowed to carry it to the convenience store and back. He further expressed that as part of our adult obligation to lead from the front, pepper spray should be a family activity.

You can see how this all went down, can't you?

Number Two son volunteered to get hit first, followed by Girl Child. Then I sprayed the Mister, and, against the sound advice of the three of them, allowed Number One Son to give me a thorough spritzing.

You know, that stuff sucks. I've had my share (and possibly your share) of CS over the years, but this pepper spray is a little different. Less snot and gagging (really, almost none), but it provides a really effective burning sensation.

The only bit of wisdom any of us exhibited in this whole exercise was to hold it next to the pool.



It was probably about 20 minutes before we were opening our eyes. Number One Son, the only one of us smart enough pass on the experience, spent that time giggling and pointing out that we were maybe not the smartest family he could be a part of.

All in all, it was quite the family learning experience. By morning, it was already taking shape as a future Family Legend. Of course, the two kids who'd participated in the spraying were declaring themselves Morally Superior to their brother and all their peers.

Little masochists. We may have future Marines on our hands, if they persist in relishing Things That Suck.

As an aside, I'd heard good things about pepper spray. But at this point, I would be inclined to recommend it, particularly for walking in dog-infested areas.

Teaser

Tomorrow...the family that pepper sprays each other...

Outtake from daily life

The Mister and I were at Kroger. We had two boxes of Hamburger Helper (Bacon Cheeseburger type), a bag of fresh green beans, and a crate of beer.

We approached the checkout. The Mister looked at me and said, "Wow. Are we white trash or what?"

Which reminded me..."Yes. We are. And we need cigarettes."

Yea!

After three attempts, I got the correct doohickey and have sucked my photos, documents, music, etc over to the new laptop.

This please me greatly.

In celebration, let's have some photos, shall we?



Here we have the Mister, riding around in circles recently. This does not look like fun to me, but apparently it's for him. Speaking of fun, check out this sign in a motel room we stayed in while fishing at Lake Fork.



I like that sign very much. And, for our last photo, we shall feature something else I like very much. Squirrels with lightsabers.



That last one is courtesy of those wacky kids over at ARFCOM, my favorite source for odd photos and excruciatingly detailed firearms information.

Ugh (PartII)

Well, I think the worst is over. The chills lasted a couple hours, and I woke up with enough energy to eat some toast, drink some water, and dig some ammo out of the back closet.

I'd better wake up feeling fabulous, 'cause I have plans to be shooting in the morning.

Alright, back to bed. Because the only think that fixes problems faster than hydration is sleep.

Ugh...

This was one of those days...I got up and took Mom to the airport, which is always kind of a bummer.

I came back, finished wrestling some Army paperwork, made the drive over to the unit, and, on the way home, was forced to use my ninja-like driving skills to avoid a three-car wreck on I-20 directly in front of me.

(This got more annoying when, immediately after I ascertained nobody was bleeding out and that I had no moral obligation to do anything other than get back in and continue driving home, all drivers involved started working toward a bitchy discussion of who was at fault)

(I will also note that it looked like everyone involved had been on a cellphone, with the possible exception of the big handsome pit bull who was panting cheerfully in one of the vehicles)

Got home, took a nap, woke up with a sharp, twisty abdominal pain. Hmmm...I didn't really eat very much today, so maybe I'll have a sandwich when this stops hurting so much.

Alas, instead of resolving itself with a nice sandwich, my stomach decided to be painful for a good hour, and finally resolved itself in the most dramatic bout of power-yakking I've done in years. In good news, it does seem to be much happier now.

Alright. Off for more quality time with my red Gatorade, and maybe a tuna sandwich here in a few.

Again, with the hate

It's amazing the number of passwords, logins, etc, that I had stored in my email inbox. On the dead laptop. Thus, it's amazing the number of things I can't quite access yet.

[snarl]

Additionally, I find it interesting that the PureEdge viewer which the Army is now using for all its forms is described as having "issues" with Vista.

[snarl]

And finally, this setup came with a 60-day trial of Microsoft Office, after which I assume it will disappear and leave me with that godawful Fisher Price Microsoft Work.

[double snarl]

The New Laptop

has arrived. Bringing with it strange default settings, cheerful helpful little messages and, of course, Windows Vista.

God, I hate change.

Chillin'

by the pool. It's shaping up to be a rough weekend with Mom in town. Next up on the agenda - hit the Amon Carter Museum and troll around for places with decent wine and snacks.

The Mister has taken off to ride his motorcycle rapidly around a track and, in a slightly sadistic fit of fatherliness, opted to take the kids with him. They toted off a large cooler and a tent for some shade, so I assume they'll survive.

We eagerly await the arrival of the new laptop tomorrow, so I can stop borrowing the Mister's desktop to blog. Although I do admit, I kinda enjoy the full-sized keyboard.

Here's hoping your weekend is as mellow as mine!