Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Stuff that amuses me
My house is a disaster. I am up to my eyeballs in things I need to take care of before I singlehandedly ship all of our worldly possessions to Kentucky in just over a month. And I have hundreds of pictures from our most recent trip that need to get weeded out, edited, and posted. So instead of doing any of the above, I am sitting here putting together a few unrelated items that have brought me untold joy over the past couple of days.
Item the first: Remember you read it here first! It's the new recreational craze that is (or soon should be, anyway) sweeping the nation. Yes, I'm talking about piling stuff on a sleeping cat. My friend Tess likes to put stuff on her cat Elmo:
I am insanely jealous, as my cat is in Florida with my parents, and I shall have to wait until after the move in order to be able to put stuff on him. I suppose I could put stuff on my sleeping children, but it is very hard to get them to go to sleep, so that would be like playing with fire.
Item the second: What more can I say? It's Fred on a CAMEL:
Item the third: Somebody sent this to Fred, who in turn sent it to me. He said it was OK for me to publish it as long as I removed the procedures for clearing weapons, which I have done:
I probably find this funnier than most people will, as I am ultra-sensitive to rewards as a means of behavior control. Pizza parties for children who read books, stickers for good conduct, etc. All of that stuff makes me itch. I'm sure it's a mild form of PTSD from the trauma we suffered at the hands of our Blue Ribbon (!), Exemplary Rated (!) school in the great state of Texas. Anyway, the idea of giving soldiers stuffed toys for successfully clearing the ammo from their guns just sets me to cackling.
Actually though, now that I think about it, I hope it really is a joke. After all, when Fred was with the 82d Airborne Division at Ft. Bragg, NC, I distinctly recall that they would get a day off when they could go 82 consecutive days without a training fatality. As though not getting killed just wasn't reward enough . . .
Item the first: Remember you read it here first! It's the new recreational craze that is (or soon should be, anyway) sweeping the nation. Yes, I'm talking about piling stuff on a sleeping cat. My friend Tess likes to put stuff on her cat Elmo:
I am insanely jealous, as my cat is in Florida with my parents, and I shall have to wait until after the move in order to be able to put stuff on him. I suppose I could put stuff on my sleeping children, but it is very hard to get them to go to sleep, so that would be like playing with fire.
Item the second: What more can I say? It's Fred on a CAMEL:
Item the third: Somebody sent this to Fred, who in turn sent it to me. He said it was OK for me to publish it as long as I removed the procedures for clearing weapons, which I have done:
I probably find this funnier than most people will, as I am ultra-sensitive to rewards as a means of behavior control. Pizza parties for children who read books, stickers for good conduct, etc. All of that stuff makes me itch. I'm sure it's a mild form of PTSD from the trauma we suffered at the hands of our Blue Ribbon (!), Exemplary Rated (!) school in the great state of Texas. Anyway, the idea of giving soldiers stuffed toys for successfully clearing the ammo from their guns just sets me to cackling.
Actually though, now that I think about it, I hope it really is a joke. After all, when Fred was with the 82d Airborne Division at Ft. Bragg, NC, I distinctly recall that they would get a day off when they could go 82 consecutive days without a training fatality. As though not getting killed just wasn't reward enough . . .
Comments:
okay, color me stupid, but since when is the clearing procedure for an M-16, 9mm, M203 or shotgun 'sensitive'? After all, every single person who ever served in the military, ever spent more than a year in ROTC and/or ever went to boy scout camp probably knows the drill... I'm guessing that the irony here is that 'winning' a prize will also get you an adverse disciplinary action -- at least it would have when I was deployed... shooting the barrel means you did it wrong.
# posted by 
: 7:00 AM
: 7:00 AM
Actually a question, not a comment. I considered myself an avid reader of your blog, but I don't remember reading about orders to Kentucky. When will Fred be able to join you, where are you going? Just curious!
Rena
Rena
# posted by : 5:45 PM
: 5:45 PM
I hear ya, Chris. I just don't want to get him in trouble, so I deleted the signs. So, terrorists, if you're hoping to advance your cause through knowledge of our weapon clearing procedures, you're SOL here!!!
Rena, I have just mentioned it in passing a couple of times. It's not something I'm exactly turning backflips over, although I have more or less made my peace with it. That is progress, when you consider that at Christmas I couldn't even say Kentucky without crying. We leave here August 27--a little more than a month after Fred gets back from Iraq. Oh, and it's Fort Knox!
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Rena, I have just mentioned it in passing a couple of times. It's not something I'm exactly turning backflips over, although I have more or less made my peace with it. That is progress, when you consider that at Christmas I couldn't even say Kentucky without crying. We leave here August 27--a little more than a month after Fred gets back from Iraq. Oh, and it's Fort Knox!
