09 30, 2007 - Road trip day 2

Well, we arrived in Oregon last night and it was a nice 64 degrees out, and when we got up this morning it was 44, and had rained. As we departed and headed to the coast again, we listened to the weather for the Northwest; rain, rain and more rain, with snow to 4,000 feet by wednesday. Wednesday is when we planned to go from Kennewick Wa to Leavenworth, which now appears subject to change. We discussed where were satying, and decided to change plans, and not go to Bellingham, which we have visited before, but spend more time in the Seattle area... OH, life on the road!

So, all day it rained, either drizzle, shower or out right poured, as we made our way up the coast to our destination, a resort on the oregon coast where we are spending a couple of days...Not that rain is bad, we both like it better than blasting heat..after unpacking, I took the dog for a walk, and HB took a picture of us from the room...now you know why I am in charge of the official vacation pictures! (see above)

09 29, 2007 Road Trip Day 1

Leaving the valley at, we wandered along the river, eventually arriving at Redding CA, and I-5.

Joining the flow of Freightliners, Peterbuilts, and other 18 wheelers, we headed north, passing through such scenic towns of Dunsmuir. We ate deli sandwiches made in a wonderful market in Mount Shasta City, and then ventured to a point where the view was spectacular.

After our meal we wandered down historic highway 99, to where it merges with I-5 and proceeded to Weed and Yreka, deep in what at one point may have been, and yet may be, the State of Jefferson. Before WWII people in southern oregon and northern California were going to form a new state, named after the 3rd Predident of the US, Thomas Jefferson.

Map of the State of Jefferson

Pushing on, we crossed the border to Oregon, the dog sleeping soundly in the back seat. Buzzed thru Ashland and Medford, home of Harry & David/Perkins Roses, aka Bear Creek Corp.

Arriving at Grants Pass, we checked in to our room, went shopping for essentials (beer, chips, popcorn) and then went to eat..at Wild River Brewing and Pizza, which actually has very good beers, and a menu that is very extensive, and reasonable.

And now, bellys full and minds blurred , we retire to our temporary quarters for the night.

On the agenda tomorrow: Oregon coast!

September 29, 2007

Canice has started vacation: Here is a reprint of a blog from 2005, referring to a PBS program on the 1960's, during the pledge break, they pitched how you should order now to preserve the memories.

I used to wear Peter Max paisley, striped pants, and these awful platform shoes, kind of like these.

Eric Burton and the Animals "Sky Pilot" brings back a load of memories, most of which involve having an altered state of mind-hell most of the music they are playing reminds me of that. The Association played "Along came Mary", and all I could think about was that now they look like a bunch of college professors.

Oh well, I guess in 2040, fifty and sixty years olds will be listening to vintage Hip Hop, and watching MTV senior videos.... Its like over the weekend while driving around I found this station and thought, Geez, they are playing some decent music, and then (OH NO) found out it was the oldies station...oh, whatever.

Look for Road Trip Edition 1 this evening....Canice

another September 28, 2007, inspired by "Mr. E"

In the course of writing these blogs, I tend to wander all over the place, delving into politics, military stuff, etc. I talk about weapons, vacations, information security, my car, MY HONEY, family , work and shopping, sometimes all in the same blog(like now ).

So sometimes people write comments, and I read them all, and then I think about it, and figure if I should respond to them, people i only know by a picture and a name, such as fuzz23, of regiggle, and I usually do. Because I am inherently trusting of people in life, or maybe because I inherently distrust at work, so it puts me in a quandary, as to why i trust people online in a forum as this, when if I got email from unknown people, they would first get the header info review, maybe a trace on the IP, and finally, if the email was one of those scam things, a referral to the originating IP to treat as abuse or spam... anyway...

I recently had some comments privately back and forth with another 360 member, and found him quite engaging in conversation, albeit via "email" and separated by hours from his note to my response.

But he caused me to remember a lot of things that during day to day life i forget about...about 30 years ago, as a single college edumentated skool teacher...err, and educated school teacher, i saw an ad in the local unofficial school paper, the kind that are about 90% ads, and no news, and was reading it on the quad while eating lunch, and saw this ad that interested college graduates could teach for the dept of defense overseas, travel, blah blah blah. And in remembering all this, i remember mostly the good things, but there were also the not so good as well.

My Germany memories...at least some of them

I recounted in this blog somewhere about being in my room listening to the news, and hearing about a government official and his bodyguard being killed in the street, in what today would be called a drive by, and definitely and act of terrorism. But in my conversation with Mr. E I recalled things like how the Germans i spoke with back then never fought the us, always the Russians. But when i chanced upon a small festival in May 1977, the beer flowing freely, and so did the stories; one such story recounted how these men, assigned to the local Wehrmacht detachment near Schweinfurt, sought out allied aircrew who had crashed and survived or parachuted to safety. In a moment of sheer interest turned horror, I remember this one red faced German telling me how he and the other soldats found a crashed B-17, and "finished" the job, by smashing in one survivor with a rifle but, and taking a bayonet to another. The American male i was with put down his beer, and wanted to fight, and I pleaded for him not to..and as he calmed down, he threw the beer on the ground and said something, but I recall slapping the old man and telling him in German he was a pig...

Mr. E stimulated my memories of other events, like going to dinner, where an acquaintance had suggested we would find a wonderful gasthaus in the forest. When we arrive, there were few cars, and has we walked up across the gravel path, we heard music, which as we drew near, I recognized from the films we saw constantly in 7th grade history...it was a Nazi march, called either the Horst Wessel or Die Fahne Hoch (I think it means The Banner High or Flag on High) which singing it is considered illegal. After the music stopped, there were these shouts, Sieg, seig, sieg Heil, fur das Vaterland( roughly hail victory for the fatherland)...We slowly walked away and drove back to town, a little shaken. I don't know if he reported it, but I know a short time later, there was a raid and the police charged several with something. I remember the paper had a picture of the police with a Nazi flag, one of the one with a wreath around the swastika....

Then there was the time we were on the playground, the children playing soccer. Across from the grassy field was a small ravine, and about a 1/4 mile away the gate to a missile site, where the Army had anti-aircraft missiles. We spotted a small car pull up to the fence, and two guys get out and they were dressed rather weird, and we could tell the car was still running by the smoke coming out the exhaust. One of the other teachers, I think she was an army wife, called the MPs(Military Police) and told them what we saw. Within seconds(it seemed) the MPs were racing by in their jeeps, and the weirdos across the way ran around and jumped into their car and zoomed away, the MPs trying to catch them. We later heard (in a mandatory security meeting) that they were Russian spies, trying to photograph and amp where our missile were.

OH, that reminds me...That summer I went to Schweinfurt, to visit a friend, and we went to have lunch. As we were coming out of the cafeteria, and saying our good byes, talk to ya soon (B movie for real time people!) there sirens started going and military people started running around..here are these two young stupid Americans on a base, and we don't have a clue...and all of a sudden we hear a jet, and someone points up in the cloud, and there is this fighter jet, and through the hazy sky, as in turned under a cloud, somebody yelled, "Holy Sh#t, its a Russkie" . I remember turning my head upward again, and shielding my eyes from the sun clearly saw a BIG red star with a white border on the tail....it turned and zoomed away, causing a sonic boom, and about 2 minutes later two American jets zoomed over , obviously trying to catch the intruder...I don't remember exactly what we did, but knowing me, I would bet we hugged each other and cried...I mean what else could you do?? I do recall heading home and thinking screw this, I need to go back to the USA.....

About a month after this, I was eating dinner with a couple, he was in the army and she worked at the school, and this other army guy came over. I remember he was a 2nd Lt, because we were told not to get involved with them, they were too young, at least that's what one of the teacher said( gee, we were actually kind of ...provincial almost...) he looked like he was terrified and mark asked him what was wrong,anndhe just kept mumbling about war, and finally Mark called the unit,and found out what had happened. This poor kid, in Germany only a week, was the duty officer that evening at the Anti-Missile site. The nearby radar station had called him, informing him they were tracking "multiple in bound aircraft" which meant they were coming from Czechoslavakia (now the Czech Republic). He put hss unit on alert, and they eventually acquired the inbound planes on their radar. As they watched, i think one of his men kept saying how close they were , and eventually they were demanding him to do something, so he said prepare to fire. I don't know what the authority is or anything, but this guy was very scared that he was going to be one of the first shots in WW III. Apparently thepalness came closer and closer( we were only about a few minutes from the border by plane) and he was about to order them to fire when the radar operator said the planes were turning and the AF radarstatinon called and said to stop

Just because of Mr E ( and this is not a bad thing) I also remember some good things...like the time they had all these American angermanan soldiers from thBundeswehrhr on parade, and they had this big formation and all these officer gave speeches about German American friendship, etc, etc... and then they said we would now end this ceremony with the national anthems of US and germany...and so the American sergeant (like in Patton in the very beginning yelled AHHHHH Ten Shun! and all the american came to attention; then this German officer nodded,and thgermanan, I think they are calleOberfeldwebelel (like a senior sergeant) yelled monosllyable "OPT" ( at least thats what what it sounded like), and 800 german soldiers came to attention as one. It made me have shivers...imagine, 800 pairs of boots coming together at attention...the noise was almost like a muffle thunder clap. I recall tGI'sI's sitting in front of me said something like "that discipline is why these kersers almost won the war" It was impressive.

And then there was the time I got drunk at the nearby monastery, and watched these German guys place this icky game, where you put a napkin on top of a wet beer glass , and put a coin in the middle of the napkin, which is now forming a kind of paper thin cap on the glass; then you take turburingning holes in napkin until the coin falls in, which means you lose(and you have to drink the beer, with all the ashes in it YUCK. The were playing for money and drinks, and I being pretty much as they say three sheets to the wind, was being a real ...well, i had my friends yelling at me to shut up i was not helping, and about then i told mt perfect i could beat him, as drunk as i was...my friends all said she's too drunk, and he said something smart ass, like he didn't play with women, he, you know, the f word them, so i s thatshat's it, you thatsthat's what you can do.. I cant believe I said it...and thsatrtedtarted playing the game, and I (a non-smoker) was taking a hitmarlbororlboro, and then carefully burning a hole in the napkin, and him, and it was to the thret there was like these strings holding the coin, and I put the cigarette noneofo one of the strings and ...it burned through!.and yet the coin didn't fall in!!!!!harrassedarassed by HIS friends, and he finally took his turn, the coin fell in, and he lost. He also wpalyer player, because he didn't drink the beer, so wasted me chugged it...and went outside to yuck it up...I did stupid stuff like this a lot over there...we were all so young and kind of crazy..

OK, now i have to finish packing for we leave...why is it men always want to leave at dawn????Are we going to miss something ? Every time we end up getting to the hotel way too early, and have to ...drive around looking for a place to hangout...which usually is a ...bar...I get it, there is reason to the madness...

September 28, 2007 Morning Edition

Thats right, I'm going on VACATION>>>YAAAAAAAAAA.

I was going to start today, but work demands i come to, you guessed it, more meetings. Working with government is a good thing for me, since it virtually assures a long term engagement...the organizational structure is so hierarchical that anything requires meetings...I don't think they have ever heard of delegated authority. Sorry government, but its true.

So by this time tomorrow, i should be o way way to oregon, then up to eastern Washington, over to Seattle, up to Bellingham and then to the San Juan Islands. I plan to post some pistures and a breif log daily, so please check in if you feel like it...

The dog is ready...and so is HB, who has today off..

Peace...gawd i sound so dated, like a old hippie....

Sept 27, 2007 "Pack a snack all night edition"

First, I thank all the people who have left such wonderful comments on my blog! Thank you, and thanks for the warm messages as well. It great!! I realized i have friends in every time zone across the continental United States, a microcosm of the 302 million of us the census estimates there are...

I previously had written here about the Ken Burns series, the War, and was wondering, am I alone in being a little disappointed in this program? I think the New York Times said something in the review that ends:

“The War” gives generous voice to a wide variety of remarkable people, but they are all American voices. Mr. Burns delivers almost everything viewers care to know about wartime America; it’s also telling that this is the only tale he wants to tell.

That's valid, but what did you expect, Ken Burns presents The War: A Perspective on France?

NO,that is not what I find less satisfying about it...I think to me its important for people in this country to understand about the sacrifice civilians and military made to ensure the Axis did not dominate the world. I mean I remember in school learning how the Axis had decided they would split America , and anyway you slice it, had they won, i would be living in Imperial Japanese Empire Colony of America. I remember my grandparents telling me about listening to the radio, for news. How grandfather moved the family to California, so he could apply his master carpenter skills to whatever task assigned at the Mare Island Shipyard. Grandma would be teaching me to make something in the kitchen, and telling me about the anti aircraft gun emplacement in back of the house they had in Vallejo.

I guess maybe I have been conditioned to endless retelling of history, particularly about WW II. I don't know the answer. All i know is I am not going to invest 15 hours watching it, 6 was enough.

And Now for something completely different....

When I was a kid we had a two bedroom 1 bath house, where my brother and i shared a bedroom; he had a bed on one wall, and I the other. When my youngest brother was born, my parents decided that he and my other brother could share the room, and i would have my own room. My own room!

Dad did some carpentry, probably assisted by grandfather, and he walled in "the den", a space off the living room that I guess was a precursory to the modern family room. It housed my dads desk, a bookcase and and a giaganticgun cabinet. Another bed was purchased, I think it was a surplus from the army navy store. I had my own room!

Going to bed in our house was when the grown ups said to, and many a time after school had started we were sent to bed after dinner, so it would still be light. I think sleeping in this room, and reading all the certificates my dad had on the wall warped my brain. His Marine Corps Commission, pictures of marines, heck there is one of these pictures in my hallway right now, of him and his men and a horse called Sgt Reckless.

I like war movies( if they are based even loosely on fact); I love westerns and face it, these are not "normal girl things". Or so i was led to believe. Fast forward, and after a taking a lot of history in college, i became fascinated with technology. From the early Greek and roman inventions, to today. I used to sign up for the tours offerred by the local air force base, an air depot, partly because it was extremely interesting, and partly because it was a great way to meet a lot of lonely air force guys...thats another story..oh, the thought of those dances, and how polite they were, and how they always would ask me the same thing...no not sex, but "do you have any weed?" I never met a bunch of more hearty party animals than these guys. By day, repairing and testing damaged aircraft, by night drinking, smokin, and howling at the moon..

Out of all this I gravitated to reading history, or historical fiction, and once the internet came along, i began to look up stuff online, especially when reading a Tom Clanceynovel..."He raised the aantenaeof the AN-PRC 75 radio..." the WHAT? Anyway, I think you get the picture...I like technology, and most of our technology in one way or another seems to have a link to the military...even the Iinternet which was not invented by Al Gore, but did get its genesis from DDARPA And now a bbreifhistory lesson:

"Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DDARPA/strong>) is the central research and development organization for the Department of Defense.

The Internet as we know it today traces it origins back to a Defense Department project in 1969. The subject of the project was wartime digital communications. At that time the telephone system was about the only theater-scale communications system in use. A major problem had been identified in its design - its dependence on switching stations that could be targeted during an attack. Would it be possible to design a network that could quickly reroute digital traffic around failed nodes? A possible solution had been identified in theory. That was to build a "web" of ddatagramnetwork, called an "ccatenet, and use dynamic routing protocols to constantly adjust the flow of traffic through the ccatenet

DDARPAInternet, largely the plaything of academic and military researchers, spent more than a decade in relative obscurity. Several Internet research teams proceeded through a gradual evolution of protocols. In 1975, DDARPAdeclared the project a success and handed its management over to the Defense Communications Agency. "

Did ya know that?

So I was watching TV, and saw this program, and the guy that invented the M-16 (which is modified and now called the M-4 in use in the armed forces - is a 50 year old design!) says our troops should have a more modern weapon, and the guy says the current AK designs from Russia are superior in function! Why don't our ttrops have more modern reliable weapons...because a modernized rifle, which sells to the military on a bulk contract basis is worth a lot less than say a modernized fighterplanee, and so they spend money on that. But like the guy said, Fighter planes don't hold territory, boots on the ground do.

Honey explained what that means to me once. They were watching a couple of jets bomb the heck out of a position, and then the command came to move in. As they did, his commander pointed at the planes flying back over them, and said " By the time we actually get into the town and occupy it, thosebastaa$$s will be back in Thailand, sipping a cool one." Boots(troops) do the hand to hand stuff, not airplanes.

In case you can't tell, honey was a "grunt" - gawd what a term! GRUNT - "Term of affection used to denote that filthy, sweaty, dirt-encrusted, footsore, camouflage-painted, tired, sleepy beautiful little son of a bitch who has kept the wolf away from the door for over two hundred years." -H.G. Duncan

Good evening!

Sept 27, 2007-Early(yawn)Morning Edition

While waking up and getting ready for the day ahead is a chore, sometimes the morning news is pretty weird, as this story points out(see picture with todays blog)

"SWASTIKA?: The buildings, constructed in the 1960s, are on the Coronado amphibious base and serve as a barracks for Seabees. From the ground, or even adjoining buildings, the configuration cannot be seen. Nor are there any civilian or military landing patterns that provide such a view. But Google Earth shows the shape clearly."

These buildings were built 40 years ago, and nobody knew this? "Well surprise, surprise, surprise.." Gomer Pyle, USMC

Navy to Mask Swastika Look of Barracks in California

The Navy plans to spend $600,000 for “camouflage” landscaping and rooftop adjustments so that 1960s-era barracks at the Naval Base Coronado near San Diego will no longer look like a Nazi swastika from the air. The resemblance went unnoticed by the public for decades until it was spotted in aerial views on Google Earth.But Navy officials said they became aware of it shortly after the 1967 groundbreaking, and had decided not to do anything.

“There was no reason to redo the buildings because they were in use,” a spokeswoman for the base, Angelic Dolan, said. She added that the buildings were in a no-fly zone that is off limits to commercial airlines, so most people would not see them from the air.“You have to realize back in the ’60s we did not have the Internet,” Ms. Dolan said. “We don’t want to offend anyone, and we don’t want to be associated with the symbol.”

So during groundbreaking in 1967 they realized it was going to look like a swastika, and didn't change the design..Oh Kay....(not really..its pretty STUPID) I bet if they had realized it was going to look like a Peace Sign, they would ahve ordered the contractor to redesign...

Sept 25, 2007 - Another off the wall Evening Edition

Warning: after writing this edition, I realized i went way into emotional territory, but I think I am going to keep this anyway. Please feel free to not continue if you think war and the people that serve their country are unworthy of your attention. (PS, If thats what you really think, why are you here???) Not serving, never want to, America bad?

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I have very few TV programs i look forward to seeing on a regular basis...NCIS is one. This of course has nothing to do with today's edition, other than that's what I am doing (watching TV) as i am writing this, the alleged season premiere is on.

i say alleged, because as some of you may remember, back in them olden days, TV programming season started about the time school went in session and re-runs didn't start until about Memorial Day. I other words, you could look forward to several months of entertainment, without seeing the same stories repeated. Now the networks compete against cable, the Internet, satellite TV, video on demand and DVD rentals ( not that long ago VHS rentals) as well , the old watch our channel or do what, read, go to the movies...well those times are gone. And with them the incentive to produce decent shows, with some plot, some story, some character development, and sustain that show for more than say 9 or 12 weeks, or whatever they decide now is a season. Not that the plots in NCIS are that intricate, but they will suffice...oh, and the fact that Mark Harmon is in it doesn't hurt (OK, its a me and millions of other women thing.)

More ...

Baby boomers are really proof that America was happy World War II was over, and has a product of that, our population from the start of the baby boom to now has doubled ( 132,481,000 then to 301,139,947 now).

1945 (the start of the Baby Boom) was 62 years ago, as my brother in law can verify, being born spring 1945, amazingly 9 months after his dad got leave before shipping out from serving in the Atlantic fleet to the pacific.

Our daughter barely got to know her grandfather, and he never spoke about the The War, which Ken Burns now has selected to document. He never spoke of it to my brother in law or my honey, but he did once talk about it to me, when we were sitting outside in the shade on summer afternoon. I said something, and we started talking about the weather. I absolutely hate the heat, especially the humidity of the southern states. He got onto the subject of extreme cold, saying he could take the heat better than that damn cold, and then told me a story about crossing the northern Pacific. He told me about the duty he pulled with other men, knocking ice off the ship, as the bow broke through the waves; about when the storm passed, then they prayed for it to return, because now a submarine tracked them, and he and some other men at battle stations watched a torpedo pass by in the choppy waters, pop through a trough in the water and disappear into the next wave, missing the ship. It wasn't until after his death several years later, we found a box, with medals and commendations. His ship had sailed from Washington state, across the northern Pacific, to Russia; he and the others then returned and headed south, back to Washington, picked up a new liberty ship, headed to Hawaii and then on to Iwo Jima.. and later to Okinawa. His own family never knew. The only stories he ever told them were related to some snap shots he had of him and some buddies in Panama.

My honey is a Vietnam era veteran, but never actually had to serve there, or so I thought, until last year. I wrote for his medals and commendations to make sure his (our) daughter knew what his service entailed. I was inspired to do so because she had started to bug me with stories about how her new father in-law is a war hero, which I don't know to be not true, but given his gift of gab, i doubt. He says he went in the service in 59 and got out in 63, so I have no idea what she is talking about.

I decided to make a scrap book, and give it to her. To my surprise honey's records show (DD214) "VietNam Service, National Defense Medal, and Good Conduct Medal, and some other "Foreign Awards"...I doubt you can understand the level of disbelief (HB always says when asked "I m just a Nam era vet") so when I asked about this, there was a pause, and then more pause. Finally out came details about a dream(nightmare) HB has had on and off for God knows how long, about being in a helicopter called a "sea knight", and flying into a landing area seeing red tracers going out of the zone and green ones coming in; of how they " landed" and 30 men ran out the back, jumping into tall grass in the dark, realizing the grass was 6 feet high, and tumbling all over each other "which probably saved out GD lives" as the helicopter took several rounds and took off trailing smoke. (This goes a great deal in hindsight to me understanding how he could watch hour after hour of the coverage of our invasion of Iraq, occasionally a tear streaming down his cheek, muttering to himself. )

HB never wants to go the state Vietnam memorial in Capitol Park in Sacramento, always chooses to sit in the rose garden and a couple of times I have seen him cry...Once when we were dating, he took me there, walked over to a particular slab, rubbed it with his hand talking softly, then came back to the car..and started crying. He told me he didn't understand why he was here and they weren't. I feel bad, knowing he went to a hellhole, and never wants to think of it again. I can't blame him, even if i can't really comprehend it.

When he and other vets get together, its like they are long lost brothers. For example, once at the county fair. We walked over to a display "US Marines" staffed by three young men, looking pretty good in their blue tunics.

HB, ponytailed, tie-dyed tshirt and sandal wearing, beer in hand, walked up to this startled young man and blurted out "Semper Fi Marine, I was a Marine back in Nam" The young Marine almost snapped to attention, and yelled to his comrades, and soon they were all talking and smiling, like friends who had not seen each other in years. I asked him if he knew them and he smiled, and told me he had never seen them before, but they shared something, they could say they were Marines. We came away from there with a poster than says Marines,and a lot of those foil stickers, which now adorn the beer fridge in the garage/man cave, and the back of the cars...

Thinking of this helps me understand why I cry when i watch the people in the Ken Burns program describe what they did, knowing it's not just history, its them, they lived it. HB says (at least now we talk about it) he used to regret being alive, because he has friends on the wall...I'm sorry HB. Sorry folks, i got to change topic now, OK.

Anyway, after all this, HB one day decided he should order some special plates for the cars, so I got 9/11 We Will Never Forget plates

, and HB got Veteran Plates...

Anyway, now you know some more about me, about my family, and why we support our soldiers, sailors, Marines, and ever those Air Force guys(smile)...but that's another edition.

September 24, 2007 Evening Edition

Not that anyone cares, but it seems like a lot of my co-360 bloggers did nothing or very little over the weekend. Well add me to that group. My size 10's were in the the flying footrest position after the Saturday morning chores. Sunday was puncuated by religious services, and then a trip to a store some 30 miles away, which didn't open til noon. Arriving promptly at 11, and realizing that waiting a half hour would be deemed unacceptable, I suggested we venture over to the giant sporting good store( she sighs loudly ), which honey (actually we are both honey; honey bear and honey bunny, and I ain't the grizzly! ) had zeroed in on as we turned into the shopping area parking lot. Once inside, to the right of stuffed and menacing Kodiak, I spotted the shoe area, which to MY delight, not only sold hunting boots, but actually a nice selection of clogs and casual shoes. Wandering around further, I spotted the ladies wear area, and found these khaki colored jeans I have been scouring the country to find, and the were only $21!!! (I think I found them online, and they were more). So i found my jeans and a pair of clogs, and then searched high and lo, finding HB wandering around in the fly fishing area.

After check out, I said "we might as well go home, maybe we can stop somewhere for lunch?". The look I got was somewhere between astonishment and shock, and as we drove away, I got to suggest where to eat....in the business world its called change management: a structured approach to change in individuals...that enables the transition from a current state to a desired future state.

Other news- Police found our HDTV that was stolen in January. After getting it home, we determined it no longer worked and needs a new lcd panel. the cost to repair greater than original cost Since we replaced it with the insurance money, i doubt we'll bother to renovate it..

Entry for September 24, 2007

I don't think there is much disagreement on my part with the headline....

Sunday afternoons

Sundays afternoons... the stormy weather has broken, letting the sun shine for awhile in our part of the Golden State. Sitting here in the yard, under our patio umbrella, the 70 degree temperature feels cooler, as a gentle breeze blows turning leaves from the limbs of our trees, a silver maple and two alders. The birch trees cling to their leaves, which have yet to turn the awesome colors of fall. Only cooler weather yet to come will start them that way.

In this part of the country summer tries to hold on well into fall, meaning a month or so from now, the TV weather forecasts will be peppered with references to Indian Summer, which Webster defines as " a period of warm or mild weather in late autumn or early winter" . That it certainly is.

The dog lies sleeping not three feet away, her ears twitching occassionally, her breathing so silent that at times I have to stare to see a breath drawn, often fearing the day my faithful companion no longer can share these peaceful days with me.

My honey, bored with TV, has wandered to the bedroom for a nap, casually quipping "wake me when you start dinner, OK?", and the door clicks shut. I am for the time being as though I am alone, and able to relax and do nothing except be.

Sundays means no worries about having to look "professional", I am free to look and act as I like ...a simple grey top, my hair as ratty as I want, my sparse makeup, khaki pants and plastic shoes give me away as the average person i am.

I don't look forward to work, as next weekend starts my vacation. Thinking of it floods my mind with thoughts of places to go and things to see, which always happens when vacation gets this close .

By this time next week, I will be sitting on a beach, watching the surf, as our dog runs, barking at the retreating waves, and then running like a maniac as the fresh waves surge in....how she can do that for hours I have never been able to understand..maybe if or else we will be inside behind the picture windows, admiring the same scene as a Pacific Northwestern squall blows thru.

My money is on this being the case, as it has been 4 our 5 times when we go up there on vacation...We went to Utah and Arizona at the end of April, and near Flagstaff it snowed, which when I mentioned it to people, "Oh no, this is weird, it never snows this late in the season"...thats our luck..like the time we went at the end of summer to a resort in Washington, and when it was time to leave the "worst rain storm in 40 years" caused the main highway out to be flooded. On my Flickr page is a picture of Mt Rainier I took while we bounced along on a logging road to get over the mountains to Olympia...Oh well...

Sept 23, 2007 Did you know???

Blast at secret Syrian missile site kills dozens

An accidental explosion in a secret weapons facility in Syria killed dozens of Syrian and Iranian military engineers as they were attempting to mount a chemical warhead on a Scud missile, according to an authoritative military journal.

Fifteen military personnel and “dozens” of Iranian advisers died when the fuel for the missile caught fire and the weapon exploded, according to unnamed Syrian sources quoted by Jane’s Defence Weekly.

The report said that the explosion sent out a cloud of chemical and nerve gases, including the deadly VX and Sarin agents as well as mustard gas, across the facility in the northern city of Aleppo. The claims could not be verified independently by sources in London and the United States.

Jane’s claimed that the engineers were trying to weaponise a Syrian-made Scud missile with a range of about 300 miles (480km) when the explosion occurred. The Syrians and Iranians are thought to have been working closely together on developing a more effective chemical warhead for the Scud ballistic missile system.

Both Syria and Iran have benefited from an advanced version of the Scud, which was designed by the North Koreans. Duncan Lennox, editor of Jane’s Strategic Weapon Systems, said that North Korea had managed to reduce the weight of the missile and increase the strength of the outer casing, as well as change some of the components inside. The technology was passed on to Syria and Iran, and “they put their heads together”, Mr Lennox said.

Reports of the accident coincided with widespread speculation that an audacious Israeli airstrike against another Syrian facility two weeks ago may have destroyed a nuclear shipment from North Korea.

Canice comment: That this is being reported in Jane's to me gives it a lot of credibility. They are not given to speculation, and have often been used asan authoritative source on military matters, by both civilian and military users throughout the world.

Israel Strike Syrian Nuke Facilities?

Some people seek to only entertain, others to inform. Me, i like to just write about what matters to me, because what the heck, I'm the editor of this space, right?? (At least until yahoo yanks it)

So some of my commenters think blogs should be "meaty" or substantial...opinions that are just as valid as any other.

Others think that only reminiscence is of value, which certainly is true of me, i admit... I look at this as a experiment in open dialog diarist ...no secret book locked in a drawer, only whatever anonymity the Internet provides, which is really zero.

So with out further introduction by me, here is a story that I do think warrants more exploration, but our media seems to have down played it..

Israel Strike Syrian Nuke Facilities?

"IT was just after midnight when the 69th Squadron of Israeli F15-I's[see photo above] crossed the Syrian coast-line. On the ground, Syria’s formidable air defences went dead. An audacious raid on a Syrian target 50 miles from the Iraqi border was under way.

At a rendezvous point on the ground, a Shaldag air force commando team was waiting to direct their laser beams at the target for the approaching jets. The team had arrived a day earlier, taking up position near a large underground depot. Soon the bunkers were in flames.

Ten days after the jets reached home, their mission was the focus of intense speculation this weekend amid claims that Israel believed it had destroyed a cache of nuclear materials from North Korea.

According to Israeli sources, preparations for the attack had been going on since late spring, when Meir Dagan, the head of Mossad, presented Olmert with evidence that Syria was seeking to buy a nuclear device from North Korea.

The Israeli spy chief apparently feared such a device could eventually be installed on North-Korean-made Scud-C missiles.

“This was supposed to be a devastating Syrian surprise for Israel,” said an Israeli source. “We’ve known for a long time that Syria has deadly chemical warheads on its Scuds, but Israel can’t live with a nuclear warhead.”

An expert on the Middle East, who has spoken to Israeli participants in the raid, told yesterday’s Washington Post that the timing of the raid on September 6 appeared to be linked to the arrival three days earlier of a ship carrying North Korean material labelled as cement but suspected of concealing nuclear equipment.

According to an Israeli air force source, the Israeli satellite Ofek 7, launched in June, was diverted from Iran to Syria. It sent out high-quality images of a northeastern area every 90 minutes, making it easy for air force specialists to spot the facility.

The triangular relationship between North Korea, Syria and Iran continues to perplex intelligence analysts. Syria served as a conduit for the transport to Iran of an estimated £50m of missile components and technology sent by sea from North Korea. The same route may be in use for nuclear equipment.

But North Korea is at a sensitive stage of negotiations to end its nuclear programme in exchange for security guarantees and aid, leading some diplomats to cast doubt on the likelihood that Kim would cross America’s “red line” forbidding the proliferation of nuclear materials.

Christopher Hill, the State Department official representing America in the talks, said on Friday he could not confirm “intelligence-type things”, but the reports underscored the need “to make sure the North Koreans get out of the nuclear business”.

By its actions, Israel showed it is not interested in waiting for diplomacy to work where nuclear weapons are at stake.

As a bonus, the Israelis proved they could penetrate the Syrian air defence system, which is stronger than the one protecting Iranian nuclear sites.

This weekend President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran sent Ali Akbar Mehrabian, his nephew, to Syria to assess the damage. The new “axis of evil” may have lost one of its spokes."

I thought these comments on the story priceless:

"World War Three has started then..."

(Zened, London)

No Zened ! WW 3 started 9/11... You forget it ??

Michel Jutharat, Marseilles, France

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article2461421.ece

OK, so the British press is all over this story, and then I found this article, dated from July 2007:

WASHINGTON — The United States has approved an Israeli request for "accelerated deliveries" of precision-guided air munitions to Israel.

On Monday, the London-based A-Sharq Al Awsat said the U.S. Air Force would transfer the GBU-28 bunker-busters to Israel. The newspaper said the air force would take bombs stored in Central Command headquarters in Qatar. The GBU-28 is a 5,000-pound laser-guided bomb intended to destroy concrete bunkers. This was Israel's first purchase of the GBU-28, meant for deployment on Israel's F-15I fleet.

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/06/front2453941.072222222.html

OKie dokie...so the Israeli's already had F15's, and then we provided bunker busters in July, and then there is some practice flights to make sure the pilots know how the planes handle with the new ordnance hung, and then..Oh, we're surprised they used em??

Entry for September 21, 2007

Sometimes I think that people write down things in a blog to tell a story, or maybe even to be silly, or promote some cause. i do it for all those reasons and some more. I have recently acquired several regular readers who have been commenting that is pretty amazing. Its amazing to me because I tend to write like I think, which also tends to be the way I talk, only instead of waving my hands all over the place, I have to focus on the keyboard. That's pretty amazing since i never learned to type, so i use what some coworkers have called the four fingers and a thumb technique(right thumb, index and finger next to it on both hands) I actual took a test once and can type at just about 30 words per minute.

I went to take a typing class in college as a freshman, and when we took the covers off the old ...what were they, Remington?? anyway, took the cover off, and I stared at the keys and (this isn't blond joke either, I really did this) raised my hand to ask why the letter markings were all missing, how was I suppose to know what key to hit? When you finish laughing, I can continue.....

Different topic, about classical music. I previously blogged about this a little, about going to the symphony last year to hear Beethoven. I fell in love with this music when i was a 10 year old, and even tried to learn viola when i was in junior high. They didn't kick me out but they sure wanted to. I was awful, and the teacher told my parents my talents lie elsewhere. Of course that told my dad I was bound to be at best a housewife and at worse a drunken whore...by the time the late 60's came along, I was wearing all sort of clothes that he thought trashy (see blog photo below)

Now this is classic early 70's? A work shirt, miniskirt and tights? No class there. I used to wear corduroy a lot too, and I remember having this paisley blouse, it was so sheer, and dad would never let me wear it without something underneath.

Beethoven, I liked...and i never saw a live performance because I was too poor, too stupid(20-30's), thought only old people go to the concerts. Actually i was right about that, when we went to the symphony I thought these men going in reminded me of the old guys from the Muppet's, and told my daughter, and we started giggling...I know weird.

I can be pretty silly sometimes, but maybe silly is required now and then to get us out of the way we are the rest of the time...

Many of us I think just get in a rut, and never try to snap out of it. I know i have a rut that takes most of my week, its called working...But it has a benefit, called money.

My writing here was distracted by a IM from my daughter...she calls me moms, has since she was 12. I think the first time was when she and I went for a walk where we used to live in the mountains, and she was riding her bike ( it was white with a pink and white banana seat and a white wicker basket on on the front..go memory!) I asked if she wanted to see me make a bat change course. Of course you know that bats, at least where we lived, were not always a bad thing, since these things would routinely flight up and down our road, snagging bugs, which in summer we had tons of, most mosquitoes that were like small bloodsucking aircraft. I picked up a small rock, a little bigger than a pebble, and waited. Then when i saw one in the dusky sky, I threw it up in the air, and the bat dived right at it until it was about a foot away, and then zoomed up again. She thought that was pretty great. It was later going back to the house she asked if we were going to get married...I said I thought so, and she said "Then i can call you moms?" I think I hugged her, but honestly I don't remeber much after the moms part. See how my topics are all over the place...oh well. Can you really imagine having a conversation with me...my freinds at work say its a marathon, trying to keep up..

A note about work: I go to a lot of meetings, I swear meetings meetings and meetings on meeting about other meetings. Somewhere in this mess, i realized that at one meeting someone said something about another project that didn't mesh with what they had said. Wait, let me start over.

Imagine you ask somebody to build you a barn. They agree, and build a wonderful barn. Now you ask someone else to sell you some horse to put in the barn, and they do. Now you try to walk the horses to your barn, but you find out the road is really a trail, and real-l-l-ly skinny one. So it takes you longer than you planned to get the horses to the barn, and along the way, some get tired, and stop. The one you do get to the barn cant be put in because, to cap it off, the barn has no doors. So you ask the barn builder,and he says you never asked for doors. And he says he ain't building no doors either. You have farm hands have them do it. Only you farm hands are busy doing farm work, and so the foreman has to plan how he is going to build the barn doors; now the rest of the horses are coming, and pretty soon you have a herd of horses, a barn with no doors, and an overworked group of farm workers. This is kinda what I found at work- One team was building a solution that was not accounting for dataflow, and there was going to be a problem with insufficent ability to carry the new data flow over existing fiberoptic cabling, and the solution they were building was not going to be able to decipher the data coming in because the programming was in different languages. Both teams thought the other was working on changing their programming, and neither was...I guess thats why I am a project manager, having screwed up enough projects on my own I now know what kind of cr*(^ to look for.... Maybe thats why on my outgoing email at work I quote Einstein, which is also on my page" Imagination is more important that knowledge"

Entry for Sept 20, 2007 - The Summer of Love

Memory is a funny thing. You can go years (in my case decades) and not remember something, then a sound, a smell, a scene, something triggers the synaptic responses in your head and viola! A memory comes back.

I had a pretty crummy day at work, and so after dinner, I was looking at some music videos on You Tube; Bands like (of course) the Beatles, Eric Burton and the Animals, Jimi Hendrix and Band of Gypsies, Ten Years After, The Byrds…you get the idea. And a couple of thoughts popped into mind..one, that some of these band in their current revival tours, should says enough is enough…I mean some of them that are now playing like the Indian casino lounge circles, well, they sound and look like a bunch of old dudes, and definitely can’t match what they used to. Others, like the Moody Blues, or even Aerosmith, seems to defy age.

The other point is more about the pleasant memories that a stimulating song can invoke.

Like I said, I was looking around at different videos, and I hit on Ten Years After, Good Morning Little School Girl. It was a favorite, especially with my boyfreind, who would like to sing along when we got to

Baby, I wanna ball you every night
Oh, yeah, come on now

Geez, it was like a high school boy anthemn at the time.

But I stray. I really sat back and smiled when I clicked on Rolling Stones Jumpin Jack Flash

Instantly I was back in the summer of 1969, with my boyfriend Rich, screaming in the wind as we blasted down the highway on his Honda 450 “Scrambler”.

I remember one day he and I were talking in the driveway after school, him sitting on his bike, and my dad came out and said it was time to come in now. I smiled, and he said he would call me, which made me goofy, and I wandered in the house. As I plopped down on the sofa, my dad, in one of those father knows best attitudes says, “and I never want to see you riding with him on that thing young lady” We ‘discussed’ that, and I think I likely stomped upstairs to my room to pout. I did that a lot between 15 and 17- Go upstairs , slam door to add effect, throw myself on the bed, and stare at the ceiling...usually i would turn on my stereo, and play something I knew dad would freakout over, like the above mentioned song, which made him constantly ask my mother if i was "a GD Hippie" and how would that look, him being a cop and his oldest daughter-only daughter- a common street whore. How hippies became whores I never figured out . It was actually my brother that was more to be a hippie than me. In high school, when i was a senior and he a freshman, he had longer hair than I did, little freak. (Pretty funny, now he's old and bald )- I never really liked all the drugs, never popped any pills, or shot up, but he did. I liked to drink. My favorite was Olympia beer- which sadly when out of business when Miller closed the Olympia brewery on July 1, 2003 citing the unprofitability of such a small brewery. But I stray again,huh? Sorry.

Later, when Rich did call, he said this weekend lets go to the city. I asked what city? He said “you moron, San Francisco, it’s also called the City” Like I suppose to know or something?

When Saturday came, my dad was working, so I told mom I was going out to my friend Joan’s house. She always covered for me and me her. I walked over to Rich’s house, which was just down the street. He came out of the garage with a white helmet, and said I had to wear it; I think it belonged to his little brother, because when he came out of the house, he was upset “she” was wearing it…like I was going to give him cooties or something.

I must have had some pedal pushers or something on, which I will explain how I know in a second. So we took off, and in a few minutes we were on the highway, then the freeway (interstate 80) and on our way to the City by the Bay… How I know I was wearing some short pants is because about half way there, he turned his head back and yelled at me to really hold on, we were coming to a curve, and for some reason, I hugged him really tight, and also moved my legs in, and burned my calf on the muffler, not bad, but crying out loud is pretty much what I did. I still have a small mark on my leg, nothing bad, but it hurt.

I was really smitten with him, all the way through high school, even though we “broke up” about ever three months. I sure am glad I went to college though. He always made me feel good, but at the end of high school it was like I realized I didn’t want what he wanted. I think he wanted me to marry him, even though I told him I was going to college and couldn’t if we did something stupid. He got mad at that, and that was the last time we spoke for 20 years. He ended up being a manager at a theater, not a bad job I guess. At the 20 year reunion he walked over to me his wife (I guess, she never did speak), and was kind of aloof, like I missed out on not being with him. My honey came over with our drinks and started talking to him, and asked what he did. Rich said he managed a Cineplex in town, and Honey smiled and said “Canice is in management also, she is area supervisor for Greyhound Package Express”. Rich looked at me and said 'Really?", and I reached in my purse and handed him my card, “Yes, really.” I think I was really nice to my honey that night when we got home

September 19, 2007 why I Hate Closeups

I wrote a whole long blog about this and then it disappeared...weird.

I am pretty insecure about my job, approaching retirement, the future in general. I think thats why all of a sudden i have become so concerned about how I look. Not just the weight thing, which I have been battling especially hard since I was diagnosed as a type II diabetic about 10 years ago. I count carbs, measure proteins, and take medication, at first half a horse pill and then 1 a day, then two, now 3; my recently retired doctor wanted me to start taking something else, which i said no to, lets try 3x daily of my old med, which she thought I already was doing- not a ringing endorsement for HMO, let alone nationalized medicine.

So I was at this staff meeting today, and looking around, I said here are 50 average people, and I don't look any worse than any of them. I went to another meeting( my life is meetings) and in that meeting i think i can say I look better than one, maybe better than another, although today she was actually wearing makeup and looked OK, and at least as good as the other woman in the room. So out of 4 women in the room, i looked OK!!!!

OK, so now the dog is bugging me for food- its dinner time (Fade to theme music by Eric Burton and the Animals)Ok, so leave a comment on here if you want to, but be nice- no "hey lady, there's a whale on your blog" or "Hey, Shamu"- be nice or don't say anything- remember

Oh, and here is another good tune from 40 years ago When I was Young

September 18, 2007 - Nerves, or how to lose weight fast

Somethings you have absolutely no control over, some you try to control and some we tend to thing we are absolute masters of. Yet its pretty amazing to me how something like the illusion of control escapes us with our own bodies? Last month, I was very pleased that I had shed some weight, mostly in anticipation for this stupid photo shoot they were doing to put my project in a brochure, and have pictures that would later have captions, like" Canice is our project manager for the XYZ project. She brings her considerable experience and insights and imagination to ensure our innovative solutions are world class..." What a bunch of baloney.

I got the job when last fall they interviewed people, and as part of the process a test, where you describe why most major projects fail. i wrote "Monumental lack of imagination coupled with a lack of humility, capped by total arrogance." or something akin to that. Who knew that kind of smart alecky response would be well received?? So then they call me, and offer me the job ( great salary, benefits) and tell me I have 2 years to accomplish my mission. All they have are all these meeting notes about the project, but no plan per se, so i have to do all that stuff, organize and recruit a team of like 22 people, or is it up to 29 now, and OH Yeah, learn who in this organization of 10,000 people to trust and who is going to back stab you, and try to sabotage you, for their own agenda...sorry, it still bothers me.

I met with the Board of Directors, and told them where we are and how we could do what they wanted, but had to overcome some obstacles back in February, after i got permission to hire some consultants to assist us in some particularly specialized areas, digital certificates and PKI, which is pretty much the extent of my knowledge, sufficed to say it is a security feature to make sure authorized people are doing what they are permitted to do, as in send and receive sensitive data. That went OK, not great. Then the first project phase meeting with them, and I started getting peppered with questions about stuff totally off the wall to what I was doing...come to find out the Chief Information Officer was put out over my recruiting from his staff...so i went back to work and tried to salvage my project, which I did by pestering the consultants to work more with my staff, and let our team come to some different solutions, ones that were really more in line with our goals...and then present that set of new priorities to the Board. i did that a couple of weeks ago, and it went extremely well. partly because I met with the CIO and promised to back him when he requested a bigger budget to implement some things, and hardware improvement, to "ensure Canice's project has a good footing"..yeah, well, we all make little deals I guess to get bigger things done.

So whats the importance of all the project details? Well, back to the picture in the brochure...which by the way is the one of me with the green background...I had the really bad meeting, and so i was worried, stressed, and actually made myself sick with worry...and hence i didn't eat, because it would make me nauseated..so consequently, i lost weight, and ended up looking really slim(for me) in the picture...which people have commented on saying how great i look. But after that, when i got the good news a couple of weeks ago, I started eating like I do when i am happy---cheeseburger for lunch, sure why not? Oh, were going out to eat and its all you can eat Mexican food and margaritas? Sure, why not...which means I am starting to bloat up again....its the story of my life i tell ya---stress , I get slim, happy, I get big. i cant blame it on time of the month, that's long gone...(I know, Too Much Info)

Anyway....I have been thinking about this stupid blog way too much, because i kind of like not having to write about work, but just brain dump a lot of emotional baggage, which I guess is a good thing...when I try to tell stuff about work to my honey, there usually comes a

" can you tell me in just a minute, I'm (1) doing something, or (2) listening to this news story or (3) Honey, you're right in the middle of the game/playoff/series" so I find it a relief to dump it all here, so you can read it and say, "boy that woman is MESSED up...BIG TIME."

Don't you just love how I can babble on and on about a multitude of topics and end up making no sense at all...well, except to my friends, they're used to it