Promptings from Podcasts at Military Brats Registry -

I plan to listen to the series of podcasts placed at Military Brats Registry, and then write some thoughts about them.
Leaving an entry here more to quickly link to the page list of podcasts; Military Brats Registry Podcasts

It's here! The Military Brats Registry "Every Brat Has a Story" podcast is now available. The program can be downloaded to your computer or mp3 device such as the Apple iPod. And if you're using iTunes or iPodder you can subscribe to automatically download to your device. Click on "podcasts" in iTunes and enter "Military Brats" in the search box, then subscribe (free!). Each episode will be automatically downloaded into iTunes and to your iPod.

Exploring my history being raised as a Military Brat - 1950s and 1960s

Back in earlier days of internet, a website called Military Brats Registry came into being. I found my way there somehow and I truly don't remember and registered. Remember this was the 'early days' of internet, so formatting websites, forms, signing up and security looked a little different then. Later I heard media reporting on Military Brats Registry and how it was gaining in popularity. It was good to hear, cause it meant many 'military brats' were interested and glad for this new found home on the internet.


Along the years, I learned of dvd production in the works and waited and waited and waited. Finally dvd 'Brats, Our Journey Home' was released and I promptly bought a copy. Or I should say my dear husband promptly bought a copy as gift for me. We watched it together as soon as it arrived in the mail. And it resonated with me so strongly in so many ways. I took notes (that's my nature when I'm really interested in both capturing and remembering) and spent some time today revisiting some of those older military brat sites I remember from late 1990s.

I wanted to chronicle the links, websites, books, resources and I really didn't want to start a whole new blog to do it. So I looked around at all my blogs, and decided this one was the most logical place to spend some time chronicling my military brat history and building link connections. I'll be adding some link banners to the sidebar, and blogging new entries in what will seem my own homecoming exploration.

This is a bittersweet project for me to undertake for a multitude of reasons, yet it will also be strengthening to make the connections, all the 'aha' moments that tell me more about who I am to me. My parents divorced when I was about 14 which abruptly ended our connection to military life. Unfortunately, it was an ugly divorce that my father worked to obstruct. He could get quite mean in his effort to control or manipulate the circumstances. He kept and/or destroyed all the mementos, photographs, slides, keepsakes, etc that were our history over those years. As a consequence, my mother doesn't have much she can share visually, and neither do I except what I can recover from my spotty memory. It helps that other military brats are sharing their memories as it serves as 'triggers' for me in remembering and in what I hope to chronicle here at this blog.

More bread, more jerky, and online stuff

Completed preliminary work on two new blogs to replace two current blogs eventually. Idea is creation of new blogs more amenable to commercial intent with blogads, amazon books an downloaded E-books and or PDF files created by me and sold via PayPal.

In afternoon I escaped to the kitchen, made some more bread and put more jerky in the drier.

Lietta still in paint mode but had phone conference that ultimately interferred with painting yesterday afternoon.

Nice weekend.

Saturdays always fun. Sleep in and get creative.

Dallied with online blogs in prep to creating one or two commercial blogs with an attempt at ad revenue, marketing things and books thru Amzaon and prepping to put together E-books and/or pdf files of my writings. These would be available as downloaded PDF or E-Book files for a price.
I already have the E-book compiler on both Lietta's and my computers.

By late afternoon Lietta was ready to paint so we went downstairs to her new "painting studio" where she continues to amaze me with what I would term her confidant painting in which she completes her works more rapidly and seems to be creating more from memory than the picture model she still picks out and uses.

The ideas flow freely and her eyes and hands fill in the blanks. Yesterday's was an impressive autumn color painting that I in fact was dazzled just after she finished preparing the trees and the misty woods without adding any leaves to the branches. The effect was powerful.

I got caught up in working on muse stuff and poetry prompters so the next time I turned around she'd created a cabin, a dock and reflections on the water in front of the cabin and autumn trees.

Back upstairs for ad-lib supper. Ad-lib supper is where we each grab whatever wwe want. Lietta opted for homemade jerky, licorice and a large bowl of raisin bran. Earlier I'd made potatoes, onions, eggs, cheese and bacon - a breakfast I make quite often.

So neither of us were famished. I made a box of cheap (Western Family) macaroni and cheese and stirred in a can of green beans to give it more volume with the M&C was ready.

Watched some TV and went upstairs. Bored, I put on my Age of Kings game and got so caught up that when I looked at the clock is was after 1:00 AM. Went down stairs where I could hear the TV, thinking I'd find Lietta deep asleep on the couch.

Nope ... "Hi Honey, I could hear you up there.!"

She was watching National Geographic about insect swarms. Put the TV on in the BR and I know I fell asleep first.

End of frenetic work week

My office is tiny. At one point years ago there was talk of "foot-printing" the office which meant reducing staff to a size where one or two workers would accept applications and forward to a parent office in Aberdeen.

Never happened thanks to reality checks and timely political intervention. However, staff continually reduced and our actual size is less than "foot-print." More like "toe-print" as Lietta likes to say.

Last week, my first week back from vacation has been a buzzing nightmare. Complicated by receptionist on vacation and leadworker's need to replace receptionist which moves me up the list to leadworker's backup receptionist. I work reception during leadworker's breaks and lunch hour.

Twas the wrong week. I never fully brought the vacation backlog up to currency, was constantly flooded with scheduled and unscheduled but unavoidable client interviews.

I'll be playing catch-up for another week or so. Makes me feel very reluctant to take any vacation at all - rather, spread time out to 3 or 4-day weekends as an alternative.

Seriously ...

Jerky, Pizza & Pills

For the past 6-8 months, I have been going without one of my prescription medications, Indomethacin, for help with gout. This is a potent anti-inflammatory drug that is used to combat a gout attack as well as help regulate inflammation in the joints and keep it down.

Well, when the druggist announced that Indomethacin was not available a few months ago, I just went without because I have two other gout medications and have not had an actuall attack now into the third year.

However, I have noticed a deterioration that has led to constant pain in back, knees, wrists and hips. Sufficient to slow me down, creat havoc for the hours immediately following physical exertion such as mowing the lawn and hip pain that stopped me from sleeping thru the night.

Anyway, when the pharmacy announced that they now have Indomethacin, I took my first tablets two nights ago and slept thru the night with much less pain, did not have to go to the lazyboy in the middle of the night, and woke up quite a bit more spritely. Same thing the next night.

Which tells me that the Indomethacin with its ability to suppress these discomforts - something I'm glad to have back - was also suppressing knowledge of my body's actual pain and discomfort.

A mixed blessing ....

Baked DiGiorno's Pizza by adding canned olive slices, mushroom slices, chopped onions and grated cheese before baking.

And I finished marinating the slices of roast. Put them in the food dryer for overnight drying. Watched discovery channel on origin of the Universe while chewing pizza.

Wednesday and we started reading

Earlier in the week Lietta and I watched a bio-video of historian Howard Zinn on link TV.

If you want to learn something rather than sit in front of the boob tube like a zombie in an opium den, go find LINK TV on your cable channel. Scary, but you might actually learn stuff.

Howard Zinn wrote, "The People's History of the United States," a few years back. Colleagues - historians who have traditionally defined history as all stars in all-star events like war, scientific breakthrough and capitalist success stories, pooh-poohed the book because it was unorthodox.

NY Times book review praised the hell out of it because it was readable, informative and truthful - with viewpoints rarely observed from the ivory towers of professional educators and their sponsors.

So last Sunday while in Portland, I went into Powell's and bought the two-volume edition. Last night, we curled up in bed, set a lamp behind the bed post and I commence reading to Lietta. Now this usually lasts about five minutes and she's out.

Not this time. She lasted for most of the chapter and when she finally gave up the ghost, I was ready to stop and go to sleep as well. It's fun reading a college text this way and for the first time in my life, when I come to chapter's end, the discussion questions will be useful cause she and I will want to talk before moving on.

Recommended: A People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn.

Tuesday and backlog at work

The reason why I take only a week's vacation at a time is because even after a week, when I return I'm swamped with backlog. Office severely understaffed and unable to cover each other's caseloads completely.

I'll be playing catch up and treading water on current events for two weeks until it stablizes.

Come home ready to be home.

Monday: Back to work

Moody morning but off to work on time. Within 15 minutes of arrival and I feel like I lost 9 days of rest to 5 minutes of a familiar grind.

Busy all day and facing the worst fall-behind in the past 2-3 years of vacations where staff kept my stuff quite current.

Interviews were all rough in the sense of hard to use humor around the seriouness of illness, job loss and psycho-drama. In all this I need to figure out a way to work through another 6 years before eligibility to retire - or figure a way to replace the income with a job less emotionally draining.

Working on it.

Home to wife and companion ... a blessed return from work.

Portland

Sunday visit to Portland, originally planned as day trip to see autumn colors. But the agenda was rain rain rain.
Went anyway to visit stepson Chris Coy in his new apartment in Beaverton/Tigard area near Portland, Or.

All day visit including awesome buffet at Sweet Tomatoes which is in reality an all-you-can-eat salad bar with strong vegetarian emphasis since only meat was in salads.

Then drove to Portland State University campus where Chris is enrolled p/t while working for Standard Insurance.

Finally back to his apartment. For some reason his computer has no word processor and - per Chris - spell check (says he needs it most). So Lietta sat down at his computer and ...
(1) Got him a Yahoo email address.
(2) then sent him an invite to Gmail (which we both have)
(3) That allowed him to get gmail address AND open a google program for himself called Britely (an online word processor).

So now he has one.
We drove home in the rain and dark(125 miles), arriving at 10:00.

Oh, and vacation ended Friday. Back to work tomorrow.

Saturday - Apple butter, making jerky, baking bread and Howard Zinn

The kind of Saturday we moved out here to have.
Up after sleep in and updating ourselves on the world situation via intenet until noonish. And reorganization of my favorites.

Burnt out on all the social-political babble and Babel and have spent the last three days unsubscribing from all the newsletters except one or two. Then reorganized my bookmarks, deleting an endless array of political blogs all talking about the same things.

Finally sated internetly, went down to kitchen to act like a rural property owner. Helped Lietta peel apples for making apple butter in crockpot.
Partially thawed a roast and then sliced into jerky strips. Then mixed ingredients for "Barbecue Jerky" marinate in blender. Combined and stirred the meats and left in fridge. Will dry jerky monday after marinate soaks in because we are gone all day Sunday to Portland to see son, Chris Coy.

Made 4 loaves of bread and watched two DVD's: Bush's Brain about Karl Rove and one on historian activist Howard Zinn.

Fell asleep in bed during 11:00 news.

Friday the 13th. Devil shows up at our house.

So we;'ve been busy every morning of my vacation chasing our internet priorities and the afternoons continuning or working around the house or yard.

I'm an older guy now flying around the hive trying to find the place where I want to fit in, where I want to make and store honey, and where I want to help make a more attractive and livable hive. Still haven't totally discovered what that is so I live in a constant frustation - exacerbated by weariness in employment and longing for the day I can retire.

My job is mentally and emotionally draining every day. Lietta says average career doing that one duty before needing to transfer to other duties is 7 years. I'm closing in on 14 years at it. Can't transfer cause nowhere in the office to transfer. Don't want promotions cause I'd end up promoting and monitoring the very poison I drink now.

So I'm cranky at home, flail about sometimes emotionally and smack Lietta on her emotional nose - which makes us both uncomfortable. Today I lost my temper and wew had a discussion that was long overdue. Wouldn't you know it would be on Friday the 13th?

She gave me insights witthout ultimatums and they hit me like a splash of cold water on a sleeper or a blast of extremely strong coffee on a drunk. "Thanks! I needed that!" wake up call. Like I was hypnotized and when she snapped her fingers verbally, I woke up.

New perspective on an old perspective that served us well when courting and early marriage.

Karl and Eve, our across-the-street neighbors arrived from Seattle Thu night. After going to town for groceries, we went to their studio and visited for a couple of hours while Karl made the report and showed us his album from his recent trip to France and Brtain where Eve joined him.

Then home to unload groceries.
Worked on my NBA fantasy which we both agree keeps my mind healthy with it's heavy demand on mental agility, math and imagination.
Watched Bill Maher, ate some supper, finally wearied out around 10:30. We fell asleep in bed less than ten minutes into the evening news.

Thursday - Putting off painting and poetry to

do online pictures. Lietta was going to paint downstairs in her studio and I was going to be there and be quiet - perhaps working on poetry.

But then we both got caught up doing online picture programs. When her computer crashed two weeks ago, I had to scrub it clean and re-install Windows XP, erasing all content. Among what was lost was her photo collection.

I downloaded all the photos in my computer onto a CD. She also hunted down previous online sites where she had photos stored. Found new and better ones like Snapfish, Ringo and the like. Created a "room" at snapfish where all family members can upload their photos. It's kind of like a safety deposit box at a bank. You can keep your stuff online where crashed computers and space limitiations don't matter much. You access your collections by joining and using a password which theoretically protects your collections from the prying eyes of snoopers. Uh huh .... but I'm willing to live with that risk so as to not lose any more photos.

Anyway, we never painted or poeted because we spent most of the day photo collecting, moving around, building albums and storing.