AH LAUGHTER , IT'S A GOOD THING

A couple of weeks ago or so, a fellow blogger friend 'Id it is' did a post on a movie that he had watched.
He did a wonderfully descriptive review of the movie titled 'Death at a Funeral' and remarked of his laughter. A comedy, in fact a British comedy . Well that's all it took I knew I had to see this movie.

It had three things in it's favor, comedy, British, and made him laugh a lot. I like comedy and I think the British are one of the best when it comes to comedy, that is one thing that my grandson and I are in agreement on. So last weekend I rented the movie.

Was it funny? Hilarious. Did I laugh? Oh God yes. But I'm not sure what I enjoyed the most, the movie, or watching my grandson red faced and gasping for air while laughing none stop from the very beginning to the very end of the movie. That alone was worth renting the movie.

Thanks Id it is for a very enjoyable Saturday. Those of you who don't know him might want to pay him a visit. 'http://iditis.blogspot.com/' .

O.K. I admit it. I stole part of the title from my idol 'Martha Stewart', so sue me.

IT'S CALLED "ANGEL FLIGHT"

Angel Flight is something that every American should have to see, but no one should ever see.

The call came across the speaker that at least one Soldier was on his way with a severe head injury. Estimated time of arrival, 45 minutes. The emergency room (ER) begins its very well organized preparation for the arrival of the Soldier. Another call came across, saying that now there maybe two Soldiers arriving, then another stated three. About 20 minutes out, yet another call came saying that only one Soldier would be arriving and he was in critical condition. Standing in the ER anticipating his arrival were one ER doctor, two surgeons, two anesthesia personal, a hand full of nurses and highly trained medics.

The call comes across the speaker, “two minutes out.” What seemed like the longest two minutes were so quickly interrupted with the most dreadful regarded words of all, “He’s expected”. We didn’t know if this meant that he had already died or if the crew thought he was going to die. All we knew is that within two minutes we were going to do everything that was in our power to send this Soldier home ALIVE!!

Two minutes past, the doors open up and the Soldier comes in on a stretcher with his head covered. We knew then that he had died in route. An erie silence falls upon the ER. The hopes of stealing his life back, slipped right past our fingers without us even having the opportunity to try. His life was taken away from us before we were able to change the, sometimes, horrific course of nature. Your gut seems empty. You want to throw up, you want to cry...... but there is nothing that you can do to, it’s over!

Within 12 hours, the Soldiers from his unit are all out in front of the hospital. They are preparing to execute with precise military excellence their final respects to their brother - they are preparing for the Angel Flight.

I (along with my colleagues) am out on the runway. We are facing the flag bearers and the back of the C-130. The flag bearers are holding the American flag and their company flag high with pride. The entire airport is silent. There are no engines running, no planes coming or going. There is complete silence. I look beyond the plane to the other side of the runway and I see a line of civilian workers standing in a straight formation. There is nothing by silence and respect.

“Platoon. Attention!! Right, face...... Forward, march!” is commanded from behind the concrete wall. “Go left.... go left .... go left” is what you hear from the Platoon Sergeant leading the deceased Soldier’s brothers across the flight line toward the C-130 plane. “Platoon halt! Left face.” The Soldiers now passionately await for the arrival of their beloved brother. There are tears of sadness, emptiness running down the faces of these brave and very strong Soldiers. To the left we see the ambulance carrier the departed Soldier being escorted by one his brothers inching slowly and painfully toward the flight line. The ambulance positions itself so that the back of it lines up perfectly to the back center of the open C-130. As we wait for the next movement, the ambulance’s engine is turned off. Again, silence falls upon us.

To our right, we hear “Forward, march.” A group of eight Soldiers, the pallbearers, four long and two wide, being lead by a Sergeant marches them to the either side of the ambulance. The back doors are opened. The command is given “Present Arms!” Every Soldiers holds their salute and the civilians across the runway place their right hand over the left chest. Then, two Soldiers at a time with crisp, razor sharp movements take either side of the American flag draped coffin and gently remove the Soldier from the ambulance, one smooth motion at a time.

Once the Soldier is out, the order is given and the pallbearers with sharp, harmonic motion rotate the coffin 180 degrees. The Soldier is then walked head first up the ramp into the C-130. You can hear the Chaplain that is standing on the back of the plane saying “The Lord in my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside the still waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil....” Then, the Chaplain is up at the front of the plane with the Soldier. I can no longer hear what is being said. After a few moments the command “Right Face” is given and the pallbearers march off the back of the plane.

In the still, peaceful morning the command “Order, Arms” is given...............


With the most respectful regards,

CPT Tom Chenowith
Mosul, Iraq

I am posting this for a dear friend of mine who I have the highest regard for. He has already done one tour of duty in Baghdad and has recently been sent back to Mosul, Iraq for a second tour of duty. I may from time to time put up one of his post for him. He has conveyed to me his willingness to have his words heard in the US. He has a lovely wife and three small children one of who is less then a year old.

My Love and prayers are with him. May God bring him home safely.

WHEN DID I REALIZE, I'M A JINX

I have come to the conclusion that I have got to be jinxed. That's all there is to it, I'm a jinx. I can't plan anything without something or everything, going wrong and ruining my plans.

I've never had a yard sale and last summer I decided that I would have one. The best and the only realistic days to have a yard sale around here is on the weekend, so I began planning for it. It rained that weekend. Was that a sign not to have one?
Oh well I thought, I wasn't ready yet so what does it matter. I still have a lot of things to go through. I have to pick what will go and what will stay and I have a whole summer of weekends to pick from. So I continued getting things organized.

It rained the next weekend too. Then it rained the third weekend and the next and the next and the next. In fact, I think the rain made some sort of record last year because it rained every single weekend all summer long. Needless to say there was no yard sale. Oh well I wasn't to disappointed. I don't think I had enough things to make it all worth the effort anyway.

After that summer fall and winter just seemed to blend in together. You really couldn't tell where one ended and the other began. Although there was still rain it really wasn't very cold at all.
I remember opening my big mouth and remarking to someone about how wonderfully mild that winter was compared to the ones we've had in the past. You really didn't even need a heavy coat. Oops, Open mouth insert foot.
Soon after that we had that one day of beautiful snow, but it came down so fast that the school closed early. Oh well, we enjoyed it and by morning it had all melted.
But shortly it was followed by the big hail storm which was then shortly followed by that horrible wind storm that brought with it more rain and downed trees. Some of you will remember my post last year about me trying to get my grandson safely home while dodging limbs and flooded streets.

What is going on here why is it every time I want to do something, something goes wrong. Why is it when I bragged about how much I was enjoying the mild winter, the weather comes back to bite me in the butt. Surely it's nothing more then coincidence. Surely, yes, coincidence.

Want to bet?

This summer it was terribly hot. In the low hundreds. I swore if it rained it would probably come down bubbling like boiling water.
May son asked me to do him a favor. He has two long closets side by side in his bedroom. They take up one whole wall and he wanted me to go through them and get rid of what I think needs getting rid of because he has no room to squeeze in any more cloths in and he can't bring his self to throw anything away. Of course a mother is not going to say no, so I started the task little by little when I had the time and he was at work.

Oh my gosh I've never laughed to hard. He's in his early forties and he still had things from his early twenties. The only similarities then and now shirts and pants, Xtra tall. Suddenly I had this great idea. I can have my yard sale this year. He had so many things to get rid of I could make a killing.

As I was finally organized and ready to do this thing, it rained every weekend. This couldn't be happening to me. Well it not only happened to me but it got even worse. I can kiss that yard sale good bye.

We have been for the past few days getting the after affects of hurricane 'Gustav'.
Even though we don't live in Louisiana we are one of their bordering states. Our schools have had to close and trees have been falling down like they were made of paper and pulling electrical lines down with them. We just got our power back on and our town has had flooding here and there. For myself I have to be the dummy that lives near the creek with the bridge. We got a little more then our share.

We flooded in a big way. That creek overflowed everywhere and found it's way to my front yard where it sashayed it's way more then half way up my yard to my front door to say,
'Hi, It's been a long time Baby'.
He was right, it has been a long time. Five years ago he slithered his muddy slimy old self three feet deep right up to my front door and flaunted his bad self back and forth taunting me.

Now does this not read 'JINXED' all over the place.