11. June 2008 by James.

Hi everyone,

Chuck, I’m sorry to hear about your daughter’s job troubles. At least you are there to help. I often wonder how people without a family support system survive. That must have been some severe weather to flood cars on base. I remember going to a promotion ceremony at the O’Club one summer day during a storm and the road paralleling the flightline was like a river near the T-4 Bldg.

Lynn and I just returned from a trip to New York City to celebrate our fifth anniversary. We had a great time. We took the Amtrak train up which was fun in itself and stayed three nights in a midtown hotel. We walked everywhere and saw so much of the city. We flew back out of LaGuardia and relearned the lesson that it is good to show up to the airport early. Our original flight was cancelled, but because we were over two hours early, we were able to catch an earlier flight to Atlanta after running to the gate. If we hadn’t made that flight, we would have been spending the night in either Atlanta or NYC at our expense since the plane was cancelled for weather.

Did everyone else get their anti-suicide letters from the VA? I got two of them and Lynn got one, so they must think we are high risk:)

I must say I was surprised to see that the USAF Chief of Staff and the Secretary of the USAF were fired. That’s two Chiefs of Staffs in the last 18 years.

Last month I enjoyed archiving all my father’s papers by scanning them into my computer. After putting them all in order, I got a much better picture of his life in all its phases. It was particularly interesting finding military sponsor letters, travel and PCS orders and general military correspondence with names like Earl Wheeler, Creighton Abrams, George E. Pickett IV and a couple of other famous names on them. There were many surprises. For example I found paperwork showing he successfully completed six credit hours at the University of MD (on post college in Germany). I had no idea he had any formal post high school education.

I read an article in AARP magazine (it’s very good, don’t laugh!) which talked about the passing of time through the phases of life. It said that the time from 50 to 80 is measured in seconds, not minutes, so enjoy every bit of it. I think the article is correct.

Enjoy your summer! Hope to hear from everyone soon.

James

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11. June 2008 by The Chuck.

June.

Spring is mostly behind us and the certainty of another long summer moves closer with each passing sunset.

We had a few speed bumps on our smooth ride in LA.  Cindy went to Pennsylvania to help her mother recover after a surgery.  We were both glad she was able to do it, but neither of us do well without the other.  Getting back together is always nice.  I guess it evens out.

LA was pounded with some heavy rain.  We was fortunate to avoid any flooding, but about 125 homes in the area weren’t so lucky.  In addition, a lot of cars were trashed by high water–even on base.  The base eventually closed as waves of rough weather continue to pour down on us.  Weird thing about being a contractor, you still need to make up the hours to get paid.  I was able to make things balance. My daughter wasn’t.

Amanda, our middle daughter, lives a section of Shreveport which lost water due to a busted main related to the storm.  In addition, her child care center was without water too.  For a few days, a lot of businesses and schools were closed, along with her child care center, but her job location with Century Tel was open.  Since Cindy was out of town, and I was working, she had to keep the twins at home and … well, she missed too many days and was fired.

Speaking of fired, the Air Force has had quite a shake up.  I wrote the short article, but thats not my last word on the situation, I’m writing another which will be stronger.  Less on people and more on processes.  I’ll post it in a day or so, unless I get lazy or in a funk again.  I hope not.

Eighth Air Force has been redesignated at “Eight Air Force (Air Forces Strategic)” or AFSTRAT for short.  Aren’t you impressed now?

Yak retired.  He’s moving over to Texas to a flying job.  He just sold his house.  Good news for him with the job and the house.

I’m taking a novel writing class at night school.  I probably should have done that before I wrote, then rewrote my novel 22 times, but maybe it is best this way.  Well, it’d better be because this is the way it is.

My Land Rover is still in the shop.  The motor gave up the ghost back in April, its been so long I’m starting to forget I have it.  Of course, USAA won’t forget, they keep the bills for the insurance coming.  The replacement motor came in three weeks ago, but they’ve been busy.  You know how it is.

Cindy and I have been enjoying the hot of LA and have celebrated by doing some landscaping.  A few yards of soil and mulch can make the yard look nice, with dozens of new plants.  We’ll see it the rains let us keep them.  I think most of it will survive.

Wish I could talk about flying.  I can talk about jobs with SAIC if you like, but who wants to hear about that?

My prayer for each of you is health, wealth, and happiness. And that you’d each post an update on our Band of Brothers’ blog.

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