I'm tired of being yanked around by the military, so this morning I went to talk to the Chief Master Sergeant in what used to be Lonesome's squadron.  I really just wanted to see what his advice was, and if he could do anything to help.  Chief's are the highest enlisted rank...and the folks holding that rank didn't get there by sitting around with their thubs up their rear ends.  They also have a certain amount of influence and 'pull'. I aslo talked with the First Sergeant whilst ...

This is the final installement in a series of articles I've written about online pedophiles. In the first one Link   I talked about how vigilante busts aren't really the best way to put a stop to this problem. In the second one Link     I described my own personal experience with pedophilia in a teen chat room. In this last one I'd like to offer up some suggestions on how to keep your kids safe on the internet...without the assistance of filtering programs such as '...

I've been a frequent visitor to www.pervertedjustice.com in the past few days.  This is site that has volunteers go into chat rooms posing as teenage girls and waits for some older man to take the bait and engage them in conversations of a sexual nature.  They then tell him he's been 'busted' and post his personal info (name, age, picture, phone number and even address on some cases) on the front page of the site.  They call it 'taking down wanna be pedophiles'.  Som...

I'm pathetic. I have no kids at home tonight.  My daughter is sleeping over at a friend's house, and my boys are sleeping over with their buddies across the street.  I have freedom, more importantly freedom on a summer Friday night. I could go downtown to a bar, I could go to a movie, I could call my friends and go drink and dance at a club...the small town of Rapid City, SD, is my oyster.  I don't have to be home at a certain time, I could roll up at 7 am and no-one would k...

It's been 2 weeks since we found out we're not going to England.  We still don't have any idea where we're going next, in fact, the paperwork needed to make that decision isn't even in the hands of the people that need it yet. We're waiting on one form.  One single, solitary form, that's sitting on someone's desk.  That desk is located less than half a mile from where I sit right now, writing this.  It would be easy enough for me to go over there, get it, and fax it to...

..with nobody else.  Gotta love George Thorogood, huh? Yes, I drink alone.  No, I'm not an alcoholic.  I don't drink every night and I rarely drink to excess, but that's neither here nor there.  I drink alone because I find that alcohol removes what I like to call my 'truth filter'.  I like to think of myself as a somewhat tactful person, and when I've had a few drinks that vanishes.  I'm blunt...painfully so sometimes.  So, in order to maintain friendships ...

The following article was written by Davey, my almost-10-year-old-son. I got a new crab!  His name is Bob.  He is out-going,tough,and he loves to climb.  Bob makes my mom laugh.  Jacques and Bob are buddies.  Martin and Bob are "male-bonding".  We got them a new club where they party.  Bob is always on the wall,in the club,sleeping on the wall,or in my hand. Bob is now giving  Jacques climbing lessons.  Jacques make it about half-way up the...

Martin, my grumpy hermit crab, moved shells today. He had given up trying to intimidate Jacques into 'fessing up up his shell and had spent the last 3 days tucked up in his shell.  When we picked him up for any reason, he'd poke out his claw and try to pinch us.  He didn't even come out for his bath. When I was at the pet store today, I saw a shell that was about the same shape and size as Jacques, so I thought I'd buy it and see if Martin would find it acceptable. My plan wo...

I wrote an article a while ago about my retirement dreams ( Link ). Lonesome and I have talked about my dream extensively since then.  He wants to do it too! He said that he'd like to go into town once a week or so for supplies, but apart from that he'd be happy living in the sticks.  I said that I wanted to 'get away from it all' every day, not just on vacation.  He even agreed to keeping chickens and hasn't put up much opposition to the pig idea either.  He suggested th...

I, on a whim, went and perused Yahoo Personals earlier this evening (I was bored). It was good for me.  Scrolling through page after page of self-selling biopsies, people trying to condense their entire persona into a single paragraph.... seeing hoplessly hopeful faces staring out at me, reading about how everyone's looking for that one special person, 'the one'......it bought home to me just how fortunate I am. I have found my 'one'.  I have made, am making and wi...

My neighbor is a retard. A straight up idiot. Between out 2 houses there is a strip of grass that's about 20 ft wide.  One end of it leads out into the street, the other to a huge playground and open field area behind the houses.  Our houses are split level, which means that the bedroom windows are at ground level along the side of the house where the grass is. This moron is out there, on the strip of grass between the houses, golfing.  Hitting golf balls out into the street...

My daughter, Shea, got presented with her annual school awards yesterday.  She was sick (she's had a headache for 3 days) but she insisted on going to school . I ended up going to pick her up later in the morning because she felt so rotten, and she greeted me with an armful of certificates. She got one for 'Outstanding Participation' in the phys ed program, one for 'Outstanding Participation' in the music program (she played Dorothy in their version of 'Oz' and solo'd outstandingly w...

Martin has decided that he wants Jacques shell and will have it at any cost.  He has flipped Jacques over, has put his claw in Jacques shell, is rocking him back and forth and is chirping away like no-body's business.  I went to look up this behaviour on the internet, and sure enough, its a shell fight.  The advice is to let them fight...we have spare shells around for the loser to move into and crabs usually don't die as a result of these battles. So, the fight is on. &nb...