Gloomy Day

Today proved to be a rather gloomy day today. It was cloudy most of the day, the sun was hiding behind the clouds. I ventured out only once today, and it was after sunset, to get something for dinner. I ended up having a salad with grilled chicken for dinner.

I'm a little depressed today, a little gloomy and down in the dumps. I have neither the time nor energy to explain it all here (nor would I really want to--it's something best served in my personal journal).

I wanted to post something, but I'm finding myself at a loss for words right now. I'm contemplating too many things in my head, and I can't get anything on the screen. Anyway, I got something of a post in today, so I feel a little better, even if it is lacking in substance. I hope you all have fun and have a blast. It's snowing here right now, so I'm a little happier--I do like snow a lot! Other than that, I'm just trucking along, waiting for the world to become a better place (which it will in the near future, I'm sure ;)

Take care all, and keep both Greg and me in your prayers.

Something I Stumbled Across

Here's a letter to the editor I wrote to the Virginia Pilot back during the summer when I did Clean the Bay Day. It got published--after they edited out the tongue-in-cheek. I stumbled across it while I was looking for a paper for some research I'm doing. I thought I'd post it here for everyone to read. :) I thought it was good, but maybe I'm just tooting my own horn ;)

Dear Editor,
This was the first year I volunteered for Clean the Bay Day—a day I won’t forget anytime soon. We signed up to pick up garbage, but little did we know that by the time we finished we would not only clean up garbage in the Bay, but we would also clean up drugs from the Bay. That’s right, drugs. As we were cleaning, we stumbled across two marijuana plants growing in pots on a small island. But that’s not what made it memorable. No, what made it memorable was the response we got from the Norfolk Police Department. We called them to report our finding and four cruisers promptly arrived to tackle the two pots of marijuana. But that’s still not the memorable part—that came when the police informed us that we had taken someone’s private property when we picked up those marijuana plants. Huh?! An illegal substance growing on a small island that is obviously owned by no one, no “NO TRESPASSING” signs in sight—yet we took someone’s private property? Maybe I missed something in the last legislative session, but I thought marijuana was an illegal substance, thus illegal to possess. If it’s illegal to possess, then how can it be private property? If I were to use the line of reasoning from the police, all of the garbage we picked up was someone’s private property; therefore we shouldn’t have picked it up either. Who knows, maybe 911 will get a call from someone claiming, “I’ve been robbed!” When questioned on what was taken, they’ll inform the police it was two marijuana plants. Since it was private property, maybe the police will give it back to them.

Morning

Up early this morning, already ready for work. My car is warming up as I type this, and I'm going to be heading out the door shortly. Not too much other than that going on around here. I mostly wanted to post this because when I stepped outside the door this morning, I could hear the ocean beating against the shore in the distance. No TOO distant, though--I do live on an Island, and I live in between 2 beaches and down the road from another one. It was somewhat peaceful hearing the water in the background this morning.

I wrote a short article for Proceedings and submitted it on Tuesday. I got a response back yesterday saying they were going to publish it in the February issue if there was room for it. That made me feel better. If it is published, after it's published, I'll post it here for everyone to read, because I know most people (of the 2 or 3 who read this) don't get Proceedings.

Anyway, just a quick note, keep Greg in your prayers. He's inexorably busy of late, and could really use all of the good will he can get thrown his way. I'm sure he'd appreciate it. I'd appreciate it, too :)

Well, my dearest friends (the only ones who read this), I'm off to work, hope everyone has a great day today!

Back in RI

After two weeks of leave at home (two MUCH needed weeks of leave), I've returned to RI. Not to happy to be here, but as Deb keeps telling me, there's a reason that I am here, I just don't know what it is yet.

BTW -- Thanks, Deb, for the great lunch the other day while I was home! It's always good to hook up with friends. It's even better when you're only 10 minutes down the street!

Nevertheless, we've started our next subject: Expeditionary warfare...and what fun it is! I don't know if it was because of the break we had, or if it is just the topic, but I am having one helluva time staying awake for this stuff. The worst part of it is that we started it on Monday and we have a test on Thursday! I don't think I'm quite ready for jumping in head first on this one, but they didn't really give us much of a choice. So, I'm going to study my butt off to make sure I do well. The problem is that tomorrow we have the afternoon off to study, but I have a dental appointment to get a chipped tooth fixed. Ugh! It seems like there's always something going on.

I haven't really done much since I've been back. Mostly getting everything back in order after being gone for two weeks. For the two weeks at home, I mostly took care of stuff around the house and just tried to enjoy my time off. It felt good to not have to worry about going to class and studying for two weeks. I needed the break becuase my brain was starting to hurt. Poor Greg has been working his butt of, too, and worked the two weeks I was home. I feel sorry for him, but he'll reap huge benefits from it. He is one of the smartest and most talented people I know. If we could bottle his drive and enthusiasm and free-thinking (outside the box thinking) and give it to our junior sailors as an elixir, the potential of our navy would be limitless!

Well, I mostly just wanted to get on here and post so people wouldn't think that I'd forgotten them. Hope everyone is doing well, and hope you've all started the new year off right!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2005!!!!

I hope this new year meets you all with much joy, peace and happiness. I wish you all many blessings and ask that you keep Greg in your prayers throughout this new year, as he is deploying out for missions for our country.

This year will prove to be a very trying year for all of us as Americans as we continue to tackle the war on terrorism and all the other ills that are plaguing us from those who would do us harm. I just hope we all can grow during this year and can begin to tackle the issues of security and terrorism and intolerance that have become the bane of our existence. It takes more than us becoming fundamentalist, too, to fight fundamentalism. It takes us becoming tolerant and making an effort to understand the rest of the world instead of trying to force them to be like us. By forcing them, we only turn them further away from us. It's just like the lessons I've learned about leadership...you discipline your people, but you love them. There's no other way in this world to win this war than just that, to show them that we love them, yet stick to our guns on our society---but this presupposes that we allow them to be themselves instead of trying to force a square peg into a round hole by trying to make them just like us.

Have a wonderful new year, and God Bless!