journaling: enabled

I received this in an email recently, and thought I’d post it as food for thought. A friend’s brother was called to duty this evening. I urge each of you reading this to consider what the members of our armed forces give to this country and what they represent.

The following passage is from a sermon by John Hagee:
I want you to close your eyes and picture in your mind
the soldier at Valley Forge, as he holds his musket in
his bloody hands.

He stands barefoot in the snow, starved from lack of
food, wounded from months of battle and emotionally
scarred from the eternity away from his family
surrounded by nothing but death and carnage of war.

He stands though, with fire in his eyes and victory on
his breath. He looks at us now in anger and disgust
and tells us this…

I gave you a birthright of freedom born in the
Constitution and now your children graduate too
illiterate to read it.

I fought in the snow barefoot to give you the freedom
to vote and you stay at home because it rains.

I left my family destitute to give you the freedom of
speech and you remain silent on critical issues,
because it might be bad for business.

I orphaned my children to give you a government to
serve you and it has stolen democracy from the people.

It’s the soldier, not the reporter who gives you the
freedom of the press.

It’s the soldier, not the poet who gives you the
freedom of speech.

It’s the soldier, not the campus organizer who allows
you to demonstrate.

It’s the soldier, who salutes the flag, serves the
flag, whose coffin is draped with the flag that allows
the protester to burn the flag!!!

“Lord, hold our troops in your loving hands. Protect
them as they protect us. Bless them and their families
for the selfless acts they perform for us in our time
of need. I ask this in the name of Jesus, our Lord and
Savior. Amen.”

Prayer Wheel: When you receive this, please stop for a
moment and say a prayer for our U.S. forces in Afghanistan,
AND all around the world.

Well, I’m finally back home again. It’s nice be home. I enjoyed being away from everything for a while, but I think all that driving drained me. I think I should have taken a break at my parents rather than continuing on after dropping them off. When I drive too long like that I get a headache. Since I didn’t really do much other than drive and think today, I don’t have much to post. My mind just kinda wandered. I saw a bald eagle up near Spooner or something … it was along the road feasting on a roadkill deer. I’m not sure I’ve been that close to a wild one … admittedly it wasn’t for very long. I tried taking some pictures of the steaming lake (Superior) on the way back, but my camera battery pack was dead. Silly me didn’t make sure it had a full charge before leaving on the trip. Guess I won’t make that mistake again (and I’ll probably bring the charger along next time).
Anyway … time for bed. Tomorrow should be interesting. Things at work may or may not be very functional. There’s a chance I could break my email. On the plus side, I think I might try moving my email onto the IMAP server so I can access it at home. Off to dreamland!

Well, today was a pretty good day. Very cold though. We finally made it out to kekabeka falls … I posted the pictures online. I was amazed that the falls was nearly completely frozen over. Apparently people go climbing on them when they’re frozen. I think they’re nuts.
Tomorrow I get to drive about 7 hrs. Fun. Okay, not really. It’s going to be bloody cold out (forecasted high is still below zero!?). I started my truck tonight to hopefully allow it to start more easily tomorrow morning. We’ll be leaving by 8:30 eastern time. I should be back at my place by 4 or 5pm. I don’t think I’ll be going in to work tomorrow at all. Doesn’t seem to be much point in it for me. If things work … they work. If they don’t, there isn’t really a whole lot I can do about it.
I’m looking forward to seeing liz4jc4ever and flutterbyefred again. I’m hoping to be able to see Jesus Christ Superstar with them next week, but I’ll have to wait and see. I don’t want them to be uncomfortable with me around (and I’ll have to see how things are with us before I have a better idea whether I’ll still be comfortable with them).
Off to bed for me now … long day tomorrow, but I’m looking forward to home.

Today was pretty relaxing. Didn’t really do a whole lot. But then, isn’t that the point of a vacation? Especially vacation during a weekend? Yep. I thought so.
We went to a hockey game tonight between the Lakehead University Thunderwolves (home team) and the Waterloo Warriors. Thunderwolves won 5-2. There were a couple of fights … one which resulted in penalties for 4 players on each team. Quite astounding. I wasn’t impressed by the playing though… I think the UWRF Falcons could kick their butts. Go Falcons!
I guess we’re going out to Kekabeka Falls tomorrow since we didn’t make it out there today. I’ve seen it before, but my parents haven’t seen it frozen over, so it should be cool…. cold actually.
I need to get more sleep today. I dozed off on the way back from a greenhouse we went to. Not good. Time to go and dream of special people…
Oh … one last note before I signoff I guess … I think I need to get myself some ragdoll kitty cats some day … my friend has pictures of her kitties online.

Hey there from north of the border. For those of you who aren’t aware, I’m visiting friends in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The drive up was nice. There is pretty much no snow anywhere between River Falls and here … though there was some south of Superior. The breakers on the rocks were kinda cool. I managed to snap some pictures which I plan to post when I get back home (I don’t have the card reader software on my laptop … need to get a new reader to be compatible). Tomorrow we’re heading to Kekabeka Falls … if my battery pack holds up, I’ll take some pictures of the frozen falls. We’re also planning on a hockey game tomorrow night. Should be a fun day. Hopefully it won’t start too early.

Well, tomorrow morning I am leaving and driving up north to get away from work for a while. I think I need a break. I was at work until 6 tonight tidying up things for being gone tomorrow.
I finally got the Music Theory lab hardware running the way it should. Now I just need to figure out how to get Digital Performer to behave. It wouldn’t be a problem if it was a lab pack … but I need to figure out how it copy-protects itself. So… if anybody knows what files that stuff is stored in, let me know.
On a positive note, a temporary reprieve from the hiring freeze has been granted to us since we were nearly done with our recruitment effort. Now we just need to get in touch with our third candidate, who has been kinda hard to talk to. I think it will do good for the morale of the department if we can fill this position, otherwise we all know that our level of service is going to deteriorate.
Today I got flutterbyefred‘s stuff together in my house so she could pick it up with her mother on Sunday. This also required finagling a way for her to get into the house … I’ll just say it involves a combination lock and duct tape.
Well, I’d better get some sleep … 300 miles is a bit of a drive, and I’ll need to be alert for Mooses.

Okay… I got reminded tonight why people get fake Christmas trees. I was feeling ambitious tonight (don’t know why … I didn’t leave work until about 8pm), so I took down my Christmas tree. It was a short-needle and I let it dry out (probably a mistake) so everything was brittle and snapped off when I was taking off ornaments and lights. Ugh. Next time I think I’ll take it down sooner or continue watering it.
My ambition for the evening has run out. Not suprising considering it’s 1/2 an hour past my normal bedtime. Dishes will have to wait, as will folding laundry (I did laundry tonight too).
Off to dreamland …

It was hard to get motivated at work today. We interviewed a candidate for a position we have open as a result of a retirement. Unfortunately, late yesterday afternoon the university administration put a hiring freeze in place so we can’t fill this position with anything other than a temp. This sucks. Work is not very enjoyable right now. I’ve considered saying things to certain people that would likely bring about the need to polish up my resume.
I’ve been pondering paying for my livejournal account. I don’t think I use it enough at this point, but it appears that is the only way to get another invite code to give to a friend of mine who is interested. To those of you reading this … do you think it’s worthwhile to pay for it? Most of my friends post a lot more often than I do. Its one of my goals this year to post more often. People often ask me how things are going and I forget all the stuff that goes on in my life. I think this is one way of letting people know. I can also vent frustrations. Sometimes it just feels good to write it all down.
I put plastic on windows in my house today. Hopefully that cuts down on the heat loss.
I’m going to bed now … I hope tomorrow is a better day.

My angel’s heart is broken, and it’s my fault.